Act I Scene II: Minus Thirteen Hours to Planetfall

[ManWithDoor]

Alik is thankful he nabbed the communications officer then, in case this wild idea works out. "So ... just out of curiosity, what are you doing back there?"

[Orvost]

Whatever Serao is doing seems to be taking most of her concentration, because she is slow to respond and curt in her reply.

”Hold on. Give me a moment.”

A moment stretches to minutes and Alik waits in silence. He realizes, with some consternation, that he would have a difficult time dislodging her even if he objected to whatever she was doing. His range of motion and access to his back are limited by the suit. Finally, Alik starts getting notifications and he realizes what Serao is doing: She has linked their oxygen reserves with a bypass hose. For a brief moment, Alik thinks she is stealing his air, but then he sees his breathing reserves increasing. Once linked, it’s a simple matter of letting her higher pressure flow to his lower pressure until the systems reach an equilibrium. The equilibrium takes a few minutes to achieve and increases his breathing reserves to over ten hours. Hers must have decreased to a similar amount.

”And … Done.”

[ManWithDoor]

Alik breaths a literal sigh of relief. "Wow, thanks." He can't help but smile, even if no one is in a position to see it. "Gives us equal time to wait for rescue, and maybe think of something besides just floating out here." He doesn't actually have any ideas left up his sleeve, but Starfleet achieves the impossible all the time. Why shouldn't they be any different?

[Orvost]

Serao brainstorms some ways to extend their survival. They could manually adjust their breathing to spend less oxygen. They would fall unconscious (and wake up with headaches), but that would add another hour or two. But then they couldn’t respond if someone answers their distress signal or hails them. What if they took turns or had one of them voluntarily go unconscious? That may save them an hour or so.

They discuss the situation.
They go over their options.
They joke and laugh.
Time passes.

Suddenly another voice comes across the communication line. It’s Cadet Weathers. She had been silent for so long, you had assumed she had dropped the line or passed beyond communication range.

”Could you two keep it down? I’m trying to come to terms with my looming demise.”

There is a hardness in her voice that makes you unsure if she is kidding or not.

[ManWithDoor]

Alik winces, likely having similar feelings. "I hear you there. I'm used to running around the warp core, troubleshooting my little heart out. But this ... at this point, I've run out of real ideas. Maybe try to eek out a little more time taking shifts of consciousness and hope for a rescue. But outside of that, it's not like we can slap together an impulse drive out of the vacuum."

He sighs. "Willing to talk about the 'impending doom', though. I don't know how long our communication will hold out, so you've got the floor here. Want to be supportive, as long as I can."

[Orvost]

Weathers is reluctant to speak at first, but she begins opening up about her situation:

She’s alone.
Alik can only sympathize because he and Serao are together. He hadn’t realized what a comfort it was facing death with another person’s company until he listens to Weathers.

She’s exhausted.
Operating an enviro-suit is hard work. Alik has tremendous stamina and has recent practice wearing the suit. Even though Alik could operate the suit indefinitely, the effort is still making him perspire. For Serao and Weathers, who aren’t blessed with Alik’s fortitude, the strain is taking its toll.

She’s feeling claustrophobic.
The suit becomes more burdensome as she gets more tired and it feels more and more closed in and narrow. It’s like she’s already been entombed in a sarcophagus.

She’s powerless.
Alik can empathize. There is little or nothing any of them can do at this point to improve their situation or change the outcome. Rescue is an unlikely and remote possibility and nothing they can do will make that possibility more or less likely. It’s maddening for a self-starting, career oriented, Starfleet go-getter to face that situation.

Not only is Alik able to get Weathers to talk through her frustrations, but the words he offers to comfort and cajole her strike a chord with all three of them and steels their resolve to face their fate knowing they face it together.

“Thanks for the pick-me-up, Craig.” Offers Weathers: “I’m sorry for snapping at you earlier."

[ManWithDoor]

"No offense over here. We're all staring down the same fate, yet as with everything, in the end we have to deal with it within ourselves. Selfishly I'm really grateful to have both of you here to help keep me together, so I don't feel so alone. I don't think I could have kept myself together without you." He sighs, pausing to think and feel.

"I'm sorry I'm not physically near, but I'll be here for you on the comms as long as it holds out. I know you feel alone, but it's not true."

[Orvost]

More time passes.

At the eight and a half hour mark, Alik makes the mental note that he is now living off borrowed air. He would have perished by now without Serao’s oxygen transfusion. Serao, to her credit, hasn’t mentioned her selfless act since it happened and doesn’t seem concerned that she has shortened her life by a few precious hours.

Just then, Weathers gets on the communication line. There seems to be significant background interference on her end.

”…looks like we were way off on our time estimates. Pretty sure I’ve entered the upper atmosphere and … getting thicker by the moment. Damn: Looks like I’m falling into their early morning. I hope I light up their sky like a comet. …been an honor serving with…”

Alik wonders how they could have been so far off on their estimated time. Then it hits him and he wishes he could smack his forehead in frustration over the obviousness of it—the gravity constant. This is a Vulcan colony and Vulcans are comfortable at higher gravity conditions. Reversing the equations in his head to solve for “g” based on an arrival time of 8 ½ hours, he estimates this planet has a 1.2 gravity value (11.75 M/S^2 vs. 9.8). Knowing nothing about the atmosphere other than it is breathable, Alik estimates that Weathers is probably close to terminal velocity already. She probably has several minutes before impact, but who knows how long the thermal integrity of her enviro-suit will last?

In any case, Weathers’ hour has come. Alik is somewhere between 25 and 40 minutes behind her.

[ManWithDoor]

Alik wants to beat his head against the inside of his helmet, not that that would prove useful in any way. Just the need to rail against the inevitable, to fight the feeling of helpless and pain.

"It has been an honor serving you as well, Cadet Weathers. If you can light up their sky extra somehow, all the more power to you. We couldn't get a comms message to them, so this will be the best we have." In some ways he wishes the suits weren't as well designed as they are. She might well suffer much longer in the fall than otherwise.

Glancing at Serao, he mentions his new understanding of the gravity conditions of the planet. With a 1.2g constant, that means both they're going to his atmosphere sooner, and terminal velocity will be higher as well. Fun. "Don't suppose you've thought up some way to instead make a parachute so we land nice and gentle?" He doesn't actually expect anything, but it's better than the silence.

[Orvost]

Serao doesn’t have time to answer as the sparkling blue light of a transporter beam engulfs her and Alik. Alik is stuck in the limbo of the transporter stream for a few moments as inertial dampeners halt his directional momentum, then he and Serao rematerialize, falling entwined in a heap on the ground. Ground? No, floor. Alik quickly tries to orient himself to his surroundings. They’re aboard a Starfleet shuttle. He looks toward the cockpit and recognizes the blonde, high and tight back end of Cadet Campeador’s head. The pilot doesn’t turn to check on, or welcome them. He remains intent on the shuttle controls.