Chaos on the Bridge

Posted on 17 Sep 2019 @ 7:00am by Story Teller & Commander Jayla Kij & Lieutenant Commander Arjin Djinx & Lieutenant Commander Joey Geisler & Lieutenant Commander Camila Di Pasquale & Lieutenant JG Damian Akorem & Lieutenant JG Lina Sorensen & Petty Officer 1st Class Allen Miller
Edited on on 17 Sep 2019 @ 7:00am

4,212 words; about a 21 minute read

Mission: Truth and Justice
Location: Bridge
Timeline: MD 15 || 1530 hours

===[Bridge]===

Attention all hands, Captain Geisler is working with the enemy and is not to be trusted. Apprehend him immediately!"

What the hell? Joey wondered after she'd heard the Chief of Security's voice. Captain Geisler was working with the enemy? What enemy? Of course, there was the common sense answer, but was it even really a possibility? There were just too many questions and not nearly enough answers, but sadly, those were the least of their problems. They'd just lost some critical systems. "Report," she ordered. "Someone tell me what's going on."

Kelly looked around when she heard the Security Chief announce that the Captain was working with the enemy and wondered if he had been made Dolmoquor or if Di Pasquale was trying to discredit him. She glanced at the brunette in the command chair and then at others on the bridge before looking back at her console. She closed her eyes for a moment, then reached out to the Boreriri to see what he wanted her to do.

"Maintain the status quo," was all the Boreriri communicated back to Kelly. She was but one person on the bridge and easily overpowered. Now was not the time to play all of their cards.

Confirmed Kelly thought back.

Damian looked around at the other members of the crew on the bridge. The enemy he repeated to himself. "Ma'am, all internal communications are down, as are internal sensors" He pulled up some diagnostics on his console screen. Another beeping alarm. "And the security grid was just taken offline." He reported to Lieutenant Geisler, who was currently in command.

"How long until you can get them operational?" Joey asked. It seemed that their situation was growing more and more tense as the seconds ticked by.

I'm not sure. Diagnostics show they are still operational, just locked out. Someone with a clearance code a lot higher than mine has put them all into standby mode. I'm working on overriding it, but it's going to take some time unless some Admiral turns up with a code higher than everyone else." Damian replied.

"And that's not going to happen. Do what you can," she said, pinching the bridge of her nose. She didn't know how Harvey handled this day in and day out. Without some of their critical systems, things seemed damn near impossible right now.

"Aye Sir." Damian had no idea how he was going to even get close, but he had no other choice. Time to get to work he thought to himself, as he began running various subroutines.

===[Deck Five]===

Outside of the Starboard Observation Lounge, Camila gave orders to two of the Scruna to begin rounding up crew and shoving them into one of the cargo bays, conscious or otherwise. The last one, she gave orders for him to hunt down Commander Teixeira and the big monkey like alien sniffed the floor where he had been, then bounded off down the corridor and out of sight.

She stood there for another moment, then went through her Tactical belt and smiled. She had enough on her to do some damage, but needed more and she was locked out of her Security access. Still, she set her phaser on setting three and began to walk down the corridor. Anyone she encountered, she simply phasered them and left them lie where they hit the ground. The Boreriri may have other ideas but she had a vendetta and if the one eyed alien wanted her to do something else, he'd contact her.

And contact her the Boreriri did. "Get to the bridge before Geisler or Teixeira. Don't let either of them sway the crew. Reinforcements are coming."

For the last hour, Allen Miller had been visiting the primary weapon lockers in the main corridors under the guise of routine inspections. He knew, or rather the host knew, that when it hit the fan, personnel would immediately go for those lockers. Especially Security personnel. He also knew that he wouldn't be able to get to them all. But the longer he could keep them running around looking for weapons, the better. At this particular weapons locker, he removed a power cell from the last phaser and scanned it. A frown crept across his face as he placed the fully charged cell in his bag and installed a depleted one. When he heard his bosses voice over the commbadge, he smiled. It had begun. He quickly closed the locker and headed back to Security to stow the bag when realized that what he was carrying could be used as a big honkin' bomb if done right.

