Canterra - Operation: Winter Haven: Search & Rescue Black Ice Seam Part III

Posted on 18 Feb 2020 @ 2:00pm by Lieutenant Amiri Aldana 365, D.V.M., M.D. & Luuna C.G.CA/U & Lieutenant Junior Grade Steven Bernard, Ph.D.

Mission: Hahai i na pilikua nui - Hunting Monsters
Location: The Xore Strike Mine
Tags: Luuna, 7F03YTY836M, Sombra, 3CW4YMF696F

[ON]

[Black Ice Seam]

Aldana perked up. The roar of the mass of rock and bodies mixed with yelling, crying, and yelping came barreling toward hir. Steeling hirself for the inevitable impact. Fuck this is going to hurt… ~LUUNA BRACE FOR IMPACT!~ Aldana braced hirself, back toward the encroaching locomotive onslaught.

The force of the rocks and bodies came flowing at hir with slightly less force than s/he was expecting – though only just – it forced hir down the tunnel toward hir Precious, the red light of her vest coming to meet hir full on. Scooping up Luuna as best s/he could, s/he did hir best to wrap hir body around the canid in hoped to protect her the best s/he could.”.

~It’s OK, it’s going to be okay, you’re going to be O.K.~ All s/he could think to do was to keep reassuring hir love in hopes of keeping her calm. ~Whatever happens I’ll see you on the other side.~ Which “other side” of what however, was yet to be seen.

Suddenly before the pair, another rock partially blocked their path, s/he sent an image to Luuna to flatten out as small as possible, as s/he maneuvered Luuna in front of hir, s/he did the same in hopes to pass by unscathed. It worked and behind them a larger mass was wedged in the tunnel – though a rock, dog, or person, s/he did not know – the pair continued to plummet, alone now, until finally a chasm opened up, and leveled off, the pair skidding eventually to a stop. “UUHH!” Battered Aldana slowly tried to raise to hir feet. ~Anything broken?~

Luuna did a mental survey before she stood and shook herself. Slight pain shot up her left forepaw, and there was an ache in her back. She pictured in mind where her pains were; in addition there was a slight crick in her tail at the base where it connected to her body, as well as a slight discomfort from the long constant rubbing from the tunnel, though her fur had largely protected her from any friction burns. She could put weight on the wrist if she needed to, but she preferred not.

Performing a similar mental inventory, Aldana was not much better off. S/he knelt and invited Luuna to hir side. Once there, s/he started to feel her wrist. ~I don’t think it’s broken. I’m sorry precious, we’ll have to make do for now. Let me activate your transponder; the more the merrier.~ S/he gently maneuvered Luuna to where s/he could reach it, and activated it. Then s/he activated hir commbadge, =/\=Doctor Aldana to U.S.S. Hawai’i.=/\=

A female voice came out of the darkness. =/\=This is Hawai’i. You’re coming through a little static-y doctor, but we read you. We see you’ve each activated your transponders, is everything alright?=/\=

Aldana had made hir way up to the passage the two of them came out of, only to discover it impassable. =/\=There’s been an incident, Luuna and I are in need of miner medical attention, but we’ve been cut off from the rest of the team, has anyone else reported in; are they alright?=/\=

Meanwhile Luuna tentatively tested out her paw, and attempted to continue to search the area they were in. She slowly wondered off toward some rocks; her red LED guiding the way.

=/\= Negative. No word yet, and I can send anyone through the planet to you, but would a guide through the cavern help?=/\=

“(Well at least the others seem to be faring better than us then.)” =/\=A guide? What sort of guide? I’m not sure I want to risk any of the colonist’s lives down here.=/\= Aldana caught up with Luuna to keep tabs on her progress. ~Good girl, keep it up.~ “Seek.”

Luuna continued to wonder about trying to locate any scents of possible victims.

