Rescue or Recovery, (Away Team, Part 6)
Posted on Wed Sep 24th, 2025 @ 7:00pm by Commander Maxun Spello & Lieutenant Commander Nash Winters & Lieutenant Xalanth & Lieutenant JG T'lenn & Ensign Tyler Williams
Edited on on Mon Oct 13th, 2025 @ 3:12pm
1,636 words; about a 8 minute read
Mission:
Gone, Without Ever Knowing the Way
Location: TE 3X031, Class L Moon in Typhon Expanse
Timeline: MD 06, After Part 5
Back on the shuttle, as soon as Maxun saw the transporter icon pop onto his control screens, he activated the transporter. In seconds, the injured crew mewmber materialized on the deck in the transporter alcove.
Maxun moved quickly, grabbing the med kit and beginning to triage the injured man. "T'lenn, go aft and grab the larger medical kit!" He said in a forcefully, yet calm voice. He then looked down at the man. "Sir? Can you tell me your name?" He started scanning the man's head with the medical tricorder as he waited for a reply.
An inaudible mumbling came from the Bajoran as he tried to answer Spello's questions. His left arm and left side of his face were badly mangled and his breathing was labored.
"Plasma burns," T'lenn stated before running any scans as she returned with the retrieved medical kit. "We have two stasis units on board. I can determine if he is critical enough to require one, or if he can survive the trip back to Astrea. The seismic activity in the region is becoming more unstable, I recommend that the Away Team be ordered to return soon."
Maxun nodded as he moved to allow T'lenn the room to work. He stood and moved back to the controls and opened a cpmm channel to the away team. "Spello to away team, time's up. Sensors are showing increased instability in in the ground beneath us. Finish up what you are doing now and return to the emergency beam out coordinates, now!" He kept the channel open, while he began the start-up sequence for the engines.
After a few moments went by with no response, the Vulcan science officer turned from providing emergency care to the survivors and toward Commander Spello.
"Commander?" T'lenn's voice was measured, but it was clear she was concerned by their lack of response. She temporarily abandoned the patients and took a position at an operations terminal and began working to obtain a transporter lock.
"Commander Spello, I have a lock on Officers Winters, Xalanth, and Williams, and two unknown individuals with weak vitals. Transporting all five aboard now." T'lenn did not ask for orders, nor did she wait given the narrow window of time. Once the matter-energy transfer was completed she turned to face where the five individuals were target to rematerialize, a tricorder ready to examine them for injuries.
Nash exhaled with a sigh of relief upon materializing back on the shuttle. “We appreciate the assist, Lieutenant. We’re alright. Don’t worry about us. Take care of them. I know the Bajoran male, by the way. He’s my counterpart on Dalton, Chief Engineer. His name is Tanis Eedro. Known each other since the Academy. Take care of him, will ya?”
He then turned his attention to Commander Spello, who occupied the pilot’s seat. “Ready to go, Commander? When we get back to Astrea, I’d like to beam some of the debris to the cargo bay for a more thorough analysis. In the meantime, let’s get the hell out of here, Max.”
Once everyone was aboard, Maxun fired the thrusters, gaining altitude as Nash spoke aloud. Then, when the Chief Engineer spoke to him in a very familiar way, the El Aurian merely gave him a look with a raised eyebrow. Now was not the time to discuss proper rank decorum.
As the runabout continued to slowly gain altitude, the lava tube they had been resting on, not thirty second prior, collapsed when a torrent of fresh magma burst through. What was left of the crashed ship was quickly consumed by the lava flow. There were some secondary explosions, which hurled lava hundreds of meters into the air.
Knowing what was coming, Maxun switched to full impulse, even though they were still in the lower atmosphere. "Hang on to something!" He called out to everyone as he continued to fly the ship higher and higher, hoping that they would be able to break orbit before the anti-matter bottles ruptured below them.
Nash almost lost his balance as the shuttle lurched and increased velocity. “Well, I guess that analysis will have to wait, huh?”
