07-28-2025, 01:34 AM
Leo sat still for a second longer, waiting for more puzzle pieces to fall into place, some revelation, maybe, or another blaring alert to give shape to the unease stirring in his gut. He hated how unsure he felt, how each beat of inaction weighed on him like he was watching water boil that never quite would. His inexperience showed most in moments like this, during the pauses before action.
A soft ping drew his gaze to a PADD just to the left of his console. A private message header glowed red.
[PRIORITY MESSAGE – Commander JENSEN]
He tapped it open. The content was short, tight, and sober in tone. Not a request. Not a warning. A job.
[We’re still not entirely sure this is sabotage. If so, it was done by someone who knew exactly what they were doing, and was good at doing it.]
A data bundle with the latest reports from Engineering and Medical on site at the shuttle bay. Scans and environmental readings mostly. Bandit and Stripe’s names were flagged.
[ want you to work with Cdr. Jadaris to find out who among the Engineering staff has the know-how to do that. Any recent transfers? Etc. You should know the drill. /Jensen]
Leo swallowed. This wasn’t a test. This was trust. A small slice of responsibility, handed off like a torch. He typed two words in response: On it.
It wasn’t that he was being short with his answer, or that anything needed saying in response either. But just to show that he had received, read and understood what was asked of him.
His hands returned to the console without hesitation now. Flicking between the still incoming flow of data from around the ship and his new task, Leo tapped away at his console, cross-referencing began: Engineering staff, but anyone with at least engineering knowledge if it was in their records, crew transfers, security flags on departmental access requests. He’d need Jadaris’s help as Jensen told him if he was to find more specific expertise rather than just engineering knowledge. Nothing solid surfaced yet, but he pinned a few names to come back to. His eyes scanned as his ears followed Artemis, her voice cutting sharp orders through the room.
“Jessy, go check on that emergency bulkhead. Make sure that secondary conduit is secure.”
“Gary, go check on the main EPS conduit. Just… go see what it looks like and report.”
Leo kept his head down but registered every movement, every shift in tension.
Then came the voice from Engineering.
[Jadaris to Security. Engine hatch servos have been burnt out. I am attempting to close the hatch before the engine irradiates the maintenance tunnels around the engine core. I suspect sabotage…]
Leo paused his search and listened carefully.
So i'm not too far wrong in my assumption of sabotage then.
Leo waited for Jadaris to finish before tapping his own combadge to respond.
“Alden to Jadaris. Once you've sealed the hatch and returned to Engineering, give me a heads-up. I need your personal commands as Chief Engineer to access and repair a system as I don’t have access.”
He kept his voice steady, but the urgency threaded tight beneath the calm. He didn’t need whoever else might be listening to know more than that but he spoke loud enough at least for Art to hear, maybe she’d catch on that he was planning something.
Leo looked to his screen as it shifted and flickered again. More new information, flagged from the Aeroshuttle Bay. Equipment requisitions, thermal gear, structural reinforcement kits. Clearance requests logged and auto-approved under the First Officer’s credentials. Leo caught Bandit’s ID in one of the entries.
Leo’s mind raced with a mix of feelings. Panic, excitement, doubt. He wanted to do well, and show his capability in a crisis, but given how little time had passed between graduating the Academy to this precise moment, Leo worried that he would either stumble or push himself too hard resulting in either a personal burn out or worse. A mistake.
Leo’s rushing thoughts stopped almost immediately as he heard Artemis speak again barking out even more orders and questions.
“Where are the triplets? Aren’t they done whatever they’re doing yet?”
Leo knew exactly who she meant and remembered what he just came across but keyed a few notes on his screen and checked the logs just to double check himself, and glanced toward her.
“They’re still in the shuttle bay with Commander Jensen,Chief" he said. “Looks like they’ve been pulled into assisting with the on-site investigation. Going by the gear requested... it’s bad. Structural analysis kits, containment field equipment. Not standard clean-up.”
Leo stood and crossed to her quickly bringing himself into her view before stepping too close so she didn't punch him out of surprise and he leaned in, voice low, just enough to stay beneath the hum of the complex.
“Commander Jensen has asked me to work with Jadaris to find out who might have the access and expertise to do this,” he said, pausing for a moment to decide if he was choosing the next word corretly. “Sabotage, Chief. That's why I responded to him. Once he’s back in Engineering, I’m going to work with him and attempt to see who would have the know-how.”
