Remain Calm. This is a Kindness.
Posted on Mon Dec 19, 2022 @ 5:08pm by Lieutenant Penelope Naroot & Commander Cullen Walker & Lieutenant Commander Miguel Torres & Lieutenant Commander Zachary Addams & Lieutenant JG Ardal King & Fleet Captain Rhea Kennit
4,593 words; about a 23 minute read
Mission:
We Will Take Care of You
Location: Various
Penelope stepped off the turbolift, walking quickly down the corridor. She had three things to check on before she went to her next target and the first was nearby. Unfortunately, it appeared someone had gotten there first.
The doors to Walker's quarters were still open and she could tell no one was inside from the silence as she approached. She assumed he'd been taken to Sickbay, which meant she had limited time. She smoothly continued past his quarters and reached out to their networked minds, trying to find where the probe was located. If Walker was going to be back in play, they needed to neutralize the security chief and the Captain quickly. She directed androids to head towards the key points on the ship she'd compromised; she'd work on the Captain next.
King walked by sniffing the floor. He stood up to smell the air filtration System. "Strange." He came back down and kept sniffing. Shuffling past who he thought was Penny, "Hi, Naroot."
Penelope grinned cheerily. "Hi, Ardal," she said, walking past him quickly.
He went about sniffing. He caught something on her scent that he never thought he would smell, she had been with Walker. Camille had told him that humans didn't like being told about their sexual activities days after based on sense of smell. This wasn't his primary focus right now. The O2 scrubbers seemed to be turned up to 400%, but the computer said they were normal. The ventilation system was pushing out something that made it harder for him to catch a scent unless he was right there next to them. That was a problem. He could follow a three day old trail and now he couldn't. It was unnerving.
While the lights in the conference room were out, the rest of the ship was going along as normal. Penny walked quickly to the conference room door and was surprised to see no one standing guard. She stepped up and the doors opened on command, letting in light from the corridor. "Hello?" she said, tentatively.
"We're here," Zach said, using the light from the hallway to make his way back past the guards to the doorway. He looked past her and then in her eyes. "Are you all right? What happened to going to the bridge?"
Penny's blue eyes were wide and she looked at Zach nervously. "I did. It's just..." she glanced into the room. "I need to speak to the Captain, alone."
The fact that Oscar 12 had shut down lighting to the conference room made little sense. It was a distraction, a distraction from what? The rest of the Victory’s power systems appeared to be unaffected, and the Captain was furious. How the hell had that android managed to pull such a stunt, and what else might they be capable of?
Hearing Lt. Naroot, the Captain said “computer, bring the lights back to nominal.” Nothing happened. Uttering a Klingon curse so detailed and so profane even the most crusty, hardened Klingon warrior would have given a shout of approval the Captain slammed her closed fist into the control panel, and along with cracking the protective glass over the more sensitive components, the lights popped on. “What is it Lieutenant?” The Captain asked “we have a situation...”
Penny gulped and while she appreciated Zach's protective arm around her, she knew she was about to drop a quantum torpedo and didn't want any more collateral damage than necessary. "I know, Ma'am," she said. "It's regarding that. You should probably come with me to the bridge so we can get control of things. I can explain on the way."
Kennit gave a quick nod, tapping her comm badge. "Kennit to Bridge. Yellow alert! Our 'guests' have somehow accessed internal power systems and disabled security alarms. I want a full internal scan run, find out if any of them are still aboard and if so, lock them down and disable all computer access near them."
"We tried contacting the bridge earlier," Zach said. "We never got a response."
Then, she said "Kennit to Engineering. Mr. Torres. Somehow, Oscar 12 was able to shut down lighting and power in the conference room before having himself beamed away. I want to know how in the hell that was possible, the power systems should not have been accessible and they damn sure shouldn't have been able to initiate a transport without setting off internal security alarms."
Torres didn't understand what she was talking about as he checked his status displays. Everything seemed to be fine, but Rhea didn't exaggerate about such things. He assembled some of the computer specialists "Instruments are showing that everything should be normal. Looking into what could be causing this now." he told her.
"I'm heading for the Bridge...as soon as you know something report back. And make sure they can't pull a stunt like this again. Kennit out."
Once the Captain had closed the channel he and his team started to get to work. But whatever was going on and whoever did this was beyond good.
