"Condition Yellow" Part III (continuing the "Hot Rods" Posts)
Lt. Cmdr Brianna O'Shea, Chief Engineer/SEC (Trey)
Lt. Michael Jamson, Operations (Bob)
Lt. Jiiles, Engineering Officer. (Dru)
Ensign Marcus Slayton, Engineering Officer.(Will)
Ensign Richard "Ringo" Langly, Engineer (Martin)
Senator Ramir Omar, Romulan Ambassador (Jon)
:: Holodeck IV ::
Omar walked up to where O'Shea was working. "Look, Anna, I know you're busy, but don't I deserve a bit more of an explanation? Tell me, is this the man?"
He sneered at Slayton, standing nearby, with contempt as he noted the single pip on his collar - meaning he was a lowly ensign, nothing compared to a
high-ranking member of the Rihannusu ruling class.
Raising her hand, to Omar she frowned, trying to listen to Michael. Anna really didn't have time for this. "Began tests..." Anna said, through a strained voice.
Jiiles glanced up at O'Shea and frowned. Sighing inwardly he turned back to Richard Langly, "Right let's get these fields up."
"Okay,...fields." Richard frowned. "You do the dirty work...and I'll stay plugged into the LCARS. Deal?"
"Sure thing. You wanna high five on that too?" Jiiles asked with a smug smile.
Richard started to smile. "You know about doing 'the high five'? Way cool dude." Continuing on a far too serious tone he said, "But I prefer to do a
'Handshake' on it"
Jiiles stared at Ringo and frowned. Turning away slowly his eyes locked on the strange human for several seconds, Jiiles grabbed a tool kit and set to work setting up the containment fields around the distribution systems.
"Gentlemen...enough with the chit-chat, let's keep this 'professional'" Jamson stared again at Ensign Langly, puzzled. He was getting to get
nervous, especially with Richard's behavior which in his eyes wasn't appropriate for a man wearing a Starfleet uniform.
"Hey," Jiiles said turning to Jamson, "can you get started on the power relays while I do the distribution system? And Marcus you start on the ODN fibers?"
"Sure thing, lieutenant. Don't forget to use the polaron probes to change the polarity of the fields, or we'll spend the next couple of hours, assessing damages. Happened to me once...lost all my holodeck credits for a month" Jamson replied.
"Oh...and" Jamson forgot to mention "Both of you...please use the gravitic calipers with some of the systems, before you raise the fields and connect
the gel packs". Gravitic Calipers were necessary to effect the plasma flows, reroute or regulate them by generating graviton fields. This would enable to
handle systems that couldn't go off line, with precise energy and power distribution. For the Plasma conduits Jamson was modifying, which were more serious than the distribution systems or ODN fibers, he would have to use the dutronic probe.
Jiiles nodded and smiled slightly at Jamson as he crossed the holodeck.
Turning toward the Romulan. "Ramir, please. I don't have time for this right now. I'm working... this is not a topic I want to go into right now. Give
me time and answer any and all questions, for now, please just stop." Anna said looking at him. "In the interest of what we are doing, it isn't
appropriate for you to be here.." She said, then looked back toward the console.
"No, I think it is," Omar cut her off loudly. "If it wasn't for my father, you engineers wouldn't have had the opportunity to play around with Romulan
cloaking technology, and fit it to this ship. So I have every right to be here, lieutenant commander."
This entire assignment turned into an ordeal, the tension between the Romulan Senator and Lieutenant Commander O'Shea was testing every crew member's patience on this team. This had to be stopped, this Romulan had no right whatsoever being in this holosuite. He was only here, as a guest of the Chief Engineer, which also seemed to be running out of patience herself. Jamson tried to ignore the chatter, but it was almost impossible due to the
loud noise the Romulan ambassador was creating.
"This is what you get for sleeping with the first lunk head that comes along!" Jiiles muttered to himself as he finished the containment field,
"All done over here!" he shouted out, "Commander, we can plug the gel packs in now.. Commander?" Jiiles shrugged O'Shea was far too involved in her *private* conversation to listen to him.
No he did not just yell at her. Turning to him sharply. "Senator... the problem isn't with this ship, or the cloaking device, or relations between
our two cultures. It is between you and me. For you to assume that is a mistake. If you have problems with that, then I suggest you take it up with the diplomatic corps aboard this ship. I will not and am not going to go into a discussion about what happened to us in our personal lives right now when
I have already said I do not have time for it right now." Anna said looking at him.
"Well," Omar shrugged. "Maybe I can offer assistance, as a scientist." He was unsure of exactly how useful he could be, as while he had graduated in the top ten of his class at the Rihannusu Astrophysical Academy, his specialty had been isolinear chips - the predecessor to neural gel packs. Still, he might be able to help in some way.
Marcus was up and moving to stand between Anna and Ramir but instead of his usual calm and easy going demeanor, his face was one of utter seriousness,
his ice blue gaze is locked levelly on Ramir's gaze.
"Senator, you are currently in a classified and restricted area as mandated by the Titan Accords, section four sub-paragraph forty seven alpha that you must immediately leave this holo-deck at once or I will be forced to contact security to have you removed." Marcus said in very clear and accented tone of Rihannsu that he picked up from a Romulan officer that was a friend of the family while he was growing up. There was nothing nervous in his tone as
he locked gazes with the high born Romulan.
This was getting out of hands, and could develop into an interstellar incident, which the Federation couldn't afford at the moment. It seems that
Ensign Slayton was taking this conversation between O'Shea and Romar, too personally. And now wasn't the time for personal feelings and life to get in
the way of the testing and experiment. Jamson felt as if he was working on a show in the holodeck, a drama play. One of the characters was out of place,
and this 'player' had green blood pumping through his veins.
"There's not much point of him leaving now. He has seen the entire deck, the modifications, everything. This entire project has been breached." Jiiles stared at the back of O'Shea's head for a moment, he wanted to say more but he knew he would be over stepping the line. But then the commander
had already done that! He was annoyed. Because of this woman his best friend and commanding officer, one hell of an engineer and department head
had been forced to leave the ship. And here she was standing in the middle of the holodeck, after explaining to them all about the secret nature of
this project, having a *personal* discussion with a *Romulan*. This was too much.
"Why don't you just offer him a chair commander?" Jiiles asked with dripping sarcasm. "Or maybe another night in the sack might just satisfy him more?" he muttered stomping across the holodeck to pick up a few more gel packs.
Michael was amazed and raised both of his eyebrows towards Lieutenant Jiiles. He couldn't believe what he just heard, he never thought Jiiles was able to throw such remarks into the air, he seemed like a quiet guy, but this was an insult, and to a superior officer! A department head, his commanding officer!
Anna turned and stepped up to Lieutenant Jiiles staring him in the face. Anna's eyes to on a hard glare, one she had learned from being with marines.
Few fleeters had ever had this kind of furious glare. "I suggest you remember your place, LIEUTENANT, or I will remember it for you... next words out of your mouth, better me, YES... MA'AM.. ARE We CLEAR?" Anna said.
Jiiles stopped what he was doing and glared back at her, what with loosing Dhani to Ethan and then Ethan to O'Shea... O'Shea was supposed to be a
*fantastic* officer, much better than Ethan!!!! *This* would *never* happen with Ethan around. He licked his teeth and half smiled and shook his head.
