Scared as a Cardassian Vole

Posted on 20 Sep 2024 @ 11:09pm by Lieutenant T'Lara Ahmad & Captain Bane Plase

1,212 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Stranded
Location: Main Engineering
Timeline: Current

ON

Blackness.

Timelessness.

Floating.

No, not floating. Laying down.

Pressure.

Weighted blanket? No, he had left that at home before he went to boot camp. What is causing the pressure?

Think.

Deep breath. Open your eyes.

Blackness. Am I blind? Did something happen?

Yes, something did happen.

Think! What was it?

Where am I? Whever I am, its hard. The deck? Deck of what?

Oh, right, the Cygnus. My ship. Just came aboard during her last layover at Deep Space 9.

Mmmm....Dabo Girls. Synthale. Holosuites. Such a good time.

No...focus! What am I laying on? It has to be the deck. My room? No....Main Engineering. I was in Main Engineering. The deck tilted hard. I was thrown into the bulkhead and hit my head hard. Then nothing.

Until now. Blackness.

Why cant I see?

AM I DEAD?!

No....Im thinking. That means I cant be dead, unless those ancient stories are true.

Nah, you're a scientist, you dingdong. An Engineer!

There is no sound, though. Not even the hum of the Warp Core, or the soft hiss of the air regulators.

No, that isn't accurate. I hear talking, rummaging around. A bang. Something moved. A screech.

"....lo," he attempted. It was weak, and didn't sound like himself at all.

He took a deep breath, and pushing with all his might, "..ello? Help!"

It was barely more that conversation level, but that is all he could muster. "Help," he said weakly, almost a wimper.

T'Lara jerked her head to the side reflexively in order to hone in sounds that registered as words. There, again. Yes. "Stay where you are; I will make my way to you." Hands felt across the tools in the 'locker,' quickly selecting the desired items before obtaining finally obtaining a flashlight and the small emergency aid kit.

With the flashlight on, T'Lara was finally able to see. She turned towards the direction the call for help came from. It didn't take long to locate the injured engineer. Dropping to her knees next to the injured officer, she cracked open the first aid case and placed an analyzing device on his neck and waited for it to complete its physiological scan and give prompts for treatment or stabilization. "I require your name...I...I don't remember you."

The light, the blissful, extraordinarily bright light, blinded him from seeing who his rescuer was. The beautiful, agonizingly painful light. He squeezed his eyes shut from the onslaught. "Im...im...." he started, realizing he couldn't quite recall who he was.

Think!

He knew he was on the ship. He knew he had come aboard at the station just a few months ago.

He even knew her name. Lieutenant Ahmad.

He even knew he checked out her backside when he thought nobody was looking.

He was....he was....

"Crewman Xavier Häpeñjaró," he finally said. "Are you ok, too?"

"I...Your name is unfamiliar." T'Lara answered and frowned outright at the admission. Her controls were compromised. "Apologies. Given the blood on my face, disorientation, acute headache, and apparently retrograde amnesia, that I most likely have sustained a severe concussion after striking my forehead." The analyzer chirped an alert to indicate it had completed Crewman Häpeñjaró's body scan.

"I have a splitting headache, too," he said truthfully. "Probably the worst I've ever had. Can I get up?"

T'Lara looked at the readout and squinted her eyes, as the readout was doubled in her vision. She probably needed a sickbay...

"It does not appear that you have any life-threatening injuries...if you are capable, please...we have to attempt to get power back online and determine what has occurred." T'Lara then looked away from the crewman and shone her flashlight through the darkness of main engineering. The place appeared unrecognizable from the damage and the harsh highlight of her light contrasted with the pitch black that threatened to consume everything.

Xavier nodded, feeling better that he wasn't critically injured, then attempted to move. He groaned from the pain that was awash his body. His tongue sticking out, firmly between his teeth, he attempted again, debris cascading off of him. `Ah, there was that pressure,` he thought. He stood slowly, the Lieutenant helping him to his feet. He swayed dangerously, holding his arms straight out from the core of his body for additional balance, finally finding his footing. The pain in his head throbbed stronger, if that were possible. He could almost feel the blood rush from his head.

After a moment, the pain, at least partly, had passed. He looked at her, concern on her face, and steeled himself. "Yes, I am capable. What do you need me to do?"

T'Lara meanwhile had been studying him quite carefully as he stood and attempted to gain his bearings. She observed his grimace of pain, and the attempt adjust his center of gravity to remain upright, and then also...the sudden resolve. T'Lara bowed her head slightly in a decidedly Vulcan manner. It was a complimentary gesture that conveyed understanding and approval of his flexibility to reconcile their current, dire, reality.

Häpeñjaró nodded back, not fully understanding the gesture. "You mentioned needing to get the power back on? Do you have any ideas?" He looked over to where he thought the warp core would be, but could not see beyond the darkness. He remembered the one training event in Starfleet Boot Camp where they were subjected to complete darkness. It was complete, wholly encompassing, and unnerving, even though he knew he was in a training environment. Today, he most decidedly was not in a training environment.

"Get equipment for you...the locker. Impulse reactor, assess and if possible, restart. That should allow us emergency lighting and minimal life support at minimum. Then attempt to find out causation, and attempt to contact the bridge." T'Lara knew what needed to be done but conveying it was proving far more challenging than usual.

Xavier wasn't sure he was hearing her fully. Her speech was broken up a bit. It had to be the headache, maybe concussion, he was suffering from. "Ok, I can do that." He knew enough to be able to be able to kick it back on. Beyond doing any maintenance or repairs to it was probably beyond his scope. His normal job was support engineering, repairing replicators and recalibrating sonic showers. Still, he would do his best. "Uh, what did happen, and where is everyone," suddenly realizing that things were not as they were supposed to be, and the normal hustle and bustle of Main Engineering was, for lack of better word, dead.

The Vulcan woman considered the crewman's inquiries for a moment before answering. "I do not know, crewman, and unless we can get power restored, it will not matter where the rest of the crew is, we will all perish." There it was. Vulcan positivity...truly a sight to behold.

There was nothing more that needed to be said. He nodded in understanding, collected the gear he needed from the locker, pausing briefly to nod to Lieutenant Solmarr, then disappeared into the darkness.

[OFF]

======

Lieutenant T'Lara Ahmad
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Cygnus

&

Crewman Xavier Häpeñjaró
Engineers Mate
USS Cygnus

 

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