The Core Of The Matter

Posted on Tue Feb 22nd, 2022 @ 12:40am by Chief Engineer Michael Burnstein & Chief Helmsman Kalahaeia t'Leiya & Commander Kaleetha Sloan (*)

Mission: Mission 14: Holoworld
Location: Holoship, Computer Core Area
Timeline: Following 'lost and found'
1907 words - 3.8 OF Standard Post Measure

Possibly thanks to K-9s work, they made it most of the rest of the way without having to hide again, finally nearing their target area. Kali glanced around nervously as they waited for K-9, ahead of them, to burn off a few more emitters directly near the door to the core. "Guess it's time to find out if any of us are any good at hacking." She pronounced as they finally rounded the final corner and faced the door directly.

"You're the intel officer," Burnie said sweeping a hand toward the door with a half-bow. "So, I'll let you have first crack at it before I set charges."

“I was mostly an analyst; not an operator.” Kali shrugged. “And probably not that great of one. Hacking stuff was never a skill I got much practice with. That said…” She pulled out the little device her aunt had given her a few years back again. “…I’m more than willing to cheat.” She started pulling up the right access challenges for he entry to the room and then stuck the little silver square onto the panel in lieu of attempting to clear the access herself, stepping to the side and preparing to likewise step back in a moment, finger hovering waiting to tap the tool to activate it first. “Heads up, there’s a non-zero chance this thing will become an explosive fireball itself if the security levels on this place are too high for it to handle.”

Kaleetha said nothing. Her science skills had nothing to offer at that moment but she was braced just encase things become a fireball. "Let me grab a fire extinguisher," Kaleetha muttered going to the emergency equipment pulling out the small canister. There was no way that it would contain a big fire but it would contain something and allow them all to escape. "Ready," She announced.

Burnie backed up but wasn't particularly concerned. He knew something of the place Kali's family had once held in the former RSE. "I wouldn't worry that much. If a civilian liner has security protocols that far above what something from her aunt can handle, there's something a lot more worrying going on here."

"If you say so," Kaleetha commented with a small nod. She was trusting the pair as their connection. She might look Romulan but she had very little knowledge of the former RSE or anything it had been why the guest that she had been with in the seconds before the crash had been so interested in her. Her linage was linked to a very old lost espionage attempt back with the NX program

Kali tapped her finger down, then backed off a bit herself, muttering a phrase or two very quietly under her breath that you would've needed both excellent hearing and excellent Romulan language skills to decipher; but the second tell that she was actually slightly more nervous than Burnie was right out of his own backyard: The pointer and middle fingers on her right hand intertwined themselves in a textbook 'fingers crossed', and stayed that way until about thirty seconds later when the little device beeped and the door hissed air ever so slightly as the lock seal broke.

Kaleetha let out the breath she had not realised she had been holding as the door hissed. "Well, that was anti-climatic." She whispered still holding the extinguisher. It was the only weapon she had at the moment and she wanted something solid.

"See? Nothing to worry about," Burnie said, heading into the core room with K-9 at his side. 'Core room' was something of an understatement - the space was two and half decks high containing an array of six towering interlinked cores. It was impressive - more storage than most 'fleet ships, in fact, and there were also no doubt also backups under or nested behind them. The engineer let out a low whistle and reached for his plastique explosive. "I doubt there's just one plug to pull here."

"...Damn." Kali looked up and down through the space. "Forgot about that part. Do you even have enough for this?"

Burnie flashed a grin. "All in how you use it, Kali," he said with a wink, and settled into the center of the cores examining each one and the interfaces. "K-9, I need you to locate power supplies and start applying your laser." Conscious of crewmates who might be facing threats while he was finding the right way to use his (sadly) limited supply of remaining explosives, he pulled a wire cutter from his tools kit and handed it back to whichever woman would take it. "Start clipping the connections. That'll sow some havoc with the holograms while I find the main junction to set charges."

Kali let Kaleetha take the clippers and pulled out the dagger again, tearing a piece of her shirt to wrap the hilt just in case as a buffer against any current transferring from any wires she might cut. If this was not perhaps the sort of use its prior owners in her family line had put it to, she didn't seem to see a problem with it still: Cutting the core wires was very much an action beneficial to and necessary for her survival, and therefore she thought it an entirely appropriate use. "Sure; but...I'd go for frying any holoemitters in here first, for K-9, before the power supplies. Moment any of us start clipping connections it'll be known someone is messing with this place. It might indeed divert their attention from anyone else but it's gonna divert it to us."

