Gathering In Security (Time Zone 4)

Posted on 28 Jul 2018 @ 8:21am by Ensign Quinn Mackie & Lieutenant JG Jazmin Parks & Lieutenant JG Catherine Cooper & Lieutenant JG Shay Mitchell

3,365 words; about a 17 minute read

Mission: Fractured
Location: USS Black Hawk, Deck 12
Timeline: TZ4 || 0940 hours

Ensign Shay Mitchell pushed herself up to a sitting position and groaned, bringing a hand to the back of her head with a wince. She could feel the goose egg that developed from the bump she took, but that was the least of her concerns. Things seemed far too quiet and the darkness made it all seem worse. Those two things combined had a feeling of dread settling in the pit of her stomach. "Hello?" she called out, giving a few seconds in case anyone returned the call.

Sadly, the only sound she was greeted with was her own breathing.

She carefully got to her feet and pulled a flashlight from her tactical belt. It only took a few seconds for her to get the device on, then she was shining the light around the main room of the complex. The sense of dread grew when Shay saw what greeted her. Nothing. Nothing save for everything being in total disarray thanks to whatever happened. "Hello?" she called again, trying to keep control of the panic welling up inside of her.

Still, nothing.

Panic was beginning to win out at the thought of being trapped inside what she thought was a dead in space starship with no one else around. Without thinking twice about it, Shay turned and moved toward the doors that led out into the corridor. She ripped the panel off and reached for the manual control to get the door open, then bolted outside, shining her flashlight ahead of her as she went. "Hello? Can anyone hear me?"

Lt. jg Catherine Cooper climbed to her the moment her surroundings were stable. She had tried her commbadge only to get silence. Before moving she pulled out her flashlight and her phaser as she moved carefully down the corridor. She'd seen nothing in her immediate surrounds and being so close to the security offices decided to make her way there, still wondering what the hell just happened. She'd been on her way to security as a matter of routine when the ship did its shaken snow globe impression and she'd gone down. Luckily way to many trips to the mat at marital arts practice at least taught her to minimize the effects of a fall so she maintained consciousnesses.

Was the ship under attack or what? Really concerned now she made her way closer to security. The phaser held with the light in a typical security move in when entering a dark uncertain area. She breathed a sigh of relief however when she heard a familiar voice call out. She lowered the phaser immediately but kept it out still not sure what was happening.

"Ensign Mitchell? Is anyone hurt here? Are we under attack?" She had more questions but learned best to keep it to a few of the higher priority ones. Her tone was even as she glanced around wondering at the quiet.

"Cooper? Is that you?" Shay asked, trying to avoid taking a deep breath of the stale air around them. It sucked that they couldn't open any windows like they could if they were on earth, but that was all part of living in space. "Have you seen anyone else? I just came from inside the Security Complex, and it's a ghost town. More than a little spooky, too."

Cooper came closer so they could talk more easily, shining her light off to the side so they could see but wasn't in anyone's eyes. She did a quick visual to make sure Mitchell didn't seem hurt, "No, you're the first. I was on my way here when something shook the ship.." She recalled then continued, "Life support seems up if...off." as she too noted the stale air.

"And communications are down." She nodded down toward her commbage. She was more concerned than she'd want to admit, Security was never empty. She filed that away, shining her light into the empty security complex, Mitchell was right, it was creepy with no sign where anyone was or what had happened. At least from this angle.

"What the hell could have done this?" the young woman asked out loud, though it was more to herself. She knew there were things that needed to be done, but truth be told, Shay didn't even know where they were supposed to start. "Or who?"

"No idea but I think we need to get the power back first thing..." Cooper said turning around to face Mitchell, she started to continue but was interrupted by another voice.

From a nearby turbolift shaft, there came a knocking noise and a muffled voice calling, "oi! Who's out there? I can hear you! Help!"

