Ensign Doz Finch - Tempting Tunnels
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Ishwari Sting
Nov 11, 2022, 8:12:52 PM11/11/22
to sb118-...@googlegroups.com, Ishwari Sting
((Village, Rogue Planet))
Doz’s grasp on the present situation was thus; this rogue planet that she had mentally and distastefully dubbed roadrunner rock was soaring across space through the Tyrellian region - the USS Gorkon’s main theatre of operation - threatening to impact with and destroy the moon known as Palanon, which incidentally, if she had read the brief on her PADD correctly, was the Capital World with a population of three point four billion. Her duty had been to safely take the USS Azetbur to one of the away teams landing areas, rescue and assist. And from all of the multicoloured flash-bang-wollops happening all around the craft, she knew that time was desperately of the essence.
The extremity of the mission brief had reminded her of an event in which Starbase 24, one of her old haunts, once had to be evacuated when the station's main deflectors failed, just as a swarm of meteors made their way towards it. As a Petty Officer, Doz had remained onboard with only a handful of engineers to manually repair the arrays; civilians panicked, officers and enlisted scrimmaged to stations, corridor alarms sounded off like shrill banshees, and lights teetered on and off as the walls rumbled with asteroids ricocheting off them. Yet in this memory of absolute pandemonium, what Doz recalled clearest of all was the voice of a musician called Queen belting out Don’t Stop Me Now through the public announcement speakers, which had been accidentally switched on by a flapping Bolian systems engineer called Bofer.
Bofer. That silly old fool with his shiny blue head. How she missed him.
Planet-side evacuations presented an entirely unique set of challenges, though, such as the one she, Chief Science Officer Alieth and Ships Counsellor Fortune found themselves charged with. A building with people inside it, surrounded by a billowing freesia coloured body of water, and the only potential ways inside being underground tunnels, the likes of which Doz was about to procure a tomograph of using the Azetbur’s onboard technology.
Finch: I’ll get right on it!
Alieth: Corliss when you managed to tally up all the colonists...did you detect another telepath among them, someone we can communicate with?
Finch had transferred the schematics of her tricorder onto the Azetbur’s systems, and linked up it’s auxiliary power unit to perform its scan of the ground beneath them. As the scans continued, the silver haired woman's eyes fled from one panel to another while the commander of the away team, Alieth, appeared to be ruminating on other ways to contact the colonists -- mainly through telepathy.
She heard bits of what the Commander said, but kept most of her focus on the scans being performed by the Azetbur, which now provided a visual demonstration of the tunnels available between their location and the colonists, its image stuttering slightly, and no doubt caused by the interference on the planet. She sucked air in through her teeth as she took a closer look.
Fortune: Response
Alieth: Do what you can. If they know we are here to help them, maybe we can streamline the operation.
Fortune: Response
A silence followed. Even on a planet ravaged by kaleidoscopic storms and their deathly lightning bolts, collapsing buildings, dusty gales and the distant thrashing of yellowy waters, any pause for thought or momentary respite of dialogue introduced an uncertainty, an unease that Doz dared not entertain. And if it weren’t for the panel in front of her now chirping excitedly with finished results, she’d have started to hum Don’t Stop Me Now.
The Azetbur apparently knew better than to let that happen.
Alieth: We have seventeen minutes and thirty-three seconds to effect the rescue if we want to get off the planet in time, so how are you doing, Ladies?
Finch: Yes! Just as I thought. Look, Commander. See here. And here. Two tunnels that lead into the building through there. ::she gestures towards the holographic image::
Fortune: Response
Alieth: Very good, that solves the entry. What have you brought on the yacht that might help us?
She curled her lip for a brief moment, evidently figuring out the tunnel system, then whipped herself up and towards a compartment, within which two boxes sat full of equipment.
Finch: There’s a case full of medical kits, two portable transporters, ::she says pulling a box out of its compartment with a heaving sound:: and extra phasers.
Fortune: Response
Alieth: More than enough. Corliss, I hope Loxley has taught you some advanced triage skills, because we are going to need it. Grab all the gear you can and let us get to that door.
The three of them made their way towards an outbuilding that contained the entrance to one of the tunnels. After removing some fallen furniture, they uncovered another trapdoor that, after a rough ladder, led to a descending corridor. A little further on there was light, of the type found in the scape pods of an old-fashioned ship, reinvented for a more mundane function.
