Thank you for your patients sorry I kept you hanging on.
The storm pat2
Mickie stopped first at the medical bay, the Dr was running around checking everyone, she didn't want to disturb him but she needed a casualty report.
"Dr Borne can I have a brief report?" Mickie said making her voice heard over the din within the small room.
"Yeah its really busy!" Evan said not even glancing up at his Captain and Mickie raised her eyebrow at his tone.
"I know that Dr but I would like to know the status of my crew." Mickie said keeping her voice level knowing that Evan was under a lot of pressure and the ship was still rocking from side to side and was making life very difficult.
"Sorry Captain, no one has died, mostly lacerations, cuts and bruises a couple of broken bones but nothing too serious, but I don't think that everyone who has been injured has been able to get here." Evan said working round her and Mickie did her best to keep out of his way.
"Understood Dr you are doing the best you can, when this is all over I want a full report though." Mickie said not letting him completely off the hook but leaving the medical bay to head down to engineering.
Mickie was shocked at all the noise coming from engineering she rushed down the last few flights of stairs only to be pulled aside by a sweaty Melina.
"Captain you can't go in there, we have a blown gas pipe and its filling the engine room with toxic fumes." The woman said as Mickie noticed the woman was wearing a haz matt suit minus the helmet.
"You can't possibly be thinking of going in there." Mickie said taking the woman by the shoulders and fighting the urge to shake her.
"I have to Ma'am if we vent any more gas we will not have enough pressure to run the ship, that means no engines, no lights, no computers, even if I patch it we could save several tones." She said looking into Mickie's eyes and pleading with her to understand just how dire this situation was.
"Ok ok, I will back you up." Mickie said turning for the closet which contained the haz matt suits.
"Its ok Captain Kofi is going to do that he is in the gallery now making sure all entrances are unlocked so we can do a quick in and out." Melina said as she picked up her helmet and started to pull it over her head.
"Good luck Lieutenant." Mickie said helping Melina locked the helmet into place when Kofi returned and the crew man gave Mickie a curt nod.
"Be careful and I am pulling you out the moment I see any trouble." Mickie said as she headed up to the gallery so she could observe their progress.
Mickie could see down into the room, there was no evidence of the gas leak apart from the noise, if Melina had not stopped her she would have walked right into her death. Mickie pushed the thought out of her mind and opened a comm. Link to the bridge.
"Mr Debasie can you give me a minute by minute account of what is happening up there, Lieutenant Perez and Crew man Kingston are having to repair a gas leak, I need to know if anything big is coming so I can get them out of there." Mickie barked down the radio and Ted answered in quick order.
"Aye Captain, at the moment there is a lot of swell and a lot of rain but scanners have not detected anything bigger than fifteen meters within our immediate range." He said and Mickie nodded even though Ted could not see her, she was watching now as Melina and Kofi ran across the room in their bulky suits and opened a panel in the wall and retrieved their tools.
Rushing over to the pipe she saw Kofi hold the broken end together as Melina began to weld a patch across the effected area.
"Captain large wave of the Port side will cause significant turbulence." Ted said down the radio and Mickie pushed the button to transmit back.
"How long and how much?"
"Three minutes max and it won't roll us over but it will be pretty bumpy." Mickie got on the tannoy for engineering and spoke to the two people in the room.
"Guys you have three minutes another wave is coming in, you need to get out of there." Mickie said she didn't make it an order but her tone implied as much.
"In a second Captain I almost have it." Melina called back and Mickie glance down at her watch and new they would have only two minutes to do this and get out.
Melina felt the sweat trickle down the side of her face and she glanced at Kofi who was looking at her with worry in his eyes, they both knew this was going to be pushing it.
Taking the welding torch and pulling faster across the panel Melina knew it might not hold for long but it didn't need to a couple of hours at the most.
"Melina get out of there that is an order!" Melina winced and the tone of voice from her Captain, but she could not stop now it would just pop off as soon as the ship rocked harder.
"One more minute." She called back but she knew that she did not have it, the Captain was not going to agree with her but she would deal with that if and when it came to it.
"Damm it Melina your going to get yourself killed!" Mickie yelled as she dropped the radio and rushed down the stairs.
Mickie had to hold tight to the rail as the ship pitched upwards again, this time without the information on the bridge she had no way of knowing what was going to happen next and she did not like the feeling one bit.
