Woah a Gift Shop
Posted on Tue Apr 30th, 2024 @ 2:58pm by Ensign Millicent Ambrose & Corporal Tyrigus Fry
Edited on on Tue Apr 30th, 2024 @ 8:05pm
0 words; about a 1 minute read
Mission:
Episode 15 - The Evil That Lies Beneath
Location: The Snake Pit - Deck 9 - USS Pioneer
Timeline: MD003 1300 hrs
Tricorder in hand, Milllie of engineering was checking on the relay systems trying to track down a bogey that seemed to pop up then disappear. She finally tracked it down to Level 9 to a panel not too far from the turbo lift. She pulled out her coil spanner, and worked on the offending relay to recalibrate it. She smiled, it looked like it was a success. Taking another reading, she grunted with satisfaction, closing the panel back up, the sound of the metal panel closing with a snap.
"Hah I conquered you, little bogey." Millie said with triumph. Looking about she realized she'd not been in this section of the ship before and decided to do a little bit of a look see. Going down the corridor, Milly came across something she'd not seen before. "What the heck? A gift shop?" having enough curiosity to go investigate.
Tyrigus had seen her coming.
That was his job after all. To the rank and file of Pioneer's Fleet crew, the gift shop seemed odd. But he'd come to see it was more interesting than standing a traditional fire watch in Marine country. As she neared, he slipped off of the stool he'd been using and said, in a purposely comedic tone. "Halt. Who goes there, friend or foe?"
Millie blinked for a moment, "Uh er hi there. I hope um... I am not an enemy hopefully, uh, I am unsure as per friend, until I get to know you?" nervously chewing on her lower lip. Her cheeks going a little pink, "Er hi, I'm Milly."
Fry leaned his hip against the small counter that held various confections and said, "Well hello there Um Friend Millie. What brings you down to Marine Country? Looking for a bit or bauble from our gift shop?"
"Well, show me what there is, if you don't mind and what's your name?" surprisingly Millie was looking Fry directly in the eyes. "Well before you show me what there is. What's your name?" Millie giving a bit of a shy smile.
"Ahh, where are the my manners, ma'am," Tyr said, keeping his face straight. "Corporal Tyrigus Fry, Federation Marine Corp. And what you have before you is the Cure's Gift Shop, your first stop upon entering Marine Country. We have selected confections and goodies from all across the known Galaxy. There's bobble heads of all of Pioneer's department heads and Senior staff in case you've ever wanted your very own Commodore Malbrooke agreeing with you while working on problems. All sorts of bits and bobs you didn't know you couldn't live without until casting your eye upon them here."
"I've not met Commodore Malbrooke yet. Nor even have seen an image of him. I hate to admit this but I've not even looked at the manifest of the ship. Kinda stupid on my part I guess. However I would love to take a tour of your fun sounding little store. And maybe get some advice from you where the different bobble heads are concerned? Do you have any favorites?" Millieasked with her eyes going rather round. This was certainly an experience she'd not anticipated on.
Gesturing to the kiosk, Tyr said, "It's pretty much what you see in all it's glory right here, ma'am." Turning to a shelf, he pulled a bobble-head of the Pioneer's Captain and set it on a display, tapping the head it wobbled back and forth and a tiny recording of Malbrook's voice stated, "There's coffee in that that Nebula."
Smiling, he said" but if you want to look around Marine Country, I can show you through the no-loan zones and let you get a look at our setup."
"Are you serious? I would love that!" Millie almost giving out a squeal. She totally forgot about her hesitation when it came to meeting new people. The idea of being able to go into the realm of the marines, totally took Millie's attention, enchanted by that chance. "Lead on, Tyr lead on." clasping her hands together.
Tyr flagged himself out of the kiosk and gestured Millie to follow him. "This is the snake pit," he said, gesturing toward the room's center. "General hang out area and location of the Cure's Carbon Dioxide College." He nodded to a few marines who were sitting about and then headed down a corridor. He stopped after a few meters before a heavy blast-proof door.
"Down the rest of the way is the Cure's armory, Tank-farm, locker rooms. Turning he continued, "Across the way here are the Top's office, admin section and the CO's office currently occupied by Captain Merrick."
Glancing at her, he said, "Millie was it? How did you find your way down to the Marine Country?"
Millie tilted her head to oneside with a questioning look, then shrugged straightening her head. "Oh... uh...Honestly I was chasing down a bogie where the relay systems were concerned. I'm with Engineering. There had been strange things happening on Deck Five and just something wasn't adding up, I thought I fixed one part then another irregularity popped up. I had to find it, so.. here I am right now. It led me on quite the chase. I was really focused on finding the problem. Its all fixed for now. "
Millie blinked, "so far, more people I've not met. Uh did I mess up somehow by chasing down that glitch?" getting a worried furrow.
Tyr chuckled and put his palm up to the scanner and positioned his eye for the retinal capture. "I don't see how working would be messing things up. It's more likely that you'd be in trouble if you didn't track it down and the ship blew up. Or the Commodore's coffee came out cold, yanno?"
When the blast doors didn't cycle, Tyr frowned. "That's odd. Was your...bogie linked to servo-door / lock mechanism sub-routines?"
"That was one of the bogies I had been chasing. For some reason a few of them seemed to be popping up and sorta got me peeved." Millie responded.
Tyr studied the door, nodding to Millie and said, "Well, seems like it somehow leaked into the Cure's system." He tried the code again then punched in an over-ride code he wasn't supposed to have. The door seam cracked then and he glanced at Millie. "That's likely going to get me in trouble with the boss. Factory resetting the door cycle is going to take a couple of days to re-reset."
