Crispy Criters

[Dumbass 0]

Ensign Prekip may have been suffering from heat exhaustion and severe dehydration, but even in his semi-conscious state his ramblings were enough to form a working theory. We know these organisms are affected by extreme heat, and not much else. Shields are ineffective, and we dare not go to warp with so many hull breeches, so Engineering surmised we could take these systems off-line and channel this power to the main deflector dish and send out a heat blast that would effectively push the organisms out of our path. The only factor I was concerned about was our speed. The slower our ship was the wider the heat beam would have to be to clear a path.

 

While Koralev, Perfect, and Garnoopy worked on refining this theory and working alternatives in Main Engineering I made my way to the MeH to let them know of our progress. It is safe to say I saw more of the HoD this duty shift than ever before. Messner's scans of our area proved inconclusive, save for being surrounded by these organisms as they continued to attach themselves to our hull. One thing was certain. Even though it would cause the crew more discomfort it would be necessary to supercook the hull again.

 

Just as quickly as we had entered the infested face we discovered a clearing. While we had the time I ordered Koralev to stand by on the heat blast option and to supercook the hull. Instead of doing that, however, they proceeded to create an inverse warp field. The field did indeed help cook the microbes, and in a way more comfortable for the crew, but it was certainly not the safest option for the ship. It puts a tremendous amount of pressure on the warp nacells. Granted we are not using them at the moment, but if they are damaged beyond a certain point the only way to fix them is to disassemble them. That requires us putting in to spacedock - and we're a long way from a spacedock.

 

I had to get down to Main Engineering and assess the damage. I took one last look at the HoD's scantly clad body, her tanned skin glowing from her glistening sweat and the soft, dim lights of the MeH, and took the TL to Engineering. It looks like some new protocols may be in order.

Edited November 18, 2003 by Dumbass