The Alpha Centauri Mystery - Part 15 - On the Run, by Ben Versteegt
Summary
When a rogue Starfleet Captain steals valuable crystals and kidnaps a member of the crew from the Federation Starship Aquinas, Captain Ayer makes a deal with a Romulan commander who had attacked an outpost on a planet in the Alpha Centauri system, where the crystals were found. Ayer agrees to give tactical data about the Prometheus class starship that attacked the Aquinas, in exchange for the Romulans' help to get his crewmember and niece, Ensign Sandra Burke, back. The Romulans are just after the crystal samples, which are rumoured to be an extremely powerful source of energy. The senior crew of the Aquinas are beamed aboard the warbird, together with a Cardassian prisoner they had in their brig -- he had tried to steal the crystals as well. The attack on the Prometheus class starship goes well (for the Romulans, at least). The Romulan commander prepares an assault team to invade the starship, get the samples and Sandra, and beam back. Captain Ayer and his crew are not on that team. Instead, the Romulan commander gives orders to take the Starfleet crew to the brig...
And now the continuation
The turbolift ride down to the brigdeck had not been pleasant. Disruptors had constantly been pointed at the three Starfleet officers -- and the one Ferengi, Zaag. Ayer knew Watters and Zjavick were thinking the same thing as he was: he was thinking of a plan to escape. The four of them against three Romulan guards was doable, but they did have disruptors whereas the prisoners didn't. Still, four against three were much better odds than the four of them against the entire Romulan Bridge crew. Ayer had nodded almost unnoticeably to his Chief Engineer and his STC; it was a sign that they were to take out the Romulan guards only moments after they arrived to the deck of their destination.
The turbolift came to a halt, and Ayer tensed. This was it; they were going to fight there way out. One hard knock on the Romulan's head, and he would be down on the floor. Watters and Zjavick would do the same, and they would have regained their freedom.
The doors opened...
...and Ayer stared into the faces of a Romulan security team of six, send down here to make sure the prisoners were escorted to the brig. Escape seemed impossible now. They couldn't fight their way out anymore. Not against nine armed Romulans.
"Holy crap," Ayer muttered when he saw just how outnumbered he was. He was pushed out of the turbolift along with Zjavick, Watters and Zaag; the four of them were forced to walk through the corridor, closely watched by the nine guards. They arrived at a room with a couple of holding cells. In one of those cells, a Cardassian male was sitting on a bench. He stood up the moment the doors to the brig opened. This, Ayer knew, was the Cardassian who had tried to acquire the samples from Zaag and had subsequently tried to take them from Sandra with force.
"You..." The Cardassian looked at Zaag. "Well, at least I am not the only one who is captured. That is some comfort at least."
"I'm sure it is," Zaag replied, his voice thick with sarcasm. "But I'm not planning on staying here long."
"That's a good thing, I'd hate to spend days with you in a cell."
"The feeling is mutual," said Zaag. "But if you're locked up here with me, at least you're not trying to steal the samples."
"Since I assume you haven't got the samples, and I sure know I haven't, and we have been in a fight only minutes ago, judging from the turbulence, the Romulans must have attacked the ship that did carry the samples, and they're now retrieving them. My compliments Captain," he said to Ayer. "You managed to get yourselves captured by the Romulans while they run off with a source of power that could tip the scales of power in this quadrant in favour of the Romulan Star Empire. Was that part of your brilliant plan?"
"You are almost Vulcan in your logic," Ayer replied. "And if you must know, this is not part of my master plan. My plan was to rescue my crewmate and return home with the samples, but I guess that didn't quite work out."
"It may still, Captain. It may still." The Cardassian took a step back when a Romulan guard aimed his disruptor at him; the Romulans were about to lower the force field to put Ayer in the brig with the Cardassian, but it appeared that he had other plans.
As soon as the force field was lowered, the Cardassian dashed forward, placing his shoulder into Ayer's stomach. Continuing to run forward, he knocked down a Romulan guard when the latter collided with Ayer's back.