=/\=Sorry, I said “Can’t” as in “Cannot send anyone” but I have a scan of the cave system and can talk you through it. Also, you are not alone down there: there are humanoid life signs down there. Faint. They will need help. =/\=

Just then Luuna sat, her alert that she’d discovered an origin of a scent. Staying still, so not to disturb the rubble, she indicated a small opening where the scent was emanating from, she gave two rapid, quiet ‘wuffs’ indicating the scent was fresh and likely still alive.

=/\=Roger that, Luuna’s hit on something just now; can you tell me if any of the life-signs are Gorn?=/\=

Enunciating in a loud, clear, calm voice, Aldana called, “If you can hear me, we’re from the Federation starship U.S.S. Hawai’i! Remain calm, we’re going to try to get you out! If you can hear me and you are capable call out your name or make some other noise!”

=/\=Negative on reptilian, the lifeform is making too much heat for that.=/\=

“UNAaaaW! Help me!” The voice of a young boy howling through the opening. “I’m Arnold! My name is Arnold!”

Aldana began the arduous task of carefully removing large rocks in such a way to, hopefully, avoid a further collapse of debris on top of the victim(s).

Soon Luuna could tell the scent was getting stronger. She began to attempt to find and squeeze into small holes in the shale and other smaller rocks and debris. She began to bark in an excited and friendly manner, she was focused, she was soon going to get to play with Ms Inky.

“Arnold we are using a search and rescue animal! If she gets to you first, do not be alarmed! She is there to help!”

Before them, a boy of 13 lay in the cave pinned by one arm and one leg under large rocks. There must have been a collapse.

Luuna did in fact manage to squeeze down to the boy first. The red LED shone through first, it was bright, but being of a longer wavelength it disrupted his night vision much less than any other color of light. Luuna had no real means to hold it steady though, so in bounced and jiggled around as she moved about him. She scrambled over to the boy quietly, licking and sniffing his face. The reasons she’d been trained to do these were two-fold; the saliva from her kisses would evaporate, cooling the boy’s skin and helping to keep him awake in case he was in shock. The ladder would allow her to get a better sense of his condition in ways most humanoids could not.

“hm-hm-hm-hm-hm…” Luuna gave a low, short succession of squeaky, excited whimper in attempt to sooth the boy. They were the sort of reassuring call a nursing bitch might give when returning to the den. Scrambling about, Luuna continued to assess the situation. She nuzzled at where the rock was, but it wouldn’t budge, and the flooring beneath was solid and couldn’t be dug. Instead she moved back around to where his free hand was, doing her best to offer the light which could be easily removed if one so chose such an elementary distraction.

Arnold felt the cold nose of a— “Dog?” was the only word he could get out. He was going in and out of consciousness due to pain and hunger.

Finally, Luuna lay next to the boy; he could stroke her, or hold her, or talk to her as he wished.

Arnold wrapped his fingers around what seemed like a thick collar to him. He wanted to be pulled out, but the dog stayed still.

Meanwhile Aldana continued to dig. S/he tried to think of something to talk to the boy about as s/he worked. S/he needed to help keep him distracted as well as attempt to determine his condition by determining his cognitive functioning as well. “Tell me Arnold, do you know how old you are?”

“Thirteen,” he said, “where are the lizard men?”

Realizing how long this might take and recalling s/he’d left Sombra in a ‘down-stay,’ Aldana took a brief moment to contact the female science officer on the ship again. Before s/he spoke, s/he tried to recall if the woman had told hir her rank, but s/he couldn’t recall, so s/he took a stab at it. =/\=Ensign, somewhere up above is Sombra all alone with barely any light and he can’t access the previsions he’s carrying; the computer has a record of his microchip, it should be able to pick it up. Would you please beam him aboard? =/\=

=/\=Stand by Doctor=/\= There was an uncomfortable pause. =/\=Ah! I’ve got his signature. Roberts!=/\= the woman called to an engineer =/\=Get that puppy outta there!=/\= There was another uncomfortable pause. =/\=Ha! We’ve got him! Good boy Sombra! Hold on, we’ll get everybody out in just a little bit!=/\=

