Lost and Found

Posted on Fri Feb 11th, 2022 @ 5:43pm by Chief Helmsman Kalahaeia t'Leiya & Chief Engineer Michael Burnstein & Commander Kaleetha Sloan (*)

Mission: Mission 14: Holoworld
Location: SS Holoworld
Timeline: MD 05
3237 words - 6.5 OF Standard Post Measure

Kaleetha hated how they had run from a battle, but blowing the corridor up had been the only way that they could escape the oncoming storm of holograms. The antechamber that they had stumbled into seemed to be mostly real as nothing was glitching and there was nothing untoward happening at that moment. The silence loomed as they walked into the larger atrium that felt just as real as the previous room if not less safe as it was so huge and open.

“Well, that was certainly a solution,” Kaleetha said brightly as she staggered against one of the giant statues of some god or warrior she was not familiar with. She had been stabbed by metal and not as healed as she had thought was but who would have known the holograms would turn so quickly.

Kali, for her part, seemed to actually recognize the woman whose likeness was above them; on sight of the statue, one corner of her lips tugged up slightly in an involuntary smile, as if she found the presence a comfort or good omen; giving one the impression that possibly the statue was in the likeness of some Romulan cultural figure from history or myth, perhaps added to the statues in the hall for this run with regards for the two delegations that had been aboard.

"Duct tape, lube and explosives - the engineer's secret weapons," Burnie quipped with a quick grin. Brushing off some bits of debris, he turned more serious. "I doubt that ended the threat except back there where the holomatrix is blown. We need to get to the computer core." He looked left and right, a bit disoriented after running from holograms until they were far enough to trigger the explosives. "Any idea which way that would be?"

Kali thought for a moment, sweeping her eyes a second time around their surroundings to orient, and thinking back to one of the other items she’d had waved in front of her for review before coming aboard; a copy of the ship’s blueprints. “…That way. I think.” She jerked both her chin and the thumb on one hand to the left down the corridor.

“I think so. If we can get into a crew area it will be easier.” Kaleetha mused pushing herself from the statue to start in the suggested way. It would be easier to orient themselves that way as there would be more sensible routes.

"Lead the way," Burnie said falling in behind her. "You've been navigating this wreak, so I'll trust you to know the way."

"I mean. It also collapsed on our heads at one point, so I wouldn't say it's been seamless. We sealed those sections, though." Kali started off to the front, and glanced back at Burnie. "Probably should stay in the middle for now. There were emitters throughout most of the ship including in these corridors."

“Yes but I am going to be more careful.” The science officer whispered to herself. She did not need to be hurt again nor get her companions injured again. They knew just how crap the first aid boxes were. “No crew areas in the middle unless we go down a deck or two?”

"Oh. Yeah, no, we can go to wherever we need to; I just mean him--" Kali jerked a thumb at Burnie, "--in the middle of the two of us. Since the ship wants to kill him, but apparently we're running under cloak and shields or something." She grinned momentarily at her own joke.

"Never thought I'd be flanked by invisible guardians," Burnie chuckled. "Just get us somewhere we can move quickly. Liha worries more about my 'helplessness'," he rolled his eyes briefly, "but I'm more worried about the other crew who were down here discovering their holovacation is turning murderous."

“I’ve been on the firing range with you.” Kali rolled her eyes. “You’re definitely not ‘helpless’. A tad lacking in close range hand to hand and blade skills, but calling an expert marksman helpless is laying it on way too thick.” She shrugged. “Though against these stupid sacks of photons, the deck is stacked against everyone. Except us—“ She waved one hand backwards slightly towards Kaleetha’s position., “—apparently.”

"I do not believe anyone is truly helpless," Kaleetha said simply. "There is nothing apparent about it. Something in us was different from your friend here. I think it had something to do with those commbadges we were wearing when it all went down." Kaleetha said with a shrug, it had been as far as she had gotten in her theory before it had all gone wrong. "Do you have any idea of who was onboard at the time?" Kaleetha wondered, she was not able to hear people screaming in terror but the holodeck were most likely sound proof.

Burnie shook his head. "Not a full list, but several were down here. I know the doctor was, and our science officer." He hoped Cassie was Liha's first stop. She was a close friend and he couldn't help being concerned.

"We blow the core; we'll save them all." Kali said; quieter than she'd been before but no less emphatic. "Not often you can solve an entire group of adversaries with one strike." If some (former) officers would be wondering at this point as to the nature of that group of threats; questioning whether this 'error' made the ship trying to kill them an emergent artificial intelligence, or debating then the ethics of destroying it; Kali seemed to have exactly zero qualms about blowing it sky high in their own defense. "So unless we run across anyone directly; I don't think we should go hunting anyone. We stay on target; get there and get it done as fast as we can."

"You're speaking my language there," Burnie said, patting the part of his toolkit with his supplies for explosive problem solving. "How much farther?"

