One Too Many Lost

Posted on Fri Feb 4th, 2022 @ 1:13pm by Ensign Alexandra 'Lexi' O'Connery & Petty Officer, 3rd Class Callistus 'CJ' Jackson & Commander William Gerhard & Ensign Michael Sloan & Chief Petty Officer Manishie Karalo

Mission: Mission 5 - Babel
Location: Unknown Planet
Timeline: Day 275 10:00
3856 words - 7.7 OF Standard Post Measure

Practically an archaeological dig and trying to discover some type of long lost language was Lexi’s dream day and no one could take that away from her as she sat on the floor in the dirt looking at the string of images in front her. It was the second landing on the tower so she was perfectly suited to look down and look up to see the start of the strange twilight period starting which meant that she would need the lights turning. She carried on scanning and looking at the data until she realised the twilight period was fully started.

“Hey… could you flick that switch down there? It will turn on the lights.” She called as she heard footsteps. She carried on for a few long moments as she heard footsteps but it was hard to work out if they were coming from above or below now, she thought on it. With a big sigh, she realised she was going to have to put them on herself if she wanted to continue to work. She took the first couple of steps fine but the fourth step crumbled underneath her as she put weight on it like she had many times before and she found herself soon tumbling and landing at the bottom of the stairs unconscious in the semi-darkness.

William stood outside a distance away from the tower entrance as he watched the light start to fade. He was waiting for the next shuttle pod to arrive which would carry him back to the ship. He glanced over at Chief Karalo who was waiting with him. "So Chief, looking forward to getting back to the Atlantis," he asked.

"I was actually quite enjoying the sunshine, sir." Manishie looked down at the ground a bit. She was never much of an outdoors person, but even she had to admit that being cooped up in the ship wasn't all that either. At some point, you had seen all the corridors and spoken to most of your crewmates. "Eager to get underway again, though."

There was a sound from the entrance of the tower and those around turned to look at it. William heard it as well, and he looked over at those around him, "Anyone else hear that? Sounded like one of those stairs just gave way."

"We go check? There would have been people inside." CJ commented as she looked at everyone standing there straining to hear. He had been taking a handover from everyone that had been on the surface all day.

William nodded in response, "Better safe than sorry I say. If the stairs are unsound we may need to keep the science teams out until the engineers can rig up some bracing." He turned and started his way towards the entrance before motioning those to follow him.

With the light just changing it made every shadow seem like nothing spooky as CJ was relieved that he had a flashlight with himself as they reached the tower and saw the dust in the air. It was not too bad but it made everything worse like there was a fog in the air. "Spooky." The man said seeing that none of the lights had been hooked up in the tower to allow everyone to work with the strange day length were on. "Is the lights still working?" He asked shining the torch through the darkness.

William pulled his own flashlight from his pocket and switched it on. He pointed it in the direction of the power pack for the portable lights. "More than likely the power pack is out of charge," he said as he made his way over and knelt next to it. "Was anyone supposed to be working in here," he asked to anyone who might know as he examined the portable power pack.

“Communication has been working in here all through it.” CJ commented as he moved towards the stairs that had been there the last time he had been there.

“You all okay down there?” A voice called from above. It was the Captain who had been coming down the stairs with the Chief Medical Officer. They both stood looking down with their own flashlight having been trying to work out how to get down.

"We heard a crash outside and came to see if you were ok in here," William replied as he started up the power pack which illuminated some but not all of the area. "Does anyone know if there were people down here," he asked as he swept his light around.

”I passed two on my way up.” Beth admitted inpatient to get down as she flicked her light around trying to get an idea of what was happening.

CJ looked up as the Captain flicked her light about and spotted something that did not look right - red against the sand that seemed to be inside the tower. “There is blood down here.” He realised not able to see who it belonged to.

At the call out of blood Avira immediately grabbed at her hip for the med pack she usually carried, only to realise she had set it aside before joining the festivities. "We need rope and a harness," she looked up to spot the person nearest to the exit, "Miss Walker, please retrieve a medical scanner and first aid kit as well."

"I'll come with you," Manishie immediately offered, she'd hung out with Avira on the planet and knew what her personal kit looked like."

Maddison nodded as she rushed to grab the necessary supplies from the camp.

