The Scooby Gang, Part 2

Posted on Sun Nov 2nd, 2025 @ 1:09am by Ensign Garabed "Garo" Hakobyan & Petty Officer 2nd Class Zal Rixi & Lieutenant Xalanth & Ensign Kash th'Kaasniik

1,426 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Side Plots
Location: Cargo Bay 3, Deck 4
Timeline: MD004 (Before Arrival at Barisa Prime)

"Lieutenant Xalanth, I don't have the clearance to get into the manifest for that cargo container. Maybe you could help?" Kash asked sheepishly as he stood up from the terminal.

The lizard nodded as he walked over, still tapping his middle claw on the ground. "Here, let me take a look. Does this room have any ghost spaces? I want to see if anything has been hidden." He said as he began typing on the control panel.

Rixi's brows knit together at the word ghost. It wasn't a term you heard often outside of Engineering--at least, not in the same way. It certainly wasn't related to the Bajoran borhya. To her, 'ghost space' meant the little pockets between decks and conduits that were never mapped properly.

"Yeah," she said, scanning the walls. "Couple of them, actually. Between the environment controls and the outer hull--if someone knew their way around a schematic, they could crawl in, stash something, maybe even sleep there if they didn't mind the noise."

Her tricorder pinged--a little chirp that interrupted the silence. She turned toward the sound. "Got a void reading, about half a meter behind that wall panel."

Garo was sorting through some foreign-looking equipment that was inside the cargo crate with the broken lock. "Smells like burnt metal," he muttered, holding up a strange-looking helmet. "I don't know what kind of costume this is, but..." He continued rummaging around until his hand found something and he removed it--it was an old Earth ammo magazine. He looked at it for a long moment before dropping it back into the crate and securing the lid. "I will ask maintenance to put better lock on this."

"Old trick dating back to Kirk's days." Xalanth said as he walked over to the panel. "I guess that whoever are mysterious crewman was hid something here. They may have tried to take it with them."

Rixi crouched by the wall, the tricorder's flickering brightly. It ticked and chirped as she examined the readings. The air around her was close, smelling faintly of coolant and something mysterious.

"Half a meter back," she murmured, placing the palm of her hand over the wall seam. The plating was too smooth, too even for what the schematics said should be a small maintenance hatch. Someone had sealed it up with care.

She worked the micro-spanner in little twists. The sound of Garo and Xalanth murmuring over the crate carried through the cargo bay behind her, the Dragonian's voice a low thunder compared to Garo's thick accent and unsteady rhythm. Kash continued to tickle the console just beyond them.

Xalanth muttered as he recognised the Austrian WW3-issued camo. "How did no one notice, and what did he take?" He said out loud as he looked through the ship's man out of time's crate.

Garo swore in Armenian, a camouflage vest with three old grenade clipped to the lapel. "It is amazing we survived when weapons like these were used." He turned to the Dragonian security chief. "I hope these grenades were deactivated during transport..."

"My people used weapons such as these until a bunch of genocidal death robots dropped onto our planet." Xalanth replied as he bent down and picked up one of the grenades. "Besides, we didn't need to deactivate them. They're smoke grenades. Not that the chemicals their made from survived the cryo process."

Garo let out a long, think breath through his nose. "Ah, good--smoke grenades. For a second, I was already planning my funeral. Closed casket. Small crowd. Maybe someone sings. Badly."

Several meters away, in the far corner of the cargo bay, Rixi had completely removed the hatch's casing, revealing series of tiny snaking conduits in a void. There wasn't enough space to enter the hatch fully, but the young Bajoran was able to slide an arm up and behind, feeling around for something her tricorder was insisting was there. Her fingers grazed something smooth for a moment. She leaned further into the hatch, giving her slightly more leverage in touching the object. Feeling it again, she grasped it between her middle and ring fingers--whatever it was, it felt thin--and carefully pulled it out into the beam of her flashlight.

"What is this?" she whispered to herself incredulously.

In her hand was a paper-thin square that could have resembled a data PADD. It seemed to have no power and no way to activate it. Her tricorder told her the gadget was made of an unknown alloy. "Uh, Lieutenant..."

Xalanth was over at her side in seconds. "Carefully put it down and take several steps back. My bits can grow back," he said as he pulled a pair of rubber gloves from his pocket and pulled them on.

Rixi knelt down, her breath coming faster, the strange wafer glimmering faintly in her palm. For something that might've been older than all of them, it felt light--almost too light. She set it on the deck like it was a sleeping bird, then rose to her feet and took a measured step back.

Beside her, Xalanth loomed, his gloves creaking as he flexed his claws. "Xalanth," Rixi said, brow furrowed and resting a hand on his large shoulder. "You might grow your bits back, but if that thing decides to go off, there won't be enough of you left to grow from."

"So back away carefully," the security chief replied, putting himself between Rixi and the strange device.

She discovered her feet immediately responding to the Dragonian's command before her own brain had time to process the words. Her focus was still on that thin object now laying on the deck.

Behind them, Garo's footsteps came softly. His eyes were now wide at seeing both of his colleagues' reactions to the thin object on the deck. He tapped his combadge. "Cargo Bay Three to security--please have an ordnance disposal team on standby. Possible explosive or unknown device located. Repeat, stand by." His voice was calm but his wide eyes betrayed him.

Not taking his eyes from the object, he tapped his combadge again. "Hakobyan to Transport Room, there is an object in Cargo Bay Three roughly three meters facing port-quarter from Lieutenant Xalanth and Petty Officer Zal. Please remain on standby for a transporter lock, if we need it."

"Lieutenant," Garo whispered, "you're not going to touch that, are you?"

"No, not until the OD team clears it." The lizard replied still keeping himself in between the device and the engineers.

"How did you find that?" Kash asked a note of admiration in his voice as he went over to the hatch where Rixi had found the small object. He shined a flashlight into the darkness and tried to see if he could see anything else out of the ordinary."

Rixi had already taken five careful steps backward before realizing she'd started breathing through her mouth. Her wrist lamp played across the deck plating, the beam trembling somewhat. She stopped near the hatch where Garo and Kash were standing--hopefully far enough away from any potential blast. But probably not.

"Looks like a whole lot of trouble for something so small," she murmured.

Garo nodded. "Small things can be dangerous," he said, half to himself. "You've been around faulty plasma relays before, Rixi."

"Do you see anything else in there, Kash?"

"I don't see anything," Kash shook his head. "I think we should seal off this entire cargo bay and manually download all diagnostic information running through this area. Look for anything that might have been compromised while it was here."

"As soon as the explosives team gets here," Xalanth said as two security officers in the bulky explosive suits beamed in.

"Leave it to us sir," The first one said as they approached the device.

"Computer, seal the cargo bay. Security code alpha three three four two." The red lizard said, tapping his combadge.

---

Lieutenant Xalanth
Chief Security Officer
USS Astrea


Ensign Garabed "Garo" Hakobyan
Transporter Specialist
USS Astrea


Ensign Kash th'Kaasniik
Operations Officer
USS Astrea


Petty Officer 2nd Class Zal Rixi
Engineering Technician
USS Astrea

 

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