Last Man Standing

Posted on Tue Jan 22nd, 2019 @ 6:14pm by Ka'see 'Cassie' Anderson (*) & Jasper Offermans & Chief Helmsman Eden Bowers & Ryder Bray & Chief Operations Kendra McIntyre

Mission: Ishimura
Location: USS Ishimura
Timeline: 2246
2296 words - 4.6 OF Standard Post Measure

Johnathen ran through the corridor as if his life depended upon it. For it indeed did. The Cloud Creature had killed nearly every member of the Ishimura crew. There were, in fact, only a handful left. Everything that had been tried to either stop, slow or kill the creature had failed. Now, what crew had survived to this point, began to fill the lifeboats and shuttles, hoping that by heading in multiple directions, the Cloud wouldn't be able to follow them all. Someone would survive.

Johnathen was actually on his way down to the shuttlebay, to fly one of the shuttles himself. Of the entire roster of pilots assigned to the Ishimura, only two remained, himself and Lieutenant Venkman. Venkman would fly the Marco Polo, filled with the surviving injured. Johnathen would pilot the Sawyer, with as many crew as she could carry.

As Johnathen approached the door to the shuttlebay, he allowed himself to hope that they might just make it out of here alive. That was when he heard the screams. They came from inside the shuttlebay. He knew exactly what those screams meant. The Cloud had found them and was feasting upon their blood. Johnathen hesitated briefly, his training trying to get him to help any he could. Unfortunately, none of his training had prepared him for this creature. So, instead, he turned and ran back the way he came, as fast as his feet would carry him.

As he turned down the corridor leading to the turbolift on this deck, he collided with someone and the both of them went down in a pile.

Cassie let out a scream as she was sent flying from someones much bigger weight. Her companions didn't even have time to warn her that it wasn't anyone bad when she started hitting out. It was ironic that she was fighting when she couldn't have fought It but she wasn't going to be sucked dry without a fight.

Quickly getting back to his feet, Johnathen reached down and helped his friend get back to her feet. "OHMYGOD! CASS! I'm Sorry! But we have got to get out of here!! The Cloud is in the shuttlebay! Everyone inside is dying! Move!" The young pilot herded the group away from the immediate danger as quickly as he could.

Cassie let the man haul her up and tug her in the direction that was needed to be gone in. It was incredible to her how quick everything had happened.

Eden came screeching to a halt just behind the others. She was breathing so hard from running that she could barely ask, "The shuttle bay? Where isn't it? Is there any hope?" It was stupid to dwell on anything but the next move but she couldn't help it. Her career had been fairly routine until this point. She'd never experienced fear like this before.

The group rushed to the nearest turbolift. It wasn't far but it caused Cassie to bend over a little trying to catch her breath as they waited for the Turoblift to get them to the correct deck. The startling reality of what was happening was starting to hit her front and centre as the silence of the turbolift started to get surreal.

Jasper slid into the lift as out of breath as the rest. The sleeves on his uniform tunic had stained brown and there were shiny spots on the legs of his pants from numerous burns and bruises, the results of his efforts to figure out how to catch the nemesis. Scrapes were visible on his face and his hair was singed a little from an exploding plasma conduit.

"Cassy," the operations officer managed, "John, Eden, got a plan?"

"Is there anywhere we can hide?" Kendra asked, almost frantically. The Chief of Communications' uniform had a few burn marks and she had a few scorch marks and scrapes spread around from trying to assist where she could. Her linguistic ability had little use in their current situation, there was probably no use sending out a distress buoy.

As the turbolift opened from the darkened end of the corridor, a blinding red phaser beam lanced out towards the gathered crewmembers. The shot was aimed high, striking the overhead rather than any of the people. White hot sparks rained down from the overhead, but they faded out too.

Cassie ducked as the hot sparks fell down on them. "What the hell! We are not the monster" The woman yelled knowing that the phaser could have only come from a phase and someone who was obviously just as scared as them. It was the only way to describe the thing that kept coming towards them and draining them. Cassie would never reveal but the thing had gone through her and all she felt was cold and the sensation of never being warm again.

"Crewman, put that down and look before you shoot!" came the voice of Lieutenant Ryder Bray, who snatched the phaser out of the red-uniformed hand of his compatriot. The antennae of the Andorian crewman drooped, but Ryder kept his resolve, turning to the others. "Is there anyone else? Are we it, or are there more down there?"

"Where..." The Scientist in the group started to ask where everyone else was but stopped, she knew the answer - Dead. "Are you okay?" Cassie wondered as she joined the other scientist looking just as 'had it' as he did if not more.

"I'm fine. I'm not worried about me," Ryder insisted. "We need to get you guys out of here, before this all gets worse."

The group moved slowly further into the darkened corridor. It was starting to get harder and harder to Cassie to ignore the screams and then deathly silence that she heard and she hated it, hated how useless she felt compared to the other member of the ragtag group.

Being afraid to breathe Eden had to suck in a breath to keep her heart from beating out of her chest. She wanted to turn it all off and stick her head in the sand. She'd never considered herself brave and as far as she was concerned this proved that she wasn't. "Where are we going?" She finally asked.

Jasper's brows furrowed as he kept moving down the darkened corridor. "I think the transporter room is ahead of us." He stopped for a moment as he moved a body to the side, cold and lifeless, "do you think we could trap that thing in the transporter?"

