Station Security - Docking Evacuation
Posted on Tue Dec 1st, 2015 @ 9:45am by Commander Titus Livius Drusus PhD & Lieutenant JG Glek
Mission:
By Dawn's Early Light
Location: Internal Docking Ports [Deck 202]
Timeline: 1050hrs.
[Docking Section]
Chaos. It could erupt at any moment. The crews of the last remaining merchantmen – and some rather anxious looking passengers sprinkled among them – seemed tranquil and orderly in their lines as they trudged toward the customs checkpoints, but that could change in an instant.
Glek could almost smell the apprehension in the air, lingering thick in the docks. These people weren’t sure what they’d go themselves into and now he and his men were ushering them to a place that wasn’t their intended destination.
“No, you don’t understand, I have to get to the assay office,” one fretful-looking freighter captain pleaded to one of the security team.
“Sir, all assay offices on the Starbase are closed for the duration of the state of emergency,” the petty officer replied in the monotonous drone of a man who had uttered the phrase to too many people that day.
“Well there must be someone I can speak to!” the captain demanded as another security officer approached to back up his comrade.
Glek nodded approvingly; he didn’t need to intervene in this one, Clarke and ch’Thanak had it under control.
Then it happened. Invariably these kinds of things always happened while the man in charge was looking the other way. Glek heard the loud, booming shout of “Hey!” from down on the customs line. It was followed instantly by a collective, terrified gasp from the assembled mass, mixed with a few separate screams of shock. Then the wave crashed against the rocks and a hundred people started to run for their lives. A stampede was forming. Glek had seconds to act to shut it down before somebody would be killed.
He moved quickly, much faster than a casual observer would expect given his portly frame. “Barnes, Boone, quickly set up your teams at the top of the ramp, phasers at the ready,” he barked as he walked down the ramp toward the surging crowd. “Ch’Thanak and Clarke, with me.”
In this dock, the customs lanes created a bottleneck which opened up onto an access ramp that widened the deeper it got into the station. It was a wide space that would, in itself, help to calm any stampede. But Glek knew he needed to do more; he needed to maintain control. The yawning ramp was a last resort and not guaranteed to be effective. He needed to get control of the situation now.
Flanked by the imposing human and the even-more-imposing Andorian, he marched with the confidence of a man twice his size to meet the crush head on. He checked the setting on his hand phaser as he walked, confirmed it was on a low stun, and raised it high above his head. He fired three times, sending a low – but loud – stream of energy blasting into the overhead. As he fired, he noticed the first of the stampeders slow down, but they were still pushed on by the people behind them.
“Halt!” he bellowed, the voice from the tiny Tellarite echoing ominously around the cavernous docks.
In the end, he wasn’t certain what it was the brought the mass of humanoid panic to a complete stop mere metres from where he stood. Maybe it was the phaser fire, maybe it was the unexpectedly loud voice from the little security lieutenant, or maybe it was the imposing site of Petty Officer ch’Thanak. Whatever it was, it worked. The crowd halted, they weren’t exactly happy, but they at least stopped. Glek and his officers spent a few moments calming them, acknowledging their fear and explaining the situation, before they were led off en masse to the shelters.
As they left, Glek spoke with the customs supervisor and agreed to follow-up with them in the shelters. There was no sense making them go back to the checkpoint. Then he found the security team assigned to the lines. He wanted to find out what happened. What had sparked this near disaster.
He found the team huddled around a small grey object on the deck that Glek couldn’t quite make out. “Report!” he snapped as he approached.
The ensign in command turned and stood at attention, looking down at the lieutenant. “Sir, we’ve got what set off the panic.”
“What is it?”
One of the others picked the object up off the floor and held it out for Glek to inspect. It was a toy phaser pistol, plastic with a light up red barrel. Evidently, a child had started playing with his toy in the line and somebody mistook it for an actual weapon. That person overreacted and the panic spread from there.
Glek shook his head in disbelief and tossed the toy back to the ensign. “Make sure the kid gets his toy back,” he said as he turned away and headed back to his vantage point on the ramp. “Let’s get ready, people. Next ship arrives in four minutes!”
Lieutenant (JG) Glek (NPC: Drusus)
Section Chief - Docking Areas
