A Cavalier Search

Posted on Sat Jul 31st, 2021 @ 10:18am by Lieutenant Commander Finnley Keating VII & Lieutenant Xavier Leiko & Lieutenant JG FalenvralLi Zh’kyhrihr

Mission: By Artemis' Bow
Location: USS Cavalier Jeffries Tubes
Timeline: MD-03 after "A Stealthy Entrance"
1550 words - 3.1 OF Standard Post Measure

Using the map that Li had sequestered from the Starfleet database, they crawled through the jefferies tubes in silence. Upon reaching the first intersection, Finn double checked the map and then started the climb upwards one deck. The soft click of their boots on the ladder rungs provided a steady rhythm, contrary to Finn's heartbeat which anxiously increased in speed as they neared the brig. Finn furrowed an eyebrow at her tricorder as they came to a stop at the access hatch for the brig.

"I'm only reading one life sign," she whispered towards Li.

In the cramped vertical tube, there wasn't any reasonable way for Li to see the readings but she was sure Keating had more experience with that herself. Still, she asked, "As you sure that includes the brig? Maybe it's only scanning the security office. Or the brig's containment is interfering?"

"Maybe, we'll have to open the hatch and peek in to check," Finn replied as she climbed the last rung onto the short horizontal tunnel leading to the cells. Checking her tricorder once more, there still appeared only one life form. She then took her combadge off and put it passive mode, hiding it in her boot, before handing Li the tricorder. "Stay on the ladder, I'm going to peek through the hatch and see what's in there. If for any reason someone sees me, stay hidden. You can track my combadge from the tricorder."

Li steeled herself, resting her hand on the phaser at her hip before Finn handed her the tricorder and the contingency part of the plan fell into place. She shook her head. "I can - I can back you up. Cover you. If anyone sees you we can take them. You said there's only one person in there and we'll surprise them. There's no reason for you to get caught."

"I don't want internal sensors to pick up phaser fire if I can help it, at least not until we've firmly located the crew and formulate a better plan to take the ship back over. Besides, I don't plan on getting caught. It's just a precaution. Stay on the ladder and out of sight," Finn made her final statement and didn't wait for an answer. She cautiously crawled to the hatch and as quietly as she could, opened it just a crack. Peering out, Finn saw nothing. Not even the singular life form the tricorder had shown earlier. She eeked the hatch open just an inch farther and angeled her view as best she could. A pair of legs, looking like they were clothed in a uniform, stood off to the side, confirming the lifesign readings she had seen. Finn was able to see that all of the cells within her view were empty.

With a slight sense of disappointment, she discreetly closed the hatch, remaining undetected, and crawled back to Li. "There's no one in there but a guard. I couldn't get a good view of the last cell, but there's no way they could have stuff everyone into a single cell. I don't think they're here." Her shoulders slumped slightly. "Where do you think we should try next?"

Tension rippled across Li's shoulders, antennae quivering, and she felt an echo of her headache returning. Despite Finn's instructions, she closed her hand around the phaser again. She wouldn't use it - wouldn't ruin Keating's plan - but just feeling it gave her some sense of power in this situation as she watched more and more of Keating's body slip through the hatch and into the guarded security complex. When the engineer started to shimmy back into the Jeffries tube, Li began taking deep breaths, trying to calm herself.

"Well, some ships the mess hall can be converted into mass holding pretty easily, right? Or the cargo bay. I'm not sure about Novas specifically. For that matter, they could have them split up in sealed quarters. Is there any way to find out where groups of people are that wouldn't normally be? Tap into Cavalier's internal sensors or something?"

The lightbulb started to ignite as Li finished her sentence. "That's an excellent idea!" Finn replied with a hushed tone of excitement. "But we'll need a console where we can access internal sensors. We should be able to tap into the internal sensor grid from the console in the cargo bay. Plus it's on our list of places to check for our people anyways. What do you think? Kill one bird with two stones?"

"All right. Yeah," Li said, looking up at Keating on the ladder above her. "So it'll either be packed with our people and the folks holding them or we hope it's empty because everyone's busy with whatever's going on here instead of any cargo handling." She looked down toward the last junction they'd passed then up again. "I think we have to go up another deck to clear the computer core. Then the horizontal access tunnel should run straight aft to the Shuttle Bay. Cargo should be right above us for a junction or two there."

Finn nodded. "Got it, just tell me when we get close to the tunnel we need to turn down," she said before continuing up the ladder. The hum of the ship and the soft clicks of their boots on the rungs were the only things that broke the silence as they climbed upward. A bead of sweat formed on Finn's forehead as the heat in the jefferies tube intensified, both from the climb and nerves. She knew how to put on a calm and collected exterior, but with so much at stake, it was hard to not be at least a little nervous.

As they climbed past it, Li eyed the hatch that opened into the Security complex as though it had all been a trap and they were now going to be caught. When it failed to spring at her, she looked up past Finn and said, "That should be it. Take that junction aft almost as far as we can." She imagined a long, unbroken tunnel running the length of the ship but, once inside, she could see a closed hatch just a few dozen meters away. "It... it should be straight on from here. Are those always closed or do you think it's a security thing?"

"No, they're normally open. Must be a security thing," Finn paused to look at the map. "Yea, this should be an open tunnel until the final hatch at the cargo bay, no one ever closes all of these hatches except at the entrance to the room itself. Maybe this means we're on the right track." She moved down the tunnel to the closed door and tried to open it with no luck. "Damnit, it's sealed." They were so close and had come too far to be blocked by a simple hatch.

Finn let out a disgruntled mumble before turning to Li. "I can overload the locking mechanism and open it, but it'll take a minute. Lets just hope we don't get caught in the meantime."

At the reminder that they might be discovered in this cramped space, Li drew her phaser and sighted back the way they'd come. She alternated her attention to the empty corridor and its blind corners with glances at Finn, her fingers deftly working to get the panel to do what it was specifically intended to prevent. "Wish we'd had you with us on the station. Would have saved a lot of trouble. Maybe you can show me how to do that sometime."

"Sure, anyti...What the hell?!" Finn's reply was interrupted as a nearby panel sparked and then the tunnel plunged into darkness. Every electronic item instantly shut down and the already quiet tube got even quieter. So quiet that Finn thought she could hear rumblings farther down. With a brow raised in curiosity, she checked the hatch once more to reveal that it was no longer sealed. "Someone must've blown the power to the whole deck. Do you hear that?" She asked as the faint sound of commotion reached her ear from the very end of the tunnel.

Li's eyes went wide in the sudden darkness and she looked again toward where Finn had been working to override the lock. Luckily, the dark hid her suspicions about who had blown the power. She aimed the phaser toward the hatch and listened.

The sound stayed steady without change. "Well, I guess the only way we'll find out what's going on is to look," Finn shrugged and pulled out her phaser, just in case. "Just, don't shoot unless we know it's someone hostile." With that, she swiftly pulled open the and lowered down to her belly, taking up as little space as possible. Faintly at the end of the tunnel, Finn could see what looked like people shuffling around and they crawled forward to get a better look at the action.

At the other end of the jefferies tube Xavier was sure he felt a familiar presence, someone who had not been there before. ~Finn, we need your help, hurry~ he said telepathically when he recognised who was around. He breathed a sigh of relief, if Finn was here it meant that the Athena wasn't too far behind.