After the flight of fighters left, Emagyn turned and walked back to the nearby Operations Room. It had been a pain to get into her flight suit but she wasn’t carrying everything she normally would since Ema wasn’t leaving the ship.

Walking in she grabbed a large mug of coffee with dark chocolate. She preferred to watch the flight and monitor the telemetry, wincing, Ema took one of the mild analgesics as ordered by the medicos. 

“How you feeling now, ma’am?” Petty Officer and Senior Deck Hand Annalise Royston was watching the telemetry and adding the occasional item to a PADD she held. The young Redhead offered Emagyn a smile.

“Don’t ask me to do the chicken dance anytime soon.” She Ema said sitting down gingerly. Pulling a box of parts over, Ema pulled out a half-completed scale airplane engine and the small toolbox to work on the motor. The small five-cylinder radial engine had the short-block and cylinder heads assembled, but the induction and other parts needed to be added. 

“What about you? Anything new?” Ema asked.

“Oh Kylo started walking the other day,” Annalise grinned as she thought of her young son, and the PADD was forgotten for a moment. “Of course, I didn’t see it, Dai told me about it when I got off shift but now he’s learned he’s walking all over so we had to double-check our baby proofing. It was fine. It’s fine.” The P.O. stole a glance back at the fighter telemetry but her her attention was soon back on her superior and the motor she was working on. Annalise watched with curiosity.

“Aww, so precious,” Ema responded. “I can babysit if not on duty. “ She added. ” Rover Cleveland loves kids and the holopics will be too cute in the arboretum. 

A small army of parts was added one at a time and the engine slowly took shape. Bolting on the prop, she spun the engine up, testing her handiwork. The Petty Officer had padded up behind Emagyn and watched her work. “If you want to pop that in a little plane and fly it around the deck I won’t tell anyone,” she grinned.
 

“Hey!” Ema said chuckling back. “I really don’t need help getting in trouble.” The short propeller was bolted to the motor. She added, “However, since I am in charge I can write it up as a team-building exercise into historic drones and their maintenance. ” Looking out into the shuttle bay through the thick transparent aluminum window, she pondered the equation. “Something slow though. An autogyro!”

  ***  LATER ***

Ema thought she saw the power flicker before it died, but it was so brief, it was impossible to tell. What could not be missed was being tossed like a throw pillow by the combination of the ship’s movement added to the shuttle bay’s explosive decompression.

 The room was utterly dark but far from quiet. Rushing air was in symphony with the backup klaxon. As close as they were, the seals on the door were being tested to their limits. Their ears popped and could both feel the inexorable pull towards the door. The vibration of the mechanically powered backup could be felt now as well.

Reaching up, the familiar feel of a well-used polycarbonate light hit Ema’s hand. Ignoring the old pain in her shoulder and the new one in her forehead, she knew they both needed to be headed for the emergency pressure suits. The white light stabbed out the side of the pen.

Annalise had never felt the emergency door release activate before. It was a spectacle of flying metal and composite, tonnes of material moving at speed, designed to shore up the ship’s atmosphere, security and structural integrity as fast as mechanically possible. The gargantuan clang as the doors came to rest shook the entire floor. It inspired in the young woman equal parts of awe and fear. With a groan and some utterances of surprise Annalise slowly picked herself up off the floor. She was a little winded but largely fine, or seemed so as she moved quickly to the control screens, gathering her nerves after the shock of hearing and feeling the bay doors close. Eschewing exclamations of wonderment over the obvious she stuck to the important facts.

“The monitors are out, I’ve got no idea if the bay repressurized,” she informed Ema, her panicked expression lit only by the light of the suit pen. “Royston, A to Royston, D…” she tested her badge but it was dead. “Comms are down too.”

“First things first. The window and doors are still intact but we need to move.” Ema said biting through the pain. “Pressure suits in the wall panel to my right.” She said. “Grab the medkit next to it. I hit my head. I don’t think it’s bad but I will have a headache later.” Reaching into a different flight pocket, Ema pulled out a chemlight. Snapping the internal glass tube, she shook cigar sized bendable stick as it brightened to a slightly off white. Tossing the unit toward Annalise, she gathered her thoughts and strength and she pulled the pen light from its own pocket and started to asses herself. 

Still somewhat panicked the Petty Officer fumbled the catch but she scooped the chemlight off the floor quickly and headed in the direction of the suits. Even though she hadn’t worn them much, she could remember the procedures, or at least she thought she could. Her mind swam slightly.