Miller then reached out with mind to the Boreriri with his idea and what they thought of it.

"Assist the one called Di Pasquale and secure control of the ship," commanded the Boreriri.

"Of course. I will find her and we will gain control of the ship. He set his phaser to it's highest setting and shouldered the bag he still had. Now all he had to do was find Di Pasquale in all this chaos. Wait... Do you know where Di Pasquale is? he asked the Boreriri.

"Bridge,"answered the coordinator.

Once Allen learned that Camila was on the Bridge, he headed for the Armory to gear up for whatever awaited him. When he arrived, he traded his hand phaser for a phaser rifle which he set on wide beam. He then removed all of the other stuff from his tactical belt and loaded it with stun grenades. Once ready, he shouldered his bag of power cell bombs and headed for the Bridge.


===[Bridge]===

Camila stepped out of the bridge and looked around; things seemed tense, but she expected it to be. She glanced at Khan at the helm, then at the others on the bridge. "Lieutenant Geisler, what's the situation?" she asked as she headed to Tactical. "With comms and sensors down, I haven't found that traitor yet."

Joey turned her attention to Camila and rose to her feet. She didn't believe for a second that Harvey was a traitor, and no one was going to convince her otherwise. In fact, things were going just fine until Camila returned with the delegation from Penduli V, which was when shit hit the proverbial fan. "Which traitor would that be, Lieutenant?" the Intelligence Chief found herself asking. "Because, from where I'm standing, there are only a few possibilities, and the Captain isn't one of them. You seem to be more in the know than I am, so why don't you woman up and explain the situation to me."

"Well, how about one Captain Harvey Elmer Geisler, Lieutenant?" Camila said casually as she faced the taller brunette. "The one that pulled a phaser on me and tried to kill one of the Scruna? Or maybe the Executive Officer who ran and left him there alone after taking my Security clearance, hmm? From where I stand, all those actions scream traitor to me. For being in Intelligence, you don't seem very bright when it comes to adding one plus one."

After hearing that the Executive Officer had abandoned Harvey, Joey wanted nothing more than to claw his eyes out, however, there were much bigger things she needed to worry about at the moment. A small smile played on her lips. "Which neither man would do unless they were given a good reason to. Actions speak louder than words. And when shit got heavy, they stuck it out with the rest of the crew... had their backs... instead of running like a coward. They weren't drinking themselves into an early grave... punishing themselves for something that was beyond their control," she pointed out. "I can add one plus one just fine, Lieutenant, and I sense a traitor aboard the ship, however, it isn't our Captain or Executive Officer."

Inwardly, the real Camila screamed and fought for control of her mind and body and cursed Joey in vicious Italian. Outwardly, the Dolmoqour sneered. "Really, resorting to the past, Joelle? That's rather petty of you. Here I thought we were friends. I guess you sleeping with the Captain really made you grow a pair, didn't it? Where's our Captain now, I ask you? Where's the Executive Officer? Who took out the security grid, comms and sensors? it wasn't me, that's for sure."

There were so many things Joey wanted to say, mostly about being able to keep a man, but where was that going to get her? She was a Starfleet officer, and needed to act like it. The Intelligence Chief didn't believe for a second that neither Harvey, nor Thiago, were traitors, but she wasn't thinking along the same lines where Camila was concerned. And, goading Camila into slipping up obviously wasn't going to work, so she'd have to bide her time and see to it that someone else, if there was anyone else, did. She extended a hand toward Camila. "Your tactical belt, Lieutenant. I'm going to secure it for you. Should you require it, I'll also retrieve it for you."

This situation is going to get out of hand he thought to himself. Damian sat there, an air of trepidation around him, wondering how much more the situation on the bridge was going to deteriorate.

