Levels 3: Clockwork

Posted on 09 Jan 2013 @ 3:46am by Lieutenant JG Donovan Muldaur & Lieutenant Kiri Cho
Edited on on 09 Jan 2013 @ 12:33pm

3,285 words; about a 16 minute read

Mission: Episode 02 - Resupply
Location: USS Galileo, Various locations
Timeline: MD16, 0230 hours

[ON]

Two men, one behind the other, marched their way onto the transporter pad. Their feet were unconsciously timed to step at precisely the same moment as the other's from untold years of military training. They spun on their heels, side-by-side, to face the front and did not look at each other. They were both an equal height of six feet, and both looked equally removed. In their blood circulated a stimulant that would keep their alertness heightened for the next two hours, increase their stamina, and numb their conscience.

They were both clad in gold-collared Starfleet uniforms. The gold uniform was the most versatile uniform in which to disguise oneself; an impostor could impersonate operations, engineering, or security, and they were both vastly trained in all three divisions. They would introduce themselves, if they had to, as engineers. Their false identities were complete and made accurate by Starfleet Intelligence, having already been added to the ship's manifest as transfers arriving two days after landing on Vega. Their commbadges were linked only to each other's and possessed a scattering field to prevent sensor detection or transporter locks. Each held a toolkit containing a tricorder with a computer interface, a manual door release, two electromagnetic grenades, and a hypospray loaded with tranquiliser capable of knocking someone out for at least an hour.

Hidden beneath the uniform jacket was a Type-2 hand phaser set on stun, and tied to their leg but hidden in the their left boot was a serrated combat knife. They each possessed an emergency transport device which was carried in their pocket, its intended use was for beam-out upon mission completion, but could be used in case an abort were absolutely necessary.

The man on the right was Donovan Muldaur. His eyes were cold and detached, the whites webbed with broken veins. His blonde hair was slicked back meticulously. His lips were together in a way that looked as though they never parted. He stood with an upright posture with his held high, and rarely blinked. His cheeks appeared hollow over his sharp jaw and angled face. His uniform did not betray his athletic body, built up over a lifetime of a regimented diet of carefully selected food, protein supplements, and vitamins and, of course, hours of daily exercise.

His partner was Richard Corbin. He was just as pale as Muldaur and was just as disconnected. His hair was black, his eyes were bright blue. Despite having just shaved, the shadow of stubble that had yet to sprout was visible beneath his skin. His lips were pink atop a hardened chin and jaw. He was no more or less practiced than Muldaur, and was equally built. He stood erect and purposeful beside his colleague. The rod would be retrieved at all costs. He would be successful.

Muldaur checked his watch. "Godspeed. Energise."

***

The blue tingling haze gradually disappeared from their vision as the two engineering officers materialised aboard the Galileo's deck four transporter room. Their pattern traces were matched according to their false profiles. Their own transporter operator had informed the ship to expect their arrival, which had been confirmed prior to beaming.

"Gentlemen," the Galileo's transport operator nodded.

Muldaur stepped off the pad first and immediately became what his role demanded of him. "Miss," he smiled with a polite nod. Corbin followed, nodding with an equal pleasantness. The two left the transporter room and emerged in the corridor, turning right. Memorising the ship's schematics, Muldaur knew that Science Lab 2 was at the end of hall and two doors to the right. He withdrew his tricorder from the toolkit he carried in his right hand and began a scan for guards. There weren't any. There was a good chance that they could walk straight in, he knew, but then the scan revealed the room was under heavy monitoring. There was an unusual amount of sensor activity in the lab which, to Muldaur, meant that in some way or another, security was already on to them.

"It will be best to access the fragmented computer junction from in here," Muldaur said.

Understanding, Corbin nodded. "Agreed," he said.

"Here," said Muldaur, "Help me remove this panel." The two knelt down to unhitch the access panel from the wall. They removed the wall-piece, opened the access hatch, climbed inside, then replaced the panel and closed the hatch within a time of about twenty-five seconds.

