Whose That Knocking At The Door

[DrDMatthews 0]

A joint log by Debbie Matthews, Aaron Scherer and Kat Shawnsee

 

The unwanted guests had finally arrived. Their presence didn't surprise the three members of the away team who remained on the runabout. They were still uncertain as to exactly who these people were. It appeared they were about to find out. The away team was sure of one thing....the squad of armed personnel now surrounding the runabout were not there to offer them a friendly welcome to this planet.

 

There was something else they were sure about as well. Sooner or later, they would have to open the hatch. Whoever was outside, wasn't going to simply walk away if nobody answered the door.

 

Debbie Matthews looked at the weapon Aaron Scherer handed her. She was far from an expert but she'd been around long enough to have seen her fair share of rifles as well as hand held phasers. But she'd never seen anything quite like this before.

 

Aaron said these were new models and not widely available. Debbie glanced toward the runabout's hatch. Kat Shawnsee was standing just to the left of it. She too was examining the new rifle. Aaron had moved forward but stopped before sitting down at the controls. He was looking at Debbie, a deep frown etched on his face.

 

"You think these may raise some eyebrows?" asked Aaron, stepping back toward Debbie, who was still standing by the secret compartment where the rifles were hidden.

"They might," answered Kat.

Debbie looked at her cohorts and nodded. "I agree." She handed the rifle back to Aaron and moved out of his way. "Let's stowe these and bring out something a little less....ostentatious."

 

It took less than thirty seconds for Aaron to place the rifles back in the secret compartment, close it and move the seating units back on top of it. Kat handed Debbie a standard phaser....the type that could be purchased at any weapons outlet. The Doctor dropped it into one of her jacket pockets and quickly moved to the aft section of the runabout.

 

Debbie's first stop was the medical kit where she'd hidden the self-destruct detonator. She reached in and carefully removed the small box of gauze the mechanism was hidden in. Moving two steps to her right, she opened a small access panel at the bottom of the recycle unit. She gently placed the box inside and closed the panel.

 

The second part of Debbie's mission was a bit more difficult, primarily because of poor visibility. The emergency lights were now on and even those would be shut down within a few minutes. It was imperative Debbie finish her task prior to that happening.

 

Carefully moving supplies around in the primary medical kit, Debbie located another small box. Retrieving it, she sat down on a nearby bench and opened the box. Inside were a dozen subcutaneous transponders used for tracking individuals. Each thread like unit was less than half a centimeter long and only three millimeters in diameter. They were all preset to a default frequency used exclusively by Starfleet.

 

"Aaron," she called over her shoulder. "How fast can you reset that comm system? We don't want them to find anything but public frequencies on that comm."

 

Aaron was already sitting down at the controls before Debbie said anything about the comm frequencies. He quickly turned to the comm and let his fingers fly across the console as he reset the system. "Child's play, Doctor, " he said as he smiled and turned back to his fellow comrades. "Well, they won't wait for much longer. If you don't mind, I'll go out there for a minute and chat.

 

"Kat, you better get to that bed and here," he extended his hand toward Shawnsee passing her a knife he'd kept hidden in his boot. "Take this. You might be able to use it."

 

He felt almost alive again as he continued. "And Doc, I may need your help.

When I ask for you to come on out, head over to their injured friend. That way, we'll be in different postions....all the better to cause confusion."

 

Kat took the knife and placed it in her belt under her supposedly injured arm. This was one of her native weapons and she could actually do much harm with it if need be. She drew her cloak over it to hide it. Hopefully with her *mangled* arm, if they did search her, they would go a bit easier on her and not be as intrusive.

 

"Thats fine," said Kat, straightening her cloak. "You can both go out. I'll hang behind but not in bed. I'll sit in a chair and act as if I'm still in pain. Which may not be far from the truth if anyone grabs this arm. It's tender now. If someone grabs it, oh dear Creator, it's going to hurt. If they ask if anyone else is in here, you can send them in. We can play it out from there."

 

"Wait a minute," said Debbie while wondering if she should change the frequency on the transponders. She quickly decided against it. There was no time for that. Besides, the transponders didn't operate on communication frequencies anyway. She would have to trust that this particular tracking frequency hadn't been compromised.

 

Also in the box was a small hypo used to implant the transponders. She picked it up, opened it and carefully loaded three of the tiny devices. Grabbing a small spray canister, she stood up and walked toward Aaron and Kat.

 

"Quickly, take off your jackets," she ordered. "I want to implant these transponders in all of us before we open the hatch. The best place is the fleshy part of your underarm." Debbie grinned slightly and motioned for her friends to hurry up. "So come on....expose your underarms."

 

Aaron was the first one ready. Debbie spayed the area with the anesthetic which was probably a waste. It usually took a few seconds to penetrate the tissue under the skin but Debbie couldn't afford to wait. She put the hypo in place, pressed the small button activating it and planted the transponder exactly where she wanted it.

 

Scherer never flinched but he was frowning by the time Debbie finished. "Sorry," she mumbled, spraying the anesthetic onto the implant site one more time. "It won't hurt for long."

 

Then she moved on to Kat who had carefully exposed the area under her damaged arm. Following the same procedure, Debbie quickly implanted the transponder and then helped Kat rearrange her clothing.

 

Moving aft once again, Debbie maneuvered the hypo under her own arm and hit the button. "Ouch," she whispered. It hurt more than she expected it to and she quickly followed up the implant with a hefty spray of the anesthetic. Then she dropped the hypo and the small box containing the rest of the transponders into the nearby recycle unit and turned it on. Within two seconds, the unit was empty. There was now no evidence of transponders anywhere on the runabout.

 

Debbie dropped the spray container back into the med kit and closed it. All in all, no more than five minutes had passed since they first heard the order to open the hatch and come out....maybe not even that long. Debbie rejoined her cohorts, pulled the phaser out of her pocket and checked the setting. "I guess I'm as ready as I'll ever be," she said solemnly.

 

Aaron nodded. "I'll go out first. Doc, you stand in the hatchway for as long as you can get away with it which probably won't be too long. Remember, try to move over toward the one on the ground."

 

Kat looked at the others. "All we can do is hope they don't want to take us in. We will be no good to the others if we're stuck in there with them."

 

The others.....Debbie had not allow herself not to think about them. "We don't know for sure where they are," she whispered. "For all we know....." She refused to finish that sentence and again forced all thoughts of Corran and Vanthros to the back of her mind.

 

Kat took a seat as Aaron started unlocking the hatch while Debbie turned off the lights. It was time to find out who was knocking at the door.