Cascade – Through the Valley of the Shadow of Death
by Commander Karen Villiers
Post Details
The only sound in the cargo bay was the soft hiss of Pip’s breathing as she read through the padd that Rene had given her for the twentieth time in an hour. Awkwardly she shifted her legs from beneath her, feeling her ankles crack where her own bodyweight had pressured the joints for too long. The hiss became an audible sigh, had there been anyone down in that corner so far away from the bustle of the promenade in which she made her home.
She turned onto her knees and rummaged beneath the heap of blankets for her bag. Pip extracted a small toolkit – hardly a burglars doorkey, but enough to get her on board a ship to stowaway, and off again when the need arose. It would be enough to gain access to the containment locker. Stuffing the device into her pocket, along with Rene’s padd Pip pulled back the curtain that separated her world from the hold, and stepped out. As the curtain fell back she pulled her hood over her head and stuffed her hands in her pockets – she wasn’t anyone, and even the few others who dwelt down here among the untrodden ways wouldn’t notice her, nor would she notice them, even if she saw them plainly. That was just the way it was.
The bay in which the container was kept was supposedly secure – the door to the bay was guarded and locked but there was no need for a guard within. That bay had also been Pip’s home, chosen for that very reason expedience had forced her decision to move when the Klingon container was brought in, but that didn’t mean that she had bolted all the doors behind her.
It was a simple matter to re-route the energy field that passed across the grille, fooling the system into thinking that the field was intact for twenty five seconds – that was all the time she needed to remove it, slip through retrieve the ‘key’ and replace the grille. To the computer it appeared little more than a power fluctuation caused by a dodgy regulator, one that corrected itself too quickly to require maintenance until the same reading had been recorded in the same location thirty times or more. To Pip’s recollection it had been activated in this precise location only twelve times so unless she was unlucky enough to encounter a maintenance team she had nothing to worry about.
Pip’s soft soled shoes made little more than a rub in the dark, silent cargo bay – she made straight for the container – six feet square and emblazoned with the sigil of the Klingon Empire. The padd contained more than instruction on what to do with the explosives – there was a code explained in symbols. She traced her hands over the shadowed side of the container to locate a smooth panel. That done she extracted the padd from her pocket and activated it, the screen providing her just enough light to identify the keys and input the code sequence.
She held her breath, her fingers hovering as she pressed the last key. An orange light activated, then two, three – then six were lit and flashing in sequence – three simultaneous bursts then the all turned red.
Pip was ready to run, expecting a raucous alarm to sound, drawing Klingons from the length and breadth of the station, Rene among them laughing at how foolish she had been. Then just as her lungs were so empty they seemed ready to collapse on themselves the panel beneath hissed open, revealing a compartment containing three red and yellow striped cylinders each about the length of Pip’s palm.
“Mother of God,” Pip muttered as she forced air back into her lungs. How maydid she need? She’d read it enough … a glance at the padd again … all three.
Quick fingers snatched the cylinders from their cocoons stuffing them into pockets. Then hurriedly she slammed the panel closed, tucked the padd away and exited the same way she had come.
Pip Sullivan
NPC by Louise
by Commander Karen Villiers
Post Details
| Title | Through the Valley of the Shadow of Death | |
| Mission | Cascade | |
| Author(s) | Commander Karen Villiers | |
| Posted | Sun Nov 11, 2012 @ 10:57am | |
| Location | Lower Decks | |
| Timeline | SD70. 15:00 |
She turned onto her knees and rummaged beneath the heap of blankets for her bag. Pip extracted a small toolkit – hardly a burglars doorkey, but enough to get her on board a ship to stowaway, and off again when the need arose. It would be enough to gain access to the containment locker. Stuffing the device into her pocket, along with Rene’s padd Pip pulled back the curtain that separated her world from the hold, and stepped out. As the curtain fell back she pulled her hood over her head and stuffed her hands in her pockets – she wasn’t anyone, and even the few others who dwelt down here among the untrodden ways wouldn’t notice her, nor would she notice them, even if she saw them plainly. That was just the way it was.
The bay in which the container was kept was supposedly secure – the door to the bay was guarded and locked but there was no need for a guard within. That bay had also been Pip’s home, chosen for that very reason expedience had forced her decision to move when the Klingon container was brought in, but that didn’t mean that she had bolted all the doors behind her.
It was a simple matter to re-route the energy field that passed across the grille, fooling the system into thinking that the field was intact for twenty five seconds – that was all the time she needed to remove it, slip through retrieve the ‘key’ and replace the grille. To the computer it appeared little more than a power fluctuation caused by a dodgy regulator, one that corrected itself too quickly to require maintenance until the same reading had been recorded in the same location thirty times or more. To Pip’s recollection it had been activated in this precise location only twelve times so unless she was unlucky enough to encounter a maintenance team she had nothing to worry about.
Pip’s soft soled shoes made little more than a rub in the dark, silent cargo bay – she made straight for the container – six feet square and emblazoned with the sigil of the Klingon Empire. The padd contained more than instruction on what to do with the explosives – there was a code explained in symbols. She traced her hands over the shadowed side of the container to locate a smooth panel. That done she extracted the padd from her pocket and activated it, the screen providing her just enough light to identify the keys and input the code sequence.
She held her breath, her fingers hovering as she pressed the last key. An orange light activated, then two, three – then six were lit and flashing in sequence – three simultaneous bursts then the all turned red.
Pip was ready to run, expecting a raucous alarm to sound, drawing Klingons from the length and breadth of the station, Rene among them laughing at how foolish she had been. Then just as her lungs were so empty they seemed ready to collapse on themselves the panel beneath hissed open, revealing a compartment containing three red and yellow striped cylinders each about the length of Pip’s palm.
“Mother of God,” Pip muttered as she forced air back into her lungs. How maydid she need? She’d read it enough … a glance at the padd again … all three.
Quick fingers snatched the cylinders from their cocoons stuffing them into pockets. Then hurriedly she slammed the panel closed, tucked the padd away and exited the same way she had come.
Pip Sullivan
NPC by Louise