Crumbling Stones and Sliding Sands

Chapter 11

"All things have second birth,

The earthquake is not satisfied at once."

William Wordsworth

Jim sat in his command chair looking steadfastly at the view screen. The two Klingon ships were holding steady on either side of Enterprise. Surely, Jim thought, fighting back a tired yawn, this had been the longest day we've had on board this boat. He was vibrating with impatience. They needed to get back to Sansora as quickly as possible. After speaking to Scotty and all the team this morning, he felt a deep sense of foreboding and urgency to get back to the planet and his people.

"Estimated ETA to the Klingon border, Mr. Chekov?"

Chekov bit his lip hard to prevent inappropriate words coming out of his mouth. The Captain had asked him that same question 18 times in the last 4 hours, but who was counting? "Estimated ETA is 47 minutes at varp 2 and 2 hour and 56 minutes at varp 1, sir."

Jim toggled his chair button. "Mr. De Salle, can you push her up to warp 2 without exciting the ions outside even more?"

"Aye, Captain," De Salle's tired voice was resigned. This was the 3rd time the Captain had attempted warp 2 and for the third time De Salle asked the same question. "But will the other two ships handle the increase in warp speed and the resulting buffeting of their ships is still the question?"

Jim sighed tiredly. "Let's try 1.5 then, Mr. De Salle. If their ships protest, we'll slow down again. Bring our speed up very slowly on my mark."

"Yes, Sir."

He turned to Sulu. "Mr. Sulu, notify the Klingon helmsmen what we're going to do, and tell them to let you know right away if there's a problem."

"Yes, Captain." Sulu bent over his console and spoke quietly to the Klingon helmsmen. In the hours since they'd been traveling, they had managed a civil interchange of information.

"Mr. De Salle, here we go; three, two, one, increase warp speed to 1.5."

"Increasing speed, Sir."

"Mr. Sulu, keep a close eye on the Klingon ships. Mr. Chekov, keep the comm open with the two Klingon navigators. Monitor their speed, and if they experience too much turbulence we'll have to reduce speed again." Jim pressed two fingers to the bridge of his nose. Hurry, hurry, hurry, we need to get out of here, he thought impatiently.

"So far so good, Keptin." His voice reflecting relief, Chekov's eyes stayed glued to his screen. "They are maintaining their speed; the helmsmen report no increase in turbulence. 1.5 varp speed seems to vork for them."

"Good. Mr. Spock? How is the storm?"

"It is still at full strength, Captain. Our shields are doing an excellent job of protecting the exterior of the ship from the ion bombardment."

"Excellent. Mr. De Salle and the Engineering Dept. will get a commendation from this. Log it, please Mr. Spock."

"Yes, Sir; logged. It is well deserved, Captain."

Jim got up and stretched. He had been on duty since very early this morning coming in to the bridge when it was still Delta shift. His breakfast and lunch had been on the run, and he'd missed dinner at the mess. Bones would not be happy with him if he were here. He'd had to push the thought of Bones and his worry to the back of his mind, but now after a full day and Alpha shift almost over, he wanted very badly to hear a report from his people down on Sansora."

He heard Lt. Palmer's comm beep. "It's from Lt. Uhura, Sir, at your station,"

Jim toggled his chair comm. "Kirk here." He could here the usual loud crackling over the comm. "Uhura, how is everything?"

"Captain." Jim's gut twisted as he heard the faint quaver in Uhura's usually calm, serene voice. "It's not good; we were hit by the major earthquake just a few minutes ago. We're all OK. Mr. Scott and Commander Giotto were out in the field with Rual, Chimera and Gafna and they were pretty far from the epicenter so they escaped the worse of it, but Dr. McCoy and I were right in the middle of it. I'm back at the house waiting for Scotty and Giotto. Matarras, Selia and Jennyphera are all right. The house has some major damage, cracked walls and broken windows, but it's still standing. Dr. McCoy is at the hospital waiting for the injured to arrive. He's organized triage and they're as ready as they can be under the circumstances. I'm not sure how many doctors are available to help or if other towns will be sending help. There's already been one big after shock and I'm sure there'll be more." She paused to draw breath. "Captain, Dr. McCoy said we need you back here right away. We're in dire need of medical and first responder help and all the man power we can find to dig through the rubble for the dead and injured."

