Wow! OK, so after having my ass handed to me for the last few months, I'm BACK!!! tiny party
So we left off with the Sheffield leaving to get Ranma and Akane from Risa, the Wildstar now fully versed on the ship following them, called the Leviathan.
Picking back up from there, it's time to move to Steven and Kuno, who have reached Auxiliary control, and are about to try and disable the Wildstar.
... Here we go again!!!!!
MattSaotome
Chapter 6
In The Falling Dark
Walls decorated with consoles; lights flashing in multi-colored brilliance. The room around him seemed to reflect his brain. At least, that was the way that his mind translated his surroundings. The flashing lights seemed to symbolize neurons firing in his skull. The complexity of the circuitry reminded him of how busy his mind would get as it would wander into unexplored theory, restlessly explaining all of mankind's plagues and problems.
The lieutenant of the Auxiliary control room was so preoccupied with his own thoughts that he didn't even notice the door open behind him. In fact, it was only the feel of cold, hard steel that snapped him out of his reverie as Kuno's Katana pressed lightly but firmly up under his chin from behind.
"Stand, Knave," Kuno ordered.
The irony of the situation was not lost on the lieutenant. In a world that had been modernized so heavily by technology, the feel of cold steel could still heighten a man's adrenaline in surges. The same primal fear that existed back in ancient days on earth when threatened with a sword still existed deep inside every man. Without a sound or any acknowledgement, the lieutenant slowly rose up out of his chair. As he stood to his full height, he heard another set of feet enter the room.
"The coast is clear, as far as I can -" Steven stopped hard in his tracks, seeing the lieutenant being held at Katana point. His face quickly twisted into annoyance. "Aw, come on, Blue Blunder. I thought you said you were a martial artist."
"I am, sir!" Kuno replied smoothly, pride seeming to swell from his vocal chords.
Steven stepped up to the lieutenant. "Then for God's Sake, man, exercise some Pressure Points!!"
As Steven said the last, he punctuated his words with swift blows to two points on the lieutenants body, then watched satisfied as he slumped to the ground in a full state of unconsciousness.
Kuno watched the lieutenant go limp and fall, and his expression quickly shifted from pride to wonder.
"Would that I were as gifted as you, noble Stoltz. If I had your keen abilities, why I would be able to -"
"Shut up!" Steven growled. The clock was ticking, and his mind was keeping perfect track. He knew that if he didn't get the Wildstar stopped, they'd enter the nebula in less than ten minutes. He knew all too well what Commander Goku's duties would have to be then. It was bad enough that the ship was already going to be destroyed. Involving anyone else through unwanted communiqués and the like would have disastrous consequences for the learning party.
He stepped up to the controls evenly; now surveying the many flashing panels and blipping displays with hungry eyes, seeming to be searching with incredible yearning yet reined fervency for the one panel he was looking for.
"You have to learn…" he was almost whispering, causing Kuno to step a little closer to him in order to properly understand his words. "How to do things…" Steven's eyes finally locked in one place, and a smile crossed his features slowly, lining his cheeks with an almost boy-ish grin. "With a little more finesse."
His lesson completed, Steven stoically brought his arm up, his hand hanging loosely out in front of him with an index finger barely curled outward. Kuno watched him, almost in a mesmerized state, soaking in the scene of his obvious peer doing what he apparently did best. Steven lowered his arm, his limp hand resting on a series of controls, covering that particular panel almost completely with his palm. To Kuno, it seemed as if the marine's smile got just a tad bit wider as a shock shot through Steven's arm.
His hand glowed white hot for an instant, and the bottom side of the console, a good eight inches thick, blew out hard, the light controls across its surface now flashing on and off in short circuit.
Kuno's jaw hit the floor as Steven retracted his arm, the hole in the top of the console coming into plain sight as his palm moved away.
A loud klaxon immediately began to sound in the room; the pre-recorded voice of the computer system coming to life around them and, it didn't take a rocket scientist to surmise, around the whole ship as well.
"Primary computer core failure," the emotionless voice intoned. "Auxiliary backups compromised. Demagnetization of Primary Computer Module in ten seconds. Clear all catwalks. Clear all catwalks."
Kuno looked somewhat frantic at the sound of the alarms, his gaze shifting from right to left quickly.
"What have you done??" he nearly hollered.
Steven had a perma-grin plastered on his face, shaking his head from side to side like he couldn't believe it had actually worked.
