Cold Station 31 (Part 1 of 3)

Posted on 23 Aug 2022 @ 6:12pm by Commander Marisa Wyatt & Chief Warrant Officer 3 Lamar Darius & Commander Scarlet Blake & Commander Allyndra illm Warraquim & Lieutenant JG Sofie Ullswater & Ensign Amanda Turell & Petty Officer 2nd Class Donald Andrews & Petty Officer 3rd Class Constantin Vansen

3,405 words; about a 17 minute read

Mission: Episode 18 - Cold Station 31
Location: Cold Station 31 - Level 1, Personnel Quarters
Timeline: MD 10, 0656 hrs

Previously, on Flight of the Intruders (Part 2)...

In space, Livia delicately maneuvered into an optimal landing position then fired her dorsal and lateral maneuvering thrusters. Slowly and with precision, the Type 6 shuttle entered the facility's small support craft housing and adjusted its position to hover just to the side of the other landed shuttle. It was a tight fit for Galileo's two shuttles, but doable.

"Ten seconds," announced Darius from the helm. He kept a close eye on his proximity sensors while slowly dropping down into the vacant parking spot. "3...2....1..." A soft jolt reverberated through their shuttle when it touched down alongside the other away team. "Positive hard dock. We're inside the cold station, commander."

And Now, the Continuation...

[ON]

When shuttlecraft Livia touched down on the landing pad adjacent to her sister shuttle, the cold station's shuttlebay hatch began to retract. The two large doors atop opposite sides of the upper docking bay slowly reconvened towards each other. They quickly met at the center and sealed the exposed vacuum from the elements, which initiated a short decompression sequence to provide breathable air and a working atmosphere to its new occupants.

Even before the shuttle had set down Amanda was up and standing by the hatchway, rifle shouldered and ready, given the uncertain situation they were entering it made sense for her to be first out rather than the ship's XO or higher ranking officers.

Allyndra on the Virginia nodded. "Atmosphere is fine out there. What level is the sickbay on? I want to start there. If there is something biological or chemical then people would have gone there to get treatment and or the logs might have something in them."

Blake nodded, standing whilst the hatch unsealed, slapping Shizn lightly on the back of the shoulder in recognition of his sterling piloting. As illogical as it was, she would feel better for seeing the other shuttle on the deck in one piece. "Let's meet with the rest of our team and we'll discuss the plan. It's a good point you've raised," she paused, seeing the way Amanda hovered at the hatch. She respected it, even if it drove home how her own duties had changed over the years. "Lead the way, Turell," she allowed her to follow her instinct.

As the hatch opened Amanda quickly exited the shuttle, switching on her rifles light as she entered the relatively dark bay; only the dim emergency lighting providing illuminating. She made a circuit of several meters around the Virginia sweeping the bay with her targeter.

Next out of the shuttle, Ensign Ullswater stepped down from its relative safety with more than slight trepidation. Tricorder out she scanned the atmosphere and surroundings and half mumbled out a confirmation of Warraquim's assessment of the atmosphere. "Station main power is down." She called back after a moment of scans "Auxiliary too."

Blake moved out with a torch already held up, casting an eerie glow in the dark. She blinked as her eyes adjusted to the change in light, her footsteps feeling heavy on the deck. She looked to the closed hatch they'd used to get in. There was an off putting finality about it, being literally sealed into the rock, without any starlight to temper the darkness. She tried to shake the imagery of a tomb. She opened her tricorder, but shook her head when she got no more than Ullswater.

Once the Livia touched down, Sandoval ran another scan of the atmosphere. "Still breathable, but keep an eye on your tricorders." It was better to be safe than run into a pocket of something dangerous on the station. "Let's join the others."

Marisa smiled at Darius. "Nice flying," she said as she gathered her gear.

"Don't thank me yet. We get to do it again on the way out." Lamar stood and briefly stretched his legs before securing his tricorder and hand phaser in their respective belt pouches. As one of the two the designated navigators for the search and rescue mission, he hadn't brought along additional supplies and looked to assist where necessary with his free hands.

