Emergence - Part 3

Posted on Mon May 25, 2015 @ 6:02pm by Captain Isha t'Vaurek & Commander Caden Aldrex & Lieutenant Commander Steven Wyman & Commander Caleb Ryan & Commander Amia Telamon M.D. & Lieutenant Saria Rex & Captain Tam "Demon" Haican & Lieutenant Kyle "Loki" Carter & Sebina Haican & Captain Maritza Soran & Ensign Jessica Mayhew

2,070 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Eye of the Beholder
Location: Various
Timeline: MD 3/1500

[Command Level Operations]

"Inertial mass of the station is dropping. We're picking up speed." Ceridwen looked up at the much more senior officers around her, arched an eyebrow in a manner a Vulcan would appreciate, and added, "I hope one of you is steering this thing."

Warm light began flooding in through the observation windows, brightening rapidly. The windows automatically adjusted their tint to compensate.

One of the sensor techs reported from his station, "Captain, I'm detecting increasing levels of solar radiation. It's close."

The subspace frequency was suddenly awash with hails from the ships surrounding the station. Some were in awe of the sight. Some were panicked. Others simply wanted instructions.

Aldrex tore his eyes away from the new spectacle and went back to giving instructions. "Comms, tell all vessels to keep the channel clear and follow us. We'll resume the evacuation once the subspace field is down. Adjust course to one-three-five, mark zero away from the radiation source." He understood what was causing the solar radiation but couldn't quite bring himself to believe it yet.

"I'm redirecting some of the power reserves from the thrusters to the structural integrity. I can honestly say - I'm shocked this is actually working," Steve thought aloud as his fingers entered commands into the engineering console.

His wife gave him a death glare. "Commander, if you just jinxed us..."

Wyman knew that look. It was the "you're a dead man when we get home" look. Feeling the pressure of Welshy's metaphorical thumb on his forehead, he fell silent and returned to monitoring key systems.

Do it, do it, do it, Isha repeated in her head. Eviess and Argelian were safe in the schoolroom and would be among the first evacuated. In her absence, provision, via Taakh, had been made for them.

Just as the station began to steer away for the incoming object, Saria's station began to wail. "The solar radiation is rising dangerously fast. It doesn't make sense!" she said as she tapped the screen in confusion. "There are no solar winds reported in the area. What the hell..."

Saria looked back at her console, as it began to wail once more. Different alarms were sounding through each other. "Captain, the gravitational forces are getting intenser by the second. But... but it's not from that thing..."

It was over.

This was not the time to scream about the well-being of her babies, not like she had when back home she'd heard of the imminent confrontation at Chin’toka that had stolen both her husband and son. Rh'Vaurek was missing and presumed dead. They had to have the life she wanted for them and as such she had to act as expected.

Isha cleared her throat. "Ladies, gentlemen, we have done all we can here. You are ordered now to evacuate, to transfer your controls to me. If your efforts succeed you will return; if not, then you have our eternal gratitude for trying. I will remain and make every effort in my power to guide Deep Space Five to safety."

Soran tapped Bennet on the shoulder, relieving her of duty and sliding into the seat the young lieutenant had vacated. "I'm staying, Captain." If she was going to lose a third ship, she was damn well going down with it this time.

Isha sucked in a breath. Her husband had been good at this. She tried to think what Nvied would have said. "Stay if you wish, I'm not asking anyone to be a hero, but if we bring the station through this, that is what you will become."

"Not about to call myself any sort of hero, but I can't let the two of you have all the fun. I'm staying, too." With that, Steve forced a smile before turning toward Ceridwen. "Senior Chief, you heard the captain. Abandon ship."

Welshy's eyes took on a dewy appearance. She considered disobeying, but she knew Steve would drag her kicking and screaming to the airlock if need be. Biting back tears, she took a hesitant step toward the turbolift. "We'll see you on the other side, Commander."

These moments were starting to be far too frequent, at least from Wyman's viewpoint. But he wanted the thrill of a deep space assignment, and he sure as hell got it. "I'll be there with bells on. Now move, before I have to put you on report."

"I'm staying here too, Captain," Saria said with a lump in her throat. "I don't have a death wish of some sort, but I gotta make sure someone mans the Science station and guides my Science personnel off the station. I'll be here."

She tapped her comm badge with difficulty. "To all Science personnel, this is the Chief of Science. I order you all to evacuate from your current position and get to the rendezvous point. Take anyone else you find with you. I'm staying on the station."

Caleb didn’t even bother speaking up or moving from his station. He simply continued directing his security personnel in their evacuations, giving them the order to load as soon as the civilians were aboard the life pods. Zandy, please get your butt on a pod. Mika, looks like I might be seeing you again sooner than we planned, he thought, not unhappily.

[Bravo Leader]

The stars flashed by the canopy of Tam's raptor as he continued to tax the warp engines to their limits. He had been screaming through space at Warp 6.6 for nearly three hours now, and he was wishing desperately that he could coax more speed from his craft. While the automated distress signal from the station continued to play on a loop, no new information was being given. He had tried repeatedly to raise the station, but received nothing but massively jarbled signals, or deafening static. All he could do was sit and wait until he arrived. In nearly ten hours from now.