"Yes, but who ever heard of putting holoemitters in the computer core?" Burnie asked, not looking up where he was opening the core junction. "They were created for guests, there'd be no reason for them to -"

*Zzzpt* K-9 fired his laser at Borg-like form that suddenly appeared next to his master.

“Good dog.” Kaleetha encouraged.

"By now, I just assume the worst case scenarios--or the stupidest ones--when it comes to this ship." Kali grabbed its companion by surprise and used its own weight and size against it to leverage it over the safety railing to a fall to its 'death', however temporary. "They should've called it the SS Murphy's Law."

She sighed as one of the holograms they'd vanquished reappeared nearby where one of the remaining emitters still was, moved to toss it, too, then indicated Kaleetha. "Go ahead and clip the wires like he said." She pointed at K-9 next. "Destroy all the emitters in here you can find, quickly as possible. You--" Now, the finger shifted to Burnie; "--do whatever you'd do anyways since you're the one who actually knows how to torch this place. I'll just keep chucking them over the side till the emitters are toast." She took up a guard position reasonably close to Burnie but not too close, trying to give herself proximity to grab anything without interfering with whatever he was doing.

Kaleetha nodded already moving across to where the panel was. It was unique to see something with wires instead of chips. It reminded her that yes, the ship was relatively new; but was still old fashioned in some systems and safety by the looks of things. "How are you doing Kal?" Kaleetha called not able to see her,

"Can't wait for this place to go boom." Kali chucked another hologram over the side of the platform; it reappeared a few seconds later. "This is like a 'Groundhog Day' remake, and not a very good one." She rolled her eyes while once again throwing one of their adversaries. To any outside observers, it would have been an interesting demonstration of the amount of power packed into Kali's otherwise petite frame; she didn't exactly measure up to 'breed standards' but clearly still had a level of raw strength, speed, and endurance beyond human levels.

K-9 was zapping holoemitters in between knocking holograms away from Burnie, but one that Kali hadn't managed to throw decided to target the robodog. Hearing a growl and yip, Burnie looked up and kicked at the hologram. "Stay away from my dog!"

Bad move. The Borg grabbed his foot and started to pull. *Zzzpt! ZZPT!* More emitters were rapidly fried and as Kaleetha cut the fiber optic cables linking the cores, the coherence of the threat began to suffer, turning the Borg briefly into a sort of Frankenstein of zombie and ghost. K-9 rammed it, sending it toward Kali for a flip over the railing.

"Good boy!" Burnie said, then finished wedging plastique into the primary junction. "Okay, 30 second timer - everyone run!" he yelled, illustrating by jumping up and dashing for the door.

"How long should we keep running???" Kali called out as she dashed from the room herself, stopped for a few seconds and slapped the little device back on the door, and waited until everyone was out before jabbing a finger on it to seal the door since the ship seemed to recognize it in a way it didn't recognize her, then ripped it off again and just clutched it without even bothering to pocket it yet as she started off again. These were charges set by Burnie, after all. Even back on SB 82 he'd had a reputation.

"Keep running until it goes boom," Kaleetha advised as she kept running along the corridor. "I am going to be having nightmares about this place for years," Kaleetha said as a zombie appeared shambling toward them. Kaleetha lowered her shoulder and barged it away from Burnie just as a rumbling started behind them.

"Got it in one," Burnie said to Kaleetha, giving her a nod and thank-you smile without missing a step as he kept running, K-9 keeping pace beside him.

** KABOOM!! **

The sound of the explosion was briefly muffled by the door, but reverberations that carried down the deck, along with the sounds of core towers crashing down and, a fraction of a beat later, the alarming screeches of metal hitting yield limits at high velocity.

"Hit the deck!" Burnie yelled, diving to fall flat, and added, "Down boy!" one hand grabbing K-9's back to push him to down since he couldn't remember if he'd programmed in idioms like that.

Kali reacted with a former pilot's speedy reflexes; dropping like a rock and curling up hands and arms over head to protect her face, head, and neck; both sets of eyelids firmly closed as a wave of heat rushed overhead. There wasn't much to be done about the headache she'd undoubtedly have later from the sheer level of noise, though. But it would be more than worth it to see this place defanged.

Kaleetha hit the deck and Burnie's boot in her rush but she could deal with a bloodied nose as the noise hit her and made her glad she had not been on her feet when that had happened.

Once the blast front had passed, Burnie lifted his head and looked back at the core room, door and walls now cracked open like one of the tin cans he'd dropped (possibly not-entirely-legal) firecrackers into as a kid. Anyone catching his expression would have seen a huge satisfied grin. "If that doesn't kill off the holograms, I don't know what will."