SET - Rojar I Orbital Survey (Part 3 of 4)

Posted on 18 Apr 2013 @ 8:31am by Chief Warrant Officer 3 Lamar Darius & Commander Andreus Kohl & Lieutenant Theron Rhodes

4,097 words; about a 20 minute read

Mission: Episode 03 - Frontier
Location: Rojar I (Surface) - Shuttlecraft Virginia
Timeline: MD 04 - 1110 hrs

Previously, on Rojar I Orbital Survey (Part 2)...

Theron believed that he had not lost consciousness, but things were a little fuzzy to him. He could hear conversations about him. Something about shrapnel and soup ladles. He blinked his eyes and shook his head to clear his foggy thinking. Looking at the control console he took in the ship's status. He then shut down main systems to conserve energy. He released his restrain to get up, but as soon as he did pain struck his body violently. "AAAAHHHH!!!" he screamed out falling back into his seat. His head pounded. His body screamed with pain, especially his thigh. He had forgotten about the shard of metal sticking out of it.

And Now, the Continuation...

[ON]

From his vantage point in the stern of the shuttle, Kohl couldn't see the metal embedded in Theron's leg. He asked, "Lieutenant, tell me where it hurts," as he snatched up the hypospray Maenad had left on her shattered console. Kohl bounded forward, between the pilot seats.

Rhodes explained quickly thru gritted teeth, "I have a piece of metal embedded into my left calf, a burn on the back of my right hand, and an abrasion on my left shoulder."

The scream which emanated from Rhodes was obviously one of pain, and Lamar looked over with concern for his fellow comrade. Kohl was already jumping into action and the warrant officer politely vacated his seat in order to give the medical officer some room to work. As he squeezed past Kohl, he gave Rhodes a pat on his shoulder. "Try to relax, and don't move too much." he said, then moved to the back of the craft to check on Maenad.

"How are you doing, ma'am?" he asked in a quiet voice as he knelt down next to her. He had heard request to remove the shrapnel and wanted to help, despite Kohl's reluctance. "You know, I have seen many shrapnel injuries like yours in the Corps." he said, then reached down to his boot and pulled out his combat knife. "I can remove them...if you really insist? Wouldn't be the first time I've done it for someone..." he said with a small grin to try and comfort the woman.

Maenad saw the knife and had a small sense of panic overcome her. She wanted Kohl to come back. "No," she held up her hands. "I can wait." The knife would be painful and crude, and she didn't want that. "Thank you, Lamar," she said. "And thank you for getting us down in one piece," she touched his arm. "It could have been much worse."

Lamar didn't say a word but instead gave the science officer a curt nod. Starfleet..., he mumbled to himself in his head as he watched her stare at the blade. She wants the shrapnel out but apparently not enough to endure a little pain, he sighed to himself. Securing the knife back into its sheath, he moved to the very back of the shuttle and opened one of the side panels which contained several EVA suits. "I need to go outside and check the status of the thrusters." he explained to the senior officer. "Would you like to accompany me? I could use some help, if you're up to it."

After several blinks of thought, Maenad wasn't sure that she could. She looked forward up toward Kohl and Rhodes, then outside through the cockpit window. It looked like a literal hell; visibility of only a few kilometres, bits of flame and sparks drifting on the air, and the sky was dark and glowing orange from the molten surface. "Wouldn't Rhodes be better?" she asked uncertainly.

Looking towards the cockpit, Lamar shrugged with a bit of hesitation. "He doesn't look too good right now." he answered. Weren't the man's screams of pain somewhat obvious in the small cabin? he thought to himself. Maenad was the senior-most officer which made her the mission commander, but if she wasn't able to assist, then Lamar would have to ask Kohl or wait for Rhodes to get treated. Or simply go alone.

Maenad hesitated, thinking. She knew nothing of shuttles or engineering, or anything technical at all. She might be more of a burden outside, but Rhodes' wailing had been more than her own. In fact, Maenad hadn't screamed once during the entire experience, so to hear Rhode's pain - a man of significant strength - against hers spoke for itself. Maenad stood, gently and not without wincing in pain of her own. "I will do what I can," she told him.

