Doors are locked for a reason - Part 1 of 3

Posted on Mon Jan 27th, 2025 @ 3:09am by Lieutenant Commander S'hib & Captain Gary Taylor & Lieutenant Commander Alicia Kelea-Salik & Lieutenant Commander Rin & Lieutenant Anna Esquivias & Lieutenant Thor Magnus & Lieutenant J'airesh Mora-Heath & Captain Samuel Woolheater & Lieutenant N'vok Holv & Lieutenant JG Daisheliss "Lissa" Kerr & Lieutenant Victor Barclay de Tolly

Mission: Season 6: Episode 5: A church beyond heaven
Location: Alien Vessel Beta
Timeline: MD:5
1659 words - 3.3 OF Standard Post Measure

"Ma'am," Thor called out, pointing lazily towards a hatch as the away team strode forward. "I believe that's the docking hatch we're after."

Rin nodded, touching the controls to open the hatch, to no avail. "Get it open," she ordered the security officer.

Nearby, N'vok was running multiple scans with his tricorder. "There is something wrong with these readings but I cannot make sense of what it is."

Anna walked over, bringing her own tricorder up. She frowned and pressed the controls again. "Is that a chroniton flux?" she asked and then frowned. "I lost it."

"They are notoriously difficult to catch," said N'vok. "Let us synchronize our tricorders and spread out, that will give us a better chance of catching another such flux, should one appear."

Captain Woolheater was keeping an alert eye on the massive corridors. They seemed even larger now because there were fewer people in them. Just as tall, just as dark in stone color and just as creepy. Sam had only his sidearm tucked away under his uniform top shirt in a chest holster. He covered that with a light jacket but he doubted that the A'janie were duped by it. They seemed to know an awful about the things you didn't tell them. And next to nothing on the things you did. There, down the corridor a few A'janie were walking and talking. And then, from out of one of the alcoves, emerged a 2 meter tall, eight-legged robotic spider like machine. It was performing the functions of the custodial arts but Sam had a feeling that's not all it was doing. When he was satisfied that they were not drawing attention he returned to the group and asked,

"Any luck? The thing's got to have a manual override somewhere yeah?" Sam said.

“This place well and truly gives me the creeps!” Alicia’s voice was unusually quiet as she walked along with the others. “I’m not sure what in the hell I’m sensing over here, it doesn’t make any sense.”

Gary was silent as the others talked, He like Sam was keeping an eye out for any possible danger as well as looking the ship over. Studying its structure and layout. "What are you sensing Alicia? Can you describe it?”

Alicia looked towards Gary. “It’s like a...” She paused. “A sense of loss, of something amiss, like when you’ve forgotten something and its memory is just out of reach. If that makes any sense? I have no idea why I feel it.”

Gary considered Alicia's reply. "It makes sense Alicia." He replied thinking about the recent discussion he had with Phoenix and Kyle and the Senior Staff dinner about this same issue.

"The A'janie seem to be making themselves comfortable here at the docking port," Lissa noted. "If we're going to have any luck it's probably going to be somewhere else on the ship."

"This is the ship we're investigating," Rin said over her shoulder matter-of-factly. "As far as I can tell, the A'janie have forgotten this ship even exists. What's left of them, anyway."

"I just meant, nevermind," the Orion muttered to herself."

At that moment, a beep came from the hatch controls, and the hatch itself slid to one side, allowing the team entrance to the vessel.

Rin was first to enter, carefully peering around the first corner of a T intersection, getting her bearings. The corridor stretched left and right from their position, lit up by flashing red emergency lights. Other than the slight hum of power, everything was silent.

"Engineering to the left, Bridge to the right," Rin stated. "Holv, Esquivias, Sullivan, we'll head right. Captain Taylor, would you lead the way left with Salik, Kerr, Magnus, Heath, and Woolheater?"

N'vok follows Rin's directions, his tricorder out. "Why does an old Terran expression come to mind? By the prickling of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes."

Gary nodded at Rin's orders. "Certainly Rin, be glad to." He turned to the others. "Okay you heard Rin, let's go see what we can find out. Alicia, shout out if you sense anything out of the ordinary. Sam, you take point. I'll cover our rear. Anna, use your tricorder to see if you can get a fix on the chroniton flux. Victor, you'll be needed in Engineering to try and get us some light as well as power to consoles."

