The Rock, Part 2

Posted on Sat Feb 25th, 2017 @ 6:12pm by Brigadier General Christopher Mitchell & Commander Andrew Knight & Lady Catherine Waddington

Mission: Another Day in Paradise
Location: FOB Anchorage, Various Locations
Timeline: Immediately following The Rock, Part 1

ON:

The frigid air whipped through Chris' hair, stinging his eyes as the turbolift platform shot upward towards an ever-widening bright spot of blue light. After a few moments, the lift began to slow and slid to a stop in the center of a platform was illuminated white around its borders inside of the darkened blue room. Christopher stepped forward and the light turned an angry shade of scarlet and the blue lights began to slowly blink red.

"I think we might be in trouble." Chris said as several bulkheads slid down and blocked the entrances to the other four corridors, leaving only one path for them to take. Suddenly, red lights along the path activated to show them the way.

Drew cast a suspicious eye at the only way left for them to go. He didn't like not having options. He was still assessing their situation and wondering if they were about to walk into a trap.

Ja'xon and the three other three Marines raised their rifles and took just a couple steps out of the turbo lift ahead of Chris.

Tapping his commbadge, Chris attempted to open up a channel. "Mitchell to Nichols, we've reached the Ops deck- I think and most of our routes have been blocked. We're heading down a central corridor and I'm not sure where it leads. Maintain a communications lock on us if you can." Looking back towards the rest of the team, Chris' face looked rather noncommittal. "Well, if no one has any objections, it looks like we need to move.

"Aye aye, sir," Cara responded. "We have located engineering but we can't gain access due to the stupid safety measures set in place, I imagine, by our predecessors. We need to get in there to fix the environmental and life support systems which are currently running on minimal power. What we are breathing is only 20% oxygen. We have about two hours before we start showing signs of asphyxiation. If we don't suffer from hypothermia first."

"That would explain why we're feeling a bit lightheaded up here. Do what you need to do and keep me apprised. Mitchell Out." he said, cutting off the channel.

Looking back towards the rest of the team, Chris' face looked rather noncommittal. "Well, if no one has any objections, it looks like we need to move-" he was interrupted by a female voice that sounded cold, confident, and extremely commanding. Chris couldn't put his finger on it but he had heard that voice before.

Drew looked around for a source of the disembodied voice. He, also, vaguely recognized the voice too. He knew who the owner of the voice was, of that he was certain. The identity though was just out of his minds conscious reach though.

Ja'xon began to scan the area ahead of them, searching for an immediate threat. As he looked, his rifle followed where his eyes led.

"Not so fast. Proceed down the corridor one at a time and identify yourself. If you fail to do so, I won't hesitate to vent you into space with the rest of your little band." The voice said coldly. A small pit of fear settled in Christopher's stomach and weighed him down like a rock but he tried his best to suppress it as best he could.

"Well, you heard the lady, one at a time. I'll go first." he said quickly, swallowing as his chest began to tighten and his heart began to beat a stiff tattoo against the inside of his rib cage.

"Careful sir." Drew looked about again. Though female, the voice was not the standard used by Starfleet computer systems. More to the point, it seemed to be someone speaking in real time, which begged the question. Were there others already at this hidden base and why hadn't they hailed the ships during approach?

"Mitchell, Christopher David. Colonel, Starfleet Marine Corps, Carrier Air Wing Eleven." he said as the computer scanned him with a soft blue light.

Drew stepped forward next, the biometric scanner now lighting up his body in an ethereal glow. "Knight, Andrew James. Lieutenant with Starfleet Special Warfare Command."

The disembodied voice spoke out again. "And who are the rest of you?" she inquired

Ja'xon maintained control over his weapon as he stepped up next, only lowering it slightly. "Second Lieutenant Ja'xon, Marine Commanding Officer, Bravo Company." As he stepped off, he added, "And these next three are my Marines." Corporal Butler, LCPL Mackie, and PFC Lucas all identified themselves as they walked down the hallway. Ja'xon waited as his men made it through, he didn't like the situation, he was beginning to feel cornered or trapped.

