Lt JG Imril - Trust Doesn't Come Easy When You're On The Run (Part 2 of 2)
Chris Taylor
((Corridor, New Hope))
Imril: ::To Jovenan:: I suggest that we should help reunite these folk with their fellows and see what help we can be there. ::To the Boraxians:: If you’d all be so kind as to show us where the rest of the firefighters evacuated to.
Sam looked wearily Jovenan. Did she think Imril was taking too much charge of the mission?
Jovenan: We’d want to make sure you get back to your team safely. We’ll accompany you. ::pause:: Lieutenant Imril is an engineer, and Lieutenant Bergmen an operations officer. Maybe you could introduce them to your emergency systems and protocols, so we’d know what’s ahead of us as we search for people?
Richards: I agree with our Commander. I think that’s a good idea.
Richards smiled a smile that might have been meant to hurry things along. Imril couldn’t blame her. The team had very little in the way to show for aiding or investigating these people thus far.
The woman reached into a long pocket with one of her lower hands and pulled out a flashlight with a long, triangular handle. She placed it into the hand of one of her upper arms before activating it.
Ellise: If you would know and be known by my community, follow.
She began walking, opposite the direction the away team had come. The other Boraxians produced lights of their own, and followed on her heels.
Imril followed after.
Imril: We appreciate the trust you are showing.
Richards: I will echo that statement. It is appreciated your trust in us.
As they walked, Bergmen worked to keep the conversation, what there was of it, going.
Bergmen: Do you work as a Damage Controller full-time?
Aimee: No, I serve as an Information Systems Technician. Ellise here is a life sciences operations officer. All crew members received training in Damage control; we have no specific rating for just that.
Bergmen: Nice to meet kindred spirits in engineering and ship operations, Aimee.
As the men spoke, Jovenan and Richards began to lag back. Assuming the women had a reason for getting out of earshot, Imril stepped up to keep the conversation going.
Imril: What about you, Remy? What do you do when you’re not helping out in Damage Control?
The Yurum seemed almost surprised by the question.
Remy: Me? I... I am an apprentice technician. I am pleased to help out where I can. Today, helping meant fighting fires. It was a fearful thing to do, indeed. But I raised myself to the challenge and succeeded! It was… ::bites their lip::... I think… No, never mind.
Imril: What is it, Remy? I’m curious to hear.
Remy: ::Looking away:: A passing thought. Pay it no heed.
Imril looked to the male Boraxian, to see how he responded to these strange comments. Aimee, for his part, seemed to have an odd fascination with Bergmen and Imril’s heads. Specifically, their hair, which he kept sneaking peeks at when he thought they weren’t looking.
Jovenan walked a bit faster, cluing Imril to not ask any followup questions to either of them.
Jovenan: Ellise. I think you can now find your team without us. We can cover more ground if we split up. We could head to the upper decks. Is there a common area somewhere there where we could find other people? A mess hall, sickbay, recreating area…
Ellise: Our medical facility is two decks up. But know that the lifts do not work.
Jovenan nodded.
Jovenan: We’ll figure a way up. If you find injured people, contact the Artemis, they’ll beam you up. Thank you,and good luck.
Bergmen: Hopefully see you soon!
Richards: Nice to meet you three.
Sam had to yell a bit to be heard, still waddling her way to catching up with the group.
Imril: Good travels.
The Boraxians continued on their way and Jovenan ushered the team back towards where they had started. When the aliens were out of sight, Jovenan looked towards the team.
Jovenan: There’s something in the sickbay. We have to get there.
Bergmen: Agree. I don’t know how you, but I think that Ellise definitely didn’t tell the whole story was.
Richards: Something definitely doesn’t add up.
Imril: ::To Jovenan and Richards:: Did you two find something while you were talking alone?
Jovenan: response
Bergmen took out his tricorder and began to scan the corridor.
Bergmen: Ma’am, looks like she didn’t lie. A couple of meters from here is a shaft of proper size, which could be a lift… But I don’t detect any energy in that space. And then… ::pause, and bite his lip:: …is here… how to formulate it… Bad and weird?
Imril looked to him, hoping for more than ‘bad and weird’.
Bergmen: I detect Theta radiation. Nothing critical, the values are quite low– so low, in fact, they likely aren’t indicative of a warp core breach, plus… the readings are coming from the ship hull inside rather than originating from within.
Imril moved his tricorder into scanning position. Before they could confirm Bergmen’s readings, Sam held up her hand and shook her head.
