Zombies

Posted on Tue Dec 15th, 2015 @ 12:23am by Commander Bertrand Cuprum & Commander Cor Cordale & Ensign Honey Flanagan

Mission: If I told you...
Location: Station

The man in teal quickly ushered the large away team into a room off an adjoining corridor. It was easy to see he had been making a barricade of sorts, and this is the scraping sound they had heard.

"Ensign Ben Chance, Nurse," he introduced himself as he sealed the door behind them. "You the recovery team?"

Michelle blinked a little. Recovery? "Yes. We are. I'm Commander Michelle Bartlett. Looks like you've got a rather unholy mess in here."

"Well, you are in for a fight," Chance admitted. "Not sure how many of the crew are affected, but more are than not. I have seen one or two others, but we tend to get split up quickly, and... well, you never know who to trust now."

He eyed the injured Marine who was bleeding from the scratches to his face.

"Lt Smith, Intelligence," Smith stepped forward. "What is the status of the R47W?"

Chance grimaced, "I can't say it is contained, a sample may have left on the supply ship."

"Tell us what you know of what is happening here."

"Some sort of contagion, I think, though we haven't had any chance to look at a sample in medical. Most likely airborne, but with a very short range, maybe a couple of meters at most from the host before it dies. Most common form of passing the virus is fluid contact, but if you vapourise one of them and breath in the vapours.... That's why we can't use the disintegrate setting."

"Then we have to make sure it doesn't get any further," said Dee "We'd best set up a quarantine area."

Chance shook his head, "You'd have to quarantine the whole station now."

""No," Smith responded. "Under quarantine, nothing gets in or out. We need to recover R47W. I also promised to protect the away team crew as much as possible which means getting them off the station."

"I don't feel good," muttered the marine holding his stomach as well as his face.

Dee stepped forward and with help caught the marine before he fell to the floor.

"Let's get you over here to lie down."

"Isss there a way to get a sssample of thisss? Preferably frozen. Inert. I'd love to ssstudy thisss." Honey offered. "I mean, if posssssible."

"There'll probably be tons of data to sift through once we get to the labs." Cordale said, giving a quick glance back towards the doors they came through, as if expecting some horde of monsters to bash through at any second, "Okay, so maximum setting is out, and they're pretty much shrugging off stun settings. What setting did you set your weapon to to incapacitate that one?" the Thux asked the shooter who led them into this zombie sanctuary.

Chance responded, showing his hand phaser, "A short burst of level 4 tends to put them down. If you don't sustain the beam then you minimise the disruption effect."

"Mister Smith, what's the next move? Anything in the playbook for worst case scenarios?" Cordale asked, in a way that didn't sound as venomous as one would expect. Smith might have been a jerk, but it's not like he orchestrated this series of events to get a hostile alien lifeform past quarantine and weaponize a horrible plague, right?

Smith's face was unreadable, but he looked pale, and repeated his orders as if learned by rote, "The Away team must return with the R47W research. Any other research is of secondary importance. The lives of the crew and the station itself are only a Tertiary concern."

He looked around, "That means we still need to get to the labs and get the data we recover off. If the crew try to stop you, they are to be eliminated."

"I can show you the way to the labs," Chance provided, seemingly unfazed by being included in the expendable category.

"Then, again, Commander it is your call," Smith turned to the XO. "Do we press on as a large group or split our forces? The doctor and Ensign Keller could take the injured marine back to the Docking bay, as it would seem their services are no longer required, and they would be safer there with the larger military presence. The rest of us can press on to the lab."

"Let's get to the lab." Michelle said. "I'd love to start rescuing as many as we can, but we can't do that without endangering more lives. Let's get this other stuff first."

"This way then," Chance indicated, "And keep your weapons ready."