Sonia stepped into the transporter room, the helmet of her EVA suit tucked under her arm, as she waited for Gil Droc to arrive before they continued work about the wrecks from the Dominion war. Setting down the helmet on the transporter pad she couldn’t help but fidget, “Why are these so uncomfortable,” she muttered to herself as she tried to adjust the suit so it didn’t pinch awkwardly.

As she did the door opened behind her and Lieutenant Commander Ortega stepped in with her usual stern look on her face. “Ensign, What are you doing?” she said as Sonia had been adjusting the neckline of the EVA interior suit.

Surprised Sonia jumped to attention almost knocking her helmet to the floor, “Commander?! Oh, just adjusted the neckline. What can I help you with?”

Ortega let out a snort, “I was passing by and knew you were about to beam over. I have an updated list of ships and new orders. Ensign Maddox will be joining you and Gil Droc. Your new ship is a Dominion Cruiser; the partial remains of it anyway. Be careful over there.” She turned to leave and paused, “Is the suit on properly?”

“Yes, Commander, I just, well, I fidget a bit when I am in them and not on an EVA,” Sonia remarked.

“Ah,” Ortega said and left.

A moment later Droc stepped in, with a box of tools for the work. “Morning Ensign Jeden, I assume those are new orders?”

Sonia smiled at her Cardassian counterpart, “Yes, we are off to a Dominion Cruiser, partially intact, and one of my colleagues, Ensign Maddox, will be joining.”

Tav hurtled down the corridor. He was late! He was told it was a ‘last minute assignment,’ but in this case, it was more like, ‘Hey you were due in the transporter room the last minute displayed on your chronometer.’ Juggling his scanning equipment in one hand, he clipped some maintenance equipment to his EVA suit with the other, he stumbled out of the hallway and into the transporter room.

“Hey Jeden, or Sonia? Please tell me your preference. Sorry I’m late, I didn’t get this assignment until after the deadline to be here. I’m ready though, you can count on me. I practically lived in these things my teenage years.” Tav then turned to the new face in the room. “Gil Droc, yes? I’m ensign Maddox. Nice to meet you, feel free to call me Tav if you wish. We’re a little less formal when it’s just the ensigns.” 

Sonia nodded to Tav, “Hey, it’s been a while.” She stepped up onto the pad before looking back at Tav quickly before she snapped her helmet into place, “Sonia is fine by the way.”

Gil Droc stepped forward and offered Tav his hand in a very human gesture, “Nice to meet you Ensign Maddox, well Tav. It will be good to have another person to help with this work.” He stopped for a moment and thought back to the events aboard the Germonio, “Let’s hope today is less eventful than yesterday though.”

Tav took the hand and shook it, smiling warmly. That was a nice reach across the isle, adopting a human greeting. “Hey if we just get there, grab some tech, and get home without a scratch on us, I’m fine with that. I get excited getting home in one piece, no need to risk my life!” Tav shuddered quickly. He could steel himself, if the situation called for it, but he didn’t mind leaving the phaser in his holster. Security just wasn’t his calling.

The interior of the battle-scarred wreckage of the Jem’Hadar Battle cruisers lit up as the away team materialized inside what was once a cargo bay.  

Sonia blinked for a moment while she reoriented herself and marvelled, yet again, that the only thing protecting her from the cold vacuum of space was a very small amount of fabric and alloy. Slowly she turned around and stopped when she looked out onto the scrapyard through what should have been the back half of the cargo bay “I don’t think this ship will have the same luck as the last one,” she muttered.

Droc nodded in agreement as he looked back at the partially opened door to the main corridor. “Engineering first again? There is another cargo bay on deck up from here also. Could be worth checking.”

