Away team Rogers
Posted on 02/24/2015 @ 3:28pm
Edited on on 06/13/2015 @ 12:11pm
Mission:
Brave New World
Location: USS Nuntio aft section
Timeline: 88304.4
At the other end of the landing corridor, the engineering team of Chief Rogers met with the two security guards near the first forcefield, their rear guarded y the third one escorting them. They formed a triangle with one at point, another on their flank and the last one staying at their rear, rifles at the ready. Now that the engineers and medics were there, they left tricorder scanning and system working to them, concentrating on watching the dark, silent area around them.
With his own Chief Engineer codes, Rogers would be able to deactivate each force field as they would move cautiously towards main engineering aft of the Nova class starship.
David and Parker stepped behind the lead security Lieutenant and followed his lead aft toward a nearby turbo shaft, but they were brought to a halt by a force field blocking the hallway. David stepped up beside the young man and, flipping open the TR five-nintey, scanned the barrier and accessed the control using the search algorithm of the unit. The level ten field abruptly cut off, the slight shimmer of de-ionized gas particles attesting to the barrier's disappearing presence. David studied the tri-corder readings and commented curiously to Ensign Parker, a matter and energy systems specialist.
"This is odd. If the ship is purposely placed in gray mode to conserve power and resources, why erect level ten force fields?"
"Maybe they were afraid of something," suggested the lead guard, raising his rifle slightly as he cautiously peered into the gloom.
Then, sensing more amiss than just a mystery concerning an empty ship, David contacted Commander Riker.
"Sir, these are level ten force fields; Which make's no sense! Perhaps we could access the Nuntio's Prefix code and over-ride the ship's computer?"
"Lieutenant M'ata already checked that option," now answered the rear security officer. "The prefix code has been changed."
Just then Ensign Parker' tri-corder chirped softly and he gestured with it in the direction forward down the hallway.
'There's the jefferies tube ahead Commander. It will take us down to main engineering, port side forward.'
Nodding an affirmation at the younger man, Rogers then gave a nod to the lead security officer to proceed. Arriving at the small access hatch Parker scanned the hatch and ascertained it's lock mechanism. With an audible click, the hatch signaled it's accessability and the ensign opened the portal door, revealing the vertical and horizontal tube's within. As Parker stooped to enter the door, the security officer took hold of his shoulder and forcibly pulled him back, taking his place in a crouched position.
"Not wise Ensign. Let us do our job, and you wait until the all clear is given."
He then proceeded to climb down the narrow shaft, shouldering his cumbersome rifle as he did so. One hand drew his hand phaser from his belt while the other flipped open his tricorder afixed to the arm of his suit. He stopped at the other end when it beeped. Instinctively, he lowered his voice as he spoke through the comlink.
"Commander Rogers; I read several lifesigns beyond this hatch... Human ones... but very faint."
Leaving Parker to aid in guarding the deck six entrance with Master Chief Thalesh and Petty Officer Deloit, David holstered his tri-corder and climbed into the hatch to join Lieutenant Argyle outside the engineering access hatch. Crouching beside Duncan, Rogers took the tri-corder out again and, with a short scan, over-rode the security code on the force field sealing the access point. Again the tell-tale shimmer confirmed the shut off of the shield and David nodded for the Lieutenant to re-scan beyond the hatchway. With the field down, perhaps a better scan would reveal more details before they risked opening the hatch.
Argyle scanned again and frowned even more.
"Sir? Life signs are indeed Humans... mostly... there is a Bolian with them... but... I'm no medic, Sir, but if I read this correctly, they are all... I don't know, as if in stasis. Very low bioreadings. But there is a very high level of brain activity such low bodily functions should not be able to sustain. I'm sorry, Sir, I know it doesn't make sense... but see for yourself."
They were both looking at the peculiar readings when Parker also reported his own findings. He had been adjusting his tricorder for some time now, obviously bothered by something that only now he considered worth reporting.
"Commander,,, I too have some curious readings. I thought it was the tricorder malfunctioning but diagnostics show no such thing. Yet, each time we deactivated a force field, there was a short but detectable electromagnetic spike in the EPS conduits. It's like some excess power fell back into the system when it was cut off; but instead of a dispersal pattern, I read the power spike moving away through the conduits and then disperse into one system or another."
