From: Shawn _ (alamo_nate_at_yahoo.com)
Date: Wed Jul 23 2008 - 17:29:47 PDT
=Helping Hand, Part 4=
(cont'd from "Tuesday Evening")
LOCATION: SHIV
SCENE: Engineering
STARDATE: [2.8]0723.1645
TIME INDEX: Before Sardra's arrival, before the Dark Lord attacked, etc.
Crichton worked quickly, following the advice his mirror had given him. He had to work around several encryptions left in place by his double, and each one cost him valuable time, but in the end he managed to isolate the control systems for shield harmonics.
"I've got it," he said with a grin.
[[I'll be sure to have a cookie and a gold-star ready when you come back aboard.]]
"Attempting to lower the shield frequency now," Crichton said, ignoring his double's joke and calling up the SHIV's shield-controls on his screen. "With the SHIV's power on the fritz, I'm going to have to lower it incrementally."
He sucked in a breath and held it as he lowered the shield resonance frequency by a few decimals. He waited, did it again, and waited. When consoles around him didn't start exploding from power overloads, he let his breath out in a whoosh a risked a smile at Cochrane, who was tending to M'kel.
"I think we got it," he said.
Suddenly, one of the nacelles on the SHIV exploded, sending the ship careening wildly through space. Crichtin grabbed the console to keep from being thrown to the floor. Around him, terminals began to explode and rained sparks down on his face and hands. Crichton ignored the stinging paing and hoisted himself to his feet. Alarm klaxons were wailing in the background, so he had to shout to be heard over them.
"Crichton!" he said. "What's going on?"
[[Don't ask me,]] his double said, with an infuriating nonchalance in his tone. [[Did you touch something you weren't supposed to?]]
"I didn't do anything!" Crichton said. "The power must have overloaded- I think one of the nacelles is gone!"
[[Yep, I'm looking at it on my screen now,]] mirror-Crichton mused. [[Wow. Look at you guys go. You're really moving... in another minute, you'll be out of transporter range.]]
"You're not exactly being helpful!"
[[You've still got access to the ship's shield controls, right? There's nothing wrong with our original plan... but I'd give up the pansy 'lower it incrementally' approach. That is, unless you're okay with turning into a trio of space popsicles when environmental controls shut down.]]
"The ships power circuits can't take it," Crichton said. "The power their generating for the shields can't be shut off- if we lower the shield frequency, it shunts all that power to other systems, causing the overload! If I keep doing it, the ship could explode!"
[[You break it, you buy it,]] was mirror-Crichton's response.
Crichton pounded a fist against his terminal in frustration before realizing that his doppleganger was right- he had to act now, or the three of them were dead. He began rapidly lowering the shield frequency, doing his best to ignore the ship's violent shaking as, piece by piece, it began to destroy itself. Crichton couldn't hear very well anymore- the explosions of terminals and collapse of structures all around him had probably overwhelmed his eardrums- but he kept his focus on the screen in front of him. Whether by fate or just dumb luck, his terminal remained intact as he took the shield harmonics lower, lower...
"Crichton!" he thought he could dimly hear someone calling his name. He risked a glance and saw it was Cochrane, doing his best to shield the unconscious M'kel from falling debris. He couldn't hear what Cochrane was shouting, but it didn't matter- in another few moments, they'd all probably be dead anyway.
---------------------------------------------
LOCATION: HAVEN Station
SCENE: HAVEN's Haven
As Raxl sipped his beer, he became aware of two people watching him from across the room. One was an enormous, burly-looking Gorn, and the other was a human man who was about Raxl's size and build. At first, he chalked their interest off as simple boredom, but when the human began whispering something into a wrist-communicator, Raxl began to get nervous. Still, he didn't make a big show of it- he simply continued sipping his drink and waiting for the pair to do whatever it was they were planning to do.
As he finished the drink, he got his answer. The pair moved up behind him and stood menacingly on either side, to make sure he couldn't make a run for it. The Gorn merely stared silently at Raxl, but the human spoke in a low, gravely voice.
