Torpedoes Away! (Part II)

Posted on Wed Dec 29, 2021 @ 6:45am by Lieutenant Alanna Wells & Lieutenant JG Ace Cannon

2,183 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Si vis pacem, para bellum
Location: Deck 500
Timeline: MD04 0515 hours

[PREVIOUSLY]

Finally, the woman is listening to reason. Hopefully Commander Ryan does not get us both killed. I'm sure that Bri would not appreciate that. After all, who would she dance with? So, let's see, no phasers. Just our brains. Pray there are no Cardassians, Ace. Ace led Paula by the hand and nonchalantly walked the corridor as Paula instructed. As they walked into the torpedo control room, Ace immediately saw that no prayer of his was going to be answered. He gallantly stated, "I think you do not have the proper written authority to be down here." How do we get out of this? He looked over at Paula, hoping to mind read an answer.

[CONTINUED]

Paula needed a weapon, but didn't see one. "Oh, thank goodness!" she cried, running over to the Cardassian. "It's just outside. You need to take care of it right now!" Then she tripped on purpose and stumbled into him, hitting him hard enough to knock him off balance.

"Oh, for God's sake!" Ace guffawed. "He fell for that?" Immediately Ace was upon the Cardassian and punched him in the face. However, the Cardassian had enough wherewithal to trip Ace and the two were immediately tangled together.

"It worked that time," Paula groused. She looked around for something to hit the Cardassian with. Ha. She grabbed a tool and stabbed the Cardassian in the back, then moved back to wait for another opportunity.

"Watch where you're stabbing!" Ace complained as the tool narrowly missed Ace. The stab, however, caused the Cardassian to loosen his grip on Ace and he was able to punch the Cardassian in the face again, causing him to break free. Clumsily, he stumbled off the Cardassian, got up, and smashed his foot onto the other arm of the Cardassian who looked quite unconscious at this point. Ace smiled at Paula, "Now, that was not so bad, was it?"

"What, stabbing him or almost getting you, too?" She shook her head. "As long as he doesn't recognize me later, I have no problem stabbing him. So, Mr. Expert, what do we do now?"

"Well, let's get him out of the corridor and into here, so we're not found out. I cannot imagine that the Cardassians will not be coming back. I am more surprised that there is only one in here. Come on, let's drag him in...." He grabbed a leg of the Cardassian and started dragging him into the torpedo control room.

Paula grabbed the other and helped him get the man out of view. If she "accidentally" kicked him, she didn't think it was a problem.

Once the Cardassian was handled, Ace told Paula, "Now, I have to make a decision and either one I make could get me court martialed. I could obey the Commander's order and get these torpedoes up and hopefully the Commander can do something with them, or I can scuttle them, in which case, if the Commander has been able or could have done something about our defense, I will be disobeying a direct order. With the comms down, the choice is mine." He sighed heavily. "Damn it, I wish Bri was here. She'd have some good insight on this, I'm sure."

He looked over at Paula and asked, "Can you think like her? I need her thoughts."

"We're at war," Paula said. "As long as you don't let them fall into the hands of the Cardassians I don't think it matters what you do," she said. "And no, I don't think like her. I think like me. She thinks like her."

"I know you think like you, that's why I asked you to think like her. She's filled with far less vitriol," Ace replied simply. "And to say that you think that it does not matter, concerns me. If I leave this operational, it could potentially be used against the Federation. Perhaps it is best that creatively sabotage this in a way that I can easily repair it once we have control again."

She ignored his jibe. She was going to ignore anything he said that wasn't pertinent and maybe she could get back to the blessed calm of the arboretum. "Yes. If you make them operational, you'd have to use them immediately. Or let someone in command use them immediately. Otherwise disable them." She nodded toward the Cardassian. "He's going to have company shortly and you can't leave the weapons here for them to use against us."

"I wonder if the Arboretum would have enough power for me to reroute controls there..." Ace mused.

"Reboot what controls?" she asked suspiciously. She wasn't going to let him hurt the arboretum by damaging any of its systems.

"Reroute, not reboot." She doesn't listen one bit. Unbelievable! "I simply disable the controls here and reroute all of the power coming to this area to the Arboretum. I'd likely have to build a panel to handle controls, but I could do it from a Jeffries tube or inside panel so that the Cardassians wouldn't see anything. It'd make this station here, look dead and they would have to figure out why power wasn't reaching here...." He grinned at that thought. "And if I'm really sneaky about it, I can make some simple breaks in the circuitry so that when we get the station back, I can just make some small repairs. It will delay them looking for the power siphon until someone or I think of something better."

"Then why not go somewhere they won't look? Some place like waste reclamation. With Brianthe being Alanna's assistant and her friend, do you really think they won't come looking for her, or anything about Alanna, there? We may have the power, but it wouldn't be a good idea. If you don't like waste reclamation, try two decks below here."

"I think you're just trying to avoid having me anywhere near the Arboretum. Having it close by is too logical and we may not come here. Who would think of checking in a place that has nothing but plants?"

"And when they find out where you put the controls--and they will--they'll destroy my arboretum. Plus, we actually use the power we're given. Why not leave it here, just...mess with it. Change it around so the buttons are messed up and the Cardassians will end up shooting themselves if they try to launch a torpedo."

