Chapter 11 – Answers
RSS Endurance RSRN-1702-D
Transporter Room 1
When the away team returned, there seemed to be an air of anticipation surrounding them. No one aboard except for those who went down knew what happened. Theodore Braxton immediately assigned Lore to study the note Q left behind. The Captain knew that when dealing with unknown powers including the Q, one must use every resource given to them in order to survive.
The away team materialized in the transporter room. Lore, note in hand immediately took it to his quarters where he would analyze the note more thoroughly. Braxton went to the bridge and David followed. David couldn't shake the feeling that there was something wrong with this picture. Everything just seemed so… artificial. Like this whole thing was staged. Yes, he did hear what Q had to say about how he orchestrated for the Spartans to be stranded here and for the Endurance to rescue them. But, somehow it seemed something else… something more was amiss.
RSS Endurance RSRN-1702-D
Main Bridge
The turbolift doors opened, and Captain Braxton and Sub-Lieutenant David Zanders exited. David noted that every single officer he encountered since returning to the ship was wearing their standard issue, white combat armor with their division color for the accent color. I guess the crew has decided this isn't just another exploration mission David chuckled in his head.
Theodore was about to sit in his chair when he noticed something strange. He looked behind him, and saw no one at the Tactical Station. "Lieutenant Jameson!" He barked looking at the officer who previously occupied his chair.
"Yes, Sir!" Jameson replied.
"Why the hell is no one at the Tactical Station. Do you mean to tell me that the position has been vacant for the entire time that we were down on the surface!" The Captain frowned.
The Officer was scared. It was written all over his face. "Sir, the Tactical Officer on our shift was injured on the holodeck moments before you left"
"Why wasn't he replaced?" The Captain retorted.
"Sir… th-there is no replacement aboard" the Officer stuttered.
The Captain's eyes suddenly softened as he grasped the situation. The ship had been on a skeleton crew when they left Mars Spacedock because they simply didn't have time to load everyone back on the ship when the Enterprise left orbit for the wormhole. His eyes wondered over to David who was standing beside him.
Oh… SHIT! David thought.
"Sub-Lieutenant, you will serve as Tactical Officer until we arrive at Mars Spacedock for resupply" the Captain announced.
"Yes, Sir" He muttered along with a few unintelligible curses while taking his new spot on the bridge.
Suddenly, the turbolift doors opened again. Doctor Halsey and Chief Mendez exited. "Captain, I must say… these quarters you have assigned us are absolutely outstanding" Halsey raved.
"I am glad you approve" The Commander spoke.
A beeping sound was heard from the Tactical Console. David looked down to see what it was. "Sir, we are being hailed, audio only."
"Put it through," The Commander ordered.
"Reclaimers, this is 3402 Righteous Bias. We are going to return you to normal space. An anomaly should appear directly ahead. This should return you to approximately the same location where you were taken… although I cannot be certain. Good luck" The Monitor said, closing the channel just after he finished talking.
Suddenly, a massive orange portal appeared out of nowhere in front of the ship. Unlike last time, the Endurance was not being dragged in. "Helm, plot a course into that anomaly; quarter impulse"
"Course laid in Sir" The Helmsman replied.
"Engage"
RSS Endurance RSRN-1702-D
Senior Lieutenant Lore's Quarters
Lore sat at his desk in his quarters. A little known fact was that Lore's quarters where the only quarters aboard that did not have a bed. Instead, due to the fact that the Android's power cells continuously recharge themselves he did not require "sleep" in the same way as biological organisms did. Instead, every few days his positronic brain would (with Lore's prior knowledge) perform a self-clean of his neural pathways for about sixty seconds. This prevents the rampancy that is seen in UNSC AIs after they "expire" due to the fact that their neural nets would get so tangled up that not even the best engineer could make heads or tails of it. This function is built into almost every AI based on positronic even going as far back as me.
The Android looked down at the paper and pondered at it. A Martyr among giants… who are the giants?
That was the key. Lore doubted that Q was referring literally to tall humans from old Earth mythology. No, it was a metaphor for something else. A group maybe, people who are looked up to from all walks of life. But, then there was something else. The note also mentioned that this Martyr was also known as the 34th soldier.
