Act I Scene II: Minus Thirteen Hours to Planetfall

[ManWithDoor]

Alik is relieved that Weathers is able to talk, and able to maintain some levity in the face of all this. "Good question. Maybe some sort of overload? We hadn't done anything yet, so I don't see how we could have caused it. Even if a weird interaction was going on with the dish and our suits, I find it hard to imagine it having such a dramatic effect on all of us. My best guess is there's a big mess in Engineering. Hopefully it's just running and yelling, rather than sparking consoles and ruptured power couplings."

[Orvost]

Both Serao and Weathers share what they know.

”Overload? Nah, mate, that was an explosion. It came from the saucer. No idea what caused it. It looked localized toward the center, where we just came from. I don’t think it was weapons fire from another ship. If the ship had been struck by an object large enough to cause that much damage, I think we would have seen it coming.”

”We only witnessed the explosion from the bottom of the saucer. The explosion could have started somewhere else. Worst case scenario: the explosion started at the bridge and blew through the entire saucer. In that case, the entire bridge and command crew is gone, and we are in trouble because recovering us is far down on the priorities list.”

[ManWithDoor]

"If it was an attack from another ship they'd need to have been ... cloaked or something? But if anyone could stay cloaked and attack, I haven't heard about it. And the entirely of Starfleet is in trouble. So yeah, likely something internal rather than external. I hope."

Thinking through the explosion rather than focusing on his leg pain, a chill goes through him. "Could this be from the new installation? I pray it was a freak accident, but if this is a systemic problem than dozens of starships could be crippling themselves as we speak."

[Orvost]

Weathers spares a snicker at Alik’s suggestion that the new deflector dish caused the explosion.

”Wouldn’t that just be our luck, Craig: spending the past few weeks inadvertently sabotaging dozens of starships!

Serao speaks up as well with a tone of finality. Perhaps she tires of speculating about something the three of you don’t seem to have enough information about.

Whatever the cause, starships don’t just explode for no reason.”

A chill went through Alik at the thought of the installation causing the explosion. Now an electric charge goes up his spine at Serao’s statement. Alik remembers musing to himself the same sentiment regarding another orbiting ship and another explosion not too long ago.

[ManWithDoor]

A long silence goes by as the engineer mulls the thought over. "Do ... do you remember the exploding ship back at the Starbase? The Kingfisher, right? They blamed it on a poorly maintained warp engine, and then moved on. Or at least, that's what was publicly released. If this is related to us, then poor maintenance of old-design cores can't be the common thread. As quirky as the Pas-de-Calais and her crew are, badly maintained isn't something that could honestly be said about this ship."

[Orvost]

Alik’s mention of the Kingfisher sparks Serao’s memory of that hectic day at Operations Central:

”Yes! That trader ship that fragmented and caused a debris field in the path of so many ships in orbit. The explosions seem to be about the same size: what would destroy a ship the size of the Kingfisher would cause extensive, but localized damage in a ship the size of the Pas-de-Calais. Which seems to be what happened.”

Alik spares another glance back toward the Pas-de-Calais and is shocked by how far they have already drifted from the ship. It is merely a speck in the yawning void behind them. Weathers must be having the same train of thought as she speaks up:

”We’re already out of visual range. If they’re going to find us they’ll need sensors, which isn’t good news for us, since sensors were probably already routed through the dish as well. They’re blind, deaf, and dumb.”

Serao contributes to Weathers’ point:
”And changing that situation is subordinate to damage control at the moment.”

"No doubt about it: We’re in a fix."

There is silence for a moment before they continue:

”In our briefing this morning, they said we were in high orbit. That means we were already in the gravity well of the planet. The blast seems to have blown us inward toward the planet, and I don’t think we have the angle or velocity to escape the pull of the planet.

”Our telemetry capabilities were severed with communications, but even without a reading I would say we aren’t moving more than a couple decameters per second. That will increase the closer we get.

[ManWithDoor]

Alik recalls his orbital mechanics physics lessons, although without a lot more data about their respective velocities and the mass of the planet below he can't actually make any real calculations. "Things in high orbit could take centuries or decades to de-orbit, and years even in relatively low orbit. If we were already in the stratosphere it would take 10-ish minutes to hit the ground. So assuming we're somewhere between those extremes, what do you think? Days? If we so will die of running out of air or water before we are any danger from the planet itself."

