In Gabriel Station

Posted on Thu Sep 8th, 2022 @ 3:05am by Captain Devin Hadenbeer & Lieutenant Commander Dorian Sheppard & Lieutenant Commander Ull Arkyn & Lieutenant Commander Klarth

2,737 words; about a 14 minute read

Mission: Into The Void
Location: In...Gabriel Station

ULL AND KLARTH

The first away team beamed in to the control room. It's configuration more or less standard for a station, with a central control table with a series of stations surrounding it on a higher tier.

It was a slaughterhouse. Disruptor fire had blown apart every console and killed some of the personnel, but others had been slain by bladed weapons as well. Some had tried putting up a fight, others had run for the exit but had been literally cut down. In the glow of emergency lighting it looked eerie...

Ull grimaced at the sight around him and Klarth. "I don't like this. They were killing unarmed civilians. Not very honorable if you ask me."

Klarth did a scan on the medical tricorder to see if anyone had somehow survived. Then he started examining crew members just in case one might somehow still be alive. "Why did these butchers kill everyone?," he said. "This was no simple smash and grab of a raider. Why did they have to shoot every conduit? It is as I feared they must not have wanted any witnesses or records to survive."

"There's an odd disruptor burn here," one of the guards said, pointing to an area near a corpse, "The floor's been sprayed, a whole area's been scorched. And this body's been stabbed in the throat but someone also fired a disruptor across his torso, searing him."

Klarth examines the body more thoroughly. "Why would they do all that? Normally you only need to kill a person once and humans are quite fragile." Klarth was wondering if this body was not as normal as it seemed.

As the crewman explained that Klarth's tricorder quietly beeped, detecting a life sign...in the direction of a jeffries tube entrance...

Klarth drew his phaser and started to walk over to the jeffries tube. "Commander Ull this is either a scared survivor of a horrible attack, some sort of monster man that needs to be killed multiple times, or one of these boogermen raiders, left behind to slaughter more of us." When he and the others are in position, Klarth presses the button to open the tube."

Ull positions himself near the entrance to the tube. He double checks that his phaser to stun and tries to stand as unthreatening as possible while still keeping his phaser ready in case whoever is in the jeffries tube attacks. When he feels he is ready he looks at Klarth and simply nods.

The person who spilled out of the tube was not even twenty, she had the look of some wet behind the ears crewperson posted to their first assignment. The type who probably had thought Gabriel Station would be a dull, predictable posting. She was human, her wide brown eyes staring up at space suited, armed figures, her face covered by a spray of dried dark green blood.

"Klingons," she breath, "I think they were Klingons. Th-they wore Klingon space suits, had those weird kn-knife things and and and..."

She grew violently sick, vomiting all over the deck.

Klarth still didn't want to believe that Klingons had done this. Why would they attack unarmed people like this? There was no honor in it and yet it seemed to be what happened.

Ull had taken a step back as the crewmember vomited on the deck. As soon as she finished he walked up and he quickly checked her over for weapons before finally speaking to her. "I am Lieutenant Commander Ull from Lionheart. Where did the attackers go? Did you understand anything they may have said?"

"They beamed in," the young woman said, "Shot everyone, but Burry, he, he fought and s-stabbed one. B-burry's our head of security."

She paused and saw the body, "Was. They stabbed him but then beamed out the one he killed and then did all that..." she waved at the scorch marks on the floor, "I...was on the floor, doing maintenance, I guess they didn't see me so I snuck back in here. They didn't talk, just used hand gestures. They started going through the database I think, but then they stopped like they got a call and you could tell they were really upset. They shot up the place and beamed out."

Klarth thought, The part about them not talking and being in space suits meant maybe they just wanted people to think they were Klingons. It was a stretch though

He then turned to Klarth. "We need to make sure she is ok to move. We will have to bring her with us. I don't want to leave her, or you, alone while the attackers may still be on board."

"I'm Doctor Klarth" he said to the woman. As he waved his medical sensor around gathering data about her. "Let's make sure you don't have any serious injuries."

"There might still be other survivors!" the young woman exclaimed as she struggled to her feet, "They would probably go to sickbay if anywhere. The station's designed with airlocks all over the place in case of a breach, people could be stuck in corridors and rooms waiting to see what's going on. This sort of thing isn't supposed to happen here."

She looked around, "It's just not..."

