===== Deck three, USS Chimera ===== The jeffries tube exit hatch was forced open by a mighty kick and bursking out of its original location it ended in the middle of corridor. "Auuuuch" sounded from inside the jeffries tube the voice of Ens. Dexter. He crawled out of the jeffries tube as teh first one, following with Harker and Guzman. The Commander was still openly sceptic towards the Helmsmann or as Guzman claimed a Black Ops. To be honest Dexter was both thrilled and dismayed of working with an Intel Black Ops. Black Ops were listed among the most mysterious things that were discussed in pubs among starfleet officers. Never officially confirmed by Starfleet Command to exist, but widely believed to be behind teh most secretive operation of SF and SSF. It was believed that an Black Ops was a master jack-of-all-trade, silent, traceless and above all deadly. Dexter looked sideways at Harker and thought that this man doesnt look like a Black Ops. But well, passing SSF trainig as well, Dexter knew that appearance can be VERy deceiving. Shane looked around the corridor and knew that the three of them were now at deck three section three ... senior officers quarters ... quite near his own quarters. The jeffries tube Shane wanted to use to get down to main engineering was blocked by two large bulkheads below this deck and there was no way to slip by this bulkheads and continue their way via the tube. Therefor Shane decided to try to find a better way. Looking along the corridor Shane saw that deck three suffered severe damage as well. Passing slowly long the corridor he saw that most of the quarter's doors were blown up or burned, the inside looked no better. Scattered, broken and burned ... Till now they have met noone on their way from the bridge and that was not a good sign. Of course, decks two and three were not exactly known for beeing a promenade and with most of the senior officers in duty or on the away teams even less ... but meeting noone was even below Shane's expaectations. Shane knew the ship's layount quite well, but his knowledge of jeffreis tubes and stuff was not even average. Therefore he turned to Dexter and Harker and asked: "Any ide how to get below this deck?" "Intersection 6" said Harker calmly, "there's a conection to the below section of deck four, next to the transporter room one, we should try it there" he ended. Shane glanced at Harker and though that learning and remebering all details about items in his mission must be essential for black ops ... but noded. "Let's go then" he said and went on, the rest following. It was strange and wven odd in the present situation, but Shane felt more at ease then before. His mind was less filled with anger and hate. Suddenly he remebered the conversation OPS and Medical had over the ship's comm on the bridge. Rangi spoke something about filling the life suppport systems with some stimulant ... Reaching the intersection 6, Harker kneeled down and tried to access the little panel that was supposed to open the tube's door. As expected with no sucess. Wasting no time Harker accessed the manual override ... but with no sucess again. Harker frowned but hept working inside the pannel. Shane knew from experience (even when not doing that magic by himself) that a skilled engineer could open a tube hatch almost under any conditions. "No luck there Commander" Herker said after a while and stood up, "it's completly fried, inclusive mechanical units." Shane shook his head: "Nonsense" he said annoyed. Turning to Dexter he pointed at teh hatch and said: "Have please a look at the pannel Ensign". Dexter gave Guzman a bit puzzled look. {Why should I have more luck then Harker?} he asked himseld. After a small moment he realised the true meaning of Shane's request. {He isnt trusting Harker over the way!}. Kneeling down Dexter focused on the pannel. {If i'll find a way in ...}. Shane looked impatiently at Dexter and grew almost angry when the young ensign stood up and reported: "The Captain is right sir, its not working at all." Not showing at sign of what was his thinking about Shane's distrust Harker suggested in a matter-of-fact tone: "We could need a pahser set to almost max seting and min wide and we could cut out way free. I suppose there IS a phaser in your quarters Commander ..." {How does he know?} Shane asked himself before realising that it was just a good guess. It was of course not allowed for every crew member having a storage of arms in their quarters, but senior officers were (with CO's agreement) allowed to keep a personal type II phaser in their quarters ... just for any case. There was definitely somethign wrong with the Harker guy as Shane thought but at this time he needed him and even more he needed to get down to engineering, therefore he just noded and said: "All right, lets go and seek a phaser. I try my quarters, you two can try other rooms." Two noded was what he's got as reponse. Shane walked slowly and carefully along the corridor into his own quarters. On the way he passed some debrises and a fallen bulkhead or two, but for now it seemed that the ship was now quiet and stable and Shane hoped he was right. Arriving at his quarters Shane's face formed a scowl. There was not much left in the two rooms that were once his quarters. Shards and splinters on the ground within an incredible mess was the view he's got upon entering. His famous Ricewind picture was torn to pieces and was scraped in a distant corner of his sititng room. Not wanting to see more he quikly went over to his bedroom and kneeled down next to his bed on the right side. The bed was luckily still in its original place and by some chance almost unharmed. Reaching with his hand under the bed, he touched the little sheath he fastened there two years ago and with a sigh of relief he pulled out his personal phaser. It was a standart type II hand phaser but the previous CEOs on the Chimera t! uned the little thing up on two or three occasions. It had now an increaced firepower but still using the standart power cells, it was more handy shaped at the hilt and a little fingerprint sensor on the trigger assured that noone besides Shane Guzman could fire the weapon. Rushing out of his quarters Shane walked again back to the intersection six where he was met by Harker and Dexter. Harker had a pahser in his hand and Shane as well. Shane was not aiming at Harker but he was ready to shoot the man down within a second. Guessing Shane's thoughts or not, Harker handed the phaser to Shane :"I've found it in Major Walsh's quarters". Shane shook his head and said after a little moent: "Keep it Captain and open that dammed hatch". "Commander" said Dexter quietly but with visible cheering. In Dexter's hand was an open tricoder and the ATAC looked at it quite intense. "I believe that there is someone establishing a communication network across the ship. Appearantly they are using the tricoders as transmission nodes" He looked at at Shane and continued: "If there are enough tricoders activated and placed around the ship we could have communication with anyone" Shane frowned a bit. It was of course great news but seeing the damage on the upper three decks he was already too skeptical to believe in good news that easy: "Are you sure Ensign?" he asked. Dexter noded: "Yes Commander, the communication is not audio but via the old earth morse code. It cant be an naturally occuring phenomen and I even listened to several messages send through the network. From what I've received its clear that at least astrometrics, medical and engineering are at least partly all right. Most communicative is medical, they've sent up their HQ in holodeck one and send their teams to astrometrics, engineering and bridge". "Good!" said Shane glad that Athena and the others injured on the bridge will receive medical treatment at last. "Any more details?" he asked. "No sir" Dexter replied, "the messages are mostly very short and give no details." Shane noded: "All right, send a message stating our position and where are we heading" "Aye sir" Dexter replied and started to tap the Tricoder. ===== End of log ===== Cmdr. Shane Guzman XO USS Chimera