IKC FHew 7C6110
Allegiances 3 – Docking
by HoD Ro' Matlh & Sogh May'bel Matlh [PNPC - Jared] & Sogh Thor'nan Mal'Kor & Soghla' Marie St. Helene & Soghla' HIchop Matlh & Soghla' Terri (Tell) Hope & Sogh Marla Varquis
Post Details
Hours passed with nothing but dense ionic gas. The screen was blank, sensor’s blank, and communications all but static. The only guide the trade ship had was a steady pulse to guide it in. A sudden change in the pulse triggered the crew into action. They slowed the ship to a crawl and, out of the murk ahead, the shape of a relay beacon emerged.
A short distance away a comms officer was alerted by the beacon to the new arrival. He flicked a switch to open a relay, “Station Amerigo to the USS Betty. Please transmit your security code.”
There was a pause and no response. The officer checked the relay station feed and confirmed the transponder check of the Betty. “USS Betty, from Station Amerigo. Transmit your code now, over.”
An irritable female voice came back to him, “Hang on already… there. Coming through now.”
The officer checked the data stream and confirmed it was the correct code, “Roger that, Betty. You are cleared to dock on Pylon 3. Follow the beacon, and careful on your approach. There are a lot of people here who are tired of Ration Pack 29. Hope you’ve got something better.”
On the Bridge of the Betty a new guide signal started. Marie pulled a device out of the comm-link port and smiled wickedly. Two years ago she had found it in the luggage of an Obsidian Order agent, and it had taken her this long to work out what it was for. Now that she had, she could think of all sorts of uses for a hand held device that could transmit a code cracking message to any Federation lock.
Soon the form of a docking arm came into view, the rest of the station still hidden in gloom. The Betty sidled up next to it and connected with a dull thump.
The four disguised crew of the FHew looked at each other and the two undisguised Klingon; Thornan and May’bel.
Marie looked at the two Klingons. "Thor'nan, why don't you strip off that ridiculous looking armour," she suggested, not for the first time. "You'd fit in much better without it. There's not a lot we can do with your ruggedly handsome features, May'bel, but at least we can stop Thor'nan from looking like a Klingon for awhile."
Thor'nan nodded and began changing into civilian clothes. He sighed as he had to leave his mek'leths behind. He felt naked without them.
Marie saw what he was doing. "Surely you've got some way of hiding that."
"Not in this uniform. " said Thor'nan.
"Oh, come here! Put this on." She held out pair of overalls to him. "You're now the ship's general maintenance guy." She rigged up strapping which held the blades close to Thor'nan's body but allowed for easy access.
"Thanks," said Thornan as he slid the mek'leths into their positions at the small of his back, hilts down.
A chime at the airlock door told them there were people on the outside waiting for them to emerge.
"Right folks," said Tell, "this is it. Act normal; well as normal as you can be. Let's have some fun; who knows what will happen? Let's open the door. Wait, was the Captain male of female?" Who cares she thought, it was too late now as the door slid open.
With this ship's luck it'll be one of those Hermats and we'll lose out either way, Marie thought cynically.
The outer door hinged away to form a ramp from the side of the Cargo bay. On the other side was a much larger bay already stocked with a number of crates and containers. There were two men in Starfleet uniform, looking very disinterested and a third by the door who was looking expectant. Tell thrust the PADD with the shipping order towards him and, as he scanned down it, Marie, Thor'nan, HIchop and Marla began to unload.
The man finished a scan of the list and scowled. "We asked for Interphasic Generators, and you have brought a case of Self Sealing Stem bolts. What gives?"
'I don't give a fig what the hell gives,' Tell thought and turned to Marie. "Stem bolts?" asked Tell "What the hell are we doing with Stem bolts? Didn't you check the order before it came on board? Or do I have to do all the work around here, as usual?" she asked.
Marie was about to answer but she was beaten by a short breath. "You're not the usual crew," said one of the men. "What happened to them?"
"They did a run out to the Frenella system," replied Tell quietly. "Stopped off at Faris 4 and you know what it's like there." She kept her voice low. "Whole crew caught an infection and are.....well, in quarantine."
He nodded. "Say no more"
Marie pulled a tatty bit of paper out of her jacket pocket and handed it over. "Says here you wanted Self Sealing Stem Bolts. That's what you asked for - that's what you got."
The man took the paper as if it might bite him. It was headed up with an official Starfleet logo and he recognised the signature but.... "Why an order on paper, not by PADD?"
