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Crisis #01 | Transport Centre

Crisis #01 | Transport Centre [Attn: Ensign Cameron Henshaw]

The land around the valley was rife with stratovolcanoes.  As such erupted, they did so explosively and produced pyroclastic clouds, heavy falls of volcanic ash, and debris flows - lahars - which were fast-flowing avalanches of rocks, trees and boiling mud. Then, when everything would be laid to waste, the lava would pour down upon the valley floor, which would by then be split open by the increasing earthquakes. The occurrence of these volcanic tremors would make the Yeoman's footing unsure. Sharp steam emissions sprouted from the ground, discharge of magmatic gases, killing people in her path. The volcanic tremors seemed to never cease; could last from minutes to days after the actual eruptions had subsided.

After a short while of running towards the Transport Centre, Ensign Henshaw's combadge chirped before emitting a familiar voice in the middle of the nightmare.

[Hawthorne to Henshaw, come in! Are you there, sis?] It was the daughter of Cameron's caretaker, who had become more of a father than her real one ever had the chance to be. [It's Lisa, are you alive? I have been trying to reach you forever. Please, get here quickly so that I can beam you aboard the ship. I am at the Transport Centre with Sarah Mitchell. Fuck, scratch that, we are the only ones still here, and we could really use your help beaming people up. You do remember how to work a Transporter, do you?]

One might just imagine how the two Operations Officers were feverishly locking on to combadges on their displays and contacting the crew members, asking if there were more people close by them that could hitch a ride with that signal and get onboard the Theurgy or the Harbinger. The Transport Centre could be seen by Cameron, it was perhaps hundred yards away: the white, metallic rose of crates for the aborted repairs spread wide around the modular transporter platforms in the middle.

Yet there was another who had spotted the centre as well.

[Oh, no... Sarah! Take cover! Cam, you stay away! Do not go here! I love yo-]

The Reaver had escaped the phasers of the two starships - even evaded the Valkyries launched into the air - and shot past overhead of Cameron, opening fire against the Transport Centre with its pulse cannons. The noise of the enemy attack fighter was deafening, and it flew so low that the wake turbulence might send Cameron flying off her feet. It closed the distance to the platforms in no time at all, and the coughing barrage of energy made crates fly high and wide. Just as quickly as the Reaver had come, it was gone again, lost in the falling ash from the mountains.

After the fly-by, at some point where she may have regained consciousness or wrapped her mind around what just had happened, Cameron would gain answer from neither her sister nor Sarah Mitchell, no matter how long she tried.

[Thea to Ensign Henshaw,] came the voice from the Ship AI. [We can beam you aboard now. Is there anyone else there with you?]

Would Cameron stay, run to the shot-up Transport Centre to try and save her sister if she was still alive, or would she do as her Captain ordered and get aboard the Theurgy so that she might locate Sarresh Morali? If the Transporter controls were still intact, she might even save countless people, continuing what her sister had been doing. Yet what if her Captain would die in the search for the enigmatic man named Morali?

What if the Reaver returned?

[Ensign Henshaw, come in. Verify your location, or I must move on to locate someone else.]


OOC: The outcome of this decision is 1 of 2 choices that will unlock the last crisis thread, Crisis #10, where either Captain Ives or Thea catches up with Sarresh Morali at the Thermal Springs.

Re: Crisis #01 | Transport Centre

Reply #1 –
She regained consciousness slowly, aware that the world around her had grayed out yet the ground below her battered body continued to heave and churn.  Pushing herself up a thin layer of ash blanketing her fell from her body, revealing the true color of the horrors around her.  Leaning against the side of a storage unit that she had been flung into when the Reaver's wake and thrown her she quickly assessed her injuries.   In her next life she was going to be much less prone to getting tossed about.  Slapping her combadge she started trying desperately to rouse Mitchel or Lisa up on the transport deck as she darted from one ash covered corpse to the next.  None of them had on breathing units and some were badly burned.

The ground rolled almost wavelike forcing her to grab the closest thing to stay upright.  She slapped the combadge again "Dammit Hawthorne answer!" Her voice sounding strangely muffled to her ears damaged by the Reaver attack and subsequent explosions.

Debris from the retaliation had large pieces of rubble strewn thru the camp, crates and modular units as well had been thrown in the various explosions.  She started moving toward the transport center in what SHOULD have been a quick couple minute easy jog through neat rows of equipment staged for timely repairs.  Now, she choked back tears, who knows how long it would take.

[Thea to Ensign Henshaw,] came the voice from the Ship AI. [We can beam you aboard now. Is there anyone else there with you?]

Cam slid to stop in the ash and rubble covered camp and took a deep breath.  Composing herself she stopped. Thea could tell if Mitchell and Lisa were alive and if the equipment was still viable.  After how many attempts to get Lisa it was unlikely... Cam gritted her teeth and was about to reply when Thea addressed her again.

[Ensign Henshaw, come in. Verify your location, or I must move on to locate someone else.]

Exhaling, she touched her combadge, "Henshaw to Thea... The Transport Center took a direct attack.  There may still be people here trying to get onboard from that staging area.  Could you assess if the equipment is still functional and if Mitchell and Hawthorne are alive."  She could be to the Center in another three minutes.  She dropped her hand from the combadge and started running toward the center.   NO!  She had a direct order from Captain Ives.  She had to find Morali and report to Ives.  

She sprinted around a corner and skidded to a halt.  The heaving ground and the various explosions had completely blocked this avenue of access to the transport center.  She would have to double back, wasting precious time.  She grimaced and shook her head.  Pressing the combadge.  "Henshaw to Thea....One to beam up when you are ready."



Re: Crisis #01 | Transport Centre

Reply #2 –
The answer came over the static, and it was not heartening news.

[Given th... gamma radiation that is rising fr... the planet's core, it is growing increasingly har... to make out individua... life-signs, Ensign.] Those were the grim words that made it through the static. [That being sai..., I can detect life-signs in the..., yet I cannot verify identities unless they hav... functioning combadges. Some life-signs are wea..., suggesting injury. I can locate neither of the two Ops personnel, and I have no more available shuttl... to send there, even if survivors are gathering in the ...rea. The Transport platform is damaged... Unknown to which extent. I can tell tha... it is offline. Hopefully, they can help each oth... with a head-count for the transporter locks when Commander Stark establishes communic...tion. ]

The lingering silence from the combadge had a respectful quality in the interim between the answer and the next time the Ensign spoke. It was evident that the A.I. might understand the Ensign's predicament, since the fact that she was related to Lisa Hawthorne was clearly indicated in the personnel files in the database. When the human had made her decision, Thea had little time to offer much consolation whilst she replied.

[Acknowledged, Ensign. I am sorry. There is still hope... so do not give up just yet.]

This day would be remembered in infamy amongst the two crews, and Thea would log all the hurt, pain and sorrow for that dire moment when she next came face to face with her 'daughter' from the future. It was a new feeling to the A.I.

Hate. The word burned clear in her digital mind, channeled through her emotion chip; a disembodied realisation in the main computer core of the USS Theurgy. Her single word to the poor human, however, was soft.

[Energising.]

OOC: The thread will be continued in Crisis #02 | USS Theurgy Bridge at my word, given the fact that the decision of whether or not the Thea hologram is there is pending on First Officer Rez's reply. When Cameron materialises on the Bridge, it will either be Thea in person or her voice through the intercom that assists in locating Sarresh Morali. Optionally, Cameron may also make further enquiries about the Transport Centre over comm when on the Brodge, where the new answers from personnel present on-site may merit a decision to beam back down there.
 
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