CHAPTER 4
Lieutenant Noble, Ensign Forge, and a team of security officers and science crew waited for nightfall to beam down to the location of what was once New York City. They looked around at the destruction that surrounded them. Buildings were nothing more then rubble, small fires still burned in the area, cars were overturned or completely decimated by the bombardment. Noble gave signals to the security teams to spread out and scout the area. The science and engineering teams conducted their scans to see if they could determine what kind of weapons were used or if there was any kind of ground combat before the bombardment. Their tricorders weren't giving them any readings as of yet. Forge and another security officer cautiously made their way up one of the streets, phasers drawn. They both kept a sharp eye out for anything significant, nothing lighting the way except the fires around them. Then, off in the distance they heard a scream for help. Forge and the officer looked at each other and ran in the direction of the screams. As they were about to reach the location the screaming stopped. The two officers kept looking for signs of a life form that may have made the sound. They saw nothing. The officer heard something behind him and turned, again, nothing. He turned back to Forge only to see that he was gone. "Ensign Forge?" he called out. "Sir, where did you go?" The officer looked around the area for Forge but couldn't find any sign of him. Turning a corner and looking down the street he say the red coloring of a Starfleet uniform. "There you are, ensign. I thought I lost you." He walked towards Forge who didn't move. The officer reached out and grabbed Forge's shoulder to turn him around, a move he regretted the second he saw Forge's face.
Lieutenant Noble and her team scouted the area, finding nothing. The fires around them kept the area lit enough for the security team to look around and for the science teams to examine the rubble. Behind her, Noble heard one of the tricorders start beeping. She walked over to the science officer. "You found something ensign?" she said to the officer. "Yes ma'am, after running about fifteen different scans I finally started to pick up traces of-" a scream in the distance caused the officer to stop short. Noble looked up and over at the security team. They all, including the science crew, ran in the direction of the screams. Before they could get close though the sound died out. They moved in the direction but more cautiously this time. "Anyone have anything on scans?" Noble asked the science crew. They all came back negative. A few seconds later another call for help echoed off what remained of the buildings. They once again moved towards the noise and found where it came from but didn't see what caused it. They searched the area but saw nothing. Noble almost told her team to stop the search when she looked down and noticed something below her. She bent down and picked up a piece of a Starfleet communicator. She examined it for a moment but couldn't for very long. The ground beneath them started to shake and split apart in some sections, parts of buildings that were still standing started to collapse. A collapsing wall crushed one of the science officers while one of the security officers got tripped up by the shifting ground and fell into one of the splits that opened. Noble tapped her communicator while running to the closest open are they could find. The communicator wasn't responding. She tapped it repeatedly but no channel was opening up to the Enterprise. The earthquake stopped and she looked around at the damage. More buildings had fallen and now parts of the ground had straight drops that went down for miles. Looking back at her team she saw two security officers remained and four science officers stood there, shaken up by the experience. She started to approach them but a noise behind her stopped her. Slowly turning around she saw one of the security team get tossed aside with great ease into a destroyed car. Before she could react she felt something grab her from behind and then she started to lose all thought, she started to go unconscious. The last thing she felt was her heart slowing down to almost a stop and then a single tear ran down her cheek before she lost all consciousness.
Jim, Riker, Data and Camilla all sat around for hours, talking about the events of the past 100 years on Earth. The talking became amusing between them all, except Data but he had excused himself to go find Ensign Hydel a few hours before. After Data didn't return Riker went to find him and it was down to Jim and Camilla. "So," she started to say to Jim, "you've probed me for just about every bit of information I remember from my crappy history classes in school, I'm curious about you. How you managed to live on your own at the age of eleven, what you did without any family, what job did you have before the world basically shut down?" Jim became very nervous. He had prepared himself for just about everything except for those questions. "Um…well, you see I uh…its kind of a long, boring story." Jim replied, trying to see if she'd believe him. "We have plenty of time it seems. I don't mind long stories." She smiled at him. He kept trying to think of a way to get out of this when suddenly the communicator, usually on his chest but now in his pocket, started beeping. "I'm sorry, excuse me for just a moment." He said to Camilla who rolled her eyes and gestured as if to shoo him away. Jim got up and leaned up against a column, taking the device out of his pocket. He pressed it to respond to the incoming communication. "Enterprise to Captain Bullock, do you read me? I say again, Captain Bullock, do you read me?" came Worf's voice over the communicator. "Bullock here, go ahead, Mr. Worf," replied Jim. "Captain, the security and science teams that beamed down have failed to check in and are not responding to our hails. We think someone may be jamming our signal." "I doubt that, you'd be able to pick that up on sensors. If they aren't responding then there are only two options, they are unable to respond because of capture or death. Or, option two, they refuse to respond but even then, I doubt it's the latter." "Agreed, captain. What action should we take?" "Right now, none, let me talk with Riker and Data first and we'll figure something out. I'll contact you in thirty minutes from now no matter what. If you don't hear from one of us, something happened." "Understood, Enterprise out." Jim put the communicator back in his pocket. He came out from behind the column and bumped right into Camilla who was standing right on the other side. "Oh, Jim, I um, I was just getting some-" Jim raised his hand up to get her to stop speaking. "I know what you were doing. I've been very secretive about everything and you were curious to find out all you could so you followed me to listen in on the conversation and find out what is going on, correct?" Jim stated matter-of-factly. Camilla was at a loss for words for a moment before she finally said, "Damn, you're good." Jim smiled, "I try. Anyway, we need to find Riker and Dat-David. We need to find Riker and David." This time Camilla smiled, "You mean David, the guy who doesn't laugh at a joke, who cannot say a contraction, who has yellow eyes and pale skin? C'mon, Jim. I may not understand everything that's going on but I know his name sure as hell ain't David and he sure as hell isn't fully human." "Actually," Data said from behind Camilla, causing her to jump in fright, "you would be most correct in that statement." Jim gave Data the cut sign from behind Camilla's back. Data stopped speaking and Riker stepped forward towards Jim. "Worf told me everything, what's our next move?" Jim smiled. "Oh no," said Riker, "that's your, 'we're about to do something stupid and dangerous' smile." "You're damned right it is Will. Our next move is obvious, we pick up where they left off." Jim walked off to the back of the bunker hurriedly. "C'mon guys, lets go," he said to Riker, Data and Hydel, "and you too Camilla." Looking shocked Camilla walked in the direction of the men, trying to figure out exactly who this Jim character is. Suddenly though, she got a severe wave of pain in her head, worse then any headache she ever had. As the pain hit she heard hundreds of whispers all running in her mind at once, completely incoherent since there were what sounded like thousands of people talking at once. The pain went away as quickly as it came and she was leaning against a wall when she could see again. Jim was in front of her looking at her. "Are you ok, you look like you're about to be sick?" asked Jim. "I'm fine," replied Camilla, "lets get going." The group walked off in search of an exit; their only route being the supply delivery section in the back of the bunker.