Muldaur checked his watch. 0234. At 0236, they were behind Science Lab 2, outside one of its three emergency accessways. While at the beach, Muldaur had taken every last teraquad of data from the tricorder she'd left on the shore. With her command codes, he was able to get whatever security codes he needed; Muldaur interfaced his own tricorder with a computer terminal by the hatch and opened the security view, seeing that the lab was devoid of any people. At the same time that Muldaur was doing this, Corbin was attempting mask the sensor knockout as a power surge, but he saw that new breakers were installed to prevent that from happening again. He then had to reroute the sensor codes and separate them through a duplication. Taking the readings for the past ten minutes, Corbin set them into a loop and sent the data back along the same pathways as the original sensor sweep, then disabled the real-time data. Because there had been no activity in the lab for the past several hours, there was an excellent chance that it would take some time for anyone to notice that the information was actually a fifteen minute repeat.

As a precautionary measure, they engaged their personal scattering fields. Both tapped the left wing on their commbadges to enable it, then opened the hatch to the emergency accessway and crawled inside. At 0240, they emerged in the lab and stood upright, scanning the room first with their eyes and then with their tricorders. The rod was not immediately in sight. Various scientific devices and tools lay on trays and and tables. Shelves of equipment were lined against the walls along with cabinets, cupboards, and lockers. The scans were looking for a particular SFI trace ID, but so far revealed nothing.

Muldaur and Corbin split up, searching separate areas. While Corbin searched the cabinets and storage areas, Muldaur looked over the desks and shelves. He found an interesting computer that looked cannibalised, and near the holomatrix he discovered the false Galileo program. His mind started piecing together scattered thoughts until he concluded that wherever the rod was, it was probably useless to them now. It looked and felt like a trap. The fake ship, the miniature computer that was completely separated from Galileo's.

As Muldaur turned away from the terminal holding the false information, the lab doors opened and in walked a young woman with dark hair by the name and rank of Lieutenant junior grade Kiri Cho. Muldaur had no way to tell Corbin of his discovery, and there was no hand signal that could give him the information he needed without revealing them or arousing suspicion, but Corbin was closer to the door and practically next to Cho. Muldaur's mind started racing, looking for options. The accessway was still open, suggesting that that was how they entered. He could make an escape, leaving Corbin behind to side with the crew and still have a chance of completing the mission. He could stun Kiri, he could take her hostage and demand for the rod anyway. There were a number of things that he could do now; the revelation that they were about to be compromised had already been made, it was now up to him to manage it and manipulate it into something workable.

Kiri came to an abrupt stop when she entered the room. Two strangers in uniform, were they more security officers. Her brow furrowed for a second as she tried to work out what was going on. The officer at the door hadn't said anything to her, then her eyes caught the open hatch. That raised the suspicion level, they didn't look to be chasing someone, they were looking the wrong way. In a voice that trembled slightly she asked, "What are you two doing in here?" She didn't know everyone on the crew and she didn't want to make a fuss over nothing if it could be explained.

"We could ask you the same thing," Corbin said. "At this hour, anyway."

"Yes, I believe that the science labs are off-limits for you, Lieutenant Cho, as per Lieutenant Panne's orders." Muldaur said as he came to her flank. "We detected a curious molecular disturbance leading from that accessway," he nodded toward the open hatch. "We're looking for anomalous readings to try and determine the cause. It seems that someone's been poking around in here. Any idea why?" Corbin on Kiri's opposite flank adjusted his grip on the toolkit.

"I'm off duty but I am still allowed in the labs," How did they know about that? Confused more than anything she struggled to try to make sense of the situation, "Have you spoke to security about it?" If someone had been in here then why wasn't there more fuss?

"Oh yes," Muldaur said casually. "That's why there's a guy outside; we're better equipped to handle the readings. We think something was taken."

That didn't seem right to her either, surely someone would be overseeing this and it wouldn't just be left to two engineers. Surely Maenad would be here if no one else was, still she wasn't quite sure it was false, "What was it that was taken?"