Chief Kawalsky stepped forward next, speaking in a clear and loud voice. "Kawalsky, Jason Thomas, Chief Special Warfare Operator, Starfleet Special Warfare Command."

"Gunnery Sergeant Lucinda Vasquez" said the woman. "Operations" she added.

Christopher was first, his hand tight on his rifle as he walked into a massive domed room ringed with stations around a central dais that was illuminated with a harsh white light where a square-shouldered female figure was standing. Slowly making his way over to her, he watched her turn and suddenly it dawned on him.

"You can say it, Colonel." the woman said.

"Admiral Janeway, what are you doing here?" Chris asked thickly. If she was here, then there were bound to be more personnel but where were they?

Admiral Janeway bore a serious expression on her face as she addressed Christopher. "I would be more than happy to tell, if I were actually there. I am on Earth, standing in a replica of Forward Operating Base Anchorage's Operations Center." She paused a moment as she gestured to herself. "What you are seeing is a holographic avatar of me transmitted via the Hirogen communications network."

Ja'xon was just as surprised as everyone else, and he immediately wanted to ask questions about everything leading up to their arrival. However, knowing his place among the men he traveled with, he remained silent and listened to what his superiors had to say.

Janeway didn't seem inclined to field questions at this time. If anything she wanted her questions answered first. "The Sanctuary Protocols went into effect over four hours ago Colonel Mitchell. I want to know what happened to initiate that."

"Ma'am, Starbase 900 was attacked by a small Borg force, four ships by last count and didn't survive the initial attack. At that time, Admiral Peltier, Rear Admiral Tackman, and Major General Rissinger were all aboard and are missing, presumed dead The entire relief force that came through the gate was also eliminated. In total, we're looking at over 20,000 dead and casualty reports are still coming-"

Janeway's expression turned progressively grim as Christopher gave her a quick summary. She held up a hand to pause his explanation. "Who is currently senior officer on site?"

Christopher cleared his throat as it immediately felt like someone was squeezing it slowly. "That would be me, Admiral. I took command of the Task Force in the wake of

"Well then, Colonel. I hereby grant you a brevet promotion to Brigadier General and order you to take command of Forward Operating Base Anchorage. Start getting you house in order, General Mitchell." Janeway looked to her right, as if she were being addressed my an invisible person. She gave a single nod and returned her gaze to Christopher. "You can also expect a communique from Starfleet Command no later than tomorrow morning. I am sure Secretary of Defense William Ross will confirm you promotion as permanent once I brief him on your status. We will conduct another face to face discussion tomorrow at 1500 hours. Do you or any of your other officers have anything more to add at this time?"

Chris thought for a moment. "Ma'am, I'd like to take a moment to recognize everyone on this base. They've proved themselves beyond measure up to this point and I have no doubt that they'll continue doing so. I'd request that all Starfleet members present during the evacuation receive commendations. Also, in light of the fact that I have been granted a command again, I'll need an Executive Officer. If you permit, I'd like to appoint Lieutenant Knight."

Janeway turned her head and looked at a blank screen, at least one that was blank here in the Delta Quadrant. Her eyes darted from left to right several times, as if she were reading. "Well, Lieutenant Knight is in the primary zone for promotion to Lieutenant Commander. Very well, consider this a second brevet promotion, confirmation pending." She turned back to Christopher. "Any other recent promotions I should be made aware of?"

Ja'xon raised his left hand slightly, before putting it back on to his weapon, it is important to always main positive control of your weapon. "Yes, Ma'am." He spoke up, "Ja'xon here, I received a battlefield commission. I am now the Marine Commanding Officer for Bravo Company, 25th Marine Regiment."

Janeway nodded and appeared to be making notes. "Tomorrow, 1500 hours. Please have yourself, Mister Knight and members of your senior staff present for the meeting General Mitchell..."Her expression became stern. "...and only members of your senior staff."

