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Mission: Whispers in the Clouds
Part 1 - Timeline: Day 3 - 1635
- Location: Unknown Sector, USS Cassiopeia
There was a flash of light, then the sound of phaser fire. It took Ensign Shrevan th'Iroth a few seconds to realise it was some kind of stun grenade. He looked around noticing that several of his fellow crew members were on the floor unconscious, including Lieutenant Roebuck He rallied the remaining officers. “Hold your ground and keep up suppressing fire.” He called out to the crew who were still up and about. Outside of the transporter room was clearly not the most secure place to be.
It looks like there were four hostiles or so, which explained the stun grenade they had used to try to even out the odds. There could be more behind the broken chunks of bulkhead, which looked like a relay blew the panels out. Of eight men in this team, they were already down to five, which considerably evened up the odds in the enemy favour. th'Iroth hit one of them square in the chest, taking him out, as he was eyeing up another shot a beam struck the security officer to his right. It looked like a kill shot, as the officer hit the floor without a sound or gasp of pain. He hadn't seen someone die in front of him. He was too young to remember the Dominion war. The chirp of a combadge brought him back to reality.
“This is Ensign Natalie Jane to anyone from the Unification, my security team is down, including Commander Germond. I can't reach the Unification, I am requesting instructions.”
“Ensign Jane, this is Ensign th'Iroth, we are currently engaging hostiles on deck six, section five B.” He replied as another polaron beam lanced towards him. “Are you in a secure position for now?”
“I believe so. I'm just above you on deck five, section six C in the Security office. My team is down, but they don't appear to all be dead. I have a nurse with me, Ensign Conroy, she has stabilised the crew that are still alive, but I don't know how long for if they don't get to a medical facility.” She sounded young, but there was a confidence in her voice.
th'Iroth looked as another of the hostiles was taken down, leaving one remaining. “Once we are secure here we will rendezvous as your position. Stay secure Ensign, th'Iroth out.” He tapped the combadge closing the connection as he planned in his head what was about to happen the final hostile was stunned. He looked around, four crew members were down, including the officer in charge of this little trip. “We need to find somewhere nearby we can move these crew members too.” He looked at his tricorder, scanning the local area for somewhere secure. His scans found an auxiliary sickbay a few doors down. He shared this with the team, as they picked up the two unconscious ones and started the short trip to the sickbay.
They used a security override and entered the room. There were no lights on, something one of the crewmen quickly went to fix. They sealed the doors behind them. He needed a doctor right now. th'Iroth had no idea if it would work, but he looked at the corner of the room to where one of the holo-emitters were located. “Computer, activate EMH.” Nothing happened.
The crewman fixing the lights, Crewman Faulkner, had evidently had some luck as they started flickering on throughout the sickbay. He also heard the tell-tale sound of the doors being sealed. “The lights are back on, and I have sealed the doors, for now at least. They are controlled from a tricorder. I have copied the program onto all of our tricorders, just in case.” He held up the device in his hand. “Also, the verbal command functions are offline. However,” he walked over to the now online console on the wall and pressed a few buttons. The Mark V EMH appeared.
For some reason, Lewis Zimmerman had decided to go back to creating holograms in his own image. “What is the medical emergency?” The EMH asked.
“The ship is has been attacked and boarded. Some kind of computer virus has disabled systems, I have two officers injured, both from polaron based weapons. We are from the Unification, trying to take back the ship.” Ensign th'Iroth replied.
The EMH began to work on the two officers immediately. “A computer virus, are my systems in any danger?”
“If I may, Sir,” Crewman Lawrence Faulkner interrupted, th'Iroth nodded. “Your systems are somewhat isolated, so there was some infection from the virus in your main data files, however, they were purged, and you are currently running from the EMH backup module, which is isolated to prevent issues from situations such as the one we are in.”
