Stuck in Turbolift

Posted on Wed Nov 5th, 2025 @ 1:27am by Ensign Ezmyrae Varin & Ensign Noub Odee & NVeid tr'Rehu

Mission: Aeon's End
Location: Turbolift
Timeline: BACKPOST: Straight after time travel incident
2417 words - 4.8 OF Standard Post Measure

The turbolift hung in dead silence whilst the pulsing crimson of the overhead emergency lighting cast eerie shadows that thwarted the senses at first. The acrid tang of overheated circuitry lingered in the air, mixing with the sharp metallic scent of stress-sweat and adrenaline. It took Myra a moment to gather her wits enough to realise she was on the floor and several additional seconds to realise she was mostly intact but for a dull ache in both her elbow and her forehead where the forward-flung momentum had forced her to brace against the wall before falling. With a flailing hand, she groped forward and found purchase enough to push herself up onto her knees.

She'd been on her way to Sickbay. The realisation flooded back.

She coughed, the sound oddly intrusive in the oppressive stillness. No hum of engines. No vibration of motion. Just the rustle of bodies trying to orient themselves in the dark.

"What happened?"

It was a question without much hope of a clarifying response because Myra could no more expect the other occupants to predict their situation than she could claim to be a clairvoyant herself. It was easy enough to guess that something had gone wrong, that the all-hands directive that had been the main impetus behind her trying to reach her duty station in the first place had somehow produced a less-than-desirable result. It was still jarring, particularly when the incessant throb of the red alert brought with it a flood of unwanted associations.

Noub groaned, wincing as he sat up as well. Nothing seemed broken, the joints moved as they should, but there were going to be lots of bruises later. It took only a couple seconds to realise that the turbolift was stuck, and the ops officer braced a hand on the wall of the lift to stand. "Odee to Ops," Noub said, tapping his communicator. When silence responded, he popped open a nearby panel to see what was going on. "No comms, and no power to the lift," the Ensign reported after trying to get... well, anything to work.

NVeid sat utterly still, listening to the sounds around him as he tried to get his bearings. One second he was on his feet, the next he'd been sat on the floor with no recollection of how he'd gotten there. He moved gingerly, as if testing the function of his limbs, wincing involuntarily as he tried to get to his feet. "I don't know what happened," he finally reported, "are you both uninjured? Do you require any assistance?" He fought to keep his voice calm, despite feeling anything but. The confined space, the low lighting, the odd smell he couldn't quite place, it all just amped his sense of anxiety. Asking questions seemed to give him purpose.

A groping hand found the slight bump on her forehead but when it pulled away clean of blood, Myra dismissed it as much of a concern for the time being. Likewise, her sore arm had full mobility, it was just likely her elbow was going to sport an impressive bruise until she could get it seen to. "I'm okay," she replied softly, hoping that if she said the words out loud, they would manifest in a means to control the threat of panic looming. Of all the lingering issues involving her accident, the sensation of being trapped or confined remained the most potent. "How do we get out?"

The sense of suppressed panic was still sensible to the hybrid Romulan, though right now he couldn't be sure who the feelings belonged to, including himself. "Can we use the hatch, and climb the turbo lift shaft?" He queried, glancing up towards the escape hatch, "perhaps we are close to a deck and we can force the door open." But how would they get there?

"I'm alright," Noub told NVeid. He tinkered with the panel for a couple before seconds before giving a sigh. "This lift used its emergency brakes and will have to be repaired by Engineering. Climbing out is the only option," he explained, stepping away from the panel. The odds of being aligned with the doors of another deck were small, and if he had his tricorder he would be able to tell. The only way to know for sure would be if they pried open the door. "Let’s check if the lift stopped by the closest deck. If there's enough space, we can get the doors open and crawl out. Otherwise, we'll have to go out the top. Do either of you have a tricorder?"

A quick shake of her head left Myra wishing she hadn't and she distracted herself from the bout of mild dizziness by chewing on her bottom lip. "I was off-duty when they told us to report to duty stations." And she'd nearly been there too, there was a vague recollection that they should have been on the approach to Sickbay when impact had occurred. Why this had happened before all personnel had reported in was difficult to tell but it left a few grim possibilities.

"I don't have one either," NVeid reported. "We'll have to find out the hard way where we are." He glanced up towards the hatch. "I can probably help both of you get up there."

Noub thought for a second before agreeing with a nod. It would overall conserve their energy if they just went out the top than if they tried to pry open the doors first. As the tallest in the group by only a couple centimetres, he moved to the middle of the lift and reached up to reach the hatch, lifting his heels a little to get adequate reach. He grunted as he pushed, his hands adjusting to find the right pressure on the hatch needed to release the seal. "NVeid, can you reach this too?" he asked the Romulan.

Grimacing as he used the wall to get himself up to his feet, he limped over to Noub. Shifting all his weight to one leg, he reached up, his fingers barely reaching the seal. "Yes," he reported as he worked the other side of the hatch, helping to release it. "Can you push it aside? I can help you get up there, and then you can pull us out."

"Let's make sure we can get out first." With a couple coordinated shoves by the two, the hatch finally released, and with a little hop Noub was able to push the hatch out of the way. It was then that he looked at NVeid, able to make out in the eerie red glow that he was favouring one leg. "I'm no doctor, but aren't injured supposed to go first or something?" he asked.

The Romulan glanced back at Myra, then nodded. "Yes, and I would suggest ladies first but I will go then and I will assist in pulling her up. I don't think she's in any condition to help in pulling either of us up." He glanced up at the exposed hatch. "If you'll assist me.." they'd worry about the stairs if necessary when they were in the roof and out of this contained space.

