Day 4 - A Destination?

[Sjet]

The main airlock was a riot of activity. Compressors chugged loudly as they rapidly filled in the vacuum chamber of the airlock as fast as was safe. And considering a safety panel had been drawn down over the glass view port on the inner wall, safe was a very flexible word today. The crew on duty worked with the practise of hundreds of hours supervising the border station between vacuum and the 1.1 atmosphere of the ship. They spoke in a cobbled together short hand of English, Russian, a spattering of Albanian with some Arabic tossed in for good measure.

Some situations didn't allow ideas to be translated into a base language first.

Yellow hazard lights began to strobe along the edges of the airlock door as with a hiss it opened, and the work party staggered in carrying their prone comrade in their arms. The on duty crew rapidly began to aid the workers in removing their suits, stowing the cumbersome space garb in their hanging frames. Arkady was the first to begin investigating the suit labeled as WELLS but containing a Svetlana, his hands immediately reaching down and violently twisting the helmet free by main force.

“Get me O2 kit now!” he roared…but no one did anything. They didn’t anything because as soon as the helmet was removed, and Arkady had drawn in a breath to speak his order, his voice had raised a dozen octaves into a high pitched squeak of its former self. He repeated himself, breaking the spell everyone had been under as a face mask and oxygen bottle were handed to him. He pressed the mask to the angular slavic features of Svetlana’s face, squeezing the pressure bulb between mask and gas bottle, forcing the air to flow in and out of her still form.

As he did this the others were quickly disconnecting the Atmo pack from the suit, as well as dismantling it. But they didn’t hang it up, instead placing it in a corner so as no one would even think to try and put it back on.

After a few squeezes of the air bottle Arkady reached a now gloveless hand into the neck ring of the woman suit, pressing fingers against the side of her neck. He then removed the bottles mask from her face, and oddly enough opened her jaw and looked into her mouth. He then sagged slightly, a smile on his lips.

“She has been visited by the tooth fairy.” he said, a sudden wave of relaxation going through the airlock team. Working in space was dangerous, and in some cases borderline suicide: touch the wrong thing, pull on the wrong tether, and you could end up drifting through space for all eternity with only five minutes of air in your tank. Most spacers took the precaution of having a special tooth fitted, like the old spies of Earths three civil wars of the 20th century. The contents of that tooth could be any number of things, from painless poisons to strong sedatives. Most went for sedatives that would force their bodies into coma like states, reducing their air in take and energy needs to help prolong their air.

Svetlana must have figured she was in trouble, and unable to fix that problem or call for help, so she’d given herself the best odds for being alive at the end of it.

“Take that Atmo pack to pieces!” Arkady snapped, his voice now back to normal as he tossed the helmet to another tech “And the suits comm gear to! I want to know what the hell happened!”

This could all have been an accident, just a series of unfortunate events. But a suits Atmo pack back filling a suit with helium gas, and then the comm system going down…

He looked down at the chest piece of the suit that Svetlana was still wearing, and the embroidered WELLS name patch prominently displayed above the left breast. If this was an accident of chance, then it was a accident designed to befall one person in particular. Someone had just tried to kill Wells, and in doing so nearly killed one of Arkadys spacers.

There was a murderer onboard the Horizon.

TAG-All who want to arrive at the tail end, or who went to appear half way through.

Arkady Sjet
Ships Physician
USS Horizon

[Melissa Richards]

[Amanda Rose]

[Sjet]

Arkady looked up from where he was knelt next to Svetlana, noticing Gary’s without to much hue and cry. He then looked to one of the spacers and spoke in short hand Russian a brusk statement. The few words he spoke saw the other spacers leave the air lock chamber, whilst the medics took the unconscious and shallow breathing form of Svetlana and took her out on a stretcher. Arkady slowly stood up, still dressed in half a space suit, and slowly wandered over to one corner of the wall. In that corner, nestled into the corner like a benevolent spider, the glass dome of one of the many security cameras on the ship glowed. Arkady reached up, hand pressing over the dome, and gave it a hard twist so the little dome came free with all of its wires.

