Shadow Operations: Resurrection
Season 1 Episode 9
Turning The Tables
Dec. 28, 2018

Mayla had seen death many times. There was a time to mourn, there was a time to cry. This was a time for neither. It was a time to survive.

When the bulkhead blew out, she knew immediately there were going to be casualties. The forcefields wouldn’t go up fast enough to prevent everyone within 10 meters to be sucked out into the cold vacuum of space.

But as soon as the forcefields did finally activate, miraculously saving Sh’avelith, she instantly took note which critical stations were now vacant. Other than the admiral, the helmsman was also gone. She leaped towards the helm before the environmental controls started recirculating the air. Just as she sat down, she saw out of the large breach in front of her the warbird was coming around for another pass. Mayla’s hands danced on the console and using a burst on the impulse engines, propelled the ship towards the warbird, inside it’s turn radius. Tactical, fire photon torpedoes, full spread ahead of that warbird!

The tactical officer wasn’t fast enough to do the calculations in his head and blindly fired the torpedoes ahead of the moving warbird. The spread fired wide, but it caught the warbird by surprise and it juked away from its attack run. It bought them perhaps a few seconds.

She opened a channel to the rest of the ship while reconfiguring the panel to her own preferences. This is Commander Vree on the Bridge. The Admiral is gone. I’m taking command of the ship. With one look at the ship’s propulsion systems status, she knew they could be in a losing battle. Without the warp drive, they can’t outrun several warbirds. In fact, she didn’t even think they could run from them. The warbirds attacked while they were in warp. If they ran, they would just be attacked again. So they couldn’t run. They had to stand their ground.

Engineering, reroute warp power to the shields and weapons array. I want our shields at full strength and phaser banks recharge time to the absolute fastest.

Shuttle Bay, prep all shuttles for launch, and anything that can be piloted remotely. Tether all systems to Lieutenant Preet in the Talon fighter. Her hands flew across the console and used all of the ship’s thrusters to pivot the ship to aim towards where Preet was flitting about with her nimble fighter.

Lieutenant Ra’yral, I need eggs for a Nested Egg maneuver on the double, she ordered with a tight lipped determination. Notify Tactical as soon as you get each one ready. She just hoped he remembered that maneuver from his stint with Bravo Squad to beam in armed photo torpedoes into an enemy’s ship. He just needed to get to the torpedo bay and manually arm them from a local terminal.

Tactical, once Ra’yral signals you the readiness of the torpedoes, you beam them into any warbird whose shield is down. Preferably in their engineering spaces, or the bridge.

Lieutenant Preet, Fearless tactical will use you to target the warbirds. Use the shuttles and sweep the area. Once you find a cloaked ship, we will release a full barrage on those coordinates. If you have to, ram the warbirds with the shuttles to bring down their shields. That’s when Mayla saw Sh’avelith pull herself up onto her feet.

Sh’avelith, I want you to configure the sensors inside every bank of escape pods to show lifesigns in them, and on my mark eject them all at the same time. Filling the space with escape pods levels the playing field. If they can’t maneuver, neither can the enemy.

All hands, brace for evasive maneuvers, Mayla now calmly said. Her skills and memories from her father flowed through her as she took in everything that was happening around the ship. The warbirds knew exactly when to attack them while at warp. They were in a void of space that was absent of any star systems, planetoids, asteroids, nebulae, or even a gaseous cloud. There was no where they could hide. But there was one thing they didn’t see coming.

It was a comet. It was a bit farther than the fringe of their battlespace, about 5 light minutes away, but Mayla thinks they could make it.

She opened a new console that gave her tactical status. There were at least two D’deridex class warbirds circling them. They were now both cloaked. She entered coordinates to the comet and went to full impulse power. She brought up the detailed schematics for a D’deridex class warbird and pinpointed a particular section at a forward end of the spine and sent it to Preet and Tactical.

If you have the opportunity, target this area. A strike there should sever all bridge commands to the rest of the ship. It might buy us some time.

Aye, Preet answered, not questioning her CO for a moment. She was now busy setting up a blanket pattern for the shuttles as each one was being tethered to her. Are we making a run for the comet?

Yes, it’s the only thing around.

How do you know where to fire at on the warbird, Commander? The man at Tactical asked.

I know someone who served on one before. Keep alert, they could-

Warbird decloaking off our port quarter! They’re firing!