Ema managed to pull herself off the floor, she almost gasped as her shoulder and head throbbed together. Putting a hand to her head, she didn’t pull back any blood, but there could be other damage. “Okay. hand me a suit, but you get into yours first. You can put me into mine if I pass out.”

Cracking the seals together, Ema pulled it out and walked Annalise through the first few steps. “Okay, in you go, like footie pajamas.” Ema started to slowly slid her feet in meanwhile and was nearly there by the time Annalise had her around her waist. “Good, keep going. Just like the coveralls you wear everyday, just have to add the helmet. Reaching for the helmet Annalise clicked it into place quickly with a sharp motion.

“Your turn ma’am,” she said as the light inside the helmet blinked on, illuminating the mix of concentration and obvious fright on her face.

Looking up, Ema saw the look on the young Petty Officer’s face. “Pull it together Annalise. Don’t be afraid of the dark. We weren’t tossed around that badly.”

“I’m not ma’am, I’m afraid for Kylo,” Annalise replied, trying her com but to no avail. “At least I know Dai is with him.”

“One thing at a time, let’s breathe and think,” Ema said, wriggling her bad arm in first, uttering a string of expletives of German, Federation standard, and some choice Klingon sprinkled in with one she didn’t understand. “Oh…..I will need a pain-killer once I get all the way in. Just go light.” Annalise moved to help her superior get suited up. The other arm went instantly, shockingly and her helmet snapped on once connected and locked. The pain was written all over Emagyn’s face, reaching into the nearby panel, she said reaching out for the medkit, pulling out a hyospray.

“Do those work through the suit?” Annalise asked, a little confused.

Finally, in the suit, she moved her left arm of the suit towards Annalise. “A port right below the elbow on the bicep. You can inject it there.” She said, then added. “The next steps are to get some tools, tricorders, and phasers to see what is out there and that the shuttle bay is secure. We are here and it is up to us. We can do this, Annalise. Right now. All we know is the lights are out. Intrepid explorers are we.” Ema said, offering up a smile through the discomfort. After a moment to process Annalise nodded.

“Yes, ma’am. Let me…” she adjusted the hypospray and injected it as indicated, hoping it would give her superior some comfort. “Right, there’s an emergency locker by the door…” The boots of Annalise’s suit clonked on the ground as she made her way over and she punched in the unlock code to the fortunately mechanical lock. Pulling open the small door revealed a med kit, hand phasers and wrist torches, the latter two of which she passed to Ema. “Do you think we’ve been boarded, ma’am?” She asked in what she hoped was a reasonably calm sounding tone.

“Full stop Petty Officer,” Ema said, even making a display of a flat palm gesture. “Do not jink us.” She said, adding a smile. “This is a blown fuse or something until we know more. Give me data not speculation right now, please, and a phaser. I might need to make coffee.” 

As the analgesic started to have an effect she took the offered supplies from the Petty Officer. The hand torch was added to the top of her left more operable arm, and then Ema slipped the type II hand phaser into its holster. It would hurt if she needed it, but she was still doable. 

“Sunnuvabi…” Ema swore. “Please tell me you have a tricorder. Mine is in my left pants cargo pocket, inside the pressure suit. Otherwise, you might have to grope me a bit to get it.” She said snickering a bit at the thought.

“I can think of worse things?” Annalise tried to get into the spirit. “Tricorder, tricorder…” she scanned the myriad surfaces with an outstretched finger. “Tricorder!” The device was scooped up from a console.

“Nice.” Scan the area. I am guessing we have air and the shuttle bay doesn’t. Do not be in the doorway, might be a good idea to bleed off the air so nothing goes flying. We can restore systems later. Staying here would be not my first choice. Thinking Engineering first.” Handing Annalise a manual door release, she took one herself, standing to the side of the door where she could still use her good arm. “Now, we are just cracking the seal a bit. Too much and things start flying.”

“You are guessing correctly,” Annalise informed her, blinking a little in the bright light of the tricorder screen which created blue and orange reflections in the visor of her suit. Seeing Emma’s prompt she pocketed the tricorder and took a hold of the handle. “Understood. On your mark, ma’am.”

“Nice and easy. Just a crack. On three. One…two…three.” both women pulled the doors slightly apart. The pressure caused the atmosphere to whistle from the opening between the doors. As the air escaped the noise lessened slightly. Ema motioned to Annalise. “A bit more, but be ready to close it. We should be okay in a few seconds.”

Annalise nodded and the two women yanked on the door again letting the rest of the air escape in small amounts until they were equalised. Annalise checked the readout of her suit..she had plenty of air of course, but she was nervous.

