Episode 3: Tears of Valhalla

SS Valhalla
Lower Decks


=^="All security personnel to the Bridge. Code Red. I repeat we have a Code Red Situation. All Security to the Bridge!"=^=

Devon, Evan and William met up on their way to the bridge. All three had noted Charlie’s disappearance and it made them more than uneasy.

“Where the hell is he and what’s going on?” Devon asked the other two.

“I don’t know,” Evan runs a hand through his hair, “This doesn’t make any sense.”

“What part of anything has made sense in the last twelve hours?” William growled, “We never should have taken this job.”

“Tough we did,” Devon replied before stopping just short of the next corridor,” Shhh…We need to go up the back way to the Bridge. Let’s use the interdeck tunnels.”


:::Elsewhere:::

"Coms to the Reddy, or the Doc?"

Emily tapped her Com, “Redemption this is Star. We’re under attack on the Valhalla. “ She stops,”Redemption…” Shaking her head she looks at Tybalt, “We’ve got nothing. We’re on our own...”

=====Redemption bridge=====

The only answer that Wood could really give was to solemnly shake his head. He debated even going into any level of detail as to why he'd decided not to reveal his missing time incident to Starfleet Command - who might have otherwise benefited from knowing one of their better-recognised hotshots was carrying around an alien implant in his head - but then realised that with this Medic at least, the cat was already out of the bag.

"Thing is," He lowered his voice further still, "There was a majority in Starfleet Command who were ready to make their own version of Carpathia's Government from about the time the Dominion War wound up. I didn't -couldn't - trust anyone with that kind of info. Not when it risked that info falling into the wrong hands."

He paused. This must make him sound awfully paranoid and that was heartbreaking in itself, because it was the frightening truth.

"I know that sounds terrible," He sighed, "but that's really what it was coming to. That's why I think Carpathia has such a large percentage of the Fleet so utterly hoodwinked. Either way, the chip needs to stay on the down low - at least until we figure out what it can do."

With that the console bleeped. The results were in.

{Moondark}

| Valhalla
| Corridors

Even though they weren't that far from the hatch thy had come in through (although as it happened this wouldn't do them any good) the doctor was a higher priority, her being lost into the hands of whatever madness had overtaken the colony ship was a far more immediate concern. As it was they had to assume that Loki was taken, or (without immediate support) about to be. Which in turn meant getting her back before anyone had a chance to really cement the take.

Things like explosive collars and dead man's switches sprang rather quickly to mind.

With unknown numbers of assailants and lethal force being used right back at them, the marines hadn't thought twice about dialling up their phasers to the highest non-immedaitely lethal setting, a setting that didn't so much stun as 'coma'. Trusting that anyone wanting to wake the nutters from that level of stun would need the sickbay anyway.. which is where the marines were heading anyway.

Corridor by short corridor and intersection by intersection the small team of Feddies advanced into the retreating face of the recently woken aggressors.

After the defeat of that initial rush, (the badguys not conversant enough with 'modern' weapons to believe anything other than lethal responses were happening) the shock of the sudden reverse had sent the culties into awed retreat, even driving them backwards out of one of the long colonnades of now empty freezer pods.

This however lasted a grand total of two intersections before a fresh batch arrived to stiffen resolve; they were wailing it up again and rushing once more. The universal translators managed to correlate enough of the cacophony to draw out some of the basic tenets of the attacking faith, no different really than any number of other fundamentalist diatribes that denied the right of other sentients to draw breath simply based on some whackos belief in their own importance.

Insignificant small minded bigots denying the universe by shouting too loud to hear themselves think.

Their declarations of manifest destiny and personal divine selection cut short by the orchestrated volley of coherent light, carefully aimed by the very much specially selected service people of Star Fleet and Marine Recon. One of them even managed to get his ankles over his head as he backflipped from a 'double top' shot to the forehead.

Within moments of the rush start another even ten culties were lying spread across their line of advance, a few still slightly twitching in nervous overload. In return however one of them had managed to tag one of the escorting marines, putting one of their very low tech slugs through the now ashen faced human's arm.

Being a marine, being recon, the man in question simply deployed an ampule from his first aid kit, grit his teeth a bit and kept on with his job, not even bothering to complain or speak up any more than was necessary to confirm he was still operational.

"Moving!" Tybalt asserted, leading the next leap out of the freezer zone and into the feeder line behind.

======SS Valhalla, Between the Cryotubes and Engineering=====

Doctor Linn heard the Bridge's cry for help and allowed a smirk to cross her face. For her the impending triumph did not come as a surprise, for she was doing the will of the great and powerful Gods of the Stars. She turned to her two lieutenants, who had excitedly returned to her presence since 'defrosting'.

"Listen," She said to them with a pious smile, "Like our sacred spiritual ancestors in Sumeria, we have been blessed. To carry out the sacred will of Annunaki is to be invincible."

One of the two lieutenants, a young man who relished the trust and other more sensual 'benefits' of his post, eagerly added, "And then we go and shall be with them!"

Linn looked upon the one she knew as Abzu. He was by far the more energetic of the two, which had its advantages, but was not really an academic soul. Shame. Brains and that awesome body he had? What a combination that would have been.

"With them and of them," She nodded, "You have heard of the sacred promise. Security from the Nightmare Teeth, diety with the Gods of the Stars."

She noticed the other lieutenant looking nervously behind them, toward the close rattling of gunfire. There seemed to be another noise - one she'd never heard before - mingling with the firefight's cacaphony, almost indisinguishable. Was it an aural effect from firing in this overgrown pressurised tube?

"Don't be troubled Apsu," She assured him, "It is simply our warriors performing their calling."

"But it's so close," Apsu fretted, "I swear it's getting closer."

Linn listened for a moment. Though she almost refused to believe it, there did seem to be some merit to Apsu's concern.

"Ready your side arms." Linn pulled a .357 Desert Eagle out of her robes and cocked it. She was proud of this weapon, as well as how she'd smuggled it aboard without anyone detecting it.

Those feelings evaporated as it became clear the fighting really was getting closer.

"Get into the shadows," She instructed Apsu and Abzu, "We'll cut them down before they even know we're here!"

{Tybalt and Star}

| Bridge
| USS Redemption

Beth ignored the beep from the computer “once we're out of whatever this is you are going to come down to the 'Hut' and let me run some tests on you and it” her tone very much said she wasn't taking no for an answer, even from an Admiral. She might not be CMO on the ship but her powers to remove someone from duty weren't that far removed from that of Commander Loki. It was unlikely she'd take that option but she wasn't above using the transporter beam to get someone in for an appointment.

“Have you thought about your time with Carpathia?” She asked him, he seemed to think no one else knew about the device in his head “I picked it up on my medical scans so they could have too, are you even sure it was from your time with the Andromedans? Carpathia's people could have fiddled with your memories and you could think its been in longer than it really has?” Beth was fully aware that it was her turn to sound paranoid and it was taking all her willpower to not whip out her tricorder and start scanning his noggin.

There wasn't really much that either of them could do about the device at the moment, at least not while sitting in the middle of the bridge so she let the matter drop, however a determined look in her dark eyes warned him that the subject wasn't being dropped just temporarily set to one side.

Taking a deep a breath she turned her attention to the scan they had run looking for any chroniton particles and pulled up the results to see if their fledgling theory was correct or completely wrong.

“Wow” was all she said for a moment as she sat digesting the results. There were definitely particles present all around them but not a few and not in the numbers she was expecting had their theory been right. There were far more meaning that a significant temporal event was going on and if they didn't want to remain stuck here in groundhog land then they really had to work out how to get out of this bubble and fast.