From where he was perched on the pilot's seat, Kohl had already applied the hypospray analgesic to block Rhodes' pain. Pain wouldn't do Rhodes any good right here or now. Kohl had fumbled his way out of his black jacket, leaving him in his teal turtleneck, as he wrapped one of the sleeves of his jacket around the sizeable shard of metal. From his medikit, Kohl proffered the vascular regenerator to Rhodes. The device was pistol-shaped with a protruding emitter crystal. "Hold this," Kohl said, "and then I'm going to pull out the shard."

Rhodes felt unconvinced that all this was a good idea. He held the regenerator in his left hand for Kohl, took in a deep breath, then looked at the medical officer and said, "I'm ready."

With his lightning blues, Kohl looked Rhodes in the eye and held him with an intent stare. "You won't feel a thing," Kohl said, and either he was lying or he was willing it to be true. Kohl wrapped both of his hands around the sleeve that was protecting him from the sharp edges of the shard. He tested his grip and then he pulled the shard out of Rhodes' leg. Before the metal had cleared Rhodes' flesh, bright red blood splashed out rhythmically. Kohl dropped the shard and quickly grabbed the vascular regenerator in its stead. He aimed the instrument at the shredded blood vessels and pulled the trigger. Under the precisely calibrated regenerative fields of the instrument, the blood vessels in Rhodes' leg recovered their necessary shape and structure.

Theron chose not to watch the event and preferred to stare at Kohl, focusing on the wrinkles at the edges of his eyes. All the different folds and creases. When Theron looked down the regenerator was being used. He knew there had been, but had ignored it this time. He finally said with a wink, "You do fine work. How are you at mixed drinks?"

Once the bleeding was controlled, Kohl looked up at Theron's question. As he titled his head up, he offered Theron a sideways smile. "Take me out to a bar," Kohl said, "And I'll show you."

Lamar helped Maenad get to her feet and gave her a gentle pat on the bare skin of her back. "Let's get you some new clothes and get you all suited up." he said. She was an attractive woman who he didn't mind seeing barely clothed, but unfortunately the surface of Rojar I would be much less forgiving to her. The warrant officer procured a fresh uniform from one of the storage compartments and held it out to her, then helped her put it on while trying his best to make sure she wasn't in too much pain.

Maenad flinched at the unexpected touch. She didn't like being touched by people she barely knew, especially in her vulnerable condition, but she said nothing about it. She carefully got up and accepted the uniform, but she only put on the tunic and left the jacket on her chair.

"Warrant Officer," Kohl called out from the pilot's seat. He tossed a hypospray at Lamar. As it arced through the shuttlecraft, Kohl explained, "Antibiotics. For you both. I didn't see allergies in your files..."

Turning as he heard his rank being called by a senior officer, Lamar quickly sighted the small objected as it flew towards him and snatched it out of the air with the skill of a former athlete. "Yes, sir." he promptly replied with a nod, then pressed the hypospray against his shoulder and felt the familiar tingle from the tiny needle as it penetrated his uniform and skin. Looking down at the device, he tapped a small button on its handle which reloaded the dose, then looked at Maenad. "Orders from our medical officer." he told her with simplicity in his voice.

She injected herself with whatever was in the hypospray, then moved up toward the cockpit. "How are you doing, Theron?" asked. "What happened?"

Rhodes looked up at her and replied with a little humor, "It seems my muscle tissue attracts metal shards. I'm not sure why, but I'm doing much better now."

She patted him on the shoulder. "Good," she smiled. "Are you up to going outside? Can you walk?"

Theron flexed his legs and arms, and responded, "Yes, I think so." He slowly got up from the flight chair and moved around the cramped cabin.

"I need you to stay here," she explained to Kohl. "Somebody has to stay inside and watch out for us. Monitor the communications system and let us know if anything comes in from the Galileo."

