Post 505: Something Somehow Sacred Part Three

Stardate:71017.1830
Title: Something Somehow Sacred, Part Three
Author: Lt. February Grace
Scene: Collapsed Tunnels, Yensul V
Time: Following Part Two
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Hearing the cracking sound above and realizing what was about to happen as the ceiling began to fall in on them, Simon Biggs called Grace's name.

She spun around, and instantly, he had thrown her the child he was carrying. She caught the girl, and set her down on the ground before realizing that Simon was no longer visible at eye level.

"SIMON!"

February brushed the rock dust and icy snow from her eyes, and then looked around in a panic. "Simon! Where are you?"

She heard a groan, and looked to her left. There was a large pile of snow, and she saw a pair of black boots sticking out the other side.

"Help me get him out!" Bru called to the Yensuli women who stood, shocked, with their children gathered to their chests as the falling debris began to settle around them and the cracking noises finally stopped.

February looked up and realized that the ceiling was completely gone and she could see all the way up into the tunnel above them. She began digging with her hands as fast as she could to free Simon, and with the help of the women around her, they managed to pull him from beneath the ice, snow and rock.

February grabbed the med-kit from Simon's pack and the tricorder in it, which thankfully, was still working.

The news, however, was not good. He had a serious head injury. She knew enough to know that she could not let him lose consciousness. If she did, he would never wake up.

"My head," Simon moaned, and February took his hand. "What happened?"

"There's been a cave in, Simon. You have to listen to me." His eyes began to flutter shut, and February gently tapped his cheeks. "No, no. You can't do that. You have to stay awake. Talk to me."

"Where," he asked softly, "Are the others? Are they all right?"

She began to try to treat his injury as best as she could, but anything in the med-kit would only buy her time. Minutes, maybe an hour. He needed Sickbay, and he needed it now. She found it sickeningly ironic that the man who had saved Reece's life, and helped save her own as well back on Trill, was now forced to rely on her as his only form of first responder.

*First responder!*

Suddenly, Gentry Grace's memories opened up to February like a floodgate, and she knew exactly what she had to do.

"We have to keep him warm. You," She pointed to the oldest of the women assembled around her, "Gather some rocks to put beneath a fire. Look through my pack, and his, for anything we can burn. Hurry!"

She tossed her pack and Simon's to the woman, who enlisted the aid of others to seek out burnable items as well. February took off her coat, and put it over Simon. "We have to keep you warm, Simon. Hang in there, okay? Just stay awake for me."

"Can't." Simon replied. "So tired."

"I know, but you have to." February injected him with a stimulant hypo, and his eyes widened. He began to shake as the stimulant also increased his respirations and his heart rate.

"I feel like I just had," he said breathlessly, "Ten pots of Captain Zanh's coffee."

"I'll get you all the coffee you like when we get home. Zanh will probably replicate it for you herself with her own two hands. Just stay with me."

The women returned to her with all they could find from the packs to burn, and there wasn't much. Finally February decided that the backpacks themselves were the best choice for starting a fire.

"Don't be afraid," She warned the Yensuli, as she drew her phaser and turned the beam to its lowest setting, using it to ignite the backpack. "Stay warm, everyone, gather together. And please, try to keep the children quiet," February took another tricorder reading. "Any loud noises and we risk another- whoa, hey, hey."

She saw that Simon was once again drifting toward unconsciousness. "No, you can't! C'mon, Simon! I do NOT want to have to find ANOTHER pianist for the BAND!" She tapped him on the chest, and he groaned.

"Music," he whispered. "I wish we had music here."

"If you promise me that you will stay awake, I'll sing you anything you want." February promised, as she took bandages from the medkit and dabbed at the stream of blood coming from his temple. "I am now taking requests."

"Anything? Now how," Simon said softly, "can I say no to that? You know, Bru," his words grew quieter, which scared her. "Ever since we crashed here I can't stop thinking about," his voice slowly faded out.

"About what, Simon?" she shook him gently again "Tell me."

"Christmas." he replied. "I wish I could hear something like you'd hear in a church around Christmas time. I don't know why. Maybe, the snow,"

February felt her stomach lurch. The one song she couldn't get out of her head since they'd learned of the new arrivals seemed to be just the kind of thing he was thinking of, as well.

"Would you consider it disrespectful," she began, "I mean, if I sang something religious? Because truthfully, I'm not really all that religious, and I wouldn't want to,"

"February," Biggs replied, wincing in pain and grasping for her hand as he tried to stay with her in the moment. "You'd never disrespect anyone. What song?"

February called upon the classical musical training that Sachal Grace had possessed, and the memories of Wen's trips to the Cathedral with her old friend from Earth. She closed her eyes a moment and a second later, heard the correct starting note resonate in her head, in perfect pitch.

"Ave Maria," she began singing softly, "gratia plena, Maria, gratia plena. Ave, ave Dominus tecum, benedicta tu in mulieribus, benedictus, et benedictus, fructus ventris tui, tui Iesus,"

She noticed that the children around her had stopped crying, and were gathering around her, trying to keep her warm as she watched over the injured Biggs.

As she looked into the faces of the children, such tiny girls, her eyes settled on one with especially large, round eyes. Suddenly her mind flashed back again, to her own childhood, and she saw herself in that small face.

*Flashback*

February was only six years old. She found herself standing in an enormous, ancient Cathedral.

It was the Cathedral of San Juan Bautista, in Puerto Rico on Earth. Her parents had taken her there as part of a historic sightseeing tour of the island, and she had been unprepared when she entered the sanctuary and saw the very realistic, life-sized image of the man called Jesus, hanging, nails in hands and feet, crown of thorns on his head, from the cross on the wall.

February's eyes had immediately filled with tears, and she dropped to her knees before the image. As small as she was, in her innocent, childish heart she began asking how any being could inflict such suffering on another. It was a heartfelt petition, a child's plea for mercy in the universe, offered to any higher power who might be listening.

She wept bitterly, and that was, she believed, when she began to ask herself the question that had haunted throughout her life, on so many subjects.

"Why?"

Her mother lifted her up, and looked at the small girl with tears in her own eyes as well.

She would only tell February years later, once she was grown, that she hadn't thought about the fact the child had never seen such an image before, and how it might effect her.

*End Flashback*

That vision still effected her, she found, all these years later. She asked herself again now, here in this place with these people, why is there such suffering in the universe? Would she ever understand?

*Maybe only understanding of that sort can come in the afterlife, if there is one,* February thought to herself as she looked upon the widows and orphans of Yensul with tears in her eyes once more, and continued to sing the song which still, to her heart, somehow felt sacred.

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As the rest of Alchemy's crew made its way back to the main tunnel to the caverns, Salvek and Maffe conferred. Between her knowledge of the caverns and his tricorder they were able to determine the closest point from which they might be able to access the cave-in site from above.

"Salvek to Maak," the Vulcan tried to use his combadge, but was unable. There was just too much mineral concentrated in the walls of the tunnels, and it was stopping his signal from getting through.

"Send someone back to camp to fetch the Klingon, and our junior staff," he instructed Maffe. "Have them give this to Maak," Salvek handed her the tricorder, "Tell him to hurry."

Maffe's eyes reflected sadness as she looked back at Salvek, and wondered if she would ever see Simon Biggs alive again.
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Lt. February Grace
Helm/Flight Controller
USS Independence/USS Alchemy