Checkmate, Part III of IV
Posted on Wed Aug 1, 2018 @ 3:08am by Captain Maritza Soran & Civilian 'Key Holder' Dorian Gabriel & Commander Caleb Ryan & Commander Amia Telamon M.D. & Lieutenant Liam Reynolds & Lieutenant Annora Tessaro & Lieutenant JG Lucius & Lieutenant Alanna Wells
1,747 words; about a 9 minute read
Mission:
Victory Conditions
Location: DS5 Local Space
Timeline: MD08 1340
Previously on End Game
“Stretlun, head towards Corridor J. Another welcome party is there. Eiadia will take a team from the other way and try to box them in. Failing that, fall back and work on delaying them. Just need to keep them busy,” Annora said over comms.
“Aye, Lieutenant, we're on our way.”
Thankfully Eiadia was close enough to hear the conversation and was already gathering their own team from those still in the fight. Including Liam and Ash, Annora had five under her. The goal was to keep her team small and mobile. "We're to get to the bridge as fast as possible. Don't stop unless we have to."
And Now the Continuation
DS5 OPS
Maritza's eyes flashed from one reading to another. The Svikiri's B section could take out every nearby ship if the warp went, the power of the new weapon was obscene, enough that it could put a rip in spacetime and flood the area with geodesic radiation, if Dr. Amoran's findings were any indication. "Ms. Dell, you and Mr. Lucius get over to B-Svikiri and do what you can to get that self destruct shut down."
Leonora looked up from her panel and quickly started to program a site to site transport. "Yes, ma'am." She looked over to Lucius. "Ready?"
Lucius adjusted his tool belt again and checked his phaser. He nodded. "Ready." A million ways to go about shutting down self destruct functions went through his head. He wondered briefly which he would have to use or if he would need to be creative. He took a deep breath and waited to be caught up in transport.
USS Svikiri, B Section
Moments later he was on the second of the three parts of the Prometheus, beamed to engineering, where a group of half a dozen yellow trimmed crewmen were frantically working at different panels. Whilst they worked, a calm female voice announced, "Time to self-destruct: Three minutes, twenty five seconds."
"Oh, that's just peachy," Lucius exclaimed after the warning was done. He went directly to the nearest crew in yellow. "I've come over from Deep Space 5. Please point me in the direction of your main control panel. I also need someone to run me through what has already been tried. I take it the captain's deactivation codes are a no go?" The inability to use the command codes was a serious problem. It wasn't like he could just crawl under a panel and clip a wire and it would all be fine. There were ways, but it might take more time then he had to crack into the programming and force it to allow them to manually enter the cancellation codes. If the ship also required anything else, palm print, retinal scan, then their best bet would be to evacuate.
A frightened Bolian pulled his head out of the panel. "Captain's codes won't work. The captain bloody set them off, and we can't match his voice print. The standard override switch has been mangled. We're trying to cut power to the ignition system and get the core ejection system back online. Bastard trashed the transporters too."
Lucius shook his head. The situation was considerably more grave than he first thought. "Alright... I need to get to the switch assembly. I think I might be able to set up a kill switch if I can get a relay off of the ignition. We'll reroute the power from the ignition system... maybe then we can shut down the self-destruct..." He looked at the Bolian. "We also might not have enough time for this! People should evacuate!" He continued to rattle on about what should be done as he made his way, quickly, to the main console.
The Bolian pointed to one panel. "EPS to the ignition system." He pointed to another, "Manual override. And we don't have enough pods to get everyone off."
"It doesn't matter. Evacuate everyone that can go. Some will just have to stay." He stared at the Bolian. "Now! Like seriously now!" Lucius headed for the electro-plasma system and dropped to his knees in front of the console. He started to pull things apart as fast as he could. There were access panels that would have to be removed first. He hoped that once he could reach the ignition, he could cut the injectors and not allow enough plasma into the ignition so that the self-destruct wouldn't have the fuel to deploy. He didn't have much time, so he was working fast. By the time he had all the panels off he also already had all of the tools and clamps he would need prepared.
USS Ararat
Alanna hadn't managed to turn on the self destruct, so she tried for a system overload and an EMP pulse. At this point, anything she could do to shut down the Svikiri and save lives was a viable option.
