[Deck Six – Cargo Bay 2]

The wreck of the asteroid blazed brightly, bluish green flames danced and flared from the molten power cell, billowing dank acrid smoke and fumes into the compartment. The fire suppression system was working hard to contain the fire, pummping in fire damping gas and foam. It almost succeeded but across the compartment a five foot long jagged piece of hardened alloy had been slammed into the outer hull bulkhead like a javelin.

The point had punctured the inner and outer hull and a three inch tip was protruding into space, the rough shape of the metal was not a perfect fit in the hole and atmosphere was venting out around it. By sheer chance it had slammed right through the power conduit feeding the emergency forcefield generator for that section of hull and there was nothing to stop the leak.

Back inside the cargo bay, near the door way, four bodies lay slumped on the floor

The alert ran out across the ship =^= Red Alert! Red Alert! Explosion on Deck Six, Cargo Bay two! We have a hull breach! Damage control Deck six Deck six! =^=

[USS Don S Davis]

“Sir!” The duty officer entered Walker’s Ready Room. “The Altai just went to Red Alert, they had an explosion on board! That asteroid they retrieved blew up!”

Walker set his padd down as he got up from his chair and headed right on out of his ready room with the officer on his tail. “Give me a status report on the Altai.”

“The asteroid in their Cargo Bay, designated number two, blew up and caused a hull breach. Sensors previous recorded a few lifesigns, one of the badges indicated that their Captain was in there.” Reported the science officer.

“Was or still is?” Walker asked.

“Sensors are having trouble getting lifesigns with that hull breach but I think it’s safe to assume that they are still in there. Appears to be a plasma fire as well, so there must be an open valve. All of that is confusing sensors.”

“Very interesting for an asteroid to just go up like that. Go to Red Alert, raise shields, power up weapons, and I want those launchers full to the brim of torpedoes. I want a full, intensive sensor sweep of the entire area. I want no more surprises for today.” Walker orders as the klaxon went off and the lights shifted to red. Walker had read the recent reports about the Breen, and he was not going to let them catch them with their pants down. He was going to be ready, as ready as they can be. But he sure feels under-powered and outgunned, if they came showing.

“Well…on the flip side…the outpost lost power to its major systems. It looks like we’re going to be very busy rebuilding it up.” Said the Science Officer.

“Sounds like a normal Tuesday to me.”

[Deck Six – Engineering Upper]

The Engineering team swung and turned to look at their senior officer, young Ensign Kappler.

Kappler stood frozen for just a second. He had only just graduated from the academy a few months ago. He knew each man and woman on his team by their personnel logs, but not as individuals and here he was expected to lead them when he was still trying to learn the layout of the ship.

The moment passed and he ordered, “Grab your tools and get to deck six. Move it!” He didn’t have time to worry how he came across when there was a job to do.

[Deck Seven – Security Office]

Astrid was sitting in her cramped office when the explosion rocked the ship. She set down her PADD and tapped her combadge, =^=Vogler to Hazard Team. Suit up and await further instructions. Be prepared for damage control, and casualties.=^=

=^= Vogler to Bridge =^= she said over into the comm. She was already pulling on her own gear, =^=Where do you need us?=^=

=^= Deck six! Cargo bay Two! =^= Came the response, repeating the location that had already been announced

[Deck Six – Cargo Bay 2]

The dull clanging of the alarm was accompanied by a shrill whistle of venting air, the fumes were building but were being pulled away from the prostrate forms on the deck by the breach in the hull.

One of the engineers clearly had a broken leg, it was bent over at an unnatural angle and a white sliver of bone poked through a torn trouser leg. The other was crumbled over a toolbox, several piece of shrapnel protruded from their back, blood ran and dripped from the metal and stone.

The hail of shrapnel that had taken him down had continued across the room and torn into the door control panel. It hissed and sparked, completely wrecked

Nearby the science Ensign was slumped next to a cargo container, blood ran from a large gash on his forehead and a clear fluid drained from their ear.

The fourth body stirred. Pain shot like lighting bolt behind Streth’s eye. Through blurred vision, he could just about make out the carnage around him. Flames licked across a floor strewn with debris and shrapnel. He groaned. He could feel the viscosity of his blue Andorian blood between his cheek and the cold, grey cargo bay deck. Fragments, metallic on one side and rock-like on the other, surrounded him. His eyes pitched sluggishly between the large flaming chunk of the fake asteroid that remained, and the Science Officer by the cargo container. The streak of pain coursed through him again, and Streth fell limp as the burning continued.