"Agreed," Allyndra made a face. "Nothing toxic at least here but we might be facing decreasing oxygen levels. Looking at the layout given in the briefing might I suggest Commander Blake at least two teams. Crew quarters and admin offices are on level one, but facilities including power are on three, science labs on two. Or we sweep level after level, you call commander."

Vansen grabbed his bag with his equipment, looking over at Andrews before he took a deeper breath. He stepped out of the shuttle, looking around for a moment before he looked over at the others, quietly finding a spot to stand while the plans were being put together where he could follow what was going on without accidentally volunteering by being to close to the officers.

Picking up the engineering kit that had sat between his legs during their flight, Donald checked nothing had moved out of place or fallen out before slipping it over his shoulder and followed Vansen out the shuttle.

Blake cast an eye around the group in the dim light, counting each of them off out of instinct and habit to ensure everyone was present and accounted for. "First thing's first, has anyone been able to get any useful data yet? I'm getting nothing from my tricorder scans and our shuttle scans gave us little to go on."

"There doesn't seem to have been much to detect," Ensign Ullswater responded. "Power is out throughout the station, computer systems aren't responding to our requests. Doesn't seem like there is much here." The ensign looked back to her tricorder for a moment "There are life signs, but nothing that can be isolated, could be anything from some moss to one of the scientists but these rocks aren't helping matters."

"The more we stand here, the more we are using up oxygen in the place without anything to keep the air proper. It is obvious to me that something terrible has gone wrong. While I want to look at sickbay, perhaps keeping us together and sweeping deck by deck. I would say we start here and work our way down, see if any personnel are around that might elucidate what happened or is going on. Otherwise, I fear we might just be walking into the unknown." Allyndra changed her assessment of where to start.

Sandoval heard the last two comments. "I'm torn between admin, science, and research, but I'll follow you if that's what you prefer," she said to Blake. She knew that Starfleet would want whatever was being worked on secured along with finding the crew and learning what happened. However, with the current readings, she wasn't sure if anyone would be found alive, in spite of the odd life signs.

Blake nodded quickly as she took one last look at her tricorder before clicking it shut and sliding it back in the holster. She turned on the spot with her torch lifted, looking toward the main doors. "One thing's for sure; we're literally stumbling around in the dark unless we get the power back on. We're going to head down to Engineering," she motioned to Turell and Darius and then to the doors, indicating they should try and get it open. She cast the beam of her torch over the wall and flooring close by in case there was a hatch that might offer a more direct route. "Once we get some kind of power back up and running we'll start a proper search. In the meantime, let's keep a look out on the way down."

Shining his compact wrist-mounted flashlight on the shuttlebay's exit door, Darius moved in compliance with the XO's order. This place was already giving him the creeps. He wholeheartedly preferred not to operate in the dark any longer than necessary. "On it." He walked up to the double door's small, inoperative LCARS panel then carefully manipulated his fingertips around its edges to pry it from the wall. When it finally popped out, he placed the interface on the ground then manually pumped the lever until the door's seams slowly separated. He stopped once a few inches of space had been created between the two sections. Enough to use brute strength to do the rest. "I'll take one side," he said to the security ensign, firmly gripping one of the slides and bracing his body.

"Brute force isn't exactly my strong suit right now chief." Amanda said, even with her good arm she was still weaker physically than before. Slinging her rifle she gripped the other door, counted down from three and began to pull as hard as she dared.

Darius joined her in the effort. Inch by inch, both sides of the entrance slowly hissed open until the space between them was large enough for two bodies to squeeze through side-by-side. He stepped back from the opening and behind one of the doors for temporary cover, then peeked through the gap with his flashlight before moving back again.

"It's a straight corridor, about a hundred feet to the end. Multiple doors on each side. No lights or signs of life," he reported from his brief visual observation.

Blake nodded to them as she took her phaser out, moving into the pitch dark corridor. She shone her torch down the length of it. Apart from the deafening darkness, it looked...normal. No signs of trouble. She started to move down the corridor with firm but slower steps, flashing her torch towards doorways to see if any were open as she led them in the general direction of the lift. "We'll have to climb down to the lowest level to get to Engineering."

