Shenanigans

Posted on Sun May 22nd, 2022 @ 1:14am by Lieutenant Didrea Zade & Lieutenant Commander Savin & Lieutenant Xavier Leiko & Ensign George Paxton

Mission: Ares Ascending
Location: Rondac Orbital Base
Timeline: MD-02 - 1240hrs
2135 words - 4.3 OF Standard Post Measure

"Understood. Doctor Ki and Lieutenant P'rel, with me. We'll check these life signs. Lieutenant Zade, grab Lt Commander Savin and drag him back to the rest of the group while the others get power on," Kane said, now annoyed at even having brought the hapless counsellor with them on this particular leg of the mission. "Check in every thirty minutes. Stay safe."

"Aye, Captain," Zade said, watching the three shadows head off before turning in the direction she saw Savin head off in. The darkness was disorienting, however, and she slowly passed her light back and forth to find the counselor again. "I'll be right back, need to grab the counselor," she said to the two who were huddled by the power conduit. "Shout if you need me."

She didn't have to go far because Savin had stopped walking when she had shone her light at him priorly. He arched an eyebrow at her when she coalesced into a recognizable person, from the obscured shadow she had been. "Lieutenant?" He queried, once he could actually see her face.

Xavier rolled his eyes and was happy that he had passed on babysitting duties. He pushed the thought to the back of his mind as he continued to restore at least some partial power to the station. He would be more focused if he could stop thinking about the feeling he had felt earlier, George had said that he hadn't heard anything, but Xavier knew something, or someone had reached out to him. The worrying part was how familiar it had felt, as though someone he knew was reaching out in the darkness. "Paxton, I'm going to try and rerouting the EPS flow, watch the levels please."

"On it," Paxton moved from the panel he was working on to the terminal next to Xavier and started to monitor the power levels. "Are you okay lieutenant?" He asked, noting that the normally calm and cool ops officer seemed somewhat annoyed and distracted.

"I'm fine Ensign, why do you ask?" Xavier responded just as a small spark attacked his finger leaving a small red burn in its wake.

George shrugged, "you just seemed like something was bothering you. Maybe it's just the darkness getting to me." He squinted before speaking further, noticing a small control in the bottle right of the panel. "Uhm, did anyone try this yet?" He asked, pressing the button on the screen. Seconds later, the room was flooded with light and previously dead panels came to life. "I think I fixed it."

Xavier groaned, he was about to tell the young engineer to focus on his work but it appeared that he clearly needed that advice himself, how had he missed something so obvious. He pulled himself to his feet and pulled out his tricorder, "good work Ensign," he said as he scanned the power output to make sure the connections were stable. Everything seemed to be fine. He turned to face the counsellor, as the ranking officer Xavier thought he might have some ideas of where to focus their energies next. "What's the plan, Sir?" He asked.

Savin narrowed his eyes at the sudden flood of light. He hadn't moved from his position, still watching the security chief who stood almost right in front of him.

Zade opened her mouth to speak, then blinked as she was suddenly blinded by the change in lighting. Now that she could see, Savin was a lot closer than she thought, so she took a step back and to the side to make some space. "I was going to say, don't stray too far," she said. Now that she could see everyone and not guess where people were, she was a little less stressed but still on alert. When Xaxier spoke up, she turned her head, but then found herself looking around the room.

The room was slightly larger than a mess hall, with work stations throughout the space. The panel George and Xavier were working in was next to a set of double doors that were stuck open, the same set of doors Kane and the others went through, and on the adjacent wall was a second set of doors that were also stuck open. Wall panel displays took up almost every available surface, save the wall opposite the group. The wall on the far side of the room had floor-to-ceiling shelving, and in the corner was what looked like a small room with a closed door and no windows.

As Zade moved, Savin was just able to see Xavier looking directly at him and barely caught the question asked. For a moment, he said nothing as the realization did sink in that he was at present the ranking officer. However, he also realized that he had no command training whatsoever. "I recommend we explore this area, albeit carefully," he suggested, "we still do not know what happened here. If you are able to locate any station logs, please do so." He tilted his head ever so slightly as he seemed to sense something, then frowned as it was gone just as fast. "We also need to locate those lifesigns I registered earlier. Beyond the dead we already found, there may be those in need of assistance."

"I don't think we'll find too much in this room, all access to logs seems to be prohibited from these stations," George said as he scrolled through a list of files and tried to open them. "Maybe we'll have better luck in a different area? This map shows something that looks like a data center." He pointed to a room shown on the console, not too far from where they were now.

Xavier wasn't paying full attention, he had that feeling again. It felt slightly stronger this time, and even more familiar than when it had first started moments before. It felt as though his telepathy was returning, but when he tried to reach out to the minds surrounding him, he felt the same hazy fog that had started from the moment he had gotten sick on their last mission. So what the hell was this new sensation? He thought, almost angrily.

