Desmond Troi crawled in front of his cohort through the Jeffries tubes. He stopped a moment to manually override the security hatch to the outer ring to the command center. “Just say it Summer.”
“I hate it when you do that...what are we going to do if the command center has been taken? We aren’t armed with phasers.”
“I was hoping you wouldn’t remind me of that or voice that comment. It’s been on your mind for the past ten minutes.”
Summer slapped his ass in a spanking manner. “Keep your ass out of my head!”
“Careful, I may enjoy that.” The coy helmsman smirked as he looked back. Summer scowled a bit before breaking a smile.
The hatch for the outer Jeffries tube ring opened and began flooding water into the now open tube. In quick reaction Summer grabbed a hold of Desmond’s legs as he grabbed a hold of the door as tightly as he could. Within minutes, the new tube was completely flooded. The two ensigns quickly began swimming through the outer ring and struggled to open the hatch to the inner ring. Since the pressure was equalized under water, it was easier this time, but still did not provide an escape to breathable air.
Again the push was made to the command center. Desmond heard a clear thought from Summer. Death at a captor or death by drowning, I just want to breathe!
Des motioned for Summer to join him at the next hatch and to help him pull the doors apart. With both exerting force to the hatch, enough made a gaping crack, draining water into the room beyond. A bit further and Summer pushed through the hatch out onto the sopping wet floor, followed shortly by Desmond. After both caught their breath they looked up to see a horrifying sight.
---
Elsewhere, Turek was dodging lunges by the Talarian centipede as he carefully jumped to the other side of the creature. The confining space of the corridor was enough to slow the giant monster while Turek ran down the corridor and slammed shut the door in sick bay. “This is Dr. Turek reporting to sick bay for...Oh...dammit.”
---
“Sir, this is the holomatrix lab, but with no power to this section, I don’t know if we can gain access.” Ensign Hreowr commented.
Solek examined the door controls and looked back at the Caitian. “Can you try getting a manual override to gain access?”
“I’ll give it my best, sir, but I was never great at lock-picking.” The Caitian removed the access panel and began rummaging through the isolinear chips when Solek heard noises on the other side of the door. Some of it were screams, others were shouts, but the worst were the monstrous roars and the bangs on the lab door. Ensign Hreowr glanced up with concern for the scientists on the other side of the door.
Solek moved to another panel and removed it. “Ensign, I advise that you not listen to the screams and focus on your task...I’ll worry about shutting off the power to the room and shutting down the emitters.”
“Good luck, sir.” Hreowr commented as he returned to his task. Solek muttered a thanks under his breath, putting extra attention and drive into his focus.
---
Inside the holomatrix lab, Eddie and Aron-Mu had successfully corralled everyone behind a larger terminal while the two engineers set up fabricated force fields to keep out the hostile matrixes. Unfortunately, not everyone was saved and a few technicians lost their lives to the monstrous matrixes of fictional characters like Grendel and a pissed bottle-blonde drunk throwing bottles of liquor from her dog-inhabited purse. “Lt. Calvin, these force fields won’t hold forever. We need to migrate to the door and attempt to get it opened.”
“Unfortunately, if we move the scientists with us, then the shields will take full brunt out in the open. I can’t risk everyone like that.”
“Then let me go alone and do it. I can take a force field with me and get back here when it fails.” Aron-Mu volunteered, but Eddie shook his head.
“No, I’ll go. Your fabrications are better than mine, and you need to get working on getting another one constructed should this one fail.” Eddie said, grabbing the nearest fabrication at the base. Aron-mu nodded and slipped back with the scientists.
Eddie was halfway to the door when the force field generator failed, exposing him to the incoming swipe from the Minotaur’s swipes, slamming him against the wall. He landed poorly; bleeding and unconscious. The Doctor made a dash to help him, but a hit to the mobile emitter had him fighting to do anything useful.
---
Turek looked around the sick bay as a few more officers and scientists were brought in as hostages. The group of hijackers held a large portion of the medical staff, civilian scientists, and a number of technicians at rifle point.
Turek was certain that the EMH staff was likely corrupted and thus incapable of doing any more than harm a number of hostages. Turek raised his hands in surrender. The nearby thug motioned for him to join the other hostages. In a few moments, Turek had effectively reported into the medical bay and immediately to his own capture.
---
In the command center, the Orion boarding party held Desmond and Summer at disruptor-point with the other ops personnel. The lead Orion male frowned, noting the lack of station leader as he moved to the nearby console. “This is Danar. We have the station.”
