<snip>

As Aaron stepped into Main Engineering, he stopped and tried not to groan. He should have grabbed a phaser on his way down. Spotting Lt Rodier, he quickly made his way over.

“Lieutenant. Any ideas of what happened here? This is definitely more your job, but I think we need to end this rather quickly.”

Cmdr. Foley - XO

“Commander, I’ve got no idea. Half the department’s on their way, but I’m not sure more people is the solution here.” Though Henry did always like to keep a phaser with him in case of emergencies, he, too, had left his back in its compartment in his office.

~ Lt. jr. gr. Rodier - CoS

Shortly after Commander Foley’s arrival in Main Engineering, Cadet Javal and his two-man team approached the growing mass of officers huddling together just by the entrance. Making a quick glance around the room, Javal was curious to spot a most perplexing situation - it appeared as if a sizable number of the Engineering crew were engaged in brutal melee combat, and the ferocity of each of the combatants appeared to be comparable to the feverish rage of a Vulcan’s plak tow during Pon farr.

After taking stock of the situation, Javal glanced over to the huddle of officers and found that the Chief Engineer was not among them. If the Lieutenant was still in one piece, may have already tried to position himself nearer the warp core to ward off any attempts at sabotage. If he was to get nearer to him and what remained of his crew, he’d need to somehow make his way through the riot.

His glance finally fell on a man with Commander’s pips on his lapel. The XO is here as well. Approaching the group while being careful to keep his head down, he addressed Foley first.

“Commander, Cadet Javal reporting. I am here with NE Syme and Lister from Sickbay. We are ready to deliver first aid where needed. Have any of your men received any trauma from the fighting?” he said to the XO.

[Cadet Javal - doctor]

“I’ve got a migraine the size of Sol if that counts.” Dael called out as he made his way over to the group that was starting to form around the entrance to the deck. He tried to bob and weave as best he could to get away from the chaos that was ensuing around him. “Commander, Lieutenant, I think the security cadet is running with some ideas as to why this is happening…” he stopped calling across the room to grunt and move as he was pushed aside by some more brawling technicians. “I can say though this is definitely not normal for my team. Engineers can be a surly bunch but this is just ridiculous.” The Betazoid was having enough trouble keeping his telepathic senses from overloading from all the chaos around him, let alone the tricorder hit he’d sustained. This was shaping up to be a very bad day. He quickly scanned the room and made a note of who was there and what shift was working. He then tapped his commbadge, working to remember who was not currently on the Engineering deck.

=^=Stadi to Cadet Hobbes, there’s a situation in Engineering. I want you to get to the nearest Engineering console you can find and work on either erecting safety force fields in place around our key systems to protect them, or if you’re able, contain the team that’s on duty right now. Transporters to the brig, cargo bay, hell, individual force fields separating the deck, your choice. We just need to contain them.=^=

-Lt. jg Dael Stadi, Chief Engineer

=^= Understood, sir. I’m in sickbay at the moment. EPS Support and Transporters 1&2 are just one deck up from here. I should be able to do something from there. Hobbes out. =^=

It only took Katie a few minutes to find her way to the Transporters on Deck 3. It was a deck she hadn’t been on and one that was generally off-limits for cadets because of the VIP and senior officer quarters. The transporter tech looked startled when she approached him. She paused just a moment to read his name on work overalls.

“Technician Camara,” she said looking at him and mastering all the authority she could. “There’s a situation in main engineering.”

“Main engineering? What is happening?” Camara asked.

“I’m not certain. All I really know is that there are a lot of people in there who are endangering critical equipment and we need to get them out of there right now.”

“I’ll need authorization… cadet,” Camara said. Katie bit her lower lip. Of course she should have expected as much. She forced a smile, took her communicator off and pressed the replay button on the back. Camara was quick on the uptake. “There is only eight individual cells in the brig.”

“Then get the eight individuals closest to the control consoles and transport them to the brig. Then put the others…” Katie paused. Where should should put them? It was Camara who made the key suggestion.

“The Auxilliary cargo bay on deck 13 is empty,” Camara said.

