Lockdown

Posted on Mon Nov 22nd, 2021 @ 2:50pm by Lieutenant JG Shaille Levine & Linza (Lin) Esni & Chief Petty Officer Lisa Terrix

Mission: Double Bind
Location: VIP Quarters - Deck 6

Shaille stood outside the VIP quarters on deck six, waiting for the rest of the team to arrive. Their orders were fairly straightforward. Lock down the quarters ready for the astronauts. She sighed, cradling the PaDD as she leaned back against the bulkhead, resting her head against the bulkhead and closing her eyes while she waited.

"Penny for your thoughts, ma'am?" Lisa asked as she walked up to the security officer leaned up against the bulkhead, the scent of coffee wafting along with her as she carried a quartet of containers in one hand and a PADD in the other, "Perhaps some coffee will help?" She asked with a smile.

Taking one of the coffee's, Shaille exhaled deeply. "Oh may the deities bless your beautiful soul!" she exclaimed as she took a sip. "I was actually contemplating hitting up the replicator inside before we shut it down," she added with a laugh. "Now if only you'd thought to bring donuts," she added with a wink.

Lisa chuckled as she tucked the PADD under and arm and selected her own coffee, "Alas, if only I'd had a third hand." She took a sip of her drink, "But I haven't taken enough radiation to mutate one quite yet. I'll get to work on that one, but for the moment... Is it true that there isn't much we can do? Evie won't tell me much, but she's been a bit off."

There was a clatter from down the corridor, followed by the hollow repeating sound of a drum slowly rolling down the hall and them being kicked to get it to move further. Rattle. Clatter. CLANK....Rattle. Clatter. CLANK! Keth appeared, or at least Keths legs appeared, as the top half of him was hidden behind a motley collection of equipment boxes and slung backs.

And at his feet, slowly rolling to a stop, was a small canister marked 'WARNING! HIGH-PRESSURE CONTENTS!' Which was okay, because Kethg couldn't read Federation standard and so clearly such a mundane stick-on warning was not meant for him.

"Sorry, I'm late!" Keth said, his ears perking up over the top of the collection he was carrying. "I had to get a lot of stuff out of stores to make sure we can do our job, and don't worry I double checked everything."

Linza came up behind Keth and sighed heavily. "Seriously, Lieutenant?" She grabbed a few things at his feet and slung one of the bags over her shoulder. "Since when is all of this necessary?" Her eyes caught the others and all she could do was shrug to them.

As the noise parade stopped in front of them, Shaille looked Keth over, from toe to tail, up to the tips of his ears. "I'm going to go out on a limb and assume you're Keth?" she asked, raising an eyebrow slightly. "I think we have one more engineer that was meant to join us but we may as well get started, the sooner we start, the sooner we can get this over and done with."

Turning to face the door, she keyed in an access override code, waiting for the doors to part before she stepped inside, letting out a low whistle as she took in the interior of the quarters. "I thought my quarters was decent, but dayum... you could fit my entire quarters and then some into this kitchen alone!"

An avalanche of rattling containers landed on the floor, and Keth began to set up 'base camp'.

"Pryce & Carters Starfleet Security Manual Rule 654: When in doubt, whip it out!" Keth said, turning from an open crate with something in his hand. "'It being a self polarising photon scanner for detecting possible explosive compounds as well as other chemical compounds that could prove harmful."

It was a flashlight. OKay, it was a fancy man's flashlight that, given enough time, could cook a raw chicken in six minutes on a low setting. (Or a tribble in a picosecond, if you do the math. The delicious, delicious math.)

"Don't worry," Keth said in a sing song voice. "I brought enough for everyone!"

On the ship, on this deck, or in this room he never illuminated.

Having followed the rest in, Lisa looked in horror at the mess that was Keth. She'd met him before, in engineering, when he'd gotten turned into a ball of fuzz, but she'd thought that was a one-off. Now she looked at the two remaining coffees in her drink holder and absently offered one to Linza, wondering what the Huani would do with a hot coffee, what sort of mess he'd make, "I don't think we're setting up tents or anything, sir." She said, finally offering the last one to him, "Ma'am, aren't we just... Deactivating and concealing our tech that they wouldn't have?" She looked at Shaille.

"True, but we also need to ensure the safety of these aliens," Keth said. "I mean...well alien to me, and to you, even though you are alien to me and I'm alien to you. Which makes us doubly alien to them. So, you know, it's very off putting."

Keth turned on the SPP Scanner, and a shaft of violet light projected out of the end of it. The end that was resting on a decorative spider plant that was rapidly withering under the furious hammers of overly excited photons.

Lisa had gone over to the replicator first, interfacing with both the integral screen as well as linking it with her PADD and began the process of deactivating it, "What I'm going to do is do full shut down on the consoles and replicators, complete with an actual physical disconnect. That way, they can't 'accidentally' reactivate one."

Shaille thumbed into the PaDD in her hand and scanned through it. "it looks like we have to remove basically everything except environmental controls and basic entertainment. No communications, no systems access, no replicators, nothing. The Captain has also requested additional security systems installed across the room, primarily focusing on the communal area of the quarters, namely the console," Shaille paused and pointed to the desk and the console in one corner, "and the replicator to make sure the technology isn't tampered with in any way I assume."

"I could just remove it entirely, once you've unplugged it. I've found Federation equipment isn't held down very tightly," Keth noted as he took the smoking spider plant and put it outside in the corridor where it could smolder in peace. "Most of the time it just pops right out."

Linza just shook her head at the conversation, mostly Keth's input, as she looked around the communal area for what they could do for security. "Given their current tech level, old fashioned security cameras might not be seen as anything imposing if we can swing it and link it all into the main security systems."

Shaille nodded toward Linza. "We just need to be mindful of the perception of invading their privacy, but I'll leave it to you. Consider that your assignment," she grinned before looking back to Lisa. "Maybe start by locking down the replicator. The Captain has been clear that they should be completely non functional. All food and drinks need to come through the mess hall. I'll handle the security restrictions on the wall panels. Keth, can you source what ever Linza needs?"

“Just about done with this one.” Lisa confirmed, the entire faceplate nearly dark as she locked out functions, “I’ll get to the ones in the bedrooms next, those are standard for diplomatic suites.”

"Sure thing," Keth said. He reached into his grab bag of things, a compendium of every item in the Starfleet away team handbook and appendices. After a moment's foraging, he found what he was looking for: a small glass bowl as big as his palm, a can of glossy reflective nano particles, and a full range micro sensor.

He sprayed the interior of the small bowl with the nanoparticles, which handily form a smooth even layer over the concave surface. He then dropped the spherical microsensor into the bowl, like an olive in a very very very dry Martini.

"There we go," Keth said and held up the bowl. "Affix that to the ceiling, and it should look like an old fashion optical camera system. If we use a binary bonding agent it should be immune to any tampering short they can devise. It also has the benefit of being able to be linked into the current Sec System."

To sell his arts and crafts project, he made a little 'Ta-da' sound.

Shaille looked back over her shoulder at the 'ta-da' and shook her head slightly. Hopefully they could get this resolved sooner rather than later. She had a feeling that trying to explain Keth's particular kind of help to Commander Myers and the Captain could be somewhat difficult.