Penny walked out of the room with the Captain, heading for the bridge, Zach and Sydney on their heels ready to splinter off towards Sickbay. "I'm not sure how they got anyone else on board, but I think they brought along someone who would be able to access our systems. Alarms weren't sounded, because they were deactivated from the system itself."
As they came around the corridor toward the turbolift, Penny stopped short. She'd been preparing herself for what she'd see, but it was still a shock.
An equally shocked pair of blue eyes, framed by equally blonde hair, stared back, and both Pennys stared at each other for a moment before the one standing next to the Captain said, "me."
"Are you seeing..." Zach said slowly.
"Yup..." Sydney said.
The other Penny turned and bolted down the corridor. The one next to the Captain bit her lip and looked up nervously. "We're in trouble."
“Computer! Yellow alert!” the Captain snapped as she bolted down the passageway after the spy. “Initiate transport inhibitors throughout the ship and close and seal the bulkhead fire doors at the intersection ahead!” As she issued orders while sprinting after her quarry, from the inside of her uniform jacket she withdrew a small personal phaser and with a flick of her thumb powered the weapon to max with a soft whine as the energizers charged to full.
The yellow alert lights flashed down the corridor, but the bulkheads didn't close. "Unable to comply. Bulkhead systems have been deactivated. Transporter system has been encrypted."
Penny took off after the Captain, doing her best to keep up. She saw the Captain pull out a palm faster and pushed faster. "She was about to shout a warning but her doppelganger dodged to the right and around a corner, and by the time they reached her spot, the sound of a transporter beam had faded.
----In an Empty storage room.
Halvor was in an empty storage room. He was floating in the middle of it. There were gravity repulsors set up so if he pushed off or tried to swim, it countered him. There was a device on his chest. It looked similar to the designs the old Doctor was working on. He thought it was keeping him physically normal. His comm badge was missing. It wasn't uncommon for him to disappear unless summoned. He usually only checked in with security and covered the brig so they could use that team member elsewhere.
It took him hours to get himself to the wall and cracked his collarbone and broke his arm doing it. He hurt himself further when he normalized the gravity. "Oww." He used the wall control panel as a comm. "Halvor to Addams. I'm going to sickbay. The nurse should be able to tend to me. Then I need to find the Captain."
Addams tapped his combadge without looking away from where the other Penny had been standing. "This is Addams. The Captain is a bit busy at the moment, Mister Halvor. What's wrong?"
"I believe the human term is, I got 'roofied'. I came to, and appear to have had surgery, and someone turned a storage room into an antigrav chamber. They put an advanced design of the pump that your predecessor and I discussed. I don't think I will be turning grey for a while." He didn't know it, but this was the time they might need someone who could get hit with a phaser blast set to kill and walk it off. "I broke my arm escaping from the antigrav chamber." That in itself was strange. He didn't break bones easily.
Zach's brow furrowed, and he glanced at Sydney. "All right. I'll meet you in Sickbay. I'm on my way." He closed the channel, nodded to Sydney and the two of them walked quickly down the other direction of the corridor towards another turbolift.
Halvor left the cargobay and headed for Sickbay as well, arriving about the same time Addams did.
"Need a bed!" Zach shouted as they stepped inside. "Where's this device you mentioned?" he said.
Halvor took off his shirt. "It's not a bomb; I scanned it. It can wait until the crisis we are in is over. I think it just keeps me from transforming." He was more interested in who did it. Part of them wanted to throw them in the brig, another part wanted to shake their hand. As a Tactical Operations Specialist, he was worried about the timing. Someone took away his ability to transform.
"I'd wager one of our guests," Zach said as two nurses helped him ease Halvor onto a biobed. "So that makes it a fundamental part of this crisis. Bone knitter," he said, holding a hand out to one of the nurses across from him. They started working on Halvor's wounds as Zach watched the biobed readings. He'd only had time to review the basics on Halvor's condition, but evidently these androids had done what Federation doctors couldn't. Makes one wonder what else they could do for us, he thought. Too bad the Captain was about to throw them all in the brig.
The Captain cursed, “Kennit to Bridge! What the hell is going on!? Bulkhead door systems are unresponsive and the computer is informing me that transporter systems have been encrypted and we are locked out!”
"They've already gotten to the bridge and cut them off," Penny said. "If we don't go there, they won't know anything's wrong. If we can figure out where in the computer they--" she stopped in surprise as the first tingle of the transporter came over her, and although she tried to disrupt the annular confinement beam and prevent the lock but it was already too late and she watched the Captain, and the deck dissolve from around her.
