By Jamie Halliday and Ashton Ledbetter
100308.2300
Begins during Lockdown: Two, progresses through The Importance of Understanding
-=Quarters of Ashton Ledbetter=-
100308.2300
Begins during Lockdown: Two, progresses through The Importance of Understanding
-=Quarters of Ashton Ledbetter=-
“Chaise is the craze.” That was always the quip at the Ledbetter residence. Victorian of course, none of this post-modern rubbish. Ashton had spent weeks of holodeck time perfecting the precise replica of the Ledbetter family heirloom that has perished, inside his ready room, on the Consequence.
It featured ornate carvings in auburn stained wood, red velvet cushions, and matching overstuffed pillows. It exuded class and luxury, and he paid dearly to have it hand carved once again by artisans back in London using his holographic image as a template. He could have entrusted the task to the industrial replicator on board the ship, and he also could have listened to Brahms on the harmonica, if he wanted to be completely unrefined and barbaric.
Ashton was fortunate enough to have received the message that his order was complete, shortly before the Sera arrived back at Earth. His chaise was transported aboard, and that meant he could finally retrieve his Sir Arthur Conan Doyle from the bookshelf. Once simply did not read of the master detective Sherlock Holmes from the seat of the gray and soulless monstrosities that Starfleet referred to as furniture.
He placed the impossibly small half-circle shaped glasses on the bridge of his nose, and lowered himself down into his chaise for the first time. As he reclined into the lap of luxury, he cracked open the hardcover novel and began to read. By the time he reached page ten, he found himself expelled from the lap he had only just begun to enjoy. The ship rocked violently, rolling both Ashton and his chaise over on the floor.
He scrambled to his feet when the ship finally settled, and checked his prize for damage. He then checked himself for damage second. Finding that neither of his two most beloved entities was harmed, he up righted the chaise and looked out the window to see if he could determine what was the matter.
He raised his eyebrow at the site before him. He recognized the pattern of the lights. He had seen it before, during jumps with TI. The Serendipity was no longer in normal space.
“Computer, if you please, where is Zanh Liis?”
[Zanh Liis is not on board the Serendipity.]
“And Commander Salvek?”
[Commander Salvek is not on board the Serendipity.]
“Well, the plot thickens. Who then, pray tell me, is in command?”
[Commander TC Blane is currently in command.]
“And what of Commander O’Sullivan?”
[Commander O’Sullivan is not on board the Serendipity.]
Ashton tapped his forefinger against his lips as he pondered the situation. The usual temporal suspects had been eliminated. If one found oneself in temporal flux on this ship you would think it would be at the hands of O'Sullivan, Zanh, Lair Kellyn or Salvek. Keiran you would expect if some mishap had befallen Zanh that required him to drag the ship to another time to rescue her. Zanh you would expect simply because she was reckless. And Salvek you would suspect because, while he was an intelligent man, the temporal technology he was tinkering with was still far beyond his comprehension. He was like a child playing with a photon torpedo, though slightly more likely to do serious damage to himself in Ashton’s opinion.
As for Lair Kellyn, Ashton was well aware of her recent injuries, and he could only assume she was still in Sickbay.
He turned away from the window and returned to his chaise, and his book. Ashton could have called the bridge, and asked if he could be of assistance, but he knew that was not necessary. Blane was in command now, and one way or the other, Ashton’s name would eventually come to Blane’s attention. At that point, Ashton would be summoned to give some sort input into exactly what was going on.
While he could have saved time and offered his services now, he much preferred the idea of waiting in his quarters until Blane had to ask for his help. He kept a learned eye on Holmes and weary one on the window as time slipped past, in a relative fashion. At last, the call came in.
[Cristiane to Ledbetter.]
Ashton placed a bookmark, and snapped the volume shut, and began to remove his off duty clothes. “Go ahead.”
[Commander Blane wants see you. He’s on the bridge.]
“Me? Whatever for?” Ashton coyly replied.
Cristiane was not stupid. He was well aware that Ashton knew exactly what was going on. [Just go.] He answered dryly.
Ashton hurriedly changed into his uniform as he spoke with Dane. “Can you at least tell me how we have arrived at our current location? I did not believe this ship had the technology to skim.”
[It’s not us. It’s the Poseidon.]
“Oh.” Ashton paused now. This was a surprise. He thought that ship was only a rumor, or a joke played on young TI agents. If it actually did exist, and someone was actually using it, then something was terribly wrong. “I’m on my way.”
Ledbetter straightened his uniform top, and left his quarters en route to the bridge. When he arrived, he was just in time to see the Sera return to normal space, with the Poseidon, very much real and looming, on the viewscreen before him.
“Ryn, try to figure out where, and when the hell we are exactly and if possible notify Starfleet of our position.” TC ordered, then turned and asked the moment he saw Ashton. “What do you know about that thing?
“Good day to you as well,” Ashton dryly replied, quickly adding “All I know is that it is not supposed to exist.”
Though not exactly famous for a surplus of emotion in his countenance, Blane was clearly disappointed in the answer. He was hoping for something more along the lines of the precise location he could target the phasers to disable it, when and if he got weapons on line. Right now though, even knowing if there was a fish tank or an iguana enclosure in their Captain’s ready room would be a great bounty of information compared to what they currently had.
