Unwelcome Guests
Posted on Mon Apr 26th, 2021 @ 3:35am by Captain Luzol Targaryen & Willian Targaryen & Kiala & Captain Ryan Walsh & Captain Nathan Bishop & Commander Ash Randall & Commander Nathan Hawkins & Lieutenant Commander Patton O'Sullivan & Lieutenant Dylan Blake & Lieutenant Cyrus Marner & Commander Jasmine Haynes & Lieutenant Bissiv th'Zaanaq & Lieutenant Libby Harper
7,095 words; about a 35 minute read
Mission:
Burning in the Skies
Location: Starfleet One
Timeline: 0000-00-00, 15:15
[Main Bridge, Starfleet One]
Admiral Willian Targaryen ran the universal multi-tool over the positronic chip, looking closely at the readings that appeared on the small device. He sighed and rolled his eyes. This was at least the 30th burnt out chip that he'd found since they were able to break free from the wormhole and he was sure it wasn't going to be the last one. If anything they weren't even to the tip of the iceberg yet. He wasn't certain they weren't even half way up.
Lieutenant Tlotz pushed his way through the half opened door to the corridor. The massive Kelpien placed the engineering kit he carried on the edge of the console, "I have been able to get the emergency life-support stabilized on this deck, Admiral. We should have life-support for at least the next 96 hours."
"Thank you, Lieutenant," Willian smiled at the news. "Now, get to work on the Communications systems. We need to start getting in touch with our colleagues aboard the ship."
"I will begin at once," the tall, lanky officer said as he walked toward the aft consoles.
A series of rapid beeps came from the Security Console. Willian looked up at Lieutenant Rrawran as he approached the console, "Report?"
"Security checkpoints in the Dilithium Warehouse report a breach," the Rorworr announced. His clawed fingers danced across the panel, "I think it may be a glitch. Before Galatea went down she had an A500 out there. It probably just breached the barrier."
Targaryen looked over from the console and thought about it. It probably was just a simple error, but the breach being announced by the computer was incredibly odd. It made little sense, but there were probably no less than a thousand of these little malfunctions about to occur. But what if it wasn't a malfunction? What if it was real?
"Get someone down there. Find out what's going on."
[Makeshift Sickbay, Starfleet One]
"Are you almost finished?" Luzol Targaryen said in a protesting tone.
Kiala rolled her eyes as she ran the tri-laser connector over her daughter-in-law's forehead, "I told you that you have some pretty significant injuries, Elle. If you don't let me do this the right way then you're going to die. Simple as that. Now, please let me focus."
She answered with her typical sarcasm, "Sorry. The way your son talks you're one of the best doctors that ever lived. Why are you having so much trouble with a little scrape?"
"Your little scrape almost penetrated your blood-brain barrier. A nanometer further and you'd be sitting in a chair talking in a series of beeps. You still may if you don't stay still," the Doctor informed as she ran the device carefully over the wound. She sighed, "I'm going to have to get you to sickbay soon. You need more therapy than I can pull off here."
"I'm going back to the Bridge," she answered trying to get up.
Kiala rested her hand on Luzol's shoulder, "You're going to sit down or I'm going to have security make you sit down."
"You just said there's nothing more you can do for me here. Let me get to the Bridge where I can at least be productive," the Deltan/El-Aurian suggested.
"I think one of the provisions would be you being able to stand longer than ten seconds," Kiala chided. "You're staying here for now. We'll get you to sickbay soon enough."
Before Luzol could retort the room took on a brilliant glow. A second later, between Luzol and Commander Hawkins, were newcomers. Kiala greeted, "Commissioner Haynes? Captain Walsh?"
"The Commissioner is injured," Ryan spoke quickly as he held her, supporting her injury.
Kiala looked at the Admiral, "Do not move."
"Fine," Luzol said with a sigh.
The El-Aurian approached the newly arrived Commissioner and Captain. She tapped the tricorder's scan function, "What happened to you two?" She started typing on the small input keyboard of her scanner as she listened to them. She identified the shard in the Commissioner's leg, but she needed to confirm that there were no other injuries to contend with.
Jasmine was transported to the chair, and barely alert. The shock started to hit her body hard. She felt the cold sweat, coming from all over her body. Jasmine listened in as the good doctor started to ask her a question.