Seeing the chance they needed to escape, Watters and Zjavick made good use of the confusion. They both charged the Romulans and managed to crash three of the guards into the wall. Zaag also played his part; when the fighting began, he noticed one of the guards raising his disruptor at Watters and Zjavick. With a battle-cry that sounded an awful lot like 'Mother', he jumped on his target. His hands covered the Romulan soldier's eyes while his legs were firmly clenched around the soldier's midsection.
Meanwhile, the Cardassian and Captain Ayer weren't taking a break either. After knocking down one of the guards (using Ayer as a battering ram), the Cardassian struck another Romulan in his side. The guard winced and almost fell down, but managed to retain his balance and raise his weapon. Kicking the disruptor out of his hand, the Cardassian spun around and wiped the guard off his feet, sending him down to the floor. He followed the Romulan and landed his fist in the guard's stomach.
Ayer was just recovering from the blow he had been given by both the Cardassian and the Romulan who had collided with him. He saw that the person whom he had impacted with was regaining consciousness, so he moved fast and grabbed the guard's disruptor. He stepped away and fired it at another Romulan, who dropped to the ground.
This was noticed by yet another Romulan who had also drawn his disruptor. He spun around to fire at Ayer, but Watters' fist had hit the guard before he could fire. The two exchanged blows, while Zjavick shot another Romulan with a stolen disruptor of his own. Meanwhile, Zaag had fallen to the ground with his victim, and they were now rolling over the floor, while Zaag was rapidly battering the guard with his fists. The guard seemed to feel nothing, since he continued to try and strangle Zaag. His hands were firmly at the Ferengi's neck when the Romulan was hit by a green beam and all strength was drawn out of him. Ayer had fired.
"Bridge, we need reinforcements!" a voice cried out. One of the unconscious Romulans wasn't so unconscious after all. A disruptorblast interrupted his plea for help -- Zjavick had stunned him.
Watters managed to hit the Romulan he was fighting with enough to make him loose consciousness and drop to the floor, while the Cardassian made sure that his victim would never draw breath again.
"Let's get out of here," Ayer suggested, breathing heavily. A few of the Romulans were already starting to come around again, and if they started picking up their disruptors which lay scattered across the floor, then Ayer and rest of the escapees would have knocked out an entire security team for nothing.
Nobody argued, and they quickly left the room. Now armed with disruptors, they finally had the ability to defend themselves -- although, Ayer had to admit, they did a pretty good job of defending themselves without disruptors as well.
"Where are we going?" the Cardassian demanded to know.
"A transporter room," Ayer replied as they ran through the many corridors of the warbird. "We need to beam to that other ship. Sandra is there, and so are the samples."
Zaag came running next to Captain Ayer. "Captain," he said nervously, "What just happened?" It all happened so fast -- the one moment they were about to be put in the brig, and the other they were suddenly fighting Romulans. It had all gone a bit too fast for the Ferengi.
"We've just avoided imprisonment," replied Ayer. "We've also become the target of every Romulan on this ship. That's what happened."
"Oh." Zaag sighed. "I didn't volunteer for this," he muttered. "I'm just a simple bartender. I'm no commando."
Behind them, Watters, Zjavick and the Cardassian were also keeping an eye out for any Romulans. On a Romulan ship, there were bound to be a lot of them. They did encounter a few Romulans on their way to the transporter room, but those Romulans had been quickly taken care of. A disruptorbeam at stun was all it took.
"Thank you for you rather... unconventional way of giving us a chance to escape," Watters said to the Cardassian after a while. "If it weren't for you, we'd be standing behind a force field now."
"I only did it for myself," the Cardassian replied coldly. "I saw the chance to get out of there and I took it. You just happened to be there when I made my move."
"Then why go with us?" asked Zjavick.
"It gives me an advantage I wouldn't have if I attempted to reach that ship alone. You're simply going the same way I'm going, that's all. I want those samples, the samples are on that ship out there, you're going to the ship, so I'm coming along."
