A walk in the park

Posted on Fri May 27th, 2011 @ 9:03pm by Walter Jones & Jan Valentine

2,355 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: Session 4: The Humans are Dead...
Location: Warden
Timeline: Current

Jones was uneasy. They had searched the ship and didn't find anything, no trackers, no relays, nothing. But since they punched out of the planet, they had been at warp and hadn't checked the outside. Jones looked over at Bruce who was mindlessly looking through the specs for the shuttle.

"Shut down the warp, I'm going for a walk." Jones stood up and headed out towards the rear airlock. As he went out, he tapped his com. "Jan meet me in the rear airlock, we are going for a walk, bring your best suit."

"On my way." Jan said, grabbing a well worn EVA suit.

Jan quickly suited up, and instantly regretted choosing this suit, which smelled heavily of sweat.

Jan jogged down to the airlock, where Jones was waiting.

"Someone should really wash these things at some point." Jan said.

"Yeah, I miss having an Orion around." Jones was putting on the gloves as the slow lurch of the ship signaled they had dropped out of warp.

"Good to go boss." Bruce's voice echoed through the lock.

"Thanks Bruce. Be careful with the old girl." Jones looked at Jan and shook his head. "Alright, I grabbed a toolkit. I got to thinking. We searched high and low for a tracking device and found nothing, but we've been at Warp pretty much the entire time we left that planet. What if Park or one of his cronies stashed it on the outside somewhere."

"It's possible. There is quite a large area to cover though, how do you want to do this?" Jan said.

"Yeah, I know... I didn't want to grab Lottie or the others because if there is one it might be trapped. I say we start at the rear of the ship around the lower warp array and the impulse engines. If I was going to plant a device that is where I'd probably stick it." Jones picked up his helmet and turned the headlamps on and off. "And who knows what all kind of crap they built this hull out of. Something might be obscuring our scans."

"Yeah, these ships tended to be built out of recycled leftover metals, I think our best bet is near the impulse reactors, they're not particularly well insulated against radiation, and our decidedly limited scanners are more than likely blocked by the escaping radiation." Jan said, pulling on his helmet and taking out a somewhat old, stolen tricorder.

Jones put the helmet on, which smelled like rotten meat and almost threw up. He somehow managed to choke it back down. "Lets get this done." Jones hit one of the buttons on the airlock. A light flashed indicating that the process had started, and the doors opened up to the black of space. Walt picked up the tool kit and stepped out onto the hull. "Start at the top of the reactors and I'll start at the bottom. We'll move on to the array after that. Keep your eyes out for it along the way."

"Understood, let's hope it's not too well hidden." Jan said, flicking on his headlamps.

Jones could feel the metal underneath his grav boots as he clomped across the hull of the old ship. The zero G and black of space didn't bother him too much, he thought back to the time spent hooked the outside of a space station welding patches back on. This wasn't too much different.

Walt visually scanned all the nooks and crannies on the way to the bottom of the impulse reactors, looking for anything out of the ordinary. "Hey Jan, remind me that we need to get a fresh coat of paint slapped on this at some point."

"it's on my to-do list, I've noticed we need paint and some touch up welds up here." Jan said.

Jan looked around the impulse engine, trying not to think about the amount of radiation it was probably putting out.

"Eh, looks like there's nothing up here--wait, I'm picking something up with my ocular implant." Jan said, trying to focus in on what he saw.

Jan walked over to the far side of the reactor. A briefcase sized device was attached directly over one of the plasma relays leading into the reactor.

"Uh oh." Jan said.

"Uh oh... I don't like uh oh" Jones was poking around one of the outside conduits. "Uh oh we are all going to die uh oh or just you?"

"Umm, I think Park may have planted more than just a tracking beacon. I've got what looks like an antimatter bomb attached to the plasma relay feeding into the reactor. If it explodes, the reactor will instantly go critical and blow up, taking out sublight propulsion and several compartments." Jan said.

"That would be bad." Jones made his way up to where Jan had been searching. "Guess it is a good thing I put down a little extra for the upgrades on that eye huh?"

"Other than some headaches, the upgrade appears to be working well." Jan said, starting a low power scan of the device.

Jones finally made it up to where Jan was standing over the device and plopped the tool kit down next to him. "Is it tied directly in?"

"No, it's just attached to the hull plating above it, but this plate isn't very thick. It would blast right through it." Jan said.

"Those bastards, it's attached by these penetrating hooks along the edges, they're also wired as detonator circuits, if we slice through them, the bomb will go off." Jan said.

"That was a nice parting gift, though I'm surprised they just didn't activate it when we where leaving the planet. Think they need to be in close proximity to activate the explosive?" Jones bent down to inspect the device. "Clever actually." Walt grabbed a scanner of the box. "Well for all we know just scanning the damn thing will set it off. What are you thinking, subspace suppression field and yank it off the hull?"

"It could work, but there's no guaranteeing that the field will hold. Worse comes to worse, we can uncouple this section of plating and let it float away." Jan said, bending down on one knee to examine the device closer.

"That is a plan. I bet this damn thing is worth a shiny strip of latinum, it would be a shame to let it float away, however.. I do enjoy my ship and life and limb. Whatever you think is best." Jones looked and and smiled at Jan.

"Alright, let's get a better look at--" Jan started to say.

The device emitted a series of flashes, and a stuck deployment hook tore right through Jan's leg, pinning him to the hull.

"SON OF A BITCH!!!!" Jan shouted in pain.

"Damn it..." Jones watched as small droplets of blood flowed from the wound off into space. "That it, I'm cutting the son of a bitch off of my ship." Jones reached down into the tool box and grabbed a plasma torch and a small transceiver. "I'll try and make this quick."

