Out of the Frying Pan

Posted on Sun Feb 5th, 2023 @ 8:21am by Lieutenant JG Teh'dri Caix & Doctor Samantha Knight, DSci.
Edited on on Wed Mar 29th, 2023 @ 6:03pm

1,988 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Episode 0: New Sheriff in Town
Location: Unknown, Vela IV
Timeline: Following the Assumed Destruction of the USS Howard Carter
Tags: story

The screaming noise of the air rushing past her Kelvin pod finally faded with one last deafening crash. The impact of it would have been fatal without the safety restraints. Instead, it was just extremely unpleasant. Teh'dri supposed she should be more appreciative of that than she was currently feeling. It actually took a moment for her to realize that she was, in fact, hanging down over the canopy. The pod seemed to have come to a rest, embedded in some object, so that her prone figure was actually strapped to the top of the pod. When she opened the canopy, it would leave her no surface to stand on.

The glass was heavily obscured by condensation, which it took a moment of wiping for her to realize was external. Obviously she'd landed somewhere very humid. She reached for the comms panel to signal her distress call, but froze. Would that just reveal her location?

Everything had happened so quickly in orbit that Teh'dri's mind was still struggling to process it. One moment, Howard Carter had been casually awaiting the return of their shuttles from the surface. The next, the bridge was on fire, their comms arrays were completely decimated, and systems were being systematically destroyed by an unseen attacker. Her captain had barely had time to order them to abandon ship. Teh'dri was one of the first to her Kelvin Pod, and was jettisoned away while several other officers still occupied the bridge. She wondered how many made it off.

Maybe it'd be best to get ready to leave the scene before she called any attention to herself. Fighting gravity was going to lengthen her preparations as it was. Unstrapping, she gently lowered herself to the transparent canopy of her pod, before crawling to the equipment compartment. She retrieved the survival suit, replacing her duty uniform with, though with some substantial difficulty. After it was finally on, she grabbed her communicator, tricorder and phaser, placing each in a closed inner pocket. It wouldn't do to have them fall off and out of sight the moment she opened the hatch. At long last, the moment arrived and she crawled back to the comms panel. It took some of her training in Vulcan focus to resist the nauseating sensation of kneeling on transparent canopy with an unknowably long fall inches below her. The fact that the comm panel was upside to her didn't help either.

A few button clicks later and it crackled to life. "Mayday, mayday. This is Lt. Teh'dri Caix of the USS Howard Carter. Is anyone out there?"

She let the white noise of the dead comm line fill the room for a moment. Then she tried again. "This is Lt. Teh'dri Caix. Can anyone read me? Please respond."

Still nothing. Surely they couldn't all be.... "Ok, enough of that. That line of thinking is going to do you know good Caix," she said, desperately hunting for the Vulcan trained focus she'd never quite mastered. "The next logical step is to find out what is outside."

She booted up the external camera of the pod and a wave of relief washed over her. The front of her pod was imbedded in a rockface about 5 stories up from the bed of a forest. Numerous trees surrounded her, with branches that looked reachable. Not an infinite fall then. Just a dangerously long one. But hopefully, an avoidable fall if those branches were in reach. It would be a one way trip though. Once she was out of the pod, she was staying out. There'd be no way back in.

One last try couldn't hurt. She pushed the comm button once last time. "If anyone can read me, this is Lt. Caix. I need to leave my pod, so this is my final broadcast. Can anyone hear me?"

A female voice came over the communications channel. =/\=Lieutenant, this is Doctor Knight. We hear you. Are you injured?=/\=

Teh'dri let out a brief sigh, before reopening her comm channel. "Not at present. However, my pod landed in a fairly...suboptimal location. Exiting is going to be interesting."

A full minute passed before there was a reply. =/\=Understood. We are about 25 minutes away on foot. How copy?"

Teh'dri felt an uncomfortable lurch in the structure of the her pod. Its hold on the cliff-face was tenuous at best, and all of her movement in side probably did it no favors. "I am growing a bit more skeptical of my pod's hold on the wall. An exit now might be substantially safer than if I were to wait. I'll turn on my beacon, but I am going to attempt an exit."

Even as she released the talk button, Teh'dri began to make preparations. She reached for the secondary supply pouch in the pod. A water bottle, an expandable form cloth to make a meager temporary structure, and finally the thing she was looking for: small grappler. She gently crawled back across the pod's canopy until she was under her chair, internally tensing with each shift the capsule made. As she awaited a final reply, she wrapped the chair straps around her hand three times, giving her a firm grasp. With a little luck, it wouldn't tip the pod too quickly.

--2 KILOMETERS AWAY--

Samantha glanced at David. "They seem legitimate."

David wasn't as sure. "Someone trying to deceive you often does." He had a myriad things on his mind as is. Having to affect a rescue of a Starfleet officer who should be the one rescuing them was was not an additional problem they needed.

