Look What The Cat Dragged In

Posted on Sun Jun 7th, 2020 @ 4:27pm by Leiddem Kea (*) & Chief Engineer Michael Burnstein

Mission: Mission 11 - Prospecting
Location: New Laurium
Timeline: MD03 08:00
1925 words - 3.9 OF Standard Post Measure

Leiddem nervously paced the gangway as he waited for anyone to show up. He was nervous and those nerves were making him jittery more than the coffee. No one had seen Burnie, Liha and Quin since before Gregnol had been revealed as potentially in trouble and not one of them were answering communicator. It was after dawn on this planet so he was hoping that if anyone had gotten drunk and passed out they would eventually come back by now.

The Security Crewman had no idea where Burnie went after leaving the forge and Maasar and that worried him. Whilst the other two had gone off to try and see if they could find Gregnol but now had gone missing themselves, he just hoped wherever they were he hoped they were together or had found Gregnol and were on their way back.

Burnie turned the corner toward the gangway with a bit of skip in his step. He was almost whistling ...until he saw Leiddem pacing and looking rather agitated. Hmm. Maybe he should have checked in, but they were on shoreleave and even the strictest Security Chief he'd ever had in Starfleet wasn't that much of a mother hen. "Hey, Leiddem, is something wrong?"

"Burnie!" Lieddem said with a look of surprise before rushing the space in between them to look at the man properly. "Oh yeah there is so much wrong at the moment. Gregnol is missing, you went missing, Liha and Quin went to look for Gregnol and they have not come back since." It was a mess but at least the Chief Engineer was not missing any longer.

"Missing, like 'gone over night'?" he asked, somewhat surprised at the alarm. Any one of them might have gone out drinking, Liha in particular, and not worried about returning that night (though given his reason for being gone, Liha and Quin disappearing together was not something he cared to consider too closely). "I mean, there are bars and gambling venues, or they might have met someone ...um, you know, that they knew and wanted to catch up with," he added hurriedly.

Lieddem blinked at the mans quick and hurried explanation. Where he had been was his own business as long as he was okay. "Missing like gone overnight and we found a pool of blood missing. Well Jeassaho, Ford and Jinx did." Lieddem scrubbed at his face, he was tired of gangway duty, it filled him with dread and nerves that he just wanted Gregnol and the other missing people just to walk up it. "And then we found some highly illegal chemicals where Gregnol was last seen."

Frak. "How long ago?" Burnie asked, alarmed.

Lieddem breathed a sigh of relief now that the man now realised the extent of what was really going on. It was alarming and Gregnol had been missing a long time. The Marine was under no illusions that the man would just go off and leave the ship and his wife. "Last known sight of him was thirteen Hundred hours yesterday."

"Okay, okay..." Burnie started to pace himself, looking down the way he had come. "You said Liha and Quin went looking for him and haven't come back yet either... where were they going to look and did they go together?" He wasn't necessarily as worried about Liha - if anyone had tried to abduct her, even if they'd managed to knock her out with drugs first, they were likely the ones in trouble - but the doctor... he wasn't sure if the man would be in more danger with Liha or on his own.

"They were going the opposite direction to Ford and Jink. So I guess they went towards the working area compared to the market and housing." Leiddem mused having similar thoughts about Liha and Quin himself. "They went together but they were not happy about it at all but did it for Jeassaho."

Not happy probably didn't begin to cover it, he thought, but he still put the chances of one actually killing the other fairly low. Not that some damage was out of the question... "We should check with the Mining Office and see if there have been incidents reported. I assume someone is talking to the authorities about Gregnol's disappearance?"

"Jake did that last night." Leiddem murmured looking over the PADD he had checking that everyone apart from Liha and Quin were accounted apart from Gregnol. "But we can go check the mining office. No one is to leave the ship alone."

Well, so much for popping out for a second date... Burnie thought with a frown, then grabbed a tricorder and nodded at Leiddem. "Yes, let's check with the mining office. If they don't have any leads, we'll have to try to retrace their path on our own."

"Lead the way and we can talk about where you went off to after seeing the evacuation corridor part." Leiddem wondered with a sly grin. He saw someone on the walk of shame back home after a night out.

Burnie flashed a grin. "A gentleman never tells," he said as he lead the way back down to corridor.

"This was totally a walk of shame." Leiddem murmured with a goofy grin to himself. It was his right now to tease the man especially after what he had learnt about Cami.

"No shame about it at all - I had a great evening," Burnie replied cheerfully, but his expression shifted, realizing 'cheerful' wasn't really appropriate to the situation with the ship. "My only regret is not knowing there was trouble here. I'd have gone out searching with you if I'd known."