Jim's dismayed eyes met Spock's across the bridge. His people were there without him and things were spiraling out of his control. He drew in a shaky breath, "Uhura, tell Bones we'll be there as soon as possible. We're almost at the Klingon border and as soon as we leave the two Klingon ships, we'll head back as fast as we can. All of you be careful, be safe, and we'll be there as soon as possible. Kirk out."

"Mr. Chekov, ETA to the Klingon border?"

"We'll be there in 21 minutes, Keptin."

"Very good, Mr. Chekov. Lt. Palmer, patch me in to Commander Krell and put it on the screen, please."

The Klingon Commander's visage flashed on the screen. "Captain Kirk?"

"Commander we'll be at the Federation/Klingon border in 20 minutes. We'll leave you there and be on our way. If your helmsmen keep your ships becalmed and you don't resume your patrol until the ion storm passes, you should be all right. My science officer estimates it will have passed through this area in another three hours. I'm sure your science officers will be able to verify his calculations."

"Yes. I will give that order, Captain. I thank you for your assistance. We are in your debt; and it is a Klingon debt of honor. Goodbye, Kirk, perhaps someday we will meet in the field of battle. It would be glorious."

"I'll look forward to it." Jim smiled his feral smile at the Klingon. "Good luck, Krell. Kirk out."

As the view screen shifted back to the storm outside, Jim breathed a sigh of relief. It was good to get that chore over with. Now to get back to his people. "Mr. Chekov, plot us a course back to Sansora. Mr. Sulu, warp factor 2.5, or a little more if we can manage it."

"Aye, Sir." Chekov said, and nodded his head to acknowledge Jim. The entire bridge crew gave a collective inward sigh of relief. The Captain would be all right now. "Course is plotted."

"Mr. Sulu, keep a very close eye on our speed; we'll increase by small increments. Mr. Spock, I want you to constantly monitor the strength of the storm." Jim sat back and tried to relax his death grip on the chair arms.

Uhura closed her comm after speaking to the Captain and prepared herself to wait for the sound of Scotty's shuttle. She was still shaken from the force of the quake and the strong aftershock. She would not be able to relax until she saw Scotty and Giotto with her own eyes. She glanced at the little family sitting together in the living room. Selia had Jennyphera in her lap and was clutching her close to her breast. The child seemed content and not frightened. Matarras sat next to Selia, his face pale, his body language stiff; the hand held comm unit that Uhura had given him was at his mouth; he had been trying to contact someone, anyone of his and Selia's families. Not too many Sansorans had hand held comms, most had larger home comms as part of their computer sYstems and they were centrally located in homes and offices. Before leaving the Communications building, Aadi had gotten on her own comm to call her people to come back. Uhura hoped that they were alright and had responded. They'd made plans to rendezvous in front of the hospital building and help the emergency services with search and rescue. First thing first though; she had to see Leonard and make sure he was fine. She looked at her chronometer, she expected to hear from Aadi about the welfare of her staff. She got up from the chair and paced up and down, anxious and stressed. Then her remarkable hearing picked up the sound of a distant shuttle coming closer and closer. Thank God! Scotty and Giotto were back. She ran out of the house to the landing pad and stood there, slim and graceful, waiting for the shuttle to land. Scotty and Giotto got out quickly and she ran to them, clutching first Scotty and then Giotto in a tight hug. "Thank goodness you're both all right," she said.

"Tis thankful I am that you're safe, lass," Scotty said, hugging her back. "My scan said the quake measured 8.1 on the Richter scale and you and McCoy were very close to the epicenter. We're going to find that there's been major damage to buildings, even the earthquake resistant buildings, and I'm afraid some buildings have already collapsed and," Scotty's kind face darkened, "'tis very sure I am, that there's people under that rubble."

Uhura's comm beeped. "It's Aadi," she said as she flipped it open. "Yes, Aadi." They could hear the head of Communications clearly. "Uhura, I have contacted almost all the staff. We will all meet in front of the communications building. We are ready to assist in any way we can."

