Not Knowing

Posted on Sat Feb 26th, 2022 @ 6:58pm by Captain Abigail Laurens & Lieutenant Commander Evelyn Rozia

Mission: Double Bind
Location: Caetov L98

There was something about the snow storm. The howl of the wind, the intensity with which the snow fell. Abigail sat in the snow as she sheltered as close to the shield as she dared. Even thought the EV suit kept the cold out and kept her safe from the elements, just the sight of the storm raging around them made her feel chilled to the bone.

It had been nearly an hour since the intensity of the storm had interrupted communications leaving them cut off, both from the rest of the teams and from the ship itself. The isolation was grating at her, not because of Evelyn's company. Quite the contrary, the Engineer had seemed to be going out of her way to help keep Abigail calm. It was the not knowing that was slowly making her crazy.

Not knowing how long the storm would last.

Not knowing how her crew fared.

Not knowing if they were all safe and well.

Not knowing if what they were doing would even make a lick of difference.

Had she thrown her crew into this hell for nothing? Risked their lives for what would be an inevitable outcome?

She looked back at Evelyn again, watching as she futzed with the shield generator again, biting her tongue and resisting the urge to ask, yet again, if there was an update on the communications.

"Still nothing." Evelyn said with a smile as she monitored the readout with barely a glance at the Captain, then nodded and turned back to Abigail. She'd been almost able to feel the Skipper's eyes on her as they had been several times as she'd turned around. Just like this time. She knew it had to be tough on Abigail, but things were going as well as she'd hoped so far.

Still, the engineer gave her commanding officer a smile, "I'm just really glad we had the probe dropped in before we lost communications, that made the difference. All I have to do is make an adjustment here, it causes a slight harmonic with the neighboring shielding units, which our people adjust to what we altered to. The fact that they're doing that proves that they're still there and safe." Reassuring words were better than none.

Abigail gave a half nod. "What's the estimated ETA on the storm being over?" she asked. What she really wanted to know was how long until they could start transporting crew off the surface, but she knew there was no easy way to answer that question. There was always the residual concern that they would get caught. Regardless, all they could do was wait, at least for now.

"It's a window." Evelyn wiggled a hand back and forth, "Another half hour, another two hours, somewhere in between most likely. The eye should be passing over soon, an I'm only guessing because I've got no real data." She gave an apologetic smile.

Abigail nodded, turning her attention back to her surroundings, allowing the moments to simply pass by.

It was some time later that the approaching storm started to change, the falling snow became less frenzied and heavy, the wind whipping the flora beyond them. For the very briefest of moments Abigail thought she saw a momentary pop of colour against the white background, then it was gone. She shook her head, dismissing the thought. Then she saw it again. A momentary glimpse of something red against the white of the snow drifts.

"Commander Rozia, did you see that?" she asked, uncertainty clear in her voice. "Down there, among the trees, I thought I saw something colourful."

Evelyn's eyes shot to where the Captain had pointed, the copse of trees fading in and out of view as the wind whipped snow and ice across their field of vision. Something was visible for perhaps half a heartbeat before it vanished into the white haze again, but it started to clear up as the eye of the storm bloomed over the city, "Yes, ma'am, I see something, something red out there."

Long minutes passed, the storm winding down in intensity with the approaching eye. As the snowfall lessened, the source of the intermittent pops of colour became apparent. "My Gods!" Abigail exclaimed, climbing to her feet. "It's a person! There's a person out there!"

The figure, shrouded in what appeared to be many layers of clothing and snow suits, stumbled with each step forward that it took. Emerging from the treeline and without the trees to hold to in order to remain upright, each stumble resulted in them falling into the snow drifts, each fall becoming a struggle to return to upright.

Abigail drew in a sharp breath before turning to Evelyn. "We have to help them, we have to do something."

Evelyn looked at the spot of red that was moving across their view, but slowly shook her head, "We can't, Captain, I'm sorry." Her voice was quiet, but firm, "We promised that we'd keep our presence as minimal as possible and if we go out there to help whoever that is, we'll be out there when the storm comes back and we will also die."

"It'll only take us a moment," Abigail countered. "We need to do something, we can't just let them die."

Glancing up, Evelyn attempted to gauge how quickly the eye of the storm was moving by eye, then shook her head, "We cannot go out there, ma'am. We're already violating the Prime Directive, which I've got surprisingly little problem with, but we cannot risk abandoning this shielding station in order to rescue one person. If we leave and if something goes wrong, it's not just one death, it's the deaths of hundreds of THOUSANDS, Captain, and that's not counting our own people who have volunteered to put their lives on the line to rescue those people."

It was the mention of her crew that stilled her objections. Instead, Abigail moved to stand behind the shield generator, watching, eyes wide, as the figure continued to fight to move forward.

As the eye passed, an eerie silence filled the area as everything froze within an instant, including the red clad figure that had struggled to move toward them. Mid shuffle it was like liquid nitrogen had been poured over the body, the whole thing freezing in a heartbeat before slowly falling forward into the snow.

Abigail could feel a tear at the corner of her eyes and she drew her gaze away, instead focusing on the blinking green light on the shield generator. They were half way through.

Evelyn also watched the figure, then back at the generator before closing her eyes and squeezing them for a moment. She took a couple steps over and put an arm around her commanding officer, "It's going to be all right, in the end, Abigail. We are doing one helluva lot of good."

The commanding officer drew in a deep breath, fighting back the waver in her voice as she spoke quietly. "For all our sakes, I hope you're right."