Project Star Gate --- Chapter III -- Critical Mass by Mark van der Laan
'Warning, Central Reactor temperature exceeding maximum tolerance. Estimated time to meltdown: three minutes.' the Maelstrom's female computer voice announced, casting a deadly silence over the command area that was only broken by the whining of the alarm.
Finally it was Commander Rolans himself who acted, tapping his comm-badge: "Mr. Jackson, this is Commander Rolans, can you hear me?"
The reply came in the form of fuzzy noise, with a few barely understandable words audible behind it. "The central core's eminating strange graviton pulses," Anya Maras explained after examining her console, "I'm not sure what's causing it, but it could be a defect..."
"It'd better be a defect," captain Black growled over the whining alarm, "I'd hate to see this happen every time the stargate's opened!"
"I'll try to boost the communication by rerouting and amplifying it," Anya suggested, and did so.
"Mr. Jackson," David tried again, "Can you hear me? What's going on down there?"
Again, the reply was hazy and unclear: "Reactor... overheating... cause...radiation... external sensors..." - and then the signal disappeared altogether.
"Maras?"
"I've lost the signal, sir. I think his comm-badge got damaged."
At that moment the station shook violently, and David feared his first day in command would be the last day of his life, but thankfully the shaking stopped as suddenly as it had begun. "Report!" Jagh Ramen, David's first officer shouted.
"The overheating of the central core is starting to affect the station's hull integrity," the bajoran science officer replied, "Also, the sensors are detecting an increase of graviton radiation all around... if this goes on, this entire solar system will be torn apart!"
"We have to evacuate!" the Ferengi doctor suggested, already halfway to the turbo lift.
"We are not evacuating," Commander Rolans interrupted sternly, "We're going to shut this thing down before it takes everything with it, and we are going to safe Mr. Jackson."
He'd be damned if he let this station go down on his first day, and he was going to get to the bottom of this; the determination in his eyes was unmistakable as his eyes surveyed the room to consider his next actions. His eyes crossed Captain Black's for a moment, and there was a moment of understanding between the two.
"Mr Manck," he gesture the tall Cardassian in charge of security, "I'm going to the Central Reactor to find Jackson and shut the thing down, I'll need your strength."
"I'll be lying when I say the pleasure is all mine, but I'll come along," the Cardassian answered dryly.
"Ragg, you'll come along too, in case Jackson's injured."
"But...we need to evacuate," the Ferengi whined, "And I'm afraid
of explosive places..."
"It wasn't a request," David replied, "The rest of you will stay here and oversee the evacuation of the station crew."
"No," Black interrupted, "I will come with you too."
David wanted to protest at that, suggesting that they needed as much pilots as possible right now, but he knew he could not change the captain's mind; he'd read it in his eyes a moment earlier. "Very well," he replied.
During their rush towards the Central Reactor they were thwarted several times as the station shook violently again, but they were persistent and advancing quickly, thanks to Jagh's coordination from the command center, opening each door they had to pass through just before they reached it from a distance. Only one door however refused to open: the door they simply had to pass, the specially reinforced door to the Central Reactor Room.
"And what now?" the Cardassian asked.
"Now we evacuate!" Ragg squeaked, already turning around.
"The door's sealed shut as a security measure," David said, "We'll have to try and force it open..." - The Cardassian needed no further encouragement than that, opening a cabinet in the wall and pulling out a phaser riffle. Before anyone could act, he'd turned it to the highest setting and fired at the large door. It didn't flinch. He fired again. It bucked a little. He fired a barrage of phaser fire. It erupted inward.
"...by accessing the Maelstrom's computer systems," David completed his idea, glaring at the Cardassian.
"Oh."
Stepping inside, it didn't take them long to determine their current situation: The reactor core itself was pulsating heavily, a sure sign of an eminent explosion, and all of the main consoles had been broken, sparks shooting out of them. And unconscious on the ground in front of one of them was a human body: Daniel Jackson. While the Ferengi bent down next to the injured engineering officer, David rushed towards the nearest console, hoping he could get it working again; meanwhile, Argol Manck, the cardassian, was surveying the large room nervously, realizing all too well that consoles don't smash themselves and that an engineering officer
doesn't knock himself out.
"Lieutenant Maras," David shouted, tapping his comm badge, "We've reached the reactor room - now how do we shut this thing down?"
As was to be expected, the radiation still blocked most communications and the reply was blurry: "Find... central console...press shutdown code... then ... red...blue...button..." - at this point, David Rolans regretted not having asked for instructions before they left, yet looked around for some help either way.
A possible solution presented itself in the form of the only console that hadn't been shattered yet, being extra enforced; Through sheer luck, it turned out to be the Emergency Shutdown console as well, showing a small console that allowed someone to enter a security code, and a red and blue button directly below it. "Maras, what's the access code?" he tried, hoping her signal would get through.
It did.
"The access code is one..."
David entered it.
"...two..."
David entered it.
"...three..."
David entered it.
"...four..."
David entered it.
"...five."
"The access code is '1-2-3-4-5?'" the Cardassian snorted, "That's the code an idiot would use on his luggage!"
David didn't listen to him, instead being confronted with the next dilemma, namely which button to push to activate the Auto-Shutdown: the messy blue one or the shiny red one. Completely uncertain and without the use of any logic whatsoever the commander hoped it would be the red button, and pressed it.
For a few short moments, no change occured. Then the entire room started shaking violently as alarm lights started flashing all over the place. "I know what you're thinking!" Argol shouted over the noise, "Why o why didn't I take the blue button?"
And then the shaking stopped and all the lights went out as the reactor succesfully de-activated itself.
"What hit me..?" Daniel Jackson groaned, rubbing the back of his head as he woke up just after the nick of time.
"Something hard enough to get you unconscious," Ragg replied, running a medical scan to make sure he'd treated all the wounds.
It was then when Commander Rolans got paged again; he tapped his comm badge and waited for the good news. "Commander, you should return to the command area quickly," an excited Jagh Ramen shouted, "There's something interesting that you should see for yourself."
David agreed on this, wanting a full status report as quickly as possible and the group of officers hastily returned to the Command Center while the central reactor room remained empty, waiting for the security and engineering crews that would be arriving any minute now.
Without the trouble of the station shaking with almost every step and no locked doors to hinder them, their journey back to the command center was without trouble and soon they found themselves back in the companion of the other senior officers. "What is it you wanted to show me?" David asked almost immediately while they each returned to their duty station.
"We were keeping track of the situation outside," Anya started, "When we discovered it. The Graviton pulses must have disrupted their cloaking technology, and they most likely haven't realized this yet."
For a moment, Commander Rolans was speechless; It was barely visible, their cloaking device still active, but there was no doubt about it: positioned a short distance away from the Maelstrom was a Romulan Warbird.
