>>5522824Knowing that at least some officer downstairs has a handle on things, you consider your own predicament. Your first priority should be to ensure your own safety and autonomy so that you help the rest of your crew and ship in turn.
You begin to tug at your restraints, the smooth yet firm straps mould seamlessly together in an ‘X’ across your chest with a second strap looping snugly around your waist. There is no physical release mechanism, the straps made from the same free flowing nano-materials that make up the ship’s uniforms. A useful technology, which when disconnected from the nanite controller becomes inert - maintaining the form and function it last took - making the entire system extremely power efficient.
What you don’t find quite so useful, as you mash the 5th button on your command seats right armrest to no avail, is that this particular command seat appears to have no backup power to turn off the blasted things.
Your luck continues to prove poor as you try the other buttons, hoping that maybe the inbuilt medscanner has its own separate power source. The lack of results, however, confirms your suspicions that like everything else on this ship, some sort of bypass has been installed around the entire power circuit - safety regulations be damned.
The silence around you is eerie, the ever present hum of the SCRAM drive and gentle vibration of the thrusters conspicuously missing. Floating crewmates twitch unconsciously as they drift, but otherwise seem dead to the world.
“Is anyone else awake?” You croak hoarsely, your voice sounding too loud in your own ears.
There is no reply.
Fighting down rising panic you scrabble at your collar to activate your uniform’s multi-purpose controller, attempting to activate its communicator. In your haste you manage to trigger the MPC’s helmet function instead, your ears popping as the uniform-cum-spacesuit suddenly pressurises. The helmet’s visor lights up with a garbled heads up display, and you hear only your own echoing breath and pounding pulse - you’re hyperventilating.
Just as quickly, you deactivate the claustrophobic suit and take a deep breath, holding it for a count of ten as you’ve been trained to do in such situations. You continue breathing slowly and deeply as your heartbeat slows and pounding in your ears recedes. After a minute, you calmly and deliberately reach for your collar again and activate the communicator.
“Lieutenant Commander Annon to Captain Annon, do you copy?”
Static hisses softly in reply.
“Father, do you copy? Come in!” You try again.
Switching between channels you hear more of the same. Static and silence.
What should you do?
>Apply force to the problem!><span class="mu-b">Engineer</span> a solution.>Try to wake your floating and unconscious bridge officers again. <span class="mu-b">By the Book recommends this option.</span>>Maybe this implant is good for more than headaches. Thirteenth time’s the charm?>Something else. Write in. 