As we are speeding through this narratively ...

ch'Pertha left it to LCDR Decker and LCDR JavKer to make that decision, and began supervising the evacuation to the Land Bay.  Hopefully, that stolen Independent shuttle was still there, and the boarding party could escape this infernal contraption in that.

OOC: So is this stolen shuttle in the same bay that we arrived in, or a different closer one?  Also, shouldn't we still have a shuttle and a crewmember waiting for us where we landed?

Tsolo follows CDR ch'Pertha's orders to evacuate.

Rushing back to the bay they entered through, the bulk of the landing parties found a Mk V shuttle, just like the Sacajawea, waiting for them.  Preston had taken the old Type F shuttle from the station out to keep station with the Sacajawea; and Mcreeg had gotten a garbled distress call that suggested something bad had happened outside.

Meanwhile, JavKer and Decker lit the slow burn fuse...

OOC: Name that shuttle.  :)

As the team made their way into the shuttle bay, ch’Pertha quickly directed those carrying the wounded Doctor to the waiting shuttle ... the Crispus Attucks
Meanwhile, he made his way to the force field protected entrance so that he could get a visual on what was happening outside the artefact planet ... as he attempted to make comments contact with either/both of their shuttles out there.

If T’Lara could have carried Mcreeg’s body all the way back to the shuttle, she would have done so.  She was reluctant to let go, to regard him as nothing but a cluster of atoms rather than a living breathing human being.  They were in such a hurry to get off the station, however, and being slowed down by the extra weight wasn’t exactly the logical thing to do, especially since she already had to help carry a very wounded Dr. T’Lah on that stretcher.

She whispered her ‘goodbye’, then quietly followed ch’Pertha back to the stolen shuttle, assisting best she can with the evacuation of the Vulcan.

Sorry, if I wasn’t clear:    Mcreeg doesn’t get left behind.
I hadn’t crunched the numbers for who was carrying who ... but ch’Pertha will carry Mcreeg’s body.   And the body+head of the lost Abyss officer (but not the smooshed guy on the roof) will somehow come with us too.
Logical or not

D'rala carried the body of her own fallen comrade--what was left of it--and accompanied the team back to the bay.

It was a relief to see an exit, even if there were still hurdles to cross to pass through it.

After she loaded her team-mate's body onto the shuttle, she sought out ch'Pertha.

"Commander, is there anything I can do to help your team get us out of here?" she asked.

As the rest of the teams made for the shuttle, JavKer assisted Decker in his risky business.

"Setting these to a slow burn should give us time to get out," the Tellarite commented.  "While I'm doing that, why don't you do a download of as much data as you can on this beast."

The Science Officer paused for a moment, then nodded quickly, pulled out his tricorder and got to work. He tried to tap into the computer for information behind the manipulation of the black hole.

What kind of roll, if any, do you want Mr. GM?

ch'Pertha nodded to LCMR Vex, "How are you behind the controls of that shuttle?"
If she was a competent flier, ch'Pertha would direct her to take the Conn and prepare the shuttle for immediate evacuation the moment Decker and JavKer arrived.

He wanted to be gone from this place at the first moment possible.

“Not an expert, but good enough to get the job done,” D’rala replied. She looked briefly towards the shuttle, examining it. “I can start getting us ready to go now as long as I’m not needed for anything else.”

"Do it, please"

D’rala gave a quick nod and jogged towards the shuttle.

“Im getting this thing ready to bail out of here as soon as the others are back,” she said to the group assembled there.

She began to ready ready the shuttle for departure, moving at a clip.

The shuttle was quickly warmed up and ready to leave, everyone aboard... except Decker and JavKer.

Decker, please make a Science + Reason check, difficulty 4, to gain as much information as possible. Focus of Computers will apply!

To safely set in motion the station's destruction, roll a Reason + Science check, difficulty 4, same Focus applying.  Remember, you can always Succeed at Cost if the dice treat you poorly!

Decker bent to the task, but exhaustion was beginning to overtake him. Still, there was knowledge here that could take centuries, if not millennia, for the Federation to accumulate on its own and he had to do his best to save some of it.

OOC: No momentum. :P

12:06, Today: LCDR Christopher Decker rolled 41 using 3d20 with rolls of 9,18,14.  Data recovery - Reason(12)+Science(5) (Testing a Theory) - difficulty 4.
Only two successes.

Unfortunately, his limited access and unfamiliarity with the language was too much to overcome given the circumstances. He was unable to sort out more abstract knowledge from the more basic control structures.

"This is no good. I don't have the time to recover anything of value. Let me help you set that up, JavKer. We need to get out of here."

Throwing JavKer an assist...
12:10, Today: LCDR Christopher Decker rolled 16 using 1d20 with rolls of 16.  Setting the self-destruct - Reason(12)+Science(5) - assist.
Well, that's 1...

