I sigh heavily, and say:
"I can't think of a story that could work in surrounds like these; it seems the things that would work in my day don't work now. Everyone verifies things with HQ."
"With the fire alarm plan, killing is unnecessary, and the risk to us is minimal unless the mission takes long enough that the investigative team arrives before we are gone. On the other hand, if we charge them, we will have two rooms with three bodies, and the chance of being caught or having a base alarm set off increase dramatically. I think the fire alarm is the safest and most effective method to get the job done."
George nods; a moment later Tom nods.
"I can do this at an access panel. I haven't seen one since we left the electronics room, so it's probably best for us to double back there. I can go alone and then you can start setting the charges when the room is evacuated, or we can go together and rush back together--after all, people are going to be rushing once the alarm sounds, so we won't look too funny hurrying. I think Tom has enough understanding of where to put the charges, and I'll probably make it back before you're finished anyway. Or if you don't think we should split up--"
"No, I don't think we should split up. Just increases the chance of being caught, doesn't it?
"Well, you always think that way, Tom. But it's hard for anyone to be objective in a situation like this, so the best we can do is take the majority bet. Brock?"
--M. J. Young
"Hmm. If we set off alarms, larger groups will be more conspicuous, don't you think? I would imagine we are less likely to be caught, simply because large groups of people with matching vests that aren't part of the uniform aren't likely to already be grouped up at the onset of the alarm. Plus, if either group is caught, the other group could rescue them, but if we are all caught as a group, our chance of getting away is drastically lessened. I vote we split up."
"Agreed," George says. He hesitates a moment, and hands Tom his bag. "You'll need these. Wait." He pulls a small box out of it. "I'll need my tools. I guess you'll know if I succeed."
He turns and walks briskly back the way you came.
"Come on," Tom says, turning in the other direction. "We'll want to be out of sight somewhere." He stops at the first door on the opposite side of the hall and has the door open in seconds. "We'll hide here." He steps through, not waiting for a response.
It appears to be a storage closet for cleaning equipment.
--M. J. Young
I squeeze in with him, and shut the door behind me.
You wait an interminable three or four minutes, and finally there is a buzzing noise. The door pops open unaided, and Tom says, "That's our cue. All doors in this sector will be open for about ten or fifteen minutes to allow people to escape, and then they'll start closing to begin smothering the fire."
He steps into the hall. "And--there they go," he says, as the work crew from the mechanical room hits the hall and heads the other direction. "Time to move."
He rushes into the mechanical room and pulls a ladder over to one of the large arms. "These," he says, shouting over the noise, "are the lever systems that move the damping rods into the fissionables. Each one needs a bomb at this point," he shows you on the one he's climbed. "When they blow, they'll prevent the cooling safety system from activating, and so let the core melt, taking out the center of the complex with it. Grab a ladder and start in that direction."
I'm assuming you'll help; if so, we'll roll for you to learn a Sabotage Fission System skill.
--M. J. Young
Yes, I will help. I've never messed with explosives before myself, but my friend Chris talks about them all the time (he wanted to be a military explosives expert, but was rejected because he's color blind-yes, he really wanted to be a color blind explosives expert. Crazy, right?), so I have a passing knowledge of how they work.
You aren't really learning much about explosives here; these are all preset on timers, and your job is simply to place them properly to disable the mechanical arms that lower the cooling rods, so as to jam the cooling rods.
As you and Tom approach the end of the job, George re-enters the room. He gives your work a quick once over, and commends you for doing well. Tom asks whether he did well too, and George says of course he did, or at least he'd better have since there's no time to check his work now.
"Destiny," George suddenly says as if addressing a person of that name, while tapping the center point of his harness. "We're ready for pickup here."
"George, this is Ann. All quiet here for the moment, but the collection team is pinned down by security troops. Can you sound the abandon while we pull them out first?"
"Probably can do, Destiny, but we've triggered fire alarms down here and the doors might seal before we reach a place from which to signal abandon. In any case, pull us out in ten minutes if you don't hear from us."
"What!" Tom exclaims. "We're going to risk our lives to sound the abandon signal?"
"It was always part of the plan to save as many civilians as we can. When those bombs go, the reactor will be critical so fast very few will make it, unless we alert them now.
"I think we can make it to the secondary bridge here in engineering. It's probably in the fire suppression zone, so it will be abandoned by now. We've got to hurry, though, before the doors seal."