"Not really sure, one minute we where trying to launch the pod. I must have blacked out, and woke up leaning over the console. Somehow I injured my leg in the process, though I am not sure how I did that." Jasmine said being totally honest with the Kiala.
Kiala listened as the scan cycle processed. She looked at the readings carefully, surveying the data that scrolled over the tricorder screen. She sighed as she considered the readouts, "I'll be right back."
"Captain Walsh I'm going to need your help," the Doctor informed as she looked through the medical kit. She said in a near whisper, "Without a biobed or a neural caliper the Commissioner is going to feel everything I have to do to help her. I'm very limited on medications too so I can't give her anything else but the bare minimum of an injection of anetrizine. She's going to feel it and it's not going to be pleasant."
"Whatever you need me to do," Ryan replied quickly. "I am here to help." He thought to himself that Jasmine was one of the toughest people he knew, but this was going to be painful.
"I need you to hold her steady," Kiala revealed as she studied what was left in her kit. "I'm pretty limited equipment wise until that Lieutenant gets back with the supplies I asked for, so I don't have a surgical kit either. I'm basically trying to stop a phaser wound with a band-aid."
Ryan looked at Jasmine as he moved closer to her, ready to restrain her while the 'band-aid was done. "You can do this." he said, not as a sign of encouragement but as confident that she would handle it as best she could.
"Alright Commissioner," Kiala said as she nodded to Captain Walsh, "We're going to do what we can to help your leg. Captain Walsh is going to offer you some support as I do this treatment because its a bit time intensive. Don't worry though, we're going to get you patched up pretty quickly."
Jasmine had her concerns, but was powerless to speak up. She was already in shocked, as she looked over to Ryan. She wanted to focus on him. She hoped to distract herself, to allow the good doctor to do, what she needed to do.
"Captain," she showed him how to position himself, "If you'd support the Commissioner while I do the treatment."
"Yes Ma'am," Ryan replied and he got into position to help Jasmine get through this. He was glad to be there and do what he could.
"So, Commissioner, just a quick question. What's your favorite color?"
As soon as the Commissioner answered, Kiala moved her hands to reset the bones. Gripping her tricorder she took a look at the readings on the scanner, quickly studying the readings. She spoke as she typed on the keypad of the scanner, "They say it hurts less if you are distracted."
"Mister Walsh, keep holding her still," she said as she began using the Anabolic Protoplaser/Dermal Regenerator combination tool on the Commissioner's leg. The tool began to stimulate Jasmine's natural healing process to produce new skin cells and connective tissue, but it wasn't meant for this level of repair. This was the part that was like the band-aid on the phaser hole. She'd probably have been better off with the phaser hole in reality. Too bad they didn't have the unit that combined the bone regenerator, but hopefully that little helper of hers would make it back soon.
"I'm going to give you an injection of Corophizine," the El-Aurian explained as she got a hypo ready. "This will help you with any infections that could try to take hold. You're going to be fine, but we're going to have to get you to Sickbay to get you some additional treatment."
Luzol sighed from across the room as she sat at the desk, "You're starting to sound like a broken record."
"And you're still not cleared to go back to work," her Mother-in-Law answered.
"I'm trying to get a status report," she rubbed her head and winced in pain. "I am in command of this boat and I need to start figuring out what the Hell is going on."
The Doctor sighed, "Excuse me."
[Engineering, Starfleet One]
A500 C-4 stood with a handheld fire extinguisher fighting to put out the flames that surrounded them. The fires were getting worse, not better, and the internal fire suppression system was not responding. They were barely able to keep up and if the fires would envelop the Coaxial Core it would spell certain doom for a billion kilometers surrounding the ship - not to mention the rest of the sector.
Not far away the Federation Officers were struggling to try to help Commander Ash, who was still pinned to the ground. They were working diligently to extract her from her debris created prison, but it was almost to no avail. The machine had been running scans of the entire situation and knew that her life-signs were diminishing from the prolonged exposure to the damaged equipment. The burning workstations and flooring were producing a dangerous, acrid smoke that would put them all at risk within the next 4.7 minutes if they did not escape from the room. Due to their presence it knew it would not be able to employ the easiest method to extinguish the flames. If they would vent the atmosphere the fire would dissipate in 0.68 seconds.
For the humanoids that would be an eternity as they would not be able to restore life-support as quickly in the current state of the ship.
