PNPC 1LT Alene Torado —Lucky Landing
Nolen Hobart
((Holodeck One, Deck 5, USS Khitomer))
Torado: Good idea. Computer—
Instead of the usual chirp that indicated the system was ready for another command, the immediate response was nothing. Literally: nothing. A loud clack announced a new life experience was about to begin for the Marine Lieutenant, and everything else vanished—the Sheliak, the Tholians, the stimulated ship, the real ship, and Lieutenant Matthews—into a crushing black void. She took a single step and felt her stomach turn, which told her she was in perpetual freefall, the absence of artificial gravity. It amused her, but only briefly.
Because then she realized she was floating in a featureless room. No hand-holds or consoles, or any way to know whether she was moving or how fast except the faint and suddenly only very slight movement of atmosphere across her skin.
Torado: Shit.
C. Matthews: Yeah. Shit. ::pause:: Are you alright, Lieutenant?
She took stock of herself. No pain. No discomfort except the unending sensation of freefall, coupled with utter blindness. Were it not for the sound of their voices and the occasional creaking of the ship, it might have made a decent sensory deprivation tank.
Torado: Nothing a counseling session won't fix. You?
C. Matthews: All things considered, I’m… alright. ::pause:: We weren’t attacked. We would have felt it. It’s got to be a result of these tests, right?
Alene inhaled deeply, and exhaled sharply. Her arms, she felt, were angled out and away from her, limp, fingertips reaching for literally anything. She wasn't far from the deck, she knew, but because they'd been in a simulation when the power cut out, there was no way to know where she was in relation to any other surface.
Torado: No idea.
C. Matthews: =/\= Matthews to the Bridge, come in please… Engineering, respond… Lieutenant Zerva? Come in. =/\=
When no answer came, she had the same realization as Lieutenant Matthews—it wasn't just the Holodeck that was out of power.
C. Matthews: Comms are down. If artificial gravity has failed, it’s not unreasonable to suspect that life support might soon be following.
Torado: The way it went, I'm thinking it already did.
C. Matthews: We can’t do anything here. One of us is bound to hit the ceiling or a wall soon. Were we that far from the arch? Maybe we can drag ourselves to it.
She looked around, and saw nothing but black. No glint of reflection, no glow of light. Even the ship's emergency power reserves were cut off. Alene didn't know that was possible, but she couldn't deny it was happening.
Torado: I have no idea. I got turned around in the simulation.
C. Matthews: Response
Torado: I guess we just float until one of us bumps into something?
C. Matthews: Response
And so that's what she did. Breathing softly she floated, trusting that she would continue to do so until some part or another of her bumped into a wall, whereupon she would push off and head in a different direction.
And then it happened. Her fingers slipped against the nearly featureless wall of the Holodeck, but she was moving faster than she realized, and soon her face connected with it, too.
Torado: Ooof!
C. Matthews: Response
As she crashed into the wall her arms splayed out until she felt a sharp pain in the fingers on one hand. They'd jammed up against a hard surface protruding from the wall, and it took her a moment to process exactly what that meant.
Torado: Ouch! Ah, I'm fine! I just found— I found the arch!
C. Matthews: Response
Tags/TBC
———
1st Lieutenant Alene Torado
Marine Officer
As simmed by
Lt. Commander Nolen Hobart
Executive Officer
USS Khitomer (NCC-62400)
A240001NH3