Personal Log - Zar Alces

[Cptn Moose 0]

Personal Log, Zar Alces - Stardate 10305.27

 

"Enough," he squeaked out, grasping the railing and gasping for breath. "Enough.  There has to be a better way."

 

"Are you all right Commander?" asked the concerned Marine Captain.  He was tall, blond, broad shouldered and perfectly fit.  Alces hated him.

 

"I'm as good as I can be considering I left my right lung on Deck 207B.  That's a joke," he gasped, stopping the man from summoning medical assistance.  "Why are we doing this?"

 

"It's a standard search pattern," said the marine.

 

"Which works in uninhabited and closed off areas.  This station is too big for this."

 

"What would you recommed, Commander?"

 

"Well ... let me see," he said.  His breathing was starting to slow back down to almost normal.  It wasn't such an effort to talk.  "We started with six missing refugees.  Four have been found dead.  The two who are missing either whacked the other four, or are hiding from the people who did."  His mind began to wander, as he assessed the various possibilites.  "They must have known that sabotaging the Arcadia's transporters would only slow us down, not prevent us from arriving, so it's unlikely that they meant to stay here."

 

"But they can't go anywhere," said the Marine.  "All traffic has been halted and they can't beam anywhere while the station's shields are up."

 

"Then we need to secure the station's shield generators.  If they're trying to escape, they'll have to go through there."  It seemed fairly obvious.

 

"All right men," shouted the tall, blond, fit Marine Captain after tapping some keys on his data padd.  "Let's go!" Suddenly, they started running up the stairs.

 

"But wait," shouted Alces, staggering behind them.  "Where are you going?"

 

"To the shield generators, Sir.  Deck 185."

 

Alces quickly supressed several Tarellian curses.  That was another ten decks up.  Weren't there any turbolifts in this place?

 

Zar Alces, Chief Engineer (while he lives)

USS Arcadia, NCC-1742-E