Not so fast...
Posted on Tue May 6th, 2025 @ 10:51pm by Captain Marc Kidd & Commander Mariko Tao & Lieutenant Christopher Blake & Lieutenant Sorine Kaida & Lieutenant Vincent 'Ghost' Zandrell & Lieutenant Sarah Graesyn & Cassandra Frost
Edited on on Tue May 6th, 2025 @ 11:23pm
2,725 words; about a 14 minute read
Mission:
Episode 2 - The Sins of History
Location: The Leto -The Badlands
Timeline: MD010 1515 hrs
The last plasma strike had rocked them a bit, but Chris had compensated and got them all back to the Artemis safely. As soon as he felt the Artemis tractor beam take hold and begin to guide the Leto down he glanced back toward Kaida. They needed to get her to sickbay. Whatever the orb, or tear, or whatever had done to her had to be checked out.
Chris turned off the engines and was about to stand from his seat when the alarms sounded. Not from the Leto, but from the Artemis Shuttle bay. He quickly sat back down and tapped his comm badge.
"This is Lieutenant Blake, what's with the alarms?"
There was a pause on the other end before the response came through. "Sir, sensors didn't detect it from all the interference. There seems to be some sort of device attached to the outer hull of the Leto. It's armed sir."
Chris swore under his breath and glanced back at the rest of the crew. "Anyone want to guess where we picked up our stowaway?"
Marc had been advised of the status of the Leto and opened a channel. "Lieutenant Blake this is the Captain. It seems that we cannot transport the device away. Engage the autopilot and relaunch the Leto."
Mariko shook her head and scoffed a little under her breath. Trust the Cardassians to 'let them go' and still manage to put some form of device on the hull. "Captain," Mariko interjected. "I'd be reluctant to engage any more power systems until we know what the device is. It could trigger any programs it has in store." she looked around the shuttle at the others. "We cannot even risk a beam out, but if we lower the doors manually we might be able to get out and take a look. Get Gul Vamcet out of here."
"Agreed Commander. Take Lieutenant Blake and make sure that you are wearing environmental suits as a precaution." Marc said over the comm channel. It seemed that the easy capture was going downhill fast.
Chris gritted his teeth. "I should have seen it..." He stood back up and walked with Mariko to the storage closets holding the EV suits. "This is on me."
Kaida felt detached. She could hear everything and see everything but it was as if she was watching it from a screen instead of her own eyes. She knew there was nothing seriously wrong with her, it was just the aftermath of the orb experience and what it had shown her. But when she heard that Chris was going to try to remove the object on the hull her eyes widened in slight fear for him and it brought her a bit more into the situation.
“It didn’t even register on the structural or internal scans I’ve been running since we departed, Lieutenant. Believe me, I don’t think there was any way in the midst of that plasma storm out there for you to have seen it, or what placed it.” Sarah had just stood and when the message came in she had leaned back over the Engineering console to examine the readouts. “Get an EV suit for me too, I’m coming back out with you guys. I’m no use with the Gul and Ensign Th’ashinet can continue holding down until we get this handled since I am already on site.”
"Be careful," Kaida said quietly.
Chris nodded and gave a sigh, realizing that he had lapsed and slipped right back into feeling sorry for himself. How quick it had happened came as a shock to him. There was no time for self doubt now, they had to get everyone safe.
He quickly pulled the EV suit up over his uniform and then reached to get a helmet to latch down onto the seals. Giving a glance back to Sarah a thought occurred to him. "It's on the hull, maybe we can just disconnect that part."
“Aye; that’s entirely possible. Let’s see what we are dealing with and then figure out if that is our best course of action.” Sarah stepped over and placed a hand on his shoulder, offering a reassuring squeeze briefly before reaching for her own EV suit and sliding it over her uniform in exactly the manner he had.
"If we can detach that part of the shuttles hull, move it to a more secure location away from here and place it in a forcefield we can work on it and try and see who's placed it there." Mariko suggested. "I know it was the Cardassian's but any biological data could help us, give us an upper hand in negotiations. After all, they agreed to let us go unharmed, a promise broken by this act."
