Round 18 LtCmdr Rahman & Lt. Chaun: Falling Away

[Kotir Arith]

((OOC: This is a two part sim, which I combined into one for the competition. It is written by the USS Mercury's PC Lt.Cmdr Roshanara Rahaman... part two is her PNPC Lt. Dre'lith Chaun.))

((Shuttlecraft Valentina Tereshkova, deep within the volcano on 83 Leonis II))

::The shuttle buckled around Roshanara Rahman as she lay against the [...]pit window. The alarms now had turned into background murmurs, and her vision was cloudy. An unsightly cranial contusion had formed from the impact her head had made against the overturned shuttle's hull minutes earlier.::

::Sharp static cackled over the comm, but whether it was from the captain's away team or the Mercury, she couldn't tell. Part of her just wanted to close her eyes and fall asleep. However, she knew if she stayed here, she would die.::

::With a groan, she propped herself up to sit back against the ceiling of the shuttle. Squinting her eyes, she could see the console controls still lit up. The navigational display continued to track the shuttle's movement as it drifted farther out from the center of the volcano and deeper into the surface. She grabbed the edge of the console and pulled herself towards the controls.::

::From the navigational display, she saw that the shuttle was trapped within the tunnel of lava, and it looked as if the shuttle would only continue to sink below the rock. She tapped a few commands into the console to power the engines. The thrusters fired with a sputter before exhaling a final breath. She punched at the panel again, but the thrusters remained dormant.::

::With one hand still grasping the edge of the console to keep her balance in the rocking shuttle, she held her head in the other hand, massaging her injury.::

RAHMAN: oO All right, what's still left... Oo

::She looked over the systems status display, turning her head sideways to read the tiny report.::

::Engines: offline. Transporter systems: offline. Main power: failing. Shields: failing. Weapons systems: inactive. Communications: offline. Life support: fail-::

RAHMAN: oO Weapons systems! Oo

::She tried to hold her aim steady against the shaking console as she adjusted the energy levels, diverting the remaining power to the shuttle's phasers. It wouldn't be at full power, but it just might be enough.::

::She tilted her head up and looked at the other chair and console of the copilot, now hanging above her. She bit her lip in frustration. The tactical controls were out of reach from where she sat. She strained as she pulled herself up using the other pilot chair. Despite the piercing pain that shot through her, she reached her arm out to activate the targeting sensors. Fortunately, they were defaulted to aim straight forward. That's all she needed.::

::She set the duration of fire for a continuous beam. With one final press, she fired the shuttle's phasers and watched for a brief moment as they pierced through the rock ahead, causing some of the lava to follow through into the new passageway. The shuttle lurched back violently as it shifted direction with the lava, causing Roshanara to fall back down once again against the [...]pit window.::

::This time, though, she was looking up at the portside window. She saw the dark rock of the volcano drifting by quickly. She tried to stay awake, but she felt so tired now. She just needed to rest, if only for a minute.::

::As she closed her eyes and drifted away, she could have sworn it looked as if suddenly the rock had turned to sky.::

((Bridge, USS Mercury))

::The antennae on Lt. Dre'lith Chaun twitched. He didn't like this situation one bit, and if it were up to him, he'd have beamed up the stubborn chief engineer immediately once she reported damage to the shuttle, but then again, it wasn't up to him. That much was clear as she closed the channel, leaving him to sigh as he sat feeling rather ineffectual in the Mercury's captain's chair. Perhaps someone was enjoying the delicious irony of it all.::

::A few minutes later, though, sensor alarms began ringing. Ensign Cardosa looked over the scans from the science station.::

CARDOSA: Sir, the volcano's eruption has intensified. It is proceeding to the next stage.

::Dre'lith's eyes went wide, but before the Andorian could reply, a dire call came in from the captain.::

KELLS: =/\= Kells to the bridge. =/\=

CHAUN: =/\= Lt. Chaun here, sir. =/\=

KELLS: =/\= Lieutenant, lock onto Commander Rahman's signal and beam her out immediately.

CHAUN: =/\= Aye! =/\=

::He relayed the command to the transporter room, but Crewman Leana couldn't get a lock. He looked over at Ensign Tivall at the engineering station, but the Vulcan woman simply shook her head.::

TIVALL: Given the current dynamic location of the shuttle and the geological disturbance currently on the surface, we are unable to secure a proper lock on the commander.

::He looked back at her incredulously.::

CHAUN: That's it? You don't have any suggestions, ensign?

TIVALL: It is an unfortunate set of circumstances.

::It was said with the usual Vulcan dryness that had annoyed Dre'lith during the time he had served on the USS T'Plana-Hath with its nearly all-Vulcan crew complement. The woman was talking about her department head's imminent death as casually as if she were describing a bit of rainfall during a game of springball.::

CHAUN: Not good enough, ensign.

::His antennae twitched again as he thought out loud.::

CHAUN: You say we can't lock onto the commander. Fine... but what about the shuttle itself?

::The engineer looked over the scans of the planet surface.::

TIVALL: The Tereshkova's positional readings are still inadequately faint, lieutenant. If it were free from the volcano-

CHAUN: (annoyed) Then we wouldn't be having this conversation.

::That caused the Vulcan to twitch.::

TIVALL: Indeed, sir.

::Just then, the turbolift doors opened. Dre'lith turned to get a quick glance at the new arrivals but his focus soon returned to the viewscreen. He wasn't about to abandon the stubborn Trill--or rather, Kriosian, he had later learned--just yet.::

CAPRONNE: Trouble, Lieutenant? What's going on?

CHAUN: The volcano has proceeded to the next stage of the eruption, sir... with our chief engineer still inside it.

::Dre'lith saw that the other new arrival, an Andorian commander, was sizing him up, but he didn't care. He'd deal with him another time.::

::Just then, Tivall sounded called out to the three men gathered in the center. Her voice was unusually animated for a Vulcan, which is to say she sounded almost alive.::

TIVALL: Sir, we have a positive lock on the shuttle.

::The Andorian lieutenant wanted to throttle her. Why was she even waiting for an order?::

CHAUN: Then beam it up now!

TIVALL: Already in progress, sir. (beat) It's done. The Tereshkova is aboard.

::Dre'lith let out a sigh of relief. Apparently, the ensign wasn't as dense as he had feared.::

CHAUN: Good work, ensign. Inform sickbay and beam the commander directly there.

::As Tivall nodded and set to work, Capronne turned to the other Andorian, seemingly pleased with what he had just witnessed.::

CAPRONNE: Well, there you go, Commander: If Lieutenant Commander Rahman is well enough after beamout, then she was just on the planet's surface and was with the captain, so she should have much more information about the situation down there.

::The unknown commander simply walked away, as Dre'lith expected, and after a conversation with the ambassador, the bridge was now occupied by the returning senior staff. The Andorian pilot excused himself and returned to the shuttlebay, taking the scenic route by way of sickbay.::

Lt Cmdr Rahman

Cheif Engineer

USS Mercury

& her PNPC

Lt. Dre'lith Chaun

Helmsman & Pilot

USS Mercury

[Kotir Arith]

((I think I made the title name too long, I don't know how to fix that. It was meant to be: Lt. Cmdr Roshanara Rahman & Lt. Dre'lith Chaun: Falling Away/Help from Above))