Rescue, Part 1

Posted on Sun 13th Nov, 2022 @ 5:24am by Renato Solis

1,832 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: A Fresh Perspective
Location: USS Pastuer, Kwhopa
Timeline: MD 5,

{USS Pasteur, in orbit of Kwhopa}

First Officers Log-

Pasteur has been ordered to Kwhopa, Captain Silva has tasked us to evacuate a facility which is leaking harmful contaminants into the water supply. There is a larger effort, as well, to evacuate the local communities at risk of the toxic bloom. Kwhopa’s bogs are all connected in one waterway, the ramifications are enormous to their ecosystem and presently deadly to the residents of the laboratory.

We also have to neutralize their reactor before it goes critical, and evacuate over three hundred residents. The challenge is this facility was damaged due to the ongoing war effort and has fortified inside underwater caverns 30 kilometers below surface beneath a complex series of passages. Transporters are not functional at this time, direct efforts are underway to access the facility.

USS Galaxy has taken over combat operations during this rescue attempt. It has created a safe zone, free from either party in the conflict from attacking but we have limited options to get in there before this situation results in worldwide catastrophe. We have asked the USX Albatross, a survey vessel containing a Cetacean Operations department, for any assistance.

{Kwhopa- Neutrino Collider Facility}

-28 Hours Ago, and more than 28 km deep-

Consciousness returned in stages, starting with delicate processes as the body rebooted from trauma and fired synaptic pathways into full operation. Temptation offered an epiphany for him to go back to sleep, but remembering the terror of his previous moments snapped reality firmly into place. Marux was afraid he was going die, the fear was pervasive. After seeing his colleagues and friends fall to the rampaging energy cascades, or engulfed in flooded chambers, it was reasonable to assume what was fated for him. Safety mechanisms had kicked in, neutralizing the electrified plasma in the conduits powering their consoles, holding back the pressures, keeping atmosphere in the right place. He breathed, daring to hope he was unharmed, rapturous with joy when he felt confident he was whole.

Survivor's guilt only occurs far after the fact; the truth is, you are so happy to be alive when death is so certain, there is nothing else but pure joy.

=*= Marux to any station personnel, report in, who is there?!

Reality crushed in as he realized nobody was answering. The Kwhopa people shared much in common with the Axolotl of Earth, albeit able to move on dry land and breathe air. The space was shared by air breathers in a secure lab testing Neutrino based particle physics. Refining heavy metals and producing fissile materials was their funding by the military, and this crisis felt like an attack. There was a scanner in the Operations emergency locker, which Marux ran to and bashed open. A battered plastic sleeve had kept the device safe from harm, it was fortunate. Taking the Tricorder, he scanned the facility around him, finding several bio-signs, some of them weak.

=*=Ayalla… How long was I out?

The computer responded to its name, the sophisticated AI coming online to respond to commands.

“Marux Jann… Administrator, this complex was compromised by a seismic charge forty-one minutes ago. Containment fields are compromised, flooding in substructure is under control presently, but evacuation is recommended.

=*=Send automated distress signal, and tell me status of the material vault.

“Material Vault compromised, secondary containment at 97%.”

That was bad news, indeed. Marux had no power to his consoles but saw there was another console lit across the sudden river bisecting the broad command pit. He had to get whoever was alive out of here, and the raw materials for their experiments were highly toxic. They also had to make sure it didn't leave this Bunker.

“Ayalla, what happened to shields, and how did a depth charge find us inside these caves?”

=*= Remoran coding virus caused a cascading power surge bypassing safeties. Automated drones have infiltrated this far on other occasions. The charge compromised integrity beyond repair. without safeties in place. This facility will not withstand the flooding.

Marux could only remark, “Oh.”

The enemy couldn’t send troops or spies, so they sent a virus and a bomb. With the high level energies at play, it was as good a method as any.

The large room was split in the middle, forty decks beneath them of machines and people who were doomed to drown as the pumps failed. He could only save what he could see, he realized, and let the others out of his mind. He had to get the live ones to the shuttle, not far, but the river dividing the room in two meant he had to carry them. While struggling with the water and moving bodies, he felt the certainty of doom increasing with every lurch the facility experienced. As a being accustomed to moving in water, the lifting was for the land locked.

He grew tired after the fourth hoisted meatbag, nearly losing the man to the current flowing out of the lab into a fissure created to who knows where else in the lab. Of the four he had with him, a Human in a Starfleet uniform represented the best answer to help, and worth the time to resuscitate. On the metal banks of the small river, he scanned the man.

“Golhora, Please bring me help in this hour.” It was a prayer he sent to a god he didn’t believe in. Curious actions like this were food for thought, but right now the matter at hand compelled his focus.

