Away Mission: Day 2 (Exploring the Cave), part 2

Posted on Fri Jan 1st, 2010 @ 9:21pm by Commodore Samantha York & Colonel Damon Raine

1,350 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: The Devils Snare
Location: Planetside, the cave
Timeline: current

ON

[OLD]

Sam looked at the readings and nodded. He was right. They were bad. They had six to eight hours, if they were careful and didn't exert themselves. Less if they climbed around. She'd already looked around the perimeter of the cavern. She'd found no other passageways. They would most likely be dead by morning.

[NEW]

Well, the least she could do would be to find out how the machine worked. If she were lucky, she might find the power-dampening field and turn it off. At least them the Orion would be free and the rest of the away team could be rescued. She handed the tricorder back to Riley. "Keep them busy, but sedate. I'll keep working on the machine."

Sergeant Riley nodded to the Commander. "I'll have the Marines look into blowing a hole through that rubble if it starts to look really bad -- a last ditch effort, but it will keep us busy for a while."

At that he moved over to the group and started going over charge positions. None of them were artificers, and likely if they did have to blast through they would only succeed in killing themselves. But it may prove a good distraction.

Sam gave Alex the task of finding the power source for the machine. Just in case. Then she went back to work. It took her two hours to finally decipher the symbols and another hour to figure out how the machine worked. She could transport people from one place to another -- but both had to be outside the mountain. There was no means of communication, however. Not that the Orion would recognize, anyway. And, happily, the machine was the source of the power-dampening field. She turned it off and tried to send a message. It didn't work. She wasn't sure why, as she couldn't make out the error message. Maybe she'd be able to figure it out before they ran out of oxygen?

With the mission a technical success, she decided to devote the rest of her time to learning about the machine and the alien culture that built it.

One purpose of the artifact, besides planetary defense, was to be an historical archive. If she could find the right information and get it translated. She would be able to read it later. Or, if things ended badly, whoever found them would be able to read about the ancient people.

_:: Later ::_

The air was getting bad and Sam had a headache. It had been six hours since the cave-in. She estimated they had an hour or two of oxygen left.
Everyone else had been sitting, talking quietly, saving the oxygen to give their rescuers a little more time.

Most had taken time to record personal logs in case they didn't make it out alive. Sam herself had recorded an account of what had happened, commending the Marines for their heroism. If Damon wasn't able to get them out in time, at least he'd know what happened. She'd also left a private message for him. If they got out, the last part would be deleted.

She called Riley over. "Go check the cave. See if you can hear anything. They know we're late; they should be working on the opening. Let me know what you find."

He nodded and lifted himself out of the corner he was sitting in. A few steps later he was at the rubble; it didn't look any different. It was frustrating, knowing how close they were to freedom and yet completely unable to do anything about it. He sighed and dipped his head; he could feel perspiration forming on the back of his neck and forehead. ~Man it's hot here~

He returned a couple of minutes later and shook his head to the Lieutenant. "Nothing has shifted, if they were out there they would be using explosives to get at us. We should be able to hear them at the very least." His mind ran through a number of scenarios why the rest of the group wouldn't be looking for them, none of them were pleasant. He decided that voicing these scenarios would do nothing for their benefit.

Sam nodded. No use telling the others. Let them keep hoping. She sat back against the machine and continued jotting down notes.

She paused to think about Damon. He was probably going nuts by now, trying to get them out. But she knew, if anyone could do it, Damon could. With a sigh she closed her eyes and tried to slow her breathing.

Sergeant Riley knew that talking would only serve to use more oxygen, but dying in silence didn't sit well with him. "Was it worth it Lieutenant? Joining Starfleet?"

Sam recognized his need to talk. "Absolutely. I've been to some marvelous worlds and explored. I don't even regret coming here." She didn't regret exploring the cave because it allowed them to turn off the power-dampening field, but she did regret that she wouldn't see Damon again. "How about you was it worth it, joining the Marines?"

"Heh" He laughed. He moved a few steps to one of the walls and plopped himself down on the ground. He removed his weapon and propped it up beside him. "Yeah, guess it was. Hell, I’m a better person than I used to be because of it." He picked up a dusty twig and began to fiddle with it in his fingers. "I like to think I’ve done some things along the way made a difference, to someone somewhere." He shrugged "Well, it's like the CO says, 'The best Marines rarely die of old age.' Just didn't think it would come down to getting stuck in a cave. Did you?"

"Nope. I always thought I'd get married some day, raise a family, retire and teach. Spend my summers exploring places like this," Sam said dryly. "Never thought it would end like this... At least I'll go out doing something I love."

"Ooh-rah." He said in agreement.

Several minutes passed before he spoke again. "Ma'am, I think it's time to try blowing our charges. Holding out any longer isn't going to do anything more for us."

"Agreed. Go ahead. We've got the explosives, we might as well use them," she replied. Better to have tried and fail...

Riley smiled and stood up from the ground. He walked to the charges and armed them, making sure that they were all in place. After finishing he walked back into the cavern and motioned for everyone to hug the far wall.

"Well Ma'am," he said, holding the detonator "If this turns out badly, it's been a pleasure serving with you." He held out his hand for her to shake.

She shook his hand. "It's been a pleasure for me, too, Staff sergeant." Then she plugged her ears and indicated for him to go when he was ready.

A grin spread across Riley's face...blowing them all to hell would be an interesting way to go...His finger depressed the trigger.

Suddenly a loud resonating thump could be felt by all inside as the charges blew debris away. The cavern's roof rained debris ranging in size from a small nickels to that of a baseballs. A huge plume of dust erupted into the room temporarily obscuring everything in a haze.

Sergeant Riley coughed a few times before rushing forward into the thick of the cloud. After an agonising long few minutes he returned. His head was hung low. "It did shit all. Blasted out a good chunk, but it's just too deep to get through."

"That's okay," Sam assured him after she stopped coughing. "We expected as much. Otherwise we would have done this hours ago." She smiled at Riley. "We had to try every option." She was sure help was on its way. The only question was, would they get there in time?

OFF

Lieutenant Commander Samantha York
Chief Science Officer
USS Orion

Lieutenant JG Alexandra Adeyemon
Chief Engineer
USS Orion

Staff Sergeant Allen Riley (NPC)
Marine
USS Orion

Cpl. Matthias Scott (Scotty)
Marine Scout

 

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