Lt. JG. Gnai - Running Out Of Time (And Caves)
Lich
(( Near Cave System - Coastal Cliffs, Outside Bantlox Colony, Laoi III ))
Much to Gnai’s surprise, its “yelling” (or what functioned as yelling, for a Galadoran that wore a mechanical suit and spoke through speakers) caused one of the stalactites to dislodge, smashing down next to where it stood, apart from the other two officers. It was fine, if shaken, and it held up its suit’s hands, trying to show to the other two that it wasn’t harmed. There were far more pressing concerns than a little shock to its system!
Gnai: ::quieter, speaking quickly:: This is fine, but the children… If the stone is destabilized by loud vibrations…
Vailani: We need to hurry this up, those cracks are getting bigger.
Sadar: Agreed.
It bobbed in its tank, not wanting to be too loud until they were closer together, and there was less worry of its volume disturbing the surrounding rock of the cave. Despite its precaution, the rocks continued to fall, as another stalactite smashed into the ground ahead of Lt. Vailani, then another and another, near to where the voices of the children (it presumed, given their pitch) had come from.
Vailani: It's okay, we're here to help you. Are you with your friends?
Iruh: :: crying :: They got scared and left me.
From where it could see, as it slowly approached the others, a small child crawled out of a divot in the wall, blue… Bolian, Gnai thought briefly. He seemed distressed, at least as far as Gnai could tell as it got closer and saw the dampness on his cheeks.
Sadar: It’s okay. It’s okay, we’re here for you. Are you hurt?
Vailani: Can you show us what direction your friends went?
He pointed further down into the dark cavern, the gesture accompanied by another distant, high-pitched scream.
Gnai: ::quietly:: That doesn’t look safe…
The path forward that the child indicated was littered with debris from the ceiling, and still there were more dangerous rocks above, just waiting to fall. Gnai didn’t like to anthropomorphize the world around it (and it also didn’t enjoy how humanoid-centric the term was), but given the atmosphere in the dark, creaky cave already, it couldn’t help but attribute malicious intent towards the stalactites.
Iruh: I think Nimo got caught in the rocks!
Lt. Sadar grabbed the small child, steadying him, trying to calm him down (as far as Gnai could presume her intentions). Better her than it, it thought. Gnai followed Lt. Vailani’s torchlight as she illuminated the path ahead, miraculously large enough for its suit to pass through.
Sadar: You go back that way, to the entrance, quick as you can. I want you to go outside the cave and wait for us there. Can you do that?
Iruh: But Nimo! What if she’s hurt? ::bawling:: I’m sorry, we thought we’d be able to find the Ship, Ahran said there might be treasure-
Vailani: Iruh? Is that your name?
Gnai filed that away mentally, as the names of the children had… slightly slipped its mind. Good to have a face to a name, at the very least, so that it could help direct them later.
Vailani: We need to focus on your friends so that we can get them to safety. Can you help us by doing as Doctor Sadar says?
Sadar: ::trembling voice:: You’re not in trouble, Iruh. Now, please, go, and we’ll help Ahran and Nimo.
Her efforts (bolstered by Lt. Vailani’s support) seemed to work a bit better on him, as the child seemed to calm down a little.
Iruh: Okay…
Vailani: I think there’s an opening, just behind that crevice.
Gnai: ::after Iruh was out of hearing distance:: Just… be quiet. Please.
There was little chance that the kid had heard its plea, but Gnai (superstitiously, frivolously, perhaps even idiotically) hoped that it would help make a difference. It hadn’t wanted to scare the child further, by suggesting that his own fear and stress had caused the problem (even if it… kind of had), so this was all it could do.
Sadar: They can’t have gotten far.
The trio continued forwards, spacing out again for safety, as the lack of a hyperventilating child seemed to calm the tense air of the cave, leaving the stalactites above them far less inclined to want to get real close and personal with the cheery stalagmites on the ground of the cavern.
They soon came upon a widening of the cave, and (being at the back) Gnai caught sight of the scene last. Some of the rocks above had slid down, careening over a small girl, as another (slightly larger) child tried to free her with his own two hands. His progress didn’t look very promising, from Gnai’s vantage point.
He had some sense (not much, though, as he did raise his voice, but Gnai couldn’t fault these children for not realizing that their own feared shouting was the cause of many of their current problems), as he turned to try and plead the encroaching officers for their assistance.
Ahran: Help! Help us, please, Nimo’s stuck and I can’t get her out! The rocks just fell, we didn’t touch anything, I swear!
