The storm breaks
Posted on Sat Oct 10th, 2015 @ 10:26am by Lieutenant & Captain Elijah Michaels & Commander Bertrand Cuprum & Commander Cor Cordale & Lieutenant Mickey McClane & Ensign Honey Flanagan
Edited on on Sun Oct 11th, 2015 @ 3:37am
Mission:
Commanding the Elements
Location: Haven colony and surrounds
Timeline: T-90 minutes
Captial City
Michaels, Bartlett
Elijah looked around the command centre. All but a skeleton staff of twenty including the away team had left, but these had been deemed vital to stay till the last minute to maintain the protective power grid over key areas and coordinate the final moments of the evacuation from the surface.
The coms sputtered over the increased solar activity,.
=^=Attention away teams. This is the Victory. We are being temporarily called away to assist with another emergency. You will be receiving additional supplies delivered via orbital drop. This will be the final communication prior to our return.=^=
The Commander knew that in the same situation he would have to make the same decisions. He was not angry, he was understanding.
"Understood Victory, stay safe, Michaels out." He said before closing the channel. His attention turned to the XO. "Looks like we are on our own XO."
"Lovely." Michelle said. "Think they'll be all right without us?" she asked with a smirk
The Meteorologist was still reporting what little data he was receiving, "I'm reading tornadoes touching down all over the place. Atmospheric temperature is climbing. We've lost contact with the Hospital."
Elijah dashed to the Console. "What?" He asked examining the data as it appeared on the screens and dials. "I am going out there....."
"Sir!" the man called after him. "It is a thirty minute trip to the Hospital in normal conditions. You'll never make it in this storm!"
The Commander looked at him. "Then I am going to die trying." He said approaching the main door of the Command Centre. It was sealed from the weather and the outside world, Elijah attempted to override the locking mechanism several times.
Finally he did so and then.....Wham the weather hit him as rain and wind hammered through the doorway and visibility was poor. He waited a few moments after fighting it and conceded it was a hopeless battle.
"Damn it.....Good luck guys...." He said as the rain soaked him.
Starport
Selar, Sinclair
Selar ushered in the last of the passengers and away team while Wakemen did a head count. Only twenty people left; the Starport was at last empty. Provided this flying meat crate held together for the trip back to the Victory it would be mission success and hot baths and cold beverages for all.
The coms sputtered over the increased solar activity,.
=^=Attention away teams. This is the Victory. We are being temporarily called away to assist with another emergency. You will be receiving additional supplies delivered via orbital drop. This will be the final communication prior to our return.=^=
One of the marines looked to Sinclair in the pilots seat, "All dressed up and no place to go. Do we disembark?"
Sela had to bite her tongue to avoid swearing inside her helmet. Almost home free and this had happened.
"We don't have any shields on this rig," The Marine continued, "but I don't think that building is going to be much better. What's the plan?"
Sela looked around as her helmet registered the increasingly bad weather. " Does the building have a basement or something we could rid out the storm in?" She asked already guessing the answer was a no.
D'Nali, the flight admin, frowned. We haven't really had need of one. Though I thing there might be an underground generator room. Not big, but if there are only twenty of us we might fit."
Hospital
Antos
It was still dark out, but some of the cases had been moved back into the shelter of the shattered hospital. the storm raged outside and those still in the confines of the quarantine tent were becoming alarmed. Anto's could see it was taking all of the nurses failing strength to keep them from rushing out into the storm.
The coms sputtered over the increased solar activity,.
=^=Attention away teams. This is the Victory. We are being temporarily called away to assist with another emergency. You will be receiving additional supplies delivered via orbital drop. This will be the final communication prior to our return.=^=
=^=Understood! victory! god speed! =^= Anto's said quietly as he felt despair taking over him. As the clouds blackened.
What power that they still had went to power the generators to help power the force field systems to keep the people safe. They had as long as the generators held, till the shields fail with all the increased storms coming in. Anto's felt worthless now; he could not help his nurse or the others that were still ill from the unknown illness. He did as much as he could as the storm bombard the tent shield systems. The majority of everyone else was deep inside of what was left of the hospital for safety. As Anto's stood outside in the rain at the edge of the shield, he saw what was coming.