Looking over the readings on Parker's tricorder David grunted unhappily.
"Seem's to act like a directed routing, Ensign. Perhaps a command setting. You can track which systems the route leads to by tapping into the Nuntio's MSD."
"That's what I thought too, Sir... but each spike went into a different direction. I can't make head or tails out of it."
Looking back at Duncan, Rogers again looked at the biometric readings on the scattered life sign's beyond the wall and grudgingly agreed to the Lieutenant's assessment.
"I'm an engineer Argyle, not a doctor. Getting into the bay will hopefully reveal more. Let's hope the chief engineer is in here. I need answers!"
So saying, Rogers entered his command override into the hatch access pad and the small door hissed open, revealing a low view of the darkened engineering bay. Pale blue-violet light sparsely lit the interior of the room and revealed a dark silhouette of the main matter-antimatter chamber and its encircling waist high control panels.
And all around it, there were dozens of bodies lying on the ground.
They all wore Starfleet uniforms. Most of them were Humans, but there were a few others like Bolians, Tellarites and one half-Klingon, all lying on the floor as if they had all fell there like puppets with strings suddenly cut. But while they seemed to have fallen where they stood, they were almost evenly dispersed around the now inert central core, like cold stones around a dead campfire.
"They're in some kind of a catatonic state, Sir," Arguyle read from his tricorder. "No injuries except for a few minor contusions like those you get from a sudden fall. But all vital signs are very low... except for brainwaves. According to this, they should be up and about like there was a red alert."
And something else immediately appeared strange to them. Although the warp core was as cold as all the systems and panels within the entire engineering room, there were pale intermittent flashes of reddish lights within it, like the dying sparks of a fire reduced to a few last embers.
"They're not matter-antimatter subatomic residue, Sir," Parker stated looking at his own instruments. "They're electromagnetic spikes... like the ones we got from each force field deactivation."
While Argyle kept a watch over the room and access hatch they had entered from, he ordered the two petty officers to quickly examine and ascertain the condition of the Nuntio crew in the bay. While they moved from body to body, David and Parker discussed a cold start on the fusion reactors.
"Yes Ensign," David continued. "We bring the impulse fusion reactor on deck two to power and feed the EPS grid with power to the ship. We bypass the main warp engine, which from the looks of, is slightly compromised right now."
They both again looked at the cold tower of the matter-antimatter reaction assembly standing darkly in the rear center of the bay, the fire-fly like winks of pale light appearing and dying in random seeming position's within the visible core system. Parker grunted and turned back to working over the control panel below the warp power tower.
"Right! Accessing IPS command co-ordinator. Deturium supply enroute. Pellet formation ready for fusion start, Commander."
"Alright ensign; point zero five centimeter pellet for start up."
The deuterium was pulled from the main storage and brought down to a frozen state to form the pellets for feed into the IRC. Once introduced, a standing pulsed fusion shock front was initiated and fusion of the deuterium was achieved.
"Throttle back Parker, ten to the eigth megawatts."
David confirmed that the throttle accelerator-generator was shut down and diverted the electroplasma into the power distribution net. The lights in main engineering brightened slightly as power arrived from deck 2, and the entire ship thus brightened accordingly. Looking back at Parker, David nodded for him to increase the pellet size, thus increasing power generation to ten to the ninth megawatts. Powers of ten to the eleventh were available in the IRC generation, but David wanted to bring it up gradually.
"Sir?" Parker then said, his head bobbing between his tricorder, the control panels reactivating and his chief; "The EPS conduit is acting erratically. I read numerous electromagnetic spikes all over the ship. They almost sprouted out of nowhere and are spreading out from multiple points and moving in several direction at once... even against the flow of polarity! Looks like a power surge is also heading our way! Sir, this makes no sense!"
Around them systems were coming alive. But instead of the expected simultaneous light up, they saw that many indicators lighted up in succession brighter than they should before settling down to a more normal intensity, as if the power was returning like a concentrating wave flowing towards the center of the room were they all were.
