To snare a Fox
Posted on 29 Feb 2020 @ 4:04am by Commander Amelia Fox & Captain Jonathan Reynolds & Lieutenant Commander Aidan Datari & Lieutenant JG Lilura Karakalakss & Ensign Gwen Leighton
Mission:
Mission 3 - Whom gods destroy ...
Location: Environmental control / Main Bridge
Timeline: MD 3 1030
2455 words - 4.9 OF Standard Post Measure
On:
Fox entered environmental controls to find a lone lieutenant on duty in the small room. If he had heard the door open, he didn’t show it, he just continued working. She walked up behind him and said “Hello handsome!”
He spun around at the voice, surprised. Suddenly he was caught off guard by her fist making hard contact with his jaw.
He crumpled to the deck.
She scoffed “Typical! Another Starfleet Officer with a weak chin.” She came up to the console and started working. The computer beeped.
“Access to environmental systems is restricted. Please state identification.”
“Fox. Amelia. Lieutenant.”
“Please enter clearance or command code.”
Fox blew air through her lips. Even this computer was becoming annoying. She paused as she thought back to what Amelia had told her. Oh yes, that was it. She responded to the computer “Authorisation Fox two two Seven Beta Gamma.”
“Command code accepted. Standby.”
She frowned, but waited having no experience with these Federation computers.
Main bridge
An alert went off on Jons console. He grimaced.
He stood up and addressed everyone on the bridge. Now was the time to find out how much everyone trusted him.
"There isn't much time to explain this. We have reason to believe the XO is an imposter. She has just tried to access environmental controls using a dummy code that I and our lieutenant Fox set up to smoke out this duplicate.
I need you all to trust me and let this play out. The next move is hers, we are going to try determine what shes up too and apprehend her. For the time being let her believe shes succeeding.
Ensign Hawkins took a moment and looked back at the Captain an expression of shock and dumbfounded crossing over his features. He liked the XO even though he'd not gotten to talk much with her, then his normally congenial expression turned grim and determined with a slight bit of worry. Where was the XO?
"Lieutenant Hawkins without alerting her, I want you to sound general quarters everywhere but her location," he ordered.
Hawkins nodded, as he sent the notice, bypassing the regular normal channels, blocking out the alert notice going to where the fake XO is.
"Engineering place all environmental controls on emergency bypass but I want you to send dummy signals to her monitors. Let her believe she is succeeding," He informed Karakalakss,
Lilura was already tapping commands for the environmental routing controls upon her console as she answered, "Understood, Sir, on it now."
"Ensign Leighton I think a security team standing by in my ready room would be a good move and order them to take her alive, unless she gives us no other choice. Make sure you have your phaser and try to keep out of her eye line as I may need you to take her down," he told the younger woman seriously.
"Aye Sir." Gwen nodded and then promptly set to organizing the team with their orders,"Uhm..sir." Gwen asked, "When you say to stay out of her line of sight, we are limited on places I can blend into. Would you prefer I stay on the tactical console or are we talking me hiding in a jeffries tube kind of deal?"
"Well," Jon smiled. "I rely on you to tell me what has the best tactical advantage. As my chief in security to be, I'll defer to your expertise. You have got this Ensign."
Gwen nodded, "Aye Sir." She promptly requested a change of uniform color along with her phaser. Nobody would pay attention to a blue shirt attached to the science console.
"The rest of you lets find out how good your acting skills are. I imagine her next stop is the bridge," Jon stated. "Don't worry we have numerous safeties in place, she cannot blow up the ship." Jon reassured. He just hoped he 100% believed it.
Jon worried for a minute. "Has anyone seen Datari?" he queried.
"I had been wondering about that. Sherlock had gotten hurt, I found him and took him to Medical for Doctor Syver to take care of. I don't know if Lt. Datari has shown up in Medical yet to check on Sherlock." Michael feeling a bit worried. I found him on Deck ( the deck where Amelia's quarters were.)
"Sherlock was injured," Jon repeated shocked. Again another incident with a link to Syvar. Something was definitely not right at present.
"Hawkins was sickbay linked into the comms. when I explained what was happening?"
"No, Captain sickbay was not linked into the comms." Michael responded.