The was little or no time as the tornado was heading there way. Anto's barely got back inside the hospital as the tornado ripped through the failing shields. It took the dead bodies that were in torpedo casing, the tornado took them all and used them as weapons, throwing them from the twisting funnel. Many hit the upper levels of the hospital, damaging the buildings already fragile integrity. It started to collapse the upper levels as the debris started to fall.
The tornado then hit the tent full of quarantined. The scream's pierced the night as they all died, whipped into the horrific malestrom of the tornado. Antos fell as some debris fell from the ceiling knocking him out as he did not know what happened outside.
As the guards saw the ceiling fall on the dear doctor.They ran over in a hurry and attempted to get him out of the dangerous situation. Antos moaned in pain as he was trapped under the rubble. He could not move due to being pinned by a portion of the ceiling landing on him. The guards tried to move the portion of the ceiling off of him but failed. They were now trapped inside the building or at least what soon will be left of it. The guards had to enlist more help to get the ceiling off of him.
"Doctor Antos!" one of mickey's operations officer went fast to help out the guards.
The nurse and the engineer had died in the quarantine tent, but there were still the two security officers and a hand full of other patients as well as the Vulcan and Bajoran man who had come bringing family. There was also the new operations officer who had come down with the last extra shipment of supplies.
People struggled with the heavy concrete beams, but they would not shift.
"We can't risk cutting him free," One of the security officers said, "It could bring the rest of the rubble down."
"Can't we beam him out?" the bajoran asked.
The security guard exchanged glances with the Operations officer. They had heard the message. There was to be no beam out. They were all dead in less than two hours.
"Well, were not going to sit around and just argue. The ship has left orbit. So Help me try and keep the doc warm" Chief Petty Officer McLeod said as he used one of his phasers to keep him warm as he used warm setting on the rock.
"Hang in there, Doc. Will get out of this somehow" McLeod kept up his positive attitude.
Anto's come to moments later as the pain was a bit over whelming. but he could endure them for now. "what happened?" Antos commented he barely got out barely a whisper. not really knowing who the people were being face down and barely moving.
There was a sound like Photon torpedo landing outside and the building shook again.
"What, are they bombing us now as well?" The Bajoran yelled at the roof.
"Calm yourself!" Antos said calmly to the Bajorian that happened to be near by. Anto's sighed hard those were the caskets hitting the structure of the hospital as a tornado just hit here." it took a minute before he spoke again. "Apparently the Victory was post to send a care package for us. But they were not aware of the change of issues here." Antos said calmly as he could. "We need to get to that stuff to survive." Antos said with labored breathing. He hoped the others would hear him and also provide some hope even a little bit. "We need to get to that package. even if you had to go through the hole in the ceiling above me."
"Well Doc, your not going anywhere but hang on." Mickey's left handed operations officer grabbed a pipe and he held it with all his strength. He was able to move it up with all his might as he was pumped on adrenaline and a few of the officers grabbed doctor out of the rubble. The Vulcan came to his aide, his extra strength holding even as the bar began to bend.
"Guys, Move!" McLeod said as they got the doc out of the way.
Antos felt glad to be free but he knew he was not good at present. "thank you?" He was not fully sure of the extent of his injuries, "Lets deal with getting the care package that's out there be careful theses storms are truly have never been seen in our life. So dangerous. "
"Your right, Doctor. But unless there is some miracle drug You're not going anywhere. You may have the rank of Lieutenant, but i am able to move and help. Unless you say otherwise doc." McLeod said nicely
"I'll go with you," The Bajoran added. "I want to check on my wife and kid in the quarantine tent, anyway."