"Good question, cowboy!" Marie said indignantly. "I asked myself the same thing. Then I realised that you're in such a gods-forsaken backwater that you don't have access to things like sub-space communications. You have to do things the old fashioned way - a few centuries old! My guess is that you needed these about...oh, two years ago...but that's how long the transport took to get back to civilisation so that the order could be filled."
Taking umbrage might be a nice way of describing the man's reaction. "We have state of the art communications equipment here."
"Really," Marie replied. She stared pointedly at the paper still held in the man's hand. "Doesn't look that way...."
"You really will have to excuse my friend here," apologised Tell. "Replicators down and she hasn't had her full share of raktajino. Believe me you do not want to cross her. So stem bolts it is then? Where do you want them?"
"Well I don't think......"He began
"Actually, I haven't had any raktajino yet. You'd better have some here or you'll really be in trouble. Now, where do you want these stem bolts!
"Follow me," the man said, now fully cowed. Stafleet didn't pay him nearly enough to deal with this obstreperous woman. Marie smiled at his back. She was enjoying this.
Tell shot her a warning glance which told Marie not to over act.
Thor'nan kept his eyes on the station crew, waiting for his chance to sneak away quietly.
He didn't need to wait long. With Tell and Marie drawing attention and the other two keeping to themselves, the chance to get out the cargo bay door came quickly. Thor'nan stuck his head through and found the corridor clear.
The station appeared to be a fairly standard layout with engineering lower and command up high. That meant that the Science bays would be in the centre. The corridors were more or less deserted. Thor'nan and team began walking casually down towards the science area. The few crew they passed didn't so much as blink. Apparently it was hard enough to get onto the station, so once you were on, it was assumed you were supposed to be there.
After a short trip they came to a junction. There was a sign indicating:
PS Tech ->
<- Bio-weap
"I say we go left. " said Thor'nan.
The group moved quickly down the corridor and soon arrived at a sort of viewing platform that looked out onto a large warehouse/laboratory. A number of translucent tubes, larger than a man, stood vertically at regular intervals. Men in blue science uniforms moved between them checking consoles attached to each. It was hard to tell for sure, but it looked as though something was moving inside the closest of the tubes.
As they stood there a computer voice announced: - Warning. Sample case I-15 is reaching minimum containment. Biological breach imminent. -
This sent teams into a scurry as most of the men in blue ran to one end of the room while a couple of heavy set men with phaser rifles rushed to a particular container. It was quite clear that there was something in the container and that it was trying to get out. An emergency forcefield buzzed and crackled. Whatever it was, it looked as if it would breach even that.
The first of the uniformed security guards to reach the site thumped a switch on the panel and the tube glowed red from the inside. There was a high pitched shriek of pain and then the tube went black.
Corridor leading to the cargo bay
The man leading Marie flinched as he heard the warning. He half turned towards her. "If that thing blows...." he said.
Marie clearly heard the fear in his voice. "….it won't matter where we put these stem bolts," she finished for him. "What's in an I-15 sample case?"
The man just shrugged. "I'm only a lowly gopher. The eggheads don't tell the likes of me what they're up to. All I know is there's strict procedures in place to deal with it. It happens more and more often, and guess who has to clean out the tanks after? Muggins."
Marie cursed silently; she'd picked the wrong man to harass. Still, we're going deeper into the facility and no-one's bothered to challenge us yet. That has to be a good thing. "Not much we can do about it then. I trust there's someone around here who can deal with it. Best if we leave it up to them. Assuming they contain whatever is in an 'I-15 sample case', we'll need to make sure we get these bolts stowed away properly. Otherwise we might wish the case did blow...."
The man seemed uncertain.
"Look," Marie said, softening her tone slightly. "I've got other cargo to deliver. Let's just get this sorted then I can get back to my ship and off to my next port of call. I could, after all, just scarper. That warning would be ample excuse. As it is, I'm still proposing to help you so let's get on with it before I change my mind."
Self-interest got the better of the man. He set off on the course he'd been taking. Marie breathed a sigh of relief.
That was when they heard the scream.
Viewing platform above laboratory
- Sample case I-15 terminated. Biological reclamation begun. -
The security guards relaxed visibly as the blackened tube retracted into the floor and the science team began to go about their work again.
There were two doors; one opening out onto a set of steps down to the warehouse floor, the other going further into the complex.