If it was in her power, Kelly would have been eating popcorn and watching the two department chiefs slinging insults at her. The Dolmoqour, however, was disgusted,

"Certainly," Camila said agreeably but instead of removing the belt, she drew the phaser and shot Petty Office Canoon Fodder in the face on setting seven, killing the young officer after cooking his head. The smell of burned pork filled the air and the sound of his body hitting the floor seemed exceptionally loud. She turned the phaser back towards Joey a moment later. "Or I could just take control of the ship unless you want to make Harvey a widower."

The smell of charred flesh made her stomach turn, but she did her level best to ignore it. "And how do you plan on doing that?" Joey asked without even flinching when Camila pointed the phaser at her. "You said it yourself. You have no clearance. So, who are you working with? Surely, you're not doing this all on your own."

Arjin was watching the whole display with increasing disbelieve. First the behaviour of Lt. Carmichael. And the incident between Ops and Conn. Then the message the Captain was a traitor. And now this display of unnessesary violence. Something was definately wrong.
For now he kept a low profile. But If he had any kind of knowledge of human behaviour, he would say Lt. Gheisler had the right point of the proverbial stick.

The look of shock passed over Damian's face. What the hell is going on! he thought to himself. He contemplated diving toward an equipment locker to grab a phaser but decided against that. He wouldn't make it all the way out of his seat before Lieutenant Di Pasquale would have already aimed and fired at him. And it was evident her phaser was not on stun.

"Let's just say I'm tired of the shit," the omber haired woman said. "The Captain kept rejecting all of my Security protocols which were designed to prevent things like this, so I decided to show him what could be done. I don't pty him because pity is treason. I would have shot him, but he transported out after Teixeira ran away like a coward. So I came here to wait for him, but you just had to run your mouth and defend your husband instead of acting like a proper Starfleet officer and initiating an investigation."

She took a few steps back and looked at the others on the bridge but kept the phaser pointed at Joey. "You all can do as I say or you can join the Petty Officer whose smell you're all drooling over," she said as she looked back at Joey.

Kelly gave a nod as if in compliance at what the Security Chief said. "I don't want to die," she said.

The Intelligence Chief had to buy some time, because giving up the ship just wasn't an option. Now, or any other time someone decided it would be a good idea to try. Her thoughts were running a mile a minute, then an idea struck her. "Harvey never was the traitor, was he? You need him for some reason," she stated. "Him or Teixiera. Communications are down, but let me send out a subspace message. I'll even send a message to every terminal on the ship. One of them will show." She had a feeling they didn't get rid of all of the Consortium, but she had no idea Camila would fall in with them.

"My, but you're smart, aren't you?" Camila asked sarcastically. "Go ahead and send the message. There's no one out there to answer, but if Harvey and Teixeira agree to turn themselves in, I'll agree not to shoot any more people. Oh, there's just one more thing."

"What would that be?" Joey asked.

Camila held her left hand out but not close enough for the Intel Chief to slap and something moved on the back of it. "Just accept Dolmoqour as your master and you'll see that I'm right to do what I'm doing."

It was in that moment that- in one of those perfect timing scenarios that exist only in the very best of suspense fiction- that Jayla bust onto the bridge, uniform ripped, a cut on one cheek, and normally controlled curls flying in every direction. In her eyes was both unbridled rage and unfettered terror, not warring with one another, but both present at the same time, in the same way that colors swirled on the skin of an apple. The voice that ripped from her throat was strangled and raspy, as if she were fighting for every word. "LIAR!" she shrieked, one finger pointing at di Pasquale. "You are the traitor!" And with that, her eyes flickered something akin to relief and she collapsed on the floor, her body completely spent.

"Cosa?!" Camila shouted in surprise Italian and spun around in time to see the psychotic Trill they had infected and growled. "You worthless spotted...." She brought her arm up and aimed at the doctor.

This was exactly what Joey was waiting for. She didn't need to look in the other direction to know that Jayla had already hit the floor thanks to the thud. Taking a deep breath, the Intelligence Chief found herself praying to whoever would listen and dropped back, quickly executing a spinning heel kick aimed at face level. Yes, she was pregnant, but given the way her body was angled, her swollen abdomen didn't get in the way. Many years of mixed martial arts training as well as hours spent in the gym were definitely good for something.

