Free Fall (Part 4 of 4)

Posted on 27 Jul 2014 @ 12:42pm by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Captain Jonathan Holliday & Command Master Chief Markum Quinn & Petty Officer 1st Class Oliver Morris & Lieutenant Jacob Pendleton & Lieutenant Asahi Kita & Commander Allyndra illm Warraquim & Chief Warrant Officer 3 Amon Mormont & Petty Officer 1st Class Gabriel Stark & Petty Officer 1st Class Siren Hex Saalm & Petty Officer 3rd Class Robert Jameson & M'Ressa & Lieutenant Jared Nicholas

2,275 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Episode 06 - Legend of Souls
Location: Lyshan III - Uridium Mine Access Shaft
Timeline: MD 07 - 0925 hrs

Previously, on Free Fall (Part 3)...

"Em.....cy.......mout," was all the commodore was able to decipher from the message.

Frowning and spending several seconds trying to piece together the fragmented syllables, Lirha sighed then thumbed the comm switch on her armrest's console. "Away team, this is Galileo. Repeat your last," she said obliviously, then once again casually leaned back in her chair while more seconds ticked away.

And Now, the Conclusion...

[ON]

Lyshan III - Uridium Mine Access Shaft Entrance

Siren, who was clinging hold of the Captain without even realising she was gripping him in the terrifying drop, leant forward at the crackled, broken up reply. It might not have been clear, but she'd know Lirha's voice anywhere. =^=Emergency beam out! Lirha, get us out of here!=^= she shouted, her heart racing in her chest so hard it felt like it would burst.

John swore in ever conceivable language he knew in his head as he continued to be in freefall towards the bottom of the shaft - reaching to his waist he grabbed one of the transport enhancers he had been carrying and activated it, hoping against hope that it would signal someone on the ship to their predicament.

=^=Galileo - get us the hell out of here, now!!=^=

Jacob could do nothing except watch helplessly as the freefall ensued.

Gabriel held his breath on instinct, unable to help it as he was shaken with the velocity of the ride. He lifted his hand, pressing it to the top of his chest where the cross he wore was pressed against his skin under his uniform.

As the lift plumetted, M'Ressa held onto the cage. She couldn't describe in that exact moment how she felt. It was enough to be in a cramped suit, enough to find dead bodies, enough to be underground, but riding a cage to her death was enough that something inside her snapped.


USS Galileo - Bridge, Transporter Room

The crackling and static of the repeated transmission didn't register much more clearly for Lirha, and now it appeared there was not one but two voices trying to speak. One of them even sounded like Siren.

"....gency....bea....ut.." repeated the away team. Lirha looked over her shoulder at one of the gold-collared officers who was manning the primary Ops station and gave him a wave of her green hand.

"Can you clear up the signal?" the commodore asked, then spent several more seconds trying to decipher the communique in her head. Em.....cy.......mout, she repeated to herself remembering the first message. ....gency....bea....ut, she repeated again this time for the second message, then began to try and piece them together. Em..gency...bea..mout. Emgency beamout. Lirha's eyes suddenly went wide and she quickly sat up straight. "Emergency beam out!" she yelled, then bolted from her chair and leapt over several consoles as she hastily ran to the mission ops station while frantically tapping her commbadge.

"Bridge to transporter room, get a lock on the away team and energize! Now!"

Down in the primary transporter room, Robert was standing watch over the team. The captain's activation of the transport enhancer told him something was amiss and the sudden change in targeting data was enough that when Lirha's call came through, he was on it.

His hands flying over the controls, he was able to pull a target lock through the interference to the group within the lift. Two life-signs were missing but there wasn't time to think about it. Initiating the transport sequence, Robert finessed the controls as he brought the group aboard. The transport sequence took longer then usual, around 5 sec, but given the interference that wasn't surprising.

"I have the first group Commodore."