"Just download what you got, even if it's gibberish.  Maybe someone with pointed ears can sort it out in a decade or two," JavKer snorted.  His thick fingers were dancing along the controls, trying to safely get this place to implode without taking them all with it.

After a few moments the place began to shake and shudder, and JavKer's eyes widened, then narrowed.

"You'd better get out," he said gruffly.  "I'll be right behind you.  This is going to be tight," the engineer added.

Back at the shuttle, the bay began to shake, and the shuttle swayed from side to side on its landing skids.  Everyone was aboard, save Decker and JavKer.

"We've done enough here. This thing is clearly about to implode. I'm not leaving without you and I'm not staying here, either. Come on!"

He moved to the room's exit and paused, waiting for the engineer to follow.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:52, Sun 09 May 2021.

"Stubborn son of a grozz't!" JavKer cursed.  "If I don't keep this thing together, you'll never make it to the shuttle! GO!" he said. His hoof-like hands danced over the alien controls in desperation.

OOC: JavKer doesn't recognize your authority to relieve him. ;)

Up to you how to proceed!  If you leave JavKer, he will die, but you and the rest will survive.  Otherwise... die roll time! :D
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:44, Wed 12 May 2021.

Tsolo finds a place to sit and secure himself, or to lie down. (Have seatbelts been installed in Star Trek shuttles?)

Decker swore and shook his head in frustration, but his upbringing quickly asserted itself. They couldn't stay there. He couldn't force JavKer to follow him. Even if he stunned the Engineer, there was no way he could carry him back to the shuttle in time. Whether or not JavKer was right about needing the stay, Decker was out of options.

He smiled thinly, without much humor, "I wish I could stay and argue with you about it. Goodbye, JavKer."

OOC: Given that the Tellarites are a core Federation member, I would assume that a Starfleet officer would know some of their cultural basics. If so, he'd finish with a traditional Tellaran farewell.

With that, Decker turned and ran out of the doorway, sprinting towards the shuttle bay.

As Decker ran back towards the shuttle, the groaning of strained metal and the pops and bings of failing bolts and supports echoed in the halls.  A girder spun from the floor to the ceiling as gravitics malfunctioned.  More than once he had to dodge flying debris.

By the time he got to the bay, the entire artifact - Earth-sized that it was - was heaving and shuddering in gravitic stress.  As he reached the shuttle, part of the bay suddenly buckled inward.

Ch'Pertha of course wanted to go back for JavKer, but that was made impossible by the corridor leading inwards collapsing.

The landing party only had seconds.  At full thrust, the shuttle punched clear of the bay...

Behind them, the perfect sphere of the artifact began collapsing in on itself, the mass of neutronium no longer held in place by powerful artificial gravity.  Even as it did so, it spun out of orbit and began pinwheeling down the gravity well towards the event horizon of the massive black hole...

Tsolo has enough strength left to look out at the collapse. To nobody in particular, he says What a waste of effort and technology!

Decker, working the shuttle's sensor controls somewhat half-heartedly, grunted. "Perhaps. We'll get there in time, I have little doubt. I'm more skeptical if we were ready for that kind of power right now. And I don't think that anyone, even the Federation, getting ahold of power like that would do galactic politics much good. Unless we were willing to use it. Which we shouldn't."

He grunted again to himself and tried to focus on taking what readings he could as the shuttle headed back towards Independence.

Even as the shuttle fled the gravity well and met with the Sacajawea - the shuttle they'd originally arrived in - the ancient alien artifact passed the event horizon and disappeared beyond the realm of human ken.

The ride back to the Indy is quiet, lifted only by the knowledge that the planet, Chaktir, is safe... for now.  The black hole stops its rotation, and the radiation jets - while still posing a new and different hazard to navigation - are not aimed towards the small survivor of the old supernova.

Starfleet can use any of the data from Abyss Station’s and the Independence's scanners, as well as any tricorder readings from the landing party, to increase their knowledge of gravity, black holes, wormholes, and how to make strides in creating and maintaining neutronium. Ithik biology may also yield information that makes creating synthetic limbs and organs faster and more reliable.

T'Lah, while alive, is in critical condition and in need of long term care to recover both from her injuries and the affects of the radiation that had warped her sanity.  JavKer, Mcreeg and Preston are all given memorial ceremonies and awarded posthumous medals of valor.

Given her work with the Ithik, and the success of the mission, Captain Rokoto is assigned to command Abyss Station, along with Dr. Abdool.  CDR ch'Pertha is promoted to command of the Independence, with LCDR Vex his new XO, while LT Saghalie is assigned as the Indy's new chief Comms officer. The Indy is sent to Starbase 24 for repair and resupply...

(End thread)