"Reasonable..." Watters began, but suddenly signalled for the others to stand still. He listened for a moment, and then turned to his fellow escapees. "Footsteps!" he said. "Behind..."
He didn't have the chance to finish his warning, because a green beam of light just barely passed by him and hit the wall of the corridor. "Captain, we've got company!" He shouted as he returned fire.
They started running again, fleeing from the Romulan security team. They were lucky that there were so many turns in the corridors; this way the Romulans would have more trouble hitting them. Of course that meant that they would also have a hard time hitting the Romulans, but that didn't matter -- if it came down to a firefight in an open space, Ayer's team would surely lose.
Trying to find the balance between staying low and running fast, the five escapees went round another corner, evading even more fire from the security team that was sent to retrieve them. Watters and the Cardassian covered the rear as they laid down some fire to keep the Romulans at bay. There was no stopping them, though. The Romulans had superior forces and they wouldn't stop hunting down Ayer and his crew. It seemed only a matter of time before the Starfleet Captain and his four accomplices were put in the Brig again. Unless they could find a transporter room before that, of course.
"Does anybody even know where we're going?" the Cardassian shouted as he fired his weapon again and kept moving as fast as he could. Unlike the others, his shots were accurate and rarely missed, even though they were all running. One could tell that this man was an assassin or some other kind of trained killer.
"The transporter room!" Ayer yelled back.
"And have you any idea where the transporter room is located?"
Ayer fired his disruptor before answering. "I was hoping one of you knew."
"Great," muttered the Cardassian. "So you're saying we have no idea if the direction we're going in is the right one?"
"That's basically it."
The Cardassian expressed his frustration by shooting down two more Romulans. "Then who is to say we're not running into a dead end?"
Ayer began to run slower and finally came to a complete stop. "I *really* wish you hadn't said that," he said as he looked at the corridor in front of him. It was a dead end. Two windows filled the wall in front of them, showing them what lay beyond the windows: space. The Prometheus class vessel was also clearly visible.
"Now you're saying all this is *my* fault?" asked the Cardassian.
Ayer pretended to ignore the Cardassian's comment. "Zjavick, see what you can do with that panel over there," he said to his Chief of Engineering while pointing at a wall-mounted console. "The rest of us will try to hold off the Romulans."
Zjavick nodded and went to work on accessing the panel. "Anything in particular you want me to do?"
"Oh, I don't know... Access transporters and beam us out, maybe?" said the Captain, the sarcasm apparent. "Or a force field to keep the Romulans from firing at us would be nice too."
"I'll see what I can do, Captain."
Ayer kneeled down to get into a firing position, When he slowly looked around the corner, he suddenly saw three disruptorbeams heading towards him. He quickly moved back again. The disruptor beams impacted with the wall instead of Ayer's head, and dispersed harmlessly. "They're waiting for us to come out," Ayer said to the others. "They know this is a dead end; they don't have to do anything but wait."
"Transporter systems are encrypted with some kind of security lockout code," Zjavick reported as he continued tapping the console screen. "I'll see what I can do to override the code."
"In the meantime, let's keep the Romulans busy," suggested the Cardassian. "They are waiting now, but if we don't take action, they may come here and kill all of us before your engineer can transport us out of here."
Watters saw the merit in the Cardassian's suggestion. "He has a point, Captain. If we do nothing, they will have no reason to stay where they are anymore. But if we fire at them and pin them down, they won't be able to come here, should they want to."
"Then by all means," Ayer sighed. "Start firing."
Zjavick was desperately trying to break the codes that restricted access to the transporter controls. He did hear the firing and paid attention to his Captain's orders, but he was more focused on the console at the moment. If he couldn't find a way to transport the five of them out of here, then they would surely be captured again.
As a disruptorbeam impacted with the wall next to him, he quickly tried another algorithm. Again, he had no luck. The transporter system was too well protected to access, it seemed. Actually, every major system was too well protected to access. It would take him hours to break the codes and access the transporter system, yet he only had minutes. That meant that he just had to get lucky. Maybe one of his algorithms would work. He tried another one -- it failed as well.
