Reintegration

Posted on Sun Dec 18th, 2022 @ 9:49pm by Lieutenant Commander P’rel M.D & Senior Chief Petty Officer Thral Skrit & Lieutenant Alexis Ryan & Lieutenant Anthea "Thea" Mariatis

Mission: Scylla and Charybdis
Location: Science Labs
Timeline: Prior to the battle. During security JP.
2307 words - 4.6 OF Standard Post Measure

===

Having barely escaped with his life from the sudden ambush of Starfleet officers, Rin barrelled through the unfamiliar corridors of the Avalon. All hope of taking the ship was now lost, and his only remaining potential objective was to recover data nodes. He had a rough recollection of the path he had to take, though fortunately the very ship itself now seemed to be illuminating his way. Corridor panels now read “Primary Sensor Labs” with pulsing sequential lights showing the way. The lights began to slow as he moved, and he took this to mean that he was getting close to the destination. Dropping his run to a more tactical brisk walk, he unslung his rifle and stepped quickly and silently through the ship, staying close to a corridor wall. There were voices coming from somewhere nearby, calm and professional. He rolled his eyes as he recognised one of them to be the usual sanctimonious droning of a Vulcan woman. Something about subspace bubbles being integrated and collapsed, missing people…it was difficult, with his ears still ringing from weapons fire.

===

“Bollocks to that one…” Thral said aloud as, following some way behind the rather attractive Lieutenant from the ready room, it had become clear that they were walking right into a firefight with Romulans. Instead, he decided it was best to try to regroup with the Lieutenants and head for the lab complex. As he drew closer, he was aware from his peripheral senses that the phaser fire seemed to have stopped - and that softer voices were ahead. He was, at the very least, pleased that the corridors were illuminating the way to the labs, suggesting that Thea had managed to figure something out and wanted everyone there. He hummed and sang as he sauntered through the deck, not in any particular hurry and being typically care free; “hi diddly he…a pirates life for me….” Came the tune from somewhere in his memory.

===

There had been numerous times during her stint at the shipyards where Alexis had born the brunt of amusement at her capacity to fixate. The ability to focus so intently for an extended period of time on work that many others found tedious had earned her a modicum of respect early on as the others in her team saw it as an opportunity to sidestep monotonous rigor testing in favour of allowing Ryan to handle it. She got better results, it had been argued, which wasn't entirely inaccurate. She also seemed to enjoy it, which also held a grain of truth.

It had been her turned to be amused when, in the midst of unexpected emergency management, the same team members were left utterly bemused by her contradictive ability to juggle multiple tasks simultaneously. Alex had never taken offense to their ignorance, there was something refreshing about not being 'that ex-Maquis' for once, but she did wonder how any of them thought she'd survived combat deployment if she lacked the ability to adapt to several different emergent scenarios all at once. Somewhere, sometime, there was always a contingent of Romulans trying to blast holes in your ship whilst you extracted sensitive information and tried to reintegrate viable biosignatures from subspace. It was just the way of things.

"I've extrapolated what I can from her data. There's a lot of manual adjustments that aren't accounted for in what the computer was able to record but I think we've isolated the right frequency." Ryan glanced up and caught P'rel's gaze for a moment. "We're not going to want to interfere with this, there's barely enough power to handle the energy signatures already trapped."

P’rel nodded to Ryan and as per her instructions stepped a good way back from the corner of the room, their helmets now off thanks to environmental controls being restored, it was at least less cumbersome to work. As the bubble activated, the air at its edge seemed to ripple a little, almost in the way she understood humans to perceive their distant surroundings on a hot day. Holding a tricorder up, she confirmed to Ryan that her efforts were successful; nodding she reported back “if we are correct, the bubble will provide a transitional medium for our lost colleagues….though I note your comments that Lieutenant Mariatis may have configured her survival mechanism in such a way, that unforeseen interactions may occur."

Fortunately their new efforts were suppressing communications, and it was no longer technically disobedience keeping them in the labs instead of having returned to Athena. For all they knew, Captain Kane had issued new orders to remain, after all.

In light of the information she'd been busting a gut to secure, Ryan held very little concern over reprimands for lack of immediate uptake on following orders. Though it wasn't comforting to place higher value on data sets than people's lives, the pair of them had reached the mutual decision that the fallout from the Romulans getting their hands on any of this would be far more catastrophic than their personal demise, though neither of them had reached a point of fatalistic resignation. As P'rel watched the subspace bubble, Alexis was already loading the last of the data chips into the carry case supplied for the task, the second of such to be filled. It wasn't everything, Avalon's memory cores were just too vast and with Athena out of range, there was no option for direct transfer. She'd got the bulk of it, as much as she could ascertain as being vital given the time constraints.

"We need to get moving," she reported, eyes glancing towards one of her read-outs. "We're about to have company."

Quickly flipping her tricorder around and generating a broad scan, P’rel detected it too. A non-confirmed life sign reading nearby, somewhere, in close proximity. It was indeterminate, and marginally out of normal ranges for life forms. Nodding at Ryan, she holstered the tricorder and instead made for the rifle she had laid on the floor some time ago. “It’s a bio-dampening tactical suit…” she said, her eyes scanning over every surface of the lab, looking for where an intruder may be lurking.