Mayla’s hands were already moving as soon as he interrupted her. She opened up all the thrusters on the starboard side and rolled the ship hard to port. The inertial dampeners didn’t keep up and they all felt the g-forces of the maneuvers. Alarms blared at her as the structural integrity of the ship was pushed to dangerous limits with all the hull breaches screaming to tear apart. But this time, none of the disruptor fire hit them.

Escape pods ready, Sh’avelith announced just as the ship stopped its roll.

Mayla watched the sensors to see which vector the warbird was going to take, or if it was going to cloak. It didn’t. It started to move into position at their aft to fire on their defenseless rear. Launch all starboard side escape pods.

Launching! Sh’avelith said.

Mayla barrel rolled the ship slowly as all 40 of the escape pods once free from the saucer section of the ship began to fire thrusters to slow down, increasing their velocity hurtling towards the pursuing warbird. Prepare to fire aft quantum torpedoes, orbital spread on my command. She watched the sensors as it glitched for just a moment, she calculated the time the warbird will see the hurtling pods approaching it and need to veer to one side to avoid being struck.

It didn’t veer, it fired its disruptors and in one blast destroyed a dozen pods. As each pod was reading as having lifesigns, destroying them went beyond the conventions of battle. They were here to destroy them entirely, not to capture.

Fire. Mayla ordered before the warbird could destroy any more of the pods.

The Romulan ship didn’t veer from its course, instead taking the full force of the Fearless’s barrage in it’s reinforced forward shields. They flared bright white, but didn’t buckle. Ignoring Fearless it blasted the remaining lifepods, then shimmered back into cloak, presumably to reinforce it’s forward shields. The other Warbird in turn shimmered into existence and moved to intercept the Fearless, it’s weapon points glowing hot.

Sir? an ensign at the undestroyed science station announced hesitantly.

What is it ensign, we’re kinda busy here. Sound off Vree responded.

Sir, I got a quick scan into that Warbird that had it’s shields down for second... Sir I analyzed the life sign readings... they included a mix of Human and Orion, as well as Romulan.

What the? Vree started but didn’t have a chance to finish.

The feared for, and third, Warbird materialized directly under Fearless, and bathed the Federation ship in fire.

Shields up, evasive Preet immediately ordered, as the poor Federation ship was buffeted back and forth.

Sir!, I’ve restored shields, the acting tactical officer announced. Wait...I’ve got multiple boarders. They must have gotten through when the shields went down. I’ve got boarders on deck two below the bridge, deck six near auxiliary control and outside engineering. They knew just where to beam in!

The warp core is about to go, if the energizer doesn’t come online in 30 seconds, we’re going to blow. The other systems can’t take the power loads and are causing a feedback loop into the warp core. Without the coolant system, we can’t keep running at these levels for long, the crewman manning the engineering station at the side of the bridge announced.

In front of them, the cold blackness of space stared at them just a lost forcefield away....

When they’d entered the armoury, Ryramorl had discovered that his Carnora armour had indeed been put here. With Reepchip’s help, he and Jahkar quickly suited up and got ready--but there was no protective gear that could possibly fit Reepchip. Mentally, Reepchip made his peace with the Heavenly Court and said farewell to his clan. The two Carnora and the rest of the security detail looked to Jahkar for orders.

When they heard the hull breach warning, Ryramorl himself made a similar prayer to his gods.

Cody’s mind raced, thinking of the options they had. Raillius wanted to try to get the coupling online again. His eyes fell on the locker with the radiation suits. It would be better than nothing. Let’s put on the anti-radiation suits. It buys us some time, perhaps minutes He ran to the locker, and grabbed a suit. Raillius followed. She didin’t look too happy, but grabbed a suit as well. A few engineers came to help, and in no time they were geared up. Cody activated his armpadd which would check status of his suit, his vital signs and the immediate surrounding. Then he stepped up to the panel that Raillius had mentioned and punched in a series of commands. Just behind them, another containment field was ressurected and the door to the energizer coupling room slid open. The monitoring on his armpadd went off the chart, but for now, the suits held off the lethal radiation. Raillius stepped inside, while Cody stayed on the console, ready to assist Raillius. The heat was intense. The armpadd blared alerts about exceeding thresholds for about every item it measured, but Cody ignored it. The ship took another huge blow, and Cody was tossed aside, as was Raillius. Sparks and explosions where all around them. The computervoice sternly stated that a core breach was not far away. Cody got on his feet again and checked Raillius’ silhouette inside the room. Commander, you OK ? he asked. Seconds went by as he waited for a reply.