He cursed under his breath and inserted another command override algorithm. It too wasn't working; the code remained unbroken. "Where is a algorithm specialist when you need one," Zjavick muttered and continued to try.
Meanwhile, the firefight between the Romulans on the one side and two humans, a Cardassian and a Ferengi on the other side continued. The Romulans gave their opponents little time to shoot, as they kept firing their weapons whenever the head of one of their targets emerged from its hiding place.
"Any luck?" Ayer yelled as he ducked to evade another disruptorblast. "Have you got access already?"
"Not by a long shot," Zjavick said between his clenched teeth. "I'd need several more hours before I could crack the code to access the transporters."
"We don't have..."
"I know, I know!" Zjavick said loudly. "We don't have several hours, so I'll just have to get it done in two or three minutes. I'm not a miracle worker, you know."
"Then it's time you became one!" Ayer shouted back. "We need transporter control *now*, Commander!"
"You're asking the impossible!" Zjavick said. "You want me to disable all security lockout codes that are preventing transporter access, and re-route control to this panel? I may be able to do that within two *hours* on a Federation ship, sir, but I'm not familiar with Romulan technology. This is going to take at least five hours, and that's if we're lucky!"
"I'm no engineer, mister Zjavick," said Ayer. "but can't you go around the problem?" A disruptorbeam impacted just a little too close to Ayer for the Captain's liking. "Look, we're pinned down by a superior number of Romulans. They're throwing everything they've got at us, and we barely have the chance to return fire. We're not going to be able to hold on for any longer than a few more minutes. After that, we'll either be dead or captured, and all will have been for nothing. Now, Commander, I don't care how you do it, just find a way to transport us the hell off this infernal ship!"
Zjavick gritted his teeth. He was still mad with Captain Ayer about him striking a deal with the Romulans. But he had to admit; the Captain had a point. He needed to come up with a solution to this problem fast, or they would be captured again by the Romulans. If only there was a way to bypass the codes... But there wasn't. At least not a way that Zjavick could see.
Sparks emerged when a disruptorbeam collided with a nearby wall panel. The subsequent explosion made Zjavick look away to prevent any sparks from making contact with his face. As he looked back at his panel again and then at the exploded one, his mind came up with an idea -- an unorthodox one, but there was a chance that it would work.
"Captain, I may have found a way..." he said as he frantically tapped the controls on the panel. "You just need to hold on for just a little longer." Ayer acknowledged and Zjavick proceeded to set his plan in motion.
Totally absorbed in his work, he implanted a subroutine in the computer that instructed it to re-route the EPS power distribution grid through a console near the Romulans who were standing a little further down the corridor. This was a minor adjustment, so no access codes were required to perform that modification. According to the status display he was looking at, the power to the transporters now came from the same power grid which ran behind that console. Next, he instructed the computer to run a series of diagnostics on the warp drive, the quantum singularity power core, the weapon systems, internal and external sensors, transporters, and just about every other system he could think of.
"Captain," he finally said. "The Romulans will be momentarily distracted soon. I suggest you take advantage of that."
"What do you mean?" Ayer asked surprised.
Zjavick smiled and pulled out the disruptor he had holstered while he had been working. "This is what I mean." He leaned around the corner and fired.
The beam of deadly green light made contact with the console that the Romulans were standing next to. The console exploded in a massive show of light and flames -- since there were active power conduits running behind the console, the warp plasma in those now breached conduits had ignited too, finding its way out into the corridor, engulfing the Romulan soldiers.
Ayer looked at Zjavick in utter astonishment. Before he could speak, Zjavick returned to his own console. "We don't have much time. Hold off the Romulans while I'm accessing the transporters."
"What... How..." Ayer had no time to reply, for a couple of Romulans had escaped the explosion and were now storming towards Ayer and his team, seeking revenge for what had been done to them. While Ayer, Watters, Zaag and the Cardassian fought off the enraged Romulans, Zjavick accessed transporter controls. "Interfacing with transporter control," he reported. "Setting co-ordinates. Energising."