“Put them there then. Thanks Camara. I owe you one,” Katie said. She started running down the corridor toward the EPS Support. There should be a console there. She had no idea how long it would take Camara to transport everyone out of Engineering so she still needed to safeguard the critical systems. Isolating the controls should keep anyone from doing anything too dangerous… But what the h*ll was going on in Engineering anyway?

=/\= Cadet Katherine (Katie) Hobbes, engineer

Javal turned his attention momentarily from the XO to the Chief Engineer who now was steadily making his way toward the huddle of officers at the entrance. While the logic of abandoning his position and risking further injury at the hands of the mob to link up with the rest of the relief team was surely debatable, he had not the time to engage in such a mental exercise.

Watching as he got closer, Javal reached toward his belt and brandished his medical tricorder. As he readied its scanning function, he glanced over at NE Lister. “Ensign, prepare a hypospray with 3% hydrocortilene.” The CE’s report of a migraine made Javal suspect a possible concussion, but he would also need to rule out the likely effect of a telepathic disturbance in his differential for a Betazoid. A simple neurological scan would be able to pinpoint what needed the most attention.

“Lieutenant, allow me to examine your head for just a moment. Ensign Lister will administer hydrocortilene for your migraine symptoms while I take a diagnostic scan,” he said, quickly positioning himself abreast of Stadi along with NE Lister.

(OOC: How’s Dael doing? Any bad gashes to the head or any symptoms of note other than head pain?)

[Cadet Javal - doctor]

(OOC: He took a tricorder to the head and a few scraps and bruises from trying to avoid the fight, and you’re on the right track with the surge of emotions are breaking his normal focus into a whopping headache)

Jordy also went to the rest. The punch he got to his face still hurts but Jordy thinks it will go over soon. ‘Commander,Lieutenant Rodier i already told Lieutenant Stadi but i think its some kind of virus or mind control that be the reason they fight.’

Cadet Jordy Kleine - Security

“Get your head checked Lieutenant. Cadet, do you have anything to back that up?” Aaron said looking over at Jordy. “Because if so, we might need to take different steps to resolve this situation.”

Cmdr. Foley - XO

“Yes sir.” Dael said to his Commander before turning to the Vulcan cadet. “Thanks Doc, feels like I’ve been stuck in a room with someone blasting Andorian opera at max decibels.” Dael said, a finger at each temple. “Nowhere near as bad as my staff is going to feel once this is over and I get a hold of them though.”

‘I heard someone say a word dont know what the word means i also dont remember what he or she said because i got a punch to my face when it was said, but when he or she said it more people went to fight, maybe that is why they fight if it is that then it is mind-control i think. What i do remember from what he or she said is that it does not sound like a word.’

Cadet Jordy Kleine - Security

About that time one particularly strong Andorian woman hefted a sleight Vulcan male and, shouting, “I love human bowling!” Threw the poor engineer right towards the group of gathered officers. This of course, caused an otherwise mild mannered Bolian to leap from the second floor onto the back of the Andorian and start pulling on her antennae.

Eventually the engineers started to disappear as they were scooped up by the transporters, but of course this didn’t stop the fighting, just a lot more accusations of cowardice and vows to “end this” as soon as the temperature dropped.

GM Wombat

Dael felt the wave of emotional warning before his eyes caught up with the sight of a Vulcan engineer heading his way. He tried to get in between the officer barrelling towards them and the rest, unsure if he had time to shove anyone out of the way. This was a nightmare, first Engineering becomes a melee, and now they were weaponizing his staff. If only he had a chance to focus and get the angry buzzing white noise of everyone’s thoughts out of his head, but the situation kept deteriorating faster than he could keep up it seemed. Well, not deteriorating completely he thought while seeing the familiar blue tones of a transporter beam going off.

=^=Stadi to Hobbes, nice job Cadet. You got most of them out of here. Make sure they’re locked up tight wherever you put them and separated. Something kicked off a full on brawl here on the Deck, still working out the details.=^= He grunted in pain slightly trying to shift out of the way of the mess his wonderful engine room had become. =^= See what you can do about protecting the key systems down here. Security’s here for the rest of these damned vandals.=^=

There better be some sort of mind control or whatever the security cadet was talking about. This crew better hope to hell there was, or he’d see every one of them off his ship, personally.

-Lt. jg Dael Stadi, CE