"But there needs to be a way to alert everyone. You do not want to be blowing up friends." Kaleetha countered as she heard nothing but their own footsteps around them. It was a simple solution but one the scientist could see that could go wrong very quickly if not everyone was off.

"Hey, give me credit," the engineer objected. "I'm not planning to blow up the whole ship, just take out the computer core so the holomatrix shuts down. We can try to physically rip the power out first if that'll make you happier."

"Take out the power and the core; the holoemitters will just fail, shipwide." Kali shrugged. "Emergency lights will probably still stay on, even without the core; most decently designed ships key them to be capable of being 'dumb' and just staying on for a short time even without the computer or main power, based on backup power built into them. Holomitters, though?" She turned her head back to the others for a moment and swiped a finger swiftly across her throat, pantomiming the planned demise of their adversities. "They'll go down immediately. Mind you so will life support; so we'll be on the clock once we do this to get everyone out before the air runs out a few hours later. But whatever is jamming things should also go down; and make it easy enough to locate folks and retrieve them." It was, Kali had to admit, damn near the height of convenience for once that the ship seemed to think herself and Kaleetha invisible; leaving her free to openly state the plan without worrying it would overhear her.

"Is there not a way that we can do this without affecting life support?" Kaleetha was not sure she liked risking life support.

"That is why my plan was to just blow the computer core," Burnie said, tossing a widening of eyes at Kali. "There should be back-up power for life support, but after a crash you never know. But standard systems will keep running 'brain dead'."

“Just the computer core.” Kaleetha said quietly. They were voting it seemed and Kaleetha was voting for the thing that would stop the holograms but not kill anyone. “We do not want to cause more issues.” The woman said freezing as she saw two figures down the end of the corridor carrying something. She pushed Michael back into an alcove so he could not be seen.

"If you really think you can direct the charge that precisely that you avoid the energy pulse frying connected systems elsewhere, absolutely. But odds are decent the feedback may zap more than that; so just...Be prepared." Kali's shrugged; the odds of managing it were dicey; but on the other hand; if anyone could manage to execute it perfectly and cleanly, it would be Burnie. The man had a natural gift with explosives. "We could als--" Whatever she might have said next cut off by reflex as Kaleetha shoved Burnie into the alcove; since the things couldn't hear her it was probably pointless, but they looked real, after all; and the 'muscle memory' of falling immediately silent before the enemy prevailed.

It was hard being the only one who had to hide. As much as Burnie did not want to have to fight holograms, hunkering into an alcove with no idea what was out there was not easy. He was an engineer, a planner, someone who liked to have data to work from. Slipping a small inspection mirror from his toolkit, he angled it by the long handle to catch a glimpse. Frak. Was that a body they were carrying? He looked at Kaleetha, then Kali for confirmation they'd seen the same thing he had.

Kali nodded back; beginning to surmise that what had perhaps happened to the rest of the crash survivors might not be nearly as positive as evacuating to a safer location, or as...reversible...as getting nabbed by pirates.

Kaleetha stayed deadly still and just watched the scene that went on oblivious to the people at the other end of the corridor. The Starfleet officer pulled out a tricorder and scanned down the corridor, the something was definitely a body, there were no life signals. "That body looked like a member of your crew," Kaleetha whispered as the holograms went further down the corridor and disappeared from view. "Male... big." She said not knowing who exactly it could have been but she had seen him on the ship. "I do not think this is as simple as we all hoped it was," Kaleetha murmured letting out the breath she had not realised she had been holding in.

Male and big would describe several members of the crew, Burnie thought, thankful that Gregnol had decided to stay on the ship since the Captain fit that description better than most. "Nothing we can do for him now," the engineer said sadly. "We have to stay on mission and hope we can take the holograms out before they kill any more of us."

Kali nodded sharply at this last statement.

“No definitely dead,” Kaleetha said sadly as her gaze turned further down the corridor and the direction they had to go. They had not had a mission an hour ago but they were the only ones who could end this.

"Shouldn't be that much further to reach the general area; but once do; we'll have to climb up two decks and hack into a crew area." Kali said. They could take the turbolift; but they had holoemitters in them, too; and being trapped in a confined space with an enemy who could endlessly regenerate was a definite bad plan; she was hoping the Jeffries tubes, at least, were free of them. She slid Burnie a pointed glance at the 'hack' part; he was probably the best one of the three of them to try...Though if that failed and he couldn't get in, she supposed could always try the device she'd used at the casino. It might work; could probably bust through a cruise ship's lock protocols like it had a pirates'. If she was wrong about that though - if the ship kept higher level security around the core, more akin to the level a Starfleet ship might carry - then it could just as well simply fry the tool instead, and backfire on them with an emphasis on the 'fire' part.

"Hack it, rip it, or blow it," Burnie agreed almost cheerfully, finding an access tube and jimmying the closure off. He was about to start to climbing but thought better of going first. "One of you should probably take the lead. Just in case there are holograms when we reach the top."

