Out of the Darkness

Posted on Tue Dec 5th, 2017 @ 9:19am by Captain Taiga Aisaka & Commander Alora Knight & Lieutenant Tatiana Manning & Lieutenant Soren Dillinger 'Speedy'

1,096 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Caught in the Cracks

ON

"Computer, turn on lights," Alora said.

The lights didn't come on, and there was no response from the computer.

"Computer, this is Commander Alora Tau'Ri. Turn on the lights." She hoped that it would be enough.

"Voice pattern match verified." The lights came on.

"At least there's that." Alora turned to Tatiana. "Now's your chance. We need to regain control of the ship, whether it's from here or not."

"Computer" Taiga said as she approached one of the engineering consoles. "Reroute command and control functions to this station". She tapped on the console, but it didn't light back up. "Ok, so they're messing with the access codes" she told Alora. "They must have full control of the bridge"

"That couldn't possibly have anything to do with you giving it to them," Alora muttered. Aloud she said, "Haven't you noticed that parts of this ship are USS Tokyo and parts are ISS Tokyo?"

Taiga nodded. "I have begun to notice. But how is that even possible?" she asked. "The other Taiga must have taken command of the bridge" she told her. "So how do we combat ourselves?"

"I sent the other Taiga to the brig," Alora reminded her. I don't know who has the bridge as you ordered us down here because This woman," Alora gestured to Tatiana, "transferred ship controls to engineering. And now they've been taken away again."

"It could be only two people" Taiga said simply. "Myself, or yourself" she explained. "Only we have the authority to lock out sections of the ship. Especially vital areas such as Engineering. Unless of course the codes work differently on the ISS Tokyo"

"Manning, as Chief Engineer, was able to divert ship controls to engineering," Alora said. "So there may be others. I could see Intel having that kind of control. That gives us four."

Taiga watched through narrow eyes at this Chief Engineer. Why was she a Mirror Universe officer but willing to help them when all other Mirror Universe counterparts had tried to kill them. She kept one hand on her phaser just incase.

"Just so you know" Taiga said to her quietly so only she could hear. "I don't know why you would even help us. We're not from your universe. What do you want to get out of this?" she asked.

"Well, not getting killed for starters."

"Makes sense" Taiga said. "I want you to know that I'm watching you. No wrong moves Lieutenant" she explained simply. "If we can regain control of the ship, we might be able to choose which ship to go back to. But I know that your people will rather take both ships than just regain their own" Taiga replied.

Alora rolled her eyes and said nothing. Inwardly she wondered how much longer she could keep repeating the obvious before she threw up her hands and walk away. Against all reason, Taiga was determined to act like nobody else knew what was going on but her.

"I don't trust her!" Soren shouted from the entrance, catching the last parts of the conversation as he walked in. He was still confused and terrified. Not only was seeing himself, as a cold mechanical monster, but also seeing Tammi. He couldn't get her image out of his head, but he hid his fear by projecting as much anger as possible. "What the hell is going on here?!! How is that... that... that thing even possible?!!" He screamed, referring to his Borg Counterpart and his drone." Without giving Manning a second to speak, Soren raised a phaser and pointed it at her. "Your only options right now is talk, or die."

"Lower your phaser, commander. This one seems to want out," Alora said, motioning to Tatiana. "But I'm not so sure about the rest." She looked at Soren for a moment. "Where have you been?"

"Out avoiding patrols." Soren said quickly, his phaser still aimed toward Tatiana. "The deck's are starting to flood with them." He looked over to Alora for a moment while he added. "I tried to get to my Intel Office, but I couldn't make it. Place is all mixed up. One moment I am on a Starfleet Deck, and the next thing I know, its Terrain around the corner. And its getting worse. I double backed and ended up in a different room than before."

Alora sighed. "We've got to figure out how to get out of this before both ships are permanently stuck together."

"I say we shove her and everyone else from her universe out the nearest airlock and call it a day." Soren replied quickly and with slight hostility. In his mind, he couldn't stop thinking of seeing his alternate self and Tammi. He just wanted to jump in his fighter and get as far away from them as possible.

"We can't do that. We have to separate the two ships and get back to our own universe," Alora said. "We're supposed to be the good guys, remember?"

Soren looked to Alora before focusing back to Tatiana, his aim never shifting away. "Sometimes, to survive, you got to do bad things, Lady. It's seems like its us or them. Personally, I say we make sure its us."

"And I say stand down," Alora said. "Because she is cooperating with us. You weren't here earlier, so you'll just have to take my word for it." Her tone said that he'd better take her word for it.

Taiga stepped towards Soren. "I need you to calm down" she said sternly. "This is an unusual set of circumstances and we will solev it" she said simply. She turned to Alora. "Commander" she said simply. "From your record you have multiple encounters with the Terrans. Do you think they will be willing to help us seperate the two ships without killing one another?" she asked.

"I do not know your counterpart, but I have met mine, and am fairly certain she would be willing to help." Alora glanced at Soren. "His would rather kill us all. But we do have the Chief Engineer on our side."

Taiga nodded in response. "Then we go in heavily armed" she said simply. "If we have enough firepower to secure our own defense, then if things go bad we can get out of there" she explained. "There are several weapons lockers on this deck" she turned to some of the security officers who were by the doors.

"I want you to get to any accessible weapons locker, strip it clean and bring it back here" she ordered.

To be continued...

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