"Brought us to a grinding halt, I do believe!" he replied with a chuckle.
Kuno appeared annoyed for a brief instant, but his expression seemed to quickly re-evaluate his standing against the marine commander, his throat barely letting his sharp reply slip.
"You said we were coming here to shut down the warp reactor, not the whole ship!"
Steven regarded Kuno oddly for a moment before his imp-ish smile returned.
"Oops," he replied evenly. He waited only a second longer before turning on his heel for the exit. "Come on, Blue Blunder!" He hollered over his shoulder at the still shell-shocked Kuno. "We have to get to the shuttle bay before the Leviathan overtakes the Wildstar!"
Kuno stammered where he stood for only a second before realizing that Steven had no intention of waiting around for him to catch up. He immediately broke into a run in pursuit.
"Wait, noble Stoltz!" he cried. "I follow!"
Goku stared at the viewscreen expressionlessly, standing just two feet from the command chair. Before him, an aft image showed a magnified enhancement of the Leviathan heading straight for them, apparently keeping even time with their already overworked engines. The thing that bit deepest at the first officer was the knowledge that, if they so desired, the Leviathan could overtake them in an instant. Sure, there would be consequences, as Grissom's number one had explained, but Section 31 was just the right type of idiots to completely ignore those consequences if it advanced their agenda. In his mind, he was already envisioning the image before him sprouting four more nacelles and jumping to some radical speed like warp five thousand or whatever.
"Time to the nebula?" he asked in monotone.
To his left, Shampoo quickly consulted her readout with a blink of her eyes. She looked back at Commander Goku with no shift in her facial features, keeping a stoic, yet doomed expression.
"five minutes."
Time ticked by agonizingly slow, seconds passing like hours to the bridge crew, who knew that a single slip up now would cost them the race. Everyone there knew that, once they had reached the nebula, shields would become useless piles of emitters, leveling their playing field completely with their approaching grim reaper.
"How much longer can we hold warp fifteen?" Goku questioned again. From her console at the back of the bridge, Dana looked down for a moment, stroking two commands on her console before looking back up to Goku.
"Two seconds short of nebula ETA," she replied.
In front of him, a restored Ryouga sucked in a sharp breath. Two seconds of warp fifteen translated into days at impulse. The Leviathan would be on them in an instant.
Goku set to weighing his options in the matter, searching his mind for a solution to their problem. They could open fire on the Leviathan at warp fifteen, but the immense gravimetric distortions caused by their massive warp trail would confuse the torpedo's guidance systems too much for accurate shooting. He chuckled bitterly to himself over the irony of that sacrifice when Starfleet put out the prototype warp fifteen reactor. Leave it to those no-brainers to not figure out how to dampen down the damned warp field before releasing the engine for active service.
He dismissed the idea of pot-shots on their aggressor, and was about to move on to other considerations when a loud klaxon began to ring out around them. Everyone jumped in their seats, the blaring alarm frying nerves all around the bridge that were all too tense with anticipation.
Consoles around them began to flicker on and off, and the ship gave a larger shudder before the computer's voice came to life.
"Primary computer core failure. Auxiliary backups compromised. Demagnetization of Primary Computer Module in ten seconds. Clear all catwalks. Clear all catwalks."
Dana's face fell into dismay, Goku already mere steps from her console as he jogged towards her.
"What the fuck??!" she swore, frantically trying to work her console even as it slowly started to die.
"Report!" Goku hollered over the klaxon.
Dana shook her head from side to side, obviously confused by what was happening. The computer had told them what the problem was, so she already knew that this wasn't what Goku was asking for. He wanted answers as to why the computer was shutting down, and all she knew as her console faded to black permanently was that she had none to give.
"I… I don't know!" She replied sharply. "The damned computer core is gonna eject!!"
"We're dropping outta warp!" Ryouga's frantic cry called Goku back across the bridge. He wasn't even half way to the helm station when it, and the remaining consoles around the bridge went dark.
"What the hell is going on??" Mousse was going nuts at his station, resorting to slapping the dark display in hopes that it would just flicker back to life before his very eyes. In the middle of the bridge, Goku was turning in circles, confirming for his own eyes that every station had gone down as he ran both his hands slowly through his hair in frustration.
Mina observed the reactions around the bridge with all the calm she could muster, ready to diffuse the heavy situation should people's actions become volatile in the face of disaster. As she considered her position, another thought struck her. Suddenly the bridge crew's worry and panic seemed all too warranted. With desperation alight in her eyes, she turned her gaze up to commander Goku, who at that instant settled his on her in return.
