How to offer nothing for something.

Posted on Wed Sep 28th, 2016 @ 1:43am by Commander Cor Cordale

Mission: Do Not Follow
Location: Engineering.
Timeline: Current.

Kevin was at a bit of a loose end for the time being, so he wandered the corridors of the Victory. As he walked, his mind wandered freely and he let it. Suddenly, he found himself at a halt for no apparent reason.

He looked at the doors to his right and saw he was outside Engineering. With a shrug of his shoulders, he wandered up to, and through, the double doors.

Seeing Lt/Commander Cordale, he walked up to him and said "Need a 'hand' with anything in here Commander?"

Cordale himself was, metaphorically speaking, up to his elbows in backlog. "Actually yes. We've managed to contain the radiation leaks to a low glow, and the EPS system now only needs to be reset every fourteen minutes and I really need some help keeping that schedule on mark. You can count that high, right?" the Thux said, turning to face Kevin with a smirk. "Hey. Actually, I could use ever hand I can get. We took a literal beating down here and we're probably going to be making patches the whole trip."

"Level with me, how bad was it out there?"

Kevin was glad to see the Thux hadn't lost his sense of humour.

"Well, the battle bridge took a battering" he said "We lost most of consoles, but I'm sure you'll have had a report about that. To be honest, outside of there, and the crew members who were injured, I'm not entirely sure. All the reports are being relayed through the acting XO I believe, so he's the one you're best get in contact about damage."

He stood silently for a second, his own memories of ships he'd been on that had taken a pounding coming thick and fast, but he shook himself and said "I'm not the foremost engineering lacky you'll ever have, but give me a task and what it is you need me to do and I'll get right on it and try my best."

Cordale gave a nod, "I couldn't really see it, but when the diagnostics started turning red, and all the alarms were called I kinda figured. When we got the call to abandon ship I made sure I was the last one out. We were bleeding radiation at that point and, well, I'm a little hardier than your average human when it comes to rads. So lucky me, right? Last one out." he paused, "Though, the catapults didn't fling us away, I mean not like it would do much good. Those things..." he motioned to the core, "... pack a hell of a punch when they pop."

"Anyway, I appreciate the offer. I have a team or two right now manually checking every EPS connection and resetting the ones that didn't sync up when we reconnected with the saucer section. See, I was half kidding about the EPS." he actually chuckled. "They'll brief you on what you'd need to do. You'd either be on Panel Patrol or checking the power feeds. Engineering 101 stuff."

Kevin suddenly clicked his fingers and said "Actually, before we get to that, there's something I'd like to ask you to do for me first Commander, if it's ok with you. I'd imagine you have access to the sensor logs from the Seattle when we downloaded her computer files, yes?"

"Please, just Cor. Until I'm Admiral." he chuckled, though put in a few screen taps. "And sure. Yeah I think we still have them."

"Could you pull them up for me please, thanks" Kevin said.

"If they're still here." and a few taps later, the system indicated they were intact. "Excellent. Still here, as intact as when we got them. What's up?"

"I would imagine that the enemy ship would have attempted to download the Seattles computer core as well, get as much information as possible on who they'd just been in battle with" Kevin continued "With that being the case, the link they used will undoubtedly have left a residual mark, a fingerprint if you will. Could we use that mark to trace the frequency they used, thus allowing us an 'in' on how to access their computer?" he asked.

"See, this is why a lot of guys don't like you sneaky Intel guys... scuze my Ferengi." he chuckled, "I think that's a marvelous idea. Now, if I were them, I'd have started the download once all the power got knocked out. Basically just block the power system from sending more than a trickle to anything, and then while everyone's running around blind and screaming, no one thinks to check the access lo..." he paused, and then gave a few more keystrokes, "... These are the access logs from two minutes before we all almost die, and then two minutes after. If our mark is anywhere, it's in this range."

Kevin watched the logs on the screen as they scrolled upwards.

"There!" he said, jabbing his finger at the screen, "and there as well!"

"Bring up those sections of the logs please Commander, and I believe we'll have our mark" Kevin said.

"I realise that we're not currently under threat from these people right now, but I doubt we've heard the last from them. Best we're prepared for all eventualities eh?" he said.

The mood took a quick turn for the worse, "You do whatever it takes to put these ... people... in their place. They came to my home and told us to live by their rules or die." Cordale took a breath, held it, and then slowly released it. "No one dangles chains in my face. No one. You tell me what you need. Extra fists in a fight? Done. A quantum torpedo with an extended middle finger spray painted on it? You'll get two." Cordale then repeated that breathing exercise.

"Sorry, lost my cool there for a moment. Just..." a pause as he brought up the requested log segments, "... there we go. Want these in your office? It's kinda crowded here..."

Kevin was surprised at Cor's reaction, he'd never seen the Thux so uptight.

"Yes Commander, if it makes thing easier for you that would be great, thanks" he said to the Engineer. He stood somberly for a moment and asked "So, when you met with these 'others', what were they like, physically and mentally?"

"They were..." Cor paused, almost like he was taking a moment to clear through fog or haze, "The tallest was this tall." He indicated with a hand. Probably around the six foot region of height. "One wore a military uniform. Another wore robes, and the third dressed in a different uniform. Could be military, hard to read. Mentally, they excused their dominating attitude with religion. Eyes of the Divine this, and scriptures that. The one in the robes had the title of Confessor. Third one was a female, but she didn't have much to add to the conversation. The 'Confessor' did most of the talking."

"They had... a case, like an actual box, that they kept their word of scripture in. Told us to deliver it to the Federation and start living by it. Or else... I couldn't tell you where it is now. I'd have thrown it into the nearest star if it were up to me."

"Well, that's the thing with those who are effectively being dictatorial" Kevin answered, "they just think that they can give an order and it gets followed. The old saying 'watch who you step over on the way up, as you'll meet them again on the way back down' has great significance here I think. They may hold religious sway where they come from, but when they try and force it on others, i.e 'step over them', they're going to get a real shock when we shove it up their arse and tell them to just FU......" and at that point his COMM badge chirruped and a message for the Senior Staff to come the Ready Room was relayed.

"That sounds like one of the Rules of Acquisition. Damn close." Cordale mused aloud, "Not a big fan of them either." he shook his head to clear out the funk, and then offered Kevin a nod as his own Comm Badge chirped. "Well, let's go see what they want."