A Few More Steps...

[Savros 0]

Savros stepped down the stone steps into the diminishing light　of the maze of tunnels under the coliseum pausing briefly to turn on his light before continuing onward.　 Behind him, Reed followed quietly, conducting passive scans with her tricorder.　Coming to the bottom of the passage, the Vulcan slowed, shining his light on burnt the remnant of a torch.

 

"Lieutenant, what do you make of this?"　He queried.

 

Reed looked up from her tricorder, eyeing the object curiously. "A burnt torch?" she started.　 "Perhaps we can determine its age?" she said, taking a step closer to the science officer.

 

Savros turned to face Reed, causing her to squint in momentary blindness and bring up a hand to shield her eyes.　 Lowering his flashlight, the Vulcan continued, "I am not certain, but it does tell us something about the circumstances when they left."

 

"Or it might tell us that someone has visited recently," Reed reasoned, still blinking to readjust her vision.

 

"True, but if someone visited recently, why would they use a torch?　 Do a complete scan and we will analyze it later."

 

Nodding, Reed adjusted the settings on her tricorder and began to take focused scans of the torch from up close.　 She examined the torch intently, wondering what type of information they could glean from it.

 

Coming down the steps behind the navigation officer, Ensign Freeman lowered the structural scanner to the ground.　 He was having second thoughts about this mission.　 The Commander had ordered him down to the surface with the instrument, but it now seemed like an excuse to put him on the team.　 Busy work.　 While he appreciated the sentiment, he wished it had not been necessary.　 He was an engineer and preferred assignments that let him use his skills.

 

In turn, each member of the away team moved off the steps and entered the large chamber at that branched off into several separate passages.　 Spanning one wall, between two of the passages was rough stone bench.　 To its right were several rough-hewn curved stones, protruding from the wall and serving as hooks for a crude set of metal shackles.　

 

Turning on her own light, Reed looked around the room, her attention falling upon the passage next to the bench and shackles. "This is a bit odd," she observed to Savros and Freeman. "This passage doesn't begin in what appears to be a Roman arch, like the others in this room." Her light roams over the narrow opening, which appeared to be more like a crevice that someone had hollowed out of the rock, then the opening to a passage.

 

Swerving around the equipment he had just put down, Freeman looked up to where Reed was directing her light. "No, I hadn't noticed. I'll take your word..." he trailed off, now that he was looking; it seemed different from the others that he'd seen.

 

Moving forward, he limped towards the benches, reaching for and examining the shackles. Not a pretty sight. "I only just got out of sickbay a few hours ago, and I've only had a very cursory briefing...what are we looking for, exactly?" He glanced over his shoulder, towards Savros and Reed as he asked his question. He tugged at the shackle, hoping it was some kind of gruesome decoration, but he doubted it.

 

"Was this a prison at some point? Maybe where they kept the fighters." Leaving the shackles, he examined around his surroundings more closely. His specialty was in computer engineering, so he racked his brains, trying to recall the structural engineering courses he had taken, attempting to remember why one exit would be differently designed from the rest, maybe partial reconstruction? But even then, they would have tried to keep to the style of the original...that was weird, now that he thought about it. Moving closer to the exit in question, he scanned it closely, trying to age the material, wondering if it had been constructed before or after the rest of the building.

 

Suddenly a chirp came from beneath Savros' robe. He pulled out his communicator, "This is Lieutenant Savros. Go ahead."