Broken Toys

Posted on Thu Dec 2nd, 2021 @ 5:00pm by Chief Helmsman Kalahaeia t'Leiya & Commander Kaleetha Sloan (*)

Mission: Mission 14: Holoworld
Location: Holoworld
Timeline: MD -04 13:00
2391 words - 4.8 OF Standard Post Measure

"....Don't think there would've been any survivors much further forward than this." Kali frowned regretfully, assessing the scene before them with a former pilot's eye cataloging the nature of a crash, and not liking the way the ship had changed over the last few compartments from "slightly damaged but basically in one piece" like the kitchen and the areas near it, to "you aren't getting your room deposit back" condition like the casino she'd woken up in had been, to now seriously twisted and collapsed in places and getting moreso as they went further forward. She ducked past one such area through a small opening still in place; barely avoiding snagging the shirt she'd finally found....when they'd passed the section of passenger quarters recently that included hers and she'd taken the opportunity to loot her own luggage, for the shirt and anything else she'd felt worthy of stuffing in the backpack and duffel she'd come away with and tied off around her waist to carry.

They hadn't seen any holograms for a bit, though; power was off entirely in this section, and the stuffy, thinner air and colder temperature told Kali this section was probably only inhabitable because it was sharing life support after a fashion with the functional areas. It wouldn't surprise her if they kept going if they would eventually hit sealed emergency bulkheads down to separate out a full hull breach beyond them somewhere.

Kaleetha had been in her own mind since they had left her own quarters where she had retrieved her Starfleet commbadge. She had dropped it on first mission to retrieve some of her possessions. It was silly but it was sentimental in why she wanted it but it was familiar.

“I gave up on survivors before you. You were a very nice surprise.” She admitted wincing at the wound from the civilian commbadge that she had received at some point.

"We may want to consider turning around soon then, if we're not hunting for survivors." Kali gave an appraising glance to the area ahead of them. "Further we go into something like this, higher the odds it turns out to be structurally unstable and something collapses in on us again like that one piece tried to earlier."

“We are not hunting for survivors or I was not at least. I want answers.” Kaleetha admitted with a shrug. It was not a bad idea to turn back but the answers to her questions had to lie somewhere further on. “It only slipped...just a little.”

"Given how much their medical and emergency supplies turned out to suck; I'm beginning to wonder if the 'answers' is 'they cut too many corners on software updates, crew numbers, training, and disaster countermeasures', and we basically took a ride on the Space Titanic," Kali muttered with distaste at the absent cruise company, winding her way over and through some of the wreckage. "You didn't have any luck at data from the bridge either then when you rigged the distress call? I popped in there some point after you'd been there and tried to access the systems to see if I could find out what the hell had happened, but most of the data was corrupted and I was a pilot and an analyst, not an engineer or a programmer; couldn't recover it."

Kaleetha could barely doing that but it had been her. It had been in the hours after she had woken up, she had still been in the fancy dress and shoes. It had been what made her realise the holograms could not see her. "No luck at all. Everything was corrupted or damaged. I was able to rig just enough to get a communication emergency relay going. Communication and science is my jam." Kaleetha said with a sigh as she felt her chest hurting. "Atmosphere is getting too light. You are right let us go back." She finally decided that the older woman was correct.

The part of Kali's brain that had managed to survive even a decade in intelligence work noted that she was getting a firsthand demonstration of both attenuating genetics and the pluses and minuses of various species, for the most part: She herself noted the thinner atmosphere; but there was still for the moment more than enough pressure and oxygen in it for her. What she absolutely was beginning to feel though was the further dropping temperature the further they progressed; unconsciously rubbing her arm against her body or her legs together or scrunching up a bit in an attempt to warm herself...actions she had yet to notice in Kaleetha, whose significant helping of human genes probably gave her a greater tolerance to it.

"My guess is even if we'd kept going, pretty soon we'd have hit a sealed compartment. Probably with an emergency bulkhead, possibly with a total collapse, or maybe with both." Kali turned around just ahead of the rather tighter space she'd been about to enter, turning back the way they'd come, shifting the packs strapped improvisingly around her hips. "Still; trip wasn't entirely useless; we didn't come away with any answers but we did come away with more supplies. And possibly some knowledge to let us conserve power--if we seal this section, too, after we leave it, the ship will probably use less energy to supply life support for the remaining areas." She frowned though, noting the small splotch of blood now on the other woman's side. "Wish those supplies had included another medkit though. We might regret having used up the other one."

The scientist nodded. The ship would try and contain what it could in damage control. It was just annoying that they could not do anything to assist in it as the ship did not respond to them. They had time to figure it out hopefully. The ship had to have some way around it all to make things work in an emergency. "I am sure there will be many around the ship. Just a case of hunting them out. Maybe we can make a game out of it." Kaleetha said brightly trying to think of things to occupy them. "Winner of most founds gets to have a day off cooking."

"Or we could just admit everyone hates my cooking." Kali's cooking was most assuredly the sort one might learn or be taught for survival purposes and nothing more; which was proving useful in some senses at combining novel ingredients into meals that technically met nutrient and calorie needs, but were occasionally also only technically edible, either. "Not something either of my parents ever had to learn beyond the absolute minimum, so not really a skill I had access to. I think there was an elective at the Academy, maybe, focused on food and cooking as it related to galactic cultural dynamics; but I never had time for it." She shrugged her eyebrows again. "Courses kinda got more...focused....for awhile there in the lead up to the war with the Dominion and the years during it." Kali scrambled over a piece of debris and twisted metal, shivering in the cold. "Did you take the 'Galactic Cultures & Cuisine' elective; or are you just more naturally skilled at not burning everything?"

