Call for Help

Month 16 day 2

15:32 Hours

Bugalu

Bugalu waited impatiently for the end of his shift, which had been uneventful, like most shifts on a Fleet starship. It's time for me to sit Mac down and have a long conversation with her. Whatever her problem is, I've got to get to the bottom of it. She's been quiet, preoccupied and often morose for the past couple of weeks. Or longer. Scattered into that mix are fitful bouts of anger, which frequently seem to be directed at Smythe, though she won't say so directly. But nobody can tell me what the problem is between them. Every time I ask her, all she does is shrug and tell me to forget it. I'm tired of not knowing what's going on. It's time, even if she doesn't want to discuss it. So help me, if Smythe is harassing her in some way, I'll go straight to the captain.

He glanced at the chronometer and silently sighed in frustration.

The captain was having a quiet conversation with Takor at the science console, and Bugs tried not to listen. Conversations between those 2 were often confusing for someone not that familiar with the Sciss physiology. And then Abdulla broke into the conversation. “Captain, we’re receiving an SOS from the St Elmo.”

“Recorded or live?” Burke asked, her conversation forgotten as she whirled to return to her command chair.

“I- I’m not sure. It… There, it just started repeating, so probably recorded.”

“Patch it through and send an acknowledgement. Ask how we can help.”

Bugalu heard Abdulla manipulate her controls and whisper into her personal mic as the call for help was transferred to the speakers.

“…from the St Elmo. Requesting assistance from whoever can get to us. Our warp engines exploded unexpectedly, throwing us severely off course before we could regain control. All we have are impulse engines, and we’re not sure about them. Astronavigation puts us at approximately 351, -115, 2021 from the Bergosi Star. Repeat. All Fleet vessels who hear this message. This is an SOS from the St Elmo. Requesting assistance—" It went silent as Abdullah cut it off, and then a live voice came over the speakers.

“Hello, Fireball. You’re the first to answer our call. This is Captain Yolanda Valentine of the St Elmo. We're in stable condition right now, but we're currently drifting, uncertain we can trust even our impulse engines at this point.

"Our chief engineer and most the engineering staff from the B shift are in sick bay, some of them in bad shape. We’re not even sure what happened. So if you could spare some engineers to help us get things put right, and maybe a few medical personnel, it would be greatly appreciated.”

“This is Captain Jane Burke of the Fireball. Of course we can help,” Burke answered at once. “I’ll notify my engineering and medical departments and start for your location right away. I estimate it’ll take us 2 days to reach your location, so if you could turn on a homing beacon in about 36 hours, that will help us locate you.”

“We’ll do that, Fireball. As I said, we’re drifting right now, and not even sure of our speed. I'll have Astronavigation take another reading in 12 hours, and give you an update on our speed and course. We’ll look forward to seeing you in about 2 days.”

“Stay safe,” Burke told her counterpoint. “We’ll be in touch.” The bridge speakers went silent, and Burke punched a button on the arm of her chair. “Smitty.”

It took him a second to answer. “Yes, captain.”

“How are our warp engines? Have you got all those blips tamped down?” Blips? Bugalu wondered to himself. I haven’t heard Mac mention any blips.

“Yes, captain,” the engineer returned immediately. “The warps are fully ready for whatever you want.”

“I need a 2-day run at high gear. Warp 10, if you can keep it there,” Burke told him and broke the connection. “Capac, have you got our new course plotted?”

“Yes, captain.”

“Bugalu, change course and head out, full warp.”

“Yes, captain.”

She pressed another button on her chair arm. “MacGregor.”

“Here, captain.”

“We’re headed to give assistance to the St Elmo. They had an engineering accident of some kind, and most of one engineering shift is in sick bay.”

“I’ll coordinate communications with Abdulla, so we can be prepared when we get there.”

“We'll be there in about 48 hours.” She closed that circuit and opened the one to engineering again. “Smitty, how are those warp engines doing now?”

It took a little longer for him to answer this time. “Working perfectly, captain, and approaching warp 9. Will you be wanting any more than 10.2, captain?”

“Let’s not test our luck,” she told him. “Warp 10 should be enough. The St Elmo said their warp engines exploded. Always makes me nervous to hear something like that.”

“The Elmo,” Smythe repeated. “Captain, they recently had some sort of modification made to their warp routing couples.”

“Now, how would you know that?” she asked.

“I’m good friends with their Chief Engineer. He wrote me about it a few weeks back.”

“Oh." She hesitated half a second. "Uh, Smitty, their Chief Engineer is in sick bay. You not only will be assisting with repairs, you may be called on to figure out what happened.”

“I understand, captain. Uh, if Stinky… Lt. Cmdr. Facchini... is in sick bay, did they mention who’s currently in charge of that investigation?”

“Have Abdulla set up a contact line for you. One of his shift supervisors, I would assume, but I didn’t get any names.”

“Right. I’ll do that. Will there be anything else, captain?”

“No. I trust you to keep things humming down there.”

“Thank you, captain. Smythe out.”

And just like that, the emergency was handled—for now—and assignments were given. And Bugalu’s shift still wasn’t over, though it was closer to it.

With preparations for an engineering and medical assist to make, will I even be able to find Mac this evening to talk to her? That can be hard to do without being in the midst of planning an assist.