Luck & Disaster - Part 4

Posted on Tue Jul 29th, 2025 @ 9:32pm by Petty Officer 2nd Class Sizia Sh'velihr [Baas] & Aseek Tarnala & Lieutenant Liam O'Riley & Lieutenant Zane D'Sai & Lieutenant Urushi Yaotome & Lieutenant Niami Troga & Lieutenant Ayumu Tanaka & Lieutenant JG Stevie Thomas [O'Riley]
Edited on on Fri Aug 1st, 2025 @ 10:17am

1,560 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Sole Survivor
Location: Planet's Surface
Timeline: MD 18 - 1400

Wallace had followed the first pair and had entered another door to reveal the rusted remains of some kind of data center. Row after row of rusted metal and plastic with wiring running through it all. "O'Riley, I think I found some kind old old computer processing room, I don't think anything's recoverable though."

Hearing Wallace, Liam walked to his location. Grabbing his tri-corder he scanned the remnants of an era since long gone by "No, there's zero power to anything in here and even if there was, I highly doubt anything would be salvageable" he replied now feeling the loss of the Specialists from his department.

Urushi followed in and looked around, continuously scanning with her tricorder. The old computers were indeed interesting to the young Trill Science Officer. "Liam. Each one of these old terminals seems to have something equivalent to an old fashioned 'hard-drive'." She explained. "Rudimentary read write on physical disks. Looks like some form of binary system too." She explained. "Even on other planet's computer mathematics seem to be similar if not the same, at least in its simplest sense." She smiled. "See if we can recover one. It may or may not hold information. It's worth a try..."

Thinking a moment "Sure, why not. The worst that can happen it's totally corrupted" O'Riley replied "But I'll have to turn it over to Lieutenant D'Sai and have his computer specialists take a look at since the software side has been transferred to Operations recently." Opening a terminal Liam was able to extract one of, as Urushi put it, the hard drives and placed it in a static proof bag "There.....one old fashioned hard drive all set to go" as he grinned while placing in item in his utility belt.

Aseek was walking the area. He had remembered pass these rooms repeatedly during his mission prep. He remembered the lights and the and how cold it would next to the area compared to the rest of the facility. Now it was a damp rusted shell of what had been. The further they went the more he wished he would have faded into oblivion with his wife and the rest of his team.

With everything exposed to the elements here, there was nothing here that would have survived the ages...unless. "My people were experimenting with multidimensional data recordings on slices of crystal. If they were trying to launch another ship and they they had been successful and made any of that media..." Bolting from the server room he ran don the corridor and through breached barricade.

"What the hell..." Urushi exclaimed in surprise. She set off after him signaling for the team to follow.

"Get back here!" Ayumu shouted frantically. "We have no way of knowing what's-!"

His pleas fell on deaf ears as Aseek disappeared around a corner, with Wallace following in hot pursuit.

Wallace cursed under his breath as he hurdled debris, catch up to the man. Grabbing him from behind he pinned him to the wall, the sounds of the commotion echoing down the corridor. "For someone that said this planet is supposed to be crawling with monsters you sure acted pretty stupid!"

Aseek's head dropped, "I'm sorry." Pointing, "the second entry....there. That was the, should be the main laser lab. If they had succeeded in making multi-dimensional crystal records it would be there. My whole planets history could have written there...it could still be there!"

Urushi caught up. "Look. I get it, but think about it for a moment. You're the only one alive apart from those embryos." She told him. "You need to survive so they can. If the information wasn't here and something had happened to you, that's it. Your entire culture and civilization gone" she clicked her fingerless, "just like that. At least if you're alive you still have some of your peoples knowledge and memories in your head. You can still keep it alive that way."

"Let him go now Wallace,: Urushi told the security officer. She turned to Aseek. "I understand it's emotional, and you're probably scared. But running off isn't going to help anyone. We promised to help, but we can't do that unless you behave yourself." She held a hand out to Aseek. "One step at a time ok; together?"

