Chapter 13
AN: Please forgive my sparse use of technobabble. When I hear technobabble, I can usually understand it, but I can't spew it on my own.
***"When you reach the hole, clamp this linking device onto the nearest panel," B'Elanna instructed Shyla. "The device will activate, and I'll reroute power through the link slowly so it doesn't overload."
"Ok," Shyla said putting the device in a backpack. "I'll let you know when I've bypassed the relays from the control room. I can use my backup access code to make it look like nothing has changed. If anyone is in the control room when I do this, they might hear an alarm, but by the time they start trying to figure out why it went off, I will have finished."
"Backup access code?" B'Elanna asked curiously.
"Yeah. The other top engineers and I decided to create backup codes. In case the government ever did something they didn't want us to know about, we would have a way to find out and stop it from happening if we needed to. At the time, it was just a joke to pass the time when we were bored one night. We spent hours trying to come up with the strangest and funniest codes."
"What if the others remember this too?" Tom asked.
"I later went back and changed mine and noticed that they had deleted theirs."
"Are you sure you'll be ok going by yourself?" Harry asked.
"I've been down there plenty of times alone to make repairs," she assured him.
"How long do you think it will take?" B'Elanna asked.
"Ten or fifteen minutes at the most."
"Take this," Tom said handing her a phaser. "Just in case."
"Thanks," she said glancing at Harry.
***"How long will all of this take?" the Consolat asked.
"Indeterminate, sir," the PDO said. "Hours, days, weeks even."
"This is not the time for jokes."
"I'm not joking, sir. Our weapons systems are badly outdated. The best I can manage before the critical three hours is the first phase."
The Consolat studied the plans and sighed. "Very well. It will have to do."
***"She's there," Harry said relieved as the light indicating activation of the linking device blinked and a beep sounded.
"Ok, what do I do now?" Shyla's asked through her communicator.
"We need to go through a checklist to make sure the device is working properly. Then, I'll activate the force field from here. You'll have to monitor the readouts on the device and tell me when the field stabilizes. I'll adjust and make sure the link between the Delta Flyer and the containment system is stable, then Tom will beam you back. Ready?"
"Yes."
Tom and Harry listened to the two engineers, unsure how to help. When the force field was stable, Tom beamed Shyla back.
"Compensation rate is still within established parameters," B'Elanna reported. "I'll have to stay here to monitor everything. Once seismic activity begins and increases, I may have to make adjustments."
"But, the linking device should hold, right?" Shyla asked. "Even though no one is down there?"
"Anything I do up here will be translated down there. The only thing I can't predict is-"
"Someone going down there and tampering with it," Shyla finished. "Thank you so much for your help. I should get back to the mountain region and help get everyone to the shelter before the three critical hours."
"We'll come too," Harry and Tom said in unison.
"Once those three hours start, seismic activity will interfere with the transporters."
"We understand," Tom said.
"Be careful," B'Elanna said.
"Yes, mommy," Tom said kissing her.
***Within an hour, thirteen shuttles had been gathered at Clousse and Dalta's house, and at least four more were en route. The two teams reported that they had reached the shelter and were getting it ready. Only enough Plons to fill two of the shuttles had arrived so far, but they were eager to give their assistance in any way they could. Blin dispatched two teams to take shuttles, gather up all the unconscious guards and take them to a shelter near the one the Plons of the mountain region were using.
Within two hours, business was booming. There were twenty shuttles going back and forth, and there was still a long line of Plons waiting to be taken to the shelter.
Shyla, Harry and Tom went with the teams going to the most vulnerable area, the edges of the mountain region right below the mountains where the residents were almost cut off from the rest of the region.
***Within those same two hours, the planetary defense operator and his quickly assembled team had completed the first phase of upgrading the weapons.
Things were tense in the Consolat's offices. The guards around the perimeter of the mountain region hadn't reported in when they were supposed to, and Shyla still hadn't been captured or even located. Everyone present had an opinion of how to solve both problems, and everyone was stating that opinion loudly.
Two hours later, the Consolat's offices were finally under control.
Many of the guards who had ran away from their duty when Shyla's claims had scared everyone had to be bribed or ordered to resume their duties in order to get enough guards to send to the mountain region.
Loyden had been arrested while trying to escape to the mountain region to warn his sisters.
One of the engineers working in the control room of the containment system had reported an alarm going off but couldn't figure out what the problem was. "I ran a complete system diagnostic, and everything was normal," he whined. Dolon, the first in command of engineering, was looking into that.
The PDO and his team had been authorized to bring the upgrades online and do what they could to get Voyager to leave orbit. Even though Voyager was using the deflector array to 'hide', the Plons knew they were still there. They didn't know about the shuttle on the surface yet, however.
In the mountain region, many of the unconscious guards awoke to find themselves tied and defenseless in some kind of building.
Shyla, Harry and Tom had rounded up everyone on their section of the edge of the mountain region. Tom was on his way to the shelter with the second group. Harry and Shyla stayed behind with the last group.
The people in downtown Plon and on Voyager were sitting down to dinner and nervously getting up again.
B'Elanna had detected slight seismic activity, but nothing to affect the force field. Despite being an engineer in a shuttle full of gadgets, she was getting a little bored and wished she were out helping the others. Suddenly, the shuttle shook and alarms went off on several consoles. She jumped up and surveyed the console controlling the force field. "Seismic activity this major shouldn't be happening yet."
***The ground shook, and several Plons screamed.
"What's going on?" Harry asked. "It's not time yet, is it?"
"I was afraid of this," Shyla said. "Earthquakes aren't always predictable. The time we published as the three critical hours was our best estimation. We knew we wouldn't know the exact time the Great Earthquake would hit, but we ran many, many simulations and were 99% certain it would be within those three critical hours. However, -"
"It's early," Harry finished.
"Feels like it."
"What do we do?" a woman asked hugging her two children close.
***When the ground shook, Tom temporarily lost control of the shuttle. He quickly put his piloting skills to work, regained control and maneuvered around a pile of dirt that had been thrown into his path. He only had a few meters to go to get to the shelter. As soon as his passengers were out, he turned around and headed back for his friends.
***"That was just the beginning," the guard Klorban had placed in charge of the mountain region mission said. "The next one will be worse. Our new mission is to find suitable shelter."
***The PDO had discovered the shuttle and deployed a team to destroy it. They abandoned that mission when the ground shook and joined the other guards in search of shelter. The PDO abandoned his mission and went home. His job was gone, but he could still save his marriage.
***The Consolat sat over his dinner in a funk. His control of things was slipping, and he didn't know how to prevent it. Klorban and the others present didn't know what to do either.
