Refraction (Part 2 of 3)

Posted on 31 Aug 2019 @ 12:50pm by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Lieutenant Lake ir-Llantrisant & Lieutenant JG Matthew Plumeri & Captain Hiroshi Tanakata & Commander Teegan Jones
Edited on on 31 Aug 2019 @ 12:53pm

3,840 words; about a 19 minute read

Mission: Episode 17 - Crystal of Life
Location: Latari A III Orbit, USS Trial
Timeline: MD 01, 0630 hrs

Previously, on Refraction (Part 1)...

"Jones, keep an eye on our visitors. Put your phaser all the the way up. If they move this way fire. There are plasma conduits there and that might slow them down. Lieutenant I have an idea but need your help." He nodded toward the room marked science lab.

Jones nodded and turned up the level of her phaser rifle, training it on a plasma conduit while she kept an eye on the Tholians.

Matt nodded to Jones, "I think your Captain has an idea? If we survive this...I'll buy the beer."

"You're on," Teegan said.

And Now, the Continuation...

[ON]

Deck 5 - Science Lab 502

Once they made it across the hall Hiroshi outlined his idea. "Think you can get those replicated? I will keep an eye out along with my Number One in case the Tholians get curious."

For the second time today, Matthew cast Hiroshi the "Are you out of your freaking mind?!" look. He said after a moment of surprise, "Chlorine trifluoride...you want me to replicate that?" He put his hand to his head and set the phaser on the table. "Oh man! It's been a while since I had to even think about chemistry. This isn't like working the bar at a party. The main computer has been taken offline and the core isolated. I don't know if I can even remember the basic structure." He looked at the lab and looked at the supplies there.

Matt said, "It is hypergolic with every known fuel, and so rapidly hypergolic that no ignition delay that we have availabe to us here is going to work. It is also hypergolic with such things as cloth, wood, not to mention sand, and water—with which it reacts explosively. It can be kept in some of the ordinary structural metals. I can see —steel, copper, aluminum —because of the formation of a thin film of insoluble metal fluoride that protects the bulk of the metal, just as the invisible coat of oxide on aluminum keeps it from burning up in the atmosphere. If, however, this coat is melted or scrubbed off, we have metal-fluorine fire." Matthew rubbed his eyes and the bridge of his nose, "I am an Historian and an Astrophysicist; not a chemist! I might kill us just trying to mix the thing up!"

"And that is why it just might scare the Tholians. It will go right through those armored suits of theirs and through their shells underneath. Alright, let me see about the replicator. The computer should still be working here."

Matthew watched as the Captain touched the LCARS panel in the lab. It came to life and responded, "System online." As a standard safety feature, when under a red alert condition and transporter signatures are detected and the officer-on-duty has not entered the command code clearance after two-minutes, the ship's main computer will protect itself by locking down unused terminals first. Then secondary and then primary access points that are not being used. Then, all system will be locked and the user will be challenged to enter their security code. Hiroshi was already into the main computer and attempting to reroute emergency power from any system he could to the lab and the industrial replicator here. After a few moments, he was marginally succesful. Matthew said, "You did it!"

Hiroshi went to work and in a few moments nodded. "There you go. I am going to also ask for some launchers as well."

Matt nodded, "OK, launchers I can do. Captain? Now that we have computer access, should we check in with Ensign Waters on the bridge? I think we should see how far the Tholians have webbed us and give her an update. She's all alone up there and surrounded by dead bodies. And with the Tholians skittering around she might like to hear a friendly voice?"

Hiroshi really did not want to make more noise then they already had but the science officer had a point. He touched his comm, "Waters, how are you doing? How far is the web?"

A scrambled voice came through the comm system from the Miranda-class' bridge, barely intelligible. "...Captain.....olian web on all...ides..... *static* ...pri...syst.....line.."

Matthew mouthed, "We're running out of time!"

Thankfully the Tholians did not seem to notice them working as they were on getting through the armoured door to the computer core. Sure they could have just blasted the thing off but it would have damaged the computer and Hiroshi figured they wanted everything there intact. He got back to Jones holding what looked like a sort of big tube and with several metal containers.

The double-reinforced doors to Trial's computer core were now being cut into by the Tholian's tetryon rifles, set to sustained beam fire. The large Tholian commander turned away from observing the breach and now scanned behind them for any potential threats. A series of piercing shrieks ensued while it communicated with its comrades. Several small fire teams split off to secure all the nearby rooms.

