SIM:Blair Into the breach

A Sim by Alex Blair

((Outside Main Engineering, Deck 9, USS Tiger-A))

Having arrived at Main Engineering to find the two security guards unconscious on the floor, and Engineering itself locked down, Alex quickly notified the bridge of the situation. Now as he stood outside the doors, Alex had pulled out his tool kit and was in the process of dismantling the door control mechanism.::

oO How could this have happened? There are too many safety protocols in place to allow something like this to happen! Oo

As he continued to work, Alex saw LtCmdrs Clack and Wilde approaching. Alex was using his hyperspanner to sever several power conduits as Wilde spoke up.::

Wilde: What's the situation, Chief?

Blair: I’m completely locked out. Someone has gotten their hands on the Command codes and locked down Engineering. Barring the use of explosives, I don’t see a way in anytime soon.

Clack: <Response>

Wilde: It makes no sense for her to lockdown engineering. She needs those systems up and running, now she's cut herself off?

As the conversation kept going, Alex continued working. He was determined to find a way through those doors. He would not be locked out of his own control center.::

Blair: None of her actions have made any sense to me, so I can’t explain it.

Clack: RESPONSE

Wilde: Indeed. She must be very desperate.

Blair: Desperate of crazy.

Clack: RESPONSE

Wilde: Keep trying those doors, and I'll explain everything.

Alex was not getting very frustrated with the doors. Even if the warp core were breaching, it wouldn’t have been this difficult to breach a door. Something more than a simple lockdown was activated.::

Blair: Trust me, right now the only thing that matters to me is getting through those doors.

Alex continued to work as he listened to Wilde recount his previous encounters with the intruder. It seemed like Wilde had quite a track record with her and Alex hoped that this would be only a brief meeting between the two. As Wilde’s tale wound down, so did Alex’s progress with the doors. Just as Alex got to the point where he was going to ask for permission to blast through the door, his combadge chirped.::

Turner: =/\= Ensign Turner to Lt. Blair =/\=

Blair: =/\= Blair here, I hope you have some good news Ensign. =/\=

Turner: =/\= Safety override disengaged, you should now be able to manually open the doors =/\=

Blair: =/\= Thank you Ensign, you don’t know how happy you have just made me! =/\=

Turner: =/\= Aye sir, if there's any further assistance I can be let me know. =/\=

Blair: =/\= Standby Turner, I’ll let you know; Blair out. =/\=

Once the channel closed, Alex quickly reconnected several of the connection he had previously disconnected. When that was done, he tapped a few commands and the manual override handle revealed itself just below the console he had been working on.::

Wilde: Arm yourself Mr. Blair.

Blair: Right, sorry.

With the doors ready to open, Alex quickly grabbed the phaser that was latched to his hip. Having served as a Marine, using weapons was second nature to him and the phaser felt very comfortable in his hand.::

Clack: RESPONSE

Wilde: I say we go in and take her down.

Blair: I agree, there’s no telling what damage she has done in there.

Clack: RESPONSE

With the decision made, Alex stepped aside to allow Clack and Wilde to get into position in front of the door. When everyone was ready, Alex activated the manual door release and followed the two Lieutenant Commanders into the large space.::

As they entered Engineering, Alex immediately took off to the side and activated the nearest console. Pulling up the MVAM control protocols, Alex began to delete various bits of code and procedures from the main computer to hopefully make the computer forget that the ship was capable of separation. As the progress continued, Alex decided to take an extra level of precaution and rerouted all power from the docking latches, then disabled the power conduits leading to them. By the time he was finished, the Tiger was no longer made up of three pieces. His work only took about a minute, and when he was done, Alex quietly rejoined Wilde and Clack.::

Blair: It’s done sir.

Wilde/Clack: RESPONSE

Looking across the room, it seemed like the intruder had caught on to the situation.::

Briyal: What have you done!?

Alex knew that protocol called for him to allow Clack or Wilde to speak first, but he couldn’t help himself.::

Blair: It’s over now, this ship is no longer capable of Multi Vector Assault Mode.

Clack/Wilde: RESPONSE

Briyal: Wrong move.

Alex watched in helpless shock as Briyal aimed her disruptor at the Andorian Ensign Thras who was standing by a console. In a split second, he was lying dead on the floor and Briyal had her disruptor pointed at another engineer.::

Clack/Wilde: RESPONSE

For several seconds, Alex stood motionless. All of the Tiger’s engineers were his responsibility, and he just stood there as Thras was murdered by this madwoman.::

oO I just stood there….I had a weapon in my hand, and I just let her kill him! Oo

With his subconscious mind taking control, Alex found himself pointing his phaser directly at Briyal. Looking at the weapon’s control panel, Alex saw it was set to maximum.::

oO No, killing her would be no better than what she did. You are a better man than that! Oo

Briyal: I warned you not to test me. Fix this, or she's next.

Clack/Wilde: RESPONSE

It took a deep internal struggle, but Alex’s conscious mind won and he lowered his phaser. As he did so, a sense of clarity took over and Alex remembered about some of the upgrades that the Tiger had undergone during her refit. One particular upgrade was a very closely guarded secret, the upgrades to forcefields in engineering. Without wasting another second, Alex tore the combadge off of his tunic and tossed it towards Briyal.::

Blair: Computer, lock on to my combadge and initiate Engineering protocol 777.

Computer: Acknowledged.

In the blink of an eye, the computer locked on to Alex’ s combadge and created a reinforced level 10 forcefield around Briyal imprisoning her where she stood.::

Clack/Wilde: RESPONSE

Blair: It’s a very reinforced level 10 forcefield sir. It was not on any of our repair manifests, but this capability was installed while we were at DS17.

Clack/Wilde: RESPONSE

Blair: I couldn’t initiate the protocol before sir. It requires Command authorization and you have to be within the confines of engineering.

Clack/Wilde: RESPONSE

Several seconds later, the somewhat familiar voice of Ensign Turner could be heard over the COMM system. Alex instinctively tapped his chest, remembering too late that his combadge was gone.::

Turner: =/\= Ensign Turner to Lieutenant Blair =/\=

Blair: =/\= Go ahead Turner. =/\=

Turner: =/\= My readout is showing MVAM mode disabled, can you confirm? =/\=

Blair: =/\= Yes Ensign. I was able to disable MVAM and we have our trouble maker in custody. =/\=

Turner: =/\= Is there anything I can do from up here to assist you? =/\=

Blair: =/\= Keep your eyes on the forcefield that was just erected in Engineering. If it decreases, reinforce it immediately. =/\=

Anyone: RESPONSES

TAG/TBC

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Lt JG Alex Blair

Chief Engineer

USS Tiger-A