A Grand Rescue

Posted on Sun Jun 29th, 2025 @ 10:45pm by Lieutenant Kevan Dash & Commander N'Garzi Zora & Lieutenant Alexis Ryan & Lieutenant Sturgis O'Connell

Mission: Pandora's Box
Location: Shuttle to the Moon
Timeline: MD-06
1793 words - 3.6 OF Standard Post Measure

The shuttle ride was surprisingly quiet; perhaps because people were aware that Lt Ryan was keeping her concentration on the sensors to make sure they didn't fly into a 'death bubble' as Kevan had already dubbed it. There was an underlying tension beyond the typical light-hearted ease with which the crew worked together; their comrades were in potentially fatal danger, after all.

"Two minutes to landing," Kevan murmured, breaking the quiet as the scientist navigated for them. "Maybe we should've brought a medic along or something, in case..." he paused. "Maybe not."

"If we need more than basic first aid, it's going to come down to how fast we can them out." As laser-focused as she was, her gaze fixated on the back-and-forth of studying her display and seeking visual confirmation out the viewport, Ryan's reply was pragmatic and yet reasonably calm, all things considered. "I hope you brought your running shoes, Lieutenant."

"Let’s just hope we won’t be needing a medic," Sturgis muttered. Moments later, the shuttle touched down on the moon’s surface with a soft thud. Before the hatch had even begun to open, he was already reaching for his tricorder hoping against all odds that this away mission would be quick and simple.

"Okay, I want a simple extraction," Zora said firmly as she checked her phaser before sliding it into the holster on her hip. "Nothing fancy, no taking extra risks. We've already lost too many people during this mission and I am not going to write any more letters to this crew's families, not today. Is that understood?"

"You got it, Commander," Kevan nodded. "Last time I was down here we were getting shot at, so let's hope it's not much worse than that..." he glanced up as the shuttle made final descent and rumbled to a halt. "So, how do we know if we're about to get splattered by one of these weird 'bubbles' you mentioned, Lieutenant?" he asked, glancing at Ryan for some sort of encouragement.

"Well, the first indication would be some slight discomfort as your molecules disintegrate. Theoretically, in any case." A pointed look from the Science Chief was not without a hint of grim humour, though Ryan did concede to follow the observation with something a tad more practical as she rose from her seat to begin the final process of adjusting their current fashion. "Lieutenant O'Connell and I have rigged up a proximity indicator for each suit as well as recalibrating our tricorders to scan as accurately as we know how. We are dealing with an exceptional environment, however, expect some manual adjustments as we move." The Lieutenant shared a look with Zora. "It's probably best we stick pretty close together."

"Agreed," Zora replied with a sharp nod. "Everyone, make sure your suits are secure and you do a full equipment check before anyone steps foot out of the shuttle." She looked around at each of them in turn to make sure they understood her orders. "We stay within visual range of each other at all times, no exceptions."

Kevan tapped the panel on his forearm theatrically to double-check the setup was working. "Let's just hope they're static and not floating around out there." Hauling up from the front seat and moving to the hatch, he glanced back at the others. "Last word was there were still four crew down here. Three from Athena, one from the Edison. Last check-in was two hours ago. Assuming they didn't walk into a death bubble, their environmental suits have a little over an hour left in the tank. So probably shouldn't waste too much time."

It wasn't supposed to be cold. Of all the functions their suits were supposed to perform, regulating temperature to avoid immediate hypothermia was high on the priority list and yet, as she followed Zora from the shuttle, Alexis found herself struggling against a sliver of ice that ran down her back, sure that if she could actually see her arms, they'd be smothered with goosebumps. Analytics suggested it was purely psychological, since her body temperature hadn't dropped at all, and she forced herself to focus instead on her tricorder.

"Our team's last known coordinates placed them not far from the extraction point we pulled Zade's group from, which means we're likely to encounter some structural issues." Ryan paused to scan the area as they stepped in through an access port one after the other. "Looks like emergency lighting only, was it always this dark?"

Zora surveyed the space, the lights from her helmet casting grotesque shadows on all of the surfaces. She hated how cumbersome the environmental suits were. From the boots, to the gloves, and especially the helmets. They made her feel claustrophobic and the lack of peripheral vision didn't help either. She took a few deep breaths, in through the nose and out through the mouth. She didn't like this place and she sensed that the feeling was more than mutual.

"Dash, take point," Zora ordered, wishing she had a battalion instead of just one security officer with them. She would have done so if the shuttle had accommodated them all. "O'Connell, structural analysis?"

