Dystopia: The Fallen Angels

[Legolas]

"Messman here, on my way," the captain replied. To those around him: "Whichever one of you lot's supposed to oversee things, you've got the bridge now. If you make a mess after I leave, clean it up before I'm back."

At the door however, he turned and hastened back to his command chair. How was he supposed to know every bunk on the barge by heart? But technology was a beautiful thing, and twenty seconds of pad manipulation later the computer spit out a number for him.

With that, it was a simple journey to the elevator and Deck 2, followed by a stroll through the corridors. The sight of the ancient passages made his hands itch; there were chipped, scratched and dented panels, rattling grids covering air inlets, even bundles of wiring poking through in forsaken corners. No real dangers or challenges, of course. Maintenance had seen to that. Still, it was labour far more appealing than that of captaining a ship.

Not long after receiving the summons, Ricor stood outside the CMO's chambers.

[Dreamer128]

(Ricor Messman)

A sharp whistle draws your attention to your Comm-Unit. ,,Sir, o' Hara here'', says the Comm-Liason. ,,I've pulled up the file on Abraham, and I thought you might want to know that the man has connections. His brother-in-law is the head of the Naval Medical Service and his niece is the senator for Argola minor.'' She pauses to take a breath, then continues. ,,He also has a long history of substance abuse. In fact, that's probably the reason he was assigned to this ship. His medical record is relatively flawless though. Just thought you might want to know, sir. Bridge out. ''

As you turn to face doctor Wolf, the doors fly open and CMO Abraham, still reeking of liquor yet clearly sober, strides towards you. ,,Captain Messman. I demand to know why there is an armed guard in front of my door'' He throws Wolf a dark look. ,,And please get this fop out of here.''

[dplax]

Philbert Sigismund Wolf

His decision had already been made and regrets about the evolution of his career could come later.

"Sir, I ordered Corporal Avery to stay and keep watch on CMO Abraham, both for the CMO's own safety and to keep an eye on him," he said, facing the captain.

"Not only was he drunk while supposed to be on duty, but the substance that the CMO was intoxicated with is on the list of banned beverages. And for good reason, I might add, it can cause extreme side-effects."

He could bore the captain with medical details, but that was not the issue here. Neither did he make a suggestion. He wanted to let the very recently appointed captain make his own decision.

[Dreamer128]

Abraham made a dismissive gesture. ,,Bah, I'd been working non-stop for nearly 48 hours. Continuing would have been irresponsible, so I signed command of Medical over to you, Wolf.'' He smirks. ,,I trust you weren't too high on your own herbs to forget that, medicine man?'' Turning towards the captain, he continued. ,,So, perhaps the ways I entertain myself when I'm not on duty aren't completely legal. But for the sake of the crew, it is crucial I don't work myself into a hospital bed.''

[Legolas]

Ricor scowled. He didn't think these power games were a good influence on the work in the medical department, and he certainly didn't care to be drawn into them.
Not that there was any true escape now - he could either willingly put a drunk man in charge of medical operations, or dismiss a huge part of medical knowledge in a time when unusual ailments plagued the destroyer. One of these men wins, the other loses along with everyone else aboard the vessel and Ricor in particular.

Messman turned to the CMO.
"Tell me something," he spoke, tugging an oily rag from the pocket of his engineering suit. If it was intended to clean his hands, the man's casual efforts achieved the opposite.
"You work with these Void patients. How many weeks until captain Valentine's fit for duty again?"

[Elif Godson]

Scott Avery

Standing at attention and wishing he could just lambaste the CMO, Scott stood there listening to the exchange from his superiors waiting to be dismissed. He had followed his training to the letter so there should be no issue's coming from what he did, but alas this is space and a marines place is in battle, not policing empty halls and waking drunks up but then when had he really seen much battle, it always came back to policing drunks anyway... so he waited..

[Dreamer128]

Abraham shrugged. ,,Every case of VS is unique. I'm currently keeping him sedated until we can get him planetside. Unfortunately, we just don't have the facilities and specialised staff to offer the proper combination of medication and therapy. And even our most potent anti-psychotics are known to have the opposite effect on some patients. I sugge..''

A sharp whistle, similar to the one used by most standard Comm-Units, cut him off mid-sentence. ,,We are now at Alert Level Gamma.'', announced the computer. ,,Captain to the Bridge. Repeat, captain to the Bridge.''

[Legolas]

"Get me an estimate on both him and Hamilton anyway." The chief engineer nodded at the bottle.
"And see me before you get back on duty."
With nothing more to be said, he hastened back to the bridge.

[Dreamer128]

(Ricor Messman)

You turn and head for the Bridge. With most of the crew at their posts, the poorly lit hallways you pass are now completely deserted. In many sections, it is only the humming of the various machines and generators that provides the much needed contrast between the lightless parts of the Ariochs dated interior and the soundless void that seems to lurk behind every wall.
When you step out of the elevator on Deck One, you notice that Senior Navigator Johnson is waiting for you. Without saying a word, he hands you a datapad and follows you to the Bridge. Skimming through the data, you surmise that the asteroid-transmission has finally been decoded. As you open the soundfile that came with the message, you hear little but static. Straining your ears, you can make out the parts of the message that have been salvaged.

(-static-)eats, this is Angela Nicols, Chief Resea(..)onyo-system. (..)ace a natural disaster of unprecedented pre(...) The astrophysics team has (..)aged to evacuate all relev(..) on the only ship capable of Intersystems-Travel. We risk (..)osing research that (..) to the Federation. (...) thousand Federation colonists that we (..) evacuate. (..) are in an uproar (..) main compound is under siege. We require imme(..) military assistance. If possible, the civilians (..)cuated, but the survival of the data is paramount. If anyone (...). If it is to late to salvage the colony and (...)ind the bastards that (..)eft us to die. Message repeats. This is Angela Nichols, Chief Researcher of the (..)

Despite the severity of the message, you notice that the voice seems cold and distant. The audio-message is followed by several notes from the Senior Staff. Navigator Johnson notes that there is no record of any Federation Colonization Project in the Kamonyo-system. However, it is not unusual for Federation citizens attached to groups such as the Transcendancy to abandon Regulated Space without going through the proper channels.
Terrance Brown from the Research Department adds that they have been able to piece together less than half of the original message, but states that he may be able to make a few percents worth of progress over the next few days.

[Legolas]

What was he to make of that, he wondered. The transmission gaps Research'd left were by and large guessable even without software assistance.
Feds on a Seedy moon two or three days away at .2 Sm/s. The moon's practically self-destructing, anarchy reigns and they stick a message on a passing asteroid disintegrating faster than a 314. Whatever disaster took place must have happened a week or more ago.
But the fact they bothered with a message in the first place spoke of either desperation or the conviction that they might survive for months or more - less if they'd detected the Arioch and the asteroid's path was no coincidence. And if they had, then what had become of the other spaceship in the region? More, to what extent could he trust the message spoke truth?

There was a bigger question, however. What had possessed whomever he'd left in charge of the bridge to increase the alarm phase?