LtCmdrs Sky Blake & Tristam Core, "The mayday."

[Deliera Jay]

((Planetoid))

::When she'd found Makepeace carrying Ayden while organizing some of the security staff during the evacuation, the heavy feeling of anxiety that seated itself firmly on her chest eased somewhat.::

::The ship was quickly evacuated. A testament to good training and protocols put in place, to be sure, but for many of these crewmen, it marked the first time they'd had to abandon ship. Abandon the Veritas.

::For some reason, because it was the Veritas, and not any other Starfleet ship, it all seemed a little too surreal. And evacuating for such a ridiculous reason - a sudden loss of deuterium that came out of nowhere, after managing to find a quick semblance of calm with the Tholians? Noree, she had so many questions about why *now*, after they'd supposedly averted Ekal's future.

::Speaking of Ekal, ever since that tender peace with the Tholian vessel occurred, he'd been somewhat aloof. He'd recovered somewhat, regaining colour and energy he'd no doubt had before turning up on the ship - likely because he wasn't thinking about impending doom anymore and getting better rest. But he seemed . . . disconnected.::

::Ekal right now was the least of her concerns.::

::She'd left Ayden in the care of the crew so to continue the evacuation, to triple check that everyone had successfully made it off the ship. But when she regained consciousness in her escape pod, she regretted that decision immediately. If she thought she'd been anxious when they first sounded the call to abandon ship, her body was now vibrating in shock. As she approached Ash Makepeace assist a barely conscious Jhalib Ekal to a seated position on the ground, the landing apparently not doing his condition any favours, she may have been a little more forceful than she'd intended.::

Blake: Makepeace! Where's my son?

Makepeace: I had to have Tristam escort him to the escape pod - I've been looking after Ekal.

::Noree, this isn't fair.

::Her hand ran through her hair, gripping it tightly as she tried to focus. She'd be no good if she was hysterical, but it was getting harder to think, to prioritize courses of action, when her son could be dead or *worse*, left up on the Veritas - but the crew wouldn't do that. Would they? Could the small boy genuinely be lost during the chaos?::

Core: Blake!

::That was a voice she recognized, and she allowed her legs to run in it's direction - full-on bolting towards the Rodulan carrying a small body.::

::A small body that was not moving, or making any sound whatsoever. If she didn't know any better, she'd have thought this was a cruel joke on Noree's part.::

::By the time she reached Tristam and Ayden, the Rodulan had set him down and running a medical tricorder across the boy's prone form.::

Blake: Ayden!

Core: He's alright - he passed out from the G-force.

::Not the punchline of a cruel joke, than. Sky couldn't keep calm anymore. She deteriorated into crying and shaking when she pulled the unconscious four year old into her arms, hiccuping into his hair. Tristam's hand was a grounding force on her shoulder, the Rodulan giving a sigh of relief himself as he glanced around their saving grace.::

::He'd been outside for less than two minutes, and already he had to take off his jacket, tying it around his waist. Now that he was no longer fearing for the safety of their youngest passenger, and the boy's mother was calming down (as much as she could), he had to get back into business.

::This wasn't the first time Tristam Core had been left marooned on a planet, but at least this time, he had more than two other people with him, not to mention a smattering of resources they'd managed to skim from the ship.::

Core: Everyone made it off?

Blake: I triple checked.

Core: Roshanara?

Blake: Pod three, with Delano.

Core: Thank the Artist. ::He huffed.:: What in the world *happened*!? One minute we're cruising all dandy, the next, we're at a mayday!

Blake: We lost deuterium reserves. Everything just vanished, was rerouted to the main deflector. Possibly the sabotage we'd been combing for.

Core: We'll have to investigate that later when the rubble comes down. ::He rubbed at his eyes.:: In the meantime, we need to regroup, start setting up shelters and take inventory of what supplies we've got.

Blake: Agreed. Some of the pods came down pretty hard, too - we need a headcount.

Core: Alright. Ayden needs a once-over by medical, but we need the senior staff up and about, too.

Blake: Yeah.

::She shuddered, taking a deep breath.::

Core: Blake?

Blake: What?

::The Rodulan gave her a look of sympathy. It's like she didn't even *notice* the heat of this damn planetoid, Tristam already breaking into a sweat because of the temperature and accompanying humidity, but Blake - part Brekkian and accustomed to fairly high temperatures - wasn't showing any qualms at all about holding the miniature heater that was her son.

::She was, however, in a bit of shock. And since she was the ranking officer, he did actually need her up and about as much as she could be.::

Core: You're both going to be fine.

Tbc . . .

LtCmdrs Sky Blake & Tristam Core

USS Veritas

C238803SB0