"I don't think that's as comforting as you think. Cardassians have an earned reputation for having plans within plans." Cassie commented as she kept an eye on their prisoner. "I recommend we only use passive sensors for now"
"It just so happens that Cardassian technology and I are old friends... if it is permissible by you Commander..." Sarah looked to Mariko and her face was grave as she spoke "... I can use my EV suits mag boots and stay with the device to get closer readings and take a better look. All I request is that ya'll keep a transporter lock on me in case the shit hits the fan,"
Chris gritted his teeth and nodded. Cardassians, plots within plots, it was all high level stuff to him. What he was concerned with was that they'd gotten away with attaching something to the shuttle he was in command of. It could have, or still could, get them all killed.
"Detach the hull first, if we can keep it stable then we'll worry about keeping it intact. We need to keep people safe." Chris commented and nodded. While he spoke aloud, it was as if he was reciting a mantra to himself more so than talking to others.
Glancing up he looked at the others who had suited up. "Alright, no time like the present..." He opened the inner air lock and walked to the front of the small compartment and waited for the others to join him.
"Be careful." Was all Mariko could say, it was all the felt appropriate right now. "I'll monitor the device from here."
Chris saw it right away from the airlock port hole, stuck to the hull like a brown barnacle. He gritted his teeth and swore under his breath, still upset that he'd gotten them this close without realizing it was attached. "Let's get a passive scan to find out what kind of sensors or triggers it has. In the meantime, I'll need a hand to manually detach that section."
Once Lieutenant Graesyn was suited up and inside the air lock with him, Chris sealed the inner hatch and depressurized the small room. A moment later the outer hatch slid open and the energized plasma of the badlands sprawled before them.
Sarah stepped out and looked it over, taking cautious steps toward the device with tricorder leveled and then kneeling as close as she dared to get in order to initiate a full passive scan of it.
Vincent stood there with the others, watching Sarah as she maneuvered to the explosive. He let out a deep sigh, scolding himself silently for not recommending he went with her as backup, but he already felt he overstepped his bounds splitting up from the team and revealing the transporter guns which seemed to have no been needed considering how the mission went. Between what happened with Sorine, the trance she was in because of the Bajoran Orb and the Cardassian they were sent after just giving up without a fight, something didn't settle right with him. Then again, it had been a long time since he had been in the middle of things so this just might be how things were. "This doesn't feel right." He said softly.
Sarah looked over her shoulder briefly. “Well; you aren’t wrong. Things aren’t adding up at all,” she looked back to the tricorder and shook her head as the readings were insignificant. “I think the device is shielded somehow from scanners, I’m barely even detecting it on my Tricorder and its right in front of me.”
"Lieutenant..." Vincent began as he placed his hands on his hips and watched her carefully through the screen. "If my experience with Cardassian bombs are anything to go by then that's typical. They usually don't like their handy work seen and its strong enough to leave no trace, so as much as you want to impress us with your creative problem solving, you should get back here so we can evacuate. We can fix whatever is destroyed... except for you."
"What's the easiest way to get rid of this section of hull without triggering the bomb?" Chris asked aloud through the comms in the suit. He glanced at Sarah and then back toward those still inside the Leto. He caught a look from Vincent, he seemed to have knowledge of this kind of thing as well. And his comment about the sensors and shielding made him a little more accepting of not seeing this sooner.
"I don't want to risk the small charges that detach the hull plating setting this thing off; I am going to have to manually remove the bolts that secure it. Lieutenant Blake; do we have a full engineering kit in the shuttlecraft? I am going to need one."
"Yeah, there's one inside the air lock." Chris replied as he turned and made his way back to the air lock for the kit. "Not sure if it has the tools to remove something like this but we can give it a shot.
"Part of me feels that's smart, but on the other side, I still feel its a dangerous to do this on your own." Vincent replied before adding. "I still say we should move the shuttle away from the ship and transport out. Let it blow without any casualties." He took a second to sigh, but the truth was, he'd known people who took bigger risks. Even himself from time to time. "But... I'll back your play, Lieutenant. What's your plan?"
“There is a series of six magnetically sealing bolts that secure this plate and most of the ones around it…. Unfortunately and perhaps the most concerning to me is that removing this plate or any of the ones in a horizontal line with it will expose the plasma conduit that runs stem to stern and is attached to the Nacelles of the shuttle. I am going to need constant scans of that plasma conduit monitoring for any form of surge whatsoever; if there is one I am going to have to get an emergency transport within seconds from the time the surge starts. ‘Else the surge will eat through my EV suit and expose me to the vacuum directly; as well as leave me with fourth degree Plasma Burns.” She thought for a moment and took a careful step back toward the air lock.
