AT 007A - R02 Detailed Survey "Unexpected Consequences" (Part 2 of 2)

Posted on 14 Jul 2013 @ 3:09pm by Commander Andreus Kohl & Lieutenant JG Delainey Carlisle & Lieutenant Jacob Pendleton & Lieutenant Jared Nicholas
Edited on on 14 Jul 2013 @ 3:12pm

3,306 words; about a 17 minute read

Mission: Episode 03 - Frontier
Location: Rojar II R02 - Metropolis Ruins
Timeline: MD 05 - 1710 hrs

Previously, on Unexpected Consequences (Part 1) ...

Jared turned from where he was looking at the sound of Jacob's voice and moved over to him to help dig.

Several meters away, over where he had been looking for an entryway, Andreus Kohl looked up from his tricorder. "Careful sounds just right to me," Kohl chimed in. He tilted his gaze down to the display on his tricorder, comparing current sensor readings with his recordings of the dead Borg drone. "I'm detecting the mechanical components from another Borg that way," Kohl said, pointing southward, "but no energy signatures or biosigns. They sure wanted to get in here, whatever here turns out to be."

Eventually the archway of some kind of door appeared, or what at least looked like the archway of a door. Some kind of "writing" or symbols seemed to run across it. "Do we have our language specialist down here with us? Maybe this is the clue we've been looking for." Jacob worked faster to continue to uncover the new find.

And Now, the Conclusion...

[ON]

Jared crossed quickly to where Jacob and Kohl were. "I'm right here," he said and began examining the symbols. He shook his head slowly. "I think this may be the hospital you were looking for.... No this is medical I'm pretty sure, but more like a clinic than a hospital from what I can tell."

Athlen knelt down beside Jared and gently brushed away some of the leaves in front of him. "It looks like this is a lock," he said, pointing at one of the impressions. He bit his lip and stuck his tongue out a little, clearing a small path with his hands and fiddling with the mechanism. "An old one. It's mechanical. This society must have been ancient. I guess we're smarter than the Borg, too," Athlen smirked. He never thought that his experiences as a child would have any use, but here he was, on an alien planet, about to pick a lock. He pulled out the small scientific kit beside him and picked out a pick and a torque wrench. He applied the torque wrench and twisted it in one direction, then the other, and used the pick to slide inward and tap up each of the internal pins. He twisted the wrench each time and captured the cylinders inside, going down from 6 to 1. After several minutes, he turned the lock in hand and it made a small snapping sound as it unhinged. Athlen lifted up the top and it slammed back against the grass, revealing a hole in the ground with stairs leading down into the main building. "Gotcha," he crowed under his breath.

"I find myself grateful you're on our side," Delainey offered with a grin in Athlen's direction. She looked toward the stairs and found her curiosity overwhelmed any anxiety for the moment. Her tricorder was out but she didn't detect any obvious dangers from where she stood. "Shall we?"

Jacob held out his finger as a sign to wait. He took a look at the entrance and held his arms out a bit as if measuring the width. "Approximately 100 centimeters.. just right.." A large smile crossed his face. "Stairs here but I bet there is a ramp or even.." His voice trailed off as he looked inside the passage to find the straight, no barrier passage he figured was there, "Ah ha!" He exclaimed, "Mr. Jared, Mr. Athlen, Ms. Delainey, Mr. Kohl, Great work all. Now keep a look out for symbols, signs and other aspects of note that point to not only physical disabilities, but also mental health, learning and developmental disabilities as well. I believe we might be in much more than a hospital or clinical setting."

From over where he had been searching for entry controls, Kohl languidly strode towards the rampway where the others were congregating. Once he holstered his phaser, Kohl raised his hand to his combadge and gave it a light tap. "Kohl to Commander Holliday," he said. "Our team has found our way into a sealed facility, we think perhaps it's medically-oriented. Oh, and one other thing. I tripped over the corpse of a Borg drone."

=^=Lieutenant please confirm - that sounded like you said Borg=^= The XO's voice sounded more than a little nervous as the reply came back over the comm channel.