Looking up from his own tricorder, David glanced at the M/ARA assembly at the aft end of the bay, watching the transverse glow permeate the chamber and tower assembly leading up and down from it. This structure guided the incoming matter and anti-matter into the dilithium chamber for power and warp generation. Somewhat perplexed, he looked toward Parker.
"Let's start with what we know and eliminate the impossible. What remains, however improbable, must be the answer."
So saying, Rogers reactivated his tricorder and scanned the entire bay again but concentrated at the main reaction chamber.
"We are dealing with a transverse wave ensign. The electric and magnetic fields are self-propagating and oscillate perpendicular to the direction of energy transfer and travel."
David guided the sensor in his hand back along the indicated incoming direction of travel as indicated on his tricorder, reading the linearly polarized wave's of the two fields. The time change in one type of field is proportional to the space-change in the other, corresponding field, of the wave.
"By following the electric and magnetic fields back along their flight, we can determine their point of origin. Because we can observe the incoming wave in the visible spectrum, we simply follow the four hundred to seven hundred nanometer wavelength."
As they worked, the bizarre movement of the power up became more pronounced, until, suddenly, a few brief discharges jumped from the instruments nearest to them and struck their suits. Some were blue in color, others red, but none was even felt by the Phoenix people, their suits insulating them completely from the weak discharges. It lasted but for a few seconds, thinly heard and mainly seen from one to the other until they stopped, seemingly returning to where they had come from just as suddenly as they had appeared.
"Err... Sir?" security man Argyle was the first to wonder, eyes as wide as the rest of the team.
Looking up from his tricorder, Rogers glanced at the security lieutenant.
"Yes? What is it?"
Having been intent on tracing the wave form of the electromagnetic transmission entering the bay, David had neither seen nor heard anything untoward. Not even a trace showed on the readings that he had been following.
"Didnt you see? Those EM discharges... it was like they... they tried to... grab us."
"Grab you? An EM pulse in here will follow the path of magnetic attraction. Our suits are opposite charged to the chamber is all. Stay back from the core and conduits until our charges reverse polarity."
So saying, David turned back to his tricorder, intent on tracing the paths the incoming pulses were indicated as coming from. If the EPS conduits were damaged or restricted, further power restoration would be impossible from the warp assembly. These flight paths ended at the DCAF chamber.
Rogers turned toward the main reaction chamber and studied the dilithium housing. Through the diffused transparent tritanium borocarbonate viewing band around the chamber he could see that the M/ARA was intact. Its armored hatch was also intact. Pressing a couple icons on the panel near it, David ascertained the status of the crystal inside, its articulation frame and the tri-axis linkages. All seemed intact, and his tricorder matched the tell-tale's from the panel. The EM isolation of the cradle was intact.
'Everything is just shut off,' he thought wonderingly. Speaking aloud, he gestured Ensign Parker over.
"Lets see what a start-up accomplishes ensign. Man that panel and we'll get temperature pressure up in the core now that there is power available from the impulse fusion reactors. We need two point five million K for start up."
Parker watched his panel closely and reported the temperature and pressure attainment as it reached the target for start-up.
"Two point five commander. Pressure steady at seventy two thousand kilopascals."
David grunted and pressed the MRI/ARI start icon on his panel that would initaite the matter-antimatter reaction. The reactant injectors infused the dilithium chamber with matter and anti-matter in two point one centimeter stream's. These injectants hit the crystal perpendicular to it's articulation at identical XYZ co-ordinates. The core sprung to life and the internal operating temperature jumped to normalize at two times ten to the twelfth power kelvin. Rogers quickly opened the nozzles to permit more reactant to enter the chamber, meticulously adjusting the articulation frame to match the increasing matter and anti-matter cross section. Once nine point three centimeters was attained David adjusted the ratio to ten to one , gaining power generation for standard ships functioning.
Out in the darkness of space, the Nuntio's running lights flared briefly and then softened back to normal levels. Navigation lights, winking in rythm in their red and green, denoting port and starboard. Forward, the navigational deflector glowed a pale blue. The warp pylons took on their characteristic red and blue glow and the attenuation lights highlighted the registry number and ships name on her bow above the main deflector.
David looked up at the M/ARA assembly as the power pulsed within it, the familiar throb resounding softly throughout the engineering bay.
