"Ashes, Ashes" - Part I of II

[Garnoopy 0]

Lieutenant Junior Grade Garnoopy

Personal Log Stardate 50303.11

“Ashes, Ashes” – Part I of II

 

The transporter cycle finished, Garnoopy found himself standing in a hallway, dark and dreary, only a few small blinking red lights illuminated anything.

 

Garnoopy instantly switched on his phaser rifle light, and his biosuit lights, making a sweep with the phaser rifle, ready for whatever might appear next. On the floor lay a few bodies, their skin burned off, dried blood covered the floor. It was impossible to tell anything about the rank or position of the bodies; nothing was left to tell by.

 

Lieutenant McLean pointed to the engineering doors, or, where they should have been. The corridor had collapsed, allowing no way to head to their destination the easy way.

 

“Well, we're gonna need to find another way around” Lieutenant Travis said, pointing out the obvious.  

 

Garnoopy nodded, and said to McLean “Do you know if we can go around?”

 

McLean stepped forward, and a sickening crunch echoed through the hallway as the hand of a body smashed into pieces. “I have no idea if there is another way around, I don’t know what is broken.”

 

McLean began to move forward, and Garnoopy stood just behind to the right, holding his phaser rifle ready, helping to illuminate the corridor ahead. The only sounds were of their footsteps, and Travis’ tricorder, a few paces behind them making the usual beeps as it scanned.

 

Lighting the ceiling, a hole was noted, not large enough for anyone in a biosuit to get through, but it did go trough clear to the next deck above them.

 

“If we cannot go around, we might have to go up then back down a deck to get to engineering” Garnoopy said.

 

McLean shown his light to the hole in the ceiling, then down to a similar hole in the floor, “The question is, do we go down first, or up?”

 

Garnoopy grunted, “If decking is collapsing, then it is likely the decks below are also blocked, and the ones above are more likely to be open.”

 

Glancing at the away team, McLean responded “Yet, climbing up is going to be problematic, for those of you out of shape.”

 

“If you need a lift sir, I’d be happy to put you through the hole.” Garnoopy responded, grunting.

 

Looking up at the hole, Ensign Voran said, “Sir, this hole is way to small to bit a biosuit in.”

 

After a few minutes of discussion about the possibilities of widening the hole and the chances of the deck collapsing, it was decided that Garnoopy would use his phaser rifle and slowly make it larger, so the away team could climb upwards with the help of their Klingon security guard and hopefully make it to engineering.

 

Taking careful aim, Garnoopy fired the phaser rifle and slowly sliced chunks of the ceiling away, making the hole just large enough for the crewmembers to make it through.

 

Garnoopy slung his phaser rifle over his back; ready to assist in helping the crewmembers get up through the hole. “Who do you want to go through first?” Garnoopy asked to McLean.

 

Voran piped up to McLean, “Permission to lead the way sir.”

 

McLean nodded, “Go ahead Ensign.”

 

Garnoopy grunted as Voran walked to below the hole, “You’ll need a small boost.”