"I will," Kaleetha said softly smiling at the cheerfulness of the situation and man. "It seems like the least I could do. I will defend you, chief engineer." The woman assured climbing the first few rails before looking at them both. "Does not feel like there are holo emitters here. I can't see any of them."

"Great." Kali waved at Burnie to take up the spot in the middle, then scrambled in after him, pulling the hatch shut behind them and following the pair starting up. "That also means if we really get into a jam, we can retreat to this space in a pinch, too, if we have to."

"You shouldn't have to," Burnie noted, looking down over his shoulder at her, throwing a grin. "Worse comes to worse, I'll make the bomb and you can go plant it." Wouldn't be quite as much fun for him, of course, but the point was to get the job done. Besides, blowing things up was therapeutic and Kali seemed like she could use a nice bit of destructive destressing.

Kaleetha glanced down before glancing back coming face to face in the dark with glowing blue eyes. She let out a scream and reached for a weapon that she would not have at her waist. "Master?" A familiar voice said in the semi-darkness making Kaleetha nearly let go of the rail in shock.

At the bottom of the vertical procession, Kali's response to the sudden stop and the ensuing scream was to swing herself enough to the side to get a view of the cause, spot the glowing and seemingly disembodied eyes herself, then grab the edge of one of the rungs above her, her small size coming in handy at the moment as she managed to haul herself up further till she was hanging off the side of the same level as Burnie, prepared to climb further up that way if she had to; reaching under her tunic for a weapon she didn't have, either, cursing silently that Liha had taken her phaser, but coming out at least with the one thing she did have left, the blade glinting for a moment as it reflected the unnaturally bright blue eyes in the darkness above no more than a breath or two after they'd first appeared above them all. "Don't even think about trying anything; I'm armed!" There was an intensity and a possibly-feigned assurance in her voice that probably would have given most attackers pause indeed.

Burnie had been looking back at Kali when Kaleetha screamed, so it took him a moment to react and then recognize those eyes - moment in which Kali had wedged herself up beside him, knife drawn (though how she thought that might help if the eyes belonged to a hologram that couldn't see or hear her anyway he did not know). What he did know was who was there and a smile spread on face as he called up, "Hey, boy! I'm right here!" And started climbing to reach the help he assumed Nollel had sent down to him. "Don't worry," he told his companions. "This is K-9, my android dog. K-9, these are my friends."

"Master!" K-9's tag wagged at his master's voice, but his head tipped almost skeptically as he looked down at the other two. "One of your 'friends' is brandishing a weapon. Shall I disarm her, master?"

"That won't be necessary," Burnie replied, widening eyes at Kali in a 'put it away already' look. "She didn't recognize you so she was trying to protect me."

The android was silent a beat, canine level AI processing that information. "Then she is a good person and I will not disarm her. I will stand guard so you can climb up without risking cuts from sharp weapons."

Kali blinked for a moment, processing information herself; and slid the knife back inside the sheath under her shirt before swinging herself back down to her prior position below Burnie and more properly centered on the ladder. "Might as well warn him about what's after us, then. Who knows; maybe androids can bite holograms."

"Mistress informed me of the danger from holograms," K-9 stated matter-of-factly. "I have been using my laser welding function to destroy all accessible holo-emitters as I searched for Master."

"...Good dog!" Kali remarked with a sardonic grin.

Kaleetha climbed up and grinned as she took in now what was a robotic dog. She glanced back at Burnie and laughed. "You are bonkers. Completely wasted on a civilian vessel." She said good-naturedly as she patted K9 on the head before she got a proper look around at where they were. She thought they were roughly where they needed to be but it would be hard to tell until they got outside the Jeffrey tubes. "The ship knows at least." She said trying to sound more positive.

"I think bonkers is part of the reason Starfleet kicked me out," Burnie laughed, climbing the rest of the way up. He ran hand over K-9's head, a gesture almost like petting a real dog, and smiled. "Okay, boy, do have a map of the layout here? We're trying to get to the computer core."

"Yes, Master," K-9 replied brightly and turned to the left, head lowering in line with shoulders and one fore leg lifting in a perfect canine point. "That way."

" 'Bonkers' usually gets you an honorable discharge at least; unlike 'Striking flag officers'." Kali climbed out behind the others. "Technically I've got one now retroactively, but I'm coming to feel it might not be worth the price I had to pay to get it." Then she shook her head, bemused as she noted the leg-out pose and made her way back to the front of the group, starting off following K-9s' directions. "Man, that is one great dog."

"He is, isn't he?" Burnie agreed proudly. He wasn't going to comment on his discharge. Technically it had been medical, but he sometimes wondered if blowing up a flag officer's office - purely incidentally! It had been on the wrong side of the stardock - might have had something to do with it too.

Kaleetha smiled as she watched the engineer. Bonkers knew bonkers but she would not say that allowed. Sloan was sure that if he had been stationed with her at any point they would have been friends. “Definitely should be proud,” Kaleetha assured as she stood straight and looked down the corridor as the sparks coming from the ceiling and walls where the holo-emitters had been destroyed.