As the power pulse grew, the curious red and blue lights suddenly moved seemingly away and out of the power column. Blue and red lightning sparks ran accross the power conduits stretching from it, for a moment intertwined like duelling snakes, then separating as they touched various systems. From those systems, other such sparks came to life and the mesmerizing ballet of sparks and energy strands lighted up the entire room.The strange power surge again made lights and controls flare up in several waves that ran all around them. A number of those seemed to follow the power conduits away from the engineering room. But, again, their was the bizarre discharge of energies against their suits and they all glowed either blue or red for a few seconds before the charge reverted back into the systems.
Following the wave of flaring lights on the stations and panels around them. the Phoenix team saw the energies now coalescing quickly towards the center of the room, as if to return into the warp core; but instead of doing so, the red and blue discharges ran all around it and one of each struck one of the comatose bodies lying on the floor. And then, everything became silent and quiet once more.
"Sir?," whispered Parker after a moment of eerie stillness; "I' don't think this was a polarity effect."
"No Ensign, not polarity. And neither were they directional, like an electromagnetic wave would be. Apart from the color, they are almost like static discharg ... STATIC!"
Suddenly, and to his complete shame and dismay, Rogers recalled some of the briefing aboard the Horizon concerning Sisko's report on the so-called 'spirits' in the Azimuth Horizon anomaly. Counselor Lyrya of the Horizon had somewhat created a phrase during the mission briefing; "Psionic Static". It confirmed what both Parker's and Rogers' TR-590's had been reading all along. Electromagnetic life forms that ignore gravitic and atomic energies. David dropped his tricorder and swore vehemently to any and all, his vulgar Ferengi swear's mixed with almost any other he had picked up in his many years on the Utopia Planatia shipyards.
"Shut down the core!," David yelled at the slightly blushing EnsignParker. "I'll wind up in vault of eternal destitution for missing this."
So saying Rogers slapped at the control panel in front of him while also tapping his comm badge.
"Commander Riker! Re-instate all level ten force fields as soon as you pass them. DO IT NOW!"
As he feverishly tried to shut down the warp core, David had a bad feeling, like perhaps he wasn't in time.
On the floor or at the stations were they had apparently fell down at their post, the engineering crew of the Nuntio started to open their eyes one by one.
Feverously trying to get the warp core off-line, David was oblivious to the stirring's about him from the comatose crew of the Nuntio. Once the shutdown commenced he had to ensure the anti-matter was meticulously drained from the system and expelled out-board, as per shut down protocols.
Once accomplished Rogers initiated the warp core isolation field, an emergency annular containment field designed to seal the core assembly. Normally used to contain core breach situations that would not include core ejection, the annular confinement would hold in check any interior force affecting the core assembly. With the magnetic constrictor's locked down, David turned his attention toward the now imminent threat of the so-called spirits mentioned in the Horizon briefing. Trying to recall the points of interest concerning these incorporeal beings, David remembered that level ten force fields or maximum settings on phasers were the only weapons that were usable against these beings in their natural state.
However, David could not recall any means of disrupting any infected humanoids. Something about highly concentrated proton bursts, or in the case of the Ux-Mal incorporeal prisoner's, a plasma shock. Neither of which was readily available in main engineering.
And all around them, nearly four times the number of people with Rogers started to get off the floor, looking all around at each other with blue and red glowing eyes...
And then all at the Phoenix team.
As the formerly comatose bodies of the Nuntio crew rose from their scattered spots on the floor David shouted at his team to clear the room.
"Get out! Through the hatch now!"
As Lieutenant Argyle, Ensign Parker and Petty Officer's Deloit and Thalesh were on that side of the core, they rapidly scrambled into the hatchway and, last through, Argyle turned to await Rogers. But David was too far from the hatch with five now standing crewmen occupying the intervening space. Knowing he couldn't get out that way, Rogers turned and sprinted to the rungs of the access ladder leading up the wall to the engineering second level while yelling at the waiting Lieutenant.
"Close that hatch mister. Weld it shut if you have to. Get back to our beam in point."
