Leap of Faith (Part 3)
Posted on Sat Oct 31, 2020 @ 9:35am by Lieutenant Cassandra Kennings
2,067 words; about a 10 minute read
Mission:
The Binary Suns
Location: Kansas, Earth
Timeline: 14ish years from now
Meesa leaned against the front door, breathing hard. She quickly pressed the locking plate and pulled the curtains closed. She ran down the short hallway to the dining room to find three pairs of eyes staring at her in a mixture of confusion and alarm.
“Has anyone approached you today?” she huffed, breathing hard.
“Meesa what are you—“ Cassandra started.
“Has anyone approached you today??” Meesa said, this time more forcefully.
“N-no…” Cassandra said. “We were all at work. Nothing unusual happened to me. How about you two?” She looked to Amber and Tommy but they both shook their heads.
Meesa grabbed a chair and sat down. “We’ve got a problem. I was rearranging the filing system at the S.C.E. command core. It seemed rather inefficient for the level of work they do, and I wanted to try out a system we’d used on the Nazareth.”
“Get on with it, Meesa,” Amber said.
Meesa took a deep breath. “While I was going through the encrypted files, I came across one that looked familiar. I pulled it up and realized that it was one of Admiral Markus’ encryption codes. So, I decoded it.”
Cass looked at her, both confusion and hope in her eyes. Tommy’s face was a mixture of curiosity and concern over Meesa’s agitation. Amber looked suspicious and afraid.
“What I found,” Meesa said, “was a plan to crash every Federation computer system through a virus.”
“What!?” they all shouted in alarm.
“And you think Alan planted that file?” Amber said, astounded.
“I don’t know,” Meesa said. “But the file contained his encryption style, so at the very least he’s involved.”
“What did you do with the file?” Tommy said.
“I made a copy to a padd, then made a second copy and hid it deep in the database and then closed the original file and put it where it belonged,” she said. But five minutes later, I had two people from Starfleet Security asking my supervisor where I was.”
“Did it look anything like the double helix virus?” Amber said, concerned. The last thing Starfleet Medical needed was dealing with another variation of that plague.
But Meesa shook her head. “No this was something completely different. I didn’t have time to go through it before I had to run to stay ahead of security.”
“How’d you get out?” Cassandra said.
“Hot wired a transporter pad, scrambled the logs and ended up beaming halfway around the planet and back before I ended up here,” Meesa said.
“It won’t take them long to figure out where you are,” Amber said. “And worst-case, they’ll come here looking for us to ask about you.”
“So what do we do?” Cassandra said.
They all looked to Amber, who was de-facto commander of their group. She stood up and walked over to the replicator in the wall. She keyed in a personal access code and a moment later a new medical-blue uniform appeared, neatly folded.
“First we’re going to have to get some help,” Amber said. “I think I know someone at Starfleet Medical who'd be willing. And then, we have to get Meesa out of here without being noticed.”
Richard had been walking through the building and saw her coming out of her office, somewhat in a hurry. He quickened his pace and caught up to her.
"Good morning, Doctor Sanders," he said charmingly.
"Good morning, Doctor Kennings," she said, a small smile playing over her lips at their daily repartee.
"So, I was thinking," Richard said.
"Put in overtime for it?" Cass said, smiling more.
Richard smiled back and gave her a glance. "I was thinking, I know this great little cafe in New Los Angeles. Maybe we could steal away today during lunch?"
Cassandra's step faltered and she frowned slightly. "Richard...I..."
"It's all right," he said, sounding disappointed. "Just thought I'd ask." He turned and kept walking, leaving her behind watching him.
Cassandra watched him go, warring with herself what to say and finally took a step forward. "Richard?"
He stopped and turned, looking at her with a careful look in his eyes, as if he was hoping, but trying not to.
"I...I'd love to," she said, trying to steady her smile.
Richard's grin was suddenly so wide she was afraid his face would split.
"But--" she said.
"How did I know?" he said, folding his arms. "Your mother needs to come along and chaperone us?" he smiled at her to let her know he was kidding.
"Actually," she said, "it's more of a favor I need to ask of you," she said softly, letting her worry finally show.
Richard immediately dropped his arms from his chest and put his hands on her shoulders. "Cassie, are you alright?"
"I'm fine," she said. "But, there's this friend of mine. She needs my help."
Richard thought for a moment, and finally decided that if she was finally warming up to him, he wasn't going to let her slip away. "What can I do?"
“I need a lift,” she said. “I can explain on the way.”
"Doctor Pulaski?" said a gold-uniformed officer, standing in the doorway.
"Yes?" Kate Pulaski said, looking up from her terminal.
"We're looking for a member of your research team," the man said. He handed the older woman a padd with a photo and a short list of information. "Doctor Amber Jones. Our records show she's currently assigned here."
"That's correct," Pulaski said, barely glancing at the padd before handing it back to the younger man. "What do you need her for?"
"Questioning," the officer said, choosing not to elaborate.
"I see," Pulaski said, also not offering any further information.
"Is she here?" the security man finally said after they'd spent several seconds staring at each other.
"No," Pulaski said. "I haven't seen her come in today. I was actually about to contact her home and see if she was all right."
