Post 38: What has happened?

Posted on Thu Feb 15th, 2024 @ 10:49am by Lieutenant David Montgomery & Lieutenant JG Kalina Johnson
Edited on on Mon Feb 26th, 2024 @ 10:36am

Mission: Hijacked

David was making his way through the Jeffries tubes, grumbling under his breath. He had been working in the ships cargo bay when the crew had left. He had managed to stay under Commodore Songs radar. He had found a place to stay out of sight until everyone was gone and had taken what he thought was a quick nap. Instead, he had slept a good eight hour and when he woke up he was surprised to find that the doors wouldn’t open and the computers had locked him out.

He was heading towards the crew quarters and dropped out of an exit screen. Dropping to the floor, he headed down the corridor and took a turn. Heading to the first quarters he came to, he rang the buzzer and waited for an answer.

Kalina had walked over to the door she didn't have been expecting anybody. “Can I help you?” She asked, wondering why David was at her door.

“Sorry for bothering you.” David said. “I’m having a problem with my ship codes. I was locked in the cargo bay and I had to take a Jeffries tubes to get here. Can you check your codes and see if they work okay?” He was really puzzled as to why he couldn’t log in.

“That is very strange, you're a senior officer. Have you tried access anywhere else besides cargo bay?” Kalina asked curiously. She wondered if the Corps of engineers had temporarily revoked their permissions, but she was under the impression that they wouldn't be able to do that anyways.

“I had to come through the Jeffries tubes and stopped at the first quarters I came to.” David admitted. “My combadge isn’t working either.” He paused. “They aren’t supposed to revoke our permissions, Commodore Song made that clear.”

“Maybe there's some interference with some unshielded conduits?” Kalina suggested. She was trying to make sense of what was going on, she wasn't thinking potential hijack.

“Let’s head to the bridge and see what we can find out.” David suggested. “We can get one of the Starfleet engineers to give my access back.”

“Please tell me the turbolifts are working?” Kalina desperately stressed with her tone.

“I am hoping so.” David said as they reached a corner. They turned to go now. A corridor and their was a man at the other end. David would normally think he was an engineer but he was out of uniform and he had a weapon tucked in his pants that wasn’t Starfleet standard. As he started to speak, the stranger reached for the weapon. “Run!” David called to Kalina and turned to where they came from.

“Stop right there.” A man called out as he watched both Kalina and David run away. He pulled out his weapon and fired but miss them both and hit the bulkhead. This caused the system to detect weapons fire. The klaxton started to go off.

“We got to get out of here quickly, before they realize how to activate the shields to trap us.” Kalina called out. She noticed that the Jeffrey tube near her quarters was still open, clearly it's where David must have came from.

David followed her eyes and grinned. “I see where you are leading us. You first, we need to get out of sight.” He reminded himself to shut the cover behind himself so they didn’t get unwanted company.”

“Close the hatch we need to seal this off.” Kalina said knowing they only had seconds to do so because the other guy was already firing at them. They barely had missed getting shot at.

David dived in behind her and pulled the hatch shut. He pulled a tool out, he always carrys and quickly bent the handle. “That should do the trick.” He whispered. “Let’s head out of here so we can figure out what is going on.”

“I don't think they're engineers, but you're right we need to get out of here.” Kalina said as she was processing what was going on.

“Something has happened.” David replied. “I was working in the cargo bay and thought I’d take a short nap. I woke up hours later to this.” He paused. “We need to find an area we can get computer access or at least see if we can ease drop on them.”

“When did you first discover something was wrong, cuz assuming you went from your quarters to another work assignment after your nap?” Kalina asked. She was trying to ignore the fact why would a grown man take a nap in the middle of the day.

“I had been working for about twelve hours.” David explained. “I wanted to finish it up. I thought I’d just take a break for a few minutes and I guess I was more tired than I thought. I was never in my quarters. When I couldn’t use my codes to leave the cargo bay I took the jeffies tubes assuming the Starfleet engineers had mucked up the systems.”

“When did you first notice something was going on?” Kalina asked as they continue to crawl through the service tubes.

“I knew things weren’t right when the computer wouldn’t acknowledge me.” David said as he followed her. “But I was certain it was our temporary crew while we were on leave.” He paused. “How did you end up on the ship?”

“I never left a ship, was supposed to leave later on today my shuttle was delayed last night. I guess a lot of people wanted to get back home.” Kalina pointed out to David. She probably could have taken one of the shuttles that she would have asked, but she didn't want to impose upon anybody else's leave.

“I dodged going.” David confessed. “I would have loved to go camping and do some hiking but there were some things I felt needed to be done instead.”

“What do you mean?” Kalina ask that she was a little confused, was he behind this she could not help but wonder.

“I just took over Chief Engineer.” David explained. “For whatever reason their were some inspections and part replacements that I didn’t see logged so I was verifying each one.”

“That's a big role.” Kalina simply said as they continued to crawl around.

“Take a left at the split right there.” David suggested. “We should drop out near the science offices. I doubt whoever this is will be doing some type of experiment.”

“We should probably disable any security fields before going into that area we don't want to get stuck in there.” Kalina said, if her memory served her correctly there was a junction panel they could temporarily divert power from that area.

“Good thinking.” David agreed. “We can also catch a Jeffries tube to the armory if I disable the security on that hatch.” He might not have ship codes but some things didn’t need them.