He pulled back a little, watching her face for understanding. He didn’t say the word ‘quiet’, but it hung in the air between them anyway. Leo wasn’t taking any chances with who was watching or listening. He wasn’t really sure why he was attempting to become some kind of ‘operative’, but the fact that they worked in security, he knew there was always the potential for said operatives to be anyone and anywhere too, so why give them the chance to catch on. If they even existed, here and now.
He straightened slightly, voice rising to a more normal tone.
“Until then… I’ll take a patrol, start working my way toward Engineering.”
And then the ship lurched.
Not just a tremble through the deck, but something deeper. Like a magnetic shudder through the bones of the vessel itself. Leo’s hand snapped
to the consoles desk to steady himself. Around him, the light panels blinked once, flickered, and didn’t come back quite right.
For a moment, the hum of the Security Complex changed.
The consoles were… older. Less crisp. The screens dimmer, LCARS layouts thirty years out of date. Even the room’s colour palette had shifted subtly. Black and grey, like something out of a museum simulation.
People around him had changed. Faces, stature’s, features, all different. Leo looked up. Everyone looked wrong. Unfamiliar. Their uniforms matched the decor of the late-2370s era. Tactical cut. High collars.
He froze and looked down at himself. Wrong hands. Wrong skin. Dark patterned spots trailed across the backs of his hands and up into his sleeves. He stepped sideways and caught his reflection in the side of the console. Not Leo Alden. A Trill. Younger than his face but clearly, not him.
“...what the hell...?” he whispered under his breath.
He looked down again to realise he had a weapon in his hand and even more confusion washed over him before an alarm shrieked, harsh and archaic.
[ALERT: JEM’HADAR BOARDING DETECTED]
He looked up sharply. Artemis, or rather, the Betazoid woman who was standing in her place, was already turning toward the source. Her posture was very similar, but everything else about her was wrong and she too seemed to be armed. But the presence she held sure felt like it was still Artemis.
[ALERT: JEM’HADAR BOARDING DETECTED] The warning system blared again.
== Tag: d'Tor'an & Jadaris ==
==Gm Input - I am assuming we are still ourselves, mentally, just now in different bodies, please correct me if I am wrong.
1) During Leo’s rough search of new transfers to the ship, more specifically engineering staff but any really, and any possible flagged area/information access requests recently, are there any names that stand out that he could use to cross reference with Jadaris and Engineering?
2) If Leo was to check the system for these intruders, where on the ship are they boarding please?
A soft ping drew his gaze to a PADD just to the left of his console. A private message header glowed red.
[PRIORITY MESSAGE – Commander JENSEN]
He tapped it open. The content was short, tight, and sober in tone. Not a request. Not a warning. A job.
[We’re still not entirely sure this is sabotage. If so, it was done by someone who knew exactly what they were doing, and was good at doing it.]
A data bundle with the latest reports from Engineering and Medical on site at the shuttle bay. Scans and environmental readings mostly. Bandit and Stripe’s names were flagged.
[ want you to work with Cdr. Jadaris to find out who among the Engineering staff has the know-how to do that. Any recent transfers? Etc. You should know the drill. /Jensen]
Leo swallowed. This wasn’t a test. This was trust. A small slice of responsibility, handed off like a torch. He typed two words in response: On it.
It wasn’t that he was being short with his answer, or that anything needed saying in response either. But just to show that he had received, read and understood what was asked of him.
His hands returned to the console without hesitation now. Flicking between the still incoming flow of data from around the ship and his new task, Leo tapped away at his console, cross-referencing began: Engineering staff, but anyone with at least engineering knowledge if it was in their records, crew transfers, security flags on departmental access requests. He’d need Jadaris’s help as Jensen told him if he was to find more specific expertise rather than just engineering knowledge. Nothing solid surfaced yet, but he pinned a few names to come back to. His eyes scanned as his ears followed Artemis, her voice cutting sharp orders through the room.
“Jessy, go check on that emergency bulkhead. Make sure that secondary conduit is secure.”
“Gary, go check on the main EPS conduit. Just… go see what it looks like and report.”
Leo kept his head down but registered every movement, every shift in tension.
Then came the voice from Engineering.
[Jadaris to Security. Engine hatch servos have been burnt out. I am attempting to close the hatch before the engine irradiates the maintenance tunnels around the engine core. I suspect sabotage…]
Leo paused his search and listened carefully.
So i'm not too far wrong in my assumption of sabotage then.
Leo waited for Jadaris to finish before tapping his own combadge to respond.
