Lt. Cmdr Robin Hopper – Don’t Rush, Just Hurry
Robin Hopper
((Derelict Vaadwaur Ship – Underspace Corridor))
Robin began moving in the direction of the readings, her weapon still drawn. Just because whoever this was had set up in med bay did not mean they were injured, or not a potential threat or that this energy signal was not some sort of trap.
Hopper: I’ll enter the room first. Shortrith, you’ll follow. Niev, give us a few seconds to assess the status of the room and then join us. In case we spring some sort of trap, I’m counting on your door-busting strength to get us out of there.
Shortrith: Yes, Commander.
Niev just nodded, doing a poor job in their silence of suppressing the worried look underlying their affirmative.
Pausing outside the room, Robin took a few measured breaths. She tapped the panel beside the door, just on the off chance it would function. To her surprise, it slid open, powered. Immediately inside the door, though, was a projected forcefield – green and shimmering, fluctuating and reacting with the particles of dust floating into it in the zero gravity environment.
Hopper: Niev, what’s this field made of? Can we pass through it, or…? And where’s it coming from?
Galanis: It seems to be a standard containment field, likely for security or-
Then, through the translucent field, Robin’s eyes settled on another intriguing sight. The room was laid out not entirely unlike a Starfleet sickbay, with a series of biobed-like stations around the curved room. At one of these stations was an unusual device of some sort, connected haphazardly to a panel in the wall with cables and tubes, linking it directly into the bed’s systems. The bed itself had some sort of hood or scanning array curved overtop of it, enclosing it – but through the glass they could make out a humanoid figure. A Vaadwaur, their eyes closed and breaths coming in slow ragged gasps.
Hopper: Holy crap – there’s our survivor. Renaie, any chance they’re treatable? Can they at least be stabilized?
Shortrith: I'd like to think so. I need to go help them.
The medical officer, in the most stereotypical display of Klingon-style bravado Robin had yet seen from them, ran headfirst into the forcefield and – unsurprisingly – bounced right back off of it. Fortunately, they seemed tough enough to take their own recklessness without injury. Nonetheless, Robin scowled, even as Shortrith chuckled. The last thing they needed in this situation was for one of them to breach their EVA suit or hurt themselves.
Galanis: Are you all right, doctor? You should be more cautious. A barrier tuned to give one species a minor shock might be much more dangerous for another.
Renaie shrugged, their gaze clearly fixed on the patient in the medical bay beyond. Robin took it upon herself to step forward and tap Shortrith on the arm.
Hopper: Lieutenant, I understand the sense of urgency, but don’t do that again. If you hurt yourself, you also hurt the most qualified person to help. ::Sigh:: We just need to use our heads to get through this field… in a less direct way.
Whether her message entirely got through to Shortrith or not, Hopper wasn’t sure. It was times like this that she occasionally wondered if Amity Outpost’s more casual approach to command could sometimes be a hindrance. She wasn’t exactly an intimidating disciplinarian. oO Put it in your report, Hopper… Oo she told herself, compartmentalizing the concern so she could focus on the immediate issue.
Shortrith: The sooner we open this, the sooner I can help this person. Any chance either of you could pull some miracle and open this?
Galanis: Are we sure a miracle is what we want right now? Isn’t there a possibility this forcefield is here for a good reason?
Robin chewed her lip, trying to work out in an absence of truly solid evidence, what the set-up was they had found before them.
Hopper: There are plenty of good reasons it could be here – but none of them probably accounted for help to be standing outside. If that Vaadwaur is going to live we do need to get in there, and if we’re going to find out what the hell happened here, we need him to live.
As if the ship’s computer had been listening to their desperate conversation, a resonant hum vibrated through the decking as the forcefield flickered and then faded, along with what little lighting had been present in the room beyond it. Shortrith, predictably, ran directly through the open door and towards the Vaadwaur – the patient? Robin held her breath until the doctor reached the bed and immediately began performing basic lifesaving care.
Moving into the room with a ‘follow me’ head tilt to Niev, she lowered her phase rifle, but kept it at her side, in hand. Her other hand grabbed the tricorder off her belt and flipped it open one-handed.
Shortrith: Thanks to whoever did that.
Galanis: Don’t be too thankful. It’s the ship itself. Systems are still in the process of failing. I think it’s safe to assume this attack was quite recent… and that we’ve arrived just on time, for better or worse.
There was a brief, solemn, pause as all three of them shared the same understanding of implication – that this Vaadwaur was nearly out of time. That they may even be too late.
Hopper: On the bright side, doctor, it may actually have been your run-in with the forcefield that used up its last bit of power and let us in here. ::Looking to Niev:: If medical is losing power, it won’t be long before the last of the structural integrity fields give out.
She left it unstated that with all the debris outside, this could be bad news. Taking a look at her tricorder, she tried to determine just how shielded the area they were in was – and whether or not there was any shot of Lieutenant Flint beaming them out of there.
Her gaze drifted back down to the Vaadwaur, hooked up with several wires and tubes to various machines around the bed. Who had put him there? Had he climbed into the bed himself hoping to survive? Had he been abandoned by the medical staff when the attack happened? She watched the ragged rise and fall of his chest, a soft whirr click coming through the breathing apparatus strapped to his face.
