Under The Thick Ice

Posted on Fri Oct 24th, 2014 @ 1:06pm by Marine Captain Quentin Harrison & Major David Lorenz

Mission: Breaking New Ground
Location: Site 6, Holbridge Mining Exploratory Dig Site, Four Hours out at Warp 4

The Arrow-class runabout Washita landed perfectly on Site 6's landing pad. The landing area could accommodate anything up to and including an Intrepid-class vessel, but the only ships that ever touched down were the standard VIP transports and the odd alien ship wanting repairs, trade, or to annoy Dave Lorenz with outrageous trade proposals.

Lorenz and Quentin Harrison, the NGS strongman, were busily unloading some cold-weather equipment that had been flown out to Site 6, a class-P planetoid that was covered by ice and snow. The warmest spot on Site 6 only reached a balmy twenty-below-zero, so the exploratory drillers at the facility needed all the cold weather equipment they could get their hands on. The main habitat dome was kept heated to a comfortable 65-degrees F without melting any of the surface ice.

"...That be the last of it, Davey!" Quentin grinned as he set down the heavy equipment cases. "Does Jimmy really want us to garrison this place, or was he just yankin' our chains for beating up Lilw?"

"You beat up, Lilw, not me! I was busy shooting it out with Lilw's crazy followers. Lucky for me the bastards couldn't shoot for shit!" Lorenz retorted.

=/\= David Lorenz and Quentin Harrison, please come to Operations immediately!=/\= the intercom barked, cutting off Quentins reply. Both men turned and entered the operations center as they were standing close to its entrance.

"You called, Director Lane?" Quentin asked as he stripped off his heavy parka and winter gloves.

Director Benton Lane, a noteworthy geologist and Daystrom Institute graduate, sniffed disdainfully at the hulking man. "Indeed. Mr. Lorenz, there is an anomaly in our second exploration tunnel. the tunnel drones cannot identify it. I need you and your large friend here to go into the shaft and examine the object."

Quentin actually grinned. "Laddie, I am an ex-security chief and I think that would be right up me alley. I'll get me a tricorder and beam straight in."

Lorenz nodded his head. "You go see what that thing is by yourself and I will shoot you! I'm coming with."

Quentin knew it would be futile to argue with the smaller man so he simply nodded, then turned to Lane. "Beam me in on my signal." Quentin nodded to Dave then said "Energize."

EXPLORATORY SHAFT
350 METERS INTO THE ICE
SIXTEEN MILES FROM OPERATIONS
SITE 6

The pair of operatives materialized the biting cold ice tunnel. Both men tabbed their wrist control panels to activate their snow-boots mini spikes for traction on the slick surface. David drew his 3p Marine-model phaser pistol while Quentin aimed his tricorder at the object still embedded in the thick ice. "No life readin's from the object, but there appears o be an organic life form inside the container, and it's dead. Body is humanoid, iron-copper blood-base mixture....been dead...that cannae be right!"

"What?" Lorenz demanded.

"Rate of cellular decay shows that the body has been dead for only thirty years!" Quentin swung the tricorder up and stared at the readings. "There is a disruption in the ice strata, made....thirty years ago, same amount of time that the body has been dead.....hold it! There's a new signal!"

"What the hell is going on?" Lorenz demanded.

"I think me tricorder activated some sort of beacon. Scanning frequencies......we have a match! It's an older coded transponder frequency used by," Quentin gulped. "Starfleet Intelligence."

"That is not good!" Lorenz said. "Lorenz to Site Ops, we have confirmed that there is no danger in beaming it over. Two plus the object to beam directly to a secure lab."

Understood

"Energize!."

SECURE LAB
SITE SIX

Harrison, Lorenz, and Director Lane along with Dr. Heinrich Krueger, the sites medical officer, examined the object. "Object is two meters in length, 1/2 meter in width and height. Composition is an unknown metallic compound with no visible means of accessing the interior. Internal scans show an organic cadaver, one-point-five meters in height, approximately ninety-point-seven kilos, rate of cellular decay suggests the cadaver was preserved at the time of death but has been dead for nearly thirty years." Krueger announced after consulting his own medical tricorder.

"Just like I said, doc!" Quentin snorted.

"Any idea how to open this thing?" Lorenz asked.

"None, nor do I think we should. We might be exposing the facility to an unknown lethal pathogen." Dr. Krueger stated.

"We dinnae know what killed the wee beastie in this thing, doc," Quentin objected.

"Actually I do know what killed the occupant; multiple blunt-force traumas to the head and torso, several skeletal fractures." Krueger reported. "It is possible that he was exposed to a pathogen that caused that much damage or he..."

"Look, we can speculate all we want. The point is I believe that we can safely open this thing without unleashing a plague. Let's begin..."

The tube suddenly hissed loudly and a seam appeared in the middle of the object. Half of the tube hissed upward as if on hinges, revealing bundle shrouded in greyish wrappings. A foul odor rose from the sarcophagus, but that did not deter Quentin from reaching over and snatching up an object resting n top of the bundled body.

"What is that thing?" Dr. Krueger asked seriously.

"Whatever it is, it's Starfleet issue." Quentin turned the object over, revealing it to be an early form of commbadge like the ones used aboard starships like the >Galaxy-class or earlier classes of ship. The Starfleet delta symbol was unmistakable.

"We have to call this in." Director Lane spoke up via viewscreen.

Dave walked over to the wall-mounted subspace radio. "This is Bulldog calling Bouncer, am sending you a burst transmission with some interesting data. Please make sure Dae Nalas and Captain Hawke have a look. Bulldog out."

"This oughta be good!" Quentin quipped as Dave came back over to the exam table.

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A post by:

Quentin Harrison

&

Dave Lorenz

Arctic Explorers Who Founded Something