Pithos Opens

Posted on Fri Aug 14th, 2020 @ 8:16am by Lieutenant Declan Roderick & Lieutenant Kalin Brennan-Griffin PhD & Lieutenant James Smith & Lieutenant Alexandra Alves MD & Commander Leta Rothgan PhD. & Lieutenant JG Aeryn Jameson
Edited on on Fri Aug 14th, 2020 @ 8:17am

Mission: The Evils Within
Location: Hesiod Green - Pithos Facility

ON:

The underground Pithos facility was in a state of emergency. Environmental shielding had failed in one sector, plunging the base into panic and distress. The researchers had been experimenting with dark matter, in an attempt to contain the volatile substance and use it for their own means. But dark matter could never be safely contained; it was beyond conventional forces in the universe. Although the natural density of Hesiod's core had so-far kept the dark matter at bay, at considerable cost to the planet itself, now it was pushing back against the man-made structures and escaping from it's containment. It was rapidly becoming a matter of "when" and not "if" Pithos would fall.

In the main Operations room of Pithos, officers were scrambling to plug the holes in their protection.

"Emergency power is online but fluctuating!" One cried.

"Generator capacity has reached it's limit. We can't cycle enough power to sustain the shields!" Another shouted.

"Structural integrity falling. 78 percent." A third shouted, hands dashing over their console with haste.

"Report!" shouted Commander Rothgan as she entered the room.

"It's what we feared, Commander," Ensign W'lang commented. "The experiment has reached critical mass. It achieved self-sufficiency, in that it was able to regenerate the energy that it exhausted, but we are unable to safely stabilise those energy levels."

Panaouris added, "We're also unable to terminate the experiment at the source, it will only continue to fuel itself and become more destabilised as time continues, unless we can somehow disrupt the particle flow."

"Shields are failing everywhere," said a technician. "Sector 5 has failed completely... we lost five people in there."

Rothgan was amazed. "The shield went down that fast?"

"No, sir," the technician replied. "We received the alert that it was failing about fifteen minutes before it collapsed."

"Why didn't we get to this sooner?" Rothgan asked.

"I don't know," said the technician. "This isn't even my shift. I got here about ten minutes after the alarm sounded. No one was here."

"Where's Admiral Francis?" said Rothgan.

"I don't know that either," the technician replied.

"Begin emergency evacuation procedures," said Rothgan. "I want all Starfleet personnel on this. All other people must evacuate. I'll see if I can get our guests from the Pandora to help."

Rothgan left the room and immediately found some of Pandora's people: Jameson, Alves, Smith, and Brennan. Lieutenant Roderick was also with them. For some reason, Rothgan smelled beer.

"There you are," she said as she approached the group. She didn't inquire as to the whereabouts of Lieutenant-Commander Griffin because she was too harried to notice he was gone. Instead she gave the group a quick explanation of their problem.

Rothgan spoke fast. "Any assistance in getting our scientists and officers to safety would be much-appreciated. I don't know how this could have happened, but right now everyone's safety is our primary concern. I also welcome any assistance you might be able to give in bringing the shields back online."

"We will help however we can," Shae said, then looked to Smith. "If we can't get the shields back online, it would be pertinent to have evidence of any wrong doings. Also, try to collect as much of the research data as you can," she then said to the Intelligence Officer; though her words were phrased as a command, her tone was more suggestive, indicative of her respect of their equal rank. Then to Aeryn and Alexandra she said, "Can you help coordinate the evacuation?"

Aeryn nodded and looked at Alexandra before looking back at Shae. “We can do that.”

Roderick was concerned. "How can I help?"

Rothgan turned to Roderick. "Being the Chief of Operations, you know best how the shield generator systems work. I'll stay with you and help you maintain the shield as long as possible. Hopefully we can get everyone enough time to get out."

"We can cut non-essentials." Roderick posited. His fingers hastily entered in some codes on a side hall panel. A display highlighted the shield generator's increasingly anemic outflow. "Four decks down. Substation Alpha A3." Declan's index circled the location as he turned to the others and Rothgan. "Trip the Alpha A3 resource substation and shunt the power to the shields."

