Loss of Power, pt 2

Posted on Thu Apr 13th, 2023 @ 12:10pm by Lieutenant Commander Rin & Commander Sthilg & Captain David Tonelly [Reece]

Mission: Season 6: Episode 2: Survival
Location: Outside Ice Caves
Timeline: MD2
2807 words - 5.6 OF Standard Post Measure

Last time, on Elysium...

Rin's eyes snapped open.

It was dark and cold, with a wind that threatened to knock her off her feet. There wasn't enough light for Rin to see her hands, but she could feel that they were hers - for the moment at least. They were also half frozen, and she tucked them under her armpits in a desperate attempt to keep them warm.

The snow was coming down hard. She thought she spotted lights off to her left, although she couldn't be sure, and she wasn't at all sure she wanted to see what new nightmare awaited her there.

And then, a presence. A sense in the back of her mind that she wasn't alone. A sense she hadn't felt in weeks.

Ebi.

She heard him chuckle. Not a mocking one, but a genuine chuckle, as if she had just said something amusing.

"I miss you," she said.

"It's OK. I'm safe. I'll see you soon."

"You're not real. I want you to be, but you're not. You're gone. And I'm sorry."

"Don't be sorry. My time on the Elysium was some of the best I've had in years. And I'm not gone. I'm just...lost."

She couldn't see a damn thing in the snow. And she knew she wouldn't. At least nothing real.

You're still in the alcove, she reminded herself. You have to wake up.

Buffeted by the wind, she fell back into the snow, and every part of her that came in contact with it ached from the cold.

And she still could not wake up.


And now.....


David had been taking a patrol shift, along the perimeter of the camp cave entrance, when he caught the sight of a small woman moving out into the snowy wastes that covered the planet. He called out to her to stop, but she either didn't hear him, or couldn't hear him. Either way, he wasn't about to lose any more ship mates, so he started to make his way over to where she had moved past the camp boundary.

Unfortunately, with the storm raging, He was unable to see her with unaided eyes. Sealing his battle armor helmet, he activated heat vision, and started to track her out into the storm.

As painful as it was to be in contact with the snow, Rin spent a long moment just staring upward at stars she could somehow see through the storm. So many places to go, so many places she had been. So much vastness in comparison to one little life stuck in what she thought was an imaginary snowbank.

A light glinted off the flurry of snow in the air, and Rin bolted upright. Something was approaching. Something...hulking and mechanical and, well, she knew what those sorts of silhouettes always turned out to be.

She dragged herself to her feet and ran. She knew it was pointless. They always catch her in this dream. Always. But usually she's on the London. Not in the snow.

She remembered she was on the Ice World, standing in her alcove. The power must still be out. The temperature must be dropping and this was how her brain was translating it, merging the nightmare with what was real.

Ok, the cold is real. Focus on the cold. Wake up, she kept telling herself.

She could hear the thing coming up behind her. She tried to run, but it was getting harder and harder to move in the cold and the snow. Another gust of wind came by then and pitched her back into the snow.

David just started to make out the body hear and shape of the woman, whose body temp was clearly dropping fast, when she seemed to look back at him, then bolted deeper into the storm. "Hey!" He shouted out in surprise. His voice, though amplified by his suit's computer, was still nearly drowned out by the howling winds of the storm. Whomever she was, he knew she wasn't going to last long out here. He picked up his pace. He had to get to her before it was too late.

That's when he saw her fall. "No!" He called out, worried that he was too late!

Now that she wasn't moving, he closed the distance between them quickly. Reaching her, he saw that it was Lieutenant Rin, the ship's Intelligence Chief! "Shit! Rin! Can you hear me?!" He quickly pulled an emergency blanket from one of the small pounches attached to his armor. He made fast work of wrapping her up in it. Then he stood, lifting her up in his arms. "Hang in there, Rin! I'll get ya back to the camp!"

He then turned around and started back, calling ahead that there was a medical emergency.

Rin watched helplessly as sheets of metal wrapped around her before hard, mechanical arms swept her up and started marching off with her. This was, more or less, how it always ended.

In David's arms, she went catatonic. Her eyes were open but unmoving. Tears had frozen to her cheeks. Her mouth occasionally moved, but whatever she might be saying came out so slurred as to be incoherent. Every once in a while one hand thumped weakly against his chest plate.

