Exploratory Team 2

Posted on Sun 20th Nov, 2016 @ 6:35am by Lieutenant JG Patrick Biere

881 words; about a 4 minute read

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

Staff Sergeant Euphemios advanced at a slow walk. The light mounted on top of her phaser rifle probed the darkness of the serviceway, and a soft popping noise emanated from her taccorder as it sonar-mapped the area around her. The results dropped to her monocle, letting her see vital information while keeping her head up and both eyes open. "I'm seeing a flicker of motion ahead," she warned the officers behind her. "It may just be vermin."

"I'm hoping it's just vermin," Biere stated, starting to feel a little worried. "Still....At least we have the doctor in our group if something does happen."
The tall human continued to follow Staff Sergeant Euphemios, glancing back and looking at Jade, "Where would you rather be right now...your lovely Orchids & Jazz," He paused. "Or here? I know where I would rather be!"

"Oh, Orchids & Jazz is always my favorite place," Jade affirmed. "There's something to be said for adventure, though. Isn't it amazing that no matter where in the universe we go, some kind of vermin goes with us? Even in space, we can't leave them behind. I find that ... curious. Doctor, Thing isn't considered vermin where he comes from, is he? It?" She wasn't sure about the pronoun that applied to the creature who seemed to accompany Addams the majority of the time, though missing for this exploit. Should I mention hazardous duty pay? she wondered.

Addams opened her mouth to respond, but Biere spoke first.

"I suppose if you look at it like that, then yeh it is pretty amazing. Although I do engineering rather than something to do with vermin or creatures no one has ever seen before for a reason!" Biere replied. He thought about Thing which Jade mentioned, it made him shudder. The doctor gave him the creeps as it was, let alone the weird creepy hand following her around. Luckily it wasn't around today, hunting some sort of creature was bad enough.

"How are we looking ahead? Can you tell if it is just vermin?"

Staff Sergeant Euphemios shook her head. "About twenty-five centimeters in length," she said. "Three and a half kilos. Thirty-eight degrees. I've got a trace on four of them. Three ahead at ten meters, one around the corner at the junction."

Biere held his scared gulp to himself, people assumed he wasn't scared of anything due to him being a tall, burly man, but really he hated any creatures that scuttled and was smaller than he was, "Do we have a plan of action?"

The sound of scales slithering across deckplates was heard, and Staff Sergeant Euphemios reported, "Number four has joined the pack."

Doctor Addams removed the Starfleet beacon from her wrist, wound up in the fashion of a pitcher from a nearly-forgotten Terran game, and tossed the light. It flew down the corridor, flipping end over end, the light spiraling wildly across the empty space. It hit a wall, bounced, and fell, illuminating a rubbish bin. Four creatures turned scaly muzzles toward the light, opening long, toothy muzzles and hissing.

The Marine quickly targeted each of them in succession, tapped the fire button on her rifle, stunned all four. "My plan is to capture them," she said, sounding smug.

"They aren't that big. And they seem to be scavengers of a kind. These couldn't be what's been causing our problems. Could they?" Jade asked of no one in particular. For some reason, her mind had pictured something soft and pudgy being the problem. Scales and sharp teeth, yes those could be gnawing through something. But where did that sludgey residue come from in my kitchen?

=^= Team 2, medical emergency here. We need Dr. Addams immediately. Repeat, medical emergency at our location. =^=

"That sounds like that scientist, what's his name? McCabe?" Jade said. The words gave her a sinking feeling, while at the same time, she was glad she hadn't been on the team that had such an emergency. Not very nice of me, but oh, so human she thought with irony. After all, she wasn't human, she was El Aurian. Not so different in some ways, it appears.

Biere felt sweat droplets falling down his face, before wiping them away with his sleeve. It did feel cold down here, but still he was sweating up from nerves. He hated the thought of a creature he didn't know being on board the same base as him, and also his wife was living on the base , too! "Do we know what these four creatures are?" He built himself up to ask. "They don't look as if they left the goo from that we analyzed...Does this mean there is another creature?" His mind started spinning out of control at what else could be down here. He started to panic.

"We have no data, either way," Addams snapped at the panicking officer. "Someone may have fallen from a ladder."

=^= Team 2, Dr. Addams. Medical emergency here, please respond. =^=

"Addams here. Standby." She tapped her badge, changing the call circuit. "Station ops, CMO. Emergency site-to-site transport. Both exploratory teams to CDA surgical facility on deck 1400." A moment later, the annular confinement beam formed around each of them, and the scaly scavengers were left sleeping in their trash heap.

 

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