Eli had just acknowledged the order of his superior with a curse in his mouth. This was a mess and a bloody fine one. There wasn’t enough coffee in the world to fix this. He looked at the station plans and thought as his main priority was to get ventilated air throughout the base with the upgrades. It could all be achieved through the engineering spaces and Jeffries tubes. 

Eli looked up to see his assistant running towards him. He held up a hand “I know Lieutenant, I know. Looking at the information we need to implement these improvements in command and the promenade as quickly as possible. This issue isn’t contained and no matter what we do there is no chance we can isolate this thing. Our best bet is to try and do these upgrades as fast as possible.“

Marc was out of breath, trying hard to regain his composure and talk.  It was a challenging task.  “Commander Harris said something about Sector 12 and ensuring that the civilian areas were fixed.” Marc took a deep breath, “he mentioned that if we can’t get the containment fields back up and running, our civilians are going to start filling up the make-shift medbay.”

Marc paused, realizing he missed a step. “Sir,” he stood up straight, “get it fixed, Sir.”  He also knew his boss, so he reached over and handed the Captain a Raktajino. “I got it down at that shop in the civilian sector, The Quantum Brew. It’s a nice place,” he started rambling, but a quick look from Captain Bates stopped him. ” It’s not important. Tuvor said to tell you hi before he closed up the shop.” 

He stopped waiting for Bates to say something.

Eli took a sip of the brew it was good. “Glad Tuvor is ok. That being said let’s get a team together and work on getting those containment fields back up. If I recall, even though Eos is older, the protocol should be the same: isolate the area and reboot. The reboot should reset the emergency protocols and allow for reactivation. After the protocols have reset, we should add a line in the code to make sure they stay active till either of us deactivate it. It might be good to give the access to someone who would be least thought of so if needed, we have a trick up our sleeves.“

Eli looked at his assistant the man was skilled and Eli couldn’t ask for a better assistant especially who didn’t mind Eli’s methods. This was a high-priority situation and Eli wanted To make sure it was done right. 

“Does all of that make sense, Lieutenant?” Eli asked as he took another sip from the cup. 

“Perfect,” Marcus replied. “She’s old, but the station has a good foundation. She will get through this, we all will.”  He thought briefly, “There are several people to consider. Hell, the XO is a former engineer.” He paused, “but in an emergency, he probably already has access.”

Eli shook his head “No we want someone with little to no authority and who no one would even think to have access to such an override. I also want to lock down all engineering systems as we don’t know if the enemy is on the station. I will not let any bloody person take of the engineering of this station except over my dead body.“

“If the virus keeps spreading, you won’t have to worry about anyone being on the ship,” Marcus said before realizing how cold that sounded. He blushed.  “So, we prep for the worst and hope for the best.” He wouldn’t tell the Captain that he sounded paranoid; he was his Engineer. “Locking down consoles, stabilizing any weakened containment fields, and finding a backup just in case.”  

Eli raised his brow “In all my years I have learned that sometimes what I do seems like paranoia but I want to make sure this station stays safe. The backup was implemented into the system when I had to reinforce the station when I first got here. It just needs to be activated.“ He handed the Lieutenant the PADD with the needed information to access the backup systems.“

“Divide and conquer,” he stated in the form of a question.  “You hit the containment field, I will work on the backup.”

Eli nodded “Let’s make sure we have someone with us. And wear some respirators the last thing we need is one of us to get infected.“

Marcus was convinced that someone as gruff and stubborn as Captain Bates probably couldn’t get infected, and his entire biological makeup was certain ninety-nine percent coffee.  Marcus, on the other hand, was very concerned. He knew people currently in the isolation area.  People he hoped made it out alive, people like Amanda. “Yes, Sir,” he replied.