“Very well. I shall stabilise them until they can be seen by the ships… the ships doctor is dead. The internal sensors that are online show his body is in the main sickbay. That is unfortunate. The LMH system is also offline. I guess it is just me for now then. You may continue to take back the ship, I shall use emergency comm channel one-seven delta if there appears to be any further developments.”
“Thank you, Doctor. Team, let's move out.” He acknowledged. He again looked to the EMH. “We need to make it to the security office on deck five, section six C, do you know the quickest way to get there?”
“I'm an EMH, not a tour guide. Use the panel on the wall.” the EMH replied, without even looking up from his patient. The Andorian officer gestured to Peters, who moved toward the panel.
As Faulkner checked the panel, downloaded it to his tricorder, and nodded to the Andorian team commander. They left the room and headed to the emergency access point. It was about thirty metres down the hall.
There were more bodies along the way, enemy and friendlies. How many people were still alive on this ship. He knew that most of the crew quarters were sealed, whether they were occupied or not, which had hopefully saved many lives. But a Nebula class ship had a complement of around 750, of which 250 were usually on duty at any given time.
Ensign th'Iroth checked his tricorder along the route, checking the sealed rooms. Some crew were unconscious, some were dead in their quarters. There were traces of neurocine gas in some quarters. The feeling of sadness was rivalled only by his feeling of disgust. Some of these people were gassed in their quarters. It was sickening. Knowing what he did about the Cassiopeia most of the non-essential personnel, including the families, were offloaded to New Bajor before it was dispatched. This was standard procedure for search and rescue missions in the Gamma Quadrant, given numbers of unknowns still around.
He did not have time to worry about them right now. The ones who were still alive were OK for now. All that mattered was taking back control of the ship, and making sure no one else was killed in the process. He had to get the team up to deck five and rendezvous with Ensign Jane. Then they could follow the original plan and get to deck one, to take the bridge back. His combadge chirped.
“Unification to Roebuck.” The sound of Captain Lambert coming from the badge.
“This is Ensign th'Iroth, Lieutenant Roebuck is incapacitated, as it Commander Germond.”
“How many of your team are left?” Lambert asked, his voice sounding concerned.
“There are four of us still active. Two incapacitated, two KIA. We left our injured with the EMH in an auxiliary sickbay on deck six. We are moving toward a security office on deck 5 to meet up with what remains of Commander Germond's team,” th'Iroth replied.
“We have limited transporters at the moment, the sensors keep cutting in and out, but I will see if I can beam you straight to the security office.” He heard Lambert called out to another officer who was on the Unification bridge. “There is a dispersion field activate, so we can't beam you into the room, or scan inside, however we can beam you just outside. Stand by.”
The tell-tale whine of the transporter taking hold of his body alerted him to his new surroundings. Inside the security office he could see, Germond, unconscious on the floor, a nurse and Ensign Jane but no other sign of the rest team. He tapped his combadge. “th'Iroth to Jane, we are outside of the security office, please lower the security field so that we may enter.”
She did not respond but merely looked up and opened her tricorder, tapped some buttons and the door opened. The team entered the security room, then the door was sealed again. “Ensign Jane, who is the nurse?”
“Ensign Sarah Conroy, she's from the Cass. We found her with one of the officers here. He gave Commander Germond this PADD with his command codes on. Some of them still work, which is how I managed to secure this office.”
“OK, let's see if we can fix this.” He tapped his combadge. “th'Iroth to Unification. Captain, are you in a position to transport the injured from my present location back to the Unification?” He asked.
“Negative, we are having issues beaming anything back onto the ship, we have been trying. We can beam things off the Unification, or we can do site to site transports on the Cassiopeia.”
“Can you beam them to the auxiliary sickbay then? Where Lieutenant Roebuck is located? Then they can at least get medical care from the EMH.” He asked.
“Yes, we can.” Lambert replied.
“Can you beam them, including Ensign Conroy, she can help the EMH stabilise the team’s.” Sarah looked to Ensign th'Iroth with a sombre, thankful look on her face.