Ull nodded slightly to the crewmember as she stood. "Unfortunately it did happen. We will do everything we can to bring vengeance to those that did this." He looked at the dark green blood that was around. His eyes also stopped on the head of security, Burry, that the crewmember had pointed out. "He died doing his job. We will search for any other survivors. Doc, grab a sample of that blood. We suspect that they are Klingon, but the blood should confirm that."

"Absolutely" said Klarth. "I had the same thought and was about to do that on my own." Klarth grabbed a sample of blood and put it into his medical tricorder.

Ull tapped his comm badge. "Lionheart, I have one survivor. She stated the attackers beamed off the station, but we are continuing our search of the station. So far we are seeing extensive damage to the internals caused by the attackers."

If they were Klingons, Klarth had a theory about them. "There were reports of Klingon vessels that went into the void and disappeared. Do you suppose this is who these villains are? Klingons that found a way to survive in there and have come out of the void twisted and evil? Or perhaps these raiders are aliens from within the void using the Klingon ship and equipment."

"Understood, Commander," Devin replied, "Once your initial assessment is complete I intend to evacuate the station. It is not defensible in of itself and I cannot have Lionheart pinned down protecting it."

Ull responded over his commbadge. "Copy, will let you know if we find anyone else, and once our sweep is complete."

"There are emergency shelter locations," the woman whispered to Ull, "The deepest parts of the station. Sickbay is down there. Standard procedure is to make for those if you don't hear otherwise. I know where they are."

Klarth's results came back quickly. The blood was not Klingon: it was...Romulan...

Klarth told Ull that the blood was Romulan. "The Romulans were doing research on the Void too. " Klarth turn to the survivor and asks "Where was the ship that had emerged from the Void? Where is the research?"

The crewman was about to speak-

Ull shook his head. "This is just bringing up more questions. I don't like it." He then looked at Klarth. "Doc, you take the rear." His gaze shifted to the new crewmember. "Sorry, I never asked your name. You stay close behind me and guide me to sickbay first and then the emergency shelters. We are going to evacuate as many as we can."

Klarth was upset that he didn't let the woman answer. But he was right that as important as the information about the Void was human lives were even more important.

Ull raised up his phaser and started to the door, checking that the crewmember and Klarth we behind him.

"Name's Shorn, sir," the crewman replied, "Crewman Shelly Shorn. And it's all right; I'm just glad you found me and not the..."

She glanced over her shoulder, "Romulans dressed as Klingons? Am I getting that right?" she turned back around, "Oh, to the left, sir. then down that ladder..."

"Nice to meet you Crewman Shelly" said Klarth. "To bad it is under unfortunate circumstances."

The trip was uneventful, although they came across several bodies, the corpses exhibiting either disruptor burns or wounds from a variety of blades. They reached sickbay and it was sealed, but on their approach the massive airlock cycled open. Within appeared perhaps fifty or so crew, they looked terrified. There were officers among them but they looked to be in critical condition.

Klarth looked to see how he could help. He looked for the medical officers to speak to first. Then as needed he began examining and treating the most critically injured.

Ull tapped his commbadge. "Lionheart, I have about 50 crewmembers in sickbay. Some look to be in critical condition. I am going to leave Doctor Klarth here to coordinate evacuation efforts while I check the emergency shelters.

"Understood, Commander," Hadenbeer replied.

Ull then looked to Shorn. "Crewman Shelly, let's get to those emergency shelters and see if there is anyone else we can help."

Ull moved back to the airlock only pausing to make sure no-one needed anything before they left.

A review of the station showed the interior was relatively intact, although there seemed to be evidence of sporadic violence, as if people had come across intruders more by accident. The placement of the fatalities suggested to Ull that teams had been beamed all throughout the station, probably in small groups of two or three. Any more than that and they would have been dealing with a dedicated troop ship. But due to the size of the tunnels any team more than a trio in size-especially in space suits-would have been falling all over themselves.

JUNIX AND SHEPPARD

While there were no warp engines Gabriel Station did use an antimatter system not unlike one used on starship for power. The primary lights were off, with emergency lighting providing enough illumination to see by.

There were several dead bodies on the floor but someone had dragged them off to a corner, that was evident by the blood trails. Someone had laid emergency blankets over their upper bodies to hide their faces.

Sheppard caught movement along the upper level, at the moment due to the limited visibility from the helmets he seemed to be the only one to notice...

