The following events take place during the ship's boarding…
=/\= Deck 8 – Main Engineering =/\=
Quentin was shouting through the comm. system as his now reduced team, slowed by the EVA Suits were busy repairing systems. He taken the decision that physical damage would have to wait until they were out of the warzone. "Sir, shields back online" came a message over his comm. system. "Thank god for that crewman, get to work on boosting power; take it from wherever necessary" he ordered as he moved to the console that was being used instead of the pool table which lay broken at the opposite end of the room. Still with damage meant there would be upgrades. Tapping on the console he cursed under his breath as he fought to see the screen through the smoke that was billowing into main engineering. He was thankful however that the torpedo that had caused the hull breach had missed the warp core – that could have been a disaster.
Tapping on the console he managed to bring the torpedo arming system back online and after more cursing and system diagnostic and repair tools being some of the only things working in the room managed to stabilise the control system and stop a system power overload. Under the mask Quentin was fighting the unbearable heat and even worse the pain that was caressing his entire body. Without any pills the past several hours had been unbearable but he had to fight through, if the Romulan's came back again this ship needed to be ready otherwise there wouldn't be a ship or pain or pills to worry about.
Just then the klaxons blasted out a new warning above all the others; the ship was being invaded. Quentin was about to hit the lockout command to seal main engineering when he smiled to himself, the lack of life support on the deck that had been completely sealed off made it impenetrable. This at least meant he could carry on working at full capacity without having to shut off half the stuff he had spent countless hours trying to bring back. Climbing down into the lower levels he activated the torch and made his way through the billowing smoke, climbing over pipes and conduits to the console that controlled the phaser banks. He had currently rigged it to overload giving the Charon the one shot; but now he felt that he could do more with the time bought by the boarding parties elsewhere to repair the system completely. Activating the console he tapped in some system bypass codes and managed to bring three per-cent power to the forward arrays. Then the warning light flashed up that the forward array was overheating, something was spiking the power and without a manual release it could take out the entire array. Quentin swore loudly and practically ran back to engineering grabbing a tech-kit and headed to the hole in the side of the hull. Activating a forcefield around him the one that was acting as the barrier between him and space was lowered. Stepping out onto the hull he took a deep breath, it had been a while since he had been out in space in an EVA suit and it wasn't something he was highly comfortable with. He sighed and took a deep breath trying to quash the uneasiness in his stomach and made his way to the phaser array on the saucer hull. Keeping his eyes down on the grey metal he ignored the vast coldness of space around him and tried to think that he was inside.
Eventually he had found his way to the forward phaser array and was crouched down praying that unlike the rest of the ship his gravity boots weren't going to pack up on him. Opening the tech kit he unlatched the hyperspanner and sealed the kit attaching to his spacesuit as he started work releasing the energy build-up so that the system wouldn't overload and would give some form of weaponry that would be fully operational. He grunted with pain as he tried to shift the release valve, the external power meter reading exceptionally high readouts. The valve eventually became loose and with one final push he was flung backwards as a massive burst of phaser energy shot out into the nebula, frying the spanner. Now spinning he couldn't work out left from right, up from down but somehow, despite the pain managed to grab hold of a loose hull plate. He yelled out in pain as he pulled himself closer and eventually reattach his boots to the surface. Panting, nauseous and his heart racing he made his way back to engineering – there was still a lot of work to do but he was damned sure this ship wouldn't fall apart.
Once safely back inside Quentin readjusted the power outputs and after more hours of work the phaser system was back online. Due to the invasion however he wasn't about to call it in. They'd find out in their own time. After the weapons had been brought back online he began work realigning the sensors. The heat in the mask was now unbearable but the repairs to the main power core would take days and all he could do was just deal with it. "How are the impulse engine repairs going?" he asked one of the team left behind. "We've got 80% power back sir" replied a lieutenant from the upper level. At least in EVA suits communications was easy… even if everything else wasn't.
Lieutenant Commander Quentin Calhoun
Chief Engineer
USS Charon
