Paradise (Part 7 of 7)

Posted on 03 Jul 2019 @ 2:58pm by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Commander Scarlet Blake & Commander Marisa Wyatt & Lieutenant JG Tris Shizn & Petty Officer 1st Class T'Lin & Petty Officer 3rd Class Peregrine Steele
Edited on on 06 Jul 2019 @ 12:55pm

3,589 words; about a 18 minute read

Mission: Episode 17 - Crystal of Life
Location: Latari B III - Surface, Shuttlecraft Vincenzo
Timeline: MD 01, 0645 hrs

Previously, on Paradise (Part 6)...

Blake motioned to Shizn with her next order. "Meanwhile, Shizn, T'Lin and Steele, you'll work on getting this shuttle...sea worthy." Blake took a breath as she arched an eyebrow; that wasn't an order she'd expected to have to give. She straightened up, hands resting on her hips as she looked around the small team with a firm nod. "Let's make our own luck."

"Very good commander," T'Lin simply replied. She went to fetch scanners to check the hull and got to work.

"Yes, ma'am," Marisa said. She put her samples away and went to help Blake with the buoy. She was grateful for the chance to do something productive. She had confidence the Galileo would come back for them, but they did have to stay alive until then.

“Yes, ma’am,” Shizn parroted the last comment quietly as he was already considering what he needed to do to make the shuttle even more airtight in addition to getting better thruster control.

And Now, the Continuation...

[ON]

T'Lin slowly engaged the repulser beam. The panel stayed green, but throughout the hull one could hear the sound of tortured metal as the cephalopod attempted to hang onto its prey.

The Waverider began to shake violently. The flight controls became very sluggish. Tris figured the use of the tractor beam was definately causing pressure onto the creature, yet it still held onto their ship. Now, he could hear metal tearing. Tris could only assume that the repulsor was working, but the barbs the creature had were being wrenched across the ship’s hull. This meant that they might be taking on even more water before they could get away.

Vincenzo's tractor emitter glowed and sent visible repeating pulses into the center of the alien cephalopod. Its mantle was forcefully pushed away from the craft as its tentacles extended to their limits, but the firm grip of their suction cups held tight and pulled the winged-shuttle down beneath the water with unintentional help from the repulsor beam. Instead of pushing the creature out to sea behind them, the biological had maneuvered its massive body below and into the depths of the sea - which meant the more force the repulsor beam emitted, the quicker they both sank. Within seconds, the Starfleet shuttle went nose-up and was pulled down beneath the waves, fully submerged.

Inside the cockpit and main cabin, the ocean began to burst through the breaches in the hull and flood the inner compartments. The intense pressure of the flooding sprayed blasts of cold sea water into the occupants, knocking them down and creating a tremendous roar of rushing water.

Even through the violent and chaotic moment Tris thought, a bit frustrated, This is no time for a bath!, then wiped the water from his face with his right sleeve.

Marisa cut the tractor beam, hoping it would allow the shuttle get back to the surface. She turned to Blake. "Can we use shields to keep out the water?" Her next thought was of her samples. She grabbed them and attached them to her leg. One of her priorities was still to preserve the data, if she could. At least the package was small enough not to impede movement.

"Emitters are already pretty stressed!" Steele yelled as the water was already sloshing around his ankles. "I am going to say we abandon ship while we got the transporter!"

"Abandoning is logical at this point commander, unless we take more lethal means to get away. The stresses on the hull and patchwork will not last much longer. We have the samples and the data is away, thus the most logical course would be to save both the samples and ourselves." T'Lin said straightening from looking at her screen and waiting for orders.

"I've got the samples," Marisa said. "T'Lin's right. I don't think hurting the creature will do any good at this point."

Blake shook her head hard, grabbing on to the back of Shizn's chair, her jaw gritted and breath tight in her chest. "I am *not* abandoning this shuttle..." she assured sharply, her voice raised over the noise around them, reaching out and leaning in to quickly scroll through the lists of warnings to try and get shields in place.

"WARNING," blared the shuttle's computer over the rush of water. "Hull breach. Structural integrity at twenty-percent. WARNING, descent rate terminal," it continued while red alert strobes drowned the cabin with flashing crimson hues.

