Cargo Bay 4 - Deck 6

Chris had raised eyebrows after he heard everything PO3 Florenté told him regarding the explosive device adhered to the back of the Warp Core in such a way that it could not be transported off the ship or even removed manually. The Marine Captain watched as the Chief Engineer and Tech Master worked feverishly on Jo’Kla’s PADD, looking for ways to access its database and enter the correct code to disable the bomb in Engineering. The price of failure was difficult to conceive considering they would be without a Warp Core and unable to cross any distances using faster-than-light velocity. How could so much go so inconceivably wrong on one single mission? Chris decided to let the Bridge know he was now on site in the Cargo Bay so he called out using the open com signal on 1Lt. Parra’s Combadge.

MCpt Lopez: Lopez to Bridge! I’m here in Cargo Bay 4 watching the Chief Engineer and Corporal Hudson attempt to gain access into the saboteur’s PADD so they can disarm the bomb. If anything goes wrong, you’ll know as soon as we do.

The Marine Detachment Commander really wasn’t waiting on a response from the Bridge acknowledging he was there. Chris just made a quick stop by Sickbay to check on Lt. JG DeGrazzio to see how he was doing. Dr. Tudismaque said the Lieutenant JG would be awake soon since he recovered 100% of the blood he lost after being stabbed by the murderous Klingon on the Bridge when the Chief Science Officer made a vigil attempt to stop Jo’Kla from randomizing their destination in the Multi-Verse. It would be good to have Lt. JG DeGrazzio back on his feet and working on the transdimensional beacon to send a signal and possibility contact SB34 so they would know the mission was a failure.
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Marine Captain Christopher D. Lopez
Marine Detachment Commander, USS Infiniti

Ready Room - Deck 1

The Captain was hard at work going over the specifications for the Main Computer when the message from his First Officer came across the terminal. It was large enough to push his research into the background. As Lewis read what they were all preparing to do, he could not help but aghast at their plan of action. The CO tapped his Combadge and opened a channel to his Chief Engineer, MCpt Lopez and First Officer simultaneously.

Capt Little: Mr. Florenté, I suggest you belay that order, any movement on the Warp Core may be enough to set off that explosive! Evacuate Engineering and allow the Marines to handle this! God knows they have more experience with IEDs than we lowly janitors. Mr. Cypher, see to it that everyone gets clear of the surrounding areas, we don't want anyone caught in the crossfire should things go wrong. Captain Lopez, we will defer to your more capable hands in this matter.

The CO cleared the terminal in front of him and made his way back to the Bridge, the Computer files could wait until the immediate situation had been remedied. In his mind that took precedence.
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Mr. McCloud

Cargo Bay 4 - Deck 6

Jamie was pleased to hear the Captain’s voice over his Combadge, but wasn’t sure if halting the ejection process was the right solution. If the Marines accidentally set off the detonator they would have no time to get the Warp Core out of the Engineering levels before it exploded, destroying Event Horizon with a large matter/anti-matter explosion. The Chief Engineer thought that perhaps if the core was completely shut down and all the energy inside vented into space, even if the bomb detonated, the damage would be negligible. The Petty Officer tapped his Combadge and replied to Capt Little.

PO3 Florenté: Florenté here, Captain. If you don’t want us to eject the core, due to the movement setting off the bomb, then we should shut the core down completely and vent out all the energy stored up in there. That way if the explosive does detonate, the damage will just be to the core casing which can be repaired. I had Crewman Flores evacuate Main Engineering and he’s the only one there right now. He’s just waiting on my word to eject the core. Lance Corporal Hudson is working on Jo’Kla’s PADD right now with my assistance. Captain Lopez and Lieutenant Parra are here with us supervising.

The Chief Engineer waited to hear back from Capt Little to confirm the idea of shutting down the core and venting all the stored up plasma in there so if the bomb detonates, it wouldn’t take more than a few days to repair all the damage that it would cause. With the Warp Core offline, they would be running off batteries for a while, so they should be in an area where the Cloaking Device would no longer be necessary as it would take a lot of power to keep it operational. The Petty Officer wondered if being in an orbit around the moon he heard about was a good idea without the Cloaking Device operational, that perhaps landing the ship would be a much better solution.
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Chief Petty Officer Jamie J. Florenté
Chief Engineering Officer, USS Infiniti

Bridge - Deck 1

Checking the Navigational Array on the Flight Control Console as he re-entered the Bridge, the Captain pointed towards the Main Viewscreen as he replied to everyone.