After bringing her rifle back around Amanda followed Blake into the corridor, she stuck to the right side of the narrow corridor as they walked panning her weapons light and targeter around for any signs of potential danger and checking each doorway as they came to it.

Darius hustled through the opening after Turell then took up a position on her left flank across from the away team's commander. His hand phaser was at the ready and he crossed his wrists to provide pinpoint illumination and fire support if necessary. He scanned the walls, ceiling and floor bulkheads as best he could in the darkness but it was hard to make out any discernible clues.

Marisa followed Blake and the others. Power was important, but so was information--as long as it wasn't all kept in the main computer. She wanted to look for any signs of what happened in science and admin, in case it gave them clues, but Blake was the senior officer.

Allyndra followed after the others. She hated this enclosed space and the area with the most open area was behind her not forward. "Concentrate on the readings." She kept telling herself mentally.

Near the rear of the group Donald fought the urge to keep checking behind himself, he was slightly tense mostly from the potential for danger rather than the darkness and environmental conditions, building starships there were certainly more dark and environmentally dangerous areas than there were potential hostiles

The two away teams slowly walked with coordination down the long and compact corridor. It was obviously not constructed with the width to accommodate as many personnel as a Galaxy-class starship, and forced the expedition team into a narrow two-column formation. Beams of white light from their flashlights swept across the facility's interior and temporarily illuminated several doors labeled as personnel quarters. Less than thirty feet into the journey, a foul stench started to permeate their nostrils. It was distinctive and unmistakable for those who'd ever encountered it. Most importantly, it was the first real evidence that something had gone terribly wrong.

Vansen frowned, his nose wrinkling at the sickly sweet smell. He knew what it was, what a decomposing body smelled like. He glanced around, slowly, adrenaline making his heart race. "This is not good," he whispered, and even as he did it he knew he was stating the obvious to the more experienced away team members.

Sandoval has not smelled many dead bodies, but she was familiar with the scent of dead animals, and there wasn't much difference. She checked her tricorder. "No life signs here." She wasn't sure she wanted to go looking for the body right now. There were likely a lot more of them. At the same time, they did need to find out what happened.

The smell that permeated the corridor is not what made Allyndra nervous. She had smelled death before. It was an enclosed space that was making every instinct in her body scream for open space. "Danger, fly!" The ancient call in her mind screamed at her.

Ensign Ullswater gestured down the hall "Something did happen here." There are some smells that one doesn't easily forget and she could tell from the looks on the faces of the rest of her team that she wasn't the only one who was thinking this way. For a science crew it seemed like everyone here was all too familiar with the smells of death.

As Amanda swept her light against one of the walls a reflection caught her attention, she held up a closed fist in the 'hold' signal to the team while she kept walking to investigate. The smell of death and decay had been getting stronger as they had progressed down the corridor and she hoped she wasn't about to encounter the source of it. As she got closer she saw it fully; a large splatter of blood across the wall and a small pool drying into the carpet. "Commander, I have a good amount of blood here."

Blake crouched to get a closer look, her features emotionless despite the slight shake of her head. She wished she could say she was shocked, but she wasn't. Her hackles were up, and her stomach sunk with the turn, but she wasn't shocked.

After encountering the blood, it was obvious something had been hurt terribly. Allyndra did her scan as well as others and the recorder revealed the grim fact. "Definitely human. I am guessing the smell is from the corpse of the victim."

"Find them," Blake said over her shoulder to the group, pushing herself up to stand, already casting her torch light around to try and find the person the blood came from. "They can't be far."

"They went that way." Ullswater piped up, with a hesitant gesture down one of the corridors to a residential area. "There's a... well, I guess you could call that a trail of blood." She felt like she should be a lot less calm as her tricorder showed the last path this person had ever taken.

"It is a good place to see if anyone is still alive," Marisa said. "Do we go together or split up here?" She turned to Blake for her decision. There were still a lot of questions and she wasn't sure how much time they'd have to find them.

