Episode Twelve: White Flag

[Paul Chapman]

1339
BC-303B Battle Cruiser Icarus
Bridge

Watching on the bridge was the same as walking into the incident room of any USAF base; utter chaos. From their seated consoles, comms, helm, navigation and weapons were exchanging information from their screens, with further voices coming from the crew members reading off the wall mounted monitors, and a collection of voices from the star map at the rear of the bridge. "Attention on deck!" came a call as Paul strode into the room and took up his chair.

He requested an update on their situation. "Sitrep?" The ship's executive officer; the helmsmen, turned in his seat to face Paul. "We've dropped out of hyperspace eighteen hours ahead of schedule sir, engineering is still trying to find out why." This was not the kind of news Paul wanted to here. For them to drop out of hyperspace probably meant a problem down in engineering, either with the reactor or the engines themselves. Considering these two devices represented two of the most advanced pieces of technology within human possession, finding the problem mightn't be a straight forward task.

"What happened?" Robert asked, the moment he as his team stepped onto the bridge. "Dropped out of hyperspace early, still trying to find out why," Paul replied. "Nothing going critical if that's what you're wondering.... yet...." Wishing he could take that last utterance back, Paul refocused his attention on his crew, trying to filter his way through their feedbacks and reports.

Damage and control reported all decks were fire free, always a good start to a disaster. Using both conventional Earth smoke detection technology and search parties sweeping the ship, they'd ensure she'd stay that way. Readouts from the engine logs were slowly being read back, and no far there was no outages or spikes that would account for the engines disengaging. It was still early days, but the crew was moving as fast as they could to slowly cross any possible causes off their lists.

"SD-3," Paul said, turning to the team. "Would you be so kind as to assist with the diagnosis. There's a lot to go through, just need some eyes to look for anything that's out of the ordinary." While not particularly trained for the task, Paul knew that at least one of the team members - Petty Officer Stuit - was a former submariner, and could have been in situations like this before. The rest of the team were off-world veterans, and not unfamiliar with the workings of cruisers such as this.

Paul heard Major Logan muttered to herself some famous last words. "Not again."

< Tag SD-3 >

[Robert "Jackal" Walker]

1340

The ship stopped. He was still in a daze about that. