A Shivering Monitor In The Storm

Posted on Mon Mar 21st, 2022 @ 7:24am by Lieutenant Commander Calvin Morgan & Lieutenant Alexis Aenera

Calvin looked around at the shield, which actively fizzed and sparked as the storm. It was a bit more than he was anticipating, which didn't make him feel good. His eyes moved from the shielding to the consoles in front of him, to the emitter that was apparently his best friend at the moment. His suit started to feel slightly cool, a warning sign to him that the suit's abilities may be starting to get maxed out.

"Even to the untrained eye, the data on this storm is just, immense," Calvin muttered loud enough to be heard.

For her part, Alexis was concerned that parts of her were starting to develop frostbite. Okay, sure, she KNEW it wasn’t happening… Yet. But she liked it warm and warmer and this was an icy hell, “Even to a trained eye, this storm is massive.” She chittered out, shivers up and down her body, “If what we got from the ship is right, it should be over soon, should be halfway over.” She moved closer to the emitter. Yes, it was sparking, but surely it had to be warmer.

"The sparking is normal, yes?" Calvin asked, mostly rhetorical. He watched as the storm tried depositing foliage and other now lighter than air objects against the shielding. "I'd share my whiskey, but that would require suit removal and I don't think the ounce of warmth you'd get would balance the taking the suit off part." Calvin chuckled.

"Not in the slightest." She shuddered, "I've got a sweater, thermal underwear, and anything warm I could fit in under this damned suit. If that thing explodes, we'll get a bit of warmth out of it at least." Alexis eyed the generator sideways, "Of course, then it'd get a lot colder here, so hopefully it'll hold out."

"How much longer are we going to be stuck in this storm?" He asked, moving a little away from the generator. He went back to watching the dance of the shield as it reacted to the blinding storm.

"As long as it takes?" Lexi countered with a sigh, "I'm an Astrophysicist, not a climatologist. Sure, I can tell you how bad it can get, but the reports we got from the ship before communications went down were that the storm was growing. It could be ten minutes, it could be ten hours, I've got no clue at all."

As long as it takes, Calvin mouthed silently in his EV suit. Sarcasm, the root of comfort for him. He turned to face his partner, the temperature on his suit dropping another degree he noticed. The crackle of the communication line broke the silence. Unwarranted hope that they could talk again with the outside. "At least if our shield is holding up, that means everyone else should be okay." He stated. "At least the crew behind the shields. The inhabitants," He stopped himself. They both knew and didn't need to make it vocally obvious the devastation of the storm.

"I hope the locals are all inside the shield perimeter, otherwise they'll be... Cave-sickles? Caetov-pops?" Alexis grew frustrated far quicker when cold, "Frozen where they are. This is possibly the only place in the hemisphere that will remain viable for sustaining life, that's how bad this storm is slated to be."

"Well, if the shields did fail," Calvin responded, doing some quick math in his head, "They'd probably only feel the cold for about half a second." He shrugged, not knowing if that made him feel better or not about the situation. "Caetov-pops would probably be the more apt description."

"Well, I'm not going to be found by archaeologists that come here in the future, so this thing had better keep working." Alexis gave the generator another look, then glanced outside the perimeter, "There's definite ice buildup out there, Calvin, just as expected... What'd they say, a couple meters thick when this is all over?"

"Oh easily, and with snow drifts who knows how deep some areas will be. This could drastically change the landscape depending on how long it takes for it all to melt again," Calvin replied, walking up to the edge of the shield again. He looked at the layer of ice that was working its way up the bottom of the shield. "It almost looks like it is starting to ease up."

"Can't be that easy.. It hasn't been long enough." She looked at the settings on the shield again and sighed, "Probably the eye of the storm. We'll get a break to make sure this thing is still working right, then we'll get hit again, probably harder if we're not lucky."

"That's good. I thought this was pretty weak so far," Calvin replied with a usual dose of sarcasm. Calvin noticed the outside of the shield had hints of light starting to break through even though the storm continued to rage on.

"Well, so long as it's over soon and we can get somewhere warm again." Alexis grumped, not aware that she was mostly just griping the entire time, "That's what I care about right now."