Search and Rescue

Posted on Wed May 14th, 2025 @ 2:14pm by Lieutenant Commander Eden Corwin & Captain Piraa sh'Zamhlass

1,677 words; about a 8 minute read

Security Chief Eden Corwin stood at the front of the security briefing room, her gaze stern and determined as she addressed her team. "Listen up, everyone," she began, her voice carrying the weight of responsibility. "We've got crew members missing and potentially injured in various places on the ship. Our job is to find them and get them to safety, no matter what." She paused, letting the gravity of the situation sink in.

"Teams will be divided into sectors," Corwin continued, pointing to a layout of the ship displayed on the screen behind her. "Stay in constant communication, every five or so minutes, and report any findings immediately. We’re dealing with with a lot unknowns here, but remember your training and trust your instincts. Lives depend on our efficiency and teamwork. Let's find everyone that's been unaccounted for. Questions?"

Several of the security personnel simply shook their heads. There were no questions from the group.

"Then, let's get to it," Eden said just before she ordered her people to their designated areas. She had no intentions to sit back and wait while the others did the work. After getting the necessary gear she thought she would need, and with a few other Security officers in tow to make up her team, she made her way to the more damaged area of the ship.

A quick look at the duty roster had revealed that more than a third of the crew had been off duty on the recreation decks. If sensors had been operating, they would have revealed where portions of the crew had been forcefully sequestered. Only the logs had reported that the blast doors had clamped down, leaving more than forty people trapped on the deck. And, if the logs were to be believed, there was a potential for a hull breach near the forward recreation lounge.

Eden had indeed checked the logs before leading her team to their present location and saw that the blast doors had activated to prevent further damage to the ship, but there were still a lot of people trapped behind them. Things were about to get more hectic as more information became available to them on site.

As an alternate route, she and the three other teams she'd managed to put together, would have to take Jeffries tubes and access tunnels to get where they needed to be. Eden opened a hatch and assessed inside before crawling inside, making her way to what she hoped would be a good access point to the recreation area based on logs.

The tube she had entered was darker than most as the lighting panels down the right side had all cracked under the strain from the ion storm. The frame members groaned as the ship herself continued to list powerless and without control under the intense event.

Eden reached for her flashlight from the belt around her waist and powered it on, shining it around a bit in an effort to gather her bearings. She looked down at the Security officer on the ladder behind her. "We go this way," she said. "This should put us in a better position to rescue those trapped." And, without waiting for acknowledgment, she began to move in their new direction with the other officer hot on her heels.

Somewhere down the corridor was a metal on metal grinding sound, as well as a few muted cries, as if someone was struggling to move something.

"We're coming to get you," Eden called out as she and her team carefully moved toward the sound of the metal grinding. She wasn't sure if they were able to hear her or not, but that wouldn't keep her from trying. "If you can hear me, how many of you are there, and how many are seriously injured?"

A sound came back down the corridor, as if someone were replying, but it was muffled by the distance. Some of the words sounded awfully like "Hello? Is anyone there?"

Eden heard the muffled sounds of someone responding, and that gave her hope. So much that she and the crew she had with her doubled down their efforts to get to them. As she closed in on where she thought she heard the voice, she looked around to figure out what exactly she was dealing with. "Can you hear me? How many are with you?"

"Hello?" came the voice again. "Who's there? We're stuck in here!" It was at this point that a hand could be seen trying to open a door. The corridor might have been dark, but the orange glow from the thin sliver of the door could only speak to the urgency of the situation.

The orange glow got Eden's attention, and now there was an even greater urgency to get those that were trapped inside out. She nodded to one of the larger guys on her team and gestured to the door. "We're going to try to pull the door open. Get on the other side. On three," she said, getting into position. "One...two... three..." Then they each began to pull.

A grinding sound could be heard as the doors shifted a centimeter. Their efforts did not yield much result as the door soon stopped moving, unable (or unwilling) to move any further.

There was no time to waste. "Can you move away from the door? A few feet would be ideal," the Security Chief called out.

The hand disappeared from the crack in the doorway, and there was a shuffling sound just inside the door.

Eden ordered her people back a few feet, then unholstered her phaser. Getting those behind the door to safety was her priority. Everything else could be dealt with a later date. She thumbed the dial up to setting eight, then took aim at the door, vaporizing it instantly.

After changing the setting, then slipping the phaser back in the holster, she and her team rushed forward. "Come on. Let's get you to safety."

The owner of the hand staggered out of the room, his right hand clutching a bloody wound on the side of his abdomen. He coughed as he almost fell into the arms of a security officer. "Crewman..." he choked. "Still... in there..."

"We're going to do our best to get everyone out alive," Eden said, hoping to reassure the injured man the best she could. She looked to the security officer who caught the man. "Assess his injuries, get him patched up as best you can, then get him to sickbay." With those orders passed over, she and the others moved further inside to check things out.

The officer nodded and moved the coughing crewman out of the way. There was a medical kit nearby, so he quickly opened it and began a triage assessment.

Eden led the way, her heart pounding like a drum. There was an acrid smell of smoke and a metallic tang of blood in the air, making it difficult to focus, but somehow, she found a way. "Stay sharp, and keep your eyes open. We can have people anywhere," she muttered to the team behind her. Their footsteps echoed off the metal floor as they moved deeper into the chaos.

Open flames generated a thin smoke from underneath the replicator. The EPS relay located behind the unit had ruptured, and with no fire suppression system to quell it, the flames started to warp the metal and mold it into unusable portions. Near the replicator, in a crumpled form, was a three-armed Edosian. Well, an Endosian that had two complete arms, and a stump for its middle arm. She laid on the floor, unconscious.

There was no time to access a tricorder to check for a pulse, so Eden placed, two fingers against her neck just under her collar. It was there, but faint, and that meant they needed to move quickly. She gently laid the Edosian on the ground and began to pull her from the smoking replicator, hoping to get her a safe distance away before ordering her team to triage her and getting her to sickbay.

If she didn't isolate the affected circuits soon, the fire could spread to other systems, compromising the ship's structural integrity. Eden couldn't allow that to happen. With no fire suppression system, it meant it was time to get creative. The Security/Tactical Chief pulled a panel from nearby and looked over the various wires and hoses running through it, then reached for her tricorder to help determine what was what.

Gripping the hose she needed, Eden gave a few good yanks until the hose was free, then pulled it over to the replicator unit where she found an opening to place the hose and release the nitrogen gas from the ship's reserves to quell the fire.

The fire was extinguished soon enough, but the smoke remained behind for no reason other than the air was not circulating like it normally would. It was not an indication that life support was offline, just impeded by all of the other damage and circumstances around the ship.

Eden looked toward her team as the smoke began to thicken around them. If they stayed much longer, they would need rescue, but she needed to be sure there wasn't anyone else present. "Get her out of here," she ordered. "I will be right behind you."

When they were one there way to safety, Eden made her way back to the opening. "Is there anyone here?" She called out.

Only silence greeted her. A fellow security crewman, who happened to be armed with a tricorder, scanned the room and reported, "Clear. No other lifesigns in this section or the surrounding sections. The ion storm outside is interfering with the longer-range."

"Then let's get out of here," Eden ordered, gesturing to the way they'd managed to gain access to the deck. "We can regroup and figure out where we need to go next. I'm right behind you." And with that, they vacated the area and got the injured to sickbay for proper treatment.

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