T’Aayla stood outside the warp core energizer chamber and calmly awaited the five second countdown to the door opening. She’d donned a protective radiation suit to lessen the radiation exposure, which would give her more time to effect repairs. She would have slid in immediately, but she observed Lt. Beckett’s decision to trade time for the ship with time to give them a better chance at survival within the chamber. The door slid open and she immediately entered and keyed the switch to close it behind her. She saw Beckett waiting at the control console outside the chamber through the clear plexiglass containment. The ship took another huge blow, and Cody was tossed aside, as was Raillius. Sparks and explosions where all around them.

Are you ok? she heard Beckett ask.

Affirmative,. she responded, and then quickly ran a diagnosis of the damage. It was bad. The coupling hadn’t just been damaged, it had been fried. She tapped her commbadge, Stores, I need a warp energizer coupling immediately. Ship-to-ship beam. She got to work disengaging the blown coupling as she waited for stores to beam the part to her. It would be a tricky beam-in with the radiation interference, but as it was an inanimate object she hoped that the transporter operator was skilled, and that ship’s stores hadn’t already been hit and destroyed. The ship shuddered again. She held on and maintained her footing. After a time she removed the energizer, casting it aside. Seconds ticked by. Finally the new energizer coupling shimmered into existence beside her. She immediately grabbed it and started the installation process. She could see Beckett watching expectantly from outside the chamber. Almost have it, she informed him. More precious seconds ticked by and she noted Beckett did not move from his post even as minor explosions rocked engineering, and warnings of a warp core breach came over the ship systems reports. There, now all I have to do is re-engage the power matrix feed. It was a simple task, something that any academy recruit could manage. Outside Beckett heard Commander Raillius’ status report, then saw her waiver and drop to one knee. She attempted to stand, but again fell down to one knee, then her eyes slowly closed and she sank to the floor, the task unfinished. Now Beckett was faced with a choice, get Commander Raillius out or focus on re-engaging the power matrix. Seconds counted. Whatever he did, he’d be exposing himself to deadly powerful radiation that even the radiation the suits couldn’t handle.

Thompson, pull the manual shutoff to the warp core coolant Commander Raillius ordered him. Daryl shortly nodded. Though luck. Pushing the thoughts away, he jumped to the nearest console and raised a containment field around the section of the rupture. Then he opened the vents at maximum to get the deadly gas out. At least not the whole engineering room would be flooded.

From his utility belt, he grabbed a tiny device he planted under his nose. The nanotech in it activated, and within a second a small but effective gasmask had been wrapped over his nose and mouth. The odds where still bleak, but at least it would buy him some time as his lungs would be protected against the coolant gas. He tapped on his wristpadd, and remodulated the personal cloak to match the rotation frequency of the containment field, effectively changing it into a personal shield. It wouldn’t help much against the gases, but at least he could slip through the containment field without deactivating the containment field. I’m going in he addressed Beckett and Raillius. Good luck he heard Beckett say. You too he replied and gave a thumbs up towards Beckett, who got the tedious task to go into the room to fix the rupture together with Raillius.

Daryl stepped through the containment field, just as the Retribution was hit by another volley. The whole engineering shuddered like there was an earthquake, the lighting shimmered, and more explosions around them. An engineer yelled that more subsystems where going offline. More alarms started to blare. A plasma conduit ripped open and hot plasma erupted from it. One of the engineers standing next to it was hit and evaporated and was gone within seconds. The hot plasma burned through everything until Lt. Commander Gomez, chief of Engineering erected another containment field, which stopped the pouring of the plasma.

