Lt. JG T’Fearne - Older in the Past
Teayl Thorn
((OOC: Characters' opinions expressed in this sim are not that of the writer, I love all your characters!))
((Creepy Crawl Space, The Lid, Moon Sigma in orbit of Gas Giant A, Ross 580 System))
They came to a fault in the crawlspace. A rent in the tunnel that faint light filtered through from beyond. T’Fearne slowed immediately. Dimmed her light and raised her small fist to halt those behind her. Being twelve again had unexpected… advantages. She moved quieter, lighter, her center of gravity was lower. But every reach reminded her she wasn’t as tall. Not as strong. Not quite… enough.
A thought played constantly at the back of her mind. Would she be strong enough? Fast enough if her teammates were in danger? It was a lot on her slim shoulders.
T'Fearne: ::whispering:: The tunnel ahead appears structurally compromised. Turn off your lights and go very slow and quiet.
She crawled forward first.
Wren twisted beside the tear in the duct, peering down.
Wren: ::uncoiling herself:: This damage looks new, there’s no rust or ageing on the metal that I can see, though I’m without a tricorder at the moment.
Shortrith: ::whispering:: I'd suggest we be careful.
O’Connor: Well it’s obviously a no passing zone so inch your way forward up there.
Rurat'dari: ::Sarcastically:: Will we fit?
T’Fearne smirked faintly at the irony. Normally she was one of the tallest on away missions. Now she was the smallest.
T’Fearne: We will. And if you do not, Commander O’Connor will help to push.
Rurat’dari bumped Shortrith again. The emotional static coming off the Jem’Hadar prickled unpleasantly against T’Fearne’s senses, distrust, irritation and an undercurrent of hostility.
Wren suddenly stiffened.
Wren: Drones. The Tholians have drones that can cut through metal-
T’Fearne’s youthful brows raised as she recalled Tholians used drones… something about them having powerful stone and metal cutting lasers. She had become an expert on Tholian capabilities in order to keep her people safe in the event of an encounter in the Alpha Isles. She had never seen one and hoped that if they kept quiet she could continue her streak.
Abruptly the crawlspace echoed with a loud crack. A large laser beam punched up through the floor, bisected a section of the tunnel. Stone dust rained down from where it hit on the ceiling above. Somewhere below faser fire echoed.
Shortrith: What's going on???
O’Connor: Someone’s shooting somewhere. But it doesn’t seem to be at us… yet. On the plus side it probably means our phasers will work now.
Rurat'dari: ::venomous:: As long as you don't shoot me.
T'Fearne: ::Rolling her eyes, muttering:: We are a rescue team. No one is going to shoot you without cause. Relax, ma’am!
Wren: ::trying not to panic:: Keep moving! ::struggling to take out her PADD:: I need a way to mask our bio-signatures, but it’ll take about five minutes!
Shortrith: Do it quickly!
O’Connor: Best you can Ensign, but do it on the move. We can’t get caught in a shoot out in here.
Rurat'dari: ::pretending to care:: Don't cover mine, I'm expected here.
The Jem’Hadar had gotten on T'Fearne's nerves, or she was having trouble controlling her emotional responses in this teenaged body. She twisted back sharply, voice low but cutting.
T'Fearne: And have you give our position away? No!
Wren: ::Curse word that is redacted by the translator::
Shortrith: Yeah, that's how we're all feeling.
O’Connor: :: blows out a long breath:: Agreed.
Rurat'dari: ::To herself:: I'm glad they don't know about the power source yet…
T’Fearne now felt a wave of confusion from Wren as the Jem'Hadar's words were easily picked up by her ears, but if she turned around and interrogated the old soldier turned scientist here, they were all likely to get caught by the crystalline creatures. She filed that piece of information away for later.
As she crawled forwards, avoiding the glowing edge of a fresh laser cut, she was glad of her hazard suit as smoke filtered into the crawlspace, obscuring the way ahead.
Shortrith: How far away are we from the life sign?
Wren: I think… We should be right on top of it in about twenty feet. I’m doing what I can to diminish our life signatures. I don’t know exactly what’s tracking us, but I’ve managed to disguise us as non-humanoids.
T'Fearne: Good thinking, Ensign.
O’Connor: ::he whispered back:: So almost right below?
Shortrith: ::stressed:: Well, we need to move faster!
O’Connor: Carefully. There’s lot’s of corrosion… :: the tunnel shook as what they guessed was a nearby wall was blasted:: And there’s that.
