Cave Redux (Part 4 of 8)

Posted on 10 Sep 2014 @ 11:32pm by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Captain Jonathan Holliday & Command Master Chief Markum Quinn & Chief Warrant Officer 3 Amon Mormont & Petty Officer 1st Class Gabriel Stark & Lieutenant Asahi Kita & Lieutenant JG Grayson Jones & Lieutenant Aria Rice & Lieutenant Elijah Williams IV, M.Sc. & Lieutenant Jared Nicholas & Ensign Jaana Voutilainen & Lieutenant Jacob Pendleton & Commander Allyndra illm Warraquim & Chief Warrant Officer 3 Alexion Wylde & Petty Officer 1st Class Siren Hex Saalm & Lieutenant Commander Dea Mialin & Lieutenant Commander Amynta Markos & Commander Luke Wyatt & Commander Scarlet Blake & Commander Norvi Stace & Lieutenant Oren Idris Ph.D. & Commander Andreus Kohl

3,074 words; about a 15 minute read

Mission: Episode 06 - Legend of Souls
Location: Lyshan III - Uridium Mine, Section LV855-LV900
Timeline: MD 07 - 1245 hrs

Previously, on Cave Redux (Part 3)...

Raising his rifle, John stuck the barrel through the crack in the doorway and quickly swept with his torch from one side to the other, eventually coming to the decision that the room was devoid of activity. Grabbing one of the doors he began pulling against it's dead weight, eventually forcing it open wide enough for the officers to squeeze through.

Jared waited his turn then followed being careful to check behind as well as ahead of him.

Allyndra entered and scanned all around the room. "There!" she held the tricorder upward and in a certain direction. There are life signs, up and over that way." She began to move toward the indications.

And Now, the Continuation...

[ON]

Gabriel tilted his head as he walked slowly forward to examine the busted door, touching the frame at the marks. He scanned it before shaking his head with a confusion. "Starfleet signature, but that..." he ran his finger down the edge of a door, "...isn't random weapon fire."

"No, it's welding," Siren said from close behind him, shaking her head as she pointed to it. "See here? They were trying to seal the door. From the inside."

"Which is what you do when you barricade yourself in," Mormont said before looking around, frowning as he shook his head. "This isn't good. This is so not good."

Jacob frowned. "Better prepare for the worst everyone. You don't seal yourself in unless you are expecting something horrific to be coming through the door soon." He put his body in a martial arts position of defense as he explored the room... just in case.

"You guys hoof it pretty quick." Asahi was tailing behind Quinn in his usual semi-delightful fashion, attempting to be as contrasting to their surroundings as humanly possible. Eventually someone would hit him with a spanner and tell him to shut up, but until then, he could at least try a little morale!

Quinn grinned and looked around.

As expected, the tiny engineer was quick to trot over to the source of the power issue in the room. "... Looks like we have power to some part of this place after all." Glancing over his shoulder, he nodded towards Grayson. "Hey, wanna come help me with these relays? I think if we patch 'em up, we can get some... light shed on the situation, if you know what I mean."

Smiling at the obvious and worst possible pun he heard in his life, Grayson replied, "Sure, I'm sure the whole situation will be illuminating." He couldn't believe at a time like this, he was cracking the worst possible jokes with someone else.

At least someone appreciated his humor. Asahi beamed, pulling the console open further and pulling a few of the mono-toned, black wires out. "... Think if we connect green to red, it'll blow the whole thing sky high?" Another joke, and Asahi probably would have ended up on the wrong end of someone's backhand. "Here, see if you can make sense of this while I find the rest of them. Something's gotta plug up to something else."

Still laughing (mentally), Grayson began to work on the mess of cable before him. His best bet was to track each wire back to its source, to its destination and tag it with some handy tape and paper that he had in his kit. "Shouldn't take too long. Will track these cables to make some kind of plan and we can work from there. Have any three core coaxial cable? It might take a little more than I have... it is a pretty old and rather dangerous system it would seem."