“Close the door.” Arkady said slowly, nodding to the hatch Gary was still standing in “This is conversation for privacy.”

Gary watched Arkady carefully. He was not threatening anything and that was positive. The fact that he wanted to talk privately rather than make a mess of a meeting like at the Chief’s meeting, also implied that Arkady was recovering from his momentary madness.

“We could have met privately elsewhere,” Gary told Arkady. “No need to deactivate equipment. But what’s done is done. Will she be alright?”

“Svetlana is big girl, she bit her tooth in time to slow down her body's metabolism to a point where she could stand the oxygen deprivation. Sedative will take time to leave her system, worse effect will be headache I imagine. No worry.” Arkady set the detached camera on a shelf and then walked back to the dismantled space suit with its misleading name patch “But this thing, this thing worries me immensely.”

He reached past the chest plate of the suit and tossed the wrist guard to Gary. On the gloves wrist band there was a large flexible screen, the sort of big button affair ideally suited for use with space suit gloves. All the readouts looked normal: pressure, atmosphere mix, other consumable levels.

“You see problem?” Arkady asked with a raised eyebrow.

Gary inspected all the readouts and gave the matter some thought. “It appears that someone must have switched the oxygen tank for something else. Otherwise the readings would be off.”

“Gold star.” the Russian nodded, before turning the chest peice of the suit over and inspecting the back “Suit was filled with Helium when we cracked the helmet off. Only helium in space suit is in heat exchanger for atmosphere pump. Both are closed systems but…”

He found what he had been looking for, turning the suit towards Gary and showing the intestinal mesh of small pipes and wires that ran between the back of the suit and the suits atmosphere back. It all looked pretty standard, except there appeared to be a knot buried in the mix. Instead of the smooth mesh of cooling vanes that kept the suit from boiling its occupant, there was a connection between the smaller vanes and the larger ribbed piping.

“See? Small enough to leak the helium into the air mix without changing the temperature as super cool helium meets gaseous oxygen. Is smart way.” he pointed a finger at the helmet “If we take to pieces we will find short in communications system. Something designed to go off after a little time so as to make sure who ever was wearing the suit got outside and away from the air lock.”

“All of this.” he said, spreading his arms out to indicate the ruined suit “Is deliberate. Svetlana is trained EVA specialist, handpicked from the Jupiter Yards for the Horizon mission. Like any long time spacer she had dental work to install a failsafe in case she had to sleep for rescue, or for relief. Does Wells, who I had invited to help with the work out side...does she have that same dental work I wonder?”

“The only person that would know that, is you, Arkady. After all, you’re the medical officer on this boat,” Gary said smartly. “So, the question is, why did you do it? Are you trying to set up a situation where you’re the hero? Trying to show how others might react? What do you gain out of this, Arkady. Because I’m really not humored by it.”

Arkady frowned, and for a moment was struck temporarily stupid by Gary’s statement.

“What?” he spat, if only to make sure he understood the true level of moron he was dealing with.

“You were threatening mutiny in the Chief’s meeting. Practically put yourself on a pedestal to be the next ‘kip’tin’ of the Horizon. We have never had a morale problem on this ship until we accidentally ended up in this galaxy. Then, you, for reasons unknown, invite Mary out to an EVA, not to mention that she’s the Commander and in charge of YOU.”

He paused before continuing. “So, to show the threat to myself, which you warned of, you created this scenario and did it in such a way that nobody would get injured because you knew the perfect person for this particular assignment.”

Gary sighed. “I thought you were smarter than that, Arkady. I had really hoped that you merely spoke in anger and were not going to continue the nonsense.”

“I am trying, very hard, to remember you are ‘captain’.” Arkady said through grinding teeth, deliberately pronouncing Gary’s title as clearly as his accent allowed. He slowly stood, giving the chest plate of Wells suit a light kick with his own boot “You are right to say that I spoke my mind at the Chief meeting, not to preach mutiny but to preach understanding for our new reality. I will not go over my words as you’re clearly have heard them in your own way. But I do not want to be captain, that is why I bring this to you in private.”

He slowly let out a breath through his teeth, gritting them only at the end.

