Now What?

USS Cassiopeia
	This takes place on, or is in relation to the USS Cassiopeia.

Characters:	Commander Deven Porter, Lieutenant Commander Peter Savage
Location:	USS Casseopeia
Date & Time:	Day 2, 1120
Author:	aio
Deven turned to the Captain. He had known her as both a Captain and a friend for enough years to know that something was going through her mind. "What are you thinking Rebecca?" he asked his friend. "Honestly, I have no idea Deven. This just all seems to... Convenient. They were dispatched to look for a person on a ship, but they didn't know the ship name?" Rebecca replied to the XO. The Andorian tactical officer looked to his console before interrupting. "Sirs, they are dropping out of warp, weapons remain targeted on them. But, something's... I'm losing tactical control." Lights flickered before another officer on the bridge said "Conn is down." "Engineering to bridge. Some sort of virus has infected out system, our computer techs are trying to slow it down. It already tried to vent the cargo bays, but we overload the system." "I knew something was wrong. Commander Porter, you have a background in computers, go to engineering, help them get rid of that virus." With the sudden changed from first name basis which he had come to expect from the Captain he knew that this situation was not going to end well. He nodded in response, logged out his console and headed fot the turbolift. "Commander Savage, Commander Porter is on his way down to help out. Do what you can, bridge out." He entered the turbolift and heard the start of Rebecca's reply to all the system failures. "Hail th..." He tapped his comm badge as the turbo car moved quickly to its destination. The lights flickered. This virus knew exactly which systems to infect, and not infect. Its going to be a tricky bastard to get rid of he thought to himself. The turbolift opened in engineering. Engineers were running from station to station, while others were tapping furiously. He walked over to Commander Savage, the Chief Engineer, who was tapping furiously at the centre console. "Report Commander." The officer looked like had been running a marathon, though the virus had only hit a few minutes ago. "Iv never seen anything like this. It appears to be randomly shutting down certain systems, yet leaving some systems completely unaffected." He continued to tap furiously. Savage joined him on the opposite side of the console tapping, trying to get his head around what exactly was going on. "This makes no sense. Transporters are down, but turbo lifts are not? This virus is too specific. They are trying to do something, but god knows what it is. "Commander, we are picking up phaser fire on the lower decks. Internal sensors are going down." He immediately reached under the console and pulled out one of the emergency phasers. At that moment, a message came over the ship wide comm frequency. "Bridge to all hands, intruder alerts, unknown number of hostiles. Arm yourselves, bridge out." The Captain was somehow maintaining her cool. "Commander, I don't need to remind you that we have a lot of civilians on board." The younger Lieutenant Commander reminded his XO." "I know, you said force fields appear to be unaffected. Raise force fields around all quarters. Lets limit the amount of people they can get at. Raise them around all public areas too." He didnt have time to tell the Captain what he had just ordered. It would probably look like another by product of the virus. Phaser in one hand he continued to tap at the console. He found something eerily familiar. "Check this out," he sent the image to the Chiefs screen. "Some of the algorithms in the virus have Federation markings. USS Galavant. Damn. Peter, confirm my results please." He tapped a few more keys and sent it to the bridge, Lieutenant Sonak would likely be manning the operations station. He typed the message. VIRUS HAS FEDERATION SIGNATURE. POSSIBLY USS GALAVANT. WAIT FOR CONFORMATION. PORTER. "Confirmed. Base code is from the Galavant." the Lieutenant Commander replied. CONFIRMED. BASE CODE FROM USS GALAVANT. PORTER. "They are trying to take the ship, intact. They arnt here just to pirate us, they want this ship whole. We arnt going to give them anything. Do we still have sensors on the bridge?" "Aye, but hostiles are in the turbo shaft behind them. We cant warn them, communication is down. Picking up phaser fire on the bridge. And an explosion, there are casualties. Trying to get a sensor lock on the Captain. I'm not picking up the Captains life signs, I'm so sorry Deven." Clearly the Engineer knew of the Commanders close bond with Rebecca. "Thank you. But we still have lives to save. I'm going to try and make it to the lower levels. We still have no idea how many invaders we have. Do what you can to keep the virus at bay." He walked to the other side of engineering, to one of the emergency access hatches. God I hope this ends soon. He heard a noise, coming from one of the other access hatches. He turned quickly, still moving fluidly to the opened hatch. Something came out of the other hatch, followed by a bright flash and a burning sensation all over his body. The hatch door was blown shut, and he flew a few feet down the Jefferies tube. He tried to move, but his arms felt heavier, and heavier. He couldn't keep his eyes open for much longer. Definitely a head injury. The pain was too great. He closed his eyes, not knowing if he would ever open them again.