Across the room, two of the technicians were in intense discussion, clearly arguing about something.

"We have to tell them!" Ensign Panaouris cried.

"NO!" W'lang replied with a hiss. "It's too late anyway."

Staying entirely unaware of the technicians' argument, Rothgan continued to divert non-essential systems to the sectors most failing. Sectors one through four were mostly contained, however five had long-since collapsed and six and seven, which led to crew quarters, were beginning to weaken. Five people had been in sector five, and part of Rothgan grieved their deaths, but she pushed on and continued her work with Lieutenant Roderick.

Aeryn was busy trying to help with the evacuation of the facility, she wasn't sure exactly how much time they had so speed was all important. She wasn't planning on leaving anyone behind.

"I'm telling them." Panaouris declared, shrugging off W'lang's concerns.

"We have no time!" W'lang insisted, trying to hold back his fellow technician. But Panaouris could not be stopped, as she moved to speak with the senior officers.

"Sirs, I think we have a solution that will help relieve some of the pressure on the facility." Ensign Panaouris stepped forward, speaking directly to Rothgan and the Pandora team. Despite her counterpart's objections, Panaouris brought up a map of the facility, including the in-danger sector five. "The seismic activity caused by our experiment has been shifting the rock formations around us, even creating caverns and tunnels that reach to the surface. I believe if we activate this access hatch - " she pointed to a place in sector five, " - it will exhaust the dark matter and mineral particles into a newly-formed tunnel that leads directly to ground level. It'll be like... removing the fuel from the fire. Giving us a better chance of stabilising the facility, or at least getting everyone out safely."

"But." W'lang interjected, "It will mean expelling dangerous materials topside. Onto the planet surface. We don't know what effect that will have on the planet."

"If the station fails, all of those dangerous materials are going to get released anyway. If sector five fails, it could have a chain-reaction that causes the rest of the station to explode. " Panaouris replied. "At least this way, we can control the release into a single area, and buy us enough time to fix the shields in sector five."

"At what risk?" W'lang asked, pleading around for someone else to agree with him.

Panaouris dropped her head, "We know what this facility has done to Hesiod Green already. At least this way, we might able to slow the destruction, maybe even isolate it." She shrugged, "It's up to you, sirs. Evacuate the facility now and allow it to fail, or vent the particles to the planet surface and save what we can."

This was a hard decision to make, but for Rothgan, not a difficult one. "Get everyone out," she said. "We're leaving the facility." She sighed. "That includes the two of you. I will stay and keep the shields operating as long as I can until everyone's out." Before one of them could protest, she said, "I'll get out in time. I don't intend to die for this damned place."

James had been busy downloading all available data and creating a link to the Pandora so none of the research or information would be lost completely, as he worked he kept an eye on everything that was going on around him. James shook his head as Rothgan ordered everyone to evacuate and said, "I am staying until you are able to leave no one gets left behind if I have any say about it."

"No, Lieutenant," Rothgan replied. "You're leaving with everyone else. Consider that an order." She looked at Smith and with a reassuring tone said, "Everyone will get out of here alive. Including me. I promise."

"You heard the Commander," W'lang said as he headed towards the door. "We're going!"

"But... " Panaouris stammered, just as the station shook once more. Every one else had started to exit the room, and she held her hands up in resignation. "What about our work? Our goals?"

"We'll start again." W'lang replied, coming back to grab Panaouris by the hand. "We'll do better next time."

Panaouris shook her head, "There won't be a next time." She resigned herself to this fact as she allowed W'lang to guide her out of the room.

As the teams of officers and scientists started to flood out of the facility and run for their lives, the alarms and sirens inside only got louder and more urgent. Sector five was the catalyst for systemic failure in the rest of the facility. Once the shields had failed there, the dark matter and volatile chemicals only got increasingly out of control, building in pressure as the energy storm pushed against the very foundations of Pithos. The building groaned and buckled as the swirling forces chewed through the protective cladding, turned whole bulkheads into a twisted mess, and blew through safety barriers like they were mere children's toys. It was only a matter of time before it consumed and devastated everything in it's path.

There was no stopping the experiment now that it was out; the evils within Pithos had been unleashed.

OFF