What's That?

Posted on 07 Mar 2019 @ 5:18pm by Commander Terry Walsh & Commander Jayla Kij & Lieutenant Commander Gemma Alexander & Ensign Aurilia Moretti

2,092 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: The Kalisa Conundrum
Location: Flight Deck
Timeline: MD 1 || 1500 hours

Terry's voice came over the comm system. Commander Walsh to Lieutenant Alexander and Ensign Moretti. I'll be on the Bridge for the time being so I need you two on the Flight Deck. It needs to be staffed and secured. And find whoever you can to help, if you need it.

=^=Affirmative, Rocco=^= Aurilia responded, glad she was away from the crazy Security officer that had come into Talon's and forced everyone to search for Borg. "You ready for boring duty, Archer?" she asked Gemma.

Gemma stood up, =^=On it Boss. =^= She replied then replied to Tango, "After Mr. Borg hunt, a little quiet would be a change of pace." She joked."I do carry a deck of playing cards for just such an emergency." She patted a pocket.

"Oh yeah. That guy was nuts, but we're all going crazy the longer we're out here. I'll pass on the cards until we check things out here," the redhead responded.

Gemma nodded, "Always my plan." She said as they headed to the flight deck, in relation to the cards, one had to have priorities. "Figure we'll check things first for anything immediate, see whose not too crazy to help out." She shrugged, briefly rubbing out a crick in her neck with one hand.

"Security, Science and Medical are rounding up everyone to innoculate," Aurilia said. "I got my shots in Talon's after a crazy Security person came in with a phaser and thought we were Borg." She grabbed a PADD and a tricorder and headed towards the row of fighters.

"I'm good too, I hope others can be released quickly, I'd be concerned if we were the sanest ones for too long." She quipped, "I'll check primary launch bay systems then..." She replied seeing Tango head for the fighter, Gemma peeled off to run a check on the fighter bays systems at a nearby console in sight of the row of fighters.

Petty Officer First Class Reyes was sitting on a container and tossing a spanner in the air, watching it spin. He couldn't for the life of him remember what exactly what it was. He sighed, wishing that the medicine he'd been shot up with would work quicker. But then the cute little nurse with the eyebrows said that it wasn't a full dose since she was running low. Oh well. He caught the spanner one last time before laying down. He stood up and walked to the other side of the fighter he'd been working on. And there she was, the squadron's redhead, walking towards the row.

"Petty Officer," Aurilia told the man sitting and tossing a spanner. "If you could take a break from entertaining yourself, I could use some help getting a visual inspection of all the fighters."

"Heh, no problem, Ensign. Just so long as it stays visual. I got a lower dose of the medicine that's going around and am still a little fuzzy. But I'd be glad to help out. Petty Officer First Class Reyes at your service. But the rest of the knuckle draggers just call me Ray," he replied. "You're welcome to as well, if you want. Anyhow, where did you have in mind to start?"

"At the front and work our way back," the redhead said. "I want full exterior scans and if it isn't something that was present when the fighters were made or officially logged, I want to be notified and it fully documented and brought to my attention immediately."

"Can do," said Reyes. He picked a tricorder and shoved a PADD into a pocket. When he looked up at the row they were going to start on, it hit him. "I think these are Alpha Flight's Gryphons. They're the ones that have been most recently active."

Armed with her tricorder and her eyes, Aurilia began with the first Gryphon in line and began a meter by meter inspection of it.

The Ensign hadn't responded but went straight to work. Reyes figured she'd either had a bad day or was booking for a promotion. Either way, he took his tricorder and moved over to the next fighter.

It was an exhaustive scan to go over every square meter of the fighters, but it was also a relief that she found nothing out of the ordinary. She logged the fighter on her PADD as checked out, then moved to the next one. "First one is clean," she said as she began to scan the fighter that Rocco had flown with his sortie with Archer.

"Almost done with," he paused and checked the readings, "well, Archer's fighter. Hang on a minute. Ensign, I'm detecting a foreign contaminant. And it's riiiiight there," he said, pointing to an area just under the left wing. "I'm not sure what I'm seeing here."

"Hang on," the redhead said. "I'm detecting a two millimeter expansion that covers about a meter and a half on Rocco's fighter wing."

"This can't be good," he said. "Not good at all." Reyes sent the information to the PADD that he'd shoved into his pocket. He also set it up to continually do so. "So Rocco's and Archer's fighters...do you think we can keep it from spreading? If it spreads?"

"We need to establish a quarantine around these fighters," Aurilia replied. "Immediately." She tapped her combadge. =^=Ensign Moretti to Commander Walsh. There's a problem with several fighters, Sir.=^=

Reyes nodded and went to work. "Computer, erect a level eight force field over Commander Walsh's and Lieutenant Alexander's fighters after we move away from them." Reyes then took several steps back from the fighter he was scanning and glanced at Aurilia.

Aurilia stepped away from the fighters.

Terry tapped his combadge. I'll be right over, Ensign. Or rather, we'll be right over. Walsh out.

=^=Acknowledged.=^=

Ensign Chambers was standing at a wall console looking over a diagram of the launch system. Flight Ops would probably have been the best place to figure out why it wasn't right. Or maybe it was and he was just overthinking things again. He ran his hand through his dark hair and shook his head. "Why? Why do you have to be so...particular."

