Rescue & Recovery | Part III-C

Posted on Thursday, 26 August 2021 - 5:19pm by Commander Soral & Lieutenant JG Hayashi Hamura & Lieutenant T'Lanna Vali & Lieutenant Ryan Rose MD & Lieutenant Alex Kingsley & Lieutenant JG Jodon Joral

Mission: Operation: Lazarus
Location: USS Standing Bear | Deck 05 |

ON:

=^= Deck 5 - Trel D Containment =^=

T’Lanna was pacing the containment area, she’d watched those around her slowly going mad, and watched them die. Her features were covered in radiation burns, green patches of blood showing. She was talking to herself trying to keep her head clear of the thoughts that were bombarding her from all over the ship. “Must keep control... must keep control... can’t lose it now! Have to hold on... the rescue will come...”

The rescue was indeed coming, descending quickly through the ship, a few solid kicks were needed to convince a maintenance hatch to pop open and let the three officers climb out into what had been the science department. Main power was out, making them rely upon flashlights which sent ominous shadows in all directions as they began trying to carve a path to the lab and to T’Lanna.

T’Lanna had sat down on the floor, she coughed a rather chesty and not good sounding cough. She sat swaying back and forth barely noticing the sound of someone working. She was tired very very tired and she sprawled out on the floor drawing silly drawings on the floor in her own blood from where she’d coughed it up. The sense of arrivals nearby barely phased her as she thought she was imagining it.

Pickles had clung to life for as long as he could, kept treating the survivors until med supplies ran low. When they had gotten down to the last few doses, he sacrificed his own ration of radiation treatments for the others to live. He had found a place underneath a console to rest his eyes as his breathing swallowed and his heart took its final beats.

All T’Lanna could do was watch as Pickles withered away before her eyes, he’d been a rock for her keeping her going but now she had to watch him die. A few tears ran down her cheeks as her mind reached out for Raith and for Jayce. If her last minutes were coming she wanted to be with her family when she went.

In the corridor outside, they were faced with a massive amount of debris covering a huge section where the entrance to the lab would be. Bulkheads had buckled but fortunately, the lack of power meant the exposed circuitry was not an immediate threat. What made it worse was the radiation that had leaked out into the deck was proving a nightmare for the tricorders they carried and the longer they stayed, the worse it would be.

"The door is here, I'm sure of it," Lieutenant Kingsley said as she tried to visualize the corridor without the debris. The problem was, it would take forever to get to it. "Wait... lab two!"

She carefully picked her way a few meters further down the corridor, "Doctor Rose! Over here."

Where she stood half a door was just about visible, the debris far less pronounced. Scanning the interior she frowned, "I'm not detecting any life signs inside this lab but there is a connecting storage unit between this lab and the next. We were using a forcefield to maintain a negative pressure environment but with the power out it should be down.... I think we will be able to force the doors open and get to our people that way."

"Ok, then, let's clear ourselves a path." Ryan could use a plasma cutter and would count on Hamura's guidance to make sure they didn't cut anything structurally important.

After Hamura's encounter with Soral, they rushed to join the others. Just as the group was heading to Lab two Hamura caught up. "All set we have a transport plan." Hamura headed with the group to the lab too there was still much work to be done.

Working together, they were soon into what remained of lab two. Some of the debris they could simply step over or move aside, the door, however, other fragments required much more effort to clear.

Ryan continued cutting, losing the finesse of a surgeon for the brute force and desperation of getting to the trapped group.

Lieutenant Joral's modified tricorder was presenting quite the chorus of chirps and electronic chattering. "Gaseous radiation levels are getting worse the more progress we made. These levels are extremely alarming. Doctor, these people are going to have severe radiation burns when we get to them. Their lungs will be Swiss cheese."

Ryan gave a very uncharacteristic glare to Joral, and was about to speak up about the crassness of his comment when..

With a groan the first door gave way, requiring their combined strength to part them enough in the buckled frame to make room for them to advance. "At least my test tubes survived," Alex quipped as they filed in and began working on the next door. She glanced down at her suit, "we are close to exceeding safe tolerance," she said to nobody in particular as she muted the warning on her suit. None of them were turning back when it was one freaking door in their way.

Ryan turned his head, looking for Hamura. They were close, and he wanted that sight-to-sight transport ready. He knew he would be dealing with some very sick people, and wanted to get them to sickbay as soon as possible. "Almost there." He smiled at Alex, knowing they were both eager to get their friends rescued.

"Transporters are ready. We have to get them five meters from the lab and we're good to go." Hamura did a sweep of the area they had left to cut. "Not here. Go about two centimeters to the right and start there."

Inside T’Lanna had rolled into her back, coughing violently she spit out more green blood before lying there laughing. At first, it was a little giggle before she started laughing loudly. She didn’t even know what she was laughing at, just that something was funny. She was dying and she knew it but right now she didn’t care.”

Outside the cutting was happening painstakingly slow. "We're just about there!" Hamura yelled. "Just a few more seconds then stand back doctor."

Ryan quickly stepped back and exchanged the plasma torch for his far more familiar med kit.

With the doorway clear, the rescue team hurried into the lab although the sight that greeted them was one they never hoped to see. Kingsley froze for a moment, her eyes seeming to just find bodies wherever she looked and she needed no tricorder to know they were beyond help.

All but one.

She half-turned as she saw Dr Rose hurrying towards T'Lanna. "Lieutenant Joral, please help Dr Rose. I'll ... check on the others..." she didn't want to but someone had to and it didn't feel right to delegate it to someone. Besides, they had to be sure. Maybe one or two more had made it. It was asking for a miracle, she knew.

As they checked on the people Hamura secured the entrance better so that they could drag out people quickly. This was going to be a herculean task, that much was clear.

Ryan quickly picked T'Lanna up and hurried her back through the door so they could site-to-site transport to sickbay.

Hamura and Alex swept the room. They were able to find a few more people that were going to need treatment and thanks to Mac and tactical on the other side they got them to the transport Padd and off to sickbay into the hands of Doctor Rose to be treated. Having left with Vali and the rest of the survivors Rose had left Alex in charge.

Hamura thought on this as the image of Oriana ran through their mind.

To be continued...