Scheme (Part 1 of 3)

Posted on 30 Nov 2015 @ 12:49am by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Captain Jonathan Holliday & Jynn & Commander Luke Wyatt & Ensign Jaana Voutilainen & Senior Chief Petty Officer Keval zh'Erinov & Petty Officer 2nd Class Eva Kovalev
Edited on on 30 Nov 2015 @ 12:52am

2,148 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Episode 09 - Empires
Location: USS Galileo - Various
Timeline: MD 07 - 0330 hrs

[ON]

It had been almost two hours since Galileo had been boarded and commandeered by the hostile Terran Empire forces. With the crew now subjugated and several of them taken for questioning within the secret Terran outpost, the situation was grave and time was beginning to run out.

Down on Deck 7, Lirha had hidden herself in one of the Jeffries tubes connected to main engineering. She'd done her best to monitor the situation as well as she could, but most of her information had come from listening to the internal comm system and the shouting voices near the warp core several hours ago. She knew the crew had been ordered to their quarters under guard, but she also knew she couldn't be the only one who had managed to escape detection.

Putting her honed operational skills to work, she crawled on her hands and knees towards the nearest LCARS service panel, then began to tap several override command sequences into the display and release the lock to the internal circuitry panel just below the screen. She curled herself up into an efficient ball in order to reach deep into the heart of the isolinear circuitry, and after a few minutes of rearranging chips and power connections, she finally had establish what she hoped would be a private and rudimentary internal comm system.

"...Is anyone there...?" she whispered, hoping someone in their quarters or at a secure stations would hear her voice over the comm.

Luke was attending to his wounds, before the Terran Universe soldier burst into sickbay he had managed to find an access panel and taking and engineers tool box which had been left on the counter he masked his body signature. The last thing he expected when crawling towards engineering was Lirha's voice come as a low whisper from somewhere down the tube. Crawling as fast as he could he came across a maintenance panel. "Admiral?" He asked whispering himself securing the last of his bandages gaining some sense "Send identification code" He asked.

"...Saalm-Foxtrot-November-zero-zero-one..." whispered her voice in return. "Lieutenant Wyatt?" His voice sounded familiar but she wasn't quite sure due to the vocal distortion in the makeshift comm channel.

He gave a breath and smiled "Is it good to hear your voice Admiral" He replied the distortion clearing a little after a few good hits "The airlock, I couldn't...I don't..." he broke thinking back to his daughter, having family close by especially in combat was possibly the worst out come that could happen especially a daughter "What do we do Admiral? I had several officer stationed in key areas but as far as I'm aware they have all be captured all neutralised as for the chief, I haven't heard from her"

The Orion figured as much; most likely any boarding party would first secure and separate the crew from each other in order to minimize communication and any attempts to revolt or take back the ship. As such, the first plan of action was to reestablish communications and begin to coordinate efforts. "...We must find others who we can speak to and get status reports. As much information as possible about what is currently happening," she answered. "...Can you communicate with anyone else right now? Are you near the crew quarters?"

He nodded "I can try and make it from here, Admiral. I would advise staying where you are, I can... Acquire some uniforms to blend in but I don't think you'd cut it. I'll try and keep checking in every 15 minutes, do you have somewhere private to convene?" Luke asked becoming excited with the possibility of taking back the ship.

Lirha wasn't exactly in the position to move around much, but she wanted to be able to gain access and information to as many areas of the ship as possible. Which inevitable meant that she would be on the move very soon. "...No, we cannot meet in person...not yet. Contact as many personnel as you can and report back to me on the quarter-hour. I will try to do the same..." her voice crackled across the comm.

Closing his eyes and steadying his breath "I'm sorry to have failed you Admiral, as both your friend and your security officer, Ill do my best" he put his button up to the console and sighed. Just when he thought he could let go off his past and his murderous background it always round a way to surface, to help him and to leave a burning hole in heart. Quickly tapping a last macro into the system giving anyone with the correct federation identity check instructions to meet him at the Geology Lab one hour and the encrypted signal he had now managed to cipher into his comm badge using some dominion war know how.

Holliday sat in the darkness of his quarters - having already sustained one bout of questioning at the hands of the Empire, his face showing the marks of their rather primitive questioning techniques. So far he had managed to avoid giving them any information - but he couldn't help feeling that this was just a warm up. The doors to his chambers had been sealed from the other side, and the controls disconnected. In true Holliday style however he was not defenceless. A type 1 phaser hidden in the lining of his desk drawer had been retrieved and tucked into the waistband of his uniform. He hoped he would not have to use it, but he was damned if he was going to be caught unaware.

After a moment of contemplation he heard the soft crackle of the comm line, and the voice of his superior officer. He was not surprised that the Orion had managed to evade detection; her time in in Intelligence was obviously well spent. Jumping to his feet, the Captain headed for his desk and opened the comm channel.

"Authentication Holliday Omega 4-3-5-2-Kappa. Admiral - are you in one piece?"

"...John...?" answered Saalm with a distorted crackle to her voice. "Are you okay? What is your status? How is the crew?" she asked, suddenly feeling relieved that he was alive and well and still on board. That was a good sign, at least.

