Terran Crucible (Part 7 of 8)

Posted on 31 Oct 2015 @ 4:46am by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Commander Andreus Kohl & Lieutenant Min Zhao & Lieutenant Jared Nicholas & Lieutenant JG Lenaris Marika & Ensign Miriam Kallan & Ensign Jaana Voutilainen & Crewman Apprentice Sigrid Thelin & Alethea Coleman Ph.D & Seleya Qellar Ph.D.
Edited on on 31 Oct 2015 @ 4:53am

1,930 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Episode 09 - Empires
Location: USS Galileo - Various
Timeline: MD 06 - 2335 hrs

Previously, on Terran Crucible (Part 6)...

Allyndra found it amusing listening to the various ideas to dispose of bodies. She hoped it did not come down to that. Finally she stepped into the fray and took a hand phaser and put it on. "Go ahead and take one. We will probably all be disarmed soon enough and if we offer little resistance will not draw the ire quite as much. We have our other tricks do we not?" She reached to tap the hypo in Motts pocket and then smiled showing briefly those very sharp inner teeth.

Tuula glared up at Allyndra, wondering what this whole situation was coming to. "I'm not touching that thing," she said in a firm tone, clutching her wheels and not reaching for Ensign Wilde's little bag of phasers. "I'm a doctor, not a guerilla. And I haven't been certified to use a phaser since, well, ever."

And Now, the Continuation...

[ON]

Deck 3, Upper Computer Core

Starfleet personnel in science teal and operations gold were stationed at nearly every free interface in the systems monitor room that sat on top of Galileo's computer core -- optical translator clusters of FLT nano processor units stacked two decks high. Any LCARS display that wasn't otherwise in-use was overridden by a video communication of Lieutenant Commander Kohl. The frantic activity going on behind him on the Bridge was apparent over his shoulders, but he took no apparent notice of it. Staring at the science officers present, Kohl asked, "Can I get a status update on securing the computer library?"

"Things are progressing quite slowly, as you can imagine," answered Dr. Seleya Qellar, one of the most unlikely people one might expect to find responding. Behind her, many members of the science staff seemed hard at work accomplishing the task of securing the computer library. "But we are scientists, Commander. I believe we have among us an archaeologist, an anthropologist, an ecologist..." She turned to look over her shoulder to recall who was there then turned back. "And so on. Not an encryption specialist among us, I'm afraid, though these rather incompetent fellows in yellow have shown up to assist. And seeing as I'm a civilian and a filthy Romulan - your security chief's sentiments, not mine - I can't touch your computer system. I am, however, willing to provide colorful commentary to make myself useful."

"But it's okay! Woo!" Sigrid said as she came back from under an opened console. "I found the manual!" She handed the PADD in her hands to the closest person to her, which happened to be Marika. Which was great, because out of everyone in the room, Marika was the only one that would keep up with her enthusiasm. "Right, do you see the protocol list? That should give us step by step instructions for emergency lockdown protocols."

Grabbing the PADD, Marika opened it and quickly pressed a few display option, until she spotted the big red 'In case of emergency' option. With a resounding 'Ha!', she pressed it firmly and waited for the emergency protocol to appear, giving Sigrid a glance and grin.

"Woo!" Sigrid exclaimed when Marika found what they were looking for. "See? Sigrid said over her shoulder to the gathered scientists. "Who needs engineers, or operations officers? We've got the best minds on Galileo right here locking down this computer core and there's nothing we can't do...hmm..." Sigrid peered at the PADD Marika was showing her. "Where do you think the--oh I found it. Woo!" Sigrid shouted again when the screen changed to give her controls to the rest of the lock down procedure.

Miriam was running on adrenaline, she was certain, like everyone else. She'd been rudely awaken earlier from her sleep shift and now she was working with the rest of the science team to help secure their oh so vital information. Overhearing that Marika found what they needed, the El-Aurian gave the other woman a pat on the shoulder, "Great work." Offering a quick smile, she moved back to her own efforts.

The image of Kohl on the LCARS displays nodded as he listened, but his sapphire eyes were constantly moving. He looked as if he were searching for something on his own display. "Are you... are you all... armed?" he asked uncertainly. He didn't sound certain he wanted them to be armed. Plainly, her sounded conflicted between a desire not to put any of them in the line of fire, and his responsibility to ensure his science officers behaved like the Starfleet officers they were. "Do you... have phasers?" he asked.

Coleman continued to read over Marika's shoulder as the three of them attempted to run the emergency lockout procedures with the manual. She didn't look up when a security officer handed her a phaser. She held it with two fingers like she was holding a dirty diaper. She deposited it into one of the various large pockets of her civilian coveralls and promptly forgot about it.

"I have one," Miriam responded to Kohl's weapon question, "Picked one up on my way here as per protocol, sir." Her hand briefly moved to brush the phaser and holster at her hip. She didn't really like phasers and she wasn't exactly a crack shot, but she was decent enough to pass training in Starfleet. She knew how to not shoot her allies, that was the most important part.