He wasn't going to reply to *that*, she could throw the rules and regulations of protocol at him for as long as she liked. if *she* wasn't going to play by the rules he dam well wasn't. His silence was more
defiance than any words could be. Setting his tools down he folded his arms across his chest and locked his eyes on hers.
"Ok...that's it people...keep it down" Jamson quickly moved to calm everyone down, which was quite unusual. In the past, he would only incite things up, and join in instead of acting as a rather peaceful 'moderator'. "Senator-" Michael tried to reason with the Romulan who seemed to concentrate more on Marcus Slayton than anyone else in the room. This wasn't going well.
Omar stared icily at Slayton, his eyes glistening with contempt.
"This isn't over!" he said, stabbing an accusing finger at the human. "You've made a dangerous enemy today, ensign."
'There's no turning back now' Jamson thought and lowered his head. He then gave a nasty look at Ensign Slayton. What was he thinking? His was an
Ensign, and even though this was a Romulan, he was nevertheless a Senator and an Ambassador and should be treated accordingly. He might have just started a 'no return' situation, not only for himself, but for the entire diplomatic staff on Starfleet and the Federation.
Then, without another word, he imperiously turned and walked towards the door - and nearly smashed straight into the entrance when it refused to open.
"Computer" Omar said in impeccable Federation Standard. "Open the doors to Holodeck IV."
There was no shrill beep to follow his request, and no familiar monotone female voice.
"Hnaev," Omar swore at the top of his voice. He turned to the engineers behind him with a bemused expression. "What on Romulus is going on?" His
voice betrayed his fear - the senator was quite claustrophobic.
"It must be the Operator lock out mode..." Michael stared at the helpless Ambassador and turned to Jiiles. "That's not good news..." he added and
lifted the tricorder from the floor, right next to the plasma conduits he was working on. "In such case the computer would not accept commands and that means we're-" he was cut again by the Senator.
Jiiles frowned and turned to the console to check on what Jamson just reported.
With no useful answer, Omar turned back to the holodeck door and shouted at the top of his voice in Rihannusu: "HNAFIV AHEFVI!". Immediately the
holodeck door shook as Omar's bodyguards started pounding on the holodeck entrance, trying to rescue the senator, who they realized was in danger. But
the door refused to budge even a fraction.
"Take is easy, Senator. There's no use of shouting! The doors will not open... there are safeguards!" Jamson tried to calm the Senator down. That's
exactly what they all needed, a deranged Romulan senator, throwing strokes at a door which couldn't be opened unless the computer authorizes it to,
safety protocols, level 1.
"HNAFIV AHEFVI!" Omar shouted again, hoping his bodyguards would re-double their efforts, which they did. The noise intensified, as the guards started
kicking the door and hitting it with the butts of their plasma rifles. However, the tritanium door refused to give way - it shook and creaked, but
refused to buckle.
"What on earth are those idiots, doing!? Firing their disruptors on the doors?! STOP IT!" Jamson rushed to the doors and punched his communicator,
"Jamson to Security...". But to no avail, no one responded, no matter how many times he slapped his communicator.
"Hnafiv Ahefvi," Omar said loudly yet again through the holodeck door, before tapping his comm. badge. "Guards, go to my quarters and break out the
plasma grenades. I don't care if you have to blow half this deck into space - just get me out of this holodeck!" He was really starting to feel
claustrophobic now.
"Yes, lord senator," a voice replied and the pounding on the holodeck door stopped, as the guards scurried away to get explosives.
"What?! You no good excuse of an ambassador!!!" Jamson jumped and grabbed the senator with both hands, pinning him down to the door. "This is a
Federation vessel! You have no authority here, especially not starting a war over mechanical doors that won't budge!". He was trying to calm the senator down, who was clearly petrified by this technical failure. The senator, who did not take action, just closed his eyes and tried to cool down, facing his fear, claustrophobia. "Get a hold of yourself, you're a bloody senator!!! Take a good look at yourself and calm down".
"Get off of me!" Omar was shouting, shoving the lieutenant away.
This was getting ridicules! Jiiles turned from the consol readout to O'Shea expecting her to do something, anything other than stand there looking as gormless as a bulk head. Gees she was useless. *This* is what Starfleet corps of engineering sent them, huh! He would be having words! Jiiles flew
out from behind the console and pulled the hysterical pair apart.
"Jamson!" Jiiles shouted grabbing the man by the shoulder, "Stand down!" Jiiles glared at O'Shea with cold eyes for a second before turning to the senator, "Senator Omar, if you don't sit down and SHUT UP I will make you." His face was only a few inches from the ambassadors and still he leaned in
closer, his blue skin wrinkled as he growled, "Is that understood?"
"Now tell your guards to stop shooting at the doors! And don't even think about grenades, you green blooded freak!!!" Jamson pointed squarely at the
Omar.
Anna couldn't take anymore, she pulled the small pocket phaser and shot a small beam out and destroyed a small cargo create. "Everyone hush! I see one more fight, I swear to God I will drop you where you stand. We have to remain calm." Anna said.
"I will not! You shouldn't have allowed him in here in the first place, Lieutenant Commander...this is a strict violation of our orders" Michael frowned. He wasn't mad at O'Shea, it was the Senator who was causing all this trouble. And now the holodeck was malfunctioning.
"I didn't invite him, Michael.. he barged in!" Anna stated, looking at the ops officer.
Jiiles on the other hand was as mad as a hornet; with O'Shea. His fists clenched at his sides, and his eyes fixated on a point just by the toe of
the Commander's boot. Jiiles didn't have a tendency to get mad, the exception to the rule was Dhani of course! Her, and drink, had sparked him to exchange blows with Suder on more than one occasion. But for the rest of the time he was a pretty calm and easy going officer. Always dutiful and
respectful.
"Commander O'Shea." Jiiles began his dagger filled eyes piercing hers, "*you* should know better than to continue a personal discussion whilst at
work. This is a high security area if you had anticipated your... ex lover. to show up in a tantrum you should have called security. in fact you should have had him removed the moment he entered, or at least taken your conflict out into the hall way. *Not* in here. If any of us had done what you have done we would find ourselves in a world of shit, and transferred so quickly into waste extraction, we wouldn't even have time to breath! I don't believe that *you* deserve anything less." His voice was eerily monotone as his eyes flashed venomously at her.
"You stupid, worthless veruul!" Omar shrieked in anger. Admittedly Ensign Slayton had annoyed him earlier, but that was nothing compared to what
Jamson had just said - insulting not only Omar's skill in his job but his people was an unforgivable crime.
Jamson had viciously wounded Omar's mnhei'sahe (honour) and - had they been on Romulus - the lieutenant would already be dead.
"How dare you insult me and call my people 'freaks?'" Omar said, in a quieter voice but just as furiously. "I am the official Rihannusu ambassador
to the Federation, and my father is the second most powerful man in the whole Rihannusu Empire. My family has the ear of the Federation Council.
I'll have your uniform, your dignity - after I've finished, you won't even get a placing on a waste transport barge! You'll be the freak then, you
insolent human!"
"I think you will find that Jamson has already had his dignity stripped from him!" Jiiles retorted flexing his fingers at his side. He looked up into
the eyes of the ambassador an evil grin creeping across his face.
Anna and looked at Jiiles. "One more word from you, I'll have you on charged for inciting a riot, disrespecting a superior officer and insubordination! Do NOT make me tell you again, to be quiet!" Anna said.