The tricorder showed inflammation along the brain stem at C2. Treatment was electrical stimulation but they were soaked, an alternate recommendation was injected Milli-bots to re-align the blood flow properly. Marux selected that one, not realizing how painful it was for the patient. It was option number two for a reason, and a medic would have provided anesthetic in advance.

Lieutenant Reynolds sat up in a dash, “Oh shhhii…. Oh, no no.” Bewildered and in agony, he clasped his temples and rubbed his neck. The Human had dark skin, smooth complexion and tight muscles under tailored uniform, Marux observed, a vast difference to his own biology. This was a vacation for most Starfleet, duty in such a highly secure place was not supposed to have such drama. Guard duty in an underwater physics lab deep under an Ocean was supposed to be an escape.

Marux wished there was time for the man to get his bearings, but they had to act quickly. “Starfleet, we lost containment at the core, and toxic waste is spewing. I’ve sent a distress call, and the core isn't responding to shutdowns. We have to get out of here!”

Reynolds heard half of it through the fog of a migraine. What came through was the need to get out of there, but his vision swirled and he retched several times.

“I’m… my head is killing me, Marux, what happened to me?”

“You were injured in the explosion, but we must get out of here now or we will most certainly die, volatile materials are spilling into the water!.”

Reynolds looked at Marux with confusion, since Marux was a member of the Kwhorma, whose bogs tied together to all the oceans and seas. Shouldn't they do something? He had a brain injury, but those were hard to self-diagnose. He asked himself the basics, Stardate, name/rank. He smiled and articulated his fingertips against his thumb, reasonably certain he wasn’t in danger of immediate issues.

“Ok, we need to assess the situation, how soon 'til we are exposed to poisonous materials?”

“Any moment.”

Reynolds stood up, imperative was a part of his awareness now, “Life signs? How many?”

Marux handed the tricorder, “Fifteen here, pockets of dozens scattered others throughout the complex. I can’t be certain, maybe three hundred, not so many in all. As the toxicity in the local water rises, what is flowing through our broken corridors will be deadly. We cannot rescue them!”

Reynolds remembered the layout of the laboratory fairly well, “No, we can. My ship, the Tigris, is an Deep Space Flyer, meant for Suns, Jovians and Solar storms.” He pointed to the graphic on the wall of the station, where the shuttlebay was. “We can start there, get the rest by transporter. Will suits protect us? What's the material?”

Marux burbled impatiently, “Borastosilicate in liquid Gaspene suspension. It denatures organic molecules, and crystallizes in open air at high quantities. Suits will have a problem with the liquid crystal forming solid patterns and bonding to the suit materials. They would crack into pieces in minutes, ship hulls lose integrity… we have to leave now!”

Reynolds shook his head and grasped it in agony, forgetting the concussion he had. “No, we can evacuate the residents, but I’m staying to staunch the flow-”

Marux screamed, but it lacked true volume given his lack of lengthy vocal cords. The emotion came across well enough, “The dam wall is cracked, containment has already failed, we waste time arguing!”

Hating that the fish-man was right, Aldous Reynolds took the moment to look at the ruined command center. Systems bailing water would keep the place from flooding for now, but then if the water was damaging and poisonous that was no good. They had to leave. They had to let this happen and clean up the mess afterwards.

"Aldous Reynolds to Tigris, site to site transport for all life signs in vicinity."

=*= 213 Life Signs are outside of recommended parameters, beginning transport on 68 acceptable targets. Warning, Life Support for Tigris can only accommodate sixty people for one day maximum. Present targets will reduce functions to ---

Reynolds yelled at the station AI, "Retask to mapping spread of contaminants update to whatever Starfleet sends us! Notify system authorities of planet wide risk. Long range show anyone inbound?"

Ayalla scanned, =*=Negative insofar as my range can detect initially, however a response to our distress signal has just been received, on audio.

Captain Noelia Silva Del Rio of Pasteur came in strong, a voice of command cutting past any interference by authority alone.

=^=Captain Noelia Silva Del Rio of the USS Pasteur dispatched, we are a hospital ship and must await our escort before entering the system. We are here in response to reports of a catastrophic leak in the oceans of your world which will render the water poisonous in days. Prepare for mass evacuation from affected zones. System governors, please make ready for full cooperation with Starfleet efforts to affected areas, preparing to dispatch relief teams.

As if to back up Pasteur with the threat of type XI phasers, USS Galaxy followed up.

=^=All combatants within vicinity of Kwhopa, cease conflicts and prepare for martial control to be handled by USS Galaxy. Any hostile actions against a member of Starfleet or anyone in their charge will be be answered most assuredly. We will do all in our power to save your world, but we must first save you.

Next, present time ....

 

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