/\ Shuttle "parked" in Hangar Bay of USS Gott /\ Lynch woke up due to a slight slap on his face. The last thing he had seen was his bugzapper flying directly at him, as the shuttle crashed into the Hangar bay. He rubbed his forehead, feeling a bumb the size of an egg forming. "Bloody blind man, keep yer weapons with yeh, will yeh..." he muttered as he stood up, grinning in spite of the situation. Scott didn't seem to hear it, but turned to the general. "General, there's no atmosphere in this shuttle-bay... and we're loosing oxygen." Jason echoed down the small vessel. "I suggest we have Lynch cut a hole directly through the shuttle's hull and into the corridor on deck three. It's our best chance." A moment went passed without a sound, nor a whisper... well a few murmurs and possibly the smallest of farting noises - but Jason couldn't be sure, and then the General answered. "Do it." Looking down on the now standing Lynch, Jason smiled. "You got your cutter handy?" Lynch nodded patiently and turned to the back of the shuttle, where the EVA suits where stored. "Now, Petty Officer" demanded Scott behind him. Lynch didn't even turn his head. "Sir, if I am to do what you want me to do, I'll gear up first. Unless you want to end this mission before it started." He opened a compartment and took out a suit. "And if you don't mind me saying, it might be a bit more practical if we just beam over to the corridor..." he signaled the console. "... if that's still working after your brilliant bit of flying there" he taunted with an innocent smile. Scott threw Aidan an icy look through his specs and turned to the console, but Arnez was faster. "We have enough power for that, Sir, and the systems seem to be working still." he said in a military fashion. "Acknowledged. Transport the team in. General?" Scott turned to Keylor, who didn't seem to be too happy with the situation. "We go in" he finally nodded stonefaced. "This shuttle's history anyways. Get ready." After Arnez tapping a few commands, the whole team was surrounded by blue sparks and reappeared in a hazy corridor. An unsual silence reigned in the corridor, barely illuminated by a pulsing, weak red light that gave the mist a ghostly quality. Lynch scanned the surroundings with his tricorder. "There's a high methane content in this air, no other life signs" he concluded and took out an oxygen mask, seeing the other members imitating him. "Right, lets find the Core" came the distorted voice of the General from behind his mask, as he fumbled on his phaser and looked at Scott. "Deck 2 it is" he added. Scott nodded, looking somewhat appaled. Lynch suspected the blind man wasn't too happy not to be in command and grinned maliciously. /\USS Gott - Arboretum/\ An unnerving, highpitched chatter surrounded the Queen, who moved her head slowly from side to side, uttering shrill shrieks from time to time. They had sensed the hit and the death of one of them. They had sensed the new odors and the contamination. They would deal with it, as they had dealt with it before. This place was theirs. /\Corridor Gamma 5 - Deck 3/\ Aidan watched his tricorder, as they moved slowly from corridor to corridor. Most systems were useless, as they soon had find out, and Chin had established the shortest route to the computer core with the deck instructions downloaded from the Chimeras Main Database. Now, they were racing towards the entrance of the Jefferies Tube, that would lead them almost directly to the usually wellprotected Room, where the Computer Core was to be located. Suddenly, a highpitched cry cut the silence, making them all cover instinctively their ears. Through the mist, several huge figures appeared out of nowhere, from both ends of the corridor. Aidan swore. His tricorder hadn't picked up no lifesigns, so, where did they come from? In a fraction of a second, the group had pressed themselves against the wall. Phaser fire erupted, blinding Lynch momentarily, while the highpitched chatter, now at almost unbearable levels increased and was joined by the sound of many hard feets racing towards the small group of Starfleet Officers. Lynch covered and started shooting, trying to make out a suitable target between the fog, the red lights and the phaser beams. Chaos seemed to reign in the little space, as a huge flame erupted from the Bugzapper. Magnified by the methane in the athmosphere, three large insectoid frames where engulfed with fire and fell to the floor, blocking the corridor and leaving black scars on walls and ceiling. The fire didn't go out, but started to gain strength, as it caught on another X'Chi. The group was almost knocked off their feets by the resulting heatwave. "WE'VE GOT TO GET OUT OF HERE!" shouted Aidan, still shooting at the other end of the corridor, and pointing wildy at a hatch next to the General. Keylor seemed to be really pissed off, but fired at the hatch, which dissappeared, leaving a gaping hole in the wall. "IN, YOU USELESS LOT" shouted Scott at the ODA and turned around, activating the flashlight. The sharp lightray hit one of the oncoming X'Chi, which let out a highpitched cry and fell to the floor, its extremities curling up as it rolled on its back. A huge black hole was visible on its chest. The rest of the X'Chi seemed to be infuriated by their resistance and charged at them. Scott let out another stream of liquid fire and caught the first one square in its face. A small explosion shattered the Corridor, as Aidan threw himself through the hatch behind the other three ODA members. Shortly after, Keylor and Scott appeared. Feverishly, they crawled to an intersection, feeling the heat rising behind them. The charged air was ready to explode. Arnez pointed up at one moment, and opened another hatch that revealed a ladder, leading to the desired deck. One after the other, they climbed up and stopped at Deck 2. The highpitched chatter was still all around them, but now faint and bearable. Aidan scanned the surroundings. They seemed to be safe for the moment. Keylor leaned back for a moment. "What the hell happened?" he asked, seriously annoyed. "I don't know, Sir" replied Aidan, feeling directly adressed. "They didn't show up on the tricorder. Maybe the whole temporal disturbances or god knows what is interfering with its sensors." Keylor nodded and turned to Scott, who was cleaning the soot from his glasses. Aidan didn't pay attention to what they said, seeing that the General had still that pissed off look on his face, but searched his pockets. Just in case, he had brought his prototype with him. Seeing, that the tricorders where useless, he thought of giving it a try. "Can't go worse now, can it?" he muttered to himself, and strapped the small casing to his wrist. Tapping a few buttons, a small stream of light appeared at one end of the small ovalshaped device and covered his hand. Little signs and what appeared to be buttons and dials began to draw itself on the light and take threedimensional shape. Aidan tapped a sequence and a small representation of a nova-class vessel appeared in front of him, hovering over his hand. Aidan put his finger into the vessel and magnified Deck 2. Several red lights were going up and down in front of the Computer Core, while data appeared in middle air over them, showing their vital signs and identifying marks. Aidan checked their own position, which was marked with several minuscule Starfleet badges and compared the way they would have to take, when the light dissappeared and the device crackled lowly, then emitted a hum and turned off. "Damn" Aidan muttered and turned to his team. Only then he noticed that all of them were staring at him. "What was that?" asked Keylor. "Nothing useful, as it seems" replied Aidan dissapointed. "Just a little toy of mine, but it obviously in need of a lot of work still." he added as an explanation. "At least we know the bugs are guarding the core, so it's not a total loss." Keylor nodded and turned to Scott. "We'll have a talk about that later" he turned his head towards Aidan, then nodded at Scott. Scott waved forwards and the group started to move towards their destination. ------------------------------------------------- PO3 Aidan Lynch ODA Eng. Spec. USS Chimera