Without waiting for a reply, he heads for the door. Tom stands for a second open-mouthed, then grabs the nearly empty bag and scrambles after him.
--M. J. Young
I interject after the line:
"What!" Tom exclaims. "We're going to risk our lives to sound the abandon signal?"
with: "Of COURSE we are! We have no grudge against them, and we are NOT going to blow them up simply for accepting a contract to build a station! So, let's go! Lead the way!"
You race through the halls, jostled by others trying to get to the lifts and access tubes. At one point you aren't quite sure which way George went, but you spot him again and are catching up with him soon.
The three of you make it to a room with lots of controls, and the door seals behind you. There is a hissing noise.
"That's the air!" Tom shouts in a panic. "We've got to go, now."
"Those are the emergency escape pods," George says, pointing to an array of doors at the other end of the room. "Shut up and let me do this, and we can call Destiny, or else take a pod and go."
George focuses on the panel, scanning the controls for something. Your ears pop.
--M. J. Young
I say to George- "I think we have time, but DO hurry, please!"
Then, I wait while he works his magic.
An amber light starts flashing in the room, and a mechanical voice clearly announces in a repeating pattern, "Abandon ship. To the lifepods."
By this time you're struggling for breath, though. Tom has moved closer to the life pods himself, and has activated his communicator. "Destiny, mission complete, get us out of here."
The room starts swimming, but then you feel another feeling, the tingle of your body starting to disintegrate in the transmat.
You materialize in the transmat room, and hear George and Tom gasp huge breaths even as you involuntarily suck in one of your own. There are a few more pants, and George says, "That was close."
"That was too close," Tom retorts angrily. "We almost didn't make it."
A fight is obviously starting, but Captain Alexander sticks his head in and says, "Don't you boys want to watch your handiwork on screen? You've got less than a minute, you know."
George gives Tom an exasperated look, and heads up the corridor toward the bridge. Tom stares at him angrily, but then scurries to catch up. Toni was on the transmat board, and she's asking whether everyone is all right but already moving toward the door herself.
--M. J. Young
I am borderline asthmatic, so I will need a little more time than the others to recover. once I am able, I follow them to the view screen.
I tell Toni I'm winded, but fine.
She seems concerned, and suggests that there might be treatment for that, but at the moment the focus is on the big screen.
You see something like a huge cylinder in space, covered with small dots some of which are lit, small splinters spilling off it. Then it shifts abruptly, and the lights all change--most go out, some change color, some come on. A crack appears along the midsection.
"Well done, people. Toni, sweep up the equipment; we'll want to be out of here within an hour if we can manage it, but we don't want to leave anything behind. Gary, program a course with three directional changes ultimately taking us toward Sirius. Ann, keep an ear on Federation communications so we know if they're coming, and Ishara stand by on weapons for the moment. Everyone else, get some rest. If you hear the alert, get to stations. Thank you."
Captain Alexander leaves the bridge.
--M. J. Young
I go get some rest in my quarters, and spend a good deal of time thinking about the way the technician on the base was just...gunned down. I'm really upset about it, but I don't know what to do about it, so I brood for awhile, eventually dropping off to a most likely restless sleep.
You eventually awaken, not entirely rested but hungry.
--M. J. Young
I head down to the galley to eat a meal, and if anyone is there I sit down near them and say hello.
As you arrive in the Galley, Marilyn is there sipping a beverage. She waves and invites you to sit with her once you've got your food.
As you sit, she says, "So, do you want to talk about it?"
--M. J. Young
I sit down near her, sit quietly for a bit, then ask, "Does that kind of thing happen often on your operations? Gunning down civilians? I don't know enough about this time period yet to say whether or not your cause is good enough to justify such a thing."
(As a counselor , she would note I said 'YOUR operations'. I don't feel like I belong here yet.)
Her face turns serious.
"I can't say it never happens. It is a war, you know--the Federation has destroyed entire cities, man, woman, and child, and on at least one occasion an entire planetary population. We try not to kill anyone, but we have killed a fair number of Federation Security personnel--soldiers, mostly, some agents. And sometimes a civilian dies. There may have been more civilian deaths than just that one--we couldn't guarantee that everyone would get to life pods, as some would probably think they had more time than they did and return to quarters to get something, or look for someone else. We did everything we could to save as many as possible while destroying the listening post.