Wallace backed away. Bringing his rifle up as he turned and scanned further down the empty corridor. Whatever had broken through the barrier that had been set up had been big and strong. Examining the breach, the doors had been some sturdy back in the day...probably a fire fire door of some kind.

Aseek nodded as she helped him off the wall. They were both right and he had acted foolishly. "My apologies...to everyone. I..I let my hope override my caution. It won't happen again."

Urushi smiled. "Good. Stay calm and keep focused." She told him softly. "Let's go find your crystals." She smiled.

"Are you sure we can trust him after that little stunt he just pulled?" Ayumu whispered to Urushi as the others moved out of earshot.

"We have to. Plus, this is his home." Urushi replied.

Moving down the corridor they entered what had been the laser lab. Aseek moved to what looked to have been a large machine but time and humidity had reduced it to a shell of what it had been. Turning to a partially collapsed workstation he knelt to as he picked through the debris, hoping against hope that his people had succeeded and what had been destroyed on his ship had survived here.

Seeing Aseek going through some debris in front of an old broken down machine, Liam wondered if could could help "Excuse me Aseek, may I be of assistance" he inquired happy to help if he could.

Glancing back over his shoulder he looked up. "By all means, please." Twisting around futher, "Everyone please help. There may have been cabinets or other containers that had something in them. The last paper I saw said they were cutting crystals into disks. If they were successful they should be here."

Pointing to the remains of the laser generator behind him. Anything that was recently recorded could be there as well."

Wallace watched as others began to search but directed the security detail to maintain a perimeter.

Sizia move to a section of wall, digging into the debris. After digging beneath the surface she called out. "HERE...here's a bunch of them." Holding up a handful of dirty crystal disk about 5 centimeters wide.

Hearing Sizia, O'Riley unclipped his tri-corder and walked over "May I' as he held out his hand. Receiving one of the discs Liam scanned it then looked up at her" Unfortunately these are blank" he commented replacing his tri-corder.

Turning something caught his eye. Walking over Liam bent down and looked into a slot on the old obsolete computer. Grabbing a small light he peered into the slot and discovered a disc....more specifically one of those crystal disks like the one he had just scanned for Sizia. Going to his knees Liam was trying to figure out how to dislodge the item without damaging it.

Seeing Liam on his knees in front of this big boxy looking computer she made her way over to him "Lieutenant O'Riley, perhaps I could be of assistance" Lieutenant Thomas inquired with a grin.

Knowing that voice Liam looked up and smiled "Lieutenant Thomas, I heard you were assigned to this mission. And yes I most certainly could use your help", Liam replied trying to remain as professional as possible then stood.

Bending down Stevie peered into the slot then grabbed a small toolkit from her belt. Opening it were all theses small instruments of different shapes and lengths. Taking two out she set to freeing the disk from its home for the last two hundred years. Several minutes later "Gotcha' Stevie commented then stood facing Liam "Lieutenant can you scan this and see if there's anything on it?"

Taking his tri-corder once again he scanned the disc then looked up and smiled "There's definitely data on this but I don't recognize the language at all" O'Riley stated then handed it to Stevie "Since this is now operations domain I'll give this to you to give to your Chief to translate."

Taking the disc "Thank you Lieutenant, I'll make sure my Chief gets this; fingers crossed it's something worthwhile" Stevie replied with a smile then left the area. The last thing she wanted was to be too chummy with Liam and cause any rumors to be started.

Aseek stood by anxiously. "If you can show me the data I can translate. If that was still in the writing devise it could contain critical information."

Lambert was still jumpy and the fact that Aseek had just run off like he did. He could only just shake his head and go keep watch while the others searched.

Hudson looked towards the others. "Need some help in looking for any other items to be found?"

While he waited on a reply from the women that had the disk he glanced back at the inquiry. "Yes, please. There may be other disks with data on them." He knew he was getting his hopes up, they were so close.


TBC....

 

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