It really hadn't been a surprise, Kali had supposed when she'd learned it, that the other woman had also been a Starfleet officer; if she was going to have laid wagers on who aboard a ship like this might have survived a crash and being abandoned or left alone within one, she would probably have placed them on anyone with current or prior service in the forces of any of the major galactic powers; someone who would have learned at least the basics of how to survive a starship crash or its aftermath.

"We could but it is no where as funny." Kaleetha teased nudging the woman with a smile. "Not a chance you would ever find me in that type of course. My electives were General Archaeology on top of my already busy science schedule, Pop Culture and something about Starfleet History which pretty much made me fall asleep as I grew up at the Atlantis museum which is attached to the Starfleet through the ages museum. My mum is just a good cook and my dad would be ashamed if we did not know how to at least cook without a replicator once in a while." Kaleetha laughed as she noticed the sudden chill herself. "Definitely right call coming back. Getting colder." She said as she misjudge a step and tripped. "I am fine." She assured standing up in time to see the twisted metal move forward hitting her.

Kali's eyes went wide as she tried to shove them out of the way, but 'being unusually fast' and 'being faster than an impending structural collapse' were two entirely different things, and she only halfway succeeded, taking them onto the ground forward and to the other side in a lunge that ended in a roll, her only half-healed ribs and collarbone protesting in the extreme as she hit the deck dragging her larger companion along for the ride.

A long string of Romulan curse words slipped involuntarily out of Kali's mouth as the literal dust began to slightly settle; reverting in true moments of uncontrolled stress to the language she had first ever heard; the one of her childhood lullabies and her life before she had been old enough for school. A quick sweep of her eyes around the area, assessing: As consequences went it could have been far worse; the entire area behind them was now 'sealed naturally', so to speak; the deck above caved in through to the one they were on, as possibly were a few more above it.

They seemed to have cleared it for the most part, except for the edge of the original piece of metal, still partially lying across Kaleetha at it's edge. Could have been worse' again indeed; the piece was fairly small compared to the rest that had come down after it, and the profanity continued for a moment as Kali managed to lift it off. She clearly didn't trust the area though, because she didn't stop to check for injuries (or consider that this would probably undo a good deal of the repairs to her own) before simply hauling the larger woman up in a move that looked rather ridiculous, half carrying and half dragging as she moved to put distance between them and the collapsed area before finally stopping, breathing hard as she released Kaleetha and tore the control panel off the wall veneer nearby in a savage enough way that it tore and twisted the hinges off entirely, exposing the legally-mandated manual override she'd known had to be somewhere and throwing the switch, bringing down one of the previously considered emergency bulkheads behind them in case the earlier collapse exposed them to a breach somewhere on the upper levels that could slowly bleed out their atmosphere otherwise, and waiting nervously to see if it would trigger additional collapse, finally coming to the conclusion after a long stretch that they were past the danger zone and turning back to try and assess the condition of her companion.

Kaleetha for all her training had a flashback to the moment of the bombing on 269 when she had been thrown around and had been nearly unable to help someone who had been thrown over the promenade barrier. She shook her head as she came back to the issue at hand, she had been hurt and she needed to do something about it. She moved so she was on all fours looking back confused from being hit over the head and whatever else had been done as the metal had shifted and Kala saved her from most likely or at least stopped her from being trapped behind the mess of decks. "I am fine." She spluttered coughing up dust. "I am sorry. I thought I would... I should have been quicker."

"...Some things, no one is faster than." Kali coughed dust herself, both inner and outer eyelids blinking furiously to clear her eyes as well. As much as she might hold any anger at the other woman for taking them too deep, too long into the more damaged areas; she held about as much at herself, too: She should have turned them around long before this; knew they should worry about the structural stability of the area, and let her own curiosity (or her desire to retrieve shirts that fit) get the better of her, too. At the moment, the...excitement...of the incident itself kept any pain from aggravating the injuries from the crash to a minimum, but she was pretty certain that wouldn't last, given everything she'd just done with them; and figured Kaleetha probably wasn't a great judge of her own condition at the moment yet for similar reasons, either. "Once you think you can we should--" she coughed again "--get moving back to the interior of the ship and get back to the kitchen. Make sure we're in a safe spot with supplies when the adrenaline wears off....just in case." Not that there was going to be much they could do if there turned out to be serious injuries; their purloined medkit was half-assed and now also half-spent.

Kaleetha stayed quiet for a long time before she slowly rose to her feet and gripped the nearest wall to keep her stability. She knew she was injured and she knew it was going to hurt like anything once the adrenaline wore off so could not argue with that notion. Safety and security was one of the key things they teach you in survival school.

“I am fine. I am good. You are correct, we need to get somewhere safe and think about our options.” Kaleetha conceded without hesitation. Clearly shaken by the experience for the moment.

Kali was far from certain the 'I am fine' was truthful; but they had to move regardless, so she didn't bother raising the point, instead giving a sharp nod and beginning to continue to move them back the way they'd come.