"We aren't sure," Muldaur said. "It would seem that whatever it was, it was pretty important. They knew exactly what they were after, but we're having trouble locating where it could have been taken from," he made a show of looking at his tricorder and looking over his shoulder.

Kiri knew now. If something in this room was missing then there would be Science personnel, there would be officers and someone from the plan here. Her eyes flared and she backed away slightly, she was in the room with the people they were meant to be stopping, she was unarmed, they were dangerous. Her voice was wobbling again now, "I will be back in a moment."

In a motion that defied visual acuity, Corbin's toolkit had opened and produced into his hand a hypospray filled with a tranquiliser strong enough to knock a person out cold in seconds. He grabbed her nearest bicep with the grip of his vice-like hand. Violently, he pulled her back into his chest while covering her mouth in the pit of his elbow, and pressed her head forcefully into his collar. At the same time, Corbin moved the hypospray to the side of her tiny neck. "In this hypospray is a lethal neurotoxin," he lied. "The pain is excruciating; it slowly destroys your nervous system by essentially melting away every connection in your spine. It gradually seeps into your brain, causing massive hemorrhaging. The process takes about five minutes. Consider that."

Muldaur watched as Corbin initiative the move, knowing exactly why he hadn't sent into unconsciousness right away. He said nothing, but he gave his partner a single nod before returning to his tricorder. He moved to where he had been when the science officer had first appeared, toward the separated computer terminal - the one that had obviously been cannibalised. 0247, read his watch. They were taking too much time. He made a furtive visual scan of the computer, knowing that it had to serve some key function. Then, he spotted it. The slot where the rod had been inserted. He quickly scanned it for alarms, security, something that might trigger the trap that he had realised was probably waiting for them moments ago. Nothing. His numbing to emotion prevented him from smiling as he removed the lid and slipped it into his pocket.

"Objective complete," he said. But that was hardly the end of what they were to do in the science lab. Suspecting that the rod was not what they needed, he approached where Corbin was holding the young science officer hostage. He smiled at her without revealing his teeth.

"How old are you?" Muldaur asked quietly. "Twenty-one? Twenty-two?" His eyes looked at the rank on her collar. "Lieutenant Panne must think very highly of you to have such a young graduate as her assistant, and as an equal rank? It took her more than five years to get the rank you've only just been given. Either she deeply respects you or Starfleet deeply disrespects her," he thought to himself. His ice blue eyes then locked into hers, like they were reaching into the core of her mind to rip out every piece of information inside. "My friend, here, has already told you the contents of the hypospray beside your neck. Tell me the contents of the rod that I have removed from the computer. And also tell me how it was that you managed to use the Sienna Drive. I want to know how it worked, how you knew how to manage it, and what sort of effects it had on the ship and its crew." He smiled. "To live, the questions are very simple."

Kiri's heart was pounding in her chest, her breath shallow and muffled. She could smell the man holding her through the fresh fabric smell of his uniform. Her eyes were watering, panic was setting in and she could barely do anything to struggle. Unable to move her head, or breath through her mouth for that matter. Everything seemed to be slower, wilting in the blonde man's gaze. She didn't want to die, she never realised how much she didn't want to before, such a horrible way. Face falling limp she nodded her head, almost choking on fear.

Corbin lowered his elbow so the terrified girl could speak. His hold on her unwavered, the cold nozzle of the hypospray remained against her skin. Muldaur waited, his eyes never leaving hers, for his questions to be answered.

Kiri managed a few very shaky breaths though her mouth. A shiver shot through her, refreshing the feeling of the man tight against her back, so close. Swallowing with a gasp she struggled to force her voice out, "A si, sim, simulated fa, facsimile, of the," She shouldn't be doing this, she was meant to fight back to do anything, "Data the rod was looking for." Tears started to roll down her face as she tried to stop them.

