Boat Drill in the Dead of Night (Part 1)
Posted on Tue Dec 12th, 2023 @ 7:34pm by Captain Maho Takahashi & Commander Keisuke Takahashi 'K.T.' & Lieutenant Terrence "Terry" Johnston & Lieutenant JG Takumi Fujiwara 'Tak' & Commander Ichika Misono & Lieutenant Commander Kurumi Ebisuzawa & Lieutenant Commander Brennyn Scott M.D. & Lieutenant Ami Rori & Lieutenant JG Jane Sinclair
1,198 words; about a 6 minute read
Mission:
Operation Tokyo Return
Location: USS Myogi
Timeline: 0230 hours, mission day 2
Maho was awoken at 0200 hours by another bout of morning sickness. After puking up what was left of her dinner, Maho checked the Chronometer and realized that it had been a long while since the previous silent lifeboat drill, and if she was going to be up at this stupid hour, her whole crew was going to be as well.
"Takahashi to all hands." Maho said as she tapped her combadge. "Report to your muster stations immediately. Do not raise the general alarm. I repeat, do not raise the general alarm."
Ichika, for her part, had been sound asleep when Maho's announcement came through. Evidently confused, as Maho hadn't made a point of holding a muster drill on their previous outing, she reached across the dresser and tapped her combadge
=A=Captain, may I inquire as to why we're holding a muster drill at this hour?=A= she asked.
=A="Do you question an order to abandon ship in a real emergency, Commander?"=A= Maho responded. =A="No, you don't: Evacuate first and ask questions later. That should have been a basic lesson learned at the very first lifeboat drill you attended."=A=
Ichika shook her head and threw off the covers. Something about this still wasn't setting right with her, but if she were to get the answers she was looking for, it looked as if a more direct approach was in order...
"Nani?" (What?) Ami grumbled as the announcement woke her from a rather sound sleep and a very pleasant dream. She'd been in a Chaffee, lining up her shot on the enemy flag tank and then the announcement had come in. "Enjiniaringu, dasshutsu poddo no junbi jōkyō chekku." (Engineering, readiness check on the escape pods.) She rubbed her eyes and hauled herself out of bed, putting on a pair of slippers as she snagged her commbadge and made her way to the door. No time to dress even if it were only a drill.
“Ugh, gāisǐ de (damn it),” Jane thought as she was pulled from her sleep by the muster alarm. The likelihood of it being real was virtually nil — she and Ami had spoken about the status of the warp core earlier in the evening, and they were nowhere near any phenomenon that would likely necessitate a muster to evacuation points, as opposed to sounding general quarters and reacting to a threat with the senior officers on the bridge.
But it didn’t matter. Even if in all likelihood it was an unscheduled drill, it would be treated as if it were real. The procedures mattered, and testing them properly mattered. She had been in a nightie and underwear, but slipped on the easiest thing, a set of maintenance coveralls with a commbadge and boots and made her way to the nearest ladder and down one deck to the main shuttlebay.
She tapped her commbadge. “Flight crews, prepare for evacuation but remain on standby.” A duty officer had already been present and all shuttles were unlocked and receiving evacuees. Each certified pilot had an “in case of evacuation” craft to fly. Hers was Godzilla.
Regrettably one craft remained unusable. The repairs to Reopon’s to impulse engines were far more involved than anyone had predicted. Even working all night, the repair teams had not finished by drill time. Thankfully Reopon was by far their smallest craft, fitting only six at maximum evacuation density. Those six would just be reassigned to other shuttles with barely any impact.
She nodded to Takumi when she saw him and found her seat at her muster point.
For Takumi, the one thing worse than getting up stupidly early to deliver tofu were unscheduled drills. Takumi had quickly splashed his face in water to wake himself up before pulling on his uniform and making his way as quickly as his mobility allowed to the Shuttlebay and his assigned "in case of evacuation" craft, in this case, the type 9 shuttle named "Kame."
The shuttle had already been prepped for departure when Takumi arrived, and he returned the nod from his boss, whose assigned evacuation craft was nearby, before taking his seat at the shuttle's controls, which happened to also be his muster station.
All non-essential engineering personnel had already been released to their own evacuation locations, leaving Engineering largely empty as Ami shuffled in as she gave off a massive yawn to see two others in there, "Chief Junyo, you're free to report to your muster station, I'll take over here." The downside to evacuations was that as the senior engineer, she was one of the last ones to leave, in fact, if it were a true emergency, she'd likely not make it off the ship. Responsibility hath its curse, "Terry, anything showing off on the Pod diagnostics, or are we showing all up? Shuttlebay doors open? Emergency forcefields?"
"All greens and no reds, chief." Terry reported. "Shuttlebay doors are open and Emergency forcefields are in place. Flight control reports one shuttle is down for maintenance, so evacuees assigned to that shuttle are being reassigned to different muster stations."
"Excellent, go ahead and report to your own evacuation location, consider me a 'casualty of the emergency'." Ami stole a glance at her office, then shook her head, "I'll monitor everything from here just to make sure nothing in the system glitches." She patted Terry on the shoulder gently, reaching up to do so, "Good job, Terry."
Responding with only a nod, Terry proceeded to evacuate engineering. He respected a chief who was willing to go down with their ship, even if this was only a drill.
Kurumi's responsibility when any guests were on board was to escort them to their evacuation station. She arrived at the main shuttlebay with a rather sleepy Captain Aisaka and grumpy looking Commander Takasu. She hadn't given them chance to change, so they were still in nightware. Commander Takasu had thrown on a T-Shirt and was following in that and his boxer shorts, whilst Aisaka was in crop-top style pajamas.
"Sorry about this," she apologised as she gestured towards the assigned shuttle which was waiting for them. Kurumi noticed that the ship was still at warp so this must have been a drill, launching shuttles at warp isn't impossible, but it is very dangerous.
A resigned sigh was all that escaped Bree's lips as she was awoken by the Captain's announcement. It was early, of course, and she had been in the middle of a dreamless yet comfortable sleep, but given her dual professions, she wasn't exactly unfamiliar with being called to work at all hours.
Replaying the announcement's words in her head, Bree surmised there wasn't an actual emergency, or if there were, at least not a typical one, as there would be all sorts of alarms going off. Still, that didn't mean something wasn't amiss, so she quickly reached for her robe and moved swiftly to medical, unsure of what patients might be there at this hour, but committed to making sure they got to safety with her.
To be continued...
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