"I don't know why you feel like you have to be so secretive. Its not like it's anything to be embarrassed about Sam." Sarah said, she was thumbing through a stack of injured personal. Making sure they all had a proper healer, and that they were getting all the proper treatment. Not far across from her in the small office they shared off the docking area where they spent a majority of their time, her sister sat at a desk using the small mountain of paperwork that had accumulated on it as a pillow."In fact you might actually find someone who has the same interests." Sarah cocked her eyebrow expectantly, maybe her sister would finally put herself out there.
Sam finally rose her head from the desk, glaring at her sister slightly. "Urrgh! I told you I don't want anyone to hear me play the gutair. And I have next to no interest in starting a band, or playing with anyone else either!"
"So you do have some interest then." Sarah said grinning victory, having caught her sister in her own words. For her part Sam slammed her head back on her desk with an exasperated groan.
Ever since they'd moved to the tower this was how their day usually went. They would attend class, have something to eat, and then come back to their small office off the docking bay to report for duty. Sarah would go through personnel files making sure everything was going right for the people in the tower. Sam would go through what felt like piles and piles of the most boring paperwork ever devised by man. Repair orders, spend reports for needed parts, the list went on. Sam's boredom would sometimes lead to apathy, but the fact that she did excellent work, and got it in on time caused those above her not to question her. Their combined efforts had even earned them this office. Sarah would sometimes go off to socialize with some of the few friends the twins had managed to make when she was off duty. She even, on rare occasion, managed to drag Sam along with her. She had never gotten her to open up to anyone, though. What was that old saying? You could lead a horse to water, but....
"Urrgh! I'm so bored!!" You couldn't make them drink. Sam had silently started leafing through the paperwork on her desk. Sarah had returned to her own paperwork, but looked to her twin at this exclamation."You would think that having gotten a rank and an official title we would actually be doing something worthwhile. Like I don't know, anything at all! No, we get the job that makes us sit around all day, waiting for someone to need us... and waiting... and waiting!
"Well, we don't have to wait around forever. Our shift's almost up. We could go do something fun." Sarah said, beginning to run down a list of options with her sister shooting all of them down.
"We could go play teleball in the gym with Willem?"
" No, I don't feel like kicking his butt again."
"Go back to the flight simulation room so you can practice?"
"...No..." Sam knew she needed practice, and she did want to become a pilot eventually. She wasn't one to get discouraged either, but after her instructor told her that she had such weak reflexes he didn't think she'd ever be a pilot, it was a bit hard not to be.
"Go study in the library with Tilly?"
Sam didn't even deem to answer that option with a response.
"Get permission to go planet side, check out our old haunts, maybe find that girl you like?" Sarah said the last part a bit teasingly.
"No, that will take too long, and the answer will probably be a no anyway." Sam said, and after a too long pause quickly added "and I do NOT like Alex!"
Sam sat half upright, and turned to her sister.."You know what I mean Sarah. I want excitement. I want adventure!" Sarah looked sympathetically at her sister, and was about to say something when the speaker on the wall of their office crackled to life and began pouring out Tower Lead Cristin's voice. Both sisters immediately stood to attention on instinct.
“Emergency Ops, we have a blown gas main in district 8. We need it contained and the injured tended to quickly. Sam and Sarah, get the crew together and head out. Grab some from engineering to cut the main so it doesn’t spread to the other districts"
"Yes 'Ma'am!" Both twins barked out crisply, not coming out of attention until the speaker went silent. "Well," Sarah said turning to her twin "looks like you get your wish."
___________________
A scant twenty minutes later the twins had hand picked their team and they were arriving at the gas mane station. Sarah had hand chosen several medics most suited for extreme condition's and hostile environments. She had also selected Empath Aloe, as she was certain there would be a general fear and panic that might get in the way of rescue attempts. As well as...heaven forbid... If they found anyone they couldn't save.... Well it was just good for Aloe to be there.
Sam had hand selected a small group of engineers, headed by Simon Finkle. Simon was a genius in his field, and his field was more of the engineering world than most knew existed. She had also picked out a handful of security guards, as she knew well that they may not only be facing danger from a blown gas mane. Simon would take several of the security as well as the rest of his engineering team and go fix the leak while Sam went with Sarah ,the medics, and the remaining security to rescue any workers trapped inside.
As they approached the station in district 8 they saw first hand how far things had degraded. A plume of smoke rose up from it, promising fire within. Fire.... in a gas station... Well this certainly would be interesting.