"It's going to be okay, Lieutenant," David spoke gently to her. "We'll get you warmed back up in no time. You just hang in there for me, okay? You do not have permission to die out here! We've lost too many already." As they walked the storm started to get worse, dropping visibility, even thermal, to zero.

"Damnit!" David cursed under his breath. While some cold weather modifications had been done to his armor, following Sam's excursions, he was still starting to struggle against the elements. He checked his sensors again, getting a bead on the camp, then the suit's sensor went down. Knowing they were running out of time, he pushed through, practically forcing the freezing suit to comply to his movement demands.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, he started to see the outlines of the cave entrance. He was sweating profusely, his muscles screaming in protest of him forcing the suit to move. "Over here!" He shouted, unsure if the external comms on the suit were still even working. He took a few more painful steps, then the suit would go no further.

Rin could no longer feel the cold. She was warm and safe, bundled up in blankets with her husband. They had joined the London just a month ago, and life had been a whirlwind. But this morning they both had off. James had brought them breakfast in bed, and now they just lay curled up together.

And they kissed, long and deep and passionately.

The marriage of Nicola and James Addison was largely a mystery to Rin. She remembered almost none of it, and certainly nothing so intimate. But he had always been a source of comfort and safety, something she innately felt around him, even when he had been a stranger to her.

Something in the back of her mind reminded her this wasn't real, and she didn't care. She no longer wanted to wake up.

In David's arms, Rin's eyes closed as she curled up again him. She murmured something, most of it too slurred to be understood, but he was pretty sure it ended with "I love you."

Shouts came from the cave opening. followed by the pounding of feet through the snow. Hands swept Rin out of David's arms, while others helped him painfully walk toward the entrance.

Captain, are you OK?...What the hell was she doing out there?...Medical's been looking for her...Can you hear us?...We need to get both of them inside....Tell Medbay we've got two incoming...How long have you been out there?...

The heavy footsteps of Sthilg rang out through the snow as he raced to the scene. " What happened?" He yelled as he ran a scan over Rin. She was in hypothermic shock. " We need to get her inssside." he yelled to the surrounding crew as he wrapped the foil blanket tighter around her frozen frame.

A med tech scrambled to catch up with Sthilg, PaDD in hand. "I believe she was recharging when we had that last power outage. We've always had concerns about that scenario, but the best workaround we had come up with was simply shorter regenerative cycles. I tried checking up on her after the blackout, but she was already gone."

As David was helped into the cave, he tried to remove his helmet, but the computer was totally frozen. He had to wait until someone cut him out before he could say anything.

Looking over at David Sthilg saw David was trying to remove his helmet. Looking to the med tech he yelled over the wind. " Get him inssside." As he scooped up Rin and began carrying her towards the medical centre. " Hold on Rin. We've got you now," he said moving as fast as the wind would allow his bulk.

The tech pulled a laser cutter from his pocket and started cutting David's armor's frozen connectors, enough to let him move. He and another person got on either side of the captain to support him as they all made their way into the caves.

Once his mask was removed, David took in lungfulls of air. When the suit's power cut out, so did his life support. Had they been a few seconds longer in freeing him....

"She left camp about...about twenty minutes ago, Doc!" He shouted to Sthilg as he was helped further into the warmer caves. The two crewmates who were helping David along, rltook him to the medical area as well, so he could get checked over. "She..she collapsed before I found her..." David was trying to control his breathing as he gave a report to Sthilg. "She was unresponsive when I finally came upon her, so I wrapped her up in the emergency blanket from my kit and got back her as quickly as my suit could carry us. I forced the damn thing to move the last few meters, and then I could move it any more!"

Inside Rin's head, her moment of bliss was cut short by a burst of morning sunlight through the windows...which was very odd, because they were in space.

Then she was being dragged through the crowds of graduation day by her friends. They were all planning on drinking themselves silly. James was there, of course. And...Denali, and Jisen, and.... she couldn't quite catch all the names. But they were laughing so hard Jisen nearly tripped over his own feet.

The scene darkened. The chaos was different now. People running into the fight to win time for those running away in a vain attempt to save others. And the drones just kept marching forward.

She found herself on a surgical table. The Borg continuing the process of assimilation. The Tavarans and Starfleet dismantling her implants. Dismantling her...

She was so tired.