Nodding at Maenad, Kohl pushed off from the pilot's seat and moved on over to his undamaged console. He smiled at Maenad's poise, a complete transformation from a few minutes earlier. "Understood," Kohl said, and he offered Maenad another dose of pain-killers to last her through her time off the shuttle.

It took Maenad a few minutes to suit up, and all the pulling and stressing was hard on her. The analgesics Kohl had given her helped, but she was still hurting. Finally, ready to go, she followed Lamar into the rear of the shuttle.

After helping Maenad, Lamar suited up in his bulky EVA suit and grabbed a repair kit from one of the compartments in the rear of the shuttle. Checking his helmet and gloves, he gave himself a slap on the head to make sure he was good to go, then tapped a button on his sleeve to turn on his helmet lights. "All set?" he asked Maenad through the suit's comm as he moved to tiny rear decompression bay.

Maenad nodded inside the suit. She had no idea what she was doing or how she was supposed to help. "In this atmosphere and in this heat, we'll have no more than twenty-five minutes out there," she said. In one hand was a container for rock samples. "Let's make the most of it."

"Twenty-five minutes, understood." Lamar repeated, then pressed a button on the rear compartment's side panel to seal off the aft section in preparation for decompression. Strangely, despite the somewhat emergency nature of the situation they were currently in, the former Marine was looking forward to going EVA. He had been part of the 201st Orbital Drop Battalion during his time in the Corps and had fond memories of his times in space suits. And now, he could actually enjoy his time in the suit without worrying about getting shot at.

The aft bay decompressed with a loud hiss, and finally Lamar hit the release button for the rear hatch. It slowly opened upwards and the two of them were presented with an awe-inspiring view right in front of their eyes. The glowing hot, molten surface of the planet shimmered with heat waves and in the near distance there were several large volcanoes which were busy spewing their red/orange contents across the surface and into the sky. The large sun, Rojar 861, took up almost half of the sky, forcing Lamar to quickly reach to his helmet and flip down his sun visor. Like the first man on the moon had done, Lamar took a deep breath then stepped out onto the surface. He glided several meters in nearly zero gravity until his boots came into contact with the surface with a thud. He was officially EVA, and loving it.

Following Panne and Lamar, Rhodes suited up and cycled through the airlock. As the exterior door raised, he was amazed by brilliant sun in the foreign sky. It was a spectacular and precarious situation full of possible dangers and wonders. Rhodes stepped down out of the shuttle and walked up next to them.

Lamar turned with a bit of surprise as Rhodes suddenly appeared next to him. He had thought the young officer was going to sit this one out, but apparently the good doctor had done a competent job of repairing the damage to his leg. "Good to see you, sir." he said, then pointed towards the front side of the shuttlecraft. "Can you give me a hand inspecting the RCS port? I think Lieutenant Panne might want to take samples...I'm not sure?" he asked, looking between the both of them.

"Thanks." Rhodes replied, "Yes, lead the way." As they made their way around to the port side, Theron almost tripped twice in the low gravity. The scenery was so different and consuming, he kept forgetting to look down.

Maenad glanced around at the hellish planet. The piece of rock that the shuttle had landed on seemed to be the most solid piece of rock for kilometres in every direction. She unholstered her tricorder, ignoring a small stab of pain in her back - she could only imagine what she would have felt like if Kohl hadn't given her those painkillers. She followed Lamar and Rhodes around to the front of the shuttle. "What's wrong?" she asked. "Can it be fixed?"

"Hmm..." Lamar mumbled, then bent down on one knee to inspect the large RCS thruster block up close. Almost immediately he identified a large amount of scarring on the protective cover, as well as what appeared to be several micro-meteorites which had managed to imbed themselves into the nearby fuel port. "Looks like there's some damage from debris impact, but I'm not sure how bad it is yet. We need to take off the housing so I can get a better look." he said, then placed his toolkit on the ground and delicately opened it.

