Explosive Measures - Part I

Posted on Fri 29th Mar, 2013 @ 2:24pm by Colonel Horatio Drake & Lieutenant Colonel Tallus Karikkar & Lieutenant Adam Keller & Commander Jasmine Collins-Keller & Lieutenant JG Xavier Lee

1,476 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: http://sb109.sim-station.net/index.php/sim/missions/id/3
Location: Deck 1030 - Section 49 Alpha
Timeline: MD-04: 1115 Hours

ON:

Drake examined the display case that was sitting on the wall of his Ready Room - he was bemused in the fact that out of the seven classes of ships on display, none of them were classes that he had served on. He started to reach out for the cabinet the remove them and replicate new ones when the comm. system chirped up, it was an unknown crew member.

"Wyatt to Drake" He sounded flustered.

Tapping his comm. badge he responded, "Drake here"

"Sir, there's been an explosion in forty nine alpha... at least... we think... you've got to get down here."

With no more than a seconds hesitation he sprinted out of the door, round semi-circle of Main Operations, to Treia's Office, which Lee had been using as an engineering command point for S49A.

Reaching the door he smacked his hand onto the panel to open the door, "With me, Lieutenant!". He didn't wait for the inevitable look on his face, instead continued his sprint to the turbolift.

Xavier could sense the panic and urgency before the doors even opened. Without question or hesitation he grabbed his jacket and followed the Colonel. "Sir, what's happened?" He asked a little out of breath.

"There's been an explosion in forty nine alpha... cause unknown, as of yet" he replied sternly.

The turbolift raced into the bowels of Protector, carrying the two Senior Officers to the scene.

The two emerged from the turbolift and started quick marching towards the section, all seemed normal at the moment. "How much of the data have we rescued from forty nine alpha?" He asked, still as stern as ever.

"Last report I received said we had at least 80% of the available data," Xavier answered.

Being on the right hand side, Drake got first view as the two rounded the last corner - he saw Colonel Karikkar and Lieutenant Nyx, kneeling and attending to a fallen security officer.

"Report!" He barked.

"There has been a localized explosion in there. Unknown origin." Tallus said helping the security officer to his feet.

Nyx continued to treat the man while Tallus and Drake spoke. Why was it men always thought their injuries were less serious than they actually were. The officer should have been in a bio bed resting.

"Was anyone inside?" Drake hoped and prayed the answer to the next question.

"Yes, sir. Two officers. A Marine and an engineer." Tallus said knowing the fate of the men.

Xavier closed his eyes for the briefest of moments. He had never lost anyone under his command before and the sensation was... strange for lack of a better word. He hadn't directly killed the officer (there was no way anyone could have survived this) but he had rotated him or her to be here. Maybe that was what hurt more than anything, he had no idea who he had assigned down here this morning.

"There were three security officers outside the room that have sustained minor injuries as well." Nyx interrupted the pair.

He didn't need to ask anymore questions... even a localised explosion in such a contained area would have been catastrophic for anyone inside. He could feel the swelling in his chest of anger, adrenaline started coursing through his veins, his heart rate increased three fold. This had suddenly got ten times more serious and ten times more personal.

He dared a glance into the section which was getting more horrific by the hour, it seemed. The place had already been a mess - decay and time hadn't been kind to it. But now, everything seemed to be everywhere. Surprisingly, all the biobeds were still standing upright, in their proper places.

"Colonel, when you say localised... what do you mean?" He inquired.

"The main computer terminal I believe." Tallus said frowning.

"Lieutenant" Drake tilted his head slightly away towards Lee "I'm presuming the computer's in forty nine alpha were independent from the main computer?"

"Yes Sir," Xavier answered, as he swallowed the lump in his throat. "Just like everything else in this damn section."

Devyn was off duty but watched the area with great interest. His only reason for being there at the moment was Nyx and his promise not to let her out of his sight.

"The injured are taken care of, is Nyx cleared to leave?" He asked. He didn't want her out in the open more than she had to. He wanted her back at sickbay or home in their quarters.

Drake glanced inside even further at what remained at the two corpses. Normally he would have had her arranged for them to be transported to Sickbay, but there wasn't much she could do for them now. "Indeed, Commander".

As the others talked Xavier made his way over to where the main terminal had been, the epicentre of the explosion. He pulled out his tricorder and started collecting data, what had suddenly caused this to happen? As he scanned, he picked up standard Federation tech, but what he also discovered was trace elements of the same alien material that he and Nightingale had theorised was used to make the dampening field. It was only a microscopic amount, possibly from the casing of a bomb buried deep in the terminal? Maybe a bomb that was meant to go off if the main computer was ever linked to this terminal, a bomb that should have gone off before someone managed to pull out 80-per-cent-plus of data? This was all piecing together. As Xavier continued to scan he noticed someone odd, as though he was now picking up a new energy signature from a whole new location.

"Sir I think you need to see this," Xavier said to Drake.

"What is it, Lieutenant?" Drake quickly moved to the Ops officer's side.

"I can't be sure but I think there's another hidden section here," Xavier said. Could this be right? He checked and rechecked the readings. "My tricorder is picking up a third energy signature that doesn't belong to the main grid or this laboratory."

"Third energy signature?" Tallus said coming up behind the group. "I can get us access to it."

"Lieutenant Lee?" Drake asked the Chief Operations Officer for his opinion. Regardless of rank, this was one situation where he wanted to opinion of an engineer more than a Marine.

"The results are conclusive Sir," Xavier said. "There's something else hidden here." The mere words filled Xavier with dread. He was immediately brought back to the previous situation when he discovered this section and all the horror that came with it. "You believe you can get us in?" He said to Tallus.

"Indeed. One of two ways. I can fire a directed pulse at it which would certainly demolecularize the wall or I could get some low level phasers to take it down. Obviously I would rather demolecularize the wall." Tallus said looking at the wall.

"Are we detecting any more explosive devices?" Drake said with a serious expression.

Xavier tapped a few buttons on his tricorder and then scanned the area directly in front of him, the results were negative. He changed the bandwidth on the device and then repeated the process, still negative. He did this a few more times until he was certain it was safe. "No Sir," Xavier said with as much certainty as he could muster.

"I want everyone to evacuate the area to the end of the corridor, including the security details" Drake said with a raised voice to he could be heard in the corridor as well. Despite not reading anymore explosive devices... it wasn't to say there weren't anymore.

Without giving Nyx a chance to protest, Devyn took her by the arm and lead her out of the corridor. He would be required to be here as security officer but Nyx and his child were going to remain safely tucked in the Marine Barracks during this investigation.

"It's not safe here for you." He told her as he guided her down the corridor.

"Well, Mr. Karikkar - would you care to work your magic?" Drake addressed the Vulcan Marine.

"Indeed." Tallus said taking out what looked like a launcher. "If you don't mind sir please take a few steps back."

Drake did as he was instructed.

Tallus pressed a few buttons on the weapon and then braced himself. When he fired off the weapon a bright green light was emitted. The wall quickly disintegrated.

Drake was half expecting more bio-beds to be revealed, with more bodies on - however, he was pleasantly surprised. What greeted them was an office, of sorts... an administration area. He smiled... this was another opportunity to get some more, hard evidence.

"Drake to O'Dell... there's something down here in forty-nine alpha that I think you're going to want to see". He smiled as he tapped his comm. badge.

OFF:

 

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