Rich was standing over at one of the other consoles. Totally ignoring the every present faction of fighting that was going on behind him. He was to engrossed in his little work station to even care. When he did look up and turn to the group, he looked at Anna and Jamson inperticular. "Um... this pak things... they suppose to be yellow?
Anna moved over, as did Jamson. "Oh shit..." Anna said, sitting the phaser down on the console. "Michael.. It's spreading through the system." Anna said, meaning it was spreading out into the ship. "We've got to get out of this holodeck now..." Anna stated and looked around, no one having a idea of just how bad this was going to get.
"HAL 9000 vs The Cat"
Ensign Le'on Khatowren, Securtiy Officer
********************
Somewhere Below Decks...
Le'on had completed his rounds of the ship in the standard alloted time. It was pretty impressive since he had to work twice as hard to do it nowadays. But now he had to look forward to a nice relaxing trip in the turbolift up to the bridge. Slinging his rifle over his shoulder, he then took out his 'baton' that he used to reach the controls up on the walls of the corridors. It was a flimsy retractable thing, but it did the trick. Extending it outward he pressed the call button for the turbolift since one wasn't currently on this deck.
[Good Morning Dave...] the flat metallic voice came back. Le'on blinked with surprise. Since when did the computer have a male voice? And who was this 'Dave' person?
He shook his head. Maybe he was just tired and imagined it. He pressed the button again and tried voice activation. After all, they were on alert and all. "Computer, Identify." he said in his thick accent.
[Would you like me to sing you a song?] the computer asked.
"No, I vould like you to open de door!" Le'on hissed between clenched teeth. "Now open it before I personally go to the computer core and rip out your voice circuits!" The turbolift door obediently opened up to allow the Caitian to enter. Le'on allowed a smug smile to cross his features as he walked in. "Good. Bridge." he commanded, as his tail seemed to flick in an obscene gesture to the computer panel.
The turbolift then dropped like a rock.
********************
The Bridge
A few minutes after Le'on had entered the lift, the turbolift doors on the birdge let out a quiet 'DING' like an old style Elevator from the 20th Century drawing curious glances from some of the crewmen on the bridge. Moments later the doors shot open and Le'on, quite literally, came flying out screaming a string of profanities and curses in Caitian. It all sounded like a cat had gotten its tail caught under a rocking chair.
[Thank You for choosing this turbolift Dave...] the computer's voice came from the lift as the doors closed.
Le'on swore, as he hung on to the wooden railing behind the captain's chair with claws firmly embedded into the wood, that he'd be taking the Jeffreies Tubes from now on until whatever was wrong with the computer was fixed.
"Missing Crew"
Captain Daren M'Kantu, Commanding Officer
Ensign Paulo DiMillo, Intelligence Officer With Mentions of: Jasmine Heloi and the rest of team two and Dr. Jericho
Paulo walked towards the Doctor's tent. "Ensign, about time," Jericho yelled. "Where is that science officer of yours?"
Paulo groaned. He was really getting tired of this older man. "I will go check," Paulo said as he turned and walked over to the communications tent. "Paulo to Lt. Heloi." Paulo waited a few. "Heloi, please come in." Paulo grinned deciding to try one of the other team members. "Commander Dallas, please come in." Still nothing. "Anyone from team two, please come in."
Paulo looked over at one of the engineering crewman who had been standing by. "Scan the area down there." The crewman looked over at his control panel and a few minutes later looked back up at Paulo shaking his head. "Get me the Galaxy."
Less than a heartbeat later, the voice of Cameron Bartlett, the Operations officer on duty, filtered down.
[Galaxy here, ensign. Anything to report?]
On the Galaxy main bridge, Daren Runako M'Kantu felt like jumping from his main seat. Instead, his eyes perked and tracked to Bartlett, his chin resting on one hand while leaning into his tactical console feigning something important.
In reality, the man had been mentally tapping his fingers against his knees in fitful nervousness he dared not show to those around him.
The Hydran cruiser, 'Hammer of Progress', still remained in an apogee orbit above them, giving them the advantage should nothing be resolved of the research team searches several hundred kilometers below them. Nothing had been heard from them since their abrupt departure several hours previous.
DiMillo's contact to the ship should have been like any other regular check-in, but something told M'Kantu there was more to it than just that.
"Um, we have a small problem down here," Paulo reported looking for the right words. How the hell was he going to say; "hey cap'in, so yeah, so I was like totally trying to contact the search team and getin nothin. Ran a few scans, and still nothin. So here I am, talking with you. Isn't that just nuts?" That just sounded stupid. So, why not go with the old fashioned, straight up approach. "We have lost all contact with the search teams. Heloi nor the rest of her team is responding. I sent a few people down a little bit to see if it was interference, but we still got nothing. And to top it off I have Dr. Jericho breathing down my throat for information."
[Be more specific, Ensign. Who is missing, and what is Dr. Jericho asking for?]
"As of right now, we have the entire science team listed as missing," Paulo replied over the comm. "We have tried a half a dozen was of communicating with them, and I am just not willing to send anyone down there currently until we can piece together what is going on." Paulo paused a second. "The "good" Doctor wants his updates, have they found the entrance, etc. I am not a science person so I really don't understand half the stuff he says." Paulo then thought, "I do the same thing as i do when I talk with my mother, smile and nod."
If not for the seriousness of a missing Away Team, Daren may just possibly have shared in the good nature DiMillo was using to stave off the nervousness he was bound to be feeling at the moment.
[Ignore the doctor. People are more important that artifacts, unless he wants to become one. And the second team? What of Commander Henderson and the Marine contingent?] Silently, he wondered if the Hydrans were party to this. Reports coming in from the rim near their borders had included numbers of missing personnel. After Havras, he had no doubt the triad were gathering intelligence through such means.
"They reported just about 5 minutes ago, they have another report due," Paulo said looking down at a padd, "in about 25 minutes or so." Paulo, though, really liked the idea of making the doctor an artifact, it would save many headaches.
[Coordinate with the Commander. Find me those missing crew. We've only 40 hours left to get this mystery solved, understand? I won't leave anyone behind, but neither do I want to start a war here, either, Ensign. *FIND THEM*.]
"Understood," Paulo said just as communications stated to break down. Paulo looked over to the crewman, "what is going on?"
"I have no idea, all of a sudden there was interference all over the place. I can't get anything through," the crewman reported.
"Great," Paulo said. He had a huge order to fill, and hardly any back... except for, "get me Commander Henderson."
"Malfunctions" (Attn: Bridge Crew)
Lt. JG T'Rehn, Operations Officer -NPC
Ensign Stanley Prescott, Engineering Officer -NPC
brief mention of, Ensign Le'on Khatowren, Security Officer. :)
::Bridge, USS Galaxy::
Standing at the operations station; Lieutenant Junior Grade T'Rehn, a Vulcan woman with no clear personality at all stood with her hair pulled back into a fashionable but utilitarian style. Her eyes danced over her console and then looked up, as if thinking for a moment. "Captain.." She said, in a tone of never wavering resonance. "Reports are coming in all over the ship about malfunctions. It would appear there are some problems within the ship system itself. I'm in the processes of running a diagnostic...." She said, pausing.
"Captain... Communications is offline." She said then, looking up as if no thought for the away teams where there.
M'Kantu turned toward the engineer that looked like he was little wet behind the ears still.