"You alright?" Gemma asked coming closer, glancing at the console then back at him.

Chambers turned around, startled. "Oh, uh, hey there. Yeah, I suppose I'm fine. I have my memory and everything back, but I just can't figure out what's wrong with this diagram. Unless I'm overthinking it again. That tends to be the norm lately."

"Well that's a relief. Here, let me look, maybe two fly brains can equal one solid one..." She joked. Her tone light but her focus intent on the readout.

"Heh, heh. Yeah, maybe we can. So, what do you think?" he asked.

"Like someone tried to use this a piano and locked the screen..." It was the first thing she could think of
with the randomness of what she was seeing. Multiple screens were up but couldn't be interfaced with, data frozen on the screen.

Terry had arrived from the Bridge and quickly scanned the open Flight Deck for the two people he'd assigned earlier to secure things. One of them had taken to inspecting the fighter and the other was looking at something on a wall console. Both had enlisted some help. Terry walked up behind Gemma. "What do we have here, Lieutenant?"

Gemma turned around relieved to see her Boss up and running, "Hey, I think it's a locked screen, could be more I was just about to do the work around for a diagnostic check." There were three buttons that if pushed at the same time would bring up the diagnostic screen to interface with regardless of how frozen the rest of the console was. Ideally anyway.

"Go ahead, fix it," said the Commander. In the back of his head, Terry was wondering how a locked screen on a wall console fit into securing the Flight Deck. "And get it fixed fast. Then Mister..."

"Chambers, Sir. Ensign Chambers, Flight Ops," replied the young man.

"Mister Chambers," continued Terry, "can run the diagnostic from here. I want you, Lieutenant Alexander, to continue securing this Deck. Now where is Ensign Moretti?"

Gemma nodded and conducted the reset, gesturing to the left with her head, "That away, near our wing of fighters. She's started a craft check." She replied getting the diagnostics screen open for Ensign Chambers before moving aside. To Chambers, "Once you get this working I need a check of all flight systems to make sure they've not been foodled with during someone's crazy tantrum." Their lives depended on this technology operating as they needed it too.

"I'll get right on it," said Chambers. "No worries here." He turned his attention back to the console he was working on.

After Terry had ended his conversation with Ensign Moretti, he turned to Archer. "Then let's head that direction. Seems like there's an issue."

"Aye Boss." She said immediately, not liking any issue with her fighter.

Terry led the way to where their fighters were normally parked. He saw the force field before they even got over there and shook his head. This wasn't going to be good at all. "Ensign Moretti, what have we got here?"

Aurilia gave her report on what she found on his fighter, then double checked her tricorder readings. "Also, it appears to be...organic..in nature."

"Well that didn't sound good at all. But then to add organic to it? That's just not right," he said. "Organic space microbes that can survive in a frigid vacuum and eat Duranium and Tritanium...certainly not in my wheelhouse." The Squadron Commander tapped his combadge, "Commander Walsh to Commander Kij, I know you folks are busy, but I need someone from Medical on the Flight Deck immediately. We have a contaminant on two of our fighters that is registering as organic. And it appears to be eating the fighter's hulls."

"On my way," came the reply. And, true to her word, she turned up only a few minutes later. "What have we got, Commander?" she asked as she approached carrying a medkit.

"Some kind of biological substance on the hull of the fighters," Terry replied. "And it looks like it could be spreading. We've got a force field around them for the time being. I'm sure it could be lowered if you need to get closer, but I feel safer if we keep it up after you're done."

"I probably should get a sample," mused Jayla, pulling a pair of gloves out of her pack. "I really don't know what good these will do, but regulations and all. It's... it seems to be eating away at the fighter. Maybe. I suppose it could just be distorted by the goo... I want to get some readings and a sample. I'll be as quick as I can."

"Good stuff," said Terry. "I'll leave you in the capable hands of Lieutenant Alexander and Ensign Moretti. They can take care of the force field for you and anything else you might need." He turned to face the two women he'd just mentioned. "I want an update in fifteen minutes, even if it's a small one."

Jayla merely nodded as she retrieved a glass phial and a tiny glass paddle. She didn't want to use a swab to take a sample as she was afraid the substance would eat it and that would contaminate the sample. They needed a clean sample for testing.

The force field was lowered so that access to the fighters and the alien substance could be had.

Archer just watched like a concerned parent as they went back and forth about the bio gunk eating her craft then she considered the spread and was even more concerned. She stood quietly hands on hips as Walsh talked to the CMO not wanting to disrupt the intense conversation.

Terry watched the process and then turned to Archer. "You have the Deck as before, Lieutenant. Please continue securing both it and the fighters. And if you find anymore of this stuff, raise a force field around it and note it. I'm headed back to the Bridge." Terry turned to leave the Flight Deck without waiting for a response.

Gemma nodded somberly though he couldn't see, "Aye Boss." She called then with a mental sigh pulled out her tricorder to continue the check.

"Will do, Commander," Aurilia said before she grabbed her tricorder and PADD and headed to the next fighter in line.

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