"Erm yeah," Xavier said, suddenly realising that people had been speaking. "A data centre probably should be investigated. Though, we should also work on internal sensors too," he added as his engineering brain kicked in slightly. "At least we can keep track of the other teams."

Seeing the OPS chief's distraction, Savin walked up to him. "Are you alright lieutenant?" he asked softly, more or less only for him to hear. "You seem distracted. I also recommend we stay together as much as possible, unless anyone has a different suggestion?" He would defer to those with more command training than he did, if necessary.

"I'm fine," Xavier lied, brushing off the counsellor's question. He had no problems with counsellors, in fact, he rather liked them, but something was going on here and he needed to figure it out for himself. "I think me and Paxton will work on the internal sensors regardless," he said after a second of thought. "We need to know if there's any hostiles."

The lie was easy enough to sense for the trained counselor, but he decided to respect the man's feelings on the matter and didn't point it out. "That seems like a logical path of action," he agreed, "perhaps Lieutenant Zade and I should scout the perimeter? I may not be able to hear anything, but I can sense it if others are nearby." Turning his head, he looked towards the Trill security chief, hoping she would agree with his suggestion.

Zade nodded, keeping herself where she could see the group, as well as both open doors. "I think checking out the perimeter is a good idea. If we're scoping the immediate area, we would be close if something happened." Despite being able to see the room, the air was still incredibly tense, as if something were waiting to happen. She didn't like the idea of splitting up the group even more, but at the same time she knew they could handle themselves, or she hoped. The Trill looked at Xavier and Paxton, "is it possible to set up internal sensors from the data center? That makes a little more sense to me, given we can't really access anything here."

"It should be," Xavier said as he scratched his chin. "My plan was to piggyback sensor readings with the ship, a kind of fake internal sensor sweep," he added for the non-technical minded ones of the group. "It won't give us the most accurate readings but given the state of the station's systems, it's the best I can do for now. Unless Finn or Washington do better up there," he pointed his thumb at the ceiling, indicating the levels above where his friends were currently working.

Not quite understanding but otherwise concluding that Xavier knew what he was doing, Zade nodded again. "I still think checking out the perimeter here is worth doing, so I guess do what you can here while the counselor and I take a walk?" Moving closer to the console Paxton pointed out, she took a moment to look over the map to get her bearings. "The surrounding area can probably be cleared in a short time," she said thoughtfully. Realizing her back was to Savin, she rotated herself in case he was trying to catch the conversation, but kept Xavier as the main recipient of her words. "There are quite a few rooms nearby, which will take time to clear." Looking to Xavier, she added, "let us know when you two finish here, otherwise we should be back in..." she glanced at the map one more time, calculating how much time it would take to clear the six surrounding rooms, "I'd say no longer than fifteen minutes, if we're being thorough." Zade then turned her head to the counselor, partly to make sure he caught that and partly to see if he was ready to go.

Feeling grateful for the opportunity to be useful, Savin nodded. "I will accompany Lieutenant Zade," he agreed, though he had been under the impression that had been the idea all along when he had moved off only minutes before. He nodded towards Leiko. "Please keep us updated on your progress in the mean time," he added, since he was still the ranking officer present.

George looked at Xavier as he talked through the sensor thought process. "I take it we want to tap into the ship readings and cross-compare with the data from here, then have it output a report that would mimic the internal sensors?" He gave his summary of what he had thought Xavier meant.

"You got it kid," Xavier replied as he turned back to the console, grateful to have something to do. "We just need real-time sensor output and to be honest, I don't care how we get it, I just think this will be the fastest way. Can you try and set up a remote link with the ship? I want a detailed short-range scan of the station, at least every minute, though if we can get that down to every ten seconds using the primary, secondary, and tertiary sensors, running an individual scan twice in a minute, I will be a happy Betazoid." He noticed the look on Paxton's face and smiled. "Set up the link, I'll work on the sensor algorithm."

Less than an hour passed before George piped back up. "I've got the remote link set up and tied in the additional sensors. By the looks of it, you've just about fixed the sensor algorithm. Reports are starting to come in." He smiled, always proud of an accomplished task. "I'm picking up all of the life signs of the away teams, but...didn't Finn beam down with the other team? I'm not seeing her lifesign anywhere." George looked at Xavier with a hint of worry.

Zade and Savin had returned some time ago from their patrol, and Zade was leaning against a console with her arms crossed as she watched the other two work. At Paxton's comment, she turned her head to tune in to the conversation. "Are the lifesigns of the rest of that team present?" She was going to ask more, but was interrupted by a chirp of her comm badge, and she tapped it to answer. "Zade."

=^=All away teams are to return to the ship immediately. We're beaming you back.=^=

The Trill acknowledged before looking around at the group. "With the urgency of that call, Finn's probably on board already." She felt the tug of the transporter and saw the three others start to be engulfed in light. Guess they were going to find out.