"No!" The Captain's futile outcry was filled with fury. "Damn it all to hell.." she snarled as she took off at a swift run, heading for the bridge. Rather than risk being trapped inside the turbolift, she instead moved to a service access and began to climb the ladder, climbing up toward the bridge swiftly, anger boiling hotter with every inch of the ascent.
Reaching the Bridge, she opened the emergency hatch and then entered. Immediately she said, "Red Alert! Get our shields up and get them up now! The androids have compromised our computer systems and abducted Lt. Naroot. Get to work and restore systems control and get it down now!"
A chorus of "yes, Ma'ams" rolled through the bridge as the junior officers sprang into action. "Transporter systems are locked out completely," the lieutenant at the Engineering station said. "Life support seems to be unaffected. Turbolifts are blocked as well. Weapons are offline, but shields are up. Engines are completely locked down. Attempting to bypass locked systems."
Hearing that the systems were locked out and unresponsive, Captain Kennit knew deep in her gut that if she didn't somehow regain control of her ship immediately, the Victory and her crew were lost. Crossing the Bridge, she moved to the operations console and pressed her hand down against the touch sensitive console panel as her eyes darkened to solid black. The headache was instant, doing nothing at all however to calm the blazing rage which boiled through her veins. From her fingertips slender tubules extended out and penetrated into the computer system, connecting directly to the Victory's computer network. The console screens flickered, went black then returned to life as alien text scrolled across the screen. Borg technology penetrating into the ship's computer, Victory's Captain sweeping through the code looking for the implanted code which had locked them out, relentlessly sweeping through to find the implanted code and restore control. It didn't take long before systems dropped offline, resetting and coming back online. First up were the Victory's defensive shields, followed a moment later by the ablative armor activating and sweeping out as the system came online across the ship's hull adding to their defensive abilities.
Someone on the android ship was trying to stop her, a tendril of Borg technology adapted, programmed and sent across to the source of the intrusion blocking the foreign access and pushing the connection away while other functions of her mind continued to work, restoring transporter control and setting up powerful transport inhibitors throughout the entire ship. No one else was going to be abducted as Lt. Naroot had been!
That same little Borg program now pushed harder into the android ship, gathering data with a sweeping search algorithm which moved with relentless efficiency. Attempts to block her access slowed her down a little, but she countered. Adapting as only the Borg could, with the powerful cybernetic powerhouse of the Borg embedded into her mind accompanied by something the Androids didn't have..
The ability of a living being to think, to create on the fly and put out false tags and false access attempts as distractions while focusing on her goal, trying to identify which of the signatures she saw on the sensors was her missing crewman!
Victory's powerful weapons systems came back online, immediately powering up all weapons systems and shifting control to the helm.
She focused next on the comm system, battling to regain communications in order to send warning to the Federation and Starfleet as soon as she got it back online.
As the ship began to hum again, the sound of a transporter beam filled the bridge, and Penny appeared. "Captain," she said quickly, "disconnect immediately! It's a trap!"
The Captain turned, her hand still firmly pressed to the console. Her other hand however, held a firearm pointed directly at the newly arrived Penny. The barrel of the antique but fully functional weapon never wavered. A twentieth century handgun, which Rhea carried at all times as her own personal insurance policy, loaded with hollow-point explosive tip bullets designed to expand on impact before the small explosive charge each round carried detonated thus causing maximum damage while not penetrating the intended target further than necessary, reducing the possibility of the round passing through the target and impacting equipment or personnel behind the impact point. "How do I know who you are?" she asked in a soft, cold and deliberate voice. "Do you really think I can't feel their little programs over there attempting to get into my head?" she said with a contemptuous sneer.
"Captain, I know I look like me, but that's because I am me," Penny said, then had to override her automatic response to roll her eyes at how stupid that sounded, even to her. "Look, the androids have had time to plan for most every move we can make. They've done nothing but come up with contingencies to their contingencies. We need a plan. Preferably one that doesn't involve them compromising you." She licked her lips nervously. "And preferably not one that involves shooting me."
