Rescuing the Bajorans (Entry)
Posted on Thu Jul 11th, 2024 @ 10:25pm by Captain Rylan Gray & Lieutenant Tyler Malbrooke & Lieutenant Daegan Baas & Lieutenant Stormy Knight & Lieutenant Ayren Kelan & Lieutenant Commander Harrison Knox & Lieutenant JG Shizuru Chikura
2,878 words; about a 14 minute read
Mission:
The Quasinon Gambit
Location: Cardassian Mining Outpost, Quasinon III
Timeline: MD003 - 1200
[On Quasinon III]
Daegan and another of his team made entry to the first chamber. Just as the scans had said there was no one here, but the room was cluttered with gear. From appearances the space was a changing area to put on or take off work covering and other equipment in order to minimize the dirtying of the habitable spaces. After sweeping the area he called back to the rest of the away team. "All clear so far. Simmons check the corridor between here and the next chamber."
Cayde entered shortly after Daegan and busied himself inspecting the room while Simmons checked the corridor that lead farther into the complex. It was meant as a entry point, where workers could change into and out of the heavier gear they needed to wear outside. From what was there, it was fairly clear that the Bajorans, who presumably made up the bulk of the workforce, used another entrance. Nothing here spoke of miners at least not to him; no, this was intended for the Cardassians who would be doing facility maintenance, that sort of thing. No lockers or cabinets. Mostly open shelves and hooks, benches, and a display panel, written in Cardassian, that presented information about the environment outside as well as inside.
Simmons had stopped after about two steps into the corridor connecting the entrance to the rest of the facility. "LT! I think we got a problem..."
Daegan moved in behind him and noticed that Simmons was shining his palm beacon on the tip of his foot. "As I was moving to the other door I felt something click under the ball of my foot."
Dropping to a knee Daegan scanned the platting. "Yep. Old fashioned pressure trigger, not detecting a fuse so as long as you don't move you'll be fine. Don't move, be right back."
Simmons called back, "Don't hurry on my account..."
Finding Knox and the others. "Sir, we have a booby trap. Nothing fancy, but enough a big enough charge to blow the corridor and most of both chambers. I should be able to remove the surrounding decking to get to it and remove it."
Of course thought Knox and he wondered how many more of these booby traps were left behind, and even more importantly, had the Bajorans suffered any casualties because of them. "Where there's one there's more" commented Knox. "Go ahead and disarm and disable, but proceed with extreme caution. We're dealing with Cardassian devices and designs. They were artists back in the day from what I know about the Cardassian civilization" warned the First Officer. "The medium and intent may have changed, but I'd wager the intricate artistry has remained" added Knox.
What he meant by that was that the Cardassians put art into everything they did along with the pride that came along with it. When they tortured someone, it was more than just brutal; there was a profoundly disturbing beauty to it. It reminded Harrison Knox of ballet. If the Cardassian booby traps were anything like that, then there would be more of them and safeguards in place for tampering with them.
Bass nodded to the confirmation and cautionary instructions before heading back to the corridor.
Of course there was a booby trap, Stormy thought. Probably to keep anyone from rescuing the Bajorans. At least security found it and would soon dismantle it so they could continue with their rescue efforts. Score one for the home team.
A trap, now that was more like Cardassians. Tyler thought. "Lieutenant Baas. I will give you a hand with getting rid of that thing." He said as he made his way to where Simmons was. Tyler first checked the surrounding area to make sure that there were no other traps. Finding none he set the engineering kit he had down and glanced toward Daegan. "Where do you think we should start?"
Pointing to the area to Simmons' left, "I want to remove the deck plating so I can get to the device. Then secure the trigger and remove device. We can then take it out side were we can detonate it safely."
Tyler nodded that he understood the plan. "Simmons, stay put we are going to get this done in a jiffy." He said as he knelt down and began to remove the deck plating. "I can get these off and you can make ready to to remove the device." Tyler added in Daegan's direction. A short minute or two later and the deck plating and been removed and the device revealed. It was a rather simply device. Simple is always best. Tyler thought.
Stormy wanted to help, but she knew that the others had this well in hand and would more likely just be in the way, so she stood back and watched. She wondered how many more booby traps were waiting for them. As she couldn't help, she decided to act as recorder and archivist and keep a record of what they found.
Shizuru was standing next to Stormy, she had no idea about anything to do with booby traps. She was a pilot, their resident fly-girl who enjoyed being at the controls of anything that can fly. She turned to Stormy. "Well, this is going well..." she said quietly to the science officer.