[Deck Six – Corridor]
A crewman was frantically trying to get the cargo bay door open when Kappler and Vogler arrived.

She turned to the Engineer “It’s locked out, I cant get it open! The Captain and three others are in there!”

Ensign Kappler looked at the control panel and tried the manual release. “It’s not budging.”

Astrid pulled out her tricorder, “That’s because there’s and uncontained hull breech. The computer safeties are locking us out. We’ll have to cut through the door.” She pressed some buttons on her arm and an EVA helmet materialized from the buffer in her hand.

Several meters away there was a shimmer and six EVO clad figures appeared.

“There is still some atmosphere in the cargo bay,” Astrid announced, “But they are likely hypoxic, and breeching the door is likely to be very similar to an explosive decompression. Grant, and Korel,” she shouted at two of her Hazard Team members, “You two work on getting the emergency force fields back up.”

Van Der Laun looked around getting his bearings, as the team arrived beside him. He cracked the helmet seal and opened his visor. A damage control party came jogging down the corridor and He joined the three at the cargo bay door.

“Report” He stated flatly. “What’s up with the door?”

“Sir,” Kappler didn’t stop his work as he responded. “The cargo bay is depressurizing and the door is on emergency lock down. We will have access in less than a minute. The crew is prepared with field generators to seal the breach.” He returned his full attention to cutting an opening through the door.

“Go to it then Mister Kapler” He nodded grimly “Any contact from the Captain and the rest of them in there?”

“No sir” The crewman shook her head.

Beck walked over to the door, overhearing what the woman said about cutting through. “Sorry lass, that’ll take too long. But feel free to keep cutting while we work on forcing it open. Cooper, give me a hand with this.” He spoke with his thick scottish accent. He pulled out a tool from his belt and pried the door panel open, while Cooper came over to his side, pushed in panel release and yanked the panel off the wall. “Anyone who don’t have a helmet, best get clear to those bulkheads right now!” He then turned to look at Cooper. “Can ya get the forcefields back up?”

Cooper grabbing tools from his belt and working away. “I just need a minute.”

Beck shook his head. “You have my permission to reroute power directly from the EPS grid to the field generators, forget the buffers.”

“With all that power, we might just burn out the field generators.” Cooper told him.

“I’ve studied this ship inside and out since I got on board, the generators will hold! We only need enough time to get in there, get them back over here on this side of the door and we’ll be golden.” Beck told her as he worked on the door panel.

“Can you get the door to seal back up after you open it?” She asked.

“Of course. I’m just killing the safety protocols and disabling the emergency fail safe.”

“I thought the emergency fail safe was there so that you couldn’t disable it.” Cooper asked.

“They’re not that damn redundant.” He grinned.

“What about the hull breach. Why can’t we engage the forcefield there?” She asked.

“I don’t want to risk shunting too much power into that cargo bay. It’s safer to do it here.”

“Alright, I’m all set!” She told him.

Beck double checked to make sure that those who weren’t in EV Suits were cleared. “Do it!” And with that, the section that they were in was now sealed off with forcefields. Beck then looked at the Hazard lady. “All right lass. There is one thing redundancy that this bloody fail safe has. As soon as I get this door open, you and your team need to get in there and get our people out in five minutes! The second this door closes, I will not be able to open it again. Got it? The only thing that will let this door open, is if that hull breach is sealed.”

Cooper went to activating the forcefields but as she did, the flickered on before going right back out. “Damnit! Something’s wrong!”

Beck knelt down beside her and then pulled out his tricorder. “You did everything right. The damage the explosion caused must be more severe in the cargo bay than we realize. Guess we’re just going to have to leave it to them to cut the damn thing open.”

“They might not have a minute then” Van Der Luan concluded and activated his comms =^=Van Der Luan to transporter room. Lock on to the Away Team & Vogler, beam us into the cargo bay! =^=

=^= Transporter room copies! Locking on to you now, six seconds to beam out!=^= Came the reply

“Get the door open, we’ll see you on the other side!” Vane Der Luan said to Kapler and Vogler “Seal up again!” He called to the Station Team and flipped his helmet down.

Astrid pulled on her helmet and sealed it, “Ready sir. If transport is impossible my team is ready to breech with explosives, but we’ll probably have to evacuate this deck.”

Lieutenant N’Vea moved towards the Cargo Bay doors, ready to enter as soon as they were opened. She was glad that she was still holding her medical kit, as it was impossible to know what condition the crew inside the Cargo Bay would be in when she got in there.

