Searching the Catacombs, Part 1, A Thorough Search

Posted on Wed Mar 6th, 2024 @ 2:56am by Captain Daniel Jackson PhD & Lieutenant Commander Nash Winters & Major Clay McEntyre III & Chief Petty Officer Nevan Kayto & Civillian Sara Winters

1,512 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Artifact or Artifiction
Location: Serenity's Lower Decks
Timeline: MD 2, 1400 Hours

"I don't know what to call you. Ms. Winters? Sara?" Daniel asked as the two of them were getting acquainted. "Dr. McEntyre should be here soon. And I think that Captain Johansen was sending someone from Civil Ops as well. We will likely be looking for a new home for these people, and she thought it was a good idea if they had a head start on learning who was down here."

Sara smiled. "Sara is fine," she said. Mrs. Winters made her feel like an old lady, and Doctor seemed so formal. "And you?" She asked. She shifted her kit to her other shoulder. How did these people do this all day?! She preferred the quiet safety of her microscopes but here she was. It would be stimulating, anyway. "I am oddly excited for this. What do you suppose we'll find?" She asked.

"I prefer Daniel. Not one for formalities. Hopefully we'll find that more of the crystasis chambers are still working than we originally thought," Daniel answered. "If Spello's theory is correct it certainly warrants a thorough search. I'd be interested to hear Ghiram's thoughts when we start learning about who the people saved. If that is indeed what happened.

Sara smiled. "Excellent," she said. "It's nice to meet you officially," she said. "I am, as well," she said. "I've spoken to Dr. Lorut, as well. She seems to think that we'll find some interesting things down below," she said. "I am glad my metallurgy work was able to help some!" She shared. She looked around. "Are they usually this late?" She glanced at her chronometer.

Nevan entered a moment later with a standard engineering toolkit in hand and a medical tricorder clipped on his chest rig, Grexx had been adamant in getting readings and being able to look them over for themselves. He gave a nod to the pair before him "Petty Officer Kayto, Civil Operations. Apologies for taking a moment, one of my guys was quite specific in some data he wanted from these people. Has anyone looked at how we might be opening one of these chambers yet?"

"We're saving that for medical, at least at first. They're reviving the first person today. If all goes well then hopefully the process will move more quickly," Daniel explained. "There are several hundred chambers. Many of them aren't operational, but we've learned you can't tell by looking at a row or section. Each team is going one by one through them, cataloging who they are and where they are."

Sara smiled at the newcomer. "Nice to meet you, I am Dr. Sara Winters. I work in the Civilian Research Center," she said. "Sounds like a long day," she said, shifting her weight slightly. Good thing she'd forgone a skirt suit for pants today. "How long should we wait, do you think? They could just meet us down there?" Sara inquired to Daniel.

"We're just missing Dr. McEntyre, if we come across something we need him for we can reach him over comms. We can probably head out," Daniel agreed.

Sara nodded, and pulled out a PADD to read through the briefing again. She didn't want to miss anything.

The Betazoid returned a nod. "I'll make sure to have Grexx help them out when the time comes. That's a lot of chambers to go through and he's quite interested in learning about these folks. If you both don't mind I'd be happy to lead the way down there, I've got a few extra beam lights on this frame here I can place where we may need and I can look ahead for anything that may be out of place. Safety first after all."

"By all means," Dr. Jackson said holding his arm out in a gesture that gave Officer Kayto the go ahead to lead the way.

Sara followed behind the men, making sure she was stepping carefully. She had her kit ready, and also her tricorder, in case. After a short time, they were in the belly of the chambers. It smelled slightly mildewed and damp, but she didn't mind. "Wow," she said, her mouth agape. It was a virtual paradise of chemicals, bugs, and other detritus that she would spend HOURS investigating. "Where do we begin?"

"Let's stay close and each take a unit as we go one by one through the units for ones that are working. Security did the initial sweeps, but if there's 1 in a group of 25, we aren't going to find it if we don't take our time. We are working on a theory that even though most of these are broken and contain corpses that the computer may have diverted power to save selected individuals. Likely based on special skills, fertility, potential for future fertility," Daniel explained.

J.R beamed in behind the group, like he'd been there the whole time and followed along with his tricorder out and scanning the catacombs, walking with his tail swishing behind him with a curious purr.

Sara nodded. "That makes sense," she said. "Save the women and children first," she murmured. The civilian tricorders probably weren't as attuned as the one that these people had, but she still dug hers out of her pocket, and got ready. In a bit, Dr. Jackson had led them to where Security had indicated that a bank of cryostasis pods were. They stopped at the first one.

Daniel shined his flashlight into a a stasis chamber that had obviously broken or had been shut down some ago. Out of curiosity he read the bio. A sixty-six year old male who had been a merchant. He went on to the next one, also a non-functioning unit, his wife, a sixty-seven year old cook. "I'm curious to see what the upper age limit will be for people we find still alive, and what their occupations were," he announced loudly enough for the group to hear before moving down the line with Dr. McEntyre.

"Maybe we should work in pairs," Sara suggested. "Myself and...Mr. Nevan here," she hoped she'd gotten his name right. "And you and the Commander here," she said. Sara had learned to recognize the PiPS as Nash had moved up the ranks.

"Works for me." Nevan took a few of his lights and attached them to a nearby walls or pods to light up the paths. "It's also likely then that the system prioritized any of their medical personnel, hopefully we run across some of them and they can help us out with the rest of their people. Presuming we can communicate with them." He pulled out his own tricorder and began scanning to look for power and life signatures. He found an reading that looked to be fluctuating but it could have just been interference. It was only a couple of pods away. "Shall we look at this one just over here first Sara?"

Sara stood a bit back, letting the Fleet people do their work. She was there strictly as a scientist and consultant. She didn't wish to, nor intended to, interfere with their work.

"Sure," she replied. She moved forward to the chamber, carefully opening it with her hands. Strange, she would've expected some kind of resistance, or at least a code to enter or something. "Petty Officer Katyo, you should look at this," she said. The person inside was alive! Or at least, Sara's tricorder was saying such. "Do we have a plan to do with the bodies?"

It was a man that according to the scan, appeared to be in his mid 30's. "I think as long as we are able to verify they're stable we can tag them for transport so they can continue to be monitored on the ship and woken up when they want to safely." He wasn't sure about her attempt to open the pod already but kept his thoughts to himself. "The life signs look to be stable but the pod itself looks like it may have an imbalance in the power systems. I hope it's not what's helping to keep him asleep. Otherwise we risk him waking up here. I wonder if it's the system shutting his pod down or a failure." He searched for a panel to pull off.

Daniel shined his light over to where Nevan and Sara were working and began walking that way. "The separate power systems. Maybe computer down here doesn't have access to the power modifications that the crew has been making to restore power to the rest of the ship. We should get him to another level, or see if operations can reroute power down here right away."

Sara nodded. "Alright," she said. "That makes sense," she said. "When would I be able to get some samples and such?" She asked Nevan. "Should I call up to Engineering, have Nash beam them back over?" She was proud of herself for using the lingo. She really DID listen to him sometimes.

"Tricorder readings for now, I'm afraid. Hopefully, they'll work with us willingly once we've revived them," Daniel responded.

> > > To Part Two > > >

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