7: Alpha Centauri

Author: Chaoseternus

Chapter 6: Explosion

Felix watched with worried eyes as manholes across the mine suddenly registered occupancy, the miners all taking the sensible option and diving for safety as soon as the words 'firedamp' were heard over their radios. At least the mines on Alpha Prime had the best manholes, each being a fully contained armoured box, with some food, water, medical supplies, armoured landline to the surface, and chemical toilets. Enough to ensure anyone unlucky enough to need to use them could survive if needs be for up to a week with rationing, that is assuming all the supplies were in place. Felix dismissed that thought, on Earth that would be a worry, but here only the best and most sensible were employed, and they knew these manholes were their best hope for survival if worst came to worst. So far, nothing had ever been reported missing from any of the manholes in any of the inspections so far.

A piercing whistle broke into Felix's thoughts, he glanced to check the recorder, used to record everything that happened in the control room once a potential emergency situation was discovered was on, then spoke loudly into the room. "Master Alarm, Alpha Prime Aluminium mine one, 0300 Zulu time", he turned and nodded to the other engineer, and flicked the master alarm button, causing the master alarm to cut off, its existence acknowledged. Angharad Gwyn, the youngest mining engineer on Alpha Prime reached over, and with shaking hands removed the cover off the big red emergency button on her console. This was her first real emergency; she had been called in to help monitor the mine, so she had known something was up but all she had had to deal with so far had been broken bones, or minor collapses, not a full blown emergency such as this! She gritted her teeth, and pushed the button, instantly the massive sirens above the complex began an almighty wailing, announcing to the small community below that there was trouble at the mine. "Sealing all blast doors in main access, and switching ventilation to nitrogen tanks"
Angharad frowned, "there isn't enough nitrogen in the tanks to flood the area, to force the Oxygen out yet is there?"
"No, but it will get us…" the master alarm cut him off, and then a muffled rumble was felt throughout the room.
They glanced at each other, both blanching as they realised exactly what that meant.
"Master Alarm associated with low level surface rumble, 0301 Zulu" Felix forced out, flicking through his monitor screens.

Tau'ri Controlled Goa'uld Facility, callsign Ravenbright, Orbit of Alpha Prime

"…and here is main control, as you can see ladies and gentlemen, this area is entirely Tau'ri technology based, the original Goa'uld masters feeling no need for such a facility." O'Neill smiled a bored smile as he led his 'guests' through the room.

He had never liked having to show dignitaries around, luckily with his mainly special forces background he had largely avoided it so far, but now as commander of Ravenbright it was an unavoidable chore. Luckily, most of the people he had to lead around had half a brain on their shoulders, the new head of the Senate Appropriations committee was here in this batch, and he already seemed to be considering how to boast the budget available to the SGC. Definitely an improvement over Senator Kinsley. Sharp movement out of the corner of his eye caused O'Neill to turn around as the brown haired lieutenant communications sat ramrod straight in his chair with a jerk.
"Lieutenant?" O'Neill asked, moving across to the comm. station, Senator Pitt following.
"Sir, the aluminium mine planetside appears to have activated its disaster beacon, attempting to confirm… We have Mining Engineer Angharad Gwyn online sir"
"Punch it up" "General O'Neill, this is Angharad Gwyn at Alpha Prime Aluminium mine one, we are declaring an emergency"
"Copy" O'Neill turned from the station, "clear command, all non-station personnel are to be escorted from the room, set condition 2 throughout the station, Lieutenant Hutchinson, alert the Indefatigable and Blastboat, and prep a signal for Thundersdawn, comms, get your support up here know, as soon as they arrive you are to cover communication with the mine and any rescue personnel only, copy?"
"Aye sir" "Gwyn" O'Neill said turning back to the monitor, "what is going on down there?"
"We had a major bumper reported at approximately 0258 Zulu time, at which point Levels lower 2 and 3 had to be abandoned. However before the evacuating miners could get to the main access tunnel, firedamp was reported and at 0301 Zulu the main access way was collapsed by an explosion, we now have 249 people trapped in the lower tunnels, plus the chief engineer is trapped in a manhole in the main access way, we have lost contact with her, but not with anyone else yet…" "Master Alarm 0307 Zulu, Angharad run a diagnostic on the main data relay, either the lines corrupt or we have a fire now as well" O'Neill cursed as Angharad left the range of the pick-up, obviously going to her station, this was bad. This was very very bad.