You can't save everyone...

Posted on Monday 23 May 2022 @ 18:53 by Civilian Sansa Draxx-Jones

Mission: Disaster!
Location: Deck 38
Timeline: 11H00
1845 words - 3.7 OF Standard Post Measure

ON:

With the gravity restored and satisfied her Mom was ok, Sansa and Hamish explored further from engineering, seeing if anyone needed medical attention and bringing them back to main engineering which was serving as a hub for that section of the ship.

Sansa had picked up a medical kit and was heading down a ladder in one of the Jefferies tubes. When she got to the next deck, she had a drink of water while she waited for Hamish. She offered him the water bottle when he reached the bottom of the ladder.

"How you holding up?" she asked him, looking at him concerned.

"I am missing the zero gravity." he quipped with a laugh. "But I'm doing okay. How about you? He asked after accepting the bottle of and taking a drink. "This whole experience with the ship is just bonkers right now. We'll manage though, I have faith in the crew and in you."

Sansa placed her hand on his lovingly "And I have faith in you too, my love."

They entered the corridor and were met with a scene of devastation. Obviously, a power conduit had overloaded, and the adjoining corridor had collapsed as a result. Scorched and twisted metal everywhere. at the bottom of a pile of debris, a hand was sticking out.

Sansa called out tentatively "Hello...."

The hand twitched.

"He's alive! Quick! Sansa rushed over and started carefully removing debris. Soon the head and shoulders of a young small ensign were uncovered. His eyes flickered open and he stared at Sansa for a moment. Finally, he spoke "Are you an angel?

Sansa blushed, pulling out a medical tricorder and scanning him. She locked eyes with Hamish.... it was not good.

Hamish winced, and reached out to touch Sansa's shoulder, then he said to the one that was found. "Yes, she is an angel, one of the best kind. What's your name?" he said softly, looking the man.

"Billy..." The young man replied between breaths that were getting harder and harder to take "Can you do me a favour? Can you tell Maddie... Ensign Phillips... she works in sickbay. We were meant to be taking a trip to Risa together next month. I was going to propose..."

Despite her original grim diagnosis, Sansa had opened up the med kit and was trying some basic triage on him "You'll be able to tell her yourself.

The young man smiled at her "It's ok..." he told her as if accepting his fate. "Tell her that I love her..." Recognition dawned on his face "You're the Captain's daughter, aren't you? You're just like her you know..."

Despite herself, Sansa's eyes were starting to tear up as she worked. "Hamish... I'm losing him... I don't know what to do..." She looked at him with pleading eyes.

Hamish saw the signs, he'd seen that when Esme was dying in his arms, He had tried to move the debris even if a small amount but wouldn't budge. He looked at the situation and just shook his head towards Sansa and reached out with his other hand to hold hers, while he held Billy's hand.

The colour was draining from Billy's face and his breathing was becoming shallower. "I'm glad you're here. I.... was afraid I was going to be alone...."

Sansa scanned the debris "This debris is pinning him, I don't think......" Her voice trailed off as the tricorder suddenly produced a steady flat tone. She looked down sadly. His eyes were now fixed open, his chest still. Sansa gently closed his eyes and placed a hand on his forehead. "He's at peace now."

Hamish pulled Sansa close to him, "I can't say it's going to be alright, losing someone never is. And there wasn't much we could do for him. I couldn't move the debris was just way too much for us to do." Hamish gave a sigh.

Sansa felt safer in his arms and allowed him to hold her close. "Come on, let's go a little further and see if we can find anyone else."

Turning away from the blocked corridor, they headed down another corridor.

"Help me!" A voice suddenly called out from one of the cargo bays at the end of the corridor.

Hamish looked at Sansa and then set off at a run, reaching the door where the cry for help had come from. He opened it and gaped at what he could see. A total mess in the cargo bay with several cargo crates topsy turvy, as some of the restraints had been snapped. He also looked for where the cry for help came from. "Where are you?" not seeing the one who called on the commbadge.

The cargo bay door had not opened fully, jamming at only about 1/4 of its normal width. Sansa followed Hamish into the dimly lit cargobay, squeezing through the narrow opening. When she was inside, her mouth fell open.
It looked like a war zone.
Sansa pulled out her tricorder to see if she could pick up any life signs. "Up there!" She indicated to the upper control room on the catwalk above them on the lefthand sidewall.

Just as they reached the top of the ladder, the outer door which was at the far end of the room made a very unhealthy groaning noise and an alarm sounded "Warning! External door integrity compromised! Structural failure in three minutes. Emergency forcefields are offline. Decompression danger!"

Sansa looked at Hamish. "Come on! We better find this guy and get out of here fast!"

Hamish nodded and went around to search for the person, and not seeing him, plus getting a bit worried.

Sansa entered the control room and through the dim light, made out a young ensign cowering in the corner in a fetal position, curled up in a ball. "It's ok, we're here to help you," Sansa said in a quiet voice, while she scanned him with the tricorder. Physically he was ok. Mentally was a different story.

Sansa held out her hand "We have to get out of here, now. Take my hand."

He hesitated for a moment, then reached out and took her hand with a grip so strong, Sansa had to suppress a wince.

She turned back to Hamish. "I've got him. Let's move!"

Hamish flashed a look at the man and then grabbed Sansa by the other hand, "We are going to have to be careful." as they worked their way towards the door. Then something gave... Hamish wasn't certain but things started tilting in a direction they didn't want themselves to go, causing them to slip. Hamish grabbed onto something to stabilize them holding onto Sansa's hand for dear life. Shifting his grip to her wrist. Otherwise, he would lose her. He could feel a strain upon his arm, and he was breaking out into a sweat.

"Sansa... things are looking a bit grim here." he groaned out. "Hey, you ensign, grab hold of something else and help out here."

The young man seemed not to hear Hamish and kept tight hold of Sansa’s hand. Sansa knew they were running out of time. “We have to make it to the door!”

Through sheer Herculean effort, the three of them made it to the door. Sansa was starting to lose feeling in her hand, the young officer's grip was so tight. Hamish was leading the group and Sansa motioned for him to go through the door first.

“Once you're through, can you help me through….” Sansa said trying to keep the desperation from creeping into her voice but when her eyes locked with Hamish, her stare spoke volumes.

Hamish was grunting with the effort, but they had to prevail here. He grimaced and then gave Sansa a brief nod.

Sansa got one hand through the doorway when suddenly all hell broke loose. The outer door gave an almighty groan and then crumpled like tissue paper and Sansa and the ensign were suddenly battling hurricane speed winds. Sansa slipped back into the cargo bay only just managing to grab hold of Hamish’s hand. The ensign now slipped from her grasp but he grabbed hold of her legs as they were now being pulled horizontally towards the breach. He felt like he weighed a ton and Sansa could feel him pulling her out of Hamish’s grasp.

Hamish gave out a cry, regaining hold of Sansa but could feel her grip and his grip starting to loosen. "Sansa." he said through gritted teeth. "You have to kick him off, otherwise we're all going to die. And I promised your mom, your dad and Mathias I'd take care of you. You have to kick him off! I can't break my promise to them." he choked out.

The young ensign clawed at Sansa's legs still desperate to save himself. he looked up just as she looked down and their eyes met. She could see the sheer panic and desperation in his eyes.

"I'm sorry...." she whispered as she forced herself to kick him in the chest. His look of panic turned to horror as he realised what she was doing, yet he resued to let go.

Rallying all of her remaining strength into one last kick, Sansa caught the young man square in the jaw and he fell, tumbling back, accelerating towards that gaping chasm of death. Sansa managed to bring her other hand up and grabbed Hamish firmly and slowly she was pulled through the door which snapped shut, barely missing her feet.

The rush of escaping air suddenly stopped and they both collapsed to the deck, breathing hard, their muscles aching from the strain. sweat coating them both.

Sansa could still feel his grip on her hand, and on her legs... How he refused to let her go till the bitter end.

For what felt like an eternity, neither one of them spoke. Despite the physical exertion, Sansa had turned a deathly shade of white. Finally, she managed to look up at Hamish with a vacant stare and whispered hoarsely "I..... I didn't even know his name...."

"We will find out later my love." Hamish gasped out, pulling her close to him. "I am sorry I couldn't save both of you. It was him or us." giving a shiver, he felt sick to his stomach. "We did what we had to do, Sansa, we... we couldn't save him." Hamish didn't know what else to say here, but he knew that he and Sansa may have to see a counselor just to... perhaps deal with what happened.

Sansa nodded, pushing the image of the ensign falling to his death out of her mind... at least for now.

She held him tight for a moment then took a deep breath and managed a smile at Hamish "We should return to Engineering."

"I agree, and hope that things will get better after this." Hamish murmured softly.

OFF:

Sansa Draxx Jones
Marine Biologist
USS Merlin

●● Lieutenant Hamish Teague
Chief Science Officer
USS Merlin