Access denied.

Posted on Thu May 12th, 2016 @ 12:44am by

Mission: Vipers and Scoundrels
Location: Pirate Station
Timeline: Current.

Once outside of the bar, having left Satele, and onto the Promenade, Kevin felt free to explore where he felt most likely he'd find answers to the pirates and how they controlled their sector. However there was a dilemma he had to solve. Were the pirates being clever and hiding their most secure area and where would it be found, or, would they be brazen and think no-one would be stupid enough to try and break into it for information, so would leave the location open so everyone knew where it was to make it easier to guard?

He tried to put himself in their shoes so to speak. So far they'd been pretty open and brazen about having the Ambassadors under their command. Looking around himself, he could see that there wasn't a 'presence' of any kind of guard or even a 'menacing gang of brutes and thugs', and this leant his thoughts towards the pirates hiding their sensitive private matters away from prying eyes.

Now, next question was would it be upper levels or lower level?

Gut instinct had him think that it would be the upper levels because the lower levels would be where the riff raff would congregate and this could lead to trouble. His passive scans hadn't revealed much, but it did tell him there were turbo lifts. He made his way to the nearest one, stepped inside and looked to see if there were any panels indicating levels, there wasn't one!

"Computer, how many levels can this lift reach on the upper decks above the Promenade?" he asked.

==^==There are eight levels above the Promenade==^==

"Take me to level eight" Kevin replied.

==^==Authorisation code required==^==

"Damn!!!" Kevin said "Ok, take me to level six" he added.

The lift moved upwards and Kevin began to realize that his gut instinct was right, after all, why would you restrict a lift from the top two levels unless you were wanting to keep people out.

The lift came to a stop, and the doors opened. Stepping gingerly out into the corridor, Kevin looked left and right and was relieved that no-one was there. From an inside pocket, he took out a small hand held scanner. It's reach was only about five or six feet, but that's all he needed, anything further and he risked setting off sensors.

"Now then" he said quietly to himself "what's the best way to get up to the next level Kevin?"

He walked along the corridor a short distance and came across an access hatch. Squatting down, he used the scanner to determine how to open it. There was a slight delay before the scanner gave a dull 'ping'.

"What?" Kevin said in surprise as he read the screen. The message on it told him the scanner wasn't able to access the code. He tried again, and once more he got the same answer.

"Damn!" he cursed, and stood up again. This was a first for him, he hadn't come across any hatch that had foxed the scanner before.

"You there, what are you doing?" an angry voiced sounded out behind him. Quickly stuffing the scanner back in his jacket, Kevin turned to see a Telarite approaching him.

"I said, what are you doing???" the Telarite asked again.

Thinking quickly, Kevin used a name he remembered from the mission notes about the supposed hierarchy on the station and said "I'm trying to find my master, Teagor Madura, I have a message for him about the recently arrived Ambassadors" Kevin lied "But I seem to have gotten lost. I'm new to the station and I was told he was on level seven."

"This is level six you Chanka!" the Telarite replied.

Kevin guessed that being called a 'Chanka' was the equivalent of being called an 'idiot' or 'moron', so played along.

"I'm sorry, I thought this was level seven, the Bolian I was with told me to get out of the lift here and...."

"Well he lied to you!, get back to the lift and use your card to go up one level" the Telarite said.

"I don't have a card, as I said, I'm new to the station and haven't been issued one yet" Kevin said.

The Telarite glowered at him and said "Come with me, and I'll send you up using mine!"

Kevin nodded and allowed himself to be escorted back to the lift. The doors opened and he stepped in, as did the Telarite. Using what was an old fashioned swipe card, and keying in a five digit number, the doors began to close, so the Telarite jumped back out.

Kevin was a little shocked at what had happened, he'd fully expected the Telarite to march him into the lift and take him to the holding cells. Apparently this Teagor Madura must hold sway, and using his name had bought him some luck.

The 'lift doors opened again and Kevin stepped out. The corridor was empty once again, but this time he turned right and began to slowly walk, keeping a listening ear out for anyone coming. After some fifty yards, he reached another access panel. taking out his small scanner and once again tried to use it to gain the access code. The scanner once more failed to gain the access code, and Kevin's frustration level rose another notch.

"What the hell do these people use here?" he whispered loudly to himself. He thought quickly about how he could possibly bypass the access code, and it struck him that he might be able to 'short it out'. He saw that here was a junction box above him, and he quickly had it open.

"Perfect!" he said to himself, taking out a relay coil.

"If I wire this into the access panels code sequencer, reverse the polarity, set the scanner up as a circuit breaker and.....voila!" he said, believing the panel would open up.....it didn't, it remained firmly closed.

However, after about five seconds, all hell broke loose as a warning klaxon screeched out it's intruder alert sound.

"Oh bollocks!" Kevin shouted. He quickly began to gather together his things, but it was to late, running footsteps could be heard coming his way. He abandoned what he was doing, stuffed the scanner back into his jacket and set off down the corridor at speed, right into the oncoming security guard coming his way.

They collided at full speed, heads knocking together with a sickeningly dull 'thunk'. Kevin went down like a ton of bricks, however, his survival instinct got him groggily to his feet. Standing there swaying, he saw the guard moving about on the floor, moaning. He turned and tried to move off down the corridor the way he'd come, but waves of sickness lapped over his addled mind, causing him to grab the wall.

"Focus Kevin!" he told himself, and once again he tried to set off down the corridor, this time the waves of sickness were to much and he threw up on the floor. His vision swam as tears ran freely, but his instinct to flee made him drag himself along the wall. After what seemed an age, he made it back to the turbolift. There was no sign of the guard, so he assumed they were either out cold, or were in a worse state than him.

The lift doors opened and he staggered inside. His vision was still blurred, but he was able to just about make out the promenade level and slammed his hand against the button. The lift moved off, and Kevin allowed himself to slide down the wall till he was sitting on the floor. It took a few moments for the 'lift to reach the promenade, so when the doors opened, Kevin dragged himself up off the floor, and out onto the promenade. Luckily those passing him took no notice of him as he slowly made his way to the bar he'd been at before.

Flopping down into a seat, he tried to rest himself and stop the sick feeling in his stomach and the aching in his head.....