Orchestrated Chaos

Posted on Thu Feb 13th, 2014 @ 5:00pm by Ensign Corrine Steiner & Captain Liarra Von & Commander Brian Ratchford

Mission: Manhunt
Location: Various, SB 332

ON:

Corrie knew full well that time was against her. Tens of thousands of people and a huge starbase or not, they would quickly figure out what she had done and then quickly track her down. From her perspective, it was good that she had thought out a basic plan before being captured. Her head still pounded from the meds, the counter-meds, and latent phaser stuns. The only course of action that she could think of was risky and desperate.

Making quick reference checks of starbase layout with her wrist holopad, Corrine made her way into a incomplete area. It wasn't yet reconstructed and therefore not occupied. She sat down for a moment to think. She then pulled a phaser out of her bag. This moment was exactly as she had dreamed it. But at time, she didn't understand why she would do such a thing. Now she realized and wave of relief swept over her.

Moments later, Corrie ran at full sprint through the corridors as the loud, shrill crescendo of a phaser on overload sounded. She passed by a workman, "PHASER ON OVERLOAD! RUN FOR IT!"

In shock, the man stared, "We've got to turn it off!"

"Too late! RUN!"

Some seconds later, the nearby decks and bulkheads shuddered violently. Alarms wailed and warning signals broadcast to far corners of the station. The man stumbled and rolled. Corrie was likewise thrown. She rolled out of it, however, and hastily rushed to slide down an access ladder. If the Ferengi rat who sold her out was right, the heavy support girders in the area should make search scans difficult.

Fearful of who might attack next, the traumatized man called out after her, "Who set it off?"

Up from the hole came a reply, "I did!"

On the bridge, the duty officer called out, "Captain! Phaser overload! Sector fifty seven!"

One of the junior bridge officers shook his head and stared off, "She killed herself..."

"Damage and casualty report," Brian said, his voice dropping into the calm focus of a crisis scenario. A phaser explosion just months after the Sojourner bomb... the station's population would be in panic mode.

The bridge engineer studied his panel, "No vital damage... no casualties..." He turned to face the others, "Unoccupied storage, basically."

Brian cast a glance up at Von across the situation table. "She could have set it as a diversion," he said. The woman had ran from the security teams so fervently - and managed to escape the infirmary without hurting anyone - the XO doubted that she would kill herself unless it was her only option. All of that running just to commit suicide in a deserted section of the station just didn't fit.

Von nodded her head. "Agreed. So far she's not actually hurt anyone, at least not seriously. The only real danger seems to be from the panic. Get everyone on lockdown. I want her captured, again, before she has a chance to do any real damage."

Rumors about the overload spread like wildfire. Starbase channels and crewmen alike were besieged by frightened civilians wanting to know what happened.

While the station was now abuzz, Corrie moved with the same haste as many other deeply worried civilians. Picking her audience carefully, she pretended to make a 'discrete' call within earshot of a few Ferengi, "No sign of her, Control... WHAT? How did she get her hands on a shuttle?... I don't care what you do, I'm going after her! Captain Von has a 10,000 latinum bounty for whoever takes her alive! Out!"

Ferengi eyes got as big as saucers. They congregated to her like a magnet. "Hey! What's going on?"

She acted to play things down, "You're not in any danger. We just have an escaped prisoner... a human female. Don't worry about it."

They reacted with faux relief and disinterest. "Oh, okay. Thanks."

As soon as she was out of sight, the Ferengi grabbed their communicators and dashed, "Business Alert! Business Alert! All associates report to ships!"

As the rush and subsequent mob effect got underway, Corrie made it to her destination. She hurried up to a young man, "Excuse me! You're a shuttle bay tech? I need your help!"

"I'm sorry Ensign, we're in a lockdown. I'm going to have to confine you here."

Both her hands and her voice shook, "All right. Let me rephrase." She produced a phaser, "I need your help. Now."

He nervously nodded and held his hands up slightly.

"A shuttle Nav computer and the manual containment override, in that order."

Soon after a shock was delivered to the station command center itself. Without warning, the piercing shrill of phaser overload began sounding.

Several members of the Ops crew started to flee from their stations as soon as the sound of the overloading phaser could be heard. Von stood from her seat at the situation table. "Back to your stations!" she shouted over the chaos. She had faced down the Sojourners; Liarra Von was not about to be outwitted by this girl. She looked over at the security station. "Find the source of that sound. I would be very surprised if there was another phaser her. There's no way she could have gotten here that fast. Besides, it's not her MO."

Brian grabbed a tricorder from the storage bin under the situation table, holding it up to the air as he span in a slow circle, taking readings. "All phasers on this level are secure," he said, his eyes skimming over the readings. "It's coming through the comm system." He shut the tricorder as he turned to one of the stations around Ops. "Find the source, and shut it down."

As soon as the disturbing sound was silenced, the comm officer flurried her fingers desperately over her console, "Captain! My board is flooding with alert calls! Five sections report phaser overloads!" Within moments, her comm console flashed buttons at a strobe level. Five sections report emergency evacuation!" On the quickly displayed holomap, the affected sections clearly had one thing in common. The areas emergency evacuating were not civilian. "Main reactor... main security station..." He looked sharply over, "Shuttle bay twelve!"

Another bridge officer nodded in realization, "Of course! People will override our security lockdown for an evac like that!"

"Shut down the incoming comm system to those sections," Brian ordered, thinking of the quickest way to alleviate the panic there. "Do a full scan for overloading hand weapons, then reset the system."

"Captain! A Type-11 shuttle just blasted its way out of LB Twelve!"

Von sighed. Life was just about to get more interesting. She looked at her first officer and shook her head. "Contact Flight Ops. Have the fighters bring her back in."

"She's never going to get away in a shuttle," Brian said quietly, as he returned his captain's look. "Not with the fighter wing after her."

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Captain Liarra Von
Commander Brian Ratchford
Ensign Corrine Steiner

Starbase 332
Pegasus Fleet