Panko Breadcrumbs (Part 8 of 10)

Posted on 22 Oct 2016 @ 3:25am by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Lieutenant Tuula Voutilainen M.D. & Lieutenant JG Rayze & Chief Warrant Officer 3 Greg Mitchell & Lieutenant JG Eelim Galan & Petty Officer 1st Class T'Lin & EMH Mark X-C "Shirley"
Edited on on 22 Oct 2016 @ 3:34am

2,256 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Episode 12 - Recluse
Location: USS Galileo/Paulson Nebula
Timeline: MD 03 - 0040 hrs

Previously, on Panko Breadcrumbs (Part 7)...

The nebula's own ambient lighting was the only source of light as he nodded agreeing with the woman "As long as you can manage the pain, I can't have you passing out on me especially when we go back to get the others. I just hope we haven't lost to many"

"I'll be able to manage the pain with the meds for a while," she started. "If we're out here longer than a couple of days, I might have to take a nap."

She winced with the pain in her body.

"But I'll do my best." She looked at the barely lit control panel, at Lieutenant Commander Wyatt, at herself and then toward the nebula. She wasn't even sure where they were. All she knew was that the ship she had just gotten to was now slag somewhere in the middle of the nebula. She would never cry in front of someone but she was definitely emotional.

"I guess it's all we can do," she added.

And Now, the Continuation...

[ON]

Lower Decks

As the security team moved in the general direction of sickbay, Greg had to use every mental block he could to keep out the pain. Just a few more feet....just a few....

Suddenly, the lighting changed and the general alarm went out. Abandon ship.

Greg felt his stomach drop as the ship rocked under explosion after explosion.

"Chief!" the wounded officer yelled.

"No, no, no NO! Damn it!" Greg slammed his hand into the nearby bulkhead. "Damn it, damn it."

Wilson, who was carrying the dead security officer, walked up to him. "Chief, focus, what do we do?" He asked.

Greg regained his composure and stood up. He took a deep breath. "We've lost the ship."

Wilson nodded. He felt worse than the Chief, having been on the ship longer. He looked over at Rivetti who had a look of disbelief on his face.

"Lost? You mean...the ship..." Rivetti began.

"...is about to be destroyed." Greg turned to the men. After thinking for a moment, he responded. "We're abandoning ship. We aren't going to sickbay. We'll have to treat them on the lifeboats. Everyone move out, now! Check your corners and any rooms we come across. Make sure no one is left behind."

"Aye Chief!" The group responded at once and began to head to the nearest lifeboat, checking for survivors as they went.


USS Galileo - Deck 4, Sickbay

Inside sickbay, Gilbert fearfully scuttled back and forth across Tuula's desk. While the tribble didn't possess the understanding that the humanoids on the ship did, he could tell by the mood of the people constantly buzzing around him that things were bad. And when things get bad, a tribble follows his instincts.

He hid.

Trying desperately to find a hiding place, he eventually settled on a large black bag. This particular bag had a skull emblem on it, as well as a number of small metallic tools and vials of liquid inside. Still, it was the best hiding place he could find, and he buried himself deep in the black doctor's bag, hoping that it would all soon be over.


Deck Three

Rayze had never made it to Engineering, never even made it off the deck he'd started on. The Klingons had pushed hard for the Armory, eventually driving him and the few others who had made a stand there out. He'd taken a number of cuts and blows, but the worse had come with the terrifying explosions that caused the ship to buck and heave. Rayze was pretty sure his left arm was broken after he'd hit the deck too hard, too fast, unable to roll or brace himself. The snap had been audible, even over the detonations, and the pain nauseating. Alarms rang in his ears, decompression alerts along with the tell-tale whistling of escaping atmosphere. Then came Lirha's voice, giving the order he dreaded to hear...

"Alright, that's one more," he muttered to himself as he slapped the control of the escape pod he stood outside of, triggering the launch of the lifeboat that had been filled to capacity. There were two other crew people with him, looking nervous as he limped slowly to the next pod in the line, and Rayze waved them in. "We'll wait a few more moments," he informed them though; the pod could fit up to five or six safely. Rayze turned and watched for anyone who needed help to make it coming their way, holding his broken arm close with his good hand, and trying to ignore the sounds of other pods launching.

T'Lin looked at the wounded and shook her head at the doctor in the aftermath. "We cannot do more, go, I will do what I can, we had other people about." She knew that Eelim had made a round and she went to look for him.

She spotted him and grabbed his arm and tugged, "Escape pod this way, we much evacuate before the ship's damage no longer holds atmosphere."

Eelim tried to resist. He saw that there were others about and he let T'Lin pull him towards the escape pod.

T'Lin spotted a life pod and noted the ejection was already counting. "Hold the pod, two more!"

With a slap of his palm against the control panel, Rayze halted the countdown at T'Lin's call. "Hurry!" he shouted, though it wasn't as loud as it might have been otherwise. The air pressure on the deck was getting dangerously low and continued to drop as the Galileo leaked her precious atmosphere into the nebula. Rayze leaned out of the pod and held out his good arm to drag Eelim and T'Lin inside where two others already waited.

"What about the wounded?" Eelim asked. He saw that the Klingon doctor wasn't in the pod. "What about Dr. Eviess? Did someone evacuate the brig?"

"We have not sufficient medical resources, we must save who might. Remember them in our hearts and minds. The air is getting dangerously thin."

She boarded the pod and if need be would nerve pinch the Cardassian. "Tine to go," she nodded to Rayze.