“Affirmative. Energising now. Anything else Ensign?” Jacob asked the Andorian.
“Actually, yes. I have an idea on how we can take the bridge back. But I will need your help. I am sending through the plan we put in place from Lieutenant Roebuck, with some minor changes.” While he waited for a response, he showed her Ensign Jane his PADD with the updated plan on, the one he had just sent to Lambert.
“Interesting. That shouldn't be a problem. I will get it done. Lambert out.” The channel closed abruptly.
He looked to Ensign Jane. “Are you ready for this?” She nodded. Let's do this, he thought to himself. He looked to the rest of the team. “Phasers ready.” He knew what was coming. The transported took hold once more.
They materialised in the hall from the conference room to the back right of the bridge. Well three of them did. The other two were beamed to the turbolift at the back left of the bridge. th'Iroth double tapped his combadge, which sent team two the signal. A chirp replied, indicating they were ready. He triple tapped the badge, which let the other team know they were going to move in three seconds. They all raised their phaser rifles. Three. Two. One.
They rushed forward, phaser rifles pointed at the hostiles. There was a complication. There were hostages. Four hostages, seated in front of the Conn and ops stations, with two guards, polaron rifle raised at them. The one in the Captain's chair stood up, raising his own rifle, the rescuers were outnumbered two to one, and there were hostages. This was not a good situation.
The leader spoke up. “I wondered how long it would take someone to get on the bridge. There were a few attempts, but they were stopped before they made it past deck two. Well done on that. Now, who wants to die first?”
Ensign th'Iroth went to move forward, but Ensign Jane moved quicker. “Do not hurt them. They aren't even from this ship.”
th'Iroth stepped forward. “Ensign, you have been through enough.” She pushed him. The de facto Captain was beginning to lose patience. “This is insubordination Ensign. Stand down at once.”
“I think I will just kill you both.” The Captain replied. He heard a noise from behind him, before he hit the ground with a thud. Three more of the captors went down. th'Iroth and the two teams took up positions behind the tactical station, and began to fire on the remaining hostiles. They were all down. Some teams wondered what had happened, before the door to the ready room opened.
“Captain Lambert sends his regards.” the lead intelligence officer said to th'Iroth as he smiled and walked toward them. The other members of the teams went to see to the hostages. The three Intel officers were carrying the TR-116 rifles, which were only authorised for use from a Captain rank or higher. “We have other teams that have secured Engineering, and Lieutenant Ra-Havrix has already begun working on the engines and some other minor systems.”
“Excellent.” Ensign th'Iroth replied. It appears the Cassiopeia is officially back under Star Fleet control. He looked towards Ensign Jane. One of the hostages leaned in to her and whispered something in here ear.
She stood up. “Which of you is Crewman Jack Jameson?” Another of the hostages, a crewman, suddenly lunged forward, pushing Sarah back, and grabbing her phaser.
He adjusted the controls, looked to the bridge crew and said, “Pity is treason”. The other three hostages dove behind the conn console, as Crewman Jameson fired three shots in quick succession at the three officers who appeared from the ready room. He eyed up the rest of the people on the bridge. He took aim at Ensign th'Iroth. Jane dove for a polaron rifle and shot him square in the chest. He looked her right in the eyes, and rasped “Pity is trea…” before collapsing to the ground.
th'Iroth looked to the hostages, and raised his phaser. “Can someone tell me what just happened? He was part of this crew, wasn't he?” A few other officers on the bridge had now raised their phasers at the hostages too. One of them stepped forward, slowly, with his arms raised.
“I am Ens… Ens…” She paused, taking a deep breath. “I am Ensign Donna Jeanson, I am the head nurse on the Cassiopeia. He was part of the crew, but he was brought in after the three of us. We were sent to the mess hall on deck two to treat wounded, but they had murdered everyone. They brought us up here, but he wasn't brought in until an hour or so after us.” She stuttered, clearly quite shaken up.
