The Storm Rages On

Posted on Sat Mar 6th, 2021 @ 7:32pm by Commander Temperance Zachary & Lieutenant Commander Cor Cordale & Lieutenant JG Zerin Rolfe

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

Hours had passed. How many hours, Temperance wasn't exactly sure. It had felt like they had been stuck on the surface for days, but still the storm continued to pound the small building they were in. There had been no decrease in the ferocity with which it continued, if anything it seemed to have gotten worse. The wind howled through every crack in the building and the temperature had continued to drop as the rain pelted violently against every surface. "If this rain doesn't slow soon we'll be swimming back to the top of the mountain," she muttered quietly as she stood up, pacing around the room, trying to ease the aches in her muscles from sitting for too long. "Surely it has to slow down soon, doesn't it?"

“Honestly? Probably not. However it does seem almost artificial at its ferocity and acute onset,” Zerin replied, looking out the door before returning to the group, walking small figure eights in the floor, having gotten bored of sitting a while back.

Cordale stood as well, marking the third time he's grown tired of sitting still. It seemed that the Thux was incapable of sitting still for longer that a few moments. "Not looking forward to swimming home." he muttered, shaking a bit still. "Tell you, though, that's a hell of a storm. Natural or otherwise, and that wind is just.... ooooo, kinda gives me the creeps." He pulled his blanked around him just a little tighter. Sure, it had been a few hours since he was given it, but the Engineer enjoyed the feeling of the warmth it brought. "Is it a bad thing that I'm already trying to build a boat in my head out of what we've got laying around?"

Temperance watched Cordale for a few moments, her gaze following his as he glanced around their surroundings. "Not sure how well it'll float if it's made of stone," she said quietly. "How well are our tricorders holding up? Any chance we could navigate our way back up the mountain in the rain if we used our tricorders? Maybe reprogram them or something?" she asked hopefully.

"Use them as what, umbrellas?" Cordale replied with a smirk, but the trick to being an engineer is once a problem was suggested, an engineer's brain was already working on a solution. "Tricorders are actually holding up well enough, all things considered. Unlike this building, they're water-tight. As for using them to navigate up, I don't..." and then he stopped. "Wait, I mean, okay hear me out." he started pacing while thinking out loud. "We could program each tricorder to detect the others, something like a bread crumb protocol." he started, "That way we don't get lost. Though getting UP in elevation is the tr.. actually, that could be the trick. Always heading up, could track elevation based on micro-barometric pressure. Though the storm would mess up those readings. Unless the scan just goes for simple topography and we set up a beacon here for the tricorder to detect distance from." he mused again.

"Yeah, way better than using them as umbrellas." he chuckled. "Okay so officially, it's possible. Hell, downright plausible. We can rig up a system to use the tricorders to navigate, should it become necessary. Though we might need to leave one tricorder here to act as something of a makeshift navigational beacon. Though I might be able to rig up something else other than a sacrificial tricorder if I have the time."

"The real question is how well we hold up in that storm," Zerin interjected. "With how bad the rain and wind is, and without full out winter gear, we will most likely lose before the tricorders do."

Temperance started pacing the floor, rubbing her arms as she tightened the blanket she'd been given earlier around herself. The temperature was dropping more, she could feel it through the blanket. "I'm not sure staying here is going to be an option," she said as she turned back toward them. "At least, not without being able to light a fire or do something else for warmth, so we need to come up with something resembling an alternative."

"Anything on the outside is going to be a no-go on a fire. Though we might be able to get away with scooping up some mud from the outside and using an ultra-low setting on the phasers, wide spread, to dry the mud into something resembling clay to cut down on the draft." Cordale thumbed to the doorway. "Worst to worse, use some blankets and mud to make a makeshift curtain. We'd have to look at what we brought with us to see about a preliminary fire. Once we have something going, we can use it to dry out anything we bring from the outside."

"I watch a lot of movies where they do sh... stuff like that." he admitted.

Zerin went digging through what little medical equipment he had. "If I knew I'd be packing for an overnight trip, I would have packed a bit more," He said, pulling out another blanket and some other random equipment out. "Well I guess we start building the door covering and go from there? I can keep using hot packs and blankets, but if we don't fix the atmosphere in here slightly, it's all for naught."

The temperature dropped again, they could all feel the chill in the air as an involuntary shiver ran down Temperance's spine. "Well, what ever we're going to do, we'd better do it quickly. Blue might look good on a Thux but it most definitely is not my colour!"