"Ensign Sloan, Lieutenant Gerhard, get a rope that can support two people, and a stretcher." Avira narrowed her eyes to try and focus through the light buzz she had been developing from the moonshine going around. This was the worst time to be inebriated.

"On it," Michael replied, glancing toward William. Motioning with his flashlight toward the small work area they had passed, Michael said, "I saw an equipment pack just over there. The crew would have been required to bring in most of what we need."

William felt his heart begin to quicken after the call of blood. He hurried back over to the area of the power pack and grabbed two equipment packs from the ground. He tossed one to Michael and kept one for himself. "Looks like there was more than one person working down here with these two pack," he said as he made his way over to where the group was converging.

“Petty Officer can you see about getting more light!” Beth called trying to track back where the blood was coming from but the dust was too thick to see clearly. The man disappeared off and quickly managed to turn on the lighting in the tower that remained, giving the team a stark view of what had happened.

"Jesus," William said as he saw the large pile of debris. Since the staircase and tower itself was made out of material they were not familiar with, he could only imagine what kind of damage may have been done to anyone who was caught in the collapse. As he watched, one thought popped into his head and he felt his heart begin to race with worry. "Lexi," he whispered softly to himself where no one could hear him.

After three minutes, Maddison returned with the necessary equipment. "What's the situation?" she asked, dropping the gear on the ground by the broken stairway.

"Not much changed but there is definitely someone under there," CJ commented as he took the rope from the equipment pile and tossed it up to the pair on the broken stairwell. Beth moved and secured it to the only thing available which was the metal stair bannister and tied it and then tied it again before securing the rope around her with the harness. She felt a moment of relief that someone had obviously gone rock climbing recently.

"I have to go first to check it is safe. We need your skills more than leadership if it's not as secure as I hope." Beth said gently as she could see Avira was reaching to get down.

Avira couldn't protest before the Commander had buckled up and made her way to the edge. She knew it was pointless to debate her on this. If there were people down there then it was more important to get someone down there fast, it didn't have to be her. The antennae on her head arced stiffly towards the woman, she could stay professional but the two blue things on her head always spoke truthfully and loudly.

Beth offered a nodded and started to inch her way down the wall looking down to see everyone watching. "Get on. Start moving stuff to get to people." Beth ordered annoyed that they were checking on her instead of moving rock and stuff to get the owner of the blood out. Beth already had a sinking feeling on at least one of them who was under there as she had not seen either the comms operator or the science chief who she had on her way up. Once on the floor, she threw the rope and harness back up and secured it from the floor so the woman could get down quicker if she wanted to. "Go on petty officer. I have this." She instructed the brig officer who had been securing the lines.

Uncovering someone buried underneath debris was always a painstaking process. You had to move quickly yet efficiently as to not cause a shift in the rubble that could kill the trapped person if they weren't already dead. Dust covered Maddison's hands and parts of her uniform as she managed to move aside a large chunk of debris, catching the bit of blue on a blue Starfleet uniform indicating either Communications, Medical or Science. "Shit," she muttered. She hoped it wasn't the communications chief--they woman was too young to die, especially like this. "We're getting close!"

"How many can you see down there," William called down and waited for a response. If there were more people down there, they may need more equipment to get them out. He looked over to Michael, "Call up to the ship and have them send down some more confined space rescue equipment. There was a shuttle schedule to be heading this way anyhow." William knew that there was some equipment aboard ship that they had specifically for instances like this.

Beth felt sick as she saw the familiar blue tinted uniform. No matter who was under there it was not good, science and communication were very much under staffed already. “Jackson move that piece with Walker.” Beth prompted as he was closer. She watched as the debris was moved to reveal Elegy Nascimento.

"Doc!" We have Ensign Nascimento!" Maddison called out.

Avira had been fussing with the ropes and harness to get herself down there for far too long and only just unbound herself when she heard the call about Ensign Nascimento. She headed for the sound of Maddison and knelt down next to the science officer. "Shine a light here." She indicated the place with her own flashlight before grabbing the medical scanner from her pack.

Beth grabbed up the science chief's scanner and started to use it to look for bio signal. “I need a list of who is not accounted for.” She yelled as her own communicator started to beep. “Leroux.” Beth stated simply.

