<USS Avalon> Curiouser and Curiouser --By Marksbury and Fenner
- From: "Robert P Lewis" <caldfyr@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <avalon@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 9 Jan 2005 05:33:19 -0900
Curiouser and Curiouser
By Senior Lieutenant Elissabeth Marksbury and Ensign Kyle Fenner
Kyle had been asleep for two hours when a slightly familiar voice cut into
the darkness. "Marksbury to Ensign Fenner. I need to see you in my
office."
"Huh? What? Oh hell, what time is it?" He exclaimed. "I'm sorry ma'am, I
don't know how I slept in, I'll be there in ten minutes."
"You're not late, Ensign. I'm requesting your assistance."
"Yes, Ma'am, I'll be there shortly. Will fifteen minutes be okay?" He asked
hopefully.
"That's fine, Ensign. Thank you."
"Ensign Fenner out," he stated as, rubbing grime from his eyes, he rushed
into the bathroom. "Computer, lights." The room lit up as he entered the
shower stall.
Ten minutes later saw Ensign Kyle Fenner standing at-ease while he waited
beside Lieutenant Marksbury's door, idly wondering if his hands were clasped
flatly behind his back, and whether his Sabre could somehow manage to best a
Galor. "If it could somehow avoid that damned main disruptor, it might have
a chance."
His musings were interrupted when the doors slid open, making way for an
angry looking medical troop that stalked out. Kyle took a step to place
himself between the doors, and knocked once. "Ma'am, Ensign Fenner
reporting as ordered."
She took a deep breath, trying to calm her anger before addressing him.
"Come in, Mr. Fenner. Thank you."
Kyle squared himself with her desk. "You require my assistance?"
"At ease, please. This is more of a ... favour to me." She breathed
deeply, trying to get her mind focused back to the task at hand. "I have a
situation here that is perplexing me and I thought that your expertise could
help. Nothing leaves this office - I know I can trust you." She looked at
him squarely. "This is up to you, Kyle." She passed her hands over her
eyes. "I'm sorry. Mr. Fenner," she corrected.
Kyle's expression became curious, "What can I do for you, Ma'am?"
"Come look at this," she waited for him to make his way around her desk to
look at the console. She explained, "Commander Manson was assualted in this
turbolift earlier today." She showed Manson entering the empty lift. Then
she showed him the surveillance from the bridge when Lieutenant Shimbrodus
had found him. "Notice the time."
Kyle, frowning, took a knee beside the Lieutenant. "So it was a
not-so-turbo lift." He scrolled down the log a few lines. "Nearly three
minutes for a thirty second trip, yet the system reports no
irregularities... It's like the ship thinks three minutes is perfectly
normal, at least as far as this particular trip goes." He moved to spin the
display more directly towards himself, then hesitated. "May I?"
She smiled at Kyle's quip. "Of course. So, I'm logically thinking that
someone got on at a different deck and stopped the lift, right? Look." She
brought up the feeds for that time frame from the other decks. "No one else
got on."
Kyle nodded. "Plus, the lift 'didn't stop' - so says the computer,
anyway." His left hand, after finishing the air quotes, scratched invisible
stubble on his neck. "Computer."
The computer chirped in aknowledgment.
"Has there been an. unusual degree of command-code usage inside any portion
of the last seventy-two hours?"
"Access Denied; Insufficient clearance."
Kyle looked to Marksbury. "Your turn."
"Checked the lift surveillance, of course," she added dryly. "It's
missing." She looked at Kyle, "I thought that it was a malfunction, but
look," she typed in a few commands and brought up the current feeds from
that lift. They showed two Ensigns standing silently in the lift and then
exiting. "Works perfectly. We're just missing the logs from that time
frame."
"That is interesting, ma'am, but I was asking you to try accessing the
high-level command code usage statistics, " he replied with a slight tinge
of irritation. "Whomever is doing this apparently has high-level access,
and they're using it to have the main computer cover their tracks."
Closing her eyes and feeling like a complete idiot, she looked at Kyle.
