LtCmdr Jovenan – Aww, look at us, both broken when we’re needed!
Jovenan
((Jefferies tube, Deck 4, USS Karnack))
Terror pulsated in her veins. Jovenan had been chased before, but this was different. Callis I had taught her what it meant to be a prey. On this planet, she was not escaping criminals, drones or forces of the universe, she had been reduced to the rabbit running from the wolf. Like a good prey she was, she had fled and crawled into the closest hole she could find, hoping that the predator couldn’t follow her in. It was a cramped, dark and stuffy little burrow they had found for themselves, and Jovenan was squeezed between her companions, unable to squirm forwards or backwards without them moving first, nor could she stand up and run as her urges told her to. There were no predators that could hunt down a person on her homeworld any more, but although her culture might have forgotten it, her genes still remembered that panic that came with staring a creature in the eye and seeing no reason, just the desire to kill.
Jovenan: Close it, lock it! We can’t help anyone by running headlong towards the predators!
The Jefferies tube echoed the clank the hatch made when someone behind her sealed it, and they were instantly engulfed in impenetrable darkness. Besides the order, her latter words had little meaning besides convincing herself that they couldn’t do much else. They had been just off the engineering, where some of their friends and colleagues were still working, so the predator might go to them next. Still, they couldn’t do anything to help the other team, not in their current condition. They were better staying out of their way and out of danger until they figured out how to fight the Dark Things. Or, so she tried to tell herself.
The tube trembled. Another quake followed as the creature tried to get in. Jovenan’s breath was rapid as she expected the hatch to break and light to pour back in, revealing the silhouette of their pursuer. Light indeed returned, but it was green and dim; someone had pulled out the chemlight. Jovenan realised she had one as well and took it out, adding to the light. Something metallic gleamed in the hands of one of her teammates.
Storm: Should we climb up the tube or should we wait them out here?
Their predator roared again, and the tube shook. Jovenan tried to force herself out of her animalistic instinct to flee, remind herself that she the only way she could get out of this was if she put her thought into it and planned ahead.
Bancroft: ::terse:: Wait. ::a beat:: I’m not recommending we throw ourselves at them with a torch and a prayer. But every time we run, we teach them something. We scatter. We exhaust ourselves. We let them dictate the terrain, the tempo. ::face hardening:: It’s time for us to be the ones who dictate.
Jovenan: Could we try to lure them in somewhere and lock them in? The doors and bulkheads would surely stop them or at least slow them down.
Storm: I don’t see that ending any other way but badly. They’re faster than us, stronger than us, and we’re stuck in a jeffries tube with no idea where is safe and/or secure.
That was a fair analysis of their situation. Jovenan trusted their tactical officers to be better suited in seeing the whole picture and finding the balance between the risks and their objectives. She tried to find Vitor’s face among the shadows. The chemlight coloured it sickly and uncanny.
Silveira: Why don’t we go up?
Bancroft: If we’re going to get off of Callis I, we need to finish what we came to do. The other teams may be dealing with the same problem. They’re counting on us to hold our piece of the board, just as we’re counting on them to hold theirs.
Jovenan bit her lip. Bancroft was right, they had a duty to perform, and if they failed in that, none of this would matter. But at the same time, if any of the other teams were to succumb to the predators, their efforts would be rendered equally useless. They couldn’t take off without all the teams. She still hoped that they might somehow manage to help the others, but she didn’t know if that was going to be possible. The creatures howled again, but this time, the sound came off muffled and distant.
Storm: I think they’re moving off.
Silveira: Let’s hope so…
Bancroft: ::grimly:: I’d love to be wrong, but from what Commander Jovenan and I observed, they don’t retreat. They reassess.
Jovenan: That’s right. The one we encountered tried to wait us out from the cold water. They seem to be rather intelligent and patient, so unless they’re after our friends, we can’t be sure if they’ve given up on us.
There were no more howls or roars coming through, but Jovenan still tried to listen for any signs for the creatures waiting outside. She couldn’t hear the sharp clink of the claws hitting the floor nor the raspy breath of the creatures, but the absence of evidence was no evidence of absence; the creatures could be smart enough to know that by being silent, they could make their prey think they’re gone and come out of their hiding. She wasn’t going to be the one to suggest opening that hatch.
Storm: It’s not going to be safe to be out again until it’s daylight. How do you want to handle this, Commanders?
Silveira: We can’t face it just like this… We have to find a way to attack… ::Vitor shook his head:: To secure ourselves and do our job… Maybe even trap them or hurt them so they know we aren’t easy prey…
Bancroft: We don’t have to overpower them. We just have to make the cost of chasing us higher than the benefit. ::low:: We’re Starfleet. We endure. We solve problems. Especially the ones with teeth.
When an animal was hurt, it would most likely either flee or become aggravated. The Dark Things didn’t seem to be the type to run away when their prey bit them back, but Jovenan wasn’t sure if they were intelligent enough to run a cost-to-benefit analysis and base their decision-making process around the result, or if they would just bite back harder. Bancroft’s uplifting speech about Starfleet was unfortunately not working on her, no matter how she wished for something to raise her spirits.
Jovenan: Even if we manage to convince them that we as a group are not worth it, they might still nab one of us. We’d have to keep our distance doing that. I’m not sure how that would work.
Storm: We should probably wait a little longer in here, just to be sure that they’re gone.
