Number One Fan

Chapter 17: Vessel

On the bridge of the Kori, the night shift proceeded with little to no action, so much so that the lowest ranking able crewman, Ollie, was placed to keep watch over the space while the other senior staff were off doing other things. "Status report?" Ollie asked again for the 10th time this evening.

Just as he did, Kipp arrived on the elevator, rolling his eyes at Ollie as he stepped off the lift. He overheard Ollie asking for the ship's status as he went down the short staircase to the operations table. "The same as it was literally six minutes ago." 

"Hello, foster brother..." Ollie sighed as Kipp approached. "What are you doing up here? Shouldn't the chief of engineering be...in engineering—as in—not bothering us up here."

"Well, I could take over if I wanted to. Last time I checked, a chief engineer outranks an able crewman. And stop asking for the status report; you're making everyone nervous." Kipp snipped back as he briefly eyed the console, trying to get a glance at the ship's status. 

"You're so annoying. Can't you leave some fun for the rest of us?" Ollie snarled at Kipp.

"Relax. Kyr, Ollie, I'm just passing through. You can keep playing captain for as long as you want. I just have to drop off this engineering report." Kipp showed his tablet to Ollie.

"Well. I'm in command, so you can leave it with me." Ollie said with a hint of snobbery.

Kipp pursed his lips at that. "Yeah...I think it'd be better off going to Kai."

The intercom tolled eight bells, an automated way of tracking shift changes on board. "Powering up," D1 alerted the crew as she finally started to return to normal operation. The displays sprinkled around the bridge began to show their status updates as the ship woke up. 

Kipp turned to walk to Kai's office, but before he could get to the door, the entire bridge was flooded with red emergency lighting.

"Emergency protocols are in effect, personnel to action stations," D1 ordered. She was quick to kill Ollie's fun with a klaxon. The second she rebooted, she wasted no time getting a handle on things. 

"D1, report?" Kipp asked, tossing his tablet on a chair before moving to his usual engineering station.

"A safety sensor has detected a fire on promenade level D, section omega-four-two, cabin nine. Evacuation is already underway, Kipp. However, fire suppression systems are inoperative." D1 stated, continuing the klaxon.

Kipp was horrified by that last bit. After six months in space on a ship as massive as the Kori— repairing each and every individual system took time. Fire suppression was, unfortunately, one of those systems. "There are over 500 people down there! Send damage control teams and medical personnel to meet me over there," Kipp communicated quickly, making his way to the lift.

Ollie jumped as he listened to Kipp order around personnel that didn't exist, "Kipp, we don't have a damage control team! And we only have like one doctor for 1,500 people!" Ollie reminded Kipp. Did he forget?

Kipp paused and huffed. "You." Kipp pointed at a familiar purple and white bunny who had rescinded into the background of the entire scene—a textbook definition of a 'grey man.' He failed out of just about every job on the ship. Kallum was very resistant to change, and he showed it every day. "Congratulations 'Uncle' you're officially our new head of damage control."

"I don't know how to fight fires!" Kallum exclaimed, looking at Kipp with his usual attitude. He paused his basic systems diagnostic to address Kipp. That was the only thing he was capable of doing.

Kipp sighed as he crossed the bridge, grabbed Kallum, and began to pull him along by the wrist. "I don't care if you don't know how. You'll learn—Just point the damn hose and use the water!" Kipp informed harshly. It was the least Kallum could do after causing so much pain to so many people. "And erm..." Kipp started rubbing his chin in thought as he looked for more volunteers.