It was about to begin another sweep when it heard something it did not anticipate.
"Attempted unauthorized access detected: Dilithium Storage Warehouse. Security Breach."
Patton's head popped up and looked over at Bishop. "I need to head there and could use some assistance." Who knew what he would run into.
"Its properly a malfunction," Blake coughed, "We need to hurry the fire's a getting worse."
Ash looked to Dylan. "Lt. Blake, hand me my utility belt, please." She requested, and held out her free, left, hand to receive it. "That's a proximity alarm in a secure space so it is unlikely to malfunction by going off and responding to it trumps getting me out of the spot I'm in. As Chief Engineering Officer I am ordering all three of you to evacuate Main Engineering, now." The Felinoid stated.
"That may work for the others but not me. Bishop replied firmly. "Blake you and Patton go and check out the alarm. I'll stay here with Commander Randall and work on getting her free."
"Yes Sir," Patton replied and he looked over at Blake. "Let's go!" He followed orders and they needed to see what had set it off.
"But...!" the Lieutenant began to protest before Ash cut in.
"Just hand me the damned utility belt and clear out, Dylan. Take the tricorder with you and see if you can use the recall app to access the Galileo or any of our shuttle craft and you might be able to beam me out of here. I will be fine." She assured the Junior Officer. "Trust me." She added, and looked to Bishop, a tiny hint of desperation in her expression. The engineer was almost notorious for escaping eminent doom and always seemed to have a plan but, whatever it was this time, it didn't include the survival of anyone else if they stayed put.
"GO you two." Bishop ordered. "Check out the alarm, Ash and I will be fine." He turned to look at Ash, "Lets get this done."
Ash took her utility belt and didn't spare a glance the direction of Dylan or Patton while she worked on getting around her waist and buckled into place.
Dylan left his mouth instantly dry up and his body stiffen. He couldn't leave them behind especially is this really was just a fault. How would he explain this to the Admiral of either Bishop and Ash didn't make it out? That they'd been ordered to abandon them to choke to death?
Fortunately Patton was there to steer his hesitating body toward the exit - the senior officer certain took orders better than Blake whom was still on the verge of pushing back. Instead he found his voice again: "If this is glitch..." he stopped to cough again. "And we left them behind..." Dylan couldn't finish this own sentence.
"What if it isn't!" Patton clarified. "It is a huge risk to take. We go and check it out. That is what our orders are. There are times they aren't easy but they will feel better knowing we are." He looked at Blake. "Let's go, Lieutenant! No arguments!"
Still dissatisfied but realizing he could win this battle Dylan chewed his bottom lip and followed behind obediently leaving Bishop and Ash to sort something out between themselves.
"Captain...You'll need to get yourself into an EVA suit and PDQ." Ash told him, while she twisted something on the buckle of her utility belt and paused for a couple seconds. "There are six EVA in the damaged service locker about 10 meters behind you. Good odds you'll find a serviceable suit or be able to piece one together but we don't have a lot of time." She stated, wishing that he's opted to bug out with the others.
Bishop nodded and headed to the afore mentioned service locker. Opening the locker he saw the suits . Two he could see were no good as they had jagged tears in the arms of the suit. Rummaging around he found a suit and began to put it on, "You sure your going to be alright Ash, when the air is vented out?
Ash winked at Captain Bishop. "I'm taking a gamble that my Tactical EVA suite will deploy while I am prone. You have about 90 seconds to get suited up before I order the A500's to vent main engineering to space to kill the fires and clear the toxic smoke. I'm not sure how long it will take life support to provide breathable atmosphere or if it will at all." She explained, it now being clear why she wanted everyone to evacuate. "Clock is ticking." She added and pressed the central part of the buckle of her utility belt and waited, expectantly, while the sophisticated, replication, technology of the belt scanned her person and figured out how to deploy itself.
Bishop nodded, "A gamble indeed." He replied sourly as he checked the seams of the suit and satisfied there were no tears, began to climb into it.
While Bishop salvaged an EVA suit, Ash's EVA suit, finally, deployed. "Aaahhh...! That hurt! Dammit!" The engineer yelled, and then let loose with a couple, muffled, coughs. "I'm free of the floor at least." She added, not sounding very happy but could be heard to be moving at least.