Leaping on to the ground which was no longer level Mickie pulled herself up the corridor by using the joins and rails on the walls. As the ship tilted even further up Mickie realised that this was no fifteen footer and unless Cody got more power from the engines they might not make it all the way. Turning and looking though the window into engineering Mickie saw that Melina was almost done, the tension of only being able to watch was making Mickie sweat with anticipation and finally Melina turned of the torch and stood up. Kofi grabbed what he could and Melina brought the torch with her, running for the exit Mickie hauled open the door just as the ship stated plummeting down the other side of the wave.
"We're coming in too fast." Mickie thought as the lights flickered as the ship impacted the surface of the ocean and Mickie was thrown against a bulkhead and her world went dark.
Melina pulled herself up by her left and none broken arm and looked over at Mickie who was sprawled out on the floor face up with a nasty looking gash on the side of her head.
Kofi was trying to help her off the floor as Melina cradled her broken arm and staggered to an upright position.
"We have to help the Captain." Melina said as she tanked Kofi for his assistance and the young engineer turned to the prone woman on the floor.
Bending down her checked her pulse and found it strong and steady.
"She is breathing and she has a pulse I think she is just unconscious." He said placing a hand on Mickie's shoulder and trying to rouse her.
"We need some help down here." Melina said as she felt a wave of dizziness wash over her as the ship continued to rock and sway.
"I will contact the bridge from the gallery and they could send someone down." Kofi said and Melina waved him off she pulled herself over to Mickie and slid down the wall to sit beside her.
"Hey" Mickie croaked out as the pressure from Melina's knee in her side finally woke her up.
"Hey yourself, you had an argument with the bulk head." Melina said smiling slightly as Mickie sat up wincing and cupping the side of her head in her hand.
"Yeah and I know who won, your arm." Mickie said finally noticing Melina's limp and swollen arm as she pulled her own back against the wall for support.
"I lost my argument too." Melina said just as Kofi came back to join them.
"Mr Debasie is coming to help get you two out of here." He said looking down at the two women and feeling slightly better now they were both conscious and talking.
"You almost got yourselves killed back there, I should court martial you for disobeying my direct orders." Mickie said as she heard foot falls coming down the stairs.
"But you won't." Melina said giving her an evil grin and Mickie couldn't help but grin back.
"No but next time I might not open the door." Mickie said as Ted reached them followed by Mike who helped Melina up with Kofi's help they got her up the stairs and down to the medical bay to get checked out.
"I know what you are going to say and no I am not going, I have to get back to the bridge." Mickie said as Ted helped her up and together they made their way up the constantly moving stairs.
"I wasn't even going to mention it, I know you better than that, but at least take it easy for a while, it looks like we are entering the eye so things should calm down at least for a while." Ted said as they pulled open the doors for the stairs to the bridge as the lift was still down.
"Ok fine maybe a pain killer would be in order too, any way your just as bad as me, I bet you haven't seen the Dr either." Mickie said referring to Ted's own battered head and he patted it softly.
"Doc wouldn't find anything in their any way." He laughed and Mickie scowled at her friend as they pushed open the heavy door and entered the bridge.
The bridge was surprisingly quite, the only noise seemed to come from the buzzing of machinery and the beeping of the console's Randy stood up quickly as Mickie entered the bridge but she waved a hand at him to indicate that she was ok.
Randy had been pacing the bridge and checking the readouts every thirty seconds until Kofi's contact over the comm. System, at first he had said he would go himself but Ted pointed out that he should remain on the bridge at this time of crisis and that he and Mike were perfectly capable of escort duty. Randy had no good reason to dispute this so he let them go, spending the five minutes it took for them to return to the bridge worrying over what he might see when she came back.
"Captain how are you?" randy said as she sat back down in her chair and looked at her sensors but she could already fell the ship was far quieter and the rain had stopped pummelling the windows.
"I'm fine commander nothing a pain killer and a good nights sleep wont fix any way, what's the status report?" She asked not looking up at him and not missing a beat.
"We seem to have entered the eye, I doubt this will last for much longer than ten minutes though before we cross though to the other side."
"What can we expect when we get there?"
"Much of the same I am afraid, but we got though it before I am sure we can do it again." Randy said as Mickie finally met his eyes and he could see a hint of doubt in them, it was the first time he had seen anything like that from her and it worried him now.
"Can I speak to you in my ready room Commander. Mr Debasie you have the bridge." Mickie said as she stood up and made her way across the deck with a small squeeze of Cody's shoulder as she passed him.
Cody knew the Captain was thanking him without actually saying it but he appreciated the gesture but he had also caught the look of worry in her eyes and he knew at this moment in time he would not want her job for all the money in the world.