“I invite Wells out onto the hull so that she could be seen helping, not from a science console on the bridge, but from the gutter with everyone else. The men and women of the non commissioned ranks appreciate seeing officer get their hand dirty, it brings you down from your high and mighty Olympus on deck one.” Arkady said with a raised glance towards the bridge “But she turned me down, was very polite. When I got here they had prepared her suit and we needed a fresh hand on the hull. Svetlana and Wells share similar measurements.”

Now Arkady kicked out hard, booting the chest of tampered space suit a few feet forward.

“I bring you proof that one of us, one of the crew we both wish to protect, was nearly murdered!” he snarled, his voice fully engaged in a roar of fury “If it had been Wells she would have died out there! I bring you this proof, I lay it at your feet, and you claim it is my own hand at work!”.

“Arkady, I have known you for a long time. You think I am stupid? What is the best way to disclaim that you are a perpetrator? You commit the offense and then turn it in claiming someone else did it. Somehow, though, you know everywhere to look and what to look for. You knew that she did not have a special tooth to save her and that Svetlana did. That is a classic ploy for proving ‘innocence.’ So, you should be able to appreciate my skepticism.”

He maintained his calm demeanor but raised his right hand and pointed his index finger in the air. “Now, let us assume for the sake of argument that everything that you are telling me is true. First, we don’t know that we can’t get back and Mary’s trying her damnedest to figure out a way, even at the very risk of us all dying. I personally think, as you know, that it is impossible and I will not risk everyone’s life on a guess.

Second, if this was not you, then it was someone who certainly listens to you an awful lot. I would suggest one of your war buddies who wants to live in the past. Regardless, I would suggest that you figure it out quickly and quietly and make sure that whomever did it understands that it will not happen again.

Third, it is not your choice to tell Mary what to do. Mary clearly has a very different style of commanding than the rest of the crew is used to with me. As you know, *I DO* exactly what you are suggesting and have been since I took command because I don’t want to lose touch with the crew or appear unapproachable. Of course, there is the fact that I still enjoy engineering….”

Gary sighed and took a deep breath. “Worse, Mary’s starting to carry a phaser on her person. She’s feeling the pressure and it is going to get her and/or someone else killed. This has to stop. The increasing of tension has to stop and stop now. You started some of this. You need to help quench it and now.”

“Don’t do this.” Arkady said in a voice that was more of a whisper “Don’t do this thing. I am trying to help you. To guide to in this. You are right, the idea of returning home is fantasy: much as the idea that this is Starfleet ship is fantasy. They crew of human beings, now all alone with no way to go home. They need us.”

He pointed to the damaged space suit.

“They do not need this. The person who did this is scared, is terrified: if I find them I will bring them to you. You must be seen dealing with this problem in a way that will deter any other action. You are captain. The only difference now is there is no board of inquiry to back up your rank. Respect, honor, and friendship will determine any of your ranks now.” he let his voice become softer again “You brought me out of a very dark place back in Sol, you gave me second chance on the Horizon. I owe you my life, twice over now. Do not make me choose between this crew and yourself. Do not make your enemy brother.”

“I have no desire to make you my enemy. And everything you just said is true. You were right to say that people needed hope and I gave as much as I could in my speech. I’m still listening, Arkady,” he said putting a hand on the doctor’s shoulders. “But it is hard when everyone is shouting.”

He paused and looked Arkady straight in the eye, trying to bore into his soul. “You say you did not do it. Fine. I believe you. But we need to determine who did and we need to find any like-minded souls and dissuade them immediately. A ship that does not stand together has its crew die alone in many ways.”

“And if I find this person, when I find this person.” Arkady said levelly “What would you do with them?”

“Honestly, right now, I do not know. We need every person on this ship to be useful. We are all that we have left as far as we know of the human race. I could stick a person in the brig indefinitely. That is what Starfleet law would provide as I would have to get them to a Starbase for trial. Unfortunately, that is not likely. So, we will have to consider creative solutions. Obviously, if the person can be redeemed, perhaps there would be a way that said person could work off their offense.”

“So the price of a life is...hard labor at the Captain's discretion?” Arkady said slowly.