=== Team Two ===

"Well that was just very unhelpful," Tiffany grumbled as she balanced on her toolkit while sitting, her face supported by hands supported by elbows on knees. "Here I am, going to freeze to death, or suffocate to death in the company of a bunch of goons that are more likely to hulk into roid rage soon because they missed their last dose."

"Alright, that's it, I've had enough of it!" Verdei said as he moved forward. Only to be immediately stopped by Bran sliding between him and the engineer.

"She's having a rough time just like the rest of us, just remember that," Bran said, annoyed himself by the woman's attitude, but still, killing her would not only not resolve the problem they were currently facing, it would cause others since she was the only engineer they had on the away team and thus far they weren't able to get any other.

"None of the rest of us are being petulant and whiny!" Verdei continued, his dark brown eyes focused on the dimunitive woman.

"No, and none of the rest of us are going to lose our professionalism and bearing over it either. Especially when it's not really because of her attitude but our own frustrations," Bran said, pushing Verdei another step back.

"Yeah, must be really frustrating not to be able to shoot your way out of a problem, trigger happy-" Tiffany stopped midsentence as she suddenly stood, her tookit falling over behind her. "Those aren't standard issue phaser rifles!"

"No," Bran said, scowling. Her bearing suggested she may have an idea, but other than trying to use the phasers to cut through the bulkhead, and then into the shield emitters beyond, he wasn't sure what she had to offer. "They're specific duty issued Gauss/Phaser rifles that my team has been using for some time now. Same as the ones we've issued on the Hopper due to the Borg attack."

"Gauss?" Tiffany asked, then her face brightening and scowling all at once "Yes! I remember someone mentioning that on the ship. Gauss rifles! Give that to me!" she said as she reached for Bran's rifle. "And that one too, and the others, they're Gauss as well?"

"Yes," Bran said, jerking the rifle out of her weaker grip. "And while I'd be more than happy to be trigger happy and shoot the emitters they're-"

"Oh, pick up a book sometime instead of just another barbell, Muscles!" Tiffany said, exasperated at their singleminded density, "Gauss projectile principle requires the firing of a ferrous slug at high speeds through an electromagnetic coil motor!"

Bran was shaking his head then, as if her enthusiasm was contagious, "And security shields are based on electromagnetic containtment?"

"Yes!" Tiffany said as Bran was handing over his rifle and signaling Verdei to give over his as well.

"You think you could use something to take down these shields?" Bran asked, reluctant to give up their weapons, but it wouldn't matter if they didn't get this base under control.

Tiffany was already on the ground, scribbling out what Bran could only recognize as mathematical formulas and symbols. She grumbled as she smudged out a whole line then seemed to rewrite it. "If I can create a magnetic induction..." she scribbled more "...take this rifle apart so I can see what I'm working with..." she said as she continued to fill the corridor with math..."...with the proper resonance frequency..."

She sat on her haunches. "I'll take your PaDD as well," she said to Bran, and turning to face Nichols, "and your tricorder to act as the tuner."

"Alright. Enough. Everyone," Cara said in a firm voice. "We are all under a lot of stress. No one is immune but we don't have time for all of these petty squabbles. Tiffany," she called out, using the only engineer on their team's first name because she didn't know her last. "Stand up and start acting like an adult. You are the only one on this team that knows how to do what needs to be done. Instead of throwing barbs at your fellow team mates....do your job." She turned around and looked at each of the other members of the team. "As for you guys....I get that a man measures his prowess by the size of his gun and if he carries a big one he feels all bad ass. But you are Starfleet and have no prowess when in uniform so stop peacocking around and see what you can do to actually help." She shook her head feeling like she was babysitting a bunch of 10 year olds just starting puberty. Cara walked over to Tiffany and softened her tone. "Is there anyway around this force field?" she asked. "A back door....crawl space....ventilator duct... anything?"

Bran watched the doctor's grandstanding with some concern. Apparently she was starting to feel the strain and decided she would deal with it by becoming insulting to the team she was leading. Which was a surefire way to make sure that those here weren't able to do their best. Especially since each and everyone of them were also feeling the same anxiety, strain, stress and uncertainty. Probably even more because they weren't as privy to the same information that Nichols had, so for them the rumor mill was running rampant and they had to try to sort through all of that to try to find grains and nuggets of truth behind any of it. His men were lucky in that they knew their fellows were safe - did Tiffany have that same luxury? Did Nichols know that his team watched the Gateway seal behind them, locking each and every one of them sixty thousand light years or more from their homes, families and loved ones?

