At Gabriel Station

Posted on Sun Aug 28th, 2022 @ 3:02pm by Captain Devin Hadenbeer & Lieutenant Commander Dorian Sheppard & Lieutenant Commander Ull Arkyn & Lieutenant Commander R'elle & Lieutenant Commander Klarth

1,432 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Into The Void
Location: USS Lionheart

The Lionheart came out of warp under red alert, weapons hot. Devin stood, cane in hand as she stared at the froward screen.

Gabriel Station was a hollowed out asteroid, a huge nickel-iron rock in space. It possessed no weapons and depended on her runabouts for protection. No one bothered a small, multi-purpose station like this.

Until now.

No one was answering hails, all external lights were killed. Devin grimaced and wondered if anyone was still alive on board. She also wondered the attackers were still in the neighborhood.

"Commander," she said to Junix without turning to see her, "Prepare an away team. Fully armed, space suits. Expect the worst."

"Captain, I know we don't have time for too much belly button gazing," says Klarth, "but why has anyone gone to so much trouble to take over this station and keep us from here? Is it possible this Void mystery is more important than just some curiosity?"

"Doctor," Devin said after a moment, "Were you anyone else but you the sheer acerbity of my retort would draw blood. Of course this is all about the Void. The crate, the false messages, the booby trapped runabout: someone knows something and is willing to risk the wrath of the Federation to protect their secret."

Klarth was happy he was on the right track even if the Captain was still three step ahead of him. After all that's why she was the Captain and he was just the guy that set broken bones while telling wild stories about other times he'd set broken bones. But he just kept those thoughts to himself.

Junix looked past the doctor to the security station, "Commander Arkyn, with me," she instructed and indicated he should have a geared team join them in the transporter room.

Klarth said to Junix. "Commander, won't you be needing a doctor on this away team?"

"I would think you would Commander. And he is the CMO of the Lionheart!" R'elle said.

Klarth couldn't help, but openly beam at R'elle. She was quickly becoming a staunch ally and friend.

One could almost see Hadenbeer biting down on one of those acerbic retorts. Instead she said, "Junix, take the Doctor and Sheppard as well. I want a first hand assessment of the physical damage."

The first officer took a moment to regard the Captain's instructions and nodded again, directing it to Klarth this time, "Doctor, with me." Then she signaled engineering to alert Sheppard to report to the transporter room also.

Klarth was trying to catch up to the Captain but too embarrassed to say it out loud again. If this was about the Void, Klarth feared that the ship and the guide book would have been the first things taken by the attackers however Gabriel Station would have had electronic records. And even if the raiders deleted them. Maybe Sheppard could recover the deleted files. But Klarth was counting his farm animals before they were birthed. First they had to get over there and see what happened.

Ull activated his comms. "Security Team Alpha gear up and meet me at the transporter room. Full loadouts and space suits." He then moved to get his gear and head to the transporter room.

Klarth got on the turbo lift to go and get his gear. "Space suits again," he said to whoever was on the turbolift. "One time a crew member went on a spacewalk and their suit got breeched by a micro-meteorite. It broke their suit's seal right at their chest and their body began to be uncontrollably pulled into space through the tiny hole."

"Lieutenant," Junix said, "your commentary is truly disturbing."

Meanwhile in Engineering:

“Bring up the lateral conduit schematic,” Sheppard requests and Ending Bolasre changes the pop up display remotely from Jeffries Tube 11. “There should be a transceiver junction switch at-“ Sheppard stops short when he gets a ping about an Away Mission. “LaBrea, take over,” he says, starting for the door. “I want a full report filed before I get back,” he declares as he departs, calling back over his shoulder. “All of Section Two and everything to the plasma shunt in Section Three, got it?”

“Got it, Chief,” LaBrea confirms.

Jogging to Turbolift 3, he slips in and calls, “Fantail Level, Deck 3”.

. . .

Exiting the turbolift, Sheppard quickly finds Shuttlebay 2 and sees Klarth putting on his spacesuit.

“Full suits?” Sheppard inquires. “jlyajbe',” he asks in poorly enunciated Klingon. ‘I don’t understand’ is literally the only Klingon he knows, but it seems fitting in this instance.

"The Captain expects the worst over there," says Klarth, "so she is following the motto 'be prepared.' Weren't you ever a Boy Scoot?"

Taking a suit from the locker, he steps into the legs and pulls the collar up over his shoulders to slip his arms in. “Good thing we’re not claustrophobic,” he mumbles to know one in particular. He takes a helmet and hands it to the Doctor, then puts his own on, and confirms the magnetic locks on his boots.

"Thank you Commander." says Klarth while he finishes getting his suit on and testing everything.

Finally, tapping his commbadge, he verifies communications are working. “Sheppard to Ull. Do you copy?”

Ull answers his comms. "I read you lima charlie, how me?"

“Copy that, loud and clear,” Sheppard replies.

When Klarth is finished with the suit he picks up his medkit and starts towards the shuttle. He taps his combadge to a private channel with Sheppard and says "I'm not claustrophobic, but I don't enjoy wearing these things."

Sheppard gives the Klingon a ‘thumbs up’ and enters the shuttle.

Once he’s satisfied the equipment is in proper working order, he enters the shuttle and takes a seat.

Klarth gets on the shuttle too.

The type 11 shuttle could carry up to ten passengers but with everyone in suits it did feel like a bit of a tight fit with both a standard away team and security detail. The small vessel flew through Lionheart's shields and it did not take long to find the primary shuttle bay on the station.

The doors had been blown out from without and from the blackened walls within clearly weapons fire had been used to wipe out any and all remaining auxiliary craft within. As well as any crew that had been working in there at the time. sensors showed the entrance to the station's interior was still intact, at least in regards to atmospheric integrity. Whether the door still worked was another matter...

Klarth saw the grim scene and it was too solemn for any of his normal comments aimed at levity. Instead he silently hoped that those that died did so with weapons in their hand as warriors rather than being sneak attacked with no chance to defend themselves. But he feared it was the latter. Then he said over the communicator, "I hope some of the P'Toks that did this are still here so that I might kill them myself. But I fear they have scurried back into the shadows like all cowards do."

Ull activated his comms and began giving orders to the fireteam, four security personnel, that had come with the away team. "Security Team, set phasers to stun. Verify all targets before firing. Escorts on Commander Junix, Dr. Klarth, and Lieutenant Commander Sheppard. Ensign Dax, with me." Each member of the fireteam took a step closer to their intended escort. "Commander, I recommend that we stay together until we have reason to split up."

Sheppard checks his phaser to confirm it’s setting.

"You can take the lead, Lt Commander," Junix answered.

Ull used every sensor the shuttle had to check for any signs of life in the hanger before they began to try and land. After his scans confirmed there were most definitely no life signs he ordered the shuttle in.

After landing Junix had a scan run of the area on the other side of the interior door. There was atmosphere so opening the door-if it even worked-was not an option with things as they were.

"We transport in," she informed the others, "Ull and Klarth, you first head to the primary control room and then to sickbay. Sheppard and I will head to the engineering section and then to life support. We leave two people behind to watch the shuttle. We have a map of the interior so we should be able to beam directly to those respective areas, by there we'll move on foot."

Phaser in one hand, tricorder in the other, she said, "All right, let's do it..."

 

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