Jared stopped in mid-stride as he heard the familiar voice. The fact that Holliday was nervous about the situation gave him pause. Knowing full well that there were no Borg clones left alive did not prevent his checking on his ancient-though fully functional Sig Sauer, nor from scanning the area for any life signs.

"Yes, sir," replied Kohl. "The closest we've found to sentient life over here has been Borg. But these two have seen better days, long past."

There was a moment's silence as the XO thought on how to proceed. He had known full well that there was a possibility they would encounter the Borg, not not quite in this way.

=^=Understood...make sure they're completely inactive - the last thing I want is a cube appearing because we missed a locator beacon. =^=

"Yes, sir," acknowledged Kohl. He came to a sudden halt, and started to turn back the way he came. "We confirmed no transmissions, no energy readings of any kind, for the first drone. I'll examine the second." Before Kohl strode off towards the direction he'd detected the second dead drone, he pantomimed at Carlisle and Jared, Go ahead. I'll catch up.

"Let's check any rooms we find one by one. Be as thorough as possible. We can learn much about this society just in this one place." Jacob's voice was filled with excitement as they began walking down the hallway.

They had not gone very far when they came to a corridor that branched off to the right while the hallway they were in continued on beyond their line of sight. "Hey," Jared called out, "Look at this."

Athlen followed up behind Pendleton and Nicholas. "What is it?" he asked, still looking around the abandoned hallways curiously. There were alien posters, chairs, abandoned beds, open exam rooms, but everything suggested this place had just been up and left in a hurry.

"Look," Jared replied. "It's a set of double doors with that same symbol on it. It looks like they are still intact.'

Delainey resisted the urge to shiver. Though she worked in an infimary daily and had worked in other facilities not entirely dissimilar to this one, she had not realized how haunting the environment could be in the absence of people. Though she knew it was her imagination playing with her, it seemed as though she could almost hear the voices of the sick or injured from long ago. Carlisle then thought of Kohl, separated from the group, and she pushed down panic. "Whomever goes, shouldn't go alone."

"Well I am willing to go,"Jared responded with more confidence than he felt. Someone want to go with me? And I don't know who is supposed to be in charge of the Away Team, but I know its not me. However may I suggest that we form two teams. That gives us safety in numbers but also means we move twice as fast."

Jacob nodded, "We should all go. Stay safe and search together. I suspect we will find many a clue, many a new things to find. Let's go my friends."

"As you wish Lieutenant," Jared said, "Let's all go." Then trusting that all the others were with him and in agreement, he stepped pushed on the doors and tried to push them open, prepared to look for other mechanisms if they did not open. "Through the doors," he intoned looking back with a smile, "You know going where no man has gone before."

Jacob touched the double doors. He touched them and surveyed the doors. He then took his tricorder and scanned them, "Hmm.. the makeup of this door as with much of the walls, seems to give differential readings... but what I am getting is that there seems to be a barrier, like a desk or table behind the doors as if to prevent entrance... well, let me fix that.." Jacob took three steps backwards, sized up the door and where the object would be propped against the door, and got into a stance of an ancient defensive end playing gridiron football referred to as a "three point stance" and then bull rushed the door. His massive left shoulder hit the middle lower part of the door and exploded through them like a "regular" sized person would run through a thin wall of styrofoam. The light table that was placed as barrier was demolished as it was thrown down the continuing hall and the doors were flung open hard.

Jacob stood back up to full height and scanned the area, then looked back at his colleagues and smiled, "All clear."

Delainey's next impulse was to approach Jacob just to be sure he had suffered no injury from his rather inelegant but effective way of getting them inside. In this case, efficiency won points over style, and though Jacob didn't appear to be harmed, she decided to check anyway. Besides, it kept her mind off why the door seemed to have been barricaded before their arrival. As her medical tricorder actively scanned, she asked, "I wonder who was meant to be kept out of this room by that table? The Borg? Not very effective, I imagine."