Capt Little: Park us in the smaller of the larger craters, Mr. Centares, maneuvering jets only. Mr. Florenté, drain the core and activate the blast shield bulkheads. Stand by on the ejection, but only if you see no other option. We don't want to lose our only core!

Turning to the Ops console, the CO looked visibly disturbed.

Capt Little: Can we bypass the Main Reactor, and power the cloak with the shuttles like we did with the Holodeck? The batteries may not last long enough if we keep it activated for as long as we may need. Purge the drive plasma at Mr. Florenté's discretion, and add a little Hexafluorine to the mix, make it look like a natural gas cloud formation. This is going to get a little bumpy guys. Take us to Blue Alert, and activate the landing struts!

The Captain didn't know yet if they would survive a forced landing on Moon X, but he knew the crew was up for any surprises that could be thrown their way if the bomb could not be deactivated in time...
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Mr. McCloud

Cargo Bay 4 - Deck 6

The Chief Engineer heard what he needed from Capt Little and contacted Cwmn Flores in Main Engineering immediately. They needed to work fast if this was going to be a safe transition from running on the Impulse Engine to the Maneuvering Thrusters only. The bumping around could set off the explosive on the Warp Core, just as the Captain feared the process of ejecting the core could do. They all needed to be extremely careful…

PO3 Florenté: Aiden, power down the Warp Core and prepare to vent all the plasma out into space as soon as possible. Activate the Blast Shields and secure the Isolation Door as well. Stay safe down there while we figure things out. The Captain has ordered the ship to land on Maneuvering Thrusters only so it may get bumpy, so be careful.

Cwmn Flores did as PO3 Florenté instructed him and began shutting down the Warp Core. As for the plasma that was built up on the inside, Aiden prepared to jettison all of it into space with the assistance of Lt. Mitchell at the Ops Station. In a very short period of time the core was completely shut down and all that needed to be done was the venting of the plasma.

Cwmn Flores: Petty Officer Florenté, Crewman Flores here. The Warp Core has been shutdown and I’m waiting on Lieutenant Mitchell to vent the plasma into space from the Ops Console. The Impulse Engine is offline to conserve power we’ll be losing the Cloaking Device as well, I’m holding on that until we land.

Jamie heard what Aiden had to say and immediately reported it to Capt Little on the Bridge.

PO3 Florenté: Captain, the Warp Core is offline and so is the Impulse Engine. We have enough inertia to get us to the moon and land using the thrusters with no problem, as long as Commander Centares doesn’t try to do any drifting! I’m still assisting Lance Corporal Hudson with the hack of Jo’Kla’s PADD. As soon as we make some progress, I’m sure Captain Lopez will notify you immediately.

The Petty Officer continued running uninterrupted scans of the PADD as LCpl Hudson keyed in different sequences in hopes of shutting the explosive down. If they accomplished their goal, they would be able to start the core back up and have all the power they needed to sustain themselves while hiding there on the moon. Jamie just hoped the shaking of a hard landing wouldn’t jar the explosive device on the core and force it to detonate. A thought, PO3 Florenté knew he wasn’t alone in contemplating.
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Chief Petty Officer Jamie J. Florenté
Chief Engineering Officer, USS Infiniti

Bridge - Deck 1

Cole saw on the Ops Console that the plasma needed to be vented out of the core and following Capt Little’s instructions, he got ready to mix in some Hexafluorine so it would appear to be a natural gas cloud. On the idea of powering the Cloaking Device from the Main Energizers of the Shuttles, like what was done with the Holodeck, just wouldn’t work. Event Horizon’s Cloaking Device uses a lot of power which was why all the non essential systems were taken offline to keep it running along with the energy used for the engines.

Lt. Mitchell: I’m sorry, Captain. The energizers in the shuttles won’t create enough power to keep the Cloaking Device operating. It just requires too much power and the shuttles just don’t have enough of power. I’m venting the plasma with a mix of Hexafluorine to give off a natural gas cloud as you instructed. The Warp Core should be completely cold in a few minutes, Sir.

The Lieutenant monitored the venting of the plasma mixed with Hexafluorine, making sure it emptied the core of anything that would cause the detonation of the bomb to become extremely lethal to everyone aboard Event Horizon. On the Main Viewer, Moon X was getting close enough to see the texture of the surface. It wouldn’t be long before LtCmdr Centares would be using the Maneuvering Thrusters to slow them down so they wouldn’t slam into the moon’s rocky surface. Doing so would damage Event Horizon beyond their ability to repair it.
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Lieutenant Cole S. Mitchell
Chief Operations Officer, USS Whitestar

The Chief Flight Control Officer kept his eyes on the Main Viewscreen as he used the Maneuvering Thrusters to slow Event Horizon down. As they got closer to the moon’s surface, Ajay released the landing struts to their full extended positions to support the ship when it landed. The vessel was now on final approach for the smaller of the larger sized craters on the lunar surface.

