Posted May 9, 2023, 9:15 p.m. by Lieutenant Commander Ethan Nash (Chief Engineer) (David Shotton)
Posted by Lieutenant Emily Fox (Counselor) in Anger and Accountability…Nash and Emily…When the past doesn’t match the future or the present
Posted by Lieutenant Commander Ethan Nash (Chief Engineer) in Anger and Accountability…Nash and Emily…When the past doesn’t match the future or the present
Posted by Captain Kelly Bordeaux (Commanding Officer) in Anger and Accountability…Nash and Emily…When the past doesn’t match the future or the present
Entering the promenade Nash would be dumbfounded. The number of weapons fired would lead one to believe the space would have been a smoldering mess with blackened pockmarks along the walls and floors. From his vantage point however the scene was vastly different than what he could have imagined. The promenade was more disarrayed except for the large robotic MECH’s that surveyed all movement with what appeared to be a blue sensor. Ethan’s entry swiveled most of the MECH’s sensor eyes on him and then directly to what was in his hands.The promenade was a disaster but not destroyed. “Ethan,” Emily’s voice carried laced with panic and fear as she and a few others tried to open the steel bullet-shaped coffin that was holding the kids. “Ethan, I can’t get her out.” Her fingers slipped over the completely seamless metallic surface. “Do something.”
Emily Nash
“Hang on, I’m here.” Nash ran to where Emily was struggling against the metal cocoon, casting a sidelong look at the mechs and half expecting them to do something.
Upon entering the space the MECH’s scanner like eye trained on Ethan but made no move to react otherwise. The intense blue color remained the same on all the robotic-like equipment.
Casting a side eye at the machines, he nevertheless ignored them as he stopped a few feet before running into his wife. “What the hell is this thing?”
Emily turned immediately and threw her arms around Ethan. Hope had been trapped in the device for the past half an hour. If the worst was to happen, Hope was already gone however the tricorder stated the occupants were still alive and Jax had confirmed that. “I couldn’t stop it. It…it happened so fast. Like a blink. The alien showed up and then there was this inky oil everywhere and it coated,” her voice hitched as Emily held him tighter.
“Alright, alright,” Nash spoke in a soft voice that lost every trace of the harsh, gravelly tone he had used for many years. Instead he wrapped one arm around her and pulled Emily tighter into him, kissing her forehead and resting one cheek against her while he looked at the cocoon, searching for a seam or a control panel while he comforted his wife at the same time. “I’m here, we’re going to fix this, alright.”
“Sir,” an Ensign security officer cleared his throat not wanting to break up the embrace with the missus but there would be time for that later. “Tricorders are showing the life signs are extremely low but holding steady. It is like they are in some kind of statis pod.” His comment sounded more like a question instead of an answer.
“Good,” Nash nodded at the Ensign. “If she is in stasis then she’s safe enough while I get this thing open. You need to bring me a tricorder with a readout of those scans.” he told the officer.
His comment seemed to agitate Emily more than console her. “Then you know how to open it.” Directing her attention to Ethan, Emily’s tone became more panicky and anxious. “You build them, fix them. You are an engineer. That is your sole career purpose is to make and fix things like this right?” Her tone was tense but the words showed her absolute faith in the man she married and his designation as chief engineer.
“Its’ a bit more complex than that, this is alien tech but, basically yes,” his words didn’t hold the normal self confidence that they usually did. “I wasn’t always an Engineer, remember Em?
“Kelly and Dante had to have gotten stuck in something like this once so do what you did to get them out,” Emily moved back to the metallic-like coffin. Putting her palms flat on it, Emily began to talk slower but with more emotion.
The worst thing he had gotten Dante and Kelly out of was, honestly, jail cells. Not all of them were Federation, either, and not all of those times was the extraction done legally. This was a little different, but he didn’t dare say that to Emily at this exact moment.
“Hope…baby…Daddy is here okay,” she patted the device as if it were Hope’s arm. “He is gonna get you out okay,” Emily struggled to keep her tone steady and still.
“Baby step back, I’m not sure how this works but it must do something.”
In his hand was the device the aliens had brought with them onto the ship, but as yet had been all but forgotten about. Holding it out in front of him, he turned it over to see if there was a button or control panel.
As Ethan turned the device over, the MECH’s moved slightly to the right as if the movement of the staff shifted them. They produced no other reaction except the mental image of a certain lizard’s reaction when a ball was waved toward his face.
Concentrating on the staff as he turned it over in his hands, Nash didn’t notice the mechs movement. He was too busy looking to see if this thing did anything.
“Sir,” the security office gestured with his head at the MECHs not sure if the engineering chief saw what was happening around him as he inspected the staff.
“What?” Nash replied without looking up. He was busy.
Emily Nash
Without waiting for a reply from the officer, Nash looked up at the cocoon and lifted the staff. Holding it above his head like a spear, he slammed the butt of it against the wall of the cocoon. Not expecting it to do much, the action was more an act of frustration and anger and he was using it to clear his mind so he could think clearer. Making a dull thudding sound, it only seemed to infuriate him more and he pulled his arm back, and slammed the staff into the wall of the cocoon twice more in rapid succession with a vicious snarl under his breath.
Nash
© 1991-2024 STF. Terms of Service
Version 1.15.11
RSS Feed