"Stand by.." He said, then sighed, who tells their Captain to stand by? God he wanted to die right here, this was not his normal station and he didn't like being under the heavy, waiting, eyes of the old man. "Um," Ensign Stanley Prescott said before continuing, "I don't know what it is. It's effecting communications, and internal systems, such as automatic doors, lifts, consoles... really to many reports coming in about it..." He then paused for a second time.
At which time Ensign Le'on Khatowren, of security came onto bridge.
"Transporters are offline... Captain." T'Rehn called out from Ops.
"I'm.. I'm... Um," Stanley said from the engineering station, before turning toward M'Kantu. "I don't know what it is." He said, "I can't isolate the source or where it came from..."
"Diagnostic complete," The Vulcan woman said. "I've traced the source and by calculations the source is on deck ten, somewhere within section twenty-one beta." She said, still looking at her console before it flickered in and out.
"Fascinating.." She said, then turned to a secondary station. "Captain, medical reports lights are going in and out and computer is not responding to some commands." The Vulcan woman said, before turning to look in the Captain's direction.
2Lt. Jebidiah Baile
2Lt. Branwen London
Ambassador Turan Trelar
Lt. Klaus Fienberg
GnySgt. Pete Stacker (NPC) {Still looking for a volunteer to write him!!!]
G'Iv A'Vab'Brak (NPC)
The focus in Baile's eyes was apparent. It was like a fire within his eyes that seemed to block everything out, but at the same time it registered everything that went on around him. They had told him this would be a marine mission, but as far as Baile was concerned it was one big fuckup. Civilians going with them on a SAR-mission? The brass could just as well have ordered them to hand in their weapons and wear cowbells around their necks.
Branwen was still organising the rest of the party, and he caught her unaware.
"London. Stay at least 100 meters behind me. Iÿll signal when I see its clear. He didn't wait for a reply. Instead the veteran marine ventured into the darkness and was out of sight after a few seconds.
Before she could answer he was gone. Branwen bit back a curse. "We don't know how dangerous this will be." She said to the two nonmarines. "I really need you to stay in the middle. And to follow the directions of the Marines. It is just to keep you safe, gentlemen."
"Believe me Branwen, I've have my own experiances with covert operations. It's been many years, but I remember how to opperate, which reminds me. That tactical suit reminds me very much of the Tactical EVO suit I used to use." Klaus was still clumsy in his actions however, it had been over 6 years ago.
G'Iv A'Vab'Brak watched the starfleet soldier move away. He tried to understand what was going on. There were two starfleets who - guessed by their insignias - shared the same rank. Obviously, they were of different opinion who of them was the one in charge. The female soldier seemed to be a kind of guard or caretaker for the giant and the male wearing a medical uniform.
This was his first encounter with starfleet softbodies. Sure, he was taught about their behaviour, their social system and of course a few words of their language. You need informations to take the right measures against an enemy. A'Vab'Brak decided to wait - wait for an occasion to take the starfleets' disagreement for his own advantage - to take over control over the group, find the missing mates and finally return to the Hammer of Progress as a hero.
Klaus eyed the Hydran carefully, He'd never actually seen one before, but for now he seemed docile any friendly enough. But Klaus knew well enough to be careful, given the obvious political situation He kept his hand near his holster as nonchalantly and stealthly as possible.
"Sergeant Stacker, bring up the rear." Branwen ordered. [I got Stacker - J]
"Doc, with all due respect, you are out of training, and you are our medical officer. If anything goes wrong, we will need you. So I do want to keep you safe." She said to Klaus. "Now let's move out. I don't want us to get separated too much."
"Believe me, my dear. Should things go awry, I am ducking and covering."
"Very good, doctor." Branwen said smiling. And then made sure that everybody moved on.
Stacker nodded to confirm the order. Slowly the group started advancing into the tunnel. After the hundred meters the El-tee had instructed him to wait, he crouched down and quickly placed a Bouncer on the ground and covered it up with sand and a few stones.
Turan turned around just the moment, "Gunny" Stacker placed the bouncer. Half he was curious, half he assumed hiding little gadgets wasn't really part of a standard SAR-procedure.
"What are you doing there? What are you hiding?" he asked the marine.
"Just sensors, Sir. Makes it easy for us to find our way out again." Stacker replied, lying through his teeth. But Baile had forbidden him to explain what it really was as long as there was a Hydran in the group. The El-tee mistrusted everyone and Stacker had to agree that was probably the right thing to do right now. Hopefully the Bouncers wouldn't be put to use.
Branwen had a pretty good idea of what they were. She gritted her teeth. Baile and she would need another talk about working together when this was over.
Baile moved quickly through the tunnels. They gave him a bad vibe, like an itch he couldn't scratch. The years had taught him to pay attention to itches like that.
The group followed him at a distance. London was hyper vigilant to hear anything from the pointman.
Sometime, Turan was able to gain a short glance at the two marines virtually running through the tunnels. He wondered what their real objectives were. This mission had as much of SAR as an ax of a scalpel. Turan accelerated to catch up with Lt. London.
"May I ask a question, M'am?" he addressed her.
"Sure." She said. While her eyes kept roving around. "I was asked to take part in a search-and-rescue mission. I thought I could do something useful. But till now all I was able to do was to watch your comrade run through the tunnels like a tornado wiping away any traces and the Gunny hiding those small gadgets. Sensors? Don't take me for a fool. What are we doing here, Ma'am? What are our real objectives?" asked the obviously annoyed Quentite.
A'Vab'Brak watched the two softbodies talk. What were they talking about? His translator wasn't able to catch more than just a few words and phrases. The giant of a race he didn't know seemed to revolt against the female. The uniform the giant wear was different from the uniforms the other softbodies wore. The giant unlike the others didn't carry any weapon. Was he here voluntarily? Or was he a hostage? Could the giant prove to be an allied? Or would he at least stay neutral?
Klaus diligently scanned, assisted with a TED he managed to scrounge from somewhere. With a solemn voice. "I'm not detecting any lifesigns yet."
Branwen did not know if it was a good or a bad sign. She just nodded and kept her vigilance. Whatever would happen, it would probably happen to Baile and upfront or Stacker in the rear first.
Nearly two hundred meters ahead of the group Baile was starting to get a feel for the area. The place was the perfect place for hit and run tactics. He crouched down, touching the ground with the tip of his fingers. His hand closed around a few pebbles and he weighed them in his hand while he looked at the small dark stains on the ground in front of him.
Blood.
Tiny drops, small dark tears on the sand. Easy enough to miss in the darkness, but the marine had an eye for details that he himself didn't always understand. He rose up, brushing the sand off his gloves and continued over the bridge. Why the hell did structures like these always have to include narrow bridges over deep gorges? On the other hand, Baile reasoned with himself, places like that made good bottlenecks in case the Hydrans wanted to play dirty. He tore off the protective seal from the charge and slapped it as far down onto the side of the bridge as he could reach.
"London, Stacker... I've marked a spot up the tunnel. There's blood on the ground there. Tell the doc to check it, especially for bioagents." Baile spoke low, as he always did. The place wasn't.. empty, but so far he didn't know what was in here and that annoyed him.
"Copy, Baile." Branwen said. "Be careful. Any sign of hostiles, and I want you to return to the group."
"doc, get your equipment ready. There's work for you." She said to Klaus.
Klaus quickly scanned the blood, taking a sample as well. "Nothing seems to be wrong. Looks like normal human blood." He looked at some more... "And this one is Trill. Still no bioagents or anything else awry....other than a little bit of evidence in this blood that there was a Symbiont in this one."