The Captain disconnected from the Victory's computer core, the ship now back under the control of her crew as she continued to speak, the weapon never wavering. "Wouldn't they be surprised if I was to let them in, hmm?" she added. "Where this came from..." Kennit said, tapping at her temple with one finger. "They are little more than an annoyance." She laughed, the sound utterly without mirth. "If they think that humans in this dimension are savage, what they'd find in the technology merged into me would make the worst of mankind look like a newborn kitten." The androids erroneously believed she'd been assimilated here, in this dimension. A miscalculation which proved a fatal flaw to their attempts at gaining access to the Borg technology merged with her physical body. She had easily blocked their attempts to infiltrate past the security protocols deeply built into the systems implanted and merged with her.
Not taking her black-eyed gaze from the Lieutenant, she said, "Operations! Open a channel to the Android ship. Advise them to stand down and disengage all weapons and propulsion systems immediately. Make it clear this is not a request, they have committed an act of war against the Federation with their stated intent and attempt at taking control of this ship. Starfleet has already been sent a message to advise them of what has transpired here."
Penny turned immediately toward her station to hail the ship, but the sound of the hammer cock from the captain's gun stopped her cold. She turned slowly, keeping her hands in view. She looked at Ensigns Callahan and Shepherd who were manning helm and ops for her, and nodded to Callahan to send the hail.
"They've received..." Callahan said after a moment. "No response."
"They don't need to respond," Penny said. "They said we have three hours to surrender, and if we move against them, it'll trigger protocols that will strand us in the middle of nowhere."
The Captain seemed to ignore Penny for the moment, though she was acutely aware of the Lieutenant and more than willing to regretfully fire on her if given cause in order to protect the integrity of her ship and the safety of her crew.
King came onto the bridge. He checked that Science station. It appeared to be reading normally again, he was able to smell again. Whatever was in the system to limit his sense of smell was gone. He noticed Penny didn't smell the same as their last encounter. He sent a biometrics report on the air filtration system to sickbay.
With a sharp jerk of her head she indicated for security to take Lt. Naroot into custody. “Keep her away from the ship's controls.” Kennit ordered. “If she tries to access the ship's systems, stop her.” The tone of her voice left no doubt how they should stop her.
Penny swallowed hard. "Captain, I really don't think that's a good--okay then," she stopped as security took her by the arms and walked her towards the turbolift vestibule near the rear of the ship, away from the stations.
The Captain tucked her forearm back into its concealed carry holster and turned an intense gaze to where the android ship loomed in the view screw. Victory could engage the hostiles she knew. She knew how to knock them down, knew where to hit to disable the enemy vessel but also knew a ship that size would have time to hit at them as well. The potential risk to her crew was far too high.
Alone, she was going to have members of her crew seriously injured and killed.
Accessing her own command panel, the Captain pulled up a status display which showed a navigational chart of the area. Small flashing amber triangles marked the current positions of other Starfleet ships in the area.
None were close enough.
However, Ark Royal and Viator were both powerfully armed ships. Ark Royal was Galaxy-Class and Viator an Ambassor-class. Neither one had the power Victory possessed, but three together had a better chance against the android behemoth than Victory did alone.
Quickly, she set the navigation system to compute the fastest route which would bring all three ships together. A moment paused as the system analyzed the positions of all 3 ships and then the answer came.
Sometimes being a Fleet Captain did have its useful moments. Opening a secure channel, Kennit sent a priority one distress signal to the USS Ark Royal and USS Viator. The missive contained sensor data on the android ship and a short explanation of the situation, ordering the two ships to immediately change heading and make for the rendezvous point indicated. They were additionally to send the data back to Starfleet and advise of the androids clear hostile intent.
That accomplished she called out, “Red Alert! Engage defensive force fields and engage the ablative armor. Mr. Callahan! Set heading to bearing 241 mark 8 and get us the hell out of here, maximum speed. We can’t fight them alone, and I will not allow them to take control of this ship! We will make a strategic withdrawal and rendezvous with the Ark Royal and Viator then make a stand together if need be.”
"Bearing 241, mark 8, aye!" Callahan said, inputting the course.
Looking around her already angry glare darkened. “Where the hell is the XO?!”
Underfoot the ship thrummed as the Victory began to move, banking sharply away from the android ship and immediately jumping to warp, streaming away and retreating to a more defensible position where they would also have the added benefit of additional ships at their side.
King was typing away at the panel. "Internal sensors are off their mark. It's messing with communications. Trying to reset without doing a computer reboot. Right now, it appears he is on a Spacewalk with the Doctor and Halvor, and a handful of nurses. I'm going realign, assuming they are in sickbay." It wouldn't be perfect, but it was something.