"It may have been someone's despeate attempt to keep the Borg out, their only defnse they could muster maybe they were children and too weak, or maybe they were just in too much of a hurry.

Or maybe this predates the Borg and was meant to keep someone else out." jared suggested

"Agreed Mr. Jared. Agreed. Let's take a good look around. Be like Sherlock Holmes and study any possible clues." Jacob smiled back at them and patted Delainey on the shoulder to let her know he was absolutely fine.

"Well now we are in, what now?" Jared queried

Jacob pointed to the new hallway and the rooms there. "Let's take a look at these two rooms across from each other. If anyone sees, hears, or scans anything unusual or what have you, call for assistance. And, keep vigilant for anything that could harm us in any way, be it plant, animal or sentient." He then walked to the nearby door on the left. He took a deep breath and opened it.

The room was approximately twelve meters deep and six meters wide. The walls were plain white with all sorts of framed items hanging on them. Some items appeared to be pictures or other visual items, while others appeared to have writing of some kind on them, and some appeared to be like plaques. There were three desks pretty well untouched with what appeared to be computing devices, communication devices and other kinds of nic-nacks on them as if they had been just left for a bit and their owners soon to return.

The disability symbol was prominent in a large painting on the far right wall. The subject matter seemed to be a small ship travelling from darkness to light as if blazing a trail. Underneath the painting was a table filled with all sorts of high glossy items that seemed to be like pamphlets and fliers and such.

Jacob just stood for a minute looking over the place and commented, "Incredible... it's like this place is just quiet because its lunch time or something... just incredible..."

Delainey, like perhaps some of her cohorts, was drawn to the machines on the desks as opposed to the paper items. Technology, even ancient tech, they all understood on some level. The paper items were completely missed on her part. "Think we might be able to get one of these machines working?"

Jacob shrugged, "Worth trying Counselor. Scans detect that there is still a low level of electrical energy that runs through this building... which is remarkable to say the least! Maybe this society had some kind of power plant or backup system dedicated to this institution. Or perhaps this place has its own power plant separate from the rest of the city's grid. In any event we may need to research that as well..." He began to file through the papers and fliers. "Mr. Jared, the writings on these various forms seem to be similar to.." He paused for a moment as his eyes widened, "...Mr. Jared, do my eyes deceive me or does this script look like Baybayin? The ancient language of the Philippines??"

Jared took a close look before nodding his head. "Remarkably similar," he replied. "There are few derivations, with some of the vowel accents, but those are relatively minor. It is quite fascinating.

Jacob shook his head in disbelief, "My distant relatives on my father's side are Filipino, so to see this... is remarkable.. unexpected... eerie even. Much research will be necessary here; much more than I first anticipated." He looked over at Delainey, "Counselor, have you found anything? Any luck getting those machines running?"

Delainey had begun by trying to make educated guesses about which buttons to press to get things up and running, but that had quickly given way to random, although equally hesitant button pressing. The surprise was clearly evident in her voice when the screen of the ancient computer showed weak signs of life. "I think I got this thing powered up, but I can't make heads or tails of the text."

Jacob looked at Jared, "Can you assist the good Counselor? I am still rifling through this paperwork and other files." He called out to the others, "How's everyone else doing? Find anything exciting, interesting, or fascinating?"

"Of course," Jared replied as he walked over.he frowned slightly sifting back into his brain from a class he had taken in High School. He began pecking at the keyboard and the screen lit up. There were series of what looked like ancient file folders. "Here we go, I think I've found something," he said as he scanned the titles underneath, This one says patient records."

"So we are indeed in either a record keeping room, patient file room, or maybe some kind of information office... fascinating. Some of these pictures portrayed on these fliers seem to point to some kind of extended services beyond hospital or medical options.. I mean, look at this flier.." Jacob held up a glossy piece of paperlike material that depicted luscious senses of majestic valleys and open sky ways. "...these almost look like they are trying to depict.. perhaps.. freedom? Choices maybe? I am not entirely sure but why else have these pictures? What do those files look like? Are they more patient files or are they more like something a counselor or other social worker type might use? I wonder if there was some kind of ombudsman kind of work done here... or maybe some kind of patient advocate work? Keep looking for more clues."