Antos was not going to argue with anyone. He knew it would do no good. And the others would find out what happened soon enough. "Please play this safe and don't risk yourselves." Antos said quickly. As he was placed on a flat back board and strapped down to keep him immobile till they got back to the ship and was placed unconscious for the time being with the last bit of meds that the doctor had in his med kit. as they tried to attend to wounds they could deal with with some old fashioned first aid as they tried to tend his wounds that they could deal with for now as they splinted his legs and arm to secure his broken bones.and stop the bleeding that was on the surface skin contusions and cuts.
As for the internal damage they can only hope he would be ok until their rescue at least they hoped so.
Village ruins
Cor, Honey
Ca'ael was no more. A half submerged line of sandbags along a beach, piles of wreckage, and a small stone building on raised ground were all that remained. The sea had finally won against their best efforts and claimed the wall as its own. Now the remaining two dozen people sat huddled in the dark inside the stone town hall. The flimsy generator was giving all of its energy to the SIF surrounding them and keeping the worst of the storm at bay.
"Okay everyone, get in as far as you can and go upstairs. Ladies first, children too." Cor said aloud as he directed the flow of people. Every now and then, he'd hand off a simple light source to someone heading up. The dark was a scary place for those who weren't used to it.
The coms sputtered over the increased solar activity,.
=^=Attention away teams. This is the Victory. We are being temporarily called away to assist with another emergency. You will be receiving additional supplies delivered via orbital drop. This will be the final communication prior to our return.=^=
"Honey, Marley, get to the roof and keep an eye out for that supply drop. Everyone else, take what we have, cut everything in half, and make sure these people get first crack." he said with a nod to the others. "They come first." though the poor timing of Cordale's tummy rumble said to the others what didn't need to be said. The Thux hadn't eaten in a while himself. The last ration of grub he had he probably gave away.
"I could hunt some fisssh?" Honey ventured, looking up at the strong and wet cobalt blue mustelid. "I sssaw sssome nice and chunky fisssh near the wall that are disssoriented by the ssstorm'sss electromagnetic influencesss that I think I could catch. You'd have to cook them I think but I can eat them raw." A pause. "About ye big, ssstriped horizontally, with a bright spot around the eyesss. I hope they're not poisssonousss."
Cor gave a thought, though his knowledge of poisonous fish was about as vast as his knowledge of vegetable politics. "Be careful out there, Honey." then he gave a matter some thought. "We should probably consider building a fire to maintain warm and dry anyway."
He turned to the others, "Build a few fires, keep everyone warm and safe. Honey, see what you can scoop up but be back in half an hour if you can."
Honey gave a nod, starting to jog back towards one of the broken down houses for safe entry into the water. The wind buffeted her, sending her staggering and reeling as she moved, but her tail proved invaluable here in keeping her balanced. She knew just as well as Cor did that they didn't have much longer, probably not enough time to really worry about food, but she was just glad for something to do other than sit there and wait for the inevitable - or at least the very probable.
With that in mind she dove into the water. The currents were nastier than before, stronger, but she could still fight them, overpower them, especially since she's had a few moments of rest between being pulled out of the water by Marley and now. With purpose she thrust into the dark, hunting for the fish that she hoped were edible.
One of the security guards kept an eye on the victory in space when all of a sudden she disappeared from the scopes. "Ensign Flaniagan, we have a problem the victory is gone. She's left orbit" One of the guards said to her suddenly and cautiously.
With Honey already in the water, Cordale fielded the guard's concerns. "She's pulling out to another emergency. You know how it is, highest life count takes priority. But... there's a lady on that ship with the biggest... ears... you've every seen. She said they're coming back, so no worries."
"Lieutenant Cordale, here help me with the fire." a few of Mickeys Operation officers had come to assist in anyway Crewmen Donald Hensley, new out of the academy prepared to make a fire with a few phasers as he handed one to him noticing a rock as he set it to warm setting and fired.
Cordale left the other guard after a wink. Hopefully he caught on about the 'ears' comment, and with a chuckle he walked over to the Ops officer. "Good start. Dry out the wood on that warmed rock, then set up a pit and let the wood and such do the rest. Should be some furniture in some of these other rooms we can use. Don't use chairs, though. Break down book shelves or desks. Folks will need chairs." he motioned to the refugees.