"Don't relay what's happening yet. As shes on route here, I will personally go appraise Dr Syvar after we apprehend her. And visit Sherlock," he stated.
Michael nodded, "Aye Captain."
At her station, Lilura had finished setting the environmental systems to emergency bypass with alarm warnings disengaged so no one would be the wiser. She setup 'Clunker' (Auxilliary control station used for engineering personnel training exercises) as an electronic copy of the ships environmental systems. It was what the 'Duplicate' was now controlling, with corresponding signals being returned as Clunker now knew it was the 'environmental systems'. Lilura brought up Clunker's system readings to her panel so she could compare what it was reporting as she kept tabs on the real environmental systems. "Captain, Engineering, I have the honeypot system in place and it mirrored to my display. Whatever she sets up you will have knowledge of, sir."
“Thank you Lieutenant,” Jon replied.
Enviormental control
The computer beeped again. "Access granted." and the display changed as all the information regarding the environmental systems came up.
"Excellent," She said out loud. She began entering commands. The anesthetic the doctor had got for her was a cover for a much larger amount she she had replicated and placed in a strategic location in one of the Jefferies tubes. She was now ready to use it. Aidan had forced her hand. When he came round, he would no doubt tell the Captain and then security would be involved and she would no doubt find herself in the brig."
She was almost finished. Bypass safety protocol.... Select input...
The Computer buzzed a warning. "Anesthtazine gas detected at source. Are you sure you want to proceed?"
"Yes!" Amelia said. Just isolate this room from the rest of the system she thought to herself. Done. Ready to rock. It would be easier to take over the ship if everybody was unconscious.
"Computer. Run command Fox Alpha 1"
"Acknowledged. Gas release in progress."
A few minutes later the computer beeped again. "Program complete."
Amelia nodded. "Return environmental controls to standard."
She then headed out of the room and boarded the nearest turbolift.
"Main Bridge."
Datari and security officer
Aidan groaned as he tried to sit up. He felt dizzy and disoriented and a little stupid for having gone without telling anyone where he went. Having no sense of passed time he crawled to his feet and tapped his combadge, only to find it missing.
"Great," he muttered, as he stumbled towards the door, crashing right into it as it failed to open. "Sherlock?" He called, hoping his faithful companion would teleport in. Something was wrong though as he had an odd sense of pain in his right arm. Something was definitely off when Sherlock failed to appear. So...he banged his fist against the door, calling for help in the hope of drawing attention.
"Are you in there?" Came a voice from the other side, "Security here. Are you hurt? Is anyone else with you?
"Yes!" Aidan called back, "I'm here! I'm not hurt, at least I don't think so. There's no-one here, and I can't open the door. You'll have to override it from the outside, hurry!"
"Hang in there," He quickly opened the panel that was inset on the wall and checked the current protocols in place. If it was too high, even his rerouting wouldn't work. Thankfully all the security guards were well trained for the 'just in case we get overtaken by an evil overlord' type situations. Deftly he adjusted the chips within the panel and watched as the various pathways lit up green. The door hissed and then opened. He took a step back, "There you go."
"Where is she," the Trill demanded, feeling very unsteady on his feet, "she drugged me and locked me in. She took my comm badge. I need to get to the bridge and report."
"Bridge," He simply said, "They have a team up there waiting for her arrival. We've been told to monitor all turbolifts and Jeffries tubes in case she makes it off the bridge."
"Then we're going to the bridge," Aidan said resolutely, "but first I need a phaser."
Main Bridge
The turbolift doors opened onto the main bridge. Fox took a cautious step out, her small type one phaser drawn and set on maximum stun. With the amount of Anesthtazine she had put into the ventilation system, all the crew should be out for a few hours at least, but she still didn't want to take any chances.
Michael slumped over the controls of his station, his body partially covering it. Making it more difficult for the imposter to get to the controls, when she arrived. He regulated his breathing, to that of an unconscious person. He waited, wondering what she would do.
The crew was silent, all piled as if they'd just fainted from their bridge positions. Gwen lay on her side, phaser tucked underneath where it couldn't be seen. Through the floor she could hear the footsteps, slow and curious, as they surveyed the 'incapacitated' bridge crew.
