The Starfleet archaeological team – mostly drawn from the crew of the USS Culver City, plus around a dozen from the crew of the newly-arrived USS April – had been studying a ruin site on Derganix for a couple of days at this point.  Thus far, the prevailing theory was that the ruins were Vezda; naturally, this had significantly slowed the exploration of the complex, given the Vezda’s reputation and history.  The leader of the expedition, Culver City XO and chief science officer Lieutenant Ophelia Lotharys, was with one of the forward groups, slowly making their way through the ruined building, which the team believed to be a temple of some sort.

Lotharys’s team, which numbered six in total between three scientists – one technically an engineer – and two security officers plus Lotharys herself, had already checked a number of chambers, many of which had academically interesting features, albeit none of particular note.  As they approached the end of the day’s allotted delving time, though, the group had found a passageway that looked more important than any of the others they’d found.

“Hmmm…” Lotharys mused, stopping and examining one wall with her tricorder.  “Hey, Jenkins, come take a look at this,” she called.

Lt. JG Deroy Jenkins, the Blythe’s former Assistant Chief Science Officer, and new CSO of the April, ambled over to Lotharys.

“Well that looks old…hell it looks like its probably foundational…” He peered around the large thick androsite rock wall.

“Looks like the same material as the bedrock in this region…its fucking thick too. If I had to guess this had to be one of the main buttress or shear walls…looks like the rest of this level was built off of, or tying into it.” The wall was mostly clear, except for small pictogram like inscriptions in each of the 4 corners.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought, too,” Lotharys replied.  She then checked her chronometer.  “Yeah, we’ve got time…. Let’s see where this goes.  Silis, Vorak, keep a close eye; I think whatever this is, is more important than the other areas we’ve found so far.”

“Hiyo silver, lets do some spelunking.” Jenkins said as he aimed his flashlight down the ramp like corridor that extended down deeper into the structure leading away from the large androsite wall section.

The group made their way down the corridor; the two security escorts keeping phasers at the ready just in case.  A short walk later, the group found a large stone door blocking their path.  A cursory examination of the door quickly showed that it was sealed, somehow.

“Old fashioned, but let’s give it a try.” Jenkins donned his thin work gloves and moved to place his hands on the door and try to give it a shove.

The door did not budge under Jenkins’ pushing.  Lotharys considered her tricorder.  “Well, I’d hoped that maybe the lock had fatigued, but it doesn’t look like it.”  She saw something on the display, her head cocking slightly to the side.  “I wonder…  It’s giving off a faint energy field, almost electromagnetic; maybe we can rig a tricorder somehow to reverse the polarity of the field and unlock the door?”

“Using a tricorder like an old school lock pick, genius.” Jenkins added.