Alieth: The corridor seems safe ::looking at the tricorder:: but it branches off further ahead, ::looking at the older human:: which route should we take, ensign?
Doz sniffed and strode forward, giving the corridor a scan of her own tricorder, stopping for a moment to squint at the options in front of her. From what she could tell, one tunnel led to a location at the furthest end of the building, while the other was much quicker, but under the thickest body of thrashing water. The dust particles falling from the quickest corridor was the least promising. She briefly pictured herself, and the others, being dramatically swept away in the opposite direction.
But what if, she thought, the quickest route was in fact the most sensible one. This savage planet, this roadrunner rock, was unforgiving no matter what option presented itself. And if the schematics showed her anything, it was that the longest route would take forever and a day, and frankly-
oO We don’t have that sort of time, old girl. Oo
Finch: The forward tunnel, Commander. ::she said distinctly::
Fortune: Response
Finch: It’s short and quick, oh look at that, a bit like me. ::she smiled, two front teeth perched upon her lip:: but if you want long and slow, and safer, then it's the other way.
Fortune/Alieth: Response
Finch: Odds are, if we move now, we can make it through before anything potentially falls in. There’s still no guarantee that it will or won't, but who’s taking bets?
She lifted her tricorder up to take another scan. That distant quake-like rumbling continued, and more dust particles teetered out from the walls of the tunnel and onto the slightly wet ground below their feet. Doz, who had momentarily put some of the equipment down, picked it back up again ready to continue on, when a voice called out to them from the very end of the shorter tunnel. She lowered her head, causing the skin above her eyebrows to wrinkle up, so she could try and get a better look at who it was. She couldn’t make out what they were shouting.
Fortune/Alieth: Response
Finch: Here, I’ll take that! ::she proffered her arm, taking an extra piece of equipment, her tricorder between her teeth:: and oh! I borbot to say. I’m Boz. Boz Binch.
Though her mouth was busied with the tricorder, the glint of her eye suggested that she was smiling, or trying to, as the group made their way towards the sound of the voice at the end of the tunnel.
Fortune/Alieth: Response
--
Ensign Doz Finch
USS Gorkon - Engineer
C239809SH3
Doz’s grasp on the present situation was thus; this rogue planet that she had mentally and distastefully dubbed roadrunner rock was soaring across space through the Tyrellian region - the USS Gorkon’s main theatre of operation - threatening to impact with and destroy the moon known as Palanon, which incidentally, if she had read the brief on her PADD correctly, was the Capital World with a population of three point four billion. Her duty had been to safely take the USS Azetbur to one of the away teams landing areas, rescue and assist. And from all of the multicoloured flash-bang-wollops happening all around the craft, she knew that time was desperately of the essence.
The extremity of the mission brief had reminded her of an event in which Starbase 24, one of her old haunts, once had to be evacuated when the station's main deflectors failed, just as a swarm of meteors made their way towards it. As a Petty Officer, Doz had remained onboard with only a handful of engineers to manually repair the arrays; civilians panicked, officers and enlisted scrimmaged to stations, corridor alarms sounded off like shrill banshees, and lights teetered on and off as the walls rumbled with asteroids ricocheting off them. Yet in this memory of absolute pandemonium, what Doz recalled clearest of all was the voice of a musician called Queen belting out Don’t Stop Me Now through the public announcement speakers, which had been accidentally switched on by a flapping Bolian systems engineer called Bofer.
Bofer. That silly old fool with his shiny blue head. How she missed him.
Planet-side evacuations presented an entirely unique set of challenges, though, such as the one she, Chief Science Officer Alieth and Ships Counsellor Fortune found themselves charged with. A building with people inside it, surrounded by a billowing freesia coloured body of water, and the only potential ways inside being underground tunnels, the likes of which Doz was about to procure a tomograph of using the Azetbur’s onboard technology.
Finch: I’ll get right on it!
Alieth: Corliss when you managed to tally up all the colonists...did you detect another telepath among them, someone we can communicate with?
Finch had transferred the schematics of her tricorder onto the Azetbur’s systems, and linked up it’s auxiliary power unit to perform its scan of the ground beneath them. As the scans continued, the silver haired woman's eyes fled from one panel to another while the commander of the away team, Alieth, appeared to be ruminating on other ways to contact the colonists -- mainly through telepathy.
