The Evacuation (part 4)

Posted on Fri Aug 12th, 2016 @ 3:44pm by Captain T'mpest Michaels & Commander Rylie Cattmor & Ensign Kanali Paxton

979 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: A Civil Act
Location: The Undercity

[CONTINUED]

[OLD]

"Others will come?" one of the voices asked.

"Others will come." T'mpest assured the voice again, keeping her mental tone neutral.



[NEW]

The AIs did not show her images on the computer screen of what happened. Instead, they used a mental gestalt and gave her the information she requested. After a number of people around the secondary cavern died, the others, who had been trapped underground for a century because of a force field surrounding the city, dug a small tunnel sideways until they were away from the force field and then up to the surface. One group left, then, when they did not return, another joined them. Slowly others followed. But none returned.

"What about the elevator?" T'mpest asked, for Orin's sake.

"The elevator was designed to send people down, not to take them back to the surface. There is a barrier that keeps us from accessing the controls."

She still wondered why no one had tried to cut through the walls to the elevator, but maybe they'd tried and failed. At least she now knew where the exit had been, if Ensign Paxton was not successful with her attempt. "Thank you," she said, making sure she had everything she needed. She paused at the door and turned, taking a moment to send information about her and the Federation to the three AIs. "So you will understand." With slow steps, she turned and headed back to the others.

[Elsewhere in the Cavern]

Kali looked around the at the perimeter of the cavern and felt a bit sick to her stomach. She knew that her theory was sound- she’d been taking rock samples and observing the high content of volcanic rock, and seeing how the break patterns had been so similar to flinty stone she worked with when flint-knapping. She knew therefore that a relatively small strike at the right spot could shatter the stone around it, especially after it had spent decades, even centuries of being eroded on the outside of the forcefield, while the forcefield protected the interior section of stone; the uneven, unnatural patterns created could easily be exploited to create a hole large enough for a person to get through.

In theory of course. And of course, theory and practice were always equal... in theory.

She found herself playing with her hair nervously and casting a glance at Commander Cattmor tried to sound confident as she invited the older woman to come with her and help search for a suitable shaft reaching towards the surface.

Cattmor had watched T'mpest leave the group and noted the various thoughts and feelings of those that remained. It was unsettling, even a little nauseating what she picked up, as most in the away team didn't seem to know where to go, or what to do. T'mpest had some form of link to the AI's on the surface, with seemingly no-one else, including herself, being susceptible to the 'voices'; and so people were unsure how to take the Captain's word. Instead they found themselves almost milling around, not doing much of anything. Not that Cattmor could really blame them, she didn't quite know how far to trust the captain down here herself. Rylie acknowledged Paxton's invitation to follow her though, sifting through the myriad of thoughts to find Kali's well-practiced confidence look was a far cry from her actual thoughts on the situation. She contemplated trying to send a reassurance privately Kali's way, but decided that might make matters worse.

After a few false alarms, shafts that narrowed too much for anyone to get close to the forcefield and some that didn’t show enough erosion outside the forcefield, Kali finally found what looked like what she was looking for. "Commander Cattmor?" she asked uncertainly. "I think- I mean this looks-" She shook her head and started again, with a more declarative sentence structure. "This shaft has the qualities I’ve been looking for. I need to make some calculations, but even then I'll need something to create the small explosion. Are you armed? Or can you get me one of the weapons the security personnel are carrying?" She highly doubted that Commander ch’Valri would give a weapon to her- not after the way he'd sneered at her and her idea. But Commander Cattmor outranked him; maybe she would order him to give her a phaser.

"Relax Kali," Rylie smiled faintly in an attempt to help the young woman calm down. "We have a limited supply of phasers to overload," she said as she detached her phaser from her duty belt and handed it over, "and I'd feel a lot better if you were in a frame of mind to get this right first time."

Settling down to and leaning against the stone, Kali pulled out her tricorder and took a more detailed scan. While that analyzed the exact structure of the stone in this shaft, she got as close to the forcefield as she could and peered out at the signs of wear outside. This shaft must have been facing in the windward, and thus rainward, direction. It showed much more sign of erosion and wear than the others she'd looked at. Rain had flowed down this shaft before evaporating and trickling off. Wind had gusted right down to the forcefield, carrying tiny particles that relentlessly battered the unprotected stone outside the forcefield. These natural forces seemed small, insignificant, weak. But these were the forces that wore mountains down to nothing- carved canyons through solid rock- it might take millennia, of course, but to a geologist time was rather relative, and they knew that these 'insignificant' forces were in fact the strongest and most relentless forces of nature.

(To be continued...)

Captain T'mpest Michaels
Commanding Officer

Ensign Kanali Paxton
Geologist

Commander Rylie Cattmor
Executive Officer

 

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