Two of the Tholian troopers skittered farther than the others, charging down the corridor in a flurry of spiked legs. The orders from their commander motivated their search for Starfleet-type hazards that might prove obstacles to their commander's goal. Turning the corner, they approached a set of double doors. One trooper held back and aimed its tetryon rifle at the seam between the doors. The other crouched low to the left of the doors. That trooper swiped a leg within the door's sensor range, causing the doors to sweep open. The first trooper shot a couple of tetryon pulses into the compartment, but there was nothing inside but bulkheads and LCARS consoles.

Upon sweeping the room with their senses, the troopers reported back to their commander and moved on. They clattered over to the next set of double doors down the corridor. One trooper crouched low to the left of the doors. The other trooper hung back and raised its tetryon rifle. It aimed the rifle's emitter crystal at the signage on the door panel: Science Lab 502.

Inside Hiroshi was talking just above a whisper. "Alright first off we need containers, steel, iron, nickle or copper then they have to be exposed to fluorine gas. That will provide the coating so the stuff will not ignite the container. Once we have that we can make and store the compound. The reaction is fairly easy. We take fluorine and chlorine gas in six parts to two and heat to 284C. The reaction is 6F+Cl2 yields ClF3."

He jerked a thumb toward the door. "If we have to use it, once it burns through and the stuff reacts with everything. I remember in science lab watching as the professor demonstrated on a pane of glass. The glass burned. Anyway, once through, it will also react with the sulfuric acid that the Tholians call blood it will react with that as well making fluorosulfuric acid, one of the so called super acids capable of dissolving almost everything. The skitters will be in a world of hurt."

"This is some nasty acid alright. The chemical compounds and long chains are going to seriously tap whatever power we have left." Matthew said as he worked. For some reason, Lake's voice came into his thoughts. The calmness - that eerie calmness that could both irritate and soothe at the same time. Matt heard Lake say, "Everyone is entitled to their own feelings; but not their own facts." Matt listened to Captain Hiroshi as he spoke and they worked fast. But inside he wondered why he heard Lake say that phrase. He didn't even know if Lake had ever said that. He wanted to see him again.

Matt typed the rest of a chemical bonding formula into the computer and in milliseconds the correct amount of acid was calculated and prepared. It materialized in front of them on the industrial replicator station. A small vial. Tiny. Only 12.2 ounces! Matt looked at the replicator again and checked the calculation. "Dammit! The replicator doesn't have enough power to create the quantity in the formula. The damn thing used what it had and reduced the equation to match what is in the batteries!" He wanted to punch something! He slammed his fist onto the table - careful not to be anywhere near the acid they just created.

It was not enough. It would barely do the job Hiroshi wanted.

Things were not going well. They got the containers and even managed to get them properly coated. However, the replicator kept going out on them as the kludge of circuitry from the emergency lights was not enough to properly tune the thing. It seemed they would get a surge then the power would die off enough. It was frustrating.

"It's not working. Captain!" Matthew stopped working and stopped trying to squeeze anymore from the replicator circuits. 12.2 ounces would have to do. "Captain, We have barely enough to pull your plan off. But we have just enough to piss the Tholians off. I thought I'd better tell you something now because when they shoot us I'll be screaming. Captain Hiroshi, this was, by far, the lousiest request for assistance I've ever had. Your transporter made me sick to my stomach on the way over. Your ship is too hot, temperature-wise. The bridge lighting gave me a headache and the LCARS panel at Science 1 was sticky. " He paused a moment to think of anything else, "And your replicator makes shitty coffee. I thought you should know. Sir."

Hiroshi was not happy either but it was what it was. Even the tiny bit of chlorine trifluoride would give any creature with any sense pause. "Alright lieutenant, you complaints are duly noted, I will admonish ops and engineering as soon as I have a ship back. Do you play poker?"

"IF we get the ship back. The acid you have can eat through the deck plating. Yeah, I enjoy a game of chance now and again. Strip poker is kinda more my thing." Matt's eyes got wide with inspiration, "Wait a sec...you're not...you only made the acid as an insurance policy. You still want to talk with them? Find out what the hell? Basically yeah? Trick them into talking or slow them down and give them pause. You're going to play a hunch!" Matthew snapped his fingers as he finished closing the top of the final container.

"Exactly we are going to bluff with the rest of the containers. A demonstration and hope to Hades that the Tholians get scared enough that the rest of those have what we say they have in them."

Teegan squeezed off a round and hit the EPS conduit, pouring plasma over the Tholians. She aimed for a second conduit if the first didn't do the trick.

One of the Tholian troopers had been striding towards the threshold into lab 502, but the exploding EPS conduit took hold of the trooper's attention. It took a few steps back, away from the shower of sparks. All the while, the Tholian aimed its tetryon rifle at the destroyed conduit. The second trooper, meanwhile, swiveled its environmental suit. The Tholian swung its rifle 'round, looking for targets back the way they had come, as well as from the other corridor direction.

