How To Save A Mine

Posted on Mon Sep 28th, 2020 @ 10:56pm by Captain Abigail Laurens & Lieutenant Alexis Aenera

Mission: Into The Delta Triangle
Location: USS Astraea Bridge

Alexis rubbed her wrists yet again, still feeling the psychosomatic effects of being cuffed, despite being out of them for a couple hours. Her clothes were dirty and she felt gross, but immediately upon getting back on board the ship was ordered to the bridge. She shuddered again at the memory of Meka's declared intent to kill them all, but for some reason getting past that was easier than well... Yuck.

She stepped out onto the bridge and flashed a slight smile at the two heads that had turned in her direction, beginning to sweep down to where the Captain was, "Ma'am, you wanted me here?"

"Lieutenant Anera, welcome home," Abigail said with a quick nod. "I'm sorry, we don't have time for pleasantries. Our scans indicate that the situation on Kessik IV is deteriorating and we're detecting the beginnings of seismic activity. We need a way to get people out of the mine immediately."

Moving to the science station, Alexis pondered the question. Sure, this was a science problem: A volatile mineral, dilithium, so the potential solution of using a phaser to drill a hole in the rock could have... Explosive results. "Makes me wish I were a geologist, not a physicist." She muttered to herself. Geology, the study of rocks and minerals, one of the major 'ways the worlds work' like chemistry.

Her idle tapping stopped suddenly. Chemistry. Enzymatic processes. She brought up a manual for mining. Usually it was done by machines, at least to create the initial mining location, before people were inserted for the more precision work. Obviously, in a cave in situation, there would be a replicator inside that could provide the survivors with food and water enough to survive until rescuers carefully excavated them by hand. Machinery was too large and caused far too many vibrations for use in a delicate and potentially unstable situation.

She wracked her head around why chemistry flicked into her head, especially enzymes, but then it sortof kicked in. There were a subspecies of works that ate through rock, turning it through digestive process from solid rock into a fine sand, but that took days and weeks, but...

Alexis brought up the message that Lieutenant Lee had sent and reviewed it twice, then brought up another interesting article of emergency rescue equipment. A smile crossed her face as she continued to gather the schematics and other information and then tapped a couple buttons, "Captain, I've got an idea." She looked over her shoulder and beckoned her over.

Abigail stood up from her chair and walked across the bridge to stand next to Alexis at the Science station. "What have you got Lieutenant?"

"All right, what we have here is a small mining machine, used for some of the rare mineral deposits that are in small veins. It's a straight off-the-shelf model, makes a hole under twelve inches in diameter. Given the instability of a mine collapse, making a hole as small as possible is better, but if I synthesize the enzymes of the Rakarrdian Boring worms, we can rig up a spray nozzle in front that would begin to soften the rock directly in the drill path to reduce the vibrations from the drilling process to the rest of the rock." As she spoke, the addition was made to the machine.

"In the storage compartment, where the mined mineral would normally be stored during the mining process, we can put in an emergency transporter pad, usually good for two people at a a time and it folds away nicely, and Lieutenant Lee gave me a good idea on how to get the signal through: A wire. I think we can spool a cable through the rear of the miner that would give us a hard connection for the transmission on either end. Even if the hole the miner bores collapses behind it, so long as it doesn't sever the cable, it would still provide transmission capability." She leaned back in her chair, "We could have it set up and ready to go within an hour or two."

"Can you send a communications amplifier through with each transporter pad?" Abigail asked as she glanced at the view screen again. "We'll need a way to communicate with them and tell them what they need to do."

Alexis chuckled, "I think it'll be pretty obvious what to do. But I wouldn't want to risk making more than one hole in that collapse, could destabilize it. My recommendation is the one double pad, and they can communicate through the bot because of the hardwire line. With a two-person per trip, with approximately fifty people, we should be able to get just about everyone out of there in an hour from when we start, depending on how bad some are hurt."

Abigail nodded again. "Start making the preparations, as soon as we have word from the away team I want to be in a position to help."

For a second, Alexis thought about asking if she could take a shower first, but dismissed it as more of a frivolous request, then blew out her breath while puffing her cheeks with the exhalation, "Yes ma'am, I'm on it." She slid out of the chair and made for the door.

"Do it," Abigail said quietly as Alexis headed for the door, her own eyes moving back to the view screen, a heavy sigh escaping her lips as she went back to waiting.