He stood up, continuing to scan. "What the...I'm picking up a faint lifesign...It's Bolian."
"What direction?" She asked Klaus. At the same time she send a silent signal to Baile to contact her if he could.
"It's detecting it funny, either that or he's moving." Klaus pointed invariably further into the tunnels.
Bran only thought for a second. "Let's move forward towards the lifesign, everybody be extremely careful!"
"Pointman, I will direct your movements." Klaus continued to merely point directions through the corridors of stone.
Branwen was on point of this little group now, so she followed the silent directions of the doctor.
And there he was, he had finally stopped, stooped up against the side of a large rock, his blue bolian blood on the ground, and in his hands, flowing from a very large wound in his abdomen. Klaus could already tell it was a miracle he was even able to walk. He sheilded his eyes at the site of the team, obviously in alot of fear.
"My god...Stay Calm! We're here to help! I'm a doctor."
Klaus immediately ran over to try and treat what he could, but the injuries would require medical equipment and facilities they didn't have on the surface.
"Doctor, tell me what you need." Bran said quietly. "I don't suppose he is able to talk?"
Klaus muttered to himself. "my god" He finally responded to the question, "I'm survived he's even alive Lieutenant."
The bolian mumbled incoherently while Klaus tried to examine him.
The blue man finally sprung forward nearly choking Klaus, "Run...RUN!" He started convulsing and fell back to the ground on his chest, revealing another grevious wound on his back. He was completely limp, and scans showed that every last life function had ceased. It was as if he survived only long enough to give that final message. The question is though, "Why?"
"Exhusting Exordium"
Ensign Nieca Rey'ol (PC)
***
Nieca closed her eyes and rested her head against the back of her chair. After a day of travel she was exhausted and wanted nothing more then to eat a hot meal and crawl into bed, but until then she was stuck on her final shuttle towards the USS Galaxy. Nieca sighed heavily and began to focus on her breathing, but her moment of meditation didn’t last long as she felt a pair of eyes gazing upon her.
In a lazy manner she slowly opened her rich brown eyes to find a small human child staring at her from across the way. The little girl was less then six, Nieca was very good about guessing humanoid age and couldn’t refine it anymore then that. She winked at the child and it laughed, Nieca enjoyed the laughter of children. The Caitan smiled and unintentionally showed more teeth then she should have. The pronounced K-9s caused the little girl to hide behind her mother who remained fast asleep. Nieca frowned; once again her intentions were lost on a humanoid. Years of experience taught her to leave the child alone, shortly after Nieca shut her eyes once more she felt the little girl peering at her again… only this time she left the child to her curiosity.
It wasn’t until the shuttle began to bustle with the anxious chatter of its passengers did Nieca realize that she had fallen asleep. They had docked with the massive star ship and the people inside began to exit.
She watched the little girl and her mother exit in front of her.
“Daddy!” The child shrieked and ran across the dock towards an engineering officer, while the mother of the little girl merely stood back and watched the two, frozen with emotion.
Nieca’s heart felt heavy for a moment as she longed for the family and the children she left at home. But she soon shook the weight away and returned her attention to the matters at hand…Nieca was to be a tactical officer aboard this ship.
The notion of starting fresh on a new ship had an effect on her that made the tip of her tail curl in content.
"Here Comes The Sun"
Lt. (jg) Naranda So Roswell
Lt (jg) Saul Bental
Ensign 8-Ball Hunter
"Okay," 8-ball said, "I'm bored."
Saul, Nara, and 8-ball had all been exploring, in search of this damn sun mural room thing, for at least twenty minutes now, and so far no sun, no murals. There had been a good deal of rooms to explore but unfortunately none of them were really worthy of exploration. Oh sure, there had been a couple of cool looking artifacts here, and some weird looking designs there, but 8-ball had much higher expectations and was highly diappointed. After all, if you're an officer on the Galaxy going on an away mission, it's almost certain to attract high levels of danger and excitement. So far the most dangerous thing in this damn place was dust mites, and dust really can only hold so much excitement before boredom sets in. For 8-ball, boredom set in about six times faster than anybody else.
She leaned over to where Saul and Nara were walking a little ahead of her. "So," she said. "Any clue where this room thing is, because I feel like we're walking in circles, or maybe just pointless triangles."
Nara hadn't forgotten about the fact Saul was due to give her and Bran a decision soon. Part of her wanted to give up and bow out because it seemed Bran made him happy and well, that was pretty much a done deal. Another wanted to fight for him--if she figured out how--for a relationship that could benefit both her and Saul. Ok, that was an awefully, dry, sterile way to put it, but it sounded more noble and logical than being in love or anything confusing like that.
Ending up searching with him didn't exactly make her forget that he would soon deliver news that would make her float on the happiness of cloud nine or be miserable for who knows how long. 8-Ball helped with her desire for fun. So what if Saul and Nara were dorks and actually enjoyed looking at the old pieces of history. It was clear 8-Ball would rather be back at the Galaxy playing with some boytoy. Or so Nara thought. Nara didn't really know what 8-Ball did for fun, but she had a feeling her idea of fun was much higher than any average humanoid.
Nara stopped at another door and looked at 8-Ball, "Now, young lady, we'll get there when we get there." Nara winked.
8-ball stuck out her tongue at Nara but smiled all the same. "Ugh," she said. "You're doing a great impression of Mrs. K."
Nara gave her a look that was obvious to all that she hadn't a clue who this Mrs. K person was.
"Mrs. K. Kersh or Kissinger or some stupid thing. She was this lady I had to live with for a few weeks when I was a kid. She was really fond of any sentence starting with 'now, young lady'. I get shudders just thinking about it." 8-ball somewhat theatrically shuddered and then said, "Seriously, guys, I mean, yeah, this is kind of fun, just walking around, but really, shouldn't we be somewhere by now?"
"But we ARE!", called a voice from above them.
>From the very moment they reached the ruins, Saul was running around >like akindergarden child in a brand new playground. And for Saul, >that's what the ruins was. Every arch, pyramid or boulder were climbed, >every dark and damp tunnel was crawled. Right now he was 'checking out' >a stone stairs flight, ten meters above the current room's floor. No safety rails were present, of course.
It was a relief to run free in the ruins, to flood yourself from impressions of this lost civilization, to truly step where possibly no Human feet have ever stepped. No Snoopy Ensign DiMillos to be concerned about, no agendas needed to be taken care of, no cousins to trouble him, no Nara and Bran to demand his attention (Well, Nara was down there, but she was kind enough not to inquire him about his decision, heaven bless her Sakarian soul). In one simple word - bliss.
"Langford gave a general description regarding where the mural can be found.", Saul's voice echoed from the wide room's walls. "It should really be nearby."
With that, he reached the top of the flight. A statuette was resting untouched on the floor, covered by a thin layer of dust. Saul's fingers touched it, but he resisted the temptation to slip it to his bag. After all, this time he wasn't here as a grave robber.
Instead, he knelt next to a small tunnel which began two feet beyond the statuette, and slithered into it.
Nara smiled and looked at 8-Ball. At the moment, they were all covered in dust, which just added to her giddiness of finally feeling like an explorer. "Come on. It might just be around the corner!" Nara slide in behind Saul.
8-ball looked at the tunnel with distaste. It wasn't that she minded being dirty---mudfights, for example, could be excellent entertainment, for viewers and participants---but small tunnels, weird places, galaxy away missions?
