No Control in the Control Room

Posted on Thu Feb 3rd, 2011 @ 11:43am by Captain Benjamin Byrne & Lieutenant Lianna Vanders & Provisional Lieutenant Commander Narayn Ballard

Mission: Bug-Eyed Bogies
Location: USS Endeavour, Decks 1-4
Timeline: MD07 1139hrs

It took Benjamin and the others some time to make it towards deck 2, as they took it very cautiously, to attempt and avoid any more dangerous encounters. They had so far only managed to make it towards the second deck - deck 1 and the bridge had been sealed off, to protect the central command centre of the ship, as per protocol. The only way they could access it, was to climb up through the accessway in the roof of one of the high security rooms on this deck - up through a hatch which would have as many guns as possible pointed at it the moment any sound was heard underneath.

As Benjamin climbed the ladders towards the hatchway, he reached up to turn the lock, and popped the hatch open. "Hold your fire!" he called up through the hatch. Pushing it up slowly, he held his hand up to the officers surrounding the hatch - mostly security types, but there was a few other collar colours he could see within the room, though there were still only a few officers total. They lowered their rifles as they saw who it was.

"Captain!" the most senior said, a Lieutenant who reached down to help pull the CO up. "Thank god you're here. We never had time to notify you of the situation while you were in the shuttle."

Nodding towards the Lieutenant, Benjamin stepped away from the hatch, allowing the others space up. It felt good to be back on his bridge, but strange at the same time. It was nearly empty, with stations left unmanned as they weren't in use - or indeed useable. Most of the screens were either black, or showing one, large red box, displaying a message that the system was offline or inaccessible from that console.

Lianna climbed out and began to look around. She then walked up and slapped the ranking lieutenant. "What the hell were you thinking!!" She yelled at the senior most Lieutenant. "I asked you to unlock the Jefferies tube, and it takes a captain in order for you to do so?!?"

"I'm sorry ma'am, but regulations..." Lianna spoke. "I don't give a damn about what regulations say. You cut the ranking officer on this ship off from the bridge." The lieutenant began stuttering. "I was just following regulations Lieutenant. Securing the Bridge from an unidentified aggressor takes precedence over your orders." He stated in a confrontational tone.

Lianna spoke, "Because of you, I've been losing good men and women left and right trying to keep alive. I promise you, I will have you court-martialed for insubordination. Now get out of my sight." The Lieutenant moved away and she checked her tactical console. Wondering where these new officers came from. She was beginning to think that starfleet should've militarized a long time ago.

Ballard wasn't sure how to react to the woman destroying the confidence of the younger lieutenant. He looked around the bridge at the small cluster of non-commissioned officers who were probably seeing the bridge of the ship for the first time. Their faces were grimy, drawn and tired looking as he approached them. There was very little to say but it was his job to say something. "How are you getting on, guys? Not too awestruck, I hope."

"No, Chief." The teal-collared medical tech answered. She had been monitoring what little medical systems were accessible from a sealed-off command centre and seemed thankful for the opportunity to speak to someone.

"Okay. Keep up the good work, people. Any issues, you come straight to me, okay?"

Byrne shot his tactical chief a look, which clearly showed he disapproved of the mouthing off at the Lieutenant, but kept his tongue - he would speak to her about it after the situation was dealt with, unless it became a problem detrimental to solving their situation.

"Give me a status report. How many systems can we access from here?" Benjamin said, as he rested his rifle on the side of his chair, and reached up to undo the jacket of his uniform. He had become sweaty during the fight and on the way up here, and was feeling the heat of his body's increased heart rate in the situation.

Lianna spoke, "We're completely cut off from all systems, including tactical." She said as she glared at Lieutenant Miller.

From the science station which he had taken over from his technician, Ballard spoke quietly and considerately. "From what I'm seeing here, most primary systems have had their hard-lines to the bridge cut. It seems that the only way to access them would be to go to their localised control rooms. I can see that being a bit of a problem."

"OK, well our first priority is to get a message out to Starfleet, and notify them of our situation," Benjamin said, as he began pacing the bridge, his mind whirring as he calculated their next steps. "The best places to do that from would be the Primary Comms Array on deck 3."

One of the security men stood up to address the captain. He looked at Ballard first, seeking permission to speak. He got it. "Captain Byrne, I don't know that the Array will be accessible. We ran into heavy resistance in that section and used forcefields and," he hesitated, "crates to block their egress from the section. You'd have to deactivate the forcefields and navigate the crates."

"Well we need to use that array to send out a distress call and quarantine notification," Benjamin said, clipping his badge onto the quilted captain's vest he had on underneath his jacket. "The ship is not safe for anyone to come near it until we get this problem solved, and we're too far out to afford to lock ourselves up and await a specialised team. Lieutenant Vanders, gather the top marksmen you have in this part of the ship, and get them together in the weapons locker on deck 2."

He moved over towards his chair and picked up his rifle. "Chief, I need you to see if you can find any way that we could gain access around these bugs, or any way of detecting them. Failing that, try and find a way to reconnect us with the systems throughout the ship."

"You got it, Captain." The Chief replied before turning to face the other NCOs. "I need you working on any and all evidence we've actually got. Turn anything we have to our advantage and upload it to our tricorders." He turned to face the console and began to tap into the security feeds on deck three.

-------------------
Captain Benjamin J. Byrne
Commanding Officer

Lieutenant Lianna Vanders
Chief Tac/Sec Officer

&

Chief Petty Officer Narayn Ballard
Chief Intel Officer