“Ready to find out what the hell was inside that asteroid?” Beck asked Cooper.

“You bet. But we got to check on your people first.” Cooper told him.

“Always first, lass.” Beck looked at the XO. “Ready to go, Chief.”

Then it hit Cooper and she quickly grabbed the panel on the floor that she took from the wall before being enveloped by the transporter beam.

The Away Team was picked up by the transporter beam and disappeared

[Bridge]

McQueen turned as he heard the turbo lift open. It was his Department Head, Cramer, coming to the Bridge in response to the Red Alert. He gave the Flight Control Chief a situation report.

“Sir, there has been an explosion in Cargo Bay Two. The Captain was down there, with a Science team, to examine that asteroid we took aboard.”

He listed off the known details. “We have had no contact with anyone in the Bay since the explosion. Internal sensors are down, probably damaged from the explosion. We have a minor hulk breach in that compartment, hull integrity fields are also down, likewise probably from the explosion.

The door to the cargo bay is jammed, Mister Kappler and a Damage party are working on it.

The eX-Oh came straight back from the Station with the Away Team, they are beaming into the Cargo Bay now, along with Ensign Vogler.

You have the conn” With his arrival Cramer was now the senior person on the Bridge and McQueen nodded his head toward the center chair. “Your orders sir?”

“Err…carry on as you were for now” The young Ensign replied, reluctantly taking the center chair.

[Deck Six – Cargo Bay 2]

The Cargo bay appeared around Van Der Luan, there was a pall of thick black smoke coming from the the burning remains of a pile of what looked like shattered rock and mechanical components in the center of the bay. The smoke was being pulled across the room towards the outer bulkhead and then sucked into a hole made by some piece of tube or bar. Debris was strewn everywhere, rock fragments, tools, broken cargo containers, sparks flicker from several damaged conduits on the walls.

The transporter enveloped Vogler and she reappeared inside the dark cargo bay. She switched on her helmet beacons and the emitters sent out twin beams of light illuminating a narrow field of view which only showed devastation.

There was something impacted with the hull, and burned with what she could only describe as fire. That would have to be investigated, but right now she had to focus on their casualties.

“There might be some sort of interference, probably from the object. I’m having trouble getting any lifesigns. I have transporter enhances in my transporter buffer to tag our people.”

“Doc, Olafsen, Vogler, find the Captain and crew!” Van Der Luan ordered “Get them beamed to sick bay!”

“Yes sir!” Astrid replied and nodded to the other two.

“Beck, Cooper, get that hull breach sealed! If you cant get a field in place, find a torch and weld that bar into the hole!” Van Der Luan continued. “Hawthorne, help Kappler get the door open from this side!”

Astrid picked her way through the wreckage. She almost missed them. Their hunched forms had just caught the edge of her beacons. “Found them!” She shouted, and rushed over to their side, and now she felt helpless. They needed oxygen, and that wasn’t something she couldn’t provide.

NVea took hold of the Captain and one of the others. Olafsen grabbed the remianing two. =^=This is Doctor NVea, Six to beam directly to sickbay =^=

Streth could feel his body shifting. He sensed indiscernible movement around him through his scrambled senses. His chest heaved as he coughed a lung full of chemical smoke. A floating sensation coursed through him, and he realised he was being beamed away.

Beck pulled out his torch as him and Cooper headed over to where the hull breach was, least an indication of where it was. They both activated their magnetic boots and helmet beacons to illuminate the area. Beck also had his tricorder in his other hand, locating the hull breach as they got closer. “All right lass, good thing is, it’s not that big. You think that sheet of panel will hold?”

“We just need to seal the hole and any decompression will cease. If we have even the slightest leak, then no, this panel won’t hold.” Cooper told him, as she reached down and grabbed another panel. “Looks like this got yanked off the wall when this all went down.”

Beck smiled. “Two panels better than one. All right, let me have that.” He put his torch and tricorder away and took the second panel from her. “Let’s line them up just right and get them in place.” They held the panels flat towards the hole, slowly moving the panels closer until they were mere inches away, tightening their grip until first Beck released his and it smacked over most of the hole, and Cooper released hers nearly right after, luckily smacking over the hole right next to the second panel. With a quick adjustment, he took his torch and started to weld the panels into place, as well welding the two panels together so there were no cracks or anything that could cause the hull breach to just rip the panels apart. No suction, no risk.

This took about ten minutes for him to do, and Cooper double checked it with her tricorder before patting him on the shoulder. “We’re good here.”

