The first significant quake hit SPROC shortly after the docking bay ceiling was opened. The oganic gobbling energy tendrils at the bottom of mineshaft 3 had aroused in the crystal matrix an insatiable quest for more living material. The five and a half human bodies consumed there triggered a vibratory tone that skittered throughout the crystal belt surrounding Pandoria. Accelerated expansion was the result and the rupture point was mine shaft 3 where protoplasm was first tasted. With sharp-edged muscularity the crystals swiftly rose like a burgeoning stalagmite splitting the sides of the shaft in all directions from the bottom upward. Even though the genesis of this festering boil was five kilometers beneath Pandoria's surface, it wasn't long before the ground under SPROC began bulging up like a rising pancake.
Unfortunately, SPROC's transporter station was situated at the center of a triangle with each of the three mine shafts at the points. The shafts were approximately 200 meters apart from each other, which left the transporter platform a little less than 100 meters from the entrance to each shaft. The expanding crystal matrix had also started up mine shafts 1 and 2, like hungry bloodhounds sniffing out the nest of human organic matter above. Consequently, the area around the transport station was the epicenter of the most violent quaking. And this was the spot from which SPROC and the Kallindor II were attempting a mass evacuation.
Captain Slee'tog of the Kallindor II was in open channel communication with SPROC Command Center. Lieutenant Commander Stinnik of SPROC, in the absence of Major Snodgrass, was desperately trying to organize an orderly transition of all personnel, some 250 people, into the transport area. But the maximum capacity of SPROC's transport station was ten people at a time. Eighty people had been successfully beamed up to the Kallindor II and ten more were dematerializing on SPROC's dais when the first quake struck.
Slee'tog was supervising operations in the merchant vessel's transport room when the dais area crackled with static and light flashes. "Commander Stinnik, something's wrong! Our transporter can't seem to lock onto your latest group!"
After a few moments Stinnik replied in a horror stricken voice: "We were hit by a nasty quake just as we initiated the transport beam! Our platform is still shaking!" Silence for another long moment; then in a hoarse whisper: "We'll have to recalibrate all the settings when the tremors die down!"
"What about the group you were sending?"
"They are.... gone!"
On board the Styx Colonel Snavely was about to take off when the first quake hit. The entire docking area was visibly shaking, including the Styx still on its pad. As the vibrations died down, Snavely heard an, "Uhhh.." from his right. Major Snodgrass blinked his eyes several times and shook his head. He was coming out of his sedative trance. "What... what's going on?"
"Leon, my boy; snap out of it! SPROC is coming apart at the seams! We've got to clear out of here NOW!" Snavely shot a sideways glance at Snodgrass. "You handle our shields. Something might fall on us!" Snavely activated the impulse engines and the Styx began to hover.
Snodgrass quickly sobered. "Wait! We've got to get our personnel off base!" He shook his head again. "Did we already offload the dilithium?"
"There's no TIME for that, Leon!" Snavely roughly grabbed the major's arm. "LOOK! The bay area is open! We've been granted clearance by SPROC and the Andorians to take off!" Snavely read the rising uncertainty in Snodgrass' face and said in a milder tone: "Listen, Leon. You were right about the instability of Pandoria... only it's happening even quicker than you imagined! That's why they want us to leave now!"
Snavely turned back to the instrument console and began easing the Styx forward. "Don't worry about our personnel here, Leon. The Andorians are already beaming them up to their own ships." A slight pause. "We, uh, we can help out once we get up in orbit with them."
"Oh." Snodgrass slumped back. Well, I suppose..."
Snavely deftly applied a little more power but was surprised when the Styx suddenly lurched upward.
"WHOA, baby... What the hell..?!" He cut the impulse engines but the Styx kept rising despite its own dead weight.
Snavely reversed the engines and stopped the Styx' rise. He was astonished to find that he had to steadily increase the reverse power to keep it from rising.
"What in Procyon's cesspool is wrong with this beast?!!"
