The Taking of the Enterprise part 2

In the last six months, more of the crew members were - becoming unwell or injured on away teams to later succumb to the illness or injury. Including Nhan Jamie's head of department who had passed away a month ago from the virus he contracted, meaning that by default she had gone from Junior Leiutentent to Leiutentent overnight. The worrying thing was Jamie kept finding more coding in the programs being manually overwritten. And Garrett waved her off every time she brought it up.

Turns out that the manual override is far more complex than Jamie thought it would be. Whoever had overwritten the code had scrambled the signal of the terminal they had used. Jamie had been running a diagnosis on the systems to see if she could unscramble the jammed signal. The trouble was she was having to do so in any spare time she had. Now she was standing in Pike's office once more.

"You promised me, Jamie!" Pike shouted at her the moment she had walked through his door. "I've just received reports that the programming of the Enterprise's main machinery has been tampered with. The diagnostics points directly to you."

"I haven't tampered with anything. I've been trying to address these issues for months." Six months, Jamie had been counting, "I took my findings to Commander Garrett, but he dismissed my concerns every time."

"And why would Garrett ignore something as critical as manual overriding programming?"

"Told me our systems were complex and that sometimes anomalies occur. That he'd have the tech team look into it -"

"Perhaps with the ongoing pressure we've been under being as short-staffed as we are."

"On the opposite side of the galaxy with no way to replace the staff who are dying - real convenient."

"Hold your tongue!"

"Aren't you suspicious? Because I sure am. We're slowly steering deeper into the Delta Quadrant according to the ship's navigation logs. Now I sure did not program the Enterprise to head into a territory known for being unforgiving - how can you be so blind to what is happening?"

"JAMIE! You go too far."

She clenches her hand, she refuses to cry. "It appears we have reached an impasse Captain. You can take this as my verbal request for a transfer and resignation from your ship. As soon as we reach a Starfleet base I will depart from this ship. Expect my written request by the end of the day."

"You didn't?"

"Yes, I did. I can't be on a ship where my captain doesn't trust me, Bones. He was going to chew me out for hacking into the systems because I've done so in the past."

"Think it through from his side. I agree with Pike you went too far."

"Too late now. I put the request through."

Bones gruffed, "Best start writing mine then. We've been together since day one. You go I go."

"Thanks, Leonard."

Jamie avoids Pike. Which is easy enough to do considering she can code from anywhere. The hum of the warp core reverberates throughout the room. Scotty, his face smeared with grease and his hands working furiously on a panel, is surrounded by blinking lights and flashing monitors.

"Hey, Scotty, what are you working on?"

"Don't worry Lass I'm not touching your coding. Not after last time." Scotty said, "I've been researching our gravity settings and something strange keeps happening."

"Oh?"

"Did you know that Phasers were magnetic?"

"What? I thought -"

"Me too Lass, but every time I set the gravity to a certain frequency -" Scotty turns to a monitor, tapping a few keys, sure enough, the Phasers all go flying up towards the ceiling -

"Have you isolated the frequency?" Jamie asked in wonder.

"Yes, let me show you -" Scotty said turning from the monitor to face her, "Well, that's different!"

It took Jamie a second to realise what he meant. Her Phaser was still stowed away. "It's an old one," Jamie began to explain, one of the few things Sam had found and given her when she left for Starfleet. "Belonged to my dad."

"Interesting - do you mind if I compare? I want to do further tests before reporting my findings."

"Sure have at it," Jamie said placing her Phaser down, "Why were you messing around with the gravity settings to begin with."

"Trying to see if I could make the ship go faster by altering it."

"Shouldn't have asked. I shouldn't have asked." Jamie said, "You need to stop making a habit of this. I'm not going to be around to cover you -"

"Wait, Lassie tell me you're not leaving me. Who is going to code the engine programs with me now Leiutentent Hemmer is -"

"I miss him too." Jamie had also liked Hemmer. "But I need to move on now. Find my way away from the Enterprise. So I'm jumping ships when we reach the next Starbase. Going to the Valiant with Bones. So you've got me for a little while longer."

The first thing Jamie realises is that she's on Med-bay. The room is stark but clean, its walls lined with medical equipment and a few personal touches—photos of starships and distant planets. She lying in a hospital bed, her arm in a sling and bandages wrapped around her head. Her face, though bruised and battered. The second thing she notices is Pike because he is the only one in the med bay with her. His demeanor was calm but resolute. He's dressed in his usual Starfleet uniform, but there's a softness in his eyes as sits by her bedside.

"Oh, it must have been bad if you're here," Jamie mutters.

"We lost five senior members of staff on the away mission you were on. A fault in the firing systems - causing a backfire."

Jamie recalls hearing her shouting at the others, a loud bang, a flash, and then... She wasn't supposed to even be on the last away mission.

"McCoy has been keeping me posted, said you were in a rough shape. I'm here to see how you're holding up for myself."

"Still here aren't I? That's got to count for something."

"You've got spirit, I'll give you that. But you've been through hell and back. I want you to know how much your actions have meant to the fleet. You tried saving lives down there Jamie."

"Not sure why that would -" Pike throws her a stern look, "Right shutting up."

"I looked into your logs and how long you've been trying to isolate the manual override issue. How you've been trying to locate the terminal which has been used."

Jamie's expression shifts, curiosity piqued.

"I can no longer ignore the facts, it is not a mere coincidence my senior staff members are getting hurt. The logs you've been tracking, I've linked them to every mission, every hail we've responded to that has had one of my senior members respond to and in turn get injured in some form or manner. There is someone inside this ship I can no longer trust. Our course was altered again last night, heading straight back towards the Delta Quadrant."

"Why are you telling me all this?"

"Because I trust you." Pike pulls out a small, ornate box, he opens the box to reveal a gold pips insignia, the symbol of a Lieutenant Commander. He carefully places the insignia on Jamie's bed tray, his eyes meeting hers. "I failed to listen to you before. I will not do so again. Stay on my ship, help me catch who is doing this." Pike nodded his head in the direction of the medical office. "McCoy said he stay if you do."

"It took me almost dying for you to believe me." Jamie said eyeing the insignia, "What if I don't want it?"

Pike laughed, "That's how I know you've truly earned it." His face turned serious once more, "tell no one, Jamie. I can't lose you too."

"What's the plan?"