Cold and Alone

Posted on Sun Jan 17th, 2021 @ 2:48pm by Commander Temperance Zachary & Lieutenant Commander Cor Cordale & Lieutenant JG Zerin Rolfe

Mission: Episode 04: "Tempest"
Timeline: Day 1 at 0000

"T.t.t.that...." Temperance stopped, shivering violently as they reentered the building they had started in. "T.t.that... w.w.w.was...." her hands rubbed her arms briskly, which really only served to press the ice cold, drenched fabric against her skin more. "D.d.d.d.daft...." she finally managed to stutter through chattering teeth before turning to face Cordale, trying not to laugh at the sight of the Thux with his fur plastered against his skin, looking equally bedraggled. "Y..y..you.... look like... a.... w.w.w..water... f.f.f..fountain..."

"N..n...note to ssssssself... Water prooffffffff ain't water tt..t.t..t..tight." the Thux said, a conflict in his head about shaking off all the loose water. He finally couldn't contain the impulse. He took a step back, and gave a good three or four shakes around, which did nothing but toss around the water drenching him. He made sure folks were out of the splash zone, but getting pelted with ice cold drops was almost inevitable.

It didn't warm the Thux up, it just helped him stop being wet. It also made him look quilled. From a Thux to a hedgehog. "...w..w....wallet sharks that was dumb..b..b..b..b.." chattering teeth seemed to be in style.

Unzipping her jacket, primarily because she wanted to get the additional wet layer away from her skin, she shook it out before motioning toward the steps down to where the others seemed to still be hiding. "Down..." started walking, still shivering, making her way down the steps toward where the obelisk was.

At least, in the area around the obelisk it was marginally warmer, largely due to the absence of the howling wind and the icy cold rain that seemed to be now blowing sideways through every opening. "S..s..sssooooo c..c..cold."

"Oh boy," Zerin said, closing his tricorder and coming over to the two wet crewman. "We need to warm you two up. "Shed as much water as you can, I've got emergency blankets and some personal heaters you can use."

Taking one of the emergency blankets as it was handed to her, Temperance pulled it around her shoulders tightly, still shivering, though at least not quite so violently as the blanket helped to stave off the cold wind that still seemed to manage to find its way to them. "I think we searched every other building in the immediate area. There was no one else around, but there was signs in at least one building that someone had been there recently. Very recently. Once the storm passes we can try searching again. I tried to contact the ship to ask them to be on the lookout for small craft in the area, but it seems the storm is blocking communications, and likely transporters, so we're going to be alone down here until this weather event is gone."

Taking another blanket, Cordale wrapped himself up tight, almost looking like leftovers from the fridge with the shiny blanket around him before he moved over to one of the personal heaters. "Commander, next time I suggest something that d..d..dumb again, just arrest me." he joked. Maybe. "B.. but yeah, nothin' good out there. Might set up more heaters soon. Get em off the floor too so they don't get wet."

“I’ll get a heater going, and see about spare uniforms. I’m not dealing with either of you going into hypothermia,” Zerin remarked almost amusingly.

"Yeah, imagine how embarrassed I'd be." Cor remarked with a smirk, then a shiver as he pulled the blanket tighter around him.

"Do Thux turn a different shade of blue if they get hypothermia?" Temperance mused distractedly as she huddled in the blanket, her shivering and stuttering starting to ease. "The weather is pretty bad, we should be mindful of localized flooding in case it keeps up." She shivered once more. "Other than that, I think we just have to wait it out."

"Dunno, never froze half to death before." he commented. Chilled to the bone, wet, and shivering... but he never lost that quip of a wit. "Next time I consider walking into a freezing cold hurricane... I'm going to use the wits the Source gave me for something other than skull padding." he chuckled, another minor shiver running through him. He gave Temperance a smirk, "Must be getting bad... I can't feel my left fingers."

From under the blanket, he held out his left hand: The ancient prosthetic limb that was just one of the many features that had him standing out in a crowd. Older than him, older than dirt, ancient when the world was new. The Arctile Series Seven had been retired time and time again, but it worked reliably. Heavy industrial model, that was for sure.

Setting it down between the two blanket wrapped officers, Zerin got the heater going to give them a little more warmth. "I'll go out on a limb and say I'm not super worried about it for the moment," Zerin said with a wink. "Now how are we getting out of this place. I'm starting to get a bad feeling about all of this."

Temperance tapped her commbadge again, waiting a moment, then tapping a second time. "Comms are still down, I'm assuming it's because of the storm outside, which means we have no choice but to wait it out. It was hard getting from building to building and we nearly got lost twice trying to get back to here. I don't even want to think about trying to climb back up that mountain in this weather." She paused for a moment, tilting her head to one side as she shifted slightly, drawing the blanket around her tighter, turning her gaze to Cordale. "That third building we were in, did you notice that it didn't seem quite as dilapidated as the rest of the buildings we looked at? It seemed cleaner... warmer..."

"The third one?" Cordale said, now looking like some form of ready-to-heat food ration rather than an engineer. "Was that the one where you said 'look at that' and I said 'what, the coughing fish'? I noticed it certainly looked more stable, certainly seemed less likely to try to eat unsuspecting Thux." he chuckled. "I wouldn't know warmer, but it had less cracks and less openings. Means less ways for cold wind and rain to get in."

He smirked, "We could post security by the door, have them stop the wind and arrest the rain." he chuckled, a good belly chuckle.

“They have that authority?” Zerin quipped in a obviously fake dumbfounded tone of voice. “Short of another major change in the weather, this heater should do well for the room. You two seem to be okay core temperature wise.”

"Then lets hope the weather clears soon," Temperance replied quietly. "I've had enough of being a meat popsicle for now, thank you very much." She pulled the blanket tighter around her and leaned back against the wall, a brief shiver running through her from the cold of the wall. Closing her eyes, she drew a steady breath, listening to the sound of the storm wailing outside as she offered up a silent prayer to any listening deity that the weather would clear and they could get back to the warmth and comfort of the Vesta.