Humming a childish tune, Asahi squinted at the pile of wires in his hands, trying to make sense of what was in front of him. "Old mine, no updates. It might be a joint-Federation thing, but something tells me both sides of the management team were holding out on giving the place any new tech... or labeling their wires. How about this one?" He handed over one of the many black cables, not thinking to look to his own kit for any potential supplies, on fear that using something that could have been even remotely more shiny than the old equipment would have blown the whole mine sky high. "Looks like it could be one. If not, I'll see what else I have."

Some of the stray cable was useful, but Grayson couldn't help but feel disappointed there was not more. "This will have to do for now," he sighed. So far he had found some useless, redundant systems that would get them no where and had correctly tag them. Thinking he was getting somewhere, a severed and sparking cable some arms length down, he called out to the Chief. "Chief, I got something here, but will need a set of hands to help. A live wire about three quarters of a meter down. Showing some sparks of life, but it is in a really awkward position. I think if we can get this connected back up, we will get some limited functionality."

By the time Grayson had his arm deep in the under-updated mess, Asahi had another set of wires sorted out, now able to decipher which one did what. He had them sorted in his gloved hand, wiggling closer to where his engineering compatriot managed to get to. "Hm?" He peered deep into the dirtied up system, angling his flashlight to get a better look. "You want me to grab a hold of it or should I wiggle in there and tape it right up?"

"If you could tape it up, Sir." Grayson replied, remembering the proper chain of command authority at the last second. "If I drop these cables now, we will lose our live wire. If we get this repaired, I guess we will get about seventy percent illumination restored. there may be some gaps in the grid and some dim lights but I think the rest will be software issues from the looks of it."

A brief pause, and an internal 'oh yeah that'd make sense' later, and Asahi nodded. "Seventy is a better percent than zero." There was probably another pun in there, but he was much too excited to get some lights on to think about it. He already had his (decidedly bright orange) repair tape out, which seemed like such an odd choice. Of all the possible tools at his disposal, and Asahi chose the one that pre-dated most of the technology in the old mines.

He muttered an old, faithful saying about repair tape 'fixing everything' under his breath, hands already squeezing into the space and quickly wrapping tape up around the offending wires. "I'm proud to say that, if we're gonna die down here, it won't be because the lights are off, right?"

"Exactly." Grayson smiled as he heard the faint hum of distant generators and lighting filaments spring into action. It would not be long before the little lighting they were going to get would fill the cavern they were in. His next thoughts flew to the circuitry and interface systems that could help restore the rest, if that was possible.

"There we go." Asahi's hands were out of the space before the lights sprang to life. He tapped the end of the tape to the faceplate of the suit, making to kiss it like it were a precious baby. "That's right, you fix everything, don't you?"

"I can see I am not the only one who loves some low tech tape." Grayson smiled, "I will need to hid my own stockpile back on the ship now. I have lots of different patterned and coloured ones for a variety of situations. Want one with penguins on it, I got that." He laughed slightly, enjoying finding out he and the Chief had a lot in common at times.

"Penguins? I thought I was being cheeky when I picked up a roll with little techy mice." Asahi wiggled his fingers playfully, as if mimicking mouse motions. "We'll have to compare rolls when we get out of the mine."

"Which I hope is soon." Grayson wished. He wasn't used to away missions and was beginning to feel rather uncomfortable.

The sound of a different type of beep startled Elijah to the point that he almost jumped out of his EVA suit. He had been so engrossed in looking around and trying to absorb his surroundings that he almost completely forgot about his tricorder.... well, almost. He looked down at the readings and his jaw dropped open at the site of what was being shown on the tiny screen. "There are lifesigns," he said to no one in particular especially since he knew the comm was already opened. His gaze shifted upward and he lifted his arm and with one gloved finger pointed in the direction of the signatures. "Up in the ventilation, not too far, about 100 feet or so." WIthout so much as a thought, he began to move closer to where the biosignatures had been detected. His first thought was that it was a good place to hide, his second thought was how in the world were they going to get them down.