Daryl made his way to the manual override. He felt how the gas slowly started to react with his skin. Within minutes, he would be severely burned, as the gas would eat it’s way through the upper tissue layers of his skin. He had to be quick. He got into the section where the manual override was, and removed the panel, revealing a whole series of valves. Another alarm blared and the computer’s voice stated emotionless Warp core temperature rising. Structural integrity failure of Matter/Anti-Matter Reaction Assembly imminent. How are you doing, Lt. Thompson? He heard the calm voice of Raillius coming over the subvoc. Found the valves. Shutting them down now. Feeling like I partied too long on the Lohlunat festival on Risa Daryl replied. He started feeling dizzy and nauseous as the gas had entered his veins. He ran a scan with the tricorder, to see which valves needed to be closed and started closing them. There where 5 of them that needed to be closed. The first 3 where heavy, but not a real problem. the 4th seemed to be stuck. The fifth went ok as well. Back to the valve that got stuck. He pulled with all the strength he could muster, and he felt how the valved slowly moved...then got stuck again. Daryl looked around. He needed something he could use for more leverage. He looked aorund him, but didn’t see anything that could help him. His vision started to become blurry and his movements started to feel sluggish. He guessed he about a minute or so before he would pass out. He focussed and grabbed the handle of the last valve and pulled once more with all the strength he had.Finally, the valve came up, and Daryl was able to turn it around close the lines behind it. He tried to get up, but fell on his hands and knees. Crawling, he made his way out of the contained section.

He was halfway trough the containment field, as he was pulled through and on his feet. A medic team had been called in by Gomez, and Daryl felt the pressure of hyposprays and immediately he felt better. The blurred vision dissapeared and the dodgy feeling in his limbs faded away. That was close the medic said. You need to be treated in sickbay... Daryl cut him off No time. I need to help here. Give me something against the pain. The medic shook his head, and grabbed another hypo There u go he said, while he administered a dose of painkillers to Daryl. Thanks. Stay here. You are needed shortly Daryl stated to the medic. Commander Raillius, Beckett, I closed the valves *and* survived. Do you need help ? Daryl awaited their reply....

Cody saw Commander Railius slump to the ground, unconsciously. He cursed. She needed to get out of there, the sooner, the better. Then Thompson’s voice piped in. Commander Raillius, Beckett, I closed the valves *and* survived. Do you need help?

Yes, Thompson, we do. Commander Raillius couldn’t finish the job. Grab a hazardsuit and get over here. I am going to get her out. You need to fix the power matrix. Hurry up! Beckett keyed in the sequence to open the door. As it slid open, he saw Thompson, zipping up his hazardsuit, moving his way. Cody went in the room and felt the radiation. He immediately felt dizzy. Medical team be on standby, he said, as he grabbed the unconscious body of the Commander and swung it over his shoulder. Thompson was already on it to fix the power coupling. Hurry up Thompson. You need to get out of here asap. Beckett said as he passed him and moved outside of the room. Yeah, working on it Thompson bit back. He already had finished checking th heckede work of the Commander. She had done a thorough job. Last thing to check were the magnetic seals. All done. He activated them and suddenly the radiation levels dropped drastically. He moved to the console panel and started to reinitialize the power matrix. It took mere seconds, but it felt like an eternity. Finally, it was done, and the power was channeled to the nacelles. The warp drive was back online. Daryl left the room and shut the door. Radiation levels where still high, and he already had taken a beating with the coolant gas. He felt sick, nauseous and.his head spinned but was relieved that power had been restored. He opened a channel Engineering to bridge. Power has been restored, warp drive online

Good work. Thank you Lt. Thompson He heard Vree reply.

Then, the world seemed to turn 90 degrees.and everything went black. He felt how he slammed onto the deck, then he lost consciousness.

Cody had just take care of Commander Raillius who had been beamed to Sickbay, as he saw how Thompson smashed into the deck. Dammit he muttered, as he made his way to his fellow operative. He didn’t feel to well himself, but he needed to get Thompson out of the radiation suit and into Sickbay as well. As he turned Daryl on his back, Daryl started vomiting, one of the side effects of radiation sickness. Cody removed the helmet and laid on his side so he wouldn’t choke. Then he contacted Sickbay. This is Lt. Cody Beckett. This is an emergency, two to beam up. The ship shuddered as it took more hits, and it took seconds before the transporter got a proper lock on them. Then, after a few moments, they appeared in Sickbay, and Daryl was lifted onto a biobed. Cody slumped onto the floor as well. He also felt his stomach turning around before it emptied it’s and he threw up. He felt how he got a Hypospray, all went fuzzy, as the medical personnel lift him onto the next free biobed...

Roger that, he said. He looked at Reepchip, then at Jahkar. Stay with Jahkar, he said, and bolted down to the torpedo bay in a four-legged run and at once found a console. It had been a long time since he had armed photon torpedoes, but as he ran his fingers over the console, the knowledge sprang to his mind—and then the trouble started. The computers had been scrambled by the attack, and he realized he couldn’t arm them in large numbers, but only in threes at best.

