Out In The Great Black Ocean

Posted on Thu Dec 10th, 2020 @ 9:29pm by Lieutenant Mica Rue & Lieutenant JG Charlotte Aschail

Mission: Enforced Intermission
Timeline: Right Before The Ship Blows

ON:

Lance shifted Charlotte on his shoulders as he made his way across Deck 15 towards Cargo bay 4. His check of where the remaining escape pods were indicated it was one of the closest pods and his mental count gave them anywhere from four to seven minutes left until the ship would vanish like a puff in the dark of space. They rounded a corner and he almost stumbled over a body in the middle of the hallway. He cursed under his breath before he gently settled Charlotte to the floor and checked the hallway marker. About thirty feet from the escape pod, so close, yet, two unconscious people.

He couldn't have known that around the corner a panel had blown, and right before that, the unconscious woman had been in the arms of a large nurse. The nurse had been transporting her to an escape pod. No gurney transport to be found, the nurse had hefted the woman in his arms and marched toward the pod, hoping they had enough time. Hoping he hadn't hurt the woman more by jostling her. The head of medical would have his balls if she died.

Then there had been a whine, like a child, and the nurse had put the woman down carefully to see if yet another victim remained. But the whine was the panel. It blew, sparks and electricity hitting the nurse dead on. He was dead before he hit the floor, before he even had a chance to close his eyes. All around the corner....

He flinched as he saw the scene, but Lance went over to the male first, reaching down for a pulse and found nothing. Given the damage to the upwards facing face, he just hoped it was fast. Lance knelt by the second woman and felt for a pulse, finding one quickly, then patted her cheeks gently trying to bring her around, but got no response. So he spun around and was far less gentle with Charlotte. He started with a gentle pat on the cheeks, then reached further back and delivered a stinging blow that reddened Charlotte's cheek. The stun shot that he'd pumped into her had mostly worn off and her eyes fluttered open as his mental count went down to three to six minutes. "Charlie, I need you to wake up. I can't carry you both and well, I don't know this Lieutenant well enough to wake her up like you."

"You're an asshole." Charlotte muttered as she began to move, "You shot me."

Relief ran a shiver down Lance's spine as he returned to the blue uniformed Lieutenant and began to lift her in his arms rather than over his shoulders, "We've got two minutes to get fifty feet, Charlie, no use going back. At least she's lighter than you.." He felt a half-hearted slap against his left shoulder and smiled at the sign that Charlotte was rapidly getting up, "I'll get her in, you seal the hatch and get the thing launched."

"Should've left me. I was in there too long." Charlotte said muzzily, following behind the Petty Officer, "I coulda bought more time."

"Bull." His mental count ticked down to sixty as his feet crossed the opening to the waiting pod and he gently laid the Lieutenant down on one of the crash couches and considered how to secure her, ending up making a lap belt stretch across her abdomen while Charlotte slapped the emergency launch button and collapsed in one of her own. "You had a couple minutes of leeway, we just need to get you treated soon. And I think this one might be medical, or counseling, the snake on the branch insignia."

"Caduceus." Charlotte mumbled. She was finally fighting through the sluggishness of the stun shot, then the jolt of the launch hit her and dislodged Lance from his seat, where he hadn't gotten his belt on in time, but he held his ground. "Get the medkit."

He ignored her and went back over to Mica, reaching over to check her pulse again, "Lieutenant? I need you to wake up, Lieutenant." He patted her cheeks again to try to get a response.

Mica heard the voice, felt the soft brush on her cheek. The blackness was falling back, receding as quickly as a silken blanket could fall off a body. Images flashed through her mind as consciousness resumed, clips of memories and things she had heard. A klaxon. The doctor yelling. Rushed voices. hiss of machines unplugged, hypos given. Frustrated fingers over her body. lifting, moving. A bang...Her brothers. Mother. Father. Trill. Her duty....

Mica jolted and gasped for breath, aware of the pounding headache. She tried to move, but she was restrained around her abdomen. She reached up, feeling around her face, gently prodding the skin around her implants, pulling her hair out of the way to access them better. Still there. The burns had been healed, likely by the medical staff while was out. But she could feel power from the implants, though she though they had been disabled.

