Thumb Here Please

Posted on Thu Jun 13th, 2019 @ 1:50pm by

705 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: What Stalks The Night
Location: Sickbay / Cargo Bay 1

Xavier was in his office running through regular routine things when a notification came through, priority one from the Captain. When he opened it and read through it he was surprised to note that it regarded several hundred litres of highly regulated gel. He was informed of when it would be arriving and where, and that he would be required to inspect the gel upon arrival for stowage and sign off on it.

Bio mimetic gel could be very hazardous of not transported correctly. The applications for the gel varied and were wide in that variance from biogenic weapons, organic explosives to the illegal genetic and cloning experiments. He looked through the documentation sent, several hundred litres, each one needing inspection and proper storage which would take hours. He also noted that due to security precautions in place, only himself would be permitted unrestricted access to the gel bar a very select few others.

It was all too easy to understand the need for secrecy, aside from the flashing warnings detailing the classification level of the information he knew that just carrying it would put a target on the ships back. For once he was glad that the ship had broad shoulders. Grabbing his long white medical coat and a kit used for medical storage and checking he headed to Cargo Bay One.

*** Cargo Bay One ***

When Xavier arrived at the doors to Cargo Bay One he was stopped by 4 armed guards standing at the entrance. Expected but what was not expected was the size of these fellows. They were big, muscular, the kind of guys you didn't want to mess with outside the clubs doors or walk into in a back alley.

"Dr Xavier Patrovski, I'm here to verify, stow and sign for the cargo." He opted to use the word 'Cargo' instead of what it was considering the security risks involved with it.

"Hand please." One officer said as he pointed towards one of the newly installed it seems hand scanners. "Bag to the officer."

Xavier handed the kit to the officer and placed his hand on the panel. It verified his identity when he had to enter his medical authority code after a hand print scan. The bag was checked, even scanned and then surprisingly gently packed up. "Follow me Doctor."

When the doors opened he noticed that there was a large blanking screen behind the door which hid from view the cargo bay. Escorted by one of the officers he saw the storage containers which had medical all over them. These containers also had security officers around them and an officer in blue.

"Dr Li Palmers." She introduced.

"Dr Xavier Patrovski." He replied.

"475 litres for inspection. 27 crates, they are on internal power at the moment but once you have signed off our engineers will hook them up to the EPS grid."

Xavier nodded, knowing that was routine. In the event of an emergency the substance had to be removed quickly, if it was hooked up it could take longer, exposing the ship and crew to catastrophic risk. "I was not expecting this quantity." He knew straight away that checking, signing off each and ever single litre container.....was going to take time.

*** Some Time Later ***

Xavier's back ached from all the bending and leaning he had to do to scan, verify and sign off on 475 individually contained litres of gel. It was at a point where he hoped he never saw any more after this.

"Ok, each one has been verified. They are ready to be connected to the EPS grid." Xavier spoke providing his authorisation that he'd personally inspected it all.

"Thank you, we have an Engineer here ready to connect to the grid once you were done."

Xavier turned and saw the Engineer already getting to work, feeling sorry for the man having to wait so long for him to finish his checks.

"Our security detail will remain until the ships personnel arrive. Can I just get your approval to accept the cargo on board and I'll be out of everyone's hair."

"Sure." Xavier entered his medical code and Dr Palmers walked away leaving Xavier to sigh with relief that it was done, or his part was, for now.

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