“It is either that, the brig indefinitely, or death. If you have a better solution, I am listening. Obviously, there would have to be a tracking device locked on, as well. Trust has been broken.”

Arkady said nothing but stepped around Gary and opened the door.

“We both have work to do.” he said simply, gesturing to the now open hatch “And I need to get back into a ship suit.”

TAG-Anyone who walks by and finds Gary leaving.

A JP by Arkady and Gary: who I just realised are playing the roles of Londo and G'kar in this universe.

[Ciara Mei]

Jai sighed and finished up the sensors she'd been working on. Only thing left to do was to check the external arrays for further damage.

"Ma'am," she called out to Ci, "I'm headed out for some air, I'll check in with the crew working on the arrays. Want anything while I'm out?"

Ciara nodded to Jai and figured that the Captain was just busy and couldn’t answer what she’d said. That was fine. She finished up some notes on her own PADD and decided that some air was the best thing to do, especially if she wanted to get away from the eyes in stellar cartography.

Stepping through the door after she finished everything, Ci started walking along the corridors until she nearly ran into the Captain. It was a good thing she looked up when she did, else she would have. He seemed a bit distracted, and she had no idea what had been happening or what he was doing there.

Frankly, she had no idea what she was doing there either. She’d let her feet guide her as she read over all the power levels on the sensors. How she’d gotten down here, she wasn’t really sure.

“Oh! I’m sorry, Captain!”

Whether he even noticed her, Ci wasn’t sure. He seemed extremely distracted and might not at that point.

Tag: Capt, anyone else down there.

[KendleRJ]

Kat's rounds had taken her further than she liked to go, and with the tension on board the ship at a dizzying height, she was going nowhere without proper precautions. Her shoulder had healed nicely; only a bruise that was fading fast and full mobility of it without any undue lingering pain. Her PADD in her hand clasped tightly as always, she wore a sidearm when wandering the lower decks. She wanted to check on the crew; make sure they put a face to what could easily be considered an authority that might be removed from them far too much to reach out and help.

They had been mourning the loss of their colleagues, their friends, and considering where they were in the Galaxy, probably mourning the loss of their connection to home. Kat was no leader, but she was a compassionate and concerned person, first and foremost. She wanted to at least connect with the crew and let them know that they weren't alone in this. Not at all. She was certain that others might have already made such an impression, but that wasn't out of her jurisdiction to at least try to connect with the people they would be with for the rest of their lives. Closing her eyes for a moment, she breathed in the air, tasting less fresh and more like fear with each inhalation. But it wasn't hers. It was as though the ship was exuding such an odour, and she pressed her back against the corridor wall as though to protect herself from anyone who might happen by, and get it into their head to take their frustrations out on Bridge personnel.

So, when she heard the commotion, it was less about the survival and more about the curiosity. She kept her shoulders against the wall, using one hand to scan the PADD for communications and watched everything unfold on the security cleared connection in some surprise. What had happened she could only assume, and whatever was to come would be far too widespread to make any assumptions about. That a spacewalk had occured was quite clear, and she had no confirmation order that authorised such a thing. Even more disconcerting? It seemed that there was a near fatality... something odd about suits it seemed to indicate from preliminary reports. She would have to monitor Sickbay and the crewman's status, but this had superceded her intended visit to Engineering. Sighing, she turned on her heel and slid back down the corridor before entering the turbolift and heading back to the upper levels.

Which had been fortuitous since tempers had been running a little high, and a pretty Yeoman from the Bridge, especially one associated with the Captain, might taste especially sweet after they had all lost everything. Blame was a commodity that was easily transferred from one unsuspecting host to the next, and anyone might be a target. Had Kat remained a little longer, she might have realised that she was instead the mouse, and possible prey for those that needed to find an outlet for their building anger and hatred.

Kat hadn't realised she'd been holding her breath all the way to the turbolift. How close she had come to a repeat performance of her last visit, no one might truly know. But there was one good thing that might have come from this... she wouldn't be venturing below decks alone again. No matter how much training she had been doing...

Tags Bridge

[Amanda Rose]