"We'll coming, Aadi. Matarras is trying to contact more people to help. Mr. Scott believes there will be many casualties and people buried under rubble from collapsed home and buildings."

"I think he is correct, Uhura. I will assign my people to recruit more help using the hand held communicators. I am certain more Sansorans will come to help. Aadi out."

"Come lass, we must go find Dr. McCoy and he'll tell us how best to help. We'll go in the shuttle, it will save time and will also serve as a transport when we find injured people."

"I'll go tell Matarras and Selia we're leaving," Uhura said, starting her run to the front door.

"I'll report to the Captain," Scotty said.

Uhura came running back. "Wait, Scotty. I already did. The Captain said they'd get here as fast as they could. They were almost at the Klingon border and turning right around to come back."

Scotty nodded and she ran off again. He and Giotto waited impatiently until Uhura came running back with Matarras following behind her. "I too, would like to help, Mr. Scott," Matarras told him. "I have contacted some of our family members and they will help as well and they will bring others. They will come here to our home, and Selia will tell them where we are."

"Let's get going then," said Giotto, anxious to be doing something.

The ride to the hospital was short and silent. Once over the center of town, Scotty flew the shuttle in concentric circles so they could see the damage. From that high up, they could see all the devastation. The earthquake had struck in the most populated area of the city where there were homes, buildings, parks, roads and sidewalks. There was a deep gauge in the formerly pristine lawn in front of the hospital; and in the park, another wound, so large that the shuttle could easily fit there. The side walks were broken and torn and the roads were blocked with debris, glass, tree limbs, fallen light posts, broken benches and furniture; the broken water fountains were spouting streams of water and creating mud everywhere. The surfaces of all the walks and the roads leading to and from the hospital were broken and pulverized. Beyond the hospital where once there had been a lovely verdant hill overlooking the gardens and walks, the quake had created a landslide and the dirt was heaped as high as the hill had once been. In other places the ground looked as if had turned to quicksand; this was due to quake liquefaction, said Mr. Scot somberly, and very dangerous for man or beast. Sooner rather than later, those buildings whose foundations were now on that sand, would settle, crumble inward and fall.

"We'll have to put barriers there, laddie," he told Giotto, who had taken out his padd again and was making frantic notes. Uhura, looking down, noted thankfully that there were no bodies lying outside. Perhaps because it had been the dinner hour and most Sansorans had been inside their homes. Thank goodness for small mercies, she thought. She turned her head to look at Matarras; he looked stunned and shell shocked. "We're going to help as much as we can, Matarras," she told him softly.

"I know you will, Lt. Uhura," he whispered, his bronze face pale and anguished. "I know that my people, those who can, those who are able, will help as well."

Uhura looked out of the shuttle view window. A lone terrified bird flew up and over them, chirping frantically. That little bird was all that stirred in the devastation. She saw that there was a tear making its way down Matarras' pale cheek. She swallowed the huge lump in her throat and reached over to lay a soft hand over his large one and squeezed, in she knew, a futile attempt at comfort.

"Rual, Gafna, and Chimera said they'll meet us here," said Scotty. "They'll be bringing as much man power as they can find from the outlying areas where the quake didn't hit so hard. We'll have to start with the collapsed homes and buildings, digging through the rubble for the injured or the dead. We need equipment for that, and they said they would bring as much as they can find. I only hope they have heavy equipment in case we need it." He sighed. If Enterprise was here, he'd have all that at his fingertips, plus the tractor beam to move very large things.

"We'll all do the best we can," said Giotto, still making furious notes on his padd, trying to prioritize what had to be done first.

"Aye that we will lad; but right now we have to land and find Doctor McCoy and Dr. Tomalin. They'll be the ones to tell us what we need to do. I don't see emergency vehicles, so they must not have arrived with the injured yet."

Uhura's communicator beeped; it was Aadi. "Lt. Uhura, we are all here in front of the Communications building. All but two of my staff have come. We cannot reach those two, I am quite concerned, but the rest of us are ready to help."

"Aadi, can you walk over to the hospital? Mr. Scott has brought us in the shuttle in case we have to transport people. We're all meeting here to organize ourselves after speaking with Dr. McCoy. We'll be at the Emergency room entrance."

