Bates stepped out of the turbolift and headed straight for his console. It was hastily done but his entire team, as well as Grak’s, was able to modify ten photon torpedoes with all the available coolant that they had. Perhaps it was overkill, but with how massive the storm was and how powerful it had become when a runabout went in, Bates wanted to end the storm. He could only hope that it will work.

“Forward torpedo launchers are loaded up,” said Bates. “Ready to fire.”

“Tagg,” Maxwell began. “If you could re-orientate the ship so that Bates has a clear line of sight of the storm.”

“Deploying maneuvering thrusters,” said Tagg. “Maintaining orbit while re-orientating the ship.”

They watched as the view screen showed the planet shifted, when really, it was the ship that shifted. Soon, the storm was in view and Bates could see from his displays that all the designated targets were acknowledged and locked on by the system. All he had to do now was hit the button and the launchers will deploy all ten of those modified torpedoes. “Ready, Captain.” Said Bates, his finger hovered over the ‘fire’ command.

“Do it,” Maxwell ordered.

Bates pressed it and they all watched as ten torpedoes entered the view screen, one by one, until they soared towards the planet and disappeared into the storm. The second they went inside the storm, they detonated. They watched as multiple lights that emitted from their detonations had appeared all over the dark eerie cloud. “Sequence complete.”

“Performing scans,” said Bazial. “Data coming back. It looks like the storm is beginning to dissipate.”

“Did it work?” Graves asked.

They watched as visually, the storm looked as though it had begun to shrink. Bazial began to announce that the storm has dissipated down to thirty percent. It looked as though they had succeeded and were going to finally be able to get their away team out of there. In fact, Bates could hear Graves start to hand out orders to prep the shuttle bay. But it was all futile.

On the view screen, they were able to see it for themselves. The storm was not going away. It was almost gone but then it returned at full strength, where it covered the entire city ruins and then some. Their entire progress. Lost.

“I don’t understand,” said Bazial. “Simulations after simulations. They all said that this would work.”

“Except for one factor,” said Grak. “It’s-”

“Not natural.” Maxwell interrupted. “There’s nothing we can do to stop it. The away team will have to find it, if it is there.”

It was dark. Even when he opened his eyes, he couldn’t see anything. No, it wasn’t just dark. It was pitch black. There was literally no light. He didn’t understand why either. But he could feel the deck beneath him, especially when he placed the palm of his hands down against it to try and stand up. Though, when he placed his hands down onto the deck to stand, he could feel a vibration and it was not something that came from the craft. Was he moving? How? Last he could remember was that he was on his way to pick up Mizu and K’Roll. And then the craft took a hit and…then he woke up to pitch black.

Ruby started to reach around, to see if he could find something, anything and try to figure out where he was. He needed to find a console and see if he can get some sort of power going. His hands eventually found the top of a seat, not sure if it was his or not but it didn’t matter. What mattered, was that he found something and it was a start. He felt the chair about until he was certain enough that he could sit down in it and from there, he felt around until he found a console.

Now he was able to try to bring the screen to life, to try and get a holographic display or a normal one to light up. But nothing happened. Worst case scenario, he is dead and this was just some weird sort of hell that he has to deal with. He pinched his arm, hard enough that he will probably have a light bruise or a mark. So he is not dead. Then other outcomes is that something was nullifying or dampening his power source. But that can’t be. At least, he doesn’t think so.

The basic engineering courses made one thing clear. If there is no power from the main and backup generators, then it is likely the EPS grid has damaged. He searched around under the framework of the terminals, where he hoped to find a torch light. It took him a minute and to feel around the entire cluster but he found one. He finally could see, where the interior of the cargo shuttle cockpit was now illuminated by a bright light from a Starfleet issues torch.

For the next hour, he grabbed an engineering kit and went to work. He needed to bypass the damaged EPS grid, likely use the secondary graviton emitters or bypass the power coupling. Either way, it took him that long to reroute main power and as soon as he finished his work, the cockpit was flooded with interior lights. Followed by the illumination and notification sounds that came from the terminals.

Ruby went to the pilot seat to see what it was that the terminals were so alerted to. That was when his eyes went wide when he realized why. All data that screamed at him, told him what was going on. He, no the entire cargo shuttle, was inside a giant creature. Inside some sort of pocket, just before the stomach, before the creature’s acids that could begin to break down the craft. With power restored, he can find a way to escape the worm.

First thing he did, was that he pulled up the database and began to search for every worm species that Starfleet or any other race had encountered and shared with the Federation. He must find a way to escape and get his friends off this planet.