Washed Out Part II
Posted on Tue Feb 28th, 2023 @ 9:12pm by Commodore Tyler Malbrooke & Lieutenant Junior Grade Howard Goldberg & Lieutenant Elen Diari & Lieutenant Junior Grade Thex sh'Zoarhi
Edited on on Wed Mar 1st, 2023 @ 1:07am
2,369 words; about a 12 minute read
Mission:
Episode 13 - Crooked River
Timeline: MD006 1300 hrs
This mission was going from bad to worse and Tyler knew it. What started out as a standard investigatory mission has turned into a situation where more than half his crew is trapped and in need of rescue. Right now all Tyler could hope for was that his new Operations Chief was up to the task.
As her replacement arrived Thex nodded and left the bridge. She had a rescue operation to organize.
Michael tried to start the shuttles systems, but nothing happened. So he rerouted main power through the backups, tried again, and the engines started. "Strap in people, it might be a bumpy ride." The shuttle lifted off and began an ascent to the surface.
Two large tentacles lashed out and wrapped the Serenity. Kavicus would not let their prize get away so easy. The upward momentum of the Serenity halted and it was held in place despite the best efforts of the crew inside. Gaagii sent a message via his suit to Major Tremble still on the Pioneer. Whatever he said did not get through in its entirety. Only two words managed to be received by the Pioneer, and those two words prompted Captain Malbrooke to launch a rescue shuttle. The Bridge speakers broadcasted Gaagii's voice. "Help... Drowning..."
Thex hadn't stopped moving as soon as the turbolift doors had opened. She had been raiding the ship's stockpiles for everything she would need to pull this off. She was piling medical kits, DSASS suits, liquid oxygen canisters, cutting materials and other supplies into the shuttle.
She'd sent an alert for the team she need and she hoped they'd be here soon. Every second counted in this situation.
Howard had just finished cataloging the rest of the feet when he received his orders to join an away team. Not something he particularly wanted to do, but he had to obey orders. He grabbed a medkit but was not told too much about what happened. "Hey Lieutenant! What do we have?" He said to the Andorian as he walked through the doors.
" We have marines trapped on the ocean floor. Get all the aquatic rescue supplies you can get ahold of. " She said calmly her fleet training showing through despite the pressure she was under.
El stormed in, angry, "Of course, the had to be surrounded by the biggest deposit of sakalauskaite I've ever seen, screwing up the transporter, can't even do a bone lock with the interference. If it was up to me, I'd take this whole ship down, and just tractor them out, and then leave them on a moon."
Howard was glad that he did not have to do much. Save for make sure this team was ok and take care of any injuries that the Marines may have. He checked his med kit one last time and donned the required suit. Five minutes or so later he was ready to leave. "Well sirs I am ready to leave when you are. Do we know if there are any reported injured?"
" Message was unclear." Thex said donning her own suit though she left the helmet off for now. Hopefully, she wouldn't need it. "Something was mentioned dead hopefully it's just the shuttle."
"Right then I guess we can catch up on a brief while in motion." Goldberg said as he boarded the shuttle and secured the medical supplies. A small part of him was worried as what started out as a mystery has turned into a rescue mission on multiple fronts. His thoughts turned to the number of casualties that he may be facing.
"Okay everyone make sure your DSASS is working and let's go save some lives." Thex said as she took a seat in the co pilots seat.
Howard took a seat in one of the jump seats aboard the Shuttle Earp. He ran through the DSASS check one last time and found everything to be in working order. "I have attached portable shield generators to the medical supplies. This way they do not become waterlogged in the event that something happens."
Elen sat in the open pilot's seat "Ok, take it I'm flying then ?" she cracked her knuckles and started the pre-flight routines "seatbelts on, people. F'rar, no heroics on this one. You've only been here ten minutes, don't want the paperwork to replace my coffee maker yet." she smiled.
"Right, medical guy, Hello, Ready ?" She asked. "take off in one minute."
Howard strapped in and looked a little off color. He had never worked with the Chief Engineer but he had heard stories of her unorthodox ways. "Yes ma'am I am ready for launch."
"Shuttle Earp this is the Bridge. You are clear for launch. Go get our people back." Tyler's voice was heard through the comms. He was once again sending more resources. If he did not know any better he would think the Jutrai tried to take over the ship. Half the crew was on the planet.
Paisley was already on the jumper, her nerves jumbled. She was still unused to the fast pace of the missions around her; SF1 moved a lot slower. Oh well, she was prepared anyway. ALSO why the heck couldn't Starfleet make these stupid aquatic suits fit to size? She was going to drown, all right, in her own uniform.
Elen came aboard then, though, and she snapped to attention, but remained seated. She was still too new to be messing around. Her foot tapped the case of tools and supplies she'd hauled with her. "Good afternoon, Ma'am."
"Afternoon ensign. Put on your DSASS I know it's uncomfortable, but if we get a hull breach it will keep you alive." Thex replied calmly as the shuttle got underway.
Howard sat silently as the shuttle proceeded to the planet. He looked at the stars move past the window, and then how the color of the exterior changed from black to indigo and then to blue as the shuttle made its way through the atmosphere of the planet. He watched lost in thought as the shuttle descended. Howard often felt like an extra piece of baggage on an away mission. This time he hoped that feeling was a correct one. He hoped that his skills would not be needed.
Paisley did as she was told, and settled back. "Got it, ma'am. Keep myself alive unless YOU kill me." She made sure the suit worked. It did. Good.
Thex kept her eyes on the screen as the shuttle moved from the sky to the planet's blue seas. " Can we detect the marines shuttle?" She asked as she began scanning the area.
