The Founder, the war and an 'eagle - Topside

Posted on Thu May 25th, 2023 @ 10:13pm by Lieutenant Commander Jaal Jaxom & Captain Yadira Tristen & Lieutenant T'Lira Sh'Karra & Lieutenant Commander Isabelle Savette & Lieutenant Jock McCrudden

2,537 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: Investigate the Chintoka Shipyard Buildup
Location: Runaman, substation.
Timeline: Current.

Isabelle was ready to head out with her team, she looked towards Jaxom, the two of them knew each other from their Academy days. Jaal had quite the reputation back then.

Jaal avoided her eye contact for the moment while checking his phaser, yet again, and then his tricorder. He also carried a small tool pouch in his back pocket for 'just such' an emergency. The thought of dying on this desolate ball of crap did not ease his mind. And to throw gas to the fire, he was with two others from his Academy graduating class. He only hoped that neither of them had been victims of the 2371 panty raid. His only hope was to remain calm and keep a professional demeanor.

He looked to Tristen, "Captain?"

"Yes let's do this," Yadira said, checking her own phaser.

T'Lira looked around for an EPS tap or a computer input jack, perhaps she would be able to hack into the dominion intranet to discover where the founder actually was or at least get some information or clues as to where He/She might have been. She had brought her hacking tools with her, including a multiport adapter.

“Is there anything you need us to locate Captain?” Isabelle offered Yadira a polite smile.

Jaal noticed T’Lira had brought a tool kit as well, “You hack a little yourself?” He asked.

"As a Science Officer, I use tools in a variety of circumstances, but yes I can hack, however, it's not exactly ethical except in these exact circumstances," T'Lira replied.

While the others were talking Jaal walked up to the door and studied it for a moment. He looked in the small porthole and saw that there was an anteroom, or airlock type of setup. He touched the controls and the door slid quietly aside. He then pulled out his tricorder and performed a quick scan.

“Looks as if this operates similar to an airlock. There’s another door… and a series of corridors that can lead us to… what looks to be a command center.” He looked at Isabelle, “You’re part Betazoid, right? Can you sense anyone around? I’m not picking up any life signs. Whatever this is made up is making scanning difficult at least until we get the interior door open.”

Isabelle offered a smile and moved closer, “Actually I’m a full Betazoid, right now I’m not sensing any other lifeforms in the immediate area beside us, but that might change.”

Jaal was already examining the lock on the inner door. He motioned for the others to stick to the walls so they couldn't be seen through the porthole. "This door has a lock... I'm pretty sure we can pick it." He looked at Isabelle. "If someone starts coming our way can you let us know?" he asked while unrolling his tool kit.

Isabelle nodded. “If there’s anyone here I should be able to sense them coming, unless they’re of a species that Betazoids can’t sense.”

Jaal pulled out his tools and selected one. "There aren't too many of those though, are there?" He began to take the cover plate of the door mechanism off. "Ferengi if I'm not mistaken, are there many others?" He asked as he removed the cover and took a look inside.

Isabelle nodded. “You’re right about Ferengi, there’s also Breen, and Founders as well. Apart from that we can sense most species.” She paused. “So do you still like pulling pranks? You used to love yanking my chain at the Academy, that sense of humour of yours used to get you into a lot of trouble.”

He was scanning the innards of the door controls with his tricorder while he answered with a wry chuckle, “Well… I’ve been convinced to stop pulling pranks,” Jaal checked his tricorder speaking more to himself than anyone else, “Have to hotwire this one. It has a trigger on it.”

“You, no longer pulling pranks?” Isabelle grinned. “I’ll believe that when I see it, or rather don’t see it!”

Jaal deftly jumpered the trigger that would alarm someone the inner door had opened. “Then you’ll believe it soon enough,” he answered without humor while putting the outer panel of the door controls back where it belonged. “I think the Terran saying goes ‘I’ve turned a new leaf’.”

Isabelle nodded. “In that case I’m pleased to be meeting you ‘new leaf’ Jaxon.” She couldn’t help but grin as she looked around. “I don’t like how quiet it is around here, seems too good to be true.”

"It does," Jaal looked around again, "It's possible it's their night time. They may not go by the planet's rotation for their day shift."