Jovenan felt something gently tugging her hand. Surprised, she turned to see that Vitor had grasped it. He squeezed it hard, and although his eyes were closed, Jovenan’s were nailed at him. Holding hands and other gestures of affection were not uncommon for them, but they didn’t usually exchange them while on duty in front of other people. Him doing so now indicated to her that something was wrong.
Silveira: Not too long I admit I am feeling a little cramped here.
This was not how he was usually. She knew of his fear of heights, but suffering from claustrophobia in the Jefferies tubes was something he hadn’t ever indicated. It could be something he had needed to hide until now, or it could be something new, a development from the events on during the last months… or due to the changes he had experienced. She squeezed his hand back and raised her free hand to caress his cheek. He had held her during the Frontier Day – she wished she could do even a fraction of that now.
Bancroft: Commander Silveira’s right – this is our window to think. And they will come back, unless we give them a reason not to.
Jovenan didn’t move her eyes off of Vitor and never let go of him, but she still spoke to all of them.
Jovenan: We will fight. Not in their terms, because they’re sure to win, but in ours. We are smarter than them, let’s remind them of that.
Storm: Response
Vitor took a deep breath and sent the last squeeze to her hand before letting it slip. He turned to face the junior officers, while Jovenan tried smiling at his back despite the worry shining through her furrowed eyebrows and the lines creasing her forehead. They might not make this out alive, but they’d try. They’d always try.
Silveira: We need to find a way to keep them out… All of them… Water, cold anything we can use… The fire supressors… Something…
Bancroft: ::deep in thought:: Compressed gas… released rapidly…
Jovenan: There’s not much water anywhere in here. The replicators are probably off for good, and a ship of this size wouldn’t have a cetacean ops.
Storm: Response
Vitor was moving on his spot restlessly, while Jovenan was focusing on him and the rest of the team to keep her mind occupied so that she wouldn’t start imagining things crawling and creeping with them in the tubes. She felt bad for the two junior officers, who had to deal with the creatures outside and their nigh impossible task while being led by two broken commanders.
Silveira: We hate the cold and water…. If we combine or improvise something like that we can use it.
We. It caught Jovenan off guard. It was entirely possible he had simply misspoken – Jovenan for certain wasn’t above muttering or slipping wrong words or poor grammar when nervous – but in this case, she had a reason to be alarmed. He had changed, transformed, he was demonstrating the traits he had never had before… the traits of the Dark Things. Would that put them in danger later on? Would… what if it was permanent? What if he stayed like that, what would change? One thing was for certain: Jovenan wouldn’t stop caring for him. If he needed to live in the darkness so that the light wouldn’t hurt him, she would go there with him. He, she, and her imaginary creatures lurking behind the corners.
Bancroft: We’re near Main Engineering. Jefferies tubes are spiderwebbed with support nodes – there has to be a damage control locker close. ::eyes sharpening:: One that has handheld fire suppressors inside it.
Bancroft forced Jovenan out of her thoughts.
Jovenan: Hm? Um, yes. The automatic system with force fields wouldn’t be functional, but the handhelds are also a backup system that any ship has to have before it’s cleared to fly, even for the scrapper.
Storm/Silveira: Response
Bancroft: Exactly. They’re simple – liquefied CO2 under pressure, nothing fancy, which is exactly why it works when nothing else does. The stream comes out cold enough to bite.
Jovenan nodded. The creature they saw on the first day shied away from the pond, which was likely somewhere around or above 0 °C, since it was unfrozen. Even if the fire extinguishers or their contents weren’t any different temperature when unused, the rapid change in the pressure caused the carbon dioxide’s temperature to plummet much, much lower when used.
Jovenan: The discharge is something like -75 to -80 degrees Celsius. Even if it was the water and not the cold they’re afraid of, that temperature has to cause frostbites.
Storm/Silveira: Response
Bancroft: Agreed. Let’s introduce those things to consequences.
Jovenan: Okay. Let’s move. There has to be a damage control closet somewhere in here.
Storm/Silveira/Bancroft: Response
They crawled ahead in the cramped service tunnels. Jovenan’s hands and knees were hurting already after a dozen metres. If it weren’t for the Dark Things, all of this would have been so much easier. They could have used a few days to figure out how to fix the ship and do it all together. With the food and water sorted out, they could have even afforded to take a day of just resting in what remained of the Karnack’s crew quarters and their (relatively) comfy beds. Heck, if it weren’t for the urgency of being hunted, they could have even tried to work out how to operate the transportation system and minimise the side effects before using it for the first time and find alternatives if it didn’t work out. In essence, it was the Dark Things how had done this to Vitor, and Jovenan wouldn’t forget that.
After several minutes of crawling and climbing, they reached one of the nodes Bancroft had talked about. They pulled open the door of a closet, finding a fire extinguisher inside. Jovenan turned the small canister around in the green gleam of their chemlights.
Jovenan: Seems to be intact. ::hands the extinguisher over:: It creates a stream and a cloud of very cold gas, but it has a limited range, and it won’t stop the momentum. If the predator is jumping or running towards you, it might collide with you before it realises it’s hurting.
Storm/Silveira/Bancroft: Response
Jovenan turned to their tactical officers. Although she figured that this was closer to the day’s work for the security personnel, Vitor had time and time again demonstrated that tactical thinking had more dimensions than firing torpedoes at anything moving.
Jovenan: What’s next? We need to start working on our actual task, but is it better to wait until the predators find us, or do we, um, start hunting for them or luring them with fire or something?
Storm/Silveira/Bancroft: Response
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Lieutenant Commander Jovenan
Chief Science Officer
USS Artemis-A
E239911J11