[snip]

M’Mera rose easily and led them out. The away team didn’t run into any problems and reached the end of the worked tunnel. The end of the tunnel that led into the older tunnels was full of debris. It appeared to be made of boards, largish stones and metal pieces. It was obvious that this would take some time to shift the debris enough to get through.
The tunnel was about 6 1/2 feet high and at least 5 ft wide. The debris pile was at least 4 ft high and filled the opening.

‘’Oh great our first hurdle ‘’ Hunter muttered ‘’ Right guys lets start shifting these debris just enough to make a pathway by the side for us to walk through..just be careful’’ he said as an after thought .The last thing he wanted was someone to get hurt ‘’Captain,Lt M’Mera shall we divide ourselves so two or three of us start removing and pass them to the other two which they’ll put to the side ?’’ the doctor asked.

“Very good! Let’s make it happen,” Glen replied.

M’Mera nodded and moved forward to heave the first stone and passed it back to the Captain. This job would take a few hours at this rate. M’Mera stopped before picking up a second one.

“Captain, Sharrp and I have phaserrs , they do not worrk on ssignalss but on Nadeon parrticless. Why do we not usse thesse to make a way thrrough thesse rrocks? Doctorr, would that be dangerrouss to do herre?”She asked looking back at Hunter.

Hunter was about to pick up something from the debris ‘’Swee…’’ he abruptly stopped ,what the hell was he thinking ‘’Lt it might work but my concern is we all are in a tight space and there is a chance that any shred fragments, broken bits and pieces might hit us ,what if we remove what we can and leave enough space for us to crawl through the other side?’’ .

“Oooooorrrr, we could just disintegrate with our phasers some of the rubble to clear a path?” said Dionysovich.

“That’ss what I wass thinking…” M’Mera said as she glanced toward the Captain.

“I think we’ve wasted a lot of time already!” Glen replied. He wished he hadn’t left all the engineers on the surface, or at least had brought along a geologist, or even one of the miners themselves, because he had no idea if blasting a hole through a tunnel collapse was the best course of action, or whether removing one rock at a time was any safer. However, he did find Dr. Hunter’s attitude difficult, seemingly gung-ho in one instant and then extremely risk-averse in the next. He felt sure they would wangle it somehow without any serious injuries.

“If we all stand back ten to twenty metres surely it’s safe, and the phaser option is the quickest,” Glen said. “If you are sure that they still work. I say, let’s do it!”

Hunter could not understand the plan, there was five of them, true it would take some more time but at least it was a situation they could handle and deal with. Still Hunter moved away obeying orders while hoping against hope that all goes according to plan ,he did look up at the ceiling noticing it was made of solid hard rock…the last thing the doctor needed was to get trapped or get buried under the rubble.

“Okay, Ssharrp, be verry carreful not to hit the wallss orr ceiling. Jusst the rocks. We don’t want to causse a cave in” Once everyone was back far enough, M’Mera took careful aim on the nearest rock. Like a doctor with a laser scalpel she began to very carefully disintegrate the rocks on her half of the pile, leaving the other half for Sharp to work on.

“Hold on just a second, Lt., Eros quickly interjected. Moving back toward the rubble, he began to closely inspect the walls and ceiling. “See here? I don’t see any water seepage. . . .and there’s not a lot of cracks at this juncture.”

He turned his attention to the rubble itself. “And look, if this was a cave in, we’d see rocks of all sizes, even small rocks and pebbles. These here rocks are all generally the same size. Someone placed the rocks here to keep anyone from exploring this tunnel.”

‘’Yes ma’am ‘’ Sharp replied taking his position next to M’Mera ,he let her start paying attention with alert watchfulness on what she was doing and only after he was sure of himself did he start firing .

Glen considers himself an amateur archeologist, although he has never been on an actual ‘dig’, and has picked up a little geology along the way too. On this landing party that was going to need to surfice.

“I’m a pilot, not a geologist, but this doesn’t look like a tunnel roof collapse; it looks like it was blocked off deliberately and on purpose,” Glen said. “What we don’t know, is whether that was to keep people out, or to keep something inside!”

Before they started firing, Eros stepped back again and let the security team doing their work. Pulling out his own phaser, Eros prepared for what may be waiting for them on the other side. . . .

From a safe distance Hunter watched on , he could not help but wonder if the rocks where placed from this side or from the other side which led directly through the tunnels and for what reason , in any case the doctor felt safer with Eros close by .
He made a mental note to carry a phaser while on a mission next time.....that is if they’ll be a next time .

“While you are totally disintegrating rocks and rubble over there,” Glen added, “do look out for any litter. If the Klingons or Romulans or someone else left behind any ephemera, then that kind of paper-based, printed item will give us a clue about when the tunnel was sealed up and who did it. But not if you disintegrate it first!”

Hunter rolled his eyes ,its like looking for a needle in the haystack but he did look around him .Something caught his eye it seemed like a crumpled paper but was it? The doctor bend down to pick it up ‘’Captain’’ the doctor called out with whatever he picked in his hand.

Glen sometimes found that Hunter’s guileless, unaffected innocence was sometimes endearing, but not on this occasion. “Did your mother never teach you never to pick up dirty things from the pavement?” Glen asked him.

Hunter smiled ‘’My dear mama would let her only son get away with murder ‘’ he replied.

Glen looked at the dirty invoice that Hunter held out. It looked to have been quite recently dropped, its condition was so good.

Upon inspection of the paper it was found to be an invoice for mining materials, dated from before this last bunch of miners. It was amazing it was still in such good shape but do the fairly dry air in the tunnels it had not deteriorated much.

Glen didn’t know if it meant anything of importance. The date on it showed it wasn’t new but that it had been dropped by Federation miners some time ago, but it didn’t tell them who had sealed off this tunnel. Or, why? Those were the questions which Glen really wanted answers to.

Now that the doctor knew that it was just an invoice he was about to throw it away, then changed his mind and shoved it in his pocket .

“Well spotted Hunter!” Glen told him. “Keep looking, especially in the debris on the other side. With eyes like yours we may find something else.”

M’Mera and Sharp meanwhile were making headway through the pile of rocks and debris, they had cleared a hole down from the height of the pile and about 3 feet wide. It should be wide enough for the away team to make their way through.

Seeing the 3 feet wide hole Hunter patted Sharp on the shoulder ‘’Good job,’’ obviously he wasn’t about to do the same to M’Mera ,the doctor only did so for he knew the security needed some self - confidence and faith in oneself.

‘’Eros we’re going in’’ he called out to the other security helm officer who had been keeping an eye in the direction they had traveled and arrived only to find the tunnel blocked with debris.

Hunter Dr.

Glen gave a thumbs up signal. There was too much noise from phasers, the breaking and falling rocks, and the steam and dust being released, for anyone to hear him speak.

Glen hoped, by unsealing this tunnel we aren’t releasing some evil spirit that should be left well alone inside it’s prison… Of course not, that’s pure superstition and irrational nonsense without any basis in logic or science…

• Glen. CO