Dan was running down the corridor. Red alert, lights flashing. Them up on the bridge would be rushing about, tapping their screens handling all the decisions and tactics and stuff. And he was down here, getting a million orders a minute. Repair this, fix that, change this, stop that. He was ignoring most of them. His main job at the moment: make sure enough energy for shields was diverted to block any blast holes in the ship's walls. Middle of an attack the big shots were making big decisions. He understood. They had to protect the important parts of the ship. Stop the dish from being disconnected. Protect the warp core from damage, protect the med bay etc., etc. Like he said, he understood. They had to protect these places. Had to protect the ship. To keep the deaths to a minimum. But this involves diverting energy from other places to shield those areas specifically, as well as putting most of the energy into weaponry. Setting the systems so that all energy is being diverted to those areas, the amounts can be changed from the bridge but the destination is locked unless the captain orders a change. Enough shielding energy has to be left to immediately block any blasts in the ship walls to prevent crew members being sucked out. There are blast doors situated throughout all corridors which shut in the case of a breach but there needs to be something in place to prevent accidents before these shut. Dan was muttering angrily as these thoughts bounced around his head, skidding to a quick stop in front of a pair of doors. Slamming his hand on the control panel, Dan was through the doors before they had fully closed. He had been on a different level doing emergency repairs on some of transport shuttles in the bay. Hopefully the repairs would hold if they were needed for an evacuation. But he had slipped off to do this as soon as the situation was in control(ish). He hurried through the engineering level, disguised by the other red shirts, not that he thought anyone would stop him if they knew what he was doing. Well, some of the more important people maybe. There was a couple of engineering officers and the chief engineer/technical officer in the team but there were dozens of engineering crew. Loads of red shirts. All need to maintain the ship. Electrical, propulsion, life support, etc., etc. All with their specialties. But most were overlooked a lot of the time. There were a lot of people on board a star ship which got overlooked. The people part of departments but not officers got it bad sure, but not that bad. What about cleaners? Maintenance crew. The HR/Wellbeing departments? Most people didn't even think about these people existing on a star ship. But of course, they did.
Dan had passed his station. But that wasn't his destination. He continued until he reached Officer Scotts cornered of station. He liked Scott. He wasn't as bad as some of the other higherups. Spent more time in the lower decks. But he still had to follow orders like everyone else. They all did. But Dan was sick of it. They did have a solution for this. It might mean stretching the shields a bit but surely it was worth it. The bridge shields were always up as high as tactically possible. But not the lower decks. Punching in the code he had watched Scott use on multiple occasions, Dan entered the office. One of the maintenance staff he'd known well had died recently. He had bought up his ideas for preventing this. He had been ignored. He understood why, but no one was willing to listen. To see if there was another way. He powered up the computer. This of course was why he was doing this. He had never done something like this before. But he was angry and upset. He wasn't thinking clearly. Wasn't thinking about how everyone was making snap decisions in the case of battle. How there would always, no matter how hard everyone tried, be casualties and life changing injuries in these kinds of situations. They were Starfleet. There was a risk. Everyone knew that. Dans fingers flashed across the keyboard projected on the glass countertop. He had been shunted to the shuttle bay due to low staff levels but he was primarily a software engineer. He had been taught how to bypass Starfleet security at the academy in the case of the ship being taken over, or the systems being locked, or for security checks. All of his previous thoughts of understanding for the bridge crew and Starfleet were gone.
He was in. Now to access the shields.
He didn't even think of the possible consequences of diverting the shields. He just continued with his mission.
There was an explosion.
A ripping noise.
He grabbed the desk and clung on with all his strength. As everything not nailed down in the office and the main engineering floor was sucked out into the vacuum of space behind him, he thought of his friend. The one in maintenance. Who cleaned the floors, workstations, equipment and communal areas. Thought of how his name was just read of from a long list of other crew members who had died. Not an individual mention like some crew members. Just a name on a list. Of how after the memorial service people were talking about everyone who had been lost. And how he Dan, and a few of his other close friends, were the only ones who mentioned him. Most people they talked to didn't even recognize the name.
His hands started to slip and he wondered why he was even trying to hold on and prevent the inevitable. He wondered how long it would take for them to reach his name. He wondered how many people who would recognize it.
Then he let go.