“I'm no Egghead but that doesn't look good” she said turning to look at Wood again. Despite the seriousness of the situation a smile spread over her face “though it looks like we were right” she held one hand up for a high five “who said we needed scientists?”

TAG: Wood

======Redemption Bridge======

With a triumphant grin Wood joined in Moondark's high five, "Amen to that!" He said. Now, as much as he didn't want to, he addressed her other questions.

"I suppose it is possible that the implant was put in during my time in Carpathia's clutches," Though to him it didn't make sense. If Carpathia was tracking him, why hadn't he sent the fleet in to waste them all while they're in one spot?

"Maybe we should carve out some time when all this is done to have a look at it. Just to put our own minds at ease if nothing else."

With that concession made, he turned his attention back to the task at hand. The density of Chroniton particles was not the supreme-off-the-scale reading he had envisaged, but then again the particle was not very well understood by modern science. Maybe it didn't take a huge amount of them under the right conditions to cause this unique phenomenon they were caught in.

"Okay, so we got Chroniton Particles behaving badly," He thought out loud, "So now we've proven these particles are phasing - allowing them to interact with our warp cores, then un-phasing them will reverse that effect and maybe allow us to escape. So if we wiki what we know about phasing..."

He pulled up the database entries they had on Phasing, surprised at the reams of information there was available on the subject. He knew there had been attempts at making Phase Cloaking devices - not to mention the Enterprise having experienced the effects of phasing people - but this much? Someone was really interested in this science. He was about to despair when the word 'anyon' seemed to leap out at him.

"Anyon Particles. This is what un-phased Commander La Forge and Ensign Ro back in '68! What if we turn our ship into a giant anyon emitter? We could use it to cut ourselves free of the anomoly's grip and get us both out of here."

{Moondark}

Cassius guided the shuttle in deftly toward the colony ship, making sure not to keep a straight flight path for too long, just in case the ship had some kind of offensive/defensive systems that the Redemption hadn’t been able to detect. A slight “bob and weave” trail that was oddly random to keep anyone from possibly getting to steady of a weapons lock. Cass wasn’t taking any chances with this. He also brought the phaser banks online and the shields up as they closed into toward their floating target, unknowing of the violence brewing inside it’s hull. Cassius’s fingers flowed smoothly over the controls of the shuttle. The console layout was very different than the control yokes of the fighters, but he was adept with either system, so it mattered very little. He’d spent quite a lot of time in the holosuites running simulated combat runs in the shuttle to ensure that he was as quick with the shuttle as any other craft.

As they closed in closer to the old boat, Grizzly looked over to Demon and nodded curtly,” We should be getting within range of the long range scopes already. They’ll at least start you out until we get closer. Unfortunately, with this large of a shuttle, I think 10 meters is about as close as I can safely get. But that’s pretty much trading paint with them. You shouldn’t need a scope at that range.” He chuckled a little bit,” If it wasn’t for the vacuum of space they’d hear our engines on the other side of the hull. But keep me updated on what you find. I’m going to make a few complete passes of the critical areas so we can get the best look at those spots.”

Nodding in agreement with him, Ziva settled into her seat at the small nook that housed the scopes. "Copy that Grizzly, beginning initial long range scan now." She stated with a grin as she lowered her face to the view shield.

With her right hand, she typed out what she was seeing on a small padd, a habit she had picked up over the years. "Long range, she looks normal, nothing out of the ordinary." She frowned. "Well, that is, nothing other than being three hundred years old." She commented dryly.

Switching scope lenses as they got closer, Ziva carefully examined the hull plating, as the new lenses picked up the ships shields, and informed the scarlet eyed marine that the outer hull was indeed period correct. "Good news is, that ship - it really is from the correct time period they claim to be." She said with a brief glance at the pilot. "Can we make another pass over the last section?" She requested, having spotted what looked like an anomaly in the vessels shields.

Cassius listened to her comments as she watched the ship through the scopes. He looked to the sensor readouts on the panel next to him as he guided the ship along. The radiation was playing hell with the readings at this range. He grumbled for a second as he reached over, trying to get the computer to filter out the particles that were clouding the proper readings. As Demon requested another fly by, Grizzly nodded, to himself seeing as she couldn’t actually see him do it,” Roger. Coming about for another pass. I’ll try to cut it a hair closer this time.”

The shuttle dipped out further away from the colony ship to get enough room to swing back in close. Cassius carefully guided the ship through the maneuver. He concentration was focused on the readouts in front of him, flying more by instrument right now than eyesight. So when a large floating mass came out of the blackness of space and impacted onto the forward viewport, it did nothing less than freaking the ever living s*** out of the pilot. The long string of profanity that issued forth from Cassius was enough to make even the most seasoned Klingon drunkard blush through his dark hued skin. The shuttle banked wildly as Cassius caught himself on the controls and brought the shuttle to the equivalent of a screaching halt. He sat there for a moment, breathing steadily to himself as he looked out the viewscreen, finally realizing was was not stuck to the front of the shuttle.

A human body.

It was frozen and desiccated from the cold hard vacuum that held it in it’s grip, but it was definitely a human body. If the eyes had still be in their sockets, Cassius would have been locked into a staring contest with it,” What. The. Hell. Is. That.?” The body wore a uniform, definitely not starfleet in origin, but a uniform none-the-less. But why was it in space? How had it gotten there? Was it from the colony ship? How was he going to get it unstuck of the shuttle’s nose? He cringed slightly at the answer to the last question.

Gripping the console she was at as the shuttle suddenly went on a joyride, Ziva looked over at Grizzly as the man started cussing a blue streak, amid the shuttle coming to a halt, as suddenly as it had went on its wild maneuvers. “What the He--Is that a body?! Holy crap it is!” she exclaimed as she scrambled out of her seat and plopped down beside Cassis in the cockpit, hands going to the forward view scope that would allow her to get in close to the shuttles new, um, nose ornament.

“He’s been out here a while, the energy field surrounding the ship, coupled with the anomaly it is in, holy crap...theres another one!” she pointed out as one seemed to be ejected from the old ship as she ran a scan on the one currently attached to them.

Cassius looked out the viewscreen of the shuttle to the spot that Ziva pointed to, his eyes widening as he saw the telltale puff of gasses that vented from the hull of the colony ship close enough to be seen with the naked eye. And sure enough, a body slowly escaped the expanding cloud and tumbled, head over feet, away from the ship, drifting further away as the momentum carried it. The mass of the ship, or the presence of the anomaly around them, seemed to slow the body’s travel until it just sat there, floating in space. Had the ship been moving, no one would have ever noticed.

Cassius looked to Demon, his eyes narrow and keen,” See if you can hail the Reddy through this static. I’ll get us closer to her to help. Let them know what’s going on. This…. this isn’t right. Once we get a let them know what’s up, we’ll go back to scanning the boat. We’ll still have the long range scopes to view that old can with, too.” He looked back over to his controls and started punching in commands. The shuttle bucked backwards for a moment and Cassius quickly brought the nose upward, using the momentum of the shuttles rapid movements to cast the latched on body aside off into the blackness of space once more. The shuttle then twisted around quickly and headed back towards the Redemption. He didn’t want to get too far away from the colony ship, as he was pretty sure what the orders would be from the Admiral. So he’d have to make sure the return trip to the other ship was as quick as possible.