Lt. Commander Centares: We’re going in and I’ve slowed us down for a safe landing. There shouldn’t be too much of a bump when we land, but just to be safe, hold onto something.

The Nova Class Starship slowed down to a crawl before it soft landed right where Capt Little pointed out on the viewer earlier as they were approaching Moon X. There was a small jolting feeling as Event Horizon touched down on the surface, which was a perfect landing considering the Impulse Engine wasn’t available. Otherwise, there wouldn’t have been a jolt at all.

Lt. Commander Centares: We’re on the surface, Captain! Nice and safe for the time being!

Ajay shut down the thrusters and took the Inertial Dampeners offline since they weren't needed since Event Horizon was no longer moving. Since there was no sign of an explosion, it was safe to assume the small jolt of the landing didn’t detonate the bomb on the Warp Core. Now it was up to the team in Cargo Bay 4 to take care of the detonation device. With the core going cold and the engines completely shut down, there would be no energy signature that could be detected by any passing vessels. LtCmdr Centares felt safe at the moment, he looked back at the other officers on the Bridge and could read the room that they felt the same.
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Lt. Commander Ajay K. Centares
Chief Flight Control Officer, USS Oriskany

Now that Event Horizon had landed on the lunar surface, Cole began shutting down all unnecessary systems to prevent the backup batteries from draining too low. All external lights were also turned off as to not attract attention once the Cloaking Device was deactivated. The Lieutenant then started an intense scan of the immediate area making sure there were no vessels in the vicinity. When nothing was detected, the Chief Operations Officer alerted the Captain.

Lt. Mitchell: Captain, I’ve turned off all exterior lighting and all unnecessary systems to avoid a severe battery drain. I also scanned the immediate area with the short range sensors and nothing was detected. I suggest we deactivate the Cloaking Device as soon as possible to make sure we’ve got power to last us since we don’t know what’s going on with the bomb on the Warp Core yet.

Cole looked over towards LtCmdr Graham at the Sec/Tac Station since he is who controlled the activation/deactivation of the Cloaking Device. Since the lunar surface was a light gray color, it was a close match to the hull and with the engines no longer glowing with energy, Event Horizon blended in nicely on the surface of Moon X. The Captain made a good choice landing here, by all appearances it was a safe harbor for the time being.
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Lieutenant Cole S. Mitchell
Chief Operations Officer, USS Whitestar

After the vessel had landed in the pond among ocean-sized craters in the asteroidal Moon X, the Captain let out an audible sigh of relief.

Capt Little: Very well, deactivate the Cloaking Device, Mr. Graham. Mr. Mitchell, take us to Gray Alert. Printout message, urgent, all stations, all decks, we're now under Silent Running, no one is to make use of any audible communications or point-to-point signals until further notice aside from those working in the Cargo Bay, for obvious reasons.

The CO now sat in his Command Chair and tapped a few buttons to confirm that his station was now offline.

Capt Little: I suggest a parking brake, Mr. Centares, take a break.

The Captain could now do no more but hold his breath until the device either was deactivated or exploded... The ball was now in the Cargo Bay...
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Mr. McCloud

Following the Captain’s order, Peter deactivated the Cloaking Device which returned the Bridge lighting to the normal hue. With Event Horizon no longer invisible, there would no longer be a drain on the battery power they had to use until the Warp Core was back up.

Lt. Commander Graham: Aye, Captain. Cloaking Device deactivated. Normal Bridge lighting restored, even though it’s still dim in here due to the Gray Alert, Sir.

The Chief Sec/Tac Officer knew with the Warp Core offline that the weapons wouldn’t be able to remain at full power either, so he made an inquiry to Capt Little regarding them.

Lt. Commander Graham: Captain? Right now the weapon systems are at full power. It is a draw on the batteries if it stays this way and we don’t know how long we will be without the Warp Core. What should I do regarding that, Sir?

Peter waited on the Captain to respond before doing anything in regard to powering down the weapon systems. While LtCmdr Graham was waiting, he went over all the power allocation displays and could see that the Phasers being at full charge were absorbing power from the batteries, along with the Torpedo Bays. If they remained at the current setting, it would deplete the power in the battery banks to the point where the weapons would automatically get cut off by the computer to keep life support functioning, since they weren’t at Red Alert.
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Lt. Commander Peter Graham
Chief Security/Tactical Officer, USS Oriskany