"We will be there shortly. Aadi out."

Time flowed in a surreal and twisted way. According to the shuttle chronometer it had only been 38 minutes since the quake had struck, yet it felt like hours, days, months. There hadn't even been enough time for emergency services to pick up any of the injured and transport them to the hospital yet.

Scotty set the shuttle down as close to the hospital as he could and as far away from the gaping hole in the lawn as he could manage. If there were more after shocks, he didn't want the shuttle to slide in and fall into the hole.

Uhura had the door open as soon as the shuttle touched ground. She ran toward the hospital with Scotty, Giotto, and Matarras following close behind. She sprinted around to the emergency room doors and flung them open. She opened her eyes in surprise at the sight in front of her. The Emergency room was quiet, orderly, and the doctors and nurses stood by carts ready for the injured to come in. She spotted Leonard against the far wall speaking with Dr. Tomalin. "Leonard!" He turned and she had never been so happy in her life to see those blue eyes and huge smile. She flung herself at him and hugged him tightly.

"Uhura, darlin'! He hugged her back and keeping an arm around her shoulder, left Tomalin's side and came over to the Enterprise crew. "Thank the good Lord, you're all here and safe," he said, clasping Scotty and Giotto on their shoulders. "We're expectin' the injured any minute. I'm afraid once they get here, it will be overwhelmin'. Tomalin has contacted more doctors and nurses from nearby towns, and they're comin' so we'll have some extra help but they can't get here quick."

"Leonard," Scotty said, looking around. "You've done miracles here, Doctor, and in a very short amount of time."

"Indeed he has," said Dr. Tomalin. "I don't know what I would have done if Dr. McCoy had not taken charge of triage and organization."

"I didn't do much," McCoy muttered. "It was a little chaotic at first, but these are good people, and they've mostly organized themselves. I think we're ready as we'll ever be."

"Doctor, we've got man power waiting outside for search and rescue, and more will be coming soon to help. How do you want to handle it when we find the dead and injured. We need to get started as quickly as we can."

"There is a morgue, Scotty. We'll put the dead in there, and if it fills up, we'll open another room. The injured will be triaged from here and if we get too many, we've got an adjacent room and we'll assign doctors and nurses for that room. We've got plenty of cots and portable beds. If Enterprise gets here soon enough, I can set up a field hospital outside if necessary and put M'Benga and Chapel in charge of that." McCoy drew in a deep breath. "Did ya'll talk to Jim?"

"I did, Leonard," said Uhura. "The Captain said they were leaving the Klingons and coming back here as quickly as possible. The ion storm is pretty bad, so they have to watch their warp speed. He's worried about all of us, but I told him we're all fine. Why don't you comm him? It'll do him good to hear your voice. We're going back outside now. Aadi and her groups are probably there waiting for us and we need to get started moving the rubble from those downed home and helping people get out of there." All of them felt a sense of intense urgency to be out there doing something.

"I hope Rual and his people are already here with the digging equipment," added Scotty.

"Ok, darlin'', McCoy gave Uhura another hug." Be careful all of you, especially of collapsing beams and walls. I don't want to see any head injuries or broken bones on any of you," he told them. "Maybe I will comm Jim while we're waiting for the injured to arrive. I can update him on what we've done here. That'll make both of us feel better," said McCoy. Somehow, even when things were going to hell in a hand basket, it was still somehow better when Jim was present, thought MCCoy. He drew out his communicator and stepped away from the little group.

The now familiar crackle and hiss of the Enterprise comm station came over his communicator. "Jim!"

"Bones," Jim's voice was joyous. "Good to hear your voice! We're coming as fast as we can. Hang in there, OK? The whole crew is ready to help out."

"That's good to hear, Jimmy. Can't wait to see ya'll, even that green bloodied hobgoblin, but don't tell him I said so." He heard Jim's chuckle. "I won't have to Bones, he's standing right here beside me."

"Dammit Jim!," Leonard said, pretending chagrin, but his smile was wide. Suddenly, he heard the screaming sirens approaching fast. "Gotta go, Jim. We've got incoming. Hurry back, Jim. We need you."