Richards: Don’t stress yourself out. Those levels are extremely low. I have noted them and have it set to alert us if they rise even a tiny bit. Let me and the Commander worry about it, you and Imril worry about how we are going to get up two decks.
Ollie nodded and made his way towards what they assumed to be the lift. He grabbed a pole off the ground and used it to move a panel to the side. In the process, dropping the pole down the shaft, making it clink noisily on the way down.
Bergmen: Looks like we have a way up, but it will not be a pleasant one, Commander!
Richards: If you say anything about a ladder you’re going to have to rethink that. ::pointing to her belly:: They make climbing a bit difficult at the moment.
Imril began scanning the shaft, in hopes of finding something that might lead to a solution for Richards as much as to explain how the ship’s personnel allowed a lift to their medbay of all places to come under such disrepair.
Jovenans Commbadge chirped.
Munro: =/\= Munro to Away Teams =/\=
Imril stopped what they were doing to listen in to the call, which had seemingly been directed to everyone, not just Jovenan.
Jovenan: =/\= Response =/\=
Munro: =/\= How are things on the colony ship? =/\=
Jovenan: =/\= Response =/\=
Munro: =/\= The situation seems to be a little more complex than we first thought. The Yurum Sectarian Faction have requested asylum. =/\=
And just like that, some of the mystery had been solved. That of why the Boraxians were behaving so oddly. If they were on the run from someone or something, they had to be sure of the aliens in their midst before revealing that. The Boraxians needed to know, without any doubt, that Munro and her subordinates wouldn’t hand them back over to their adversaries or inform said enemy about their location after the fact.
Jovenan: =/\= Response =/\=
Munro: =/\= I haven't made a decision either way. I'm hoping that you can gather more evidence. I don't need to stress the importance of this request to either of you. Thank you, Munro out. =/\=
Richards took a deep breath.
Richards: Do we still want to proceed to the sickbay? That might be the evidence Commander Munro would like to know about.
Imril: Evidence she may need to make her decision regarding sanctuary.
Jovenan/Bergmen: Response
Sam nodded, clearly not enjoying the prospect of a climb.
Richards: Alright. Imril, Ollie, can you find if there’s any other way to get up there? If not I need to prepare myself for what will be the worst climb of my life.
Imril: I might have something. This lift runs on mag-lev principles, but the embedded power cells appear to have corroded to the point that the rails couldn’t maintain polarization. Based on the corrosion pattern, I’d say the theta radiation slowly burned out their capacitors. I’m reading a similar sort of batteries nearby, showing similar damage. But the arrangement of the components is different. I’m thinking a circular escalator.”
Jovenan/Bergmen/Richards: Response
Imril led the group around a tight huddle of corners to an open doorway. On the other side, a cylindrical stairwell. A short walkway ended to one side in a stairway going up, the other side going down. A cylindrical shaft running through the center of the well prevented any thought of falling down a shaft, and provided housing for the escalator’s power and control systems.
A control panel, presumably for the escalator, consisting of circles of metallic hexagons, appeared to have been badly burned out; half the little hexagons had blown clean off. They were now lying on the floor as discarded, twisted coins. Imril was reminded of the emergency drill Bergmen had run them through not long ago. Energy backwash from a faulty power core.
Imril: ::scannng:: There’s a landing on every story. It goes down far enough to get to where that lift crashed, and up for several stories past the medbay. The stairs around here are locked in place; the batteries that move the gears are all dead. Panel, too. Up near the floor we need to reach, the stairs might be a bit shaky. I’m reading uneven power surges up there. Batteries still in the process of breaking down, spitting out random bursts of energy.
Jovenan/Bergmen/Richards: Response
By way of proving their tricorder readings, Imril volunteered themself to be the first to take the stairs. There was a little bit of creaking underneath their feet, more from one stair in particular, but they made it up to the first landing without incident.
Imril: ::calling down:: You might want to avoid the seventh step!
Jovenan/Bergmen/Richards: Response
((OCC: I devised the escalator on the assumption that the drive to protect Yurum from all dangers includes the ominous threat of one of them slipping on stairs and falling down. Even if the New Hope isn’t normally supposed to house Yurum, I'm prsuming there could be systems in place for their emergency transport when other options aren't available.))
TAGS/TBC
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Lieutenant JG Imril
Engineering Officer
USS Artemis-A
A240110I12