"This is such a bad idea," 8-ball muttered to herself and then slid in behind Saul and Nara.
The crawling in the narrow space reminded Saul a little of the gutters in his 'beloved' home town. Thankfully, he didn't spent enough time there to get used to the odors or the crawling, but some times it was necessary.
He winced as something cold touched his leg just above the ankle. Looking back, he realized it was just round pebble. He cursed in Dutch and accelerated his crawling, until he finally emerged from the other side of the tunnel, with scraped knees and elbows.
By the time he finished straightening up his standard issue desert fatigue, he realized that they found the spot.
Nara crawled out after him, dusting some dirt from her. Of course it didn't help, but it was some sort of instinct. She looked up and saw the mural and her mouth gaped open.
"All right, what's the big wahoo all abo---" 8-ball stopped as she finished climbing out of the tunnel and actually looked at the mural. "Wow," she said, her voice slightly breathy. "That kind of impresses even me."
To say that the sun mural was large was kind of like saying that the universe was sorta big. Just standing next to it, you felt small, like you were looking directly at the infinite everything. Only stars and very, very tall mountains usually gave 8-ball that kind of feeling. Even more impressive than the size, though, was the color of the thing---it would be impossible to describe to anyone who hadn't seen it. It wasn't just yellow or orange or red; it wasn't any color 8-ball could imagine as a paint.
8-ball stepped back from it for a minute, trying to find a name to categorize the color, but the mural seemed to defy categorizations, or even well thought out metaphors.
It reminded 8-ball of being back on Earth when she was young, not in New York, when the sky was never clear, but when she was a child living with her father. She had loved trying to look at the sun---it drove her father crazy because she never listened to her father's warnings about impending blindness and other such sun-unhappy doom. But even when she stared at the sun, she could never really see it. . .all she could see was that blinding light, obstructing her eyes from the actual object itself. Looking at the sun mural was like looking at the sun. . .but actually being able to see it, without having to look away. It looked more real than any mural 8-ball had ever seen. . .and for some reason, that realistic quality made 8-ball back away further. Murals were just murals; they don't come to life. Nevertheless, 8-ball felt like this one just might.
~Here comes the sun,~ 8-ball thought vaguely ~and it's coming for you.~
Nara was the first to speak after several moments of the silent awe. "It's amazing!" She walked over and touched the wall gently. "Saia would love this!" It was the best painting she'd ever seen. Much better than her little doodle of a sun in the sand when trying to give Saia some name to call her. Of course her middle name was Sol, Earth's sun, but still. Stars are a really just suns seen from far away.
"Yeah, I guess it's pretty nifty," 8-ball said, her voice still a touch breathy. Her mind was split in two: half of her was thinking things like, "Pretty pretty sunshine. . .lets stay and admire cause murals really aren't dangerous and it's pretty pretty sunshine." The other half was thinking, "I don't care if it's not logical to be nervous. I want to go, and I want to go now."
She decided to say neither of these things. Instead, she said, "Okay, we're here. Now what do we do?"
Nara got out the PADD and looked at it, "Good question. Saul?"
"One moment please," she heard the response from behind.
Saul placed his bag on the floor in front of the mural, and opened it. He quickly examined the surroundings before he began to rummage through his
stuff. The room was quite spacey, and aside from the admittedly incredible mural, there were five man-size statues scattered across the hall. All of them were very much like statues the team has already encountered many times since entering the temple - three legs, three arms, no facial features at all. They looked Hydranoid, not Hydrans, and each of them were facing a different direction. None of them was facing the mural, though.
He moved his hand back and forth until he finally grasped the PADD containing Langford's notes. He stood up, and approached the two girls.
"All right. According to this, Langford was here four times. After the third time, she writes 'I found it'. Now, it seems like she was trying to find a way to influence the mural somehow... perhaps repeat some sort of ceremony. She was trying to find out what kind of ceremonies and rituals were practiced in these temples, as a key to understanding the culture that lived here."
He neared the mural, and with a slight anxiety and awe touched it with his fingertips. Then, he drew a tricorder and began to scan the hall.
"I'm no Archeologist. Right now, the only thing I can deduct about the people who lived here is this : They're dead." {To Be Continued...}
"Testing To Destruction, Part 1"
Principle Characters
Lt (JG) Victor Krieghoff
Lt. Ella Grey
*****
Mirusa VI
Somewhere Inside The Temple Complex
The Present
Her breathing was shallow.
As her heart began to beat more rapidly in her chest, she leaned closer to Victor, her back pushing tightly against him. She fought against the urge to close her eyes and muttered a breathy curse before moving her fingers to search frantically behind her.
What might have sounded like the beginning of good porn was slightly marred by the fact that the opposite wall of the now doorless room, foot long gleaming spikes jutting out of it, was sliding towards her.
Ella found Victor's hand and squeezed tightly. "N-not to press you, Tiger, but any bright ideas you might have would be welcome right about now."
Victor frowned and looked around the room, at the spots where the doors had been a moment before. "Doors sealed once we reached the middle of the room," he repeated unnecessarily in clipped, cold tones. "Looks like they were transported in and melded molecularly - no seams." He looked up and then back down at the floor, particularly the base of the approaching wall. "At this rate... two minutes, then the walls meet."
"Can we shoot it or something?"
"No. The energy discharge in the last death zone shorted out the pattern buffer storage in this suit. I can't call anything up - the patterns were lost. All I have is my normal gear, no heavy weapons, and we know that we need the rifle to make a dent in whatever this is the walls are made of."
"In short, we're screwed." Ella said.
****
Mirusa VI
Temple Complex
Five Hours Ago
"I'm getting some odd readings in this direction." Ella said to Victor as she continued down the tunnel. She knew that he didn't like it when she used her voice but it was difficult to sign and hold a tricorder. "Let's go check it out."
"Odd how?" Victor glanced back in the direction of the Hydran team that was shadowing them. He didn't like being followed, especially be people that were bad at it - it was insulting.
"Odd as in fluctuating." Ella said as she frowned at her tricorder. "Like ghost images. One minute they're there and the next... are our Hydran friends still back there?"
Victor didn't bother to turn and look. "Yes, they're watching us."
"All in a days work." Ella muttered. "Well, the readings seem to be coming from this direction." She then pointed to the ominous darkened path. "I dunno. My horror movie instincts are screaming 'no.' What do you think?"
"I think that I've never watched a horror movie, so I have no idea what instincts you're talking about, Grey." Victor stepped forward a pace and looked down the dark pathway that led between to structures and turned right. "Maybe it looks like an alleyway to me..." He knelt and looked at the paving stones. "No, not an alleyway."
"Stones are too worn." He pointed. "See how there's almost a path worn in them?" He stood. "Only a lot of walking does that to stone - even porous stone."
"A road well traveled, huh?" Ella looked at the stone and then down its path. "Well, I suppose we have to investigate anyway."
"Still might be a trap," Victor observed. "Only one way to know for certain."
"What?"
"Set it off."
****
Mirusa VI
Somewhere Inside The Temple Complex
The Present
"Okay," Ella said as she tried not to focus on the spikes heading towards her. Yeah right. All these rooms seem to have some sort of trick or purpose. We just have to find that out. Quickly."
"You think," Victor nodded. "I'm going to try something." He started towards the opposite wall.
"Think." Ella repeated. "Sure, I can think... I think....what in the hell are you doing?!"