Peering into the dark corners of the cargo bay, Tav shuddered. He knew nothing was there waiting (because he had scanned the room upon materializing), but sometimes you just can’t shake that feeling. What lurks in the dark? “Do we want to split up? I can head towards engineering. Or we can stick together, if you two think we might encounter any obstacles requiring a little teamwork?” Tav asked his companions. He started heading towards the door, aiming his tricorder in front of him. Regardless of his destination, he sure didn’t know the way there, so he’d have to build a map as he went.

Tav almost ran into the cargo bay door, expecting it to open. Of course not, power was off-line. Tav checked his tricorder again, then pried a nearby panel off the wall. It didn’t look the same as you’d see on a Federation starship, but there are only so many ways one can design a manual door crank. Tav spotted the handle and put in a little elbow grease. The door slowly cranked open to an empty hallway. Taking one step out, Tav stopped and turned to peer at Sonia and Droc. “Looks like down this hallway we can find engineering, and their equivalent of a Jeffries tube to get up a level. You ever spend any time on one of these, Droc? Is there a better way forward?” Tav asked, smiling.

Droc glanced down the hallway and shook his head. “Nope, first time being on one of these. I am familiar with the ship design though as a handful are still used by the CDS.”  

Sonia followed the two into the hallway without pause and looked at the Jeffries tube, “Let’s clear engineering first since it is closer then we can move onto the other cargo bay. There shouldn’t be much else of interest on this ship.”

Tav barely looked up from his tricorder, just following the map it laid out for him as they walked. Before he knew it, he stood in front of some big bulkhead doors. The translator in his tricorder told him it said “engine room.” They couldn’t just call it Engineering, you know, for continuity’s sake? About to reach for the manual door crank again, Tav stopped. There was a hole in the wall next to the doors. Looks like some sort of power relay exploded, leaving a nice entryway. He waved to his companions and stepped through.

Engineering was surprisingly tidy. Tav’s tricorder told him there was actually surprisingly little damage here, other than that from overloading power relays and junctions. “Death by a thousand cuts, I guess? Looks like no weapons damage reached their engine room. Might be able to find something worth taking. Sonia, you wanna call the shots? You were assigned to the mission before me, you get first dibs on the juicy loot.” Tav grinned and hoped it would show through his EV suit. He wasn’t interested in looting; seemed disrespectful, even if these guys had been an invading force into our quadrant, trying to quash our way of life. Especially the Jem Hadar – they were literally just doing what they were made to do. That being said, this ship creeped him out, and Tav was trying to make enough jokes to forget about it.

Sonia nodded followed by a quick, “Sure,” as she yelled forward. Taking a quick look around her eyes settled on the core, “Tav, can you get a full readout done on their intermix chamber and connected systems? Droc, can you look at their power relays throughout engineering, from what I recall they were pretty robust.”

Drocnodded and made his way to the nearest access panel but stopped short as he knelt down, “Ensign Jeden, this panel isn’t closed properly.” He reached out and lifted the handle, opening the panel. It swung open and the loose ends of wires spilled out, after a moment of investigation he turned slightly, “Looks like someone cut these wires and removed the relay. There is some residual heat on it as well, it couldn’t be more than 30 minutes old.”

Tav immediately stood up and swung around, eyes peering into the dark. Was somebody still here? Adjusting his tricorder to scan for life forms, Tav started a slow sweep of the surrounding area. There! … Wait, was that something? Yes, the tricorder flashed its indications once again, confirming the reading. “I think I’m picking up two lifeforms, in EV suits! Looks like they’re two decks above us, but I can’t get a reading on species. It doesn’t look like they’re moving at the moment, maybe they’ve found something else to scavenge?” Tav glanced at Sonia, wondering what the next step was.

Before Tav could get a response, his tricorder bleeped a new development. “Oh, well, they’re on the move. I wonder if they noticed us? If I’m reading this layout correctly, they could be headed towards some sort of astrometrics lab?” Tav looked at Droc for confirmation.

Droc consulted his scanning equipment before replying. “Possibly. But there is also a small shuttle bay in that direction. If they brought their ship in there, and powered it down, that would explain why it didn’t register on our initial scans.”