Jared hadn't been paying attention to his tricorder, but he wasn't that much of a scientist. He did however observe Elijah, so he followed his lead and followed him voer to the ventilation shafts. Checking his tricorder he said,, "What the Hell?"

Elijah looked to Jared, who now happened to be at his side. He had been surprised no one else had heard him but then again everyone seemed to be consumed with one thing or another. He had a feeling everyone's mind was occupied at the moment. He turned his gaze back to his tricorder to confirm the readings then he gaze shifted upward. "How are we going to get them out?" he asked the other man. It maybe have been a very simple question, but it was an important one.


Meanwhile, in a ventilation shaft not too far away...

Having spent the past 45 minutes hiding in an air duct in all manners of cramped and contorted positions, Tratar's appendages were beginning to tingle and get numb, and he could feel the weight of someone squished against his foot and cutting off circulation. In the pitch black, it was impossible to tell who, but he was beginning to get seriously annoyed.

"Can whoever is behind me... get OFF my leg?!?" he loudly whispered with irritation to the person behind him. Fortunately for the group, the entities which had been chasing them had eventually wandered away out of the control room about twenty minutes ago, but he still didn't want to make any sudden movements or noises which might attract them again.

"Look, I am not snuggled up to you because it makes me hot, you whining boy," Amynta Markos whispered back, trying to shift to get off his leg, but there was no room to move. She was hot, she was angry, she was irritated and the last thing she needed was to hear any more of him. If she could throw him out of an airlock, she'd be more than happy. Thrilled, actually. Unpleasant man. "And stop fidgeting...every time you do, you poke places where usually, people have to at least buy me dinner before they touch."

Tratar's head snapped back around as far as it could go in a futile attempt to look at the helmeted woman. What? His mind attempted to make sense of what she had just said about him touching her.

"Are you saying you are getting aroused??" he whispered back incredulously. Typical impulsive Human females...they had always been such a prude species in his limited experiences with them, and he supposed the stress of the current situation could make one of them break and lose their composure.

"Shh," Dea whispered mostly directed at the Cardassian. With recent events she was just as irritated as everyone else and didn't particularly like Tratar. However more importantly they were still in a survival situation. She could feel body parts cramping up from sitting in the ventilation shaft and other pain where she'd probably gotten injured during the fight without knowing it.

Amynta's eyes narrowed and her lip pulled up in a sneer. "I'm saying you're touching me like you get off on it, so stop squirming," she whispered quietly, but the anger was clear in her voice.

Despite everything, a small smile curled at Alexion's lips at the exchange. He glanced ahead to Amynta, shaking his head lightly, but with genuine fondness. His dark sense of humour lightened the situation of being stuck in a tube with everyone...it also distracted him from how hungry he was, and how, with Vaerons' need to eat more than many humanoid races, he was starting to feel a little light headed with it. And grumpy.

Luke listened patiently as the group became more agitated, the vent had become a baking oven and decided he needed to take of some layers. Shuffling somewhat un-gracefully he tried taking off his shirt from the inside of his suit. Setting free the first arm with only a slight degree of he proceeded to the other arm. This time however he tugged and nothing happened until a sharp rip caused him to curse under his breath before his elbow hit the fleshy part of what he could only guess being Blake.

Scarlet gasped at the sharp pain and didn't even think as she reacted on instinct by shoving him. She narrowed her eyes and held a finger out at him, as if to say 'watch it', rubbing the tender flesh. She was starting to consider taking her chances back out there.

"Sorry" Luke whispered, giving an apologetic smile as he placed his shirt on the ground around them, he felt bad for elbowing her but he felt much better now without his jacket on.

