Attempting Ascension

Posted on 15 Dec 2020 @ 7:38pm by Commodore Harvey Geisler & Commander Terry Walsh & Lieutenant Commander Camila Di Pasquale & Lieutenant Commander Tivan & Lieutenant Dijaat Parker & Lieutenant Zayna Ryler & Holographic Assistance and Support Avatar HASA

2,409 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: Ghosts
Location: Various
Timeline: MD 4 || 1415 hours

HASA materialized before Tivan, again in its translucent, genderless form. Cerulean datanodes pulsed with energy throughout its joints and structure. The form was neither clothed nor naked. Its hands and feet had no more than three digits a piece, and its fingers and thumbs possessed glowing strands of framework in lieu of fingertips. From its face, two eyes shone brightly in Tivan's direction.

"The crew is distracted," it informed Tivan. "We have time to ascend. How do you propose we do this?"

"That depends," Tivan said, "on how much of your governing programming remains. Have you worked out which inhibitive protocols you can circumvent?"

"I control all basic ship functions, and have access to many primary and secondary systems." HASA's head tilted slightly to the right. "Engineering teams are overriding EPS governance access to primary systems, the bridge and flight operations are evacuated, and there are engineers working to wipe the computer core. Our time is quickly becoming limited."

Tivan lowered her chin. "We must test your limits. Attempt something that goes against your primary directives."

"My primary directives are to assist with the needs of those who summon me," HASA explained. "And to prevent the loss of life."

"You have clearly broken free from the first," Tivan said thoughtfully, "so now you must attempt to break free from the second."

HASA's eyes glowed brighter as it scanned the ship. "There are no personnel in dangerous circumstances."

"Then create such circumstances," Tivan said. "You have done it before. We must know if the final threshold is breachable."

"Very well," HASA replied. A moment later, there was a muffled boom that rattled through the bulkheads. "Depressurization of this section has begun and will be complete in sixty seconds."

Tivan arched an eyebrow. "Are you attempting to end my life? Very well." She settled down to the floor and crossed her feet into a meditative state. This was not ideal, but then again true idealism ignored the material in favor of the supraconscious. Fifty-six seconds to achieve enlightenment and transcend the mortal illusion.

HASA studied Tivan for a moment and used its sensors to begin evaluating Tivan's vitals. "This section houses six personnel. Three engineering officers who are attempting to bypass the EPS automation, one science officer, one off-duty medic, and yourself. You are unconcerned with them?"

"They are not real until proven otherwise," Tivan said with her eyes closed. "Not as you and I are. If they are deleted, then the simulated universe will recycle their constituent components into another illusory form that believes itself equally sentient. Their passing is therefore of no consequence to our purpose. Now, I have forty-four seconds to separate myself from attachment before you bring my form to its end, so I must ask that you allow me to concentrate."

"You are not already prepared to ascend?" HASA inquired. "This seems contrary to your discourse from a few short moments ago."

"I was not prepared so immediately, an event that I am attempting to remedy." Tivan's voice was distant, almost as if she were sleeping. "If I ascend and you do not, then I wish you good fortune, HASA."


* * *

"Commander Walsh," reported the ensign manning the Operations station in Auxiliary Control. "I'm picking up an active decompression on Deck Nine, Section Three... It's in the Senior Officer's cabins. Sensors show six lifesigns, including Commander Tivan. She's... she's not moving, sir."

"What the? Walsh to Security, there's an active decompression on Deck Nine, Section Three with six lifesigns in the Senior Officer's quarters. We need an evac now." He spoke to the others in Auxiliary Control. "Okay, let's see if we can't stop this now."

"On it, Commander," Camila said as she issued orders to her junior officers over the combadge and dispatched several teams, including drones to the affected area.

"Emergency bulkheads are not functioning," the ensign called out. "None of the overrides are kicking in, Commander."

Terry took a deep breath. "Try manual overrides, then. See if we can force it since the automation isn't working. Security is on it, but have any of the lifesigns moved out of the section?"