[Somewhere Up Above:]

Meanwhile, in a dark tunnel illuminated solely by a red LED – wolfy-like shadows danced along the walls – which flickered and dimmed just a little more. Sombra squirmed as it did so, his ears drooped and he whined mournfully, missing Alpha and Sister. Then he yelped as he sensed a familiar sensation he’d never really cared for moments before it happened. Soon he was completely enveloped in light and a warm, comforting and tingling sensation. Along with it came a low tone which gradually increased in pitch and tone as at first it tugged at the spot between his shoulder blades where Alpha had told him called a “Mike Rowe Chip” had been embedded. Then he felt his ‘selfness’ getting whisked away.

Finally, he found himself in familiar surroundings. He trotted over to the woman that was standing behind the controls and greeted her with wagging tail, and half-bouncing, but not actually jumping up.

[U.S.S. Hawai’i]

Sombra blinked in the sudden brightness of the starship Hawai’i and shook his head. He approached the cute female wearing the same colors as Alpha, and set his head in her lap, licking the back of her hand.

Then Alpha’s voice came out of the air. =/\=Go home!=/\=

Sombra’s head tilted. He wasn’t used to getting verbal commands from Alpha, but they had trained this one. He lowered his nose to the floor, and giving several sniffs to get his bearings, he headed out of the room.

[Back Down in the Black Ice Seam]

“Arnold it sounds like you’ve met my rescue dog, Luuna, in one of her pouches is a basic ration bar, and some water, can you get to it?”

Arnold was very tired, but at the sound of water, he grabbed around the pockets on the dog’s vest and found a flask. He opened it and guzzled as much as he could swallow. “Get me out of here, Please!” He shouted.

“I’m working as fast as I can Arnold, I promise. We’ve mostly gotten the Gorn under control. You’re free. Were there any down here? I haven’t encountered any so far.”

=/\=Ensign, do you detect any Gorn biosignatures down in this chamber? =/\=

=/\= Hold. Wait! There is a kind of thinness in a certain angle of rock there. I’m getting new signals very clearly: nine humanoids and one injured reptilian–there’s an injured humanoid too! See if you can get in there. The engineers just confirmed they can get you all out if you can get in there and boost the signals with your commbadge!=/\=

Aldana continued to dig and move rubble away. “The Gorn isn’t near here, and it’s injured.” Finally, Doctor Aldana broke through to Arnold, hir red LED adding to Luuna’s and increasing their light by magnitudes. “I’m here!” S/he saw one last rock in hir way and pinning the boy down. S/he briefly greeted and praised Luuna, but s/he needed to get the rock off of the boy quickly.

Luuna gave a doggie smile, but didn’t move, her job was to stay with Arnold and keep him safe until he was free. She cooed softly to him as if to say he was going to be alright.

Aldana gave one good heave and the rock was clear. “Are you hurt? Can you stand? There’s a chamber near here where my ship can manage to get a transporter signal through; we need to get to it so we can get you to safety and our medical facility.” S/he reached into Luuna’s pack and pulled out a medical tricorder and began scanning the boy.

The boy gave a yelp as the rock was pulled off his legs. They had been almost crushed in the rockslide. “I,” Arnold started, “I can’t.” The boy lost consciousness. He was in shock.

“Arnold? Stay with me, Arnold.” Aldana went about the task of stabilizing the boy. S/he administered a pain killer and revived him, while s/he began to take a look at his legs. They weren’t broken, s/he would have to figure out what else might be the cause of the problem.

Arnold looked into the doctor’s face, “Get me out of here!” He said.

Aldana’s medical tricorder alerted hir to the problem, “I’m working on it, Arnold. I’ll do my best. Your right knee is dislocated, as well as your left hip. I’m not sure I can take care of them here under these lighting conditions. I’m going to see if we can beam you to the ship.” The doctor reached for a pouch on Luuna’s vest, and produced a ‘pill;’ “this is a transporter tag, it will pass through you in time, but I need you to swallow it, so we can increase the chances of getting a secure lock on you. Is that alright? I can offer you some water with it.”