Setting the phaser to the lowest possible setting, the emission was hardly more then an aggressive flashlight, but it made a hot spot on the rocks quick enough. "You know, for all it's wonder, there's nothing quick like an actual campfire. We can simulate heat, direct heat, throw fire, but all that science and all that magic... and a campfire still does the trick." he chuckled. "You ever do much camping?" he asked the ops officer.
"Oh, yeah. Before i was transferred i was camping at Yellowstone National Park. It was nice, but this is what i call the adventure of a lifetime beginning anew. But, if i have to die at least i died saving my shipmates" Donald smiled at the lieutenant.
"Yellowstone. You know, I saw a lot of pictures, never saw any yellow stones. Guess they went extinct or something." Cor honestly mused while he started to arrange the dried pieces of wood to start an honest fire. "And hey, no one's dying if I can help it." which was true. Though, as amazing as his skills were, he couldn't construct a heliostabilizer in time.
"I lost my arm in a cave in. Not exactly camping but, well, it was in a cave. I made it out of there." He was leaving out a TON of details, but Donald only really needed to hear the positive parts of this story, right? "And besides, we need to keep up our courage and morale not just for OUR sake, but for their sake too." he motioned with his head to the refugees who were starting to gather around the promise of Dry and Warm. "Hey, who knows a good fireside story? Nothing spooky, though. Donald here scares easy." He motioned to the ops officer. A little riff on him, for the benefit of some of the smiles on the few children that weren't priority beamed out with the first few passes.
"Risk is our Business out here. That's why I joined Starfleet; to explore the unknown. Lieutenant, share your ghost stories. I don't care." The young officer smirked at him.
Cordale returned the smirk, but only on the surface. "Sorry, they're my ghosts." and in the distance, the crack of lightning and the roar of thunder gave Cordale's statement some degree of ominous undertones. Truthfully, it was just eerie timing.
It wasn't too long, about fifteen minutes or so, before Honey returned carrying a number of fish. She had her arms full with them, and some were still alive and weakly struggling. She looked exhausted, with a haunted look in her eyes after all the hard physical work she'd put in, something she really wasn't used to doing in any way. Exhausted, but pleased with her hail.
Marley appeared, "To rough to stay on the roof now. Atmosphere is already tearing itself apart. I have seen tornadoes touch down in a dozen places along the horizon. Also saw a Photon torpedo touch down about a click away. I suspect that is our 'care package'. I could take a team and try and recover it?"
"No, if anyone is going to do it, It will be me," said another officer from Mickey's Team First Class Cadet Peter Mateo. "But, I would need some hands, as I studied the atmosphere, if we don't get underground there will be a radiation coming for us." Mateo said.
"I don't think so. That's why you need us yellow shirts, Cadet" Marley acknowledged. "Ill push, you steer. Two of us should be enough."
"Fair enough, Sir. Sorry i just was speaking out of tone" Mateo said as he let Marley lead the way.
"Lieutenant Cordale, what do you think our time allotted is to get underground before the atmosphere becomes poisonous?" the graduating cadet said to his superior nicely.
"Well for starters, I don't hire on heroes." he motioned towards Mateo. "There's no I in Everyone Works Together." and surprisingly, there actually isn't. "As for getting underground, if there was a cave underneath this building that we could access, then when the water comes in through the walls the cave floods. If it were a series of caverns then we'd be using that as the evac method. As it stands, I could probably build a cave for us to evacuate to in about, oh... six, seven months?" he gave a smirk.
"I think we're as good as we're going to get here. Marley, you and you..." he said pointing at Mateo, "... go recover that supply probe. Who knows what it'll have for us. I'll keep watch on the roof every now and then. Thux aren't as flimsy as other races when it comes to a little radiation."
But this was a hell of a lot more than just a Little Radiation on the way.
