Random Repairs

Posted on Fri Sep 17th, 2021 @ 8:06pm by Lieutenant JG Sheldon Parsons & Ensign Ezra Gonzalez & Andrew Munro
Edited on on Fri Sep 17th, 2021 @ 8:08pm

Mission: The Place of Skulls
Location: Science Lab
Timeline: Mission Day 16 at 1230

[Science Lab]
[MD16: 1230 Hours]

Sheldon Parsons waited patiently for the turbolift to deposit him on the appropriate deck. He was headed to affect repairs on a faulty plasma relay, which was installed behind the south wall of the Science Lab. Though technically the room was labeled as "Bio Lab," he'd come to understand that the lab had been rearranged so that all manner of science could be conducted there. Perhaps Lieutenant Pell was trying to get all of his people under one roof? It made sense, though the young engineer desperately hoped there were no bugs on display once he arrived. He'd heard stories about a particularly fuzzy Andorian arachnid he did not want to cross paths with...

At least the lift arrived, shushing open its doors to allow him egress into the hallway beyond. Parsons walked at a steady clip, his engineering kit in hand, nodding to those he past and reflecting on how that used to be a social hang up of his: contact with strangers. But after months on Risa, the human had apparently worked through a lot of that difficulty, at least in-so-far as headnods went. Actually speaking to people he didn't know...well, that was another story. Rounding the bend, he saw the science lab down the hall to the left. A few more moments and he was there.

Stepping into the lab, he looked around the room, hoping to spy a familiar face. He immediately saw Andrew Munro, the noted biologist they'd picked up on Risa. He'd seen Andrew at the Captain at various points on Risa and spied them from afar in Debbie's a few days prior. He didn't know Andrew well but hey, any quasi-known port in a storm, right? Parsons made a bee-line for where the biologist was working.

"Mr. Munro," Parsons nodded formally, then held up his kit. "I understand you've got a faulty plasma relay down here? Shouldn't be too hard to fix. Honestly, I'll probably just swap it out and figure out why the original failed later on," he explained. "Don't want to impact what you folks are working on with too much downtime, after all. Mind if I take a look?" Parsons asked, pointing at the wall behind which the relay was housed. Spotting a person he didn't know -- the ensign who'd been promoted at the luau -- Sheldon offered the slightest of waves. "Hello. Ensign Parsons," he introduced himself.

Ezra returned the motion. "Ensign Gonzalez, social sciences."

"Sure, go right ahead," Andrew replied to the uncomfortable Ensign. "Don't worry, I think we've accounted for all the spiders." It was a joke of course - Ensign Davies kept very close tabs on all of his specimens - but enough people had seen one for word to spread that they were here. It was just too tempting to tease visitors, especially young Ensigns.

"Nice to meet you," nodded the engineer in response to Gonzalez. At the mention of spiders, though, Parsons immediately climbed into himself, looking around the lab quickly in every direction. He'd heard mention of a behemoth Andorian cave spider housed in this lab. Word was that the spider was as big as a small dog with giant fangs and clawed legs perfect for scaling icy caves. But he'd not seen the spider himself and, thus, could not verify if its size was real or imagined by others. He'd been relieved not to see it when he walked in but Andrew's comment got him thinking. Were there other spiders? It was the small ones you couldn't immediately see that freaked him out the most.

"Sp...spiders, got it," Parsons trailed off, visibly shuddering as he moved to the back wall. The engineer was determined to get this particular job done as soon as possible. He loosened a panel there and -- as if expecting spiders to come pouring out -- slowly opened the hatch, positively on high alert for skittery movement. But nothing of the sort greeted him once the panel had been fully removed. "Only a faulty plasma relay," he said to himself with relief.

Deftly, Sheldon shut down the flow of plasma to the junction and then began decoupling the relay. "This shouldn't take too long. Hope I'm not keeping you from anything too important?" he asked of the two men working in the lab.

"Nothing too important. Saving the galaxy, one bug and piece of pottery at a time," Ezra joked dryly.