Thank the spirits! Lirha let out a lengthy sigh of relief when the call from the transporter chief came through, then made a beeline towards the turbolift and headed towards the transporter room one deck below.


Lyshan III - Uridium Mine Shaft

Inside the mining shaft, the lift had reached terminal velocity and was mere seconds away from slamming into the ground. The sides of the shafts and pulsing lights turned into nothing but a blur as the ground rose rapidly to greet the lift's occupants.

Jared was fairly sure that he was about to die. The first group had been beamed out, but he didn't think there was enough time for them to get to him or the others. Though logically it made no sense he braced himself for an impact.

John took a deep breath, one that he thought would most likely be his final one as he thought of the rest of his crew - he had seen the faint light of a transporter beam taking some of his team back to the ship, so at least he knew some of his team were safe. That feeling however did nothing to deal with the fact that he was about to die along with a group of his crew. The end was coming.

Quinn looked to Holiday and simply nodded. If he was going to die, he wanted it to be beside his commanding officer

With barely two heartbeats to go before impact, the away team began to dematerialize in a swarm of sparkling blue and white transporter particles. Now devoid of any occupants, the cab impacted the bottom of the shaft with tremendous force sending a cloud of twisted metal and dust soaring through the air above it and to the sides.

Jared though spiritual was not particularly religious but something, or someone had just saved him and the others, so he lifted a prayer of thanksgiving to whatever might be listening.

M'Ressa barely even noticed the swirl of energy surround her as she dematerialized. In her mind this was the moment of her death and somehow she was at peace with it.


USS Galileo - Deck 2, Transporter Room

Even as the first team materialized on the pad, Robert began looking for the other two. Starting from the point where the lift was at the time of the emergency, he began his scans upwards, hoping that the remaining two were somehow stuck in the cables and not below the lift car. If they weren't, they were as good as dead.

Luck tho was with Robert and he was able to find the remaining two still attached to the lift cable. Without the transport enhancer this one was going to be tricky. Using the interference patterns from the first beam, Robert was able to lock onto Kita & Wyatt, though in Wyatt's case he snagged some cable in the process.

He barely even glanced up from his controls as he worked the second beamout. "Clear the pad. Second group incoming. Containment protocol's in effect."

Allyndra stumbled as the one foot that had been in the air as the lift had fallen now found new gravity and made an awkward contact. The ship, her thoughts went, they were back on board and being yelled at to clear the pad. She moved without grace but at the same time was doing her level best to get out of that confining suit.

Siren finally uncurled her fingers from their grip on Holliday, her fingers white and aching from just how hard she'd been holding onto him without even realising. She ran down from the pad, looking back up to it with concern for the remaining team still to be brought home.

In what could best be described as a mental fog, M'Ressa followed the orders of the transporter chief and cleared the padd along with the others. Breaking the seal on her suit helmet and gloves, M'Ressa felt real air for the first time again.

As the last crew cleared the padd, Robert energized the containment forcefield and began the re-materialization sequence. Now in his buffers, Robert was able to extract the cable from Wyatt and send it elsewhere into space while Wyatt and Kita remateriliazed on the padd. Satisfied they were clear, he dropped the containment field.

"Second group is aboard Commodore."

Lirha sprinted down the corridor of Deck 2 and tapped her comm badge in the process. "Acknowledged, I will be there in a few moments." Almost right on cue, the doors to the transporter room swished open and Lirha came running in to survey the scene.

John felt the air push out of his chest as the transporter beam deposited him back on the Galileo. Knowing how close he had come to death, it took the captain a few seconds before he came back to the land of the living, or at least the land of the conscious. Ripping at the helmet release on the EVA suit, Holliday tore the item clean from his body and sat up breathing the somewhat safer air of the ship.

Quinn removed his helmet while still laying on his back, looking directly up. He truly thought this was the end. Tarish, Tyranna, Markus...everyone. With a sigh of relief he shook his head. "I'm too old for this shit."

