Commander Jo Marshall - Fumbled Victory
Jo Marshall
((Observation Bay, near Engineering Annex, Gibaria Outpost))
The data was there. Whatever the shuttle's computer had been holding onto across the dimensional divide, they now had access to it. Jo pulled it up and looked at it properly for the first time, turning over the implications with the methodical attention she usually reserved for things that were about to become someone else' s problem in a briefing document.
Marshall: The shuttle's intact. I mean structurally. Whatever dimensional gymnastics it's been doing out there, the hull integrity is holding and the systems are running. ::Her blonde eyebrow lifted at Kovar and Maezel.:: We could potentially get it operational. Actually operational.
Kovar: It is certainly possible, Commander. However, I would be curious as to what potential use you think we might gain from engaging in such a project. Though we were able to avert the crisis, I wonder how difficult it might be to disentangle the shuttle from the surrounding equipment, in addition to discovering whether it was modified to the extent of rendering it incapable of flight.
Fenn: Based on what I saw while you were inside it, I assure you it still flies in a sense.
Kovar: Oh, I see. Then perhaps it is indeed worth seeing what this shuttle is capable of.
Fenn: First things first... ::turning back to her console:: ...it looks like the power plant team have somehow given us the power need to stabilise this thing. Commander, I assume I’m good to run the subroutine now?
Marshall: Do it. ::She nodded.:: The moment anything looks like it's going sideways, pull it. Don't wait for me to say so.
Tremors vibrated up through her calves, the floor shaking as Fenn ran the command, and Jo swallowed down a metallic sharpness on her tongue. Burnt circuitry. Jo had always found the smell, or the taste, faintly reassuring in a deeply irrational sort of sense. It meant something was actually happening, which was preferable to the alternative in most situations. She watched the power readings spike and then settle, spike and settle, and then—after what felt like longer than the two minutes it actually was—hold steady.
Kovar: I will see what I can do. ::He shut down the subspace generator.:: It would be reasonable to conclude that this repair will be reasonably straightforward compared to what has just occurred.
Vulcans, forever setting the bar where they needed to. Jo allowed herself a wry chuckle.
Fenn: I’ll look for some logs or data that might tell us what the scientists were trying to accomplish here.
Marshall: Good. ::She settled into her own rhythm at her console.:: If there are research logs we should be able to get a beat on what they were working on. Whatever sent that shuttle sideways through dimensional space, it didn't happen by accident.
She didn't add the word 'probably' there, but she knew enough scientists who would have.
Quiet settled over the three of them like an oddly fitting blanket as they worked; a little relief threading through and were now collectively, and silently, grateful for the temporary absence of immediate crisis. Jo found herself halfway through the shuttle's propulsion diagnostics and had her fingertips latched around cautious optimism. Drive systems seemed to be in considerably better shape than they had any right to be.
As if Gibaria Outpost itself had come alive, the door announced itself.
The sound smashed into the room like a physical thing in a heavy, deliberate impact rattling the sealed bay entrance in its frame, and sent Jo's hand to her phaser grip before her conscious mind had entirely caught up. She was on her feet and facing the door in the same motion.
Fenn: ::whispering through clenched teeth:: What. Is. That?
Marshall: ::Low and measured,:: Good bloody question.
She moved away from the console and toward a position she hoped would give her a clear sightline to the entrance, and cover from the secondary console.
Marshall: ::Low,:: Fallback both of you. Find cover.
Kovar: Response
Another impact. Then another. The frame started to lose the argument with the physical thing starting a fistfight. In her peripheral, Jo saw Fenn reach for her phaser, her blue hand trembling in the act.
Fenn: What do we do?
Marshall: ::Quietly,:: Hold position. Don't fire unless you have to. And—
Kovar: Response
The door didn't open so much as it ceased to exist, exploding inwards in a shower of metallic splinters which scattered across the bay floor with a sound like a disrupter volley from an old enemy. Jo ducked instinctively behind the console edge, and felt something sharp pass close enough to be of vital concern, then came back up with her phaser drawn and levelled in one fluid movement she would've been quite pleased about had the situation not been what it was.
In the gap where previously the door stood was a thing that looked like it had been designed by someone with very strong opinions about where, how many, and roughly the size of teeth. Four legs with midnight blue fur. Crimson eyes caught the light and the saliva situation was, on the face of it, not ideal.
Fenn: ::voice pitched higher:: Commander...orders?
Marshall: Wide beam, medium stun if it attacks. ::She steadied her phaser, trained on the creature's centre of mass.:: We don't know what it is, so we don't know what it takes to put it down. Breathe before you shoot.
Kovar: Response
Jo kept her eyes on the creature. It hadn't moved since clearing the threshold by shouldering, or kicking, or punching, or even headbutting the door into a hundred pieces. Neither was a good sign. She felt her stomach kick up a few notches, her heart riding right alongside it. Things with that many teeth and intent rarely stopped for a friendly chat. Those crimson eyes moved across the three of them with an intelligence baked inside, which was considerably more unsettling than straightforward aggression would've been.
In a piece of metal above the blown out door, jagged and rammed into place by the force of the blast, Jo saw the reflection of the shuttlecraft, and the ramp lying open. The shuttlecraft didn't flicker as it sat within the stabilised bubble. She took a breath, and formulated a plan.
Marshall: Both of you start moving toward the shuttlecraft ramp. Take it slow. Once we're onboard, close the ramp up. The hull can take it, I don't think our bodies could.
Kovar / Fenn: Response
The creature shifted its weight onto the back haunches and Jo adjusted her aim fractionally, as if it would make any kind of difference to the hulking mass. It reminded Jo of a mugato in a way; the hulking beast taking a leaf out of Vulcan fauna rather than the flora they'd got used to on the Outpost. The creature gathered itself as it snarled, lips like wet leather, and behind it, the straining of the tentacled vines.
Marshall: MOVE!
Kovar / Fenn: Response
Simple order given, no elaboration necessary. Jo was right behind her officers, grabbing for the canister with one hand while firing with the other. She fired over her shoulder in the general direction of the crimson eyes, not expecting to stop it but expecting to annoy it. The sound of claws on the metal deck plating, slipping on the shrapnel, getting closer with focused enthusiasm.
She hit the shuttlecraft ramp between a run and a controlled fall, spun on her heel and fired once more at the creature now crossing the bay toward them with a turn of speed, on all fours, galloping almost.
Kovar / Fenn: Response