“Maybe they did something to him. And something about pitying treason. Does anybody know what that means?” He asked the group, who all shook their heads. “Computer, are bridge verbal commands functioning?”
“Affirmative. All verbal command functions are online.” The computer responded.
He pulled out a PADD from a pocket, and opened up the command code he had been given by Ensign Jane. “Computer, transfer all command codes to Captain Jacob Lambert, USS Unification. Authorisation Devon-Two-One-Nine-Three-Alpha.”
“Transfer complete. USS Cassiopeia is not under command of Captain Jacob Lambert.”
“Computer, open a channel to the Unification.” The view screen popped to life, showing the bridge of the Unification, while he was tapping the Ops console, bringing up relevant information.
Captain Lambert was standing behind the helm console, reading from a PADD. “Report Ensign.” He asked.
“We have secured the bridge. Reports are coming in from the security teams. There appear to be no more active hostiles on the ship. Some of our teams met up with teams from the Cass, which helped contain the boarder's. Lieutenant Ra-Havrix thinks he can get the engines online within the hour. Using a command code that the XO of the Cass gave us before he died, I have transferred command of the Cassiopeia to you. Also, one of the hostages from the bridge turned on us, and killed Lieutenants Dobbs, Zander and Ensign Rice. We haven't completed our investigation yet into how, or why he attacked.”
Lambert studied the data that was being transmitted to the console he was working on. “This is worrying, if we have to start worrying about our own attacking us.” He tapped once more on the console. “Lieutenant Commander Masterton will be beaming over momentarily to take command of the Cassiopeia. The computer has already been sent instructions. Lieutenant, you have acted diligently during this unprecedented situation. You are to be commended.”
A look of confusion flashed over th'Iroth's face. “Sir, I am only an Ensign.” He replied.
“Not anymore Lieutenant. Once this situation has been put be...nd us, we can star... he… pap....rk…” The channel cut off, as Commander Masterton appeared behind them.
“Ma'am, the signal has been cut off from the Unification. And I am reading the warp engine start up sequence. The Unification is about to jump to warp. And our engines won't be repaired for at least another 40 minutes. We can't match the Unifications speed in this ship.”
She immediately took the command chair and started tapping furiously. “Bridge to Engineering. How long on the engines Lieutenant Ra-Havrix?”
A flustered voice replied, a little out of breath. “I have teams working on the antimatter injectors and the some of the magnetic interlocks. It's a mess down here Commander. We are looking at 50 minutes, minimum.”
“The Unification is about to jump to warp. We don't have 50 minutes. I need all the speed you can give me, as quick as you can.” Commander Masterton snapped.
“I'll do what I can, Ra-Havrix out.” Unlike some engineers, he never argued, he simply got on with it.
“Lieutenant th'Iroth, begin unsealing the quarters. Leave the ones with no life signs sealed. Bridge to all hands. This is Commander Masterton of the USS Unification. We have taken back control of the ship and its vital systems. We are a little short handed in certain areas, and anyone wanted to help is more than welcome to do so. I am aware that you have all been through a lot, and there will be no repercussions if anyone chooses to stay where they are. Please report to your duty stations if you wish to. Masterton out.”
“What do we do now Commander?” He asked.
“Now, we hope to hell that Ra-Havrix can get the engines online before the Unification jumps to warp.”
Jacob looked over the reports coming from the various departments of the Unification. The computer systems were starting to fail all over the ship. He walked over to the helm, one of the few fully functional systems left on the ship. Ensign Calder looked up from the console, as it began to beep.
“Incoming communication from the Cassiopeia, Captain.”
“Report Ensign.” He asked.
“We have secured the bridge. Reports are coming in from the security teams. There appear to be no more active hostiles on the ship. Some of our teams met up with teams from the Cass, which helped contain the boarder’s. Lieutenant Ra-Havrix thinks he can get the engines online within the hour. Using a command code that the XO of the Cass gave us before he died, I have transferred command of the Cassiopeia to you. Also, one of the hostages from the bridge turned on us, and killed Lieutenants Dobbs, Zander and Ensign Rice. We haven't completed our investigation yet into how, or why he attacked.”