He then peeked out the porthole. "All right, I don't see anyone walking around." Jaal then looked to Isabelle, "Can you sense anyone? Even sleeping? We might get a better layout from the tricorder once we open the door."

“I’m sensing...” Isabelle shook her head. “I’m not sure what I’m sensing, maybe I’ll get a better sense once the door is actually open.”

Jaal’s mouth became a thin, flat line. He took one more cautious look out of the port hole. “Okay, here goes nuttin.”

He touched the control and the door slid open. “Anything now?” He had his tricorder out and began getting some readings.

“Wow...” Isabelle reeled as she was hit with a blast to her senses. “I’m definitely getting something now! That door must have been shielded somehow, not that I’ve come across technology that could shield against telepathy, and empathy before.”

"Could it be some sort of white noise generator," T'Lira asked.

Jaal's brow furrowed deeply, "I didn't know that either." He studied the readout on his tricorder. "Definitely some weird shielding going on... but it looks like there may be a room not far that we can use." He looked to Isabelle. "So, what is it you're sensing?"

“I’m sensing that we’re not alone. There’s someone, or something in this place, given it’s shielded, I’d air on the side of caution. There’s obviously something that someone didn’t want discovered here.”

Somehow Jaal felt he already knew that but said nothing. Still consulting his tricorder he answered, “There are several straight corridors interconnected with some curved ones. The straight ones radiate outward from a central hub.” He looked at Isabelle, “If I had to guess, that’s where we can find the communication equipment and other computer access points we need to gain the information Captain Kerr wants.”

He stuck his head out the door and looked around. “How close are these people you’re sensing? Can you tell?”

Isabelle nodded. “That’s one thing I can tell, they’re not close enough to interfere with us...yet! I should be able to sense if they’re close.”

Jaal took a deep breath while pulling out his phaser, “All right, I think we should go…” he dropped his voice to a whisper, “…quietly.”

He stood from his crouched position and looked up and down the corridor. “So far so good,” he continued to keep his voice low.

Isabelle followed phaser in hand, hoping she wouldn’t have to use it. She kept her senses alert for any sign that they were going to get company.

They kept moving toward the center of the complex being extra cautious at corridor junctions. So far so good, Jaal thought as he checked his tricorder for life signs and their path forward.

“So far so good,” Isabelle whispered. She could sense more in this complex now, but so far no one close enough to them to be a problem.

Jaal silently chuckled to himself at Isabelle voicing his previous thought. The pair continued to edge down the corridor making their way to the center. It was slow going as they cautiously peeked around corners and constantly checked behind for guard patrols.

“Wait..we’ve got company!” Isabelle pulled Jaal back as she sensed someone, or something closer than she liked. She ducked back into a dark corner waiting for trouble to pass.

T'Lira pulled her phaser at the ready.

Jaal suppressed a squeak of surprise. He followed Isabelle into the corner and made his breathing slow down. He had his tricorder on ‘silent’ mode. Since he wasn’t looking directly at it when it detected a lifeform, he missed the alert. Now he watched the tiny screen as the contact started moving away. He showed Isabelle the display with a questioning expression on his face.

Isabelle nodded as her senses confirmed they were safe to move on. She whispered, “Let’s get what we need and get the hell out of here!”

"I concur, completely. I think they know we are here." T'Lira replied.

"Perhaps they want us to download this information could be a false flag operation." T'Lira remarked.

"That's good possibility if they know we're here," Jaal whispered his agreement, "We can just copy it and review it back on the ship... after checking for viruses, worms, or anything else erroneous."

“Good idea” Isabelle nodded in agreement. “The sooner we’re all out of here the better really.”

They were close now. Jaal crept closer to a console that was on the outer edge of what appeared to be a control area. It was strangely deserted. That bothered him until he looked at the local chronometer in the corner of the panel. Nice, he thought. It was the middle of their night.

He gave the console a few preliminary taps to see if anything happened. If an alarm went off he was fairly confident they could make it back to where they started.

“What do you think? Can we get what we need quickly?” Isabelle looked at Jaal curiously.