Thor'nan looked at Marla and Hichop.
"You and I will check out the Bio-Weapons station. HIchop, you will check out the other corridor. " he ordered.
The team split up and Thor'nan and Marla moved quickly through the door, down the gantry steps and up against one of the banks of computers. From the floor they could see that the security teams were posted to four stations around the room. Each position was placed to keep the security our of the way of experiments but allow them easy access to the floor in emergency. No one was particularly watching the scientist working though.
Thor'nan counted around six or seven humans in science uniforms. Each was deeply engrossed in what they were doing, and there was a sense of tense urgency to what they were doing. They were not particularly paying attention so it was relatively easy for the pair to move around.
They made their way over to one of the translucent cylinders. Up close they could see it was filled with some sort of liquid making it hard to determine what was inside, but the attached panel had bio-readings. Neither were doctors, but knew how to read basic information. What ever was inside the tube had a phenomenal metabolism and was growing rapidly. There was also a big read button that they had seen used before to burn out the sample.
Thor'nan pulled out a tricorder.
"Cover me," he said to Marla. She stood in front of it, blocking the tricorder from view.
The readings were intense and confusing. Maybe HIchop will understand this better.
"Hey!" a voice called out, "What are you two doing there. This isn't a cargo bay!"
One of the scientists is moving over. Others are looking up and noticing you for the first time.
Marla turned toward Thor'nan.
"Thor'nan, we need to hurry up. Think you can?"
The scientist began to come over when a klaxon announced:
- Warning. Sample case I-15 is reaching minimum containment. Biological breach imminent. -
The scientists immediately forgot everything and just yelled, "Run!"
All the blue shirts in the room were running for a secure door, while the security was pouring out again. they were running for a different container however. When they arrived the lead security officer hit the purge button. The forcefield raised and the tube began to lower. However, there was no burning in the tube and the sample could still be seen kicking and thrashing as it lowered beneath the floor. Some of the guards attempted to fire at it, but now the forcefield was protecting it as well as containing it.
"Everyone get to your emergency stations!" The lead Security officer yelled. "Kepler, alert the CO. The rest of you are with me. Downstairs, NOW!"
by HoD Ro' Matlh & Sogh May'bel Matlh [PNPC - Jared] & Sogh Thor'nan Mal'Kor & Soghla' Marie St. Helene & Soghla' HIchop Matlh & Soghla' Terri (Tell) Hope & Sogh Marla Varquis
Post Details
| Title | Docking | |
| Mission | Allegiances 3 | |
| Author(s) | HoD Ro' Matlh & Sogh May'bel Matlh [PNPC - Jared] & Sogh Thor'nan Mal'Kor & Soghla' Marie St. Helene & Soghla' HIchop Matlh & Soghla' Terri (Tell) Hope & Sogh Marla Varquis | |
| Posted | Mon Aug 01, 2011 @ 1:57am | |
| Location | Station Amerigo |
A short distance away a comms officer was alerted by the beacon to the new arrival. He flicked a switch to open a relay, “Station Amerigo to the USS Betty. Please transmit your security code.”
There was a pause and no response. The officer checked the relay station feed and confirmed the transponder check of the Betty. “USS Betty, from Station Amerigo. Transmit your code now, over.”
An irritable female voice came back to him, “Hang on already… there. Coming through now.”
The officer checked the data stream and confirmed it was the correct code, “Roger that, Betty. You are cleared to dock on Pylon 3. Follow the beacon, and careful on your approach. There are a lot of people here who are tired of Ration Pack 29. Hope you’ve got something better.”
On the Bridge of the Betty a new guide signal started. Marie pulled a device out of the comm-link port and smiled wickedly. Two years ago she had found it in the luggage of an Obsidian Order agent, and it had taken her this long to work out what it was for. Now that she had, she could think of all sorts of uses for a hand held device that could transmit a code cracking message to any Federation lock.
Soon the form of a docking arm came into view, the rest of the station still hidden in gloom. The Betty sidled up next to it and connected with a dull thump.
The four disguised crew of the FHew looked at each other and the two undisguised Klingon; Thornan and May’bel.
Marie looked at the two Klingons. "Thor'nan, why don't you strip off that ridiculous looking armour," she suggested, not for the first time. "You'd fit in much better without it. There's not a lot we can do with your ruggedly handsome features, May'bel, but at least we can stop Thor'nan from looking like a Klingon for awhile."
