Watch Out For The Traps

Posted on Wed Sep 28th, 2011 @ 6:34pm by Senior Chief Petty Officer Gilbert Bones [PNPC] & Lieutenant Commander Melissa Daniels M.D. & Lieutenant JG Kili Dell & Lieutenant JG Connor MacManus & Lieutenant JG Allison Price & 1st Lieutenant V'Shan & Gunnery Sergeant Avery Nakano

Mission: The Pak'Leth Problem
Location: Pak'Leth Vessel
Timeline: MD01

[ON]

The Hazard Team passed through the threshold of the airlock and began to advance down the short corridor. The Pak'Leth vessel lay over two decks. On the first, the bridge and engine room, including what was laughingly referred to as a sickbay and on the second lay the two cargo bays, holding the cargo that the traders were carrying.

Nakano checked the display on the wrist of his armour. So far so good, no-one had lost any limbs. He held a hand up to stop those following him. "What about the atmosphere?"

"Forty Percent Oxygen, Fifteen Percent Methane, Thirty Percent Carbon Dioxide, Twenty Percent Carbon Monoxide. You don't want to breathe this concoction." Dr. Daniels noted.

"Looks like we're sticking with these then. The engine room is this way and the cargo bay is down on the deck below, sir." He said to V'Shan.

"Commander Daniels, Lieutenant Dell, please follow Ensign Nakano to the cargo bay," the Vulcan leader of the hazard team instructed. He was purposefully diplomatic in the wording of the instruction, due to the fact that the doctor clearly out-ranked him, even if his authority on team deployments on this stage of this particular task took precedent over her own authority-by-rank. "Lieutenant MacManus, Cadet Price, follow me to the engine room."

"Aye, sir." Ensign Nakano said as he input the data into the tricorder which was locked into place on his arm. "Stay tight behind me, don't move to my left or to my right. Stay right behind me at all times."

He looked at the two women, both of whom outranked him and outside of this situation would have been intimidating enough. However, in order for them to keep being intimidating, they'd need to defer to the benefit of his training. "This way, Doctor, Lieutenant."

The trill gave a nod, casually following the Ensign, though she did position herself as best she could between him and the doctor. After all, one could never forget first rule of triage for non-medical personnel: "Keep the doctor alive."

[Cargo Bays]

The three officers made their way cautiously down the corridor and, after a quick check of the door frame by Ensign Nakano, disappeared out of sight.

Melissa continued to move through the corridor. Examining the area. She approached a corridor intersection and suddenly stopped. "Wait...."

Dell stopped in her tracks as soon as she heard the single word, one of her hands reaching to grasp Nakano by the shoulder to stop him as well as she turned her head to the doctor. "Is something the matter?" she asked in a whisper. Even though the suits were well insulated, one could never be too careful when traps were involved.

Melissa picked up a pipe on the ground and tossed it into the intersection. Suddenly a bolt of plasma struck the pipe.

Ensign Nakano crouched next to the outlet and unclipped the tricorder from his arm, "Christ, this isn't a booby trap. It's just bad engineering. How did you notice that, anyway?"

"I wasn't always a Doctor." Melissa stated cryptically.

Eventually, they reached the mag-sealed doors of the cargo bay. Unsurprisingly, the doors were badly maintained and opened with only basic interference by Ensign Nakano. His tricorder didn't go off, the bay seemed to be secure. "All right, you should be fine to get in there and have a look around. Just watch your step."

Melissa spoke when she opened one of the crates. "Do a diagnostic on your envirosuits. I just found a crate load of improperly stored corrosive materials."

The security officer started to carefully open crate after crate, being careful not to trigger any traps just in case. With each opened, she'd simply shake her head or roll her eyes before moving on to the next. At the end, she dusted her hands off and sighed, "Well... one could only wish that all smugglers were this careless. Between the weapons, explosives, stimulants and chemicals here, I'm surprised we didn't find an orion slave girl or two."

Nakano was aghast as he looked down at the haul in the cargo bay. He stood looking into a crate marked with indecipherable lettering which seemed to contain two plasma missiles. This ship was loaded with contraband and they hadn't made much of an effort to hide it.

"This is insane." The Ensign said, almost to himself. "You could arm a fleet with this stuff."

[Engineering Section]

The communicators inside their helmets chirped into life. "Bones to Team Alpha. If these topographs are correct, you should be approaching the engineering section now."

Connor nodded slightly after hearing Bones, confirming his own thoughts."Mac here, looks like we are coming up on the bulkhead now Bones." Connor said, setting down his tools, and double checking the area slowly...

Price was checking her tricorder. "I am detecting large power signatures ahead. It's probably the main drive core. I'm also detecting a lot of residual radiation, probably from some malfunction in there engines. We should be safe in our EV suits."

"The poor state of repair of this vessel might indicate some more hazardous consequences of that radiation and multiple power signatures," V'Shan said, holding up a hand to pull the two to a stop. "Chief Bones, is it possible for you to scan the section ahead of us for dangerous components from your location? Plasma build-up, weakened conduit casings, and other such components which may cause a danger to myself and my team?"

"A... firrmative." Came Bones hesitant response. "I just need to channel the sensors into the right areas. I can give you certain details but keep half an eye on your tricorder, just in case."

"Understood," the Vulcan replied. Keeping both his phaser and his tricorder aimed down the corridor, he began progressing down it at a steady, yet logically cautious pace, aware for anything that might suddenly spark and injure him or his team with plasma burns.

Thankfully, the corridor was free of any particularly dangerous elements, and the group made it down safely into what was rather optimistically called 'main engineering'. V'Shan stepped through first, and swung his rifle and tricorder around the room. "Clear," he announced to his two companions. "Lieutenant, Cadet; please continue with your work."

[OFF]