Shizn still faught at the controls to get the Waverider away from this beast. He wasn’t sure what else he could do, except feel frustrated. He knew the craft was now fully submerged, fighting to stay near the surface. The water was spraying inside, here and there, soon to cause some short circuiting of systems. Tris’ mind touched on thoughts of becoming one with ‘the fishes’, being just another hulk sunk to the bottom of the sea. Tris imagined a great whale or something would be watching as this large chunk of alloy-steel-carbon floated down before it.

THAT’S IT! Tris thought, then said aloud, “THAT’S IT!”

"What's it?" Marisa asked.

Shizn explained, “We need to send a hypersonic sound at this creature that it won’t like. I know that some sounds are painful, and especially to sea creatures. Grrhhh!” He exclaimed as he faught with the controls some more.

"I can do that," the science officer said. It wasn't a difficult task. She was just sorry no one had thought of it before now. She made the adjustments to the sonar and looked to Blake for permission.

Blake nodded firmly, catching her breath as she leant in close to Shizn, taking in the data on his screen. "Do it!" she motioned with a hand; it was the preferable idea on the table, and it could just work.

"Here goes." Sandoval pushed the button.

Tris immediately closed his eyes in pain and cringed, wishing he could take his hands off the controls to cover his ears. Even though the sound was being broadcast outside the ship, a portion of it was coming inside and definitely affecting him.

The water was rising and Steele was doing his best to keep force emitters on line. There was going to be a catastrophic failure soon and the emitters could only do so much before their circuitry was overwhelmed.

T'Lin was thinking, going through what she knew of various biologicals from her background. Though one tended to just study the biochemistry, the courses covered all sorts of physiology as well. Cephalopod there was something about their hearing. Invertebrates did not have the same systems as vertebrates. They were both more primitive and yet also more complex in certain functions. It was thought, she finally remembered that the detection of sound was thought to be in the organ called the statocyst. It was primarily a balance organ but sounds waves would cause it to resonate. In fact there was a certain frequency that tended to peak in most invertebrate statocysts as it caused the organ to vibrate enough to throw the balance of the creature off. "Six hundred hertz, try six hundred hertz. The balance organ is most sensitive to that frequency."

"I'm at 600," Marisa said. "Let's give it a minute, then we'll try something else."

The alien cephalopod suddenly reacted to the subsonic sound waves and began to violently thrash its mantle from side to side. Its four tentacles whipped the shuttle around violently then reluctantly released their powerful grip on the Waverider's metallic hull. The sharp barbs surrounding each suction cup raked across the duranium-tritanium composite then slithered away, down into the dark depths below.

Vincenzo was free from its attacker, but now faced a more perilous problem. Almost half of the interior cabin had been flooded and the shuttle was still slowly descending, unable to provide enough buoyancy to return to the surface.

With the power regained from the repulsor, Blake was able to get small patches of shielding up over the breaches in the most extreme act of putting sticky plasters over an open wound she'd seen for a while. It would have to do for the time being at least. They were due some better luck. "We need to ring enough power out of her to transport this water out..."

"I would suggest we transport personnel," T'Lin replied. "We cannot guarantee how much the hull will hold, how much more damage was done. The samples are important at this point. Besides, lightening the craft by several people is going to make more difference and possibly save most of us than trying to bail water."

"Valid observation. But is it preferable to abandon the shuttle or try and get it to land where we can use parts of it for shelter?" Marisa asked. It was something the commander had to decide.

Tris gritted his teeth in frustration. Between still trying to maintain control of the Waverider and listening to the ‘Scholarly Officers’ debate of what had more imparritive, the Andorian didn’t know if he wanted to yell or hit something. He was actually glad that he had been able to level out their craft. 5is caused the water already in the ship flow to the lower portions of the craft, which was currently below deck, but that wouldn’t last for long.

The Vincenzo was about 20 meters below the surface of the sea, and slowly sinking about 0.15 meters per minute. With the current thrusters active, this was the best Shizn could maintain. If he turned off the thrusters, then they would most likely sink like a rock.

Blake just shook her head sharply...she'd made it clear she wasn't abandoning the shuttle. Until they managed to re-establish contact with the Galileo, it was all they had. "Shizn, where can we pull the power from to beam the water out?" she asked, her voice firm rather than framing it as a question that might receive 'it's not possible' as an answer; the tone left no doubt that she expected a solution. "What if we suit up in EVAs and temporarily cut life support, would it be enough?"