"I don't know... I just..." She had been in the science lab working on a blood sample when the ship had lurched to a stop. The woman shook her head at the man following him, they had, had many meals together discussing theories that she could be honest with him. She just didn't know herself, she couldn't see any route out of this waking nightmare. Even if they ever got out of this Cassie was sure the psychological scarring and a lifetime of nightmares would follow her.

As the group walked into the small transporter room a voice yelled. "Stand down!" It was the Captain yelling at two officers who were about to attack the incoming group. The Captain looked haggard and just as blooded as the rest of the crew. The willowy man was bent over the transport console working on something with a desperate look in his eyes.

"Sir," Ryder leapt forward, passing by the group to report in, dutiful as always. "We haven't managed to see much of anyone except this group in our patrol. I don't think there's many left."

"There is no one other than this small group Ryder. Cassie... I need your help" The Captain said relieved seeing the man and then seeing the other young science technician that he forgot to use there ranks or surnames. It wasn't the time or place to worry about that. Sebastian Deauvuex didn't look like his normal calm self at all, hundreds of men and women under his command were lying drained and dead all over his ship. He knew that it was risky out in space but he had never heard of anything like this happening before. He needed to find a way to save what remained of his crew, the small pocket of people still alive in the very room he stood.

Eden didn't know if there was anything she could do to help but it cleared her mind to focus on a task. She frowned wondering what he was doing over the transporter. There was nowhere to beam to unless . . . "You want to store our patterns?"

Jasper furrowed his brow as he thought of the possibilities, "well if we are stored in the buffer that thing can't get us but how long can we be stored before our data deteriorates and we can't be....." He really didn't want to finish that thought, " the only option I can think of." "Better than just letting that creature eat us all."

"She opened her mouth to respond but closed it again as if thinking better than to reject the idea outright. "Like hibernation right?" Eden whispered quietly as the screams of the crew were becoming less and less noticeable. "A nice long nap."

The Captain looked at the small group and nodded. "Yes like hibernation. I can store you in the pattern buffers. Starfleet Command will get our distress beacon and come looking." He didn't doubt that for a second, they always came looking for ships in distress. They just needed time, he could give the young crew that, they deserved that they were all still at the beginning of there careers.

"Let's do this." Jasper glanced over at the settings and nodded, "I've heard about doing this but never thought it really worked."

Eden nodded, to her and the others it appeared they really didn't have a choice if they wanted to live longer than a few minutes.

"Well, I've heard of worse situations." Ryder shrugged, holstering his phaser. "The beacon should hold for a while, and I've posted all the information we have about the cloud, so Starfleet can find a solution before anyone else gets hurt."

"You?" Cassie demanded looking at the man she had known for three years. "What do you mean you? We?" The Hybrid said.

Sebastian shook his head and pointed at the blinking console. "It was damaged when the Engineers were killed. It is my duty as Captain to go down with the ship." He said sadly thinking of all the crew who had died in the process of just getting the small ragtag team to where they were.

"You can set a delay Captain so you can join us," Jasper suggested as he took another look at the settings. He looked back up at his superior officer, "you're not planning to do that are you?"

Johnathan, who had been standing in the open doorway leading out into the corridor suddenly smelled the sickly-sweet aroma that seemed to be a precursor to the cloud creature coming into view. Bolting into the transporter room, he exclaimed, "It's coming! Whatever we are going to do, has to be now!"

Sebastian wasn't a fool. He had known deep down his trip away from Earth and known space was a one-way trip, he had already said his goodbyes. He looked at Anderson and nodded at him, the man was now the senior officer in charge of the group no matter what happened. The younger officer just wasn't getting it, the Captain wasn't coming along and time had run out. He would do his duty and go down with the ship and save the crew he could.

Eden let out something she desperately tried to hold in, a small squeak of sorts that her body just would not take. Sebastian, despite their ups and downs, was the person in this universe she was closest to. He was someone she felt knew her and had accepted her, something exceedingly rare in her mind. She understood he had a duty to this crew, to Starfleet but she didn't think it needed to end like this.

"If you reset the matrix once we are all in Captain," Jasper mentioned looking over at Sebastian when he heard the noise, "you may still have time to get on the pad and....."

"I don't Jasper. Please." The Captain requested glancing at Eden. There was so much he wanted to say to the woman but there was just no time. "I am sorry Jasper but you will forgive me one day."

The Operations officer nodded and headed towards one of the circles on the pad, "good luck sir."

Watching the exchange, Johnathen suddenly absorbed the true impact of the situation. As the helm officer, he was the senior officer present after the Captain. If Deauvuex wasn't going with them, the safety of the surviving Ishimura crew fell to him. Taking a deep breath, the young officer stepped up to Sebastian and saluted. "If we don't meet again, Sir, it has been an honor to serve under you. You have my word, I will watch over your surviving crew with my life." He then moved up into the transporter chamber, helping the others get into position. Once he saw everyone was ready, he looked back at Captain Sebastian Deavuex, for the last time, and nodded. "Energize, Sir."

OFF::

Lieutenant Ryder Bray
Chief Security Officer
USS Ishimura
(PNPC Uhin)

Ensign Eden Bowers
Chief Helmsmen
USS Ishimura

Captain Sebastian Deauvuex
Commanding Officer
USS Ishimura
(PNPC Gregnol)

Ensign Cassie McAvoy
Science Officer - Biology
USS Ishimura
(PNPC Gregnol)

Ensign Jasper Offerman
Operations Officer
USS Ishimura

Ensign Johnathan Anderson
Helm Officer
USS Ishimura
(PNPC Robertson)