"On it." Ziva replied with a curt nod as she began trying to hail the Redemption. =^= Executor to Redemption, over. =^= she started with, waited a moment then tried again. After receiving no answer, Ziva upped the frequency, overrode a few terminals and codes and rerouted her hail to her chosen target, chirping the one badge she knew, as she skipped the usual bridge com station. A trick she might have, maybe, seen her Aunts and mother do on a few occasions. Possibly. Not like it bothered her father...or admirals...nope, not at all. =^= Demon to Voodoo... Sending gathered information to Munchkin, awaiting orders, Demon out. =^=

She then quickly sent the scans, that showed the weak spots in the shields, outer hull plating and a detailed makeup of the radiation surrounding the ship. Next was the scan of the creepy half decayed skeleton that had been their hood decoration that she had managed to nab a small tag of DNA from, as well as how said Skelton had been discovered and what they had witnessed with the cryotubes being jettisoned.

"Information sent, going to run another scan with Betsy, but I think any extraction point should be starboard side, between decks three and five, pulling up layouts for that era now." Ziva stated, stilling the intense disturbed feeling she had in the pit of her stomach. She just hoped that what they had gathered was good enough to form plans on, because she was starting to get that itch between her shoulder blades that made her want to duck and cover. "I can honestly say, this ranks high up on my list of creepy." She commented after a few minutes.

Cassius waited until Zeva stated that the transmission had been sent before bringing the shuttle around once more to head back toward the colony ship. He chuckled a little bit, looking over his shoulder to her and shaking his head,” You must have missed the Andromedian War, then. There was s**t in that war that would make most people babble and drool in a padded room.” Maybe it was the fighter pilot in him that was slightly desensitized to the sight of cadavers floating through space. He just hadn't been expecting it on this little “cake walk” they were on, so the initial speed bump had taken him by surprise. Now he was watching for things out of the ordinary,” Hopefully they can boost their response transmission to reach us when we’re back on station.” He took her advice and started angling the ship to come around to the starboard side of the ship.

Another Joint Post Between
Zeva "Demon" Creed

And

Cassius "Grizzly" Bar

| Carpathia detention Facility
| Mountains

The tiny but monstrously thick chunk of transparent aluminium that served as a window marked Lafargue's cell as one of the better ones, getting as it did some real sunlight on occasion. Right at the moment though the six inch by six inch square was only showing the barest hint of a glimmer, night adn a cloudy sky conspiring to cut out what ambient light there might have been, and the guards long past the use of anything as primitive as visible searchlights.

Indeed the only time that the custos did light anything up was when they were using their weapons, and the scatter from their phasers warred with the sudden glows of whatever it was they were shooting at, be it pest or prisoner. The relentless monotony of a well run camp was as much an enemy to them as it was to the inmates, and apparently someone had made the decision that they were allowed to shoot anything that moved at night.. resulting in far more dead birds and bunnies than it did stunned escapees

It also of course resulted in some pretty hideous levels of illicit substance abuse and 'coercive relations' among the guards as well as the inmates.

Which is why a hundred meters down towards the cheaper end of the block a certain guard was letting himself into a certain prisoner's cell, and utterly unsurprised to smell the scent of 'heaven' on the air.

An almost silent staccatto tap of cell doors passed the observation along the block, bouncing back and forth among those who owed the scarred man in the windowed cell favours.. and as it got there that same defiled face split into an unkind smile.. pleased that the plan was coming together.

Now as long as the panty-waister playing 'patty-cake' did his part and his playmate did likewise then the first stage of this slender beam of hope was going into motion.. and a tiny encoded chip with the details of the base would be heading out to whoever this Fleet contact was.

Honestly Lafargue was still far from convinced that anything would really come of it, that this man Wood was daft enough to run headlong at a mother-murderer like Carpathia, on Earth.. but the cost of getting it done was small enough (even less so in that said 'playmate' was going to get shanked rather than paid as promised) that it was worth it just for the diversion.

On which note, with the message confirmed the scarred man finally saw no reason to deny himself any more and retrieved his own pipe (packed with the very best of what came in to the block) and let himself forget all about the crappy turns his life had taken since he first agreed to turn a blind eye in return for an easy life....

A little oblivion helped the anger go quiet, if only for a little while...

| Bridge
| USS Redemption

For a moment Beth had forgotten who she had been talking with and wondered if she was going to be left hanging then the Admiral slapped her raised hand and a sheepish smile spread over her face. Beth nodded at his acceptance of her taking the time to have a look at the alien device in his head once they were out of this temporal anomaly. Hopefully whatever she discovered would give him a little peace of mind rather than something he kept worrying about and had no one to talk to about it. It was her duty to help those in her care but it went a little deeper than that simple reason, something she wasn't sure she was really ready to acknowledge so she turned her attention to the problem of getting the Redemption and the colony ship out of here.

Beth nodded her dark head “that might just work, we never got a report about the state of those engines over there so might have to consider tractor beaming them so they make it out of here too” she paused for a moment “if they have been in here who knows how long do you think we'll be able to bring their ship with us?” Some of the data she had been reading over while researching this anomaly suggested that time exposed to some of them had been a factor in whether a ship escaped it or not.

“We might want to think up a contingency plan where we have to wake up the colonists and evacuate them over here” she suggested “just in case, I'm sure we could squeeze them all in somewhere”.

Beth looked down as her comm badge chirped but no message came through, she started frowning as it chirped three more times, the last time she thought she heard “un” and “kin”. Looking over her shoulder to the comms officer “Bea any chance you can find out why this is chirping at me?” she asked the cute red head who was manning the comms station and ready to relay messages between the ship and the away teams.

“Already on it” came the reply as the other woman's fingers were already flying over the console in front of her as she tried to filter out some of the static affecting all their communications with those that left the ship along with trying to identify the person trying to call in.

On instinct Beth tapped her comm badge =^=Voodoo to Demon, was that you?=^= she waited a few more moments before trying again and getting nothing in return. Another hunch had her pulling up the sleeve on her BDU jacket revealing the modified tactical computer strapped to her wrist. The small computer was worn by all the marine detachment and modified to the needs of each marine. Her own personal computer was modified to include the scanning capabilities of a medical tricorder.

However at this moment it wasn't the medical properties she needed, it was access to her own personal and encrypted files. After talking with her Auntie Atlanta, a Gunnery Sergeant specialising in jungle warfare, and Colonel Vansen, a former Special Operations Commando, she had thought about a way to get information out of a 'hotzone' should a mission go south and they couldn't be extracted. After a mission had indeed gone south on her team in some of the worst possible ways stranding them well behind enemy lines with no immediate sign of an extraction Beth and Ziva had come up with an encrypted file that they could use to pass information back and forward.

The important thing about this file was that its code name fitted in with what little words she made out through the static of the last message. It was called 'Munchkin' after Atlanta's codename.

It took a few moments for her to get through the various levels of encryption on the file and what she saw took her breath away. “That's just nasty” she muttered as she watched the footage taken from the shuttle of the body stuck on the nose of the ship. It looked like the communications were down but the shuttle at least could upload information.

“Lieutenant it looks like it was Corporal Creed that was trying to call you, I'm trying everything I can to get around the interference out there but I have to warn you it doesn't look good” the red headed comms officer warned them shifting her gaze to the Admiral to include him.

“Thanks Bea” she nodded her head to the other woman before turning her attention back to the Admiral as she tapped a couple of times on her tac comp. “You really need to see this” she told him as she uploaded the files that Ziva had managed to sent to the ship's central computer and brought up the footage of the floating bodies. Those on the bridge watched in horror as the vid showed a body being ejected from the colony ship.