Thor'nan nodded and began changing into civilian clothes. He sighed as he had to leave his mek'leths behind. He felt naked without them.
Marie saw what he was doing. "Surely you've got some way of hiding that."
"Not in this uniform. " said Thor'nan.
"Oh, come here! Put this on." She held out pair of overalls to him. "You're now the ship's general maintenance guy." She rigged up strapping which held the blades close to Thor'nan's body but allowed for easy access.
"Thanks," said Thornan as he slid the mek'leths into their positions at the small of his back, hilts down.
A chime at the airlock door told them there were people on the outside waiting for them to emerge.
"Right folks," said Tell, "this is it. Act normal; well as normal as you can be. Let's have some fun; who knows what will happen? Let's open the door. Wait, was the Captain male of female?" Who cares she thought, it was too late now as the door slid open.
With this ship's luck it'll be one of those Hermats and we'll lose out either way, Marie thought cynically.
The outer door hinged away to form a ramp from the side of the Cargo bay. On the other side was a much larger bay already stocked with a number of crates and containers. There were two men in Starfleet uniform, looking very disinterested and a third by the door who was looking expectant. Tell thrust the PADD with the shipping order towards him and, as he scanned down it, Marie, Thor'nan, HIchop and Marla began to unload.
The man finished a scan of the list and scowled. "We asked for Interphasic Generators, and you have brought a case of Self Sealing Stem bolts. What gives?"
'I don't give a fig what the hell gives,' Tell thought and turned to Marie. "Stem bolts?" asked Tell "What the hell are we doing with Stem bolts? Didn't you check the order before it came on board? Or do I have to do all the work around here, as usual?" she asked.
Marie was about to answer but she was beaten by a short breath. "You're not the usual crew," said one of the men. "What happened to them?"
"They did a run out to the Frenella system," replied Tell quietly. "Stopped off at Faris 4 and you know what it's like there." She kept her voice low. "Whole crew caught an infection and are.....well, in quarantine."
He nodded. "Say no more"
Marie pulled a tatty bit of paper out of her jacket pocket and handed it over. "Says here you wanted Self Sealing Stem Bolts. That's what you asked for - that's what you got."
The man took the paper as if it might bite him. It was headed up with an official Starfleet logo and he recognised the signature but.... "Why an order on paper, not by PADD?"
"Good question, cowboy!" Marie said indignantly. "I asked myself the same thing. Then I realised that you're in such a gods-forsaken backwater that you don't have access to things like sub-space communications. You have to do things the old fashioned way - a few centuries old! My guess is that you needed these about...oh, two years ago...but that's how long the transport took to get back to civilisation so that the order could be filled."
Taking umbrage might be a nice way of describing the man's reaction. "We have state of the art communications equipment here."
"Really," Marie replied. She stared pointedly at the paper still held in the man's hand. "Doesn't look that way...."
"You really will have to excuse my friend here," apologised Tell. "Replicators down and she hasn't had her full share of raktajino. Believe me you do not want to cross her. So stem bolts it is then? Where do you want them?"
"Well I don't think......"He began
"Actually, I haven't had any raktajino yet. You'd better have some here or you'll really be in trouble. Now, where do you want these stem bolts!
"Follow me," the man said, now fully cowed. Stafleet didn't pay him nearly enough to deal with this obstreperous woman. Marie smiled at his back. She was enjoying this.
Tell shot her a warning glance which told Marie not to over act.
Thor'nan kept his eyes on the station crew, waiting for his chance to sneak away quietly.
He didn't need to wait long. With Tell and Marie drawing attention and the other two keeping to themselves, the chance to get out the cargo bay door came quickly. Thor'nan stuck his head through and found the corridor clear.
The station appeared to be a fairly standard layout with engineering lower and command up high. That meant that the Science bays would be in the centre. The corridors were more or less deserted. Thor'nan and team began walking casually down towards the science area. The few crew they passed didn't so much as blink. Apparently it was hard enough to get onto the station, so once you were on, it was assumed you were supposed to be there.
After a short trip they came to a junction. There was a sign indicating:
PS Tech ->
<- Bio-weap
"I say we go left. " said Thor'nan.
The group moved quickly down the corridor and soon arrived at a sort of viewing platform that looked out onto a large warehouse/laboratory. A number of translucent tubes, larger than a man, stood vertically at regular intervals. Men in blue science uniforms moved between them checking consoles attached to each. It was hard to tell for sure, but it looked as though something was moving inside the closest of the tubes.