Or did she just decide that it was all about her and not give a damn about any of it? If this is how she ran her medical department, he wasn't surprised that he learned the medical system on the Hopper ran in disarray for so long.

"Well, if you're done with the making speeches like some sort of evil stepmother from a fantasy story," Tiffany said, indicating the calculations Nichols just walked all over as she moved over, "and hand over the tricorder like I've already said, then I'll be able to create a resonator that can help us get through those fields. Then, once through them into Engineering, I'm sure your ability to make speeches is going to come in every so handy, Speech."

For once Bran found himself in agreement with the smaller woman and if he got a chance to pull the doctor aside, a conversation on her leadership manner, in becoming mysandric was surely not going to help the situation any.

"'Hand over the...' Seriously?" Cara glared at the young woman. "At the present, young lady...I am in command of this team...and even if I weren't I am still your superior. I suggest you adjust your attitude accordingly. As for the tricorder....you are an engineer. You should have brought one. But I will be happy to let you use mine," she said, removing the strap and handing the tricoder to Tiffany. She turned and glared at the rest of the team. "Anyone else want to challenge my authority?" she asked looking from one to the next.

"Are you making some sort of magnetic induction resonator?" Bran asked as he turned over the rifle, stripped down and opened to the internal components.

"Yes," Tiffany said, drawing out the word as if she were looking for the joke behind the question. "Though, it'll be helpful if I could cannabalize one of those grav belts."

Bran nodded as he took off the one he was still wearing and handed it over. He waited to see if she asked for anything else, or if it appeared she was going to ask for any help but she seemed to have forgotten anyone else existed at the moment. Bran looked at the scribbling on the deck one more time, trying to see how much of it he really understood and the answer turned out to be - very little of it. Which reassured him that despite his multiple degrees and working on his doctoral thesis, he was definitely not a squint. While Tiffany worked, Bran spoke with the three remaining security officers on this side of the field, keeping his voice low and quiet. There were some looks thrown over shoulders, but for the most part, they remained in conference until Tiffany looked up again.

"It's not pretty, Muscles, but I think it'll work. We should find out in a moment," Tiffany said as she put the magnetic coils at the base of the force field, separated by the length of the grav belt. Bran felt ashamed he'd allowed two of his rifles to be cannibalized to create whatever device she made, but if it kept his men from being trapped, it was worth it. Also, if it allowed them entry into Engineering, finally, then maybe that would be worth it as well.

"How's it work?" Bran asked, genuinely curious and seeing the annoying woman in a much different light.

"I can either try to explain it using the most basic words of two syllables or less and with only one universally assigned meaning so you couldn't possibly misunderstand anything I said," Tiffany answered as she fiddled with the tricorder. A whine filled the air, the pitch modulating as she made adjustments. "But you don't have any crayons to take notes with on your circle of paper, so it would just be a waste of time for both of us. I'll just tell you that it'll create an anti-resonance wave in the electromagnetic field which will bring it down."

She winced but seemed to find the right pitch. For Bran it was like a wave of needles flowing through his body but...the shield before them began flashing. Bran got to the point where he felt even his teeth hurt but then the field flashed brightly, followed by a pop and...the sound died away.

"Did it...?" Bran asked but Tiffany was already moving the makeshift device to the second door. A bit of distance lessened the effect, but not by much. Bran seriously wondered if the device was causing them internal damage and then the other shield flashed and popped, the sound dying away again. Small streams of smoke streamed through breaks in the bulkhead, accompanied by the acrid smell of burning wire and metal. Tiffany was stuffing the components into Devorak's pack, the bigger man calmly kneeling while she shoved the parts into the central chamber, which should have already been full.

