Lieutenant Charlena Vanlith and Ensign Kaito Moore - Times Up

[Wil Ukinix]

Great JP from Lieutenant Vanlith and Ensign Moore to help end our Malon toxic freighter mission... along with the toxic waste, is there also love in the air?

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( Hanger Deck, U.S.S. Independence - B )

 

Moore: Make way!

Moore shouted as he ran full speed down the corridor. A few crew members parted to the left and right to let the two space suit clad officers past. Moore cursed the suits, he normally didn’t mind them, but after hours in them followed by a marathon of life and death, he wished Starfleet had come up with something more streamlined.

 

Charlena panted hard as she worked with every fiber in her to keep up with Moore. Her arms pumped dramatically as she tried to force her legs to keep going. She hated the suits at the best of times and this was just evidence yet again of why. 

 

Vanlith: ::Panting barely audible:: What he said

Moore: Almost there, Lieutenant. ::He spoke between heavy breaths:: We’re going to feel this tomorrow.

He decided to put in a little humor, something to take his mind off of the impending doom of the Malon vessel, and the bodily strain of running in the suits. Normally this wouldn’t be a challenge for Moore, but he suspected the fatigue was getting to him. 

 

Charlena nodded, chuckling as she ran and flipped her hair to the right, she tried desperately to keep up but felt herself slipping a stride length behind Moore and then two. She dug deep pushing herself onwards and struggling to maintain any kind of pattern to her breathing. His foot of height on her showed as she battled to maintain the pace he was setting. 

 

Vanlith: ::panting:: How much further?

Moore: Not muc-

At that moment a crashing sound reverberated through the hull, and violently shook the ship. If the alarms weren’t blaring before, they would have been now, as unknown to them a Malon shuttle just crashed into the hanger. 

 

Charlena stumbled as the ship shook and ended up letting herself fall, tucking her head under her as she rolled back to her feet and took off running again.  

 

Vanlith: Feel free to catch me sometime ::panting hard::

 

She hoped her joke landed as well as his did earlier. And she forced herself to maintain her pace not wanting to fall any further behind him.  

 

Moore: Sorry, Lieutenant. I’ll get you next time!

He called out, but not seriously, at least as not serious as he could be in this situation. They would round a corner, and pass a few more crew members, but were nearing the nose of the ship.

Vanlith: ::chuckling and panting:: please do 

 

At this point Char was almost glad she was a stride behind Moore; she had no clue where she was and definitely didn’t know how to get to where they were going from here. She wasn’t even sure she could go back the way they had come at this point; it was all a strange blur. The adrenaline fueling her was all she had left in her as she pushed one foot in front of the other.

The hallway before them was coming to an end, but Moore came to a stop at a side hatch on the right. One of the restricted areas, he pressed the unlock button, and the door slid open. Revealing various internal parts of the Indy.

 

Charlena managed to stop herself before she barrelled into Moore but was aware as she stopped that she was almost on top of him. She blushed and took as step back. 

 

Vanlith: ::panting trying to catch her breath:: Now what? 

 

Moore: We need to make a bypass between the targeting computer, and secondary sensor arrays. We have to reroute the sensor data to the transporter room.

Moore stepped into the room, there was a terminal off to the left, but outside of that it was mostly tubes, cabling, EPS conduits, and sensor equipment that ran from above and below the deck. Moore reached over, and pulled off his gloves, tossing them to the side.

 

 Charlena nodded to Moore and entered the room behind him moving to his left side. She removed her gloves, rubbed her face and ruffled the hair at the back of her head as she tried to formulate the quickest way of doing this. She knew it wouldn’t be pretty but it had to be fast.  

 

Vanlith: ::pointing at a connection:: This connection is the key component to keeping the targeting computer communicating with the secondary sensor arrays, but we can’t just unplug it and rewire it. If we do that the entire system shuts down thinking the weapons system has been compromised and tampered with.

Moore: Which is why. ::He walked over and looked at the system.:: We’ll have to bypass. Make it think it’s still working properly. I need to get out of this suit.

Moore didn’t wait for a reply, he reached back, and cracked open the seal on his neck, before lifting off the solid chest piece that housed the suits environmental controls.

Charlena flicked her hair to the left and then pushed her hair off her face and tucked it behind her right ear. She looked at Moore and then back to the system in front of her. oO Focus Char focus Oo

 

Vanlith: I don’t blame you the suits aren’t great could do with being out of mine too. ::Pause:: What if we rewire the secondary sensor array first?. The connection breaking on that side doesn't tend to shut down weapons systems because it assumes that it's a repair not a systems sabotage.

Moore: That’s not a bad idea, we can start there, and work backwards. The system won’t know any difference until we connect it, but I should be able to override the lockout. We’re going to have to climb in there. 