It was an odd question, under the circumstances. They found the explosive trap the hard way, which wasn't so fortunate, but Simmons managed to hold still, thus keeping the devise temporarily inert. "So far so good." The team knew what they were doing and Stormy trusted them to take care of this situation. If her attention was more on one member of the team than the others, she'd keep that to herself.
"At least you stuck the landing" quipped Knox interjecting himself into the conversation in response to Shizuru. "Nobody has been wounded or killed yet, and we found this trap rather then it maiming us. I would count that as going well, chèr" he added. Knox was determined to keep the odds in their favor on this one.
He looked to the Chief Science Officer for some assistance. "Scan whatever you can of that...booby trap. I want to know as much as we can about the materials used and any power sources. Then use that information to see if you can find any similar readings" instructed Knox. A bit of a shot in the dark, but if they could play 'minesweeper,' then he would.
"Yes, sir. I've already taken some baseline scans," Stormy replied. "I'll get more details on the device." Once she identified the power source and explosive it would be easier to find others. As long as the Cardassians didn't change up the booby traps, that is. But she had a general idea of what to look for and would include a search for more rudimentary snares and traps, just in case. Although she wondered why this one didn't show up on the initial scans. Something else to look for.
Baas lowered himself under the deck he slide underneath to examine the device and nodded. Sliding back out he looked to Simmons, "Don't move." Sliding back underneath he drew his hand phaser and focused the beam to it's narrowest setting and fired. The metal shaft between the deck plate and the explosive device was now welded in place and an evil grin flashed on his face.
In Daegan's mind: Sticking his head out from under the deck he instructed Simmons to move his foot. As soon as Simmons began to lift his foot he shouted "NOT THAT ONE!" Simmons dove onto Tyler and Daegan leaned back against the bulkhead laughing.
Had they been alone and not on a critical situation he might have done something, but instead of letting his imagination get the best of him he shouted from underneath. "All Clear!"
Climbing out from under the deck with the device and handing it to Simmons. "It's still hot so take it outside, at least 400 meters, so it can be detonated."
"Understood." With that he took the device and made his way back to the entrance. "Make a hole!"
Tyler had been keeping everything as steady as he could while Daegan got the device out. It was simple work, but intense, he was glad it was over and they weren't peeling parts of Simmons off the walls. "Well see... Easy peasy lemon squeezy. And now we know where not to step." He said with a broad smile.
"This time," Stormy quipped. She'd scanned the device while it was removed to get as many details as she could. Now she ran a quick analysis of its components and began to scan the area for any other such devices. "I'm not picking up any other booby traps like that one."
Ayren realised she had kept her breath in and breathed out slowly. She walked over to Deagan suddenly angered by the shock of the seriousness of the situation. "This is no joke and everything but "east peasy lemon squeezy"," she said. "You all could have been killed. And frankly, even if we don't pick up these things, there may still be some out there," she said exasperated.
He knew it was his imagination that had gotten her knickers in a twist and not the situation itself. "Calm down Ren. Everyone's fine, dealing with these things is part of the job...and ya can't hold a random thought against now can ya?"
Ayren glared at him. "My knickers are fine... but I can twist yours and it won't be pleasant," she retorted. She was quite baffled herself at her strong reaction just now. Usually she was calm in emergency situations, comforting others. When the penny eventually dropped that he called her 'Ren', like he used to, the glare softened slightly, but the frown remained in place. "Still, be careful," she said, making a twisting motion with her hand towards his groin, accompanied by tight lipped grin.
[Aboard the USS Thunderbird]
Sarah leaned back in the seat of the shuttle craft as the pilot ran an approach to the USS Thunderbird and she sighed heavily. The events of the last few days weighed heavily on her mind, though she was glad to be back at the ship.
“If we find one singular reason, no matter how small, that indicates you are slipping on your duties you’ll be riding a console back on earth for the rest of your life!” The heated words from the Rear Admiral echoed in her ears even now, an infinite expanse between her and the Starbase.
She was broken from her thoughts as the pilot looked back over to her and indicated that they were within transporter range and she gathered her belongings and tapped her commbadge =/\= Lieutenant Graesyn to the Thunderbird, permission to come aboard and return to my duties? =/\=
"Permission granted, Lieutenant. Prepare for beam over." The operations officer on duty, having checked with the Captain, routed the request over to the transporter room. Before long, the beam claimed the Lieutenant and brought her back onto the Thunderbird.
Sarah stepped off the transporter platform and headed for the bridge, arriving just minutes later and heading for the Engineering Console. Being back on the Thunderbird was relieving to her and she was eager to fall back into the routine of her duties.
