Search Party (Part Two of Two)

It took the crew fifteen minutes to reach the Bridge of the Marauder, the Major being forced to make a couple of detours to circumvent debris that would have taken longer to move than go around. Finally they walked onto the Bridge, or what was left of it.

Most of the consoles were damaged, some where missing entirely. Chu scanned the room looking for a fully working console. He managed to find a fairly undamaged console and after removing a pile of debris from the seat sat down. He attaching a power-pack to the side of the console and placed his tricorder on top. The console sparked a few times before bursting back into life.

"My Ferengi is a little rusty, but I think I’m sat at the Engineering station." He announced looking at the translation on his tricorder screen. "Let’s see, damage report shows that the ship was hit by three separate high level explosives. The first knocked out the shields, the second took Engineering and the third took out the shuttlebay."

Gibs was searching through the rest of the rubble to find another console. As the Marine electronics expert on the away team, he was the second best person to achieve the mission.

"That’s odd." Chu remarked. "I’m reading gravity and life-support still active on the ship."

"Where ?" Major Phanan asked.

"Deck six, cargo bay three." Chu replied.

The Major checked his map once more.

"That’s in the very centre of the ship. It’s also the only area of the ship that has an internal airlock." He announced. "We should check it out."

"Are there any life-signs ?" Commander Rashad asked.

"Unable to tell Commander, internal sensors are inoperative." Chu replied. "All I can say is what the Engineering console tells me."

"Commander, I’ll go and check this out." The Major announced.

"We’re coming with you." Rashad replied. "Barker, you stay here and get to work on those computer systems, get all the data you can."

"Commander, I can’t offer you my protection. If things get rough you’re going to have to hold your own." The Major commented. "Gibs, stay here and work with the Commander."

"Understood Major." Gibs replied.

The four officers left the Bridge and headed for the cargo bay, leaving Barker and Gibs to work on the vessels computer systems.

"I think I’ve managed to find a computer access point." Gibs announced. "We should be able to tap into the main computer core from here, save us time deciphering the security controls."

"Good." Barker replied, moving across to where the young Marine was ‘sat’ pulling away debris. "All we need is some kind of interface."

"Already on it." Gibs stated, removing his back-pack and opening it up.

He quickly used the electronics kit the Marines had brought along. Within five minutes, the two had full access to the vessels systems.

"So where do we start ?" Gibs asked.

"Let’s download everything for the last six months." Chu replied. "If we have time, we’LL download everything else."

Chu placed his tricorder onto the interface pad and watched the data flow from the main computer. In the half-hour the download took to complete, Chu and Gibs started to look through the rubble. Something suddenly caught Chu’s eye and he moved aside more rubble to find what he had noticed.

"Now what is this doing here ?" He asked himself.

"What have you found Commander ?" Gibs replied.

"It looks like a Federation isolinear data chip, more precisely a high security chip." Chu replied. "But it looks a little odd, I’ve never seen one like this before. What would a Ferengi be doing with such a chip ?."

[Major Phanan to Gibs.] The Major announced over the intercom. [What is your situation ?]

"Gibs here Major. We have secured the information and are ready to return to the Hellcat." Gibs replied, looking over to Chu who nodded that they were done.

[Understood.] The Major commented. [We’re heading back to the Hellcat ourselves and have taken one prisoner.]

Chu placed the isolinear chip into his sleeve pocket and started to detach the tricorder from the interface. Gibs then started to dismantle and return the equipment into the pack and placed the closed pack on his back. "Time to leave." Gibs announced.

The progress back to the Hellcat was far easier then the trip to the Bridge. The two officers could turn off their magnetic boots and slowly free-fall down the ladder shaft until they reached the shuttlebay deck.

As they entered the shuttlebay they noticed the rest of the team, the Major pushing a small figure into the airlock. Only the Major and Commander Rashad could be seen, but the others were probably already inside. As Barker and Gibs reached the airlocks outer door, Commander Rashad and the Major both acknowledged their arrival. Then Oakenshield came from around the other side of the ship.

"All secure Commander." She reported.

"Good work." The Commander replied. "Now get inside and help Wok’Tal secure the prisoner."

Julia entered the airlock and disappeared inside.

"Gibs, you’re next." The Major replied.

"Prisoner ?" Chu commented.

"Yes Commander." The Major replied. "We discovered a Ferengi huddled in a corner of the cargo bay, put up quite a fight. Looks like he was guarding something valuable and was ready to stay for the long run. He had an environmental suit, food rations to last him months and was heavily armed. Luckily he was too weak to put up much of a fight. We’ve put some of the cargo he was guarding in the Hellcat’s hold, I think you maybe interested in what it is when we get back to the Leviathan."

"Commander, your turn." Commander Rashad announced to Chu, as the lights on the airlock turned from red to green.

Chu entered the airlock and moved back inside the Hellcat. As soon as he reached the command deck, he released the catches on the helmet and as it hissed slightly, removed it completely, sweat over his face.

A couple of minutes later, Commander Rashad arrived on the Command deck. "Mister Shale, take us out of her nice and slow." She ordered.