The Captain just stared at King for a moment, finally answering "I give up..."
"That's the idea," Penny mumbled, sounding morose.
Shaking her head, Kennit said, "What is the ETA for rendezvous with the Ark Royal and Viator?"
"Unsure," Callahan said, looking back at King. "Do we have eyes yet?"
"Internal and External sensors are realigned. We are in communications range." King stated.
"Send them a message, advise them to get here as quickly as possible," Kennit said. "Tell them our systems have been compromised by the androids and they are to be considered hostile aggressors. There's no guarantee that the ship's systems have been secured. I want a full deep dive analysis done. If there's still programming in there which shouldn't be, I want it located and neutralized as quickly as possible."
King sent the message.
Frustrated, angry, Rhea turned her attention to her console, pulling up a sensor readout of the android ship. Looking for weaknesses, anything which could be exploited. As she focused on her task, part of her wondered how the hell she'd gotten pulled into this situation. Alone, her XO off doing god alone knew what.
The turbolift door opened and Torres stepped out of it. "You know I really think the harder we make it for our computers not to get taken over the easier it seems for Borg and androids to take them over." he said as he walked closer to the Captain.
The look she flashed at him was nearly lethal. "Now is not the time..." she said in a warning tone.
It is always the time, is what he thought, but he'd leave that in his own head. "Well, I managed to wipe everything from the main core and then transferred functions from the backup core. It'll give us full functionality for now, but if they planted any subroutines in that one as well we'll be up the same shit storm." he reported.
Before the Captain could reply, the officer at communications turned and said, "Captain? We are receiving an incoming message from Captain Robert Daley aboard the USS Ark Royal."
"Put him on screen." Kennit ordered.
The main viewscreen shifted to show the Bridge of the USS Ark Royal, her captain front and center on the display. Captain Daley was an older man, though his age was hard to determine due to his smooth, bald head and neatly trimmed salt and pepper beard which helped mask any signs of age on his face. "Captain Kennit." he said as soon as the connection was established. "I have been reviewing the data which you sent regarding the android ship. Is this information correct? They intend to take over and 'guide' us into a peaceful existence under their control?"
"In a simplified statement, yes." Kennit answered. "Unfortunately, while we were able to regain control of our ship and retreat for the moment, the androids are following us and at this time I cannot be sure that the Victory's computer system is not still compromised. We are going through our systems as quickly as possible, trying to identify any additional foreign code programs which may have been uploaded into the system while the Android contingent was aboard."
"Understood." Daley replied.
"At this point I am still awaiting a response from Starfleet Command. If the Android ship arrives before they get back to us, we are on our own. It is my belief that we must not allow that ship to reach the inner systems of the federation. They claim to already have spies for lack of a better term within the heart of the federation now. We have to stop that ship, and at the same time provide as much information as possible back so that Starfleet can attempt to identify whether or not they have indeed infiltrated Federation territories."
"I think it will take a hands-on strike team, no tech, just violence." King wasn't happy. He wiped his nose. He tried to establish communication with sickbay.
"A strike team?" Daley said, frowning. "Very well. I'll alert the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodsman and the Cowardly Lion."
Kennit didn't speak, just shook her head slightly.
"Auntie Em! Auntie Em! I'm right here!" Daley said, his voice getting higher and taking on a more feminine tone before breaking out into peals of laughter. He sat back and crossed his legs. "Wow. And here I thought the holo-filter wasn't going to be useful! "He" gave the captain a scolding smile and wagged his finger. "Told her to tell you not to try anything. But, not to worry. Your communications didn't disturb anyone, and you're currently hurtling through the black void towards more black void, nothing dangerous in the path." "He" looked at Torres, "oh and that 'shit storm' you're anticipating is about to make landfall so.....tootles!"
The viewscreen went dark, the engines cut and the ship shuddered as it dropped out of warp. The bridge lights went out and emergency lighting came on in its place as everything went quiet.
"Captain," Penny said slowly from the rear of the bridge. "We really should talk."
The Captain swiveled toward where Lt. Naroot stood on the bridge. Gazing at the Lieutenant, the Captain was rather certain that Naroot was part of this rapidly degrading situation. She wasn't of the mood to be at all forgiving. Naroot had betrayed them, all of them.
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