And then there were two...

Posted on Mon May 16th, 2022 @ 7:27pm by Commander N'Garzi Zora & Lieutenant Commander Finnley Keating VII & [DECEASED] Gil Silnan Tolbarr
Edited on on Mon May 16th, 2022 @ 7:28pm

Mission: Ares Ascending
Location: Rondac - Command Center
Timeline: MD-02
Tags:
1537 words - 3.1 OF Standard Post Measure

Gripping the nearest console edge, Silnan looked to the Starfleet Commander for reassurance. “You were about to ask…?” He enquired, his finger tips digging right into the metal beneath them. Winding up on a ship was bad enough, but at least it was relatively safe, coming down to an old station which was now rumbling was not his glass of kanar.

Before Zora had a chance to answer, the emergency lights flickered on. The lights weren't very bright and cast long shadows across the room and on the faces of the four people still present. The scene might have frightened some people, and she had to admit she was a little creeped out, especially with the fallen soldiers that had greeted them when they had arrived. However, she tried her best to remember her training and her meditation techniques with allowed her to centre herself and appear to be calm and in control.

"Sorry, I was saying that you should give Keating a hand navigating the Cardassian systems," Zora said, facing the man. "The sooner we can figure out exactly what was taking place here, the sooner we return to the Athena."

"Actually, I think we're in decent shape for now. Paxton must've found the power switch and with the cable repaired, it looks like we're at least somewhat operational." Finn said as she tested accessing various systems and settings on the panel in front of her. "I am however getting some interesting readings on sensors. Though it's possible the sensors aren't calibrated correctly anymore. Permission to check it out? It looks like I can access it about 100 meters away through that access hatch," she motioned towards the entrance to a close by jefferies tube.

Zora nodded, "make sure you check in Lieutenant. Mister Tolbarr," she said as she turned to the Cardassian, "please see if you can find any evidence of unusual activity here on the station then."

Bowing slightly to the Commander, the young Cardassian moved off the group a little. He still wasn’t entirely sure how to use all the functions, but his brief training on the Starfleet tricorder allowed him at least to run some fairly basic scans. Combined with his own experience, he was able to at least tell that not all of the construction materials in the station were Cardassian. Certainly they looked the same, but there were some clear indications that massive repairs had been done using non-Cardassian materials.

Zora turned back to face Li, realising that she hadn't fully registered the young Andorian's comment from earlier. "Do you know what equipment they were moving and do we know who 'they' are?" She asked.

Interrupting the Andorian before she could speak, Silnan called out to the Zora. “Commander….these walls….they don’t contain Uridium alloys past this point. Evidence of substantial repairs, using a Duranium alloy…” he squinted at the tricorder as it identified a probable source. He gasped briefly, holding the tricorder out to Zora as if to show her in case he was wrong….”A unique Starfleet alloy….”

"That can't be right," Zora said as she glanced at the tricorder screen, though she was clearly presented with the facts that she could no longer deny. It fit with the theory that Kane and P'rel had, though she wasn't sure how much the Cardassian man knew about that. "I think that's worth investigating," she said, gauging his reaction.

Nodding politely, the young Cardassian continued to move down the section of wall that had been replaced. There was clearly some heavy construction which had taken place, perhaps the Cardassian station had been blown apart during the Damar rebellion and partially rebuilt by Starfleet...but it didn't make much sense to him that Starfleet would rebuild a military installation of this nature. The strange starfleet scanning device in his hand alerted him to a further oddity; the power distribution conduits were clearly Klingon, and the plasma conduits were of such a high specification and able to carry such intensely hot plasma that they could only be Tholian. Realising he'd turned several corners and could no longer see the away team, he turned around; "Comman-" he began, but the sound of his voice was replaced with a sickening crack in his jaw as a rock hard fist found his face.

"And then there were two," Zora said to the young Andorian pilot. She moved closer to the control panel Li was currently working on and for the first time noticed it was covered in dried blood. She contained the shiver that ran down her spine and forced herself to focus on the task at hand. Li had coped this long without making a fuss, she would be damned if she, the commanding officer, was going to turn her nose up at some dried blood. "You were saying about the movements on and off the station, do you have any more info?" She asked the Lieutenant.

After listening to the Andorian Zora moved to the adjacent console and pulled up the same file. Lit had done an excellent job of locating it in the first place, the Cardassians hadn't made it easy. Clearly, Li had a knack for finding information that she wasn't supposed to find, Zora made a mental note of that, knowing that skill would prove useful in the coming missions. Especially, given the clandestine nature of the mission they were currently on. Zora downloaded all of the relevant information to her tricorder and also to the Athena's database, logged under her own personal ID. She didn't want to run the risk of anyone else finding the information before she had had a chance to go through it.

While searching through the files Zora came across some information that look vaguely familiar to her. "Have you seen this?" She asked the Lieutenant. "It appears that one of the cargo manifests has a very similar bio reading to that of the Pilgrims the ship investigated not that long ago. It's all starting to look like they were right," she added to herself. Seeing the quizzical look on the young Andorian's face, Zora shook her head, nonchalantly, as though it was a fleeting comment, nothing to worry about. However, internally Zora was putting all of the pieces together; the mission that wasn't a mission, the Pilgrims, Benedict, the Pirates, not to mention everything that Kane and P'rel had told her.

"Li, set up a link with the Athena's computer core," Zora ordered, "I want you to start matching the transponder codes of any ships that have visited this station with ..." She was interrupted by the sound of her combadge sounding and Tolbarr's brief call before the line went dead.

Staggering back, Silnan dropped the tricorder and reached for his face as another blow came barrelling at his nose. Raising an arm, he blocked a third attack and caught sight of a Klingon disruptor pistol, the barrel moving towards him. He quickly launched himself toward the weapon, just pushing the barrel down far enough so that several bright green discharges missed him and instead crashed into the wall and floor. He locked eyes with his assailant, a Cardassian man about his age, and they grappled for control of the weapon, the firing nozzle moving painfully close to Silan's face. With an opportune kick to the knee, Silnan repelled the man and he himself flew backwards, avoiding the tracing fire of green discharges getting closer until one finally met his thigh. Gripping his leg and feeling a hot sticky source of burning pain, he cried out. He was powerless to stop him, as the attacker leaped on him, expecting a quick death he had only a brief moment of comfort to see the scorch marks on the floor and walls, and the open tricorder sat a few metres away from them. Instead of the presumed blackness, came a blue shimmering haze and the room disappeared, replaced by another far less appealing room...

Zora tapped her combadge, "Mister Tolbarr please respond." Nothing. The line was silent. She turned to Li who mirrored the worried look that the El-Aurian felt churning inside of her. That gut feeling she had when she knew something was wrong and danger was imminent. "Athena, locate Tolbarr," she said, tapping her combadge again.

"Erm... he is no longer on the station," the frustrated transporter chief's voice replied.

"Widen the search, locate any Cardassians within range," Zora ordered.

"Aye, Ma'am. Nothing."

Zora looked up at Li, who was currently using her tricorder to try and confirm the Athena's readings, though they both knew what it would say. She shook her head solemnly. With her hands on her hips, a thought suddenly occurred to Zora with sickening reality. "When was the last time that Keating checked in?" The Andorian's eyes widened, the open tricorder long forgotten.

Zora tapped her combadge so hard she almost puncture her chest. "Zora to Keating." Nothing.

"Keating, respond." Still nothing.

"Transporter room, lock on to Lieutenant Keating's combadge, what is her location?"

"She isn't on the station either, in fact, I can't locate her anywhere." The Chief said, her voice sounding faint in Zora's ears.

"Recall all away teams, we need to get out of here now!"