We're Not In Kansas Anymore... (Time Zone 4)

Posted on 31 Jul 2018 @ 6:22pm by Commodore Harvey Geisler & Lieutenant JG Catherine Cooper & Lieutenant JG Shay Mitchell & Ensign Aidan Crehan & Master Chief Petty Officer Mila Rasputin
Edited on on 31 Jul 2018 @ 7:25pm

4,865 words; about a 24 minute read

Mission: The Search Begins
Location: USS Black Hawk, Various
Timeline: TZ 4 || 0945 hours

===[Administration Deck Three]===

Mila had been in Administration when the ship shook, but she was ready this time. One hand grabbed her coffee cup and one stopped a stack of PADDs from falling off of her desk. She had just straightened up when the ship shook again and the PADDs went flying, but her grip remained on the coffee. That's when the lights went out and the biggest shake yet hit the ship. She set the coffee cup down and headed out of her office. "Report!" she called out to whoever was in the Administration area.

There wasn't a single voice to answer her, nor was there anyone to answer her. The administration area was dark and vacant. Were the lights on, Mila would find that everything in the room was coated with a thin layer of dust.

When no voices responded to her, she went back into her office and felt around until she found a emergency beacon that away teams used at times, activated it and went back out into the reception area. "Hello?" she asked and heard her voice echo as she swept the light over the room. There was noone there and she frowned as she started to head to the other offices. As she went, she saw that everything appeared dusty and paused to swipe her finger over one surface. "Dust? Why is system not cleaning the area?" she asked as she looked at the dusty buildup on her finger.

She put the questions aside when they started building up and checked each office as she went while calling out to see if anyone responded to her.

Alas, there was no one to answer her. Whoever was normally stationed in each room was nowhere to be found.

The Russian Yeoman frowned and went to collect several PADDs and activated them; at least they provided more light and she began setting them up around the reception area as she went along. She then went to an access hatch and opened it. "Hello, is anyone being in here?" she called out.

Her shout reverberated through empty tubes with no one to answer them. There was however, some commotion at the main entrance, a scratching noise, as something tried to get through.

Mila heard the scratching noise and went over to disengage the manual door release, then pushed at it. "Whoever is being on other side, push," she requested.

The individual did as they were told. With a hiss, the door's motor yielded to the organic interference and scratched as it opened, as if the doors hadn't been used in years. Just on the other side of the door was a Saurian in a red uniform. The stale air had done enough to agitate his throat, but the dust particle assault did him in, sneezing in Mila's face as an abundance of green goo escaped his nose.

Mila had started to jump back right as the Saurian sneezed in her face and then she gagged and slapped a hand over her mouth. She turned and grabbed a potted plant nearby and was immediately sick inside of it.

Before he could apologize, the ensign sneezed again, but this time he managed to avoid spraying the yeoman. "I'm so sorry, Chief," he said as his eyes adjusted to the brighter room. "What... what is that... smell!!!" Another loud sneeze, again missing the Russian woman.

Mila wiped her mouth with one sleeve and then the rest of her face with her other sleeve and backed away from him. "What are you smelling other than stale air and dust and who are you?"

"Ensign Dagee," said the Saurian, plugging his enlarged nostrils and backing out of the room. "It must be the dust that I'm smelling. I picked it up in the corridor, but it wasn't as bad as in here. Where did it all come from?"

"There is being no one in here but me," the Yeoman replied. "I am Senior Chief Mila Rasputin, Captain's Yeoman. Is there being anyone else in this section, Ensign?"

The Saurian shook his head in dismay. "Petty Officer Cortez and I had been sent on a task by Lieutenant Winner when the ship started to shake. By the time it all stopped, I noticed that she'd disappeared. I couldn't find her anywhere. I discovered then that comms were either out or there's no one to answer on the other end. When I saw the light shining through the windows on your door, I thought I'd see if you knew anything."

"Nothing," Mila said. "So let us be getting out of here and seeing what and who we can be finding. There is being Security locker in room over here. Are you being trained on phasers?"

The ensign nodded, following her to the locker. "I had high marks on my final exam before graduation last fall," he answered. "Do you think we were boarded or something like that?"

"I am not knowing," Mila said as she went to the locker and opened it. She pulled out two phasers, holsters, power cells and wrist lamps and handed one of each to the Saurian. "But I am not going to be unprepared." With that, she attached everything to herself and headed for the door. "Oh, and please do not be sneezing on me again."

