Come Together

Posted on Sun Sep 8th, 2019 @ 2:40am by Lieutenant Commander William Gunnison

Will looked around the cargo bay as it was being set up to "host" the two delegations. He'd been given discretion on which cargo bay specifically to use, and he'd opted to use Cargo Bay 3 on Deck 7, since it was located on a deck that had both the ship's Marine Barracks (for having added security close by, if required) and Transporter Room 2 (to get both delegations - or whatever was left of them - off the ship that much quicker when the ship reached Trion 8).

This was going to be...an interesting setup, no matter how they did it and no matter what happened. They would have to move no small amount of the items currently in there elsewhere for the time being, and the cargo bays were already rather full from having to make rearrangements after the fighter compliment came on board just prior to their picking up the Trion government's delegation. But, on the other hand, moving the delegations in here opened up the guest quarters they'd been using, and since Commander Laurens had decided to lump both groups confined to the lounge for the time being, that left the quarters in question available for moving the supplies into for the time being, with the obvious intent of moving the supplies back into the cargo bay at the earliest opportunity after arrival at Trion 8.

Normally, Will would worry about added security measures to keep the delegates in here, but figured that would probably be overkill at the moment. Besides the Marine Barracks (and other accompanying Marine facilities) being on the same deck to help keep an eye on them, the only target that each group would have was the other group, and since both groups were already here... (The only other thing that might be of any concern was if, for some bizarre reason, one of the groups decided to blow up the ship itself, and increased security details around critical areas after what had happened on board the Zendaya, it was unlikely that any attempt to damage the Astraea would be successful.)

But still, Will was a bit nervous, about what, he couldn't quite put a finger on. As he was looking around, he noticed one of the ventilation grates, and a thought struck him concerning the recent death of one of the rebel group's delegation. Signalling over the ship's quartermaster, who was helping get things set up, and said, "Keep going. I have something to check on for a few minutes, but will be back shortly."

"Of course, Sir."

Will headed to the lounge. Entering and trying not to attract attention to himself, he looked around. After a few moments, he spotted something that he he figured that he might find. There was a ceiling ventilation grate, easily big enough for a humanoid to fit through, and right above one of the tables. Even from where he was he could see it looked slightly askew. It didn't surprise him that nobody had noticed it, though. People didn't always "think 3 dimensionally," as Will sometimes phrased it, and it was very easy for something like this to go unnoticed. Even Will hadn't originally noticed it.

Will left the lounge, and headed into his office. He tapped out a quick message to Cmdr. Laurens, Lt. Cmdr. Gail, Lt. Matashi, and Lt. Voroshilov. He made mention of the loose ceiling ventilation grate in the lounge and how it might have been used as the point of entry for the deceased Trion woman and whomever might have accompanied her., and recommended that they look into making the ventilation system more secure at the earliest convenience, to avoid similar problems in the future.