Disclaimer: Sadly, I don't don't own startrek, or any of its characters, or a starbase, or Starfleet. I do own Jenna and Eddie who you are quite free to use so long as you obtain my permission first.

Hey peeps! Sorry its been so long! School started so I've had less time to do anything, let alone write. ANYways. Here is my next chapter! Hope you enjoy!

Special thanks to:

itsonlyme: No problems! School is crazy this year for me too. Not as much time to write. Thanks for the support.

angw: Thanks, glad you're enjoying it! Hope this new chap is to your liking.

Chapter 7: Hearing Things

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…"

"Huh," That was all Wesley could think of to say. It was the exact words of his brain and saying something like, well that's interesting, seemed kind of stupid and pointless, not that his grunt was much more substantial. The only real reason he even made a sound was because as team leader he felt compelled to make some sort of comment on the situation to make it sound like he had an opinion. Unfortunately, there wasn't that much to comment on nor have any sort of opinion on.

Wesley and Jenna had opened the airlock doors preparing themselves for the worst. They expected corpses, blood, chaos, or something else along those lines. To their surprise, they found absolutely nothing. No dismembered body parts, no blown up consoles, no unidentifiable green goo, no nothing.

As they stepped through the port they saw the docking area was in perfect working order. All the lighting and consoles were fully functional (and in one piece) and the room itself was spot less. The only thing odd about the room was the fact that there wasn't anything odd about the room. The room was fine.

"So…"

"Yeah… so… um…"

Great job on the small talk buddy! Jenna was looking to Wesley for some sort of command and Wes had no idea of what to say. Not even for small talk. He mentally kicked himself for not coming up with an actual plan before coming to the base. They had discussed what they were going to do in terms of roles of the team, but neither had actually decided where they were going to go. It was a big base and they didn't know where they were going, or even where they were trying to go.

"So… I guess, maybe, we should head to engineering…?" Wesley said, attempting to sound commanding, although he ended up sounding like he was asking a question, which in part he was.

"Yeah, sure," Jenna replied. "It would be a good place to start on setting up an uplink to their computer system. We can also check any logs or recent mission reports they have on file."

"Good idea. Let's go." Wesley said heading out the door. He made an abrupt stop the moment he got out into the corridor. He looked left and then he looked right. "Right… uh, did the shuttle craft computer happen to have any specs on the base layout?"

"Afraid not… Sorry."

"Hmm, well then, I guess we can just pick a direction. I've been to tons of starbases before and they usually have several maps on every floor. We're bound to run into one of them, or if lucky, maybe a turbo lift."

"Sure thing."

"Well, not that my opinion seems to matter anymore," Eddie chirped over the comm. "but may I suggest going left?"

"Any particular reason for going left?" Wesley asked.

"I just find it's somehow easier to go right when you're in a hurry. So I figure, if you run into that brain eating monster, it'll be easier for you guysto get away."

"Not necessarily," Jenna added. "That only works if you're right handed. I happen to be left handed. So if I run into the monster, it'll actually be harder for me to get away."

"I see no problem with that," Eddie replied.

"Awk!" Jenna scoffed. "Jerk!"

"Play nice you two," Wesley said. "How about we go right?" He turned the corner and started walking.

Jenna joined him walking down the corridor. "By the way Eddie, you are so gonna pay for that later on."

"Ooh! I'm scared already."

"Just wait, and I promise, you will be."

"Ah ha!" Wesley interrupted.

"What?" Jenna asked stopping. "What did you find?"

"A map," Wesley replied pointing to one on the wall. "It says here we're on deck 12, meaning… we have to go down… 3 levels to deck 9. That's where main engineering is and where we'll be able to establish an uplink. There are also a bunch of science labs in that area so we can check those out too. Maybe take some scans of some of the experiments they were doing."

"Ok," Jenna replied. "So, where's the turbo lift?"

"I'm looking…" Wesley said scanning the map with his eyes. "Um, it's just up this corridor and to the left. Hopefully it's functioning as well as the rest of the base seems to be."

"Yeah, hopefully."

Jenna and Wesley headed down the corridor to the turbo lift. When they reached engineering Jenna began exploring their systems and setting up the uplink with Eddie. Meanwhile, Wesley was taking some scans of the area, check the functionality of some of the main power systems. All of them seemed to be in perfect order. He also took some scans of the atmosphere itself. According to his tricorder, there were no detectable toxins in the air and the lifesupport systems were fully functional. From the looks of things, they didn'tactually need the biosuits, but Wesley wasn't ready to take any chances just yet until they had more of an idea of what they were dealing with.

"How's it coming?"

"Uplink is almost set," Jenna replied, fairly engrossed in her work. "Just a few more minutes."

"Sure thing, no rush."

Wesley closed his tricorder and took a good look around the room. It was a fairly standard engineering room, a lot like the one back on the enterprise, only with less propulsion power for obvious reasons. Just as Wesley was about to take a few more scans he heard it. Wesley whirled around at the sound of what he thought were foot steps. It sounded like they were coming from the direction of the science labs.

Wesley ran over to the doorway, and stuck his head in looking around. The footsteps had stopped and there was no one there, just some standard science lab equipment, a coffee mug, and an empty chair.

Wesley walked back over to Jenna looking positively baffled.

"Did you hear that?"

"Hear what?" Jenna replied, too distractedby her work to notice he had even left.

"I don't know. I thought I heard foot steps a minute ago."

"You're probably just hearing things," Jenna replied finally looking up. "It's kind of creepy being all alone here. It's probably just your nerves. Paranoia can make you hear things, play tricks on your ears."

"Yeah… maybe… I don't know. I could have sworn I'd heard something."

Wesley and Jenna paused for a moment in silence listening for the footsteps.

"I don't hear anything," Jenna said.

"Me either," Eddie said.

"No duh, you're not even down here Eddie," Wesley replied getting annoyed.

"And whose fault is that?"

Wesley didn't reply, too annoyed by Eddie's untimely antics to respond.

"Yeah, that's what I thought."

"Well, whatever you did hear, it's obvious gone now, so let's get back to work, ok?"

"Sure, whatever." Wesley said taking one last look towards the science labs. I don't care what they say, Wesley thought as he turned back to his scans. I may not know what I heard, but I know I heard something.

To be continued…

Muahhaaha! An almost cliffy ending! Well, at least a definate build in the suspense, which is what I'm going for. Hope you're liking it so far. Next chapter is already in the works so it should be done in a few days when I get some free time! Stupid homework/school getting in the way! Meh! Oh well!

As always, please review. Whether good or bad, facinating or flaming, I don't care, so long it is honest. I have no probs with flames. If you hate it that much then let it out! So long as you're specific enough with your hate to tell me what I'm doing wrong. It'll help me improve in future stories.

Thanks!