Not waiting for a reply, David grasped the ladder rungs and rapidly climbed to the walkway above. He knew that his phaser on maximum setting could conceivably free the crew from these so called ghost entity's, but that would also probably kill the host. So that option was not an option to a Star Fleet officer. Thinking rapidly, David tried to recall where on the Nuntio he could find a source for the proton burst idea. Plasma shock's might work as well, but would potentially be as dangerous to the host as a maximum phaser hit.
Turning to port at the top of the ladder, David saw two more Nuntio crew interposed between him and the second level jefferies access hatch above his team. With no choice but to go starboard at the moment, David quickly made his way around the catwalk to another hatch on that side. Squatting before it, he over-rode the lock and pulled the hatch open. A quick glance inside revealed the tube empty and David began to scramble though, when a vise-like grip caught hold of his left ankle, numbing his lower leg in a very, very strong grip.
As he looked down, Rogers could see that the Andorian woman who had grabbed him in a vise-like grip was an officer of the Nuntio wearing an engineer's Ensign uniform and pip. Andorians easily had twice the strength of a Human and both female genders were just as strong as the two male ones of the half mammalian, half-insectoid species. But beyond the sudden pain of her powerful grip, he was even more startled by the intense reddish glow coming out of her eyes and the tip of her antennae where her other pair of visual receptors were located.
David stiffled a gasp at the reddish glow emanating from the blue hues ensign and gripped the sides of the hatchway tightly, exerting his own half Romulan strength against the powerful Andorian grip on his numbed ankle. Knowing what he did of their quadroscopic vision process, Rogers jabbed with his free foot at the antennae atop her head, knowing that Andorian vision did not process the whole light spectrum, but relied heavily upon these appendages for visitory and auditory reception. He recalled in fact that their auditory reception was very acute, but the antennae were monodirectional.
His first booted swipe caught the ensign on the temple, with no visible effect, and David brought his foot back for a second strike, aiming between and above the forehead. If he could disrupt her vision and cause pain or injury to the antennae, he could conceivably break free of her powerful grip.
Whatever controlled the body of the woman was not aware how sensitive and fragile those cranial appendages where. Not only did the antennae contain visual and auditory organs, but it also housed olfactive ones, their bioelectrical perception... and their equilibrum organ. The Andorian body hadn't felt much of the first blow through the thick semi-chitinous skin and supple cartilagenous cranium and thus did not do much to avoid the next one, a mere half-hearted dodge behind a cruel smile. She was now intent on using both hands to drag the surprisingly strong half-Romulan all the way down. Rogers' second kick flattened one antennae backward on the white-haired skull.
The reaction was as sudden as it was intense. With a howl of excruciating pain, she let him go and fell hard on the deckplates, holding her head with both hands.
An Andorian normally would have been caught in a killing rage following such an attack; even merely touching one antenna without permission was legal justification for murder on Andoria. But before she could recover from the intense pain, something startling happened.
From her body rose a reddish electrical display of electricity that rushed into the nearest functional system... and then straight at David Rogers. The discharge ran all over his EVA suit, like a bloody, tentacled worm of energy trying to find some entry point to get directly at him.
David scrambled backwards as fast as he could in the small hatchway, toward the main Jefferies tube's behind him, drawing his phaser while the voice activation in his suit connected him to the Phoenix away team. What he had just observed in freeing the Andorian needed to be passed on to the team.
"Rogers to away team. Extreme pain seems to disconnect the victim's from the entities. Repeat, very extreme pain."
Once finished with the warning David set his phaser to maximum and increased the beam spread to use the phaser sweep ability in order to cover the entire hatchway tube, still crawling backwards as the red tinctured energy crackled off the walls towards him. With a press of the trigger, the beam swept out and down the short hatchway, encompasing the electrical discharge, and then filling the hatch. Passing through, the beam dispersed into main engineering, weakening in the increased space and barely reached the far wall.
As he fired, Rogers reached the end of the hatchway and tumbled into the jefferies tube junction. And fell into the vertical shaft, falling three decks to the bottom.
It took a while for the chief engineer of the Phoenix to regain consciousness. There was a reddish glow before his blurry eyes but it was receding fast and disappeared after a few seconds. His fall had knocked him out cold, saved from a broken neck by his suit and helmet and the repeated impact of his body against the railways on his way down, somehow effectively, if painfully, slowing his fall, as his bruised limbs attested to him.