The warrant officer handed Rhodes a decoupler and grabbed one for himself, then pointed to the side of the orange-colored housing. "Help me detach this by rotating the couplings ninety degrees counter-clockwise." he instructed as he began to work on one of the four small locking mechanisms.

Rhodes follows the instructions and was able to unlock the first one easily enough. However the 2nd locking mechanism had been scraped hard and was slightly dented. "This 2nd one is giving me some trouble. It is dented and may not release without some extra encouragement." He was trying to be lighthearted in their situation. He thought they may have to use something to pry the mechanism before it would release.

Lamar had finished releasing the two clamps, which he was working on, but it appeared that his counterpart was having some trouble with a damaged coupling. "Try giving it a good kick." he replied, then bent down and rummaged through his toolkit until he found another, possibly more helpful device to assist Rhodes. "If that doesn't work, try this." he said, offering the man a trusty old box wrench.

Rhodes had stood up at the suggestion and was looking down at the release mechanism, thinking the correct angle to give it his heel, when the wrench was offered. Accepting the box wrench, "Maybe I can pry the latch a little then apply a little . . encouragement."

Theron bent down and jammed the edge of the wrench into the release lever and leaned on it. It lifted slightly and allowed for a better positioning of the wrench. Rhodes looked at Lamar, then with one hand on the shuttle to brace himself, he jumped up slightly in the low gravity and came down with his heel hitting the other end of the wrench. The mechanism released and the wrench flew off into the distance, most likely off the plateau and into the river of flowing metal below.

Lamar watched the silver wrench fly away into the distance, probably into the mouth of one of the nearby volcanoes. "Heh...I guess that's why we have replicators." he joked, then turned his attention back towards the RCS housing which had just been uncoupled.

Placing his hands on either side of the large unit, he gave it a hefty pull and dislodged it from the shuttlecraft. Lamar had been careful to not pull too strongly in the light gravity, but even still, he stumbled backwards several steps once it finally came free and bumped into Maenad. "Well, hello there pretty lady." he said to excuse himself from the embarrassment, then handed her the large, orange housing. "Can you take this and check it for micrometeorite damage? If anything is stuck in the exhaust ports, they need to be cleared out before I reattach it." he explained, then retrieved her an iso-modulator from the toolkit and handed it to her.

Maenad was collecting rock samples, placing them in the pressurised container when Lamar bumped into her, making her side jar with sharp stinging pains. Pretty lady? She didn't like that. Lamar made her decidedly uncomfortable. Lilou's choice in men, the realisation surprised her, was stunningly poor. She didn't say anything as she helped to right him in the low gravity and she took the large... thing. He spoke Chinese to her; Maenad had no idea what the thing was he'd passed her or how to clean it. Wasn't she the one giving the orders around here?

After a moment of turning the thing around and giving it a visual inspection, Maenad passed it back to him along with the tool she didn't know how to use. "I can't," she said. "But you can."

Rhodes smiled and shook his head slightly at Lamar's fall and 'come back' line. He then bent down on one knee and examined the thruster block and cooling manifold. There were the expected denting, but no apparent blockage. He reset his Tri-corder for mineral deposits inside the assembly. It this was the case there would more than likely be damage in the area of micro-meteors. With the confirmed 2nd scan, Rhodes looked at Lamar, "No signs of internal damage. Only a 8% blockage on the cooling manifold. It should not cause us a problem." About that time he felt sweat run down his right temple and cheek.

"That's good news." Lamar replied to Rhodes, then looked back at Maenad. Why can't she? he wondered. Did she not know how to use the most basic of Starfleet tools which should have been covered in the Academy? Or was she simply uninterested in helping them get off the planet as quickly as possible? Apparently collecting rocks was more important than repairing the shuttle in the blistering heat. The planet was extremely hot and they were short on time. Sweat was soaking through his uniform and the inside of his suit was uncomfortably sweltering.

Over the comms in Maenad's environmental suit only, Kohl's voice asked, "How're you doing, Panne?" He couldn't hide the concern in his timbre.