Galanis: Whatever we’re going to do, there’s no reliable way to predict if or when this vessel will deteriorate further. Lieutenant Shortrith, is the survivor… awakenable?
Shortrith: I hope so. If they're still breathing, they're still alive. I'll need to get them on a biobed that I can understand the language of to truly tell.
Robin gritted her teeth at that – at the thought of bringing him aboard the Daintree as… what? A refugee? A prisoner? A patient, she supposed, at least for now…
Hopper: We need more information before we consider moving them. For starters, I doubt we can get a solid transporter lock in here, which means we’d need to get them to a less-shielded location. Without a clearer understanding of his condition, moving them could kill him.
In truth, Robin had no idea how fragile or resilient the average Vaadwaur was, let alone this one lying here seemingly-unconscious – the last survivor of some cataclysmic disaster aboard this vessel. For all she knew, Shortrith’s CPR might be the death of him. Looking at him wrong might kill him.
Galanis: I’m picking up residual traces of some very familiar fields, Commander. This Vaadwaur may have been brought out of stasis only recently. Lieutenant Shortrith would have to take a closer look to confirm if he was injured in the attack or not.
Shortrith: ::gravely:: He was.
Hopper: Injured… in stasis? And that’s what woke him? Or injured beforehand and then put in a stasis that… just expired?
The answers still eluded them – a frustration that Robin felt rising in her chest, which she had to consciously subdue. As if matters weren’t bad enough, the ambient light dimmed another perceptible drop and little warning lights began blinking on the edge of the bed.
Galanis: Sir, I’m aware this may sound drastic, but I don’t think it’s safe to keep them here. If we need the information from this crew member, or passenger, or whoever they are; then should we be considering transporting them back to the Daintree?
Shortrith: I'm inclined to agree. Especially as, I believe, none of us can read the text on the Vaadwaur biobed. If we get back to the Daintree, we can hopefully translate it to Federation Standard, or whatever language we understand, and work with that.
Robin’s brow furrowed, but she nonetheless relented with a few begrudging nods.
Hopper: At this point, he’s almost definitely dying if we just leave him here. Moving him’s a risk, but at least it’s a chance.
Shortrith: How much of a risk is there for transporting?
Hopper: From here – too much. Sickbays are usually one of the most shielded portions of a vessel. If Flint tries beaming him out of here, he’s likely to end up Vaadwaur paté on the other end.
As if to underscore the urgency of the situation, there was a loud BANG and a vibration that ran through the hull that could only be a large chunk of debris colliding with the derelict. The SIFs were holding things together for now, but they’d be the next system to fail. After that, one big hit might tear a hole in the ship that’d suck all four of them out into underspace. oO Which is maybe what happened to the… organic debris… we found outside the rift. Oo
The thought was disturbing, to say the least.
Hopper: Okay. No other choice. We’re moving him. At least there’s no gravity, right? Someone help me with the safety restraints. We’re going to float him out of here – back in the direction we came from, until the Daintree can get us out of here.
Galanis: Response
As the others spoke, Robin unlatched the last of the restraints keeping the patient in place and, with just a little force, managed to move the upper half of his body up and out of the bed, where it floated in the air.
Shortrith: We should be able to use our PADDS to record things like the crew dossiers, so we can find out about our patient and treat him effectively.
Hopper: Not a bad idea – though with power down almost everywhere else, we’re not likely to get anything not immediately accessible on the sickbay’s local processors. See if you can patch in and download anything that resembles patient files.
She nodded to Niev.
Hopper: Help me with his feet? The less we bump him into things as we go, the better. Mind his oxygen tube. We don’t want to catch that on something and accidentally suffocate him.
Galanis: Response
Awkwardly, the two of them began to move the Vaadwaur up and off the bed and towards the entrance. Robin had to rotate around to take the lead back towards the door, carefully minding she didn’t bash his head against any of the medical equipment or a bulkhead.
Shortrith: How much time do we have?
Hopper: We’re heading out the door now, Doctor… Don’t rush, just hurry, if you don’t want to be left behind!
Galanis/Shortrith: Response
Navigating down the corridor in the near pitch-darkness with an unconscious floating body was, you may be unsurprised to hear, not a particularly pleasant experience. oO How did we wind up here? Doing this? Oo Sometimes you just had to not ask yourself questions like that. The answer was almost certainly not going to be satisfying – and it might not even make any sense. In Starfleet, sometimes you just were there, doing that and you had to keep on doing whatever it was until you weren’t wherever you’d been anymore.
Hopper: Gee, it’d be really spooky if he woke up right now, huh?
Galanis/Shortrith: Response
She nodded, both amused and a little unnerved by her own comment.
Hopper: =/\= Lieutenant Flint, we’ve got a third person for transport… Start trying to resolve our signals now, and the minute you get a proper lock on us, beam all three of us back to the Daintree and ready the biobed. =/\=
Flint: ::Slightly alarmed:: =/\= You didn’t shoot anyone did you, Commander? =/\=
Galanis/Shortrith: Response
TBC