Abbey lay still on the floor her EVA suit was ripped in almost two and a large crack had formed on her helmets screen where her head had Impacted it from the sudden falling of the lift. The warm wet feeling that spread out from her stomach woke Abbey from her unconscious state, moving just one of her arms as the other lay still in pain and clutched her stomach. Pulling her hand away she studied it carefully seeing a warm red sticky residue "Why is there Jam on me" she asked looking up to the group of people she couldn't quiet see.

Jacob guickly got up, cleared the pad and rushed over to Abbey. He saw she was bleeding, "Medic!! Get her to sickbay pronto!" He looked down at her, "Its going to be all right Abs."

Abbey's vision was blurred and greyed out at most but she recognised Jacobs sweet voice "oh Jacob, have you come to whisk me away to one of your holo novels" she said with a faint smile the color from her cheeks slowly draining. The warm damp match around her abdomen increasing in size.

Asahi sat up from his own prone position, cursing under his breath in the most colorful of manners. He eyed the young woman next to him, taking only half a moment to shoot a look toward the transporter operator. Though he lacked the forcefulness some of the other senior officers had, he still had the urgency laced in his voice. "I've got one wounded here, with potential oxygen depri-ah, screw it. Doctor? Help!"

Sitting, curled up in a corner, M'Ressa held her legs as she stared off into space, crying and oblivious to the world, unaware she was talking to herself in Caitian.

Allyndra got her balance. She turned and noticed M'Ressa curled up. She had a hard time in confined spots what was command thinking to send a Caitian down. They were all claustrophobic in the extreme.

Allyndra fumbled for a moment but got a hypospray out and approached the Caitian slowly. She did not want to be on the receiving end of those claws.

"It's alright, stay calm, I am going to give you something to relax you." Allyndra repeated over and over and then pressed the hypo home. She then turned to see someone down and people shouting.

M'Ressa heard the hiss and a cooling sensation in her neck that seemed to spread throughout her body. Slowly things started to feel normal again, her eyes focusing again as she began to come back to the land of the normal.Taking several deep breaths, she leaned back against the bulkhead, her head pounding. She just wanted to sleep, to forget the morning, to forget this accursed mission. What she'd have given to be back on earth safe and sound.

Robert cursed under his breath. He should've known with the cables wrapped that tightly around Abbey that she'd have been injured. He'd assumed the life sign readings were just interference but in the seconds she'd been on the pad, it became apparent they weren't false readings.

"Shit!" he swore as he began the emergency transport of Abbey to sickbay. =^=Transporter room to sickbay. Incoming severe abdominal trauma case.=^=

Allyndra was struggling out of her suit. She could not so anything and finally Robert just said for an emergency transport. That was something she could do something about and hit her communicator.

=^=Allynndra to sickbay. Doctor Voutilainen, you have surgery, biobed one. Call in Mott if he is able and anyone else. I will be there shortly.=^=

[OFF]

--

CDRE Lirha Saalm
Mission Advisor
USS Galileo

CA Abbey-Mae Wyatt
Scientist Mate
USS Galileo
[PNPC - Wyatt]

Lt Jared Nicholas
Language Specialist
USSGalileo

PO1 Gabriel Stark
Security/Tactical
USS Galileo
[PNPC Blake]

PO2 Siren Hex
Intelligence
USS Galileo
[PNPC Blake]

Asahi Kita
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Galileo

Lt Cmdr Allyndra illm Warraquim
Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo

Command Master Chief Markum Quinn
Chief of the Boat
USS Galileo

CAPT Jonathan Holliday
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo

Master Warrant Officer Amon Mormont
Security
USS Galileo
[PNPC Markos]

M'Ressa
Biotechnologist
USS Galileo
[PNPC Zhao]

PO3 Robert Jameson
Transporter Chief
USS Galileo
[PNPC Zhao]

LT Jacob Pendleton
Chief Research Officer
USS Galileo

PO1 Oliver Morris
Senior Yeoman
USS Galileo

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