What he didn't know was that his fall had also saved him from the spectral alien attacking him. By opening a comm channel, he had created an entry point for the energy being to reach him inside his isolating EVA suit by atuning it's electromagnetic nature to that of the comm signal. But his sudden fall had inadvertently made for him a swift dodge of the rushing energy discharge. It followed, swifter by nature than gravity pulling away from it it's living target; but the comm channel had automatically closed itself after use since no signal answered it, and the Zetarian crackled futilely around the once again fully insulated suit, unable to reach the man inside. It had stayed for long minutes but then had to move away in search of easier prey, leaving the inert Rogers on the deck plates... just as he regained his senses.
David instinctively tried to rub the misty tears of pain from his eye's, but his gloved hand met the face shield of his suit, and his memory returned. His fall had bruised his ego as well as his body and he groaned through the aches and pains to roll over and get to his hands and knees at the bottom of the shaft. Doing so he spied his phaser lying a half meter away, where it had fallen from his instinctive and desparate grab for something, anything, to break his backwards fall. The power setting was still glowing at level sixteen, wide spread, with probably five shots left on the power indicator.
Picking the phaser up and getting to his feet he initiated a diagnostic on the suit to ascertain any damage. Comms were offline but functional. Mag boots showed a malfunction in the left sole. Primarily however, Rogers read the depleting oxygen supply in his readout and determined there was about one hours supply left. If he could locate a supply, his suit's extra hose could resupply him. But that supply would explicably be in a cargo hold and David surmised from his recollection of the Nova deck specifications that the nearest cargo hold would be deck five aft, beneath the shuttlebay on deck four.
Looking up, David saw the ladder extending up and gingerly made his way to it while holstering his phaser. Grabbing the rung and placing a foot on another, David began the four deck climb toward deck four.
As the chief engineer of the Phoenix climbed, he felt more than he heard some distant noise. It rose as he climbed until he came back to the level he had fallen from. There, the noise was unmistakable; it was the noise of several people shouting and fighting one another in the engine room.
Reaching the top engineering deck again David peered carefully over the sill of the hatchway to observe the commotion. Many of the formerly comatose crew members of the Nuntio's crew were engaged in an all-out brawl. The melee involved every awake person, and consisted of multiple groups of persons actively trying to kill an almost equal sized group of adversaries. The madness of it all didn't escape Rogers' gaze. These were active crew mates trying to kill their own shipmate's. The only dissenting crew were the five knocked out or severely injured people scattered about the engineering deck plates. And the other think that immediately struck home was the light crackle of blue and red energy discharges fleeting about in the confusion.
As he watched, trying to think what he should do another crewman in a yellow tinted engineer's tunic with Lieutenant's pips on the collar fell to a heavy blow from an identically hued opponent. Even before the comatose Lieutenant hit the floor a blue energy spike shot out of the mans eyes and forehead to sweep rapidly up and over the maddened crowd of pugilists. Recognizing the minute lightening bolt for what resembled his attacker before his fall, David made up his mind and crawled upward another step to get a clearer view of the group, and pulled his phaser. Making sure his weapon was still on heavy stun and wide aperture, David took aim at the dancing fighters and fired the conical beam into the crowd, sweeping from left to right to cover the entire crowd below.
The range of the beam covered almost the entire area. Spread as it was, the energy output could only have stunned most life forms for a few minutes at most despite the high setting. And indeed, the belligerents all fell to the ground as expected, their nervous system overwhelmed by the phaser blast. But then, something unexpected happened. In the gloom, blobs of red and blue lights emerged from the inert bodies and mingled into a cloud of lights and lightning that swirled in a hypnotic display of colors. It hovered a moment a few meters off the ground in the engine room, then started to move out towards a hatchway.
It was coming straight at Rogers.
The gathering swarm of lights forced David back into the shaft. His priority had not changed however, and if he did not replace his dwindling oxygen supply, he would be forced to abandon his suit and face the exposure to these energy beings invading his mind. It seemed like they all were focused on him now though, so with thought to the release of the Nuntio crew in engineering below, David began climbing again to deck five. With a moments pause, he opened a comm channel to the ship, trying to reach the transport command.