"Well if you do not answer your communicator and be a dirty stop out these things will happen." Leiddem carried on trying to be cheerful. He needed something to be cheerful about even if it was just teasing the other man. The conversation soon grew quiet as they got down into the streets of New Laurium.

"Hey, everyone turns a comm off sometimes," Burnie rebutted, but given the news he'd just gotten left it at that once they were in the streets. All things considered, keeping his mind on looking around and keeping aware of what was going on seemed best.

However, they made it without incident to the mining offices and Burnie went straight from the door to what seemed to be a main desk. "Excuse me, we're from the Mary Rose," he said, figuring a straightforward approach was best. "Two of our crew didn't return last night and we think they may have gone to see the mines."

The woman at the desk frowned. "Our mines are commercial enterprise, not a tourist attraction."

Burnie frowned back. "I didn't say it was smart; just that this where they were going. Has anything happened down there that might explain their absence?"

Leiddem states quiet looking at the woman watching them for a second before she disappeared into the office with a stay there. “Well that does not feel me with dread at all.” He mumbled looking around the room to see if it could see anything dodgy. “Maybe Gregnol wandered there as well?” He said hopefully.

"Maybe," Burnie replied, torn between whether that was something to hope for or not. He'd been trapped underground once and had avoided excavations in caves ever since.

As if in answer to their fears, the woman returned, heels clicking on the hard floor and frown set in her face. "We had a minor seismic event register in section 28-B, but no one was there. We put that section on the unstable list two days ago."

"So it was closed off?" Burnie asked.

The woman sniffed. "Of course not, that would take man hours from actual work. The miners all get the list and their locators sound if they forget and go too close to a restricted section."

"And that's it?" the engineer asked, aghast. "No gates, no signs, nothing to warn anyone else?"

Her frown deepened. "Again, we are a private company, not a tourist attraction."

"I bet them wandered there having a huge argument." The Betazoid muttered imagining the scene already. He looked at the woman, this was not going to be easy at all. "We have missing crewmembers. How can we get the area searched?" Leiddem demanded with a smooth smile as he leaned on the desk.

"We have drones that automatically checked for locators and mapped damage so management can decide on repair or closure," the woman said, and tapped at her PaDD. "It looks like two levels of damage, but localized, and there are still worthwhile ore deposits. Most likely a crew will reopen the shaft next week."

Burnie's eyes widened in disbelief. "Next week?! They'll be dead by then."

"Equinox assumes no responsibility for harm to trespassers," the woman said in the tone of someone reciting by rote. "There are signs everywhere: Enter at your own risk."

“Oh come on love my companion here will cause chaos until he gets to go look and check for our friends.” Leiddem assured leaning on the desk more. “I am sure Equinox would not want dead bodies on their hands.” Leiddem was now more than sure that they had wandered in and got tracked.

Her eyes narrowed. "Is that threat?"

"I'm sure he meant it in terms of PR," Burnie said, jerking a thumb at Leiddem, then narrowed his eyes right back at the woman. "But if you don't let us search for our friends, I could certainly be more threatening."

"What? They aren't going to like the PR. No one will want that and I know people in the Federation News Network and New Day news." Leiddem comments on without a hint of care about it anymore, the woman was purposely being difficult. He was starting to get concerned. They could not follow anymore leads until they found out really if Gregnol was

The woman crossed her arms, a sour look on her face. "Fine. You can look, but with the understanding that it is at your own risk and any rescue operations will be at your own expense. Equinox does not have time and manpower to spare for dealing with unauthorized tourists." The last word was spoken with a bite of disdain. She tapped her PaDD, bringing up a form. "I'll give you access badges, but you need to sign here, and here, and initial here, to show you understand and accept those terms."

"Right." Burnie nearly growled the word as he grabbed the PaDD and scrawled signatures and initials, and nearly threw it back at her. "We'll take that mapping of the area along with the access badges."

"Of course." She nearly rolled her eyes, but transferred the data to an stick and handed over two badges. "Tell your ship where you'll be and that if you don't come back Equinox Industries will not be pressed to search for you."

"You are a ray of sunshine," Leiddem commented taking the badges from her passing one to Burnie. "I am sure they will love just how helpful you have been when we report back," Leiddem assured the woman as she disappeared off leaving the pair alone. "We are going to need some help here."

"Yes," Burnie agreed, turning toward the door. "We need to go back to the ship anyway. There's some equipment and supplies we'll need for this."

OFF::

Michael Burnstein
Chief Engineer
SS Mary Rose

Leiddem Kea
Security
SS Mary Rose
(PNPC Gregnol)