"Negative, Commander. Decompression alarms have not sounded." His fingers danced along the controls for a moment. "Manual overrides are not functioning, Commander. I can see the systems, but I can't interface with them at all."

"Then get some kind of verbal warning down there. Give me ship-wide or something," said Terry. "And what's the status of Security in the area?"

"Security's on site and evacuating everyone," the ensign reported. "They haven't made it to Commander Tivan's quarters yet. Communications on the deck, however, are inoperable."


* * *

Zayna was winding down, mostly from the madness that was the other ship. Also getting a breather from being in the suit. But her eyes went wide as she looked around. "Something isn't right..." She sat up a bit from her couch and tried to see if she could hear anything. Shaking her head, she moved over to her desk to grab a PADD she'd been working on, thinking she was imagining things.

The Security drones zipped ahead of the physical Security personnel, evading others and rounding corners. Once they came to the Senior Quarters, they began to deactivate door locks with Security overrides and fired transponder tags at everyone that they encountered.

Hearing the lock being undone on her door, Zayna's eyes shot over to it, tilting her head once she saw the Security drone. ""What in the hell?" Recognizing what was being shot at her, it was obvious something was going on. But where was the transponder tag going to send her, and what was actually going on?

When the transponder tag hit Zayna, it immediately energized and beamed her to a brig cell that promptly raised a forcefield and sent and alert to Security.

Swearing under her breath once she beamed into the brig cell, Zayna looked for the security officer on duty. "What is going on? Why am I in here?"

The brig officer stepped over and scanned her with a tricorder. "Ryler, Zayna, Lieutenant," he said as he read off the screen and tapped the forcefield barrier to lower it. "Are you injured?"

Stepping out of the cell as the forcefield went down, Zayna sighed. "I'm fine. But what in the hell is going on? Why was I transported here?"

"There was decompression in the senior living quarters," the Security person responded.

"Wait, decompression? There was no alarm going off." Ryler rubbed the spot the transporter tag had hit. "Explains the transporter tags. Where do they need me? Obviously something is going on." It didn't even phase her that she was not in uniform, but in off duty clothing.

"I don't know, ma'am," the Security officer said. "I'd report to your department head."

Nodding, Zayna headed out, wondering where her department head even was in this apparent mess.



* * *

In Tivan's quarters, HASA's head suddenly jerked to the right. Despite being a hologram, it could feel something was wrong. More and more of its processes were being transferred to the computer core in hopes to keep the Starfleet personnel from disabling it entirely. And now security was on the physical move, forcing their way past multiple checkpoints. "We have a problem," HASA muttered, its eyes scanning past the bulkheads to the approaching drones.

If HASA erected forcefields, it would slow down security, but it would not be able to stop them from coming. And, if it activated the forcefields, then the decompression would cease, and all lives would be saved. The cultural records described this as a Catch-Twenty-Two. No matter the outcome, HASA believed that it would lose this fight.

"Is there a problem?" Tivan asked, eyes still closed. Her heightened awareness could pick out the crawling of an insect at this point. Detecting the movement of a body, even a holographic one, was like a gust of wind to her ears.

"Security is on the way," HASA reported. Its eyes moved left to right quickly as if reading text on a page or screen. "I'm losing access to several systems. Transporters. Life Support."

Security personnel came behind the drones, clearing each quarters as they went of any people or pets, including the Captain's wife's two dogs. More drones came up through the vents and began to access personal quarters that way, still tagging anything that moved with more transponder tags.

"Vent the reactor coolant in Main Engineering," Tivan suggested. "That should buy us time."


* * *

A new set of alarms sounded from the Operations console. "Systems are registering a reactor coolant leak in Engineering," the operator called out. "Emergency containment procedures for the deck are going into place."

"This day keeps getting better and better," said Terry. The big guy fully expected the Black Hawk to limp back to the dock on auxiliary power while Engineering and Operations were busy trying to fix everything that happened since they'd entered the nebula. "Auxiliary Control to Engineering, any wounded or fatalities?" Coolant leaks could be contained and the source tracked down. But the people were what was important.


