The Lift Landing

A narrow corridor adjacent to a pressurized elevator shaft, bathed in the sterile glow of emergency lighting that casts sharp shadows across the metal grilles of air ducts and junction boxes. The walls hum with the subsonic throb of failing systems, punctuated by the distant shriek of alarms and the groan of stressed bulkheads as the Empress endures another impact. This unspectacular space feels vast in the confined metal corridors, its ceiling lined with exposed piping and flickering lumen strips that throw the Doctor’s and Romana’s hasty footsteps into stark relief as they sprint toward sickbay with Secker’s limp body between them.