It was now or never, Hiroshi thought as the conduit exploded and the two Tholians were distracted for a moment. The launchers were simple things, basically a tube with some compressed air, one for each container. They were not accurate but he just needed to get the canisters down the hall and hopefully close enough to the one big Tholian. There was a small thump and the first one went. He heard the Galileo's science officer launch his.

Matthew watched the canister slide across the deck, spewing forth the deadly and corrosive acid. Everything it landed on erupted into a brilliant, smokey, poisonous fire. With life-support failing, they would have to be careful not to beathe in the deadly fumes and burn their lungs.

It was too bad most were empty but that was what it was. He had split what they had between a few of the containers. While he wanted to take out the Tholians, he figured killing one, even a trooper would not be conducive to trying to open a dialog, still he needed to prove a point so he popped the top off one container and aimed near the leg of one trooper. The can popped off and landed and went skittering across the deck spewing its contents including onto the legs of the suit of one trooper. Fire erupted from every surface the stuff touched including the suit. There was not a lot so it would not burn for long. As the fire erupted he called out hoping the UT was more or less working and could translate.

Jones kept her eye on the Tholians, careful to keep out of their sight and away from the chemicals. She had to admit, that was pretty impressive.

"Tholian commander, this is Captain Hiroshi Tanakata, those containers around your feet contain chlorine trifluoride. If you are not familiar with the stuff, it will set anything on fire including you and your troopers. I do not wish to cause any more destruction or death and am offering a truce to talk."

Matt gripped his hand phaser and waited. Plumeri hoped that somewhere deep down in that Tholian EV suit there was a rational, logical being. Not a monster. With the amount of dead crew lying about - it was more likely they were monsters. He stopped to think and wondered if the Tholians had ever wondered that about the Federation. Matt cast Hiroshi a look, "Ball is in their court", he thought. They must be pretty close to getting through the outer doors to the computer core. It was likely there was no power for the forcefield that protected the inner doors to the control room. The inner doors were just standard issue compartment doors so they would prove no match for the Tholian tetryon weapons. Matt wiped a bead of sweat from his nose. It was getting colder in here. And he was sucking deeper breaths for air. He thought, ~If the Tholians do end up talking...I hope they aren't chatty!~ or they will run out of air.

The rolling container, and its cloud of corrosive contents, gave the nearest Tholian troopers no pause. The Tholians continued their search and blasted testryon pulses in the direction of whatever looked like it may be a humanoid -- masked as their vision was through the chemical fog and the flames. The Trooper trudging through the chemical fog took so little fog that when the essential components of two of his legs failed, the Tholian faceplanted at an alarming speed.

All nearby silicon creatures now turned towards the location of the commotion and started to close in. Two more Tholians fired into the Starfleet crew's cover position, pinning them down but also ignorantly entering the chemical kill zone. Their suits and exposed crystalline frames collapsed into the deck, and the floor started to disintegrate and melt into the next deck below.

The large Tholian commander rapidly assessed the casualties and new atmospheric compounds that were incapacitating his invasion force. He was behind the first fire team which had gone down, and now took notice of the expanding destruction. Moving his large rifle to his hip and securing it, he trained his weapon directly into the center of the hazy hallway and unleashed focused fire directly into the doorway of the science lab. Large and high-powered tetryon pulses rapidly fired down the corridor in a quick counter-attack.

The tetryon energy impacted the doors to the lab and made short order of them. Exploding inward they sent white hot shards of sharp, razor like bits spraying in the radius of where the doors were. Matthew looked at Hiroshi and yelled above the din and fray, "Well, we got their attention! I see two down...that leaves nine pissed off Tholians." Matthew saw an opportunity. "Captain, I can take "B" Baker section and get around the Tholians. I think. I can get to the computer core. Captain...I'll destroy the central core. Take away the prize. Captain, I can do this!" As the last of the door shards turned from white hot to red hot as they cooled, smoke filled the room and the Captain and the Lieutenant no longer had any door, meager as it turned out to be, to protect them. And the smoke was beginning to clear.

Teegan popped out of cover just long enough to hit another EPS conduit. She also got a few other things. One emitted a gas that, on ignition, caused a thick, foul-smelling cloud to fill the corridor.

Smelling the foul gas Matt remarked, "That's either atmosphere reprocessing...or Jones just hit the pipe to the shitters." The deck plating was still burning from the acid and smoke, poisonous and white filled the corridor.

