Panko Breadcrumbs (Part 10 of 10)

Posted on 22 Oct 2016 @ 3:26am by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Commander Langdale Wiggins & Lieutenant Tuula Voutilainen M.D. & Chief Warrant Officer 3 Greg Mitchell & Chief Petty Officer Crispin Snow & Petty Officer 2nd Class Nemo Bardasi & Crewman Ezra Koenig & Yasmin Khoroushi
Edited on on 22 Oct 2016 @ 3:32am

1,902 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Episode 12 - Recluse
Location: USS Galileo/Paulson Nebula
Timeline: MD 03 - 0048 hrs

Previously, on Panko Breadcrumbs (Part 9)...

"Need a hand Moose?" Snow reached out to the security officer, not sure if he'd manage the large step up to the Waverider by himself. Terje's leg was a wreck and he wasn't sure how the younger man was still standing.

"Vær så snill," Terje gasped, accepting the arm that reached to steady him; between that and his own grip, he managed to balance on his bad leg long enough to step up onto the ledge and propel himself inside - promptly falling onto the deck plating with a pained gasp.

Yasmin squealed in alarm, scooting back to give room as the man - with Crispin's help - pulled his legs inside the shuttle.

Snow heaved Terje away front he hatch and slapped the close button. "Allright, lets go!" he shouted to the pilot. Suddenly the whole ship shook as Galileo began to come apart around it. "Now would be good."

And Now, the Continuation...

[ON]

Deck 1 - Lirha's Quarters

Inside Lirha's quarters, beams came crashing down and flames erupted from the EPS systems. Amidst all of this, Snuffles darted around, trying to figure out a way out.

As he made it to the door, the sensor activated and opened it up for him. He bounded into the hallway, but hearing am agitated squeal, he turned back. It was Belle. Inside a small cage, the tribble was helpless as the flames grew closer.

Leaping into action, Snuffles backtracked, grabbing Belle's cage between his teeth and bounding down the hall, running past the flames, debris, and the wounded before spotting a friendly face. It was the woman in the chair, who would always roll around. Making a beeline for her, Snuffles jumped up onto her lap, Belle's cage still in his mouth.

"Snuffles," said Tuula, looking down at the targ as she pet him on the head to make him comfortable on her lap before continuing down the hallway to the escape pod. "Come with me. Everything is going to be all right..."


Lower Deck

The security team made it to the closest intact lifeboat. As the three out-of-commission officers were put inside, Wilson and Rivetti returned to where Greg was standing in the doorway to the final room before the escape pod. The search for survivors turned out horribly. No one was found, and between Greg's injured arm, Wilson and Rivetti carrying other officers, and the last crewman limping his way there, they did not have the manpower to bring any other bodies with them. Greg sweeped the room, noted that no one was in there, and turned to head back out.

"Chief, we need to go." Wilson responded.

Greg nodded and took one last look down the corridor. Sparks flew everywhere, the ship rocked with explosions, and Greg noted a groaning sound that reminded him of a dying animal attempting to remain alive for the last few precious seconds.

"You know, the last time I was aboard a ship with an intruder, we were able to stop it." He turned to the men. "I guess we were too slow this time." He let out a sympathetic smile. "Then again, that was a combat ship. This isn't."

"We'll see another one Greg." Rivetti responded. "We did all we could. We survived."

Greg looked past him at the dead officer in the escape pod. "Not everyone." To Greg, that officer represented everyone on the ship that they couldn't save.

"It's time to go Chief." Wilson said again.

Greg nodded and the three men walked to the pod. Wilson and Rivetti stepped in. Just before Greg could, he heard the loud yell of another Klingon intruder who had made his way into the corridor to the right of Greg. The intruder brandished a knife and ran at full speed, making one last effort to take the men out....

Without even hesitating or changing the direction of his body, Greg pulled his phaser and fired to his side. The beam impacted directly on the Klingon's face, vaporizing him instantly.

"Congratulations. You guys just made my shit-list too." Greg said angrily.

He stepped into the pod. The doors closed and the pod launched away from the dying ship.