Ensign Lopez, one of the security guards had smirked back. He then noted to Lieutenant Cordale. "Actually, from studying the planet and the buildings and everything. There is a basement. It's in the Captains Building. One of civilians said if anything where to happen we would get down there. So there is a chance" Lopez said to the thux giving him another smirk.
"And everything, he says." Cor chuckled to break the grim shadow that had fallen over the group. "*A* basement? Will it hold everyone, or were you planning on heroically standing outside the door, giving the flood and the storm the double deuce?" the Thux asked with a chuckle.
"No. We're staying here. If we move, and we get caught in the heavy stuff to come... no one will make it. If we're in a basement when the waters come, no one will make it."
Then, Cor turned to Honey, and gave a smile, "And you... that's a hell of a haul, excellent. Lets get some of these on spits and roasting up. How bad is it out there?"
"The water'sss becoming nasssty. The animalsss are ssstresssed. The currentsss are very powerful and erratic, the water isss unsssafe." Honey offered, answering the question. Her voice seemed a bit slower and slightly more slurred than usual, her movements as well, slower and more methodical, less fluid.
"Oh, Shit." Lopez said as he sensed something off.
"Hmm?" Honey stared blankly at Lopez for a moment. "Oh. No. Don't worry about me." She spoke, her words still slow. "I'm not warmblooded like you are. And my core isss very cold now. It affectsss my metabolisssm and my higher functionsss. I'll be fine once I'm warmed up." To demonstrate she took Lopez's hand in her two, showing him just how cold she was.
"Cold hand contest, eh?" Cordale submitted his own false limb for but a moment, before he offered his living arm to Honey in the universally recognized 'hug offer' gesture. Cordale was a thick furred being with body heat to spare. He also ranked an 8.6 on the Farnsworth Huggability Scale. Sure it broke protocol somewhere, but protocol be damned at the moment.
The hug answered a little bit more tighly than maybe she had planned to, and to anyone who didn't really know her, Honey would feel frighteningly cold - to the point where one might wonder just how the everliving hell she was still alive, let alone functional and coherent.
The team moved out into the storm. Hail the size of grapefruit was beginning to fall, and there was precious little shelter left. By the time they returned the rest had the fish cooking over a makeshift spit. This was a fishing village, so cooking fish was something the locals excelled at. They quickly identified the best type of fish to eat.
Marley cracked the seal on the torpedo housing as soon as they got it in and looked through the contents.
"Power cells for the generator, emergency rations for a month (though I think I'd prefer the fish), thermal blankets, spare parts, some basic tools. Oh, and a note wishing us luck."
"Good, that should get us to the Captain's Building. There is a basement down there. With any luck we would be able to get this stuff down there and hopefully last it out until were rescued" One of the Nameless security guards noted his opinion
The Thux called the second person over, as well as Ensign Lopez... so he only had to say this once. "And... how many people can this basement hold? Ten? Twenty? Is there adequate drainage for when... not if... when the flood waters come in?" Cor asked a few perfectly reasonable questions. "Do you hear that?" he pointed towards the roof.
Cor perked his own ears upwards to listen to the impacts of hailstones, which sounded less like rain and more like incoming artillery fire. "That hail is as big as your fist, traveling at about 48 meters per second. You passed elementary physics, you know what that'll do to folks. The fact that Marley and company came back at all is a gift." and then without missing a beat, "And if you suggest we use the emptied out torpedo casing as an umbrella..." he just left that to sit.
"Distribute the thermals to those who need them. Keep that structural integrity generator humming, and ... Sit tight. Big Ears said they're coming back. Her people are nothing if not polite."
Cor took in a long breath as he took a spot near the fire. He reached over and put his hand on top of Honey's. "We'll all be home soon." and with that, the Thux started to hum a tune. It was an old Earth tune, mostly because Cordale didn't do as well in his ancient Earth literature classes, but music was the universal language, and he loved a good tune.
(OOC: For the curious, the tune in question is "Winds of Change" by the Scorpions)
The tune joined by Honey's own higher register voice. She sang the words shakily, hissing the s's even as she snuggled up close to Cor and curled up into a softly shaking ball o' Flanagan, closing her eyes.
