A Risky Gambit

Posted on Sun Jun 27th, 2021 @ 10:08am by Captain Elijah Rutherford & Commander Dominic Aldrich & Crewman Recruit Zeria

Mission: End of Line
2327 words - 4.7 OF Standard Post Measure

Oz had followed Aldritch and Zeria to the science department and gazed about with keen interest He heard a sound of the door shwooshing open and a woman came walking inside as if to look for something. The woman paused and stared at Oz.

"Who are you?" the woman demanded.

"Who am I? I am Oz. And who might you be?" the wizened old man queried in return.

"Who?" then it hit her. "Wait, the Oz? Gwendolyn's Oz?" the woman gasped. "I am Lily Marlow, one of the people whom Gwendolyn helped out. What are you doing here? Is anyone else here and just how are you being able to move about without being dissolved?"

"Tutt tutt young woman, as for how I am here, its a secret and as for your other question. I'm here with Lieutenant Commander Aldrich and his lovely lady, Zeria."

"Wait.. what?" Lily's eyes widened. "They are here and haven't disappeared?" she gave a little bit of a jump in excitement. "That is wonderful news!"

"Commander Aldrich, Zeria, are you here?" she called out.

"Please, I just told you that they were here." Oz scoffed.

Dominic came out of a storage area with a field pack slung to his back. "Yes, I'm here. What can I do for you?"

Zeria peeked around the corner feeling very weirdly dressed. She was quite used to her long skirts which were just fine for normal ship wear but would not do at all for any kind of mission unless it involved gardening on a hot planet. She kept quiet and somewhat behind Dom.

Lily gave Zeria a nod and a friendly smile along with a wave. "Hello, I am Lily." then turned her attention back to Dominic.

"Well, I am very glad to see you are okay, you look like you are getting ready for something. " she commented, then looked at Oz who had an knowing expression on his face. "Wait, Oz is here, which means.." as her mind began to put things together. " You will be helping Oz on something to do with Adna. I am working together with Sempton, and T'Par and Sekat to go rescue someone who has been helping. And, retrieve the rebel holograms. Lhaes and Murphy are going to take on the-"

Oz raised a hand. "I have caught them up to speed on Lhaes and Murphy."

Lily nodded. "Okay, um what will you and Zeria be doing?" asking Dominic.

"To the best of my understanding, crossing the wrong wires," Dominic said with a small grin. "We are going to overload and bypass Adna's power supply and control systems...hopefully."

"I am hoping that it will work. Well in that case, I will best be off, need to meet up with the others fairly soon. Be careful, would hate for either of you, "Lily moving to where she could see Zeria, then looked back at Dominic. "Have anything happen to you. " with a wave she turned to leave the science area. She stopped and said to Oz. "You can make certain that everyone can be connected and communicate?"

Oz replied. "I will do my best, it depends on Splice and you when you find her."
A final glance from Lily and then she leaves.

Oz turned to Zeria and Dominic "Are we ready to leave?" giving a bit of a quizzical look towards them.

"As ready as I'll ever be." Zeria answered, letting out a large breath. The butterflies in her stomach felt like pusa plants, but she was still determined to go. She felt an arm wrap around her waist and she smiled at Dom.

Noting that it looked like the two were ready to go, Oz smiled. "Well then off we go." turning around he led the way from Science to where they would exit the ship. Just before they stepped back out onto Adna, Oz paused, looked back at Dominic and Zeria.

"Well, this is it." Oz taking a deep breath as if he were readying himself to go underwater then letting it out slowly. It could be seen that he did feel reluctant to go back onto the station. His lips firmed into a thin line and stepped out from the docking area and on the station. Oz looked about, then motioned for Dom and Zeria to follow after.

"I don't know if you've been in the under deck area of a station." he remarked, "But are you up for doing some ladder climbing? As we are going to have to do so."

"Sure," Zeria responded. How hard could it be really? She smiled and thought those sounded like famous last words, or they would have if she had said them outloud.

"I could use the exercise," Dominic quipped. "If it's our best option then let do it."

Oz gave a nod, "Okay. The reason why I am taking you on this route, is that I am trying to avoid too much attention from Adna. Okay, here is the access." Oz leading them to where he squeezed behind a couple of tall bushes, there would be seen an access door. He reached out to open it up and was unable to do so. His hand not being able to grasp it. "Well, it looks like you will have to open that instead."

Zeria reached for it at the same time as Dominic and bumped him. "Oh sorry, you're the officer, go ahead." She took a step back. "Thank you," she nodded at Oz.

"You are welcome." Oz stated to Zeria "I am wondering if I can go through that door" reaching out and placing his hand upon the door and it passes through. He pulled it back then tried once more. His hand didn't go through this time. Oz did glitch slightly. "Okay, I wonder if this item, needs recharging. " indicating his necklace. "Can't worry about it right now."

"I have a small power pack if needed. I have the feeling power will be at a premium as we get closer to our goal and the system attempts to protect itself." Dominic stepped through the door and turned to face Oz. "Which way?"

"Oh good." Oz replied stepping in after Dominic then to one side to let Zeria in as well. He then took a look around then pointed to the left. "This way, down there and we'll get to a junction where we'll have to turn right and climb down the first ladder. I think we've got two more ladders after that, then we'll find the next door to go through." he cleared his throat straightening his shoulders. "Okay, off we go." Oz heading down the direction he indicated.