Jared opened another file from the computer's archives, He scanned through it looking for anything interesting. "It looks like they dealt with folks who had varying types of disabilities. They seemed to be advocates fighting for their rights and integration into 'normal' society."i

A huge smile broke over Jacob's face. "'Normal' Mr. Jared? No such thing. No such thing at all.." He looked over to Delainey, "What else are you seeing? Just files? Anything personal?"

"Much of this is," Delainey offered with a nod, feeling a bit guilty for reading other people's records, "or at least I think so. If I'm correctly understanding things, these clients indeed sought assistance with physical limitations of all sorts."


"That is what I am seeing from the computer records as well. It looks like this office was some kind of advocacy office. There are some letters here to employers threading legal actions if they did not make accommodations.," Jared replied

Jacob huge smile got even bigger, "Warms my heart, warms my heart indeed." He rifled through some of the other literature and items, "Looks like not just physical disabilities either," He held up some more fliers and pamphlets, "Some of the pictures and other symbols on these seem to refer to mental health issues, learning disabilities and developmental disabilities were included here.. so what I am inferring here, if we are interpreting these finds correctly, is that we must be in an office or organizational space that advocates for the population that has some kind of disability or other life barrier." He sat down in a chair and became suddenly quiet. His hands folded upward, some of his fingers barely touching his lips, as if suddenly he went into almost meditation or deep thought.

Jared looked over at the other man, "What's going on?" he asked,"A credit for your thoughts."

Jacob spoke in a somewhat quiet voice, "I come from a long line of political activist and social advocates Mr. Jared, and I am wondering how they would feel seeing this? It would be.. a very special moment indeed... very special.."

Jared put a hand on his shoulder. It was reassuring, nothing more. "Wow, this is incredible, I am glad for you."

Jacob nodded and walked over to Delainey, "Anything else of interest? Seems like there are lots of files here. Some almost look like questionaires or something along those lines... fascinating."

Carlisle nodded. "I'm sure they needed to gather a lot of information to know how to help." She suppressed a shudder. "It saddens me to think whoever or whatever that destroyed life here targeted this place because of the people's perceived vulnerabilities."

Jacob nodded solemnly, "Agreed, Counselor, agreed." He thought a minute and then added, "Ok folks, lets move on, we have lots of this building left to cover."

Jacob got up and took some more items as he could and put them in a sack; he then made sure everyone was with him as they walked out of the room and down the long hallway. Most of the rooms were either private practice, exam or consultation rooms except for the double doors at the end of the hall that had markings that would indicate to just about anyone that this area was very private or off limits. "Hmm.. well, looks like we found something interesting here, shall we enter?"

The room was large, very large indeed. It had over thirty separate rooms with single doors. One desk was in front that had a computer and a lot of paperwork still piled on it.

Jacob's brow furrowed, "Hmm, another operating room? Or patient recovery room? But I thought we already saw plenty of those rooms already down the hall? So why would this area be different and apart from the rest?"

"We are running out of time sir," Jared said, "Why don't we just download all the data and analyze it and compare it to our other findings when we get back to the ship."

Jacob nodded, "Good advice Mr. Jared. Ok everyone, get as much data as possible, we'll make it another thirty minutes and then we must go." He clicked on the computer once he found out how and then began used his tricorder to download all the info he could from remote access. He was proud of all of them, they had found much to research and had a small peak into Rojarian culture.

[OFF]

--

Lieutenant Jacob Pendleton
Chief Research Officer
USS Galileo

Lieutenant Delainey Carlisle, M.D., Ph.D.
Assistant Chief Counselor/Medical Officer
USS Galileo

Lieutenant (jg) Jared Nicholas
Language Specialist
USS Galileo

LTJG Andreus Kohl
Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo

RSS Feed