The Search For Sam

Posted on Tue Sep 27th, 2022 @ 8:51am by Lieutenant Ayana Hillis & Lieutenant JG Eislyn Jortho & Commander Jonathan Grayson & Commander Samantha Howard

Mission: Time Bandits
Location: USS Washington

Ayana took point as the trio exited sickbay and made her way down the corridor towards the turbolift. The fact they controlled the turbolifts was one advantage she was happy to have. It made moving around far easier than crawling around the tubes. Arriving at the turbolift she signaled to the others that it was safe.

Jon entered the lift along with Eislyn. Once in he spoke to Ayana and Eislyn. "We have one task, find Sam. So, we move silently and quickly, we'll avoid confrontations with the Romulans when we can as that will slow us down. We also have to consider Sam may have been captured, if so we get her back." He looked t the pair, "Questions?"

Eislyn shook her head. She understood the task and the conviction to complete it that Jon had. Ayana was in lock step with Jon's thoughts, "I concur sir." Ayana signalled the turbolift to take them to deck 2 in hopes that the task might be easy and they would find Sam locked in her quarters still.

"Good. Let's do this. Stay frosty and alert. We can't have ourselves being captured." Jon said as the lift came to a stop on deck 2. before the lift doors opened, he said, "Ayana, you take point, Eislyn you're in the middle and I'll cover our rear guard."

Dr Sam Howard had spent the last hour trying to avoid the Romulans. She'd managed to escape her quarters and had been attempting to get to sickbay. Every time she got close she'd bump into the Romulans. Sooner or later her luck was going to run out. Phaser at hand she peered around another corner, thankfully this time the corridor on the other side was empty. She hadn't seen any of the crew either, were they all locked up in their quarters? Or worse yet been capture?

The trio of Jon, Ayana and Eislyn moved slowly and stealthily down the corridor, listening for any sound of footsteps that could signal Romulans all while looking for Sam. So far their search for the CMO had been in vain as Sam remained missing but the trio continued to search.

As they continued to move they reached yet another turn in the corridor that had Ayana stop to peer around tactically. She saw nobody and motioned for the others to move forward. They continued down the corridor until they once again came to another stop point. Ayana looked back at the others, "Oh to have a Betazoid with us right about now" she said in jest as she peered around the corner once more. She didn't see anyone but she did hear soft footfalls approaching. She signaled Jon regarding the situation and waited to see who might appear.

Jon saw Ayana's signal and he and Eislyn pressed themselves closer to the wall as the footsteps drew closer. He silently agreed with Ayana that having a Betazoid with them would have been nice but they didn't and that was that. They would make do.

A young Ensign was heading for the search party, terrified of what she had already witnessed. "Please don't shoot!" She shrieked as she bumped into the team, hands so far up in the air everyone caught a whiff of the fear induced body odor. Sam meanwhile was two decks down, caught between two Romulans patrols and was trying to sneak into the science lab.

"Where are you coming from ensign?" questioned Eislyn.

"Near sickbay, there were Romulans and I was trying to hide. I don't know what's going on, why are they here?" The young Ensign babbled, her relief at running into friendly teams evident.

"We can take you to engineering while we continue our search" Eislyn said as she looked to confirm with Jon.

Jon nodded in agreement at Eislyn's statement. "Get behind the counselor, ensign and one be quiet and two do everything we do or tell you." Jon said firmly. Then in a softer tone, "You'll be safe in engineering. We have control over it."

Sam had climbed another deck, using the J-Tubes to avoid running into the Romulans as much as possible. She was torn between trying to make it to the bridge, which if there were Romulans on board would be heavily guarded, or to sickbay where she could do the most good. Most importantly though, she was trying to evade being caught. She popped her head out of the access hatch, only to see a Romulan in the corridor. Unfortunately for her, he had spotted the moment as well.

"Freeze!"

"crap and double crap" Sam slammed the hatch shut and locked it, spinning on her knees and wincing as the grill cut into her flesh through her uniform. She scurried back the way she had come, hoping to make it to the intersection before they could figure out which way she'd gone.

Jon and the others, continued to search for Sam, unaware of her current difficulties. "I wish we could scan for her, that would make this whole search go faster." He said to no one in particular.

"We can't, but maybe Celes can" Ayana replied. She hit her comm badge, =^=Celes, any chance you can scan for Sam?=^=

Deanna was working diligently trying to regain complete control over the computer and ship. The cat and mouse game she was having with the Romulans who were trying to gain complete control as well she might consider fun if in another situation, but as it were she was beginning to get annoyed. The call from Ayana came through as she had just gained control over a few important systems. =^=You are in luck, I just gained control over the internal sensors completely. Give me a moment=^= she said as she began entering commands. She is currently on Deck 5, crawling through the tubes. I assume she is trying to avoid the Romulans in pursuit. Get moving to her, I'll deal with those Romulans myself.=^=

The sound of Deanna's voice was mischievous and a touch sinister, as if she were about to do something one might consider cruel. Ayana looked back to Jon, "You see, ask you shall receive. We have an access point right here. With a bit of luck we can intercept her."

"So I see. I will keep that in mind for future reference." He bantered with Ayana. "Alright, let's get into the tube and see if we can find our wandering Sam.''

Ayana quickly got into the tube and began crawling towards the first junction, as Eislyn and Jon made their way in behind her. Eislyn sighed as she entered the tube, "The glamor of StarFleet."

Jon helped the ensign into the lift behind Eislyn. He then climbed in and closed the hatch to hide the fact they had been here. "Join Starfleet, see the universe and crawl through J-tubes." He chuckled at Eislyn.