"Get me away from all of this dust and you have a deal." He accepted the phaser and checked the charge. "Senior Chief?" he asked. "You do keep these on charge when stored, correct?"

"Da, Security is keeping them charged and switched out weekly," she answered him as she pried the door open and stepped through it. "I am suggesting getting a cloth to be putting over nostrils for dust." With her eidetic memory and the wrist light, she made her way down the corridor towards the nearest access hatch. "I am thinking Bridge would be best bet to be finding things out."

"We're not going to get far with these," Dagee pointed out. "The phasers only have a fifteen percent charge." He inserted the spare power cell into the locker's charger to check it. "And these extra cells just a little more."

"Fifteen percent?" Mila echoed before she checked the charge of her own phaser and switched out the power cell. "Then we are best to be hoping that we are not needing them," she said with a shake of her head. "I will be making note to have Security check charging stations."

Dagee holstered his phaser, but didn't switch out the cell, thinking that it might be handy to keep the item with the better charge in reserve should a reload be necessary. He then ripped off a portion of his sleeve to create a mask for his face. It didn't make breathing any easier, but at least he couldn't smell the dust. "Lead the way," he remarked.

Mila snagged a couple more of the power cells and put them in a pouch, then attached it to her holster. With a sigh and nearly made her sneeze, she turned and headed back out the door and to the access hatch. She bent down and released it, then shined her light inside before she crawled in and began to climb upwards. "Life in Starfleet is never being dull."


===[Main Science Lab]===

Aidan woke up with blue, bio-luminescent material that he'd been studying on the front of his uniform. The lab was darkened for the most part, with the exception of the other specimens. Their varying shaded of blue, green, red, and purple cast an eerie glow through parts of the lab. The one that seemed to shed the most light, though, was the green. The El-Aurian decided that would be the best one to light his way for the time being.

As he put his hand on the table, it slipped. It shouldn't have. He pushed himself up from the floor and saw that the table was covered in dust. Everything was covered in dust. Or it hung in the air. The air, he thought. It didn't smell fresh or pleasant like it was supposed to. Instead, it smelled like his best friend's grandfather's house. Stale and old. The first thought that struck his mind was why the environmental controls had been shut down. Then he wondered if they'd come under attack and the lab had been sealed to that extent.

Rather than sit and wonder, he grabbed the clear canister of green bio-luminescent material and tapped his combadge. He headed for the door when there was no response and fully expected to find it locked. Instead, it was opened. Locked open. He couldn't activate the door via the panel and he didn't have the engineering expertise to diagnose the issue. He walked out into the corridor, canister in hand and looked up and down. There wasn't another soul to be seen. Then an odd feeling came over him.

He looked for the nearest access hatch to make his way to the Bridge via the Jeffries Tubes. That could be where he might be the most useful. As he pulled the hatch closed behind himself, his mind went immediately to Mila. For a very long moment for an El-Aurian, he considered going to Administration first. But the Bridge might be the place where people would gather in a circumstance such as this. To the Bridge it was.


===[Bridge]===

It was a short two deck climb, but when Mila finally opened the access hatch to the bridge, she was greeted with the smell of death, decay and more dust. She wrinkled her nose and clambered out so Dagee could get out after her and shined her light around while holding a hand to her nose and mouth.

Dagee exited the Jefferies tube and shined his palmlight around the decrepit bridge. Like most of the ship, it was devoid of life, but at least a couple of the emergency lights were flickering, giving the bridge a strange red glow. Every single console, except for the master situational display, was offline. Dagee was not an engineer by trade, but he had a feeling he should not ignore the MSD. As he approached it, something caught his eye.

The ensign fixed his light on the Captain's chair. He hadn't seen a dead body before, and that did not include holographic representations during Academy simulations. Either what the Saurian was experiencing now was a very realistic simulation, or he was living in hell.

Cautiously he approached the body, keeping his light affixed to the corpse. Years of decay had taken its toll, removing the flesh and the internal organs, leaving behind a skeleton and some hair still clumped on top of the skull. The scent of death had long dissipated, but it did not make the gruesome sight even more bearable.

Suddenly, he froze, nearly gasping. A glint of light flashed from the corpse's collar. He did not know all of the crew, maybe just a few people outside the flight operations department. But, there was no mistaking the facts now.

Captain Geisler was dead.

Mila had been shining the light around the bridge and then turned towards the center area and stopped in her tracks. A skeleton sat there where the Captain normally sat and she saw the pips illuminated in the Saurian's beam. All the color drained from her face as she slowly approached the chair and then her breath ripped from her in a scream when she saw that it was Harvey's body.