Bishop locked his helmet on as the clock ticked down. He heard Ash's cry of pain followed by a pair of coughs. Then her declaration of being free of the floor. He moved over to her, "Alright, lets get you out of here. You don't have any objections to that do you?"
Android C-4 stepped back toward the two, portions of its synthetic skin had started to melt from the exposure to the fire. It looked at the duo, "We have been unable to prevent the spread of the fire. At current estimates the core will be exposed to plasma fire in 2.75 minutes. Recommend: immediate evacuation so that emergency venting may be initiated."
Ash tossed aside the bloody piece of tritanium that, only a minute earlier, had been protruding from her right shoulder and holding here fast to the deck, and finished extracting herself from the pile of debris. "Initiate 20 second count down to emergency venting." The Chief Engineer ordered C-4, with a grunt of pain, while she, slowly, gained her feet and scooped up the soup can and attached it to her belt again. "I'm going to have to make a couple changes to the auto-doc of this suit. It isn't really concerned about pain." Ash noted, with a grimace. "Shall we?" She asked, Captain Bishop, and started to move towards the entrance of Main Engineering.
The countdown sequence played over the speakers behind them, the android speaking in monotone, "You must hurry. The venting sequence is engaging in 10 seconds."
Bishop got an arm around Ash to support the CEO as they headed for the door. "You know, just an opinion but you really could do without that damn clock."
"There's a method to the madness." Ash replied while she made a concerted effort to pick up her pace with the help of Captain Bishop. If they didn't make it out in time they wouldn't suffocate but might get tossed around by the rush of atmosphere escaping to space and might, if very unlucky, escape to space as well. The auto-doc built into the Tactical EVA suit Ash was now wearing was working over time treating her shoulder wound but wasn't doing anything to dull the pain while it replicated a synthetic mesh in place and used nano-sutures to stitch her punctured lung closed even as they were reaching the doors to main engineering. Every move was a new adventure in pain and it was all Ash could do to move as fast as she was.
With no tie to spare the doors closed behind the pair as the count down reached zero. "Limited time before we go boom if the fires aren't put out. Without an order to count down the A500's would not vent until we were clear and, if we couldn't for some reason..." She explained as she leaned, heavily against the wall with an audible groan. The small felinoid leaned there, in silence, for a couple moments, her breathing, suddenly very ragged for several seconds before it eased considerably. "...boom." She finished, simply, and looked to Bishop. "That's better." She said, in a, breathy but relieved tone. "I'll be ready to go in a couple minutes. Not good. But, able to function. The auto-doc of this suit is a sadistic bastard but I won't be bleeding out at least. It knows my pain thresholds so didn't bother to administer an anesthetic while it worked." She explained. "That, is going to change." She added.
The A500 known as C-4, knowing that they were now outside of the venting area, turned toward the nearby wall mounted panel. It brought its snow white hands to the control console and began to interface. Its fingers were a blur as the probed the keypad built into the workstation. Emergency isolation doors began to lower from the ceiling to provide additional support to them as the atmosphere vented from the area. The fire itself was being fed by Enterprise's internal power grid which meant this was the only way to accomplish putting it out.
"Should the ventilation sequence malfunction and affect this area as well, the first thing you'll feel is extreme pressure in your lungs, you must resist the temptation to exhale. Your extremities will get cold, then numb, and some capillaries in exposed sections of your skin may burst. You will have about fifteen seconds of consciousness, then ten seconds of disorientation before passing out. Again, only if the sequence occur in error and vent this area as well. The main computer is, unstable. Initializing decompression sequence now," it pressed the activation control.
Beyond the door the thunderous roar of the atmospheric venting sequence initializing overtook them as the air violently escaped the ship. It sounded like a wind storm - a tornado - as the vacuum of space took the breathable air away. Even behind the isolation doors they could feel the vibrations, the door even violently shaking as the suction tried to pull it away. Then, almost as quickly as it began, it was over. There was silence.
"Venting cycle complete," the machine explained, "you may reenter Engineering."
"How you holding up Ash? You want to take a look at the damage to Engineering?" Bishop asked the CEO out of respect for the latter's knowledge and experience. As there was deafening silence which in it's own way was as frightening as the fires had been. Though Bishop was hoping Ash would pass on the opportunity and head for Sickbay.