"Okay," Kohl said. And at this point, his expression hardened. This was the point he sounded certain of his convictions. "Here’s the plan: each of you need to pick your very own security guard to hide behind if things go sideways and we're boarded by intruders. I don’t want to see any heroics from anybody in teal. You pick a security officer, the biggest one you can find, and you hide behind that officer. Our security department seems awfully eager to… die?" --and he whispered the word die-- "If it means they can take out the enemy when they do so. I say… let them die." --and he whispered the word die again-- "All of you are going to live. That’s an order. If things get fierce, I order you all to hide. No heroics. You hide. Let them die."

As if Kohl's word brought forward the light detachment of security guards from thin air Luke rounded the corner catching the end of Kohl's words with Nizan and Daniels two of whom were capable security officers. Looking around he nodded at the people standing around in blue shirts. "Don't worry commander nobody is going to die and my security team will ensure your science teams safety." He brought from his side the duffel of phasers "But I do ask you to arm yourself's" He said now looking to the others present in the room.

"How delightful, armed scientists in Starfleet. It's as if the Tal Shiar's wildest dreams have come true. What a propaganda coup this would be," Seleya said with a sardonic grin. "While we're arming ourselves perhaps we should also decide who's going to be the sentient body shield. I suggest we all stand behind Dr. Coleman, as she's put on a bit of weight recently."

Without looking behind her shoulder, Coleman who looked like she hadn't been listening suddenly announced with a scoff, "I have not gained any weight. But don't fret Dr. Qallar, it's perfectly normal to have skewed vision when your head's that big." She didn't look up from her work and her face remained nearly as passive as Seleya's.

Giggling at the woman's words despite the gravity of the situation, Marika gave the Romulan a quick glance to gauge her reaction to such an awesome riposte.

"Skewed vision? You know, that brings to mind your latest book," Seleya said, meaning to remark on how one-sided she'd found its arguments to be. "We really ought to bring up all those crates of unsold copies from the cargo bay. We can lob them at the intruders. If it isn't pedantic enough to fully sedate them - though I feel that it is - perhaps The New Terran Empire: Bioethics of Terraforming in the 24th-century will so distract them as a blueprint for making a bunch of little earths that we can all make our escape. What say you, Alethea?"

"Frankly, Seleya," Coleman began, "I'm surprised you read a book at all. After Cornell University, I was beginning to think you'd forgotten how to write a proper peer reviewed paper." This time however, Coleman peered over her shoulder to flash a very brief smile towards her colleague that disappeared as quickly as it formed. This was how they'd always interacted and even with the threat of hostile ships about she wasn't about to break with tradition.

"People, please," begged Jaana, hard at work. Encoding a computer system was not exactly in her wheelhouse, and her dyslexia didn't help matters when it came to staring at screens full of long strings of numbers. "Lets just get to work. Hopefully someone will come to rescue us soon."

On the surface, Miriam was as calm as a Vulcan, on the inside she really just wanted to scold Kohl. The Security guards lives were no more or less important than her own, she was certain some of them likely had families. However, it wasn't her place to scold her senior officer. The banter however, briefly drew her mind from the thought and made her smirk lightly.

"Ok, so this next step has us stumped. Lieutenant Nicholas how do we initiate the shutdown procedures from this menu?" Sigrid moved away from the LCARS terminal and pointed. "It said the next step said encryption protocols need to be run and then the option to initiate shutdown procedures should be enabled." While Jared was a scientist like the others Sigrid had hoped his experience on the bridge would give him at least a little insight as to where to find what they were looking for.


USS Galileo - Deck 5, Intelligence office

Tyrion and his team worked hard to secure every intelligence file they could find. "Encrypt everything, twice if you have to," he ordered sternly. After everything was encrypted, he added a final layer of code before locking down the computers one by one. Then he tapped his comm badge. "Intel is secure," he reported, though a quiver in his voice betrayed his anxiety.

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

--

RADM Lirha Saalm
Mission Advisor
USS Galileo

LCDR Norvi Stace
First Officer
USS Galileo

CAPT Jonathan Holliday
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo

Ensign Cyrin Xanth
Astrophysicist
USS Galileo

PO1 Taliesin Cynwrig
Master-At-Arms
USS Galileo
[PNPC Xanth]

LCmdr Allyndra illm Warraquim
Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo

Ensign Tyrion Faye
Chief Intelligence Officer
USS Galileo

2nd Lt Wintrow Paragon
Mercenary Pilot/ISS Saalm pilot
USS Galileo
[pnpc Tyrion]

Lieutenant Commander Andreus Kohl
Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo

Ensign K'os Beaumont
Acting Chief Engineer
USS Galileo

Ensign Lenaris Marika
Archaeologist/Anthropologist
USS Galileo

CA Abbey Wyatt
Scientist's Mate
USS Galileo
[PNPC Wyatt]

CPO Keval Grayson
Operations Officer
USS Galileo
[PNPC Nicholas]

LTJG Benice Gyce
Chief Security/Tactical Officer
USS Galileo

LTJG Tuula Voutilainen
Medical Officer
USS Galileo

LT Olsam Mott
Asst. Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo

LTJG Naois Mercy
Counselor
USS Galileo
[PNPC Faye]

RSS Feed