Lt. Sadar rushed ahead, as Gnai held back, scanning the stalactites above them with its tricorder, trying to get a sense of which ones might be more prone to falling, if any…
Sadar: ::shushes:: Ahran, please, you have to be quiet. It’s okay, we’ll get Nimo out. ::to Vailani:: Vai-net, thoughts?
Lt. Vailani joined Lt. Sadar with the children, as Gnai continued its scans, noting down the veins of slightly weaker rock that passed overhead. It made sense that there had been a collapse there, where the children were… the rocks above had been far more eroded than the others… perhaps due to some thin and unseen source of water above in the past, that had worked its way into the rocks, sewing seeds of instability in the present?
Vailani: I think we can move this section here if we can prop something underneath.
Sadar: Lieutenant Gnai, your suit’s carrying capacity was somewhere north of 200 kg, right? Is it possible you could offer some counterweight so we can slide Nemo’s leg out?
It flashed briefly with the mention, shutting down its tricorder and rushing over towards the others as quickly as it could, without careening bell-over-teakettle.
Gnai: ::bobbing slightly, both from its own choice and also from the residual motion of rushing:: Yes, sir, of course.
Vailani: Thank The Prophets you were here Lieutenant. If you get underneath here :: indicates the spot :: And I’ll support the leg, and Gila will pull backwards once I give the order?
It wedged the arms of its suit under where she indicated, bobbing within its tank more deliberately.
Gnai: Aye, sir.
Sadar: Response
She nodded to it, and then to Lt. Sadar. Gnai’s suit’s arms were in better shape, thanks to working with Ens. Imril on their upkeep, but it still had some pestering fear in the back of its mind that they might fail… It chalked the fear up to the most common denominator, residual anxiety from the failure of its suit during Frontier Day. But the Borg weren’t here, and it wasn’t going to fail now, this was completely different.
Vailani: Let’s go.
At her order, Gnai pushed upwards with the suit, lifting the rock with a groan, accompanied by the clattering of smaller pebbles that had been dislodged with the action. There was another scream from the child, and Gnai turned in its tank, trying to spot if any of the stalactites would react… Not react, if they’d crash down, it wasn’t as if they had any choice in the matter, being completely inanimate objects.
Sadar: Response
Vailani: Gila, now!
In a moment, the child was freed from where she had been trapped, and Gnai let the rocks it had been lifting fall back down into the void that was left. Which, in hindsight, had been a poor decision. If the screaming from the children hadn’t destabilized the ceiling enough, the vibrations from the rocks crashing back into place certainly wouldn’t help.
More cracks formed ahead of them, and Gnai didn’t need to pull its tricorder out to be able to tell that this was dangerous. Lt. Vailani had the same idea, as she had already started towards the way they had come, dragging the other of the two children along with her.
Vailani: We have to go now.
Gnai: Aye, sir!!
Sadar/Vailani/Children(?): Response
It tried to keep up as much as it cool with the humanoids, a difficult task with the markedly shorter legs of its suit, as well as the less stability it had inherently as a very top-heavy being (within its suit, that is, as in the water, there was no real sense of “top” to be heavy in relation to). The task was made marginally easier for it, as the two other officers were somewhat slowed down by their small charges, but even for their slower pace, Gnai still brought up the rear.
The stalactites careened down around them as they rushed through the cavern, retracing their steps (easily enough for Gnai, who just had to follow the others, even if it had a very clear memory in its head already of what path it had taken) back towards the entrance.
Notably, and thankfully, there was no sign of any small Bolian child as they scurried forth.
Gnai: Looks like Ahran has already made it out!
Sadar/Vailani/Children(?): Response
Another stalactite crashed down, right in front of Gnai, cutting it off briefly from the others, and startling it again. The fear that flash along its tendrils (quickly, very quickly) almost outshone the flashlight built into its suit, until it got ahold of itself again and scrambled over the debris.
Gnai: ::loudly:: This is fine, this is fine, just slow! Keep going!
oO I ::partial:: will catch up! Don’t worry, just GO! Oo
It didn’t care as much about volume, not with how quickly things were deteriorating already around them, as the entrance to the cave was quickly in sight, the bright daylight streaming in and marking the end to their hurried escape. It had seemed far longer a path as they went in, perhaps due to their close inspection of every nook and cranny for the children… and the adrenaline that was pushing them forwards (or the closest analog for Gnai, which had no adrenal glands to speak of) compressed the time of their escape markedly.
Sadar/Vailani/Children(?): Response
Tags/TBC :)