Part of USS Mariner: M3: Let Loose the Beast of War and Bravo Fleet: Labyrinth

9) Pick Your Poison

Unknown Location
September 2401
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A gasp of air, a heavy breath out, a pain emitting from somewhere that is surging through her body. Silina's blurry vision became clear, her hands grabbing to the source of her pain. Her hands slid over the metal piece that had impaled her as her eyes looked down at it, seeing the blood bubbles floating around. Gravity was not working in this section? It made sense now that her wound was not hurting as much as gravity would be at her disadvantage. She tried to remember what had happened, but her canvas memories were painted blank.

Silina tried to move, but the pain made her groan and look up. It was only then that she noticed a female body floating there. “Scott…” She remembered slightly that Lieutenant Scott and herself were here to gather samples. “Scott…” She struggled to talk as her muscles reacted to her speaking, even in its smallest way. The situation was dire, and she didn't know what had happened or the condition of the rest of the ship and the crew. But right now, her concern was the floating body of the Chief Science Officer “SCOTT,” she managed to get out.

The body slowly reacted and moved slightly as a gasp of air came from it. Suto opened her eyes and rubbed them, feeling the pressure of a headache pounding her head. “Ahh, I seem to suffer from a beginning stadium of cephalalgia,” Suto muttered as she pressed her finger on her template, rubbing it. It was only then that she noticed that there were fluids on it; she looked at her finger and saw the dark red color of her blood on it. “Ahh, it seems I have sustained damage from whatever happened.” She looked downwards, hearing her name again, and saw Silina pinned and in worse condition. “Ah, Commander, you seem in distress.” 

Looking dryly up at Scott, “What made you say that…” Silina coughs and growls from the pain, “The blood or the metal piece in my body?” She added sarcastically, “Get the medical kit….I believe it is …” She looked around, still unsure where she was. Had she lost too much blood as it is?  She felt light in her head and took another deep breath. "It's somewhere here, Scott."

Suto carefully looked around. “I believe the warp cell doesn't have one…” She pushed herself to the side to grab a grip and tried to climb to find the requested item. 

“The warp cell…right, we went there to collect your samples from there,” Silina concluded the missing parts of her memories. “It 's right there,” Pointed weakly in the direction of a cabin that was mounted on the wall. “You can access it,” She mentioned weakly.

Opening the pointed cabin, she blinked and saw the medical gear in it. She grabbed it and pushed herself toward the wounded Commander. “Ma'am, here you go…” She reached out the medical kit toward Silina.

Looking back at her, “You …don't know how to use that?” Silina was confused for a moment.

“I am a scientist, Commander. I didn't learn medical skills, as they seem …irrelevant to my learning process of becoming who I am today. I am no doctor, but I can conclude by visual that you do require medical attention, Commander.” Suto blinked, still reaching out with the medical kit to Silina.

Feeling the urge to roll her eyes, she grabbed the kit and softly nodded to herself. “You will need first aid stat after this, Lieutenant.” Silina started the diagnosis on herself as she looked at Suto. “Go figure out what our current condition is, Lieutenant. We kind of need more medical attention, you know.” She sighs and continues her first aid, trying to figure out how to do this on herself. 

Suto blinked a few times and nodded, “That does make sense, Commander.” She pushed herself off and searched for any given explanation of their current situation. The entrance was blocked, and the lights were red. The panel was not very functional and showed that it was unable to open. Suto shrugged as she looked at another barely functional panel and tapped carefully and patiently on it. “Getting shipwide information….we are currently in warp cell two, oh…” 

Her eyes rose from the tricorder when Suto replied, “Oh?” Silina's head turned to the side.

“It seems that our engine, where we are currently located, is splintered from the main ship.” Suto looked at the panel, where a clear indication of red showed the separation of the long warp cell. Then, she directed her attention to the Commander. “It seems that communications are also down.” 

How could Scott be so calm? They were stranded and separated from their crew, and her medical sense of emergency was also not helping. “Must be the Vulcan part…” she muttered to herself and shook her head slightly, flabbergasted by the response.

“Excuse me?” Suto responded and looked back at the panel, tapping on it.

“Nothing….are you able to fix the communications or at least send some sort of SOS to the rest of the ship?” Silina felt what would be following up and focused her energy on her body to stop the bleeding to a certain degree. 

Shaking slowly, she said, “No, ma'am, I am a scientist, not an engineer. However, I can try to figure out where we are…the camera seems to be working.” Suto managed to get the cameras functional and operational and saw large pieces of debris and parts of the Mariner hull. The ship was in good condition and was barely holding together. “The Mariner looks quite beaten up, so we must stick around here for now. Until you feel better, do you feel better?” Suto looked at Silina.