"Computer, intitiate transport ..."
The swirling coalescence of red's and blue's immediately dived toward his suit comm link on the side of his helmet and Rogers terminated the open link immediately. The observance, however, was not lost on the engineer. These entities were able to sense transmissions and likely used them to infiltrate suit systems. Being electo-magnetic in nature, David surmised that these creatures could travel through the links provided within Federation ship and suit communications channels.
With this new information, David devised a plan. Lead these creature's away from the Nuntio crew. But how? He couldn't use his own comm's now, as the darting lights were swirling around him like a angry swarm of wasps. Reaching the deck, David accessed the hatch and crawled into the hallway of deck five. The cargo bay under the flight deck was aft, past the bio matter processing rooms. Moving into a fast trot, David quickly moved down the corridor and reached a comm panel along side the processor door. With rapid tapping he set up a text command to the ships computer. It would open a communication along this hallway to his suit, but would immediately close and transfer to the following panel further up the corridor.
Rogers hoped that the jumps of the comm signal would entice the entities to follow along with him to the cargo bay. Of course he would not be answering the signals, but he hoped the creatures would somehow try to be in proximity to his suit comm to gain entry when they thought he would answer the ship.
Moving again, David reached the bay aft and entered his over ride's to drop the force field and open the cargo bay entrance. Stepping through the still opening doors he kept close enough for the sensor to keep the door open and allow the alien's to follow him without hindrance, then when the again buzzed around his suit, David stepped back and allowed the doors to whoosh shut. Then he re-instituted the force field, trapping the creatures in the bay with him.
That accomplished, David looked around the bay for the usual EV suit supplies. They should be near the inner wall, readily available to supply the landing bay above on deck four. There they were, fifteen or so suits within their enclosures. Moving quickly, David grabbed his suit's extra oxygen hose and hooked into the first suits supply, transferring and topping off his own almost empty supply.
Rogers, in the aft storage bay on deck three, knew he had to find his away team. And commander Riker's team as well. Moving forward he came to the entrance to the bay on the port side. His PADD schematic showed a hallway past here leading to the transporter buffer compartment and cryogenic gas tank compartment, and further to the port science lab and then sickbay. But he would need to distract these beings away from him momentarily if he wanted to pass through the exit force field encapsulating the bay. Walking starboard he came to the cargo transporter console and began signaling the shuttle emergency egress hatch at the rear of the cargo bay.
As he entered the commands, the screen came alive with a timer, the room flashed yellow warning lights and David heard the all to familiar Federation computer voice blare her announcement: "Self-destruct sequence activated. T minus 20 minutes... nineteen minutes fifty-nine... ninety minutes fifty-eight... nineteen minutes fifty-seven...".
'Oh that's just lovely,' David thought as he continued his manipulations.
The room flashed telltale red warning lights now, and the warning klaxons boomed their woo-woooo, woo-woooo, as the outer door slowly opened to space; the force field inside preventing decompression. Turning from the console, David observed the multiple lights entities racing to investigate the new opening in the Nuntio hull, but they quickly stopped just short of the level ten force field. Moving fast Rogers went back to the port side door and quickly opened an exit in the field to enter the next chamber. Upon entering the small safety chamber he closed the door and reactivated the force field, leaving the entities trapped in the cargo bay. With a sigh of relief he turned to the inner door and repeated the unseal, exit through and reseal upon that door and found himself in the short storage hallway leading forward.
Here the walls were lined with suits and supplies for working in the cargo bay. Seven pairs of over and under compartments lined both sides of the hallway, and Rogers quickly searched a few of them to retrieve a trio of oxygen canisters for suit resupply. At the front of the hall was another door and the same exit and reseal was accomplished, leaving David standing at the aft end of the port side corridor on deck three. Setting the trio of canister's next to the outer wall opposite the first compartment David turned and investigated the transporter buffer compartment to the right. The dim room, what could be seen of it, held no one and seemed abandoned. Picking up the canisters again, David walked forward past the sealed science bay on his left and reached the cross hallway tee junction. Upper level computer core was to his right, but he turned left and went to the sickbay door.