He barked out the designations of each torpedo he armed, and tried to get into a rhythm, but the computer malfunctions kept him from doing that. He wanted to call down Reepchip who—with his advanced engineering classes—likely knew how to do this as well, but knew Jahkar might need everyone he could get his hands on.

Reepchip was actually trembling—he’d been in training, yes, but this was actual combat and he felt very vulnerable. He tried to put himself in the mindset of knowing that his warren was under attack, and he had to help defend it, but his efforts didn’t help. He still had no idea why he’d been sent here—or why Admiral MacLeod had accepted him. When he heard that the Admiral was gone, the only thing he could think of to do was pray to the Custodian of the Lost—she buried those lost at sea, would she do the same for one lost in Space?

And most important, when this ship—this warren—was invaded, would he be able to follow orders? Or would he simply freeze up? Hopefully the former.

She watched the sensors carefully to see what the following warbird was going to do. Just when it seemed the warbird was going to veer to port to avoid most of the lifepods and the approaching quantum torpedoes, three photon torpedoes suddenly appeared in the warbird’s path, causing it to take evasive maneuvers to veer upward too late. One quantum torpedo and two of the photon torpedoes struck the bow of the ship, collapsing the shield allowing a single photon torpedo to break through. Preet had seen the Fearless’ maneuver and was just barely able to get into position for a pincer attack to fire her torpedoes.

Warbird, decloaking dead ahead! Tactical yelled. They’re firing!

Mayla’s hands were already moving before he finished his sentence. She tapped the impulse drive override and put the ship in full reverse. The maneuver slowed the ship down considerably and with the remaining forward momentum, rolled the ship on to the starboard side to put the attacking ship into the Fearless’ sweet spot to bring all of their weapons to bear. Tactical already did this maneuver a few minutes ago with MacLeod and was able to fire a full barrage quickly.

Disruptor fire blasted into the ship’s port shields, propelling the ship’s slide faster to starboard. But the Fearless returned the favor, planting three phaser array strikes and two photon torpedoes into the cloaking ship. The cloak shimmered for a second before reappearing. Hopefully that meant they had just taken the cloaking device offline.

Engineering to bridge. Power has been restored, warp drive online! Thompson reported.

Mayla saw the status on the warp drive switch to nominal. Good work. Thank you Lt. Thompson. She quickly calculated a warp jump and activated the engage panel. Mayla had kept an open channel to Preet so she would know the maneuvers the Fearless would be doing. Preet, keep the other warbird busy.

Affirmative!

The Fearless was suddenly in two places for a split second before the first one disappeared. The second one was behind the warbird with the disabled cloaking device. Now they were in position to take the offensive.

Full spread, fire at will, the Trill commander ordered.

Firing!

Last shuttle is away, Commander, Sh’avelith reported.

Mayla juked the ship to starboard, getting inside the warbird’s turn radius as the quantum torpedoes rippled through the shields. Taking note of their own shield strength. With power augmented from the warp drive, the shields were recovering faster.

Sir, Ra’yral reporting torpedoes are ready, Sh’avelith said, now assisting Tactical with the weapons.

Firing again. The man at Tactical said in a more confident voice. The panic was passing now that whatever they had been doing was keeping them alive. He watched almost gleefully as the warbird started to slow down. Their rear shields are down.

She sent coordinates to Tactical for the Nested Egg Maneuver. Beam a torpedo into the engineering spaces before they get them restored. Sh’avelith’s fingers danced on the console and pressed the energize key.

Mayla saw the explosion rip open the warbird’s rear. And before it blossomed into a gigantic fireball, she turned the ship on its stern and pushed the ship to three quarters impulse. The inertial dampeners tried to keep up, but everyone by now has learned that the ship could lurch in any which way to keep it and its inhabitants alive. She looked at whatever sensors that were still working showed Preet was using all of the shuttles to fire their phasers at the warbird to keep it in view even though it was cloaked. It was like a swarm of bees stinging a large bird.

Do you have a firing solution for that warbird? Mayla yelled above the sound of a clattering panel that just exploded out from the ceiling near the rear of the bridge. A not so subtle reminder that the ship was heavily damaged.

Affirmative!

Disable only.

Sir? He said, suddenly taking his finger off the firing key. He was just about to blow the warbird out of existence.

