[Finale] Lt. Jg. Geoffrey Teller - Take a Picture, It'll Last Longer

[Geoffrey Teller]

((Sentinels Heart, Lower Mentharian Ruins))

::As time ran out for the ships in orbit and the team on the ground, El Sayid, Kelrod and Teller proposed a dangerous plan to end the threat of Sentinel permanently.::  

Teller:  =/\= Teller to Commander Wynter.  I've got a somewhat radical solution to our problem here sir, but it's going to require some tight timing and the help of our Tholian friends.=/\=

Wynter:  =/\= What solution exactly? =/\=

Teller:  =/\= Sir, we don't have the resources or the ability to disable this thing.  I propose we give the Tholians the exact coordinates of this site, along with an angular velocity calculation I'm working on, and we tell them to drop their whole damn ship on the place.=/\=

Wynter:  =/\= A little extreme isn’t it? What about our survival in this solution of yours?  =/\=

Teller:  =/\= Yeah we'll our survival is a minor wrinkle since the yield I'm expecting will literally crack this continent in half.  You did say to call you before pushing any buttons, sir. =/\=  

::Teller hadn't worked with Wynter long before this mission but understood the silence on the comm line.  On the other side, the Commander was trying to make a choice between bad options that would put his people in harms way.  Teller's time in the Big Chair had left a lasting impression on him.::  

Wynter: =/\= Wynter to Veritas with Lieutenant Teller. =/\=

Rahman: =/\= Go ahead, commander. =/\=

Wynter: =/\= We are going to send some information to you that Lieutenant Teller has come up with. Our only option is to destroy the facility, with the entry vector the Lieutenant has found a Tholian fighter will be more than enough to end our problem here. =/\=

Teller: =/\= The bigger the better, sir - this structure is as re-enforced as anything I've ever seen.  It'll be like trying to take down a mountain with an arrow. /\=

Rahman: =/\= Are we sure a direct hit will stop Sentinel? The system has proven... resilient. =/\=

Teller: =/\= I don't care how clever the Mentharians were, you can't beat the laws of physics.  All we need to do is crack the containment housing and the subspace rupture will dissipate. /\=

Wynter: =/\= With a big enough ship at the exact point Teller has marked there will be a new lake here following the wet season. =/\=

Kelrod: =/\= Kelrod to Wynter and Veritas, despite the enthusiastic plan of Lieutenant Teller, I'd like you to examine the chance to send down a gravimetric charge to make it blow from the inside. I'm sending you the data about the chamber that we've been able to collect. =/\=

::As Kelrod, Wynter and Teller tried to work the plan with Captain Rahman, Ensign El Sayid decided to voice her opinion.  Loudly.::

El Sayid: =/\= YOU CAN’T DO THIS! IT’S NOT RIGHT! =/\=

::Teller's eyebrow went up at the Ensign's outburst.  He didn't mind a little passion in his fellow officers, but now was hardly the time to have a debate::

Kelrod: =/\= Veritas, check out both plans I'll call you shortly. Kelrod out =/\= 

Kelrod: Ensign, we know this is of a high archaeological interest, but right now I'm more worried of the lives of our friends up there, ours and those who would come near this system in the future. Take all the readings you can, get images, I'm doing that with my tricorder right now, but unless you find a way to disconnect that without endangering us or our friends up there, we're blowing this up.

Teller: ::Teller tried to muster a smile for the visibly shaking Ensign.::  Just think of it as high speed archaeology.  Much more exciting that way.  

Kelrod: Do your job ensign, get everything you can so you can give every scientist and archaeologist something to study the next years.

::As Teller and Kelrod started jogging towards a possible exit, Ensign El Sayid lingered a few steps behind.::

Teller: Lets go Ensign - no time for souvenirs on this trip.  

Kelrod: We'll move to the entrance of the cave to get better look at what's out there and see if we have to rush either for the fighter coming down or to get the gravimetric charge and transport it down here.

::Teller looked back at the generator one last time.::

Teller: You're not going to kill anybody else....and that's a Good Job Guarantee.  

