Pan-Pan! Pan-Pan! Pan-Pan!
Posted on Saturday February 23rd, 2019 @ 11:37 hours by Vysara Elani
Edited on on Saturday February 23rd, 2019 @ 11:39 hours
Mission:
Pixie Dust
Location: various
Timeline: 35 minutes after impact
725 words - 1.5 OF Standard Post Measure
Hazy readouts danced in front of Vysara's eyes. The environmental systems, propulsion, life support, energy grid, she could see it all. The readouts of the starboard engine perplexed her. It was failing, yet the ship was not experiencing the accompanying effects. The ship was not moving, she could feel it through the deck plating, yet the readout was nearing critical level in flight. The bajoran's fingers danced across the console, requesting further information on what was happening.
What could have happened to cause such opposing readouts?
Elani opened a channel, "Engineering to Bridge, Captain, what's going on? Readouts down here are all over the place. We are in a holding pattern, yet engine readouts are indicating imminent failure and projected loss of attitude control."
"Stand by, Engineering." An unfamiliar voice echoed through.
"Bridge, we can't stand by, starboard engine is set to fail at any second, we need directions!"
There came no response.
"Bridge!"
Silence.
"Bridge!"
There it went. First there was a huge power spike and rattle in the starboard part of the ship. Then a power drain as the emergency shielding tried to compensate for the failure and what looked to be an explosion. Then came the unnatural movement under the deck plating. Inertia dampeners were compensating for the loss, but the ship was listing regardless.
Elani grabbed the two passing engineers by their forearms, "get a damage control team to starboard engine control. Find out what happened so we can deal with it. I'm not getting responses from the Bridge, so we need to figure this out on our own."
The young Bolian woman and her Benzite partner nodded and darted off towards the nearest equipment locker. The ship listed further and she could feel a downward tug in the plates.
"Fuck, what is going on? What's causing it to fail?" Elani growled to herself as she brought up yet another set of readings. There was no explosion, yet there was an interruption in the power flow between the engine and the power-coupling of unknown origin. Without eyes on site she couldn't tell if it was sabotage, equipment failure or material fatigue.
She tried rerouting the powerful to help regulate the flow and to attempt to even out their axis, but the effort was for nought.
"Engineering to Bridge, critical failure of starboard engine in effect. Damage control teams en route. We are losing attitude control. Estimating complete loss within thirty minutes. If we don't manage to fix the engine and recover our list, we won't be able to break free of the gravitational pull of the planet. We need to consider evacuating the ship." Vysara tried to contact the Bridge again.
"Engineering, stand by..." The unfamiliar voice echoed again, and she could hear in the background: "Declaring: Pan-Pan! Pan-Pan! Pan-Pan!" A second voice echoed in the background, she couldn't hear what else the voice was saying, nor what it had been saying before.
Even centuries later, the call was still used. The three-letter backronym, "possible assistance needed" or "pay attention now" was derived from pan. Civillian and starfleet communications courses used those as mnemonics to convey the important difference between mayday and pan-pan. Mayday on the other hand, meant: "come to help me" followed by a message of extreme urgency, the highest level of danger.
In Vysara's mind, their ever listing condition and increased gravitational pull of the planet's atmosphere was a mayday worthy communique, rather than a simple pan-pan, though pans themselves were never simple.
The damage control team reported in. They couldn't reach the section in question as the emergency bulkheads were in place and locked and overriding them was going to take too long. Getting into EVA suits and getting beamed to the other side was taking too long. There wasn't enough time...with attitude control loss, one of two things could happen, if no recovery possible. Burn up on re-entry or crash. Chances of survival were minor.
Elani ordered the damage control team to pull out. Then she tried the Bridge again, "Bridge, damage control teams unsuccessful. Listing angle is nearing critical. Recommending evacuation to avoid re-entry burn-up and/or crash. Bridge please respond. We are going to crash on the planet below us unless we do something."
Silence.
"Bridge!"
Vysara Elani
Engineer
