Retaking Engineering

Posted on Fri Sep 9th, 2022 @ 12:54pm by Captain Shran dh'Klar & Lieutenant Commander Deanna Celes & Lieutenant Ayana Hillis & Commander Jonathan Grayson & Lieutenant Commander Callie Raven-Grayson

Mission: Time Bandits
Location: USS Washington

The doors to engineering opened and Ayana led the way for her group, Jon in the lead opposite her. Spotting a Romulan at a forward control panel she fired, dropping him.

Leaving Logan to guard their rear, Jon and Callie crept forward. They stopped when two Romulans came into view. nodding at Callie, he fired and as he did, he heard Callie fire her phaser next to him.

Callie hoped she didn’t miss, smiling as she hit the Romulan square on bringing him down. She wasn’t going to party just yet, but it was a start.”

Disruptor fire streamed through the forward portion of engineering as Shran and the others pushed forward and returned fire. Shran and Deanna seemed to fire almost simultaneously as they hit a pair of Romulans near the warp core. Ayana pushed forward and then stopped and looked back towards Shran and the others.

Shran crept forward and finally saw the situation laid out before him. The remaining Romulans stood standing before them, disruptors pointed at the engineering personnel that had been on duty when they took the area.

"Surrender, or they die" said one of the Romulans.

Jon saw the captain along with Deanna and Ayana facing the five Romulans left standing in Engineering. His and Callie's position was still safe. He slid behind an engineering console and whispered to Callie. "The Captain and others are facing the remaining Romulans. They don't know we're here. We can take them by surprise. On my mark, just start shooting. I can take the Romulans and that will give the Captain and the others chance to return fire as well."

“Just be careful Jon” Callie offered a concerned look. “I don’t want you getting hurt.”

Deanna was aware of Jon's plan. It was the sort of thing the captain might do. Bold, brazen, defiant, hard to say if that was Jon's natural personality showing or something that had rubbed off serving with the captain so long, probably a bit of both. She reached out telepathically to Shran and Ayana and told them a single word, "Flank."

Shran worked to stall for time, "You out number us, but I'm not one to back down Romulan. I'm aware of far more than you believe, including your temporal signature."

The Romulans all tried to not show surprise, but not all of them were successful in the endeavor. Shran was simply biding his time as Jon and Callie eased into position. 30 seconds, maybe a minute at most before Jon would be in prime position to fire.

Jon moved away from Callie getting into a prime firing position. Once he was where he wanted to be, he looked back at Callie and held his hand for her to see. Five fingers straight up, and as he counted silently, *Five, four, three, two, one* It was followed by a quick, *I love you.* Then he rose and began firing on the Romulans in a methodical fashion.

In the span of a single heartbeat, Shran, Deanna, and Ayana all fired in near unison as soon as they heard Jon's phaser discharge. What seemed like an impossible situation quickly turned into a quick victory. A few of the engineers had been injured, but nothing that couldn't be dealt with with the emergency medkit.

Ayana dealt with the Romulans, moving them into a small alcove of engineering and incasing it with a forcefield to keep them out of the way. Deanna worked with Callie to treat the injured StarFleet personnel, leaving Shran and Jon to reassert control of the ship.

"Computer, initiate complete control override to engineering, authorization Shran-1-0-0-1-Alpha." Shran looked to Jon to enter his code as well.

Jon gave his code, quickly, "Authorization, Grayson-2-0-1-1 Beta." Then waited for the computer announce that the Washington was again under Federation control.

The console beeped. "Authorization confirmed. Computer control routed to Engineering."

Celes made her way over and quipped, "I see you guys are capable of simple tasks without me."

Shran gave her a wry smile. "So it would seem. Lockdown the bridge and activate security fields to limit Romulan movement."

"So, we have control of the ship, but we also have Romulans onboard, and they need to be dealt with." Jon pointed out.

"Hate to interrupt the celebration, but the Romulans on the bridge apparently are in some control" said Celes solemnly.

Shran looked at her, "What do you mean some control?"

"We have primary computer control, but they seem to have access to certain systems and have raised forcefields and restricted transporter control somehow. They also seem to have navigational control and have altered our course, putting us on to a system in the Neutral Zone."

"We can't stop the ship?" Shran questioned.

"Outside ejecting the warp core, no sir."

Shran considered the situation and looked to Jon, "I'm thinking we need to go to the bridge. Your thoughts?"

Jon didn't answer Shran as he looked at Deanna, "Wait a second Deanna, why can't we just pinch off the power flow to the systems on the bridge? I have no desire to visit the Neutral Zone and if we can't do that, then flood the bridge with gas. Knock em out."

"Excellent suggestions, but they seem to have considered those options and found work arounds. They have directed power to the bridge and initiated a fractal code to access the power systems. I may be able to break it, but we'd likely be wherever they plan on taking us before I do. This same code has locked out navigational control for reference. They also have managed to limit control of environmental systems, and from what I see, any failed attempt to access environmental systems at this time will result in an immediate deactivation of environmental systems across the entire ship, with the exception of the bridge. They know are tactics and have devised countermeasures for them. I may be able to get around them, but as I said, we'll be in the neutral zone before I do."

"Time travelers..."Shran began, "which means they know our standard tactics, regulations, and have the ability to have studied our actions. They know how this is supposed to play out. What we need to do is take actions that can't be predicted, irrational ideas, take chances."

Ayana approached, "You mean retaking the ship using guerilla tactics."

"They know what we are supposed to do, so the option available is to do things we shouldn't do. I know that flies against all logic, but as no Vulcans are present, I believe it should make sense to all present." Shran looked to Jon. "We ignore the bridge for now. We focus our attention on two primary goals, removing all other Romulans aboard, and keeping those they need away from those on the bridge, specifically Shon, T'Plana, and the mystic that came aboard. It is like when you play Strategema against a master, the best option isn't to play to win, but rather to frustrate and force an error."

Jon was clearly unhappy with this. "If we're going to do that, someone should go to her quarters and safeguard her. While another group go and harass the Romulans."

Shran nodded. "I can understand that option. Perhaps you'd like to volunteer to guard, and I can lead the harassment team."

Jon looked at Shran. "Not particularly no."

“Then that just leaves one option” Callie looked at the others. “I’ll have to make sure Shon, T-Plana, and their mystic stay hidden out of the way.”

Jon's head shot around to look at Callie, "No Callie, you aren't going by yourself. You have a baby to think about. I'll go with you to protect Shon and her daughter."

Callie knew better than to argue with her husband. “Okay” she smiled warmly. “That’s if the Captain approves?” She looked towards Shran.

"I won't get in the middle of a marital squabble" Shran said with a grin. "Jon, you and Callie head to deck 3 for Shon. The Vulcan mystic is on deck 3 as well." Shran turned to Celes, "What is the situation in sickbay?"

"Handful of Romulans present there" she responded.

"I'll head to sickbay with Ayana to free our people there, which should include T'Plana. We will use Engineering as our base of operations until we retake the bridge. Celes, you remain here with Logan and provide technical support as needed, see if you can work around these computer issues."

"Aye sir" Celes responded.

"No squabble sir." Jon replied as he looked at Callie, "Ready to go Callie?"

Callie nodded. “I’m ready.”

"Then let's do this." Jon replied. He looked to Shran and Ayana. "Good luck." Then at Deanna and Logan. "Stay safe." Then he and Callie were gone down the corridor.