Near the Intelligence console was a second skeletal body laid out on the floor in the same condition the first was in. A few strands of long, dark hair came from its head, but it wasn't enough to make a positive ID given how many of the ship's crew had that same type of hair. However, there was one thing that would let others know who it was, and that came in the form of the two much smaller skeletons curled up on the floor in fetal positions where the woman's abdomen may have once been.

The now former Yeoman to the Captain turned to retch when she saw another body on the bridge. "What happened here?" she whispered in a horrified voice as she approached it. Then she saw the long dark hair and the pips of a Lieutenant, but as the light played down the body, she saw two smaller skeletons nestled where the persons stomach should have been. "No...no, no, no, no!" she screamed as she fell to her knees when she realized who it had to be. "NO!"

Crawling around in the Jeffries Tubes had managed to spread the blue around his uniform. But the glow had not diminished. Aidan came closer to what he thought was an access hatch leading to the rear of the Bridge when he heard a scream. He quickly crawled to it and man-handled the latch and door until it flung off. The El-Aurian crawled out and stood up, picking up his green glowing canister and looking around. "What happened?!" he screamed. "Is someone in need of assistance?"

"You might say that," Dagee said softly. "Looks like the command crew's not just dead. But they've been dead for a while." With his flashlight, he indicated the captain's corpse in the center chair.

Mila was on her knees caressing the long hair of the dead woman with tears running down her cheeks. "Joey...what happened. Why did it happen? Why?!"

Aidan looked at the Saurian and then down to where he was shining his light. Captain Geisler, or at least what remained of him. He lowered the green canister to the floor and shook his head. "A very long while, I would say." Then glance moved to source of the scream. Mila. He knelt down beside her and put his arm around her. He'd been with people who had experienced grief many times. But none quite like this. He rubbed her back as she wept, not caring that the Saurian saw.

The Yeoman's shoulders shook and she jumped when she felt an arm go around her. She turned quickly and when she saw it was Aidan by the emergency lighting, she threw herself into his arms and sobbed uncontrollably. "They...they are all being dead!" she cried.

He held her and allowed her to cry, her tears sinking into this uniform. "We will find out what happened," he said to her. Then he looked up to the Saurian. "We will. We have to."

"I don't understand," Dagee said. "Power only went out a couple minutes ago, yet it looks its been years since anything was touched." He approached the bridge storage locker only to find it empty of... everything. "Did we get raided or something?"

"I don't know," Aidan said, following the voice with his eyes. "When I came to, I thought we'd been attacked and systems shut down." He continued to hold and console Mila as he felt that odd feeling he had earlier creep back in. He was silent for a few seconds before he put it to the side. "Have you been able to access anything other than lockers and rooms?"

Dagee shook his head. "The MSD here is active, and it is showing that auxiliary power is available, but there's a lot of stuff that's been shut down. I think we're going to need an engineer."

"Which, I am not," Aidan replied. "Ensign Crehan, Science Department." For the moment then, he turned his attention to Mila. "If you're able to stand," he said to her, "we should move to another location. Perhaps the MSD where your Saurian friend is. If it's active, it could provide a bit more lighting in addition to the emergency ones."

Mila turned away from the skeletal remains on the floor and came to her feet. She took a shaky breath and wiped her eyes. "I don't know what happened here," she said with no trace of an accent. "But we're going to find out what, why and who caused this."

Crawling through tubes and climbing ladders wasn't exactly how Abbey wanted to spend her time, but there wasn't really anything else she could do. She had climbed to Sick Bay, retrieved a med kit- while ignoring the dead bodies litering the floor- and then made her way to the bridge. Surprisingly, the door to the bridge was already opened. She climbed through and pulled herself to her feet, ignoring more dead bodies. "Oh, thank goodness," she said, spotting others on the bridge. "Living! I was afraid I'd find- oh," she stopped, her face falling slightly as she glanced around the bridge. "Well, does anybody need any help?" she asked, holding up the med kit.

Shay made her way onto the bridge and saw the others there, but as she opened her mouth to speak, her eyes fell on the bodies. The blood drained from her face, though she didn't scream. "I... I..." What could she possibly say at this point in time? Nothing. Members of their crew were dead, but why?