Even though she knew she needed to calm down, the thought of being shocked again through her brain terrified her. She looked around frantically, at the small escape pod, at the man staring at her wide eyed and the woman who looked about as good as Mica felt. "Tools!" Mica yelled out. "tools on board?"

The wide-eyed man began to scramble to the bulkhead where the emergency medkit was stored in every escape pod, pulled it out and had it held out for Mica within ten seconds of her demand. The volume and urgency had cut through any questions he had.

Mica shook her head. "real tools. Not medical." The buzzing was expanding. Her fingers threaded into her hair. She wasn't thinking right - her body was on edge, her mind unable to focus through the pain and thoughts slipping through her grasp. And yet, what she had to do was strikingly clear.

Understanding came into his eyes and he dropped the medkit rather than waste time putting it back and he grimaced. “I’m not sure..” He cut himself off as he took the four steps over to maintenance panel and popped it open and began to rummage, “Hull patch kit, isolinear chip replacements..” He shook his head, “Nothing here like that.”

While he was rummaging, Charlotte got to her feet and slowly made her way over to the other woman, one hand hanging onto the bulkhead while her other went to the utility belt she still had on, “I’ve got a variable spanner here, six settings on fastener heads as well.” She plucked the device from the pouch it was in and held it out, “How can we help, ma’am, we’re engineers.”

Just like she used to be able to do, the blueprint of Mica’s implants appeared in her mind. She released one hand, pointing a finger, tracing over invisible edges and wires before her, until the fingertip stopped. "There." she said. She held a hand out for the spanner. It wasn't what she would have preferred but it would do.

It was the last few inches that Charlotte crossed and laid the device in her hands, "What are you doing with it?" She asked warily, "Do you have some sort of implant that needs adjustment? I'm not a medic, but Lance over there is a life support specialist, so he works with organics quite a bit."

With the buzzing increasing until it drowned out everything the man and woman were saying, Mica adjusted the setting and shoved the spanner against her implant.

The pressure of the spanner against the implant(?) in Mica's head made Charlotte nervous enough to override her consideration of her own condition and she reached out to slap the device away but hesitated, "Ma'am, you need to be careful, please, I can help." She reached down and pulled out her tricorder and started to open it, "Ma'am, I need you to listen to me, please."

The Lt barely heard the words but she did hear made her pause. The buzzing overrode everything else. Her thumb moved to over the activating button.

"Dammit, ma'am!" Charlotte did reach out and grabbed the hand with the spanner and twisted it out of the way and also to try to take it from the medical officer, "You're going to hurt yourself if you do that! Lance!" She snarled at the immobile man, who appeared to just be watching, "Get over here. Now."

Mica moaned quietly. Without the tool in her hand, she was back to clutching her hair. "I know how this looks," she was panting, her heart going a mile a minute. Sweat was trickling down her face. "They're going to short again. I need them gone, NOW."

Charlotte checked the setting on the spanner and shook her head, "You were going to put a max charge right next to your brain, ma'am, not good I don't think." Lance had come over to next to the medical person and sat ready to help. Charlotte flipped open her engineer's tricorder and made a scan of Mica's head, then whistled, "Implants... That's a really extensive set you've got there... But there's no taking them out except surgically, and ma'am, I can't do that. I'm not a doctor, neither is Lance here, but if you triggered this thing, it could kill you."

“Please,” Mica was begging now, tears glazing over her eyes. From the implants tendrils of energy snaked, like a vicious animal tasting its prey. “I made these, I know them. I need to get them off, before they kill me. I just need the spanned on level 4, close range. That should do it.”

Charlotte was hesitant, obviously the other woman was in pain, but the risk really was truly legitimate and she really wish that there were a doctor, or a nurse, or a reasonably well trained girl scout that had even half a clue.

A tear fell down one cheek as another bite of energy clipped her temple, leaving a tiny scorch mark. “Please...” she begged again before the implant shorted, sending a jolt through her body. Her eyes rolled back in her head, her body contorting with the pain

Lance glanced back and forth and back and forth again before rapidly grabbing the spanner from Charlotte's hand, "God, Charlie, it isn't rocket science." Okay, it wasn't easy... But life support systems could be delicate too, "Give me that tricorder." He demanded, taking that as well and looked at the readings, confirming the setting of the instrument and pressing it where Mica had it, "I'm sorry, Lieutenant." And triggered it.

****** To Be Continued *******