“Do you think the two of us could take back the ship on our own? I thought there were other members of the crew aboard. Should we try to find them as well before we think about taking back the ship?” Kalina asked David. She appreciated his gung-ho like approach, but she wanted to do it from a practical perspective.

“We should grab some weapons and then look for other crew.” David said. “Then we can formulate a plan.”

“I hope you're right.” Kalina suggested, she thought they should hunker down, and prepare to fight. But there was safety in numbers. She hoped this gamble would not bite them in the ass.

“I think it’s the best option.” David replied. “We don’t know where we are or who has control. No one is coming to save us. If you have a better plan let me know.”
I’m
“Take us to the armory.” Kalina said, as she secured the lift behind them. She could see that he was heading to another jeffrey tube. She was trusting in him. She hoped that she did not regret this decision.

David headed through the tube until they reached the armory. After he had disabled the hatch, he dropped down inside the room and looked around. There was no one there. “It is safe.” He said as he headed over to break into one of the weapons lockers.

“Where is everyone, you think they would be protecting the armory. Surely their centuries are reported back that were loose and wondering about.” Kalina said having a bad feeling about this. It did not don on her that the ship was huge and they probably had a small Force.

“It depends on who took it.” David said quietly, as he held out a phaser to her. “I am beginning to think they aren’t very smart. Like you said, they would have come here by now.”

“Don't jinx us, let's not let our guard down until we know we secured the ship.” Kalina said, as she entered her command codes into the armory door to unlock the weapons locker.

“As soon as we grab some weapons.” David said quietly, we start searching for others. I am certain we aren’t the only ones who stayed on board.”

“I open the locker, feel free.” Kalina said, wondering why he was whispering. according to her tread quarter there are no enemy on the stick or at least in this particular section of the deck.

David grabbed a couple phasers, tucking one into his pants. “I am ready to go when you are.” He didn’t want to hang out there any longer than necessary.

“Okay Rambo, don't know if you need the second phaser but why not.” Kalina said thank you to herself he's being a little space cowboyish.

“I thought if we ran into other crew it would be wise to have one to give them.” David paused. “Is there a reason you question every idea I have?”

“Some would call it survivability, no offense but I barely know you and I'm taking a big chance by putting my life in your hands.” Kalina pointed out to him.

“Starfleet trusts me.” David replied. “We went on a mission together, which I felt the two of us handled very well.” He paused. “I get what you are saying and if I say something that seems like a bad idea, tell me. I just felt like you think I am making bad decisions.”

“Not once did I say you're making a bad decision, I said it's hard to trust in somebody you don't know. I don't really know you. All I know is that two of my friends seem to have a hots for you.” Kalina pointed out to David. She wasn't sure if they're going to survive this so she might as well come out and be honest with him.

“They do?” David was a bit shocked. He didn’t know what to say to that. “Uh, okay I guess?” He wasn’t going to ask who they were. “I’m a little embarrassed by that, women don’t usually crush on me.”

“Then you must be blind.” Kalina pointed out to him, because to her and to most of the crew was very obvious. She wondered how he did not see it, as they started ahead towards the other Jeffries tube.

“I have been rather busy.” David defended himself. “I came on as an ensign in operations and I am now the Chief Engineer and a lieutenant. That is quite a jump for a short period of time. I didn’t want to let anyone down.”

“And yet you never did tell me how your date with Tara went?” Kalina said. She knew about the day but she didn't know what happened during the day, and neither of them had said anything at this point. Granted it was none of her business but she wasn't going to buy this oh I don't know what you're talking about I never went on a date with anybody. Ironically this was not the time to bring up drama but they had nothing else to talk about so she decided to go ahead and lay out their laundry.

“It was okay.” David said quietly. “We discovered that we weren’t suited for one another.” He wondered why she was so interested in his personal life.

“Now I know, my friend Tara has been very quiet on the topic of you lately. And I was curious why and she wouldn't tell me.” Kalina said wondering what type of dirt back he was, because Tara was a nice girl.

“Look.” David paused and looked over to Kalina. “She is really a nice person. It wasn’t anything either of us did. I am just looking for someone different. She has things in her life that I can’t see in mine.”

“Now that it's settled, what do you say about us retaking the ship?” Kalina said but the grin on her face. The two of them had made it to an intersection of the Jeffries tube, she had no idea where to go next she wasn't an engineer like him. So she hoped he knew where he was going.

“Let’s drop the hatch and see if it’s clear for us to get out of here.” David said. “Then, we will look for others and if we run across any of our unwanted company we will take them out.”

“Well this is your playground, lead the way.” Kalina followed him through the hatch. As soon as it opened she had her weapon ready and just in case there was anyone on the other side.

“We’re clear.” David said as he looked around. He hoped if there were other crew still on the ship they hadn’t been caught or worse.”

As soon as he said that, Kalina could hear slight faints of words being spoken but she couldn't make them out. She hoped it was Federation personnel and not the enemy forces. You got to try quarter to see that it was two people just a couple blocks away from their position. “Scan shoulder human, but we don't know if the enemy is human or an alien species and I don't want to make any preliminary judgments based on those perimeters. I suggest we go in phaser's ready to shoot and hope for the best.” Kalina suggested as their course of action.

“Agreed.” David nodded. He set his phaser for stun and they moved ahead slowly. He hoped it was other crew and they could work together to take the ship back.

Kalina followed David and and was ready to take action if needed. They slowly creeped around the corner with their weapons drawn, waiting for David to make the first room.

David saw a Starfleet uniform and still kept his weapon pointed until he recognized the Amandora officer.