Tracking The Pak'Leth

Posted on Tue Dec 20th, 2011 @ 7:54am by Captain Alexander Gunning & Lieutenant Commander Melissa Daniels M.D. & Gunnery Sergeant Avery Nakano

Mission: The Pak'Leth Problem
Location: Transporter Room 5, Medical Centre

[ON]

Nakano caught up to a security team on Level 83. The Pak'Leth hadn't got far and had sealed themselves inside Transporter Room 5. The doors seemed to have been sealed less through technical know-how and more through a system of impressive trial and error. All the security overrides on the door seemed ineffective and the three security officers were left bamboozled.

"Can we site to site transport and get inside?" One asked. His companions seemed enthusiastic about the idea, lifting and waving their phasers in the air with triumphant glee. They thought they had cracked it.

"They'll have booby trapped the place." Nakano said quietly with his ear pressed to the door seal. "If you transport in you run the risk of hitting a tripwire and blowing your legs off. It's up to you though." There was no sound on the other side of the door. They may be in there, lying in wait or perhaps they had transported to another part of the station.

Melissa arrived with a medkit. "Nakano, my people are responding to injuries all over the base. We have to track them down."

"I'm concerned about the door." The Ensign said. "The Pak'Leth are unlikely to have tried to beam out without leaving some sort of trap on the door. I think we'd do well to take the Jefferies' Tube which passes around the bays and come out behind the console."

The Ensign secured his helmet. "I'll go first, stay behind me. If something blows up, I don't want the only medically trained staff right in the eye of the blast." Not that I particularly want to be in it myself," he thought.

"Ensign, use thermo optics. It might help you locate some things that have been rigged." She noted, drawing on her experiences."

The three officers plus the small security detail moved with ease through the Jefferies' Tube of the Starbase. They were significantly larger than those found on Starships and allowed most to move almost fully upright through them. They came to the secured access hatch which would bring them out behind the Console of Transporter Room 5. A few clicks of the panel and the small hatch opened onto the expansive transporter room.

Nothing. They had gone.

Nakano swore under his breath before checking the Tricorder on his wrist for any traps. None seemed to be forthcoming, at least not on the floor. "It's safe." He said, stepping to the side to allow the egress of the Doctor and the Counselor.

Melissa entered the Transporter room with her medkit.

"We have to find out where they transported to," Nakano tapped at the transporter console. It was dead. Whatever they had done to it had wiped its internal memory.

"Hold." Melissa stated. She began to examine a simple mechanism on the door. Which happened to be a string. Crudely attached to the door. On its side was another device. "Very crude." She stated.

"It's a fragmentation bomb, simple one. An Sarinium Krellide Power Cell, with a plasma relay as a detonator, combined with shrapnel. This is very crude, and not a very good booby trap. It could've exploded as it was being set." She pulled out a pair of tweezers from her medkit, and expertly, grabbed the plasma relay. She began to slowly remove it from the power cell.

Ensign Nakano looked across at the Doctor deftly dearming the trap. "How the hell...?"

"I told you Ensign. I wasn't always a Doctor."

Nakano hadn't heard the discussion surrounding the device as he consulted the ship's internal communications. "Nakano to Ops."

"Lieutenant Tarak here."

"Tarak, have your sensors registered any unauthorised disembarkations in the last hour or two?" He asked.

"Negative, ensign," Tarak replied, "the only vessel that has left was the Betelgeusian transport. It went to warp about an hour and a half ago."

"They're still here. It's not too easy for thirty Pak'Leth to move that quietly." Melissa noted.

"I wouldn't be too sure, Doctor," Nakano replied, "the transport to Betelgeuse isn't exactly the... strictest... about letting people on board. Thirty Pak'Leth would be small fry compared to some of the things that our people have pulled off that."

Melissa spoke, "Commander, I recommend sealing off the vital areas of the base. If they are setting Booby Traps carelessly, one of them may be next to something important. A Quantum Torpedo bay, or an Antimatter Pod."

"Probably a good idea anyway," Nakano said, "lock it down and inform the Admiral. Oh! And start tracking that transport on the long range sensors." This has gone way out of my paygrade. The young ensign thought.

[OFF]