"Sort of." El replied "See the yellow blob there ?" pointing to the display "hoping that's it. It's big, metallic and underwater. Should get clearer as we get closer."
The andorian nodded. Opening up the coms she tried to contact the marines shuttle. " Can you hear us? This Is Thex on the shuttle Earp."
The hail was answered with nothing but static. There was heavy interference and something either prevented the Serenity from receiving or sending neither could be sure as of yet.
Howard snapped his fingers with an idea. "Lieutenants would it be possible to have the sensors scan for life signs instead of objects. If we find a human life sign underwater then we have our location."
" Good idea lieutenant," Thex replied as her hands got to work. Her blues gazed at the screen until with a faint crackle a few yellow dots appeared on the scanner. " There they are. Set a course, and take it nice and slowly. Can someone check the tractor beam? If it can't stabilize we'll have to attach a line. "
A sign of relief passed over Howard's features for two reasons. The first was that the team, or at least members of the team were still alive as their life signs showed. The other was he was glad that he was able to help in another capacity other than medical.
Paisley had already extracted a scanner and was doing some scans of the area. "Sir, I can climb in there and check the beam. The scanner isn't much help." Sometimes it wasn't, and the engineer was better off having eyes on the wires themselves.
"Do it" Thex said keeping her eyes on the scanner.
Howard had the medical scanners running at full tilt as they made their descent. "The good news is, it seems that there are no dead among our people. The bad news is there are life signs that the scanners don't recognize all around our people. Whatever it is, it is moving"
The tractor beam began spluttering but with a crackle faded out of existence. " Guess it's been affected as well as the transporters," Thex said picking up her helmet from the console and attaching it over her head. " Guess were doing this the old fashion way. I need a volunteer to go with me to attach a cable the marine's shuttle then we can bring her to the surface."
"I'm going to try something first, before we get our feet wet" El spoke up" The nacelles of the shuttle are just two big magnets. Going to power them up without engaging the drive, see if we can pick up the shuttle that way, drag it up to the surface, and deal with everything there. Any objections?"
" Do it." Thex said heading back to her seat and focusing her eye's on the screen.
Howard had no interest in going in the water and whatever it was that the Marines were dealing with was something that he wanted nothing to do with. "You will hear no objections from me."
El smirked "Then Ok then. You might feel a bit of discomfort from the magnetic fields. Hope you've got something for that, medical guy, what's your name anyway ?. Try and make yourselves comfy guys, here we go."
She slammed the shuttle into a dive, her fingers dancing over some controls, a whirring noise started to creep into the cabin as the nacelles powered up giving a faint blue glow that could be seen out of the main window. The marine shuttle grew in size as they got near it, and they flew over it, hovering over the roof.
The marine shuttle gently wobbled , then lifted up, touching the Earp's nacelles. Elen fired the thrusters, and both vehicles slowly rose up from the bottom of the lake heading to the surface.
Howard turned toward the engineer. "It's Dr Goldberg ma'am." Then he quickly prepared a series of hyposprays to prevent sickness and disorientation from the magnetic fields or the g forces.
Paisley prepared to dive into the downed bird, wondering why the heck she'd volunteered. Oh, yeah, because she was a self starter or something. She had a death wish, actually, apparently. She watched, transfixed, as her boss brought the downed ship up with theirs, and prepped for a landing. Good thing she wasn't prone to airsickness. "Nice!" came her reply.
" Well done everyone." Thex said to the shuttle crew. " Thex to the Pioneer we have them on the surface. "
"Great work Lieutenant! Are there any serious injuries?" Tyler questioned. It seemed that the rescue went by the book. He was relieved that something finally went by the book.
"I am about to beam over to the Serenity to check. The only report I have received thus far is that Corporal Shy was taken over by some sort of entity. However, he seems to be fine." Goldberg gave a report based on what he had seen from the Corpsman's scans.
"Very good doctor. Please keep us informed. Great work everyone, see you when you are back aboard. Pioneer out!" The comm channel ended after Tyler spoke again.
Howard grabbed his med kit and dematerialized as he beamed over to the Serenity. He was happy to be out there getting his hands dirty as it were.
Paisley had managed to climb laboriously into the old bird's body. Still cursing the dumb dive suit that hindered her movements, she did her best to assess what was happening with the lights, engines, and etc. Her scanners didn't work as well underwater as she would like. Still, she was able to pick up the faintest of signals, and radioed back to the others. "I've got a very faint signal of life in here," she said.
"Let's begin moving them over are shuttle until we can get the other shuttle flying again." Thex said to her team.
"In the meantime I will use the Serenity as a triage center. Take care of the wounded over there." Howard said as he grabbed the medkit and transported over. This was the kind of medicine that he loved. In the trenches emergency medicine.
Paisley wasn't really made for hauling PEOPLE. Still, she jumped down from the ledge and went to the others, and started to haul bodies. She spoke as she did so. "HI! Ensign P'rar. I am an engineer. It's gonna be ok; the doctor will be along soon." At least she hoped so.
El meanwhile started her appraisal of the damage to the shuttle with the highly advanced technique of poking things with a stick. As some of hull plating crumbled on touch, knew it was going to be a long job.
A Joint Post By
Lieutenant Junior Grade Howard Goldberg
Medical Officer, USS Pioneer
Ensign Paisley F'rar
Damage Control Specialist, USS Pioneer
Lieutenant Elen Diari
Chief Engineering Officer, USS Pioneer
Commodore Tyler Malbrooke
Commanding Officer, USS Pioneer
Lieutenant Junior Grade Thex sh'Zoarhi
Chief Operations Officer, USS Pioneer
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