"I'm in one piece - mostly." He replied as he winced from a few bruised ribs. It was nothing he hadn't dealt with before, and was more of an annoyance than a hindrance

"I haven't seen the bulk of the crew - my counterpart seems to have had almost everyone sealed in their quarters. There's armed guards outside my door and from what I could see additional patrols roaming the corridors. How did you avoid them?"

Lirha shifted her position and now sat up cross-legged and hunched over in front of the small LCARS display. "...Oh...well, I managed to slip into a maintenance hatch in the chief engineer's office when they came into engineering...I assumed it would not be the best idea for them to see an Orion in a Starfleet uniform..."

"I would have to agree." John replied, nodding in support even though he knew there was no way for his former CO to see his action.

"Are you able to reach any of the crew quarters? I suggest we need to start gathering our resources to find out exactly what they want."

Lirha could probably make her way through most of the ship if needed. It would take a while, however, because she would have to delicately crawl her way through various service tubes in a roundabout manner. "...Yes, I can get to the crew quarters. Which deck? And what are we looking for?" Besides weapons, she wasn't quite sure what the best course of action would be, especially if they wanted to stay undetected.

Holliday took a moment to think. They were heavily outnumbered and outgunned, so a direct attack now would likely fail. The smart choice was to stay in the shadows; and the larger those shadows the better.

"The computer core on deck three would be prudent - without internal sensors they might find it a little more difficult to keep us all under guard....your thoughts?"

The core was conveniently located in the center-most quadrant of Galileo which would make travel to and from it rather swift. However, with her access codes and a terminal near her, hopefully she wouldn't need to divert.

"Yes, a good idea...but I believe I can access the core remotely with my command codes...stand by..." The comm went silent for many moments while she went to work and accessed the mainframe.

After a few minutes had passed, she finally spoke back up again. "...Internal sensors have been temporarily disabled...I have locked them under my command codes on a thirty minute rotating delay," she informed him. "I believe that will help avoid suspicion."

"Excellent...after that our priority should be either the Bridge or Main Engineering - from there we can lock out most of the ship's functions and isolate any hostile presence on board. I suggest Engineering is less likely to be as guarded as the Bridge."

Holliday replied, already reaching for the type 1 holstered in his belt. If there was going to be a prison break, then he was going to be involved. After all this was his ship, and nobody, not even himself, was going to take it away from him.

"I agree," replied the rear admiral. "...I will attempt to make contact with more of the crew and get a small force together. I will contact you again as soon as I am ready...Saalm out."


Deck 4 - Keval's Quarters

Keval didn't like the looks the Empire soldiers had given him when he had been led to his quarters. If they had been a civilized people, he would more than likely be in sickbay recovering.

He was lucky that the blade hadn't cut any lower and that all he would have is a scar and a helluva story to tell anyone who observed the scar in such an intimate location.

He was confined to his quarters, but that didn't really matter to him. Not with his skill set. So when he heard the Admiral's words, he was quick to respond. "Keval here," he said, "I think I may be able to lend a hand."

The name sounded familiar and Lirha quickly matched the voice with the Andorian Operations officer who usually ran mission ops on the bridge. Having someone who knew the ins and outs of the ship's computer systems would no doubt be very valuable in their current plight.

"...Very good..." she answered quietly. "Where are you and what is your status...?"

'I am in my cabin ma'am," he replied, "I know the security systems here like the back of my antennae. I know I can override the locks on my door, if I can get to the computer core on Deck 3, I can do the same for anyone else, and I'm pretty sure I can do it without being detected. I can also lock any doors we don't want open. It's not much, but it's a start."

It sounded like a good option to have, but there needed to be a plan before any action was taken. And at the moment, Lirha wasn't quite sure what that plan was, and needed to gather her resources first. "...Stay where you are...for now," she answered. "We can use your skills soon but first we need to coordinate with the rest of the crew. ...Standby for more instructions. Saalm out..."

Keval nodded, though of course the Admiral could not see him. Part of him wanted to just jump into the action, the consequences be damned, but his more rational half knew that would be a fatal mistake. He wanted to escape, not die. And besides he still wasn't fully recovered. He could use some rest. "Standing by ma'am. Just let me know. I'll be ready."

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

--

RADM Lirha Saalm
Mission Advisor
USS Galileo

CAPT Jonathan Holliday
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo

Lieutenant JG Luke Wyatt
Asst. Chief of Security
USS Galileo

Ensign Tyrion Faye
Chief Intelligence Officer
USS Galileo

Lieutenant j.g. Naois Mercy
Counsellor
USS Galileo
[PNPC Tyrion]

Cadet SO Wintrow Paragon
Support Craft Pilot
USS Galileo
[PNPC Tyrion]

PO2 Rheneas Malachy
Engineer/Archaeologist
USS Galileo
[PNPC Tyrion]

Ensign Jaana Voutilainen
Stellar Cartographer
USS Galileo
[PNPC Tuula]

Lieutenant JG Jynn
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Galileo

CPO Keval Grayson
Operations Officer
USS Galileo
[PNPC Nicholas]

PO3 Veri RN
Nurse
USS Galileo
[PNPC Gyce]

EMH Mark X-B
Medical Officer
USS Galileo
[PNPC Holliday]

PO2 Eva Mercy
Propulsion Specialist
USS Galileo
[PNPC Zhao]

Doyle McAdams
Mixologist
USS Galileo
[PNPC Henderson]

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