"That's what happens when you open a book rather than a six pack," Tiffany said, before she turned to the door and hit the manual open button.

With a hiss and a blast of warm, humid air, the door slid open, revealing the top section of what seemed to be a large and minimally active power plant, complete with antimatter engines to drive power throughout the massive facility.

"Well, we're in Engineering," Tiffany said, throwing a sharp look to Bran, "what are we supposed to do now?"

"Mr. Bran and Mr. Verdei...you continue to clear the other rooms on this level," Cara instructed. "Petty Officer Jorrel and I will do what we can to assist Miss Renee in getting the environmental and life support systems up to full power." She looked at Bran and said, "I suggest you take Miss Renee's device with you in case you run into anymore force fields." Then she turned back to Tiffany and said, "my knowledge of engineering is minimal at best. How can I help?"

Tiffany rolled her eyes, "Sit over there and practice more speeches, especially one that not only apologizes for your rudeness earlier, but also extols my greatness. Especially since, well, I've already confirmed life support and environmental systems were already online and working. They had to be in order for us to have any air to breathe when we first beamed down here. Or didn't anyone else find it odd that we came here without EVA? Did you wonder that Beefaroni? How about you, Muscles?"

Bran turned hearing both his name and the 'nickname' used to refer to him twice in quick succession. There was something off and, replaying what he'd heard of Tiffany's statement, he thought maybe he knew what it was. "What do you mean the life support systems are already online? You said yourself that the atmo levels were severely reduced?"

Tiffany sighed, any regard she may have given Bran for having some clue about magnetic resonators obviously gone. "Yes, they were reduced, but rising. Because this base was sealed to space. That means that everything in it was opened up to the vacuum and coldness of space. I'm betting that when we were summoned here, that also started up the base engine," she indicated the power plant taking up the center of the room, "and the life support systems. Allowing us to have some warmth and a bit of air to breath. I'm sure that once we can access all the systems, we'll have the ability to get everything else online. But, until the proper command codes are entered, that's not going to happen."

Bran scowled as he listened to her, "Yeah, I think you said that too but...haven't you noticed? Any of you?" he asked, looking around the room. "The smell of this room?"

"It smells like a room," Tiffany said, again rolling her eyes, "I'm sure you'd prefer the sweat soaked walls of a gym, but no such luck for you."

"No," Bran said, "it smells like dust and cleaning solution." He took a deep breath, shaking his head after he did so. "Like, like dust was stirred up."

"So?" Tiffany said, "Who knows how long this place was left after it was sealed out?"

"Exactly," Bran said, as he spread his hands out. "Then where's the dust?"

"What?" Tiffany asked. "What dust?"

"Nowhere else on this base smelled like this. Like dust and, well, a room that's been occupied. Everywhere else was cold and clean. Because where would there be dust if this place was vacuum sealed?"

"Space has lots of dust and we are on an asteroid!" Tiffany said, exasperated.

"Okay, then where is it?" Bran asked, as he moved to the railing and ran his gloved finger across it. He held it up, showing that there wasn't any dust lifted as he did. "Where's the dust? It smells like there was dust here, where is it? Further, how well can a power plant like this handle the vacuum of space?"

"It doesn't need..." Tiffany said, but trailed off as she looked around. "If this place was activated at the same time as the Sanctuary Protocol," she said as she pulled out the chalk again and began making more calculations. "Then based on the model of the engine, as well as the flow and fuel consumption, even presuming very minimal power ratio, then..." She sat back on her heels, the chalk gripped tightly in her hand as she looked at Bran. "This isn't right. Unless there's technology that I don't know about, Muscles," and the tone of her voice said very much she doubted that was the case., "then there wasn't enough time for the engine to warm up, come online and begin powering those systems to give us what we've got in the time since Sanctuary Protocol."

She stood as she looked directly at Bran. "I don't know how long this base has been here, but I know how much fuel it would need to keep this engine in minimal standby mode for even a year." She went to the console, her fingers flying across the keys while her head shook. What she was discovering scared her enough to give her shakes. "The fuel reserves are too high. And, this room was sealed off and kept from being exposed to space." She stepped away as she turned to Bran. "An that console was already active and logged on!"