Ash, still leaning against the wall, straightened up and then stood without the wall to help and seemed steady enough. "I'm ready to get to work." She replied, after a few seconds. "I've tied the feed from the engineering AI into my suit and, what I'm seeing...well, all I can say is, SF1 appears to be, largely, in one piece, and we should be able to get impulse power back on line fairly quickly." The CEO added. "Impulse power will give us life support and a leg up on getting warp power back online though, we're not going anywhere. The actual drive system will be a while." She continued and looked directly at Captain Bishop. "We've been worse off, except, I'm not getting a whole lot of reports of life signs so far." Ash concluded and stepped over to the doors to main engineering.
"No," Bishop replied "You aren't. You are however more than qualified to look over the damage, prioritize and direct the repair teams. Then get yourself to Sickbay." He looked at the CEO, "In one piece and holding air. How long before warp power is back online? In that same line of questioning how long before we can move? Not a lot of life signs here in Engineering or throughout the ship?" Bishop asked.
Ash wasn't going to argue with Captain Bishop about whether she was able to work or not so she focused on answering his questions. "Impulse power in 30 minutes and we'll have one quarter impulse should we need to move. We conserved plasma and didn't lose it so, figure warp power an hour after impulse is up but the engineering drones haven't made it through the nacelles yet so no time line on how soon we'll have warp drive. As far as life signs? The drones are not picking up many, so far, and that's throughout the ship. They're also not picking up much in the way of what the engineering AI refers to as biological debris, or, bodies, as we would call them." Ash informed Bishop while she confirmed there was atmosphere in main engineering and then cycled the doors to be let in. "The A500's are already getting impulse going and, with your permission, I'm going to get Comms back up before I go traipsing off to sick bay." She added.
[Saucer Sickbay, Starfleet One]
Breathless, dirty and distinctly sweaty Lieutenant Libby Harper shouldered the door open wearily with her shoulder en-route to sickbay in order to gather supplies for Kiala. So far her attempts to find a working drug dispenser hadn't been very successful. Much like the entire ship they'd been left in tatters and no longer functioned. Whatever had happened to Starfleet One during that freakish wormhole had really done a number on them leaving the ship in a terrible state.
Drawing in a deep lungful of air for example was a challenge in itself and finding a safe route to sickbay had proven to be an expedition on it's own, luckily her destination was now insight.
Pressing herself through the final doorway Libby was had been dreading what she'd find having passed a few fallen crew members on her journey.
The acrid scent of burnt electrical components filled the air, Cyrus coughing slightly due to the bluish haze of smoke. He had been knocked unconscious by something when things went haywire. He groaned reaching up to feel his head and try to figure out what had hit him. His eyes landed on the culprit that knocked him out, which lay innocently next to him on the floor. "I was so stupid, leaving that on the high shelf." he muttered, getting to his knees then reaching up to grab the edge of the desk in order to help himself rise to his feet.
In a languid southern drawl, Cyrus said. "I'm going to have to talk to the one driving this ship. Told him or her they needed to beware of potholes or dips. Looks like we hit a big one."
He looked around the place and sighed, coughing once again, and headed out to check out the damage that had happened.
"Whoa!" the two human's collided with each other in the half light.
Stumbling backwards a pace or two Libby squinted to comprehend what had just happened: "Lieutenant Marner!" she explained relieved to find someone else relatively in one piece. "Thank goodness am I relieved to see you!" She paused momentarily to assess him: "Are you alright?"
Cyrus taking a step back from almost being knocked off his feet, peered towards Libby. "Hey Lieutenant Harper, good to see you. Glad you didn't get lost in the fog we are having." giving a wink and a laugh. He reached up to check his bump, and realized there was some blood there. "I'm just fine Lieutenant Harper. My fishing tackle box decided to be vicious and attacked me at the most inopportune time." Flashing a quick smile, then it faded. "Just what happened and what is the situation? And where do you need me? Its a bit of a mess here, like a tornado decided touch down here, instead of Kansas."
"Fishing...?" Libby started before shaking off the question and asked some of her own. "You don't remember the phenomenon the ship was caught in? The call to abandon ship?" She crossed over to what used to be medical station and started looking for a tricorder to ensure Cyrus hadn't done anything serious to himself.