"Does it always happen on our missions? This was a unique mission; but all of our missions are unique. We have fought ship-to-ship against Federation battleships and crippled them, including their life support systems. We have blasted scout ships out of the sky. We have assassinated covert operatives and assassins. On the other hand, we've also visited planetary leaders and offered them support, carried medicines to worlds infected by Federation-delivered bioweapons, protected cargo runs from raiders--we have saved a lot of lives. Tonight we probably saved more lives than we will know, by preventing the Federation from installing a communications and surveillance presence in this sector. It means that the resistance forces can move more freely through here, and the planets that choose not to be part of the Federation can support each other.
"One civilian was in the wrong place at the wrong time. It was unfortunate but unavoidable. It could have been worse. The team in the upper levels probably killed twenty or thirty security troops, and took injuries from it; we were fortunate, and I don't think there were any civilians injured; we were lucky to get out. That one civilian might have cost you not only the mission but your lives, had he sounded the alarm.
"But I certainly understand. Feeling responsible for the death of someone who did not have to die is difficult, even when you can honestly say with certainty that the alternative was your own death, and certainty is not always available."
--M. J. Young
"What makes me feel the worst is...I had the chance to just knock him out, long enough for us to set it up and move on, but...I failed. I missed. The first truly practical application of the skills I have practiced for years, and I futz it up..."
She smiles.
"So what you mean is you tried to do what you could to save the man, and you were not quite good enough. You feel what every doctor feels who has lost a patient, what every commander feels who has lost a soldier. It proves that you are human, a concerned human being who cares about others. It would be worse if you were not upset. George feels the same way. A choice had to be made, because that man might have cost you all your lives had he sounded the alarm, and there did not appear to be another way to prevent that at the time."
--M. J. Young
"Yeah...you're right." Fire fills my eyes as my determination soars, "But I cannot let this kind of thing happen again when i have the opportunity to prevent it. It was needless. I need research materials, I need to catch up on the times more fully, and I need to practice my skills for a real purpose now, instead of just for recreation. What kind of training facilities does the Destiny have? Does anyone on board study hand-to-hand combat?"
She hesitates.
"I don't know for certain. I don't. Ishara fights with many kinds of weapons, but I don't know whether he ever fought without them. Gary is good in a fight and good in a brawl, but whether he actually knows any fighting techniques I couldn't say. John--Captain Alexander--was trained by the Federation military years ago, but I don't know what that training included. Of course, George knows a bit of everything; you might ask him whether that includes the kind of thing you want. I wouldn't expect Tom or Burly or Phil to have that kind of training, and of course Ann is not very physical at all. I'm not sure about Toni--she's certainly fit, and she does exercise more than I, but I've never seen her fight."
--M. J. Young
"All right. Thanks." I smile at her. Then, as I stand to leave, I say: "And...if I ever do have to take a life...I hope it never becomes easy." Then, assuming there was nothing else, I'd excuse myself and go have a chat with Ishara, if I can find him. If anyone knows the best person to talk to about hand-to-hand combat training, it'd be him.
Ishara is in the rec center working with some hand-to-hand weapon techniques. You find him quickly.
--M. J. Young
"Hey, Ishara. How you doing?"
Let's try this casual for a minute. No need to be abrupt.
He pauses and gives you a puzzled look.
"I am maintaining my weapon abilities acceptably. Why do you ask?"
--M. J. Young
"Ah, the cut-to-the-chase type, eh? Well, I was wondering if you ever practice hand to hand, unarmed combat, or if you know anyone on the ship who does. I need to practice; I'm a little disappointed with myself...a technician that didn't need to die and may have survived is dead because I couldn't cleanly knock him out."
He shrugs at the death of the technician. "Captain Alexander was overly kind in allowing so many to live. Who knows how many Federation security forces escaped in the life pods along with the staff? How long will it take for the Federation to assign those non-combatants to building new combat facilities? I would not have been so kind."
He looks at the knife in his hand. "I've always found it easier to kill with weapons, and can usually find one. I suspect Kozakowski has been in a few bar brawls, but probably does not know anything you would find useful. Mr. White is best bet--he knows many things, and often surprises with what he knows. I would ask him."
As if that closed the matter, he returns his attention to his practice.
--M. J. Young
I decide I don't much like Ishara, but I say nothing except:
"Thank you for the help."
Then I go search out this Mr. White.