Inside was Dr. Abbey Road. She had been in the turbolift when whatever happened had gone down. Luckily, someone had finally had enough foresight to include little folded step stools in a storage compartment on turbolifts, or she would never have been able to reach the access hatch in the ceiling and pull herself out. Now, she stood on the ladder, only a few feet above the lift, attempting to get the door open, but the manual override had failed. And there was a lot of dust in here. She was totally putting in a complaint with maintenance at her earliest opportunity.

Catherine glanced at Mitchell and nodded her head toward the voice, before moving toward the turbolift, "Security, are you hurt?" She called as she made her way, knowing the voice was familiar but having difficulty placing it through the distortion of the turbolift door.

“Nah, I’m all right,” replied Abbey, still attempting to pry her fingers between the doors, but not having any luck. “I can’t get the door open. Manual release doesn’t seem to have worked.”

"Stand as far back as you can, we're going to get the doors opened and get you out of there," Shay instructed, reaching on her tactical belt to pull the door popper from it. "And cover your nose and mouth with your hands. The doors are incredibly dusty for some reason, and this is going to stir it up. Cooper, you do the same." The young woman brought her free arm up to cover her own nose and mouth the best she could, then placed the device between the two doors. "Let me know when you're ready."

Cooper put the phaser away even as she made mental note about the dust, filing it away. One more 'not normal' thing about this whole situation. Seeing Mitchell placing the device she moved to one side of the door and appreciating the warning about the sheer amount of dust she could see on the doors, "Ready when the Doc is" She replied, setting herself.

Scrambling quickly down the ladder to rest on top of the stalled turbo lift car, Abbey quickly covered her nose and mouth with her turtleneck and then called,”ready!” As loud as she could before covering her eyes and bracing for a bit of a mess.

Shay popped the door open when everyone gave the go ahead, then grabbed one side, pulling it open with all of the strength she could muster. It required the use of both hands, which caused the dust to irritate her a bit, but somehow she managed to ignore it for the time being. Abbey needed help, and that was enough to keep her focused. "Are you sure you're not injured?" she called to the Doctor.

The dust hadn't been as bad as she'd expected. Just a smattering of dirt that hung in the air. At the sound of the voice from above, she carefully uncovered her eyes and glanced upwards. "A few bumps and bruises," she answered as she climbed up the short distance to where the other two women stood. "Nothing serious. How about you two? You all right?"

Catherine nodded, "Just a bit confused but nothing you can help with doc thanks though."

"Bumps and bruises as well, but nothing I can overlook," Shay said, looking around the corridor. "I think we should make our way up to the bridge. I think most of the crew might try to make it that way. Or we can go to Engineering and see what's up with getting power restored. We can go with popular vote."

"Bridge first," decided Abbey. "Probably everyone will go there first. We can figure out a plan of action from there."

Cooper looked thoughtful, "Well do need to restore power as well, we could..." she started then there was movement down the hall that got her attention.

Jazmin stepped out of the Jefferies Tube and onto Deck 12. The place was dark, lights barely flickered on and off, making for an ominous, creepy feeling. Add to that the stale are and the quiet that was almost too quiet, and Jazmin could imagine herself trapped inside a strange nightmare. Was the ship dead or were they?

She drew her phaser and activated her flashlight, scanning in both directions. The Security Complex was to her left, but to her right, one of the doors was partially open. Something protruded slightly, unmoving. She kept her phaser trained on it and turned her head to lean back into the Jefferies Tube.

"Ensign Mackie," she began, her voice a loud whisper. "Stay by the tube exit, I'm going to check something out. If I'm not back in ten minutes, make your way to the Security Complex and wait there."

Quinn nodded, nervously watching her as she left. The ensign stood there, trying to think of what could have happened, but a nearby console in the corridor junction caught his attention.

She thought she heard a response, so she crept down the corridor, her phaser trained on the strange shape. When she was two meters away she could see that it was a boot. Relaxing a bit, she approached it until she reached the door. She gasped.

