People looked around to try and determine what had been happening. Jenovia got up and approached one of the security guards that was assigned to guard the hospital. The hospital shook again, and she nearly lost her footing.
“Officer Jeffery, isn’t it? Do you have any idea what’s happening here?”
“Ma’am, it would be safer if you returned to where you were. We have the situation well under control,” he responded.
“Yes, but what is the situation? Are we under attack? Does this area frequently have earthquakes? Is there major construction going on that we don’t know about?”
“I said we have the situation under control. There’s no need to panic,” he said more forcefully. But to Jenovia, it was clear that he was flat out lying. She could tell that even before she came to him that he was just as apprehensive as she was. Face sweat. Wandering eyes. Nervous twitches.
“Surely, you must have some idea…” she tested further.
“Ma’am, I won’t repeat myself…”
“No, sir, you listen to me,” she said, sounding increasingly impatient. “I am here on behalf of the United Federation of Planets on a humanitarian mission. But I can’t help you if I am being intentionally kept in the dark on matters of urgency. If we are under attack or if there’s an earthquake, then we may be better off moving these patients to a safer location.”
The security guard was caught off guard. His face was really starting to sweat now, not in a visually obvious way, but she could detect a small change in skin temperature and literally smell the sweat beading on his skin. His eyes looked to the ground, lost, unable to make eye contact with her anymore. At this point, it occurred to Jenovia that this security guard had absolutely no idea what was happening. He only stood there because those were his orders and he was told to keep everyone calm. His job was only to guard the door. “Ma’am, please…return to your designated area. We will let you know if and when it is necessary to move the patients.” The hospital shook yet again as he said it, and this time it was more intense. This time he ducked and looked around like a frightened puppy. This time, there was no hiding it.
Jenovia stood there and glared at him. Without even saying a word, the guard understood that this woman knew that he knew nothing. She folded her arms and continued to stare in a manner that was deep and piercing. Without even whispering a word, she was telling him that even though he didn’t know, he should get off of his ass and find out. He succumbed to her and quickly turned around, unable to face her, and opened his communicator. “Jeffrey to Rogers,” he whispered. “Can you tell me what the hell is going on here? We’ve got frightened people.”
“Please stand by.” The officer stared back at Jenovia, as if to tell her, ‘See? There’s nothing I can do.’
Jenovia just turned around and started heading back. Useless, she thought. She would have to figure this out herself. She pulled out her tricorder from her belt. Like the medical tricorder, the normal tricorder looked more like a small, skinnier hand-held PADD. It was transparent, as if made of glass. She activated the tricorder and a sketch of the hospital immediately appeared on the screen. She scanned for life signs, which littered the screen with little red dots, since they were packed with so many patients. The readings showed no signs of an earthquake. She flipped through the different floors on the tricorder screen to see if there was anything unusual going on, but it soon became apparent that she couldn’t see anything from a two-dimensional standpoint. She set the expanded tricorder onto a small table. She then adjusted the settings to give her a three-dimensional view of the entire building. A sketch popped above the screen.
“Computer, is the building equipped with Federation surveillance devices?”
“Affirmative. Five Type I surveillance devices are detected within a one hundred meter radius. Visual feed and bioscans only.”
“Tie in all available sensory information from those surveillance systems and add visual detail.” Miniaturized human beings colored in red against a blue transparent outline of the building were scattered all over each of the floors. Jenovia walked around the table to try and get a good look from multiple viewpoints.
The building shook yet again. But this time her tricorder was taking readings. “Computer, can you determine the origin of the building’s vibrations?” The tricorder highlighted the main floor of the building, specifically the left wing entrance of the hospital. She began to notice a small group of people clustered around that area, maybe fifteen people. Two of them were banging their shoulders against the door, as if trying to break in, but couldn’t. There should have been two security guards in that location. What is everybody doing there? “Expand the view of the left of the wing of the hospital,” she ordered the tricorder.
The little red life signatures grew in size and showed more detail of the people that crowded the entrance. She could now see that there were two human beings that were on the ground unconscious. “Can you show the vital signs of the individuals that you have shown here?” Little numbers and heart monitors from the bioscans appeared on top of all of the individuals. The heart monitor on top of the two security guards showed that they were dead.
A wave of fear washed over her that stopped her dead in her tracks. Something was very wrong. She could see the ground around the door was carved out somewhat, a sign that an explosive had been in the vicinity. That’s what those vibrations were, she thought. She saw another one of the men put down another device again near the door. They looked determined to get through the door.
She collapsed the view on the tricorder to the normal size so that she could see the rest of the main floor. Most of the other entrances were blocked off with multiple security guards on stand alert. She could see that there were several other security guards rushing towards the left wing entrance. The building was in lockdown. She decided that they were all in trouble and that she needed help, but she obviously couldn’t rely on the security teams that were designated at the hospital. She would need to call in real help.
She quickly hit her combadge. “Jenovia to Lieutenant Commander Thorn,” she cried.
“Thorn, here,” he said, in his robotic voice.
“We have a problem,” she said. “It looks like there are some terrorists who are trying to break into the hospital.”
“We were just alerted to that. But we’ve been busy putting out fires all over the city. There are break-ins and burglary attempts everywhere. I will bring a team to your location. What is your situation? How many are there?”
“I don’t know, maybe fifteen. It looks like they are trying to break in through the left wing.”
“Are you armed?”
“I have my phaser. Other than that, just the standard security forces here. And quite frankly, I don’t think they’re very capable of handling a situation like this.”
“We will be there in five minutes. Get everyone to a secure location.”
“Please hurry…” she whispered. Jenovia turned around after Security Officer Jeffrey had tapped her shoulder from behind. He had a frightened look on his face, most likely after overhearing her conversation with Lieutenant Commander Thorn. “So…can you tell me what’s going on?”
Jenovia sighed when she realized that she would have to look out for this little boy, too. She could smell it long before he came to tap her shoulder. Officer Jeffrey had wet his pants.
