Eye of the Storm...

Posted on Sun Nov 13th, 2022 @ 10:54am by Captain Mattias Richardson [Reece] & Avalon [ADMIN NPC] & Miran Lalor [Lalor] HRH & Tristi Richardson

Mission: Season 6 : Episode 1: Circinus
Location: Uss Eysium, Lalor-Richardson Quarters
Timeline: Md3 02h00
1321 words - 2.6 OF Standard Post Measure

PREVIOUSLY...

As Mattias continued to feed and rock Elizabeth, he saw, via a viewscreen showing the outside of the hull, the stars change from stretched, to looking like the ship was taking a nosedive, to slipstream, and back to pinpricks of light, signaling they had dropped to impulse power. Normally, he wouldn't think too much about it, as the Elysium could transit from a standstill, to warp, to slipstream, and back again effortlessly.

What did cause him to notice this time, was how Phee had been pulled away from their bed. While the red alert klaxons weren't ringing yet, he nonetheless started to have a bad feeling.

Looking down, he saw that Elizabeth had finally fell asleep. To be safe, he decided to place her in the same crib as her brother. He knew, in an emergency, the crib was designed to act as a self powered emergency pod, sealing them in and holding them in place with micro-forcefields.

Standing up, he moved to the crib and started to lay her inside.

AND NOW...

As soon as Mattias laid Elizabeth in next to her brother, all he'll broke loose.

The ship was suddenly rocked heavily and then everything started to spin. Mattias had just enough reaction speed to slap the emergency controls, sealing the crib capsule and protecting the twins, before he was tossed about the room. He could hear distant explosions throughout the ship as everything around him kept thrashing about. "Miran, Tristi!" He shouted out as he crawled to the door.

Miran had woken to being tossed onto the floor. Dazed she had groggily pushed herself up only to be knocked down again by the sounds of explosions and the ship doing its best impression of a whirlybird. She heard Mattias and crawled as best she could out of her bedroom into the hall and down towards where his voice was coming from.

Tristi staggered out of her bedroom, blood on her forehead, she looked around dazed and all but fell over Miran as she stepped out. "Sorry."

Miran pulled her to the deck. "Stay low" she said and all but dragged her towards the nursery. They entered it slowly, cautiously.

As soon as he saw them, Mattias looked up and saw a crack forming in the exterior bulkhead at the end of the hall. "GIRLS!!" He reached out and grabbed Tristi first, as she was closer, and hauled her into the nursery, hard. He then turned back and got a grip on Miran, when the hull breached, opening their home to the vacuum of space.

Miran screamed but grabbed onto his arm with both hands. Her eyes were wide and her hair flew around her face.

Mattias grunted loudly in pain, as he felt his shoulder start to dislocated. Through the agony, he refused to let go. In one intense pull, he roared in sheer rage and used everything he had left to pull his sister-in-law inside.

"Ava...Avalon..." he gasped as he started to lose consciousness. "...f...force....fields...."

The forcefields were already slamming into place and with them the oxygen returned and they slammed to the deck.

Miran managed to crawl to Mattias's side "Matt?"

Mattias was banged up and his right shoulder seemed at an odd angle to his body. After a few beats, he groaned softly. Then his eyes flashed open. "GIRLS, WILLIAM!!" He started to sit up, but his dislocated shoulder slowed his movement.

"We are safe," Miran said softly.

Tristi had retrieved the crib and brought it closer. She studied Mattias. "Miran, take the twins, Matt, hold still." She knelt and gripped his shoulder. "Breathe, this is going to hurt." She knew how to do things like this from her life on the streets.

Seeing what Tristi was about to do, Mattias took a few steadying breaths, then nodded.

Without further warning Tristi put his shoulder back into place. She then rocked back on her heels. "Okay so... now what?"

Miran looked around. "Tube entrance is there." She pointed at the floor. "But it goes down."

To his credit, Mattias took the pain of resetting his shoulder without shouting. After a few deep breaths to calm down, he got up and checked on the twins.

Thankful that the crib capsule was performing as designed, he sighed with relied as he saw that both Elizabeth and William were sleeping peacefully. He placed a hand on top of the transparent aluminum shell as he looked over at Miran and Tristi. "Before we leave the relative safety of the nursery, we need more facts." He looked up and called out. "Avalon? Are you still online?"

Miran nodded. "We also need the Evacuation packs."

Avalon did not reply to Mattias.

"Avalon..." he called out again as he got back to his feet. "Computer, open a channel to the bridge."

"Unable to do so." the AI replied eventually.

Miran meanwhile had stood up and was looking around the nursery. "ok so the force field is up on the hallway, so we can get to the master bedroom, Phee keeps evacuation bags there."

Tristi looked at Mattias.

"Okay," he started. "But we stay together, no matter what. Understand?"

The two girls nodded.

Mattias nodded. "I'll take the lead, Tristi, you help Miran guide the twins through while I hold the doors open." He moved out into the hallway and moved some debris out of their way, his injured shoulder giving him complaints, but he would not stop until his family was safe.

Miran went first after him, the crib between her and Tristi. "Where does she keep the bags?" Tristi asked.

"Walk in robe, top shelf. Probably has four of them now"

"Four?"

"Yeah one for her and Mattias, one for the twins and two smaller ones for us."

"Does she always have them packed?"

"Since Andromeda, yes"

Once everyone was in the master suite, Mattias closed the door, then turned to Miran and Tristi. "Both of you go get the suits. I'll check on the twins' pod."

Miran led the way and grabbed the bags from the top shelf. She pulled the environmental suits out of each bag and sealed them back up. The twins would be fine. "Here" she said softy to Tristi as she handed her a suit.

Tristi nodded and pulled it on over her PJ's. Phoenix had spent hours going over these things as best she could with Tristi.

Miran pulled her own suit on over her PJs and was glad everything would be voice activated. Then both girls grabbed the bags and headed back to Mattias.

Mattias was glad to see the girls had already donned their suits. He took the bag that Miran handed him and quickly did the same.

Once done, he activated his suit, going on internal power and oxygen. "Go ahead and activate your suits, girls. Then we'll start to figure our way outta this."

Tristi did so and put two bags over her shoulders.

Miran did the same and nodded at Mattias. "We will struggle to get out of here you know."

Mattias nodded slightly. "If the rest of the shop is as damaged as our quarters are, I believe it." He looked around the master suite, then moved to one of the viewport. "Looks like the whole ship busted up pretty good. And, did you notice the odd color to the slipstream tunnel?"

Tristi shook her head "No but I didn't look out the window."

Miran shrugged "Kinda reminded of the time we went to Andromeda."

Looking back at Miran, Mattias spoke. "Okay, Mir, while I've read some of the specs on the Elysium, you've lived here longer. What the quickest, safest way to an emergency shelter?"

"Out the main door and to the left, there is a route via the tubes near the turbolift."

Mattias nodded. "Okay, let's get moving."

The teenagers exchanged looks and nodded. "Lets go"

~OFF~