Deck 7 - Astrometrics

Nemo had pulled himself off of the floor where he had been laying unconscious and began to make his way towards what he thought was the exit. He was trying to recall the nearest lifepod location when he heard a tremendous roar and actually felt the impact of metal upon itself. He looked around, wondering what had just happened but seeing no new destruction. Then he happened to look down and notice a large piece of metal had made its way through his lower abdomen. The Bajoran tried to move but realized he must have been impaled against the deck plating. There was no pain, but his fingers and toes were growing cold, and he realized he was about to die. An odd sense of calm and curiosity flooded him, as he found himself looking forward to what, if anything, existed after life. Wouldn't it be a real kick in the ass if the Prophets existed after all? he thought, and then he was gone.


Deck 7

Wiggins woke, sucking in air so hard it sounded like he was rising from the dead. What's happening? he found himself thinking. It was hard to do. He blinked and shook his head as if that would clear the fog that gripped his mind. One by one, he slowly focused on different sensations. The burning smell of smoke; the taste of metal on his tongue; the hollow warbling echo of someone calling out his name. He tried to turn his head to the left, but all he saw was twisted bulkhead. To the right, a dead man stared him down.

All at once his mind cleared and he remembered what was going on. He shot up in a mild panic and nearly headbutted a young crewman who had crouched over him. He didn't know the man's name, but he recognized him from security.

"Are you alright, sir?" Crewman Ezra Koenig asked. His voice was muffled through the breathing apparatus of the EV suit he was wearing. He placed a rebreather on the Commander's face.

The rush of oxygen helped clear his mind almost instantly. He took a deep breath before swatting his hand away. "Where are--"

"Back there, sir." Ezra motioned over his shoulder.

Wiggins looked passed Ezra at the twisted and hellish looking mass of debris blocking one end of the corridor. He'd been seperated from the group of fleeing engineers and he hoped they were safe. He reached up and allowed Ezra to help him to his feet.

"The order to evacuate was given, sir. I have one pod left two sections down. I think you're the last one. Good thing too, I don't know how many more I could fit." He waited for Wiggins to test his feet before he let him go and began walking towards the pod he had waiting. When Wiggins didn't follow, Ezra turned and quirked his head wondering for a moment what the first officer was doing. Then it came to him. "There were four pods listed as active on the other side of that...blocked off portion. If they remembered their training, sir, they found one."

Wiggins gave one last look over his shoulder, wiped blood off his forhead, straightend his dirty and torn uniform, and began a brisk, if hobbled, walk to the waiting pod.

Ezra handed the rebreather back to Wiggins, who took it and placed it over his face. They said nothing. Even after they entered the full pod and closed up the hatch.

Wiggins closed his eyes after strapping in and calmed his breathing. The only sound made in the small space, was the small hiss as the pod was ejected into space and the unknown.


Shuttle Vincenzo - Paulson Nebula

Galileo's Waverider-class atmospheric shuttle detached from its docking port beneath the ventral hull of the saucer section. Her small impulse engines quickly spooled up and began to glow bright red as the large shuttle plotted an escape trajectory from the mothership towards the edge of the nebula. Among the midst of escape pods ejecting from the Nova-class' hull as well as starship debris, the shuttle was forced to performed several evasive maneuvers along the way to avoid collision while weaving towards a clearing.

Had the Waverider not been to large and metallic; had she not been such a plump and fast-moving target, perhaps she would have managed to pass through the battlefield undetected. As it happened, however, one of the flanking Bird of Preys quickly trained its disruptors on her. Intense green bolts of charged disruptor particles tore through the purple nebula and impacted Vincenzo's shields. A salvo from one of the Klingon warship's guns tore through the dorsal shielding and melted the entire left wing and nacelle of the Waverider, causing it to start a slow and uncontrolled counter-clockwise spin.

Yasmin had managed to wedge herself into a corner of the shuttle, her hip bumping gently against the larger officer's shoulder. Noah's friend called him Moose, and she hadn't heard him correct that - well, she hadn't heard him say much of anything, and what he did say wasn't readily intelligible to her. All she had gathered so far was that he had been the one to find her in the quarters she shared with Noah and had rescued her. Had he been injured doing that, or had he already been hurt, she didn't know. He was dozing right now and she didn't want to wake him.

That intended kindness was thrown out the window - so to say - in the next second as an explosion sent the ship careening sharply and bucking in response. Yasmin swallowed a scream of terror, and felt an arm wrap around her shoulders, holding her steady and offering something of a buffer as all hell broke loose.

Snow steadied her, and then wedged Terje further into his postion as the ship span and the gravity and inertial dampers creaked, leaving them slightly floating. "Does this ship have escape pods?" Snow asked in a dead pan fashion, "We might need to use them."

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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