“So, I didn’t really want to get in a firefight in an EV suit today… But if they took tech, I think we have to stop them, right? I think maybe we should head straight for the shuttle bay. Even if they aren’t going there now, they will eventually. Maybe we can catch them unaware?” Tav slung his tricorder strap over his shoulder and shifted it to his off-hand. With his left, he drew his phaser from its holster on his hip. 

Sonia shock her head in frustration, “We cannot let them get off this ship. If they are New Maqui, who knows what they may have taken with them. Let’s see if we can get ahead of them.” She switched her com-channel to the Columbia before continuing. 

“Columbia,  this is Ensign Jeden. We have detected two life signs on the Dominion Cruiser we are inspecting and have found evidence that some equipment has been removed. I need a transport to the following coordinates to get us between them and their suspected ship location.” As he spoke she transmitted the coordinates to the ship.

“Ensign Jeden, let me confirm.”

A moment later her coms activated again and Ortega’s voice came over the coms, “Jeden, can you confirm that you only detect two life signs.” Sonia glanced back at Tav who nodded before she spoke.

“I can confirm, that. All our tricorders are reading only two.”

“Very well, transport in 10 seconds. Stay staff. Ortega out.”

The team materialized in a heavily damaged corridor that ran adjacent to the small shuttle bay. As they materialized Droc pulled out his tricorder and nodded as he scanned the surrounding. “They are heading this way, we should be able to cut them off at the junction 10 meters ahead.”

Tav whipped his head about, taking in the scene. Wreckage falling from the ceiling. Wall paneling peeling off like paint. The shuttle bay door was up ahead of them about 10 meters, on the left hand side. He was about to ask Sonia if she thought they should wait in the shuttle bay or here, when his EV suit let  him know the deck was rumbling a little. Approaching footsteps – they didn’t have time to get into the shuttlebay. Tav gestured to the intersection directly behind them, and they took cover behind the walls and fallen debris. Tav tried to wipe the sweat from his brow, forgetting he was inside a suit. “Better not drip in my eye once the phasers start firing,” Tav thought to himself. Then he raised his phaser and waited.

The wait was brief. Two EV suits of a design he didn’t recognize turned the corner, about 20 meters ahead. They jerked in surprise when they caught sight of the three phasers pointing their way, but one was too slow to dodge. The figure on the left crumpled as two of the three directed energy beams slammed into their body. Tav wasn’t sure who had actually landed a shot. He was firing quickly, and probably a little sloppily. A trained security officer (or perhaps, just a more seasoned officer) would’ve been more calm, collected, and sure of himself. But not Tav. This was his first real firefight, and he was nervous. 

The other Maqui pirate had been quicker on their feet, and ducked behind a fallen ceiling panel. It was providing good enough cover to allow them to return fire….

Phaser fire erupted down the corridor as the remaining New Maquis member fired haphazardly.

Sonia peered around the corner before quickly pulling back, “This is a restricted location, lay down your wepaons. Your escape route is blocked off, no harm will come to you.”

She glanced over at Droc and Tavi as she waited for a response and was pleasantly surprised by the lack of fire. “Maybe it worked…” she said over their private Comms to which Droc just shrugged.

After tense few seconds the coms crackled and a quiet voice came over the coms, “Verywell federation.”

Sonia motioned for Droc to move forward , phasers at the ready as she expected a trick. As they moved forward the New Maquis member jumped up and began to aim his phaser at Sonia. Before he was able to pull the trigger Droc fired and the stun bolt struck him in the chest.

Quickly making her way over to both of the stunned Maquis he confirmed they were out of the fight. “Ensign Jeden to Columbia, we have two hostiles in custody. They are stunned and need medical attention. Can you beam them to the brig?”

“Confirmed Ensign, transporting now.”

The two stunned figures vanished and Sonia turned back to Tavi and Droc. “Guess we should wrap up here and get back to the ship.”