"NO STOP! The hooks are detonator switches, if you cut them, they trigger the bomb." Jan shouted.

With sweat starting to pour down his face, Jones put away the plasma torch. "Alright alright... umm... well." Walt looked over the device. "What if I." He was sputtering around trying to come up with an answer. "Transporter. Lock on to the metallic components of the device and beam it off. Should leave most of your leg I think?"

"It'll most likely detonate while dematerializing, it won't work." Jan said, nervous.

"I've...I've had some experience at defusing explosives, I might be able to talk you through the procedure." Jan said, pulling out a tablet computer and hooking his tricorder to it.

"Just remember, I don't see nearly as good as I used to, but lets try it, if I screw it up, I doubt we'll know the difference anyways huh." Jones carefully moved over next to the device. "Alright, what do I need to do."

"Alright, first start by removing the top access panel. There are 4 screws holding it down." Jan said, looking at a diagram of the bomb the tricorder had produced.

Jones rustled around in the box and found the tool to remove the screws and then carefully began to remove them. As the cover came undone, he moved the liberated piece of metal up and let it hang motionless above them. Underneath was a cacophony of wires, blinking lights, access ports and some small digital screens. "Alright.. what next?"

"Ok, what does the top left digital screen display?" Jan asked.

"Ummm it is in Andorian, I think, a bunch of squiggles and bullshit hold on" Jones looked through his toolbox and took out a small film and laid it across the display, the screen changed the andorian into something more readable. "Alright auxiliary power 0%, main power at 100%, clamping servos engaged, primary conduits engaged, subspace transmitter active, power cycle 20. Any of that make sense?"

"Some of it...Alright, I think we need to find a way to disable the servos. Find one of them and see where the power lines feed to." Jan said.

"Alright, I'm looking at the one joined to your leg right now. It seems like it is just fed right off the main power supply." Jones traced the wires and miniature conduits flowing through the case. "I think I might be able to route the power to one of the other legs, it will think it is still connected but should power down the claw." Jones looked over at Jan the little bubbles of blood where growing more steadily. "What do you think?"

"It's risky, it might sense an interruption in the power and go off. I think there's also a data line that feeds into the sensors in the hook. We need to tap into it and use a tricorder to copy the data, then use the tricorder to feed the data in an endless loop to the bomb's sensors, then we can clip that line and re-route the power." Jan said.

"I've also been remotely arming the explosive bolts on this panel, if something goes wrong and the bomb is on a build up to detonation, I'll blow the bolts." Jan said, gravely.

"Yeah, lets not get to that point... that hull plate is expensive." Jones laughed a little bit. He turned his attention back to the lines and found what Jan was talking about. "Alright, alligator clips on the line or can you access it remotely?"

"No other way, attach some clips, I'll copy the data." Jan said.

Walt reached in the tool box and grabbed out two clips and carefully attached one to each of the power lines on the claw. His hands were shaking a little bit as he did it, the stale air in the helmet was starting to get to him. "Alright good to go."

"Acquiring data...Ok I've got it. Looks like we can do this, go ahead and clip the data line." Jan said.

Holding the pair of snips in his hand he slowly moved over to the data connection and snipped the cable. Sweat was pouring down his face. "ARe we dead?"

"Nope, the bomb's fooled for now. We need to work quickly though, the self sealing system in this suit really sucks, I've got about 10 minutes of air left." Jan said.

"Ok...um...You can strip back the insulation around the power feed to another hook, but do not sever them." Jan said.

"I'll try not too." Jones followed the instructions that Jan had just old him and carefully pulled back the insulation and attached another clip. "Alright I'm in, maybe I should have just cut your leg off and had doc reattach it." He looked over at Jan. "Ok that will be plan C if we need."

"Don't bother, I'll be dead of decompression before you can get me inside." Jan said.

"Well it is a thought at least. I think it is working what do you see on your end?"

"Looks like we're doing good, have you connected the jumper wire to the next wire over? Once you do that, we can cut the arm pinning me down off." Jan said.

Walt hooked up the last jumper. "Alright got it. I'm ready if you are." He grabbed the plasma torch and ignited it. "Lets hope this works out alright."

"Yeah." Jan said.

Jones sliced through the arm, severing it from the bomb. Jan moved away from the bomb, keeping an eye on the readouts.

"Ok, we're good, the bomb thinks it's still got all it's limbs. Readings are stea---wait, no, shit!" Jan said.

"Shit shit.. blow the fucking panel off." Jones moved away from the panel, his eyes wide with the fear that they where about to be blown to hell.

Jan moved as fast as he could with a metal rod shoved through his leg, shielding his helmet with his arms.

The panel disengaged and launched up vertically from the force of the explosive bolts, drifting 100-150 meters from the ship. The bomb detonated with a brilliant flash, vaporizing the panel and scorching the hull below.

Jan was knocked into the hull plating from the force of the blast, the metal rod shifted position in his leg, accompanied by agonizing pain.

Jones was huddled against the hull as bits flew down at him, unfortunately he turned a bit to early and a piece of metal slammed into the clear plate of his visor. Small spiderweb cracks emanated from the impact point. Quickly moving over to Jan, he looked at the metal rod. "Good work, lets get out of here, I'm going to transport us right into the medical bay."

"Sounds good, I was running out of air anyway." Jan said, through clenched teeth.

Jones grabbed onto Jan and hit a few key strokes on his arm and they where enveloped in sparkling light. A few seconds later they reappeared in the medical ward. Jones opened his helmet and breathed deeply.

"DOC! GET YOUR ASS IN HERE!"

 

RSS Feed