“We need to put Sick Bay on standby and I need someone to go to main Transporter control and establish a lock on everyone so that time isn’t wasted acquiring one if something goes wrong. Lieutenant Blake; I want you to take the shuttlecraft out to seven thousand five hundred meters to the furthest most aft point on the Artemis and then I want you back on the bridge and ready to jump the Artemis to warp at a moments notice, if I can't disarm this. If anything goes wrong the Artemis needs to make a short, five second warp jump to be clear of the combined explosion of both the shuttlecraft and this device.” She spoke to Commander Tao and Vincent through the comms. “It’s the best plan that we have; and if things go wrong then plan B is to retrieve me and immediately jump to safety; abandoning the shuttlecraft as a whole… I don’t want to put anyone else's life at risk with this plan.”
"Agreed Lieutenant. I'll do what I can here to keep you safe first." Blake said firmly. He handed the engineering kit to Graesyn before moving back into the air lock and sealing it behind him. As soon as the pressure returned, he rushed to the cockpit and began to set a course away from Artemis. He looked over to Vincent. "I can keep us clear of the plasma discharges, you can guide Graesyn through the process on comms.
“Lieutenant Zandrell, you ready to live up to your callsign in a completely new manner? This shouldn’t take too long.” Sarah looked back to the plasma storms outside and felt a small vibration of trepidation as she watched them. “How long is the EV suit good for in those conditions?
"Plasma storm planetside would be about 45 minutes." Chris replied. He didn't state the obvious that the time limit didn't mean squat if they took a plasma burst to the chest. This was risky enough without thinking of those odds.
Sarah did the calculations in her own head and then nodded. “Well; lets get this done then gents. I want to have the job completed on my end by the 30 minute mark… and if its not done by the 40 minute mark then beam us all out and jettison the row of lateral hull plates.”
"Timer started." Chris said into the comms. "Your lead Lieutenant."
Sarah flexed her hand, trying to adjust to the tingling before she moved, stepping close to the device and setting her toolkit beside her, triggering magnets in it to keep it from floating off. She paused to ensure that alone hadn’t changed the status of the device and then picked up her coil spanner and a sonic drive, leaning forward toward the device cautiously. “How are we looking so far?” She asked, a tremble of nerves just barely detectable over comms.
"I'm not getting any spikes nearby that would indicate an incoming plasma discharge." Chris replied quickly as he continued to make adjustments to their heading and maintain a distance from Artemis.
Sarah leaned forward with her tricorder ready in one hand, letting it scan passively while she took a breath before setting to work on the magbolts slowly and carefully. “Lieutenant Zandrell, can you see the scans?? Any insight you have on this would be greatly appreciated. I am beginning to decouple the first bolt now.”
Chris glanced over and saw that Vincent was busy with something so he took a quick look at the scans himself. "You're clear so far Lieutenant." He looked over the readouts from their passive scans as she continued working. She was being careful and it showed, her actions were barely registering on the device or the scans.
"It looks like this last one has twisted because the others have been released." Chris spoke over the comms. "It might be a bit stiff but it should come off."
A Joint Post By
Lieutenant Sarah Graesyn
Chief Engineering Officer, USS Artemis
Starfleet Criminal Investigations Unit
Lieutenant Christopher Blake
Chief Flight Control Officer, USS Artemis
Second Officer, USS Artemis
Starfleet Criminal Investigations Unit
Captain Marc Kidd
Commanding Officer, USS Artemis
Starfleet Criminal Investigations Unit
Commander Mariko Tao
Executive Officer, USS Artemis
Starfleet Criminal Investigations Unit
Lieutenant Vincent Zandrell
Criminal Apprehension Officer, USS Artemis
Commanding Officer, Emergency Services Unit
Starfleet Criminal Investigations Unit
Lieutenant Sorine Kaida
Criminal Investigations Officer, USS Artemis
Starfleet Criminal Investigations Unit
Cassandra Frost
Chief Security/Tactical Officer, USS Artemis
Starfleet Criminal Investigations Unit
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