Star Trek: Animus: Plague Bound

Part 4

Reena Blackford sat on the upper hull of the Milne Bay resting her chin on an open palm, her boredom difficult to hide from the rest of her security detail as they milled around the two shuttles.

Since returning to their impromptu landing site, they discovered to their dismay that something was preventing the Milne Bay's tiny reactor from energising, and while the couldn't access the Animus' shuttle for some reason, Reena suspected the same was also the case for it. She looked down at her communicator, sitting open on the outer hull of the shuttle beside her, red notification lights informed her that the device had still been unsuccessful in establishing an outside connection to either the Kokoda or the rest of the landing party.

"What's going on?" she asked no one in particular. As they had fought a hasty retreat back to the shuttles, she had attempted to use the Milne Bay to either collect reinforcements or to provide air support for the rest of the team, when they discovered that the craft was powerless, and they were effectively stuck on their landing zone with no way of knowing the location or fate of the rest of the landing party, Reena felt as powerless as the shuttle she now sat on.

"Hastings, any luck?" she called, leaning over the side of the shuttle to address the pair of legs sticking out from an auxiliary hatch on the underside of the shuttle.

"Negative ma'am," came the Milne Bay's shuttle pilots muffled reply, before he crawled out of the hatch. "I've tried everything that I can think of up to and including hitting the damn thing and something is preventing the reactor to re-energise, and the reserve capacitors lack the charge to transmit a message with enough power to punch through the ambient interference."

Reena sighed before sliding off the slope of the shuttles upper hull, landing on her feet. "So we are still stuck," she remarked.

The pilot nodded reluctantly. "It appears so, ma'am."

"Damnit," Reena replied before one of her security detail approached, a grim ashen look to his face.

"Ma'am, we've stowed the second body we discovered. Like the first one, she has no identification on her service badge," he reported, handing her the unique black service badge that he had collected from the body before storing the remains in the Milne Bay's cargo module.

"Thank you, Perkins, I'll record this discovery in my after-action report," Reena replied choosing to omit the, "if we ever get off this rock."

Petty Officer Perkins nodded before heading back to the makeshift perimeter. Reena looked past him to the Starfleet Skeleton Key device that was still attached to the one operational external door to the courtyard, thankful that it was the only piece of Federation technology that still worked, not that it seemed to matter as their mysterious attackers seemed disinterested in forcing the lock open. This apparent ignorance on the part of their assailants unnerved Reena more than she ever dared to let on, especially to the men under her command.

"Just what is going on," she murmured, unable to shift the feeling of helplessness being stuck in this courtyard while her colleagues were in uncertain danger.

A sequential beeping echoed through the landing zone caught everyone's attention, Reena looked at Perkins and Hastings who both shrugged until Petty Officer Gordon approached the Skeleton Key. "Ma'am, I think it's the Skeleton Key."

Reena frowned and approached the device, the rest of her team joined her, wary hands resting on the grips of holstered phasers.

"Are they trying to break in?" she asked, forcing the concern she felt from her mind while also mentally preparing herself for an ambush.