Something crept into Lore's mind that took his attention completely away from his assigned task. Daisy-023. She was a Spartan-II Supersoldier and later a Starfleet Commando; the most elite division of special operations in the entire Starfleet. They were held to such high standards, not just physically but mentally. There is a reason why Vulcans, Clones and other Androids dominate the list of active commandos today. Applicants have to be not only physically superior to most units, but they also have to be able endure mental trauma that would rip apart a 'normal' human's sanity. In fact, this sort of betrayal hasn't happened within the Starfleet Commando Generation II in over fifty years.
"Computer, can you access Lieutenant Soren Green's visual logs from his last mission?" Lore asked.
"Affirmative" The Computer replied in its usual monotonous tone.
"Play visual log from the beginning, 50x playback speed"
"Affirmative" it repeated.
Suddenly, Soren's visor appeared on Lore's terminal. He watched as the events that unfolded during the mission flash by in incredible speed. Lore's eyes scanned back and forth so rapidly that to an observer would look like his eyes had turned a solid yellow. As the video rapidly played, something stood out to him. The way that Daisy acted, moved, spoke and fought was seemingly erratic. She was reckless and bold, which is nothing like what a Commando is supposed to be. After the video ended, he pulled up her file from the ship's database. It was not what he expected. According to the file, her personality type was abnormally stable for a Commando, even more so than most Vulcans. In fact, her record surpassed Soren Green's in terms of mental stability by 25 points. For this reason, she was entrusted with some of the most dangerous and tiring missions they could throw at her. Lore looked at the portrait of Daisy on file. It didn't add up.
"Computer, can you retrieve Daisy's latest brain scan?" Lore asked.
"Affirmative" The Computer replied.
Soon after, an image of her brain activity overlaid by a topographical scan was displayed on Lore's terminal. He studied it carefully for a good five minutes and came across something odd. "Computer, enhance section J-2"
The computer complied. The patterns that Lore was seeing was not erratic and random like one who was losing their mind. No, this was different. It was targeted, precise and predictable. Almost like the neural firing patterns emitted by positronic neurons…
"Computer, compare firing patterns from section J-2 to the rest of the subject's brain"
As the computer overlaid the patterns on top of each other it became clear that these patterns were anomalous. Unlike the rest of her brain, whose brain waves were pretty standard for a human, these were different. They were rhythmic, like whatever was emitting it was preprogrammed to do so without any regard for what the rest of the brain was doing. Lore could tell by the waves' magnitude that it was overwhelming everything else.
It suddenly clicked in Lore's mind. "Computer, access the specifications of the MA-1 thought control device used by the Enhanced Coalition during the Starfleet Insurrection of 2207 and overlay the wave configuration that it would broadcast into the cerebrum by default"
"Accessing..."
The patterns matched perfectly.
Lore after realizing this immediately tapped his combadge. "Lore to Captain Braxton" he said.
"Hello Looorreee. How ya doing my little… little pale friend?" Braxton slurred.
"Captain? Are you okay, Sir?" Lore replied.
"Oh yaaa… We are having a like little party up here. Don't tell mom. Just got out of the fucking *hic* dyson sphere. There's this like massive ship outside that seems pretty cool. There is some kind of like 'Arbiter' who demanded to know who we were. Guess what I did?"
"What did you do?" Lore asked.
"I sent him a picture of the middle finger!" The line suddenly cut with the Captain manically laughing.
"Captain? Are you there?" Lore asked flatly.
There was no reply.
Lore immediately moved to the other side of the room where his combat armor was being stored. He pressed a few buttons on the wrist of the exoskeleton and the armor popped open like a door. Lore entered his suit and it snapped shut around him. He finally put his helmet on and walked out the door of his quarters.
It was a mess.
Officers were stumbling in the halls while others pretended to be making snow angels on the floor where there was no snow. Lore looked around to see what could be causing such a massive problem in the organics. He looked behind him to see an air circulation vent in the wall behind him. The Environmental Controls… Lore thought.
Lore reached for his Tricorder which was magnetically attached to his armor. He opened it (which immediately linked it to his armor) and scanned the atmosphere around him. It took about ten seconds to get the results. Everything seemed to be in order except… there was a trace amount of alcohol. It all started to click. Alcohol isn't under the list of chemicals that would trigger the air filters in standard combat armor… but who would do this? Lore questioned in his head.
Using his HUD interface, Lore opened an unsecured channel to anyone aboard the ship. "This is Senior Lieutenant Lore, is there anyone who still has their faculties?"
Cargohold A-4
The living arrangements were complete. Finally, Soren and the rest of the Spartans entered what would be their accommodations for the rest of their stay aboard the Endurance. The interior was very Spartan with no furnishings whatsoever. The way the Spartans like it. "This will be adequate" Kelly droned.