Cooper stood here, her face professional blank as she visually scanned the area for threats automatically before looking closely, eyes flickering from one body to the next. The Captain, and others rested where they sat or laid looking like they had been there for some time. Lt. Geisler, who Cooper knew was pregnant was there as well and Catherine's heart broke a little. Her normally busy mind stuttered for a few moments as stunned as anyone.

"It's the Captain," the Saurian ensign said, indicating the corpse in the center of the bridge. "From what we can tell, he's been dead for years, and some of the senior staff. We're not sure what happened, or if anyone else is alive." Looking to Doctor Road, who seemed to be the only person on the bridge with full lieutenant pips, he said, "I guess that makes you the Acting Captain of the Black Hawk, ma'am. Until we can find anyone else."

"Well, that's fantastic," muttered Abbey. Being a captain was the last thing she ever wanted, but he was right, it was the only way, until they found someone who outranked her.

Mila, still in a state of shock, looked around. "She is not being Captain. No one is to be taking his place. This is not being Captain Geisler!" she yelled and pointed at the skeletal remains in the chair. "No one on ship has died!"

Shay moved toward Mila and placed her hand on the Yeoman's shoulder in an effort to help calm her down. "No one is trying to take anyone's place, Senior Chief, but we need some kind of leadership right now," she said in a soothing tone before turning her attention toward the others. "When I say what I'm going to, it's nothing personal against anyone. And I mean that when I say it. But, despite Lieutenant Road's rank, I don't feel she's the best choice to be placed in command at this time. The reason being... something or someone had to do this, and I personally feel that someone from Medical isn't the right fit for what we could be dealing with."

"Because a doctor doesn't know the first thing about commanding a starship, right?" asked Abbey incredulously. "Need I remind you that Captain Geisler was a doctor? I was Chief Medical Officer of the Patriot before I had a kid and decided to step down. I am a bridge officer. I had command training. Unless you can find someone else who has those credentials and enough rank to throw around, I'm it." She may not particularly like being in charge, but she knew how and would not hesitate to do so until and unless someone else turned up.

Ensign Mitchell opted to say nothing and took a step back as if to allow Abbey to proceed with taking command. The fact of the matter was, she didn't care, but was interested to see how this was all going to pan out. For now, she was planned to hang back and wait for orders once they came her way.

"Thank you," said Abbey, a bit more calmly. "Now. Mackie took a group to engineering to see if they can't get the power back on. Miss Rasputin," she added in a kinder, gentler voice to the young woman. "I know these people were your friends. I know it's hard. But, I need you to hold it together for me, yeah? We can all mourn later. Can you stay strong for me? No, for them. Can you stay strong for them?"

"What in name of Gre'thor am I to be doing?" Mila snapped at Road. "There is being no PADD and no power. Here is update on state of ship. We are being dead as corpses on bridge. Are you to be needing anything else, acting Captain?"

"I understand that," replied Abbey calmly. "But, I need ideas. One person cannot come up with all the ideas on their own. I have my own ideas of what we should be doing, but I'd like everyone else's thoughts, too, and in order to even have thoughts, you've got to remain strong."

"You are being one with the command experience as you are saying," Mila said with a shrug. "So be in Command, Lieutenant." She turned her back on the Medical officer and went to the emergency locker. There, she pulled out a silver survival blanket and moved to cover Joey and the twins' dessicated bodies reverently. "Pokoysya s mirom, seestra," she whispered as a tear slid down her cheek.

With a sigh, Abbey shook her head. No, she was not going to be able to count on Mila for any help whatsoever. "All right," she said resignedly. She had really hoped for as many heads as possible, but she'd take what she could get right now. "Everyone else. There's not much we can do until we get power back on, but, I figure we can at least make sure everything is working on our end. You know, checking circuits and... whatever else. I don't know. I know next to nothing of engineering. Anyway, suggestions?"

"Each console has its own power feed," observed Dagee. "Perhaps we should start by making sure each console is still connected to power. And, seeing how the storage lockers have already been pilfered, we should inventory our available supplies." He then held up his phaser. "This was taken from a locker in Administration, but it only has enough charge for one or two shots. Normally, I'd say there's something wrong with the charging station, but given the amount of dust, it's like all of us have been missing for some time."

Shay grabbed another survival blanket after Mila did and brought it over to the center chair where the Captain was sitting. She wasn't going to cry, though there were tears welling in her eyes. "Godspeed, Captain," she whispered before unfolding the blanket and placing it on top of the body with all the care in the world. "I'll check the tactical station." With that, she moved over to the station she'd manned on more than one occasion.

