By Ensign Rada Dengar
80302.16
Concurrent With Throwing Down the Gauntlet
--=Transporter Room One, USS Serendipity=--
80302.16
Concurrent With Throwing Down the Gauntlet
--=Transporter Room One, USS Serendipity=--
*This is insane,* thought Rada *I can’t even fire a phaser and the captain has me preparing to commandeer a ship. What was I supposed to do?* he asked himself *Should I have let the Alchemy blow up? That appears to be the only way I could have gotten out of this but it has the distinct disadvantage of me being dead* that’s when it sunk in and an internal panic hit him. *I’m going to die* he thought *A non-violent being in an attack wave? I’m nothing more than phaser fodder, a cheap alternative to shielding…*
He looked around, he couldn’t believe that everyone looked so calm. The captain had explained their plan to him leading him to wonder how he could be the only one here who’d ever been committed.
*Calm down,* he told himself *Remember that time on Trill? You were held at phaser point and managed to talk your way to safety using nothing but a bag of toffees.*
Rada started furiously patting at his pockets.
“Have you lost something, Danger?” Captain Zanh asked.
Rada still couldn’t understand that nickname, why was a Bajoran giving an Angosian a nickname which only made sense in universal standard?
“No, Captain,” replied Rada, relieved as he pulled a toffee from his pocket. “It’s alright.”
Zanh gave Rada a warm smile as she commented, “I’m not sure I’ll ever quite understand you, Danger.”
The Captain then began speaking to TC Blane and Rada realised that it was about to happen. *Remember Rada, you survive these situations by remaining calm. Just let the act be your protector and you’ll be fine.*
Rada put the toffee back in his pocket and put a relaxed smile on his face. He knew that he that if he could at least fool his attackers into believing that he was in control he was half way there.
*If we’re going to die, at least we’ll be doing it for the right people,* he thought.
That was when the call came; The Captain grinned at TC and tapped her combadge. "Captain Zanh to all transporter rooms, be advised that I am sure Spangler will raise shields again the second our first teams board. Your orders are to secure and maintain control of the crew, my team will take the bridge and thereby the ship herself. Energize!"
And they were off, Rada patted his pocket once more to check on his toffees.
-= Main Bridge ; USS Gauntlet=-
Rada rushed over to the Engineering station and got to work *Just my luck,* he thought *I’m given a mission which means anyone wanting to keep control of this ship will want to shoot me and which requires me to turn my back to the entire bridge.*
He quickly took control of what he could but he realised that this wasn’t a conventional configuration for an Engineering Panel. *Why can nothing ever be easy?* he thought.
He got to work rapidly taking control *This is ludicrous,* he thought. *We design our Engineering panels specifically so that no one can simply waltz onboard and take control and now that’s exactly what I’m expected to do, if Starfleet engineers were trained for this type of thing then we’d be trained to prevent it and if we were trained to prevent it then that’s what we would do. Meaning that by rights if we could do it then we couldn’t.*
He kept typing more and more elaborately, he really wished that people would be a bit quieter; all of this phaser fire was really distracting. Rada knew to stay calm he would have to block out everything around him. He believed now that he had taken control but that it was by no means secure.
"He's going to try to transport off the ship. Find him! Dengar, lock onto me and initiate an emergency site to site transfer- send me to his location," Zanh ordered.
"Both of us." Blane shouted. "Do it!"
The Captain nodded to Rada and he assumed that meant to initiate the transport. He quickly sent them both to Main Engineering on the Alchemy, it seemed as though they must have gotten all of the faulty conduits because it was still in tact. *I’m glad that at the very least the Alchemy is not about to blow up.* he thought to himself.
He thought he had secured the Engineering Systems but was not about to trust it. The shields had just dropped but that should have been impossible if Rada had the control he thought he had.
“It’s a shell system,” announced Rada, he kept facing forward because he was determined to stay calm and he knew that if he turned around he’d find someone injured.
“A what?” asked Dane, who had found his way to the Security station.
“A shell system, this Engineering station is a ruse. It’s running a false operating system, it can issue orders to the real station which is why I was able to use it for the transport but all I’ve taken control of has been this station itself!” he turned around to the first member of the Special Ops crew he could find, keeping his eyes well away from the floor as he turned.
“Where’s the real station?” Rada demanded.
“I don’t know!” Yelled the Special Ops Ensign in a panic thanks to all of the phasers being pointed in his direction.
“You’ll have to shoot it,” said Rada to Zander Blakeslee. Omitting the usual 'sir' as was part of his current act. Zander looked a little perplexed but raised his phaser rifle towards the Special Ops Ensign, assuming Rada was trying a bluff.
“No, I mean the station,” laughed Rada, trying to seem calm even though he knew that this situation could turn deadly at any minute and he feared that a member of their party was injured. “If we take this station out I’ll be able to find the real one.”
Rada stepped out of the way and Zander fired directly at the station causing its lights to go out. It was then that Rada saw Keiran, his eyes quickly scanned the room as he took in every injury.
“Did that do it?” asked Zander, Rada just stared.
“Did that do it, Ensign?” Zander repeated.
Rada woke up and instantly averted his gaze towards some power utilisation figures.
“Yes…yes that’s done it.” replied Rada calmly as he tracked the now dead path from the fake station to the real one. He managed to keep looking calm. He was definitely glad for the act.
Ensign Rada Dengar
Engineering Officer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012
Engineering Officer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012