Lambert started going over the various diagnostics and reports being transmitted to the Unification. Now that he was officially in command of the Cassiopeia, they were quite thorough. “This is worrying, if we have to start worrying about our own attacking us.” He tapped once more on the console. “Lieutenant Commander Masterton will be beaming over momentarily to take command of the Cassiopeia. The computer has already been sent instructions. Lieutenant, you have acted diligently during this unprecedented situation. You are to be commended.”
A look of confusion flashed over th’Iroth’s face. “Sir, I am only an Ensign.” He replied.
“Not any more Lieutenant. Once this situation has been put behind us, we can start the paperwork…” He paused as static crossed the screen. Then is went blank. “Report Ensign Calder.”
“It looks out systems are starting to go down.”
“Lieutenant Traylor to bridge. Captain Lambert, all of our systems are beginning to shut down except for life support and transporters. I am working on keeping the transporters online for now, but I don't know how long I can maintain them. Communications are also offline, which is why we can't raise the Cassiopeia. The warp engines are powering up, and the core is running 2% above normal.”
“What do you think that means?” Jacob asked.
“If it keeps building up the way it is, it's going to overload the core, giving us a breach.”
“Level with me Lieutenant. You seem to be a step ahead of everything that has happened so far. What do you think is going on right now? And if communications are down, how are we talking?” He asked, his concern showing in his voice.
“Honestly, Captain, I have no idea what's going on right now. And that is itself, a terrifying thought. I am on board my runabout, it's systems are isolated from the Unifications. The transporters are down, and there appears to be a dampening field on the Unification, meaning I can't get a lock on anything on board. However, I can beam from my runabout on board the Unification. I'm using an independent console connected to the Unification to keep transporters online. My recommendation is to beam over the crew to the Cassiopeia, before anything happens to the Unification. The core is now 3% above normal. Commander Benson is aware of the situation. And I am sorry to report, but transporters are down now too. I'm working on a small algorithm to bring them online, but I can't promise anything.”
“Dam.” Jacob muttered under his breath. “We need to get everyone on to the Cassiopeia. Can you use you patch me through to the Cassiopeia using the Runabout's comm system?”
“Yes sir, one moment please.” The Lieutenant Commander replied. “You are on with the Cassiopeia Captain Lambert.”
“Commander Masterton, this is Lambert. Our systems are going offline all over the ships. We need to evacuate the crew from the Unification, to the Cassiopeia. Can you assist at all? Our transporters are down, and we need to get people off the ship. We can get maybe 20 crew off using the 2 shuttles.” He asked hopefully.
“Aye Sir, our transporters are back online, if you can get everyone to their transporter rooms, we can beam them from there. And we can prepare the shuttlebay for arrivals.” The Commander replied.
The Captain felt a warm feeling inside. They weren't out of the woods yet, but at least something went right for a change. “Excellent” he replied. “Let's get our people out of here. Lambert out. Commander Traylor are you still there? Can you run intra ship communication through the runabout?” He asked hopefully.
“Yes, I anticipated this, and I am already working on it. You should be able to communicate within the ship now.”
“Thank you Commander, please make sure you leave the ship as soon as possible. Can you assist with the evacuation?”
“I can fit in maybe 20 people or so.”
“Excellent. Let's get this done. Lambert out.” In all his years he had never had to give the order he was about to give. He took a deep breath in. “This is the bridge to all hands. We are abandoning ship. Please report your designated emergency transporter room immediately. Once on board the Cassiopeia, report to Commander Masterton. Bridge out.” He closed the channel, then opened another. “Bridge to Engineering, Benson, what's the status of the reactor assembly. ?” He asked, knowing that the answer was going to be not good.
