Lieutenant JG Mercedes Carpenter Assistant Medical Officer USS Chimera NCC 96899 = Scott’s Quarters Scott had invited Mercedes over for breakfast to his quarters. As usual, Mercedes had been a few minutes late. She’d hit the off button on her alarm and had just fallen asleep again, only to suddenly wake up and realise that she was late for breakfast. Scott had hoped she would be on time, but knowing her hadn’t put too much hope on it. Mercedes arrived in a rushed state at his door thirty minutes before they were due to start their duty shift. Scott had taken the liberty to prepare something in advance in case she was late. “I’m really sorry, Scott,” Mercedes apologised between bites of rye toast and marmalade. “Don’t worry about it,” Scott replied. He took a sip of his black coffee and smiled at her. “I know you’re not a morning person.” Mercedes returned his smile and lifted up her cup of tea. She was about to take a sip when suddenly the lights dimmed and began to flicker red. “What is...” Scott didn’t have time to finish his sentence before the ship suddenly rocked. Mercedes dropped her cup and it broke into a thousand pieces on the floor. They both got up at the same time and Mercedes looked at Scott. “We should get to Sickbay,” Scott said. “Our uniforms...” she started to object. Neither of them were dressed in uniforms yet; their shift only started later in the day. “There’s no time.” Scott walked over to the table where their commbadges lay, and as he reached for them, the Chimera took another hit, this time sounding very loud and close, shaking the ship much worse than before. The lights flickered out completely and the replicator sparked and burst into flames. Mercedes slipped to the floor, cutting her hand on a shard of porcelain from the broken cup. “Are you all right?” Scott shouted over the noise of wailing sirens. “Yes, I just slipped and cut my hand,” Mercedes replied, pulled herself up with the help of the table. Back up power generators had come online, giving dim life to the lights in the room and causing the sprinklers to turn on. “Summers to Carpenter and Fisher. Report to Sickbay... I'm on Deck 6. Prepare Standard Procedure,” came the call over their badges. Scott handed Mercedes’ badge to her and she pinned it on her blouse. “Your hand... that cut looks deep,” Scott said, reaching for the medkit that always stood ready beside his door. He opened it and pulled out a dermapatch bandage, putting it over her wound. “That should help.” “Thank you,” Mercedes said, flexing her fingers slightly. The wound didn’t hurt very much, but had an uncomfortable burning sensation. “We need to get to Sickbay. I hope there haven’t been any casualties.” They headed out of Scott’s quarters and down the dim, red corridors. As they turned the corner, one of the bulkheads was sealed and it was directly on their path to Sickbay. “Let’s take the Jefferies tube,” Scott suggested. “It’s the shortest route to Sickbay.” Mercedes nodded and Scott kneeled down to remove the hatch next to the bulkhead. Mercedes crawled in first and he was directly behind her, closing the hatch as he entered the tube. “Which way?” Mercedes asked as she crawled straight ahead and came to an intersection. “Go right,” Scott said. Mercedes crawled to the right and suddenly lost her balance as the ship shook again. “Evacuation on Deck 5. Please proceed immediately to your designated area. Evacuation on Deck 5...” the computer voice began to drone and repeat. “Crap,” Mercedes muttered under her breath and began to crawl faster. The tubes seemed to get hotter as the went along, and she wondered whether the environmental controls had been damaged. “Open the next hatch here,” Scott said. “It should lead straight into Sickbay.” Mercedes did as he said and opened the next hatch. As luck would have it, Lucy Fleming was standing by the hatch when it popped open. Mercedes stuck her head out and looked up at the nurse. “Go down to Deck 8, the Cargo Bay,” Lucy said, somehow not surprised at the medical officer’s head that had just appeared at her feet. “We’re setting up triage there.” “All right,” Mercedes replied, closing the hatch. “Why did you close it?” Scott asked, bewildered. “We need to go down to Deck 9 to set up triage,” Mercedes explained. “I just spoke to Lucy.” “Oh, ok. Well, it might be best to continue in the tubes. Some bulkheads might already be sealed and there’s a junction up ahead that goes down to Deck 6.” Mercedes nodded and started crawling ahead again. When she came to the hatch in the floor, she pulled the lever that opened it. It revealed a ladder with rungs leading down to the next deck. She put her feet on the third rung and started to climb down. “How do you know the Jefferies tubes so well,” Mercedes asked, curious that he seemed to know exactly where they were going. “I’ve had the pleasure of doing this before,” Scott explained as he began to climb down after her. A few rungs down, he reached and pulled the lever that locked the hatch securely in place again. The ship shook again, and Scott lost his balance on the ladder. He lost his balance and fell down past Mercedes. “Scott!” she cried. The fall wasn’t very far, but he hit his head on one of the rungs. She quickly stepped down off the ladder and knelt down beside him. Checking his pulse, she was very relieved to feel it beating normally. He just seemed to be knocked out and there was a nasty gash on his forehead. Mercedes looked around her and saw a control access panel next to the EPS access port. She entered her ID code and tried to access the transporter system. “I hope this works,” she whispered under her breath. Scott was out cold and she couldn’t drag him herself to the Cargo Bay. The only way was to initiate a site-to-site transport... something she’d never don before. She entered the destination on the panel and linked the transporter targets to their commbadges, and then pressed energise. The computer replied with a rude noise and nothing happened. “Enter emergency access code,” it said, but Mercedes’ mind had gone blank. What was the damn code? Without it, Scott would be stuck here and it wasn’t safe to stay there. She was going to tap her commbadge when it went off by itself. “Summers to Sickbay. We're using Cargo Bay One as our emergency base. Maikai, Steve, oversee the welfare and transport of patients. Scott, Mercedes, get down here as soon as you can we need to set up triage. Oh, and the turbo lifts are out.” Then suddenly Mercedes remembered the emergency code. It started with the number ‘one’. She quickly entered the code, changing their destination to Cargo Bay One, and pressed the energise command. The computer bleeped friendly this time and soon she heard the familiar wine as blue lights engulfed them. Mercedes materialised with Scott at her feet just as Rangi walked into the cargo bay. “That was quick,” Rangi said, surprised. Then she noticed Scott. “Oh... what happened?” “He bumped his head on a ladder rung,” Mercedes explained. “It knocked him out, but he should be fine.” “I’ll take care of him; will you get me a biobed? They should be in the storage bay.” Rangi said, moving closer to Scott and opening the medical tricorder that was attached to her waist. “Yes, ma’am,” Mercedes nodded, handing the medkit Scott had carried with them to the Chief Medical Officer. She then headed off to the storage bay between the two cargo bays where all emergency equipment was stored. = -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.300 / Virus Database: 265.8.7 - Release Date: 2005/02/10