The only way out is through you - Part Two

Posted on Sat Jun 6, 2015 @ 11:16pm by Civilian 'Key Holder' Dorian Gabriel & Civilian 'Key Holder' Yolanthe Ibalin

2,182 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Eye of the Beholder
Location: Many Decks Below the Promenade

::OLD::
The pathway before them would lead directly to a Jefferies Tube junction that would allow them to climb several levels to a terminal junction used by repair crews. Unfortunately, trying to climb through this particular section of rubble would undoubtedly bring the remaining structure all around them.

"There's several connecting corridors, one of them has to be stable enough to move through." He said.

She shut her mouth, gritting her teeth at the necessity of having to put up with him. "Okay then. Lets get going. Your friend isn't going to get any healthier while we bicker."

She looked around. She only a a vague recollection of what went where. "I think one of those two leads to a VIP docking bay. We might be able to get a beam out from there. Take your pick."

::NEW::

The corridor on the left was clearer, only a minimum of stuff to dig out, but the only illumination inside came from the lights Yolanthe had exposed behind them. Who knew what was beyond the edge of the light There were slivers of light coming from behind the rubble piled at the end of the one on the right. But there was obviously more digging to do there. "I've been down here exactly once. You obviously know where you're going. You get to navigate."

Dorian gritted his teeth as he made his way through the hallway at a measured pace. "Only once, huh? I guess if you only count the times you DIDN'T come down here with that Cardassian, it would count as 'once'?" Dorian asked rhetorically. "How is the ol' Fight-to-the-Death little side-business going for you?" he continued as he made his way along the hallway reaching out for the wall whenever necessary.

"well, I guess it depends entirely on your definition of 'coming'" she grinned at the memory. "And the fights are just peachy." She wasn't going deny it or brazen anything out. He used to be head of security. of course he'd know about them. "But they're a lot lower down. I know you find it hard to believe, but I really only have been in these floors once. If we were down there, I'd know where I was going. So as much as it sucks to admit it, I really do need you navigate. So can you stow the attitude for fifteen minutes so we can all get out of this alive? Please?"

"Of course the fights are peachy, the 'rule of law' has become a forgotten relic of the past on this station. The incompetence flows from the Romulan all the way down to that sycophant Trellis. Why should I expect anything better in the years since I left?" He stated ruefully. He had fought hard to maintain order throughout the station when he was the Head of Security. But then that Romulan t"Khellian lied, cheated, and used every tool of mendacity available to have him brought before A General Court-Martial and discharged from Starfleet.

So it was of no surprise that years later, the station had descended into bedlam under a mere facade of Good Order and Discipline.

"If things were going so bad for the station, then why the hell were you skittering down here instead evacuating with everyone else?" HE asked, hoping to take his mind off the pain surging through his leg.

"'Nothing that concerns you'" she quoted back at him, the debris was getting heavier, and she slipped around the human in case he needed help getting over the rubble. The she relented. He'd actually asked a civil question. First time for everything. "Indulging in sentiment. There are things I didn't want to leave behind. Some memories are worth the risk." She turned back to him. "Seriously, what were you doing here. I know these places are off limits to civvies like us."

Civvies like us...the phrase struck a particular cord within Dorian, but he allowed it to pass without response. "We were helping move old equipment into storage for Mr. Raddon." Dorian said in a quick, deliberate tone. He did not want to divulge more than was necessary especially to an alien who had her own agenda. "It definitely wasn't worth a human life..." Dorian said genuinely as his mind went back to the others that were still stuck beneath the wreckage of the corridor.

"We can make it through this partially collapsed corridor without too much more difficulty, so go ahead and remove the smaller pieces of debris so we can climb through." He said as he gestured towards the obstacle before them.

"And you aren't mucking in because?" She asked.

"Because I'm barely standing as it is! If I could move better I would've figured a better way out of here to get help for those men we left back there" he responded.

She turned orange, a little guilty she hadn't noticed his pain. Stupid unchanging skin. "There's no need to be snippy. Say pretty please," she told him, just to be snarky.

Dorian breathed a hard sigh through his nostrils as he focused on calming himself down. "Fine. . . would you please move the rubble?" He asked tersely.

The full spectrum washed over her in the blink of an eye. He'd actually done it. Now she'd seen everything.

She reached out and patted him on the cheek with a blue hand. "That wasn't so bad now was it?" She turned away grinning, and started to roll the bigger chunks of the station out of the way, "You should get crushed more often, it obviously improves your temper." The Bokkai got a shoulder against another piece and shoved until it pivoted around with a squeal and opened the corridor some more.

"You fu----" he was about to say, but he was stopped by a sudden surge of pain from his injured leg. The pain was increasing as they continued to trek through the damaged corridor.

Past the moved section there was a small hole that looked like it could be made bigger. Beyond it was the doors to a docking bay. They were sealed, but there was bound to be a manual release somewhere she started pulling rubble aside to make it bigger.