Beth looked over the other files that had been included which showed weak spots in the shielding and outer hull plates along with the varying radiation levels around the ship. “I think something is seriously wrong over there” she said in a hushed tone “we better try and get us both out of here then find out why the ship is jettisoning its own people”.

Beth updated the files with a message letting Ziva know that she'd got the files and they were working on a plan of action.

TAG: Wood, Ziva

=====SS Valhalla=====


They sat in wait. Linn and her two Lieutenants with powerful pistols in the shadows, ready to blow the brains out of the first weirdo Space Marine or Security jarhead who cross their path. She could picture herself as a spider, the oncoming hostiles as flies...

Something in her back pocket jabbed uncomfortably into her left buttock as she'd leaned against the bulkhead. She resisted the temptation to swear at the object, which turned out to be a wireless microphone device - tied into the ship's PA system - with which she was to make a very special announcement when the ship was taken.

And it would be taken.

Looking at the device now gave her an idea.

"Hello."She said coolly, "This is a message to the misguided morons who think they have a chance to keeping our holy revolution from succeeding. Give up. Seventy five of us have woken up from Stasis with automatic weaponry and the blessing of the Annunaki. You are outnumbered and outgunned."

She paused to let that horrid fact sink in.

"Our Holy Ones abhor unnecessary bloodshed, so I'm offering you amnesty. Surrender now, unconditionally, and your lives will be spared. All you need do is drop your weapons and open your hatches. Come to Zeta Reticuli with us and be one with your true Gods. I will give you two minutes after which time all who choose to continue resistance will be executed without any chance for quarter. There will be no more warnings."

{Away Team}

| Valhalla
| Corridors
| Jp Emily, Tybalt and NPC's by Matt



“We have a cluster of them about twenty meters ahead, no sign of the doc,” Tybalt announced, looking up from his wrist mounted computer-scanner. In other circumstances using it this actively would have been as bad as waving a big neon sign over their heads with their location, but with the tech level they were up against he was reasonably damn sure they weren’t making things any tougher on themselves, spo active scanning it was. Needless to say he didn’t dignify Dr Nutjob’s call for surrender with so much as a second thought.

Maybe an intel officer might have looked into the wording, done some thinking about the psychology of the people they were up against, the veteran marine was content to note they were several rounds short of a full mag and not likely to give in easily.. and leave it at that.

“I can sense the Doc,” Emily mutters quietly, slightly out of breath, “She’s not dead, at least not yet.” These were the moments she wished she had a gift that wasn’t entirely useless like empathy, “These guys are not used to our level of tech, what I wouldn’t give for a borg drone or android to scare them senseless.”

“I’d settle for a few photonic stun grenades and a can of anaesthezine gas” Tybalt replied with half a grin, deliberately skipping over the whole ‘sensing’ part, and shuffling his worry for what exactly ‘not dead, not yet’ might mean for a female doc taken by people from a more barbarous era.

“The other bad news is that there is a lot of unknown kit in that room and it is giving off EM readings that are messy as hell.. while being all too damn close to what bulkheads they have over a serious powers subsection” Tybalt supplied, “I’m no engineer but I’ve blown up places like that to get bigger booms in return”

“I..uh..”Emily looks around quietly, unsure of what to say or even suggest. She’d be damned if she admitted that in front of the marines. Perhaps, and maybe she may someday cave to this, the marines were better suited for these chaotic moments than her security people were. Perhaps, and only in this moment, would she slightly regret suggesting the two sides mingle instead of just sending over the Marines to do the job. A wry grin teases her features, “Do you think they know that? The idiots shooting at us.”

“Never bet on the badguys being smart when you want them to be” Tybalt quoted half ruefully, following Emily’s line of thought to guess at her very real concerns that the Doctor and whoever might not have made the connection, and whatever weaponry they were using wouldn’t be set on careful fire.

“Of course they might do and they might have some sort of final hurrah” he warned, really hoping they weren’t that nutty. “So once we go in eyes open for any strange handles held or big red buttons” he continued more generally. “Fireteams as standard, pair up and cover your arcs. Third man double checked” he finished, tapping up one of his marines to take that role, well aware that it was the most dangerous of the assault team, most likely to get the response of whoever it was with the nutty doc.

The recon marine in question went the next step and looked out a hatch cover from the wall, fitting it into his jacket with a very deliberate care.

“Any chance your…” Tybalt asked, looking to Emily and twiddling his fingers in front of his forehead, “can tell if they are thinking booom?” he asked.

Chuckling quietly she nodded, “I can try,”With a quiet deep breath she closed her eyes and focused on the surrounding area. She could sense excitement, probably from both sides. Fear. Doubt. Pain. Death. Amidst it all there were touches of smaller emotions, ones from either side that were barely enough to matter - an opinion or passing thought that pulled anger, frustration, worry. She raised her brow and opened her eyes, looking up a Tybalt she spoke, “If they are, its not planned. None of this was planned. From what I get the security was minimal for a reason and a firefight wasn’t even on their radar.”

“Okay SOP breaching then” Tybalt replied, continuing to take his cue from Emily’s permissive stance letting him do the detail orders, “Half clock arcs and punch up the middle” he declared, ordering his people into a drill they had practised over and over again. None of which honestly meant that going through a guarded door wasn’t going to be risky as heck...


Dr Linn’s cult concubine/lieutenant Apsu tried to adjust his sweat slicked grip on his weapon, almost fumbling it in the process. His lower lip trembled violently. Ragged raspy breaths escaped his dry mouth. He wasn’t made for this kind of thing, he was a spiritual soldier - fighting with words and his natural charm. When it came down to the wire, as it so obviously had now, he really didn’t want to die.

Then again if he didn’t do as he was told...he knew he’d wish he was dead.

“Was that footsteps?” His counterpart Abzu whispered a little too loudly for comfort, “I swear I heard them gettin’ closer…”

“Just wait,” Apsu hissed back, “Let ‘em get real close.”

“Okay.”

With that Apsu held his breath, trying his best to listen for the moment to leap out and take his shot.

The door the Culties were behind was a standard chunky bit of metal, capable of sealing the section in case of an emergency leak and about as low tech as a door could be, complete with spinning wheel on both sides and genuine rubber seals to secure the fit. The best and worst part about it was that someone had taken the time to fit a small panel of chunky transparasteel to the eye level and the shadow from behind it was telling of the viewport being well used.

In between that and the cry-gallery that the Federation people were coming from was only a small matter of an intersecting corridor, fortunately for the moment scanning as empty. It could be covered in two long steps.. leaving only the door.

Fortunately they weren’t armed with the same dakka weapons the ‘colon-culties’ were packing, and the door was low tech enough metal that it wouldn’t resist a well aimed phaser for long.

With any luck the whole melting the door down and ensuing flow of smoke effect would take a little heart out of the nutters behind it too.

Tybalt signalled the lone engineer among them, figuring that would both keep him out of the way of the rush and that he might have the best judge of how long to cut the door, then joined his fellows hunkering down ready for the rush.

With a hard swallow the Rigellian petty officer in question pointed his phaser and pressed the key, sending a violent orange beam at the ominous but comparatively innocent door. In moments that innocence was glowing red hot and a little after that it was fading away into a rolling smoky nothing, leaving only scarlet red edges, the hiss and plink of cooling metal and a gaping maw where the portal once stood.

Apsu almost had a heart attack as the door melted away like in some horror movie. Screaming ‘Die mother f***ers!’ at the top of his lungs he leapt out of what little cover he still had and, with eyes tightly shut, started blasting away at the heretics. Abzu took that as his cue and also leapt out of cover, firing wildly from behind and slightly to one side of his ‘brother’.