“M…maybe you better go first, ma’am? So I can catch you if you uh… need catching?” She suggested.

Attempting to lighten the mood she shot back, “Or get eaten first.” Ema teased. Aiming her palmlight around the bay, she started slowly for the bay doors. Checking the seals, checking for leaks, life support and power systems were next on the list of priorities. “Go ahead and scan for leaks. I’ll get the bay-door seals.” Annalise did as she was ordered.

“Looks like we’re good,” she commented after a minute or so of clomping around the bay. Her torch swung in Emagyn’s direction. Seeing the Bay in this way was quite unnerving, even morbid but Annalise decided not to say anything. She didn’t want to completely ruin her reputation with her boss.

It took effort but Ema managed to re-establish atmosphere in the shuttle bay. For the two of them, it would last a long time. Ema wasn’t planning on finding out the limit of what that would be. Life support was off though. If they stayed it was going to get cold fast. “Let’s see if we can get one of the shuttles up and running. That might tell us more especially if we can get the sensors up.”

There was a shuttle close to Annalise’s position so she hopped a few steps over and hit the door release.

“Nothing,” she commented. ‘”Even if the door were jammed the internal lights should come on, but there’s just nothing… we could try the manual release but I’d bet you a really really good Pork Pie that the shuttles are dead too.” Annalise wasn’t as experienced as Ema but she spent a portion of her work time all day prepping craft and closing them up again after use. There was a fair chance she was right.

Ema turned to Annalise. “If the shuttles are dead, that’s not good. Completely separated turned-off systems? Grab a tool kit.” Emagyn snagged a nearby parts container and slid it over near the panel access of a type 2 shuttle. Gingerly pulling off the panel, she placed it on the floor out of the way and grabbed her palm beacon.

“Well they’re not usually completely cold and dark,” Annalise replied as she padded over to the nearest tool kit and hefted it across the deck. “They have some standby systems that are usually on, way quicker to power them up that way. Lights, doors…”

 
Ema looked at Annalise and said, “That’s my point. It shouldn’t be off.” Annalise reached in and grabbed the power cell from inside the toolkit. Pressing a button it read fully charged. Ema plugged it into the port on the panel, but the panel was still dead. “I’d still like to get inside. Chairs and supplies. Plus, we might be able to find out what is stopping this from powering on. Though as always, I am open to suggestions, Annalise.”

“What the actual rotting hell.” “Ema said in German. Reaching into the toolbox, Ema grabbed a Multi-tester and spent a few minutes poking around the inside of the panel. Getting frustrated working inside the suit, she turned to Annalise. “See if the air is breathable yet, please. It would be easier to work without the helmet and gloves.” 

The Petty Officer checked her tricorder.

“We are…” she experimentally clunked her helmet to the release position and, lifting it off, took a breath. “…good! A bit thin but workable. Think ten thousand feet on Earth. It should get better too.”

“Okay, let’s at least lose the gloves and work before all the heat bleeds out of the bay. Keep your helmet on for a few more minutes before losing your helmet, in case I pass out.” Annalise complied and re-sealed her helmet. Popping the seal, a slight hiss escaped Ema’s. Tenatively breathing, she stripped off the gloves as quickly as she could considering her should. Grabbing a testing with probes, Emagyn only took a minute to figure out the issue. “Wow. Find me two EPS relays and the conduits between them. I’ve never seen one melted. Until now. “Actually, you pull the conduit and relays. I’ll will go find the parts. ” Ema said smiling.

“You sure ma’am, with that shoulder?” Annalise asked. It was more concern than obvious non-compliance. 

Emagyn smiled and nodded. “I’m sure. My shoulder would scream if I had to contort myself pulling those conduits, trust me. I’ll get the parts if I make a few trips, so be it.” Pulling a module from a pocket, Ema snapped the cylindrical library unit into the tricorder. In case you want some music. Might take a few minutes to get those out. Be right back.” She said in a sing-song manner.

Just as Ema had manually opened the door to the parts bin, the lights flickered and came to life. “Sonuvab…” Emagyn swore. While she was grateful, the timing could have been better. Unceremoniously turning around, she made her way back to Annalise. The first thing the Petty Officer did was stab at her com badge.

“Royston, A. to Royston, D.?…” The badge made a sorry, flat sort of sound. “Shit! Work with me here!” The young mother’s frustration was obvious, but if the lights were on then comms would probably soon follow.

Finally making it back to Annalise, Ema added. “Come on. Let’s go check on our charges. You have a kiddo and I have a knot-head Shepherd mix that weighs fifty kilos that probably ate my bed.”