Blake shook her head sharply, casting her light down the corridor, taking in the space as best she could in the dark. "No, the body can't be far," the words were grim, but she had been around enough death to know they were true. "We stay together for now."

Marisa nodded once. If it wasn't very far, they should definitely stay together. Better to find out now what they might be facing.

Donald looked in the direction Sofie had gestured to, he could catch glimpses of the trail on the floor and walls and his tricorder was picking it up relatively clearly, he began to follow it.

"Obviously Commander." Allyndra piped up from the back. "This kind of blood loss, the smell, I think if anyone remains alive, they have gone elsewhere. There is obviously no aid being rendered at this point." She waved toward the sealed door they had come upon. "You might have to blast the door open."

Blake nodded, motioning to Darius and Sandoval to set to work on the door, wanting Turell ready with her rifle once it was open, just in case. "Open it up, everyone else be ready, we have no idea what we might be dealing with," she still held her own phaser, even if she backed up a bit to give Darius and Sandoval space.

On the commander's order, Darius hustled to one side of the entrance where its small LCARS panel was located. He shined his flashlight on it and tapped a standard override sequence into the dormant console. A short series of negative chirps sounded, indicating the need for manual access. He was about to start prying the panel out when his eyes caught a glimpse of the door frame. The beam of light on his wrist moved up and down along the edge of the sealed door. "There's a phaser weld here, commander," he informed both Sandoval and Blake. "Top, bottom and middle. Done from the inside." He'd seen a few of them before in his career and knew enough to identify the visible bubbling in the tritanium alloy and its origin. Lamar shook his head. "I can cut through it, but it's going to take a few minutes...and be loud."

Amanda came in close to get a look at the phaser welds Darius had noticed, they had been quite well done. Whoever was on the other side of the door certainly didn't want anyone getting through it. "Quite well done but wide beam on setting 10 or higher would get us through that door in a flash chief, or a micro-charge here and here." She told Darius and motioned to a few points on the door. "Still going to be loud though."

The security ensign's observations were on point but Darius had one reservation. "If we blow this door, we have to worry about shrapnel." He pointed to the door. "Not for us, but anyone who's inside."

"Lifesigns are inconclusive Sir." Donald said from just behind, "I can't tell if there is anyone in there or not. Better play it safe."

"Fine, lets cut it." She said turning to Blake for approval as she cycled her phaser rifle several settings higher from the heavy stun it was set to per Sop.

Blake nodded to her firmly. If there was a chance that someone else was still alive in there, they'd take the safer route. "Darius, Sandoval, Turell, Shizn and Karras, you stay and start cutting this door open. The rest of you, we're going to take a quick scout ahead and see if we can find the way down to the lower decks. We'll meet back here in a few minutes," she assured, having no intention of heading down without the rest of the team.

"Sir," was Darius' simple acknowledgement. It was apparent none of them knew what they would find on the other side of the entryway. Anticipation overrode anxiety at the prospect of completing their mission as soon as possible. "I'll start at the top," he said to Turell. He thumbed his hand phaser's power setting button to adjust the beam intensity to level six, then walked up close to the door with his flashlight in his opposite hand to illuminate his workspace. "On my mark."

"I'll take this chunk." Amanda said, she changed position a little and readied her rifle willing herself to stop the slight tremble in her arm.

"I'll take the other side," Sandoval said, pulling out her phaser. She waited for Turell to get ready. "We'll start on the count of three. One. Two. Three."

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

--

CMDR Scarlet Blake
First Officer
USS Galileo-A

PO3 Constantin Vansen
Operations Officer
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Rice]

Ensign Amanda Turell
Security Officer
USS Galileo-A
[Pnpc Mimi]

PO2 Donald Andrews
Engineering Officer
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Mimi]

CMDR Allyndra illm Warraquim
Second and Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo-A

LCDR Marisa Sandoval
Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo-A

CWO3 Lamar Darius
Conn Officer
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Saalm]

ENS Sofie Ullswater
Science Officer
USS Galileo-A

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