Deck 188

[Chirakis 1]

Deck 188

Jan Kazin shrugged into her Ordnance Disposal safety gear. "You have the scans yet, Vin?" she asked while Gren Madan checked her gear, especially the seals, then examined her helmet for flaws. 

"Well," Vince began hesitantly, lightly tapping a finger on the table as he studied his screen.

"Well what?" Jan prompted, stepping toward him to take a look.

Vince swiveled the screen in her direction and gestured as he spoke. "The loose metal is solid. I mean the pipes and whatever they use for construction.  I'm not getting a poison, viral, or bacterial reading or anything out of the ordinary.  Just a bunch of construction pipe, different sizes… different configurations.

"But these containers?" He shrugged as he zoomed in and ran a finger across the screen.  "Total of five, spread out like… well, like a star… are impenetrable.  And there's nothing I know of that's as tight as that.”

“By tight, you mean the scan doesn’t show through the exterior?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Kneeling next to him, Jan carefully studied the scan of each container, then leaned back on her heels. “You see any attachments, triggers, tripwires?”

“None.  But there’s always a chance.... ”

"Right.  And if anything goes, we don't know the impact it'll have... how many decks or maybe the entire station.  Get security on it.  Have them sweep with their highest penetration power and send the results ASAP.”  

“On it,” Vince replied, swiveling his chair to send the message as Jan accepted her helmet from Glen.  A few minutes later, the report showed on screen.  Vince zoomed in to stare at each element.  

“Huh,” he said finally.

“What huh Vin? What’s the report? We good to go?” Jan asked as she gave her helmet one last check.

“Yeah, we got through the barriers,  but there doesn’t seem to be much in the containers.  Composition of the interior indicates food, but I can’t be sure.  If it's food, I sure is weird.”

“So, it doesn’t look like anything dangerous?”

“No, ma’am.  But there’s…”

“...always a chance. I know, Vin. I’m going in.”

Jan flicked down her visor and secured the rim. Gren gave her protective gear one more check then a thumbs up.  She stepped to the door, Gren engaged the force field, a red light began to flash, and the door closed behind her.