Dr Linn listened to them and sighed. Though she had no intention of jumping out with them, she was hoping they’d show a little more aptitude - at least long enough for her to finish trying to pry away a bulkhead panel to slip into the ventilation shaft beyond. She redoubled her efforts - not wishing to still be there when her two Lieutenants ran out of ammunition.

Which happened no more than two seconds later.

The silence that followed as their ammunition was expired was followed by a pause on the side of the Marines and Security. Everyone just kind of looked around for a moment at each other, unsure if this was merely a pause or if the idiots had really just shot their load into the wall.

Standing up, in the most Vulcan of ways, Emily straightened her uniform, “These idiots are mine,” Before she could be argued with Emily was already headed through the hole in the door. She was pissed and this was the icing on the cake of the whole mess.

Apsu leapt at her, to which she simply smiled and dodged the overly emotional move. Her fingers found the sweet spot in his neck and he dropped. Her gaze lifted to the other man who just seemed lost as to what to do. Raising her phaser she paused, “You can run, or you can try what he did but I guarantee you that I’m not going to miss and -”

He promptly fainted.

“Well that was no fun..”She said, looking back towards the door as she lowered her phaser “Better make sure he stays down..” Phaser still resting at her side, all it took was a simple flick of her wrist to promptly fire the phaser at the unconscious man. Almost accidentally on purpose the short burst landed squarely in his crotch, a fact that made Em grin a little too widely.

As Emily dealt with the Doc’s spare mooks Tybalt led the others around and past her to secure the rest of the room, searching for where the third signal had gotten to, and for anything nasty they might have left behind.. well nasty other than the smell coming from Abzu’s pants…

They found the signal soon enough, or rather they found the sizable wriggling rear of it as it attempted to ‘navigate’ into a hatchway she had opened. Perhaps if the Doc in question had done a little more of the ‘godly work’ she had prescribed for her people and less of the ‘holy feasting’ she might have made it.

As it was it took two marines to drag her back out of the jam she had gotten herself into, Tybalt standing at the ready and stomping down on her weapon arm the moment it followed her back out of the hole.

“Give up” he demanded, “I give you two seconds” he added, “there will be no more warnings” he finished, well aware that almost every word was taken from her recent speech and more than happy to throw them back at her. To underline his point he ground his heel just that little bit harder and let the phaser in his hand whine just that little bit louder as it charged for a shot.

Linn squealed in mixed pain and rage, squirming violently until the tone of his voice made it clear that whatever was whining behind her was not good for her health. Discretion was the better part of valour sometimes.

“I surrender.” She grunted, “Now let me go.”

Strangely enough Tybalt made not the slightest move to comply, instead he kept his eyes and weapon fixed entirely on her, “Lieutenant” he said without looking around, “could you hand our friend that com unit” he requested, not actually sure there was one, but reckoning she had to have used something for her arrogant little tirade.

As it was handed to him he dropped it down next to Linn’s pained face.

“Stand them down” he ordered firmly, “and pray they haven’t hurt our officer” he added even more darkly.

From the awkward angle she was being held at Linn could not see the owner of the hard voice telling her what to do, but the instruction was enough to cause a deranged smile to spread across her face, “Holy warriors of the Annunaki will not be told to cease.”

“Holy warriors of @ss-nookie will do what the damn hell they are told” Tybalt replied, leaning a little harder on the arm, “or they will be looking for a new leader and visiting the divine reward a lot sooner than they all planned” he declared, “rather than a nice cushy rehab suite” he finished, offering the carrot to the very big stick of total annihilation.

Despite the pain and the threats Linn started to laugh, so hard that it actually made her arm hurt all the more. She couldn’t help herself, knowing what she knew.

“Lieutenant Commander?” Tybalt queried, resisting the faint urge to simply stomp the laughter out of the nutter on the deck. Honestly he had no idea what her mojo could manage but he was hoping there was some suitable something, rather than having to apply ‘aggressive interrogation’ techniques to force compliance.

“Hmm?” She moves over to him, taking in the situation she grins, “Ah..you want me to..?” She made the same motion he had earlier.

Tybalt nodded back, even if the mojo didn’t turn up anything they could use against Linn there was still the psychological blow of having her mind ransacked.. which was probably a lot faster than finding a towel and some water, or wasting a whole load of meds to keep her cognisant after a good kicking.

“You owe me a drink for all this,” Emily mumbled as she comes closer and kneels down, “Hold her steady.” Reaching down she placed her fingers on the face of the mad doctor and says quietly in a breath, ‘My mind to your mind, my thoughts to your thoughts…” The connection opens and Emily can’t help smiling knowingly at the woman, their eyes connected as the wordless conversation begins. The laughter from the Doctor now shifted into an almost fearful howling as Emily takes what the Doctor holds so dear and shreds it with the facts of their current situation. Amidst this she adds a few exaggerations, perhaps some imagery that she pulled from the darkest crevices of her imagination as well as a few other interesting tidbits that would leave the woman fearing her own shadow.

An image flashed across her mind. A creature, tall and regal. Dressed in dark brown robes staring out at a ruined world through a transparent box. Scratch marks covered the walls, like it had tried to claw out to no avail. Small moving objects stalked the ruins in the distance - unidentifiable silhouettes. Suddenly something leapt into view, bearing sharp long teeth with a ear-peircing shriek that sounded like it came from the pit itself.

Pulling out of the meld Emily stands and looks down at the woman, then to Tybalt, “See how she co-operates now.”

“Ready to make the call or do we have to do things the hard way?” Tybalt asked, leaning on the trapped wrist again to underline the point. Frankly he had no idea what had just happened, and the whole mind mojo thing was more than a little freaky but if Starr said ask again, he’d ask. And if she refused then there were still a whole company of recon marines trained in taking rust ships a lot more dangerous than this one, and it would probably remove the necessity of holding too many prisoners for the unknown duration of Wood’s rebellion

Linn’s laughter reached a hysterical pitch before fading into what sounded more like sobs, “Why would you doom us like this?” She said, “I’ll make them stand down. I will. But you remember us when they are consuming you alive...let me have that mike.”

It was promptly nudged over to her and switched on, the pointed press of a phaser to the nape of her neck very firmly telling her what the consequences of reneging on their ‘deal’ would be.

“Holy followers,” She sighed deeply in a near ecstasy, “It has been decreed out journey will not continue as we envisaged. Sometimes the best plans of our kind are to be trumped by our merciful dieties. As such,”

Linn took a second to pause and grinned maniacally, “We will continue spiritually!”

The gunfire that vibrated through the deck plating ceased, before recurring once more in tight unison as the Cultists all turned their weapons upon themselves. Linn screamed and attempted to force herself free screaming, “Be eaten fools!”

The reply was short, sweet and stunning.. very very stunning as she took a top level stun-shot to the back of her neck “Boring conversation anyway” Tybalt declared, far less than sorry to have the nutbar silenced. Then he shot her again for good measure, just because maybe, just maybe there was something honestly weird going on here and it paid to be sure.

“Keep her covered” he told one of his other marines, “if she so much as groans hit her again, and don’t bother with stun” he urged, before finally checking his wrist combat computer and getting the true picture of what the firing had been about

“Ma’am” he said, “lots of fading lifesigns” he announced, watching the various knots of presumed combatants, well the ones not already stunned, begin to wink out.

“Ma’am?” Emily looks him over, “Do I look like a Ma’am?” She furrows her brow, “And fading as in dying?”