"You'd think I would have gotten used to this after several lifetimes, and yet, it is just another depressing memory to hang on to" she replied with a soft chuckle as she began her journey to follow Ayana.

Ayana reached the junction and opened the hatch and then turned back to see how far ahead she was of the others. "Everything alright?" she questioned towards the others.

"We're fine speedy." Jon quipped as he crawled towards Ayana's position. "Stay where you are and wait for us to join you. Then we can hopefully find Sam."

There was the sound of phaser fire ahead, Sam had managed to get to one of the four way junctions in the JTubes and was trying to fight her way out taking potshots. The Romulans hadn't taken kindly to the suggestion but with little maneuver room they were simply firing weapons at where the phaser was coming from.

Hearing the phaser fire coming from ahead, Jon spoke, "That would Sam and the Romulans exchanging pleasantries. Let's go add our greetings."

Ayana smiled, "Gladly" she replied and pushed forward in a rush. She opened the hatch and spotted Sam, watching a disruptor blast hit the wall near her. "Lean to your left doctor" Ayana said calmly. As the opening became clear, Ayana fired several quick blasts from her phaser at the Romulans, downing at least one and causing them to panic.

"Hi Sam." Jon greeted his friend as he got to her position. "Mind if we join the party?" He said with a slight grin.

"Gladly, determined buggers they are" Sam retorted as another shot hit where her head had been a second ago. She'd leant left as Ayana had directed and barely avoided another shot. " How the hell did we get Romulans on board?" She asked as the JTube was scorched with energy weapons.

"They are from the future Sam." Jon replied. "They are after Shon and Ensign T'Plana. We'll explain more once we get back to Sickbay. Its under our control and in main engineering along with most of the other systems/ Unfortunately the Romulans have the bridge but we're working on changing that."

Ayana fired once again, a difficult task now that Sam and Jon left little room for her to target at the moment, but she made due. She showed her skill hitting a Romulan despite the tight window available. The danger suddenly became null as forcefields sprang to life, the last one cleaving a Romulan in two. Ayana looked to Jon and Sam, "I think Celes gained control of another system" she said with a rueful smile.

"I believe you are right Ayana and not a moment too soon." Jon observed. "Now let's get back to Sickbay so we can plan our next move on regaining control of the ship."

"How many of them are there?" Sam's eyes opened wide at the words of retaking the ship. She looked around as the Romulans tried to work around the forcefield only to fail.

"At last estimate forty but that may have changed as more could have been transported in." Jon answered. "We're working on getting a more accurate count as well as their locations." Jon replied.

"Hope you don't mind a quick stop over at engineering" Eislyn chimed in. "I believe the ensign here was promised a safe haven."

"It would make for a good stop over to check in with Deanna in person" Ayana replied, looking to Jon for his orders.

Jon nodded at both Eislyn and Ayana. So, she was and so she shall have. Yes, can't have Deanna think we abandoned her." Jon joked. "Let's go."

A short trip through the tubes back to the corridor, which then led them to the turbolift, followed by a short trip to deck 14 and they arrived finally at engineering. As they entered Deanna could be heard screaming in anger and frustration, though the language was unfamiliar. Ayana rushed over quickly to find Deanna sitting at a computer console appearing to be at war with whomever was on the other side. "I take it you are still in the grips of computer combat."

Deanna looked at Ayana, a dark gleam in her eye, "I swear to you, I will defeat this Romulan, no matter what information he has about the future."

Ayana looked over at Jon, "Perhaps the counselor might be persuaded to come over."

Eislyn looked surprised. "You must be kidding."

"Go ahead Eislyn. It isn't going to hurt anything." Jon told the counselor. "See if you can get Deanna, to regain her calm."

"Now people want me to do my job" Eislyn grumbled as she slowly made her way over to see Deanna. Celes looked a bit disheveled, eyes wild her her fingers twitching from a combination of heavy use on the computer controls and excessive caffeine intake. "Deanna, you look a bit stressed. Might I ask what seems to be the difficulty?"

"Damn time traveling Romulans!" Celes exclaimed in reply. "This one fighting me over computer control is clever, but that could be simply because he has information from the future. I won't let him win. I am going to regain control of the transporters and beam the whole lot of them into space. I promise you I will."

"Perhaps a short rest is order. You have been at this for some time, and you need to rest a bit, allow your mind to recenter and focus" Eislyn said as she motioned for Sam to come over. "You see, Dr. Howard is here, and she concurs with me that rest is what you need at this moment."

Sam moved over and nodded, understanding the stress everyone seemed to be under at the moment, some more than others.

It was at that moment that Shran chimed in over the communicator, informing them of the setback in sickbay. The news was disheartening, but it seemed to only rechannel the burdening case of sleep psychosis that Deanna was dealing with.

"Deanna, take a break. A short break to let your mind relax and not concentrate on fighting some Romulan for computer control. You aren't going to help anyone if you collapse. We have Sickbay and Main Engineering as well as control of the lifts." Jon said gently.

"You heard the captain" Celes replied. "The damn Romulans have managed to capture Shon. They have who they came here for. I have to get control of the transporters to allow the captain the chance to get them back."

"Perhaps we should rendezvous with the captain and see if he is considering an assault on the bridge" Ayana suggest.

"I'll remain here with Deanna" Eislyn chimed in."

Jon nodded at Eislyn's statement. "Very well. You, the ensign and Deanna stay here with the security personnel. The rest of us will head back to Sickbay and work on a plan to get our people and ship back."

Sam nodded in consensus and the team headed back out into the corridor, keeping a wary eye out for random Romulans.