Away Team One: a stich in time saves mine

Posted on Sun Oct 18th, 2020 @ 1:46pm by Captain Abigail Laurens & Lieutenant JG Haru Hernandez & Lieutenant Commander William Rogers & Commander Ichiko Gail & Lieutenant Commander Calvin Morgan & Lieutenant Bianca Lee & Warrant Officer Koh Ottasu & Warrant Officer Callisi Veera

Mission: Into The Delta Triangle
Location: Kessik IV

Buck dropped the unconscious Klingon from his shoulder onto the ground. As he looked around he spotted Foreman Yuteni. "There anywhere we can lock this one up?" He asked.

"Yeah, we got an equipment shed just over there. Feel free to move what yo need." Yuteni offered, "So, what happened to him to get him knocked out like that?"

"He was working with the people responsible for this whole mess: dilithium moonshiners from what he said." Buck explained. "Also he stabbed me."

"Well hell." Yuteni offered, "My office has a field medical kit. Nothing fancy, but if you want it, take it." he thumbed over his shoulder in the general direction of the aforementioned office.

Buck waved off the offer. "No need. Doc has me covered."

With Juruss secured in the shed Rogers sought out an update from McMillan and Valenna on the rescue efforts: They'd managed to concoct a work around for the transporter interference but had no way to implement it as it required work from those trapped in the mine and they had yet to find a way to reach them. To make matters worse they'd detected a number of minor tremors near the most populous of the survivor groups. He tapped his comm badge. "Ghost; Rogers. Need you to open me up a direct channel to the Astraea."

"This is Ghost. Repositioning now." and up above, in the skies overhead, the shuttle moved to a more charitable location. "You're clear. Channel open."

"Captain. Situation in the mine's starting to deteriorate. Is Astraea in a position to provide assistance?"

"Glad to hear your voice Mister Rogers," Abigail said after an audible sigh of relief. "We've retrieved the team from Kessik III and can render whatever assistance you need, we're moving into synchronous orbit above your position now and the crew is standing by." She gave a nod to helm who immediately responded and started moving the ship.

"Additional science and engineering support is urgently required." Buck glanced over to Calvin to see if additional medical help was also required. "We're picking up local seismic activity that could trigger further cave ins. We know how to get the trapped miners out, but we need their help and aren't able to overcome the comm interference from the mines."

"Understood Commander. Lieutenant Aenera has an idea that will get communications amplifiers and transporter pattern enhancers through to you. It should be enough for us to cut through the interference and transport everyone out. We'll be limited to transporting two people at a time. I'll have Warrant Officer Veera relaunch. Between Astraea, Ghost and Deadeye we'll be able to move quicker. I'll have Deadeye transport a medical team to the surface for additional immediate assistance." Abigail gripped the arm rest of her chair before turning her gaze toward Ichiko and offering a nod, indicating that the First Officer should make arrangements for the relaunch of the shuttle.

"Copy that." A tremor ran through the ground and a cloud of dust spat from the disused mineshaft he'd investigated with Calvin. "What's the idea?"

"Lieutenant Aenera has proposed using a small modular mining device and a natural chemical compound to help dig narrow tunnels through to set locations underground. We can pack each device with small pattern enhancers and a communications booster. It should give us enough signal amplitude to beam out two people at a time. Between us, Ghost and Deadeye, we will get you out as quickly as we can. Starfleet has already dispatched an emergency response team from Starbase 332 to assist as well but we don't know what their ETA is yet." Abigail paused momentarily. "Commander, we're detecting increasing seismic activity. I think this is our best bet to get everyone out as quickly as possible."

"I'd noticed." Buck replied dryly. "I'll meet Lt Aenera at the main shaft entrance. It'll take a bit of doing to get any device down to the areas where the miners are trapped."

Shortly thereafter, Alexis beamed down from the ship with a meter and a half long object on an anti-gravity sled, which she quickly began to push towards the mine entrance. She briefly let go with one hand and waved brightly at Buck even as a small tremor ran under her feet and she gave the ground a betrayed look for a half moment, "Hey Buck, I've got this lovely little thing right here. Mind grabbing a strong back or two and put it on the ground in front of the blockage?" She grinned, "This puppy has an emergency transporter pad in the storage compartment and a comm amplifier, not that it'll do TOO much good, but we'll be able to talk to people through the commline in this cable that will also transfer the pattern from the buffer to materialize outside the mine."

