Taking Over the Lunar Facility (Part III)

Posted on Wed Sep 28th, 2022 @ 4:48pm by Lieutenant Mira Jayna & 1st Lieutenant Kara Melo & Lieutenant Aenar Torek

1,394 words; about a 7 minute read

"That all depends on the trigger," Jayna said. "I can deactivate the trap and unlock the door. But I need to know if any tampering will set it off or if a failed attempt will." She looked at the door. "Give me a few minutes and I'll figure it out."

"In that case, I think we should move farther down the corridor," Kara said.

"Probably a good idea,” Jayna replied.

[CONTINUED]

'Unless you need my assistance Lieutenant, I'll trot off with the rest of them,' Aenar replied, looking to the Marine once more.

"Go," Kara said. "We'll take this."

Jayna waited until everyone but Kara was safely away, then double-checked the locks. "I'll do this slowly. If it looks at all like I've triggered an explosive, we'll both run and hope for the best."

"Do you want me to break into another room so we have somewhere to go?" Kara asked.

"No. It'll either detonate before we get there, or we'll get hit by the concussive blast. Let's just do this."

Kara nodded and focused her scanner on the door.

Jayna tried not to be too slow while still being smooth enough not to trigger whatever device had been set. She was familiar with many Romulan traps, but not so much the Remen.

There was a soft click. Jayna stepped quickly to the side in case there was a projectile, but nothing happened. She glanced at Kara.

"All clear," the Marine replied.

Jayna nodded and went back to work, quickly taking care of the rest of the obstacles. When the door opened, there was nothing inside. "Nothing?" She pulled out her tricorder and scanned. Was this a decoy, or was something hidden?

They both did a thorough search of the room. There were no hidden compartments, nothing cloaked. Just...nothing. Jayna even felt along the walls.

"I wonder if this was put here to anyone still here time to get out, or if they thought we'd fall for the trap?" Kara asked.

"Could be anything," Jayna admitted. "Let's tell the others and see what we can find farther down."

At the Marines' call, Aenar and the rest moved back up in formation with them. 'How much further do you think?' he asked glancing about. Even with tricorders, it was difficult to tell where they were in the facility. The walls and corridors were non-descript and indistinguishable from one another.

"No idea," Kara said, shrugging. "Why don't we try going to the lowest level and see what we find there?"

"That's as good a suggestion as any," Jayna replied. "We can scan as we go down, just in case."

"Or we could just leave and blow this place up," Parhtz threw in. "There might be booby traps all the way down and once we're at the bottom, we'll cause the whole place to come down on us."

'There's no guarantee we destroy the facility if we don't do the job properly,' Aenar observed mildly. 'You're the demo experts, but I'd imagine we need to be deep within the superstructure to cause the place to collapse.'

Kara nodded. "We could do it with the ship's phasers, but we won't know what's down there. So, yes. Let's go down and see what we find."

"As long as we can check the doors to each level on the way down," Peter added.

Kara nodded. But she wasn't sure that the private wouldn't try to shoot down every corridor he came to. "I'll take point." At least that way she could keep some rein on Parhtz.

'I'll stick to the middle of the column,' Aenar said jovially, glad to have a goal in mind now.

"Appreciated," Kara said with a grin. She went slow enough for others to scan for signs of life and technology. But as they descended, they found nothing. It was beginning to look like no one was left behind.

And then, on the next-to-last floor, Jayna stopped. "Wait a minute. I'm getting an odd reading."

Kara immediately stopped and turned to the intel officer. "What are you picking up?" She checked her own tricorder. "I don't...wait. There is something odd."

'Those tetryon readings are climbing, off the charts almost,' Aenar chimed in as he passed his own tricorder about the corridor. 'Something seems to be ... leaking perhaps?'

"Leaking or building up?" Jayna asked. "Either way, it's not good." She turned to the others. "So, up or down? Back to the shuttle, or down to the bottom level to see what's going on?"

"I say get out of here." Peter had no wish to go further into danger. Not when it was looking more and more like the Remen planned to destroy this facility with them inside.

Kara partially agreed with him. "I think the officers should head back to the shuttle." She looked at the others. "See if you can get a transporter lock on the rest of us."

'Shuttle it is then,' Aenar replied with a sigh. He knew he was out of his depth, but he was excited at the prospect of discovering what lay below. 'I can enhance the transporter sensors to pick you up - bonus points if you manage to disable the dampening field around this place.'

"That could be helpful." Kara grinned. "In fact, we might need a quick rescue." With the way things had gone this trip, there was definitely a chance they'd be walking into a trap.

As soon as the others were out of site, Kara turned to Jayna and Peter. "Since I'm the closest thing we have to security, I'll go first. Lieutenant, you follow behind. Parhtz, you take up the rear. If you see anything out of the ordinary, speak up."

Jayna nodded. "Okay. Open a comm to the shuttle so they can beam us up if we get in trouble." She expected it, with everything they'd seen so far. She checked every door and opening as they continued down to the lowest level.

Peter didn't like being last--again. But he was low man on the totem pole and did as ordered. What he liked least is that being last, he'd be dead before he even knew there was trouble. With the other two in front, he wouldn't see them slip up in time to run and run.

There was one more level to go when Jayna whispered, "Stop."

"What is it?" Kara asked, looking around.

"Something doesn't feel right. Let me have a look." Jayna slipped past Kara and carefully looked around. "There." She pointed to a line in floor just before the door. "I think that's new." She pulled out here tricorder and scanned it, then leaned closer. "It's not a trigger for anything, but I can't scan beyond it." It wasn't just that. There was something too intentional about all of this. If they'd booby-trapped all the rooms, Jayna doubted they'd leave everything on the lowest level. "I think it would be wise to find another way down."

She checked the map she'd loaded onto her PADD, then back to her tricorder. "There is one other stairway, but I can't read anything there, either. Let's go back to the admin level and see what we can find there."

Kara nodded. "All right. Parhtz, lead off."

Finally. Peter turned and began to climb the stairs.

Back on the shuttle, Aenar beavered away at the science console, boosting the shuttle's transporter sensors by piggybacking on to the Calypso's much more powerful computer systems. As the computers worked in tandem, the signals of the remainder of the away team became faintly discernible.

They were halfway to the surface before the team had comms. "Melo to the shuttle. How do scans look?"

>>tag

Just then, they felt a rumble from somewhere below them. "Scratch that. Beam us aboard. Something's happening." Kara's gut told her this was not something to ignore, and they were too far from the surface to make a run for it.

For several seconds, there was no reply. Then, they felt the tingle of a transporter. "Get us out of here. I think the facility is going to collapse."

The ship launched before they reached their seats.

____
OFF

Lieutenant Aenar Torek
Chief Science Officer

1st Lieutenant Kara Melo
Squadron Leader

Private Peter Parhtz
Marine

Lieutenant JG Mira Jayna
Assistant Chief Intelligence Officer

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