“What’s the status on beaming those people off the B module?” Caleb barked back to Operations. “We’re quickly moving out of range!” The rest of the fleet was pulling back away from the section. It was up to the Ararat, apparently. Caleb was surprised that the fleeing Svikari hadn’t taken a shot at them while their shields were down for transporting.
Alanna caught the transmission as she was carefully monitoring the Svikiri. She immediately began to trace its destination. At the same time, she informed Brianthe and communications on DS5 so they could track it, too.
"Commander, I'm tracking a message from the Svikiri. It's not going to any known destination."
Alanna hoped Brianthe would be able to use the station's sensors to find where it went. In the meantime, she figured she would not have long before she lost the ability to access the other ship, so she went looking in the science computer for what the message contained. She was able to piggyback on the passive communications through Astrometrics just enough to find where the data originated and grab it. Now the question was how much of it she had once it went back through Astrometrics, into the relay station, and to DS5's science computer.
"Oaxaca to Wells. I got something, but I'm not sure what it was. It's a packet of data of some sort. I'll back it up and wait for your return."
"Wells here. Thanks." She wished she could read the data now, but she didn't have that luxury. At least it would be waiting for her, and she would have the time to analyze it back on the station.
"Good luck, Alanna. Oaxaca out."
USS Svikiri, B Section
With his tools spread out, Lucius was ready to reach in and begin the procedure. That was when the EMP pulse swept across the B section’s engine room, and everything went dark. A moment later systems came back, and the computer helpfully said, "Self destruct sequence initiated. Time to self destruct: Thirty Seconds."
Lucius took a deep breath to steady his nerves. He had both of his hands in the console and was leaning into the panel. He had a small clamp in one hand and was trying to clamp off the plasma injector tube that led directly into the ship's ignition, which is what would fire with the detonation of the self destruct. In his head he was counting down. From the moment the computer said thirty seconds, Lucius started to count.
"No pressure," he said to himself as he struggled to get ahold of the correct tube. There were so many, and it wasn't like they were labeled. He had a diagram, but it wasn't exactly the ship class he was currently on, so it was more of a guessing game. As he struggled, counting in his head, he remembered something a professor had told him at Academy about the injectors. It had to do with the rings that held the tubes into place.
The Caitian had been crazy. Most of the students had thought so, and everyone hated his classes. He talked very fast, and knew more about Starfleet engines then Lucius felt he would ever know in his lifetime. The professor would often ramble very quickly about all the parts that made up the particular thing they had been currently talking about, and sometimes he had even talked about sizes of bolts. This was the bit that Lucius suddenly remembered. Because ignition needed plasma at a moment's notice, the ring clamp that held it in place was stronger, thicker, and the difference could be felt with the fingertips.
"Ten..." Lucius ran his hand over the tubes. "Nine..." He found, very quickly, that only one bolt was larger than the others. "Eight..." He tried to get the clamp into place. "Seven..." Because the ring was larger, there was less room for him to place the clamp. "Six..." He was starting to panic. If he couldn't get this done it would be way too late for him to transport off. If this didn't work he was going to blow up with this ship. "Five..." He tried forcing it on and slipped, cutting one knuckle open. "Four..." The clamp finally popped into place. "Three..." Lucius tightened it as fast and as tight as he could. "Two..." He closed his eyes, praying this would work. "One..." The injector failed. Lucius took a deep breath and let it out again in a huff of relief.
Around him, people started cheering. The Bolian slapped him on the back in a gesture of camaraderie. "You did it. You saved us!"
Lucius looked a little surprised, almost as if it hadn't quite sunk in yet. He grinned and shrugged. "Hey, it's what I do... Now, let's get these other systems online. We'll have to make sure the self-destruct resets. If we take the clamp off now it might not count down next time," he warned.
To Be Continued
Commander Maritza Soran
CO
DS5
Lt (JG) Leonora Dell
Operations officer
DS5
Lieutenant Alanna Wells
Chief Science Officer
Deep Space Five
Ensign Brianthe Oaxaca
Assistant Chief Science Officer
Deep Space Five
Cmdr Amia Telamon
CMO - DS5
Lieutenant JG Lucus
Chief Engineer
Deep Space Five
Lieutenant JG Annora Tessaro
Asst Chief Security Officer
DS5
Lieutenant Liam Reynolds
Chief Counselor
DS5
The Mutineers
NPCs by Thom
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