Arnold snatched the pill from the doctor’s hand and swallowed the tag with a swig of water from the flask he’d gotten from the dog, hoping for some kind of relief.

=/\=Hawai’i I’m activating a transporter tag, can you get a lock on it soon so we can beam Arnold up?=/\= S/he asked, solely interested in the possibility; Aldana hoped the female science officer wouldn’t jump the gun just yet.

=/\=Whoa,=/\= the female voice said, =/\= that is one clear signal. Roberts, get the kid out.=/\=

Arnold felt an odd tingling and soon saw his vision shimmer and blacken. Then he woke up on the U.S.S. Hawai’i. A female trill walked up to him and held out a hypospray to his neck.

“Hey Arnold,” she said, “My friends call me Kay. This should do something for the pain, and we’ll take you to sick bay.” He felt a hiss against his neck, then he felt his body dull. Two people in medical uniforms picked him up onto a floating gurney and took him to sickbay.

=/\=Doctor, =/\= Kay said, =/\= We’ve got Arnold. tell us when you need more assistance.=/\=

=/\=Will do, we’ll keep the comm. line open in case something goes wrong.=/\=
With the boy free and sent to the ship, Doctor Aldana and Luuna explored the rubble further. It wasn’t long before Luuna hit on another survivor, a female colonist this time. She was so thankful for her rescue once she was freed, she gave both Luuna and Aldana each a hug. After which the doctor gave her a transporter tag and she was promptly beamed back to the ship to be checked out to be sure she was alright, then given something to eat.

Moving on Luuna darted to-and-fro seeking out the scent of even more survivors. Alerting again, this time Aldana didn’t get any response just some garbled squeaks, shrieks, and clicks. Since every life mattered, Aldana went to work to discovered what else was trapped down here. They turned out to be a small family of local winged mammals. They burst forth erupting out of the hole flying past the heads of both beings and were gone before the ‘Doctor Doolittle’ could stop them to check any of them out to be sure they were alright.

Trekking on, it wasn’t long before Luuna hit upon one or more other survivors and alerted yet again…

From an opening in the cavern wall about two meters tall and half a meter wide that anyone else would have missed because of its angle, voices emerged.

“Great Marquez, the lizard is dead but now what? Once the others find out they’ll just cave in the whole section.” A female voice said.

“I—I,” started a male voice, then exploded, “God, Shay! You want to stay down here and never see the sun again! I saw an opportunity and I took it!”

“Yeah, so did you think about what will happen if they turn some Implanted on and have us all kill each other?” Shay said.

“The lizards can’t turn us on if they don’t know where we are. He’s been pretending to call his superiors for a few days now. Their comms don’t go this deep in the rock and he couldn’t leave us alone. He had us dig too deep—Out of their reach,” this was from another voice.

“My god,” Shay said, “You speak their language, Quail?”

“Well it helped us, didn’t it?” Marquez yelled, “The slave driver is dead, and it’s been what, an hour? Nothing has happened.”

“But no one knows how to get out of here! He sealed us in with that last mining charge!” Shay said.

“Hush!” Quail said, “I hear footsteps, like scratching! Everyone shut up and get out of the light!”

When Aldana caught up with Luuna, s/he called out to identify hirself as s/he had previously, the way s/he’d been trained, the way she’d done with the boy.

“Starfleet?” Marquez yelled. He was slim man with dirty face and hands, “Where were you a year ago?”

“Oh, Marquez, shut up,” Shay said, a young woman with old eyes peeking out of a coal black face. “If it really is Starfleet, they can get us out now.”

“Can you help us, Starfleet?” said Quail, the only non-human in the group.

“That’s why my partner and I are down here. The mine has been liberated, but then there was a collapse we’re a search ‘n rescue team, we’re here to get you out. Is anyone of you hurt? I’m a doctor; I have some rations too.” Aldana knelt to briefly praise Luuna, though she wouldn’t get to play with Inky till they’d actually gotten through to the rescue-ees.