With Noubs help he was able to climb out through the hatch then shifted so he lay flat and reached down. "Myra, you're next."

It had taken a moment for the pink tinge of embarrassed indignation to fade. As much as it was unlikely to be the intent, the frustration of being spoken of as a weak link had a rallying effect that saw Myra bristle and glare upwards before accepting only the leverage required to haul herself upwards. Physical therapy had involved a renewed focus on swimming, which typically meant she had far better upper body strength than her appearance suggested.

Outside the assistance required to meet the height requirements, she managed to ignore the discomfort of a slight headache and scrambled upwards with stubborn independence. Once clear, she shuffled over to get out of the way without so much as a word.

While not a trained medical professional, Noub thought Myra appeared to be in better physical condition than NVeid. Perhaps a little shaken, but any injuries he could spot in the dim lighting were consistent with being subject to the laws of physics. With a jump, Noub grabbed the edge of the hatch and pulled himself up with the assistance of the other two. Once his hips cleared the hatch, he twisted so he could sit to pull his legs out.

"The laws of chivalry would dictate ladies last on a ladder," NVeid suggested lightly, "but now I suggest she goes second. Noub, I recommend you go first and I will go last as I will be the slowest. You two try to pry apart the doors on the next level. I will assist as soon as I get there." He probably had superior strength compared to the other two but he didn't want to brag, it wasn't his nature to be in the spotlight.

The pink spots of indignation on Myra's cheeks looked in no danger of fading fast. She had no idea what the surgeon was trying to suggest but the inherent misogyny left her disinclined to trust herself with any kind of verbal response. Instead, outraged to the extent that at least her dull headache wasn't distracting her anymore, the Trill glanced upwards at the access ladder and tried not to think about how far above anything solid they actually were. After all, it was a starship; eventually, at some point, if you dropped through enough floors, you wound up floating in the vaccuum anyway. Gingerly finding her balance, she tested the stability first, overly cautious of any structural damage that might complicate things, and then squeezed her eyes shut as she made the first few steps up the ladder via instinctual foot-placement alone.

Noub gave NVeid a look that was a mix of confusion and astonishment. It was not the time or place to be worried about manners. Surely the average Starfleet officer would understand that cultural norms took a back seat to an urgent task. "Hey," he said quietly, "we have more important things to worry about right now than chivalry."

"Indeed. Chivalry aside you are uninjured and fasted, I am injured and am slower. I will go last, and I will go as fast as I can to keep up."

It was only a matter of minutes before the irritation succumbed to the adrenaline of a much more potent emotion. There had always been the need to address her response under duress, trauma recovery had factored heavily into what had remained of Myra's studies and application for commission, and she'd been subjected to decently rigorous scenario-based evaluation to make sure she wasn't going to melt into a gibberish mess at the first sign of trouble. As a result, the concern was not so much that she was in danger of shutting down as it was focusing so intently that she zoned out entirely. One rung at a time, hand over hand, securing each foot with strict instructions to herself not to look down... She'd finally opened her eyes but only to stare directly upwards.

She had no firm ideas of what she was looking for but a door or some sort of hatch should have been fairly universal in design, surely.

NVeid sighed to himself and waited for Noub to follow before starting a slow and painful ascent. Since he couldn't put any weight on his right foot he was forced to push himself up in slow steps which eventually caused the muscles in his arms to feel like they were in fire. He paused every few steps to shake out his arms, careful not to lose his grip on the rungs. Now that they were out of the confinement of the car, he felt like he could breathe a little easier.

After a few minutes of climbing, Noub looked to the side, where indicators on the inner walls of the turbolift shaft inidcated relative position. "A few more metres should get us to deck six," he said to Myra. "There should be a narrow platform to either side of a hatch."

Turning her head to search didn't do a lot to thwart disorientation. Gripping the ladder with hands that seemed intent on being too slippery for comfort, Myra forced herself to cover the last few metres and then hesitated. Transferring from ladder to platform was an intended function, and as such the infrastructure was designed to enable a smooth enough transition. It still involved letting go of the ladder.

"This one?" Confirmation at least bought a moment's justified hesitation.

Noub looked up, then nodded. "Yes, that one." He waited for Myra to transfer, understanding that the stress was probably affecting all of them in different ways.

For a single, agonising second, Myra wasn't sure she could do it. Heights had never bothered her before but there were a lot of things that affected her now that she'd never considered problems in the past. In the end, it was the scramble of adrenaline-fused panic that roused her, realising that Noub was already bridging the distance between them and that she was well and truly out of time to stall.

Once she was clear, Noub climbed up and transferred to the platform on the opposite side. He spared a glance down to see where NVeid was, then focused on the hatch. Thankfully, there was an access panel, and he used his codes to override the safety lock on the door. If Iska were here, he'd make some joke about quartermasters having a master key to every door on the ship. That thought stabbed Noub with a pang of grief, but he forced himself to focus.

Gritting his teeth, NVeid climbed up as fast as he was able, keeping as much weight off of his foot as was possible. His eyes were almost black with reigned in pain as he reached the others, his hair plastered to his face. It had clearly taken him a lot more effort than he was ready to voice and he refused to complain. He was just in time to see Noub enter a code and much to his relief the door slid aside. With a little assistance from the others he transversed the last steps and allowed himself to land on the platform. "Let's get away from this deathtrap," he suggested.