Engineering Relief

Posted on Wed Oct 19th, 2016 @ 3:44am by Commander Bertrand Cuprum & Commander Cor Cordale

Mission: Smoke and Mirrors
Location: Andras VI, Mine 15

The Andrasi colony had been going for around 200 years now. This was plenty of time to have built a well established culture and infrastructure. However, the colony has remained small and clustered around a number of large mining facilities. The main city has been positioned as a central hub to all of the mines and so it made sense for the majority of the relief effort to be centred there, with wounded being shipped in.

By the time the Engineering team from the USS Victory arrived it had been three days since the disaster hit. Though the mines were all located some distance from the city, they all seemed to have been effected to some extent. Thankfully there were no reports of trapped miners, but teams were being needed to investigate each mine for structural integrity.

It was decided that the Starfleet Engineers should start with Mine 15, the one closest to the city.

Cordale and his team arrived on site along with their various relief packages, which included power cells and various communication and resource treatment units. Purification, temporary shelters, and the like. Half of the team started to set up the various pieces of equipment while the rest, which included the Thux, headed to investigate the mines directly.

"I haven't been in a cave since I was a kid." one of the team, a human named Mitch, said in a hush, though Cordale shook his head, "A cave's not a mine."

"What's the difference, sir?" that same engineer asked. "A cave is a naturally occurring hole in the ground, filled with wonder and dread, where people want to explore and see what a world without sunlight looks like. A mine is a gash torn into the world, filled with nothing but regret and hurt."

"Ever been in a mine, sir?" Mitch asked. Cordale just gave the naive engineer a smile and put the heavy weight of his prosthetic limb on his shoulder.

"Once."

The look on Mitch's face said it all. The rest of the trip to the mine site was spent in silence, with the team having found a bit of new respect for their acting Chief. Upon arrival at the site the team started to head towards the primary shaft when one of the engineers pointed to a ridge, "Sir! Movement!" and all eyes were up on the ridge.

"Where?" asked one, "Negative on visual." came another. Whatever it was it wasn't there now. "Keep your eyes peeled. Let's go." remarked the Thux as everyone relaxed. That is, until they actually came to the entrance itself. Cor put his prosthetic hand against the rock, to 'feel' the stone and get a feel for the structure.

That's the lie he'd tell everyone later. Right now, he heard picks. He heard whips. He heard applause.

"Sir?" one of his team snapped him from his nightmare, and Cor just gave a nod. "Testing the structure. Seems fine so far, but keep on your toes. A cave-in can sneak up on you." he advised, from solid experience. With the trip down Nightmare Lane ready, Cordale took his first tentative step past the threshold, and back into the swallowing expanse of a mine shaft. It felt odd to him. Familiar in a terrifying sense. Like slipping on an old pair of boots that were filled with mice.

"Sir." Cordale's comm badge chirped, which helped root him in the here and now. "Cordale here, go ahead."

"Sir, we're experiencing a slight equipment malfunction in one of the tricorders." the basecamp reported.

Cordale gave the matter a moment's thought, trying to remember what the expected failure rate of Federation Tricorders was. "Hmmm, power cycle it, and then see if that clears the matter. Unless you just won the Tricorder lottery. Failure rate on those things is one point two million to one. Keep me posted, we're heading into the new mine now." even SAYING the word felt greasy. The Thux and one of his engineering team, Anderson, continued their inspection while the others branched off into the rest of the complex. Wherever they went they found solid construction, for the most part. Though, as Cordale went deeper and deeper, that prickly feeling along the back of his neck got worse and worse.

One of the side shafts along the path was blocked off due to a collapse. The Thux went to go investigate, and then found he had stepped in something.

'Hold him steady'

'Go get the hooch'

The rock was stained red, wet with blood from the collapse. It pooled around his feet, staining the world as it gushed from the collapse. He had to get loose. He had to...

"Sir?" Anderson put a hand on his living shoulder to break him from the vision. No blood, no pools, no voices. "Are you alright?"

Cordale shook his head as he stood back up. "No, but I'm okay to go on. Let's get this inspection over with. This place is starting to give me the creeps."

Anderson gave a nod, "Yeah, not a big fan myself. Never catch me dead working in a place like this... who would even oversee an opera-"

"Please don't use that word." Cor interrupted as he started back on the inspection. "No harm intended, I know. Just, please. Not here." to which Anderson gave a nod and a silent apology. He hadn't seen the boss this wound up in a while. He knew that the Thux had a rough history but out of respect not many people ever asked. It seemed that history was catching up with him, or rather, he was being forced to relive it accidentally.

"I thought I asked you not to use that word down here." Cor said, with a gruff tone but Anderson just held a hand up, "Sorry sir, but I haven't said anything in the past few minutes. Just running the inspection."

"Well if it wasn't you then who..." as the pair entered into a larger side chamber all the Thux could see were his own kind. More Thux like him, sitting and listening to a short figure in too-expensive clothes and with too-big ears. He heard this announcement a thousand times before, replayed over and over whenever he closed his eyes. Letters from other mines that never existed, applause with nothing behind it, and two names being read off for promotion.

Sil... and Cal...

He watched them stand again, but this time he wasn't helpless like he was then. The Thux darted forward, hand out to grab that little monster of a Ferengi by the neck and twist like a soft drink top. He'd save his family, he'd free his people, he'd...

