The Rescue Part 2

Posted on Fri Sep 10th, 2021 @ 9:14am by Captain Bethsabée Leroux & Petty Officer, 3rd Class Callistus 'CJ' Jackson & Major Samuel King & Lieutenant Samantha Leyton & Commander William Gerhard & Lieutenant Avira zh'Kenarh M.D. & Ensign Michael Sloan
Edited on on Fri Sep 10th, 2021 @ 8:04pm

Mission: Mission 4 - Eden
Location: The Caelestis - Deck 23 Aft end
Timeline: Day 168 11:40
2012 words - 4 OF Standard Post Measure

Maddison had led the group back to where she and the doctor had escaped. The blackness beyond the hole was ominous as she recalled barely escaping. Yet, she felt angry at being forced to leave the commander behind. "We came out through here," she replied, feeling better as the effects of the gas were beginning to wear off. "This other person is very good at sneaking about."

William examined the opening and could see that it had been the result of a blast of some sort. He put that aside as he motioned to Major King and his team of MACOs, "Major take point. You and your team clear that room while we follow and look for the captain and Szerda."

"Very good, Lieutenant," King said as he took two of his four MACOs to lead up next to him, the other two would act as a defence within the core group with one near the rear and the other in the middle. "Jesus..." King said as a room opened up to reveal what could only be described as a chasm filled with life pods, or frozen popsicles as he thought to himself. With the one open pod was it was easy to make the assumption that the individual that held the Captain and Szerda was its occupant.

"I think this is going to take a lot to clear...." Was what CJ heard as everyone got inside with the Petty Officer bringing up the rear he was the last to see what was ahead of them a large open space filled with thousands upon thousands of cryogenic storage tubes. Their screens were frosted hiding what was inside apart from the one that was being indicated to where the other team had made their discovery. "Well, that is new." He murmured catching up with everyone with Sloan in tow with everything they had learned about the place in tow. "This ship is the ship that keeps on giving isn't it Ensign?" The man said to Sloan.

The large room was certainly unexpected. Michael looked around to see what seemed to be cryogenic stasis pods of some kind, or at least what a more technologically advanced stasis pod would look like to Sloan's imagination. "What's the old saying, an enigma wrapped in a mystery," he sort of stated to CJ as he unholstered his scanner.

William entered the space and took a moment to look around at the massive room. None of their internal scans of the ship showed a room that was this large. He looked at the cryogenic tubes that were roughly the size of a humanoid, but they appeared to still be in stasis. He looked up to Major King, "On second thought Major I think it's best we stick together." He then made his way over to where one of the tubes appeared open and unoccupied, but there was no sign of the captain or Szerda. He then flipped open his communicator, "Gerhard to Atlantis, We've reached the area where the captain and Szerda were last seen. It appears to be a massive storage room filled with cryogenic stasis pods. It looks like one pod is open and unoccupied, so I believe we have our suspicious figure that has been seen over here. There is no sign of the captain yet."

"O'Connery told us that you should be able to speak to the ship now but it will take a bit longer. She set up a relay point to bypass whatever is blocking our communication here." CJ piped up as everyone waited for the ship to respond or not respond as a group had found last time they were in there.

"Understood," Leyton replied.

“Anyone see anything?” CJ asked using a hand scanner to look around for any sign of where the pair had been taken. He was refusing to believe they had been killed as gas was a completely different approach to Aurelius a how he had been murdered. “Any blood or DNA that we can use to follow them?” There were thousands of tubes but they all looked undisturbed apart from the one that had been wiped to reveal the skeletal remains inside. CJ felt a pang of sadness that every tube was the same at how many lives had been lost when they had every technology to keep them alive.

William closed his communicator and signaled to the MACOs to hold their position. He then turned and looked at Madison and Avira. "Ok, where did you last see the Captain and Szerda, and where was the man you saw," he asked since he could not see any physical evidence of where they had been.

Avira motioned quietly in the direction they had ran from. She didn't know if the man that had surprised them was still there and she didn't want to give him an edge over them. Her Antennae were twitching back and forth as she ventured deeper into the area, leading the MACOs to the exact spot they had seen the unknown entity.

The group was silent until the hand scanners that several people were holding beeped with finding something. "Blood? Both the Captain and Petty Officer. Small amount." CJ whispered. It was not life-threatening but it was not a good sign that either of them was bleeding when they had not been before.