I want you to disable that ship. Mayla ordered while keeping an eye on the sensors. There might still be other warbirds out there. I’m sending you coordinates for their power relay junctions, sensor array, and warp core couplings. Take them out. Fire when ready.

Aye, aye, sir. He quickly tapped the few keys to lower the yield on the phasers and fired.

Bridge to Jahkar, assemble an armed boarding party quickly. I want you to gain access to their computer core and find out how and why they attacked us. Take Railius with you. She’s familiar with Romulan tech.

Sir, Commander Railius is in sickbay. Radiation poisoning. Sh’avelith reported.

Mayla let out a breath on hearing the news. Acknowledged. Jahkar, take some transporter enhancers with you. If you can’t get access to the computer and the situation gets too hot, use the transporter to rip out the data core. I want to know who just killed the Admiral.

Acknowledged, Jahkar responded promptly and briskly.

Warbird’s propulsion is disabled, so is their sensor array, the man at Tactical reported, now in a much calmer voice. I’m getting power fluctuations throughout the ship.

Preet, keep buzzing that warbird. I’m sending over a boarding party.

Aye.

Now that the battle had subsided a little, Mayla’s mind turned to other details of the attack. Sh’avelith, those warbirds may have tracked us through warp. Investigate how that may have been possible. There could be a tracking device planted on board, or someone is sending them our course, bearing, and destination.

Jahkar was teamed with a group of Fearless crew members, along with Reepchip, fighting a group of borders from the Romulan ship, when he heard several discouraging reports. MacLeod was dead. He had been like a father to him, especially during the time he had been involved with MacLeod’s half-Klingon daughter Chas’naH. He had no time to mourn his lost friend, at least he had died a warrior.

Further news came. Raillius was unconscious in the infirmary. Daryl and Cody were there too.

As he pulled his mek’leth from the chest of a dead Orion, the last of their boarding party, Jahkar knew more would come. There would be further boarding action and it would be bloody. But when he received word from Vree to stand-by for transport to the Warbird, the Marine smiled.

Jahkar opened a comm-channel to the team, This boarding party...I have seen four Romulans, three Orions, three humans and four Naausicans, Jahkar muttered. They are not in uniform, all civilian clothes. I’d say pirates, or terrorists.

Vree responded back, calling for Jahkar and his team to prepare to board the enemy ship.

He also heard her concern about Raillius having knowledge of the Romulans, he almost wanted to interject that he was, in fact, half-Romulan. Though he was well versed in his Klingon heritage, he did have knowledge of some things Romulan.

As ordered, he assembled transport enhancers and he and the team readied for transport. By the time they were ready to beam over, Ryramorl had returned and rejoined them.

Boarding party ready for transport.

Energize, came Vree’s command. They were enveloped in swirling columns of sparkling light and a moment later, they were on the warbird, in her engineering compartment. There, they saw a mix of Romulans, humans and an Orion working frantically to contain plasma leaks and to regain the stability of the warp core.

Take prisoners if you can, he told the team. Ryramorl and Reepchip, take four officers and secure the engineering compartment. Keep any Romulans at bay who try to come down here. The rest of you with me, we’ll locate and access the computer core.

He took the five officers remaining and they set off toward the computer core, which was further into engineering, while the Carnora took their security officers and moved to seal off the section of the ship. Moving through the acrid smoke and past the blaring klaxons, Jahkar was forced to take out two Romulans who attempted to engage. Security stunned three more on the way.

They arrived at the computer core, a huge metal column which rose up into the structure of the ship, panels of glowing green light running up the shaft of the core. Jahkar motioned to an Ensign Samson who was among the team. Samson was a computer engineer and he carried all the equipment needed to access the computer core.

The team covered Samson as he worked, tapping into the Romulan computer core, where he began to systematically disable layers of security. Each layer was peeled away, getting Samson closer and closer to the raw data contained in the core.

A couple more pirates tried to attack them but were dispensed with by the boarding party. Jahkar opened a channel back to Fearless. Jahkar to Vree, he said, keying his comm-unit. Samson is hacking the computer core. Resistance here is light. There are a lot of KIAs here.

Samson looked up as Jahkar made his report, I’m in. Establishing an uplink between the core and Fearless.

Fearless. You are tapped into the computer core, said Jahkar. We’ll hold the core until the download is complete, then beam us out.