Sam, as she usually did, took the lead despite the mission being joint custody with her sister. Sarah was more than happy to allow her to do so too, her sister was better at leading these more dangerous missions than her. " Ok Simon, I want you and your team in the control room. Don't dally, in and out. You've got fifteen minutes, so make them count. Sarah, I want you and the rest of your medics to take point. I'll be close behind you with security, ok? Alright everyone, let's save some lives." With that everyone entered the building, and began their assignments. Inside the building was worse than Sam had even expected. It looked like the gas station from hell, fire ravaging the halls, and hulking pieces of equipment cast in flickering shadow. Simon took his team down the right side of the hallway, careful to avoid the small fires that licked at the legs of their fire proof suits. Sam had only just set foot in the building, and already her sister had picked up minds crying out for aid. " Sam, can you hear that?" It took the elder twin a moment to pick up on the anguish to which her twin was referring, Sarah's telepathy had always been stronger than her own, but when she did she was surprised she had been able to miss it.
"The survivors have gathered in the cooling room! Time to move, fourteen minutes and counting everyone." With that the group took off down the left side of the hallway at a healthy jog. Sam noted as she followed her sister with a watchful eye that the deeper they went into the compound the hotter the air became until it almost became difficult to breathe. She mentally chastised herself. She'd been foolish not to think on bringing oxygen masks for everyone. As she listened, she could practically hear the situation become more and more desperate. Booms from all around them signaled small explosions from the fire and gas, going on all around them. The only upside of this situation seemed to be that the survivors had been smart enough to gather in the one place that could offer them protection. The cooling room was not only sturdily built it was, as the name suggested, the coldest place in the station. It was the room used to store absolute zero crystalized gas that kept the core of the station's temperature in check. It would take the entire building collapsing to take the room down *BOOM!!* a sudden explosion nearly deafened her, and her group as well,,as they all had to take a moment to gather themselves. The compound going might not be entirely unbelievable.
Finally, after what felt like hours, Sam's team arrived at the large sealed door that housed what remained of the station's crew. She quickly noticed a comm on the wall adjacent the door, pressed it, and spoke.
"This is T3 emergency operative Sam Feldon speaking. We're here to perform an emergency evacuation of this site on orders from Tower Lead Crisin Revegenous. Please open the blast doors, so my team can begin preparations." After a brief pause, a voice came back over the comm. " Understood EO Feldon, opening doors." With that a light whistle came from beside her, and it slowly began to slide open. It took a moment, but once open Sarah was the first through, followed closely by her medics and Aloe, then Sam and security.
Once through she noted that Sarah had already begun bandaging up the more heavily wounded. Empath Aloe was attempting to calm the twenty near hysterical engineers and security that milled near the center of the room. Sam issued an order for her security to keep an eye out for any trouble, and took a quick stock of the room. Aside from the survivors, some of which lay bleeding on the ground, there was little other than the coolant system. She noticed with no small amount of fear that a nasty crack ran along the large glass case that housed it. It was likely from it's doubled efforts to perform that it was now so close to going critical. Systems were in place to keep it from damaging other installations, on anything beyond the building it was in, but if that thing broke all already inside would be frozen as the gas escaped.
Steeling herself, Sam barked out at the crowd
"Who is in charge here?"
A portly man wearing a white helmet stepped forward. "That would be me Ma'am. Safety Engineer Maxwell Harding."
"Safety Engineer ?! Well then Mr. Harding maybe you can tell me what in the FU!...." A brief glare from Sarah, who was kneeling next to a man that looked to have a badly broken leg, made her cease her tirade before it could really begin. Sarah was right, as she was usually was when it came to people. Berating this man for letting things degrade so severely, when it was his exact job to prevent such things, wouldn't help the situation in any way.
With a sigh she looked to the man she was about to give a verbal beat down too, who's eyes were wide as saucers looking like a deer trapped in headlights, and started over. " What happened?"
"W...we don't know ma'am. Everything was performing optimally and then the sirens started. We didn't have time for protocol. Sparks started coming from the equipment, and before we knew it there were explosions and fire everywhere. I organized as many of the personal as I could before things got real bad. I tried to evacuate everyone to the coolant room, and we were fifty strong at departure from the other side of the complex. Even picking up other survivors along the way we were at twenty two the last time I counted."
Sam took a moment to think on this, and drew several conclusions. First that this man's story should be investigated, as he either deserved a medal for bravery or to be fired. Second, there would need to be a more serious investigation into the corruptions of the facility. Sam smelled something fishy, and her nose for these things was rarely wrong. She didn't take long, however, she didn't have long.
"Sarah?" Her twin was quickly to her side. " Tell me you've got good news for me." Sam practically begged things were quickly going to hell in a hand basket.
The other girl wasn't able to do so obviously, however, as she shook her head before giving her report."Most of the survivors seem to be in steady condition, but we have several that are too heavily wounded to be moved without stretchers. Good news is we brought some, but it will take a little while to set everything up."
Sam shook her head sadly "Sarah, we're at the ten minutes mark. We're going to have to hurry back as is. I think we're going to have to lea..."
"NO!!! I am NOT leaving these people Samantha Feldon!" Sarah shouted at her sister, too loudly as all eyes were now on the pair. Sam would have likely knocked the teeth out of anyone else for talking to her like that, but this being her sister she instead reevaluated.