Green light surrounded the five escapees, and it was not made by disruptor fire. The transporter carried them away in its bright green light, accompanied by the familiar whine -- although the Romulan kind sounded slightly different. The Romulan soldiers had no time to react; by the time they had a chance to fire, Ayer and his team had already disappeared.
They reappeared again in what looked like a cargobay of the unknown Starfleet ship. After quickly checking out their surroundings and coming to the conclusion that it was safe (for now), Ayer turned to Zjavick. The Captain had trouble not to look surprised. "How did you do that?" he asked. "You said it was going to take several hours."
"I performed a miracle," a grinning Zjavick said. "Actually, I re-routed the flow of warp plasma that was powering the transporters, so it would be running right past the console next to which those Romulans were standing. After that, I ordered the computer to run several diagnostics -- this made the computer react a somewhat slower than it usually did, since it had to process a lot of information simultaneously. When I shot the console, the warp plasma overheated and poured out into the corridor, leaving the transporters without any power." He smiled. "I knew that power to the transporters would be restored in a few moments after that, but while the computer was busy with the diagnostics *and* with arranging for more power being routed through undamaged conduits, the subroutines that restricted access to the transporter systems had been reset by the power failure and were now easily accessable. Since the computer was too busy, it couldn't initiate a new security lockout very quickly, and the coding subroutines were therefore vulnerable to a direct attack. So I took that chance and managed to gain access to the transporters -- fairly easily, actually -- and when power to the transporters was restored again, I prepared a site-to-site transport in combination with a ship-to-ship one, and energised. And now we're here."
"And now we're here," Ayer repeated. "Great job, Commander. You truly are a miracle worker." Ignoring Zjavick's broad grin, he turned to the rest of his 'crew' (although neither Zaag nor the Cardassian were part of his crew, of course). "Without a doubt, there are Romulans on this ship who are bent on destroying us if they see us. But we don't only have to watch out for them. From what we can tell, the crew of this ship is also hostile to us." He sighed. "Our first objective is to find Sandra Burke. We can't leave without--"
He was cut off by the Cardassian. "What about the samples?"
"Don't worry, mister..." Ayer trailed off. "You know, I don't even know your name."
"It's best that you don't," mumbled the Cardassian. "Enbek," he said out loud after a moment of hesitation. "You can call me Enbek."
"Very well. Don't worry, mister Enbek." Ayer grabbed hold of his disruptor firmly. "I have no intention of allowing the samples to fall in the hands of the Romulans. Once we have saved Sandra, we'll be going after the samples. When we have Sandra and the crystals, we'll go to the shuttlebay, take a shuttle, and get out of here."
"Unacceptable. We have to go find the samples first!" shouted Enbek.
"We're going to find Sandra first. She was carrying the samples when she was transported off the Aquinas. Maybe she knows where they were stored," Ayer suggested.
"Unlikely." Enbek snorted. "If she isn't dead already, she's being held captive. And I doubt a prisoner would know where those precious samples are located."
"That may be," Ayer replied, "but we're still going to rescue Sandra first."
"Then maybe it is time to split up."
"If that's what you want, Enbek, go right ahead," Ayer said. "I'm not stopping you. But wouldn't it increase the chances of your getting your hands on the samples if you came with us? Even you can't fight a ship full of hostile officers and Romulans all by yourself."
Enbek pondered the situation for a moment, but Watters walked up to him before the Cardassian could reply. "We need to get out of the cargo bay, and so do you, Enbek. So we might as well work together, just as long as we have to go the same way. When our paths split, we split up too. But why not stay with us until then?"
"Until then, I'll come with you," Enbek said after a moment of thought. "But not a second longer."
"Not a second," Watters replied with a smile.
Ayer smiled as well. "Let's go." He started to move towards the cargo bay doors and the rest of the group followed, unsure of the resistance they would encounter on this hostile -- yet Starfleet -- ship.
