Radiation, Damage, and What' Coming Next?

Posted on Sun Jan 11th, 2026 @ 12:40am by Admiral Deela T'Lar & Colonel Ezekiel Bagwell & Lieutenant Percy McWire & Lieutenant JG Deezell Vox & Captain Paul MacLeod

2,750 words; about a 14 minute read

Mission: Episode 120 - Guardian at the Gate
Location: Fleet, Outside of the Conduit
Timeline: Current

ON:

It had only been ten minutes since the Perseus entered the transwarp conduit....but it had seemed to be days. Communication between the Perseus and the fleet had been cut off moments after the little ship had entered the conduit, and no one knew what was going on or what to expect....

Then suddenly there was a sudden burst of energy followed by an ejection of radiation. All of the ships present, Federation and the Jurati's Borg ship were knocked around. Reports of damage rang across all of the ships' internal communication channels....but fortunately none were major.

Aboard the USS Repulse, MacLeod looked over the damage report. Some minor buckling in the secondary hull and on the lower port nacelle. Thankfully, the ship's shields had snapped on no more than a nano-second before and had absorbed most of the impact. However, now shields were down to only seventy-one percent and two shield generators needed to be repaired.

"Metsker, send our damage report over to the Essex, I'm sure the Admiral wants to everyone's readiness." Mac ordered.

"Aye sir." Metsker replied.

Mac looked at the viewer, it looks like the Saratoga took a beating.


USS Saratoga, Bridge

Ezekiel is in the ready room of the Saratoga, going over to the damage reports that were coming in from all decks. The Saratoga was definitely different from his previous command the Falcon she was bigger faster and better armed but a part of him deep down missed some of the upgraded technologies that the Falcon had over the Saratoga. But the Saratoga had one unique advantage it's fighter contingent.

"Colonel you're receiving a call from Captain Paul MacLeod," Called out his security officer.

Ezekiel had a big concerned look on his face, it had been a while since he talked to the old man, it must at least have been a couple years but for the moment he had a feeling this call was more of an update on how the Saratoga was doing. She had really taken a beating.

There was a lot of debris on the bridge and a couple broken bulkheads, currently the ship was holding together but barely. She was still operational though and that's What mattered at this moment. With smoke still in the air a still calm came over the crew for a brief moment. They knew they were far from out of danger but at least for the moment they could take a momentary rest.

"On screen." Ezekiel called out as he tried to straighten his jacket, which was a little dirty from all the debris and the smoke and dust that now littered across the bridge of the Saratoga.

"Zeke, do you need us to beam over your wounded? Our sensors show the Saratoga is bleeding power and will be dead in the water soon."

"Captain, I could use a few engineers to try to stop the hem-emerging power, and getting the wounded off the Saratoga would be beneficial." Ezekiel said, trying to prioritize what he needed to stabilize the Saratoga. The ship was slowly bleeding out, and his crew was doing their best to prevent total power loss.

"We'll beam a team over" Mac replied over the comm, worried that it might be too late for the old Akira Class ship.


USS Essex, bridge

As the Essex edged closer to the conduit, a sudden surge of energy rippled through space, striking the ship with enough force to jolt it backward. Admiral T’Lar gripped the armrest, steadying herself as the bridge lights flickered. The source of the disruption was unclear.

“Engineering, damage report,” she ordered, her voice calm but clipped.

*Dee picked herself off the floor. She sat back at the engineering console, wafting the smoke away from a recent power surge. Managing to get the systems to work, she brought up the information.*

The crew moved swiftly, scanning the area and assessing systems for any signs of failure. While she awaited engineering’s response, incoming transmissions lit up the console—status reports from the USS Repulse and USS Saratoga.

The Repulse had weathered the shockwave. The Saratoga had not. T’Lar opened a channel. “Admiral T’Lar to the USS Saratoga. Colonel Bagwell, do you require assistance?"

"We are coordinating with the Repulse, Admiral. We are attempting to shunt the warp corps, trying to prevent a breach." Ezekiel reported to Admiral T'Lar. He was stressed, but managed to remain calm as he gave her a basic rundown.

Deela nodded, "Okay. If you need our help, let me know."

*Dee spoke up after the message to the Saratoga.*

"We've lost warp drive. Hopefully only temporarily. We have hull breaches on two decks. Force fields in place with emergency bulkheads. Unknown if we lost crew from the breaches. Shields are down to 37%. We have thrusters and impulse power but only at 60% of normal operating range. What the hell was that?"

