Away Team One: Deeper Undergound

Posted on Wed Aug 19th, 2020 @ 5:49am by Lieutenant Commander William Rogers & Lieutenant JG Haru Hernandez & Lieutenant Bianca Lee

Mission: Into The Delta Triangle
Location: Kessik IV - in the mines

"What the hell were you thinking?" The big miner demanded and gave the smaller miner a rough shove. "You don't start trying to excavate without the making a proper assessment! We don't know what the state of the ground above us is. You could've brought the whole mountain down on are heads!"

Bianca rolled her eyes as she kept moving towards Haru, then adjusted her pat, “And we don’t know if the whole damned mountain is gonna fall on our heads if we have any more of these damned quakes!” She snapped back at the big miner while she sized him up, slipping between him and the smaller man, who still was bigger than she was, “Lay off, Ah don’t think he’s thinkin’’ all that straight, a bit of panic perhaps?”

Haru had been knocked out cold by what had happened. It was only now that he was coming too realizing that his face was sticky with his own blood. He moaned and tried to shift over onto his back.

The big miner folded his arms over his chest and he scowled as he looked down at Bianca. "And just who in the hell're you?"

She glared back up at him, “My name is Lee, Bianca Lee, and Ah think that while he may have been a bit hasty in action, he’s got the right idea on gettin’ us outta here.” She leaned forward on the balls of her feet already trying to decide how she was going to act if he swung at her, “Unless you’ve got a handy back exit that you just forgot about until now?”

"What I've got, Lee, is the training and experience to know that you don't try to dig your way out of a cave in. Especially without the equipment to shore up any tunnel ya build." His face hardened. "Which ya'd know if ya'd sat the safety course. So I'll ask ya one last time: who are ya and what're ya doing in this mine?"

Haru had managed to roll over and get to his feet. He staggered towards Lee putting himself in between the two. The room was spinning.

Bianca noticed that Haru wasn't up to handling this and gently reinserted herself between the dazed man and the large miner, though it put her virtually right up against him, "Ah've already told you who Ah am. And yer right, Ah've not sat the safety course because Ah'm not a miner. Ah am here on other business, which, suh, is none of yours."

"If you ain't a miner, what you're doin' here is definitely my business." The big miner shared a look with the one he'd been dressing down. "Gargan! Thahros!" A gorn and an andorian turned in their direction. "We got ourselves a couple of Syndicate trespassers."

Wait, what? Bianca took a half step back and bounced off of Haru and ending up right back where she was. Syndicate bad? Sure, she had been about to bluff her rear end off while invoking the name, but it would have been a bad thing if she tried, “Did Ah say Ah was with the Syndicate?” She asked while shaking her head, the truth had to be better than the originally planned bluff, “Ah date day Ah’m far more likely to be trackin’ them down than to be a part of them. Ah’m a Lieutenant in Starfleet here on an investigation. Yes, Ah know it’s a bit suspicious that Ah’m not in uniform, but my information suggested that it would be better if Ah wore civilian clothing so as not to arouse the suspicion of the people Ah’m lookin’ for.” She didn’t mention Haru and prayed he’d keep out of it, even join the miners if things turned against her. If they didn’t notice him...

Haru had gotten enough bearing to shake some cobwebs loose. He figured he had a concussion but now was not the time. With one good causing trouble and the other two advancing he joined Bianca. "That's right. We are part of a fugitive retrieval unit, we came in here because we thought we saw someone who was wanted. We investigated and then...we found out that he was not the man we were looking for and as we were about to leave we got trapped here." He motioned. "Ask anyone I've been helping with triage."

"Starfleet?" The big man snorted derisively. "You got any evidence to back that up?"

Haru reached with a shaky hand and pulled out his Starfleet credentials. Bianca followed suit, from a hidden pocket on the inside of her pants belt hem, “We’re from the Astraea, suh, Strategic Operations and Tactical.” She gestured first to herself and then to Haru as she proffered the ID. In for a penny... “Unfortunately, the dilithium in the mine is wreakin’ havoc on our comms and we can’t get a hold of anyone.”

The miner took the offered IDs and studied them. In the dim light his eyes could be seen moving between the two and their owners. After a long moment he handed them back to their owners. "Lee and Herandez is it?" He asked somewhat redundantly given he'd read the cards. "Name's Bullgruff. I'm the safety officer for this shift."

Haru had managed to recover more. "We wish to help, any way we can." He hoped he wasn't overstepping on Bianca's authority.

"Ah'm sure by now that we have support on the way from the surface, but Ah also know that everyone here is pretty much on our own given we can't just beam everyone out." She gestured to Haru, "So as he said, we want to help however we can."

Bullgruff grunted his assent. "Biggest problem we got is food an' water. No tellin' how long we'll be down here. Second thing we need is a way to sure up this section of tunnel; then we can start working on digging our way out..." another pointed look is fired over Lee's head to the man Bullgruff had been arguing with. "..safely"

"Right." Bianca confirmed she got the information, "Only problem is Ah'm not sure if or where any emergency stores would be in a mine, not havin' attended the safety course and all. Ah suppose at this point, Ah'd be pretty useless with helpin' to shore up the tunnel bein' as small Ah am. Ah think we can defer to your expertise, suh."

"Right." Bullgruff shook his head and looked towards the collapsed tunnel blocking the elevator to the surface. "There's replicators, but they lost power during the quake. Any of your starfleet trainin' help with that?"

"That, suh, Ah can do." She smiled up at him, "Damage control trainin'. The power lines, do they go up to a surface station?" She asked him as a thought crossed her mind, "If so, Ah could probably also tap into the feed to send a message out if you have somethin' you need to warn people tunnelin' in to get us out to know."

Haru surprised everyone by saying, "I have experience with shoring up the walls. I can help with that and I can help with medical." He was starting to feel stronger again.

"Lee's the only one here who don't know how to do that." Bullgruff pointed out. "I'd rather you helped her. I ain't got anyone trained in what she's plannin'."

"If Ah might suggest, keep with the medical Haru, Ah'm not sure you would be much more help, especially if Ah have to wedge myself into a tight area." Bianca smiled slightly, "Ah believe Ah can handle the getting out of a message."

Haru gave a nod. "Yes ma'am." He looked around. "I'll start by checking those who were previously injured to ensure this second rattle didn't do more damage."

Bullgruff nodded. "Gargan, go with Lee. Make sure she don't get stuck."

Bianca looked up, way up at the Gorn and gave a nervous smile, "Good to meetcha, Gargan, let's go." And she immediately started over to the console at a half-trot, the Gorn keeping up with her with ease.