"Okay so... you'll get into trouble if you didn't reset wouldn't you? If it isn't working right then it needs to be reset. It also means needing some extra people guarding this area, right?" Millie asked, not realizing that he wasn't supposed to have the code. As far as she knew he would know the code. He was part of the Marines so therefore, he would know the over-ride code.
Tyr worked in silence for a moment, concentrating then said, "Oh we need to get in there. It's already a no- loan zone so yeah, we'll have to have someone geared up until it's all done. It's just a pain is all. But we have a SOP for it." He worked a few minutes longer before the door cycled part of the way and he peered through the opening. WIthin the chamber itself lights were flickering, giving him glances of the various Suit's, worktables and other gear that filled the Morgue. He caught a wiff of fried electronics and frowned. "Well, that's kinda creepy."
Millie's eyes went wide smelling the acrid smoke of scorched electronics, "That's not good, hurry lets get inside." Her voice filled with urgency. "That may well be evidence of an electrical fire already happened or just the beginning of something even worse."She reached out to push against the door to open wider for them to enter in. "Come on, we need to check that out!"
Tyr reached out and barred Milile from entry, saying, "Stow your roll sister. No idea what we're rushing into." He tapped his com and said, "This is Fry to all Cure Damage Control personnel. Converge on the Morgue. Right now."
Drawing a phaser, he took a step forward and moved through the opening and to the right, pulling Millie by the hand to follow him before letting go of her. "Follow me and look for something eating the ship."
A worried furrow formed above the bridge of her nose, Millie quite happy to stay behind Fry. She didn't have a phaser and this was something she wasn't trained in. "Look for something eating the ship." She could feel her skin prickle up with goosebumps, feeling a chill go up and down her spine. Her nostrils were picking up the stronger scent of fried circuits and something else and it was smelling pungent.
Tyr moved through the compartment. The Morgue wasn't all that big, but it was full of things that cast strange shadows in the flickering light. The light controls on the workstations wouldn't respond as he tried them. And he had to wait to try and move between flashes. That wasn't working well but so far nothing had tried to take a chunk out of him or Millie. He edged deeper and moved toward an area where the lights were all on. And not flickering.
Where the Major's suit was typically coffined. When he'd been in yesterday, the Major's suit had been racked. Now it was together and on one of the racks that held it about fifteen centimeters off the ground. The arms were braced out as if those systems were being worked on, putting it in a arms wide open position.
Then he saw the face in the helmet and he swallowed hard and tapped his comm again. Medical to the Bay 1503." Taking a step forward he forgot about clearing the rest of the compartment.
Millie had stuck close to Fry, jumping slightly at the flickering of lights and the shadows that seemed to change shape everytime they flashed. She moved to see what had taken Fry's attention, what she saw was something that any person shouldn't be seeing. A person inside armor, the scent of burnt flesh, Millie could feel bile rise up and she had to turn her head trying hard not to throw up. She moved away enough not to upchuck on Fry. She pulled out a cloth to wipe her mouth on. "Fry, that guy looks sort of familiar?" her voice muffled behind the cloth. "Is that... the XO?"
Fry tried to bring up diagnostics and peered at the readout streaming once he was able to pull the system. "Looks that way," he told Millie. "Suit telemetry reports a malfunction approximately thirty two minutes ago. Suit controls locked and he lost O2. Filtering system was down too..." Sighing he straightened and said, "Hell of a way to go."
Milie's eyes traveled back towards where the XO was encased in his suit, not knowing what to do. "He was- slowly- suffocating in that suit. All alone" her breath was starting to come in rapid, shallow, her mind going into the imaginative state of what he may have been experiencing. Her heart pounding and she was starting to feel dizzy, unconsciously holding her breath. She sucked in a breath realizing what she was doing, Millie having gone a little bit pale.
Tyr hit a control and a seat popped out of the work bench and he gestured, "Grab a pew ma'am. You look a little gooey. We'll have to wait until a senior officer gets here and it's going to be a whole thing. Sorry this had to happen on your first visit with us.
Grateful for the offer of a seat, Millie took in deep breaths. After a moment she said, "I will say that this has been a rather eventful first meeting." mustering up a wan smile, it slipping away. "Maybe a drink later on will be good."
Fry began checking a diagnostics when the light flickered. Then flickered again. And a third time and he found himself standing outside the blast door to the Morgue, saying to Millie. "This is the Morgue. Not the literal kind but where we keep and work on the Cure's MARVEL-EAS suits."
One moment Millie was seated upon something for her to catch her breath, the next she found herself outside the Morgue, feeling rather dizzy and feeling icy fingers tracing their way down her spine causing her to shiver. She drew near the marine she was with, clutching at his sleeve.
"F-Fry, will that door open properly? For some reason I feel that we've done this before."
Shaking his head to rid himself of a momentary twinge between his eyes, Fry fed his biometrics into the door and it cycled. "Yeah, seems fine. You ok?"
Millie shook her head, wincing as she felt a massive headache coming on, and feeling ill to her stomach. "I-I think I had better head off to my quarters, m-maybe we can get a drink sometime." Millie's voice quavering a little. She released her hold on Fry's sleeve. "I'll see you later."
A Joint Post By
Ensign Millicent Ambrose
Engineer, USS Pioneer
Corporal Tyrigus Fry
Rifleman, Team 1, The Cure
USS Pioneer
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