Return to Wonderland
Posted on Mon Mar 27, 2023 @ 2:53am by Lieutenant Penelope Naroot & Lieutenant Commander Miguel Torres & Lieutenant Commander Zachary Addams & Lieutenant JG Ardal King & Lieutenant JG Sydney Friedman Jr & Fleet Captain Rhea Kennit
1,478 words; about a 7 minute read
Mission:
We Will Take Care of You
Location: Various
Sickbay
Zach and Sydney walked into Sickbay as fast as their legs would carry them--Sydney doing her best to keep up with the taller doctor. Zach clapped his hands loudly. "Front and center, everybody! We've got a laundry list to get done!" He grabbed a blank padd from the replicator and began making rapid notes as the medical staff came out of the various exam rooms and labs and stood in front of him, curious.
Before he could speak, the doors to Sickbay opened and Alice 348 walked back in, hands clasped in front of her and standing off to the side, observing.
Zach ignored her and leaned towards Sydney. "Follow my lead," he said, quietly.
Sydney nodded and fell in line behind him.
Flanked by Sydney, he looked over his staff. "All right, taking back the ship was the easy part. Now the hard work begins. I need the following tasks done within the hour: Alpha team, I need environmental controls rerouted to a secondary station in Engineering. Beta team, I need supplies gathered and put in Lab Three, again within the hour." He handed the padd to the team leader. "Gamma, stay here and prepare for casualties."
Beta team's leader took the padd and looked at it, confused, then back at Zach. "Get going," he said. The teams dispersed, heading for their assigned tasks, walking as quickly as they could.
Alice 348 walked up to Zach who had turned to speak with Sydney. "We are aware of your attempts to retake your ship."
"Do you think it's aware of us?" Zach said, folding his arms, keeping his eyes locked with Sydney.
Sydney kept her eyes on Zach, trying to discern his meaning. "It's possible," she said. "We may have no way of knowing."
"This attempt at overtaking the ship will not succeed," Alice 348 said.
"I almost feel bad for it. I mean, they put up one hell of a fight, but it didn't do them much good," Zach said, sounding almost sympathetic. "I just don't know how long we can keep them powered down."
Finally clicking in place in her mind, Sydney gave a sad smile as well. "Well, hopefully until we can figure out a way to safely return them. Until then, they can remain powered down. Maybe it's their version of a good nap?"
"I'd imagine it's almost like someone in a coma," Zach said. "They perceive the world around them, to a degree, but it's all jumbled. Maybe they're thinking we're on their planet, or maybe they're watching us objectively. Some kind of android out-of-body experience."
"What is this conversation?" Alice 348 said, her head tilting, and her number plate blinking rapidly. "You have not reclaimed the ship."
"Well, diagnostics are probably completed by now," Zach said. "Should we go in and check on her?"
"Probably a good idea," Sydney said.
They turned their back on Alice 348 and walked quietly towards one of the isolation rooms. Alice 348 stayed frozen, head tilted, but eventually followed in order to observe.
As she entered the exam room, she stopped short. On the biobed was another Alice model, but her number plate also read 348. "This is a trick," Alice 348 said to both the doctors.
"Torres says he can most likely hack into their network," Zach said. "We should have them reprogrammed shortly."
Alice 348 stepped back, again tilting her head and her number plate flashing. At the same time, the number plate of the Alice on the biobed began flashing as well. This made Alice's chestplate flash faster, and the Alice 348 on the bed did the same. Suddenly, the number plate started letting out a long sustained tone and her head tilted a bit too far, and her eyes went blank.
Zach looked at the real Alice and snapped his fingers in front of her face. "I think we shorted her out," he said. "Worked better than I hoped." He looked down at the biobed. "Well done, Doctor."
The Alice 348 on the biobed shimmered and the ship's EMH appeared from where the head of Beta team had left him. "Glad I could assist," he said.
Sydney walked in front of Alice 348 and waved her hand in front of his face. "She's...frozen. Locked up." She looked at Zach. "I think you found the off button."
Zach tapped his combadge. "Addams to Kennit: We've incapacitated one of the androids. Seems like if we confuse them, they'll over-process and shut down."
On the flight deck the Captain, still linked to the Valkyrie’s secure comm system Kennit was aware of the message from Dr. Addams, and everything else. The Victory’s status, the Valkryie’s status, hundreds of communications being sent across myriad comm channels, she was the standing in the flight deck of her ship. She was also aware of the Borg ship dispatched in response to her transmission, to her rage at the situation she was trapped within. It would not arrive in time to assist, would not arrive in time to stop the Android vessel. She shifted its course, sending it and a second responding Cube instead toward the Android homeworld with command instructions to hold position and await further instructions. Remain in the trans warp conduit and not to engage the enemy.
Not yet.
“Acknowledged.” the Captain replied, the barest hint of...perhaps an echo in the damaged comm system in her voice. “Continue to sweep the ship and restore the damaged systems.”
"Yes Ma'am," Zach said. "Addams, out."
"I think I'll check in on Commander Walker," Sydney said.
Zach frowned, but nodded. "I'll see if I can determine how much we've gummed them up."
Sydney nodded and headed off to the secured recovery room.
Bridge
It was Albert Einstein that was credited with first saying "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results." So having the engineering staff wipe the ship's computer cores in order to purge it of whatever the androids would definitely not be something that androids would find illogical. One team was ordered to perform a complete shutdown of the main computer in order to wipe the affected memory, and then reload the programs from the protected archives, hoping they weren't corrupted. The second team was in the auxiliary core and they were going to conduct a progressive memory purge in order to fix that issue. Meanwhile, those leftover were finishing up the repairs around the ship, in case they were able to do something. Torres for his part was not only overseeing all of this, but he was also preparing a contingency of his own. He was creating a cascade virus that when he introduced it into the main and auxiliary computer cores at once would disable all of the Victory's computer systems, leaving it effectively dead in space. Or at least until they managed to get a basic operating system going again.
King was assisting in setting up a separate secondary short range Communications System. It was all they had until they hot ship Communications were back up. He went around delivering new comms. The Captain had gotten one and so did Torres and Addams. It was a start.
Returning to the Bridge after a time, the Captain walked to her seat and sat down. Feeling useless was a sensation she did not enjoy. The link established to the Borg vessels dispatched to the Android homeworld were enroute, streaking toward their destination through a trans warp hub which would have them arriving in approximately 17 minutes. One Cube ship could wreak catastrophic damage on the planet surface, and she was sending two. The orders which had been sent to the Cube vessels were simple. Upon reaching their destination, the two ships were to exit the trans warp conduit and take up station in the system. They were then to simply hold position and wait. If any Android ship attempted to engage them, the ship was to be destroyed. No communications were to be established with the Android civilization. An additional instruction was given as well. If by any means, the communications link established between her and the two Cube ships was lost, the planet was to be attacked and the Android civilization erased from its surface.
The Androids threatened her home.
She would destroy theirs if they didn’t back down.
Environmental Controls
Penny had spent exactly forty-six-point-eight-eight-seven minutes tinkering with the environmental controls, adjusting deck ten to Sydney's specifications. she wasn't sure what Sydney was attempting, but she trusted her friends and shipmates, and didn't give it any further thought. She'd do whatever it took to prove that she wanted to help stop the androids.
She pulled herself up from the floor, closed the panel and set her tools down. "Done!" she said, grinning. Her grin dropped as she again felt the tingle of a transporter beam. "Oh come on," she grumbled.
RSS Feed