Mickie just waited for Randy to shut the door before sighing heavily and pouring herself a cup of slightly stale coffee.
"I am not sure we are going to make this Randy." Mickie said deciding to open with a bit of honesty.
"Of course we will, the ship is fine and I know this crew will handle it."
"What crew we have left, we have lost our chief engineer at least for a while, the Doc is stretched to the limit and the ship is being held together with a welding torch."
"But we are making it, we have little choice now though." Randy said finally placing his hand on her shoulder and allowing his touch to comfort her. He could see she was going over every decision that she had made, trying to figure out how she could have prevented this whole mess.
"It's not your fault you know."
"No? I am the Captain I could have looked for an alternate route, I could have kept well away from those UAN ships hell I could have even ignored Ted's weird sensor reading but I didn't and now we are stuck out here like a cork bobbing about in a large ocean with no way of getting home and an extremely high chance of getting ourselves killed, so yes Commander it is my fault."
"Your not alone Mickie, don't ever fell that way." Randy said as Mickie levelled her eyes with his and he could see something flash in them and then it was gone as quickly as it had come.
"You are a good first officer Randy and I could not have chosen anyone better, now I am done with my rant shall we see if we can't steer this ship though this storm." Mickie said breaking the moment quickly and stepping out from under his arms and going to the door.
Cody was the first one to notice the rain as he was the one sitting the closest to the windows but he was the only one really looking out f them at the time. Everyone else way desperately trying to get the bridge tidied up and connecting the Captain to various parts of the ship for status reports.
There was not too much damage on most of the decks mainly mess and broken glass, no one had died and most of the injuries were superficial. Melina had a broken radius, but it was a small fracture and would heal quickly. Mickie felt slightly more at peace now that she knew her crew were ok and she was just starting to relax again when Cody turned around and said.
"Look Captain, look at the windows." Mickie looked up slowly she did not want to see the rain falling in rivers along the large viewing windows' at the front of the ship, neither did she want to see the almost black sky as it rolled out endlessly before them, but she did look.
"It's ok Lieutenant, steady as she goes keep up the speed for as long as possible I want to get though this as fast as possible." Mickie said and she was surprised at how level her voice came out, as she was feeling anything but level.
"Aye ma'am." Cody said turning to his station as the Legacy rocked up once more on to a medium sized wave as the ship stated to pitched downwards once more.
"Captain two waves are going to converge right on top of us on our current heading." Ted's voice rang out over the din of the now full throttle hurricane and Mickie turned to her radio and saw what Ted was referring to.
"Mr Rhodes change heading 35 degrees and hit the engines full speed we need to out run that crest." Mickie ordered as Cody pushed the ship full throttle and the bridge crew had to hold on to their stations to stop from falling over. Randy stared out of the window looking for the huge waves that had come up on the radar but he could see nothing.
"Where the hell are they?" Randy said as he turned to Ted who just shrugged his shoulders, the radar said they were basically on top of them but nothing was happening, in fact the ship was sailing fairly smoothly at the moment and Cody was just having to keep her level.
"Maybe we out ran then its behind us." John suggested as he scanned the area in front of them and he could see no real big waves.
"I hope.." Mickie started but was cut off by the force of the wave that struck the side of the ship. For a second Mickie was pushed flush against the side of her chair and she had the wind knocked out of her.
"What the hell!" randy called as he pushed himself back up as best her could the ship was still pushing him hard into the side of his chair, like the seat of a carnival ride. He suddenly realised what had happened.
"We are in a spin!" He shouted at no one in particular but both Mickie and Cody caught on.
"Cut power to the engines full reverse." Mickie shouted as the ship began to gain speed as another wave crashed into their side forcing the ship to spin even faster as the fell down the side of another wave.
Cody cut the power to the engines, the ship slowed down some what but without the engines to keep them stable Legacy began to tip precariously as though it were balanced on the edge of a cliff.
"Hard to port Mr Rhodes!" Mickie said as the ship spun counter clockwise and she knew she would have to slow it down.
Cody did as he was ordered and the ship shuddered at having to push against its own momentum.
"We have to cut power Captain or she will pull herself apart!" Ted called as the juddering ship began to groan under the pressure of its own engines.
"Not yet we have to slow down or we wont stop until we hit the bottom." Mickie said clutching onto the arm of her hair and leaning forward.
"On my mark Cody cut the power, we have to try this or we wont get out." She said as Randy got up and held on to the helm so that he could help Cody when the time came. Mickie glanced at her first officer and gave him a knowing look but said nothing.
