Lt Commander Ross - Over and done with

[Hannah S]

((Main Office, Ivory Tower, StarBase 118)) 

A big gaping hole opened in Ross' chest once he realised his foolishness. Over their progress - seeing Ameoneians and Starfleet officers working together - he had lost sight of the most important person in the room. 

And now Fairhug was gone, without memories or pips. He could feel their weight in his pocket like rocks when he came back to Ifra with his hands buried in his hair.

Ross: He's gone.

Even over his booming heartbeat he could feel the social awkwardness of the following silence. For an absurd second Ross thought Ifra was considering to go in for a hug, when he finally settled on a commiserating grimace.

Ifra: Well… I suppose the good news is that we’ve already formed search parties. 

Ross answered with a desperate scoff. Losing Bryce had been terrible enough - but how would he explain losing his Captain?! Oh yeah, I just stole his pips and pushed him back into the dark. It sounded like a plot to take over the station. 

Ifra gestured to Larell to join them.

Ifra: ::clearing his throat:: I’m afraid it seems that both Sael and the station’s captain have a future in escape artistry.. If you would be so kind as to inform the teams that they are now also looking for Captain Fairhug, I would appreciate it. 

Ross: Please, inform me immediately if he turns up. He's... without any indication of rank at the moment. 

He avoided Ifra’s gaze.

Larell cast a small glance at the distressed human, and then nodded, and went to immediately update the search parties, which left Ifra to turn back to Ross. 

Ifra: I’m sure he… perhaps he merely needed a moment to process the situation and stepped away. And, ::he shrugged:: to be fair, Sael and Fairhug were not exactly *helping* the situation.

Ross gave a sad little nod, despite feeling like the most useless Lt. Commander ever. It was his first day after promotion and he already dreaded middle management. 

Ross: I just can't believe they ALL were able to escape like that. 

Ifra: We’ll search every inch of this tower. And I don’t know about the captain, but Athemir was never particularly adept at hiding. He much preferred to meet a situation head-on. I’m sure they’ll be found soon. And we can increase those odds if we figure out what’s blocking our communication. There must be a local power conduit we can access?

Ross tensed his jaw. Ifra was right - they couldn't do anything at the moment, so they might as well focus on solving the situation that had brought them here in the first place. He swallowed his worry and anxiety and took a deep breath. 

Ross: Every tower has an Ops center of their own, this one is no exception. Something or someone must have shut down the central power unit. If it was a confused officer and there's no damage done, a simple restart might do the trick. 

He hesitated, gazing back at the door Ifra had ripped open.

Ross: There's a lot of blocked doors between us and Ops though. So the... tubes might be the faster way to get there. 

Ifra looked down at his clanking armor with a heavy sigh.

Ifra: ::with resignation:: And just how much crawling might that entail?

Ross grimaced slightly with a shrug. 

Ross: You might wanna lose that cuirass. 

((Short Timeskip)) 

((Maintenance Tubes, Ivory Tower, StarBase118)) 

After Ifra had lost every part of his armour that could be spared and Ross had done a few precautionary squats in front of the open wall panel that would lead them into the interior of the tower, they found themselves in a stuffy, dark tube leading upwards. They were following the power conduit and the routing of the lift, which would hopefully lead them to Ops quickly - Ross went first, but the soft clanks and groans behind him reassured him that he hadn't lost another companion. It was a painful and exhausting way forward and it would take them a while - the faint lights of the emergency lighting were barely enough to see the next few inches ahead and his arms and legs were burning under the strain of pulling and pushing himself upwards through the duct. 

Ross: So... ::he groaned as he pulled himself forward:: In case we have to fix up the communication... How much of an engineer are you? 

Ifra: ? 

Ross: Great. I'm Intel, so I know everything and nothing really. We'll just have to figure it out.

Ifra: ? 

They continued their painful way. 

Ross: Hope you're enjoying your visit so far... I'd tell yoy it's not the usual business, but truth be told, we get a lot of these situations lately. 

It was probably time to get rid of the formalities - as far as the diplomatic charades went, they were over and done with anyways. Maybe this was the much more honest way to forge a political bond after all. 

Ifra: ? 

Ross hesitated and stopped. Through the walls he could hear a drilling noise that resembled one of the emergency alerts he knew from the Narendra - and of those something is terribly wrong-sirens. 

He turned around and patted the wall panel next to them - the lock wouldn't open mechanically, so they relied on Ameoneian manpower once again.

Ross: I think we made it. The ops center should be behind this wall. If you would be so kind...? 

Ifra: ? 

***

Lt. Commander Evan Ross
Intelligence Officer
StarBase 118 Ops
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