Exploratory Team 1

Posted on Sun 20th Nov, 2016 @ 6:33am by Commander Zachary Hunt & Lieutenant Ricardo Shepard & Lieutenant Sianna Dal

1,318 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Cloak & Dagger
Location: Bottom levels of Vanguard
Timeline: MD03 0920 Hours

Partway down the first Jeffries tube, McCabe remembered to breathe. He wasn't quite sure which was uppermost in his mind, fear or scientific excitement. "Lieutenant Shepard, how far are we going in this direction?" he asked. "There's nothing interesting ahead on my scanner."

Rico continued to study the tricorder in his hand as he carefully made sure to put one foot in front of the other as they walked in the dark open space of the bottom levels. He couldn't help feeling a sense of dread come over him, though he continued to advance.

"Well, McCabe, I think we should continue to move forward. Although I have no life signs besides us, there are some power fluctuations coming from some power couplings ahead."

In the lead, Lance Corporal Aleksasdottir glanced at her head-up display and frowned. "I'm not reading that on the TacCorder, Lieutenant. How far to the power coupling?"

"Couple more meters in this direction," Rico stated as he nodded in the direction they were headed. As they continued walking, he could see the coupling coming into view.

Sianna Dal ignored the niggling doubts in the back of her mind, instincts honed over years in a political arena where ruthless corsairs were the least dangerous players, which warned her that she was in a confined space, that the entire party was clustered too closely and that a single burst from a heavy disruptor could clear out the corridor quickly. Instead, she took the time to observe the surroundings - unfamiliar and alien places she had no previous contact with. The infrastructure upon which the world she knew was built.

She briefly considered inquiring what one particular mass of isolinear circuitry and cables did - everything in the immediate area might as well be replaced with magic circles of inscribed silver and salt for all that the Orion comprehended them - but decided not distract the rest of the party. It was an idle curiosity, after all, hardly worth the effort.

"The words power and fluctuations definitely don't go well together. We seem to find two words that don't sound very good together but still put them there. Big and spiders it was yesterday; now power and fluctuations, whatever else.," Hunt murmured to himself.

He wasn't scared, more apprehensive of the situation. If it went sour down here, then certainly he would be in trouble with Drake for taking on this task. Still, he was sure Drake would have done the same, and besides, if they did find something and put an end to the problems...that would be better than having left it for Drake to deal with... right.

"Stand fast," Lance Corporal Aleksasdottir said. She went to one knee, moving the barrel of her rifle back and forth, causing the taccorder scanner on top of it to focus on the cone in front of her. "I'm reading some of that goop ahead." Carefully, she moved forward. "Silicon concentrations in nodules on the walls." She studied the readings for a moment, then stood. "Wait a moment," she said, advancing.

She reached the first of the silicon nodules. "Polysiloxane," she read off her head-up display, sounding the word out. Cautiously, she reached out to touch it. "Feels rubbery," she reported. She withdrew her hand, and turned to face the others. "Looks inert," she said. Suddenly, the nodule everted, a spine flashing out and striking the Marine in the deltoid. "Ow!" she said.

Hunt dashed forward in a hurry when it lashed out, keeping an eye on the rubbery substance. "You alright?" Although she had been struck in the deltoid, he observed an off color mark moving up her neck. It looked as if it was throbbing and spreading around but he didn't mention it to the Marine to keep her at ease.

"I don't feel so great," the Marine answered. She was sweating and pale, and the color was spreading... and starting to swell at an increasing rate.

"McCabe, can you reach the other team and let them know what we have just found and what's just happened? Shepard, Dal over here a second," Hunt got up as he spoke away from the Marine. "Quickly examine her neck and tell me your thoughts, watch out for the silicon though."

Shepard arrived where the others were looking over their downed colleague. "I've got point!" He said as he stood guard over his team.

Sianna Dal's stomach lurched at the sight. It wasn't the first act of direct violence she'd witnessed, but repeated exposure did nothing to alleviate the nausea. Rather than retch, the diplomat took a deep, calming breath, forcing her own mind down the familiar paths of cold, detached analysis, the parts that calmly studied the worst the Federation had to offer and assembled strategies to foil all efforts at justice.

"The first thing to come to mind would be an assassin's weapon. Although the location does not lend credence to that theory, unless an engineer was the target and the Marine ..." no names, it was easier without names, "merely collateral damage. It seems to be relatively slow-acting, but there is a market for that kind of assassination. A more likely explanation would be a hiding place, a trapped one that we merely stumbled upon through circumstance. A remnant of the station's previous occupants." Sianna offered a neutral shrug, almost uncaring, "If I had access to a database, I'd be able to say more. We maintain an extensive database of assassination methods and tools."

"I would like to agree with a hiding place and we have stumbled on it. The real question is if it is a danger, we need to get rid of it, then how?" Hunt asked.

"I really don't feel well," Lance Corporal Aleksasdottir interjected. There was the sound of ripping fabric as her right shoulder seam parted under the pressure of swelling muscle.

Hunt looked at the Marine, seemingly in a lot of pain. The shoulder seemed to be swelling at a quicker rate than he had ever seen, "McCabe, are the other team en route? We need Addams here now!"

McCabe checked the location of the dots belonging to the other team. "They're stopped, Sir, but not that far away." After looking at the Marine, he signaled the other team. "Team 2, medical emergency here. We need Dr. Addams immediately. Repeat, medical emergency at our location."

"Do we need to emergency transport Alexasdottir and the doctor to Sickbay?" the engineer asked.

McCabe looked at the lance corporal who had seemed so tough only a few minutes ago. At the moment, she looked more like ... he didn't know what, but it wasn't good. He glanced at the bulkhead where the ... whatever ... had come out and attacked her. There was no way he was going close to that! Not to any of them, for that matter.

"Hey, there are several of those things on the wall along there. Shouldn't we move back from this position to somewhere safer?" Tony asked nervously.

"Shepard 100% get them them to the sickbay, help me move Aleksasdottir away from these things so we are a bit safer. McCabe, let me know if they respond to our call. Have you ever seen anything like this before?" Hunt asked.

"I don't think anyone has, Sir," McCabe responded, and then tried contacting the other team again.

"Team 2, Dr. Addams. Medical emergency here, please respond." He looked to Commander Hunt. "If that doesn't get them, Sir, shall I contact the closest Sickbay?"

"Addams here," came the Doctor's contralto voice on the coms. "Standby."

Alexsasdottir chose that same moment to scream in pain. "Elvis Aaron Presley!" she yelled, and in the same moment which the annular confinement beam of a transporter formed around her, around each of them, her swollen flesh exploded, flying nuggets of muscle and globules of blood arrested in flight as the transporter claimed them.

 

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