Possessed or not, there was no way that Camila could avoid the boot flying at her head with her attention on Jayla. She started to say something else that turned into a garbled mess as she fell forward, the phaser firing harmlessly into the deck before she lost her grip on it.

She wanted to order someone else to get the phaser, but a lot could happen in the time it would take them to get to it, and she was closer. Joey moved to it and bent down to pick it up, then leveled it down at Camila. She was a traitor... Consortium... the lowest of the low. "Your tactical belt... take it off," she ordered, thumbing the setting of the phaser back down to heavy stun.

The inner Camila wanted her to to be phasered but the Dolmoquor didn't. It reached for the Tactical Belt, then yanked a stun grenade from it, but her actions were still sluggish.

"I'm sorry," Joey said softly just before she fired the phaser to stun Camila. She couldn't allow the entire bridge crew to be rendered unconscious. Especially not when Camila, and whoever else was involved, wanted to take over the ship.

With a groan, the Chief of Security fell unconscious.

At that moment, a sound erupted from multiple stations, including the Ops console and the Master Situation Display, the tone consistent with a master alarm.

Arjin wanted to step in and take the phaser. But he was to late. Then suddenly the master alarm sounded. He looked at his station to get more info an to check If his command codes where still active. Which fortunately they were. “Report.”, he shouted at the Ops station.

"Ma'am, there has been an explosive decompression in the main shuttlebay. If I'm reading this right, it was hit with a torpedo." Another alarm on the panel. "And there's an unauthorized runabout launch," Damian replied, in response to the alarm.

On the forward viewscreen, a runabout shot out from under the Black Hawk's hull before turning and veering for the minefield. Close behind it was another runabout and one of the ship's fighters.

Shit! "Seal off the shuttlebay," Joey ordered, tucking the phaser she held into the waistband of her pants as her attention moved to the viewscreen. She could only assume who was on that runabout, but to her surprise, one of the fighters and a second runabout appeared. What the hell was going on, and who the hell ordered the others to give chase to the first? "I want to know who is inside both runabouts and that fighter."

"I'd like to suggest using tractor beams on them," Kelly said after apparently recovering from the shock of what was happening. The Dolmoqour in her couldn't see a way for the young woman to take any hostile action yet, so it was content to wait. Meanwhile, she sent a mental message to the Boreriri relaying what had happened.

The turbolift doors opened and Allen stepped out, quickly taking in the surroundings. Crap, he thought to himself when he saw Camila. This wasn't good. "I got armed and came up here as soon as I heard something about traitors," Allen said. "Protocol to secure the Bridge and all that." He then looked at the viewscreen. "Kinda looks like they're on the run right now." Then he looked down at the stunned Camila. "And maybe they forgot one. I'll take her into custody."

Joey turned her attention toward Miller when he appeared on the bridge. What was it with random people popping up on the bridge? It was time she regained control of the situation. "And do what with her? The Security grid has been knocked out, which means no brig," the Intelligence Chief stated, then pointed to Jayla. "Take him..." She pointed at the dead body. "to the morgue, and send someone back up to retrieve Doctor Kij. I'll handle Di Pasquale myself."

Allen was about to answer when she continued telling him exactly what was wrong . When she ordered him to do Medical's job, he huffed. The Dolmoquor couldn't believe that this host had actually worked with the woman before. He then proceeded to adjust his phaser rifle to narrow beam and set it to it's max setting. He casually pointed it at the corpse and fired. The body of Petty Officer Fodder disintegrated. Allen rested the rifle on his shoulder. "Done. Now no one has to worry about it. Ever." He backed into the turbolift from which he'd just exited but stood enough in the way of the sensors to keep it open. "If see anyone from Medical while I'm performing my duties as a Security officer, I might send them up here. In the meantime," he took a deep bow, "goodbye everyone. I'd say it's been a pleasure, but it hasn't." He moved from the senors and the doors closed. Allen announced his destination and the lift whirred to life. Now came the matter of where to detonate his little bomb. And how far away from it he needed to be before shooting it. Or close.