The boot was attached to a body. Whose body? She couldn't tell. He," at least she assumed it was a he, "was wearing a gold Starfleet uniform and had a phaser sidearm. What was alarming was that the body looked to be dead by at least five years. "What the hell is going on here?"

She holstered her phaser and pulled the door open with both hands. It stayed open and she stepped inside, scanning with her flashlight. The room was covered in a layer of dust at least half an inch thick and it swirled into the air with every step she took.

She wiped a hand across the computer screen on the desk and saw that it was dead. "Well so much for finding any answers. She redrew her phaser and turned to leave, stepping out into the corridor and heading back towards where Mackie should be waiting.

Quinn wasn't far from where he was told to wait, but when he heard a commotion nearby, he flashed a palm light towards the source of the noise. "Lieutenant?" he called out.

Jazmin scowled when she reached the access point and Mackie was gone. She could, however see his palm light down the corridor. "Ensign! Report!" She called out as she headed after him.

"Main power's out," Quinn replied, gesturing to the status windows on the panel. "Auxiliary power is running, but it's like everything's physically been turned off. There's no way that would happen in the brief time the ship was rocking. Something's definitely off about all of this."

Jazmin nodded, trying to piece together what she knew so far. "It looks like the ship was abandoned years ago. I don't know how or why, but I'm going to go under that theory until we learn otherwise." She took a deep breath of stale air. "Let's get to the security complex and come up with a plan. I don't know about you, but I don't like staying out here in the open."

She turned and headed down the corridor towards the security complex. AS she rounded the bend she heard the door popper go off and saw the flashlights of the other crewmembers.

"Ahoy!" She was rather pleased with herself in using the ancient form of greeting sailors used. "Is that you Cooper?"

"Parks? Anything to report?" She asked relieved to see more crew.

"Life support seems to be down, or at least the air filtration. Auxiliary power is available, but Ensign Mackie seems to think that everything has been switched off. It's almost as if the Hawk was abandoned. I've come across one body crewmember so far. Looks like he's been dead a number of years."

Jazmin sighed. "I need to get to a command console. Let's see if we can't get the auxiliary power going and get the ship at least half-way working." She ran her fingers through her hair and tried to smile reassuringly. "Catherine, we'll get through this. I say we get everyone together, get a plan and save the day."

Cooper nodded, appreciating the sentiment, focused on the issue. "Right then that's a bit more then we knew." She said briskly, not liking the pictures that could be formed with the hints thus far. "So first goal, command console." She glanced at the Doc, Mitchell, and Quinn for anything they might add.

Mitchell, sticking close to Abbey, joined the others. "It's been agreed upon that we should head to the bridge, but I disagree. What could is a command console if there's no power to operate it? We need to work on getting power restored before we can do anything else," she said, shining her light down the corridor. That's when something highly unusual caught her eye and had her walking in that direction. When she saw exactly what it was, the blood drained from her face. "We've got a body over here!"

She crouched down to examine things a bit closer. There was nothing left but the tattered remains of what was once this person's uniform bearing a dirty and dusty yellow collar. She reached out to carefully brush some of the dust off of the collar and frowned. There were chevrons on the collar. Enlisted, which meant this person was either Security, an Engineer or Operations. "Why don't some of us make our way up to the bridge while the others go to Engineering and see what we can do about getting power restored?" she asked, looking back to the others. As horrible as she felt about the poor soul lying on the floor in front of her, there was nothing any of them could do to help now. It was way too late, but with power restored, they'd be able to positively identify this body and any others they might come across during their journey.

"What about Auxiliary Control?" Quinn asked. Being surrounded by a doctor and several members of security suddenly made him the expert on the ship's inner workings and he wasn't too thrilled about that. "It's on the deck just below us, and it'll be quicker to get to besides the bridge or engineering. Besides, in a situation like this, the bridge is bound to be inundated by other crewmen. We'd just be in the way."