 

Charlena looked up at him and took a deep breath as she cracked open her suit as well. There was no way they were both getting in there with enough space to work if she was keeping her suit on. She let her hair fall over her face as she removed the suit and answered him.

 

Vanlith: It will take both of us in there one on the secondary sensor array and the other working on the reconfiguration to the targeting system so it can align with the transported to get to Malons off that ship. 

 

Moore: Agreed ::He said as he climbed out of the suit, kicking off the boots first, and finally out of the main pressure suit.:: I will go for the targeting system, you grab the secondary sensors. 

 

Vanlith: Works for me targeting systems aren’t my first choice to work on. Lead on. 

 

Charlena gestured for Moore to start to get to work as she removed her suit. Standing there in the clothing left wasn’t exactly ideal but it was the best they had given the situation. She looked down and flipped her hair to the right. The lack of shoes might have been her most hated part of this process.

 

Moore nodded and jumped right in, making sure to grab his Tricorder and plasma torch first before crawling into the machinery. He didn’t mind losing the suit, the undersuit at least covered his hands and feet, and provided some modesty, but it was form fitting. Acting like a highly advanced glove, full of body sensors and cooling filaments, still it felt like you were wearing only a sock over your body, more than anything else. 

 

Charlena took a deep breath and followed Moore in. Her breath was finally steady again and the adrenaline was still cursing through her body at a high enough rate that her hands were steady. She looked at the array of cabling in front of her and began to isolate where each connection would lead and what she needed to reconfigure. 

 

Vanlith: How do you want the targeting system to match the transporter? Because if we align the transporter with the secondary array system that should mean we can connect them that way? 

 

Moore crawled deeper into the machinery, getting to the targeting array.

Moore: I need it to take over the transporter’s targeting system. It’s essentially going to be aiming the sensor towards the targets. At that point, once we know we have a good lock, I’m going to use the firing sequence to activate the transporter.

As Moore said that, he felt like this was kind of a crazy plan, he essentially would set the cannons to fire automatically, but instead the signal would go to the transporter. He would also turn off the weapon firing angle limits, normally the computer only would give a clear signal to fire within a certain degree of the nose when it was tracking a target, but it could be overridden easily enough. That being said, if Moore made a mistake, the main cannons would start firing each time they beamed someone up. Which in theory could ignite the leaking gasses from the ship. Moore pushed that thought away, he best make sure to do this right. 

 

Vanlith: Ok I see ::pausing and flipping her hair to the right:: there are big problems if this goes wrong right? 

Moore: Potentially.

He said as he opened a panel revealing the bank of Isolinear chips. He kept his answer short, unless she pressed him for more. Moore got to work, activating his Tricorder, and syncing it with the computer. He started to remove and replace the chips. Pulling one out, modified it with his tricorder, and placing it in another slot.

 

Char wasn’t sure he saw her nod but that was all the confirmation she needed that there was no room for error. She got to work as she reconfigured the transporter system into the secondary sensor array. She was right it wasn’t pretty and if she had more time she probably could have come up with a more elegant way to do this but in the back of her mind she could hear Caluid and she knew she just needed to get the job done. 

 

Vanlith: I think I’m close this side. The transporter system should be aligned with the secondary array system and then as long as it reconfigures into the targeting system without tripping a weapons fault we should be there. What about your side?

Moore: Almost ready for the bypass. I just need to take the firing mechanism offline. ::He said as he pulled a chip.:: And then we should be… ::He slotted the chip back in.:: good. Ready for it on your end!

He held out his hand for the cabling needed to bridge the gap. It crossed his mind that he should maybe make this a permanent option, but that could wait. 

 

Vanlith: ::biting her lip and handing the cabling over:: Now or never I guess

 

She took a deep breath and looked at Kaito, her stomach doing flips as she tried to keep calm. This was what they had been working towards, this is why she had run like a madman. And here she was in a tight space in the underclothes of an EVA suit, praying that she hadn’t made a mistake.

Moore: Now or never. ::He said with a hint of confidence. Trying to reassure her.::

He took the cabling, and with one swift motion, unplugged one set of cables, and plugged it in the bypass. The clear light blue cable came to life with a flash of light as the connection was bridged between the two systems. Moore checked his tricorder, the system sent back a master caution error, but he quickly replied with his authorization code. Overriding the warning, and keeping the system running. As far as the computer was concerned, there was a brief disconnect, but nothing too serious as it reconnected immediately.

Moore: I think we're good. What are you reading on your end?

 

Charlena opened her eyes that she didn’t realise she had closed after she had handed the cable over. She looked over everything and read through the output on her tricorder and then laughed, she threw back her head her curls cascading around her. 

