by Tam Elton (as told by Rada Dengar)
100713.2230
Concurrent with Changes and Sacrifice
-=Sickbay, USS Serendipity=-
100713.2230
Concurrent with Changes and Sacrifice
-=Sickbay, USS Serendipity=-
The Serendipity was still, both outside and in. The order had just been given for the warp core to be ejected and all on the bridge had watched as on the viewer before them their ship’s chances of warp propulsion disintegrated and left nothing but the ominous site of the ever repairing far superior enemy vessel before them.
The Serendipity had managed to damage them with one very lucky shot and yet they knew that their own shields would be unable to stand a single blast from the far more advanced weaponry. Both ships were at the moment unable to enter warp, unable to move with anything more than manoeuvring thrusters, but that would be enough for the TI ship to turn to aim its primary weapons at the Sera.
The obvious question then became what they were waiting for. It was possible they just believed it’d been the rogue agents who’d fired and so wanted to spare the Sera’s crew. Yet it was equally likely they were just biding their time and seeing what the Sera, or whoever was in charge of her, would do next. One thing was certain, they weren’t talking. Not a single communication had been attempted between the two vessels.
The Sera’s crew therefore was left in the dark in more than just the sense of finding themselves stuck in this obscure and isolated corner of the near infinite blackness of space. None were more so than those in sickbay who’d had no chance to witness the events that led to Peterson’s order but who knew the red alert had been called and the ship was no longer moving. After years on one ship or another though Kellyn knew, almost by sense alone, that something was entirely wrong.
Barlow’s plan must have been put into action. Yet something had happened that shouldn’t have. They had heard no announcement to suggest they were free of the enemy agents, whose ship they’d seen disappear from the sight of the sickbay window. Now, each of them had the same thought but it was the youngest amongst them first to say it aloud.
“Do you think it worked?” Tam Elton asked, looking expectantly between the faces of the adults that stood around him. With Arie still busy meditating there was no one here he didn’t need to crane his neck to look at.
“We have to assume it didn’t,” Kellyn observed and Trev nodded his agreement. What followed was an awkward silent conversation of words they’d rather not say as they all considered just what might have happened. Not everyone was calm enough for silence though.
“So then what do we do now?” Tam asked quickly, his voice reflecting how he was both expecting and sincerely hoping that one of them had to have the answer. Kellyn had told him not to let his fear paralyse him so now it was more important than ever to this young boy, so out of his element, to make sure he always kept moving.
The next silent pause, really only a second at the longest, truly worried Tam, before Kellyn gave him what she could tell he so clearly needed. She gave him a plan.
“We get back to work with their phaser,” she decided. “We need to figure out why it works when ours don’t.”
Tam nodded eagerly that this was a good idea and moved quickly over to the small sickbay table where the phaser had been placed.
A glance was exchanged between all three adults present.
“You know, Tam,” Kellyn began and the boy turned to look at her. “It’s important at times like this everyone has up to date information. Do you think you could catch up Doctor McKay and Arie on what we know, for me?”
Tam’ face instantly dropped and it was clear that his hopes had really been set on staying here with them. He knew he couldn’t help much but he wanted to do all he could. So he furrowed his little brow, and awkwardly summoned all his courage, to speak with as much confidence as he could muster.
“Please, Commander, I’d like to stay,” he said, not fearfully but so earnestly that there was no doubt how she should answer him.
“Alright then,” Kellyn nodded at the young officer in the making, with the slightest of smiles on her face and something close to one on his. She then turned to Trev who was already moving over to the same table as Tam. “What do we know so far?”
“Not much. Just that on the outside it looks exactly like one of our own,” Trev observed, once again lifting the device up in his hands to look it over.
“Then we have to look inside,” Tam concluded without a doubt in his mind.
“We probably will,” Trev patiently explained. “The only problem is that if we open it up without knowing what we’re doing though then there’s a risk we’ll damage the mechanism.”
Tam suddenly regretted that he didn’t think of this and reminded himself to do better in future. They all knew if that happened then they’d have lost their one advantage here. Yet Tam was certain there must be a solution and found himself thinking deeply of what that solution might be.
As he did and the engineers considered the risk, it was actually Dane who suddenly thought of something else. He hadn’t picked it up before due to the whole attempted strangulation thing, which he’d noted no one had stopped to ask him about, but he knew from experience with TI that their phasers were rarely completely identical, even on the outside, to the type used on a typical starship.
“Hey, give me a look at that for a second,” he said and Trev handed it to him, Tam watching with fascination at what he was doing. As Dane turned the device over and slid open the back of the case he explained it. “For security reasons, most phasers are marked with a serial number so they can be tracked…”
“What will that tell us?” Tam asked curiously and in his most ‘official’ tone.
“Right now,” Dane answered as he read and instantly recognised the numbers. “It says that this phaser is one of ours.”
“How could you possibly know that?” Trev asked, and Tam was very curious as well, though Kellyn was already aware of Dane’s eidetic memory.
“He could know it.” She confirmed. “What I want to know is how it’s even possible. Unless…”
She and Trev seemed to have the same idea at once, leaving Dane and Tam feeling equally lost to it, the child wondering whom he should ask to teach him engineering telepathy, as Trev finished Kellyn’s thought for her.
“Unless the phasers only stayed offline as long as the jamming field was in place.”
“Brody could have directed it away from the ship’s phasers to bring them back online,” Kellyn suggested. “That’s why an ordinary phaser worked down there.”
Tam didn’t understand a lot about jamming fields but he did understand the hint of excitement he’d just heard. He opened his mouth to ask a question but Dane asked it before he had a chance to.
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying that if Brody’s ship’s gone then our weapons should all be back online,” Kellyn answered and a smile seemed to pass around the room. The news was a relief to them all, but to Tam above all others.
“Then we can now take back control of the ship?” he asked with a glimmer of expectation allowed to enter his tone.
“Maybe soon,” Kellyn answered hopefully, with a small smile at the boy. “First we’ve got to get the word around that the weapons work again.”
Suddenly though the smile left Tam’s face and Kellyn didn’t know why. Though Kellyn’s confidence in her words meant a lot to him, his hope was cut short as he sensed that Trev was concerned.
“Wait a minute,” Trev said. “If we know the phasers are working again then so should the TI agents. Won’t they just confiscate everyone’s weapons?”
Though none would claim he lacked a pessimistic streak, Dane shook his head and Tam could tell he was feeling confident that wouldn’t happen. Soon Tam was feeling confident it wouldn’t as well.
“No, if they suddenly collected them now people would wonder why. It’s better to just leave us all thinking they’re useless.”
Tam could tell that Kellyn felt secretly proud to see Dane stepping up and feeling so certain in his conclusion. She nodded that she agreed and Tam nodded twice as quickly.
“First thing we should do is send a message to TC Blane on the bridge,” Kellyn decided, quite certain that TC would be very grateful indeed to be told that he once again had a working weapon.
“Then we contact engineering, right?” Tam asked eagerly, knowing the bridge and engineering were the two key places they needed to take back control of.
“Right,” Kellyn confirmed, with a grin aimed at the child.
Tam Elton
Civilian Crew
USS Serendipity NCC-2012
As told by Rada Dengar
Civilian Crew
USS Serendipity NCC-2012
As told by Rada Dengar