Toran had finished installing and reconfiguring the stabilizer at the site he was working at, when he looked over his shoulder to where the local engineer should have been he was gone. Raising an eyebrow but at the time didn’t think much of it, maybe he went to check on the status of the other locations. “McCarthy to alpha team, what is your status?” He said over the comm channel, he got no response. “Alpha team please respond,” he said again to no avail. 

Turning to the others, “keep an eye on the system here while I go check out alpha team. Contact me if anything changes,” Toran replied as the others nodded. He headed off towards where alpha team was working. When he arrived he noticed that alpha team had been shot by a phaser, taking out his tricorder he scanned the officers. They were still alive, it looked like they were stunned, looking around he noticed that the replacement stabilizer was missing out of where they were replacing it. 

“Lieutenant McCarthy to Lieutenant Kyle please report to alpha team’s location immediately,” Toran said as he had his phaser out looking around to see if the person would try to return.

“What seems to be the problem Lieutenant,” Elizabeth’s voice came over his combadge. 

“I’ll explain when you get here,” Toran replied.

“On my way. Kyle out.”

After ending the comm with Lieutenant Kyle he had tapped his commbadge again, “Lieutenant McCarthy to Lieutenant Bates I need you and a security detail to site alpha, I am sending the direct coordinates to you as we speak.” Toran replied as medical was already on its way to lend aid.

“Copy that. I’ve finished over here anyways.”

Medical had arrived and began treating the officers while he waited for both Lieutenant Kyle and security to arrive, he also warned beta and gamma teams to be on the lookout for anything suspicious. Something was going on and his gut feeling was that someone was trying to stop them from repairing the seismic stabilizers like they wanted something bad to happen.

Elizabeth arrived several minutes later looking around. She raised an eyebrow at the medical team working on the stunned engineers and then at the conspicuously absent replacement stabilizer. “Lieutenant do you want to explain now?”

“When security arrives, rather not repeat if that’s alright,” Toran replied looking at her concerned and troubled at the whole situation at hand.

She sighed slightly annoyed,  “Very well.” She turned and walked away tapping her combadge,  “Kyle to Ensign Porter.”

“Go ahead ma’am,” he said on the other end.

“We’re going to need another stabilizer at the alpha site.  Replicate one and beam it down please.”

“Aye, ma’am. I’ll get it to you right away. Porter out.”

Bates, Ensign Utsall, and a random crewmember from his security team had arrived by foot after they had been transported as close as they could be. Zane came with his standard gear that he had beamed down with earlier. But his Ensign and crewmember were carrying rifles in a standby, buttstock at their shoulders, across the chest, barrel aimed at the ground and not at anyone. Hands gripping the pistol grip and their trigger fingers resting above but away from the trigger. Zane looked at other Lieutenants before he looked back at his detail then at the Lieutenants again. “Maybe a little overkill but can never be too careful.”

“Maybe not,” Elizabeth replied. “Lieutenant Toran knows more than me, but several of my officers were stunned. That…” she said indicating the rifles, “seems entirely appropriate given the circumstances.”

“After I finished installing the stabilizer at Gamma site I attempted to reach alpha team when I got no response, I noticed that the local engineer that was with me earlier wasn’t there anymore.” Toran said as he took a breath, “I decided to come to investigate found that they were stunned and that the replacement stabilizer at this site was taken. So far the other two teams have not reported any unusual activity, but something is going on here.” He replied looking at Kyle then at Bates. 

“Lieutenant Kyle your suspicions about sabotage might be right, someone is trying to cause an incident that could get people killed.” He finished looking very concerned. 

Elizabeth thought for a moment,  “If killing was the objective then why stun our team?  Could it be a specific target?  If so,  why go to all that trouble? Is there a black market for stabilizers?” This last question was directed at Bates.  “Or, is this a case of terrorism? Occam’s razor dictates the simplest explanation is terrorism, and we should expect someone taking credit and possibly a list of demands.”

“I am not sure Lieutenant, but something is going on and we need to find that engineer to get answers.” Toran suggested, “though he didn’t give me his name this is what he looks like.” He said as he pulled up his picture that was taken when he looked visibly nervous the last he talked with Kyle about possible sabotage. “I suggest placing security details around all sites if he got them then the others will be in danger,” Toran suggested until they got down to what was going on.

Bates looked at the photo before he looked at the Ensign. “Take a copy of that, return to the ship, gather up enough Security for the task at hand, and show them the face. Tell them to burn it into their minds. Then see if the Bridge can run the face through the personnel database, the Colonies, and Federation Citizens. The face should match to a name and then we may get some answers as to why they are doing this.”

“Yes, sir.” The Ensign then took off before being transported away to do just that.

Bates looked at Toran and Elizabeth. “I don’t want this man to be alerted that we are aware and suspect him to be the saboteur, least not yet.”

Toran nodded, “I’ll get another team down here to replace the missing stabilizer. We need to get these up before the next earthquake hits,” Toran replied looking at Kyle. “You might want to inform both the Captain and first officer of the situation so they are aware,” Toran suggested looking at her then back at Bates. 

“We should also know about the damaged stabilizers within a few hours, that will give us a definite answer as to whether or not they were sabotaged.” He added as he got a status update before this situation started. 

Elizabeth shrugged.   The matter was out of her hands, nor ultimately it wasn’t her concern.  Security was here to protect her people, and medical had already tended to the injured.   Right now her job was to stop the earthquakes.  “Once I get the tectonic stabilizer system back online I’ll beam up to the ship and work on resequencing the sensor data.  Not entirely sure what it will tell me, but I believe it to be sabotaged as well.”

Toran shrugged at the Lieutenant, as they separated a team had beamed down to his location with another stabilizer they began the process of installing the replacement. Thoughts kept running through his head, he knew this was going to be a setback, and things can go south rather quickly when it comes to installing things, and operational before something happens was the challenge. He just hoped they could still get things up and running without any major setbacks.