"Merde," Picard muttered as he crawled through the pitch black Jeffries tube. His damn uniform top was riding up again, and it was driving him mad. "Why can't Starfleet make something that fits properly?"
Tugging the hem down with more rancour than usual, Picard picked up his hand held light and continued to make his way through the tube, searching for the junction that would allow him to climb up to the bridge.
Finally reaching the ladder that would get him to the bridge, Picard heaved a sigh and tried his communicator another time before beginning the climb, "Picard to bridge."
No response. He tried again, "Picard to Riker."
Nothing; not even a chirp to indicate that the comm had been activated.
What the hell was going on?
***
Dr. Beverly Crusher was glad she couldn't see anything. Making her way through the Jeffries tubes to sickbay had proven to be as unpleasant in a real emergency as it had always been during the standard drills. Her only consolation was at least this time she couldn't see the endless drop below her due to the complete absence of light in the tube.
Crawling out into the main corridor, she was confronted by a surreal scene. People moved to and fro, trying to get to their posts, most holding hand held lights, others going on feel or, if they were lucky, infrared vision. The lights, moving randomly over uniforms, bulkheads, ceilings, and floors, created a disconcerting kaleidoscope effect throughout the hallway. Keeping her beam directed on the floor, Dr. Crusher worked her way through the chaos and eventually reached the main doors to sickbay.
She was relieved to see that by the time she arrived someone had managed to force the doors open, and she had easy access to her domain. Striding in, she took command and began to deliver orders almost without pause.
***
Captain Picard crawled through another access panel and found himself on his knees on the bridge. Quickly standing up and straightening his recalcitrant uniform, he scanned the deck with his light, relieved to see most of the senior crew already in place.
Focusing on his first officer, Picard demanded, "Number One, report!"
"Sir, the ship was hit by an ion storm at 0130 hours. The storm knocked out all power to all systems," replied Commander William T. Riker. "We have no propulsion, no communications, and no power. Back-ups are all off-line, and if it weren't for quick thinking on the part of Geordi and Data, we wouldn't even have life support."
Picard swung his light over to where Lt. Commander Data was standing, "Sir, Geordi and I were working on a project in the robotics lab when the storm hit. We were able to patch life support into a self-contained generator that I had installed during our last stop over at Starbase 238. It has enough power to run the life support system for another three hours."
Picard nodded, "Well done. Now we just need to get main power back online before we run out of air."
"Sir," the big Klingon rumbled, "I have detached all security personnel to search out any and all self-contained power sources aboard the ship. My teams are going from quarters to quarters, collecting everything they can find, including hologenerators and even sonic toothbrushes. They have been instructed to deliver anything they find to engineering and sickbay."
The disembodied voice of Geordi LaForge startled the crew on the bridge as it pierced the eerie silence of the dead starship, "LaForge to bridge."
"Go ahead, Geordi," came Picard's crisp reply.
"Sir, I've managed to re-establish internal communications, but most of the ship's systems are completely fried."
"What about life support?" interjected Riker.
"It's at the top of my list, Commander," Geordi sighed. "But everything's a mess and we're not going to be able to fix it ourselves. Once we get life support online, I recommend we send out a distress beacon."
"Alright," came Picard's reply. "But give us an update on when you think you'll have the main power back online."
"Aye, sir. It's not much fun working in the dark down here either."
***
"Dr. Selar," Dr. Crusher called as she shifted position at the foot of an inoperable biobed, "Once you have Ensign B'Kagh stabilized, I'm going to need you to work with the team trying to reactivate the containment fields for the research labs."
Turning to the patient in front of her, Dr. Crusher adjusted her light to get a better look. "Don't worry Lieutenant O'Reilly, you're doing fine," she smiled at the petite blonde. "Babies never come at convenient times, and this will be just one more story you'll be able to share with your daughter about her birth."
Returning to her office to grab her lab coat, she was temporarily blinded by the sudden return to full lighting. Taking a moment to let her eyes adjust, she was about to leave her office when Nurse Ogawa appeared at the door.
Eyes sparkling, Nurse Ogawa smiled at her boss, "That colour suits you."
Puzzled, Beverly looked down at her lab coat, wondering why Alyssa would take this moment to compliment her on a garment she had worn for years, when she noticed something very wrong.
"Shit!" she blurted as she wrapped her lab coat tightly around her slender frame. She grabbed a new uniform top from the drawer behind her desk and motioned Nurse Ogawa to leave so she could put it on.
"Don't you dare say a word about this!" she hissed at her head nurse.
Trying not to burst out laughing, Alyssa replied, "Aye, Sir. My lips are sealed…" Darting out the door, she finished her sentence, "Captain."
Beverly groaned as she removed the burgundy uniform top with its distinctive four pips, and replaced it with her customary blue one.
Smiling wickedly to herself as she exited her office, she tried to imagine the scene on the bridge when the power returned.