I am currrently working on a story (it's not a novel yet). here is the first part!
‘Come on, come on!’ I thought as the palm scanner ran a white beam of light over my hand. The door then opened with a swoosh and I rushed into the bridge. Other officers gave me quizzical ‘Where were you?’ looks as I slid into my station. That’s the disadvantage of normally being the first officer to arrive at the bridge everyone knows when you’re late. I rapidly typed on the touch screen as bright lights shone around me. A bit of a rushed start, but I quickly settled into my routine. Suddenly, a flashing alert appeared on my screen. ‘Uh oh,’ I thought, ‘that is not good.’ ‘Captain!’ I yelled, ‘We have a containment failure!’ ‘What!’ he exclaimed. ‘Sir, the CC3 Engines will…’ ‘I know what they’ll do Lieutenant!’ he said, ‘the question is: what do we do?’ ‘Sir,’ suggested Commander Bíl, ‘we could pump Plex 78 fluid into the heating chamber, which might by us time until we reach the next U.R.S. station.’ ‘Make it so,’ ordered the Captain. I, however, was not satisfied. How on earth could a containment failure occur without someone in the engine room noticing it first and sounding a red alert? Something was definitely not right. I could tell by the looks of the other engineering officers on bridge that they shared the same doubts as me. I quickly spoke into my comlink to the engine room, ‘Bly, what is going on down there!?’ ‘I don’t know Brian, we were working normally when the screens suddenly started flashing a containment fa...,’ ‘I know what they were flashing!’ I interrupted, ‘Why were they flashing it?’ ‘I have no clue,’ he stammered, ‘the SIO levels are normal and the VS is stable.’ I was now thoroughly confused; how come the SIO levels were normal, when in a containment failure error they should have skyrocketed? All of the sudden a huge KABOOM shook the entire ship. Ignoring the screaming alarms and flashing red alert lights, I stared at my screen. ‘Captain!’ I practically screamed, ‘Damage is at 13% and sectors 357-379 were damaged critically!’ The Captain muttered a curse and yelled at the medical officer, ‘Get a rescue and a medical team down there now!!!’ ‘Computer,’ he then bellowed, ‘indentify cause of explosion!’ ‘Explosion was caused by an Opia overload in Fuel Tank 3.’ ‘That’s not possible!’ I stated, ‘An Opia overload can only be caused when the SIO levels plummet!’ The engineering officers nodded their heads in agreement. ‘What is going on?’ I thought as I scanned the screen. Then a terrible thought occurred to me. ‘Sector 365, that’s where Bly is!’ I realized with a gut-sinking feeling. ‘Bly,’ I yelled, ‘are you there?’ There was just static. ‘Bly, are you all right!?’ There was still no answer.
To be continued..........
nico :-) (c) 2011, Circle X Publishers