On the Tycho bridge Captain Klosowski was using his newly acquired split screen capability to monitor both SPROC and the Kallindor II. The mood was grim as the loss of ten people in transport became apparent.
At her comm console Dianne reported: "Sir, incoming message from Kal'trax of the Kallindor I."
Ted looked over at Dianne and Sherriea. "Any chance of turning this split screen into a tri-screen?"
The two glanced at each other, smirked and fiddled with their controls. "Piece of cake, Sir!" Soon a third of the viewscreen was filled with the image of Kal'trax on the bridge of the Kallindor I.
"Mute the other two for now, Sherriea." Ted addressed Kal'trax. "Director; it's a bad day for SPROC! How goes it with Pandopost?"
"Fortunately for Pandopost, the worst seismic activity seems focused at SPROC. We are just now beaming up the last of our personnel." Kal'trax shifted uncomfortably. "We still have plenty of room on the Kallindor I. Can we help upload some of SPROC's personnel?"
Ted grimaced. "You could if their transporter station was stable. But it seems to be at the center of the quake... and I doubt there will be ANY cessation of seismic activity!"
"Why is that, Captain?"
"Our deep probe scanners verify that the subterranian crystal belt is growing rapidly." Ted paused. "Our chief engineer believes that Pandoria won't hold together too much longer!"
Kal'trax furrowed his brow in thought for a moment. "Can't we beam them up individually from wherever they are standing?"
"If they are wearing personal commbadges, normally we could." Ted sighed. "But many of the lower level station workers at SPROC don't have commbadges. And even if they did, the gravitonic beam shooting up from SPROC is taking on a shielding effect that can disrupt transport beams!"
Engineer Kirby stepped forward. "Captain, the gravitonic beam around SPROC is fluctuating and unfocused at the edges. I think I could beef up a commbadge with extra microfilaments, beryllium and carbon-90 to enhance its transport capabilities. A person wearing one of these should be able to punch through the thinner edges of the graviton beam and bring back two or three others in close proximity."
Ted looked hard at Kirby then back at Kal'trax on the viewscreen. "This would be risky duty for anyone beaming down to retrieve survivors! The gravitonic beam IS steadily increasing in strength!"
Kal'trax considered for a moment; then: "I'll put my own engineers to work immediately on producing these 'beefy' badges. I'm sure I can find some volunteers from the Pandopost staff we just retrieved." Kal'trax leaned back with a faint smile. "My compliments to your chief engineer. I can see why he's on a science vessel! Kal'trax out."
Ted smiled at James. "Rare praise from an Andorian! Now why don't you go ahead and whip up some of those 'beefy' badges?"
As James headed toward the turbolift, Ted turned to Sherriea and Dianne. "Shut off the subspace monitor and open a channel to SPROC. I need to tell Lt. Commander Stinnik to get his remaining people away from the mineshaft area and reassemble them along the outer edges of the facility where, hopefully, they can be picked up in small groups!"
On the Styx Col. Snavely was approaching panic himself as his ship began inexorably rising despite his activation of maximum reverse impulse. "Do those damn Andorians have us in some kind of super tractor beam?!"
"I don't think so, Colonel," Snodgrass replied. "Gravitonic radiation was going up sharply in all the mineshafts just before the outbreak in number three. And then came the quakes!" Snodgrass glared at Snavely. "I think our mining operation set something off! Something terrible!!"
Snavely regarded Snodgrass with disgust. "Ohh, don't start going APOCALYPTIC on me, Leon! We need to keep our heads here!"
"Then maybe we should ask for help!" Snodgrass looked at the blank viewscreen. "The Tycho is up there. I was talking to Captain Klosowski right after we lost six men in number three. The Tycho has been studying the situation... and they are a SCIENCE ship!"
Snavely sat glumly in a deep funk for several moments. He looked at his console and noted that the Styx was picking up speed as it rose out of the SPROC docking bay. His efforts to alter direction had no effect. The Styx kept going straight up.