He fell face first to the hard stone floor, now vacant except for himself and Anderson, who was laying on top of him. Having thrown the Thux to the ground, and now restraining him as best as one could. "Sir! Whatever it is, snap out of it!"

"They were there! All of them! I was going to save them... I was going to free them... I was..." Cor went from a yell to a whisper over the course of seven words. Though, his companion through all this had different truths. "You were going to fall, sir. That's an eighty meter drop." and Cordale looked up to see that, hardly two meters from where he was knocked down there was a chasm. Which explains why this route wasn't dug out more. A sheer drop into the engulfing blackness that only could exist where caves and mines were concerned.

"What did you see, sir?" Anderson asked, but didn't loosen the hold in any way. "I .. I saw the worst day of my life, just played in front of me like a holoroom." Cordale said through shut eyes. If he didn't look, he wouldn't see. But he could hear.

He heard the whips. He heard the groan of minecarts, the whirr of drills, the clang of picks and hammers. He heard hundreds of Thux talking, to the point where it was all just a murmur. He heard Ferengi, he heard more about the rules of acquisition than he ever wanted to hear. He heard it all, a lifetime's worth between every beat of his heart.

"I've called for a medic, sir." Anderson held the Thux down, then leaned down while he muttered, "You're off to a new mine, One One Five. Profit for everyone."

And that's when the thrashing and squirming started. Most restraining holds work on standard humanoids, but they rarely take into account tails or enhanced flexibility, two traits Cordale was quite proud of. Anderson was tossed to the ground next to the Thux with a thud, courtesy of that thick tail and within a moment the Thux was almost upon him. A heavy prosthetic hand held Anderson to the ground while a balled fist rose up to pummel him to within an inch of his life. Teeth flared, eyes narrowed, every strand of fur raised... the civilized chief was gone, replaced with a bipedal animal. A predator, and the one that would end this little Overseer's life and free his people.

There was a hiss, like a snake. Then everything went blurry. The Overseer was gone, evaporated into so much mist and haze. Replacing him was the approximate outline of one Anderson Simmons, a rather decent unicorn with an appreciation for wandering coffee and peppermint hand grenades. Someone tell that rabbit to stop making so much noise, it was starting to hurt his teeth.

The loopy Cordale hit the ground with a soft thud. Behind him, one of the survey team had gotten Anderson's message. In his hand was a hypospray.

"That's three times the normal dose. What the hell happened?" Anderson's rescuer asked. "Officially? Something caused the Chief to trigger some form of hallucination and had to be restrained." with help, Anderson stood, "Unofficially, I think too much of this reminded him of something terrible, and he held out as long as he could. C'mon, lets get him topside."

"Agreed..." and the pair started to haul Cordale back up to the surface. "What do you think ticked him off while you were holding him down?"

"Beats me. Must have been something bad." Anderson mentioned as they brought the Chief up topside.

"Thing is," the medic told Anderson as He strained under the Thux, "This is not the first call like this we've got this morning. One of the miners started firing his weapon at the support beams, and one of our ensigns began to rant about all the Cardassian voles."

"I think the Romulans are trying some experiment here," Anderson theorized.

"Romulans?" the medic looked askance at him.

"Yeah," Anderson continued as they approached the opening of the mine. "I did a tour along the Romulan Neutral Zone a number of years ago and they have this cloak tech. I reckon they have a cloaked base in the mine and are affecting anyone who gets too near. I mean you saw those wall panels, right? Definitely Romulan."

"Wall pan... I mean... yes, of course," the medic responded carefully. "Nearly at the surface now. I think someone should compile and report all these findings to the CO."

"I'll trust you with my report. When the Chief comes to, get his report and then file it with the CO. They need to hear about this." Anderson said in a hush. The Medic merely nodded, as though everything Anderson was saying made perfect sense. Though, if Anderson was this crazy, and the Thux needed to be restrained AND sedated...

The CO needed to hear about this.

Once Anderson and the medic got Cor to the basecamp, Anderson gave his full report. Romulan cloaked bases, wall panels and observation nodes. Classic paranoia mixed with the standard conspiracy theory delusion. After convincing Anderson that a full report would indeed be made, and that 'heads would roll', he dismissed the Engineer and waited for Cordale to gently come around. It was usually easier to let them wake up groggy and tired than wake them with a stimulant and get them all agitated.

Cordale eventually did come to, with a monster headache and limbs that weighed forty pounds each. "Owww... my head." he grumbled, and the Medic was right next to him on that. "You're on the surface, you're safe." he reassured the Thux. "Please, tell me what happened?"

To the best of the Thux's ability, he recalled the events that happened down in that mine. Not any other mine. Just that one. "No Romulan observation posts?" the Medic asked with as straight a face as he could muster, to which Cordale responded with an odd look. "Just clarifying all accounts."

"No. Nothing Romulan. Where'd that come from?" Cordale asked, and the medic explained Anderson's account. Cor thought for a moment, then laid his head back down to stop the pulse that wanted to just break out of his skull. "You're the most level headed out of all of us, on account that you didn't enter that damn mine. Send that whole report up to the Captain. Until we know more, no one goes into that den of nightmares."

"Aye sir. Do you want something for that headache before I send the report?" the medic asked, but Cor shooed him away. "Not right now. Right now, this headache is the most real thing I've felt in the past two hours. Let me just... be miserable for a few minutes." and despite a shake of his head, the medic on duty complied. He'd deal with the Thux after appraising the CO of the current situation.