Trying to make sense of things... (Part 1)

Posted on Thu Mar 26th, 2020 @ 6:03am by Captain Taiga Aisaka & Lieutenant Sakura Kano & Commander Alora Knight & Jennifer Daxer & Lieutenant Commander Kah'Leth & Lieutenant Soren Dillinger 'Speedy' & Commander Alexander "Alex" Knight

1,377 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Demons in the Dark
Location: Various

The ship was dark and lit only by emergency lighting. Whatever had got into the power systems was causing havoc, systems malfunctions riddled the engineers and several people had already being hurt by unexplained actions.

The ship was drifting, just over the border of the demilitarized zone. It was in danger of not being detected and if it lost all power, it wouldn't appear on sensors. Rolling slowly in space, the lights of its viewpoints dark it looked abandoned, but the ship was far from it.

The doors of Taigas ready room were sticking. She managed to get back out onto the bridge forcing the doors open, which for her was not an easy feat. She was small and her upper body strength wasn't the best. The bridge was still dark, lit only by the red glow of emergency lighting.

There were only a few officers present, many of them had been assigned to repair duties, or to help move the ships population to sheltered areas. She was still a little shaken by the sudden appearance of Jennifer, she glanced back at the ready room. She wasn't planning on going back in there for a while.

"Lieutenant" she said addressing Lieutenant Nunez who still sat at the Operations Console. "Status on ships systems?" She asked. It was fairly obvious that most systems were offline or not functioning properly, but she wanted to be sure.

"Most systems are offline, Capitana," he said in his southern Mexico accent. "Sensors, propulsion, main deflector, communications..." He shook his head. "I managed to save the computer and power systems before they went completely offline, but many consoles shorted out."

"I need you to shunt power to essential systems. Keep life support going and make sure that we can keep Sickbay and Engineering going. Without them we're stuck" Taiga told him simply. "I'm heading down to Engineering, Knowing Commander Tau'Ri she would have gone there to assist with the power issues" Taiga explained.

"You're stuck anyway." Daxer appeared standing a few meters away from Taiga, but only Taiga could see her. "By the time you figure it out, there will be nothing left of your mind."

Taiga ignored the image of Jennifer. She needed to be strong, she needed to get her out of her head.

"Si, Capitana," he said, before cursing his console in Spanish as it was starting to lose power. "¡Pedazo de mierda (Piece of s***)!" he swore under his breath; or thought he did. His hands flew across the console, trying to save what systems he could in Sickbay, and environmental controls. He finally saved the air supply, though gravity was iffy on some decks, being lighter in some sections, though not completely out. Some people may be a little queasy, but they wouldn't float away. They had 49% percent power, but the capability to get more. As for engines...he wasn't an engineer. And they would have to make do without creature comforts for a while.

He tapped his commbadge. =A= Nunez to Aisaka. We have 49 percent power. Gravity is lighter in some areas, but is there. We have our air supply, but don't count on creature comforts. I think I can get the toilets to work differently, but we don't have replicators or showers, sonic or otherwise. =A=

Luckily it seemed that the local comm badge system was working. =A= The last thing I need is to know if the toilets are working Lieutenant =A= Taiga responded simply. =A= Concentrate on getting essential systems online, the ones keeping us alive would be nice...=A= Taiga closed the channel quickly as she proceeded towards Engineering.

Diego was still at work, having given half of his report to the captain before she cut him off. He scowled. He would have given her more information, if she had let him. Most tactical systems were down, except for one phaser array that he had managed to save, and all shields were offline. Sensor arrays were down except in one area: forward starboard dorsal array, and it was flickering. He tried to save it, and then it died. "MIERDA!" he yelled. (S***!)

He began cursing in Spanish under his breath, his hands working furiously. The structural integrity field was at 73 percent and falling, and he rerouted power to it from the remaining phaser array and gravity in the areas it was damaged, managing to get it up to 98 percent. He blew out a deep breath. It was as good as it was going to get.

He got up from his station. "Liim, I'm heading to Engineering. Keep working on the systems from here."

The Bolian came and sat at the vacated seat as Nunez entered the turbolift. "Engineering."

[Engineering - Some Time Later]

Lieutenant Kano was stressed out. The young Chief Engineer was trying to solve a dozen issues at once, she just couldn't work out why the Tokyo suddenly stopped responding to its crews commands. It was like someone pulled the main processor out of the computer core and then started to siphon the power.

Taiga eventually arrived, after what seemed like hours. She seemed to be pretty tired, if not exhausted. She looked around, her eyes a little heavy. Something was definitly weighing heavily on her mind.

The turbolift deposited Diego in engineering just as Taiga was walking into engineering. He jogged until he caught up with her. "Capitana," he said nodding. "I didn't know you had knowledge about engineering. Were you an engineer?" he asked conversationally.

"No" Taiga said. "I was security, but since there's hardly any power on the bridge I thought it best to get systems online from here" Taiga explained. She looed over at Kano. Who was standing sheepisly to one side working at one of the operational consoles.

"Well..." Kano said. "From what I can tell, something is wrong with the bio-neural gel-packs on the ship. They seem to be running hot, live a fever. I've only ever heard of it, it could be some sort of viral agent" she explained as she tapped away looking over the ships vital power systems.

Taiga nodded in response as she leant over the next console. "Can we at least get the communication systems online?" she asked. She managed to re-route some power from the non-essential systems to get short range ship communications working.

=A= Aisaka to Tau'Ri. The ships Bio-neural systems are infected with a virus. I imagine you'll be working on a remedy soon. The Bridge is offline, I've moved command and control to Engineering until we can restore bridge functions =A= Taiga said just hoping the message got through, afterall the communications system was still not working properly.

"Perhaps surrender would be a wise choice." Daxer's voice was heavily distorted by Borg implants as she spoke, and for several seconds, Taiga's perception of Engineering changed to reflect what Daxer had done to it, during the previous Borg invasion. Daxer, decked out in full Borg armor, stood looking at Taiga. "Join us, and we will bring you closer to perfection." No sooner did she say it, both Daxer, and the assimilated Engineering simply vanished back to normal.

"Its all just an illusion..." Taiga muttered to herself, but that didn't stop a cold sweat from running down her spine. Daxer's voice was strong in her mind, and she didn't need to be reminded just what had happened. "Go away..." she said. "I don't need this right now!"

As soon as Taiga said it, Engineering flashed back to the Borg invasion, and Borg Daxer was standing right in front of her. Without hesitation, Jen stepped forward, and injected Taiga with her Borg tubules. "Resistance is futile."

Taiga stumbled back, tripping over as she fell to the deck. It had morevthan startled her. She couldn't seem to move, she couldn't see anything but Borg green.

For only the briefest of moments, Taiga's hallucination caused an explosion of pain in her neck, before the entire hallucination, including the pain just vanished.

It took a few seconds for Taiga to realise that the hallucination had got the best of her again. A few officers had gathered to see if she was alright as she sat on the deck. She simply shook them off with a wave of her hand.

To be continued...

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