Tybalt fought the urge to look at her decidedly female front in reply, and instead focused on the important bits.. well the mission important bits.. of her question… “Yes Ma’am” he offered, with perhaps a hint of a teasing light in his eyes, “best guess is the culties are offing themselves” he supplied.

“Ma’am.”A gentle glare is directed his way, “Make that two drinks and dinner” She adds before going quiet, partially stewing and partially sensing for herself the status of the bodies aboard, “I fear that some of the ones more dedicated may be doing as you’ve said but not all. “

“Yes ma’am” Tybalt replied with a cheeky lift to his grin, “the Doc?” he asked, just in case there was anyway Emily could pick her out from all the other psychic mess that was going on, far more concerned about the one of their own than all the dozens of mentally defectives swallowing gun barrels.

“She’s fine,” Emily replied, “Ish..” She clarifies, “We probably should go remove her from the chaos she’s in.”

=====Redemption Bridge======

Wood found himself dragged off task for a moment as his gaze settled upon the first images coming from Cassius and Creed's shuttle. Civilians just floating out in vacuum, murdered without remorse or a chance to fight for their lives. He felt a small surge of anger well up inside of him, urging him to take action - to try and make this mess right.

Already his mind was working overtime, formulating their next move. First step was to re-establish contact with the Away Team -find out if they're all right.

Second step he figured should happen at the same time as the first. They needed out of this mess. Now.

=^="Wood to Engineering."=^=

Some young man whose voice Wood was not familiar with responded, =^="Sir?"=^=

He sounded like a Bolian. The Admiral tucked that mental note away and continued, =^="Get a team and head to Deflector Control. We need to turn this ship into a giant Anyon Particle generator."=^=

The Bolian Engineer let silence hang for a second before his response came through with zeal, =^="Sir. Why not use the Sheild Emitters instead? Sheilds are just giant graviton particle emitters. It will take far less time to simply calibrate them to emit Anyons instead - then we can generate a solid bubble around ourselves and maybe that other ship too and just fly right out of here. If what you're trying to do is get us out of some kind of phased rift that is sir..."=^=

Wood had to admit he was impressed. That Bolian kid caught on fast. Real fast.

=^="Not bad Ensign. Not bad at all. Make it happen."=^=

=^="Aye sir. Should take about thirty minutes."=^=

"If we can receive data from the shuttle then we might be able to send it too. Beth," He said dropping the formalities for now, "Can you use that thing you got those on to send a message back and - more importantly - does Sergeant Th'Idran have one?"

{moondark}

== SS Grace ==
== Nebula Cloud ==

Thrack grinned to himself as he watched out the viewport.  Most people in his position, lost, in an unarmed ship with one of the most powerful ships trying to track them in the nebula, wouldn't consider this a smiling matter, but Thrack wasn't a normal person.

Right now, the SS Grace sat just above the bridge of the USS Thunderchild as it tried to find the Grace. He giggled a bit to himself and then looked over at Dushall.

"I have a crazy idea."  Thrack nodded back to the coffin that he had been brought aboard in.  Working the controls, he activated the transporter from the Grace.  The lights dimmed briefly as the system couldn't regulate the power very well.  As it disappeared, he laughed and then banked the Grace away to hide on the outside of the port nacelle of the Thunderchild.

== USS Thunderchild ==

With a deafening crash, a coffin rematerialized 3 feet off the ground on the bridge and slammed to the ground right at Admiral Reynold's feet.  The Admiral jumped and let out a girlie scream and landed in his seat, much like a woman would if she saw a mouse.  A light chuckle went around the bridge before it was turned into coughs.

Admiral Reynolds' face turned a nice purple.  "FIND THAT DAMN SHIP NOW!"

---MEGA Joint Post with Admiral Wood, Tybalt, Cassius, Moondark and Creed



“I’ve updated the file we were using which I’m hoping Ziva will be able to see rather than sent her a message as such but the message might work” she said as she frowned and tapped away on the small tactical computer “we all carry them so if the messaging works I should be able to talk to him and we can find out what’s happening over there”.

“Okay I’ve sent them both messages to give us a sitrep along with warning them that we have a solution for getting both ships out of this anomaly we’re stuck in” she didn’t raise her eyes from the small computer as she watched for replies coming in.

“Wanna play tic-tac-toe while we wait?” Wood jested. They were both waiting on something now, though he hoped they could get something back from the Marines before they were to activate the Shield Generators/Anyon Emitters. Fact is, he had no idea what effects other than cutting them free of the anomaly's grasp the Anyons would have.

“Only if I get to be the noughts” she replied with a smile taking her gaze of her tac comp after setting it to beep if she got a reply from Ziva or Tybalt. “Did you reckon this is going to drop us off where we came into it?” she asked hoping the damn thing wasn’t going to drop them off on the edge of the Sol system or something.

Wood nodded, “I would have thought so,” With a grin he added, “We’ll kick in the door to that system when we’re good and ready.”

Beth flashed a smile “the last thing we need upon escaping this place would be to be dropped into the middle of Carpathia’s fleet” her smile turned to a cocky grin “naturally being Marines we would take out more of the Fleeties than they would us but I think even we would struggle with those sorts of numbers” she teased.

The Admiral couldn't help but chuckle at that, “That’s why you need Fleeties see? We come up with the clever plans to help you win.” He finished that sentence with a wink.



On his wrist Tybalt’s computer pulsed just once to alert him of a message and he gratefully set down the body he had been dragging to answer it. The aftermath of the cult leader’s terminal order was turning out to be a lot less convenient than the immediate effect, with the Federation team now having to go through each and every site where the nut-jobs had topped themselves to check that none of them had messed the task up or come up with any bright ideas about taking some infidels with them.

In theory at least the non-nutty locals were lending a hand but the veteran marine had yet to see any of them at it, possibly because they hadn’t come through the brief firefight nearly as well as the more able Star Fleeters had.

With their doctor being ‘unavailable’ they had all presumed on the relocated Loki who was now rushing through triage and immediate life saving with only the kits they had brought and the as-good-as-stoneage facilities of the much bloodied infirmary

On top of all this every attempt to return through the lock they had come in through had failed, with the safeties and the team’s scanners both warning strongly against opening the door but unable to provide anything that made the slightest hint of sense as to why that might be.

The Valhalla crew were apparently also working on that, for all the good Tybalt expected them to achieve.

All in all it was turning out to be not a great deal of fun, and a honest to stars message from the Reddy came as more than welcome… even if it didn’t exactly come with anything concrete about when this Op was going to end.

Far from being an engineer himself, let alone one with the genius ability of a certain jelly-bean munching Bajoran Tybalt had no idea how his wrist computer was getting signals and nobody else’s was, but nor did he question the luck.

Instead he fired back a coded sit-rep and an equally brief explanation of the recent events =/\=Cult Doctor woke up tangos. Tangos self-neutralised when leader taken. Hatch door reading as unsafe. Request alternate evac point=/\=



Back on the bridge Beth chuckled “Nah we just need your fancy ships that are packed with more luxuries than ours” she teased falling silent as her tac comp beeped warning her of an incoming message. Tapping on her small computer she brought the message up and unstrapped it. She turned the comp round and held it out for the Admiral to see the message. “Its from Tybalt” she added.

Wood’s ears pricked up, “Sitrep?”

“Sounds like they’ve encountered some trouble over there but have dealt with it” she relayed “they can’t get back through the hatch door as its giving off bad readings and he is asking for an alternate evacuation route”.

The Admiral’s thoughts went to the shuttle, “Maybe the shuttle is close enough to effect a beam-out? Have Cassius find out.”