She heard bits of what the Commander said, but kept most of her focus on the scans being performed by the Azetbur, which now provided a visual demonstration of the tunnels available between their location and the colonists, its image stuttering slightly, and no doubt caused by the interference on the planet. She sucked air in through her teeth as she took a closer look.
Fortune: Response
Alieth: Do what you can. If they know we are here to help them, maybe we can streamline the operation.
Fortune: Response
A silence followed. Even on a planet ravaged by kaleidoscopic storms and their deathly lightning bolts, collapsing buildings, dusty gales and the distant thrashing of yellowy waters, any pause for thought or momentary respite of dialogue introduced an uncertainty, an unease that Doz dared not entertain. And if it weren’t for the panel in front of her now chirping excitedly with finished results, she’d have started to hum Don’t Stop Me Now.
The Azetbur apparently knew better than to let that happen.
Alieth: We have seventeen minutes and thirty-three seconds to effect the rescue if we want to get off the planet in time, so how are you doing, Ladies?
Finch: Yes! Just as I thought. Look, Commander. See here. And here. Two tunnels that lead into the building through there. ::she gestures towards the holographic image::
Fortune: Response
Alieth: Very good, that solves the entry. What have you brought on the yacht that might help us?
She curled her lip for a brief moment, evidently figuring out the tunnel system, then whipped herself up and towards a compartment, within which two boxes sat full of equipment.
Finch: There’s a case full of medical kits, two portable transporters, ::she says pulling a box out of its compartment with a heaving sound:: and extra phasers.
Fortune: Response
Alieth: More than enough. Corliss, I hope Loxley has taught you some advanced triage skills, because we are going to need it. Grab all the gear you can and let us get to that door.
The three of them made their way towards an outbuilding that contained the entrance to one of the tunnels. After removing some fallen furniture, they uncovered another trapdoor that, after a rough ladder, led to a descending corridor. A little further on there was light, of the type found in the scape pods of an old-fashioned ship, reinvented for a more mundane function.
Alieth: The corridor seems safe ::looking at the tricorder:: but it branches off further ahead, ::looking at the older human:: which route should we take, ensign?
Doz sniffed and strode forward, giving the corridor a scan of her own tricorder, stopping for a moment to squint at the options in front of her. From what she could tell, one tunnel led to a location at the furthest end of the building, while the other was much quicker, but under the thickest body of thrashing water. The dust particles falling from the quickest corridor was the least promising. She briefly pictured herself, and the others, being dramatically swept away in the opposite direction.
But what if, she thought, the quickest route was in fact the most sensible one. This savage planet, this roadrunner rock, was unforgiving no matter what option presented itself. And if the schematics showed her anything, it was that the longest route would take forever and a day, and frankly-
oO We don’t have that sort of time, old girl. Oo
Finch: The forward tunnel, Commander. ::she said distinctly::
Fortune: Response
Finch: It’s short and quick, oh look at that, a bit like me. ::she smiled, two front teeth perched upon her lip:: but if you want long and slow, and safer, then it's the other way.
Fortune/Alieth: Response
Finch: Odds are, if we move now, we can make it through before anything potentially falls in. There’s still no guarantee that it will or won't, but who’s taking bets?
She lifted her tricorder up to take another scan. That distant quake-like rumbling continued, and more dust particles teetered out from the walls of the tunnel and onto the slightly wet ground below their feet. Doz, who had momentarily put some of the equipment down, picked it back up again ready to continue on, when a voice called out to them from the very end of the shorter tunnel. She lowered her head, causing the skin above her eyebrows to wrinkle up, so she could try and get a better look at who it was. She couldn’t make out what they were shouting.
Fortune/Alieth: Response
Finch: Here, I’ll take that! ::she proffered her arm, taking an extra piece of equipment, her tricorder between her teeth:: and oh! I borbot to say. I’m Boz. Boz Binch.
Though her mouth was busied with the tricorder, the glint of her eye suggested that she was smiling, or trying to, as the group made their way towards the sound of the voice at the end of the tunnel.
Fortune/Alieth: Response
--
Ensign Doz Finch
USS Gorkon - Engineer
C239809SH3
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