"Good question. It seems to have come from the area of the conduit." Deela was just happy that the ship wasn't too damaged, "Do what you can. Keep me updated." Reports came in from different departments of the ship reporting that there was no major injuries, just bumps and bruises. She was relieved.


USS Saratoga, Main Engineering

Engineering was a real mess, Ezekiel came down with the engineers from the USS Repulse. They were trying to stop the ship from hemorrhaging power. It seem to be a losing battle right now they are creating shuns to try to stop the power from completely dying out. "I need some good news gentlemen." Ezekiel called out hoping that somebody will respond.

The engineers told them it looked to be pretty dire but they would do everything they could, but they would recommend non-essential personnel be transported off to Saratoga with their current crew capacity she wouldn't be able to maintain my support for long. Ezekiel order non-essential personnel to be transported off the ship and to coordinate with Admiral T'Lar.

He hated the fact that the Saratoga is now sidelined, trying to stop the hemorrhaging of power. He wanted to be able to assist his Admiral with their mission and with the Borg Queen being right around the corner he didn't want to risk the possibility of being assimilated.


Borg Singularity Ship

Queen Jurati was monitoring the status of the Starfleet ships. Because the radiation and energy expulsion was unexpected and had no warning, every ship had suffered damage, even the Borg.

"Seven of Ten, modulate shield frequency and nutation. Three of Three, hail the Essex." Jurati ordered.

"Admiral T'Lar, since the warning signs of another expulsion from the conduit aren't guaranteed I recommend our ships form a grid and align our shield matrices to limit the damage to our ships." Jurati suggested over the comm.

Deela thought for a moment, "I concur. We can't afford to lose any ships. We already have one damaged ship that may be beyond repair." She wanted to make sure that they were on the same page in their thinking, “I'm thinking we go ahead and form the grid—tight spacing, minimal drift. Then we sync the shield harmonics across all vessels. If the conduit lashes out again, we absorb it together.”


USS Saratoga, Main Engineering

Captain MacLeod's engineers are working hard with mine but it seems to be a hopeless battle. They can maintain minimum life support for a skeleton crew. But for all intents and purposes to Saratoga is dead in space. She's going to have to be towed back to Starbase 400.

Ezekiel open another line with Admiral T'Lar. "Admiral they have managed to shut the power systems but power levels are low. We can only maintain a skeleton crew in designated key areas the ship's going to have to be towed back to the starbase."

Deela replied, "Acknowledged. Make sure non-essential crew are safely and evenly dispersed among the ships."

“Captain MacLeod your team is a great help” Percy noted to him while busy himself with the repairs keep the systems alive in a lost battle of time. His uniform was covered in grey dust. He was glad of the help he received.


USS Essex Bridge

Dee approached T'Lar, sat in the big chair on the bridge. "The loss of the warp drive, was as I expected, temporary. My team will have it back online in an hour. I have our shields back up to 60% as well as improvements to our thrusters and impulse engines but neither are 100%. I will do what I can but we took quite a wallop and" she said rubbing her backside. "So did I"

"Oh no." Deela's expression was one of concern, "Are you okay? I think you need to get yourself checked out as soon as possible, especially in your present condition. Your fellow engineers can handle things for now." She gave her a stern look, "That's an order."

"Ok, I got knocked off of my feet and landed on my um butt. But I will go to sickbay as ordered. " Dee replied.

"Very good." Deela's focus was now on the Perseus and was a bit concerned. She wondered what was happening there right now.

Dee headed off the bridge for sickbay as ordered.

A little later, Dee arrived back on the bridge after being checked over by the ship's CMO. She caught the sight of T'Lar and gave her a thumbs up. She took her seat at the engineering console. She continued coordinating the repair crews.

“Colonel Bagwell, I don’t know who will be in the team of the skeleton crew and I like to request to stay on board and join it” Percy said turning to face the colonel.

"It's a mess over here, are you sure?"' Ezekiel asked as he waited for a brief moment just to get a Percy enough time to really contemplate his answer. He really appreciated the offer but he also wanted to give the guy an opportunity if he wanted to step back and reevaluate. The Saratoga was barely hanging on, and his actions were very commendable.

“Yes, I am sure, Sir. I will stay here.” Percy responded back. He was fully committed to his and the task at hand and was willing to go the extra mile.

"Well if you're in the place looking for hopeless causes and a miracle I think he came to the right ship. We need a holder together till we can get her back to Starbase." Ezekiel suggested to Percy.

Percy nodded "Got it" he said then continued on the task at hand.


USS Essex Bridge

Once Dee had confirmation from main engineering and all showed as green on her own console on the bridge, she turned to T'Lar.