"T'lenn, Nash, I need you two on stations," Maxun ordered. "T'lenn, try to get word to Astrea about our current situation, inform them, we might be near an anti-matter explosion, down on the planet's surface. Nash, get on the sensors and see if you can detect anything back there. Also, do what you can to firm up our aft shields. If that ship's supply of anti-matter comes in contact with the molten magma, we're going to have a monster of a volcano!" Though his words were full of tension, he still carried on with complete professionalism as he spoke and worked his controls.
“Got it, Commander,” acknowledged Nash. He quickly brought up the sensor grid on his console, scanning through the EM frequencies. “There’s a massive build up of geothermal energy, to be expected. Anti-protons are seeping from Dalton’s anti matter pods. I’m re-routing power to aft shields. About 4 minutes to that explosion, Commander.”
"Message sent, Commander," T'lenn replied calmly. "Acknowledged by Astrea. They are prepared to receive us. Entering coordinates."
As Maxun was about to activate the warp engines, a blinding flash erupted behind them. Down on the planet surface, the antimatter pods finally ruptured under the destructive heat and pressure of the magma. The resulting explosion was catastrophic, easily fifty times the explosive power of the original atomic bomb dropped by the Humans during Workd War II.
The mushroom cloud quickly grew to nearly one hundred kilometers in height and sixty wide at its widest part. The resulting shockwave destroyed everything in its path on the surface for easily two hundred kilometers in ever direction.
When the pressure wave reached the shuttle, it tossed the craft like a toy on a wave. Consoles shorted out, showers of sparks flew everywhere. It took all of Maxun’s flight experience to regain control. While he fought the stricken vessel, the sensors showed that a massive wave of molten magma was erupting from the point of the explosion, itself rising dozens of kilometers into the sky and moving outward, continuing the destruction that the pressure wave had already wrought.
The shuttle, still not fully responding to Maxun's commands, suddenly lost all power and started a slow descent back through the planet's vaporized atmosphere. "Nash! Get the power back on!" Maxun ordered quickly, but in a way that indicated that he was still in control. "We still have some thruster power. I'm using them to try and keep us level. T'lenn, as soon as power is back, send out a mayday to Astrea, informing them of our status. Everyone else, hang on!" The shittle continued to buck and shake violently as she fought to stay aloft.
“Can’t make heads or tails of the warp assembly, at least for now. I’m boosting thrusters in the mean time. You should have impulse in about 45 seconds. Emergency backups are barely registering, but enough to break us free! Go now, Commander! Full impulse! Mark!” Nash shouted with confidence in his voice.
As soon as he heard Nash's words, Maxun punched in flight coordinates, then pressed the throttle controls. The runabout shot forward as the impulse engines fired, giving them enough velocity to fully break orbit and start heading into the system. Behind them, the moon continued to shudder as the pressure wave passed over the rest of the surface. If there had been any life on the world, it would be facing an extinction-level event now.
After nearly two minutes, the impulse engines stopped working again, though now that they were in the clear, the rest of the shuttles systems seemed to stop shorting out. Maxun made sure they were in a secure location, using their thrusters, as he spoke up. "All hands, report." He checked over his own helm and navigation systems as he spoke.
Nash assessed the damage to the shuttle’s systems, at least those for which he was responsible. “This thing’s gonna need two weeks in a maintenance bay, Commander. Plasma regulators are almost fused, magnetic resonators for the warp drive are fried. Best part is the warp coil is functional….barely. As long as we stay at impulse, we should be alright.”
"Astrea is on an intercept course, Commander," T'lenn reported, speaking after Nash. "They are prepared to bring us in."
“Music to my ears, Lieutenant. Good news, then,” Nash responded. He was anxious to get home. Not only for the sake of seeing his family, but also for his friend and colleague, Commander Tanis.
Spello nodded in agreement, then had T'lenn relay that they would maintain their current course until the ship arrived. Personally, he would be glad to be back aboard the Astrea. Being on the receiving end of an antimatter explosion, of any magnitude, was more than enough. What they had just survived...he definitely needed a drink and some time to meditate and decompress.
Commander Maxun Spello
First Officer
USS Astrea
Lt. Commander Nash Winters
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Astrea
Lieutenant Xalanth
Chief Security Officer
USS Astrea
Ensign Tyler Williams
Security Officer
USS Astrea
Lt. J.G. T'lenn
Science Officer
USS Astrea
Lieutenant J.G.
RSS Feed