Cmdr. Josh Herrick: Pin 'em
Mark P
((Simulated Bridge, Holodeck 3, Deck 5, USS Thor))
Playing possum, combined with the false readings fed to the probe, had worked. A small mismatched ship had come to investigate, and it piqued his interest. Various parts, perhaps chosen for their individual strengths, had created a punchy vessel that could hold its weight against the Vesta-class.
Morro had wondered if they were being tested in some form of Kobyashi Maru. In all fairness, Josh wasn’t aware of the expected outcome -- scenarios could branch in an infinite number of permutations depending on the actions they took -- but even if that were the case, he wouldn’t have answered away.
As they were being scanned, a visible wall of vertical light began to swath through the bridge, but it stopped midway. The tactical console didn’t respond, much less update; it seemed… stuck.
Herrick: I’ve got nothing here.
Ral: My panel is unresponsive. Did the simulation just pause?
He looked around, trying to confirm whether it was the holodeck itself or a development of the program. The lack of movement from their photonic companions and unresponsive proctor PADD confirmed the latter. Watching Nera rise, the commander did the same, pacing around the area. He saw Morro cross between the wall of light without incident.
Caras: Deck still seems to be up and functional. Maintaining form at least. Solid.
As Ay sat down, Josh continued his walkabout. It was a touch creepy, akin to tourists in a wax museum of crewmen.
Nera: Same over here. The form’s there, just none of the functionality. It’s like someone hit the pause button.
Ral: Computer, resume program.
Nothing.
Caras: Well this is not what i was expecting.
Nera: Has anyone started running a maintenance cycle on the holodeck without notifying us?
Josh shook his head.
Herrick: We’ve got all of them reserved, and from what I recall, an auxiliary team of engineers is monitoring the load that we’ve tasked.
It was one of the recommendations made when the idea of running them simultaneously came up. He wondered what the teams on the outside were seeing; though, if history were any indication, likely they wouldn’t notice anything. Despite the sophisticated technology, they were notoriously poor at passing along warnings about danger.
Ral: Do we exit and reset?
It certainly wouldn’t hurt.
Caras: Computer, Arch. ::Pause:: Computer, Diagnostic. ::Pause:: Not sure that’s an option.
Trying to embrace a more optimistic perspective, he supposed this was better than some life-threatening situation.
Nera: What about manually overriding it? Find the control panel and access the holodeck interface that way
Kneeling, Josh found the sweet spot where the holodeck controls were to be located. Try as he might to pry off the plating, it wouldn’t budge.
Herrick: The primary controls appear to be inaccessible. We can try the backup controls and see if they yield a different result, but it appears to be a total lock-up.
He had a background in advanced holography from his time at the academy, and these situations tended to leave officers at the mercy of whatever the system decided.
Caras: Soooooo I guess we Just wait then?
Josh was about to share that the program was designed to run for hours, days, or weeks, depending on the team's decisions, but before he could share that lovely factoid, the scene on the bridge shifted.
From a calm and suspended state to full-blown chaos. Instinct had him jump out of the way of a rupturing console as sparks sizzled on his skin.
That wasn’t right.
A good number of the photonics lay on the ground, some injured and some fatally wounded. And they also had unexpected guests, dressed in black armoured uniforms with blue trim. A look that seemed to imply they wanted to be intimidating.
At least their faces were visible, and consisted of a mix of races: Humans, Kiligons, Andorians, Tellerites, Orions, Kobliads, and Cardassians.
Caras: Red Alert… if there isn’t one already. Initiate bridge lockdown.
The computer chirped as the CO issued orders, but before Josh had time to process it, an Andorian lunged at him. Rolling sideways yielded a narrow dodge. As the commander scrambled to get away, he felt a hand clasp around his ankle.
Nera: What happened?!
Dodging another lunge, Josh called out amongst the chaos.
Herrick: It would seem ::ducking:: that the adaptive programming ::landing a blow to the Andorian's chest:: has taken more than a few liberties.
Ral: Response
Caras tossed a phaser in Josh’s direction.
Caras: Grab a phaser. Security! Where is that internal force field net? What happened!? Help out who you can!
Nera: On it!
Now, as a more meaningful target, Josh started to attract phaser fire himself and returned fire. He was able to make contact once with the armoured suits, but the lower phaser level had no effect.
Nera: Security forces spread through the ship, and Sickbay is already triaging wounded as they come in. We’ve got hostile forces spread from decks 1 to 3, and 5 to 9. Where are they coming from…
Increasing the phaser fire intensity, he tried shooting at various points along the bridge to give some cover to the folks while trying to make a direct hit. When it did, the effect reminded him of the Borg.
Herrick: (shouting) Their armour seems to give them a defensive shield against phaser fire.
Ral: Response
Caras: Computer. Stop simulation. Computer?
It wasn’t responding to Caras, and from a proctor's perspective, things had certainly gone beyond the point of reasonable examination—at least in his own eyes.
Herrick: Computer, recognize command override Herrick-Alpha-Two and end program.
It replied rather sluggishly.
Computer: In-va-va-valid command. No pr-pro-pro-grammmm is in progress.
Caras: Treat this as a real mission, I do not believe the safeties are on, nor should we take any chances. All non-holographic crew, please stay alive. I don’t think this is our standard test any more.
Morro was right, and now came the harder decision. Should Josh assume command?
He let the conversation continue on the bridge, mentally weighing the pros and cons.
Nera: Endeavouring to do so ::beat:: Found them! They’ve physically boarded us, they’re not beaming on. I’m reading docked ships in the main shuttle bay on Deck 6, and on Deck 3’s observation landing pad.
Ral: Response
Well, they were already in the thick of it and no better chance to see skills shine when the stakes were real. He’d continued to ride in the passenger seat, electing only to intervene if there was a lapse in judgment.
An explosion caught Josh’s attention, and he saw Nera make his way over as Josh continued to offer some cover fire. Upping the level to kill, he was able to start dispatching some of the officers.
Nera: What was that you were saying about staying alive?
Caras / Ral: Response
Herrick: We need to find a safe way to conclude the program.
He couldn't care less about losing the holographic Thor or the holographic crew, or about finding the root cause. Bringing the program to a close was the best bet they had, but self-destructing the Thor would likely take them with it, and perhaps the real Thor as well.
Herrick: ::firing more shots:: How many left to worry about up here?
Nera: I think there are three left
Caras / Ral: Response
Nera: ::muttering to himself:: What is it with me and faulty holoprograms.
As he watched Nera get thrown across the bridge, he fired more shots. After making contact twice more, they were left with just one opponent on the bridge.
Herrick: If we pin them down, we might be able to get some answers.
Caras / Ral / Nera: Response
---
OOC: There is quite a bit of action here to address, so leaving one set of new tags here to give us some breathing room ;).
---