Samuel bent down to the blood on the ground and touched it. "Still wet enough to say it happened quite recently," he said as he noticed something else on the ground. It was the arm patch of the Atlantis clearly torn and lying on the ground. Whether that was an attempt by one of the two crew members to assist them in finding them was unclear but the blood should be enough for something to follow. "If they are injured then we should be that bit more careful. If they have been injured as a result of their capture then I'd rather not give this guy any reason to hurt them further." King added.

"Either way, I'm not letting this bastard live another day," Maddison replied, feeling personally responsible for the Captain and Szerda being captured. There was a drop of blood on the deck farther away as she moved to examine it.

William looked over at Maddison as he bent down next to Major King to examine the blood. "Let's keep our heads here Ensign. I agree with the major, we don't want this guy to harm our people further. If we go in guns blazing our people could get caught in the crossfire," he said giving her a forceful look. He then looked back down to examine the blood. He noticed a small trail that led off further in the room. He pointed it out to Major King, "There's a small trail leading off in that direction" He then looked over to Avira and Madison, "When you saw this person, could you see if he had any weapons?"

CJ looked between the Armoury Chief and Warrant Officer and smirked. This was going to be interesting once one of them clicked that she had been called Ensign. He moved out of the way, investigating what they had discovered so far.

Maddison stared at Gerhard before glancing down at the warrant officer pips on her uniform. "Ensign? Thanks for the demotion, Sir," she replied with a smirk. In truth, an ensign was above her in rank but no ensign she knew of would dare try to tell a Warrant Officer what to do and she considered the rank an insult in comparison to hers. "We were too disoriented from the gas and it was too dark to tell for certain if he had a weapon."

"All we know is we weren't fired upon," Avira added hoping to be able to add something to their understanding of the situation. Her antennae were still moving around, her eyes followed the movement trying her best to not be caught off guard again.

"Which is interesting in itself. Gas takes effort and with this technology surely whoever this person is should have access to something with more teeth."

"We have a trail. We should follow it," Maddison suggested, standing, looking back at the group.

William nodded and stood. He motioned to Major King, "Major, take point. Let's follow this trail and see where it leads. Everyone else stay close and keep your eyes peeled. If you see anything call it out." He then pulled out his communicator and flipped it open, "Gerhard to Atlantis, we've found a small trail of blood that leads further into the chamber. It's not much, but we are going to see where it leads."

"Understood, Lieutenant. Keep me informed," Leyton replied.

"Which is why we have the rebreathers on." The petty officer surmised glad that they were moving on from Ensigngate quickly with no drama. It made more sense now with every step they were taking. "So it sounds like if he resorted to gas there is a high chance that he has no weapons or at least no access. We have not found any weapons or armoury stores anywhere," CJ commented.

William felt his face get hot at his momentary slip up regarding Madison's appropriate rank. He knew he would have to make it up to her later but now was not the time or place. He signalled to the MACOs to begin following the blood trail. "Let's see where this goes, everyone stick together." He then looked over at Sloan, "Ensign run an air quality scan as we go. See if we can get some samples to identify what kind of gas this might be."

"Yes sir," Sloan acknowledged as he replaced his phase pistol on his hip and took out his scanner to scan the air. Looking to William, Sloan added, "One more thing, we found a data core. This ship seems to have come from an entity known as the United Federation of Planets and appears to be from the distant future. Humans appear to be part of this Federation."

The armoury officer choked into his rebreather taking a moment to calm his breathing down to speak. "What?" CJ mumbled looking at the man wondering when he was going to tell them this. It explained so much but how was it all possible?

William looked over at Sloan as he shared that info. The more he thought about it the more it made sense. While most species they had encountered's technology had been relatively close to their own, this ship was clearly more advanced and even the most advanced species humanity had made first contact with. This also explained a holographic AI that was semi self-aware. Atlantis had one of the most sophisticated computers in Starfleet, but the computer core took up three decks. "Did the datacore have any information on the passengers," he asked hoping they may have found more information about the individual they were hunting for.

"We haven't been able to run a full diagnostics on the datacore," Sloan explained. "It contains a vast amount of data, far more than I imagined could be stored in a single starship." Thinking for a moment, the officer offered, "I may be able to ping the core with a scanner to see if we can identify a passenger, though we may need to be within a few meters of the person or persons of interest."

William nodded when he heard Sloan's response. "Understood. I think we should try and identify who this person is when we find them. It could help establish common ground if we get in a standoff. Make sure you have your scanner ready for when that time comes."

Maddison thought over the information--it seemed unreal. Time travel? "If the ship was from the future, what is it doing here?"

“Hush.” CJ hissed as he turned his attention towards distant noises. "Listen." He whispered. Somewhere in the distance below was a male voice followed by two distinctive voices - The Captain and the Petty Officer.