Ensign Thea Kairis - Not In the Recruitment Material (Part II)
Quinn Reynolds
Kero: Whatever we're going to do, we need to do it now!
His eyes fixed on a clawed hand, curling around the stone edges of the door. The sound of keratin scraping across stone sawed through Thea. Hairs standing on end, every muscle in her body bunched in the fight-or-flight response, ready to grab her friend and drag him away. Likewise, Ico stared at her superior officers, wringing her hands together in a show of desperation and terror.
Tahna: Ico, get more sonic hammers.
Ico: I will do so, sir.
Sharing a brief look with the blue-shouldered Bajoran, Ico scurried off to retrieve more archaeological equipment. The other archaeologists scrabbled to help her, rustling up more of the devices from storage cases, and the science officer turned to face the remaining officers.
Tahna: Can you set up a containment field for the obsidian shards, like she suggested?
Kairis: No. ::She answered with a curt shake of her head, turning immediately to Rix.:: Does it need to be a specific frequency?
It didn’t occur to the Tyrellian ydari¹ to offer the reasons why. She was the engineer, she knew the equipment situation, she knew what the rescuers had already tried. And she was far, far too used to conducting herself without explanation or challenge, falling back on old (bad) habits as her stress levels rose. Thus, after delivering that accurate but unhelpful answer, she took a few limping steps back to assist Ico as she returned with the sonic hammers.
Kero: Response
Ico: I have two more! Can we generate a loud enough tone?
The lieutenant lifted her blue-clad shoulders in a shrug and took hold of a sonic hammer. They placed the devices far closer to the doorway than Thea’s wavering courage appreciated, and it was with shaking fingers she configured the device. The problem with joining Starfleet for the adventure was sometimes, these were the adventures you got.
Tahna: Ready… now!
Kero/Ico: Response
Typically, sonic hammers used ultrasonic frequencies to do their work. Not so for dispelling beasts from myth and legend. The sound was worse than any storm Thea had experienced, the bass noise vibrating through every cell in her body, threatening her ear drums with rupture. Like several alongside her, the Tyrellian moved to shield her ears from the initial onslaught, and peered through a grimace of pain to see the monster withdrawing from the doorway. Through the cacophony, the Bajoran somehow realised her tricorder wanted her attention; she retrieved it and consulted the results.
Tahna: The door mechanism broke when it was opened, but if we use Ena’s idea on the slab that was the door… that might be enough stone to create a new one!
sh’Qynallahr: We can’t use a containment field, the Taniwha will simply feed on it until it fails, just like they do to all other technology. We need to get the mechanism working… or force the door back into place.
In all the chaos of growing panic and desperation, of shouted ideas and rash actions, Thea realised she hadn’t so much as attempted to close the door again. It would have been a waste of her time, it seemed, but she took it as a cautionary tale to pull herself together and focus. Keep your head while all around you are losing theirs, or so the human poem went.
Kero/Ico: Response
Tahna: Maybe the sonic hammers can dislodge it?
sh’Qynallahr: Dislodge yes, move, I doubt it, that slab has to weigh several tonnes.
Kairis: We’d have to reconfigure them, too, which would mean they’re not holding these... Taniwha off anymore.
She edged to the side, consulting her tricorder. Its scans were patchy, but after running several minutes of scans, it had something to offer. The edifice was like a starship: double-hulled. Outer walls of plain stone, matching the local geological profile. The material of the inner walls was much harder to identify, but infused with the same exotic material as the obsidian slab. The door would indeed be a weak point; they couldn’t use the outer cladding as a patch, and they couldn’t use the inner walls because that would leave a hole.
Kero/Tahna/Ico: Response
sh’Qynallahr: The containment field emitter! Do you think you can modify it to emit a graviton pulse and pull the slab back into place?
Something snapped. Almost physically; a sharp twang under Tyrellian ribs, followed by heat coursing across her skin. Snapping the tricorder shut with enough force the crack echoed down the dark corridor, Thea whirled around to glare first at the Andorian, and then encompassed her colleagues in a fiery violet gaze. Fear and fury made for a heady mix, and she had supped deep.
Kairis: This is an archaeological dig in the aftermath of a disaster which ranks second only to the annihilation of all life on our homeworld. There is no containment field emitter! ::She didn’t raise her voice, though her tone grew decidedly sharper as she continued.:: Do you actually think we had any to spare for nothing more urgent than a history expedition? They’re all deployed! Stopping the atmosphere from leaking and debris crashing down and reactors from exploding!
She should stop. She knew she should. She did not.
Kairis: And if any of you had stopped to ask instead of blindly ploughing forward—which, by the way, is exactly how you got us into this mess—I could have told you we’ve already tried the excavation phaser and it didn’t even scratch the surface of that slab, and they have a micro tractor but the slab just ignored it, and the building is double-walled with the inner used as containment and the outer as aesthetic cladding so the only thing I can think of is we remove some of the exterior stone by any means necessary, jam something in behind the slab, and use the tractor on that to push it back into place—
Out of air, she sucked in a deep breath. The pause was akin to a bucket of cold water dumped over her head, the realisation she had just delivered an imperious tirade to several superior officers. Cheeks flushed with colour which came from as much embarrassment as anger, it was a much more demure Thea who finally added,
Kairis: ...if you think that’s viable. ::She awkwardly cleared her throat.:: Sirs.
Kero/Tahna/Ico: Response
sh’Qynallahr: Start dislodging, the sounds should still drive them back… I hope.
Avoiding meeting anyone’s gaze—especially Rix’s, already dreading what he would have to say to her later—a much more muted Thea got to work. She moved to the side of the doorway where the slab stood sandwiched between inner and outer wall. A part of her wished there was another way, believing that they could do better than carving holes in new (old?) discoveries, but the threat was real and immediate.
Kairis: The door comes back about this far—::she gestured to a spot on the wall::—so we need access here, and something to put in there to use the tractor on.
Kero/Tahna/sh’Qynallahr/Ico: Response
Kairis: There’s a healthy chance we’ll bring the entire façade down on our heads, but it’s not like we have much else in the way of options. ::She nodded toward the sonic hammers, and blanched at what she saw on their status screens.:: Especially since they’re running out of charge.
Kero/Tahna/sh’Qynallahr/Ico: Response
¹ Tyrellian: “Child of the Great House”. Royal title, bestowed on direct heirs to the throne, an equivalent to prince or princess.
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Engineer (Damage Control)
USS Gorkon
simmed by
Commanding Officer
USS Gorkon
T238401QR0