[Orvost]

The three companions spend the next few minutes discussing the possibilities. Best case scenario: the Pas-de-Calais gets its systems back online, doesn’t write them off as lost, prioritizes finding them, and sweeps them up before anything else happens. Worse case scenario: the Pas-de-Calais doesn’t complete that sequence of unlikely events. If they are not rescued, there are three possibilities:

1) They run out of oxygen, fall unconscious, and suffocate.
2) They fall through the atmosphere and the thermal rating of their enviro-suits isn’t sufficient to prevent them from burning up on entry.
3) They fall through the atmosphere and the thermal rating of their enviro-suits is sufficient to prevent burning up, and they plummet to their deaths at terminal velocity.

Alik knows the equations to figure out how much time they have before plummeting, but there are too many variables, too many unknowns. The other two try as well, plugging in different number sets based only on speculation. The lowest number they come up with is about five hours. The highest number is about eighteen hours. The median amount of time over many different number sets is about thirteen hours. Thirteen hours until planetfall, when they burn up or plummet to their deaths.

The ship is long gone behind and the planet looms large ahead. Weathers, who seems to be moving a meter or two per second faster than the other two, is now a small lonely figure ahead. She looks like a small white fish. A graceful white fish that moves like a dancer as she checks her lateral and rotational momentum with pointed toes and arm flourishes. For now, she’s still in communication range as she expresses her preference:

”I’d like to burn in the atmosphere. A conflagration of light and fire. In my mind’s eye, I see a twilight horizon and a child looking toward the sky. A boy. It has to be a boy. And, I suppose, the boy must be a Vulcan. This is a Vulcan colony, isn’t it? As he looks up, he sees a bright shooting star with a long tail and he makes a wish. Do Vulcans make wishes on shooting stars? Anyway, that’s how I plan to go; a heavenly source of wonder and inspiration for a child.”

A few moments pass in silence before Serao responds:
”There is beauty in your morbidity. But if our best guess is correct, you will have already expired. My oxygen meter reads a little over twelve hours of breathing. You will have suffocated.”

A moment later, Weathers responds:
”My meter reads the same, just over twelve hours of breathing left. I guess I was seeing my funeral and not my death.”

Alik looks at his oxygen reading and his heart sinks. Shooting out the tether line may have spent some breathing gasses, but his suit must have vented a tremendous amount to stay pressurized while the hole in the suit was still open. His suit is showing less than eight hours of breathing.

[ManWithDoor]

"Well ... nuts. My suit integrity was compromised more than yours. You know, the whole foot being ripped off and everything, so I vented a good four hours of gas out before I could seal everything closed. So I've got maybe eight hours left, if I stay calm and don't get too excited and raise my metabolic rate." He sighs, not liking their odds.

"The ship is crippled in some fashion, and we have no way that I can see to significantly alter our trajectory. As a last resort I guess I could shoot out my grapple and then disconnect it somehow, so the velocity isn't cancelled out once it hits its maximum range, but I don't think that buys much, and limits options down the road. If they matter at all." His usual good-natured and light-hearted manner is slipping as he sees the inevitable coming.

"I don't suppose anyone can think of a way to boost the signal of our communication devices? See if we could send out some sort of emergency signal that a passing starship might pick up? Or the colony down below might notice?"

[Orvost]

Serao, the communications officer, speaks toward Alik’s questions:

“Our suits should already be broadcasting our whereabouts to any working Federation sensor relay in-system. There is no subspace capability, so nothing out of system will detect us. Boosting the signal wouldn’t make much of a difference. We are already in a pretty remote place. Calsa colony is a Vulcan hermitage. We chose this planet as the site of our calibrations specifically because of its lack of outgoing communications. While they generally eschew outside contact, they must have some means of communication in case of emergency. If they have equipment to detect us, I doubt they monitor it all the time. Even if they did pick up our signal, I don’t know if they have the means to help us. I can set up a repeating, distress signal—just in case, but first things first…”

Alik feels a tug, then the grip of Serao’s legs as she mounts his back. She seems to be manipulating the controls on the back of his suit.