Afloat In The Dark

Posted on Tue Dec 22nd, 2020 @ 11:40pm by Lieutenant Alexis Aenera & Linza (Lin) Esni & Lieutenant Commander Calvin Morgan

Mission: Enforced Intermission
Location: Escape Pod Four-Two-Six
Timeline: Prior to Do Not Open That Door

Alexis had her legs tucked up beneath her as she all but lounged on the acceleration couch of the escape pod as she watched the glow of the ship's explosion fade behind them and sighed. On the empty seat next to her were an impressive stack of PADDs and her heels, and she'd grabbed a spare uniform jacket and put it on over her dress, then loaded up on PADDs while chivying her remaining Science personnel out of the area and to escape pods, given that Lieutenant Wiseman had been on the bridge. Of course, it also meant that she'd not had a chance to go to her quarter for anything that was there.

And more was the pity. Her entire wardrobe and jewelry collection was gone. All of her mementos from the past, memories that she could hold: Gone. All she had left in the galaxy, aside from what little she kept at her family home on Betazed, was on the PADDs she'd chosen to rescue, and what she now wore. She looked between Calvin and Linza, the only other two in the escape pod with her and smiled slightly, "She was a good home, for a while. I just hope everyone got off in time."

Lin had watched the explosion out the window of the escape pod and her heart sunk. Not for herself, for she was brand new and didn't have really any memories of the ship other than the fact that they rescued her from possibly being killed. No, it was for the others. She had been glad to be able to help get people to the escape pods when they were insistent on going for personal items. That was what likely hurt a lot of them: losing everything, not just the ship.

When Alexis spoke, she glanced over to her. "We got everyone we could, and our area was clear...but, that is a big enough ship that we won't know until there is a headcount later." She bit her lip, "Thank you for trusting me enough to help with the evacuation. It felt good to do that...even if the end result was..." Linza nodded towards the window. After a moment she then looked to Calvin, "You okay?"

From the moment the escape pod jettisoned from Astraea, Calvin found himself lost with nothing to do. He replayed going through sickbay in his head several times. He had grabbed a couple things and the go bag that lived in sickbay and that was it. He couldn’t think of anything in his quarters he wanted, but he couldn’t picture his quarters right now either. He heard the conversations but didn’t look up until he heard the question directed at him. “Yeah, everyone got evacuated from sickbay. Patients were all accounted for and on duty staff. I’m not sure about the rest.” He looked at the debris field out the window. “What’s our status? Any idea if our Distress call got heard?”

Lexi shrugged and wrapped her arms around her legs, "No clue. I'm sure the Captain will keep all of us together, but I think there were major systems going out all over the place. Worst case scenario, I'm sure she'll send one of the shuttles out to fetch assistance, or a fighter. It'd just mean we get to be out here for quite a while. It'd get pretty cozy in here overall."

“Hopefully none of the support craft or escape pods obtained the same issue the ship was having,” Calvin said after a moments thought and before he zoned out staring out through the window again.

USS Rhea, Lieutenant Gomez, ACEO said it best... Alexis thought to herself, "Ain't nothin' gonna hurt them escape pods 'ceptin' it gets done to every danged one to them one by one." She spoke with with a really, really bad Hispanic accent, then changed her to own voice again, "They've got their own power supply and even when they're automatically checked by computers, they send and receive just a signal, no constant computer contact. And I'm sure the engineers checked out each of the shuttles and fighters."

Linza sat and listened, pulling her knees up to her chest, "This wasn't what I expected when the captain decided to take me back to Command..."

"I don't think any of us expected this." Alexis said solemnly, "I certainly didn't."

"If you never create expectations, you can never be surprised," Calvin piped up momentarily, his gaze still on the outside.

"That statement is very true," Lin said softly. "But, I've lived the last few years with expectations of never seeing or dealing with Starfleet again so, this is all strange to me. Honestly, though, I'm seriously hoping everyone got off the ship in time. I don't want to see anyone lost because of weird computer issues."

Alexis nodded, "We will just have to wait and see.. Thanks again, Lin, for helping get our people out."

Lin gave a soft smile, "Least I could do. Besides, it felt like the right thing, and still does."