Randy could feel the floor shaking beneath his feet and he could see bits of dust and metal shavings falling from the ceiling as the ship was being torn in two directions.
"Captain!" Ted shouted his warning as his screen flashed warning signs all over the place as the hull began to buckle in the centre of the ship and the groan of crunching metal could be heard though the walls and Mickie knew they could hold out no longer.
"Cut the engine!"
Cody hit the controls and Randy stopped the young man from colliding with his own consol as the ship gave a scary lurch to the side and then levelled out.
"Nice!" Mike exclaimed as the legacy headed once more in the right direction and he found his station and pulled himself up to check on the ships systems.
"We have a hull breach on deck 15" Mike said as Mickie turned to him and raised her eyebrow.
"Ok grab who ever you can and get down there." Mickie said knowing that the breach would not normally be too much of a problem but under the strain of this storm could soon turn into a major hole.
"Captain I think I have found a hole." Cody said looking at his navigation charts and seeing a weak spot in the hurricane as it swirled around in front of them.
"Plot the course Mr Rhodes." Mickie said checking his data over his shoulder and looking back at Randy who nodded his head and then up at Ted.
"Monitor that breach Mr Debasie I don't want to put too much pressure on her until that is fixed." Mickie said as Ted opened a radio channel to Mike and his engineers to keep in touch with their progress.
"What do you think Mickie, fast or slow?" Randy said and she could help but here the slight suggestive tone in his voice.
"Personally I am a hard and fast type of girl, but for now with those men patching up that breach I think slow and easy." Mickie couldn't help herself as she looked at the expression on Randy's face.
"Aye Ma'am" Was all he managed as he told Cody to go at quarter speed and the heading he wanted to take.
Mike Mizanin had manage to get three guys together including Jeff one of the rebels they had on bored to help them close the small breach they had on their lowest deck. He had found Jeff perched outside the medical bay, John had been injured in the rotation of the ship and Jeff was now feeling slightly useless.
"Hey man fancy coming and doing a patch job on the new girl?" Mike said in a friendly tone and the multi hair coloured man nodded and joined the Ensign below decks. When the ship started forward again more water started pouring in but Mike was not worried they could use the bow pumps to get the water out later.
"Hey man I need some help- over here!" Jeff called as the piece of bulkhead he was welding began to split. Mike ran over and grabbed a piece of metal sheet to block the gap quickly before it could rip open any wider.
With two guys holding it and Jeff welding the leak was soon plugged and in just the nick of time as Legacy started pitching around again as they started to push their way though the storm.
"Guys report a sealed leak Captain, we are good to go." Ted said as Cody warmed them that the gap was closing and if they didn't go now they would not go at all.
"Do it Mr Rhodes!" Mickie called as Cody hit the turbo engines and the Legacy shot forward.
Mickie could almost smell the sun as the clouds seemed to suddenly vanish as the storm was left behind them and calmer waters lay ahead.
"Shut it down Mr Rhodes." Mickie said as she stood up and looked at the bright light bouncing of the carbon plated deck below the windows and she had to shield her eyes from the glare.
"Well done" Mickie said turning to what was left of her bridge crew and finally turning to Randy and inclined her head towards him.
"Thank you Randy." She whispered as her large and rather mean looking first officer gave her a heart breaking smile.
"All in a days work Captain, can I suggest something?" He asked as the crew began to settle down and check their exact location on the radar.
"Why not this day couldn't possibly get any worse." Mickie said with a slight smirk at her own joke.
"Ha Ha maybe we could stop off somewhere and get off this damm boat." Randy said and Mickie let out a small snort.
"Never thought I would get enough of the ocean Mr Orton, but for once solid ground does seem like a good idea. Mr Debasie any Islands close by we can use?" Mickie said turning to Ted who had over heard the conversation and was already looking for somewhere suitable.
"Aye Ma'am there is a small island I think we can get close enough to get some shore leave." Ted said scanning the area which seemed devoid of any ships and the storm seemed to have gone on its merry way behind them.
"Great Mr Rhodes set course for the Island I think its about time we all had a little rest don't you?" With that the Legacy turned on it original heading and set of for the little slice of paradise they had found in this ever changing ocean.
"Japan can wait for another day." Mickie said closing her eyes and allowing her head to fall back on to her chair as she let the suns rays caress her face.
End of the storm hope you enjoyed as ever reviews are read and appreciated.
Thank you for reading I will try and make the effort to update quickly and I am glad people are reading this very AU fic and sticking with it, I do like to try and keep my plots original.