Searching for the Lights

Posted on Sat Jan 21st, 2012 @ 7:30pm by Lieutenant Commander Aeitos th'Ralik [PNPC] & Lieutenant JG Michael Watters & Lieutenant JG Ethan Kessel

Mission: Deep Space 19
Location: Deep Space 19
Timeline: MD03 1510hrs

The three officers energized once again aboard the station newly-named Deep Space 19, as deep into the structure of the station they had thus far explored as the Endeavour transporter operators were willing to go. They still didn't have a full accounting of what was in even half of the station yet, though they had covered a lot of ground immediately surrounding the command centre, several levels above them.

Though 'above' was a relative term to the three this deep into the station, where there was no power to speak of. Aeitos reached down to his leg and touched the control that would activated the magnetic clamps within his boots, bringing him down to the decking below, which he had begun to drift off from after re-materialising. He opened a comlink to his two fellow officers as they did the same.

"This is as far in as the Endeavour can put us without knowing the internal structure of the core of the station," he reminded them. "We'll follow the route we took this morning before heading deeper in." They had been beaming aboard for hours each day in two-half stints; once in the morning, and then once again in the afternoon. Aeitos had no doubt based off of the readings both the ship and his tricorder were getting as well as simple design logic that the power generator they were looking for was at the very centre of the portion of the station surrounded by the ring structure, near the equidistant point of its length. But the captain had insisted that they ensure as much of the station as possible was clear on their way down.

"If we continue along the same path as this morning, we should be able to reach the central core before our allotted time runs out today," the commander continued, nodding to the security officer to take the lead.

Ethan was distinctly uncomfortable being in the station. The dim emerald glow on the other floors was a blessing compared to the darkness that did not come close to being removed by their light sources. Their torches seemed feeble in comparison to the darkness. He shivered. They had moved along at what felt like a snails pace for nearly Twenty Minutes, when he finally asked:

"Sir, how long do we have to stay in this God forsaken Place?" He muttered to his Commanding officer.

"I wouldn't necessarily go so far as to call it God-forsaken," Michael said as he continued forward ahead of the other two personnel. The beams of light illuminating the way before him were coming from two different sources on his person. One was a lamp built into the helmet of his environmental suit while the other was a standard issue wrist-lamp on his left arm. Each provided just enough light for Michael to see the bulkhead to either side of where he was as well as nearly a dozen feet ahead of his current location. It wasn't much...but it was a start.

"Why doesn't this place give you the creeps?" He muttered to the security chief.

"...because I've seen worse," the security chief replied. This seemed like neither the time nor the place to describe the things he'd seen during his last visit to an abandoned station, especially given the particularly nervous state the young engineer was already in. Nothing they'd seen so far had given Michael any indication they might encounter any sort of direct threat in their exploration of this particular facility. They had detected no signs of life or indications that anyone had been aboard the station in several centuries. The only living things here were the away teams from the Endeavour. Still, it was better to be prepared than to be caught off-guard. Michael understood as well as anyone the importance of taking the necessary precautions. That was, after all, why he was here.

"Well this place still creeps me out. We still have no idea why this place was abandoned. Maybe there was a massive irreparable flaw, and it was easier to abandon then to fix? This place could explode as soon as we turn on the power.... I still think this was a bad idea."

They continued onward for several moments in near silence as the metallic clanging of their magnetic boots echoed off the surrounding bulkheads. Ethan was thinking about the station. He just hoped he could understand the system. He was also aware that he was in the presence of the Engineering chief and the Security chief. He hoped he did not show himself up.

As they continued walking, he saw a dim light in the distance. The glowlight that had turned on when he fixed the Auxiliary power could be seen up ahead.

"Wait. I think there's something up ahead. Are we close enough to have reached the Main Generator yet?"

"I'm not sure" Michael replied, checking the tricorder which was also attached to his wrist. It was difficult to tell exactly how much ground they had covered since beaming in without consulting some sort of instrument due to the simple fact it all started to blend together after awhile. He could also see the faint glow which he assumed came from some sort of auxiliary lighting system, but whether or not it was an indicator they were actually getting close to their destination was another matter entirely.

The chief engineer studied his own tricorder for a few moments. "It would appear that we are nearing the region the core should be located in." He looked up at the faint glow filling the corridor as they drew nearer to it. There appeared to be some sort of blue, emergency lighting emanating from panels set at even spaces along the corner where the corridor wall met the ceiling. "It appears that this area has a permanent need to be illuminated," he guessed. "Not surprising, considering that it likely houses some of the station's more delicate engineering equipment. Likely this is the region of the station from where the power readings we first detected were emanating from." They hadn't been able to discover the source of the low-power readings from the ship's sensors upon arrival; it seemed to be emanating from the station's entire shell at once. Aeitos believed the shell to have some sort of energy capacitors in it; perhaps to help bleed off excess energy, or to form a protective barrier, not unlike the old polarised hull plating concept Starfleet employed when his race first encountered them. "Down here," he said, indicating with his arm.