"She isn't there, we've already checked," he said.
"Well, I hate to disappoint you again," Pulaski retorted, "but she's not here either."
"Is there any chance she's come in while you were occupied and she's in another part of the lab?" he said.
"Young man," Pulaski said, her voice suddenly hard as dilithium with a sharp crack of authority, "nothing goes on in this lab without my knowledge or consent. Not an entry, an exit, or your partner eyeing one of my technicians. If she was here, I would know about it."
The effect of her voice was not lost on the two young officers who immediately snapped to attention. "Yes ma'am," the younger officer said crisply. "If you see her, please contact Starfleet Security immediately."
"Fine," Pulaski said, still clearly irritated. "Now, before I have you busted down to guarding the lunar orbital shuttles, please vacate my lab so we can continue to ensure your long, healthy lives."
The two security men left quickly, and when the doors had closed securely behind her, the doctor turned and walked over to a storage cabinet. She pulled the door open and stepped aside as a slim blonde figure stepped out.
"Thanks Kate," Amber said. "I suppose I owe you my life twice now."
"Nonsense," Pulaski said, smiling at her fondly. "But you could consider filling me in on why I just lied to Starfleet Security."
Amber ran a hand through her hair and pulled the older woman aside. "All right. And while we're at it, I need to ask you for one more favor."
"Why not?" Kate said with an impish grin. "I've always wanted to live the life of a criminal on the run in my golden years. I'm in."
Amber grinned and put her arm around her former mentor. "Well, it all started with this file..."
Richard took her to his hovercar and was treated to the most unbelievable story he’d ever heard. Spies, secret computer files, a mystery crew from a clandestine ship. It seemed like something out of a holonovel, but the people and things Cassandra spoke about sounded so real, he couldn’t help but believe her. And given how she was afraid for her friend and the danger they faced, it didn’t exactly comfort him.
“The file,” Cassandra said, “appears to be a program that would cause a cascade failure of every computer in the Federation. Like an old-style virus, it would do its damage, and send itself to every computer it could link to, spreading out from wherever it started.”
“It sounds rather…simple,” Richard said. “From what you’ve told me of this Markus fellow, I’d expect something a bit more, I don’t know, paradigm shifting.” He steered the hover car through the busy San Francisco streets towards their destination and spared her a glance. “Shouldn’t it do something a bit more impressive?”
“Sometimes simple works best,” Cassandra said. “That or maybe it’s just the tip of a much larger iceberg.”
“So what’s the plan?” Richard said. They’d quickly informed the rest of the Group that they were taking a few days off to deal with a family emergency of Cassandra’s. A few of their associates had smirked when Richard said he was going for ‘moral support’ but no one questioned them.
“The immediate plan was to get Meesa out of sight from Starfleet Intelligence,” Cassandra said. “And considering no one’s contacted me saying otherwise, I can assume that’s been a success.”
“Well it might’ve happened when you were out of your house,” Richard warned.
Cassandra opened her handbag and pulled out a Starfleet combadge. “They told me to keep it. Just in case,” she said.
“All right,” Richard said. “So now that your friend is out of the picture, where are we going?”
“Dublin,” Cassandra said. “That’s the rendezvous point.”
They pulled into a spot near the main spaceport. They avoided the Starfleet entrances and instead maintained the look of two traveling civilians. Richard had suggested that with Cassandra’s clearance they could get to Dublin faster through Starfleet’s transports, but she had insisted they keep a low profile.
As they walked into the station, Richard pointed towards their destination. “If you wouldn’t mind getting our passes, I need to make a quick pit stop.”
Cassandra nodded and headed toward the computer stations while Richard went towards the restrooms.
When he was finished, he walked back out and decided to take a moment and check to see if he had any messages before they left. He logged into a comm. station and was surprised to see an urgent message from the Questor Group waiting for him.
He pulled up the message and was doubly surprised to see Alistair Sampson’s face looking rather harried.
“Richard, I’m hoping you receive this before you leave,” Alistair said quickly. “I was just contacted by Starfleet Security. Cassandra is wanted for questioning. It seems she’s involved with one of ‘Security’s Most Wanted.’' They need her here to be detained. Obviously I don’t know where you’re going but I told them which hovercar was yours and—”
Richard ended the transmission and felt his palms start to sweat. He was a law-abiding citizen and had always associated with others, but now he was suddenly guilty of aiding and abetting.
He walked back towards the center of the transport station and was barely aware when Cassandra came up behind him. “Our transport leaves in just a couple minutes so we have to get going,” she said.
“Cassandra, I…” Richard said, suddenly at a loss for words.
“What?” she said, looking concerned.
“Cassie, Starfleet Security is looking for you. I just received a message from Alistair at the Group,” he said, looking very uncomfortable.
Cass sighed and looked away. “Richard,” she said quietly, “if you want to go back, I won’t blame you.” She looked back up at him and her face hardened ever so slightly. “But these are my friends, and I have to help them. Thanks for taking me this far. I’ll see you around.”
She stood on tiptoe and gave him a kiss on the cheek then turned and headed for the transport pad. Richard watched her go, then sighed as well and shook his head, following after her.
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