Marner laughed slightly, "I did get the call to abandon ship and I didn't want to leave my fishing tackle box behind. Its an heirloom so didn't want to leave it. I know, stupid but it has a lot of meaning for me. Anyhow I'm here and what is the current situation?"
Her rummaging payed off and she flicked it on and began to scan him, though her medical knowledge was far below his own having only taken a few modules in emergency care Libby could identify some anomalies. "We've set up a make shift sickbay in Bishop's office," she explained. "I need some Bicaridine I think it was for Commander Hawkins. I hauled his ass quite literally out of a fire, he's a mess."
Marner nodded, "Good job, okay let's see if we can find supplies and the Bicaridine and get up to the makeshift sickbay." Standing still only for a moment or two for her to take the scan, then walked away to pick through the mess and shambles that used to be sickbay. He grimaced at the mess and gingerly picked through the various drawers and cabinets. The reading would be a minor concussion, and a cut and some bruises.
"We should be able to find a medkit..." he looked at her, "Are you okay?" trying to look at her to see if she had any injuries.
"I'm fine," Libby nodded putting away the scanned satisfied Cyrus wasn't seriously injured. "Just a bit shaken and weary. Had to take a very large detour to find a safe route, life support is barely functioning, and not at all in some sections." She explaining drawing up closer to help. "We may need some more advance stuff than just medicine and medkits," the Lieutenant continued. "Admiral Luzol has a nasty head last I saw, might be prudent to consider a skull fracture, you know how stubborn Captain's are - they won't come to sickbay unless they really have to or are on death's door."
Cyrus chuckled at that comment, "Yes, I've met a few like that and heard tales as well." digging through some other areas of rubble, giving a grunt of satisfaction pulling out what he thought could be a bone regenerator or a bone knitter, or osteogenic stimulator. He would have to look at it in better light.
"Kiala is holding the fort, though I haven't finished my field medic course yet I offered to help." Libby paused. "Most of the rest of the crew are unaccounted for but considering the mess we're in and the fact we evacuated most of the personnel I guess that's to be expected."
"We need to do the best we can do in the circumstances." Cyrus remarked. "Lets see if we can find some other things that could help us out." looking for some tissue regenerators or anything else that could be useful. He looked at her, "I'm glad you are here, and also Kiala." puling out a few more things that could be useful. "Any luck?" he asked.
"Me too, we wouldn't have been able to the EMH like this," Libby raided the supplies tossing several vials into case she'd discovered. "To be honest Cyrus I'm just bringing everything I can put my hands on. I just wish we take more."
" I may have an idea." leaving the room for a moment, grabbing his fishing tackle box and two blue lab coats that he had seen , then brought them into where Harper was. He sat down opening up his tackle box, and pulled out a curved needle and thread, and began to sew up the front of the lab coats as well as the bottoms using suture stitches. His fingers were rather nimble, as he finished up the first coat and then went to the other, doing the same. He left the upper part of the lab coats open and then joined the sleeves of the two lab coats together then pulled it over his head, to where the lab coats were now like two bags. "Okay, we can fill these and we should be able to carry more this way."
Putting the contents back into his fishing tackle box. "I have followed the tradition of carrying scissors, needle and thread in the box. You never know when you need it." Cyrus giving a shrug, then walked over to where the supplies were at. "Let's get this filled." Pulling off his makeshift duo bags, and started to grab more items. "We'll sort this out when we get back to the others."
"You're certainly full of surprises," the science officer shook her head softly still in awe at his ability to improvise so effortlessly before passing him various medicines she'd collected.
"I'm sure you would have come up with a solution." Cyrus answered, as he filled the makeshift bags with the items she was handing him, giving Harper a smile. "I think I have lost count of how many times I've had to sew up my pants when out fishing, when they catch onto something and ripped. Some in a rather in opportune place. My favorite fishing pants, have patches upon patches." he chuckled. "My mama got tired of my ripping my pants and determined she'd teach me how to fix my rips instead of her doing it all."
"It's always those tatty old, worn out clothes that are the most comfortable." Libby smirked: "I have a trusty pair of jeans just the same and some pyjama's too. Neither are very suitable to wearing outside my quarters if you catch my drift." Her grin deepened. "Sounds like I may have found a way to change that with your skills, providing they haven't been burned to cinder or ejected into space."