"I mean," Parsons said with his head inside the panel, "it takes a village, they say. It's kind of like fixing replicators. Doesn't directly contribute to completing the Sojo's big missions but how can people work if they can't eat?" His meaning was, he hoped, clear: that while pottery and bugs might not seem like much, they still served a purpose and were also important. "How about you, Mr. Munro? What have you been--"

Parsons was cut off by the sudden blaring of the Red Alert klaxons. The alternating horns sounded the alert status before the voice of the computer clarified the reason for it being called:

"Warning. Hostile intruders detected."

"Intruders?" Parsons exclaimed, pulling himself out of the relay panel. He'd only half finished the job, having removed the dead relay but not yet having installed its replacement. "Where the hell did intruders come from? I--"

But he was interrupted again. This time by the double doors to the lab swishing open, allowing a floating object -- metallic in composition -- to fly into the room. Pointed fore and tapered aft, what could only be described as a drone had entered the lab and was now scanning the room with a glowing green beam. The scan quickly completed and the beam shut off, replaced by the angry glow of red energy at the drone's tip.

"Uh...it's p-p-pointing at me," Parsons stuttered in a panic, looking for something to crawl into. But given his position in the lab, he was too far from any desks or tables to take cover. Even so, the engineer gave it his best try, taking two quick steps and jumping for the safety promised by one of the other lab tables. Unfortunately, he wasn't fast enough and the beam from the drone grazed Parsons' side as he slid underneath the table.

The smell of charred flesh and ozone permeated the air as the drone swiveled in mid-air, this time pointing itself at Munro. Again its tip glowed with coalescing red energy, intending to fire another blast, this time at the biologist. The sound of an energy build up precipitated the release, an angry red beam again lancing across the distance.

None of the consoles or storage cabinets around Andrew's workstation blocked line of sight to the intruder. The design of the lab hadn't been intended to impede access and so there was little cover to be had. In a desperate reflex, he threw the PADD he'd been holding at the intruder. He saw the beam hit it, but watched in horror as gravity stole it away in mere milliseconds. A searing pain in the right-hand side of his chest engulfed his mind, eliminating everything but that sensation from his thoughts.

Ezra yelped and dove for cover, trying to stay out of the drone's sight range. "C-computer, emergency con-containment field around the intruder in the science lab!" he called, voice shaking with adrenaline and nervousness. Not waiting for the computer to respond, he slapped at his combadge and yelled, "Gonzalez to security! Intruder alert in the science lab! We're under attack!"

The intensity of the pain diminished and became localised to Andrew's chest. His vision was blurred but he could sense that he was on the deck with only his head and shoulder propped up awkwardly by the bulkhead. It was causing a strong ache in his back but he couldn't move. He felt strangely disassociated from his body, as though it were happening to someone else and he couldn't do anything about it. The nasty scent of burnt hair now accompanied the smell of charred flesh and ozone. Part of him knew that it was his, but he couldn't look at himself or touch himself to confirm that. He was dimly aware of another voice that seemed familiar, but his thoughts were too scattered to identify it or hear what was said.

From under his table, Parsons took a few moments to quickly breathe, drawing on Starfleet training to try to work through the pain. He'd been lucky enough not to take a direct hit but the pain he felt all down his left side was excruciating. It hurt to think about moving his arm and leg on that side, much less actually do it. But as he looked out from under his desk, Parsons could see Ezra caught in the open and Munro slumped against the ground and the floor. While it would be so easy to just stay under the lab desk, Parsons knew that these men needed him. And thus, he began to move...

At Ezra's command, the computer did as it was told: it erected a containment field around the drone, causing the machine to bounce back and forth within the confines of the field. But what Gonzalez and the others couldn't know was that the drone had the ability to adapt its own shield harmonics. It only took a few bounces for the drone to acclimate, its own shield matched with the frequency of the containment field. This allowed the drone to sail free and clear, its sights this time set on Ezra as its glowing maw powered up for another blast.

"N-not today," came a nasally voice several feet from where Parsons had previously been. He'd used the moments afforded by the containment field to move to an emergency supply cabinet. Inside was a medical kit and a phaser, among other items like thermal blankets, ration packs, and emergency oxygen breathers. Dialing the weapon upwards north of the Stun setting, Parsons picked an intensity he was sure would debilitate the drone. And with an unsteady hand, he fired.