After she had hefted a few pieces, it creaked ominously. She jumped back and held her breath. Nothing moved for a moment, so she reached in for a few more pieces, opening up a space big enough for them to crawl through. She eyed it suspiciously, but it seemed to be stable.

She worked her way back to Dorian, trying not to rub her shoulders. A few sore muscles was nothing compared to the men. "Come on then. Can you manage on your own or..." she held out her hand to him, offering support.

"I'm fine..." Dorian said as he quickly walked past the Bokkai and began to climb through the cleared rubble. He shifted his weight to his good leg and began to make his way through the cleared path towards the sealed docking bay doors. He successfully stepped over the first pile of rubble and began to reach out towards the side of the wall when his other foot stepped down too hard in the wrong spot.

Pain jolted through his body almost instantaneously.

"AAAAHHHHHGG......" Dorian yelled as he immediately withered in reaction to the raw pain in his leg.

"I've got you." Immediately she was behind him, supporting his body against hers for a moment until she could get her shoulder under his, and her arm round his waist, taking the weight off his injured leg. "Just a little further."

Dorian bit down on his lip, but still pushed himself forward through the small crevice. He bit down harder as he was forced to put more weight onto his foot to propel himself upward and forward. He pulled himself away from the Bokkai with a sharp grunt and continued to lean forward as he tried to grasp for a ledge to continue his momentum.

"If you don't let me help you, I will pick you up and carry you." She flicked a strand of swampy green hair out of her eyes and gave a him a little tug to get him going. It was only a few more meteres, and then the squeeze through the hole and they'd be able to get out of this mess.

"I....I...I've got it....almost" He breathed heavily as he continued to push his body on through the path. It took several more moments than he would have liked, but he finally made it to the front of the seal doors. He slumped down as he cradled his leg and began to catch his breathe.

"The...the...latch is right there." He pointed towards the latch encased in a medium-sized containment unit on the wall. "You'll need to override the security system to open the door." He continued. "You'll have to override the primary firewall before you open the doors..." He said in a labored breathe.

"Firewall?" she found the containment unit more by feel that vision. There was barely a hair of light in this part of the semi collapsed hallway. Firewalls were a tech thing, weren't they. And that was definitely not her strong suit. Shifting rubble? No problem. Handling cantankerous former heads of security? Piece of piss. Fixing technical stuff? That was why she had Klia. She went a little green. "Why does a Docking Bay have a Firewall?

"Because...this....particular bay belongs to the Raddon Corporation and they've made several....enhancements to their security protocols to keep out unwanted visitors." He said as managed to regain his strength. The company was was mostly concerned about outsiders, both human and aliens....but mostly alien, destroying, sabotaging, or even learning about current and future projects.

"Okay then," She flipped the latch on the containment unit and it flopped open, inside bright light flashed out and she winced as it blinded her for a moment. When she could see without a nasty after image she took a look at the complex system boards and the flashing lights and the row of small switches. Unlike the rest of this part of the station it had power. What sort of extreme paranoia led someone to installing their own power to keep a docking bay secure? And how much of the power was there. Surely a little bit of circuitry didn't need much. How much was being held back for the ...enhancements?

She turned a spring green and looked round at him. He was now actually starting to look ill enough that even she could spot it. He wasn't going to be doing any delicate stuff anytime soon. Damn. "Just how much is this going to hurt if I get this wrong?"

Dorian's breathe was becoming more and more labored as he struggled to remain conscious. But it seemed that the harder he fought, the more energy was sapped away from him.

"Don't worry..." he huffed, "You'll be too dead to feel anything." He said flatly. He reached into the inside of his jacket and withdrew a small cylindrical device. He pressed the sides of the device two and a small green light activated.

"Then I hope these security measures don't have a blast radius, or a reset switch. Cos I should warn you now. This is not what I'm good at." She took it from his hand with fingers gone the colour of avocado. "What's this for?"

"It will allow you to override the system without triggering the fail-safe mechanism. Once the firewall is down....." he stopped as he tried to gather his strength again. "...that device will open the doors to the bay." He finished. As bad as he felt, he knew that Rene felt even worse, and that was assuming the man was still breathing beneath the rubble.

Hell's bells, he looked a wreck. For a moment she wondered if she should check his leg. But the best thing she could do for him was to get through those doors. "move back if you can. If this goes south, I want you as far from ground zero as you can get."

She turned back to the panel. There was port that looked like it would take the little cylinder and she pushed it in. For a moment it resisted, so she pushed harder, until it gave up and sank into the fitting. Nothing much seemed to change in the electronics. Except the blinking lights had stopped blinking and just sat there, red and steady. So far, no explosions.

She then flipped the switches to the off position. There was still light in the containment unit. but the red lights had gone off. "Well, if I haven't done this right, I guess you and your little race hate buddies are about to have one less alien to worry about."


She turned to the cargo bay doors, and pulled the manual release.

OFF:


Dorian Gabriel
Former Defender of the Federation
Raddon Corp

Yolanthe Ibalin
Owner, The Box of Delights

 

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