Mining for Fun and Wisdom, Part 3

Posted on 30 Sep 2015 @ 2:04am by Commander Andreus Kohl & Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Lieutenant Jared Nicholas & Lieutenant JG Tinaro Cyi & Lieutenant JG Cyrin Xanth & Lieutenant JG Lenaris Marika
Edited on on 02 Oct 2015 @ 2:41pm

2,743 words; about a 14 minute read

Mission: Episode 09 - Empires
Location: Asteroid 6/0983 Saalm
Timeline: MD 05 - 1316 hrs

[ON]

Previously...

"Yes sir," Wintrow replied, "Ill get suited up." He was nervous, obviously. "And no sir, I've never done this, not even in simulation sir."

The Trill shook his head. Not even a simulation! Well, this really would be a crash course. "Ensign Lenaris and I will guide you through this, but you have to listen and follow what we say exactly, Cadet Paragon," it was always a lot easier for Cyrin to speak to people he outranked. There was no stuttering then. "I won't lie to you, any EVA comes with a lot of risks. This shouldn't be too hard but only if you focus. Now, get this on, just like you're getting dressed. Most of it will seal for you, and I'll show you how to check your integrity." He opened a storage bin and started pulling out the suit pieces.

"Thank you sir," Wintrow replied gratefully, already afraid he might do something wrong. He was so desperate to prove himself, and that despite his failures he was fit to be in Starfleet. He wanted to learn!

Returning from the cockpit, Kohl padded towards Wintrow and Cyrin at the aft of the compartment. He held a PADD in one hand. "Once you're suited up," Kohl interjected, "you have twenty minutes to read this." --Kohl put the PADD in Wintrow's hand-- "The user manual for the Starfleet Mark-VII phaser drill. The time for learning is now, not next semester, not tomorrow, not when the mining is done. Right now."

"Yes sir," Wintrow replied, already having started to read his new 'course material' as soon as he was told to read it. "Right away sir."

And now the continuation...

The tritanium-composite hull of the transport vessel Pisa gleamed in a uniform manner, as it assumed a stationary orbit above the intended landing site on the asteroid. The transport vessel was all hard lines and angular protrusions, which shone in stark contrast to the dark, asymmetrical mass of the asteroid. That rocky exterior hid away the deposits of deuterium ore that were contained, deep within.

Within Pisa’s passenger cabin, Lieutenant Commander Andreus Kohl was standing directly behind the two flight control officers in the cockpit. This wasn’t his typical leadership style —hovering over the shoulders of two trusted officers— but this was Kohl’s first away mission as Chief Science Officer and Second Officer of Galileo. Rather than scientific discovery, this away team had been charged with mining out the precious materials needed to repair Galileo in her badly damaged state. Mission success was the only option for Kohl. He could feel a cauldron of fear and expectation boiling over in his chest cavity, which is what drew him to the forward consoles in the vessel. That, and the panoramic view of the asteroid field out through the forward viewport. Kohl looked to Tinaro on his left.

"We are in stationary orbit of the Asteroid. Sending location to your tricorders marked as Transport-Site-Primary. Your drilling sites will be marked Site-Alpha through Delta respectively." Tinaro stated as he placed the shuttle in orbit.

Standing behind Tinaro, Kohl squinted to out the viewport to follow the environmental-suited form of Jared Nicholas. Through the communications circuit between all of the EV-suits, Kohl said, “Lieutenant Nicholas. You have our undivided attention. Would you care to set the thermolytic charges? Ensign Xanth put special care into their preparation.”

"I double checked everything," Cyrin called out from back near the piles of equipment, directing a glance towards Nicholas. "The charges are scanned, confirmed to be good, and packed, Lieutenant."

Feeling eerilie claustrophobic inside the EVA suit, Wintrow just watched anxiously. He had checked his suit again and again. But a suit was very different from being inside a cockpit of a fighter. A fighter had more room! "Where do we go first?" he asked, already feeling terrified. He'd never been out in space before, not without a craft of any form surrounding him first. "What do I do?"

Without being prompted to do so, Marika double checked the Cadet's suit. "Don't worry sweet prince, I've got your back." She beamed him a smile and knocked on his helmet for luck. "Your all set. Like the nice man there told you, we'll be there every step of the way. Do as we tell you, and all will be good." Her tone was soothing for once, a nice contrast to her usual hyper-verbalism.

"Y-yes ma'am," the teenager stuttered, "I-I w-will..."

Cyrin joined them and did a double check of Marika's suit as well. Redundancy was safety as far as he was concerned, no matter how many times he'd done this. The Trill was immensely grateful for Marika's soothing words towards Wintrow; Cyrin wasn't sure how good he was at that himself. "All good, Lenaris. And Cadet? Breathe. We'll be given our orders, same as always." Cyrin lifted his helmet into position and sealed it. The lights inside lit up his face, orange and blue.