===

“‘Allo! Allo!” Thral shouted at the two women stood before him. They were totally oblivious, of course, to his presence and though pulling his pants down in the ready room had borne some results last time, he didn’t much fancy it a second time. As he understood it, he could step into the newly formed bubble and reintegrate with normal space, but he had no idea how that affect the other two. If this was a one-shot thing, he couldn’t selfishly step into the bubble and leave them behind. “Bleedin ell….” He muttered, as his antenna twitched to alert him to something behind, turning around he squinted through the dim room and slowly made his way over to the disturbance which had bothered him. “I don’t fink so sunshine…” he muttered, as right before him was a Romulan officer knelt between crates of equipment. He looked at the rifle aperture and followed its line of sight…

Rin emptied his lungs, steadied his aim and locked the Vulcan into his scope. For all their intellectual prowess, supposedly, this one hadn’t even thought to tactically sweep the room. Taking a final breath in and emptying his lungs again for a steady shot, his finger just pulled over the firing stud.

It took barely a second, but time seemed to slow. The rifle was pointed right at the Vulcan woman, and Thral just reacted without a thought - it was no act of bravery, no great self sacrifice, he intended only to desperately try to move the rifle trajectory.

===
The unseen pair of Thea and Winfield burst into the room by passing directly through the door, obviously without it opening first. Winfield sagged, falling to his hands and knees at the crippling sensation of his component atoms slowly coming apart. "Need...the bubble..." he groaned, hoping Thea or anyone else would hear his call for help.

From just inside the doorway, Thea watched the scene unfold with a degree of detached serenity. The lack of sensation was pervasive now, a coldness that permeated far beneath the skin. Keen eyes watched the pair hovering around her terminal work, her gaze dropping to catalogue the data chips in their storage. A slow exhalation released the last of her tension and, with her final legacy secure in the hands of those who would know what to do with it, the gentle brunette crouched beside her husband and allowed her hand to hover near his shoulder.

Win. Look at me.

His breathing was shallow. It felt like his vision had narrowed to the point where all he could see were the two eyes, the ones he was so familiar with, staring down at him with concern.

"I don't feel so good..." he choked.

I know. Just close your eyes, it'll only take a minute.

The fold of her arms around him was intangible, and yet a spark of energy remained, just enough to register the intent. Serenity, born of acceptance, rendered Thea calm and composed despite the ache of incumbent failure.

It's nearly over.
===

Thral gasped as a white hot burn filled his lungs, and carried the pain everywhere as if his blood itself had become fire. He screamed and convulsed as he dropped to the floor, his eyes still reeling from the bright green flash he had just been hit with.

Rin jumped backwards as his beam discharge barely left his rifle and a screaming Andorian in a operations Starfleet uniform materialised in front of him. The convulsing man shrieked in agony and clawed at the air. Locking eyes with the Vulcan he had intended as his first target when she spun around, they both fired.

P’rel, not startled by very much, was momentarily dazed. As she spun on her heel and carried her firing arm through, the sight of a badly burned Andorian who had appeared from nowhere, laying in front of the Romulan she had obviously missed, gave her a moments shock. As a green flash lanced towards her, her own orange beam fired from her phaser. Both struck on target, and P’rel dropped to the floor on one knee, the other leg now of little use with a glancing burn from the Romulan disruptor. The Romulan, at least, lay motionless.

“H-help…m me…” Thral rasped as both the women in the room came to his side. He tried to control his breathing but the pain was severe. He was done, he was sure of it, though he was warmed at least to see as he writhed around the familiar sight of Win and Thea. They didn’t look good, but they were alive. “T - two….two others….” He barely managed, pointing at the invisible pair. “Help…them…” he struggled to convey before his eyes rolled back into an unconscious darkness.

P’rel and Ryan looked at each other, and then both looked to the empty space in the room where the Andorian had been pointing. Returning her stare momentarily to scan him, she confirmed he was alive at least albeit badly injured. From the initial scan, his chances of survival were slim even if they were in the Athena sickbay.

Whilst the Vulcan dealt with their newly-emerged friend, Ryan turned her attention to the empty space his flailing hand had indicated. Several circles with her tricorder drew her mouth into a grim line and, in a rare moment of emotion, Alex closed her eyes and exhaled, her chin dropping forward to her chest.

With a snap, she closed to device and attached it to her utility belt, moving swiftly to gather up both cases. "Is he able to move?"

As she was about to answer in the negative, the deck violently and without warning bucked sharply beneath her knees The agile Vulcan sent her hands sprawling out in front of her to cushion a coming impact, but even that failed as the bucking suddenly pulled them all to one side. Landing hard on a hip, she winced as the pain from her stab wound on Rondac came back momentarily. Clutching her side and trying to hold on to the nearest fixed thing - itself simply the limp Andorian - she ducked as all manner of relays overloaded around her. Distant secondary explosions could be heard in the distance, their soft clunking booms growing both closer and further, indicating a massive and fatal catastrophe rippling through the Avalon. The sharp and violent lurches of the ship became a more steady rumble, and both P'rel and Ryan looked eachother in the eyes. This was the end. Another explosion, closer this time, much closer, and P'rel closed her eyes awaiting the eternal void; instead feeling the familiar lock of a confinement beam and the briefly skin crawling sensation of a transporter beam.

Opening her eyes, the Athena transporter room was a bright and familiar sight. P'rel looked around the pad for a moment to take stock of what had happened; both she and Lieutenant Ryan were there, the gravely burned Andorian, and the Romulan soldier. "The scientists...?" P'rel asked of Ryan, who solemnly shook her head. The Athena rocked, though far less severe than on the Avalon; clearly the Romulans were being engaged. "Beam those two to sickbay" she ordered the transporter operator, pointing at the Andorian and Romulan.

"Yes ma'am, but you should all report to sickbay; we're finding traces of radiation in everyone who has left the ship and everyone is required to receive an inoculation.

Looking to eachother again, both women nodded. "Energise" P'rel ordered, and all four left the pad.