"I'm fine," she replied. The pain in her back was less-pronounced, but she could feel it tagging and tugging at her. While Rhodes and Darius worked on the shuttle, she was collecting rock samples, getting as much as she possibly good and storing them in her container.

After about five minutes of repairing the dents and cleaning out the exhaust ports on the housing, Lamar has successfully finished the task at hand to the best of his ability. "Okay, I think we're all set." he finally said to Rhodes, then walked back over to the thruster block. "Can you help me put this casing back on?" he asked as he knelt down to put the large orange cover back over the exposed engine.

"Sure." Theron replied and knelt down. He then had a memory about a joke someone told him that would fit this situation. Something about baling tape and duct wire. He couldn't quite remember how it went, so he thought best not to try.

"It's not quite lining up." Theron reported. Pressing down on one side with his left, he stuck the cover with his right hand and it all snapped shut. A big grin came over his face and he looked up at Lamar. He heard something in the distance and turned to look across the beautiful landscape one more time.

After observing the initial difficulties Rhodes encountered, a sigh of relief finally emanated from the support craft pilot when he saw the casing eventually fit back into its proper position. "You had me worried there for a second." he said to the security officer with a nervous chuckle as his EVA suit approached dangerous temperatures. Blinking the sweat from his eyelashes, Lamar fitted his half of the housing back into its original position and then proceeded to reattach the couplings.

In all of the EV suits, Kohl's voice came across the communication nodes. There was faux-levity in his voice to smother the panic. "Let's all think about coming in from the heat," he said, "Nowabouts would be best."

"We're on our way," Maenad said almost regrettably. She was in the middle of conducting a drill analysis, getting some rocks from about a metre beneath them. "Just give me another minute." The samples were very small, but it only took a tiny amount for the analyses to work. Samples secure, she rose from her knees and took one final look over the horizon. The massive sun took up most of the sky, but thanks to the light shield of the visor she was able to look at it directly. Sunspots, veins of red and orange on yellow, some shades of brown where it was cooler. Bursts of solar flares arcing over the pulsing surface. It was all so clear. It was beautiful, she thought.

She dropped her eyes to scan over the distant horizon of the planet; volcanoes and drained of lava in the distance; black islands of rock among a glowing molten sea put distance between them. She thought that if they had landed on one of the black splotches of rock that hadn't melted, where they were standing now would look much the same from there. Bit of flame and ash floated on the toxic atmosphere around her. She reached up and caught a white piece of drifting ash that broke apart on her palm. She almost said goodbye aloud, but remembered in time that she was on an open comm. A chill ran down her spine and she smiled at the irony of being cold in the middle of what was essentially an oven of a planet. Maenad was grateful for the invention of air conditioning.

Time seemed to slow down for Lamar and his movements became sluggish, but he finally finished reattaching the component to the shuttlecraft. Looking up at Rhodes with a weak grin, he mumbled in through the comm. "Let's...go back...home..." his voice trailed off, then he suddenly slumped down against the side of the shuttle as his space suit reached dangerous temperatures. His body was in the late stages of heat exhaustion; not uncommon for a Marine, but extremely dangerous considering the temperature of the planet's surface. If he couldn't get inside the shuttle within a few short moments, he would start succumbing to heat stroke.

A drop of sweat began to collect and tickle the end of Theron's nose as it dangled from the end. He blew up from his mouth to get it to go away, but it didn't help much. When he turned back, he saw Lamar leaning against the shuttle and onto the ground. He stepped over quickly, just as his eyes began to sting. He realized that sweat had run into his eyes. He knew that the environmental suits were being pushed to the limit. Rhodes called out, "We need to all get inside very quickly."

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

--

WO Lamar Darius
Support Craft Pilot
USS Galileo
NPC'd by Lirha Saalm

Lt. Theron Rhodes
Asst. Chief of Security
USS Galileo

Lieutenant (Junior Grade) Andreus Kohl
Asst. Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo

LTJG Maenad Panne
Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo

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