The Meaning Of Command

Author: Chaoseternus

Chapter 3: Inferno

The shattering ringing of alarms shattered Peters sleep; she jumped to her feet with accurse, and then blanched as the words over the intercom hit her sleep fuddled brain.

"Fire in Graving Dock 3! This is not a drill! All fire and damage control parties to graving dock 3!" Peters throw her uniform on and sprinted out of her quarters. This was, to put it mildly, bad. Graving Dock 3 held Devonshire and fire damage would put her construction back by weeks at the very least, months most likely. It took her five minutes to arrive at the graving dock, and as she arrived she noted grim faced security arriving and sealing the area off. The senior fire officer quickly noted her approach and signalled her over. "Sabotage" Lieutenant Thomason said grimly.
Peters froze in shook, "Are you shitting me?" She replied incredulously.
"The fire suppression systems in this sector have been disabled; most of the foam hook-ups for the hoses have been epoxied closed and a virus shut the alarms off, the alarm had to be raised manually, not only that but most of the vents are none operational and we cant get to the to find out why"
Peters cursed as she realised Thomason meant every word of it, "Okay, they in suits in there?"
"Only basic skin suits, they would have 15 minutes max before the cold outside killed them"
"Get a SAR bird outside on the double, and then open the main doors" Peters turned around to the security officers "Seal the base, no one enters, no one leaves, I don't care what authority they have, understood?"
The officers nodded, and she turned back to the dock. 'Sabotage' she thought disgustedly, 'beautiful'
"Peters to command, Critique Flash traffic! Peters to command!"
Peters looked up and cursed as the message came over the intercom, she had a fire to deal with for heavens sakes!
"Thomason, deal with the fire, and keep me appraised!" Peters snapped, then hurtled up to the bridge, scattering crewpersons in her wake. "What is it?"
Dodge winched, Peters was definitely not in a good mood, though that was understandable considering her command had a fire in its belly.
"Paladin 1-6-12 was investigating why the Darkside sensor platform didn't pick up the Al-kesh the Eagles dealt with, they just hit the panic button, we should have A/V in a few secs" he sipped his coffee, then added "How's the fire?"
"The fire itself is relatively minor, we dealt with worse during the last attack but there are…" Peters hesitated, then spat then spat the last word out, "complications"
Dodge frowned, complications? In that tone of voice? Trouble, very definitely trouble. He looked around as static burst from the speakers, then the main screen came on, showing an blonde haired Ensign in an RSS spacesuit, her helmet removed with the cockpit of a Paladin in the background. "Captain, the station was purposely dismantled, most of it has been removed and the remaining flash drives have been wiped, we did find a body though. One of them appears to have sliced their suit on the inside of the station, then failed to put the patch on properly, allowing it to give"
"Any ideas who they were?" Peters replied, anger and frustration filling her voice.
"Not yet, we're running an id on the body but all we know so far is that they have access to SGC equipment…" the ensign trailed off, her eyes on a console to the left of the camera.
Suddenly she stiffened, "We have a match on the body, it's coming through… Son of a bitch! NID! ing NID!"
Peters and Dodge exchanged startled glances, "Are you sure?"
"Match probability is 97% Ma'am!" the ensign replied, coldness filling her voice as she shifted in her seat, allowing the St Athan Defence medal to become visible, "I'm sure"