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intheheartTitle: Blackout
Rating: G
Summary: The eeriest experience of Nathan's tour of duty.
Warnings: none.
Notes: I dunno about finest, but definitely bravest.
Nathan was studying when the lights went out.
"Ah, for fuck's sake," he said, and got up carefully. These blackout drills were going to be the death of him. The CO had a nasty habit of just running them, no warning; third or fourth time he'd done it on this deployment. Nathan was seriously considering complaining.
Except...
He couldn't feel the engines.
The constant thrum of the engines had been the hardest thing to get used to about shipboard life, and now he couldn't feel it at all.
Shit. Just as he thought it, the general alarm shrilled through the air.
Okay, the first rule in any emergency: stay calm and report to your station. His was abovedecks, thank God, at the fire pump. He groped his way out of his room and into the corridor, went for the ladders and said a grateful prayer under his breath when the emergency lighting flickered on, ghostly and sharp at the same time.
It was foggy as fuck outside, visibility shot to hell, the few lights powered by the emergency system fuzzing out mere feet from the lights themselves. He knew the deck was swarming with sailors, but all noise was muffled by the fog, and the few he could see looked like ghosts, dark shapes moving and fading away. Even the alarm, piercing as it was, sounded eerie and hollow.
Nathan shivered, and took up his post.
He couldn't tell how long he stood, waiting in the fog for someone to come and give him orders. Perhaps five minutes, perhaps an hour. It was so deathly still-- he could feel the ship rolling under him, but he couldn't even hear the reassuring sound of the waves.
Suddenly the ship roared to life, lights blazing out and pushing back the fog, and best of all the engine's hum thrumming up through the soles of his feet. The general alarm cut out, and an announcement went out to return to normal duty. He breathed a sigh of relief, and went back in.
He didn't feel like going back to his room, after, so he went down to the mess instead and found a group of his shipmates there, huddled around a table like campers around a fire. "Hey," he said, and a tiny hole in the group opened, just enough for him to shove in. "What the hell happened?"
Everyone looked at Sajiv, from Engineering, who just shrugged. "Some damnfool recruit cut off the fuel to the engine. Last I heard the CPO was tearing him a new one."
Nathan sighed, and wedged his shoulder against Davy's. "Well, could've been worse."
"Yeah," Sajiv agreed, and they fell silent.
Rating: G
Summary: The eeriest experience of Nathan's tour of duty.
Warnings: none.
Notes: I dunno about finest, but definitely bravest.
Nathan was studying when the lights went out.
"Ah, for fuck's sake," he said, and got up carefully. These blackout drills were going to be the death of him. The CO had a nasty habit of just running them, no warning; third or fourth time he'd done it on this deployment. Nathan was seriously considering complaining.
Except...
He couldn't feel the engines.
The constant thrum of the engines had been the hardest thing to get used to about shipboard life, and now he couldn't feel it at all.
Shit. Just as he thought it, the general alarm shrilled through the air.
Okay, the first rule in any emergency: stay calm and report to your station. His was abovedecks, thank God, at the fire pump. He groped his way out of his room and into the corridor, went for the ladders and said a grateful prayer under his breath when the emergency lighting flickered on, ghostly and sharp at the same time.
It was foggy as fuck outside, visibility shot to hell, the few lights powered by the emergency system fuzzing out mere feet from the lights themselves. He knew the deck was swarming with sailors, but all noise was muffled by the fog, and the few he could see looked like ghosts, dark shapes moving and fading away. Even the alarm, piercing as it was, sounded eerie and hollow.
Nathan shivered, and took up his post.
He couldn't tell how long he stood, waiting in the fog for someone to come and give him orders. Perhaps five minutes, perhaps an hour. It was so deathly still-- he could feel the ship rolling under him, but he couldn't even hear the reassuring sound of the waves.
Suddenly the ship roared to life, lights blazing out and pushing back the fog, and best of all the engine's hum thrumming up through the soles of his feet. The general alarm cut out, and an announcement went out to return to normal duty. He breathed a sigh of relief, and went back in.
He didn't feel like going back to his room, after, so he went down to the mess instead and found a group of his shipmates there, huddled around a table like campers around a fire. "Hey," he said, and a tiny hole in the group opened, just enough for him to shove in. "What the hell happened?"
Everyone looked at Sajiv, from Engineering, who just shrugged. "Some damnfool recruit cut off the fuel to the engine. Last I heard the CPO was tearing him a new one."
Nathan sighed, and wedged his shoulder against Davy's. "Well, could've been worse."
"Yeah," Sajiv agreed, and they fell silent.
