Frantic

Posted on Sun Jun 21st, 2020 @ 5:13am by Emilie Temple
Edited on on Tue Jul 7th, 2020 @ 1:20pm

Mission: Into the Wild
Timeline: During "Entering the Unknown"

A Mission Post by Emilie Temple
Mission: Into The Wild
Location:
Timeline: During "Entering the Unknown"
Tue Jul 4th, 2017 @ 2:43pm


It was every parent's worst nightmare, and indeed the biggest fear that Emilie Temple had tried not to think about; being separated from one's child during an emergency...

Emilie had dropped off her daughter Katrine at Daycare and was enjoying a warm cafe latte on the Recreation Deck, just idly watching people pass by as she enjoyed this quiet moment. She was almost due to meet with the teachers in the Pandora's small education centre, but was still finding her feet on the new ship and wanted to spend this time forming her ideas and her plan of action. Sitting in a small French-themed patisserie in the Crescent, Emilie was just happily observing the crew and passengers as they passed.

It was during this moment that the ship began to experience minor tremors and shakes, causing her mug of milky coffee to rattle and shift across the table. Furrowing her brow, Emilie grabbed the handle of the mug quickly before it could vibrate off the table altogether. Looking around, the crowd of officers on the Recreation Deck also stopped walking and talking, a palpable silence fell over the whole level as everyone looked around in confusion. Some began to dart off, as if silently called into duty, and this caused Emilie to stand on impulse, leaving the mug on the table.

In this moment, the ship took a sudden turn, their whole world heaving to the right as the artificial gravity desperately tried to keep everyone from falling over. Emilie held on tightly to the table, using this to keep her upright as she was not quite used to the effects of inertial dampeners. The lights of the Recreation Deck flickered twice as it appeared the Pandora was being struck frequently by... something.

As the lights dimmed once more, they came up again with a striking yellow glare, as the computer pierced the silence with a sudden call.

"Yellow Alert. Yellow Alert." Followed by a distressing wail of a siren and then, "Please evacuate the area. All hands to stations. All civilians to quarters. Please evacuate the area. All hands to stations. All civilians to quarters."

The Deck began to suddenly empty as everyone formed eager queues to get out of the area and back to their duties.

"What's going on?" Emilie asked with a rising panic, grabbing hold of a passing Engineer.

"We've hit a debris field," She explained breathlessly, "It's pretty intense. Best get back to your quarters, ma'am. I can get someone to escort you if you need?"

"My child!" Emilie cried, gasping for air, "She's in the daycare!"

"She'll be safe, ma'am," The woman claimed, "They have procedures in the school for this."

Emilie just shook her head, unwilling to listen to the young officer's words. She broke free from the crowd and started running in the opposite direction, back into the Recreation Deck. She was heading to the Daycare when the Pandora made another sharp turn - only this time the inertial dampeners appeared to fail, sending everyone crashing to the floor.

As the ground appeared to slip from under her feet, Emilie found herself slamming into a decorative pillar, sending a sharp pain through her right arm and the wind was knocked out her lungs. Groaning, she lay on the floor for a moment - watching everyone else slowly start to recover and pick themselves back up again. The lights flickered once more as Emilie took in the scene with a hazy silence.

A hand appear in front of her vision and without looking, Emilie reached out with her left and found herself being gently pulled to her feet by a strong man. As she rose up again, she caught sight of the Red Shirt in front of her and Emilie smiled for a moment.

"Nyx?" She murmured, wiping her eyes.

"Mrs Temple?" The Helmsman asked, looking at her curiously. His blonde hair and green eyes suddenly came into focus. "My name is Ensign Donovan. Are you okay?"

"Just took a fall," Emilie replied sheepishly, realising she'd made a mistake. "I need to get to the Daycare. My uh, my daughter is in there."

"I think you need to go to Sickbay...." He began.

"No." Emilie replied firmly, now looking at him with a stern glare. "Not without my daughter."

Realising Temple was not going to leave without her child, the Ensign put his firm arm around her good one and helped Emilie walk towards the Daycare. The ship continued to shake and tremor, and occasionally made looping dives that caused both of them to cling onto each other and the nearest handrail for dear life. But a possible broken arm and the Pandora Roller Coaster were not going to deter Emilie from getting to Katrine.

Finally they rounded the corner, in a now completely abandoned area of the Recreation Deck. Seeing the doors to the Daycare Centre, Emilie made a sudden desperate dash towards it, with Ensign Donovan following close behind. A frantic panic washed over Emilie as she ran into the Centre and found it was completely empty.

No children, no teachers, no Katrine.

"WHERE IS SHE?!" Emilie screamed, turning to look at the young Helmsman as the colour drained from her face. "She should be here!"

"They... they probably evacuated," Donovan replied, with a shrug, "I'm sure that's a procedure."

Emilie remembered the Engineer mentioning this but was too caught in her own fear to have listened properly, and didn't think to check where the children would go to in such an emergency.

"Yes," Emilie finally replied, holding her hand to her face, "But where?"

Ensign Donovan moved to a nearby LCARS panel on the wall and began to search, as Emilie paced nervously behind him.

A smile came over his face, "It looks like they've gone to - "

Before he could finish the sentence the ship made her biggest dive yet, sending Emilie and Donovan tumbling across the corridor once more. There was a loud screeching noise as a piece of debris scraped across the Pandora's hull, and the entire ship was sent into Red Alert. Emilie rolled and slid across the carpeted floor again, finally coming to a stop as she fell into the wall, her head coming into contact with the metal cornerstone. Ensign Donovan was not far behind and landed with a thud next to her.

Emilie's eyes blinked once or twice as she could feel herself falling into unconsciousness, despite her mind telling her to stay awake so she could get to her daughter.

"Katrine..." She murmured as she blacked out.

OFF