Hope of Deliverance

Posted on 19 Dec 2019 @ 3:36pm by Commodore Harvey Geisler & Lieutenant Commander Camila Di Pasquale & Lieutenant JG Lina Sorensen

2,175 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Truth and Justice
Location: Main Engineering
Timeline: MD 15 || 1820 hours

Lina Sorensen or rather the intruder that controlled her had tried hard to keep the systems down and also kept an eye on Enisgn Nasek who had tried to make them running again. At least Lin had been successful in keeping that Engineering officer away from her as she should not be able to see what Lina had tried to do.

Up until now, it seemed that she had always been able to be one step ahead of all the attempts of Nasek, which was very exhausting. In fact, it would have been easier to just try to knock out that interfering and quite annoying Ensign, but she was just too busy right now.

It also seemed that Captain Geisler had made his way back on the ship which seemed to cause more trouble than he had expected. All that stress had made the real Lina feel slightly better but she still had no chance to revolt against the intruder. She felt totally helpless but hoped that Nasek would be able to do something or perhaps realize that something was wrong with her.

Frustrated Nasek came out from under the console, after confirming modifying the heuristic sub governor wouldn't work. The odds of it working were remote and she had no idea why her Chief kept wanting her to focus on these things. And her Chief always seemed to be there to interfere, or at least that's what it felt like. She didn't know what was going on but she was leery about the Chief and had been trying to keep an eye on her without looking like it. Rather than bother the Chief with the failure report she immediately started working on something she felt might actually might help repair coms.

Another engineer glanced at the Chief's back and Alora with a confused expression, Alora shrugged. She didn't know either but something wasn't right. And she couldn't get the fact the two engineer's she'd sent to the bridge have never returned out of her mind.

As soon as Lina saw the Bajoran engineer coming out under the console, she headed towards her to give her another ‘important‘ task.

“No luck?,“ the Chief Engineer said with a wry look.


===[Nearby]===

With several of the upper decks secure, it was now time to turn their attention to the more critical areas of the ship, and that included Engineering. Ensign Chell Tokk followed a team of four security personnel, all armed with phasers and disc shooters to Engineering. Up until now, no attack plans had been discussed. Instead, focus remained on what to do with personnel they encountered along the way, which so far came to six engineers, all of whom seemed clean.

Ensign Cal Gon, a rustic looking human with a handlebar mustache that was barely regulation led the way, one hand on his phaser at his hip like he was an old West gunslinger. He looked back at Tokk and gave a nod. "Don't be worryin' too much there, Ensign. We have everythin' all set to be takin' care of."

The other three Security personnel, one Vulcan, a Trill and a half Betazoid had their disc guns up and ready and ignored Gon except for orders and paused to check each Jeffries Tube hatch, vent and anything that moved.

"We're about twenty meters from Engineering," Tokk reported, keeping his eyes on his tricorder. "Fifteen lifesigns inside."

"Noted," Gon said as he motioned for the Trill, a Crewman Third Class and the Vulcan, a Petty Officer First Class to take the left side of the corridor and moved forward with the half Betazoid, another Ensign. When they got to five meters, he checked his tricorder.

The entrance to Engineering was ahead, and its mighty heavy bulkhead for an entrance had been lowered to barricade the area. "Doesn't look like anyone's watching the door," Tokk reported. "But everyone's going to notice that it's opening." He slipped up to the barricade and pulled off a maintenance hatch. "Doesn't look like it's been sabotaged, just closed. "I can pop it open in no time."

"Get her done," Cal said as he and the others prepared their disc guns and phasers. "The moment that door starts to open, I want targets selected and people getting shocked," he ordered as the others got in position and acknowledged him.


===[Main Engineering]===

The blonde Chief Engineer stood in front of Nasek with her arms crossed in front of her. "I think you should have a look at the ODN and EPS-relais. I've got some strange readings from deck 10, so I guess you should have a look."

Lina who was trapped inside her own body with no contriol whatsoever knew exactly what the intruder was up to. He wanted to get rid of Nasek in Engineering by sending her in some far off Jeffries tube. She would be out of the way down here.

Nasek kept her cool and took a quick, deep breath. "What strange readings from deck 10? The internal sensors are still down." "Because we've been running hither and yon on side quests." She thought but did not say and was very proud of her neutral, polite voice.

"Tricorder readings from engineers there that I have been informed about," Lina said in a neutral voice. "I cannot leave main engineering in our situation or I would head there myself.", she added with a indifferent shrug.

If the engineers were close enough to get readings with a tricorder they were close enough to fix it their own damned selves. And why would they come back without trying or at least more information about why trying failed? This Made no sense, but Alora didn't say any of that."Fine." She said skirting the edge but still polite. Maybe should could side track once this turned out to be nothing and actually get something fixed, it's not like the Chief could give her further orders since the coms were down so she could take her own initiative. Checking to make her her repair kit was still slung securely over one shoulder she headed out.

