And Behind Door Number One...

Posted on Mon Oct 31st, 2022 @ 6:54pm by Commander N'Garzi Zora & Lieutenant Commander Michael Ki & Lieutenant Didrea Zade & Ensign Vivienne Conrad

Mission: Scylla and Charybdis
Location: USS Avalon, Bridge
Timeline: MD04
2346 words - 4.7 OF Standard Post Measure

Though the sensors on the Athena had detected no lifeforms, Zora was still taken aback by just how empty the bridge was as the group materialised in. The room was almost pitch black, except for the emergency lights that were dotted around the room; Zora was grateful for the extra lighting their suits provided.

"No lifeforms and no bodies," Zora said as she aimed her torch around the various stations. "What do we think happened here then?"

From the stifling confines of her EV helmet, Vivienne scanned the room with narrowed eyes. Despite having a list of instructions a mile long from Keating, there were procedures that had to occur first, and incidentals that would take immediate priority once determined. Like most of the rest of the team, the engineer had her tricorder held aloft, her primary goal being to scan for any energy signatures that would indicate a potential to restore auxilary power.

The suit was cumbersome, however, and the training regimes for learning to operate in them had never been her favourite. Closing her eyes briefly as her attempts to fat-finger the display of her tricorder resulted in nothing more than a beep of protest, Viv tried again with deliberate precision.

And frowned at the result.

"Commander," she spoke up, turning a slow, awkward circle with arm extended to perform a rudimentary sweep, "this doesn't make sense."

"How so?" Zora asked as she turned to face the ensign.

Zade, upon materializing, began to look around and make sure nothing would jump out at them. The suits slowed everything down, which she didn't like, but it was a minor inconvenience. At Vivienne's words, the Trill slightly turned out of habit before remembering that suit comms were a thing.

"Everything's powered down but I'm not reading any major disruption to the power supply. There's not a lot of damage either," she pointed out, slow-stepping her way towards the engineering console. Reaching out, once again in slow motion to make sure her gloved finger hit its exact target, the ensign lifted her eyes towards the ceiling as the punched-in sequence resulted in the unresisting activation of cabin lights. "Shazam."

Michael materialized and made sure that the rest of the away team's vitals were linked into his suit's display. He wanted to keep an eye on the team. Well at least he could do that as he did not see a reason for him to be on this mission other than that. The powered down bridge absent of anyone did send a small shiver down the Doctor's spine. It was a tad eerie and Michael was thankful when the lights came on.

"Good work Ensign," Zora said as she deactivated the lights on her EV suit. "We need to find out what happened here. Ensign, work on internal sensors, I don't fancy being surprised by a Romulan boarding party. Lieutenant, I want a sitrep on all ship's systems and try and get one from the Engineering team too. Doctor," she turned to face Ki, "someone sent us a message from this ship we need to find them, they might be injured or worse. Start with this deck," she pointed to the doors leading to the ready room and the conference room, "and don't stop until you find them."

"Aye, Commander," Zade responded, slowly moving to a station. The lifelessness of the bridge was creepy... so what happened?

"Yes Commander," Michael replied as he raised his tricorder. He began to scan section by section and at least at the start there was no immediate results. "Thus far there are no life signs other than our own. However, I wonder is it possible that the ship's computer sent an automated distress call?"

"Potentially," Zora said with a slight nod of her head, "doesn't mean we should stop looking though Doctor."

Work on the internal sensors, she said. As Conrad wriggled and worked on the access door to the security terminal, she hid the roll of her eyes as the slightly-buckled metal gave protest to budging at all. How about my internal sensors saying this place is creepy as f... As her fingers slipped for the third time, the engineer pulled her toolkit around and dragged out the portable blow torch. "Anyone know if this radiation is flammable before I try busting into this thing?"

"Feels like something you should definitely know," Zora said with a slight smirk. She was sat in the captain's chair, discomfort etched all over her face. Not only did she hate wearing EV suits, but to be sitting in the main chair, on a different ship from her own, and not knowing what had happened to the crew was giving her chills. She was trying to use her access codes to activate the ship's logs or reports or anything that might fill them in on what happened to the crew. "Add secondary command processors to the list of offline systems," she said to no one in particular.

Conrad was a split second from her 'I'm an engineer, not a marine biologist' spin on where her expertise lay but but an oft-lacking sense of self-preservation suggested the joke might go over several heads present. She also realised the answer to her question had probably been in the science analysis notes attached to her mission briefing.

She switched to the laser cutter. It was less satisfying but considerably less lethal, under currently conditions.

The first thing Zade did when she got to a console was check if the ship could defend itself. With that Romulan ship around, it would ease her mind a little to know they weren't all in some defenseless metal can. The Trill frowned at the results, which were clearly the opposite of her wishes. "It looks like weapons are down. The shields are still functional, but they won't last long if we needed to use them." She then turned her attention to the rest of the report. "External sensors aren't great either. I don't see problems with the other systems aside from them being turned off, but I'll double check with the away team assigned to the lower decks."

"Do that and report back," Zora said. She turned to the Doctor, "anything?"

"It seems that the distress call was activated by the ship's Executive Officer and has been broadcasting on loop since it began. My tricorder is still not reading any life signs save for our own. However, it is possible that the radiation is blocking them from being read. I would recommend that we have all teams sweep the ship as they go and report any contacts living or dead that they make. I believe that a visual confirmation may be the only way for us to get a good handle on the crew." Michael reported as he read from one of the auxiliary screens on the bridge.