 

Vanlith: Positive output, no evidence of any misfire or weapons activation. ::pausing and turning to face Moore and speaking quietly:: We did it.

Moore: That we did. Okay. I just need to upload the Malon’s bio profile to the computer, and set it to autofire.

He typed on his tricorder, and brought up the scans of the Valsak. The Irony wasn’t lost on him, Chekhov’s Tricorder, he had gotten good readings on the Controller earlier, and still had them saved. Which now would be used to save the Controller’s crew. He uploaded the signatures, and got a positive lock on the first Malon. 

 

Vanlith: Is this an appropriate time to use the phrase “fire at will”? 

Moore: Maybe. If we made a mistake, you won’t have to worry about any embarrassment. ::He gave her a wink.::

 

Charlena looked at him and let her hair fall over half her face. This was the real moment of truth and she took a deep breath as she pushed her fair off her face and looked him dead in the eye. 

 

Vanlith: Fire at will Ensign.

Moore: Yes, Ma’am. ::Moore reached for his comm badge, and tapped it. =/\= Ensign Moore, to Bridge. I’m starting the extraction sequence now. Beaming the Malon’s to Cargo bay two. =/\=

No time to wait for a reply, he hit the start program button on his Tricorder, and the system came to life. There was a loud whirring noise around them as the system kicked in. As far as the targeting computer was aware, it was locking onto targets, and firing, but given the lack of life ending explosion. Moore knew it was working as it would lock one Malon, beam them, lock the next, Beam them, and so on. Moore knew he would have to write a report as to why the Indy’s cannons were logging individual shots against Malons.

Vanlith: ::To Moore::  You know I’ve never understood that phrase. Why are we firing at Will? What did he ever do to deserve that? 

Any: =/\= Response =/\=

Moore shrugged as he looked over at her.

Moore: I don’t know. What do you think the Commander did?

 

Vanlith: ::chuckling:: I’m sure plenty of things whilst I was away 

 

Moore: You served with him before? ::He said while looking back at the Tricorder.::

It was working, but Moore wasn’t sure how much time they had left, or if they would get them all. He was glad he could only see one Malon at a time, instead of how many they would miss, but he was worried they would miss a few.

 

Charlena kept trying to keep the tone light. Right now there was only so much they could do watching each Malon be beamed over and she wasn’t about to let Moore take the brunt of feeling bad about this. Every single one they saved was a success and they only had so much time. 

 

Vanlith: I served my entire time in Starfleet with Commander Ukinix. He is a dear friend. But I am sure he has plenty of stories where I am the one who should have been in the firing line not him 

 

Charlena chuckled as she thought back to some of the pranks they had played over the years on each other and she was convinced that she had definitely come out on top so far but was sure he had plenty up his sleeve if they started that up again. She looked over at Moore and saw the worry still etched into his face. 

 

Vanlith: Ensign, you have done everything you can. We are here and we are getting as many here as we can. This is a win. 

Moore: Yes, Ma’am. I just get anxious not knowing how many, but each one is a win.

 

Charlena nodded to Moore and took a gamble. 

 

Vanlith: =/\= Vanlith to anyone near Cargo Bay 2. Any update on how we are looking with crew numbers? =/\=

 

Any: =/\= Response =/\=

Moore let out a sign of relief as he relaxed, looking up at the targeting computer and tricorder.

Moore: Now we just wait. ::He looked over at her.:: I need to stay here. Just in case we need the phaser cannons back online.

 

Vanlith: ::Chuckling:: in the nicest way possible Ensign I am not leaving you here to stew alone. You’re stuck with me. Two minds are better than one if we need the canons back quickly anyway.

Moore: I’ll take the help. ::He looked back at his Tricorder.:: Plus you’re not exactly the worst company to be stuck with, and if you are here, then there is no need to catch you too.

Moore smirked a little bit. She was right, he was stewing a little, and needed a moment to reflect on the fact that even if they didn’t get everyone. He saved as many as he could.  

 

Charlena blushed and pushed her hair off her face and tucked it behind her right ear as she looked at him. 

 

Vanlith: Nice to know I’m not bad company. So whilst we wait for feedback what do you want to talk about? 

 

Charlena and Kaito made casual conversation as they watched the stats trickle over as Malon after Malon was beamed across. A few minutes later, the transport stopped as the computer detected no more targets. Be it from destruction, or successful extraction the two would find out later.

 

Any: =/\= Response =/\= 

 

 

 

End Scene for Moore and Vanlith



Ensign Kaito Moore

Tactical Officer

Amity Outpost

A240006KM1

 

Lt Charlena Vanlith

Engineering

Amity Outpost

 V239604CV0