"Good to see you, Lexi." Buck replied as he took over pushing the grav cart. "We're going to need to take it a little ways down into the mine. What sort of range does the uh, drill, have?"

"Ohh, the drill reaches about thirty centimeters, but it'll just chew right through whatever rock rubble we put in front of it. It'll spray an organic enzyme that'll help soften the rock so that we're not vibrating the rubble to cause a collapse, but if it does, it won't stop us because of the cable." She wiped her hands on her skirt. "I'd like to run it slow, but I'm not happy with these little earthquakes, so we may have to move fast, right? Well, we can set it for about sixty centimeters per minute on the fast side, but that's if it's good soft but stable material. Makes me really wish I were a geologist."

"How much cable do we have to work with?" As they'd arrived at the entrance to the lift shaft Buck lifted the drill from the cart so that it could be attached to the winch, pushing his enhanced strength. "Lifts are down, but if we have enough cable we can set up in one of the more stable upper tunnels."

"It's got about a half kilometer of cable to it, but we can attach another spool if we need to." Lexi pulled out her PADD and tapped a couple buttons on it as she got on the lift as well, "Just going to start the power up process."

"We can work with that. Climb down to level 3, we'll start drilling from there." Buck tapped his comm badge. "Doc? Time for you to head back to the ship and prep for the injured coming out of the mine."

"You got it, Boss." Lexi flashed him a smile as the lift began to move, "Going down. Level 2, lingerie, raincoats, lots and lots of rock." She giggled at her own humour.

Calvin raised an eyebrow. "I'd rather the lingerie and raincoats, but suit yourself." He turned to another medical officer and spoke with him for a moment before bidding farewell and trekking out of the cavern to a suitable transport spot.


*** An Hour Later ***

So far, so good. The drone had been drilling through for about five minutes already and it was going just about as planned. The edges of the hole were crumbling slightly, but that was definitely not going to be a surprise with how the rubble had fallen and Alexis was tracking everything she could on the PADD. She grinned at Buck as she nodded, "This is looking good, just a matter of getting through the blockage at this point."

Buck nodded. "ETA on that?"

With a raised eyebrow, Lexi glanced down at the PADD again and then up at the senior officer, "How thick is the blockage? Will there be any cave-ins? Is the seismic activity going to stop?" She shook her head this time, "Without answers to all of those questions, I can't give you a time estimate beyond 'When it happens." She shrugged, "Could be five minutes, could be two hours, could be four. I doubt the first and the last, so somewhere in between?"

Buck folded his arms and leaned back against the wall. "Back to waiting then."

*** Some time later inside the mine ***

Bianca finally ducked around Gargan and first looked to Bullgruff, "What's up?" Before he could even respond, she saw the mining drone and the hole it had come through, "Oh my..." She said, slipping around Bull and approaching the drone and brushing a bit of rock from the top of it, "Looks like help has arrived."

The miner looked at the probe and shook his head. "Don't see what use that little thing's gonna be."

The probe emitted a short static buzz which preceded the chirp of both Hernadez and Lee's communicators. =/\= Rogers to Lee or Hernandez. You copy?"

Bianca's smile was wide, and she activated her communicator, =/\= "Lee here, sir, good to hear from ya'! Seems my message got out, didn't it? What's the plan, Ah think this hole is a bit small for most of us to crawl through."

The probe buzzed again. =/\= "The probe's got a transporter pad tucked in the back. Get it set up and we can start beaming you out. It can only handle two at time but we're set up to take the injured directly to the Astraea."

"Roger that." Bianca pressed a series of keys and the back of the probe opened and a folded item presented itself, "All right, give me a few minutes to set it up and we'll be good to go."

=/\="Make it fast." =/\= A few levels above Buck brushed a shower of dirt from his shoulder. He turned to Lexi. "Head top-side. I can handle the rest."

Alexis grinned, "You got it boss!" Turned on her heel and immediately began to make her way back up to the elevator.


**** About two hours later ****

The last one out. Bianca looked around the area one last time, poking her head around the corners and verified. She finally made her way over and rubbed the probe's body once more before stepping onto the transporter pad, "All right, Buck, no one else is here, initiating transport." She dematerialized, then rematerialized and smiled at the Commander, "Hey sir, mind if we get out of here?"

Buck gave a bemused shake of his head. "You could have just commed in that info."

"And where would the fun be in that?" Bianca winked at him, then poked him gently in the chest, "You've got the commbadge, boss."