Rolling her eyes again at the non-engineering part, Silina meanwhile managed to pull out the metal piece, seal the wound, and minimize her bleeding. But she was far from out of the woods. This needed a trained medical opinion and treatment. But for now, it would have to do. “I am …for now, okay, but I require medical attention. Can you figure out where we are?” 

Taking a deep breath and looking at the screen would be difficult, as most scanning equipment was in the main part of the Mariner, not here. But she could briefly observe what she saw and use her knowledge. The area's gold-brown glow, the violent storms visible in the distance, and the parts that were flying gave her no direct answer to the question that the Commander desired. Suto eyes, however, stopped at the formation of a circle-shaped wormhole that appeared but as quickly also disappeared; it made her blink and look away as she thought.

“Well?” Silina asked as she took a breather from the pain that she managed to sedate for now. She looked at Suto, who was lost in her thoughts. “Scott, talk to me…” 

She raised a finger and looked at the Commander. “It seems we got some characteristic features; it doesn't point me to identify as to where we are or what we had to deal with. Because I lack a sensor, my visual observation currently is that we are dealing with a subspace that is highly violent and full of drifting obstacles." Suto thinks for a moment and looks again at the camera feed. “But what I believe is that it is somehow a travel pathway?” 

“Travel pathway?” Silina repeated with a slight blink of her eyes, looking puzzled at her Chief Science, “So we got dragged into an anomaly that captured us in a violent location where the ship is currently disabled, and we are cut off from the main ship?” To sum up, their current problem. 

“That is a crude way to explain it, but a correct one,” Suto confirmed the Commander's thoughts on their situation. “Oh, and it seems that we are losing life support on this part of the compartment; the system states we have, but only 8 hours until our oxygen is depleted. So, Commander, I urge you to devise an engineering solution to get out of here and back to the ship.” Suto calmly stated and continued, “That is, if they don't have the same problem, if so, then we have a bigger problem.” 

Looking confused at Scott “A true scientist heh…now I have seen everything.” Silina knew this would lie on her shoulders now and moved carefully to Suto's position, seeing the data with her own eyes. “I bet we can make it over there…if only we had an EVA suit.” 

“Actually, that would be a suicide run for both of us. Even with the EVA suit, we would be exposed to harsh conditions. I don't know if that would be worth the risk,” Suto shrugs a bit.

Looking at Scott, she said, “It's either that or we die without any oxygen. As we humans would say, pick your poison.” She pushed herself from the panel and went deeper into the engine to find anything that could help them return to their ship. 

Comments

  • Oh dear, now that was harrowing. You really put the reader in Silina's shoes -- or should I say metal impalement? I guess doctor's really do make the worst patients, or the best in this case. There was a certain irony in Silina being surprised by Scott's calm demeanour, when Silina's CMO days allowed her to so smoothly diagnose her own self. I liked the locked room mystery of it all, with Scott and Silina deducing their exactly location, condition and the state of the ship. They'll really need their combined ingenuity to get out of this one!

    June 22, 2024
  • Vulcan logic rules again! They can both be the best and the worst sort of people to get stuck with. Silina and Suto are both in a tricky situation, eight hours can go very quickly. Great work.

    June 24, 2024
  • This chapter is packed with tension and urgency, and I think you've done a great job of immersing the reader in the dire situation that Silina and Suto find themselves in. The opening scene is vividly described, especially with the gravity not functioning and blood bubbles floating around. It really got across the reality of the disarray and danger of their situation. The interaction between Silina and Suto is great. I loved the contrast between Silina's pain-driven sarcasm and frustration and Suto's calm, almost clinical demeanor. You really captured Silina's pain and desperation well, making it to empathize with her. Overall, this chapter is a strong mix of action and emotion, setting up a perilous situation for Silina and Suto. I hope they both survive okay. Great work! Keep it up!

    June 25, 2024
  • Right after reminding us of Ruslanovna, from the perspective of Kobahl, then you chuck us into her dire situation - and oh is it dire! Excellent job here bringing us into her moment. Dark, oh so dark, but the addition of Scott added just enough levity to keep the post moving without dragging us down into complete darkness. Cannot fathom how Kobahl will react if the worst happens here, but still rooting for them to find a way out.

    June 25, 2024
  • I love this story and I think the way you did the situation with the doctor shows how the doctors really do seem to be the worst of patients. The way you showed the contrast in their demeanors yet wrote it in such a good way to connect to I really appreciated it. Thought they don't get along the fact that they need to build on each other to get out of this situation will be an interesting thing to see!

    June 25, 2024