Damien didn't know what the hell was going on. He was focused on trying to break the encryption currently disabling internal communication, sensors and the security grid. He looked up at the sound of a phaser shot, saw no one hit the floor, and carried on with his decryption.

With that order passed down, Joey made her way over to Camila and removed the stun grenade from her hand to set aside carefully. Once that was done, she pulled some restraints from the belt the Security Chief still wore and secured Camila's arms behind her back, then took possession of the well stocked tactical belt. "Someone move her to a corner where I can keep an eye on her," she ordered, clipping the belt back into place and slinging it over her shoulder. Her mouth opened as she attempted to speak, but instead of words, a pained scream left her lips. Joey collapsed to her knees when the pain grew to be too much for her, and it was taking every ounce of self control she had not to lose consciousness.

Arjin left his station to comply with Lt. Geisler’s order to put Lt. Di Pasquale in a corner when she suddenly started to scream. He hurried his pace and went towards her. “Do you need any assistance Lieutenant?”

Kelly jumped to her feet and ran to put a shoulder under the much taller woman's arm and side so she wouldn't fall. She knew what was going on because she had screamed the same way in the holodeck when Quinn converted her. She glared at the spotted Scientist. "No, I'm sure she always screams like this for no reason. Take care of the crazy Security Chief."

Arjin was taken aback with the ensign’s outburst. Was everyone going crazy here?
“Ensign, you are out of line.”, he responded. “Take care of the doctor. I’ll take care of the Captain’s wife. Lt. Di Pasquale is not going anywhere for now. That is an order.” He stepped in and supported Lt. Geisler.

"The only way you'd know a line is if you played connect the spots, Duhmander," Kelly growled. "And you take care of that crazy ranting bitch. She's your own kind."

The pain was nearly unbearable, but the foolishness around her was even more so. As the parasite began to take control, things became a little more clearer. Joey rose to her feet, using their help as she did so, giving her head a nod. "I'm fine... but the two of you sound like children arguing over who gets to play with the new toy," she snapped, unable to help herself. "And Ensign Khan, that's the second time you've stepped out of line with a superior today. If we weren't in need of a pilot, I'd throw your ass off this bridge so fast your mother's head would spin. Sit your ass in your chair and check yourself."

"Commander Djinx... you're above your behavior both in rank, and in age. You've got a job to do. I suggest you do it. Any further outbursts from anyone will result in proper reprimand when the time is right. Do I make myself clear?" the Intel Chief demanded.

"Yes, Lieutenant," Kelly said as she sent a mental message to the Boreriri that the bridge was theirs. She looked back at Joey and it seemed as if she had developed a twitch in her face before she turned away again after making sure the buxom Intel Chief was steady on her feet and headed to her console.

The viewscreen displayed a bright flash of light in the distance, similar to that of a warp core breach, though on a small scale.

Arjin was taken aback by what was happening, “Yes Lieutenant.”, he replied whilst going back to his station. When suddenly the viewscreen displayed an explosion. As most of the heads turned towards the screen, he reached for the grenade the Lt. had put aside. As he reached his station, he looked at the data displayed. “It seems a fighter has exploded and the runabout outside is damaged.”, he stated.

Joey looked to the viewscreen. "Lifesigns?”

“None detected.”, he answered.

The Intelligence Chief still didn't know who was on the runabout, but she had an idea of who was in the fighter. Without another word, she moved over to the center chair and took a seat. Harvey was missing, and so was Thiago. What were they up to? She assumed they'd know soon enough, but for now, she planned to await further orders.

The Boreriri, meanwhile felt the minds of the Followers on the bridge. "Maintain the status quo," he cautioned them. "Reinforcements are on the way. We will convert more for your aid." The alien then remained in a moment of quiet reflection. This day had been chaotic thus far. Hopefully, the Dolmoqour soldiers could contain themselves enough before the second round began.

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