Tokk looked up, surprised when the large blast door opened before he could finish the manual override. Strangely, he didn't react. He simply stared at the engineering Ensign with an expression many humans called that deer-in-headlights look. Someone behind him--Tokk didn't know who--took care of Tokk's momentary lapse, landing a disc on the female engineer's chest.

Alora froze as well and stared at the security officer, she'd just been beginning to move weither to run or ask them what the heck they were doing, they never found out because she dropped like a stone as the disc hit her chest.

The Trill officer quickly grabbed the young woman by the legs and dragged her around the corner before he returned while Gon and the others began to advance in Engineering, their disc guns firing at anyone there while they leapfrogged for cover.

Tokk quickly regained his composure and switched to his phaser. Unlike the others, he held his position by the door in order to provide cover fire, and to keep anyone else from fleeing Engineering. Tokk began firing his phaser, setting two, at the upper railings in Engineering, hoping to draw the fire from the upper levels while the rest of the security detail swept the lower floor.

As soon as the first shots were fired Lina jumped behind a console for cover and grabbed the small type 1 phaser she had hidden since she had taken control over engineering.

It seemed there were some security officers trying to take over control but not without a fight. Lina started firing at the first security officers she could spot.

Tokk peeked out from his cover, firing again at the upper floor. This time, he managed to strike a Benzite, who crumpled over the railing, hanging in midair. By his count, the Benzite made three down, with twelve more to go, including the Chief Engineer.

The real Lina started to feel some hope as she realized that this might be the chance of stopping her intruder from whatever he was doing. She did not know that this was an attempt to set her free again, but if it meant having her intruder captured or even worse - anything was better than spending the rest of her life that way. So she started rebelling again, shouting, doing everything in order to try to distract the intruder from the firefight. Lina had no idea if that worked, but it was better than doing nothing.

When a Benzite near Lina was shot, the Chief Engineer suddenly jumped out behind her cover and tried to reach a cover further back. From there, she would have a better aiming at security officers and there was a plasma relais near. This meant that if things went worse, she could blast away half of Main Engineering if necessary. Was there anything to lose then?

Cal led the Vulcan and the half Betazoid into the fray, firing phasers with their left hands in a left to right sweep and shooting any available target with the disc gun as they rapidly moved from one position to another. When Cal saw the Chief Engineer, he dove over the Pool Table and fired a disc at the woman when she jumped from her cover.

When the disc hit Lina at her back it immediately started to do its work and the Chief Engineer landed hard. Instead of reaching her new cover behind a console, Lina hit it hard and fell to the floor screaming. It did not take long until the Dolmoquor left Lina's body, but the young woman remained lying on the floor unconscious.

Tokk continued to fire from his position, downing two other engineers. That left four others to be cleared from the parasites, assuming that they were infected at all.

AFter the human went down, Cal led the other Security personnel farther into Engineering, firing at each target that presented themselves before scanning for the next one. However, Cal was so focused on what he could see at eye level, he missed the infected crewman that had hidden behind a console. The possessed Ensign jumped up and swung a coil spanner, hitting Gone in the head and laying him out.

Before the Ensign could attack him again, a disc landed on his chest and sent him into spasms as the Dolmoqour died in his head.

"One more!" Tokk shouted, spotting someone vaulting up the service ladder. The Bolian fired in that direction, but missed. "He's going for the Jeffries Tubes!"

The Vulcan took careful aim and realized that the person was too far away. Instead of chasing him, he pulled his phaser out and fired a long burst of heavy stun at the person and kept it on him.

The engineer, still moving when the blast hit him, kept trying to climb, but finally fell backwards under the sustained burst. Had it not been for the protective guard railing that surrounded the ladder, the engineer would have fallen two stories. "I think that's all of them!" Tokk cried out.

Slowly the black disappeared and Lina Lina groaned as she felt the piercing pain in her left chest. It took a moment for her to realize that she had the control over her body back. 'Did I just open my eyes and groan?', she thought to herself. She had never been so happy to experience pain than now as she had basically felt nothing as long as the Dolmoqour had had the control over her body.

After that, it was short work to get the rest of Engineering disced with a few even volunteering to prove they weren't possessed traitors or whatever reason they were being disced. One crewman even asked for a second and a date with the Trill, but was turned down for both.

Cal finally wrapped up the last holdout and came back. "Well, that's all of them here. Where's next?"

"Tricorder says there's one last pocket of personnel at the rear of the deck," Tokk reported, walking to the center of the room. "And that should be the last of it all."

Lina noticed the security officers coming nearer and slowly stood up. She looked around but was not able to see Nasek who had just left before security started their attck, but she couldn't see the Bajoran.

Lina headed towards one of the security officers. "Have you seen Ensign Alora Nasek... a Bajoran engineer?," she asked right away. She was worried what had happened still feeling both angry at the Dolmoquor who had clearly thought of killing her earlier as well as embarrassed that she was not able to do anything againts it. Lina just wanted to find Nasek.

"Stunned, just around the corner outside," Tokk replied to Sorenson. "She should be recovering shortly."

Lina just nodded and then headed to the engineer.

With Engineering now secured, the security detail departed, bound for the last pockets of Dolmoqour.

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