Because the turbolifts were in front of the command area, on either side of the view screen, Rylan saw the Lieutenant enter and walk back to her station, behind him. Engineers didn't generally stay on the Bridge unless there was a specific need and he made a mental note to check the results of the medical tests that had taken her away from the ship.
Her stay on the bridge was short-lived as she pulled ships logs from the bridge console that pertained to Engineering and transferred them to a PaDD. She looked up at his gaze and gave Rylan a warm smile and then stepped away from the console and headed back toward the turbo-lift.
[On Quasinon III]
Cayde observed the interaction, as he did most things, and filed the information away. It became a question in his mind as to whether the counselor was talking about the team or Daegan in particular. "It is interesting," he interjected, "that the corridor is booby-trapped. The Cardassians have been unfriendly to the Federation for some time, it's easy to assume that they are responsible. They have long been a threat. Indeed, far easier than thinking it might be the Bajorans. Is there any indication, Lieutenant," Cayde asked as he looked at Daegan, "from what you found that could give us a clue?"
"I don't think it was Cardassian, it was too...improvised. I got a feeling the Bajorians left this as a deterrent to anyone that would come to get them."
Knox was in charge of the away team. He was responsible for every member of it regardless of what they did as a group or independently. If anything went south, he'd shoulder the fallout. "Counselor, you're correct. There may be whether we can or cannot detect them. We need to proceed with caution and be vigilant. Assume any room we step in has something that could harm us."
Cayde nodded his agreement. Personally, when he was on an mission, he proceeded with that sort of caution no matter what room he stepped into; course, he generally worked alone and without backup, additional caution was always warranted.
Shizuru walked along towards the back of the team. "I'm mapping the facility as we go." She said to them all. "If any doors or bulkheads locks us in, I think it should be useful to have an accurate up to date map. Plus, I'm picking up several crawl ways and what seems to be sewer systems underground." She told them all as she continued her scans whilst she walked. She had finally found a way to be somewhat useful, at least her pilot and navigation experience could be somewhat useful on the ground.
Once she'd scanned what she could for now, Stormy waited by Tyler for security to lead the way to the next room. She still wondered if the trap was to keep people out or in. Either way, she didn't have a good feeling about this place.
Ayren followed cautiously. She could feel and 'hear' the uncertainty in the group, but kept her mind focussed on anything or anyone else she may sense. There was something she felt, some vague emotions, but she could not identify it yet and therefore kept it to herself.
Looking to the XO, "Well Sir we should probably get going and take some extra caution. Hopefully we don't run into anymore surprises but I have a feeling that little IED won't be the only thing between us and the Bajoran miners."
Knox nodded in agreement. "There's an old Earth saying," the First Officer prefaced. "You can bet your bottom dollar" he added as he proceeded onward. His saying was not exactly ominous on surface, but in context it meant an almost certainty that there would be more danger ahead for them all. Keep them safe thought Knox. That was his agenda above all else.
"See something, say something. Hear anything, say something. Heck, if any of you smell something that just ain't right, keep us in the loop. There's no telling what we're getting into."
The door opened into the command center with two doors, one on the left and the other straight ahead. Most of the room was pristine though there seemed that one of the consoles was damaged.
Waving Simmons to the right as he when left Daegan scanned the area, twice just to be sure. "All clear." The room appeared to some operations center for the mine. Belting his tricorder, he tried activating the rooms main console but it was not functioning. Kneeling he accessed the panel beneath but sever components had been removed. "Consoles dead sir. Some one removed several linkages and control rods to make sure it couldn't be used without replacements."
On his second pass Simmons stopped and one of the two unopened doors. "Commander. There is a charger rigged to the doors mechanic. If we open the hatch it will detonate and there's no way to get to it."
Stormy was farther back, but since she'd studied the last trap with her tricorder, it was able to find this one, too. Although it did little more than verify what Simmons already found. But there was something she was picking up. It was almost like a taste in the back of her throat, but through her telepathy. She closed her eyes to focus. Yes. It was...anger. "I'm sensing a lot of anger."
Captain Rylan Gray
Commanding Officer
USS Thunderbird
and
Lieutenant Commander Harrison Knox
Executive Officer
USS Thunderbird
and
Lieutenant Daegan Baas
Chief Tactical Officer
USS Thunderbird
and
Lieutenant Tyler Malbrooke
Chief Operations Officer
USS Thunderbird
and
Lieutenant Stormy Knight
Chief Science Officer
USS Thunderbird
and
Lieutenant Ayren Kelan
Counselor
USS Thunderbird
and
Lieutenant JG Shizuru Chikura
Helm Officer
USS Thunderbird
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