“It's currently 4% above normal and still climbing. Current estimates put an overload in about 13 hours.” He replied frantically. It sounded like he had his hands full, presumably working on the overload, and trying to lock down everything for evacuation.
“OK, that gives us a little time to work on it. Evacuate your staff, I can remain behind with you, and hopefully we can get this situation under control.”
“Aye Sir, I'll try to route what I can to a PADD and automate what I still have control over. The warp engines are drawing in more power too, I think they are preparing to get us underway. Iv slowed them down as much as I can by re-routing some key subsystems I had access to. But that will only give us maybe 15 minutes.” Benson replied.
“OK, I'll be down there as soon as I can. Lambert out.” He looked to the bridge crew. “Lieutenant Wilder, Ensign Calder, Crewman’s Andrews, Alexander and Forcier, proceed to the Shuttlebay, and get the shuttles underway with anyone you find along the way. Anyone waiting for transport on the cargo transporters, get them in the shuttles, or on board Commander Traylors runabout.”
He turned and walked towards his captains chair, and sat down. He took a second as he watched his crew leave via the turbolift. Jacob thought about time he had spent on this ship. It had only been a little over a year, and he certainly didn't want it to be destroyed so soon. So working with Benson, they had to fix this little problem.
He pulled up the systems reports looking at the warp core. It was definitely building up to jump the ship to warp. But it was like the ship had a mind of its own. Where the hell was it going to go? He thought to himself. He began to make final preparations for evacuating the ship. While evacuating a ship was usually done in emergencies, one of the silver linings of this situation was that the evacuation wasn't necessarily time critical. In fact, it wasn't even required at this point. It was more of a precaution. He began to lock down the non-vital systems. Most of the vital systems were already down because of the virus. So it was relatively easy to lock everything down. He tapped a few keys and launched the emergency log buoy. The one thing the buoy wouldn't have was anything from the last 12 hours or so. As soon as they had realised the virus had hit, the Unification from the Cassiopeia, they locked down the buoy system, to prevent the virus being saved in the log buoy.
He was still in his chair when he grabbed a PADD from side of his chair. He began to download all the personal logs, mission logs systems logs to the PADD, being careful to isolate the PADD once they were downloaded. Jacob knew that there was still a chance that the virus could have saved itself to the recent logs, and the last thing he needed was to infect another ship, or worse, infect another ship or New Bajor.
He froze, a sickening feeling began to grow in his stomach. He tapped the console on the arm of his chair, and performed some quick calculations. His sickening feeling deepened when he confirmed what he thought. He tapped his combadge. “Lambert to Traylor and Benson.” They both acknowledged. “I just did some calculations. At maximum warp, we are just over 13 hours from New Bajor.” He heard one of them, he presumed Benson, take a sharp intake of breath. Commander Traylor spoke first.
“That’s what the virus is doing. The ship warps to New Bajor, the core overloads, the explosion would take out Gamma Command. And depending on how close to the surface it detonates, it could do serious damage to the Compound as well. That's what it was attempting to do on the Cassiopeia. But the engines…”
Benson interrupted him. “The engines were damaged after the initial attack. Lieutenant Ra-Havrix sent over his initial report on the engines before we lost communication. It looked like someone had taken a phaser to some of the manifolds. The ship could no longer go to warp, rendering the virus with nothing to do, until we showed up. So it moved to us.”
“This ship can NOT make it to New Bajor with the virus intact. We either eradicate the virus, or we blow the warp core. Agreed?” They both agreed. “Commander Traylor, you need to get off the ship as soon as any passengers are on board.”
“Aye sir. I will depart as soon as my doors are sealed.” A loud whooshing sound, followed by the Commander shouting, suddenly made Lambert’s heart jump. Before he had a chance to ask Traylor what happened, he spoke “Captain, the virus, evidently had adapted again. As soon as the two shuttles left the shuttle bay, it decompressed. There were no casualties, as the passengers were already in the sealed compartment of my runabout. The Cassiopeia confirms they have transported everyone from the transporter rooms too.”