[Promenade]

Steiner and Tu-Selok jogged around a corner and straight into a group of civilians trying to get through one of the exit doors. The big door, which covered the whole width of the corridor, was jammed somehow and was only open about eighteen inches wide on one side, just enough for one person to squeeze through at a time, except there was a crush of people all trying to get through the gap at once.

A second later Tevlet joined them. "I thought you put the doors on exit only? This one's stuck!" Steiner said to him.

"I did. Must have got jarred off its track in all that shaking." Just then there was another massive shake and the whole station appeared to lean sideways. The three Marshals staggered to keep their feet. There were screams from the group around the door. Then a fight broke out as panicked and frightened people fought each other to get through.

Steiner pulled his phaser and slammed a blast into the door above the people's head. There was a shower of sparks and they all turned to look back.

"The next one goes through somebody's head if you don't all back off from that door!" he said levelly, although he'd already slipped the phaser on to stun. He moved up, keeping the phaser levelled. "Now back off! And we'll see about getting it open." He used the phaser tip to gesture people away and after a moment’s pause they moved.

Steiner was pleased to see Tu-Selok had her weapon out and was backing him up, as did Tevelet. He nodded the Andorian technician to the door control panel. Tevlet accessed the panel and tried recycling the door. It didn’t move and there was just a loud whine from the servo motor. He shook his head. "Jammed solid, Chief."

"Can we cut it?" Tu-Selok asked, looking down at her phaser.

"Not in time," Tevlet replied. "It's a main door, reinforced and hardened duralloy. Take half an hour with a hand phaser."

The crowd was getting restless now and Steiner could see the panic rising in their eyes. Another minute or so and they'd rush the door again, phasers or no. He needed to retain control and quickly.

Taking a deep breath he holstered his weapon and pointed to three of the largest males in the group, two Klingons and... he wasn't really sure what it was, but it was big! "You three! C'mon, get over here, we need to shove this door open!"

The Klingons and the big alien stepped forward. They and Tevlet got their shoulders into the gap and began to push. Nothing happened. There was some muttering and looks from the group now and Steiner kept his hand near his weapon. Another rumble rolled through, the floor shook, and there was a crash as a shop display collapsed. The group panicked and began moving back towards the door.

One of the Klingons gave out a great bellow. Suddenly there was a grating sound and the door began moving, just an inch or two at first, then more and more. Finally they managed to get it nearly halfway open and the crowd surged through, running for the nearest bank of escape modules as Steiner and his deputies got out of the way.

"Alright, where's the nearest working turbo lift," Steiner said, looking around him.

"Chief, the Van Buren Hendricks is two-hundred and forty-two decks away," Tu-Selok said with Vulcan calmness. "I do not believe we will not make it in time."

"Yeah, we will," Steiner replied. "We're not dying today. C'mon!" He set off running for a turbo lift and pounded his fist onto the control panel. The door opened almost immediately and the three Marshals scrambled in.

Just as the doors were closing three Ferengi ran past, their arms full of what looked like looted merchandise from promenade shops. "Son of a bitch!" Steiner swore and shoved his arm out to stop the doors. "That's Klatec, our prime suspect!" But he was too slow. The doors hissed shut and the lift sank rapidly.

"Dammit!" Steiner kicked the doors in frustration. "He's gonna slip away in all this chaos!"

"If he gets on an escape module we can track him," Tevlet suggested. "They automatically scan all passengers for medical issues and encode the data in their distress beacons. So we just need to check the modules with Ferengi bio-signatures."

"That's right..." Steiner said. "Good idea. Just so long as we make the runabout in time." There was another shudder, the lights flickered and went out, and the lift shook in its shaft but kept moving.

After what seemed like an eternity as the three Marshals waited in the dim red emergency lighting the doors slid opened on the right hanger deck and they tumbled out. A stream of Starfleet personnel were heading for the shuttle bays, thankfully in an orderly fashion. The Marshals joined in and made their way to the where the FMS runabout was located.

A flight control Chief Petty Officer was at the hanger door. "That yours?" She pointed a thumb over her shoulder at the Van Buren Hendricks.

"Yep," Steiner replied. "And we've got room for as many as you can get onboard," he continued, knowing what the woman was going to ask next.

"Thank you! We were about to bust the hatch open!" she said and waved to a group of waiting crewman. "Go with the Marshals! The gray runabout!" Turning back to Steiner she said, "Don't worry about clearances. As soon as you're full, up-skids and go! Take vector 260, down and starboard! Okay?"

"Got it!" Steiner led the way out to the runabout, dodging around other craft that were preparing to depart. Tevlet opened the hatch and ran forward to start the engines while Tu-Selok and Steiner ushered crewman aboard. "Let's go! Time to play sardines!"

"A small Earth fish?" Tu-Selok asked him. “I do not understand."

"Canned fish! Packed in like sardines," Steiner explained.

Before Tu-Selok could respond the hanger was suddenly filled with a bright glaring light.

To be continued ...

---

Lt Commander Maritza Soran
Chief Strategic Operations Officer
DS5

Capt Tam "Demon" Haican
Bravo Assault Wing Commander

Lt. Cmdr. Steve Wyman
Chief Engineering Officer

SCPO Ceridwen Wyman (NPC)
Engineer's Mate

Lt. Cmdr. Caden Aldrex
Executive Officer

Captain Isha t'Vaurek
Commanding Officer

 

RSS Feed