"Atlantis to Captain Leroux. Captain, we've detected a collapse at your location. What's the status of everyone?" came Leyton's voice.

“We have one confirmed casualty in Ensign Nascimento. I need to know if there is anyone missing from up there from the list that is being sent up to you.” Beth said as the crewman who had taken the list of people on surface who were now trying to move pieces of the foreign material away.

After a moment, Leyton's worried voice came back over the communicator. "Looks like Ensign O'Connery is unaccounted for, as well as Ensign Nascimento, and Major King. Their last check in was from the tower. We can try the transporter if I move the ship into low geosyncherous orbit over the tower."

“Negative. We are struggling with scanners trying to find bio singles with the materials that the tower is made from it will make transporters useless. Can you get more confined space rescue equipment? Sloan will have asked but I need you to confirm it’s on its way down.” Beth knew the woman would be on it quicker than anything.

"It is. It should be down there within the minute," Leyton confirmed.

“Thank you. I will check-in, one hour, Leroux out.” As Beth disconnected a call with the knowledge that three people were missing from the check of the ship and the 30 people on the surface. - Ensign Elegy Nascimento who had been found and Major Samuel King and Ensign Alexandra O'Connery who had been not. She turned to the group that was digging as the stark knowledge of who was missing was now known, it was hard to not hear the conversation between the Executive Officer and Commanding Officer. "Use your scanners looking for them," Beth said as she turned to join the search with her retrieved scanner. She kept glancing over as Elegy was removed from the tower still alive and breathing giving the people left space to work.

William had made his way down and pulled his own scanner out and set it to look for biosigns. He looked around at the assembled crew to see if anyone knew where the other two were. One of the science team indicated an area that had not been looked over, "I think I saw Major King over there." William looked at the location that was indicated and felt his heart sink. There was a significant amount of debris in that area, and it appeared the bulk of the collapse had landed in that area. He tried to contain the growing sense of dread he felt, especially since he know knew for sure that Lexi had been working here.

"Does anyone know where the other two were working?" Beth demanded hoping to narrow the search down.

"Crewman Donnaly thinks he saw Major King in this area," William called back to the captain as he indicated the area.

“There is a bio signal here,” Beth said taking several steps back.

William made his way over and gently helped move the debris aside. He made his movements deliberately to avoid too much movement which could make the debris shift. He saw a small glimmer of light which he believed may be a buried flashlight. "I think I see something down here," he called out to the others.

A engineer next to him pulled out the flashlight and saw a hand connected to it. “Not something. Someone.” He said working the rubble enough to see that it was Lexi trapped. “It’s O’Connery.” Richardson called trying to take in the injuries that the woman had but he was not a medic.

Avira straightened up from her position over Elegy. He was clearly struggling but he remained stable at this moment. She'd need the ship's medical bay to make sure there wasn't massive internal trauma, or even to treat it if there was. When she heard someone call out another person she immediately made her way over, she squatted down next to the comms officer, "please don't move the rubble until we made they are stable." She ordered and started her examination. "Miss O'Connery, can you hear me? Are you awake?"

“Yes Sir,” Richardson said quickly as he tikka. Step back to be of use elsewhere for a moment. The small blonde did not respond even when Beth yelled something in a harsh language to the woman.

William stopped what he was doing as he saw Lexi being removed from the debris. He took a step back as the sounds around him began fading and were being replaced by the sound of his heart pounding in his ears. He watched as the medics worked to illicit a response from her. Throughout his career, William had always felt like he knew what course of action to take regarding a certain situation. This was the first time he had ever felt so helpless.

“What do you think happened to her?” Richardson asked.

“No idea but looks like she was close to the top when the collapse started. She was not rolled around quite as much.” Beth said hopefully as she saw that there seemed to be only a broken leg and a head wound.

As they set about freeing the woman Petty Officer 3rd Class Lottie Daglish ran over having gotten down on the emergency shuttlepod flight. She carried equipment and a stretcher. “Where do you want me?” She asked Avira glancing over to see the blonde hair covered in blood.

William felt himself being pulled back to reality and made his way over to help bring the stretcher closer to Lexi. He then knelt down with the other medics by her head and reached out to smooth the hair out of her face, but stopped himself as he looked to Avira, "Is she going to be ok?"

