Ayilawuleki

Posted on Feb 20, 2017 @ 12:53pm by Lieutenant Cantor Von
Edited on on Feb 20, 2017 @ 12:54pm

Mission: Holodeck Havoc

"Ayilawuleki"
(cont'd from "Some Are Born Princesses..." written by the wonderful Tiffany)

- Translation from Xhosa (yes, that's an actual non-scifi language): "Out of control"

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LOCATION: Holodeck Unknown, USS PHOENIX
SD: [2.17]0220.0939
SCENE: Main Operations, Nor-class station

"Computer, end program."

Nothing.

"Computer, end program."

Still nothing.

Cantor Von, Lynette Ryan, Jasmine Yu, and Jake Crichton walked through what looked like leftover debris from a battle. The station's main operations projected an eerie menace about it. Most of the displays flickered, sometimes playing employee training films from the earlier centuries, sometimes displaying a variety of three dimensional schematics of ancient cutting edge weaponry. The barely audible buzz of powered systems sounded more like a waiting insect then anything artificial. Von's mind couldn't filter out Lynette's mantra of "please let the safeties be on, please let the safeties be on" which added to his frustration.

He stopped and the group stopped; he had been leading them through the station because of his familiarity with the layout. Talking to the air, he said, "Computer, priority override, authorization Von Epsilon-Beta-224."

Again, nothing.

"I don't think that's working, Mr. Von," Yu said, providing a half smile. Von blinked and then cursed in Betazoid.

"This isn't good," he said, looking around him for something. "In fact, this is going to get very bad."

Ryan's eyes widened. "What? What do you mean?"

"The holodeck isn't responding to a Principle's command override."

Jake Crichton closed his eyes, and Von heard the ExO's own litany of curses in his mind.

As Lynette digested that information, Yu looked about, nonplussed. "My engineering minutia is a bit rusty. Principle's command?"

"There are three individuals aboard a starship who are considered Principles," answered Crichton. "The Captain, the ExO, and the Operations Officer. Those three hold the ultimate computer authority on starship systems."

Ryan nodded. "Those three need to be in agreement during a self-destruct scenario."

Yu nodded. "Yes, so we've established we're locked out."

Von shook his head. "If this corruption has progressed far enough to lockout a Principle's command, it means two things. First, Engineering can't shutdown this simulation and, second-"

"The safeties are off," finished the ExO.

"Wait, what?" interjected Yu.

"Hang on, not necessarily, right?" asked Ryan. "Just because the corruptions spread to the core command subroutines doesn't mean the safeties have been compromised."

Von nodded. "That's right, Lynette. But the safeties *could* fail."

"So the Captain and Malin-Argo are probably trying to extract us from his mess," stated Crichton.

"They may not even know they've lost control," said Von. "They're probably letting the scenarios play out to shutdown the holodecks gracefully. With the safeties on, it'll just be a little weird for us, but nothing else."

"You can say that again," agreed Lynette.

Von continued. "We need to find a control panel, something I can attempt to reconfigure in order to communicate with Engineering. Yu can you-"

"Hegh jImoDchu'mo' ghargh!!!!"

They attacked then, leaping from the upper command deck onto the unsuspecting Starfleet officers. Bat'leths and Daqtagh's glinted in the surreal twilight of the semi-functional operations center. Crichton could smell them before they entered his view, the reeking smell of decay and death thick and palpable. One Klingon landed in front of him, twirling his Bat'leth into a striking position, when the ExO noticed that one of its eyes was missing and most of its flesh had fallen off. Were these things even alive?

Lynette stumbled back and deflected the first thrust of a Bat'leth as a reaction, a fine complement to her Starfleet basic training.

Jasmine Yu went into action. She dodged the first slash of the Bat'leth and stepped over the returning attack to her legs, moving around the undead Klingon in an elaborate dance of death. She slammed into the foul corpse, not enough to push it over but to unbalance it into a position where-

Yu pulled the Klingon's Daqtagh from its sheath and arced it hard over hear head, stabbing behind her where she knew her taller adversary would be. The blade cut deep into the base of the neck, avoiding the Klingon brow ridge that could have deflected the blow. She spun around as the Klingon corpse fell - as if its strings had been cut - switching the Daqtagh into an overhand grip.

It was then she saw Cantor Von move. Or so she thought. The Betazoid was in motion like he was in a fast-forward recording, but with the subdued lighting it was hard to tell how fast. She saw him strike one of the Klingons at speed - hard enough to hear bones snap and the Klingon's weapon clatter to the ground. But that's all Yu could comprehend before seeing the Klingon standing over Lynette raise its Bat'leth for a killing blow.

Yu reacted instantly, slipping her grip to the serrated blade itself, and whipping her Daqtagh at the Klingon. It's blade whistled through the air and buried itself in the base of the Klingon's neck. Like the previous Klingon it collapsed, it's Bat'leth clattering to the floor beside Ryan. Yu turned to see Jake Crichton remove his recently acquired Bat'leth from the head of a fallen Klingon. He looked up, breathing hard. "Okay, who had a simulation with Klingon zombies?"

Cantor Von stood over the shattered undead Klingon, entranced. He didn't think he could-

Shaking it off, the Betazoid walked over to the group. "Are there any injuries? Even small cuts? Not bruises or abrasions."

The group looked around and slowly began shaking their heads. "So the safeties are still on," stated Crichton.

"Or we were skilled enough to defeat these creatures without injury," Yu added, nudging an undead Klingon with her boot.

"Or just lucky," finished Ryan. She stood and brushed herself off.

Von took a deep breath. "If I remember the layout of this station correctly, there should be some access panels under the main viewer," he said, walking over to several large panels in the bulkhead below the malfunctioning viewer.

"They're smell is very...intense," commented Yu, surveying the carnage.

Lynette helped Von disassemble the panel, but as it came off daylight flooded the twilight operations center. Squinting, peeting in where only circuitry should be, Von and Ryan saw a lush green valley laid out before them, ending in a tall, ivory castle perched on grey, jagged rock. The smell of pine flooded the operations center and the sound of chirping birds could be heard beyond.

"Think that's where the evil librarians would be?" asked the ExO. "Seems very much in the milieu of a Necromancer."

"A necro-what?" asked Von.

"I'll fill you in on the way," said Lynette, gazing out at the valley below. "We'll have to make our way down and across that valley to that...castle." She looked back at her fellow Starfleet officers. "Hopefully the safeties will hold until then...if they haven't given out already."

"Take all the Klingon weapons," announced Yu. "The Commander and I will use the Bat'leths, Lynette a Daqtagh, and Lt. Von-"

"A Daqtagh is fine, thank you, Jasmine," finished the Betazoid. Yu gave him a quizzical expression as she handed over the Klingon blade. He returned her expression with a determined look of understanding, saying nothing.

With that, the group made their way through the control panel and into the lush valley beyond.

---

NRPG: According to the Star Trek roleplaying game Operations Managers or Operations Officers are "consummate masters of technology". Had to flex the technobabble muscle a bit.

Yes, Klingon zombies.

More on Von's trait - I've been setting it up in earlier posts. Essentially, in stress situations, his neuro synapses fire extremely fast, cascading to fast muscle response too. This is the abnormality talked about in flashbacks with his parents - instead of a really strong telepath, his brain is wired for faster response. Nothing superpower-ry, but causes the world to slow down around him from his perspective, and allows him to react in that slowdown. I'll address the side effects later - and there are definitely side effects. He's only gained partial control from his training while with the Romulans. Let me know if you think this is too much and I can dial it back.

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Marko J. Sertic
aka
Lt. Cantor Von
Chief Operations Officer
USS PHOENIX