When it seemed like no alarm had been triggered he replied, “It depends on how much data we need to copy.” Jaal explained as he pulled a connecting cable from his tool kit and plugged his tricorder into the console. He instructed his device to download the data Captain Kerr wanted. “Looks like a couple of minutes.”

Isabelle nodded. “Let’s hope we get out of here as easy as we got in.”

Jaal watched his tricorder’s task bar shrink anxiously, “How is it you manage to vocalize everything I think?” He asked half jokingly.

“I guess we’re just both on the same wavelength” Isabelle grinned. “You know the saying, great minds think alike.”

The side of Jaal's mouth rose a bit. He agreed with her but nor verbally. When his tricorder signaled it was finished with the download, he was nearly startled. He pulled the connection cable from the socket on the console. "All right, that's everything, let's go."

“Sounds Good to me” Isabelle nodded. “I’m not sensing anyone in the close vicinity right now.”

Quickly but quietly they made their way back down the corridor they came wary of any surprise patrols.

Isabelle looked at Jaal “We either need to move or hide! We have company coming!”

Frack the Trill thought to himself. Jaal slapped the next door control he came to and harshly whispered, “All right, everyone in, move!”

Once his three shipmates were inside he followed and closed the door. The room was dark with no windows. The only light emanated from Jaal’s tricorder. He waved it around to ascertain their surroundings. They found themselves in what looked like crew quarters.

“Great” Isabelle whispered. “Let’s hope no one comes home!” She held her breath as those bearing down on them paused outside the room as they chatted about something. She only let her breath go when they finally continued onwards. “I think we’re good.”

Jaal tilted his head as if listening. "Can you hear that?"

Isabelle paused to listen. “I think so.”

He began to walk along one wall. "You can hear that?" He took a couple of steps and stopped. "Sounds like... " His eyebrows shot up and he held his fore finger vertically against his mouth. Then he pointed to Isabelle and at his head.

Isabelle nodded. If she understood Jaal wanted her to concentrate on his thoughts. She gave him a curious look.

Not me, he mouthed silently while pointing to an interior door then inserting his right index finger into a hole made by his left forefinger and thumb. Then he cupped his ear and acted as if listening.

Isabelle gave a thumbs up now she understood what Jaal meant, though under normal circumstances eavesdropping telepathically was against the rules. Though these were far from normal circumstances.

Jaal moved close to Isabelle and with his mouth near her ear he very quietly asked, “I got a feeling they’re naked in there. If we can find a couple of their uniforms… it might make our escape a little easier.”

"If we go in with phasers blazing we are sure to set off an alarm," T'Lira cautioned.

“Exactly” Isabelle nodded. “It depends on how err...distracted they are as to how successful we’d be in stealing their uniforms anyway. Is it a risk worth taking?”

Still speaking as quietly as possible, Jaal whispered, "Have you listened in? They're distracted." He nodded his head once for emphasis. "I'm sure we could sneak in, over power them and take their clothes."

"Yadira stopped short holding up one fist, shhhh wait they are not as distracted as you think. Let me try something first," she said. Gathering up all her empathic and telepathic strengths, she forced a projection at both unsuspecting individuals and surprisingly it worked by putting them down. "Ok that worked surprisingly well. Get the uniforms and hide them out of sight. We will move from there," she said rubbing her temples. Something she had not done in years.

Before Jaal went with the other two to abscond uniforms, he asked Yadira, “Brilliant move but are you all right Captain?” He noticed her massaging her temples.

“That was quite some projection,” Isabelle offered Yadira a smile. “You’re going to end up suffering for that.” She offered a look that said she understood just how Yadira was feeling. “We need to get you back to the ship so you can be checked over. Let’s get out of here.”

Jaal came out of the other room with four uniforms. "We need to go." He tossed them on a nearby table after grabbing one that looked like it might fit him. "I'll be right back." He went into another room to change.

The four disguised Starfleeters made it out of the complex without further incident or close calls. Jaal figured they'd gotten incredibly lucky.

Once outside they made their way to the waiting shuttle. It was right where they left it. Jaal decided the enemy uniform made him itch far too much. He decided the sooner he was back in his Starfleet uniform, the better.

Then next thing he hoped was that the other team wouldn't mistake them for someone else and shoot them.

 

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