Rude Awakening

Posted on Tue Nov 15th, 2022 @ 10:56am by Lieutenant JG T'Kek [Naxea] & Lieutenant Commander Rin

Mission: Season 6 : Episode 1: Circinus
Location: Deck 16, Rin's quarters
Timeline: MD3 0200 hrs
1049 words - 2.1 OF Standard Post Measure

Rin was having that dream again: she had been in her quarters when the red alert sirens had gone off. Then the ship had started to shutter. And then all hell had broken loose as the Borg transported aboard.

She was getting better at recognizing it as a nightmare and rousing herself from it. She shot straight up out of bed, eyes wide as she forced herself fully to consciousness.

But the sirens kept blaring.

Wake up, Rin, she childed herself. Sometimes she ended up only half awake, knowing she was safe in bed even as the nightmare continued to play out in her head. Now, her fingers clenched around the bedsheets, trying to convince the rest of her mind of reality, of being safely on Elysium, not trapped on the dying London.

The ship thrashed, and Rin found herself on the floor, her head hitting the nightstand as she went down and the jacks in her arm painfully pulled from their connections.

This wasn’t how the dream went. She hadn’t been in bed when the attack had happened. She hadn’t been thrown to the floor.

And damn did her head hurt from that fall.

The pain was a shock to her system. In her dreams, her senses were somewhat muddied. This was unexpected. This was….real.

A light flashed across her bedroom window, almost impossibly bright. And then there was a rending, a screech of metal tearing apart as a gash opened up in the outer bulkhead.

She was going to die. It had an odd finality to it. As a drone, she could survive in space, but she was utterly sure that was not the case now, although she was still a little foggy as to when “now” was.

The air shimmered as emergency forcefields snapped into place.

The alarms kept blaring.

She didn’t bother with a uniform. Dressed in only a tank top and shorts, she practically dove out the door of her quarters.

“Computer, seal door!”

The hall was bathed in red emergency lighting. Where was she supposed to go now?

She turned left, heading for the armory, then stopped. That was the direction to those on the Elysium. But if this was the Elysium…

She wasn’t asleep.

But the alarms kept ringing.

Dressed in his uniform from working the night shift abit partly singed from a recent exploding control panel, T'Kek jogged down the corridor. He had been on a visitation call to a couple whose toddler had a high fever. Now, it seemed the ship was tearing itself apart. He had managed to avoid any major injury from the exploding console as he was not in it's direct path when it did so.

Rounding the corner, he spotted a woman standing in the middle of the corridor dressed as if she had been asleep and was bleeding. Seeing the Borg implants, she now recognized the woman, having worked with her on Away Missions and seen her about the ship and a few times in Sickbay. Her name was Tin...no. Rin...that was it. "Rin?" he called out to her but didn't get a response. "Rin!" he yelled this time. "Are you alright?" he asked, stopping his jog to step in front of her.

Rin's attention swung his direction as the ship rocked again, dropping her to a knee. As she got back to her feet, she said, "I'm awake, right? This is really happening? What's going on?"

"Yes, you appear awake, however I do not know what is going on other that the ship appears to be heavily damaged. He spotted the injury to her head. "Come on, we need to move more toward the inner part of the ship as I noticed several hull breeches on my way here. Luckily, he had his field medical kit with him as he stuck his hand into it, and withdrawing a medical tricorder, to take a quick scan on Rin's injury.

"Computer, status update of ship," Rin ordered.

The computer dutifully repeated its litany of hull breaches and other catastrophic events.

She nodded in agreement with T'kek about moving further into the ship. Meanwhile, she also reached out to Ebi through their interface.

<--I'm here. What's going on?-->

<--Get yourself to an evacuation point. Now.-->

<--We haven't gotten the call yet.-->

<--This ship is dying. Get ready to move.-->

<--Understood. Be sa.....-->

And that was it. It wasn't just silence; that comforting presence nestled quietly in the back of her brain was suddenly...gone.

Rin's eyes glazed over for a long moment as she tried to re-establish the link, even though she was pretty sure she wouldn't.

One hand came up to her mouth to stifle all the feelings that suddenly welled up from inside. Tears ran down her face.

"Rin, we need to move, now, alright?" T'Kek stated as the ship shuddered again. He could tell the woman was hurting but they had to worry about getting to safety first before they could address any injuries or issues.

Rin took a breath, then another, a momentary pause to get herself righted physically and mentally. "Yes, alright. I'm right behind you."

T'Kek gave Rin's shoulder a reassuring squeeze as he led the way down the corridor. There was a maintenance shop on this deck and could provide a safe place for them until they could recuperate. Suddenly a bulkhead blew off from an exploding plasma relay that narrowly missed T'Kek and slammed into the bulkhead next to him, luckily ricocheting away from him. Now a plasma fire blocked their way. They would have to go around.

"We need to make sure all of these quarters are empty, that no one is injured and left behind. Computer, indicate all occupied habitable quarters in this section," Rin requested.

"There are no occupied habitable questers in this section," the computer replied.

"I'm not going to dwell upon whether that's a good thing or a bad thing," Rin stated. She had, after all, qualified her request with 'habitable.' She had no idea how far the hull breach stretched or how many there might be. "Let's keep moving."

"Agreed," T'Kek replied before moving down a side corridor with Rin in tow.

 

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