"This is Senior Lieutenant Lore, is there anyone who still has their faculties?" Lore said.
Soren looked around at the Spartans confusedly as the message played through the small speaker in his wrist. Soren immediately went to grab his helmet to reply. "This is Lieutenant Soren Green, what is going on?"
"Someone has altered the environmental controls to contaminate the ship's atmosphere with 0.1% alcohol. The human crew will die of exposure reach lethal levels within twenty-five minutes" Lore responded.
Soren cut the channel and turned to the Spartans. "Helmets on! All of you, now!" Soren barked.
The statement was redundant of course, as all of the Spartans had their helmets on except for Fred-104, who had no armor at all. "What is going on?" Linda asked.
"The atmosphere has been contaminated with alcohol" Soren replied hastily.
Someone suddenly tapped Soren's shoulder. He turned to see who it was, seeing Fred-104. "I need a suit" he said assertively.
Soren looked around. He remembered from his time before aboard the Endurance that there was an armory across the hall. Suddenly, the cargohold doors opened and an officer walked through. "You big bad Spartans should all fucking go to hell!" She slurred. The officer was clad in basic combat armor and pulled her hand phaser on us.
Her phaser was set to beam mode as she fired lazily at the Spartans who scattered long before her drunken reflexes could react. Soren detached his hand phaser from his armor and set it to stun. He rushed from cover and hit the officer with the butt of the gun, draining her shields and tossing her gun. Before she could react, Fred grabbed the phaser and fired at her; knocking the officer to the ground. She tried to get up soon after, but ended up vomiting in her own helmet… apparently falling asleep after.
Soren pulled off her helmet to allow her to breathe, and subsequently releasing the smell that only Fred could sense due to his lack of armor. "Let's move" Soren said, gesturing towards the door.
The Spartans followed him. They walked out the cargohold doors and crossed the corridor to get to the armory, walking over sleeping bodies in the process. As they were going, Fred stumbled. Obviously, the alcohol in the air was catching up with his augmented metabolism. Soren saw this and picked up his pace, grabbing some armor hanging from one of the shelves and pressing the buttons on its wrists to open it up. "Get in" Soren commanded.
Fred did as he was told and stepped in front of the suit. It automatically scanned his proportions and adjusted accordingly. Finally, after it was done Fred put the thing on. Soren grabbed a helmet from another shelf and put it on him, hissing as it sealed. "Turn your filters to maximum" Soren ordered.
"How?" Fred asked as his HUD lit up for the first time.
"Think it!" Soren barked, obviously wanting to get going.
And so Fred did. A slight hissing sound was heard coming from his helmet indicating that the filter had started its work. Soren saw a replicator over on the other side of the room. He walked up towards it and said "Computer, replicate one vial of ethanarbizol".
Then, a vial of blue liquid appeared in the replicator slot. Soren took this vial and grabbed something from underneath one of the shelves. It was a medical kit. Soren opened the kit and grabbed a hypospray, which he then took the vial that he replicated and slided inserted it in the bottom of the device. He walked back to Fred and said "Hold still" as he injected the drug through the slot for hyposprays on his armor's neckguard.
"What was that?" Kelly asked.
"An Anti-Intoxicant, breaks down any alcohol in the blood stream. It takes a few minutes to kick in so" Soren turned to Frederic. "Try not to bump into anything"
"Lieutenant Green, come in," Lore communicated.
"Sir?" Soren asked.
"Where are you currently located?" Lore said.
"Armory J-1, Sir" Soren replied.
"I have been unable to contact Sub-Lieutenant Zanders; his vital signs show that he is currently unconscious on the bridge"
"Yes Sir, I can see that. But, his armor should have filtered the alcohol, right?" Soren replied, pulling up his entire team's vital signs on his HUD.
"Yes, it should have. There may be more going on here than we realize. The main computer went offline fifteen minutes ago due to unknown causes, who knows what will go next. We must rendezvous at the bridge immediately" Lore said.
"Understood, we will be there shortly. Soren out"
Soren turned to face the other Spartans. His silvery armor glistened under the armory's light. "We are to rendezvous with Senior Lieutenant Lore on the bridge and get this ship under control" Soren pointed towards a rack full of PR-25 Phaser Rifles. "Help yourself to the equipment here, it is more than likely that we will encounter another angry drunk on the way".