Stace was one of the last in to the shaft and as such seemed to be more to the back with a little more room to herself. She was still cramped, but the beads of sweat on her forehead had begun to irritate her as she wiped a torn sleeve across her brow.

Lyras seemed more concerned with the almost dead air they seemed to find themselves in. Vent or no vent, it seemed odd that there were no odd clunking noises or gross, 'zombie' noises for that matter. Odd and... oddly relieving.

Alexion's head lifted as something caught his attention, a light scrabble in his ear from his good sense of hearing. He turned his head to look back down the way they had come, frowning as he tried to concentrate on it. "Shhh...." he waved a hand at the others, "....can anyone else hear that?"

"I can," Oren confirmed with a whisper. He'd begun to hear scraping and shuffling a few moments before but, with the tension, he'd assumed it was his imagination playing tricks on him. The confirmation that he may not actually be going insane was a welcome distraction from the stifling heat and unwelcome proximity of his fellow crewmembers.

"Yeah I hear something as well," Dea replied going quiet to listen more carefully. At this point she hoped it was actually someone friendly and not the creatures they'd been trying to evade.

"Wyatt, Idris, let's crawl back a bit and see what we can hear and scan," Blake whispered, motioning the two closest team members who were at the back with her to start crawling back towards the panel they'd entered by, but taking it slow to try and stay quiet.

Luke slowly and quietly twisted his body and began to crawl behind blake silently leaving his ripped jacket behind them. With a smile on his face he continued to crawl but kept a distance from blake in front of him.

Oren nodded to Blake and carefully crawled backwards, making sure not to bump into Blake in any way, which wasn't easy, considering the cramped ventilation shaft.

From his spot in the escape-assembly-line, Andreus Kohl watched the trio back away from the rest of the away team. His stomach lurched violently, if briefly. Memories of Ruktah becoming separated from the team arose in his mind's eye, and he didn't care for a similar fate for any of the away team, not even Oren.

Stace turned on her rump with her legs crossed in a seating position and slithered slowly towards where she had entered. She took out her tricorder, and the dancing lights flashed about her freckled face. The trilling sound of the device made her start as she deactivated it quickly. Looking into it, she whispered back down the line. "Humanoids," she said quietly, looking back over her shoulder. "But the chemical composition and degradation of these vents are giving off a benign radiation that I can't cut through from here."

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

--

First Glinn Tratar
Chief of Security
CDS Aldara
[PNPC - Saalm]

LTCMDR Dea Mialin
Chief Flight Control Officer/Second Officer
USS Galileo

Lt. Jared Nicholas
Language Specialist
USSGalileo

LT. Asahi Kita
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Galileo

PO1 Lyras Ueda
Diplomatic Officer
USS Galileo
[PNPC Kita]

LTJG. Elijah Williams, IV
Geoglogist
USS Galileo

Lieutenant Andreus Kohl
Assistant Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo

Lt Cmdr Allyndra illm Warraquim
Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo

Capt Jonathan Holliday
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo

Lt. JG Luke Wyatt
Chief Secuirty Officer
USS Galileo

Ens Jaana Voutilaanen
Stellar Cartographer
USS Galilieo

CMDR Scarlet Blake
First Officer
USS Galileo

SWO Alexion Wylde
Doctor
USS Galileo
[PNPC Blake]

PO1 Gabriel Stark
Security/Tactical
USS Galileo
[PNPC Blake]

PO2 Siren Hex
Intelligence
USS Galileo
[PNPC Blake]

Master Warrant Officer Amon Mormont
Security
USS Galileo
[PNPC Markos]

Lt. Amynta Markos
Chief Intelligence Officer
USS Galileo

Ensign Grayson Jones
ACEO
USS Galileo

Lt. Jacob Pendleton
Chief Research Officer
USS Galileo

CMCPO Markum Quinn
Chief of the Boat
USS Galileo

LT Norvi Stace
Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo

LT Andreus Kohl
Asst. Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo

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