El Sayid: Response

Kelrod: =/\= Kelrod to Veritas =/\=

Rahman: =/\= Yes, we read you, Commander. =/\=

Kelrod: =/\= The entire planet powers up the machine down here and as we believe it's a transmitter that we'll need too much time to understand and find a way to deactivate it, the safest for us and you up there is to blow it up. Have you got any insights on what of the two plans is better to achieve the objective? =/\=

Rahman: =/\= We've taken quite a beating up here... I'm not sure if we'll be able to get those charges to you. =/\=

Kelrod: =/\= Commander Wynters would like to know it as soon as possible. We have to coordinate our way out of here when we set any plan in motion. =/\=

Rahman: =/\= Agreed. Evacuate for now. If you don't hear anything else from us, you can assume we're moving forward with Teller's plan. =/\=

Kelrod: =/\= Response =/\=

Rahman: =/\= Get to safety, commander and prepare for extraction. If you don't hear from us, try to reach Commander Delano. Veritas out. =/\=

::Teller didn't like that sound of that at all.  If the ship was in that much trouble, they had even less time then he thought.::

Teller:  Kelrod, I think it's time dig into your bag of tricks.  You told me on Limbo that your prosthetic has a subspace beacon and a site-to-site transporter in it, right?  

Kelrod:  Response

Teller:  Does it have enough power to get us to the other half of the away team?  We beam there, then turn the beacon on and hope the Veritas or the Solaris can see it through all this. ::Teller checked his tricorder....it was going to be...very close::

Kelrod:  Response

Teller:  Alright, Ensign - over here.  Get snugglie with the Commander and think happy thoughts.  

El Sayid:  Response

Teller:  I promise, next archaeological treasure we find that isn't trying to kill all of us, you can have as much time as you want.  Alright Kelrod, ready when you are.  

::The away team dematerialized in a twinkle of blue and a moment later found itself back in the same hallway where the firefight had been, minutes earlier.  Doctor MacKenzie was hovering over a wounded, babbling Solak while Commander Wynter and Ensign Monroe kept watch in both directions for any more of Sentinels surprises.  As Kelrod tapped his prosthetic and activated the beacon, the team shared a long look.  They all knew they were standing on ground zero for Teller's plan but there was little else to do.::

Teller:  Anybody want to sing a song?  I'll start.  OOOOhHHHHHHHHHHHHHhhHH......

::Teller's voice was, perhaps mercifully, cut off as the team vanished in another twinkle of blue lights, his voice the last to echo in the dim hallways.::

((Transporter Room, USS Solaris))

::As Teller re-materialized with the team he immediately realized he wasn't on the Veritas and his stomach dropped.  He jogged off the transporter pad and tapped a barely working wall console to bring up the exterior sensors.  A few other members of the team crowded behind him as he found the Veritas, clearly damaged, being dragged towards the atmosphere with her doppelganger in close pursuit.  As Teller's eyes widened in fear at the prospect of losing the ship, the Tholian tractor beam suddenly detached and a brilliant flash of light enveloped the Minerva and sent it hurtling towards the surface, parts tearing from the hull as it slammed into thickening layers of atmosphere.  In moments, the horribly reconstituted ship was a glowing red spear streaking across the face of the planet, creating visible disruptions in the air as the heat of its radical entry turned the atmosphere to plasma.  When the ship hit the ground, the whole of the continent rippled from the brilliant white point of impact, and then the planet seemed to heave.  An enormous mushroom cloud formed over the site and quickly climbed to the very top of the atmosphere.  Teller tore his eyes from the sight and refocused the sensors on the Veritas, still limping in orbit.  The reanimated ships still pursuing her stuttered and faltered before powering down and drifting away with whatever momentum they still had.  The weapons fire stopped.  It was over.  Sentinel was dead.::

[End]

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Lieutenant JG Geoffrey Teller

Chief Engineer

USS Veritas - NCC 95035

Capt. R. Rahman, Commanding

V239509GT0