"The Leviathan…" Mina whispered.
"Brace yourselves!" Dana ordered as all other sound on the bridge fell into silence. "The computer core's about to eject!"
True to the assistant chief engineer's mental clock, another second ticked by when a violent jerk was felt through the deck plating.
The blips and beeps were gone. The hum of the injectors was silent. The lights on the bridge gave one final flicker, and blackness took the room. Through the painfully quiet darkness, only the heavy breathing of anxiety came to everyone's eardrums; it's tainted qualities soaking in the fear that now pulsed from every heart nearby.
With the lack of light, Goku found a bittersweet comfort in his heightened senses and strengthening mental clarity. Precious seconds flew by before he turned to where he felt Dana's presence.
"Mr. Jorgensen, how long do we have before the Leviathan overtakes us?"
"How the hell should I know??" Came the unsure reply, the waver in her voice betraying her unease.
"Think, dammit!" Goku insisted. "You're an engineer. Math is your best friend. How far was the Leviathan from us at our last scan?"
"Uhh…" Dana fought hard with her mind, trying to recall the numbers. "Two sectors?"
"OK…" Goku continued to prompt her. "If that's correct, and we're at a dead stop, how fast can a starship at warp fifteen cross two sectors?"
"Ten minutes!" Dana crowed, feeling somewhat victorious in her skills.
"What good that do us?!" Shampoo's voice was heard. "We no can fight!"
"The ship won't run without the computer core!" Mousse put in his two cents. "It's hopeless! We're done for!"
"Keep that to yourself, mister!" Goku ordered. "I don't wanna hear that kind of attitude from anyone here! Is That Understood??"
Silence greeted his question.
"Good." He sighed heavily. "Constructive suggestions, people! We have just under ten minutes before that monster gets here. What can we do to regain control of the ship?"
Ryouga's voice was the next to break through the darkness.
"What about rigging up a computer core from one of the runabouts?"
"Screw that!" Dana chuckled dryly. "Fifty runabout computers couldn't hope to come anywhere close to one percent of the processing power necessary!"
"…you don't have to be so blunt about it…" Ryouga mumbled quietly in reply.
"We could recover the computer core with one of the shuttlecraft," Mousse began to gain confidence. "Re-insert it and fire it back up!"
"Just to watch the ship spit it back out again?" Ryouga's rhetorical reply came. "Come on, Mousse. Something made it dump the damned thing. What's to say it won't happen again?"
"I hate to agree with the little pig, but he's right." Dana concluded.
"Hey!!" Ryouga spat back. "Don't call me that!"
"Sorry, Pchan."
"ENOUGH!!"
To everyone's surprise, it was Shampoo's voice that had shattered the sound barrier. Silence fell once more, and the seconds ticked by with everyone listening to their own breathing again.
"Wait…" Ryouga's voice sounded like it could have come from Sir Isaac Newton after the apple fell on his head.
"Wait!" He reiterated. "Didn't… Didn't Mr. Jorgensen say that Sickbay was a stand alone system now??"
More silence.
"Oh… My… God…" Dana's stunned voice was low.
"What?" Goku asked.
"He's right!" Dana mused.
"About what?" Goku asked again.
"I am??" Ryouga sounded shocked.
"Yeah!!" Dana was getting louder with each word.
"Right About What??" Goku insisted. He could already tell that Dana was standing now, her aura seemed to confirm that her mood had just shot through the roof.
"If we get down to Sickbay," Dana explained finally. "We can reroute all bridge functions to the stations there! Sickbay has it's own computer systems!! Pchan, that's BRILLIANT!!!"
"Aww, it wasn't all that… HEY!!!"
Will let out a deep breath, happy that the shifts had finally rotated. Not that he held anything against the nightwatch staff; it was simply that he had grown most accustomed to working with his day crew. He watched as they sauntered in from the turbolifts, each one walking up to their station and relieving the officer there.
His helm officer was a man named Spike. Well… Maybe 'man' was putting it the wrong way. Spike was a creature, not a man. A vampire, to be precise. Something created to kill that was now, through Section 31's careful training, also quite proficient at it. Will liked him for his decisiveness and ingenuity. Of course, the accent had absolutely nothing to do with it. At least, that was what he would tell your average monkey.
