Seek and You Shall Find

Posted on Mon Sep 30th, 2019 @ 3:37pm by

1,733 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: What Stalks The Night
Location: Underground

"Lieutenant Commander Patrovski, make sure it's our Gel and it's all accounted for," Bianca ordered calmly. "Lieutenant Commander Reign have your security detail secure this area."

Bianca reached up and tapped her commbadge. "Away team to Dreadnought, we've located the Gel." Instead of the response there was silence. "Dreadnought, respond."

Keeping her gaze firmly on the anti grav sleds full of gel, Bianca tapped her commbadge again. "Caselli to Malachy."

Again there was no response, no sound, not even a hint of static. "I'll assume there's something here preventing us from communicating. Lieutenant Bradshaw, see what you can do to restore communications. I'd like to get out of here, the sooner the better."

BJ tried her own combadge and was met with silence. She pulled her tricorder and did a scan, then frowned. "There's some sort of dampening field down here," she said.

James had a look at the console that was nearby off to one side. A hand held light could tell it was offline but also showed a bloody smear on its otherwise glossy surface. "Uh, Doc....."

Looking around Xavier saw a scene of chaos. The coppery smell of blood in the air was easy to detect but what really caught his attention was a dead body. Running the scanner over it. "Male, Human. Died of internal trauma." What he really meant was that some organs were forcibly removed from the body cavity, to where was unknown but Xavier didn't fancy turning the corpse over. "Decomp is days, maybe a week at the most."

"Well, the console is out." James spoke with tools in hand and one out the corner of his mouth. "The power to this system is offline, the security measures in place are extensive. Even if I got the console online I doubt I can get past them." Considering there was a palm reader, that would be a challenge to bypass.

"Something killed this man." Xavier spoke standing up, scanner in hand. "Slash wounds to the body and torso, I detected bite marks, foreign DNA too but I'd need to run a scan for more informative results."

Off in the distance noises could be heard, one sounded like a door opening and closing on an endless loop. Sparks could be heard from shorting consoles or conduits. Shining his light about Xavier caught a glimpse of a bulkhead that had what appeared to be claw marks on it. Checking them he found DNA trace but by the depth of them, what ever made them was strong.

"I don't want to meet what ever did those, but in case we do, lets not do it here." It was a dead end, the only way was forward. Who or what would chew on someone? What ever was going on down here was not good that much was obvious and it comes people their lives. They would need to be careful.

Bianca watched as everything was unfolding around her. "You're right Commander Patrovski..." she murmured quietly before turning and motioning to several of the security detail that were working with them. "Grab the anti grav sleds. I don't want to leave the gel behind. Commander Patrovski, Lieutenant Bradshaw, while they're preparing to leave, lets check the area and see what we can find."

There was maybe a few moments before another of the security detail called for their attention. "I found something!"

Closing the distance, Bianca cast a discerning eye over the wall in front of them. "There's a door!" she said with surprise, pushing on it to no avail.

"It's okay Commander," the younger officer from the away team said with determination. "We can get this."

A few moments later the door had been forced open and Bianca, followed closely by the flanking security detail, stepped through the door and looked around. The lights were flickering and everywhere they looked there was clear signs of damage. The iron like scent of blood seemed to grow even heavier in the air and around them there was a still feeling of utter despair.

Little more than half a heartbeat passed before one of the security detail spoke up, almost hesitantly. "Commander Caselli, I think I'm detecting a life sign," the security officer said quietly. "I... I don't know what it is, but it appears to at least triggering our sensors as a life sign... barely..."

Bianca paused, turning slowly and looking around. "Commander Patrovski," she said quietly. "Can you confirm?"

Drawing his attention from the located corpse he was checking over he ran a scan for himself. It was faint, really faint but it was there. "Faint, but its there. There is a lot of interference though." It would have been better if they could get a floor plan or layout of the facility but with the state of the consoles, shattered screens, broken or cracked touch panels, shorted or shorting computers it would be a task for James to get anything working.

"Through that door, the room next to that." That was where the reading was coming from.