"You're definitely not Security," Shay pointed out, shining her light toward Quinn, but keeping it away from his face as to not blind him. "That means you're either Engineering or Operations. Do you think, with our help, you can get the power back online somehow?"

"Operations," Quinn replied. "As for trying to get it back online, I've pretty much determined that the auxiliary generators are active, just dormant. Like everything's been manually switched off. But I won't know for sure until we get to something that actually works."

Cooper, before the body find was doing a brief mental kick for mis-speaking about command consoles but pushed ahead, forcing her brain to wake up after her long shift and focus. She had looked at the body with the rest of them, everything was adding up to a long time abandoned but still no reason why or how. Still there weren't going to get anywhere by standing here, "I've worked with Ensign Mackie..." She said recalling the time spent checking escape pods, "We're in good hands." She gave him a small supportive smile recognizing it can't be easy to be the only known surviving tech. She glanced at Dr. Roads as well, as the sobering thought continued that she may be their only medico. She really rather hoped that wasn't the case.

"So it sounds like we need to head down to aux control first or does anyone have any other suggestions?" She asked honestly looking at the assembled group. She was glad there were three security but had decided to believe there were other crew trapped elsewhere. If it was just the five of them, she didn't want to contemplate that.

"I'm the highest ranking officer we've come across," Abbey pointed out. "Plus, I've some flight experience. I'm heading to the bridge. But, anyone with any engineering knowledge whatsoever should definitely attempt to get some power back on. Comms second, so we can communicate. Anyone coming with me?"

Quinn shook his head. He hadn't been ordered to the bridge, and Auxiliary Control wasn't far from here, and it was their quickest chance to see if there was anything that worked. He looked to those around them to see who would follow her.

Cooper took a calming breath, "Doctor, I want to know what's happening there too but if we get things up and running we can report to the bridge much faster once the turbolifts are running. And it may not be wise to split up, we still don't know if there are intruders on board." Her tone reasonable though she would like to be moving already. Standing around in a creepy hallway with an old, dead body not her idea of helpful or even fun, unless it was a vacation in a holodeck.

Jazmin quietly listened to the discussion taking place on their options.

"I think we have two goals here. First to get power restored. Second, find any other survivors. I think the Doctor's right about heading to the Main Bridge. Any other survivors will probably head there. Some of them may need medical attention. One group, led by the good Doctor should head there post haste. The second group should go with Ensign Mackie to get power up and running." She paused before continuing. "Who goes where?"

She paused, waiting for the others when a realization struck her. "I'm sorry Doctor. You're the ranking officer, Lieutenant Cooper, you're the ranking security officer. I apologize if I overstepped my authority."

She smiled sheepishly, waiting for orders.

"It's all right," replied Abbey. "That's exactly what I was suggesting. Anyone with any engineering experience at all, go with Mackie. Everyone else, come with me." And without waiting for a response, she headed back to the turbolift shaft from which she had just climbed.

Cooper frowned but thought quickly. 13 decks with unknowns ahead of them and who knows whats on the bridge. So she pulled two of the three available security to go to the bridge. "Jaz please escort and protect Ensign Mackie to the aux control. Mitchell and myself will escort the good doctor." She turned to jogged after the doctor calling over her shoulder, "And if he's got phaser quals give him one..."

Jazmin nodded and looked around. There was a security locker close by. She managed to open it, pulling out a Type-II phaser. Checking the charge, she noticed it was only around fifteen percent. "Well, it's only good for a couple of shots, so hopefully we won't run into trouble." She handed the phaser to Mackie before turning to Cooper.

"We're ready."

"Good luck, warn us before you unlock this turbolift. And try comms as soon as you can." She called back from her position near the turbolift ladder with the Doctor. Turbolift ladders again. No one ever commented on that in the recruitment videos. Join Starfleet and climb multiple decks.

And no one had ever warned them of the possibilities that now awaited them, or that their lives were already in danger...

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