The Spartans nodded and armed themselves. They inspected the weapons they received with great care, figuring out where all of the settings and controls were and getting used to the weapon in general. Once they finished, Soren led the way out of the small armory into the corridor. The Spartans followed, and after a few seconds they were all out in the corridor.
Soren led the way. The Spartans flanked him as he made his way down the corridor towards the turbolift. Suddenly, everything went dark and everything went to hell. Sparks flew from literally all directions from all electronic devices. Explosions rocked the ship sending an already unstable Fred on the floor, with Soren coincidentally on top of him.
"Shit!" Soren cursed as he got back up.
The Spartans immediately turned their helmets' flashlights on. Soren and Fred on the other hand were in Starfleet armor which used a combination of different sensors to 'see' in the dark. Soren walked over to one of the corridor terminals. Nothing.
Suddenly, the emergency strobe lighting kicked in, and the red alert siren wailed continuously, which only meant one thing. The ship's main computer was disabled and the emergency "reflex" systems were initiated. Ifautodestruct sequence
"The computer appears to be completely disabled. Turbolifts will be locked down; we must use the Jefferies tubes" Soren said, pointing to a grate in the hallway.
The rest of the Spartans nodded and formed a single file line behind him. Soren gripped the grate and without even disabling its locking mechanisms and rips it out of the wall, leaving slight damage to the rest of the corridor. He immediately climbs in with the Spartans following, leaving no one behind. After a few minutes of crawling, they reached an intersection that had a ladder going up. Soren pointed to it and said "That will take us directly to the bridge".
Soren climbed the ladder with the Spartans following suit below him. For a 'regular' human, such a trek up a seemingly infinitely long ladder would be quite tiresome. Spartans on the other hand, well… let's just say that it was nothing more than a 'light warmup'.
Finally, after about fifteen minutes of nonstop climbing at a very impressive pace Soren finally made it to his destination: Maintenance Intersection One. They were quite literally on the top deck even above Deck 1. The ceiling was literally the Endurance's hull plating. As more Spartans entered the cramped crawl area, Soren retreated out of the maintenance shafts and into the main corridor of Deck 1. To his right was the Main Bridge and to his left was the Observation lounge and Turbolift. As the Spartans filtered into the corridor, they heard a dull thumping sound coming from the other side of the Turbolift doors. He motioned for the Spartans that were already in the corridor to find cover, while the Spartans still in the maintenance shaft to stay put. Soren himself found no cover and ended up crouching on the far side of the corner, rifle aimed at the door.
Suddenly, the door was forced open… and Lore came walking through. Soren immediately lowered his weapon and motioned for the others to do so as well. Because in Starfleet, it was considered to be offensive to point a Phaser at a superior officer.
"Sir, I apologize. We didn't know it was you!" Soren pleaded his case.
But, the Android only stared past him. After all of this commotion, Soren failed to notice something so glaring that a civilian could notice it with ease. Soren turned slowly to what the Lore was staring at. The doors that led to the bridge. However, a flag was adorned on the doors that led to the bridge. "No… it cannot be" Soren breathed.
The flag had blood red bars which swept across it on the top and bottom. Through the middle of the flag was a white patch, which had three jet black stars… the one in the center slightly bigger than the other two. The UNSC Spartans had no clue what they were staring at, but those who knew of what that flag meant… what it represents were disgusted. The feelings that Soren felt looking at the flag is similar to a German in the 1970's looking at the Swastika.
"What is that?" Kelly asked.
It took a moment, but Lore responded with "That… is the flag of the Enhanced Coalition. They were what you would call an 'insurrectionist' group; whose sole purpose was to topple the United Republic of Planets with a fascist regime. They believed that the natural and weak should bow before genetically and physically superior species and subspecies. However, in practice, the Enhanced Coalition did not rally that much support for their cause in the traditional way. Instead, they hijacked the remaining combat droids left in service from the EDF era and raised an army of 150-"
"I think they have heard enough" Soren said, now facing the doors to the bridge.
Soren approached the flag that was on the door. In a flash, Soren's arm moved and tore the flag off the door, leaving the thing in rags on the floor. He then got his fingers between the doors and pushed them out with no effort at all. Like the rest of the ship, it was pitch black… save for one bright teal-blue glow in the captain's chair. Soren stepped on the bridge, which was dead silent. The teal-blue glow faced Soren only to become a light identical to that Soren's visor produces in the dark.
"Hello Soren, I have been expecting you" A dreadfully familiar, feminine voice cooed.