Monitoring the readouts they were receiving from the radiation surrounding the ship, Ziva glanced down at her wrist comp as it began beeping at her. "Bingo! They got our message!" She said to Grizzly as she quickly read through what Beth had sent, then turned to relay the information to the pilot. "Looks like they have a possible solution to the issue at hand." She glanced over at the man as she replied to her friend. =^= Radiation heavy, no further remains spotted, current position off starboard side. =^=


Cassius nodded, looking back over to Ziva and smiling as he brought the ship to it’s stand-by position and cut the engines,” Now we just have to see what the next step is. I have to say, those little “Pip Boys” you guys have are pretty handy, it seems.” He chuckled slightly, not knowing if she’d catch the odd reference to the computers. Then wondering if he’d come off as as a geek for making such an obscure video game reference. But he couldn’t really change it now. He sighed faintly, looking back to the control console in front of him and waiting to see what orders came across next. “Oh!,” He piped up,” If you can get the away team on that thing, see if they might be able to get the reactor of the ship to stop spitting out so much gorram radiation. It’d sure be nice to not have all this static feeding though my sensors. Don’t know if we’ll be out here long enough for it to make a difference, but still…”



Beth nodded to the Admiral’s suggestion and tapped out a quick message to Ziva =^=Any chance you can get close enough to beam out the away team?=^=. She sent the message and looked up at Wood “I don’t know if the radiation and whatever is messing with the comms will let them beam the team off”.

“Well, one way to find out.” Wood sat back in the Captain’s chair, intently watching the viewscreen. Finally his com-badge beeped. The modifications to the Shield Generators were complete - they could create an anyon field any time they wished.

“Maybe this will help too,” Wood added as an afterthought, “Fire up the Anyon Emitters!”

Ziva glanced over at Cassius with a toothy grin. "Looks like you get to show off your fancy flying again, we're to pick up the away team." She informed him as she sent a acknowledging message back to Beth on the order.

Cassius nodded a little bit to the request that was sent over from the Redemption. He was more than a little relieved that he wasn’t going to have to physically dock with that old ship. That was, literally, the last thing he wanted. Truth be told he wasn’t even sure the docking rings would match. So just having to get close enough to cut through the radiation would be easy enough, though dropping the shields long enough to get the team out would still leave the occupants of the ship with a nice, probably slightly unhealthy dose, of the rads. But the away team had been head long into them the entire time. So some radiation medicine could likely be necessary for them.

Still, Cassius fired up the engines once more and cautiously brought the shuttle to within spitting distance of the colony ships, hull before hopping up from the pilot seat and going back to the “Ops” station behind the cockpit. He looked over the consoles for a second, working out how to effectively boost the signal on the comms and transporter systems. He had rudimentary training on this. There were times when fighter pilots had to boost their emergency transponder signals in cases of emergencies. This was fairly similar. Once he boosted the signal of the comms enough, he hit the broadcast switch, hoping to get the away team. =/\= Shuttle Executor to Redemption away team. I’m working on beaming you out of there now. If your flesh has already started sloughing off, let me know before I energize…=/\=

Messing with the engine turned out to be a bust, not only did they not have the solid expertise to hand needed to deal with the massively outdated ‘hot’ system, one look at the so called protective wear that was supposed to serve inside the close control room was enough to have one of the medical officers instantly order nobody go in unless it was life or death. Outside that room there was no physical way to quickly isolate the core, and the ‘instant’ shutdown involved a waiting period of weeks for the mostly stable reaction to be steadily cooled and weaned out of it’s cascade.

There may have been ways around that of course, some sort of particles that could be synthesised and projected through the joke of not-quite-dense-enough shielding, but any facility to do that without kilometer long colliders hadn’t been invented for literal centuries after this ship had been launched.

On the other hand with a little peace and the kits that they had brought with them one of the science officers accompanying Danno’s team was capable of throwing together a pattern stabiliser and relay which in turn, when properly placed as far away from that reactor as possible, could be used with cannibalised parts of the team’s tricorders to make a more than adequate safe zone to be transported from.

As soon as the Anyons started effecting a real change on the strange field they were all in that little enhancement zone now set up became a tranquil bay in the storm, incidentally meaning that the away team finally got the non-pip boy messages that were sent to them.

=/\=Away team to glorified bus driver=/\= the marine manning the coms replied, =/\=ready when you are=/\=

Cassius was surprised when he saw the sensors pick up a thin spot in the surrounding radiation onboard the ship. The static that was effecting the transporters faded away gradually until he could pick up the lif signs of the away team standing within the “eye” that had opened. He grinned a little, taking a moment to secure their biosigns and lock on the transporter. With the flick of the wrist, the away team and their equipment were swept out of the old decrepit hunk of relic and back into the, relatively, posh accommodations of the assault shuttle. Grizzly smiled as he walked back over to the pilots console,” Welcome aboard your magic flying carpet. This is your captain speaking. Please keep your hands and feet inside the shuttle at all times. We’ll be landing shortly so please return your trays to the upright and locked position and turn off all electronic devices.” And with that, he thrust the shuttle back off to it’s home as quickly as possible… which was fast.


The discoloured space was in retreat. Sensors were beginning to light up as the anomaly's effects wore off. For the first time impulse engines were able to push or pull, leaving a feeling of triumph on the Redemption’s Bridge.

“Score one for the not-eggheads!” Wood joined in the cheering, this time offering Moondark the high five, “Lets start getting everyone out of here. Tow the Valhalla clear.”

Beth smiled and returned the high five “we did good work but I hope that’s the last sciencey stuff we have to do for a long time” she pulled herself out of the large XO chair and gathered up her mug and the now empty cookie basket “I better go check on my marines now they are safely back”.

Wood nodded, “Thanks for all your help. Have a cold one in Ten Forward on me.”

Decks below Grizzle piloted the shuttle into the landing bay once more, carefully navigating her to a landing position with the help of a deck hand with his little glowy wand thingies. Once the shuttle was set down, Cassius hit the release for the rear hatch, opening the shuttle to the organized chaos of the flight deck. He turned in his seat, looking back to the others onboard and chuckling as he recalled one of the first things he had head upon reaching his first day of training,” Get Off My BUS!”

“Last one out tip the cabbie” Tybalt joked as they set to returning to the ship they currently called home.

The tone of a report flared across the bridge a moment later, Wood turned his attention to the Valhalla, “Shuttle home?” he checked confirming the educated guess spurred by the tone.

The redhead at Ops affirmed it was.

“Engage tractor beam on the Valhalla. Helm, take us out of his hole. Steady as she goes.”



----------------------


Redemption’s mighty impulse engines hummed into life, the great fusion reactors pumping out massive amounts of energy to get two multi-million tonne hunks of high density metal moving through the vacuum. A great blue beam of energy gripped the Valhalla, pulling it under Redemption’s power as they steadily exited the anomaly.

After they were back in normal space, a hail came in from Valhalla, on the screen Captain Vasquez looked pale, like he was trying hard to cover his confusion and distress. “Admiral,” he said, “So it seems I owe you an apology. Our star charts...well, you were right. We really are 312 years from when we launched…”

Wood felt for the man. His world may have been hell, but at least it was familiar. Now, besides a ship full of corpses, everything he knew, everyone he might have one day hoped to see again, every custom he was familiar with was gone. They literally were starting with a clean slate, “Things have really moved along since your time Captain,” Wood said and smiled, “Good news is - it’s all been for the better. You’re going to love it here.”