This corridor, now sufficiently lit so that their lamps were only needed in order to see into the shadowed crevices, was much more direct than many of the others they had been to. It was at an angle to the corner before it, and after running past several junctions, the team finally came across a large, thick door. A quick scan revealed its magnetic locking clamps to be engaged; meaning it still had power running through it.

Giving a quick tip of his head to the ensign, the two engineers removed devices from their packs they had brought along specifically for an eventuality like this one. Once placed upon the door, they were designed to interfere with the power flow running beneath the portals surface, and reverse the polarity of the magnetic seals; essentially causing the doors to repel one another, rather than attract. It was a simple theory, but in order to by-pass the various security features of doors locked in such a way, the circuitry inside the relatively small devices was quite complex.

Placing his device on the right hand door, Aeitos knelt to enter in the commands on its keypad, affixing it, and setting it to link up with the Ensign's device. Taking his phaser from the leg pocket he had stowed it in - just in case there was something behind the door, though he doubted it - he took one more second's pause, before hitting the control that would activate the paired lock breakers.

The doors repelled each other soon thereafter, stopping at about half-way open, leaving Aeitos kneeling facing the opening, a serene blue light illuminating his suit helmet. He stood and put his phaser back in its pocket as he advanced into the room, eyes upon the component that dominated the centre of it.

Michael slowly followed the Endeavour's chief engineer into the room. Although his eyes automatically swept their surroundings for any possible threats, he knew he wasn't going to find anything. There seemed to be little purpose for this particular section of the station other than to house the large object standing before them. "Guess we found what we we're looking for," he said quietly.

"Yikes, This looks.... difficult..." Ethan said, staring at the mechanical monstrosity before him.

The power core - for that was indeed what the large device in the centre of the chamber could only be - was spherical in shape, with a slowly pulsing blue light visible through the sections of transparent material that was broken up by the metallic components of the core. Its base extended a little way beneath them, into an empty space hollowed out beneath the flooring at the centre of the chamber. The rest of the sphere - all three quarters of it, probably more - rose above the trio. Surrounding it, on numerous levels, were arrays of consoles and monitoring equipment, presumably linked into systems all over the station. Only those few consoles on the level the three Starfleet officers were on that directly monitored the core were active, displaying the odd script of the designers of this station.

"It seems to be in stand-by mode," the chief engineer said in a voice filled with awe, after a long silence had passed between them. "Ensign Kessel, let's see if we can bring it up to full power."

Ethen went directly to the nearest console. It was already in stand-by mode like the power core. He found the knob, which he could twist at the back of the console (like back in the other room), and activated the console.

Yet again he was faced with the same pulsing red glyphs as he had found on all the other consoles.

"I'll see what I can do."

For the next twenty or so minutes, Ethan tried various different sub-routines to activate the Power core, until grinding his teeth in exasperation, nothing happened. He kicked the console forcefully in frustration.

The Lights came on. And soon a low humming could be heard from the centre of Power core. Against all odds he had turned it on. He was not naive enough to believe that kicking the console had turned on the power. More likely he had successfully booted up the power, a couple of minutes ago, and had only reached enough levels to become visible as he kicked it. It was an impressive show though.

He turned awkwardly to his superiors. "Well, we have Power..."

"I guess it's true what they say," Michael said with a chuckle, "If at first you don't succeed...give it a good kick." He had seen people in all walks of life, especially engineers, vent their frustrations against equipment in the past. Doing so usually had little to no effect on producing the desired outcome about ninety-eight percent of the time. It was that elusive two percent when things actually started working that usually brought about a sense of dumbfounded relief.

Just a few short seconds later, the energy inside the power core began to churn at a much faster pace, the blue light it emitted beginning to pulse, until it seemed to send out a bright wave of light. As soon as it did, every console in the room they were in, in addition to the standard lighting immediately activated and became operational.


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Ensign Kitonuh's eyes were drawn to the Ops station readout when it started bleeping an alert at her, and almost immediately thereafter, looked up at the image of the station on the viewscreen. "Sir, look!" she called, attracting the attention of the officer on watch - a lieutenant, who was sitting in the command chair - as well as every other officer on the bridge. As they watched, every light on the station began to turn on, starting from the centre and emanating out, like a mexican wave at a sports arena.

"Bridge to captain," the duty officer said, activating the intercom with the command chair's control on the right arm rest. "I think they found the light switch, sir."


---------------
Lt. Commander Aeitos th'Ralik (NPC)
Chief Engineer

Lieutenant JG Michael Watters
Chief of Security

&

Ensign Ethan Kessel
Matter/Energy Systems Specialist
USS Endeavour