"I'm not sure how much help I'll be as far as the power," said the blue uniformed science officer, "but I shall give it a look." Aidan walked over to the Science station and searched beneath it for a panel. The El Aurian found it a few moments later and managed to remove it. "From what I can tell, things seem to be in order down here," he said, poking around inside. Then it hit him again. That strange feeling that he'd had twice already. "This isn't right," he said aloud. Aidan stood and turned to the group on the Bridge. "Somehow, all of this, whatever it is, is all wrong."

"Wotcha mean?" asked Abbey, brow wrinkling. "The consoles are wrong? Can we fix it?"

Aidan shook his head. "No, not the consoles. This, this atmosphere simply does not feel right. The corpses, the dust, the stale air...this is not how it is to be. Things just don't feel right." He wished he could understand it more, explain it better, but it was like he was grasping at shadows.

Cooper had been looking around the bridge after Mitchell went to comfort Mila. She didn't want to overwhelm so out of respect didn't approach just yet. For her part, to see so many of the people she knew and the innocents dead was something that was going to haunt her mind for a long time to come.

So partly as training, partly as a self defense mechanism to keep her mind functioning, she shifted focus. Her emotions took a back seat as she looked at the scene as one would a crime scene. Discussions flowed around her as she slowly walked around, checking and examining.

"It gives the appearance of age or time passing. No signs of personal weapons fire or battle damage to the ship." She said, agreeing with Aidan. She didn't say "It was like entering an ancient Egyptian tomb" becuase that was creepy and not helpful.

Shay looked up from her console, then between Abbey and Aidan. "So, we've established that none of this feels right," she stated, but for her it was an obvious observation. People didn't just die and decompose down to bones as rapidly as some of the senior officers did. Especially not in a matter of seconds. "Now, we need to figure out why it doesn't feel right and fix it. Power needs to be restored. Once we get that done, then we can work on everything else. Right now, we're in a highly vulnerable state if someone comes around looking for a fight."

"I agree," replied Abbey. Although the El-Aurian's commends worried her, there wasn't much they could do about it at the moment.

Humans, thought Aidan, most understand us with their heads, intellectually, but very few with their hearts.That is probably why many of us only spend a few decades with them.

Mila looked over at Aidan, then at the Security woman. "El-Aurians are being sensitive to changes that should not be," she said. "So before you are being smart ass, it would be better to be listening."

Shay looked toward Mila. There was a saying about people who made assumptions. "I'm aware of that fact," she stated calmly. "I understand that you're grieving right now, so I'm willing to overlook certain things because now is neither the time, nor is it the place, but I'm still standing by what I said. That's the end of that."

"Power can't be restored from up here," observed Ensign Dagee who'd long been silent. "And I doubt any of us are engineers. Perhaps the question we need to ask ourselves first is why they're dead, and we're not? What if, when this ship powers up, whatever killed them will kill us too?"

"That's a possibility," the young Ensign stated, moving back over to rejoin the rest of the group. Shay placed a hand on her phaser out of habit and not that she planned to shoot anyone present. "But, what if whatever killed them is out there? We have no shields to protect us, no weapons, nothing. If there is something out there that can hurt us, not having any form of defense is sealing our fate."

Considering the options for only a moment, Abbey made her decision. "We get the power on," she said. "Mackie is working on that in Main Engineering. I'm far more concerned about a danger from outside than from inside. Until we get power back on, there's nothing we can do. Now," she added, turning to Crehan. "Tell me about this wrongness."

"To begin," said Aidan, "from an archaeologist and anthropologist point of view, I don't believe we need to worry about a flash and blood attacker. Look at the remains. If they were being attacked, the position of the skeletons would be different. They would be in a defensive posture. Instead, they are where they are supposed to be. The Captain in his chair. His wife by his side. The others at their duty stations. It's almost as if they came to terms with their fate, accepted peace where they could find it, and laid down to die."

He then turned to the medical officer. "I wish I could. The ship is right. The people are right. But everything else isn't. This is not supposed to be happening. Perhaps if I had more information...but I can't be certain. ." The Lieutenant's comment earlier about age and the passing of time struck a chord with him. Time is a fire that consumes us all, someone had once said.

Mila listened to Aidan, then thought for a moment. "Charges are being low on everything. We are needing to get power up and we are not being able to do this here. Let us be going to auxiliary control, da?

= = = = = = = =

OOC CDP: Pokoysya s mirom means "Rest in peace."

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