Sturgis lifted his tricorder, sweeping it across the area. “Structural integrity’s not great, but stable for now,” he replied. “Multiple micro-fractures along the east corridor. One hard hit and the ceiling’s liable to squash us. Recommend we avoid any heroics, shouting matches, or interpretive dance in that direction.”. He looked up from his tricorder and met Zora’s gaze. “I’ll keep scanning ahead. If something shifts, I’ll know before it falls on us. Hopefully.”

"You guys are just dying to get me killed in some horrible fashion today, aren't you?" Kevan sighed, taking the lead. He let the light of his arm beacon flash over the space ahead, taking slower steps than usual as his eyes flicked between the tricorder and the path. "The research team's last known position was about twenty meters ahead. I can't see any suit lights."

Zora pressed a button on her left arm panel, switching the comms from the internal one the away team was using to a wide broadcast external one. "This is Commander Zora from the USS Athena, is anybody hearing this?" She was met with static. "We should be picking up something at this range," she said, switching the channel back to her team. "Lifesigns, location pings from the EVA suits, comms... Ryan, have you got anything on scanners?"

"I've got plenty, but none of it makes sense."

The Science Chief's response held an air of distraction, the conversational equivalent of a bookmark meant to suffice until she could spare the concentration to elaborate.

"The neutronium is already going to play hell with scanning and comms. Who knows what those death-bubble things are doing to them." Kevan cautiously moved forward into a more open space that seemed sheltered by a large crust of the thick dark metal. "I don't see any bodies...I hate to say it but are we on a fool's errand here?"

With her tricorder held out, Alexis took advantage of the group's hesitation to turn a slow circle. It took a glance that switched between her readouts and location itself, neither of which showed a willingness to cooperate with any consistent comparisons, for her to notice what her tricorder hadn't. Slow, careful footsteps took her towards Sturgis, and then just beyond, to the wall behind the engineer.

"They moved one of our relays."

Crouching as carefully as her suit would allow, Alexis immediately amended the observation as soon as visual confirmation spoke otherwise.

"Wait, this isn't one of ours." Leaning closer, Alex frowned and started fumbling to interface her tricorder. "It's Starfleet-issue."

"If it's Starfleet issue but also not one of ours, what does that mean?" Zora asked. Her puzzlement turned to discomfort. She felt that something was off from the second the shuttle touched down, but now they were further into the belly of the beast, she was finding it harder and harder to ignore her instincts.

Sturgis took a few steps away from the group, tricorder lifted, eyes scanning the far wall. “If it’s Starfleet and it’s not ours then maybe we’ve got company that didn’t check in?” His tone stayed calm, but he moved another pace forward, following a flicker on his readout. He stopped as the tricorder chirped. “Okay, that's...”

And he vanished.

No sound. No flash. Just empty air and the faint clatter of a tricorder hitting the floor, blinking steadily where he’d been.

"O'Connell! What happened? Where did he go?" Zora asked. Her eyes frantically searched the spot where he had just been standing, as though looking hard enough would make him reappear again.

"What happened to 'warning of imminent death'!?" Kevan exclaimed, swinging his own tricorder in a vain attempt to understand what was going on. "Did...did we just lose...?"

It had taken Ryan a second or two to realise what had happened. From her crouched position, her back turned, there was no chance of visual confirmation and she was torn, trapped by the delay caused by her tricorder's attempt to draw any information from the communication relay, and the more imminent need to figure out what had just happened. "Transfer's nearly complete. We should move."

"I didn't want to stick around here before, and I want to even less now," the Trill sighed, feeling frustration at the disappearance of the engineer. "What are the chances we even find anyone down here? These scans are totally useless!"

"As is losing your temper, Lieutenant."

There was a bite to Ryan's tone that was unusual, equally as much as her interjection, which somewhat presumed to supersede Zora's authority. With a wrench, she tugged her tricorder to break connection and rose, holding it aloft in a race to make any sense of the massively fluctuating readings.

"Commander, at the rate of expansion, we're looking at total graviton saturation in less than 10 minutes."

Very aware of the implications of her next statement, Ryan made direct eye contact with the El-Aurian and made some effort to keep the frustration from her own tone.

"Suggest getting out while we still can."

Empathically, emotionally, Zora didn't want to leave until she had concrete proof that there was nothing further they could do for Sturgis; she owed him that much. She had told the team that they would not be losing anyone else; those words were now just a broken promise. As much as she felt she had a duty to the engineering officer, her true duty was to the remaining people under her command. "Let's go," she said, her voice sounding cold and hollow in her ears.