"Climbing," Victor said as he took hold of a spike and used it as a handhold to swing himself up onto the approaching wall and start climbing up the spikes like a ladder.
"W...what for?"
"To look at the ceiling, Grey."
It sounded crazy to her but it wasn't like they had a whole lot of options here. "Anything?"
Victor hung from the spikes for a moment and examined the stone - or whatever it was - that made up the ceiling. "No."
"Can we brace it with something? I mean other than our bodies?"
"Nothing to brace it with," he observed as he swung back down and dropped to the floor. "Other than us, of course." He looked around the room and moved to the nearest wall, examining it. "Thought of anything yet?"
Ella swallowed hard and looked at the impending spikes. "I can't think of anything."
"Think harder."
"Uh..." Ella said a tiny bubble of hysteria starting to creep up inside her. "We.. uh... could turn sideways and maybe not get impaled as much?"
Victor looked at her, looked at the oncoming wall of spikes and frowned. "Say that again."
"You know...uh...face the other direction and not...." Ella stopped, realizing how stupid it sounded. "I don't want to die, Victor."
Victor turned and looked at her, and then at the oncoming wall once more. "Stop," he said in his toneless way, as he moved back to the oncoming wall and examined the spikes again.
"I can't."
"Stop worrying." He looked at the spikes closer, particularly the spaces between them.
"I'd love for you to think of a reason for me not to Tiger!"
He turned his head and looked at her with an intensity she wasn't expecting - or used to. "Because you don't have permission to die, Grey."
Ella was torn between wanting to yell at him and babble some more. She settled for a shaky "Okay."
"Testing To Destruction, Part 2"
Principle Characters
Lt (JG) Victor Krieghoff
Lt. Ella Grey
*****
Mirusa VI
Somewhere Inside The Temple Complex
Four Hours Ago
Ella sat up slowly and took a look around. The room appeared to be built of stone, vines grew up its walls, and it had a faint musty smell like it hadn't been opened in awhile. She frowned, trying to do the math in her head and decided she must have only been out for a few minutes. Hopefully. Falling through trap doors could confuse a person.
She saw Victor and felt more at ease, even though he still appeared to be knocked out. There was no sign of their Hydran friends.
Ella shrugged. She hadn't had much use for them anyway.
Getting to her feet, Ella started to move towards Victor and was therefore surprised when she walked straight into something hard. After cursing loudly, she reached a tentative hand out and touched glass, or some kind of clear barrier at any rate.
She scrunched up her face for a moment as she worked out the concept of barrier in her mind and then looked to see which one of them was being held captive.
Victor blinked once. He was lying down, on a cold stone floor. The air was musty, unused, like the smell that had permeated the USS Defiant after it returned from the parallel dimension it had been lost in for over a century, but still, too still. It didn’t move, didn’t carry any scents. It was dead air, which meant he was in an enclosure of some kind even though he didn’t remember entering one.
He thought a second, remembered moving down the narrow passage between the temple structures with Grey to trace the tricorder readings she’d made, remembered the sounds of the Hydrans echoing down the narrow space as they’d followed them. He remembered the narrow passage opening up, remembered a wide space with a huge, trilaterally-symmetrical statue in the center, remembered the Hydrans reacting to it as they came into the open area beside them… and then he remembered Grey making a sound in her dead voice - a squeak – and he’d been falling.
Grey. Where was Grey? He sat up abruptly and looked around.
"Victor!" Ella said, slapping on the barrier with her hand. "Over here!"
Movement caught his eye and he looked to the left. Grey was there, waving at him, her lips moving, but no sound coming out. He considered the idea that he was deaf for a moment as he stood, but discarded it as he saw her hand strike apparently thin air and flatten, as if impacting something solid. There was a barrier between them. He reached down and gathered a few small chips of stone from the floor and threw them, one by one to all sides and above him. No, not between them, surrounding him; a barrier perhaps four meters on a side - the width of the room - and a little less than two and a half meters high.
Ella narrowed her eyes at the box he was in and then spoke again. Victor pointed to his ear and then shook his head.
~~Can you still read my fingers?~~ Ella asked, hoping the glass on his side wasn't warped in anyway.
~~Yes,~~ he signed back.
~~Well that's something at any rate,~~ she said.
Victor considered the transparent room he was in, looking for a purpose to it, and finding none he enjoyed thinking about. ~~No air circulation inside this,~~ he signed. ~~Not a danger now. Try and find an opening on your side, or some control, before I shoot a hole in this.~~ He looked around again, determined that the phaser rifle he’d been carrying was not in the enclosed area with him, and flexed his hands in the manner the training manual for the new suit had instructed. The suit’s internal microtransporter pulled the phaser rifle stored in the pattern buffer out and into his hands with a faint sparkle of energy.
Ella walked around the box, seeing no controls. Frowning deeper, she ran her hands along it searching for any kind of imperfection or hidden button. Her fingers came to rest lightly on two grooves each about the size of her thumb. She pressed it and was rewarded with a beeping sound from across the room. A small panel had opened up from the wall.
She flashed a smile at Victor and went over to the panel, hoping that she would be able to understand the alien technology. The image on the screen appeared to show the box, although this one was overlapped with broken shapes of color and random numbers.
"Sick." Ella said, shaking her head at the thing. "It’s a puzzle." She turned back toward Victor. ~~Its some kind of puzzle. There appears to be some numerical code and then I have to move these square back into the shape of a rectangle. How are you holding up?~~
Victor shrugged. ~~So far so good.~~ The phaser rifle in one hand lent his words an odd lisp.
~~I'll have you out of there in a minute.~~ Ella signed before turning back to the console. It didn't look too hard; she would just have to finish before Victor ran out of air, something she calculated would take several hours. Ella pressed the first number and moved it to the first position allotted on the screen.
There was a strange sound, whooshing, clangs, and Ella turned quickly back to Victor.
Victor frowned as Grey turned back around quickly. The air in the containment cube had changed suddenly – it now smelled… damp. A sound, the first he’d heard except for the ones he’d made himself, since awakening drew his attention to the opposite corner of the cube - and the water which was welling up silently and spreading across the floor. He pointed and signed, ~~Water.~~
She looked down and saw that the space around him was filling up quickly. The calculations were already being made in her head and she looked back at Victor in horror. ~~I don’t think I can solve the puzzle fast enough.~~
Victor frowned and motioned Grey away from the wall of the cube. He had no intention of playing whatever game the designers of this place had in mind for him. With a quick motion, he raised the phaser rifle, ran the setting up to 8, and fired.
The beam lanced out, struck the transparent wall… and ricocheted off, caroming around the interior of the cube for a second before slamming into Victor’s back. The impact threw him into the wall which held solid without shaking as he slid off it to the floor, telltales flashing warnings along the arm of his suit where the system monitor was.
"Victor!" Ella shrieked as she ran to the box. She smacked her hand against it and yelled at him even though she knew he couldn't hear.
Victor blinked, shook his head, and frowned. The rifle had been set on Level 8, why wasn’t he… The suit, it had shields. That’s why he wasn’t dead or injured. He shook his head again and stood up, waving a hand to Grey to let her know that he was all right. All things considered, he was glad he hadn’t run the setting up higher.
