From: Nai (naomi_lara_at_optusnet.com.au)
Date: Wed Apr 11 2007 - 02:10:51 PDT
"The Hunt for Columbia" Cont' from Rahul's Catching Up _______________________________ =/\= Location: Karashi Nebula Scene: USS COLUMBIA =/\= Sterling glanced up overhead as the lights in the aft compartment flickered warningly, then steadied again. There was a thin hazy of smoke and the arid smell of ozone and burnt synthetics in the cabin. How long the power would last would be anyone's guess. And light was the least of their problems. They needed air, food and warmth to survive any decent length of time. She glanced up overhead at the bulkhead compartments and began opening them, searching for something. Ripping open bulkheads with ease and ruthlessly searching through them. Ben just watched, and patiently waited. It wasn't long before she came up with the goods. A computer access panel. It was there strictly for maintenance purposes, but Catherine prayed she would be able to access the main computer from it. Or at the very least, gain a view of their status. "Life support is barely functioning." Catherine reported after calling up the information. "There's power to the system, but the distribution network was destroyed. We've got air, and lighting. It might be intermittent, but it should hold." Sterling paused as she continued in the readout. "Heating system overloaded and got fried." She added with a faint grimace. It was going to get very, very cold in the shuttle, very, very quickly. "We've got nothing?" "No." She confirmed grimly. =/\= Location: USS PATRIOT Scene: Bridge =/\= Helice watched the Star Rider disappear into the nebula, and slowly watched as the blue, purple, and grey haze slowly filled up their view screen. Nebula's were breathtaking, but an absolute annoyance to navigate. "Nice and easy, helm. Don't want to crash into an asteroid or anything." Jones muttered under her breath as the great ship slid into the cloud. The Star Rider was not visible in the pea-soup like environment. "What's our sensors like?" The CO turned around and looked at the Ops officer. "They're operating at 15%" Tellah replied without even stopping to check the data. She already knew what there was to know, having anticipated the question. "And I've already attempted to increase the range." "Might be easier with a crow's nest." Maverick grunted softly. "You offering, Maverick?" Helice turned her head and gave the marine a brief smile. "No, Captain." "I thought so." The woman smiled and turned her attention back to their viewscreen. It would be the low-tech approach that would help them locate their missing crewmembers. "Keep your eyes peeled, ladies and gentlemen." =/\= Location: Karashi Nebula Scene: USS COLUMBIA =/\= Catherine glanced around the back of the runabout, her nerves on edge. She was stuck in the compartment with probably the worst person possible. And to make matters worse, she didn't know why the runabout was left adrift. Ben's ploy with the blow out might have worked, but if she had been the aggressor, she would have double checked the destruction. The fact that they were still alive was causing her to tense up. "Think they'll find us?" She asked quietly at Kenta. "Depends how hard they are looking. The interference in the nebula will help, but they can always look out a window." Ben replied tensely. They were now stuck in a nebula that made transmission of signals difficult, even if they could get the comm system working. Even if they managed to send something they had no way of insuring it would be the PATRIOT that received it and not their aggressors, who could still be hunting. As far as Kenta could see it, there were three possible outcomes of their current situation. Firstly, and the most favourable, would be the PATRIOT finding and rescuing them. It wouldn't be easy for the great starship to find them in this blinding mist, especially with her current senor difficulties, but it could be done. Secondly, and not so favourable, would be if the pirates were the ones who located them first. That could lead to them being ransomed, enslaved, tortured, or even executed, while the pirates made off with the shuttle, and some valuable Federation technology. Not exactly ideal, but at least, if they were indeed captured, it would present opportunities for escape later. The worst case scenario, and honestly the most likely, he had to admit, was that no one would find them. They would float adrift for days until either the cold killed them, or lack of food and water. Even a decent sized rock colliding with the unshielded shuttle had the potential for punching a hole through the hull. At least then death would be quick. "Maybe they think we are dead." Catherine said hopefully of the pirates. If they assumed that their quarries had been destroyed, then maybe they would leave the area. "They deliberately targeted the deflector array. They wanted us dead." Kenta pointed out as he began to open up all of the storage hatches in the back of the shuttle, pouring over their contents to make an inventory in his head. "Or maybe they just wanted the ship, and we were incidental." Catherine suggested, somewhat hopefully, and somewhat naively, as she began to tap at the control console, trying to wrest control over environmental control. It was a long shot at best, but she had to try something. "Either way, we're in the same predicament." She told him. Ben shook his head, dismissing the idea. It didn't matter now. "We're going to need food and water, and it's going to get cold in here. We have a few emergency rations, so the priority is getting environmental controls back online, before we freeze to death." He warned her as he dumped items of note onto the bench. They would have to get creative, and try to hold out as long as possible. Catherine glanced at Ben, watching the back of his broad shoulders as he worked. They rarely saw eye to eye on things, but her relationship with him wasn't hostile like Maverick's. It was more complex. Whenever she was around Kenta, she always felt like she was treading on broken glass. One wrong move and she would get a painful cut. She didn't know how he perceived her, but she suspected that it wasn't with much fondness. After the time she had bolted, he had never given her an inch of space. There was a tension in the air, so Catherine held her tongue. She wasn't going to speak to Ben for the sake of it. And she knew that he wouldn't speak to her beyond what was necessary. So silence descended on the shuttle, and sat suffocating her as surely as if there was a leak in the bulkhead. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ NRPG: Naomi Lara Lt. J.G. Catherine Sterling-Jade Intelligence Operative USS PATRIOT And Lieutenant Tellah 'Cal' Callishendrack'Hylarmarishnakaashanah Chief of Operations USS PATRIOT And Commodore Teneill Danara-Bennow Deputy Chief of Starfleet Intelligence From HyperNews_at_youth.net
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