Zeria took a deep breath for what felt like the tenth time and followed after them. She'd never done anything like this in her life and her heart pounding in her chest reminded her of that. But at the same time it was also rather exciting and daring and brave, all qualities she didn't think she possessed until now.


Oz stopped at a ladder to where he climbed down, first. So far so good and no mishap. "Okay, its good down here." he called up towards Dominic and Zeria.

"I'll go first," Dominic said to Zeria, "just in case." He mounted the ladder and began to descend as he looked back up at her and smiled. "We've got this, Babe."

Zeria dissolved into a fit of giggles. "Babe?" She did not think she'd ever heard Dominic use that phrase and imagined some bikini clad model posing on the beach. Then again her ideas about Human culture were mostly from movies and the few things she'd observed since she'd been on Majestic.

"Well, you are my babe," he said with a verbal shrug and wink. He was being somewhat more cavalier than was in his normal personality profile, but a brave face would go a long way. He reached the bottom and waited for her.

She climbed down after him, still amused but no longer laughing. "I am not owned by anyone." Zeria replied, poking him lightly in the chest in jest. In truth she was happy to be with Dom and knew that he did not think he owned anyone.

Oz watched Dominic and Zeria for a moment, then spoke. "Oh to fall in love once again. You two are wonderful together."

He proceeded further down the cat walk they were on then came to a junction, which led to another corridor to the right. "Okay, this way now. And I am happy she's not been able to establish holo emitters here. We did have to have the more solid people come here. but its been such a long while since then." Oz commented.

"Well, that makes two of us. I'm not keen on any sort of ambush during our clandestine operation," Dominic replied. "I'm hoping for an easy in and easy out." Still, he scanned the corridor with a weak tricorder scan just to make sure there was nothing odd.

There didn't seem to be anything odd at the moment. Oz continued down the hall, and there was also dust that could be seen, though Oz didn't leave any footprints. Soon he came to another ladder that led down once more.

"Okay down this ladder then one more after this, then to the door to where we will go through." Oz stated, then proceeded to climb down. Sure he could possibly just drop down but, he was afraid that he would miss the landing so to speak.

Once again Zeria found herself in a deep dark hole. Hopefully there were no surprises at the bottom. She wanted to speak and ask questions but didn't think that was wise.

"I'm beginning to read increasing energy readings, but they are sporadic; nothing at all as I'd expect them to be for a place like this," Dominic stated as he looked at his tricorder.

Oz led the way to the very last ladder, "Okay final one and then the doorway. " taking the ladder down, midpoint he disappeared....then reappeared a few moments later at the bottom of the final ladder, looking visibly shaken.

"I didn't know if I was going to make it back." he called up to Dominic and Zeria.

"What are they caused by?" Zeria asked, her face looking a little wide-eyed as she spoke. She wanted to know what they were going to expect, but the truth was none of them knew for certain.

"I suspect," Dominic replied, "they are being caused by Adna attempting to draw as much power to processing and control as possible. Worse, though, it could be that the station suspects we are coming."

"She probably does." Oz walking towards the final destination. "Through this door is where you can start the procedures to bring her down. I just hope the others will be saved as well. It is time though, time to be free, time to take matters into our hands. And move forward." Oz replied.

As the approached the door, Dominic took a breath before trying to gain access. "It doesn't appear to be encrypted. In fact," he said as it slid open, "I'm concerned at how easy it was to open." He immediately took in the surroundings. There were small banks of interface terminals around the room, but in the center was on podium-style terminal. He approached that and began to set up. "Zeria, I'll need you to take this memory bypass and plug it in at any of the terminals on the wall."

"Okay," Zeria said, taking it from him and doing as he asked. There was still so much she didn't know about starships but when she had time, she planned on studying and learning as much as she could without actually having to go to Starfleet Academy.

As she plugged it in, Dominic analyzed the data traffic at that node and began to reroute it. "I will try to slow done Adna's processing time. If we can make the station have to begin rebuilding connections, it may give me a backdoor through the firewall and into the memory core," he stated out loud. It was more for his own benefit to keep on task than anything else. His fingers moved with little thought over the panel. He would reroute connections through the bypass which would then label the route as something it shouldn't have been. For instance, a control command for lighting would be relabeled as water filtration. While seeming insignificant, it would cause ghosts in the system as processes were interrupted.

There seemed to be a shudder somewhere within the system, as Dominic and Zeria's work seemed to take effect.

Oz looked at them and tilted his head as if he were listening to something. Then he smiled. "It is working, you have Adna scrambling." his breathing seemed to become labored, as a red stone that was part of the amulet starts to blink. "I am afraid my time is almost up."

Zeria frowned, she just didn't understand something. If Oz was a hologram and part of Adna's station shouldn't he want to stop them and not help them? She had gone along with the plan but still couldn't wrap her head around that.

"Good news on the scrambling." Seeing Oz flicker, Dominic tried to multi-task. "Could we download your programming and consciousness into a data core and bring you with us when we leave?"

Oz looked at Dominic. "Yes you will be able to do so, the same thing with my friends. Indigo, Gwendolyn and Glowbug. I don't know what you can do for the Guardian. But yes you can download those I have named. I feel... I feel the jammer is taken out of commission. Your people can be saved."

A static sound is heard then, from the comm badge a welcome voice is heard, "This is the USS Majestic, can you hear us? We are ready to bring you home."

END