"You're right," Rayze agreed, but instead of launching the pod with all of them in it, he suddenly pulled himself out and back into the corridor. Before anyone could protest, he started to seal the hatch. He'd been agreeing not just with T'Lin, but with Eelim as well. The thought of leaving Nelis in the brig, to suffer whatever fate would befall the ruined ship and any who were left behind, was intolerable. "Good luck," Rayze gave them a grin, wide and bright despite his pain, and a little salute from his temple with his fingers right before the hatch closed.

His right hand tapped the launch command into the external controls for the escape pod, and a moment later they were on their way with a loud gush of sound. That was the only thing that seemed loud to him anymore; with the air pressure so low, low enough that he was already seeing spots and flashes in his vision, the klaxons and secondary explosions were dull. Gritting his teeth hard, Rayze started to pull himself along the corridor, using fallen beams and kicking off damaged bulkheads with his feet. Fortunately, the security office wasn't far, but he was still exhausted by the time he arrived and managed to force the door open.

The room seemed so strange looking to him, as Rayze floated inside, no matter that he hadn't been on board long enough even to settle in or call Galileo home. Lights flickered, near dying, and sparks erupted in a continuous stream from one of the damaged force field generators. Thankfully, it wasn't the cell that their prisoner had been placed in, because Rayze could see the smoke and scorch marks the hot, glowing shards had caused. Nelis floated in the cell next to it, her hair in disarray and drifting about her head like a nebula. Rayze kicked the wall behind him and launched himself at her.

"Leave me..." Nelis muttered. At least that answered the question on whether she was alive or not, but her lethargic response and weak efforts to fend him off as he grabbed a fistful of her shirt reminded Rayze that they were out of time. He could see the blood matted in her hair from where she'd hit her head, either during the torpedo impact or during the warp core breach, and it was likely she had a bad concussion. "I failed to stop him, to save everyone, and now look what's happening."

"Oh, no, you don't get off that easy," Rayze tried to make it sound like a joke, but it was hard even for him. She'd done something terrible, and while he could feel compassion for the hell that had driven the Bajoran woman to such dire action, he couldn't make light of the justice she had yet to face. How terrible it was too, that she seemed to blame herself for the current crisis. Rayze's momentum had carried him deeper into the cell, and he crouched his legs to get a good push off the wall to send him back the way he came, this time with Nelis in tow.

The corridor outside seemed darker somehow, and definitely colder, though maybe it was just his own vision going black from lack of oxygen. There were some breathing masks located behind a panel a few meters to his right, but the escape pod cluster was to the left and he turned them that way. His broken arm was growing numb, not a good sign. Novas, his whole body seemed to be going numb and it was all he could do to keep his grip on his prisoner as they went. Bay after bay for the pods they passed registered as empty, the lifeboats already launched, and Rayze began to wonder if maybe he'd wind up dying here with Nelis anyways. He would be okay with that; no matter what she'd done, she didn't deserve to die alone. They could maybe have enough time to tell a couple of jokes before the air ran out. He knew a really good one about a Nausicaan rhinoceros....

It was Nelis who snapped Rayze's attention back as she shifted and tried to shout, though the best she could manage was barely above a whisper, "There!" Rayze shook his head and bounced off a conduit that had fallen across the corridor, then turned to look. The glowing green light of a panel announced there was an escape pod still attached there. His fingers trembled as he tapped in the commands to open it, but soon enough he pushed Nelis inside.

Rayze looked around for a long moment before joining her, his vision tunneling and his breath coming in shallow gasps that couldn't get enough oxygen. There were a pair of crewmen three meters away, buried beneath a collapsed section of ceiling. He could see them, clinging to each other still, and waited for any signs of movement. Prayed for it, and ignored Nelis plucking weakly at his pant leg. Finally, Rayze had to acknowledge that those were bodies, of crew people he couldn't help now.

Rayze closed the hatch behind him and triggered the launch sequence, wondering how many more were still alive, how many he was leaving behind. Nelis sobbed softly as the escape pod shot away from the doomed Galileo, and his own tears joined in silently.


Sickbay

As soon as the order came to abandon ship, Tuula, whose hands were covered in blood by now from all the emergency surgeries she had to perform, changed gears. Instead of treating the wounded, her job shifted to getting them all to the escape pods as soon as possible.

"You heard the captain, evacuate!" she shouted. "Make sure we get all our patients; I'm not leaving any behind!"

As the patients rushed towards sickbay, Tuula glanced around. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted her black bag. The one containing her essential medical equipment. The one with the skull on it. As the others left, she rolled towards that bag and scooped it into her lap before taking a glance at the EMH control panel. There was one more patient, one more member of her crew, who needed to get off the ship. "Computer," she called out, "download the EBH program into a portable data module."

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

--

RADM Lirha Saalm
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo

Commander Langdale Wiggins
First Officer
USS Galileo

LTJG Natalya Kirilova
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Galileo

Lieutenant Junior Grade Lenaris Marika
Archaeologist/Anthropologist
USS Galileo

Ensign Ryan Alexander
Operations Officer
USS Galileo

CWO3 Greg Mitchell
Security Officer
USS Galileo

CPO Torgier Naess
Security Officer
USS Galileo

Cmdr Allyndra illm Warraquim
Chief Medical and Second Officer
USS Galileo

PO2 T'Lin
Biochemistry expert
PNPC Warraquim
USS Galileo

Lieutenant Junior Grade Eelim Galan
Security Officer
USS Galileo
(PNPC MacKenzie)

Petty Officer Eviess
Medical Officer
USS Galileo

LT Cmdr Luke Wyatt
Chief Strategic Operations officer
USS Galileo

Lieutenant Junior Grade Amaranai Franklin
Assistant Chief Security and Tactical
USS Galileo

Ensign Miraj Derani
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Galileo
&
CPO2 Crispin Snow
Operations Officer

and other Galileans...

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