"I'm sorry, Fenner. It has been one hell of a day." She paused and tried
to focus. "Computer, has there been an unusual amount of command-code usage
in the last seventy-two hours?"
"Negative."
Kyle grunted. Lowering his gaze to the floor, he scratched his head. After
almost a minute of silence, he looked up and locked eyes with Lieutenant
Marksbury. "Whatever is going on may just be a system glitch, but I can't
tell. Frankly, the problem exceeds my abilities," he stated, while
deliberately removing the communicator from his uniform. "How about we
forget this for now, Elissabeth, and we can check out the training program I
told you about."
He startled her, and out of instict her eyes narrowed until she comprehended
his meaning, about half a second before she would've asked him if he'd lost
his mind. "I think that's a good idea. I've had more than any one person
should have to put up with for a day." She removed her communicator, though
it felt entirely wrong to do so, and stood, looking at Kyle.
"Outstanding, I've been dying to do this since I told you about it the other
day. How about you meet me outside holodeck one in, oh.. ten minutes? Wear
something you don't mind sweating in."
Unsure what he was up to exactly, she trusted him enough as an Intel officer
to follow. Lissi knew they had never spoke of a training program. In fact,
their first meeting hadn't gone well at all. And he called her by her first
name. If she knew one thing about Fenner, it was that he was very 'by the
book'. "I'll be there," she told him.
*
Ten minutes later, Kyle arrived at holodeck one to find it already in use.
"Eghh." He walked down towards holodeck two and was pleased to find it
empty. He didn't have to wait long for the lieutenant.
"Kyle," she nodded, having changed into her usual PT gear.
Kyle keyed open the doors, revealing the familiar blue coloured walls.
"After you," he said, gesturing into the room. Sitting on the floor, he
began to stretch. After a moment, he realized that Marksbury was watching
expectantly, "I strongly recommend limbering up."
Smiling a bit, she shook her head and joined him. It was honestly the last
thing she felt like doing, but the idea of a workout was appealing.
Elissabeth began going through her pre-workout routine, gracefully moving
through the motions her body knew by instinct.
After working through his muscle groups, Kyle aggressively shadow boxed
until Marksbury had finished. Receiving a nod from her, he cleared his
throat. "Computer, run program Fenner One."
The blue-tiled walls were replaced by the inside of a cargo bay filled with
dozens of disheveled crewmen. "Welcome, Elissabeth," he began, while
observing her reaction, " to the USS Tomlinson..."
Her brow furrowed a bit as she comprehended the situation. "Call me Lissi,
Kyle." Then she smiled, feeling better already. "What's our objective?"
Kyle edged towards the locked corridor entrance. "It's the same as everyone
else's; eject the warp core or, if unable to gain entry to engineering,
disable the main deflector instead." Visibly tense, emotions ran freely
across his face. "Get ready now."
Lissi brought up everything she knew about the Tomlinson. Nova class
starship...which made the layout similar to an Intrepid, like the Avalon.
It was just smaller. She had no idea what to expect and loved the thrill it
sent coursing through her body - even loved the small flips in her stomach.
Focusing singularly on the task ahead, she nodded and waited for the doors
to the corridor to slide open. "No phasers unless you have to, they'll set
off alarms," she reminded.
An engineering crewmen monitoring a tricorder raised an alarm. "Here they
come!"
"Everyone get ready!"
The doors slid open.
* * =A= * *
Resting at the top of a Jeffries Tube, Kyle considered that reaching this
point was markedly easier this time around. He and Lissi were currently
crouched together, each with a hand phaser aimed at the hatch. All was
quiet.
Softly into her ear he whispered, "In here the point is to be sneaky, so if
we whisper it isn't suspicious." When Lissi nodded, he continued, while
making hand gestures that could be about a corridor layout, "If they are
covering their tracks this well, they're sure to be watching your every
move."