Without thinking Shizn replied, “No, we need the air pressure. That’s the only thing keeping us afloat.” Tris cringed after the words left his lips. Buoyancy. We need buoyancy, he thought before turning his mind to the question. His began to click through all the different systems on board. A realization then came to mind and Shizn reported, “Sir, the biobed on board has its own portable power system. It should be powerful enough to operate the transporter, but at a reduced level. Since we are only transporting water, we can also cut the biohazard safeguards, etc. and reduce the power requirement and the normal necessary redundancies.”

Steele did not wait for the formal command and already working his panel began to route the power as the Andorian pilot suggested. He figured the pilot knew a lot more about getting them out of their current situation. "Power routed commander. I think I can clear us of most in three cycles. As long as things remain working I can set the system to act as a sort of bilge pump. A certain amount of water leaks in and then is automatically transported out again."

"Do it," Blake nodded firmly, grabbing hold of the back of a chair to push towards him, getting a view over his shoulder to watch the work. Her body was tense, ready for flight and fight and just a sheer amount of stubbornness and determination to rescue their shuttle.

Steele started the procedure and the transporter hummed it was a bit off, but they where working with a lot of foobared circuitry routing. Steele simply transported to a meter or so above the surface and then materializing it again. Another cycle and he definitely felt in his seat the shuttle take a bounce upward. "It's working!" he said with excitement in his voice. The transporters made that weird humm again and again the shuttle seemed to bob upward like a cork. At least they were going in the right direction. He could only wonder if anyone saw what was happening what odd phenomenon it would look like. Probably something like a whale breaching with all the water.

"Reef coming up commander, we should surface before we hit it." T'Lin added from her section.

“Yes Sir,” Shizn said excitedly. “Ten meters, . . nine, . . eight.” Tris glanced over his shoulder, shooting Steele a grateful smile before turning back to the thruster controls. “Four, . . three.” The Andorian stopped talking as light began to illuminate the conn through the front viewport. Just then the Vincenzo broke the water surface. He adjusted the thrusters to remain on the surface, and called out, “Transfer all shields to the lower hull. That should minimize the water intake.”

Marisa checked on the creature to make sure it survived. She caught an image of it swimming away, looking none the worse for the encounter. It was a little thing, but it made her happy.

"Approaching the reef," the science officer said, returning her scans to what was ahead.

The crippled Waverider made a slow course for the nearby coastline and approached the outer formations of underwater sandbars. The shuttle bobbed and jolted through the littorals then nosed-down into a solid reef coral which caused Vincenzo to come to a slamming stop ten meters from the beach.

The sudden stop just off shore cause Tris to fall slightly into the controls of the shuttle. He recovered quickly and began to shut down thruster systems. The Andorian looked out the viewport commenting, “Well, good thing we are all really wet.” He then chuckled, mostky to himself.

Marisa checked to be sure she still had the samples strapped to her leg and that the air-tight seal was intact. She shut down her systems and prepared to abandon the shuttle. She grabbed her cross pack and threw in anything she might need, then stuffed it into a water-tight bag and slung it over her shoulder.

Steele groused as the impact sent everything into shut down mode yet again. At least they were breached on a sand bar and no fear of sinking. The shuttle was probably too heavy to get moved easily unless a big storm came up. "Well don't that beat all," he said to no one in particular. "A nice sand beach, palm trees and here I did not even have time to replicate a few bottles of rum."

Tris turned and glanced at the Science Officer, not understanding how Steele found pleasure in the no doubt very warm climate. This situation was definately going to tax his system and put a definate load on his personal cooling suit that he needs as an Andorian to function.

T'Lin for her part just looked at him curiously, "I do not see how rum would have any survival value in this situation."

Steele just shook his head that the Vulcan just did not get the idea of just enjoying the sand and surf. "Yeah, yeah you're right, but it would have been a nice party. No, I know a party right now is not something to worry about." He was holding up his hands.

She just quirked an eyebrow and figured it must be some sort of thing more emotionally ruled beings needed. Instead she turned and picked up her seat cushion. "I do not believe we had planned for water, so no aquatic vessel such as a raft is on board and with power out we cannot use the replicatior currently. However, the cushions were designed as emergency floatation devices just in case. We can bind them and get to shore along with a few bits of equipment. Hopefully there are no further predators in the water while we make for the shore."

