The Sky's the Limit - Marco Palmieri [28]
What the hell? She saw Chief O’Brien on the monitor, his hands flying over the controls of the transporter as the lights flickered in the transporter room also.
She turned and rushed out of the bay. I need to get to the transporter room. He’ll try to divert them to his location to save power. Rushing down the corridor, she headed toward what she hoped was a working turbolift. It took a couple of tries, but after some agonizing moments, she was able to reach the main transporter room’s deck.
Crap, this can’t be happening. There should have been plenty of power. What went wrong?
She leaped out of the turbolift as soon as it stopped and rushed down the hallway. The lights began to stabilize as she entered the room. Lieutenant Wallace had joined O’Brien and the two were manipulating the transporter controls as fast as they could. O’Brien gave the transporter console one last tap with his left hand, and a familiar whine filled the room. Sparkling lights coalesced into her team and they slumped to the floor, stunned from being held in transit for so long.
Finally able to take action, Pulaski rushed to the dais and gave them a quick going-over, relief and frustration warring for control. Disoriented and weak, but nothing life threatening. When I find out what happened, someone’s going to get a piece of my mind.
She turned to thank O’Brien for his work, but the words died unsaid when she spotted the ship’s first officer, Will Riker. He stood by the door, his face set in a familiar scowl. Nearby, Geordi La Forge talked to a nervous Chief O’Brien. The ship’s newly promoted chief engineer was upset, but he was following Riker’s lead at the moment.
“Doctor Pulaski, if you would be so good as to accompany us. I believe you have an appointment in the conference lounge…right now.”
Damn. Oh, well. Can’t say I didn’t earn this one. “Very well, Commander. I’ll be happy to join you as soon as someone arrives to take over here.”
Just then, a med team came rushing in. How’s that for irony? She took a few seconds to ensure no one on her team was seriously injured and then followed La Forge and a smiling Riker out of the transporter room back toward the turbolift. The least he could do is not look so bloody happy that I’m in trouble again.
Pulaski looked around the room and spotted Captain Picard sitting in his usual place at the head of the conference table. From the look on his face, she anticipated this would go as most of her conversations with the captain had gone—badly. Taking her seat, she noticed that Riker and La Forge sat on either side of Picard. If I didn’t know better, I’d think this was a court-martial.
The captain leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table and bringing his fingers together in an inverted V. “Doctor Pulaski, do you have any idea what your stunt today has cost the Enterprise?”
“With all due respect, Captain, I would hardly call training medical personnel to respond to an emergency a stunt.”
“May I point out to the good doctor the problems your exercise caused? Problems, I’d like to add, that could have been avoided with a simple call down to engineering to ensure that power would be available. In fact, did not Chief O’Brien suggest contacting Lieutenant La Forge before you began the exercise?”
Pulaski paused before responding. “I believe he might have made such a suggestion. However, the simulations I prepared showed that the drain of two site-to-site transports would be well within the Enterprise’s capabilities.”
The young chief engineer leaned forward, adjusting the VISOR that covered his eyes. “And it would have, if today had been a normal