Over at the tactical station, the security deputy Xandir (a man who shared a passive aggressive relationship with Spike) was being relieved by one of his favorite crew members.
At five foot six, his chief of security looked like something right out of a blockbuster film. Black dress boots sported four-inch heels and were polished to a beautiful shine. Black slacks were actually one with the top tunic of the same color, a yellow sash tied firmly at the waist for department emphasis purposes only. The single yellow pinstripe that surrounded the shoulders was higher on this uniform than any other, the neck stitch actually residing only an inch higher than it, giving the uniform a 'cut-off' look just above the shoulders; a blue flame pattern extending down either sleeve from the neck. A 'sawed-off shotgun' at the waist was custom retrofitted and was actually a 'sawed-off' plasma rifle, giving the whole ensemble it's wonderfully dangerous touch.
Lieutenant Commander Rebecca Geisbrecht watched with some mild amusement as her deputy stepped into the turbolift and was promptly gone from the bridge. Some kind of mischief glistened in her eyes as she looked over at the figure approaching the Captain's chair.
A hand came down on the nightwatch COS officer's shoulder, causing him to turn and regard the person beside him.
"You're relieved, Lackey," a gruff, yet slightly goofy voice said.
Will didn't even have to look up as a smile crossed his face.
"Morning, House," he said sincerely.
"Oh, is it that time already?" Commander Gregory House looked down at his captain from his standing position. Limp-less, thanks to 24th century technology of course, his sense of humor and huge ego were at their prime. "Please, mommy, can I serve up a plate of whoop-ass before breakfast? It goes good with my cheerios."
Now Will's smile faded a little, and he turned his chair to face his first officer.
"You don't think we should destroy the Wildstar," he intoned. "Do you?"
House shook his head a little in reply, dropping the sarcasm for a second. "No, that's not what I said. You can destroy whatever your mangy little heart desires. I just think you should empty it first."
At the helm station, Spike began to laugh, turning his chair also.
"What, THAT??" He jabbed a thumb in the direction of the viewscreen, where an image of the Wildstar running at top speed was firmly plastered. "How you gonna do that then, mate? Walk up and ask them if they could just please abandon ship and hop into our holding cells?"
House flashed a sarcastic smile at the helmsman that was just as quickly gone. Spike absorbed his silence and continued.
"THAT," he pointed a finger right at the image now, "Is a Cutter Class Dreadnought-Battle-Cruiser. They certainly won't let us tromp up and walk all over them! Use your head, House!"
As if it were waiting for Spike to stop speaking, a brief alarm went off at the Ops console. Commander Thomas Riker looked down at his display station, and was quickly reduced to a frown. "What the…"
Will leaned to the side a little, looking past his first officer to the Ops station.
"What's going on, Tom?" he asked firmly.
Riker shook his head slowly, reminding his vocal chords to answer before his captain fetched a phaser.
"The Wildstar just suffered a ship-wide blackout. Their…" he scowled at his readout once more, officially baffled beyond all measure. "Their computer core's been dumped!!"
House frowned. "What?!"
Will was on his feet, heading for the commander's station. He came up right beside Riker and consulted the readout with his own eyes.
"Holy Shit," he mused. "Ace did it! He's completely disabled them!"
"Wildstar's falling to a dead stop, sir," Spike reported, looking back at House with a slightly shamed expression.
For his own part, House just gave a little snort.
"Cheerios, anyone?"
The doors to sickbay swooshed open as McCoy was walking past them. He turned in his tracks to face them, only to be greeted with the sight of the entire bridge crew pouring in.
"Uhh…" he looked over them all curiously. "Mass headache?"
Dana chuckled as Goku stepped forward.
"Afraid not, Doc," he replied. "We're invading your space for a while."
"What's going on?" McCoy asked.
"We're not entirely sure how," Dana began to explain. "But the main computer went haywire and dumped itself."
McCoy's jaw almost hit the floor. "It did what??"
Ryouga made a dismissive noise. "Yeah, exactly."
"We- uh… w-I mean…" the doctor began to stammer. "Why come to sickbay?"
"Well in case you haven't noticed, Doc," Goku answered. "You have power."
Michael wasn't putting it together. "Uhh… yeah. So?"
Dana rolled her eyes. "Sickbay's systems are independent of the rest of the ship, genius. We're setting up an emergency command center here."
Without another word to the doctor, everyone else set to work. Goku stood by the thoroughly lost physician, looking at him with a mild smirk on his face.
