Ens. Tom Servo, Personal Log

[Tom Servo 0]

U.S.S. Arcadia

Personal Log: Ens. Tom Servo

 

Computer, begin personal log. Well it has certainly been an interesting first couple mission’s; the introduction I received from the security team already on board was on this twisted little planet called Paradisia. I hope the Arcadia will not be going back there anytime soon because we had a little trouble with a local game. Maybe after the diplomatic side of Star Fleet works out the purpose of this game, and how they can keep better tabs on the so called participants by making sure they don’t get hurt or anything we might return.

 

Our next mission, the one we stumbled onto, was to meet up with this Ambassador. The Chief of Security, Lt. Marx, sustains serious injuries as a result of what appears to be a kidnapping of the Admiral. The Admiral was replaced by an android rigged with Novadex explosives, and was booby trapped to detonate in the event of tampering. While the Lt. was recovering in sickbay from his ordeal, Lt. Thoros and I tried to establish who made the explosives and where they came from. All we were able to figure out was that it was a very professional job.

 

After we cleared the shuttle from any further traps and explosives, we retrieved a non-descript black box, which we surmised was some sort of controller for the explosive androids, and brought it to sickbay where the good doctor would try and get anything forensic off of it.

 

As I continued to scan the shuttle, Thoros assumed command of the department, and after a hair-raising trip through an asteroid field, came upon a knock box. Thoros and a poor Ensign transported over only to find themselves in a similar situation that Marx was in. What appeared to be the real Admiral with fading life signs was once again rigged to explode, this time Mr. Thoros tried to make sure the Admiral was ok, and I think that his feelings for helping the wounded rather than self preservation kicked in and unfortunately was injured by doing so.

 

When the bridge brought the knock box onto the ship, Ens. Nouvelle Daena, a very nice Mithraan from the science department, was sent to help out with the analysis of this conundrum. I setup every precaution I could think of, the entire shuttle bay was surrounded by a level 10 force field, we wore blast suits, the bridge had a lock on us, and I fully intended to take as much time as necessary to do the scans and disarm any bombs. I refuse to be the 5^th person from security to be sent to sickbay because of injuries sustained on the job, and while not as glamorous, it would certainly be better if it resulted from some sort of holodeck accident.

 

In any case, we both scanned the outer surface of the knock box, Daena looking for any scientific evidence of where it came from, and me looking for signs of traps or explosives. With none found, we opened the door, and we heard this high pitched whine coming from inside, Daena looked much more annoyed by it than I was. She knew almost immediately where it was coming from, and we scanned that location. (As a little side note, over the last few days, I have spent more time scanning and analyzing that I ever thought I would have to.) Daena found what turned out to be a thermal sensor on the surface of the compartment the noise was coming from, possibly activated by Thoros and the other Ensign.

 

I scanned for traps and came across a micro-switch hooked into the panel and bypassed it. At the time, all I was on a brief little personal high thinking that I had outsmarted whoever was behind this, but was about to be proven wrong. After I bypassed the switch, I opened the panel, and in about the 3 seconds it took me to see it, process in my brain what it was, and react, it exploded. In the panel there was a Romulan disruptor set to overload, and I had missed the second micro-switch that triggered the overload when the panel was opened. On the plus side, we were able to get out of the direct blast, and any other potential injuries were prevented by the blast suits.

 

I must say, the reaction that Ops has when an explosion occurs on the ship is incredible, I was barely able to remember where I was when I heard Lt. Meriva ask what happened. I gathered my senses, told him we were ok, and explained what happened.

 

My ego was certainly cut down for the rest of the check. Every other trap that I came across, I scanned and rescanned all around it for redundant triggers. As luck would have it, the panel with the disruptor was the only time there was more than one. To keep things moving along, and partially so we could get out of this death box as quickly as possible, the remainder of the time was spent finding and disabling everything we came across. The remaining two androids each had 10 grams of Novadex setup to make short work of anyone that messed around with them, removing the explosive from them was probably the longest and most nerve racking 20 minutes I have ever experienced. After Daena took some scans and an extremely small sample of the plastic-like substance, for future reference if necessary, the remainder was detonated a safe distance from the ship.

 

The androids were verified safe and one of them was given to Engineering for their analysis, while the other to sickbay for their take on it. With the knock box clear, and something intact for two other departments to work on, Daena and I left the shuttle bay to calm down and relax for a bit. She certainly is a lot tougher than she looks, and I defiantly owe her at least a lunch after letting a disruptor overload not 10 feet from her.

 

With all the danger the security team on this ship encounters, maybe I should look for a transfer. It seems like one can move up the ladder pretty quickly though -- maybe I will stay.

 

Computer, end log, and notify me when 10 minutes has elapsed, I need a power nap.