[sb118-khitomer] Lieutenant Charles Matthews - In The Dark
Shakeel Hussein
((Simulated Armoury, Holodeck One, Deck Five, USS Khitomer))
((Timeskip; Forty Minutes Later))
Lieutenants Matthews and Torado had been carrying on with their efforts for well over half an hour, and had eventually shifted to simulations with EMP grenades. Thankfully, the awkwardness seemed to dissipate, at least a little, and Charles had managed to get over the attempt at cracking a joke fairly quickly once the two of them had carried on with their task.
After several different simulations with several different EMP grenades, all set at varying yield strengths, the two of them were finally starting to see some progress. The grenades set to a higher yield were powerful enough to stop Tholian intruders but there was a greater risk of causing damage to the several systems on board the Khitomer. Eventually, the Tactical Officer and Marine had gotten to a lower yield that disrupted the Tholian exosuit without completely wrecking parts of the ship, and left them struggling to move with so much weight being carried on their thinner, spindly legs.
Torado: Let's run it again with the unarmored Sheliak. I think they'll surprise you when the Tholians are down.
C. Matthews: Right. ::nods:: How about, in this run, we try with a flanking force from the other side of the corridor that arrives just after we've disabled them with the EMP grenades? If we can disrupt them and then take them by surprise…
Charlie let his words trail off as his thumb and two fingers found their way to his face, and he slowly scratched at the rough beard that had grown over his jaw-line. With some progress finally being made, he was starting to feel that he would have at least something to report to Acting Captain Hobart, and that was much better than the alternative of returning to the Commanding Officer with absolutely nothing.
Torado: Good idea. Computer—
Matthews glanced around at the walls of the simulated Armoury, half expecting the Main Computer to sound out with its usual annoyingly pleasant beep, but instead there was nothing. An absolute dearth of sound. A moment of silence, one that was only broken when the situation seemed to escalate rapidly. Just as he turned his head, his eyes slowly focusing on the Marine next to him, there was something new; a new noise that Charles couldn’t identify. It wasn’t a noise that he could identify. The closest he could place it was that it sounded like something just breaking, and breaking loudly. Then, there was darkness.
The darkness took with it everything that had been surrounding him, everything both artificial and one-hundred percent genuine. The simulated Armoury, gone. The simulated intruders, gone. The very real Lieutenant Torado, also gone. At least she was not visible anymore. Then the darkness took even more too. A strange sensation started to wash over Charlie. It was one that he hadn’t experienced in a very long while; it was a feeling of impending weightlessness. The last time he had felt it was when the Astraeus was in orbit of the Tinalli Spaceport and he was flung from a shuttlecraft at high speed in an effort to catch Lieutenant Commander Esa Kiax before she was burnt to a crisp in the Tinalli atmosphere. This time it was different. There weren’t any EV suits that could give him some sort of idea of what was happening and some semblance of control. He was losing control of the situation and, with each passing second, it was ebbing away more and more. With disorientation starting to take hold of his mind, time seemed to slow. It gave him more time to think about the situation, to experience what was fully happening, and as the artificial gravity just ran out of steam he felt his feet rise up off the floor one by one.
Disorientation soon shifted into dizziness and, despite his best efforts to control his body and his breathing, quickly shifted into a feeling of nausea. Despite his training, Charles always found it a surprise at just how quickly the mind and body could become confused by an environment without gravity. As seconds ticked by, he had no idea how far he had floated, which way was up and which was down, and he had not the faintest idea where Lieutenant Torado was. Not until he heard her voice sound out from the blackness that encompassed them both.
Torado: Shit.
C. Matthews: Yeah. Shit. ::pause:: Are you alright, Lieutenant?
Torado: Response
Lieutenant Matthews turned his head slowly, trying to make sure the easing feeling of nausea wouldn’t come back stronger, but he just couldn’t figure out where Torado was in relation to his weightless body. There was nothing he could use as a point of reference.
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?
Torado: Response
He raised his arm to his combadge, the lack of gravity almost making it feel as if he was moving in slow motion, and taped at it.
C. Matthews: =/\= Matthews to the Bridge, come in please… Engineering, respond… Lieutenant Zerva? Come in. =/\=
Charlie sighed.
C. Matthews: Comms are down. If artificial gravity has failed, it’s not unreasonable to suspect that life support might soon be following.
Torado: Response
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.
Torado: Response
TAGS/TBC
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Tactical Officer
USS Khitomer NCC-62400
A240012CM1