Security Detail
Author: The Passionate Admiral
Rating: K+
Disclaimer: I own nothing in the Star Trek universe, nor any of the characters, but I do own the USS Hanson and its crew, along with a few other Federation starships in this story. So please, no referencing my ideas w/out my consent!
Plot: This takes place during the fourth season of DS9, say sometime between "Paradise Lost" and "Crossfire." The summary says it all. What could an unprovoked attack on a Federation starship incite? We shall see!
In the year 2372, the vast space along the Federation-Cardassian border was relatively calm and peaceful. The Federation survey vessel Hanson was observing all events taking place along a part of the Border. The members of the crew were looking for anything that they should report in. But they had encountered nothing out of the ordinary. They continued to patrol the border, keeping their eyes open for anything suspicious.
On the bridge of the Hanson, Captain Weston Turner was in the Captain's chair, overlooking the latest dossier on their last survey. He was slightly disappointed when he found nothing out of the ordinary. He was hoping that he would have something worth reporting to give to Starfleet Command. He soon began wishing that something spontaneous would happen that day. Unfortunately, he would be getting his wish very soon.
Joining Captain Turner and his crew from Deep Space Nine were Lieutenant Commander Worf and Dr. Julian Bashir. The former had come along to assist the crew in the event of an encounter with the Klingons, and the latter had accompanied them for the same reason. The only real difference in their jobs was where each of them would be working. Dr. Bashir would, of course, be working from the sickbay. Commander Worf would be operating from a tactical station on the bridge.
Lieutenant Commander Jadzia Dax had also accompanied the warrior and the physician from the station. She had come along to take charge of a scientific operation in the vicinity. However, that operation would not be addressed for at least another day, so she took some time off and spent it with Worf and Bashir.
At that moment, however, all three of them were on the bridge. Commanders Worf and Dax and Dr. Bashir approached Captain Turner. Bashir said to the Captain "You seem to be waiting in anticipation, Captain."
"You could say that, Doctor." admitted Turner.
"Is everything alright, sir?" asked Dax.
"Not quite." Turner replied quickly. He immediately followed his last phrase with"I mean, it's just that... we are having issues right now with the Klingon Empire, the Cardassian Union, and the Dominion. We are out here, running parallel to the place the three of them are most likely to appear. I just wish that they would hurry up and make their decision of whether or not to attack."
"I admire your desire for confrontation of hostile forces, Captain." Worf complimented Turner. "It is the most noticeable sign of a warrior to my people."
Turner looked up at Worf and gave him a light smile. He told him "Thank you for that, Commander Worf. I am glad to see I have gained favor with you."
"Here, here." commented Dr. Bashir. Jadzia smiled at him.
To the port side of the bridge, the ship's sensor relay officer, Lieutenant Commander Francis Dickerson, noticed something bizarre and said "Captain, I'm getting an odd power fluctuation coming from somewhere in the ship."
Turner sat up in his chair and turned to her, asking "Can you detect the source, Dickerson?"
"No, sir, the internal sensors are unable to find its location." she replied.
"Try realigning them." he ordered her.
"I already have, Captain. I'm still not having any luck finding where it's coming from."
Turner sat in his chair thinking of a way to locate the fluctuation. At the same time, his chief of operations, a Betazoid named Tonja Ritsion, found a solution. She turned to Turner and informed him "Captain, I can make a few modifications to the sensor array. With them, we should be able to find the source of the power oscillation."
"Do it." Turner ordered her.
Ritsion went to work on making the necessary adjustments to complete her task. While she worked, Dr. Bashir made a comment to Worf about how Chief O'Brien would be able to avoid such inconveniences on the station. After she finished, she said to Dickerson "Try it now, Franny."
Dickerson went to work on searching for the source of the power fluctuation. "I've got it, Captain." she reported to Turner after a moment of investigation. "The variation in the ship's systems is coming from the engine room."
"Turner to Satifis." said Turner into the com system.
A male Bolian lieutenant, who was the ship's chief engineer, responded from the engine room with "Satifis here. What is it, Captain?"
"We're detecting a type of discrepency coming from the engine room." replied Turner. "See if you can determine what is causing it."
Satifis inspected all of the stations there and asked the people of duty if they were encountering anything abnormal. But his investigation turned up nothing out of the ordinary. He reported in "There's nothing out of place here, Captain."