Still, there was one other source of information Blane felt he may just be able to access given these extreme circumstances. It was a source he wasn’t supposed to know about but he knew Ledbetter most certainly would.
He beckoned Ashton closer with a wave of his finger and lowered his voice.
“Do you have a…” Blane traced out the shape of a temporal compass in the air, not willing to even utter the words in front of the crew.
“Well, unlike some members of our organization, I actually follow instructions and return my equipment when asked to do so. The good news is, I was issued a new one when I was given Command of the Consequence.”
“So you have one?” Blane prodded, thinking for the first time he’d truly be glad to have Ashton on board.
“Well, no. You see, my new one was one the bridge of my ship, which as you are aware, was destroyed. So I’m afraid it is not of much use to you now, in its current state of having been blow to bits. You can thank your illustrious Chief of Sciences for that.”
“'No' would have sufficed.” Blane snapped, at present not at all glad to have Ashton on board.
His cold blue eyes warned Ledbetter very loudly that when it came to telling him you couldn’t be of any of use to either the Sera or the officers allegedly on the Poseidon then you’d better be quick about it and even quicker about finding a way you could help. Blane was all ready to also say this more verbally but he didn’t have time to do so.
“Commander!” Ryn interrupted.
“Got a fix on our position?” Blane asked, turning in his chair to face towards Science.
“No, sir, not yet. Sensors are detecting energy signatures consistent with a Type II phaser in the brig.”
Blane didn’t have to think hard to know exactly how a working phaser would have gotten on board. It could only have come from the other ship and he’d be willing to bet he knew on whose authority it was sent.
“Can we deactivate it?” Blane asked immediately as he rose from his chair. He knew from experience that it was better to prevent a situation before it happened than to wait and try to combat it.
“You won’t be able…” Ledbetter started quietly, but Lara cut him off with a hint of frustration that the weapon, actually now weapons, weren’t responding.
“No, sir.”
“Then lock on to it and beam it into the cargo bay,” Blane ordered to Mellice at tactical, considering for a moment it may be better to beam the weapon in to space in case it was in someway booby trapped but knowing that at this point a working phaser, even the hand variety, could make a huge difference to whether they got out of this in the end.
Mellice desperately worked the controls but it was hopeless because there was nothing to lock on to.
“I can’t, sir. All my sensor of readings have gone dark, almost like the entire brig is cloaked.”
All ready to curse but without the time to spare, TC hit his combadge. He could have opened a channel to the brig but at least for the moment the agents on board may not know the Sera crew was aware they were armed. They’d have to be smart enough to know if he contacted the brig in the middle of their escape that it wasn’t a coincidence. That may have been what made a bad situation worse.
“Security to the main brig,” he ordered instead.
“Sir, permission to…” Mellice began, but TC anticipated what he was going to request of him based on his knowledge of the man already.
“Permission granted. Go, help them out.”
Mellice nodded and quickly moved towards the turbolift as Blane turned back to Ryn.
“Can you get a reading on the force fields themselves?”
“Yes, sir,” Ryn answered, weary of trusting the computer reports in the absence of sensor readings to confirm. “It appears they’re intact.”
Ledbetter’s response was to make a sound somewhere between a scoff and a worried murmur because he really wasn’t sure whether the superiority of TI training should amuse him or to frighten him with several agents now armed.
“Have you got something to add?” Blane demanded, shooting him a look that made his point very clear.
Ashton considered making a sarcastic comment about Blane only now caring about what he had to say, but before the words had even reached his lips he thought better than to say them.
“With the right modulation of an advanced enough phaser a trained TI agent with up to date knowledge could easily deactivate a holding cell like yours while creating a forced feedback so your computer would never know.”
“What about the lack of sensor readings?”
“They couldn’t do it with what they have,” Ledbetter answered, though in truth he was just saying that he wouldn’t know how to do it himself. “Must be a cloaking field generated from the Poseidon.”
A subtle nod from TC indicated that he approved of how at least when circumstances were truly serious Ledbetter could actually answer a question directly and without somehow making it about him.
“He’s right, sir,” Ryn confirmed. “It’s not just the brig. We’re blind in an entire top half of the ship and it’s extending in the Poseidon’s direction.”
-=Deck Six=-
As Mellice stepped from the turbolift he moved fast, but even faster was the way he ran over his tactical options in his mind. It was an unknown situation; the most dangerous kind. The enemy was almost certainly armed with phasers. However while he had given some instructions to engineering for some parts to be made that he could assemble into low-tech projectile weaponry, at present he had nothing on him with a wider range than his raptor. So immediately he drew the knife and brought it to his hand.
He knew if he gave them a chance to fire then there was no way he’d ever even get close enough to hurt them. So he’d have to be quick, too quick to give them a chance to react.
Reaching the brig, he cursed that the automatic door would not allow him a chance to look in to evaluate the position of his targets. For all he knew he’d be walking, or more correctly, running into an ambush. However the Main Security office was directly next to the brig on this ship and so logically the other security officers should be there already.
