Whohoo! My chapter is done! Didn't take as long as last time! Last time took a few weeks but I was searching for my muse! Found it! It was under my bed! Go figure! Hope you enjoy this one! Ends with a cliffy!

Disclaimer: I don't own startrek, blah blah blah! Yadda yadda yadda! You get the point!

Chapter 6: A doorway into the unknown

"Clunk!"

The ship gave a sudden shudder as it docked with the base. The base itself had no docking bay and instead had several ports located in various areas of the outer base. This fact worried the cadets a bit because it meant that when they ventured into the base it their ship would be completely unprotected from any outside forces. Not that the starbase had many outer defenses, it was more the idea that that shuttle was their only way off the base beyond the escape pods, which wouldn't do them much good if they had to leave the area in a hurry.

"Docking complete," Eddie said while pressing various buttons on his consol. "Airlock secure." They heard a whoosh sound as the separate room pressurized.

Behind Eddie Jenna and Wesley were suiting up in their bio suits and packing their remaining gear.

"So how much time do we have in these things?" Jenna asked picking up her helmet.

"36 hours," Eddie replied. "More if you try holding your breath for part of the time."

"Hey, you know what? I bet you could get even more hours in there if you didn't talk for the whole time." Jenna quipped.

"I don't think that's going to be an issue anyways guys," Wesley said, trying to keep the peace. "I don't know about you two, but I don't plan on spending any more time on there than I have to and I certainly don't think it will take us that long to get the information we need. We just need to get in there, take some scans, maybe establish a data link with their computer, check some of their logs, and look for any obvious signs of what went wrong over there."

"Oh? Is that all?" Eddie asked sarcastically.

"It just sounds long but it shouldn't take us more than a few hours and once we have the data link we don't even have to be attached to gather information," Jenna said. She put on her helmet, "So, what are we waiting for?"

"Eddie actually," Wesley replied, "Who, now that I think about it, should probably stay with the shuttle."

"What?" he exclaimed spinning around in his chair. "Come on, I'll only take a second to get suited up. Besides, I was the one who wanted to go here the more than anyone else, certainly a lot more than Jenna." he said with some added distaste to his voice.

"Eddie, you're the best pilot here and you know it. If we need to make a fast get away then we should have someone here ready to go at a moments notice. Besides, we're going to need someone to coordinate the search over the com and watch the shuttle."

"So basically what you're saying is while you two get to explore the base, I get to babysit the shuttle and act like your personal secretary"

"No," Wesley replied with some added sternness to his voice, "you get to coordinate the search over the com and watch the shuttle. We can't all go and leave the ship unprotected. You just happen to be the best qualified for this position."

"There are no lifesigns. The base is empty. What do we need to protect the ship from, Jenna's brain eating monster?"

"The unknown. We don't know what we're going to run into when we go in there so please, would you stop complaining and just do this?"

"Besides Eddie," Jenna added, "You don't even have to worry about not getting to meet my brain eating monster, because if it does exist and it did manage to kill the entire crew, I'm sure it won't have any problems getting through some shuttlecraft doors."

"Thank you Jenna for that comforting thought," Eddie replied sarcastically. "If I see him first I'll tell him you say hello, along with your exact coordinates."

"Guys! Come on. Enough!" Wesley was starting to get exasperated. "We're wasting time." He put on his helmet with a reassuring click as it formed an air tight seal. "Eddie, we won't be long. The first thing we should do is establish the data link, so Eddie, I need you to be ready on this end to help out with that. If we're able to get into their system it should certainly be enough work for you to keep you from getting too bored. It will also allow us to tap into their internal sensors so you can keep an eye out for us for any of your brain eating monsters we may encounter."

"Huhm," Eddie said, grunting and sighing at the same time, unconvinced by Wesley's reassurances. "You're the boss, apparently." Eddie made sure to mutter his last word under his breath, loud enough that Wesley could hear it, but quiet enough that he could deny ever adding it if he was accused.

Wesley purposely ignored his last comment pretending he hadn't heard. He turned to Jenna. "Jenna, you're better with the computers, why don't you be the one work on getting into their systems? While you're doing that I can take some bio scans of the base's atmosphere see if we can pick up anything in their air supply that might have killed them."

"Sure thing, boss," She added with a mocking tone. It was her turn to give the mock salute to Wesley and Eddie joined in as well, mimicking Jenna's salute to Wesley before turning back to his consol.

"Hey, if one of you would like to take over, by all means, go ahead." Wesley said raising his hands in surrender. "I mean if you have a better idea I have no problem letting someone else take the lead." He looked at both Eddie and Jenna who both shrugged their shoulders, having no real reason to argue with Wesley's plan or tactics.

"We're not complaining," Jenna said, "We simple never saw you as the commanding type."

"Hey, with him turning all commanding like, maybe we should start calling him captain?" Eddie quipped.

"Yeah! You know? Maybe we should. I mean, we've already got the salute down." Jenna gave Eddie another mocking salute which Eddie returned.

"That's a very good point."

"Ok! Ok! Enough!" Wesley begged. "I relent! Now can we please get serious, and maybe even get going? We're wasting oxygen here."

"Alright. We're sorry," Eddie said.

"We'll get to work now," Jenna replied.

"Captain…" Eddie added with a smirk. Both Jenna and Eddie snickered under their breath. Jenna was easier to hear than Eddie because their helmets had a built in comm. system but Wesley didn't need that to know Eddie was snickering too. Neither tried to hide it.

"You finished? Let's go." Wesley said not waiting for an answer. He strided over to the air lock and stepped in, Jenna following suit. When the door locked secure the light went on for them to open the base port door.

Wesley hesitated for a moment when he reached for the pad. He didn't know what dangers lay on the other side but suddenly he was afraid. Suddenly he wished it was him back on the shuttle instead of Eddie. Suddenly he wished they had never even voted to come here. Luckily for him, suddenly, was not as long as it seemed in his brain. Through the eyes of Jenna he hesitated for only a split second to contemplate his choice, before pressing the airlock pad to open to the door.

The airlock door swished open.

"Huh…"

To be continued…

Like my cliffy! I thought so! Well... I hope so at least! Hope you are enjoying the story in general so far! Chapter 7 is already in the works so it should only be a few days for the next chapter!

As always! Please review! Even if you hated it! ESPECIALLY if you hated it! I don't mind flames and happen to appreciate some critisism! I like honesty with my work! All good reviews are nice but I can't improve if I don't know what I did wrong! If you just like everything I do,w well then WHOHOO! Go me! Please... do tell! I also happen to enjoy that!

Thanks!