Beck put his torch away with a smile. “That should hold for a while, until the damage control team can apply the actual sealant that we got. But I think I’ll instruct them to fix the forcefield system in the cargo bay. Soon as we get it online, soon we don’t have to worry about this until we get proper repairs done.” He sighed and smiled some more. “Want to go check up on that asteroid?”

“Sure didn’t look like one when we beamed in.” Cooper told him.

Beck nodded his head. “It sure didn’t.” He disengaged the magnetics in his boots. “That’s the part that’s got me interested.” He turned around and started heading towards the asteroid wreck, with Cooper right behind him after disabling her magnets in her boots. Both had their tricorders out and moving in on the wreck.

[Deck Six – Corridor]

Kappler saw sparks, showing someone was assisting him from the other side of the door. “Door will be down in a couple seconds. Masks on, this corridor is beginning to decompress.” The difference in air pressure caused the cut metal to swing open as the atmosphere rushed into the cargo bay.

Hawthorne was just a little too slow backing up and the door panel slammed into her, knocking her off her feet.

Van Der Laun saw her go down and not get up. =^= This is Van Der Laun, Beam Lieutenant Hawthorne to sickbay also!=^=

The Operations Officer vanished a few moments later.

Van Der Laun cracked his helmet seal, and looked around the shattered, smoky, cargo bay. Whatever had been brought aboard, it was no asteroid!

[Cargo Bay 2 – Asteroid wreckage]

The asteroid’s computer brain was dying, it’s chips and data systems were melting in the fire. It was aware of it’s diminishing functions and, as it failed, a final protocol was engaged.

Deep within the shattered carapace was a small heavily armored box, designed for just this eventuality and engineered to survive the asteroids destruction. One side of the box dropped open, it was dark within, an tiny string of orange lights came on and something moved. A spindly, robotic appendage poked its way through the gaping hole in what remained of the asteroid, then a second. Its sensory apparatus followed, as if the machine desired caution. Swivelling lenses on an elongated proboscis peeked out just over the top of the rocky surface, observing. Calculating. There was no time to react. In a microsecond, all eight of its needle legs hopped up onto the rock’s side. Two metallic antennae darted round, feeling the air around it. Another impossibly quick moment, and it was airborne.

Van Der Luan whirled around at the sound of rending metal from the charred debris. Then ducked as something flew through the air!. “What the -!” The fumbled for his phaser but it was already gone

The bot couldn’t have been much bigger than a medkit. Clamping itself to the cargo bay ceiling, it darted about evasively. A tiny cutting beam shot from one antennae, excising a sizeable chunk of duranium which clattered to the floor. It shot into the resulting hole, squeezing and distending its body in a mollusc-like fashion. As fast as it had emerged from its hiding place, it was gone.

Beck and Cooper both jumped when that thing came out. “Scan it! Scan it!” Beck said as he pointed his tricorder at it and tried to run a series of scans on it before it disappeared into the ceiling. Cooper had done the same thing but the entire motion of appearing and immediately disappearing was just too quick for the tricorders. “I didn’t get a whole lot, you?” He asked her.

Cooper shook her head. “Not much at all.”

“Send whatever data we have to the Bridge. Might not be useful but it’ll be something.” He told her and she nodded her head while pressing some commands on her tricorder.

Astrid drew her phaser and tried to get a shot off, but it happened too fast. “What in the Hell was that?” She asked looking around for some help. =^=Vogler to Hazard Team report to deck five. Some sort of mechanical… thing… bug…. I don’t know. It cut a hole through the ceiling. That includes you too Mr. McQueen.=^=

=^=I’m assigned to the Helm right now Boss =^= Came the reply, he was the team pilot and when not on a shuttle borne mission his duty post was the Bridge.

=/\=Understood. Those orders superceed my own.=/\= she turned to Van Der Luan, “Sir, I’m going after that… that thing.”

Van Der Luan approached the hole it had cut in the deck, the edges still glowed red hot. The thing…creature?.. was loose in the ship and they needed to catch it quickly, no telling what it would do. “Alright, get your team together Ensign. I’ll be on the Bridge, let me know as soon as you’re ready.

“Beck, find me a way to track it! Try internal sensors, alarms, power outages, I don’t care how, just track it!”

“Kapler, Cooper, get the hull breach sealed and see what you can find in the wreckage. It came out of whatever that was, there maybe information we can use! And be careful there’s not another one in there!”

He looked around the Officers and crew. “Go to it!”

=^= This is Van Der Luan, Beam me to the Bridge! =^= Moments later he was gone.