Assess and Ascend
Posted on 14 Sep 2024 @ 7:07pm by Lieutenant Liala Ziyal
774 words; about a 4 minute read
Mission:
Stranded
Location: Science Lab 3, Deck 6, USS Cygnus
Timeline: Shortly After "Bridge Woes"
A distress signal. A damaged Orion ship. A dead survivor, or is that an oxymoron?
Liala had been performing an experiment in Science Lab 3 on deck 6 when the Cygnus shook with such ferocity things had gone dark rather quickly for her. The experiment no longer a priority, realistically she was just doing calculations on if she could safely refine the isolenium on board the Bilifix so it wasn’t anything dangerous. Just projections and waiting.
She awoke, her eyes stinging a little as they tried to adjust to the emergency lighting of the room. A sharp intake of breath as she felt a stinging sensation on her head, a touch revealing blood just under her hairline. Some of it had dried but it was a pretty deep laceration from what she could tell by how it felt. Having no idea how long she had been unconscious for, she tried to move and felt a weight on her leg. Sighing heavily Liala groaned and muttered in El Aurian as she pushed the fallen bulkhead casing off her leg. Again a laceration, and moving the casing had cut her more, but she wasn’t going to let that stop her from finding out what was going on.
Were they under attack? Did the Orions turn up and think we’d attacked their freighter and this was a return strike?
Rising to her feet Liala winced a little as she put pressure on her leg. She could stand but it was uncomfortable, and the feeling of blood running down her leg was unsettling. Ripping off the arm of her uniform she made a makeshift bandage and wrapped it around her leg to stem the bleeding, stop infection and make her leg feel more ‘secure’.
Squinting towards the door she could see that the roof had caved in and blocked her exit. “At least there’s not a hull breach.” Liala muttered as she began to survey the room for an alternate route. She could try and move the fallen debris but she knew she wouldn’t be strong enough and logically that may cause more damage to her surroundings, i.e. cause a further collapse. Liala was always taught to step back and look at a problem, think it through, and find a process.
Her hair had become loose and tying it back made more sense given its length. The scrunchie it had been confined in was taken out and then she fixed herself. At least she felt a touch more presentable and her hair wouldn’t get in her face.
Placing a hand on her chest she pressed her comm badge. “=/\=Ziyal to Bridge, please respond.=/\=”, nothing came. “=/\=Ziyal to Sickbay, what’s your status?=/\=”, she asked, but again no reply came. “Guess I’m on my own for now.”
Looking around the destruction was clear but she knew there was a jeffries tube access point at the wall side of the second row of workstations within the science lab. She just had to hope it wasn’t blocked.
Limping over she placed her hand on the edge of the powered down console display and peered around to see the jeffries tube clear of debris. “Thank the Goddess.” she praised as she moved closer to it.
Getting down on her hands and knees, again a small wince as her leg wound flexed, she tapped the side console to notice it had no reaction. No lighting up, no sounds as if it had even been pressed. Shaking her head she scoffed, “You’d think emergency power would keep these running…”. Feeling around for the manual release, like looking for a needle in a haystack in the dark but she managed to find it and get the access panel open. A few cranks and the doors opened and she began to crawl through.
When she reached an intersection she began to climb upwards towards the bridge and hopefully get some answers. Hopefully the captain and bridge crew were alive. There was a feeling in the pit of her stomach that others were not so lucky. Her empathetic skills were in turmoil with the strong emotions flowing through the ship and the vibrations of the ship itself had changed.
The environmental systems, ventilation systems must have also been on the fritz as she felt the climb unusually hot. However, maybe that was due to her injuries mixed with the nature of her bodily exertion.
After a while she reached the bridge and opened a hatch in front of the helm and operations stations at the front of the bridge.
Lieutenant JG Liala Ziyal
Chief Science Officer
USS Cygnus
RSS Feed