"Check," Bran said, "Chyore, Verdei, you're on babysitting duty with these two. Jorrell you're with me, you two on the other side."

Bran took a moment to turn to Nichols. "As it seems that Engineer Renee has confirmed is that we may not be alone down here. Stay here with the security officers," he said as he pulled out his sidearm. Devorak and Wagner were already moving to the other side of the room, moving slowly and cautiously as they began sweeping the area for any potential hostiles - or anything really.

Cara simply shook her head. She couldn't remember the last time she slept or ate and her patience with the constant insubordination had long since expired. She decided that anything she said would be fuel for their disdain so she would simply let them have their way and put Renee and Bran on report when they were back on the ship. She tapped her combadge and said, wearily, "Team 2 to Team 1...we have gained access to Engineering and Miss Renee is working on the environmental and life support systems. I think she might need a little help if you have an engineer to spare up there."

"Ask them to send an entire team, there were plenty enough on the Hopper that could do with more than busy work," Tiffany muttered while at the console.

Ensign Billy Webb, who had been bringing up the rear spoke up. "I'm headed your way, Team Two. Mind activating your locator beacon for me? he asked as he turned to head back towards the lift. If they were calling him, it had to be bad.

Cara smiled and breathed a sigh of relief as she tapped her combadge twice to activate her beacon.

"Muscles," Tiffany said activating the commbadge. "You're not going to like this, I bet. I'm been going over the power consumption records and, up to about five hours ago, it was what I would expect, going back years. Except...there was a lot of power going into one shield generator for this area. It appears this area was kept sealed up. Other, minor blips, indicate power consumption by other systems: life support in this area, environmental controls in Engineering, replicators in Engineering."

Bran was scowling, about to reply when he got another call when he was interrupted by Devorak on the priority team signal. "Chief, you'd better come over here." Bran caught the tone and was irritated. They hadn't continued clearing this side, but Devorak's tone was enough to get him to issue orders for Wagner to replace him with Jorrell while he hurried to Devorak's side.

The security officer stood in front of a small door which Bran assumed led to an equipment room, data storage room, or some other equally unknown to him Engineering function. Except, as he reached it, he found differently. Somewhere along the way, the room was converted. There was a desk, a replicator, a bed and...

"Doctor," he called out, absolutely no urgency in his voice. "You should come over here," Bran finished as he looked at the dessicated, skeletal remains on a bed in the room.

Cara walked over to the door of the room and looked in but saw nothing but an empty cot. "What am I supposed to be seeing?" she asked.

Ensign Webb walked into the room after treading through labyrinthian hallways and caught the last hint of a conversation. "Doc, I'm Ensign Webb. You order a hot and ready Engineer with extra pepperoni and extra cheese?" he asked, chuckling slightly. The smile began to slide off his face as he saw the puzzled look on the doctors face and he began to observe the exchange.

Cara laughed. "And extra mushrooms? Yes," she said. "Ens. Webb...meet Tiffany Renee. See if you can give her a hand getting the environmental and life support systems operating at full power so we can breathe clean air and not freeze to death." Taking one last look in the empty equipment room and still not seeing what Bran had called her over to look at, Cara said, "there are other areas on this deck that need to be cleared, Mr. Bran. Please take your security officers and get it done."

Bran muttered under his breath something that Cara couldn't make out....and was glad as she was beyond exhausted and didn't know if she would have been able to keep reign on her temper, then he motioned to the two other security officers and left Engineering to finish sweeping the deck.

Cara took one more look at the empty cot and shrugged wondering what it was that Bran had seen that made him call her over. She turned to the two engineers and asked, "Is there anything I can do to help?"

"At present, just keep doing what you're doing. I'm going to see if there's anything we can do to make this place a bit less chilly." he said, shivering a little. Hearing slight thumps in the deck, he saw the lights brighten and what sounded like industrial machinery engaging with a steady droning sound. "Something tells me that Engineering has just been brought online. I'll go and take a look. "

OFF