Sneaking Aboard (Part 1)

Posted on Thu Apr 8th, 2021 @ 12:53pm by Commander Alora Knight & Commander Alexander "Alex" Knight & Chief Warrant Officer Sarros

1,272 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Allegations

ON

The large vessel was very different from anything in the Starfleet Database. It was more biological mixed with various technological components than anything else.

With help from the Prowler, the away team had slip aboard unnoticed. The corridor was lit by a yellow-green glow. They found an empty room lit with the same greenish-yellow glow, this time from the various lights and strange consoles that lined the room.

The floor didn't seem to have one level, it ramped up and down at random points and seemed to made of some grate like material. Conduits coming out of the walls seemed to pulse as a strange green fog/mist drifted lazily no higher than a foot above the deck.

Alora walked around the room, observing each console. The language was unfamiliar, but there was a uniformity about the room that gave her hope she'd find what she needed quickly.

She selected one of the consoles and inserted a data rod for her programs to crawl through the computer and learn without being detected by the computer itself. It meant finding subroutines and lesser-used areas. It also relied on them having the time they needed for the programs to translate the data.

Sorros adjusted her glasses as she read the feed from the Tricorder on her belt, the main power flow was running through all the conduits and she was following it to a major junction. She was finding the exact routing that she needed.

Her little satchel had the tools and a couple of things that she brought just in case they had the time to cause some trouble given the correct routing of power. The first thing was to tap into the main power grid and begin to see what routes she could affect from this junction box? Having the remote command Insertion modules to have a simple command programmed.

"Give me five minutes and I will get us a back door; ten and I could leave them standing still for a time. You tell me how we play it?" She called over her shoulder.

"I'd like to keep that for an emergency," Alora said. "I want to get the information and get back to the Prowler without them knowing we're here. But if not, be ready to take the ship offline." She checked the console for an indication that one of her spiders had succeeded. Nothing yet. She pulled out her tricorder. At least there was no one in their vicinity. "Can you set something up to blow critical junctions without it looking like Starfleet was aboard?"

"I can lock a few circuits open that have no power going through them, then have power go to the batteries if they power up weapons and the massive surge would rapidly over heat the batteries and interrupt the Power grid. Good enough Ma'am?"

Alora smiled. "Perfect." The console beside her flashed green. She turned to see what her spiders had for her and grinned. "I'm in. It's not all translated yet, but I have enough to start working."

Alex looked over to Vida, the other member of the SWORD team, as they shared a concerning look. He then gestured to the closest door and walked over to Alora. "We have no idea of knowing if the Prowler stayed with us or returned to the Tokyo. This ship came from a section of space the Prowler can't access. Alora... We need to prepare ourselves for an alternative escape plan or worse. A fight with these things"

She nodded. "Okay. I wish they had something like an astrometrics lab so I could arrange to send out the data when the ship gets close to a relay buoy. But since they don't, I'll follow your lead."

She inserted another rod and began to copy data. The more she worked, the more was understandable.

She'd filled up one data rod and was working on her second when something caught her eye. "Romulan."

"Romulan?" Alex questioned with an odd look. "Show me."

"Over here." Alora pulled up the file her bot found. "It's a communication between a Romulan agent and the Elachi. At least, that's what the Romulan calls them." She looked at Alex. "Tal Shiar?" She had a dozen messages so far. She was pretty sure the data she'd collected would have more.

Alex walked over and looked at the same screen she was. "What?!" He gazed through the information before looking over to Alora, speaking softly. "Tal Shiar activity has been scarce since their alleged destruction during the Dominion War. There have been small rumblings, possible splinter cells, but never to this magnitude. How could they even have gotten in contact with these creatures? Accident... maybe? Intentionally... possibly?" He looked away, a concerned look on his face as he considered the possible worst case scenarios with a union like this. "We need to consider this an opportunity. If this species is a potential threat to the Federation, this may be our only chance to do something about them."

"Agreed." She grabbed a wide swath of information to decipher later.

"Do you think you can go into their system for something we can use? Ship system breakdown? Crew compliment? Weapons analysis? Anything we can bring back with us or to find our way around easier?" Alex asked firmly.

"Yes." With the bots she already had in the system, she should be able to find something. She pulled up a map of the ship. "Does this work?"

"That's one of the many reasons why I love you." Alex whispered before looking to the map of the ship.

An alarm of some sort began to sound. The ship began to shake. Unbeknown to the away team the ship was about to jump into a secret under space in sub space.

"We need to go!" Alex shouted as he looked to Vida. "V, keep point. If that door opens we need to be ready for a fight." He then looked between both Alora and Sarros. "Grab what you can, now. We're done here." He tapped his combadge, but was met with an error noise. "Knight to Prowler... Prowler respond. We need an exit, Pitbull and we need it now. Dammit." He tapped his combadge again, only to get the same error tone. Alex looked down at his phaser rifle, adjusting the settlings.

"Boss? I-"

'I know, V..." Alex replied quickly, not allowing Vida to finish her sentence because he already knew what she was about to say. "I got a bad feeling too."

Alora copied the last of the data and pulled out her rod, adding it to the others. Then she set her bots to erase all sign she'd been there and self-destruct. "Ready."

Alex looked to Alora. "You need to stay behind me. That rod is the only proof we have that the Tal Shiar are working with the Elachi. You need to guard that with your life." He walked closer to her and took her hand. "Alora... I know you don't want to hear this, but it needs to be said. This is a big threat so, you need to be prepared to do whatever it takes to get this to the proper people, even if that means leaving me behind to make sure you get to our people." He squeezed her hand slightly. "It doesn't mean I won't find my way back to you, my love. You may just need to keep a candle burning in the window for me."

(To be continued...)

Chief Warrant Officer Sarros
Engineer

Commander Alora Knight
Executive Officer

Lieutenant Commander Alexander "Alex" Knight
Chief Security Officer

Vida
Member of SWORD

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