Rurat'dari: ::to herself:: We're getting near the plant… I know we are.
Another of the tremors that had been so strong in the reactor room rocked the crawlspace.
T’Fearne worriedly glanced at the gear they still had. Three lonely transport enhancers remained from their gear and if things got any worse, they would have to use them to get off this lunar hell.
Shortrith: If we keep moving, we'll be able to avoid this tunnel getting destroyed, and help the person.
O’Connor: Just keep watching where you're go….
Ian had cut off suddenly and sensing his surprise, the miniature security officer twisted around, but there were too many people blocking her view in the narrow space. From what she could see it appeared that the Teenage Mutant Lieutenant Commander had partially fallen through a collapse to the darkness below and their reluctant Jem ‘Hadar rescue-ee had managed to catch him part way.
Rurat'dari: That's the pathway to the plant.
oO What? How could a random collapse in a dusty unused crawlesapce be a pathway to anywhere? Oo
She glared at the Jem’Hadar who held Ian. Unsure what she was talking about or her intentions.
Wren: O’Connor!
The ensign jerked back reflexively and gave enough room for the small Vulcazoid to lunge forward, trying to help pull the team’s commanding officer away from the fall below. She was glad for the sound of a phaser fight somewhere in the facility as it ensured the yells and sound they were making would go unnoticed. As she lunged forward the surface beneath her heaved and sagged downwards. T’Fearne slid forward, grabbing for Ian, but almost falling headfirst into the hole with him until several something snagged at her ankle and legs, halting the headlong slide.
Shortrith: Response
O’Connor: Ahhh, help. I’m falling.
Rurat'dari: He's falling into the corridor heading toward the reactor.
T'Fearne: ::glaring angrily at the Jem’Hadar:: Would you be silent and help us pull! ::Small gloved hands clamping around Orion's forearm:: We’ve got you, Ian. Hold on.
Wren: Everyone back up! The tunnel is losing stability, we’re g-Oh
The metal shrieked and the Jem’Hadar disappeared into the hole and she refused to loosen her grip on Ian. T’Fearne let out a high pitched yell and tried to keep them all from falling, but her fear became reality, not strong enough to hold both their weight she was ripped out of the others grip, down through the fault and into the dark.
((Subsurface Passage, The Lid, Moon Sigma in orbit of Gas Giant A, Ross 580 System))
The fall into darkness was brief and painful.
T’Fearne didn’t land on her feet, she struck the ground on her side, something hard crunching beneath her ribs. The impact forced the air from her lungs and she half curled instinctively into a ball, momentarily stunned.
Pain, fear and anger, not just her own warring for her attention. She felt dangerously close to being emotionally compromised at that moment.
Shortrith: Response
Wren: Is everyone alright?
She barely heard them.
T'Fearne: ::sharp gasp, calling out:: Ian!
She forced herself to uncurl, ribs protesting and began crawling over to the Orion. A discarded mop tangled her boots. T
The Jem’Hadar scientist was already standing over O’Connor’s unmoving form.
T'Fearne: ::angrily:: Step away from him!
But Rurat’dari was staring past them instead.
Shortrith: Response
Rurat'dari: Kanagar what are you doing-
Weapon fire cracked overhead.
T’Fearne threw herself forward and crouched low over Ian’s head. Her phaser pistol came out, shakier than she would have liked. Her rifle lay behind her, strap snapped, casing cracked where she’d landed on it amongst some debris.
A small shadow darted away down a stone corridor. She aimed the phaser, but didn’t fire.
The others dropped in from the crawlspace opening more carefully..
Rurat'dari: He's heading towards the plant.
Wren: Why was he trying to attack us? ::glancing downwards to O’Connor, clearly uncomfortable seeing him like that:: I- ::sighs:: I’m going to try and send out a communication. Our badges may be down, but if we can reach the Ronin, we can get O’Connor out of here quickly. ::pulling out her PADD and plugging it into a wall console::
The room was sparse, dusty and looked to have mold and mildew growing in the corners. A bank of old Romulan consoles stood in the corner, like relics from a lost age. Wren hurried over and interacted with one of them. The console sparked a little, and the Betazoid shook out her hand. She seemed confused.
Wren: What is all this? ::showing it to the others::
T’Fearne looked to the arriving Klingon medical officer, gesturing to the spreading dark patch on Ian's hazard suit. She sank back onto her knees beside him, one arm pressed protectively to her ribs. Glancing around, trying to understand what this lower subsurface level held and what the next danger would come from.