She agreed with his assessment. Kyle had more than impressed her. Not
only had he thought quickly on his feet, creating this cover and providing
them opportunity to talk about what was happening on the Avalon, but he
proved he could handle himself in combat. They had worked together as a
perfect team, though they had never fought together before. Leaning closer,
she asked, "So site to site transport, you think? Whoever it is has the
clearance to a) do it and b) make it look like it hasn't been done. That
really narrows the list of subjects to about a fifth of the command staff."
Nodding in agreement, Kyle quietly released the catch on the hatch. Tensing
up, he exploded into the corridor with Lissi close behind. They rounded a
corner together and saw several men and a woman walking towards them thirty
feet away. The woman reached for the phaser on her hip.
Together, Kyle and Lissi accelerated as they closed distance. The woman
almost had her phaser out when Kyle collided with her, lifting her up and
carrying her into the men behind.
Kyle's manuever knocked two of the men off balance which left the other two
men rushing directly towards Lissi. She took a defensive stance as the
first man lunged for her. Using his momentum against him, she grabbed his
arm and twisted, shoving his face into the bulkhead. She drove her heel
into the back of his knee, satisfied by the crunch that he was no longer a
threat.
The second man used her distraction to wrap his arm around her neck, placing
her into a choke hold. She twisted in his grasp, but he moved with her.
Placing both her hands on his arm, she leaned forward suddenly, flipping the
man over her back and onto the floor. He rolled back onto his feet and
Lissi took up her stance once again.
Kyle used his momentum to keep his opponents off-balance for a few feet,
then suddenly planted a foot and propelled the woman away from him. She
ended up tangled on the floor with one man while the other fought to stop
his slide down a wall until Kyle's foot connected with his throat. Quickly
grabbing a fallen phaser, Kyle swept a beam across the tangled couple.
Lissi's opponent wasn't going to underestimate her this time. He began to
slowly circle her, expecting Lissi to do the same. However, if there was
one thing she had learned from the Master, it was patience and control. She
calmed herself and watched him move out of her vision. She still knew
exactly where he was. The man struck as soon as he thought she couldn't see
him. A quick pivot slammed the palm of her hand into his chest, knocking
the breath from him. He stared wide-eyed, having misjudged how fast she
could move. A sweep of her left leg had the man on the floor, gasping for
breath. She ran past him to join Kyle.
Kyle tossed her a phaser as they continued down the hall. "That's usually
the point where the safety protocols kick in and end the program." They
arrived at another Jeffries Tube and moments later were climbing another
ladder between decks. When they reached the top, they again rested. "I
think," he whispered, "That a diagnostic should be ordered on the turbolift,
and that the official line for the investigation will be that Manson is
tight-lipped about the incident, thereby forcing you to write it off as a
private altercation."
"It's not a line. I don't have a statement from him. He may shed some
light on this, but I seriously doubt it. Something is very wrong here and I
want to find out what it is." She caught her breath rather quickly. "It
sounds like a good idea, but what do you think we're going to actually find
out from the turbolift?"
Kyle made some random gestures, "We've found out everything we're going to.
If you want to catch this guy, he has to think you're not even looking for
him. Everything you do needs to be covert. We have to assume that, because
you're acting Chief of Security, that your communicator is spying on you and
that your office, quarters, and any terminal you access are too."
"I'm aware of that, Kyle." Then realising how condescending she sounded,
she said, "I'm sorry. Really, I am. You've been a great help. My mind has
been in a hundred different directions today. You've brought things to my
attention that I ordinarily wouldn't have overlooked." Not waiting for his
reaction, she released the hatch and they moved out into the corridor.
When they burst into Main Engineering they were greeted by several ruby
colored beams. Surprised, neither Kyle or Lissi could hold back from
screaming as pain exploded throughout their bodies. Obscured by their
screams, the computer could faintly be heard mentioning something to do with
safety thresholds.
When the pain eased, Kyle looked up from where he lay to see the familiar
glowing blue tiled walls. His fresh bruises called for attention.
"Computer, run Program Fenner Two."
Weightless, they floated in a cloud of steam.
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