"Oh, please! They would have to find it, first. And second, they wouldn't destroy the arboretum. The would destroy or take over the controls. There's no reason to do more. Besides, you know I'm well versed at fixing that precious area of all you crazy scientist, if need be."

Paula rolled her eyes. "And where do you plan on putting it? The sprinkling system? In the middle of the table in the workroom? Hollow out a tree?" Seriously, he could find a hundred better places for his little experiment than the arboretum.

"The sprinkler system is about the last place anyone would expect it. As I'm intimately familiar with it now, that would be a great place to put it. Nobody would think electronics and any water system would be together."

"Until it stops working and you kill the trees," she snapped back. "You're not doing anything that will put the trees in danger. And," she added with emphasis. "You worked on one part of the sprinkler system. That doesn't constitute intimate knowledge."

She paused, wondering if he was crazy or not. "We made it down here, yes. But how long do you think it'll be before another Cardassian shows up? And if you actually managed to get this idea of your working, you use them once and you'll have every Cardassian on the station down on you--and the arboretum. Find a place that's close and one they won't consider. I'm sure you have at least a dozen choices--none of which involve killing trees."

"I'm not going to kill your precious trees," Ace responded, shaking his head in disbelief. Of all the things to worry about. "The last thing that I would need is any of you botanist types breathing down my neck in a way that none of us would enjoy. The Arboretum is not a place they would ever suspect." With that, he opened a panel and started the process of rerouting power and allowing a trickle over to the torpedo control panels, so they would appear to work but not enough power would arrive to actually utilize the torpedoes. Should anyone try to use the torpedoes, the entire area would short and cause an electrical fire within the control room. It was not a mess that Ace looked forward to repairing.

Audibly he sighed. "Now, to really cover my tracks, I'm going to have to put in more buffers and reroute several ways. I'm not looking forward to this extra work." He looked at Paula and wishfully said, "It is too much to hope for a reward from you, isn't it?"

She raised an eyebrow. "Are you expecting a potted plant?"

"It is a start," Ace replied ruefully as he continued his work. "Go on. Marvel at my work," he said, once finished and leaving the panel open for a second. "Or help me think of a diversion so that we can get somewhere without running into Cardassians."

"I'm impressed," she said bluntly. "Can you shut off a valve, cause a buildup and an explosion somewhere on this deck? Maybe blow out a bulkhead? We might be able to get into an access panel and cause something to go wrong from there."

"Can I? Probably. Do I advise blowing out a bulkhead? No. It could potentially breach the hull and then we'd all be dead, or at least anyone on this floor. I can't control everything with an explosion."

"True. Unless it's an interior wall with a bunch of Cardassians by it. Then it would be useful." She shook her head. "Blowing up labs is always a distraction. But it may not be now. I doubt they'd care about a lab. They would care about a power conduit, though."

"Yes, but if I give them a power conduit to fix or look at, they might look too hard and find out what I did." He tapped his chin thoughtfully. "Decisions, decisions."

She nodded. "I didn't think of that. Can we just slip into the access panel and come out somewhere else?"

"Depends on the panel," Ace returned. "How are you at fitting into tight spaces?" he asked with a devilish grin.

"Good enough. I deal with bushes on a daily basis."

"I imagine that you do. Hopefully you keep them well trimmed," Ace replied, his mind naturally slipping back into the gutter. "If you go behind that panel, you will find a narrow ladder. It leads up to a small maintenance hatch. That hatch will take you behind these instruments attached to the wall. From there, you can climb into a Jeffries tube. It will get wider as you get more into the corridor areas of the ship. I'll come in from behind and give you directions from there."

"Fine." She didn't like the idea of him being behind her. Or anywhere near her for that matter. "Just don't push." She found the access panel. It was a tight squeeze, but nothing she couldn't manage. Fortunately, his directions were good. She didn't want to get turned around and end up in the middle of a patrol.

Ace had a tougher time of managing but not much more so. He thanked heavens that he did not have the curves of a woman, which would make traversing these areas much more difficult. He admired the fact that Paula did not complain and more than admired her rear. It was unfortunate that it was attached to such a sour personality. He whispered loudly, "Make a right at the next junction. That should lead to another ladder where we can climb to whatever floor that you want."

Paula nodded that she heard and understood. At least he wasn't talking too much. She turned right at the junction and looked for the ladder. She wanted to go back up to the arboretum, but that was too far away. Up was security and down were the docks. She sighed. Down would probably be easier. She grabbed the ladder and began to climb down.

"Where do you think you're going?" Ace hissed as he caught up with her. "Don't you think there's likely to be more of them there? They had to come in from somewhere!"

Paula stopped and sighed. "You said pick a direction," she said, not very pleased that he now wanted a different answer. "Don't you think it likely they've taken over security? I doubt the Cardies can take over every single cargo and shuttle bay, but if you'd rather go up to security, be my guest. I'll stay behind you." Where at least he'd be shot first.


(To be continued...)

Lieutenant JG Ace Cannon
Assistant Chief Operations Officer
Deep Space 5

Paula Pendergast
Botanist
Deep Space 5

 

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