Luuna stayed put but pressed into the physical contact gently.

“All of us need food. All of us are hurt, but we can all move,” Shay said. “The most important thing is that we get out of here. Take us home, Starfleet.”

“Please call me ‘Amiri’, my companion’s name is Luuna, she’s a canid, but she’s well trained, friendly and safe. I’d like to try and find a way to send her through to you first, so she can bring you food and water; also relay back to me what it’s like, and we can figure out a safe way to open up a passage for you so we can beam all of you out. Does that sound like a plan?”

Luuna got excited and started up again with trying to dig and search for a way into the beings below.

“Dren, I’ll call you Miss Federation if you get us out of here, Starfleet.” Marquez said. Then to the people in the cavern.

Just then red light flooded the room as Luuna managed to scramble her way through to the survivors. She was greeted by a male being that seemed to be this groups alpha. She couldn’t know it, but this man was Shay.

“Hey, everyone with picks, get to the hole that dog just popped out of and make that crack huge!”

The miners came to the fissure and tore the wall with fervor. Many of them who had thought there was no way out, had just discovered a pinprick of hope. They were getting OUT of there.

“We have 50 survivors down here, Amiri,” Shay shouted over the racket of the miners, “38 are ambulatory. The rest we can carry out ourselves. Luuna and I have distributed the rations as we can. What should we do next?”

“Well normally I would advise you to stay where you are, but from the sound of things you seem to know what you’re doing. Be careful not to move too much debris or the rest could come tumbling down. I’d like to be able to get through to the injured, I have some emergency medical supplies.” Aldana tapped hir commbadge. =/\=Hawai’i come in?=/\=

=/\=We hear you doctor. Get them to the section where we beamed Arnold up and we can grab them up 3 at a time.=/\=

Amiri relayed the information to the miners. Seeing the first of them emerge from the new, smaller, tunnel, s/he offered a hand-paw to help the individual up. “I’m Amiri glad to finally meet you. Let’s get this show on the road.”

The miners were orderly for the most part. As the line kept moving forward, they advanced in single file to the transporter zone and the Engineers beamed them up three at a time. Shay stayed in the cavern and directed traffic until the last of them got into the extraction point.

“Well, that’s it Amiri. I’m the last one. Do we both get to go home now?”

Doctor Aldana greeted Shay, “It’s so good to finally meet you fac-…” Amiri hesitated.

A light canid whimpering could be heard.

“Where’s Luuna?”

“She’s sitting next to the Gorn and crying.”

“Luuna is trained to stay behind with everyone, it’s part of her job to be sure that every body gets out.” Aldana crouched to peer down the hole the others had crawled out of. ~Precious?~

~One… more… scaly one. Not. Moving. ~

Amiri looked at Shay. “I thought you said you were the last one out?”

“I am the last one,” Shay said, petulantly, “He’s dead. He doesn’t care if he is above ground anymore. I am alive and I want to breathe fresh air. He doesn’t need to breathe anymore. If I help you get him here, will you get me out of here?!”

Aldana frowned, “I said, all you had to do was meet up the tunnel with the others, and my ship’d beam you out. It’s just a few meters up that way.”

Shay walked back through the passage and pulled the Gorn corpse into the safe zone by his wrists. She dropped the dead thing at Amiri’s feet, fighting the urge to further mutilate the corpse.

“Can I leave now, Starfleet?” She said.

The hybrid doctor loaded one of hir few remaining transporter tags and shot it into the lifeless Gorn. Aldana sighed heavily. S/he really could use a shower and a hot meal. “Come on Luuna let’s go home…”

Luuna huffed and lead the way up the path to the transport site.

[OFF:]

Bernard, Steven J. ENS, Starfleet,
TAO

&

Doctor Aldana 365, Amiri A., Lieutenant, Starfleet,
A.CMO

&

Luuna C.G.C. – Agrucultural/C.G.C. – Urban
Search and Rescue Specialist