Whilst Rez and Krowe were trying to find anyone that could tell them what was going on, in the command center just beneath the bridge, emergency power was being used to run all the systems to effectively coordinate the repair effort.
Around the walls were various terminals and computers that were vital to the operation of the fleet, but many of them had been broken or damaged in the power surge.
The command center was a very large circular room with a lowered center that had a wide holographic table that displayed a three dimensional image of anything they needed. It could take satellite images from the ship and display a live image of whatever is going on down on a planet. It could even show a detailed image of enemy ships in space.
It was unfortunately one of the last new pieces of technology the Forge received before Ironclad separated from Theodore's twisted version of the United Planetary Alliance.
The table currently however was displaying a full model of the Forge and all areas that were lacking power. Which currently was the entire ship besides the very room it was in. Red sections indicated powerless and green indicated powered. Whole sections were flashing up in green for a few moments at a time before powering back down.
A tall, aging man was watching the image with one hundred percent of his focus. His gentle eyes scanned across every single section of the ship, looking for anything that they missed on the initial damage report.
He exhaled a heavy breath and folded his arms across his broad chest. As he stood and watched the holographic table, the technicians working in and around the command center were working diligently and expertly to keep things running smoothly for him and the rest of the repair teams.
He furrowed his brow at the lack of information coming through, causing his wrinkles and scars to scrunch with his stretching skin.
Despite his aging body, he was a sturdy wall for his crew to lean on. Respectful and respected, Dasyil was a gentle soul at heart, but one with the power to overcome almost any obstacle.
He scratched his stubble and slicked his blue hair back.
Having fought in a war and having lost things dear to him, his mind was plagued with worry at the fact their fleet was without power and adrift.
But he dare not waver, he had to stay strong for his crew.
He stepped back from the holographic table and adjusted the admiral badge on his white uniform, and then walked towards the other half of the command center.
His steps were short yet graceful, and his posture unbreakable. He gave a warm smile and a gentle nod to the technicians scraping about under the metal floor panels, trying to fix wires and cables that had short circuited. He knew that they were giving it their all, and he only wished he could do more in the moment.
He approached a woman wearing a long, smooth labcoat and a fuzzy green sweater. It was Coco, the head engineer on the Forge, and the adoptive mother of many of the Hybrids that Ironclad took in.
There was a glint in her glasses, and she would see Dasyil approaching in the reflection of them. She would smile, and fix her hair behind her head in a messy ponytail, before standing up and away from the machinery she was working on.
Tall, fair skinned and curved, she was a mother figure in more than just description.
She was always warm and bubbly to everyone. Her presence was enough to lift an entire room out of a slump, as there wasn't a soul alive who wasn't eager to receive some personal attention from Coco.
She turned to face Dasyil with a floaty bounce in her step and gave him a kind and reassuring smile. She knew he was worried, she had spent enough time aboard as the head engineer to know when the admiral was stressed.
She was beautiful, and even her smile made Dasyil feel a bit better despite the situation.
She cleared her throat and fixed her sweater, having to stretch it past her chest a bit to get it to tuck into her loose jeans. Once she was done, she looked up and gave him another smile and nodded her head.
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"Admiral." she stated, then waited for his response.
Dasyil nodded as his eyes scanned over her for a few split seconds, before he nodded in return "Coco. Any updates on when we can get power back on? The longer we're adrift, the more likely we're to be found"
Coco exhaled as she turned and picked up an advanced tablet that she had access to as the head engineer. It gave her real time information about ship diagnostics and basically anything that Coco would ever need to know about.
"Well. For starters, we've found that the main power conduit that connects the reactor to the rest of the ship is damaged. Power cannot effectively travel through it. That's why we're constantly flickering."
"And I assume that's being worked on as we speak?" he asked.
"Of course, Admiral. It's... Unfortunately going to be a patch job until we can get the necessary parts to fully repair it. But it will work"
Dasyil nodded as he paced back and forth slightly, before he looked back at her as a thought entered his mind.
"And are the Hybrids alright? You are very important to them. I imagine they might be looking for you."
Coco nodded, then she frowned and glanced to the side as her paternal side peeked its head out from behind the heavy metal curtain that was her passion for engineering.
"I know they're probably worried. But the reactor is more important right now. But as soon as I can I'll check on all of the ones under my care."
"Alright then. As you were Coco." he said as he looked back to the rest of the command center. He took a deep breath, before projecting his voice to everyone "As soon as the fleet has its power returned, I want all ships to prepare to enter Jupiter's upper atmosphere to conceal ourselves in its clouds until I say otherwise." he looked around and nodded at everyone.
"We do not know what caused this outage. But if it was a weapons test, then we must be cautious. We know we were not the target of whatever it was that was fired. Yet it knocked us out cold all the way over here. I dread to think about what it would have done were it had known we were here"
The crew all nodded and responded with a hearty "Sir, yes sir" as they got to work on completing preparations for the order.
Dasyil however would soon leave the room. He would leave quietly through the sliding door and travel a fair distance to his own private medical bay that he had set up close to his quarters. As he stepped in, he would look to a tall, cylindrical capsule that was hooked into the wall. It had various pipes and plumping coming from and out of it. And the whole thing seemed frozen. Except it was beginning to melt. Water leaked out from underneath the machine. As without the power, there was nothing keeping it cold.
Dasyil walked up to the side of the machine and placed his palm against the cold glass casing that separated him from the ice.
Taking a deep breath, he walked over to a table that he had set up right beside the machine where he kept a holo-diary of the days. It had been some years since the machine was first turned on, preserving something on the inside.
He once again looked deep into the ice on the inside of the machine and reminisced of times before.
He would lose himself in the memories he had in the past. When the civil war was won, he was hopeful that the solar system had seen its last conflict. And in less time than the last war took, another one had begun.
But the time for reminiscing had ended, and so Dasyil steeled himself as he clenched his fist and opened up his communicator on his wrist.
"Shi, it's Dasyil. I need to you get Coco, Luna and Kamil and bring them to my medbay"
"Is it time?" a female voice asked.
"Yes, it's time"