The beam missed at first; thrown off by the shaking hand of someone who was badly injured. But Parsons adjusted in real-time, bringing the energy blast back on target. The fiery lance from the phaser first collapsed the drone's shield, then slammed the machine into the wall and sent it clattering to the floor, now a smoking husk. Spying Andrew -- who looked even worse than before -- Parsons stood as best he could and spoke to Ezra.

"Sickbay is...just across the hall," Parsons winced, feeling pain beyond anything he could remember at the moment. "We need to get Munro there. Me too, I guess," he lamented, looking down at the singed skin showing through the vaporized swath running down the left side of his uniform. "C-can you carry him?" the young engineer asked the archaeologist, gesturing to Munro. "I can try to cover us in the hall. We just n-need to jump across and we'll make it." He moved then to the medkit he'd found alongside the phaser he'd snagged earlier. "I'm going to give him a stimulant," he toed towards Andrew. "Maybe it'll get him up enough to help with the short walk."

Ezra nodded and hauled Andrew upright into a sitting position, grimacing from the effort. "My arm hurts," he said. "I think I landed on it when I tried to hide. But I got him."

The metallic clattering noise had startled Andrew, snapping him back to consciousness. He realised that he could move his limbs again, although they felt very heavy and he could only manage the smallest movements. His vision had only partially cleared, but he could make out the shapes of two people standing over him. They said something and they sounded familiar, but the words were gone before he could figure out what they were. The pain in his chest stung sharply when they tried to move him, but all that came out was a vaguely incoherent moan. Just as Andrew was about to slip back into unconsciousness, the familiar hiss of a hypospray came from his right hand side. A second attempt to raise him didn't cause any more pain and he was able to bear some of his weight by himself.

"You're OK," Parsons cooed softly, returning the hypospray to the emergency medkit. "You bears are made of stern stuff, it seems," he nodded, looking down at his phaser to confirm its settings. "We're heading to Sickbay -- it's literally like 10 steps from here. Mr. Gonzalez here is going to help you walk. I'll cover us, alright?"

Once nods of assent came from both of the other men, Parsons moved to stick his head out through the lab's double doors. As they hissed open and the engineer leaned out, a flash of crimson almost took his head off. "Ahhh!" Parsons shrieked, pulling back and letting the doors close. "Drone. Drone in the hallway," he said, shaking. Carrying Munro, Ezra would be no help and Andrew certainly couldn't do anything as injured as he was. Which meant the drone was entirely Parsons' cross to bear.

With a gulp, Parsons positively leapt out of the lab, hitting the firing stud of his phaser and swinging the weapon wildly about. At first, the beam went wide, the drone's own shot barely missing the rolling engineer. But as Parsons came up into a stable position, he brought the phaser fully to bear on the metallic threat, ending it.

"Come on," he hissed back through the open door of the lab. "The way is clear for now." Looking both ways, Parsons stood like a sentry as he attempted to cover both ends of the hall at once.

Ezra supported Andrew as best he could and slowly moved toward the door, throwing his eyes around in every direction in case of another drone.

Step by shaky step, Andrew made his way towards the door. Most of his weight was being supported by one of the men who helped him up. Ezra. That was his name. It felt good to remember and he could see well enough now to recognise the lab. Sweat beaded on his forehead but he felt strangely cold at the same time. He realised that he was really thirsty too, but couldn't remember the last time he had drank anything. It seemed like the least of his problems at the moment.

Just as they reached the door, he heard phaser fire and more clattering from the corridor. Panic gripped him as it became clear there were more of these things. He stumbled, but Ezra compensated for it and steadied him, gently but firmly directing him out of the door. The other man was there, anxious that they should hurry. Andrew recognised him but couldn't name him yet. He could see the door to Sickbay a few meters down the corridor but it felt like it was never getting any closer but, eventually, they made it. Just after the doors slid open, more supporting hands appeared and he didn't have to support his own bulk anymore. He closed his eyes for a moment, exhausted at the effort, and then realised he was laying down. This time it was somewhere padded and comfortable.


=/\= A joint post between... =/\=

Ensign Sheldon Parsons
Engineering Officer

and

Doctor Andrew Munro
Civilian Biologist

and

Ensign Ezra Gonzales
Science Officer (Archaeology and Anthropology)