T'osa removed a small device from her pocket and pressed a few buttons. "Okay, we need to be back here in less than an hour." She looked around and smiled. "I figured there would be at least minimal power on the ship."
"Another guess?" Kirk asked, slightly exasperated. What... did she WANT them to get caught?
"An educated guess." She batted her eyebrows and headed for the door. "Let's go. We've got some ground to cover. The transponder system is underneath engineering." Pressing the controls next to the door, it slid open.
As she stepped out into the darkened hallway, Stephen drew her back in. "Hang on a sec." his robotic voice urged. "Won't there be guards on board?"
She shook her head. "There shouldn't be. The guards should be patrolling the moonbase." That was a lie. She was planning on the guards being aboard. In order for her plan to work, they HAD to be aboard. If they didn't come across the guards... well... she thought it better to not think of it. She stepped out into the hall and shined her light. "Follow me." Stephen opened his wrist panel and made a few more adjustments to his gear before following her.
The two walked down the nondescript hallway. Doors and computer panels lined either side. Unlike a Federation starship, which was usually brightly colored, the contruction of the inside of a romulan ship was just as drab a green as the outside. Stephen wondered what was on the other side of the doors they passed. "Exactly where are we on this ship?" He asked.
"We're in the back section, behind the warp emitters. We're on the third level, though, and we need to get to level twenty-two." As they walked, she was looking around. "That's what we want." she remarked. She pointed to a door on the far wall. "Transport module." She pressed a button on the side of the door and it slid open. The two stepped in. "Szhersh," she exclaimed as the door slid shut. She spun a dial on the opposite wall of the small, square room they were in. A panel next to the dial swung open. She started manipulating cables and control panel buttons.
Assuming there was a problem, Kirk leaned over and observed her work. He wasn't an electronics genius by any stretch of the imagination, but he could recognize a hotwire job when he saw one. "Problem?" He asked.
"Yes," she answered. "a small one. They cut the power to the lift system. I'm trying to start it back up." This was actually a lucky break for her. Not only would she be able to get the lift system working, but the noise in the otherwise dead spaceship should bring the patrols coming. "It should only take a moment to override the controls."
"And where did you learn how to hotwire a transporter panel AND an elevator?" He asked.
"They teach you all kinds of neat stuff at spy school," she said sarcastically. Electronics was actually a family speciality. Her family had been a household of mechanics and engineers for as far back as she could remember. The only hold out had been her younger brother, who had "completely disgraced" the family by going into landscaping. Somehow, she had never had as much disdain for B'athre as her father. Then again, her father expressed his disappointment in her when she joined the Tal'Shiar... so maybe she would just be forever relegated to not understanding her father. With one more adjustment, the control panel illuminated the small room. "Got it." She added, then pressed the buttons to send them to level twenty-two. Hopefully, that would bring the guards, but not too quickly.
They exited the lift once it reached their desired level. Again, the same style of drab green hallway was laid before them. "How confusing," Stephen remarked. "How do you ever figure out where you're going?"
T'osa took a moment to get her bearings, then turned to the right. "Yeah," she nodded, "the ship designers did this on purpose to make it harder for intruders to figure out where everything was. There was a left turn, a right turn, two more left turns, and yet another right turn before they came to a door. She tried a number of button combinations on the door panel before standing back with a frustrated look on her face. "It's security locked. My access codes won't open it." She drew her disruptor from its holster. "This should open it. Stand back." Kirk did as instructed as she fired on the door panel. There was a slight hiss as the thin double doors opened a bit. An alarm began to sound throughout the hall.
"Brilliant. If there ARE guards, you'll bring them right to us." He was really starting to wonder about this 'plan' of her's. It sounded almost foolproof when he heard it the first time.
"If there ARE guards, we'll be long gone by the time they get here," she replied. She holstered her disruptor and reached for the door. "Help me open this."
The doors slid open reluctantly with a whine to reveal a very small room with a single computer panel. As the two walked in, T'osa stopped him short. "I need you to stay out here and hold the doors open."
"Why? They're broken."
"If I read the specs on this right, once I try to gain access to this computer, I'll trip some kind of security mechanism. It'll magnetize the doors and slam them shut. If you can keep them apart, we can get out. Otherwise, we're trapped in here until these guards of yours show up."
"Great," he retorted. He braced himself between the doors and put his feet against the opposing door. "It'll be just my luck these things slice me in half."
"I doubt they have that much pressure," she commented. Truly, she had no idea, but she had tried to sound confident. With that, she turned around and started pounding away on the computer panel. Within moments, another alarm sounded, adding to the noise.
Stephen immediately felt pressure against his back and feet. It hurt for a moment until he could re-adjust his body to it. "Ow... that security system of yours is working. How much longer are you going to be?"
"Give me just a few seconds." He fingers danced along the panel, searching for the right string of commands to issue. Somewhere was the name of the person who changed this ship's identification to hide it's true identity. Skillfully, she maneuvered through the menu options and data entries until she found her name. Her jaw dropped. She was hoping it wasn't him... she had always considered him a patriot... truly loyal to the Empire. Was it possible she was on the wrong side all along?
Kirk struggled to see what T'osa was looking at, but since he couldn't read romulan, he gave up and decided to concentrate more heavily on keeping the doors open.
"Laemna! Keisa! Kaeha gaih!" He heard a distinctly male voice yell from down the hall. He wasn't sure what it meant, but it couldn't be good.
"We've got company," he announced as he rolled his eyes. He definately did NOT want to get shot again.