"Yes, Lieutenant." Lopez heard the noise of the hail and the sound it was making. "But, what's the point in staying here because if we don't band together. divided we fall. I vote we take the civilians to the captain's building and see if we can find any of the other away team members. The captain's building should have adequate power there, then we use the generator. hopefully, it pulls us through. You're right about one thing. I don't think even a basement would be sufficient to protect us. But what's the point if we don't band together." the ensign asked the chief engineer nicely
"Now, now. Lopez there is to be no mutiny here. But, the hospital building is in shambles. Doctor Antos is injured. Who knows if any of the others survived. I say we follow the Advice of Lieutenant Cordale and we hold off here. Unless wait, a homing beacon. If we could send out a signal to any of the surviving away team members, we might have a chance." Donald spoke his opinion. "What do you think Lieutenant?" He asked the thux's opinion of a beacon.
Honey took the question instead. She opened her eyes again and looked at Donald and Lopez. "When the ssship returnsss they expect usss at thisss location. If we go sssomewhere elssse they will have to ssspend time locating usss. There isss already enough sssensssor interference without them having to try and find usss again. And, frankly, I don't believe that the optionsss I've heard mentioned would provide usss enough room for all the people and sssufficient sssurvivability to make up for additional time ssspent by the ssship trying to locate usss."
"What i am saying is Ensign" Lopez said again "If we make a homing beacon for any of the others down here. Or if there is any down here. We pool our resources together. We might have a chance, and that's a risk i am willing to take Ensign. Risk comes part of the uniform. Didn't they teach you that at the academy?" Lopez looked at the equal ranking officer throwing back the question
"Apparently Antos is injured? I don't know how you know this because I haven't heard anything over the comms. The medical complex is about a hundred clicks that way..." Cordale pointed in some random direction away from the ocean. "If we make a beacon to guide him to our location, he dies alone on the trip over."
"The Commander is probably isolated about fifty clicks that way..." Cordale pointed in another direction. "If we attract him to our location with a homing beacon, supposing he can rig a device to read it over this storm, he dies in the trip over, along with his entourage." then he paused, "You remind me of someone back on the ship, you know." he paused to just shake his head.
"Anyone we attract to our location is putting themselves in harms way making the trip. Anywhere we go is a risk. Risk... comes with the uniform. What you are suggesting isn't risk. You're suggesting we leave a safe and secured shelter, fortified against the storm until our brand new fresh batteries wear out... to go walk outside to some building that apparently is becoming better and better the more you talk about it. We don't know if it's still standing, we don't know if the storm has claimed it, and we don't know if we'll survive walking down the block let alone to this genie bottle of a structure." a pause, "We'd have to rig our communicators to build a homing beacon sufficient enough to pierce this storm. An action we are NOT UNDERTAKING because these communicators are the only way anyone will find us." He was silent for a while, staring into the fire. "I've lost family, I've lost friends, and I've lost a limb. You aren't allowed to remind me about risk." Cor said flatly.
"Well, it would be better then for us just to sit here and do nothing. But, there is something you should know. We have rigged the tricorder's to send message's. So, Will play it your way. But, it would be better then just sitting here doing nothing" Lopez sat down and just sighed in frustration. "Lieutenant, what's your course of action on the structural integrity, on the building? Considering the size of the hail we best get away from the windows" Donald was readied to spring into action.
Lopez's inability to see reason had nearly caused Cor to bristle. What was his obsession with rushing out into a storm that was actually destroying unprotected structures? What plan did he have, and why was he only hearing about Tricorders being rigged to send instant messages NOW?!
"Mister Donald, the structural integrity field generator has a fresh pair of power cells." Cor said with an eerie calm, or rather, a forced calm. "Though, make sure that everyone is clear of those windows just in case there's a gap in the integrity field."