Lilura was shifted and down upon her haunches, slumped into the base of her station with her head against it and hands to her sides. Her console was already locked down before the imposter got on the bridge, except for the environmental system showing what 'Clunker' thought it was.
Fox took a moment to survey the bridge. The crew was lying slumped unconscious in various positions. Good the gas had done its job. She then noticed something off. All the bridge consoles were blank.
Jon slumped down in the command chair following suit and pushed his senses out. She wasn't 100% convinced. You move Fox. Lets see if your poker is as good as your counterpart he thought.
Fox looked around, her concern growing. “Computer! Why are none of the bridge consoles working?”
The computer responded, “All bridge command functions have been suspended.”
She frowned. Suspended? How? Why? “Re-initialise them. Authorisation Fox two two Seven Beta Gamma.
“Command code invalid. Authorisation denied.”
“Damn!” She moved to the turbolift door quickly. It didn’t open.
Jon sat up, "NOW," he said simply.
Gwen rolled, allowing her body to settle into a prone firing position. Phaser already set to stun, she took a shot.
Just as Leighton fired at the imposter, the turbolift doors opened to reveal the science chief and a security officer. Both were armed and the Trill looked less than amused.
The opening of the turbolift doors caused Amelia to quickly step to the side and the phaser blast missed. Raising her own phaser she soon realised the crew was playing possum. She also realised that her back was to the wall. There were too many of them, she couldn't get off more than one shot before they took her.
At the Captain's brief signal, Michael moved from his position getting to his feet, and headed in the direction of Faux Fox. He was careful in not getting in the way of security but was placing himself in position to cover the Captain in case the imposter were to attack.
To the side, Lilura turned but remained crouched down, ready to leap in front of the phaser if need be while her tail was shifted and poised to snake out to grab the imposter's ankle for a momentum shift surprise if needed. As long as the phaser was on stun, she could take the first hit with little impact to her functioning.
Jon was impressed at his officers and Aidans excellent sense of timing. “Time to put that phaser down. We know you're an imposter,” he told the duplicate firmly.
Fox could tell it was a lost cause, but she had never surrendered in her life and wasn't about to start now. "You really don't expect me to make this easy do?" she asked with a smirk. She noticed that Hawkins had positioned himself between herself and the Captain. Just suppose I have to shoot him as well she thought as she took aim with her phaser.
Hawkins decided to make his move, leaping towards Faux Fox, if he was lucky he'll be able to tackle her, if not, his distraction would hopefully make it to where someone will take her down.
Fox saw the movement out of the corner of her eye. She quickly her phaser round fired point-blank, catching Hawkins square in the chest.
Hawkins felt the phaser's beam hit, scrambling his neurons. It was not a pleasant feeling which soon gave way to no coherent thought or consciousness. Hawkins body hit the floor at Faux Fox's feet.
With Fox firing her phaser, Aidan used her distraction to lift his own weapon. Without hesitation, he pressed the trigger and watched the orange beam shoot forth from the phaser's muzzle.
Although part of her expected it, she still flinched hard when the phaser beam stuck her in the back. All her muscles seized at once. She dropped her own phaser and hit the deck like a sack of cement.
Lilura stood up and took a step forward, her tail snaking out and grabbing the phaser the imposter dropped to keep it away from her. No telling how long the stun effect would last. Her tail moved over to hand Security the newly acquired phaser of the imposter.
Jon stood up. “Great job everyone. Leighton let’s get her new quarters in the brig and someone get Hawkins to sickbay just to check him out.
OFF:
Lieutenant Amelia Fox
Executive Officer
USS Andromeda
●○ Lieutenant JG Lilura Siana Karakalakss
Assistant Chief Engineering Officer
USS Andromeda
● Ensign Michael Hawkins
Chief Operations Officer
USS Andromeda
●●●● Captain Jonathan Reynolds
Captain
USS Andromeda
●● Lieutenant Aidan Datari
Chief Science Officer/2nd Officer
USS Andromeda
● Ensign Gwen Leighton
Apprentice Chief Security / Tactical Officer
USS Andromeda
●● Lieutenant Mitchell Graham
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Andromeda