BJ pulled her phaser and headed for the door with her tricorder scanning the area. "It's not trapped or locked. Jarvolski, G'mat, watch the back way," she ordered the others before she looked at the Commander. "Orders?"

"Yeah..." James said looking up a little up the door. "But what the hell caused those?" Up the door were many claw marks, long, moderately deep and many of them. What ever it was had clearly tried at some point to get in and at who ever was inside.

Bianca paused, turning her attention to James, following his gaze to the door, taking in the deep claw marks around their likely escape route.

"There's blood," Bianca said quietly, lowering her voice cautiously as she turned her back to the door and looked back around the room they were already in. "Those claw marks are on this side of the door. What ever did that is here. Keep your weapons drawn and your eyes open. Lieutenant Bradshaw, get us through that door, I'd like us to be gone before whatever did that comes back again. Commander Reign, keep your people with the gel and keep lookout. Commander Patrovski, that life sign, is it human?"

Running a check Xavier confirmed it was, but so too was the blood on the door. "That blood is several days old, Human DNA, also detecting Vulcan, Bolian, Benzite and Trill DNA."

James looked around for the access panel and once found worked off the panel to reveal the inner circuitry. It was not going to be as easy as he thought, this was a secure lock setup, bio-metric hand print, access code. What ever was stored in her was something that was to be kept secure. After some intricate work and the creative use of a micro power cell and some tool the safety locks disengaged, the door popped open slightly.

What wafted out the door was unpleasant, stale foods and body odour. Its assault on peoples noses was noticeable almost immediately. What was inside was a man, hysterical, clearly in shock. "Go away....please." He sobbed, his breathing fast and his fidgeted with a small knife that posed more danger to bread and butter than anyone. "It will come, it will find us....go away, it will come." He was clearly distraught, what ever happened had disturbed the man that much.

Bianca stayed near the door, trying to keep her voice quiet and calm as she responded. "What will come?" she asked gently. "I'm Commander Caselli from the USS Dreadnought. We're the ones who delivered the gel," she offered, hoping the fact that they were Federation might buy a little more cooperation from him. "I have a doctor here, do you need medical help?" She motioned toward Xavier to join them at the door.

The man rushed the door grabbing the handle. His purpose was the close it unaware that James had rigged it so it wouldn't lock again. "You must go, please, hide...flee from here." He pleaded as he struggled to get the door closed. "If it finds you, it will kill everyone." The man bordering on hysteria

Xavier's medical training kicked in, assessing what he saw, the situation before him. The patient was distraught, no doubt something to do with the scenes of death they had come across just getting here. The odour of the man, he'd not left the room in a while, holed up for safety which they had just broken into. When the door opened he was better able to read with his medical tricorder. His heart was racing, blood pressure was dangerously high. When the man tried to close the door there presented a risk of injury, to himself trying to close it or to the away team.

As the away team struggled to keep the door open Xavier grabbed the mans arm and a hypo to it. The effects were almost immediate, the mans hostility faded, he seemed to relax, then leaned against a wall before surrendering to the sedative Xavier had shot him with. "That should keep him good for a few hours. We should go back to the control room, find out who he is and what is going on here while I do a medical assessment."

Bianca paused, "Commander Patrovski, I strongly suspect that despite his hysteria, he may actually be right. If what ever he's hiding from did that..." she paused and motioned toward the deep claw marks in the doors. "I don't think we want to be out here when it comes back. Treat him, make sure he's okay, he may be the only person here who can tell us what the hell is going on."

Stepping back, Bianca lapsed into momentary silence, eyes darting around the large open room for any sign of movement. "Lieutenant Bradshaw, get into their computers. I want to know where we are and what they're doing down here.

Finally, she turned around to Reign. "Get everyone in the control room. Make sure it's secure and safe," she ordered calmly before looking between the door to the Control Room and the sleds of the gel, already feeling the tiny hairs on the back of her neck and down her arms starting to stand up. "If any of you have any particular deities you believe in, I suggest you start offering up your prayers now."

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