The second fire team of Tholian troopers could get no closer to the science lab, given the growing, flaming hole in the deck. Still, they held their ground as a defensive line to the Tholian Commander. When Teegan appeared from behind her cover, two of the Tholians continued firing their tetryon pulses as they swung their rifles in her direction. As she hit one conduit after another, the Tholians narrowed their field of fire on her.

Jones knew her luck wouldn't hold, but it was more important that she keep the Tholians away from science and the computer core.

Matt heard the continued firepower from the Tholians. And while he could not see into the corridor due to the smoke he had a bad feeling in his gut. It was a sinking feeling. He evaluated the situation as he crouched behind a small table. They were pinned down now and taking heavy fire. He said to himself, ~I'm not going to buy it on this ship. Hell no! This is not where it ends!~ He peeked around a corner of the table and yelled, "JONES!! Do you have a shot?!"

USS Trial's first officer popped out of cover just a moment too late, and her chest suddenly exploded with a shower of sparks. She flew backwards into the bulkhead from the impact of the tetryon blast then collapsed to the ground.

Jones had a shot, but it was the wrong kind.

Matt heard the blast and a nauseating crunch. He looked just in time to see Jones hitting the bulkhead, smoldering sparks from her front and the collapse to the deck. "JONES!!" he yelled out after her. "XO?!" He ducked back behind the cover of the table. "Shit-shit-shit!!" he said nervously and with tension and stress rising.

He peeked out again, "JONES!?" And then returned to the cover of the lab table. "XO is down....I don't know how bad. Looks bad" he said to Captain Tanakata. Plumeri looked back into the lab behind them. Searching for...anything...that could help them. He wasn't a chemist and so most of the vials and chemical compounds meant nothing to him.

Then it hit him. The smell. From the damaged conduit. He recognized the smell; sweet, kind of mixed with sulphur...Methane. He stuck his head around the other side to get a look at the damaged conduit. It looked slightly blue to him. Only the corridor red alert klaxon lights dimly lit the hallway so it would be harder to tell. But it looked blue-ish to him. Above it was a green conduit and then the ODN in yellow jacket. Matthew turned back to Hiroshi.

"Captain, blue conduit on the lowest rung out there in the corridor. Blue on the bottom, green above that and then ODN yellowjacket. That conduit...I think I smell methane." As he spoke, he tightened his hand phaser into a tight, narrow confinement beam. He was going to ignite the methane gas from the damaged conduit. It would be like a torch into the corridor. A wide arc for at least a dozen seconds or so. Long enough to get to the XO.

Hiroshi was pissed as he dove for cover. The Tholians reacted with nothing more than more hostility. His Number One did an excellent job but then he heard the cry and cursed the silicone creatures. "JONES!" he called and got nothing back. Then the Galileo lieutenant mentioned the conduits and that would give cover for a moment.

"Alright, do it and I will lay down cover fire. You attend to Jones." He made a nod of the head and then fired down the corridor while the lieutenant put his plan into place.

Imagining the next few seconds; picturing them in his mind, Matt exhaled slowly and did the best he could to focus. He opened his eyes and then smoothly, quickly he got to his knees and turned to fire. He aimed for the lowest ruptured conduit. The one the Jones had damaged earlier. Perhaps she knew that with environmental controls offline it would take minutes for the methane gas to accumulate and pool in the corridor. Perhaps she knew that damaging the conduit would then cause a low-pressure condition that would draw the methane gas into the conduit. Whatever the reason was it was now an opportunity. Matt fired his hand phaser.

The bright yellow beam, tight and narrow extended from the darkness of the lab and into the corridor about eight meters. The beam found the target even though Plumeri had aimed too high. There was enough methane pooled that it ignited into a bright fireball that bloomed out in every direction. The heat from it he could feel from his position. It was a short lived fireball.

He sprang to his feet and rushed towards the XO's position near the bulkhead and on the floor. The methane gas followed the source of its life and ignited the conduit. Like a blowtorch, the bright blue and yellow fire shot down the corridor at an angle that afforded the historian the precious seconds he needed to get to the side of the XO. He got to her side and got as much cover as he could. "JONES! XO??!!" he said as he looked her over trying to see if she was conscious, bleeding, alive or dead. He hoped alive!

"Jones?!" He looked at her face...was she conscious?

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

--

Lieutenant JG Matthew Plumeri
Science Officer
USS Galileo-A

Captain Hiroshi Tanakata
Commanding Officer
USS Trial
[PNPC Warraquim]

Commander Teegan Jones
Executive Officer
USS Trial
[PNPC Sandoval]

Alpha Tholian
Commander
[NPC Saalm]

Various Tholians
Shock Troopers
[NPC ir-Llantrisant]

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