"So the data is false," Muldaur said, his suspicions confirmed. "You tried to trick me." He showed his perfectly straight teeth as his smile grew, but then it disappeared. "More," he shouted. "What did Sienna actually do? How did it do it? What was your role in it, and what side effects did it have on the ship and crew? Do not make me have to ask you a third time." The shaking in her voice, the tears on her cheeks, he paid them no attention. They were probably out of time as it was.

The shouting didn't help her answer, choking back tears her chin wobbled, "It, it's complicated." Anything she could do to slow them down, but they would kill her. Normally she was gesture with her hands, without those she felt exposed, "I did algorithms, navigation programs." The drive itself she only had a rough idea about and very little on the actual mechanical parts. She didn't build it after all, just helped with the closing stages.

Was she so panicked that she didn't understand what he was saying, or was this little wretch actually trying to stall him? "There are more of us on board," Muldaur tried. "I didn't want it to come to this. Lieutenant Panne informed us that she had no part in Sienna. Unfortunately for her, she had to endure much more than we thought she could to concede that to us. If you do not answer me, she will die, and so will you."

No, they couldn't. Further panic flushed across her eyes and her breath stopped completely, her voice reached a higher pitch, "It folds space," Another breath made her judder. She couldn't let them hurt Maenad, but how could there be so many, how could they talk without being noticed? She didn't want anyone to die, no, "I can show you."

"Good," Muldaur said. "Then show us."

Deck 4 Corridor, outside computer lab 2

The door failed to open at his approach, which seemed odd. "Lieutenant Cho?" he called out as he inputted a security override to open the door. He looked up, as soon as it opened, expecting to find Cho working on something. He'd apologize for disturbing her work and quickly determine what she had tripped in order to set off the alert then maybe go to the mess to grab a quick bite of tapas and maybe coffee before doing another patrol of the ship.

What he wasn't expecting was to see two men in gold, one holding Cho and threatening her with a hypospray. He had the presence of mind to tap his commbadge before fumbling to draw his phaser. ==^==Davis! We've got intruders! They've got Cho!==^==

He brought up his phaser, undecided on what to do. He couldn't go after the dark haired man because Cho blocked his shot, but if he attacked the blonde man, the dark haired man might harm Cho.

The sound of the opening door caused Muldaur to instinctively reach for the phaser concealed beneath his uniform jacket. He heard him shouting into his comm; aimed into the centre of his chest, Muldaur fired one steady beam into the security officer's chest. Fortunately, the man hesitated between risking a shot at Corbin or risking the hostage's safety by firing at him and wound getting himself shot.

Smoak grunted as he was shot, his phaser dropping to the floor as he fell straight down, hitting his head. A pool of blood started forming under his temple.

Corbin dispensed with his hostage, pushing her away from himself enough to knock her down. "We have to get out of here," he said. The room dimmed with the sound of the intruder alert alarm and flashing red lights.

"The mission is paramount," Muldaur said, looking toward Lieutenant Cho. "She has what we need."

"There is no time!" shouted Corbin, competing against the klaxons.

Muldaur walked over towards Kiri. His eyes glanced at the motionless security guard on the floor. His shadow loomed over her as he watched her. A thousand calculations ran through his synapses. Could they escape with her? Would she cooperate? She was about to. Only because he had threatened Lieutenant Panne; she knew Panne was safe, she would not assist him. She would only slow them down and hamper their efforts. The primary objective was lost.

"Come on!" shouted Corbin from the emergency access tube.

Turning away from Kiri, Muldaur strode to where Corbin was making his escape. Mid-turn, he changed his mind. The objective was not lost. It was inside the science officer's head. He grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her up not to rough but not too gently, either. He pushed her in front of him, phaser nudging her forward from the small of her back. "You're coming with us," he said.


[OFF]

Lieutenant (JG) Donovan Muldaur
SFI Operative
Starfleet Intelligence

Lieutenant (JG) Richard Corbin
SFI Operative
Starfleet Intelligence

Lieutenant (JG) Kiri Cho
Assistant Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo

PO3 Justin Smoak
Security/Tactical
USS Galileo

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