As they stood there a computer voice announced: - Warning. Sample case I-15 is reaching minimum containment. Biological breach imminent. -
This sent teams into a scurry as most of the men in blue ran to one end of the room while a couple of heavy set men with phaser rifles rushed to a particular container. It was quite clear that there was something in the container and that it was trying to get out. An emergency forcefield buzzed and crackled. Whatever it was, it looked as if it would breach even that.
The first of the uniformed security guards to reach the site thumped a switch on the panel and the tube glowed red from the inside. There was a high pitched shriek of pain and then the tube went black.
Corridor leading to the cargo bay
The man leading Marie flinched as he heard the warning. He half turned towards her. "If that thing blows...." he said.
Marie clearly heard the fear in his voice. "….it won't matter where we put these stem bolts," she finished for him. "What's in an I-15 sample case?"
The man just shrugged. "I'm only a lowly gopher. The eggheads don't tell the likes of me what they're up to. All I know is there's strict procedures in place to deal with it. It happens more and more often, and guess who has to clean out the tanks after? Muggins."
Marie cursed silently; she'd picked the wrong man to harass. Still, we're going deeper into the facility and no-one's bothered to challenge us yet. That has to be a good thing. "Not much we can do about it then. I trust there's someone around here who can deal with it. Best if we leave it up to them. Assuming they contain whatever is in an 'I-15 sample case', we'll need to make sure we get these bolts stowed away properly. Otherwise we might wish the case did blow...."
The man seemed uncertain.
"Look," Marie said, softening her tone slightly. "I've got other cargo to deliver. Let's just get this sorted then I can get back to my ship and off to my next port of call. I could, after all, just scarper. That warning would be ample excuse. As it is, I'm still proposing to help you so let's get on with it before I change my mind."
Self-interest got the better of the man. He set off on the course he'd been taking. Marie breathed a sigh of relief.
That was when they heard the scream.
Viewing platform above laboratory
- Sample case I-15 terminated. Biological reclamation begun. -
The security guards relaxed visibly as the blackened tube retracted into the floor and the science team began to go about their work again.
There were two doors; one opening out onto a set of steps down to the warehouse floor, the other going further into the complex.
Thor'nan looked at Marla and Hichop.
"You and I will check out the Bio-Weapons station. HIchop, you will check out the other corridor. " he ordered.
The team split up and Thor'nan and Marla moved quickly through the door, down the gantry steps and up against one of the banks of computers. From the floor they could see that the security teams were posted to four stations around the room. Each position was placed to keep the security our of the way of experiments but allow them easy access to the floor in emergency. No one was particularly watching the scientist working though.
Thor'nan counted around six or seven humans in science uniforms. Each was deeply engrossed in what they were doing, and there was a sense of tense urgency to what they were doing. They were not particularly paying attention so it was relatively easy for the pair to move around.
They made their way over to one of the translucent cylinders. Up close they could see it was filled with some sort of liquid making it hard to determine what was inside, but the attached panel had bio-readings. Neither were doctors, but knew how to read basic information. What ever was inside the tube had a phenomenal metabolism and was growing rapidly. There was also a big read button that they had seen used before to burn out the sample.
Thor'nan pulled out a tricorder.
"Cover me," he said to Marla. She stood in front of it, blocking the tricorder from view.
The readings were intense and confusing. Maybe HIchop will understand this better.
"Hey!" a voice called out, "What are you two doing there. This isn't a cargo bay!"
One of the scientists is moving over. Others are looking up and noticing you for the first time.
Marla turned toward Thor'nan.
"Thor'nan, we need to hurry up. Think you can?"
The scientist began to come over when a klaxon announced:
- Warning. Sample case I-15 is reaching minimum containment. Biological breach imminent. -
The scientists immediately forgot everything and just yelled, "Run!"
All the blue shirts in the room were running for a secure door, while the security was pouring out again. they were running for a different container however. When they arrived the lead security officer hit the purge button. The forcefield raised and the tube began to lower. However, there was no burning in the tube and the sample could still be seen kicking and thrashing as it lowered beneath the floor. Some of the guards attempted to fire at it, but now the forcefield was protecting it as well as containing it.
"Everyone get to your emergency stations!" The lead Security officer yelled. "Kepler, alert the CO. The rest of you are with me. Downstairs, NOW!"