A Rush of Air to the Skin

[Dash_Andrews 0]

What's wrong!!

 

He shouted entering Main Engineering from the adjacent corridor.

 

 

The venting had not begun, the station was running out of time and something was keeping them from inacting their plans... Their final hopes.

 

Duroz was in his EVA suit and his eyes flitted about the Engineering Deck... Coleridge, Fletcher, and Sub-Commander Jorahl were working diligently at several different stations. New faces had come to take refuge there in the last bastion of survival, the Commander herself was among them. The last survivors aboard a terribly doomed starbase that they had all sworn an oath to protect and serve upon.

 

Duroz, get the O2 tanks open, with a switch, a can opener, or a phaser if you have to!!

 

Jorahl's words were slightly muffled coming through his EVA helmet but the Rihan's urgency was no less palpable. Duroz was unsure the state of affairs in the lower decks near Oxygen Reprocessing and Control. From what he could tell earlier the bottom decks were some of the last to truly be attacked by the parasitic creatures that had nearly devoured the top half of the station already.

 

As he dropped several decks downward quickly he soon found the shear emptiness of the usually bustling and packed gradure of Aegis... disconcerting. The lower levels had already had main power cut and diverted to the structural integrity fields and shield emitter systems. Auxiliary lights were running and red filled most of the corridors. His eyes adjusted as he staired in to the see of blood and he moved quickly onward toward the large double doored bulkhead that would lead him to the tanks. The control booth to his left was still partially lit and he stepped inside the large transparent aluminum pane he peered through gave a view of the largest reprocessing center he'd ever laid eyes on. A whole year he'd spent aboard this station and he'd never set foot this far down before... He punched in several common commands for pre-venting procedures in to the still lit console screen... Nothing... He waited a second more then slammed a hand hard down upon the console. He moved to the double doors and cranked upon the manual release behind the flattened and slightly hidden panel.

 

As the doors pried open a rush of air could be heard whistling through the doors. The tanks were already leaking... He need only speed them along. There were eight primary tanks, and four sets of manual release mechanisms. As he made his way to the manual release and control station midway down the large cargobay sized facility he heard the Rihan's voice once more in his helmet...

 

Start manually blowing all external hatches once you've got the O2 tanks open.

 

If it wasn't already broke... he was to break it. That was a first for him. He was an engineer after all, a klingon engineer who'd had to piece disruptor array ODN conduits back together with nothing but a clamp and a pressure seal in the heat of battle. Now they were intentionally damaging their station to save it... The irony was not lost on him.[/size]

 

The four oxygen release valves gave no trouble and the pressure filled up the room quickly, he could feel it beginning to weigh upon his suit. He exited through the doors from whence he came and blew two hatches on the deck before he dropped down two more decks. He intentionally skipped a deck for the sake of time and simply left the junction hatch open. He had released atleast four decks when the pressure was finally beginning to show a substantial drop. And then the sounds of screeching... crunching and shear metallic collapse filled his head. His mind twitched as his Klingon blood boiled with the thought of dying with honor but his animalistic need to survive pressed him to move quickly.

 

Gravity released him from the ground. The lights went out...

 

As he turned his helmet lights on and engaged his magnetic boots he finally came to a conclusion. He would not waiver in the least. If his sacrifice here today could save those who remained behind with him, he would give his life with honor. He pressed himself facing downward in to a crouching position upon the hatchway of the the deck above him. FOUR more decks was all he had to clear... He would do it...

 

He pressed off hard and uncharged his magnetic boots to release him from the top of the hatch so that he may thrust himself downward faster... And then...

 

There was only silence...

Edited August 17, 2010 by Dash_Andrews