=== Research station == Keylor and his party; which now numbered 5, moved slowly though the station. Not only did they have to drag along civilians, but it seemed like they encountered alien intruders at every other turn. The routine became monotonous. Move a few hundred meters, encounter a roadblock, scurry away to a Jeffries tube and do it all over again elsewhere. They had moved several decks up form where they had first encountered their civilian tag-alongs. From what Keylor could tell, it was where most of the researchers must have had quarters. So far they had not reach much resistance by way of the aliens, but Keylor was not holding his breath. He was sure that their streak of luck would not last. As they turned another corner the six of the moved cautiously. Tom held on to Sue tightly as they moved around every corner and past every doorway. As the team stopped for a moment for Keylor to get his bearings Tom set Sue down on the floor to rest. He had tried to be strong for her, for both of them, and he did a good job. But deep in side he was feeling just as scared and as venerable as Sue. After getting sue in a good spot, tom stood up and stretched, that is when he noticed the door. {My quarters!} he shouted in his mind. Tom looked left and right. He noticed Keylor ahead consulting with one of the other marines. {Well I should have enough time to get my letter to my sister.} he thought. Tom tapped n the door keypad and looked down to Sue. "Be right back, I need to get something." He whispered to her. Sue nodded and watched tom step in to the room. Keylor's eyes widened as he heard the unmistaken able noise of a door opening behind him. He quickly turned around and saw Tom, the civilian enter the room. {Damn it! What is he trying to do, get killed.} he muttered in his mind. Keylor motioned to the marine next to him to keep a watch out for aliens and then quickly scooted back to the open door. As he rounded the open door, he saw tom rifling through a few items on a desk. Keylor shouted in a whisper, "What in the prophets name are you doing!" he said scowling at tom. Tom never glanced back. "I am looking for something, something important!" he said finally retrieving the prize he was after. Keylor frowned even harder as Tom approached him. "there could have been intruders in here. You could have attracted them right in the middle of our formation! We must clear a room first before going in to it." He growled under his voice trying to remain as quiet as possible. Tom looked at Keylor with a little distain. "Well Colonel!" tom emphasized. The probablilty that I make it out of her eis slim to none, and I am thinking none. And I just thought that, if I die, I would want my last letter to my sister to be found and sent to her immediately. Is that too much to ask?" he snapped at Keylor as he tapped the pad in to the palm of his free hand. Suddenly the padd started to reply its recording, loudly "Dear Chris, I know I have not written to you in a long time......" Tom jumped at the sound of the recording. He quickly fumbled with it an d shut t off. The vein in Keylor's left temple started to bulge. Not only was the civilian being reckless, but now he was inviting anything that could hear to their current location. "WHAT ARE YOU....." he started to say angrily until he realized, the padd worked. Keylor stopped his anger for a moment and pointed to the padd. "Why is that padd working? Ours quit working shortly after entering this damned haze. But this one, allegedly here for some time longer, works." Tom looked down at the pad and then back to Keylor. "Well, I don't know. Could have something to do with the shielding I added to it I suppose." Keylor responded, "Shielding? What shielding? Why?" Tom shrugged his shoulder. "Well I work around high energy fields a lot, warp cores, theoretical stuff we play with trying to eek out that last little bit of power. In those situations a normal pad would be corrupted by the electromagnetic field that is generated. And when I work I use both hands, sort of hard to take notes. So I came up with this configuration by modifying a pad so I could dictate to it while running experiments." He weighed the pad with one hand, " And it only weights about twice as much as a regular pad." Keylor looked down at the pad and then back at Tom, "so what else do you have on that pad? Any map of the station?" Tom scratched the back of his head, "Well no, just notes from the last couple of experiments I set up. Modifications to torpedoes, power settings, things I had not put down in the main computer core yet." Keylor nodded. "Well keep it turned off and no more going off on your own, if you need to go some where, ask first. Don't want you getting lost and having to find you again." He said a little annoyed. "Colonel!" Keylor heard form behind him. He turned around and looked at a marine pointing down the hall. Keylor motioned to tom to get in the hallway and then quickly moved back to the front of the formation. Once Keylor reached the corner, he saw the marine still standing watch there point two fingers to his eyes, then in the direction around the corner to the left. Keylor slowly peeked around the corner to take a look. There, standing a few meters away were two figures, but these were different, they were less like wraiths and more solid. Then Keylor sears picked up on something he had not heard before, sound. To Keylor it was nothing more than quiet squeaks and clicks, but even he could hear a pattern. {Are they talking to each other?} he thought. {What I would not give for a universal translator with their language loaded in it, this is if we knew their language.} He slowly moved back around the corner. Keylor stood there thinking, { It is bad enough to be up against a foe you are not familiar with, but to hear them speak and not be able to understand a word, is just a crime.} It was clear to Keylor that the group would have to double back and try another route. He raised a hand and was about to signal to the marine in the back to move out when he noticed tome placing the pad in a pocket. He stood motionless for a second and then pointed to Tom. Keylor motioned to Tom to come forward. Tom was about to check on Sue when a marine tapped him on the shoulder. Tom looked around, a bit confused until the marine directed his attention to Keylor. Tom noticed Keylor waving for him to come up. He did very slowly. Once Tom was in arms reach of Keylor, Keylor quickly shoved his hand in Toms pocked and retrieve the pad. Tom scowled and started to whisper until Keylor pit a single finger over Tom's mouth. Keylor then pointed to his ear, and then around the corner. Tom strained his ears, barely able to make out the quiet squeaks and clicks of the intruders, his eyes grew wide. Keylor looked down at the pad and inspected it. He then carefully pressed hesitant finger on the pad. To his relief, the little record indicator flashed. Carefully Keylor held the pad to the corner, trying to be careful not to let it be seen. ::Begin Recording:: Voice 1: So where are these aliens? Voice 2: I don't know I have heard there have been 5 killed so far. They think there are more. Voice 1: Why? Voice 2: well one of the teams reported encountering 8 of them, and another reported 2. Voice 1: could they be part of the same group? Voice 2: don't know. Probably not, but SH'min wants us to be thorough. Voice 1: so when do they thing they will be done with the modifications? I don't like this artificial environment, no matter what L'pah says, I cant breath right in here. I feel, suffocated. Voice2 : I don't know.. but we have our orders . Let the technicians worry about the alien device and we will do what we are best at. ::end recording:: The sounds quickly stopped. Keylor peaked around the corner and noticed the two soild aquatic looking figures head out down the corridor. ===End log== Col Bretam Keylor Captain USS Chimera