Her small hand tightened fiercely around the phaser.
T'Fearne: Renaie, can you stop the bleeding?
Shortrith: Response
Rurat'dari: If you must know, we developed a link, a tunnel, a gateway, to an alternate Ross-580, if that's what you call it. This wasn't the Lattice Alliance. This was us.
A beat.
Rurat'dari: This was me.
Wren: ::more coldly than usual, trying to staunch her own worries:: What do you mean it was you?
Shortrith: Response
T’Fearne stared at the Jem’Hadar across her shipmates' prone form. She still had her phaser in hand, but calmed herself with a slow breath. She kept the weapon pointed at the ground.
T'Fearne: Is it dangerous? Could it have caused… this? We need to know why you did this.
She gestured faintly to her smaller frame, de-aged by almost two decades.
Rurat’dari exploded at them, distrust flooding the room.
Rurat'dari: HOW COULD I EVER TRUST YOU? My people have been at war with yours for decades, how could I ever trust your lot with the knowledge that I found? I can barely trust the Administrator with this information, lest he tell the Alliance!
The emotional spike hit T’Fearne like a slap.
Wren had a phaser out now too.
T’Fearne rose slowly, deliberately non-threatening. Violence here would finish them faster than radiation.
Wren: ::nearing the end of her rope:: This place is falling apart. Whether you like it or not, the only way to save the data you’ve gathered is if you trust us. You can’t preserve any research if the place has collapsed!
Carefully, T’Fearne crossed to Wren and the console. She didn’t tell her to put the phaser away, or try to stop her. The ensign would have to make her own judgement call on what was an appropriate situation to use her phaser.
T'Fearne: She makes an excellent point. We are here to provide aid.
She produced the last three transport enhancers from their gear, holding them toward Rurat’dari.
T'Fearne: Here, you get these set up in a pattern around the Lt. Cmdr. Wren, try and get a signal through. ::firmly:: We are leaving together shortly.
She put as much steadiness into her voice as she could manage.
Rurat'dari/Shortrith: Response
As she and the Jem’Hadar went about positioning the enhancers in a triangle around Ian and Renaie, Wren somehow managed to get a signal to connect through to the ship.
Wren: ::calmer:: Listen, I understand where you’re coming from. I know how it feels to spend so much time trying and failing to build something, but if you don’t trust us to get you out of here, that research either dies with you, or it’s taken over by someone else for their own purposes.
T’Fearne kept her attention fixed down the dim corridor where the shadowed figure had vanished. Even in her smaller form, the instinct to guard the team came strongly.
T'Fearne: So this passage leads to a device capable of bridging to an alternate universe? What exactly was its intended purpose?
Rurat'dari/Shortrith: Response
A loud beep emitted from the PADD causing her countrywoman to startle.
Wren: We should have communication with the Ronin and the other teams again.
Rurat'dari/Shortrith: Response
T’Fearne straightened as much as her injured ribs allowed.
T'Fearne: =/\= Ronin, this is Lieutenant Junior Grade T’Fearne. We have an injured officer, radiation contamination, and possible hostile presence in our vicinity. ::she didn’t look at Rurat’dari:: Request extraction for five. Transport when you have a lock.=/\=
Ronin: =/\=Acknowledged, Lieutenant. Stand by for transport. =/\=
Wren/Rurat'dari/Shortrith: Response
T'Fearne: You’re not getting left behind today.
Wren/Rurat'dari/Shortrith: Response
T’Fearne allowed herself a faint, tired smile.
T'Fearne: Yes, we are.
The transporter shimmer began, glittering motes dancing upward around them. Just before the room dissolved completely, she thought she saw movement — a small figure sprinting out of the corridor toward them.
((Transporter Room, Deck 06, USS Ronin))
The subsurface chamber vanished, replaced by the sterile brightness as one of USS Ronin's transporter rooms resolved around them.
T’Fearne’s head snapped up immediately, dark eyes scanning the group. Counting. Checking. Had that figure made it back with them?
T’Fearne: Did we… did we get everyone?
Her voice was steadier than she felt.
Wren/Rurat'dari/Shortrith: Response
[Tags / End Act Two for T’Fearne]
((OOC: Leaving it up to Ian if he wants Kangar Ro to stay behind on the moon or make it to the Ronin.))
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Security Officer
USS Ronin - NCC-34523
R240107T14