"Sir, a word in private?" Rin asked, motioning for Gary to step aside with her. "All of our heads are probably a little messed up, so I'm just going to ask: are you meaning to countermand my team division? Salik, Kerr, Magnus, Heath, and Woolheater with you to Engineering. Magnus because he's the damn chief of Engineering. Holv, Esquivias, Sullivan, Victor and myself to the bridge. I could further explain my reasons, but I don't really think we have the time, sir."

Gary blushed, "I'm sorry Rin. I did screw up. I heard what you said, and my mind thought something else. I do apologize."

Thor strolled by, catching a few words as Rin and Gary spoke.

"It's ok, I ignore S'hib all the time..." He muttered softly with his rifle pressed against his shoulder and the barrel trained to the floor, heading in the original direction Rin had directed. "Stay close." He added as he flicked the light on his rifle, shifting his focus to the task at hand.

"Thank you, sir," Rin sincerely replied to Gary.

Then she turned toward the people she had just called out. "Alright, Team Bridge, eyes and ears open. Do not wander off by yourself. Let's go."

N'vok ran his hand along the surface of the corridor while his tricorder whirred away. "Hopefully we can access their computer system, it may provide some useful data."

"Hopefully," Anna said as she followed with her assigned team. "This is starting to give me the creeps."

N'vok nodded. "It is . . . what is the term . . . eerie?"

"Thats one way to put it," Thor said as he strode forward, trying to ignore the feeling in his gut telling him they needed to leave. "Let's just make this quick."

It wasn't difficult at all to feel whatever it was that was worrying the others, and J'Air tucked up her tunic fastenings closer even though she wasn't cold but it just felt somehow reassuring. It felt almost like a childish thing to do, to swaddle herself in her uniform and yet it was instinctively what she needed to do. Bringing her medcorder to bear to take readings as she walked, J'Air tried to make some kind of sense of her readings. They were unsettlingly normal but inexplicably wrong at the same time. Shaking herself mentally, without speaking but also trying to calm and rationalise her findings, or lack of them, she kept up with the group, still scanning.

N'vok paused. "Can other people take a scan of the section, what I am seeing is that there is a strange variation in the apparent material age, Yet, it is obviously the same section of ship structure. I need to see if it is a fault in my tricorder."

Anna scanned it. She frowned as if doubting her eyes. Then she scanned it again. "Not unless I have the same error. That might explain the chronitons."

"We will have to file it for later investigation," said N'vok. "But this only seems more troubling."


ENGINEERING TEAM

The corridor before them was dimly lit, obscure and lonely. Sam took point as ordered and withdrew his weapon from his chest holster and trained it down the corridor. It was so quiet too. Just the breathing of the group and the click-click-click of the red emergency lights and the alien ship systems cycling and doing maintenance routines. Sam felt as if they were about to step into some distant, lonely place. The darkness before them was as if it were a lake. Endlessly outspread and full of darkness lone and dead. There was a coldness here that chilled his blood. And it was so still. The air, was heavy...and sad. As if a great melancholy hung all around them. Like a pall. At times stronger and at times weaker. Swung by shrouded seraphim. Holding an unseen censor that perfumed everything with this heavy air. On his left forearm was strapped a flashlight which he now switched on. The light from the instrument seemed to bright and it pierced the darkness brilliantly.

Even so, the air was still, so very still and chilly. On the corridor wall, there was writing here that he could not make out. Sam tried to read it but he could not. The group pressed on forward. Every single sound was an alert. Listening. Watching.

Lissa had her tricorder out and was scanning for anything anomalous. She kept an eye on her periphery and ears open for signals from the team as she watched for any blips in the readings. The lions share of her safety was in the hands of Taylor and Woolheater as she focused on the ship itself and her equipment for subtle signs that anything was amiss. The confusion among several of the crew earlier was not lost on her as she tried to keep a clear head.

Alicia was keeping her senses alert for any sign of something odd, it didn’t help that everyone else’s emotions, including her own, were running on a high. “Why wouldn’t people remember seeing the crew of this ship, there must have been crew, it couldn’t have docked here without one.”

Gary heard Alicia's question. "I wouldn't think so Alicia and as to why no one remembers the crew that is a good question, one I hope we can find, and answer." He replied as the team moved slowly, cautiously down the corridor. Their senses heightened and on alert for anything out of the ordinary.

-- End of part 1 --