Storm of a lifetime

Posted on Mon Sep 22nd, 2025 @ 9:13pm by Captain Mira Rodale Lance & Commander Kevin Lance & Lieutenant Betaras K'ner

1,578 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Hide and seek
Location: Planet surface
Timeline: Present

On:

{ROANOKE, main floor}

Mira cursed looking out the view port. She turned back to the others. Her eyes then went to the empty environmental suits lying on the ground. Was this what had happened to the others?

“This isn’t going to work. We need to go lower in to the ground. Find the Jefferies tubes. It’s mandatory to have them on each deck incase of power outages. We go to the Subterranean city. It might be our only hope.” Mira told them then tapped her commbadge “Captain to the USS Chuck Norris. The storm hit us to fast. We can’t take off. We will attempt to take refuge in that alien city. If you don’t hear from us ……send reports to Star Fleet and do not send a rescue party. I repeat do not send anyone else down here to disappear. Get my children to Thor.”

=/\=Captain we could send the Klingon ship it could handle the storm.=/\=

“No. There isn’t any time.” Mira reminded him the storm was here now. If it had done anything to the colony as they speculated then it would happen again.

The mad dash was on now climbing down level after level. When they receive the bottom most levels with the computer core, Kevin paused.

"I'm staying here," he announced to Mira.

"What?" she looked at him in confusion.

"I don't think that the storm is going to be any more dangerous here than the ghosts, or whatever they are, will be be down there.

"Be reasonable, Kevin," Mira said, "We need to stick together."

Kevin looked down the Jefferies tube lead to the ancient ruins below. "I'm not a scientist or an engineer," he reasoned, "I will be useless down there. But I can stay here an run through the data that is available on the computers. I might be able to piece together what is happening and why."

She gave a little sigh. Kevin could be so unpredictable at times. She looked down into the darkness. It was a slim chance the carvings might tell them more. That’s if she could translate a dead language that was similar to one she knew. She looked back up at him.

“The power is out. The colony base computers aren’t on line and if that storm can knock that out then the PADDs and our environmental suits will be useless as well.”

"I'm pretty sure that I have figured out a way to get power to the computers," Kevin replied.

She wanted to pinch the bridge of her nose but the darn shield was in the way. “fine.”

She turned to the others. “This could very well be my last order. Its possible whatever happened to the colony could happen to us as well. Going below into the subterranean city might save you. You might find information we need. Or we might be safer here. We are underground Right now. My order is this decide for yourself. I am staying with my husband. For better or worse until death do us part. “ she gave a little shrug as she quoted part of the vows. Then she sat down on the floor. Leaning her back up against the wall.

Kevin manually cycled the the doors to the computer core and entered the darken room. He turned his head, panning the suit's external lights around the space until he spotted the console he wanted. He pulled a length of computer cable from the arm of his environmental suit and plugged it into the console while Mira watched.

"While I was prepping the shuttle for launch, I observed a couple of phenomenon from our initial arrival and my later attempt to bring the shuttle in," he explained, "First, power generation was stable until it reached a certain output. There wasn't enough power to ensure a successful flight but it was more than enough to run the shuttle's systems in emergency mode."

"Great, so we will starve to death before we freeze," Mira replied.

Kevin smirked. "The other thing was that the power drain ceased once the output fell below the threshold. It was almost like the storm or whatever was draining the power lost interest."

Mira thought about what he had just told her.

"So, as long as we keep the power output below the threshold," he concluded, "we should be able to power the computer."

"But there is no power at all," Mira pointed out.

"The computer on the shuttle kept trying to compensate for the increased power demands from the shields. I had to manually override the computer to prevent the reactor from burning up," Kevin continued, "I am betting that the base's computer tried to do the same thing until the emergency shutdown protocols kicked in. If the fail safe systems worked, it should just be a matter of restarting the powerplant."

"I thought that you said that you weren't an engineer," Mira replied skeptically.

"I'm not a theoretical engineer," Kevin shrugged, "but this is practical application."

“I think I understand your plan. For it to work we need to shut everything down. Shields, lights, all life-support. Everything that might keep us alive. BUT Since there is no power they aren’t running anyways. “ Mira got up and moved to a console taking a seat she started to turn things off manually. So if they could get the power to reset there wouldn’t be any drains.

Getting it to turn back on well that was the question. She bit her lip as she worked. You could hear the storm raging from way down here. What kind of damage was it doing to the building. She cocked her head to the side listening. It had to be her imagination but it sounded like…. Voices? She couldn’t make out the words but she activated the translator on her suit just on a hunch.


{ The Ancient Settlement }

Satisfied the XO and Chief of Sec should be able to keep the captain safe, K'ner escorted the rest that wanted to either escape to theoretical safety, or were curious about the ruins. Deena would be enough tactical backup for Kronnelti to mount some serious hardship on anyone with ill intent.

K'ner walked about, now noticing those fuzzy wisps more often now. She didn't know if it had to do with the intensity of the storm rising, or just that she knew what to look for now and just noticed them more often.

The others casually studied the rooms and walls or sat quietly. Mova seemed puzzled about something and was walking back and forth along one low building wall, examining it in minute detail.

As K'ner approached, Mova spoke, almost as if talking to herself as she continued her avid inspection. "Composition density a 6, but the wall is compounded... durometer 70... but the cavern..." Her quiet tirade continued as she stroked and pressed and occasionally looked at her tricorder.

She gleaned about a 1/3 of what the tech was saying, but enough to realize as she also looked around, that the structures weren't carved from here. The space was too geometric to be a natural formation, but someone may have expanded an existing void or incontinuity. In any case, these structures had been relocated here... From the surface? Did the original inhabitants move down here when the surface became too hostile to sustain life?

K'ner's attention was split between the incongruity of materials here, and the faint, distant buzzing she could occasionally pick up. She also kept an occasional glance are her remote tri-vid cams in case something didn't trigger an alert but might still be apparent. It seemed strange these wisps hadn't been identified, nor the odd sound effects throughout. She wished she'd brought Sgt Taz along now...

{Computer deck}

With everything turned off there didn’t seem to be much more she could do. Mira set back in her chair with a tired little sigh. It had been a long day with little sleep last night. She propped her booted feet on the desk and watched Kevin working on some equipment for a few moments before pulling out a PADD to see if she could translate the glyphs on the walls.

They had to be of importance or why would the make them so predominant. Then there was that one large building. It had felt like a temple to her. What did they use it for? She flipped Through a few images. Holy place or perhaps a place to teach the young ones?

Mira stiffened, feeling …… an odd coldness. She looked around the room. Those strange mists or what ever they were had started to enter the room.

~ you’re late! I told you to be on time ~

~ sorry sir~

Mira narrowed her eyes watching as one moved right for the chair she was sitting in. Hopping up quickly she moved out of the way. Mira rolled her eyes feeling a little foolish for giving her seat to a ….. ghost? Blur or whatever it was.

She put her hands on her hips and frown watching it. Something bummed into her back and she let out a scream as the feeling of cold electricity ran through her whole body as the entity past through her. “by all that was holy!”


OFF:

Lt Betaras K’ner
Hazard Team Combat Medic TL-B / CMO
USS Chuck Norris

&
Captain Mira Rodale
CO USS Chuck Norris

&

Commander Kevin Lance
Executive Officer
USS Chuck Norris

 

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