Setting the oxygen tanks down again Rogers began overriding the force field in order to open the entrance to sickbay.
That task was easy enough. What showed itself to be less easy was how to deal with what suggested the passive readings of his suit's built-in tricorder. They signaled him that there were half a dozen humanoid lifeforms within sickbay... and all of them had electromagnetic, encephalographic and neurogenic levels impossibly high for their standard physiology.
Dropping the force field with his override's, David drew his phaser and checked its stun setting to make sure it was still on maximum dispersal. He knew from past use that this would incapacitate the personell inside sickbay and force any entities out of their bodies. What to do with the displaced beings then was a matter of conjecture. ensuring the forcefield would re-establish itself after he entered the bay, David opened the physical door and stepped through.Swiftly, David brought up his pistol and swept the room right to left, not bothering to pinpoint any one individual. Rather, the sweep would encompass all of them and render the occupants unconcious. And the entities would therefor need to vacate and focus on himself instead.
The expected results were disconcerting to Rogers, even if expected. The six Nuntio crew members collapsed where they stood and multiple reddish and bluish will-o-wisp looking light forms rapidly rose out of the now inert bodies lying about sickbay and made a whirling, waltz-like movement toward where Rogers stood in front of the re-sealed sickbay entrance. Thinking quickly David ran left past the three bio-beds on the port side of the room and through the gap separating the main operating room console and the wall. Inside the operating room was a single medical operating table with encompassing displays and panels. Turning to the main console Rogers entered delay commands for the operating bay itself. A level ten containment field. Having accomplished a five second delay, David then set up a command sequence over-ride and set up a inter-ship transport to the science lab just aft of sickbay.
Stepping back through the whirling dirvishes of the disembodied enemy, Rogers drew them with him back to the main operating table. As planned, they followed, trying to gain entrance through his suit. But there was no open comm and they fluttered desperately about him. Then, as the containment field materialized, the transport beam cut through the rising field and whisked Rogers out of the bay. His fleeting thought as the beam dematerialized him was that he hoped, in his hurry, that he had timed the transport correctly. A rising level ten containment field, if not timed minutely with the transport operation, would interfere with the pattern buffers, the phase transition coils and the imaging scanners. Not to mention the destination imaging scanners.
David hoped he wouldn't materialize in the floor, or worse, half in it..
By David Rogers on 02/24/2015 @ 8:54pm
I need a heads up here .... can we have a location as to this corridor we beamed into? Deck # would suffice. C'mon, we have to know what deck we're on here, right? It's a Nova!! lol
By Kheren on 02/25/2015 @ 12:10pm
Quite right.
We materialized on deck 6 near the multipurpose laboratories. You are currently moving towards the cargo bays.
Main engineering is on deck 7 in that same direction.
Auxilliary control room (or here the flight control room) where the riker team is moving is on deck 5 forward.
By David Rogers on 02/28/2015 @ 11:42am
I have named the 3 security people from the Phoenix crew roster.
So that the Riker team doesn't use them, I have Commandeered";
Assistant Chief Sec/Tac Officer: Lt. Duncan Argyle;
Security Officer: Master Chief Petty Officer Thalesh;
Security Officer: Petty Officer 2nd class Randy Deloit;
By Kheren on 02/28/2015 @ 2:07pm
well done :)
By Kheren on 03/08/2015 @ 4:40pm
Love your stuff BLZBUB :)
By Kheren on 03/08/2015 @ 4:40pm
Love your stuff BLZBUB :)
By Syntron on 04/04/2015 @ 12:31am
I'm posting for Kheren for the moment until he can get back on the site. I don't have a PC in this thread so the last person prior to me will be listed as the one posting.
By David Rogers on 05/04/2015 @ 11:23am
How full is this one getting GM?
By Kheren on 05/04/2015 @ 11:40am
You may start a new one anytime. Remember to include everyone you wish to join in (for example, Riker and Elisha if you want... or hope... to rejoin their group)
By David Rogers on 06/13/2015 @ 12:12pm
This concludes the thread here, and I can carry on into the science lab thread of Riker and crew.