"Try inspecting the warp core itself." suggested Turner.
Satifis went to work inspecting the engine core. He went to the reactor and looked all around it. He found that all of the conduits were properly connected to the power cell matrix on the adjoining wall, but there was another large wire in the core's databank that he did not recognize. He followed the wire and it led him to a cabinet in the emergency coolant locker. He went to a panel on the wall and contacted the bridge. He reported in to Turner "Captain, everything appears to be in order, but there's something connecting the engine core's databank to the inside of the emergency coolant cabinet."
Turner sat in his chair, pondering on the next move he should make. Worf advised him "You must proceed with caution, sir. This could present a high risk to the crew."
Dr. Bashir grinned at his Klingon friend and told him "Worf, I'm sure that Captain Turner knows what he is doing."
"Julian's right." Jadzia agreed with the doctor. "We can worry about precautions at a later time. As Curzon used to say, 'haste is of the essence.'"
Finally, Turner ordered Satifis to open the cabinet. Satifis attempted to do so, but he found it was locked. This aroused more suspicion; as the coolant storage locker was supposed to be unlocked at all times. Satifis told Turner that he would work on getting the cabinet open. After another minute, Lieutenant Satifis was becoming more successful in deactivating the lock to the cabinet. He informed the bridge with "I think I'm almost there." Finally, he heard a latch click. He opened the compartment and saw what was causing the power fluctuation. An EMP bomb had been rigged to the engine core. He shouted "Captain, it's an EMP bomb!"
"WHAT?" yelled Turner. This news attracted the attention of everyone on the bridge and in main engineering.
Satifis looked frantically all over the bomb's casing for a control panel, but there was none. Then he resorted to attempting to severe the wire from the bomb. The cord was imbedded into the casing. Soon, the timer of the bomb was in its last five seconds. Satifis could only stare in horror as it went from 00:01 to 00:00. Then the bomb detonated. A massive electronic surge was sent out by the EMP. It was so powerful that Satifis was thrown backwards and through the bulkhead into the next room. Then slowly, the electronic surge started spreading out in a sphere-like pattern in all directions. It neutralized everything electronic that it came in contact with. All over the ship, such items malfunctioned, overloaded, or shut down. Anyone standing within a foot of an overloading conduit was electrocuted.
Soon the energy surge reached the bridge of the vessel. The panel in front of the man sitting next to Lieutenant Ritsion overloaded, throwing him out of his chair. He gave a shout of pain as the electrical energy came in contact with his body. Worf ran over to Ritsion, grabbed her by her shoulders, and pulled her out of her chair quickly. Just a few seconds later, the panel at Ritsion's station overloaded. The explosion caused her and Worf to get knocked off of their feet. On the ground, Ritsion looked at the man who had been seated next to her. He was a Vulcan and he too was lying on the ground. Ritsion saw that parts of skin on his throat had been scorched off. She could not believe that had Worf not pulled her out of her seat, she would have ended up like him.
Dax ran over to Worf and leaned him onto his side. Fortunately, neither he nor Ritsion had been injured. However, all over the room, electronic objects failed and erupted in electrical wakes of energy. Commander Dickerson's panel short-circuited directly in front of her and she was almost literally burned to a crisp. Turner jumped to his feet and shouted "Get the power-grid operating again! We have to-"
Before Turner could finish giving his order, a long piece of the hull on the bridge's ceiling just above him lost one of its supports. It came falling down in a diagonal trajectory and struck Turner full in the face. Several bones in his face were broken instantly. Turner involuntarily spun around and collapsed.
"Captain!" shouted Lieutenant Ritsion. She got up off the ground, ran over to the Captain, kneeled next to him, and turned him over. His wide open eyes were staring into nothingness. Blood was spreading out of his nose and mouth very slowly. Lieutenant Ritsion checked for her commanding officer's pulse, but she could not find it. Dr. Bashir came over to her and ran a scan with his medical tricorder on the Captain. When he was finished running his scan, he gave Ritsion a look that indicated there was no hope for the Captain. But she already knew he was gone, as she could not sense anything from him. She then looked all around the bridge. Everyone else there was either dead or on the ground. Once every system on the ship had been disabled, the Hanson remained almost totally powerless. Then it was simply dead in space. The only system still operating was life-support.
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