"Relax, Bones," he chuckled. "We'll clean up our mess!"
The wordless McCoy just stood for a second longer before abruptly turning and walking away.
"This is going to be a long day…" he muttered to himself.
"Gimme about five minutes here, Commander," Dana called out. "We'll be ready to rock in no time flat!"
"Understood."
"HOW MANY????" Rebecca almost shouted.
She stood in front of her captain's desk in his ready room, her mouth wide in shock.
"I want a thousand men on that ship," Will reiterated himself. "I don't care if you have to pile security forces into the cargo bays to perform the transports."
"Set all your weapons to stun," House told her, standing to the left of Will's desk. "Including that fancy relic you carry around."
"Stun?!" Rebecca intoned. "What the fuck is up with that?"
Will sighed, shooting a look over at House. Obviously, if his first officer hadn't said anything, Will himself never would have suggested the idea.
"All of your weapons have modified energy discharges," Will began to explain. "If you shoot someone, we can lock on to the unique signature with the transporters and beam stunned crew to our ship."
Rebecca looked like she hated the idea. House sauntered over to her and stood at bay, crossing his arms as he regarded her with small bemusement.
"Kinda like a sympathetic version of Russian Roulette."
"Screw off, House," Rebecca warned.
"I don't like this either, Commander," Will leaned forward in his seat. "But the reality of the matter is the body count is already higher than section 31 likes to handle."
"Never stopped us before," Rebecca snorted.
Will shot another look over to House, who simply smiled menacingly at the security chief.
"That was pre-House. You're part of the fan club now, Miss Croft!"
Fed up with the antics surrounding her, Rebecca swung around to face the first officer, pulling her sawed-off rifle out of it's holster in the same swing. With practiced precision, she pulled the trigger, blasting house right in the shoulder. With a spin, he hit the deck, now fully unconscious. Holstering her side arm once more, she turned back to Will with a hopeful half smile.
"Now can I do it my way?"
Will didn't budge, obviously used to the circumstances before him. "No."
Rebecca gave a single pouting stomp. "Dammit."
Will leaned back in his seat, slinging an arm over the back of the chair comfortably.
"Get everything ready, Commander. I want the Wildstar boarded within minutes."
Rebecca's eyes went wide. "…Minutes?"
"I'd get ta work, if I were you." Will intoned.
Rebecca made a disgusted noise, turning on her heel to leave the room. As the doors swooshed open to let her out, she shot a single comment back over her shoulder.
"Asshole."
"You love me," Will returned with a half grin.
"Dream On!" Rebecca shot back with a wave just as the doors closed behind her.
"We're coming on-line now, commander," Dana called out. Goku stepped over to where she was sitting in front of an assembled console plugged into a wall interface. It was one of four set up around the room. He leaned over her shoulder for a second before putting a hand on it.
"Good work, Mr. Jorgensen," he smiled. "Is the communications network active?"
Dana punched a few more commands in, then looked back up at him. "It is now."
Goku immediately tapped his com badge.
"Goku to Vegeta."
"Kakarot, what the hell is going on??" Vegeta's frustrated voice drifted over the badge. "My men are running around with hand-held flashlights trying to find our computer core!"
"They won't find it," Goku chuckled dryly. "It glitched hard and dumped itself."
Silence.
"The bridge crew and I have set up an auxiliary command center here in sickbay. We've performed a systems integration, so all we need is for you to fire up engineering's backup generators, and we can hook your computer terminals right into sickbay's network from here."
"Understood," Vegeta replied, abruptly ending the communiqué.
"Sensors," Goku said quickly. "Where is the Leviathan?"
Shampoo set to work immediately. Seconds went by before her face paled.
"Is straight off starboard bow. Is just sitting there."
"Red Alert!" Goku hollered.
"Engineering to sickbay. The generator's on-line. Give us computers and you've got a ship again!"
Goku immediately shot a finger at Dana. "Do it! Then raise shields!"
"Security breach!" Mousse shouted. "Boarding parties detected! All decks!!"
"We're on-line with all systems," Dana informed.
"Mousse," Goku whipped around to face him. "Get security teams on the move. Inform the Wildcards of the intruders and co-ordinate your defenses. Arm all weapons!"
Mousse nodded once as Goku tapped his com badge again.
"All hands, Battle Stations!"
dramatically climactic music
So... hopefully you'd still like to drop some reviews my way... if you haven't all abandoned me, that is...
Lemme know!
MattSaotome