Starting Cyrin's checkup after he had gone through her, Marika dug up memories of her first EVA training. Grinning to herself she could feel the exhilaration that had come through her. She chuckled at the memory of sermon she had received for kicking off the station exterior walls, so she could let herself float. Ha!

Testing the oxygen valves and CO² pressure she nodded to herself and Cyrin. "All clear!" She knocked on his helmet to punctuate her words and the traditional wish of luck.

Cyrin raised a thumb in confirmation, then raised three fingers before tapping on the side of his helmet, letting Marika and Wintrow know which comm frequency he was set to that would allow them to talk freely with each other and still be monitored by Commander Kohl. The Trill bent awkwardly in the suit, grabbed his share of the heavy equipment, and waited for the other two to join him near the transporters. It'd be their turn soon, once the way was made clear.

As soon as Andreus Kohl secured the helmet on his own EV suit, his sapphire eyes were pointed out the viewport again. He tried not to blink; he needed to keep watch over Jared until he knew the science officer remained alive, safely unexploded.

Jarred moved carefully to the spot the explosion was set to take place. He'd checked and rechecked the location site and all the settings. The job was fairly easy and straightforward. If done right, it shouldn't be a problem. But it did carry a certain amount of risk, like blowing himself and everyone around him to hell and back.

Sure he had experience with such things, but it had been awhile, so he couldn't help being somewhat nervous. He set the charges, checking the timing yet again-redundancy had its value. Then stepped away.

"Fire in the hole!" he called out.

The charges and detonators were rather rudimentary devices easily manipulated by anyone with experience in explosive ordinance. But the applications of such devices on a small and unstable asteroid in near-zero gravity was much more complicated.

When Nicholas' call came out on the comm, there was a brief 2-second delay followed by three primary detonations space with intervals of 1.5 seconds. An inaudible 'boom' sounded and was accompanied by the mass ejection of asteroidal rock and metal from beneath the surface. Huge plumes of debris formed and spewed upwards on a seemingly escape trajectory, but were slowly captured and pulled back down to the surrounding area several minutes later and resulted in a bombardment of small ejecta now descending upon the team. Hopefully none of it would be fatal.

Aboard Pisa, the away team watched the explosions in anticipatory silence.

Almost on auto-pilot, Wintrow ducked and tried to cover his ears, only to find his helmet in the way. Rheneas laughed and shook his head, then grinned at Cyrin. "Well, I'm ready to go and very eager to get started. Too bad we are on open space...I would've loved to get my hands dirty, literally I mean."

Cyrin eyed the cadet with a grin of his own after chuckling a bit with Rheneas. "Cadet, you realise that sound does not propagate through space right? Even if we weren't on the shuttle, you'd still not hear anything out there."

The Trill hadn't stopped to think about it, though perhaps others might have noticed his enthusiasm, but Cyrin was feeling downright chipper about this mission. Seeing as they were all ready and the way had been cleared, the ensign turned to Kohl, "Permission to begin, Commander?"

From within the confining EV suit, Kohl used most of his upper body to nod at Cyrin. He raised an open hand to indicate the transporter platform. "Lead the way, Ensign," Kohl insisted.

Lead the way. Cyrin lifted his chin ever so slightly, squared his shoulders, and did just that, "Alright, let's get ready to transport. Cadet, when we beam down there, make no sudden movements. You're liable to go tumbling off this rock if you do the gravity is so low. Before you do anything else, magnetise your boots." He demonstrated the sequence on his own suit's leg controls. "There's enough nickel-iron content for us to stick. And keep breathing." The Trill took the rearmost spot on the small transporter pad.

Wintrow nodded in understanding and looked at the controls on his own suit. This should be easy enough and he was terrified about doing anything wrong. Unconsciously, however, he held his breath; being on an asteroid was so different than being in a craft of any kind. This, he realized, would be his very first space walk! He swallowed, and nodded a second time, anxiously waiting as he took his place. "Yes sir," he whispered, unable to get his voice to sound any louder.

Marika watched her companions take place on the transporter pad, and followed suit. She envied Wintrow a little. First times had a way of staying imprinted like no other memories did. He only needed to keep the panic in check, and all would go well. Glancing at him through her helmet's visor she smiled to herself.

Kohl hefted a phaser bore from out of its security case. The tool was operated much like a phaser rifle, but it's construction was far bulkier than even a compression phaser rifle and its controls were more complicated. Feeling the weight of the thing between both hands, Kohl was pleased he would be operating it in something less than standard Starfleet gravity. Kohl crossed the compartment, and stepped up on the transporter platform with the rest of the away team. "Mister Malachy," Kohl ordered, "Energize."

Rheneas nodded and activated the transporter controls. "Let me know when I can come out and play," he chuckled just before everyone disappeared.