"Admiral, we have warp and impulse power restored. I can now supplement some of the warp engine power to patch up the shields. I don't like the idea of us getting slapped by whatever that was again." She advised.

"I don't either. Do what you need to do. Hopefully, it won't hit us again. And once you get us running one hundred percent, we're going to form the grid along with the other ships, with tight spacing and minimal drift. So we need those shields fixed so we can sync the shield harmonics." Deela stood up, "Let me know when you get them patched up."

" I can have the shields back to 100% in approximately 15 minutes. Just need to configure the power taps through the warp drive's quantum flywheel and then we should be able to supplement power to the shields plus other tactical systems as and when necessary." Dee advised.

"Very good. Let me know when it's finished." Deela was pleased that the damage was minimal.


USS Saratoga, Main Engineering

"Lieutenant, are the shunts holding?" Ezekiel asked, he hated the fact that the ship was slowly bleeding out power. It was bad enough they transferred command to Engineering and the bridge was uninhabitable.

“At our current state the shunts are holding…” he paused for a moment and checked his console pulling the system display for the power reserves “…but this will not be the case for much longer. The ship is bleeding out of power quicker as I can stabilise it. I am still looking for the leak.” Percy replied. He was wondering where the leak would be as he studied the system display for the power reserves.

"She's a good ship, we need to protect her." Ezekiel suggested. He was surprise how close he had gotten with the Saratoga.

"I will do all my best, Sir." Percy responded.


USS Essex

"Admiral, we have shields restored to full power with supplement from the quantum flywheel. With your permission, I'd like to see if I can be of assistance to the Saratoga."

"Permission granted." Deela got on the comms, "Borg ship, Queen Jurati, we are ready to do as we have discussed."

Dee tapped on her console establishing data link to the Saratoga's main engineering station. "Percy, you there, it's Deezell. Can I be of any help to you?"

Percy answered "Yes, any help is appreciated Dee. The ship is losing power faster than I can stabilise it. I am studying the master system display on finding the location of the leakage. Two more eyes will help. Here take a look.” Percy said sending Dee his data over the link.

"I've got your telemetry link, having a look now." After a few moments. "Percy, have you noticed that the governors for the warp core's auxiliary power feed to the quantum flywheel have decoupled? It's spinning completely unregulated. That could be the drain. As it's probably arcing power left right and centre." Dee suggested.

Ezekiel head the call, he looked over to Percy. Could this be the issue, he wondered? He knew her from the time they all spent on Trill, when Ezekiel and Anna had their honeymoon on Trill. Jaxon and Dee also went on the trip, and the Saratoga took them to Trill.

Percy notice the look from Colonel Bagwell than responded to Dee`s findings "That completely escaped me. I had my eye on the warp core, but not that. I was completely busy patching the leaks, but now that you mention it, that could really be the cause. Great, catch Dee. I'll check the auxiliary power supply controls and reattach the couplings of the warp core's auxiliary power feed to the quantum flywheel. I hope that this will stabilize it enough to tow her back to the stations dry dock for repair" and got to work. " How are things over on your end Dee?" he asked

" Oh not too bad. That shockwave knocked me off my seat and on to ass on the floor. The Admiral insisted I go to sickbay. I think that's the first time I've had a dermal regenerator moved up and down over my ass."

Percy chuckled "As long as you are alright. Yeah the shockwave was a bad suprise. I wouldn't want to go through that again. I hope the fleet recovered from it better than we did. How is the Essex?

"She took a beating from that shockwave. We've patched her up the best we can. It's not perfect so that's something for the engineers back at SB400 have fun with. I do hope that issue I spotted is the source of your power problems."

"I`m glad to hear that. I hope that too. You have done a great patch work" Percy noted

"Thanks. I can't take all the credit. The engineering team on the Essex are superb. Stay safe Percy, send my regards to Bagwell." Dee replied.

“Thanks will do,Dee. Stay safe out there too and I will see you back at the station.” Percy answered then closed the link. During the up lifting chat with Dee he almost finished connecting the couplings of the warp core's auxiliary power feed to the quantum flywheel he grabbed the spanner and tighten a few more screws then use the plasma burner welded some of the ripped pipes. “Colonel I think I got it thanks to Dee’s keens eye.”, he said as he checked his display, the Saratoga was gaining back strength “ the power is stabilising, Sir. Dee sends her regards.”

The Essex joined the other ships and together, they formed the grid, minus the Saratoga. She hoped this would work and that they wouldn't experience another jolt.

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