"Let's do it," Blake nodded to her even as she moved to help. Her heart was still thumping in her chest, she needed something to *do*. "Rice, Sandoval, gather the equipment you can..." she glanced around the state of the inside of the shuttle...it would be easier said than done to salvage all the kit they needed. "Shizn, I'd appreciate it if you could make sure we're leaving the shuttle in a survivable state considering the efforts everyone went through to make sure she remained in one piece..."

“Yes Commander”, Shizn replied. Even though the main power was now off, Shizn went about the ship, manually shutting off and unplugging systems to minimize any further damage by power accidents.

If they were putting together a makeshift raft, there were several other pieces of equipment that would be useful for setting up camp. She had no idea if there would be anything like driftwood or edible plants. She found something she could use to make a fishing line and hook and added it to her pack.

Lt. Shizn exited the Waverider with a small backpack and a duffle with emergency gear in each hand. For a moment standing on its upper hull, the Andorian watched as the crew waded or swam across the small stretch of water to the sandy beach. He could see many bags floating on the water in tow of the Crewman. He turned and looked down at the Vincenzo saying softly, “Don’t worry girl. We’ll get you back to operational status soon.” He looked again toward the beach, seeing that a couple members had already reached shore. “Well, maybe not too soon.” Tris then shrugged and stepped off the nose of the Waverider into water over his head.

Marisa wished Luke were there with her. While her survival skills were good, his were superb. And she missed him. Now that the worst of the danger was over, she could think about him. But only briefly. They still had to get to shore and make camp.

She saw Tris go under the water and pulled off her boots, stuffing them quickly into her bag and then diving in to make sure he was okay.

Tris came up, head bobbing above the water surface. He was very pleased that the two duffles were maintaining their water-tight seal and made good floatations.

T'Lin could not keep track of the rest of the group while she basically swam and then bounced walked trying to get what they could off the shuttle. When she got to shore her long almost white blonde hair hung in dripping strands having come undone from its careful braiding that it was normally in. Steele was just lying on the beach above the waves staring at the sky and gasping. He had gotten water in his noise and swallowed some as well. T'Lin checked him over but it was minor.

She than began to look over supplies and determine how long they had supplies for and also looking back the way they had come to estimate how long before the eruption brought on a full vulcanonic winter. She figured roughly depending on what they could find on the island, perhaps supplemented by fishing that a month or so before things ran out and the planet began to freeze.

Marisa helped Tris to shore, then helped with the makeshift raft. She focused on getting as much as she could to shore, in case the waverider broke up and was pulled out to sea. How long would they be able to stay here? she wondered. At least the jungle promised to have something edible and plenty of coverage from the elements.

Lt. Shizn walked out of the soft waves, up onto the wet sand, water dripping from his uniform. Once he arrived on dry sand, he dropped the duffles and took in a deep breath, “We’re definately not on Andor.” He meant it as a joke, to hopefully lighten the tension of those around.

"Neither are we in Kansas anymore...." Scarlet murmured as she waded to shore, the water lapping around her waist as she held a case over her head. There were worse places they could have been stranded, but it was by no means paradise. They were exposed...with limited resouces and in an environment where basic resource gathering could end up being arduous. And that was without the immediate threats they'd already faced so far.

Marisa chuckled and put her boots back on so she could help haul supplies up to the tree line.

The waves finally ceased crashing against the away team as its members hit the soft sand of the beach. In front of them - across the hundred yards of fine white sand - was a dense tropical treeline populated by alien forms of blue Arecaceae. The lower brush was tall, thick and green, and several dark figures suddenly emerged from their camouflage and began to advance on the Galileo crew. Four...six...eleven bipedals.

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

--

CAPT Lirha Saalm
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo-A

CMDR Scarlet Blake
First Officer
USS Galileo-A

PO2 T'Lin
Science Officer
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Warraquim]

LT Marisa Sandoval
Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo-A

LTJG Tris Shizn
Conn Officer
USS Galileo-A

PO3 Peregrine Steele
Science Officer
USS Galileo-A
[NPC Warraquim]

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