In the real world, on board the Lethe, the bio-bed cried out an alarm as her respiration and pulse dipped precariously.

Sthilg swore as he ran over to the biobed. He'd applied multiple regen packs and set the field to rise her body temperature. Even still he'd need to operate to remove some skin damage. " Rin don't you die on me that is an order." He yelled as he stared cpr thumping down on her chest with his hands. He was not letting her go.

Rin's eyes flicked open. There was so much commotion around her. Her chest felt like it had been busted open. She tried lifting her head to examine, and saw nothing out of sorts. She couldn't find any of her parts scattered out around her either, as if she had been dismantled.

Her vision focused on Sthilg. That wasn't right. He hadn't been there.

She lifted up her hands to study. Everything seemed to be where they were supposed to be, other than the bandages and the fact her fingertips were gray.

No, not gray. Blue. Like she had been in the cold.

All of the scenes were jumbled in her head. Some dreams, some memories, some...real?

"Where am I?" she asked as she tried - and failed - to sit up.

" Rin your ssstill with us. " Sthilg said not bothering to hide the happiness in his voice. " Lay ssstill i think i broke a rib when i brought you back."

Rin flinched as Sthilg reached out to check her. Was she awake? She might have fled out the door if her body would have let her. What the hell had she just gone through? And was she still going through it?

She tried pulling off a bandage to see what la underneath. Had something been taken? Had something been added? "I don't understand. I don't understand what's happening. I don't know how to stop it."

A tear splashed onto her hand. Then another. So much emotion coming all at once. Fear, joy, sadness, loss, all stronger than she had felt them before, all hitting her at once. It was...terrifying. And elating. And confusing.

Oh shit.

Rin remembered her limbic system implants had started failing shortly after joining the Elysium.

"Am I going insane?" She had seen it happen to other xBs who had been overwhelmed by sudden bursts of memories and emotions, their minds unable to handle it all.

" Eassssy girl. You took a rather nasssty fall and nearly froze to death. Your Limbic impantsss got a nasssty jolt." Sthilg said as he helped her sit up.

"What happened? I can't remember anything. Well, I can remember an awful lot, but it doesn't make a lot of sense. I think.... I think maybe I remember Nicola. Concrete memories. Just a couple, but..." she wiped more tears from her face while surreptitiously glancing around the room, looking for anything out of place, any indication this was not actually reality, that she was still dreaming.

From a nearby biobed, David had finally been freed from his armor and was being checked over. Of course, with his biology being what it was, his scans were all coming back normal. "Rin," he started to speak. "While I was on patrol, I saw you stumble out of the caves, into the blizzard! I tried to catch you before you gat too far, but by the time I found you, you had already collapsed and were not responsive. I immediately wrapped you up in am emergency blanket and carried you back to camp. You were...saying something, but it was difficult to hear over the storm." While he had heard her say I love you, he both knew she hadn't meant him, and she may not have wanted it said aloud before telling her privately first. So, he kept it to himself for now.

"Thank you." Rin sounded more sure of herself and reality now. "I have no idea how I got out there. I'm sorry."

" You have nothing to be sssorry about my dear. " Sthilg said giving her a ressuring shoulder squeeze. " Jussst lay ssstill while i go over nad make sssure everything working."

Rin nodded. Part of her wanted to close her eyes and drop back into sleep, but a whole lot of her forced her eyes to remain open. She wouldn't be looking forward to sleep anytime soon.

As he was good to go, David was told he could go, provided he took the rest of the night off.

As he got up off the biobed, he moved over to stand by Rin's right side. Looking down at the young woman (respectively), he gave her a soft smile. "I'm glad I was able to get you back here, Rin." He gently placed his right hand on her left shoulder. "We've lost too many friends already. I'd really rather not lose any more. At least not for a long time to come."

"Losing people is an unfortunate reality of Starfleet. But I'm sure glad you made sure I wasn't one of them tonight. I have loved ones who have lost me for a second time now, and I have every hope that I can prove reports of my untimely demise wrong...again. Thank you."

David smiled a friendly grin again, then gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze. "If you ever need or want someone to talk to, about anything, I will listen." Even though the Borg had destroyed his homeworld and nearly wiped out his race, David felt no animosity towards Rin. And if an El Aurian and a xB could become friends, the galaxy would be a far brighter place.