“Alden to Jadaris. Once you've sealed the hatch and returned to Engineering, give me a heads-up. I need your personal commands as Chief Engineer to access and repair a system as I don’t have access.”
He kept his voice steady, but the urgency threaded tight beneath the calm. He didn’t need whoever else might be listening to know more than that but he spoke loud enough at least for Art to hear, maybe she’d catch on that he was planning something.
Leo looked to his screen as it shifted and flickered again. More new information, flagged from the Aeroshuttle Bay. Equipment requisitions, thermal gear, structural reinforcement kits. Clearance requests logged and auto-approved under the First Officer’s credentials. Leo caught Bandit’s ID in one of the entries.
Leo’s mind raced with a mix of feelings. Panic, excitement, doubt. He wanted to do well, and show his capability in a crisis, but given how little time had passed between graduating the Academy to this precise moment, Leo worried that he would either stumble or push himself too hard resulting in either a personal burn out or worse. A mistake.
Leo’s rushing thoughts stopped almost immediately as he heard Artemis speak again barking out even more orders and questions.
“Where are the triplets? Aren’t they done whatever they’re doing yet?”
Leo knew exactly who she meant and remembered what he just came across but keyed a few notes on his screen and checked the logs just to double check himself, and glanced toward her.
“They’re still in the shuttle bay with Commander Jensen,Chief" he said. “Looks like they’ve been pulled into assisting with the on-site investigation. Going by the gear requested... it’s bad. Structural analysis kits, containment field equipment. Not standard clean-up.”
Leo stood and crossed to her quickly bringing himself into her view before stepping too close so she didn't punch him out of surprise and he leaned in, voice low, just enough to stay beneath the hum of the complex.
“Commander Jensen has asked me to work with Jadaris to find out who might have the access and expertise to do this,” he said, pausing for a moment to decide if he was choosing the next word corretly. “Sabotage, Chief. That's why I responded to him. Once he’s back in Engineering, I’m going to work with him and attempt to see who would have the know-how.”
He pulled back a little, watching her face for understanding. He didn’t say the word ‘quiet’, but it hung in the air between them anyway. Leo wasn’t taking any chances with who was watching or listening. He wasn’t really sure why he was attempting to become some kind of ‘operative’, but the fact that they worked in security, he knew there was always the potential for said operatives to be anyone and anywhere too, so why give them the chance to catch on. If they even existed, here and now.
He straightened slightly, voice rising to a more normal tone.
“Until then… I’ll take a patrol, start working my way toward Engineering.”
And then the ship lurched.
Not just a tremble through the deck, but something deeper. Like a magnetic shudder through the bones of the vessel itself. Leo’s hand snapped
to the consoles desk to steady himself. Around him, the light panels blinked once, flickered, and didn’t come back quite right.
For a moment, the hum of the Security Complex changed.
The consoles were… older. Less crisp. The screens dimmer, LCARS layouts thirty years out of date. Even the room’s colour palette had shifted subtly. Black and grey, like something out of a museum simulation.
People around him had changed. Faces, stature’s, features, all different. Leo looked up. Everyone looked wrong. Unfamiliar. Their uniforms matched the decor of the late-2370s era. Tactical cut. High collars.
He froze and looked down at himself. Wrong hands. Wrong skin. Dark patterned spots trailed across the backs of his hands and up into his sleeves. He stepped sideways and caught his reflection in the side of the console. Not Leo Alden. A Trill. Younger than his face but clearly, not him.
“...what the hell...?” he whispered under his breath.
He looked down again to realise he had a weapon in his hand and even more confusion washed over him before an alarm shrieked, harsh and archaic.
[ALERT: JEM’HADAR BOARDING DETECTED]
He looked up sharply. Artemis, or rather, the Betazoid woman who was standing in her place, was already turning toward the source. Her posture was very similar, but everything else about her was wrong and she too seemed to be armed. But the presence she held sure felt like it was still Artemis.
[ALERT: JEM’HADAR BOARDING DETECTED] The warning system blared again.
== Tag: d'Tor'an & Jadaris ==
==Gm Input - I am assuming we are still ourselves, mentally, just now in different bodies, please correct me if I am wrong.
1) During Leo’s rough search of new transfers to the ship, more specifically engineering staff but any really, and any possible flagged area/information access requests recently, are there any names that stand out that he could use to cross reference with Jadaris and Engineering?
2) If Leo was to check the system for these intruders, where on the ship are they boarding please?