"Missster Lopez;" Honey rose to her full unimpressive height, approaching Lopez and looking a bit up at him. "Going out into a killing ssstorm is Not better than sssitting where our ressscuersss know where to find usss, where we have ssshelter and where we have food. Firssst rule of sssurvival, if you want to be ressscued, Be Where Your Resscuersss Expect You To Be." she punctuated each word in that last sentence, the tip of her tail twitching in annoyance and her tongue flicking out restlessly. "Now I will calmly and ressspectfully asssk you to drop the whole 'moving out of the ssshelter into the ssstorm' nonsssenssse, becaussse your inability to simply follow the Lieutenant'sss lead isss upsssetting the colonissstsss."
"He wants to die here." Donald spoke of Lopez. "Well, then die. I'm not going to die, no siree. Nope, i am going to stay calm." Donald said as he began his work. "Lieutenant, if Lopez here want's to die thinking illogically then staying put then let him." He spoke to the Logical reasoning to Cor as he began barricading the windows.
"Sorry to disappoint Lopez, but no one is going out to die." Cor said flatly. "Honey, leave him be." he said, with a little more humanity.
Honey gave a nod, deflating ab bit as she headed back to Cor's side. She was still cold, and so close to what was increasingly looking like the end, really needed a friend. And Cor was the only one here she counted as such.
Donald Barricaded the windows and noticed that the Ensign was cold. So he took out a blanket from the supplies. "Here ensign, this will keep you warm." Donald said as he put a blanket over her and made some tomato soup for her to keep warm.
The gesture helped more than the blanket itself did. Being 'luke-warm' blooded as Honey was she didn't quite produce enough body heat to regulate her own temperature. What she really needed was a warm bath and a solid, hot meal. Still, she gave Donald a soft smile and mouthed a silent 'thank you' as she snuggled into the blanket.
"Anytime, Ensign." Donald went back to the Lieutenant. He then noticed Lopez outside running for his life. "Lieutenant!" Donald said as he saw the storm killed him. "That crazy stubborn son of a bitch. He made his Choice, But for me i think I'll Stay put. Hopefully, we will get out of the alive, Lieutenant Cordale" Donald said as he offered him some coffee. "Drink?" He asked nicely
Cor just gave an idle nod, and accepted the coffee with his mechanical limb. Another life lost, essentially right in front of him, and all he did was sit. Just like Sil, just like Cal. The only difference is they were called, while Lopez apparently either lost his mind... or wanted to prove Cordale wrong.
"Thank you." He said softly, and took a sip. It was terrible, just like his mood had become. He gave a glance over to Honey, and gave his living arm around her shoulders a slight squeeze. "I'd offer you some, but me drinking it for you is me doing you a favor." then he paused. If he was about to go out, it'd be how his brothers would have preferred it.
He turned to look at the masses of huddled refugees, and cleared his throat. "Okay, stop me if you've heard this one. Two fellahs are in a bar, sitting next to each other. One turns to the other and says Oi, you look familiar. The other turns and says I was about to say the same." a beat, "So the first says that he's from Miller street, and the second says Well Damn! Me too!"
"House number six? Me too!" he paused, "Graduated from Collar High. Me Too!"
"Then the bartender looks to his barmaid and says that it's gonna be a long night and she asks why. So then he says ... "
There was a sudden bright glow and the group blinked at the brightness of a cargo bay as it materialized around them.
"... Cause the McCoy twins are drunk again."
What an awkward phrase to lead with on a transport pad.
"What just happened, Cor?" Donald asked his superior officer
"Cargo Bay 3 to Bridge," said a Vulcan in mustard yellow as if he were reporting a standard cargo drop. "We have the last batch."
Three more Vulcans in blue stepped onto the wide Cargo transporter and began to scan the civilians with medical tricorders. The transporter chief stepped up to Cor, who was climbing to his feet, "Lt Cordale? You are on the USS Tesla. We did not have enough room to make much of a difference in evacuating an entire planet, but it seems we have just enough for the few left behind. We have recovered 312, including many but not all of the Victory away teams. If you will follow me, your Captain is debriefing on Deck 1."