Beth looked at the man and finally read the room properly realising who Lexi's secrete had been and what had been mellowing the man out of recent. Everything was now making so much more sense to the Captain as she saw the instinctive movement. Any other time she might have giggled or teased but then and there she felt the same worry for the woman and looked to Avira herself waiting to know.

Avira her antennae perked up, she didn't really have the time or focus to be able to give it more attention. "Miss Daglish, I need you to strap Lieutenant Nascimento to that stretcher. Please be careful, he'll have internal trauma. Commander Leroux, Mister Richardson please help stabilise his spinal cord as the stretcher is put into place." She hoped all of them would remember their basic first responder training.

Beth took a glance down at the woman hesitating for a split second before she looked to where Nascimento was. All three of them nodded and moved off to where the science chief was. Lottie worked diligently to get the man onto the stretch allowing the marines to take him to the waiting shuttlepod. He had not moved an inch thanks to the help of the Captain and Crewman.

Meanwhile Avira had done the preliminary scan of the communications officer under the rubble. She turned to the officer closest to her leaning over Lexi, "Lieutenant Gerhard, I'm going to need your help. There's a compound fracture of the leg, but the rubble is obstructing access. I want to free it carefully," She put up her hand to stop him from moving until she finished speaking, "once we start to move it we are taking pressure off and might cause additional blood loss. There might be a reaction from Ensign O'Connery," She looked at him straight in the eyes to make sure he understood what was asked of him. "Do not stop moving rocks under any circumstance, is that clear Lieutenant?" She leaned in closer and grabbed hold of the biggest piece of debris, ready for him to step up and help out.

William looked at her and took in her words. He understood the gravity of the situation, and he had some experience in first aid. However, for the first time he felt himself worrying that he would freeze up. He told himself to push all those thoughts out of his mind and he nodded, "I understand." He then took his position near Lexi's legs and readied himself to start moving the debris. He looked back at Avira, "I'm ready."

Avira grabbed one of the larger slabs herself and gave a nod to William, "Let's go then." There was no time to waste. The shifting of the rubble immediately had an effect on the Ensign underneath. The pressure it was exerting probably dulled some of the pain, but with that being released it was going to be surging back through her. Even unconscious there was a reaction from the woman.

And the reaction was intense she moved instantly as blood moved back to where it was meant to be. The weight shifted from her allowing everything that had been held and paused to flood back quickly. She mumbled something in pain but the words were lost in the noise.

William saw the reaction from Lexi and fought the urge to move back to her side. Instead, he continued moving the debris around her legs as he grunted with exertion. He felt the medics pulling her from underneath the rubble and waited until the call came that she was clear before he set the large piece of debris back down. As he tried to catch his breath, he coughed a few times from the dust in the air as he looked over at Avira who worked to stabilize Lexi. He stood back and let the medics work as he watched and hoped she would exhibit any signs of life. He felt a light touch on his shoulder and looked over to see the captain looking at him.

He cleared his throat and looked back at the pile of debris as he shown his flashlight around, "We need to...Major King is still unaccounted for. I think we need to call up for some torches so we can start cutting some of this stuff away," William said to Beth as he indicated several large pieces of debris while also sneaking looks back over at where Lexi lay.

Beth glanced back herself worrying about the small blonde. The woman was one of the few bright lights of compassion and brightness on the ship. Beth was not willing to lose another morale officer. It would only feed that it was cursed. “It is already on its way down. I did not realise you and her…” The Captain said gently.

William nodded to the captain in acknowledgement. "We tried to keep it a secret for sometime, though we had both come to realize at some point word would get out," he said as his words trailed off. He then heard a cry from another crewman working on the debris pile, and made his way over to see what was going on.

"I think we found Major King," Crewman Donnaly said, though his tone sounded grim. William helped clear some of the debris to reveal the major lying unmoving. William took a proffered first aid scanner, but the readings indicated his neck had been broken. William looked up at the captain and grimly shook his head.

Beth gave him a pained look but nodded. “Get him out and we will take him back to the ship.” She said softly as she saw Lexi and Elegy both being taken to the ship.

How had things gone so wrong in so little time??