Cyrus nodded getting her meaning. "Well if they haven't, I'd be very happy to fix them for you." chuckling. "I'm hoping my fishing hat didn't get sent out in space either." Cyrus said, as he continued to fill the two bags. When they were both filled he looked at Harper. "So shall we get to the others?" taking another look at the wrecked sickbay.
"Yes," she nodded. "I don't think we could carry much more anyway," Libby loaded herself up. "I hope you didn't skip breakfast Cyrus, its a bit of trek back to the bridge."
Cyrus pulled the duo bags over his head got them settled where they hung on the front and back. "don't worry I didn't skip breakfast." Flashing a smile. "I'm ready to go and you know the path I will follow you."
"Alright, follow me," the Lieutenant lead them out of Sickbay into the darkened corridor beyond.
[Dilithium Storage Warehouse, Starfleet One]
The Andorian should have known the moment he stepped into the chamber an alarm would sound but he was just drawn to so much dilithium. He needed to move quickly he activated his tricorder, which was an old Andorian guard emblem, on his jacket and began scanning the crystals. If they checked out as genuine then he could bulk beam them to his ship and be gone before anyone got there. Or so he thought.
"Commander," the voice of Lieutenant Blake whispered. "I'm picking up a lifeform. Someone is here!"
Biss heard voices coming towards his position. His scan was still on going, he decided to abandon the scanning and take cover drawing his weapon and aiming it at the door.
Android C-3 finished its inspection of the stored crystal, setting aside the tricorder that it had been holding in its hand. Automatically it spoke, "Maintenance cycle complete. Dilithium crystal integrity: 97.41%." It was an unnatural sound, somewhat haunting. All part of a program struggling to keep the unit functional in the midst of the calamity around it. It turned and saw the Andorian had tried to position itself in a protected stance. Visual scanners built into the drone detected a weapon. Internal safety protocols engaged, activating a more primal line of code.
The machine noticed a hyperspanner placed on the nearby table as a light flickered above. A general purpose tool, hyperspanners were used to repair relays and circuits. They were also half a meter long cylinders that were, surprisingly, heavy. It looked at the tool, then the light, "Initializing system repair protocol." It lifted the hyperspanner.
Then turned toward the Andorian, "Protected area compromised. I assume you have a permit for that weapon." it swung the spanner at the Andorian's head.
Ducking his head, Biss managed to avoid being struck on on the head by the bot. He instinctively aimed his weapon at the bot and fired instantly vaporising the bot to dust.
Restricted by his broken arm Blake could only point open mouthed toward the flash of light that had eliminated the C-3 android. Unlike Commander O'Sullivan he wasn't armed with a weapon just the tricorder Ash had given him before ordering them to leave Engineering. Save for throwing it at the intruder it wasn't much use in this situation.
Biss knew that the weapon discharge would have given away his position but needs must. However, he needed whoever was out there to either retreat or be shot so he could continue his scanning. He just hoped that all this wasn't for nothing.
"I will give you one warning," Patton called out, his weapon drawn. "Come out of where you are hiding, now or face the consequences!"
"Commander," Blake whispered again consulting his scanner: "The intruder has been scanning the crystals...I'm not sure why but if they intend to steal or damage them...we'd be very screwed."
"I need you to defend the crystals," Patton extended his weapon to him, pulling another one out of his boot. "I always carry a backup." His eyes met Blake's. "You defend the crystals no matter what you have to do." He felt the need to clarify. "Even if it means shooting me to get to the enemy. Those crystals, the crew and ship are the priority. Clear, Lieutenant!"
Dylan swallowed heavily at order O'Sullivan was giving him.
Roughly stuffing the tricorder into his pants he took the phaser and instantly felt himself sweat further. Save for the odd training exercise he hadn't held nor discharged a weapon for a very long time. Certainly not in a real situation with adrenaline, injuries and a violent intruder.
"Y-yes, crystal clear sir." The Lieutenant nodded weakly feeling positively queasy now.
The Andorian kept his weapon trained on the doorway. He had the advantage, whoever stepped into the chamber Biss could shoot straight away. He stayed silent and waited.
In the center of the Warehouse Complex, Lieutenant Rrawran slowly moved the cover of the ventilation shaft that he had descended. The wolf-like alien lowered its head, slightly, through the portal and studied the surroundings. His eyes naturally pierced through the darkness to let him survey the room and its contents with a natural, thermal vision.