The away team on the transporter platform were cocooned in the streaming and sparkling white light of the transporter's annual confinement beams. Their forms faded away from the compartment aboard Pisa, only to coalesce in a grouping positioned farther away from the mining site than Jared Nicholas.

Jared. being slightly closer than most of the others, was hit by a bombardment of tiny projectiles. None of which penetrated his EV suit. He like the others around him were unharmed.

Once the dust had stated to settle he moved closer to the explosion site.

Although he had been released from the effects of the transporter, Kohl held firm where he stood. He took no pleasure in exploring the sights of his new environs --at least, not yet-- and he didn't try to move. His every scrap of focus and attention was poured into keeping watch over the away team. With a tap of the EV-suit's controls on his forearm, Kohl magnetized his boots. As he did so, he spoke into his comms: "Lieutenant Cyi, please begin lassoing the larger rocks with the tractor beam and directing them away from the mining site. Mister Malachy, if you can do the same with the transporter?"

"Acknowledged." Tinaro replied. He began sweeping the area. There were very few large fragments that posed any sort of threat to the team but being overly safe Tinaro pushed those well away from the work area.

"Roger sir," Rheneas replied, still visibly disappointed at not being allowed to join the outside teams. Still...transporting debris could be fun...somewhat.

Cyrin's first steps onto Hotel-511 were filled with a rush of excitement. His asteroid! Finally he was as close to touching it as he was going to get, boots magnetising to the metal content in the rock with practised move. It was grey and streaked with brown or black patterns. The surface was pitted in some places, cragged in others, and the ground they stood gradually sloped upwards and away to show the large crater they stood in. It was beautiful.

"Alright uh," Cyrin slowly pulled his tricorder free from the tool pouch on his EVA suit. While he scanned the blast site they'd use to excavate from, he asked out loud, "Everyone good?"

"A-ffir-ma-tive!" Excitement was sent out with her answer through the comms. Looking around Marika was blown away by the view. "Prophets! I'll never get tired of this view." Turning around to look at her companions, happiness radiating through the EVA suit.

Marika got a thumbs up gesture from Cyrin, though the light of the stars reflected off his face plate and she would not see his smile. He was glad someone could share in this experience as he did.

Wintrow was still holding his breath when he coalesced. He belatedly remembered to activate his anti-grav boots and had already started to float before he was brought down to 'Earth'. He looked around, but made the mistake of not keeping his eyes on a fixed point. "I don't feel so good," he murmured, feeling his stomach heave.

Taking his first steps across the surface of the asteroid, Kohl did so to bring himself closer to Wintrow. Holding his phaser bore against his body with one hand, Kohl raised his other gloved hand as he approached Wintrow's tall frame. He reached over to pat Wintrow on the shoulder. "Use your words, Cadet," Kohl said in a consoling tone. "What are you feeling?"

Wintrow jumped at the touch, not having expected it. "Sick," he whispered, as he breathed slowly, wrenching his eyes shut. "I know it shouldn't be different than being inside a craft, but it is...it does feel different." He took small breaths between each word and swallowed a second time. Then he opened his eyes and looked directly at Kohl. "Help me," he whispered, "help me do this...I want to help. I want to learn."

Kohl looked back at Wintrow. The weightlessness of Kohl's body, the lack of gravity pulling on him, allowed an expression of serenity to cross Kohl's features. The lights in his helmet made his facial expression all the more clear. "Breathe deeper, Cadet," Kohl said. He spoke slowly, patiently, as if they could spend the next three hours on breathing exercises. "Breathe into your chest, into your abdomen, into your feet..." Kohl went on.

Doing as he was told, Wintrow continued to feel lightheaded but the determination showed on his young features. Despite feeling as if he were about to faint or throw up, he was determined not to let his fellow teammates down.

"Excuse me, C-Commander," Cyrin interrupted, trying to sound polite about it. "I show the debris is um, out of the way now. We should be okay to proceed with the operation, sir. I mean, uh, when you're ready, sir."

Turning his body towards Cyrin, Kohl's brow showed visible knits of consternation. "I wasn't kidding before, Ensign Xanth. This isn't my teasing timbre," Kohl remarked. He settled his phaser bore between both of his hands. "We will proceed when you're ready. Lead the way, Ensign. Direct your team to deploy the phaser drills."

--

[OFF]

RADM Lirha Saalm
Mission Advisor
USS Galileo

Lieutenant Commander Andreus Kohl
Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo

PO2 Rheneas Malachy
Engineer/Archaeologist
USS Galileo
[pnpc Tyrion]

Cadet SO Wintrow Paragon
Support craft Pilot
USS Galileo
[pnpc Tyrion]

Ensign Cyrin Xanth
Astrophysicist
USS Galileo

Ensign Lenaris Marika
Archaeologist/Anthropologist
USS Galileo

Lt. Jared Nicholas
Language Specialist
USS Galileo

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