Yet there was no sound of phasers or any indication of battle.
So either the enemy was still safely contained, or something had gone very wrong. A lifetime of instinct told Mellice to assume it was the latter, as he burst in through the door.
Just as quickly as he’d entered however he stopped to a sudden halt. His eyes scanned the room in search of the enemy officers and found that they weren’t here to be seen. The force fields were offline. The cells were empty.
They were already gone.
There were however two other security officers here already, standing over the wounded body of another. It was a young man Mellice hoped he would get to know, but from the severity of the phaser blast he appeared to have taken he wasn’t sure he’d be able to.
Mellice moved towards them, tucking his raptor away again.
“Has someone contacted Sickbay?” He asked and the older of the two security officers nodded in the affirmative.
Neither of the security officers’ eyes were leaving the man on the ground. Mellice knew they’d need time to mourn for their lost comrade, but it was not a luxury he could afford himself now.
He hit his newly issued combadge.
“Mellice to Blane,” He said. “The prisoners have escaped, sir.”
-=Main Bridge=-
“Then find them,” TC demanded.
“I think I might have,” Lara answered from Science, though she realized she’d not been the one Blane gave the instruction to.
Quickly TC moved over to beside Lara to see what she might have.
“The cloaking field only extends from deck seven up. The computer’s just picked up the energy signatures of two phasers on deck eight, now deck nine. They’re in a turbolift, sir.”
“Then override it.”
Lara quickly tried to work the controls but she wasn’t fast enough.
“I can’t, sir.” She regretfully informed him. “They’ve already exited the turbolift on Deck Eleven.”
“Main Engineering,” TC realized, which led him to another conclusion very quickly. “They’re not trying to escape.”
“No, they’re trying to get control of the ship,” Ledbetter concluded with him, knowing that Main Engineering was one of the first places he’d go if he were attempting to take control of a vessel.
Everyone on the bridge seemed to have the same thought at the same time about the other place that they’d go to.
“Seal the…” TC began turning quickly around, but he was too late as the door swished open and three men with two raised phasers stepped quickly off of the turbolift.
None of them spoke a word to the Serendipity officers, though Peterson did crack a smug smile as he hit his TI combadge.
“Peterson to Brody. The bridge is secured.”
Ryn was still tapping furiously at her console, trying to get a get a message through to engineering that they were about to be attacked, even if she couldn’t do anything for the still cloaked bridge. One of the TI agents, seeing her actions, stepped out from behind Peterson.
“Everyone away from your consoles! Now!” He bellowed. She didn’t know if anyone would see it, but Lara sent the message just as the agent grabbed her by the arm, escorting her quite ungentlemanly to the center of the bridge, where the rest of the crew was being corralled.
Blane was already sizing up their captors, trying to determine who he would attempt to attack first if the opportunity presented itself. For now however, they were the best hope he had of getting some information.
[Stand by for further instructions.] Brody ordered.
Peterson shifted his phaser from one hand to the other, and then back again.
“Hope he doesn’t keep you waiting too long.” Blane said, playing upon the nervous gesture from Peterson. TC knew as well as the TI agents that, even with functioning weapons, they were still but seven against the entire crew. It would not be long before the Sera crew would begin to form an insurrection to regain control of the bridge.
“So it’s Brody is it? Shame, he always seemed like such a proper Southern gentleman.” Ashton commented.
Peterson was at the helm, checking on their current heading, lest Blane had done something underhanded like set a course to warp them into the center of a star rather than allow the ship to fall into enemy hands. He was about to tell Ledbetter to shut up, when he realized something.
“How do you know Brody?” Peterson asked, as her turned his eyes from the helm to Ashton.
“Ashton Ledbetter,” he replied, sounding quite offended that Peterson didn’t recognize him merely by the sound of his voice.
“Of course! How fortunate, for us and the Sera’s crew. You might be the only reason to keep them alive.”
-=Engineering=-
Josiah Barlow had a preponderance of red flashing alarms to deal with. The computer was quite helpful in alerting you when something was awry on the ship, but helpful became overwhelming when everything went off-line simultaneously.
This was supposed to be a quiet and relaxed visit to Earth. Nothing more than routine maintenance to be performed, and it was fortunate that it was so, because with Rada Dengar on everyone’s mind, no one was anxious to do much else other than busy work to keep their minds occupied.
Then, all Hell broke loose.
A laid-back day in Engineering turned into a dizzying array of problems. Yet somehow amongst all the alarms, Josiah had caught sight of one particular flashing light, coming from the communications system. It was unusual because it indicated a text alert from elsewhere in the ship, and people simply didn’t send text alerts anymore.
He waited for a moment as Jamie Halliday bustled by lugging a replacement EPS junction box. Then he stepped up to the panel, and viewed the text message. It was send from the science station on the bridge, and simply read two words. “Attack coming.”
When Josiah turned, ready to bellow out for his fellow engineers to arm themselves, he found himself staring directly into the muzzle of a phaser.
*****************
Crewman Jamie Halliday
Engineering Officer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012
&
Ashton Ledbetter
Observer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012
Crewman Jamie Halliday
Engineering Officer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012
&
Ashton Ledbetter
Observer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012