"Someone wants to see you, Mr. Dreyton," he said.
"Sure thing," Raxl said. "Just let me finish my drink, and I-"
The Gorn suddenly clapped a firm hand on Raxl's shoulder, as his human counterpart leaned in.
"Now," the man insisted. Raxl spared a glance at the Gorn, then decided it was probably in his best interests to do what they said. The pair led him towards the back of the bar, to a staircase leading up to a large office with huge glass windows that overlooked the establishment. A figure was standing at the window, peering down into the bar, with his back to Raxl.
The figure did not turn as the Gorn and human led Raxl into the room. But Raxl would have recognized the back of this man's head anywhere.
"Rakka," Raxl said, trying to manage a friendly, nonchalant tone and doing a fair job of it.
"The money you owe me still hasn't been transferred into my account," Rakka said, turning to face him. He was ugly, even for a Cardassian; his sunken eyes gleamed from beneath his large forehead like a predator, and he had an irritating habit of licking his lips hungrily whenever he and Raxl spoke. Raxl assumed this was due to Rakka's desire to tear him apart like a lion devouring his prey, but Raxl always managed to keep the Cardassian from following through with this desire.
"Yeah, about that..." Raxl started.
"And you're too smart to come to a place like this carrying that money in cash," Rakka continued, ignoring Raxl's remarks. He moved to stand before Raxl, his eyes seeming to search Raxl's face for something but apparently not finding it. "So I have to ask, Dreyton, what could possibly bring you here? Have you finally decided that you can't pay me and have come to accept the punishment?"
"Not at all," Raxl said, shrugging the Gorn's hand off his shoulder with irritation and moving to recline against Rakka's desk. "I'm here on business. The man I'm looking for was last seen aboard HAVEN, and I figured your bar would be the most likely place he'd come visit."
"Oh, so you're in the market for information," Rakka reasoned. "And how, exactly, do you expect to pay for it? Your line of credit has expired here, Raxl, and I'm very, very close to closing your account. Permanently."
"The money I'm getting for this one is enough to pay off what I owe and then some," Raxl said. "And I'll even have some left over for myself at the end of the day."
"There's still the problem of me taking you at your word that I'll get my share," Rakka pointed out with a sinister smile. "But we'll worry about that later, I think. Who is this man you seek?"
"Martin Anders," Raxl said, pulling a PADD from his belt and handing it to Rakka. The Cardassian glanced at the Gorn, who took the PADD from Raxl's hand and examined it thoroughly before giving it to Rakka.
Rakka skimmed the PADD disinterestedly, but his expression changed suddenly as he examined its contents. He glanced up at Raxl, then shot a quick glance at the Gorn. Raxl couldn't tell- did the Cardassian give the Gorn the slightest of nods, or was he just imagining things?
"I have seen this man," Rakka said, handing the PADD back to Raxl and taking a seat behind his desk. "And I'm afraid we have a bit of a problem."
Before Raxl could react, the Gorn had seized him from behind, pinning his arms to his sides. Raxl tried to struggle as the huge reptillian creature began to crush the life out of him, to no avail. The Gorn was simply too powerful.
"Unfortunately, your Martin Anders is paid up with the right people," Rakka said casually, steepling his fingers and smirking as he watched his Gorn henchman crushing Raxl in front of him. "Unfortunately for you, that is. It looks like I'm never going to get that money you owe me after all."
Raxl kept struggling, even though he knew he had no hope of overpowering the Gorn. Still, the struggling had moved him in front of Rakka's desk. Raxl fought for breath as an idea began to form in his mind. He brought his feet up against the edge of Rakka's desk, then kicked off hard, propelling himself and the Gorn backwards- and through the large, glass window overlooking the bar.
Raxl and the Gorn fell amidst a rain of shattered glass and crashed violently through a table. The Gorn cushioned the fall, however, so Raxl quickly rolled to his feet, and shot a quick glance at the two patrons who'd been sitting at the table.