“Leave as soon as you can then Commander, remaining is no longer necessary.”
“Aye Captain. Before I leave” The sound of a transporter beam caught his attention as a tricorder materialised in front of him. “I wrote a small algorithm. It will give you transporter access, but only for a limited time. We are talking a minute or less. And even then, it's limited to one person at a time.”
“I will make sure to get myself and Benson off the ship. Now get over to the Cassiopeia and report to Commander Masterton.”
“Aye Sir, Traylor out.” The channel was closed. He picked up the tricorder, and grabbed the PADD, heading to the turbolift. Now that the Rangitikei, Traylors Runabout, had left the Unification, the comm system was down again. He told the turbolift to head down to Engineering. He was outside engineering, when he heard footsteps running towards him. He looked wondering what Benson was doing outside of Engineering and was horrified when it Ensign Calder.
“Ensign, what the hell are you doing here?” As far as Lambert knew, there was only Benson and himself still on board. “Why weren't you beamed aboard the Cassiopeia?”
He was panting, clearly he had been running for a few minutes. “I on my way to the shuttlebay, but the doors sealed and it decompressed, I ran to one of the transporter rooms, but communication went down. So I figured you would be coming to engineering to work with Benson.”
“Come on, let's help out Benson.” He said to Calder, as they entered Engineering. “I found a stowaway” He called out to his Chief Engineer, and turned to Calder. “May as well put him to use. Monitor the warp system, I need to know we are going to warp, before we jump.”
Calder nodded to Lambert, and sat at a console, next to Benson. Benson looked to Lambert, with a look of apprehension in eyes. “Build up is up to 8%, I don't know if can stop it. The virus has basically re-written the code for the engines. For all intents and purposes the only part of the engines that is still completely recognisable is the hardware.”
“What can we do?” The Captain asked his Engineer.
“I honestly don't know, at least not yet. It looks like the build up is being caused by the plasma intercooler. It's slowly failing, which is going to cause an overheat, which gives us our breach. But it's failing in such a way that engines are still fully operational, which is probably why the virus re-wrote so much of it, I can't even begin to imagine how many safety subroutines would have been erased to allow it.”
He thought for a moment. “Is there nothing we can do? What about removing some of the warp plasma conduits?” He imagined that Benson had already thought of removing components.
“One of the first things we thought. They are behind force fields, now anyway. We thought of ejecting the antimatter storage pods, but the ejection subroutines no longer exist. And the manual release is located deck 7, with the core ejection system, and they are now both inaccessible. Force fields and bulkheads have been erected, and life support has been disabled with the existing atmosphere removed. This virus, Jacob, it's smart. It has thought of everything.” He looked thoughtful for a moment. “Honestly, if it wasn't designed for what it's doing, it's an engineering marvel.”
“We can write a paper if we manage to slow it down.” A smile across Jacob and Benson’s face relieved the stress and tension, if only for a moment. Calder called over, breaking the peaceful moment.
“Captain, Commander, it looks like we are about to jump to warp. Sensors, the still functional ones at least, show the Cassiopeia is still unable to jump to warp.”
“Thank you, Ensign.” The Captain replied. “Last chance for now, is there anything you can do to stop us jumping to warp?”
“Except for causing a breach ourselves, there's nothing we can do right now. Given a few hours, I can maybe come up with something.”
“Well we better come up with something. Otherwise, that's our final option.” He looked to Calder, and Benson, who both had a sombre look upon their faces. He knew what he was asking of them. “If you want me to try to beam you over to the Cassiopeia now, I won't think any less of you.” Neither man moved at all. “Thank you, both of you.” He looked at the warp core, as he felt the subtle but telltale sign that the ship had jumped to warp. “Now let's see if we can get rid of this damned thing. I, for one, am done being on the defensive to a computer virus.”