If it's any consolation, Ishara doesn't much like anyone. I believe when you first met him, he made the offer to the captain that he would kill you whenever he decided it was necessary. He is, after all, an assassin who happens to have found useful employment on what is, ultimately, a rebel pirate ship.
"Mr. White" is better known to you by his first name, George. You know him pretty well, and have worked closely with him, particularly on the most recent mission. He's the guy who killed the tech you were unable to incapacitate. George, however, is asleep, and expected to take command of the bridge in about six hours, so he's not immediately available.
--M. J. Young
Oh, it's George. I didn't know his last name.
I see. I'll go and work for the day, then, and when finished see if I can go find him then. He'll understand my desire, anyway. He didn't seem particularly pleased at his own action.
Refresh my memory: what were you learning to do on the ship?
After several hours of that, you drop by the bridge to find George. Indeed, George has take a bit of this and that. He's only done it as an amateur, but he knows a couple of throws and a couple of punches and some stances derived from two or three styles. He'd be glad to give you some practice time, at least, although it looks like right now you're sleeping when he's free and free when he's working, so you'll have to get your schedules turned around a bit to get a good time for that.
--M. J. Young
I'm a technician-oh, sorry, you were calling it an engineer, I understood it's duties as a technician.
My sleeping schedule changes all the time. I'll adapt to his schedule.
"Thanks, George. What time would you like me to stop by to practice?"
The ship has a training room for this purpose, right?
Think of it like Star Trek: everyone who works on the technical staff is in engineering, and therefore an engineer.
George is willing to meet in the recreation area after his shift; it will give him the chance to get a bit of exercise before dinner.
Are you going to get a nap or how do you intend to spend the next seven plus hours?
--M. J. Young
believe it or not, I have only seen about 4 episodes (total) of Star Trek. It's because I want to start at the beginning, not the middle, and the opportunity to do so hasn't presented itself.
Yes, I will nap for a bit, so I can adapt to his schedule a little more easily. If I wake and it still isn't time yet, I'll read until it's almost time, then warm up with some stretches and go meet him.
It is particularly difficult to "start at the beginning" of Star Trek, because there are probably at least four "beginnings".
- There was a pilot in which someone else was the captain of the Enterprise, Jeffry someone was the actor; this pilot was rejected by NBC as too cerebral, and Roddenbury recast the entire show keeping only Leonard Nimoy as Vulcan science officer Spock. That original pilot did not air for decades, until the Sci Fi Channel obtained it in advance of their effort to run the show from the beginning.
- Most of the footage of that episode was recut into a two-part episode in which Spock kidnapped the original captain and in essence stole the Enterprise to take the now completely invalid captain back to that planet to live out his last years. The original story was presented much as it had been, but the ending was altered.
- The first episode that actually aired was called "Charlie", I think, and had Captain Kirk trying to work with a teenage boy who had psionic powers and authority issues. It is usually identified as the first episode, but it was not created to be the first episode.
- There is another first season episode in which Spock is science officer and Kirk has a close friend who is the first officer. They investigate a planet where the first officer and another officer (a woman, but I don't remember her position) become empowered with tremendous psychic abilities and he gets a god complex. (Interestingly, this best friend of James Tiberius Kirk carves a tombstone for him on which his middle initial clearly appears as "I".) The first officer is killed in this episode, and Spock assigned to do double duty as first officer and science officer, the dual positions he held thereafter. Since there is no other episode in which Spock does not have those positions, this was almost certainly the intended first episode for the series, but I think it ran fourth or fifth in the first season.
All of which is to say that you probably don't need to see the original series in order, because they weren't that careful about the order themselves.
You get to the recreation center, where there are mats on the floor in one section; but you wait about five minutes before George rushes in, apologetic and carrying what might be the high-tech equivalent of a bottle of water.
"Had some problems to report to Gary when he came to take command, and it took longer than I expected. Well, let's start with you telling me what you know and what you can do."
--M. J. Young
I explain to him my incapacitation style, and then demonstrate my moves, difficult as that may be without a live target. Poke styles are like that.
"What kind of style do you use, George?"
George describes a style similar to your own, known in some quarters as Han Karon, which relies on hitting sensitive spots. It also teaches the use of a baseball-bat like weapon, optional. He's reached professional level in the style, high amateur in all the maneuvers and the weapon.
--M. J. Young