~~Are you hurt?~~
It took a second for the ringing in his head to subside enough to make a good answer. ~~No.~~
Ella looked back at the panel and then back at the box which was rapidly filling with water. ~~I have to work the panel.~~
~~Then work the panel.~~ He looked at the rising water, now working its way up his calves. The manual for the suit hadn’t mentioned how waterproof the connections were – best not to take chances. He sent the rifle back into the internal storage buffer and started the suit shutting down. Drowning was bad enough, drowning while being electrocuted was a bit much.
Ella ran back to the panel, bit her lip, and started moving the numbers.
Victor looked down at the water again. He didn’t like swimming in water he couldn’t see through, especially water deep enough for predators to live in – at least it was going to be clear water he drowned in if Grey wasn’t fast enough.
It kept coming out wrong. Ella cursed loudly, moving numbers back and forth; trying to think faster than she thought she was capable of.
The water was up to his waist now. It was cool, not quite body temperature, and Victor was glad he’d powered the suit down when several telltales started to flash warnings as the suit filled with water. He made a note to send a memo to the Quartermaster Corps about that after this was over. Someone could get killed.
Ella turned back to check the progress of the water and her heart started to beat all the faster. She clenched her jaw and turned away.
As the water reached his chest, victor considered signing something to Grey, but decided against it. She was busy working on the panel and he didn’t want to distract her. There would be time enough to say what he needed to if she failed.
There was a beep and the number line disappeared bringing the broken shapes forward. She was good at puzzles, Ella told herself as she began trying to make the pieces into a box; she could do this.
Victor watched as Ella straightened up and started to work on the panel in a different way. It looked like she’d solved half the puzzle, which was good. Unfortunately he was now floating to keep his head in the shrinking section of the cage that had air in it, and he doubted that she was going to have time to finish before it ran out. That was definitely bad.
He moved to the side of the cage and waved to attract her attention. He needed to tell her now, before there was no more time.
Ella caught the movement out of the corner of her eye and turned. ~~What? I'm busy.~~
Victor pushed down so he was level with her, his eyes even with hers. ~~Remember,~~ he signed. ~~Not your fault. Repeat that.~~
She shook her head. ~~Stop that. I'm almost done. Quit pestering me and I'll have you out.~~
He waited until she’d finished, and then shook his head, ignoring the way his hair swirled in the water. ~~Remember this too: You don’t have permission to die. Repeat that, too.~~
She frowned at him, wanting to yell at him, at anyone really but ended up signing his words back to him quickly. Time was running out after all.
Victor looked at her for a moment, and then nodded. ~~Remember both of those,~~ he signed, and then floated back up to the narrow strip of air and started to take deep breaths of the remaining air. The aquatic survival course he’d taken in the holosuite at DS9 had told him that it was better to superoxygenate his system before being submerged to give himself longer before the held air ran out.
"What!" Ella started to shout and then thought better of it and turned back to the panel. Her fingers flew over the images, piecing and moving (and yelling) as the seconds passed over into minutes, and then handfuls of minutes, and she knew that Victor had long since drowned, because no one could hold their breath that long. Still she continued because she couldn't leave him suspended in a water-filled box and finally she heard a beep, watched as all seams glowed and fused, and she heard the release as a panel opened along the base of the box behind her.
Ella fell to the floor as the water that had been trapped in the box rushed out across the floor towards her, and started sobbing. A minute passed, and then there was a sodden ‘thud’ as the water dropped enough for Victor’s body to be carried out onto the floor and washed along like a limp rag doll.
"Knock, Knock!"
by
Maj Corran "Spots" Rex
FO Teyri "Rockstar" Jen
*****
Jen jigged the stick to the side, executing a barrel roll and then coming out of it into a crazy figure eight. She kept her finger on the firing stud, simulated bolts of light shooting out from underneath the fighter. Pings resounded through the cockpit as she scored hits on Vanguard leader.
"Ha!" she shouted into the com. "Finally! You're now floating around the galaxy, millions of tiny particles. Welcome back, Mother Universe takes you home."
It was about damn time, too They had been out here for an hour and a half, as Rex put her through her paces as a fighter pilot. He had scored many more "kills" on her then vice versa, but she had managed to finally get him good.
"Good hit, Two." Rex smiled as he began to bring his new fighter about.
Overall, he was fairly pleased with the new Rogue V's the Vanguards had gotten. They were good, solid craft - everything their spec sheet had said they were. According to their designers, they were, effectively, the perfect space superiority starfighter.
Corran, in the course of their ninety-minute live training session, had already identified at least a dozen things he was going to change on them. Factory starfighters never were quite right, after all.
"Pack it in, Two." he said after a moment. "Let's get these birds in the hanger. We've figure out how the techies say they're supposed to work - now we get to go put them back together how *we* think they should."
Jen chuckled. "Understood, Leader. This is the best part about getting new ships. Take them apart and put them back together the way we want."
She changed heading, taking her fighter back to small dot that was the Galaxy, in orbit of the much larger sphere of the planet they were circling. The Hydran cruiser still hung in orbit slightly above the Galaxy. Jen hissed through her teeth at the picture as they drew closer. They were basically matched size wise, but she would still hate to get into a pissing contest with them.
Regardless of what she thought in the back of her mind. Boredom wasn't that bad, sometimes.
Corran had decided this new pilot was going to work out just fine. As the two starfighters approached the Galaxy's rear, where the Starfighter Bay was located at the aft end of the ship, he toggled his comm frequency to Bay Control. ["Vanguard One to Bay Control. Requesting clearance to land."]
Hmmn.
No answer.
The fighters hung next to each other, and Jen sat there, quietly for a change, giving herself a moment to come down from the adrenaline rush caused by flying a fighter.
Once she was calm, and heart and slowed down to it's normal rhythm, she looked at the cockpit towards Rex. He was sitting there also, and she wondered what was taking him so long to open the bay doors. It was all well and good to go through private rituals out in space, every pilot she knew did so, but he was taking it to an extreme. What was he doing over there, meditating?
"Hey, Rex, you planning on going in any time soon?' she asked him over the comm. "Nature's giving me a rather loud shout at the moment. It's becoming kind of an issue."
"Might want to activate the life support systems in your suit then, Jen." Corran replied, frowning.
"Yeah, yeah, I keep forgetting about those," Jen grumbled back at him. She found the appropriate switch, flicked it on, and then moments later... "Ah, I feel better. Now about landing..."
He was getting no comm readings off of the Galaxy, not even the bleeds of communicators inside the ship. A feeling of dread began to grow in his stomach - or maybe it was just Rex wriggling around - as he keyed in a code sequence from his cockpit.
Theoretically, that code would open the fighter bay's doors, permitting their craft to land.
No go. Not a whisper from the Galaxy's computer system either.
"Vanguard Leader? What's going on?" Jen asked, all traces of joking beginning to leave her voice. This had gone beyond private rituals or practical joking.
"We're not getting any replies from the Galaxy, Two." he replied grimly as his gaze flicked to the Hydran Battlecruiser that was hanging in parallel orbit. "Nothing from the automated entry systems, either. Something - or someone - has taken out their comms."
"Well... shit. Now what?" she asked. If the comms were out, how were they supposed to get back into the bay? And if someone else was responsible for the loss of communications, how were they supposed to help out? They couldn't exactly begin firing on the Galaxy, and force their way in. She hadn't met the captain of the ship, but she could imagine he'd be pretty ticked off if they blew a nice large hole in the side of the ship.
"Oh well that's easy, Two." he grinned as an idea occurred to him.
Then he told her.
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