“Incoming,” Sheppard comms to the team, glancing around for anywhere to take cover. “We’ve got movement on the upper level,” he explains, pointing his phaser and dropping to a knee to reduce his target size. He waits to follow the lead of the security detail.

Junix used hand signals, pointing to a ladder and open lift. As the two ascended Sheppard sensed more than heard Junix moving behind him.

"Commander," she murmured quietly over her comm on a private channel, "I...think I found a bomb tied into the antimatter pile..."

“What does it look like?” Sheppard asks. “Nevermind. Just show me where it is,” he says.

Junix showed Sheppard. It looked like an old surplus photon grenade attached to a makeshift timer. The technology appeared to be Klingon. It also appeared that they had been a few adjustments shy of prepping the bomb, as if they had been interrupted.

The two security people appeared above, between them they held an old man between them who did not look quite steady on his feet. He appeared to be a 'lifer', the sort of crewman who stayed in until he was kicked out."

"I hid," he said, his voice full of sorrow and self recrimination, "While they were killing the others, I...I just hid. I didn't know what to do."

He looked between the pair of guards, his voice cracked as he sobbed, "They were killing my friends and I didn't have the guts to try and stop them!"

Junix motioned for the men to bring him down, then turned to Sheppard, "Are we going to die? Just want to know what to tell the captain."

“We’re all going to die,” Sheppard waxes philosophically. “But hopefully not today,” he adds, leaning in to better examine the bomb. “It’s not fully rigged,” he explains. “At least I don’t think so,” he continues. “It doesn’t look like they got to set the timer,” he says. “But just to be safe, let me disengage . . . the . . . detonator, “ he says slowly as he gently twists a connection and carefully slips the pin from its housing.

After a couple seconds when it was obvious they were not going to die, Junix gave a slight sigh and said, "Thank you, Commander. It seems they were interrupted."

The crewman regained some measure of his composure, he said, "They didn't go after the people who ran out, they just set about studying the lay of the systems and then they set to work putting that thing-" he nodded to the device, "-in place. But they stopped and suddenly beamed out!"

"Commander," Junix said, "If the power systems seem secure I want to move on?"

She phrased it more like a question rather than an order, affording the CEO an opportunity for any input."

Sheppard brings up an interface on the closest monitor. “Computer. Run a Level One diagnostic of the electro-plasma grid.” Six seconds later, Sheppard declares, “It’s stable for now. We’ve got outages in several service levels, and docking port two, but life support redundancies are online and the reactor core is at sixty two perfect efficiency. We can move on.”

"There was a probe and a book," Junix said to the man, "Where..."

"I know where," the man said with a nod."

"Fine. You two," she nodded at the security personnel, "Stay here. If something starts flashing red or beeping or, well, appears ready to explode, call."

As the trio left Junix asked Sheppared over a private channel, "Commander, let me ask you this; if you knew someone had a hidden transponder on them do you think you could fashion some means to trace the source of a communication to it? Assuming the communication was taking place on board the ship. Secretly."

She gently touched his shoulder, stopping him, "And when I mean 'secretly' I mean the captain has the transponder and I need to find out whom she is secretly communicating with."

Pausing momentarily as the words sink in, Sheppard replies hesitantly, “Subdural transceivers are notoriously difficult to decrypt. That’s their whole point.” Moving on, he continues, adding, “But, anything that can be encrypted can be cracked, so with enough time and resources I’m sure it can be done. How soon do you need to know,” he asks.

“The Captain obviously has her reasons being covert,” he says. “Unless you know for certain she’s been compromised in some way, violating what might be intentionally classified is a court martial offense.” He keeps moving, adding nervously, “Does Klarth or R’elle have concerns with the Captain’s competence?”

"I have no idea what the doctor is thinking," Junix replied, "But he is the captain's friend so any opinion he has might be compromised. And I suspect the counselor has her own orders. As for mine..."

She paused and took Sheppard apart from their guide a moment. She quietly stated, "I have my orders, Commander. And I have the first tangible piece of proof that there is something not right going on. And if my source is right the communication is not encrypted. I need to find out whom is speaking to the captain."

Sheppard nods. “I’ll get on it as soon as we get back,” he promises.

Junix gave a firm nod of acceptance at that.

Their guide led them to the storage chamber where the probe and book had been kept.

"It's...gone!" the man gasped. And indeed it was. The large room contained a wide assortment of crates, as well as a pair of dead personnel in science/medical blue.

But of the probe and book...there was no sign...!

 

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