Samantha just sighed. "Look. You want to stay here that's fine. I can probably travel faster alone anyway...but I am going to go help that woman." She pulled a rope from her pack and tossed the pack at David's feet. She then took of at a jog. She, with luck, would knock a 25 minute walk down to a 10 minute jog.

--Lt. Caix's Pod--
Teh'dri was moving at a snail's pace as she prepped to open her pod. Every movement seemed to upset the delicate balance that the front end of the craft had established. She considered simply strapping back in and letting the pod's protective systems keep her safe when it eventually fell. But if the capsule brought a chunk of rock face down with it, she could be trapped indefinitely.

With one hand wrapped in her seat strap, she reached the other for the release button of her hatch.

"I would appreciate it if you ejected gently." Nothing much more worth waiting for now. She took a deep breath and pushed the release. There was a brief moment of freefall as she fell out of the craft, before her chair straps reacted and stiffened, stopping Caix's fall with a only slightly painful yank on her arm. The pod shifted but mercifully did not fall. But the rocks underneath it were looking very brittle, and powdered stone spilled out of the cracks.

The hatch's explosive bolts had sent the transparent canopy sailing away below, where it made contact with the bed of the forest and...fell through into the void.

The Science Officer's eyes went wide as she looked down at the pitch black hole left in the forest floor. Or rather, in what she had assumed was the forest floor. Instead, she now realized she was looking at a secondary canopy, the tops of a second layer of what appeared to be truly gargantuan trees. The small upside down view of the outside had failed to capture the scale of everything she was now seeing. As wind whipped past the cliff face she was attached to, Teh'dri realized her pod hadn't just hit a cliff, but the edge of an impossibly high plateau. One which she was slowly losing her tether to. The pod lurched again, this time visibly sliding several inches forward and tipping in a way that let Teh'dri new she had mere moments before it lost its grip.

She didn't have much time to strategize. Given the distance below, the top of the plateau actually was substantially closer. Aiming her grappler as high on the face as she could with her free hand, while her body dangled beneath the craft, she fired a bolt into the rocks. Thankfully, it found purchase. And not a moment too soon, the pod's frame suddenly cracked through the rocks above its entry point and began to slide right out. It was now or never. Hooking the grapple line to her belt and letting go of the straps, Caix swung the several feet of slack until she slammed into the side of the cliff face.

A second later, her pod fell like an arrow straight down toward the canopy, smashing through and sailing farther below. She heard it snapping branches as it went, but heard no definitive crash. So...up it is then, she thought. Pulling out her communicator, she switched to the frequency she was just on. "Doctor Knight, do you still read me? I've got a bit of a situation."

-----

Samantha was still half a click when her communicator beeped. She fished out the communicator and flipped it open on the run. "Knight here. I'm about two or three minutes out. I have about 50 meters of rope. Is there any way you can pinpoint your location for me?"

"Uh...sure," Teh'dri's voice came over the comm. "I'm currently hanging off the side of a plateau, looking down at a forest that is much much bigger than I thought. Uh..." Shuffling came over the comm. "I am nearly .5 km south-south-east of a conical shaped outcropping. If that narrows it down."

Samantha stopped short for a moment and took a deep breath. She spotted the outcrop Teh'dri described and narrowed down her position. One problem solved. She took the rope off her shoulder and lifted the communicator close to her lips and spoke softly. "I need you to stay as still as possible and not make any unnecessary noise. There are avian creatures that inhabit the forest below that are...big...as in very big." She closed the communicator and started sprinting for the point. She needed to get Teh'dri up and soon.

Teh'dri's dry delivery might have sounded Vulcan-esque, but it had enough flair to make it clear she was trying to defuse tension with the slightest hint of humor. Perhaps for herself as much as for Samantha. "Ah...A very helpful suggestion. I was not planning on moving much, but I'll make that a firm decision."

Samantha pulled up short and peered over the cliff edge she spotted Teh'dri and moved over about five meters. She tied one end of the rope to a rock and then approached the edge. She fought the urge to toss the rope down and instead fed it out slowly until it reached Teh'dri.

The young officer gently transitioned from the grappler cord to the rope, then began to climb slowly. Since the Doctor's warning, Teh'dri had noticed the distinct sound of movement in the canopy below. As she moved very slowly upward, every sound below sent a fresh ripple of anxiety through her. But she kept her breathing calm and made her way up the rope.

About 10 feet away from the top, she finally broke the silence. "I appreciate the rescue, Doctor. Is it just you? I thought you mentioned others."

Samantha lay prone and extended an arm to help Teh'dri up the last few feet. "Doctor Ross is older and couldn't keep up. We'll see him shortly once you're up here safe and sound."

Teh’dri took the woman’s hand and climbed the final few feet up, finally pulling herself over the edge and collapsing onto the ground for a moment to rest. After she’s regained a bit of strength, she rose back to her feet. “Alright. Let’s go find your Doctor.”

 

RSS Feed