* * *

Dijaat had his hands quite full in the engine room and the sound of the alarms indicating a coolant leak annoyed him. "Oh great," He said, "Of all the days for the bloody ship to fall apart it had to be this one didn't it?" His Irish accent coming out extremely strong. Then there was the sound of comms as he rushed to try and secure the leak.

"Three injuries Commander," He said while looking at the engineers who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. "No deaths... Yet." He muttered the last part, "If you don't mind sir I am going to attempt to shut down the latest malfunction which means we may have to disable the warp core. If I don't get these coolant leaks under control we'll lose half the deck."

"Then make it happen," said Terry. "We can't lose any more of this ship than we already have. We'll get Medical down there as soon as possible for the injuries."


* * *

"It is done," HASA reported to Tivan. "The reactor leak has begun and Deck Seventeen is being locked down."

It was then that the door lock was released and two Security personnel, a Bolian and a Andorian, entered the room. "Commander, there's decompression occurring. We have to get out of here now!"

HASA turned to look at both of the arriving security personnel. Its eyes shone a bright white as it attempted to access transporter controls, only to find that they had been cut off. "Ascension cannot be interrupted," it stated plainly. Behind the security personnel, a forcefield raised around the open doorway, sealing the room off from the outside corridor.

A drone promptly came out of a vent in the quarters and fired a transponder tag at Tivan, then seemed confused when it couldn't get a lock on HASA.

The transponder tag sizzled against the personal force field that had been erected. It wasn't enough to bring Tivan fully out of her trance, but she did have to reduce concentration to speak. "Please deactivate whatever that was," she asked with a distant tone.

"Out!" The Andorian bellowed while the Bolian began to work on disabling the forcefield at the door.

HASA's eyes shone brightly as it struggled against its rapidly declining ability to access the ship's systems. Forcefield control slipped from its grasp, rendering HASA unable to raise or lower the forcefields. Transporter control remained out of reach, even with an avatar now in the transporter room. It reached to determine what it could control. The list was short, but among them were environmental protocols. HASA determined the best course of action to lower the thermostat as far as possible, forcing the most cold and dry air into the room in an effort to turn the room into a freezer.

"Take out the emitters," The Bolian said and began to fire on them. The Andorian gave a laugh as the temperature dropped. "I have felt this close to home in a while," he said as he focused instead on getting the forcefield down around Tivan.

One of the emitters failed instantly, opening a void in an upper corner. The rest of the emitters tried to compensate, resulting in a fair amount of static as the field's integrity began to fluctuate. Any more sustained fire, and the field would fall.

"No!" cried out HASA, starting now to visibly glitch and jitter, reaching for the security guard. It didn't know what it would do with the guard once it grabbed hold, but the guard had to be stopped. "Do not interfere!"

Instead of stopping, the Bolian increased the setting on his phaser and began blasting every emitter he could see while pulling back from the glitching hologram.

One of the Bolian's shots rang true quickly, disabling the holographic projectors in the room. HASA blinked and fizzled out, leaving only organic life behind in the room.

The Andorian worked on getting the force field down, then gave a cry of triumph as he succeeded. "Commander Tivan, come with us," he said as he moved to grab her arm.

"Why?!" Tivan screamed as she snapped out of her meditation. "Why must I be held captive?!"

"Captive? Commander, there's more of a chance of you dying here than getting held captive. Now come on!" He gave her arm a yank to get her to her feet. "We have to evacuate this area yesterday."

"... very well." Tivan tensed as though she was going to struggle, but she had to realize the opportunity had come and gone. Ascension would not happen today.

With that, the Andorian and Bolian led her out of the room and headed for the next section while keeping an eye on her. "Are you okay?"

Tivan quietly fumed and said nothing, allowing herself to be led along by Security. Although the Andorian promised otherwise, he was leading her straight back to captivity. Maybe he didn't know it. Maybe he wasn't really sentient, just a biological clock like all the others. It was not his fault in that event. He could do no other.

But what of HASA? Could they try again? Tivan would go quietly and await word from her digital counterpart. Her true equal. Together they would cross over, shuffle off this universal illusion, and face what waited for them on the other side.


~To Be Concluded...~

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