Paul was in the cavernous science lab of SB901. He was downloading a lot of data he aquired from a trader before the battle about some ancient ruins on Trelaq Prime. This would take a whie as there was a lot of it. He had set up a basket ball net on one side of the lab for boring moments like this and was currently taking a few shots.
[Deveraux! Report to my office!] came Wallaces voice over the communicator. It scared the hell out of Paul as he miss threw the ball and it landed on a coutner knocking over a lot of chemicals.
Damn! he thought as he ran over and mopped them up.
"On ma way" he replied as he mopped up the mess.
"You wanted to zee me Captain?" he asked as he came to a stop at Wallace's desk.
"I did. I want you to take the Seine and head out to co-ordinates 342, mark 25. A shuttle has gone missing and we need someone to take a look."
"Search and rescue isn't ma thing. Send out Chief Andersen or somesin."
"Deveraux! I am giving you an order! You will go out there and search for that shuttle. Besides... Kassia's brother Troy was onboard. Now, I'm sure you can't refuse now?"
"When do ya want me to leave?"
"Now is as good a time as any. Dismissed"
Paul left Wallaces office and hurriedly headed for the runabout. He kept going over in his mind what Kassia would do when she heard the news. He had to get out there and find everything he could pretty quick. He didn't particularly want her to have to recieve this bad news.
He found the runabout and quickly got underway. He brought the sensors online and scanned for any vessels or debris. A few vessels came up on sensors, but none that he was looking for nor anywhere near the given co-ordinates. He took the runabout to warp and headed for the last known co-ordinates of Troy's shuttle.
When the runabout dropped out of warp at the co-ordinates, Paul ran another scan of the sorrounding area and picked up the trail of the shuttle heading away from a small debris field. It had headed in the direction of a small planetary system about a lightyear away. Paul briefly scanned the debris field to determine whether the shuttle had been attacked or not. Paul couldn't detect any signs of weapons fire or attack so he set co-ordinates and headed toward the system assuming that due to the Ion storm, Troy must have been forced to land on one of the planets.
Paul entered the systema nd headed for the nearest M-Class planet. Sure enough, Troy's shuttle was on the surface. Paul tried to send a communication or to get a transporter lock, but there seemed to be somekind of magnetic interference in the atmosphere that was interfering with the runabouts systems. Better set er down thought Paul as he entered the planets atmosphere.
Looking out of the window, a cold barren surface covered in snow lay before him. He looked at the planetary readout and the temperature was well below freezing. Gonna be cold out zere. I ope zis ship as some survival suits. He set the runabout down next to Troy's shuttle. Quickly grabbed some survival gear, as well as some extras that Paul never traveled without after his time on the Discovery, a phaser and a tri-corder and stepped out into the freezing tundra. He trudged over to Troy's shuttle through the snow and stepped in through the open hatch.
"Troy?" he shouted "Troy? are you ere?"
There was no reponse. Paul took out his tri-corder and scanned for Troy, but couldn't find any sign of him in the shuttle or within a five mile radius. Damn! Where the ell could e be? Paul accessed the shuttles computer systems and looked over the logs of the shuttle. He had been caught in an ion storm and had been forced to make an emergency landing as Paul had suspected. The logs ended there however. Paul looked around the shuttle and scratched his head. Where ze ell could e be? Where would e go? He stepped outside the shuttle and took a look over it, just to make sure. There were no phaser burns on the hull nor any other signs of weapons. He stepped back in and out of the cold. He sat down on a small box to think for a minute. Staring at the wall, something suddenly caught his eye. A piece of material in the corner. He picked up the material and looked at it in horror. It was a Son'a hood!
Paul stood up and crept to the airlock. He knew the Son'a wouldn't be far, but why hadn't the runabouts sensors detected them? He took his rifle in his hands and stepped back out into the snow. he took out a pair of standard federation binoculars and zoomed in along the horizon. He could see Son'a travelling quickly toward him on vehicles similar to snow ski's. Paul didn't have much time to think. He needed a place where he could hide... ontop of one of the shuttles would give him the best line of sight for taking out the Son'a. They would most likely check the Seine as they had probably already checked Troy's shuttle. Paul hurriedly clambered ontop of Troys shuttle trying not to be seen. He buried himself in snow and activated a handy little device he had created which masked his life signs. It was no cloaking device, but they wouldn't be able to pick him up on their tricorders.
He lay there waiting as the Son'a pulled up. Two got off and headed inside the other 4 stayed outside. Paul pulle dhimself to the edge of the shuttle. He opened fire, quickly taking out two of them in the head. He got another one in the shoulder and the other in the back as he ran for shelter inside the runabout. He jumped down off the shuttle and ran into the runabout. He almost ran into one of them running out the door and brought the butt of the rifle down on his head busting his eye socket. The Son'a fell to the floor in pain as Paul fired three shots into the others chest. He then took his raptors claw off his neck and slit the throat of the other one on the floor.
Heading back out into the tundra, he looked over the bikes. They had a terminal on them with a small map. Also, there were access codes to the facility and shield frequencies. Paul took one of the bikes and sped off. The outpost was six miles away. Paul would travel five on the bike, and the last mile on foot under the cover of darkness.