"What about the rest of the crew? Bodies? Remains?" She asked, ticking off the possibilities in her head. It pained her how practical her mind could be at times like this, she wish it wasn't so easy for her to compartmentalize in these situations; despite her ability to do so was exactly what made her the right person for the task at hand. "There has to be some sign of them."

"I agree! However, in light of the interference with our instruments. The only answer is visual confirmation." Michael replied with the detachment of a doctor. At the moment this was less of a medical emergency to him and more of a mere curiosity as to what happened here. He reached into his medical bag and withdrew a hypospray. "I would also like to issue radiation inoculations for the entire away team. A precaution to make sure nothing happens." He made his way to Commander Zora and administered a dose through the intake valve of her EV suit, then one by one he did the rest of the team, ending by pressing it to his own valve.

"...the hell do you vaccinate against electromagnetism?," Vivienne muttered to herself, choosing the pedant's route rather than acknowledging the doctor's intent was probably more in line with minimising exposure symptoms than anything else. Having finally cut her way through the access panel to peer in at the science terminal's innards, the engineer shone her flashlight at several of the key potential culprits for the current lack of internal sensors and pulled a face. Drawing in a deep breath through her nose, Conrad let it out as a resigned putter and started wriggling free the terminal's processing unit.

Several minutes later, with the console's butchered pieces laid out systematically on the floor, Vivienne stuck her head inside the access panel again and worked loose the last piece of fried circuitry so that she could start the process of rewiring.

"You know," she said conversationally to whoever was inclined to listen, "the thing about radiation is that, if you get enough of it in concentrated form, then you're looking at complete cellular disintegration." This seemed, to Vivienne at least, a rather obvious point. "That being said, there aren't many known sources that'll wipe out organic material and leave behind the shag carpet. Sounds almost weaponised to me."

Zora nodded her appreciation to the doctor before turning to the Ensign. "Now that's an interesting theory," she uttered as she pulled out her tricorder and fumbled with the hinge and the thick gloves of her EV suit. "You sure you're not meant to be in security?" She awkwardly pressed a few buttons on the device, wondering how EV suit technology hadn't evolved much since the days of the first manned missions to the moon. "Everyone, try scanning for Romulan energy signatures, let's see if Conrad's theory has any merit. And before you say it," she added, turning to face the doctor, "I know the interference may make it an impossible task, but doesn't mean we can't try. If the only way is to scan is visually, then start scanning," she ordered.

"Keating's team reports they are working to dissipate the radiation, so scans should start to clear up," Zade reported, before changing gears to start searching for signs of... something. As she pulled out her tricorder from its sleeve on the outside of the suit, she glanced at the mess of console innards on the ground and the person near it. "How soon can we get internal sensors, even a basic scan?" She asked. The tricorder in her hand panic-beeped, making Zade quickly turn her attention to it, only to see that the radiation was affecting the readings. "False alarm from the radiation," she said, knowing others heard the device. To shut it up, she closed the device and used her eyes to try and spot anything out of place.

Where did telling a superior officer to 'calm their tits' fall on the spectrum of do's and don'ts? A very vague recollection of having to listen to the Dean of Faculty drone on and on about seemly conduct left Conrad with the suspicion that it was on the list of 'strongly advised against'. "Nearly done," she instead replied in an overly singsong tone. "I'll be done rewiring the entire console in under five minutes in just a minute."

Having got herself down on the floor to work, Vivienne confronted the prospect of clambering back to her feet with marginally less grace. With a strained groan, she hauled herself up by pure upper-body strength alone and then leaned forward with her weight pressed against a folded arm to punch in the sequence that would bring the terminal back online. After a few flickers from the still-exposed circuitry, the readout illuminated. The engineer stepped back and gestured to Zade. "All yours, Lieutenant."

"Thanks," the Trill replied, approaching the console to read the results of Vivienne's magic. As expected, the lingering radiation made things fuzzy, but she did quickly notice something. "Commander," she called to Zora, "internal sensors are picking up... something in the ready room."

"Something?" Zora repeated as she spun to face the door of the Ready Room. She held her tricorder higher but was unable to scan beyond the bulkhead. "Can you be more specific Lieutenant?"

"I'm trying to clear up the signal," Zade responded, trying to clear up the signal. "It's a localized... subspace energy field? Bubble? Whatever it is, it keeps changing shape, but it's approximately 2 meters in diameter. Unless we want to wait for the radiation to dissipate, we may have better luck identifying it visually." As she said it, Zade assumed that, like herself, Zora would want to know sooner than later. She approached the Ready Room doors and stopped next to Zora, pulling her phaser out just in case but keeping it aimed low. Her free hand hovered over the keypad and typed in the standard security bypass code for the room, only to frown when the door rejected the code with an angry beep. Apparently her temporary clearance wasn't even enough on this ship. That was annoying. Zade turned slightly toward Zora. Well, half-turned her body, otherwise she was staring at the wall of her own suit. "Maybe you'll have better luck with the door, Commander?"

Ki watched the others as they evaluated and tried to enter the Ready Room. "I suggest we wait for the radiation to clear. We do not know the exact amounts and these suits will only protect for so much and so long. It is best err on the side of caution." Michael knew there was something strange going on here and he did not want to have to deal with radiation sickness on top of whatever else occurred.

"Duly noted," Zora replied as she positioned herself closer to Zade and the door panel, "but we need to know what's happening Doctor and the answers are on the other side of this bulkhead." She keyed in her command codes but stopped short of completing the sequence. "Prepare yourself," she said, a second before she pressed enter and the door swooshed open...