"Ok. Five minutes, but if we don't have everyone ready by then we WILL leave anyway." Sam said firmly. Sarah nodded an affirmative, and quickly got to work. She called to the Empath to give her a hand, and the two were quickly to work.
Sam stood around for a moment, tapping her foot fighting to keep her composure under the wave of anxiety. She began pacing, and still tried to look determined and unworried. The truth was she couldn't help thinking that any minute now something bad was going to happen. They needed to get out of here. "Two minutes Sarah, how are we looking?" Sam asked trying to keep the anxiety from her voice.
"We have the stretchers put together, but me and Aloe will need some help getting the wounded onto them, and carrying them."
With that Sam nodded to her security "Sergeant Reid, you and your security help my sister. Empath Aloe, you lead those able to walk. I'll take point, then you and the engineers, then Sarah, you'll follow with the stretchers. All right everyone if you're ready we need to..." *CRACK!* All attention suddenly went to the Coolant system, as the crack spread viciously, and finally burst. "Sarah!!" Sam roared, as she threw herself forward. She managed to catch the explosion in her telekinesis before it could truly blossom. She also held back the coolant that would eat the skin off everyone in the building. Sam roared again, as the weight of this much pressure forced some blood from her nose.
"Sarah!"Sam had to shout to be heard over the screams of fear coming from the engineers. "Take the wounded and get out of this room, it could depressurearize at any minute." Sam had to fight to keep her knees from buckling, she'd never forced her power this hard before.
"NO! I'm not leaving you. I can help!!"" Her twin shouted back, half to be heard, half in determination. Sam could hear her sister's voice quiver slightly.
"You have to get the wounded out of here! As soon as you're through you have to close the blast doors!!"
"No, I'm not leaving!!"
Sam felt her entire body shaking lightly, she wouldn't be able to keep this up for long. "Blast doors Sarah!" She forced her head to turn so she could give her sister a reassuring smile, the effect of which was questionable considering she could feel the blood slowly crawling down her face. "Don't worry, I have a plan." Hesitantly Sarah nodded, and gave the order for everyone to follow through with her sister's orders.
Before they were even through, Sam began slowly backing up. She occasionally grunted, or roared, in pain as the flames from the captured explosion licked slightly at her arms. She heard the door closing as she backed toward it. Too fast, she would need to pick up the pace. Keeping the Zero Gas from mingling with the fire was a task that required all of her finer manipulation skill. Still she pushed on, and was satisfied when she finally reached the door. It was almost closed, she'd need to make this fast.
"Here comes the tricky part." Sam whispered to herself as she threw all of her telekinetic weight at the explosion. She then threw herself out the door, and a moment later she heard it click closed. A huge boom followed, but the door held. Sam took stock of herself for a moment, aside from some burns going up her wrists, and a rapidly growing migraine she was remarkably ok.
"Sam!" Sarah cried, as she appeared from the crowd, her face stained with tears. She practically dove at her sister, and threw her into a massive hug. "I thought you were going to die!" Sarah's voice was bordering on the hysteric, the engineers were politely looking away, Empath Aloe was looking at them with sympathy and compassion but said nothing. Of course the twins saw none of this, Sam was to absorbed in trying to calm her sister down. Sarah was too absorbed in reassuring herself her twin was ok, by chocking the life out of her in a bear hug.
"I'm ok Sarah, I'm alright." She reassured returning the hug as best she could.
After her sister had managed to calm down a bit, they released the hug, and it was back to business. Sam stood, straightening her GNC uniform, and pushing her hair back from her face. Sarah also stood, and resumed her place leading the medic team, accepting a hug from Aloe.
"Come on everyone! These halls are going to freeze solid in roughly a minute. Let's hightail it." With that, the team booked it back down the hall and met up Simon's team, who had obviously had a much more uneventful trip than her group. Simon's smile on seeing Sarah and Sam's group slowly evaporated as he saw the group run in panic toward him. He, clearly confused on what could have happened in a fairly routine mission, tried to give his report. "Sam. We've clamped the valve, and..." He gave an oomph as Sam grabbed him by the shirt as she ran, pulling him with her. "Come on, no time! Zero G's loose!" At this Simon would have stopped in shock if not for a combination of good sense, and the fact that his feet were half dragging behind him. "WHAT!!! How.... What did you?!!
It wasn't long before the reassembled crew was outside. Once at a safe distance, stretchers were gently laid down, and everyone started catching their breath. After a moment Simon came over to Sam and Sarah, Sarah still unwilling to give her twin more than an inch of space after the ordeal.
"I don't need to know what happened guys. I've known you two since you got to the tower. You're both responsible enough for me to know that you did everything in your power to keep the mission under control. You might have to explain to Tower Lead Crisin why one of her installations was so thoroughly destroyed however."With that he turned to face the PCS, a personnel carrier ship that they had used to get here, and walked toward it. After a time had passed, Sam issued the order to board ship and begin departure.