The white furred Rorworr dropped into the room onto its padded feet, stealthfully like a ninja from old Earth. He lifted his phaser, "Hold it."
Biss saw the furry alien drop down and immediately moved his weapon into that direction. "Don't think so, friend." He replied before discharging his weapon at the furry friend.
The alien Tactical Officer had accomplished his goal. The Andorian was off guard now, but why would an Andorian be attacking them? What could he possibly have to gain from it? Andor was part of the Federation and he was a citizen of it. He would know that attacking a Starfleet ship would get him thrown into prison. What did he possibly have to gain from this?
Unware of Rrawran's arrival Blake and O'Sullivan stepped into the chamber with their weapon's drawn.
The universal translator struggled even more with Rrawran's language than usual today. The mechanized voice of the unit was disconcerting when the system usually made a person sound more natural, "You've just invaded a Starfleet vessel and fired on a Starfleet Officer, friend, surrender now and we will take that into consideration at your sentencing hearing." He moved behind a workstation after saying it, trying to keep the Andorian distracted.
Patton kept his weapon on their invaders, not wanting to draw attention to himself, in case he needed to take action. It was best that they not know he was there if they surrendered. If not, then he would do what he had to.
Pressing himself into the shadows wherever possible Blake twisted his head to see what was happening. There was an Andorian ahead dressed in an odd assortment of clothing. Clearly he was the intruder the sensors had detected earlier though why he was studding the crystals was a mystery.
The frightened Lieutenant was relived to see Rrawran's white furry flash before him in the chamber as he engaged the Andorian. With O'Sullivan and himself here too they had surrounded the stranger, though considering he'd already proven willing to use his weapon for lethal purposes it may not really matter.
Biss laughed, "Starfleet? Thought they went pop with the burn." He called out. "There's no one out here that would bother with a hearing! I do, however, have a counter proposal. Let me take half of those dilithium crystals and I promise I won't kill you all."
Rrawran's ears twitched in confusion. Why wouldn't Starfleet have a hearing when someone clearly infiltrated a ship - let alone the flagship - and what the Hell was the Burn he mentioned? Sounded like a kitchen accident. "Sorry, dilithium's ours, and you're the one about to get burned." He adjusted a couple settings on his tricorder.
"I'll kill you all and take it all for myself then." Biss replied with a chuckle before he took a couple of pot shots at the furry one and then at the door.
The furry alien slid his Tricorder into the wrist holder and went down to all fours. His species descended from the canines on his world and, while they could walk bipedally, they were incredibly more agile when they followed their historic forms. He needed to hurry, but they only needed a few more seconds.
He looked over the overturned table and saw the Andorian. "Missed me," he taunted in a robotic monotone. He hurried and scurried away, heading toward the opposite wall as the automated extraction system arms almost hit him. He hoped that the others could keep him busy because the plan was almost in place.
Having ducked deeper into the shadow to avoid fire from the intruder Blake raised his phaser to return as Rrawran scampered away. Though he hadn't been able to see what the Strat Officer had been doing Dylan knew what the console controlled and figure he'd need covering fire to succeed. His lack of recent combat training and unsteady hand hindered the accuracy of his attempts, but would still have the desired affect of drawing the attention of the Andorian.
Patton went after the Andorian, wondering what the hell was going on here. He didn't want to fire on an allie but he would if it meant keeping their crystals and he wasn't interested in a negotiation. "Surrender or meet your fate!"
"I'll go with option 3!" The Andorian smirked before double tapping the commbadge of his leather jacket and transported himself away.
Rrawran watched as the alien vanished in a blinding light. He rose to his full height and looked at the Tricorder that was strapped to his wrist. He did his nearest approximation of a sigh, "I wasn't able to get the dampening field in place in time." The mechanical voice was monotone, but the sadness was evident. "He could be anywhere on the ship."
"Shit," Blake hissed rising from his hiding spot. "Without internal sensors or Galatea I doubt we'd find him very quick, or if at all." His gaze fell upon the crystals curiously: "Why these?" he asked. "I mean sure out dilithium is highly refined but its not over hard to come by the ore and process it. Why try to steal it and be willing to cause harm in the process? I don't get it."
"Neither do I," the alien wolf answered, "but I have a feeling we're going to find out."
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