Vasquez nodded thoughtfully, “Yeah,” he said after a moment’s pause, “Just don’t know if we should carry on or go back.”

The Admiral leaned back and tapped some instructions into the console built into the arm of the Captain’s chair, “I’m sending you a location for Crossroads Station. It’ll take you a while to get there, so you’ll have time to get used to the idea of being in the future, but when you do - look up Captain Sumner. Tell him I sent you and explain what happened. He’s a good man and will help you guys figure out what to do next.”

“Can’t you?”

“It’s a long story,” Wood shrugged apologetically, “But we’re not exactly a welcome sight around Federation installations these days. We’d be a danger to you.”

“I see.” Vasquez paused again, “Well, we’ll go there then. Thank you. All of you, for what you’ve done for us.”

With that the channel closed and the starfield sprang back into view.

“All right guys,” Wood said with a more optimistic tone, “What do you say we leave this system?”

[All]


OOC: Wrapping this sim up and starting the new Episode Monday.

Cassius remained on the shuttle as the away team departed off to do whatever it was that they were going to do. He needed to do all the post flight checks on the vehicle before the techs got their hands on it. He looked over his shoulder to Demon as she seemed to be finishing up with her optics equipment," If you don't mind me saying, Demon, it was a pleasure working with you. Nice to know that at least some of the ground pounders have their heads on straight." he chuckled, flashing her a mirthful smile before standing and walking over to the station she was occupying," When you get some time off, let me know. It's usually customary for pilots to buy their teams a drink after a mission. And I'd hate to be one to break tradition."

{Ziva}

He smiled a bit," Understandable. Well, let me know either way. It's just a drink, after all. And I've got a nagging suspicion that what this ship is going to run into next is going to be rough. So it'd be good to get a drink in before the storm comes down on us all." He gave her another smile and a quick wink before heading back over to the pilot's seat and stared finishing up with the shuttle's operations for the day and getting it ready for it's post flight maintenance. It wasn't that it was a lengthy procedure, just another one of the tedious tasks that had to be done every time. But then again, the shuttles were such touchy machines. They had to be treated with care to ensure their proper operation on the next mission.

Once the shuttle was powered down, Cassius debarked onto the flight deck. He walked over to the deck chief once more and started issuing orders for the shuttles to have a full maintenance and to run full diagnostics and calibrations test of them. He had been telling the truth about his little hunch. Something told him there was trouble ahead. He wanted his birds to be ready for action when it hit. Once the Chief was on his way to get everything taken care of, Cassius headed off to shuttlebay one to issue the same orders for the fighter wings.

====Unknown location- Earth====


Harper was sitting in his office. He was tired, he had been in an out of meetings all day and the department was becoming visibly more split all the time.Tensions were high - between those who supported the president those who didn't and know who were more worried about external threat and wanted to let the problem take care of itself. Harper was not one of the heads of section 31 but his direct boss was. The Agency since it was not officially starfleet sponsored was set up like most terrorist cells but instead of 1 leader there were 7 who would debate and argue over the direction that the agency should go but in the end most of leaders would go and do what they wanted to anyway and no would know for sure if it was that did the did they would expect but no one would act without proof as that would be the start of more problems than they wanted.

The agency a lot of the time stepping on each other toes that was were Harpers job came in, his boss wanted him to know what every major operation that was going on was about this only worked because his boss mostly because of Harper had the best information so most people would request it from. This mad Harper arguably one of the most influential people in the building he knew almost everything about everyone he had spies in everyone's groups and shared just enough information to make it seem like he was loyal.

Harper himself was a very paranoid man, before he joined Section he was a researcher on Borg using there technology to try and defend against him he was a young man just an assistant at the time being lucky and out of the room when the attack happened everyone was killed. After years of running changing names hiding in different places there was only 1 person left who Harper trusted. He started at the bottom being a researcher but his brains quickly made him enemies that started to put him in the field it was there on the fly Harper had to learn to defend him self well he was no master he could now hold his own in a fight.

His monitor chirp on to see one of his informants there, "Fury, Brutus is a go.."

Harper's eyes went wide as he turned around to leave when saw his boss standing there, "Sir Brutus is a go we have to leave, we can't trust anyone we don't know for sure who's working for who now."

"No no we don't you see I am the one who is working for them, oh Fury or should I say Harper running your little games thinking you are smarter than everyone else but you're not now hand over all your files on everything and your death will be quick and painless this I promise you."

"Umm let me think, Activate Burning London," as soon as the words left his mouth his eyes changed for a brief second, then the building went dark the only light left from computers that had started to spark and overload, "Whoops I guess I fried everything."

With all the work Harper did on the Borg he walked away with more than a few upgrades himself, he was closer to a cyborg now than just a pure human. Stronger bones nano tech that enhanced his muscles, built in shades/heat/night vision but the thing he loved the most was he could now directly connect to computers and because of this he could easily break any code hack into anything.

During the confusion Harper quickly step forward grabbing his bosses head and slamming it into the wall, once he was in the hall Harper saw half a dozen guards waiting for him they had yet to see him well since it was black but not wanting to take a chance he dropped a small bomb that instead of explode released gas that did not take long to knock out his would be capture now that the hall was clear Harper made his way to the fighter hangers.

He found himself standing in front of long range scout fighter planes it was designed to go behind enemy lines during war and just sit there and watch it utilized stealth tech it was equipped with enough food and power to last him more than a month and with warp 7 capabilities in this small and highly illegal ship based off more than a few treaties the federation signed would be perfect for his getaway. The implants on his face lit up as a small 3d padd appeared in front of him Harper used this padd which was connected to the computer in his brain to upload the same virus that was effecting the ship to overload all of these fighters. The beauty of this program was the destruction was mostly for show before a computer system overloaded it deleted any information that was no life support. They would manually need to bring in a portable relay to so the base could reconnect to starfleet and relearn everything, but there was no supplies due for a few weeks and no one was expecting messages for a while at best this station could be down for up to a month at worst based on time to get here it would be a week before they could start searching for him.

Harper got into one of the fighters and left sending a message to his only friend, "Hey Eric its me Shamus I think I might be in some trouble and need your help."

<Durshal>

Cassius remained on the shuttle as the away team departed off to do whatever it was that they were going to do. He needed to do all the post flight checks on the vehicle before the techs got their hands on it. He looked over his shoulder to Demon as she seemed to be finishing up with her optics equipment," If you don't mind me saying, Demon, it was a pleasure working with you. Nice to know that at least some of the ground pounders have their heads on straight." he chuckled, flashing her a mirthful smile before standing and walking over to the station she was occupying," When you get some time off, let me know. It's usually customary for pilots to buy their teams a drink after a mission. And I'd hate to be one to break tradition."

"Same here, for a flyboy officer, you aren't so bad either." Ziva quipped back at him as she slipped her scope case strap onto her shoulder. "And I never turn down an offer for a drink or three with a felow marine." She offered him a grin as she gave his shoulder a friendly pat with her left hand. "I'll have to see what my duty shifts look like, but I'll let you know."

He smiled a bit," Understandable. Well, let me know either way. It's just a drink, after all. And I've got a nagging suspicion that what this ship is going to run into next is going to be rough. So it'd be good to get a drink in before the storm comes down on us all."

She caught his wink and smile and returned in kind as she made her way off the shuttle, making her way back to Marine country to clean, buff and repack her gear. Ziva offered a nod to the away team as she passed by them, suddenly glsd she didn't have to endure the pokey stuff from medical, at least she didn't think she needed it, if she did, she was sure Beth would hunt her down and drag her to the hut for any treatment she might need.