Captain Decker won't return from her away mission for another two weeks, and I've had my hands full trying to keep this ship together. I wanted this first command to run as smoothly as possible, especially because I knew we'd be getting a visit from Admiral Miller. Of course, things didn't go as planned.
Admiral Miller arrived promptly at 0600 this morning, and I hardly had time to show her to her quarters before we went into red alert. When I made it to the bridge, Lieutenant Giegy explained quickly that a Force-8 ion storm was headed our way. We attempted to alter course, but there wasn't time. It hit us full blast, and we just had to batten down the hatches and wait it out.
We made it through in one piece, but just barely. Lieutenant Barlowe managed to save the engines, but they'll still take at least four days to repair. The storm lasted more than six hours, and with the turbulence, I don't think a single crewman let go of his consol that entire time. The turbolifts stopped working as soon as the storm hit, so we had people crawling through the Jeffries tubes all day. After running down the corridors, clinging to walls, just trying to hold the ship together, when the storm finally passed everyone was exhausted.
I was impressed by Admiral Miller. She has a reputation for asking nothing less than unflinching excellence from the crews of the ships she visits, so I wasn't sure how she would react when her first impression of Jaifus consisted of a frantic crew and a bruised starship. But she was magnificent. She said she could see how hard we were all working and that we had managed to save more of the ship than a less-skilled crew could have done. "A Level-8 ion storm is nothing to joke about," she said. "But your crew handled it masterfully."
In fact, she was so pleased by our performance that she took the entire senior staff down to the Sick Bay, and then replicated hot chocolate for us and the wounded crewmen. "Nothing like hot chocolate during a storm, is there?" she said. It was a real boost for morale, and I expect her kind actions to be the reason why the repairs have been proceeding so quickly.
I look forward to reporting all of this to the Captain when she returns, but until then, I am happy to spend some more time with Admiral Miller, who will be staying with us while we complete repairs.
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Commander Sicka
1 comment:
Well done. I love the name Jaifus (JFS) -- yes, I got it.
Glad you made it through the storm. How did the holodecks do? It's not uncommon for someone to get trapped in there with a program that won't shut down during a storm like that.
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