"Beg your pardon," he said with a friendly smile. The Gorn was starting to stir, so Raxl cold-cocked him hard in the jaw, knocking the lizardman unconscious. He then looked back at the two patrons. "Try the veal. I hear it's excellent."
Raxl glanced upwards towards Rakka's office, and saw the Cardassian standing next to the Gorn's human partner. The human was aiming a phaser at Raxl, but was hesitant to shoot, lest he hit one of the patrons. Raxl glanced over and saw that one of the patrons was holding a large, sturdy-looking glass mug full of some strange, green fluid.
"Can I borrow this?" he asked as he snatched the mug from the patron's hand. He cocked his arm back and through the mug as hard as he could towards Rakka's henchman. The mug crashed hard into the human's face, sending him sprawling backward and out of sight. Rakka looked shocked, then a little afraid.
Raxl raced towards the stairwell, back up the stairs, and into Rakka's office. He found the Cardassian struggling to ready a disruptor pistol, and quickly snatched the weapon out of Rakka's hand. He grabbed the Cardassian by the lapels and dragged him over to the shattered window. Hoisting Rakka in the air, Raxl dangled the struggling Cardassian out the window and gave him a friendly smile.
"Now, where were we?" he asked.
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LOCATION: GATEWAY Station
SCENE: Sickbay
And suddenly, Crichton couldn't hear anything anymore.
The alarm klaxons had stopped, the rumbling of the ship had faded, and for a brief moment, Crichton wondered if he was dead. But then he opened his eyes, and found himself staring at what looked like a ceiling. And it seemed like a very familiar ceiling, too. Suddenly, a sour-looking face leaned over him, sporting an unshaven stubble and piercing blue eyes. Certainly not what Crichton had expected angels to look like.
"Bad news," the face said. "You're not dead."
Crichton sat up, and found that he'd been lying on a biobed. He glanced around at his surroundings, and suddenly realized where he was: sickbay, back aboard GATEWAY Station. And the man who'd been standing over him a moment ago was Cade Foster.
"What happened?" Crichton asked.
"You're the engineer," Cade shrugged, obviously not very interested in the question. "Medically, you're fine. That's all I have to know."
The doors swished opened, and Daisy entered. She looked relieved to see that Crichton was okay. "Good to have you back, lieutenant," she said.
"Where's Cochrane and M'kel?" Crichton asked, suddenly remembering that they'd been aboard the SHIV with him.
"They're fine," Daisy reassured him. "M'kel is still unconscious, but Cade says she's going to be okay. Cochrane has already been cleared to leave Sickbay."
"What happened, Commander?" Crichton asked.
"You managed to get the shields low enough for the other Crichton to beam you out," Daisy explained. "But before it happened, you apparently took a nasty blow to the head. Knocked you out cold. It looks like a support-strut broke free and fell on you."
"I don't remember," Crichton murmured.
"Yeah, that's what nasty blows to the head do," Cade observed sarcastically. "They tend to muck things up in the brain until brilliant and handsome physicians like me come along to fix everything. Now, you think if I clear you for duty, you can avoid having that happen again? Or do I need to recommend that you wear a helmut from now on?"
"The other Crichton," Crichton said, ignoring Cade's sarcasm. "Where is he?"
"He's been returned to the brig," Daisy said. "He will still stand trial, but his assitance in saving you, Cochrane, and M'kel will be taken into account during sentencing."
"Good," Crichton said, laying back down again. "I want a chance to thank him."
=========================================================================
NRPG: Sorry it took me so long to get part four out. But now, everyone's back aboard GATEWAY, and we can all start enjoying some relaxing R&R.
KIM: Hope I did okay with Cade. I love "House" too! :-D
Shawn Putnam
a.k.a.
Jacob Crichton, Lieutenant
Chief of Engineering
GATEWAY Station, GS-2
From HyperNews_at_youth.net
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Wed Nov 19 2008 - 03:10:54 PST