7: Alpha Centauri
Author: Chaoseternus
Chapter 14: Escape Part 2"Hey, Pirate!" Felix shouted, excited by his discovery, "we got a set of rings, and they appear to be working here!"
"Nice, that will make it easier to have supplies sent down" Pirate commented, not particularly bothered.
"Yes, but there's a shaft below, well within reach of the rings"
"What, you bring the miners into here? Straight from the frying pan into a bloody biohazard?" Pirate responded, slightly angry at the suggestion.
"No, we use them as a basestation, and ring up to a ship or something, they don't need to appear here"
Pirate looked interested, "can we do that?"
"I think we would need to do some deft reprogramming on the rings but maybe"
Pirate and Felix looked at one another, and then simultaneously they shouted, "Captain Pickstock! Get your butt over here!"
Angharad yelped with shock, as the bright flashing light of a ring effect appeared in the dark corridor behind her, a tall dark skinned man being left behind by the lights.
"I am Teal'c, where is everyone else?"
"I am Mining Engineer Angharad Gwyn, head of the rescue effort, can we get out by those rings?"
"Most certainly, Angharad Gwyn"
"Hodges, Gwyn, Henderson, get running and round people up, get them up here fast" she turned back to Teal' c as the three left running, "Mr Teal'c, you look strong, Tarvi is trapped the other side of these rocks"
"Indeed" Teal'c commented as he moved to assist.
"Just whatever you do, don't make a spark, and consider yourself real lucky the rings don't usually make sparks either, or you would have brought the whole place down"
"Explosive gases?"
Angharad nodded in confirmation, "almost at critical concentrations too, before long they will reach concentrations at which they could spontaneously ignite"
Angharad's gas monitor started bleeping, she glanced quickly at it, before turning to Teal'c, "Time is seriously becoming an issue here"
Angharad breathed a sigh of relief as the corner of Tarvi's manhole finally became visible. Her aching muscles screaming that she had been shifting rocks, and reinforcing the roof for far too long. Their goal at least was in sight.
Then she let out a second sigh of relief, as several meters away, ten more figures vanished, surrounded by rings, and the bulky shape of more gas scrubbers replaced them. So far they had gone through at least ten sets of gas scrubbers, basically just containers of chemicals which soaked up carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, methane and all the other dangerous gases which were still, despite the scrubbers and the ventilation fans, building up in the mine.
If her estimates were correct, they did not have enough time, not to get everyone who was known to be alive out.
"Teal'c, we need to speed those rings up, tell them to cut down from two minutes between rings if they can" Angharad wearily told the Jaffa.
"I will have the message passed along with the next batch to go to the surface, however according to Captain Pickstock, it is a problem with the rings which is causing the two minute time limit, it might not be possible to speed things up"
"Well, they need to try, otherwise we're dead"
With a weary sigh, Angharad rejoined the enlarged group of miners desperately trying to rescue their comrade from the manhole.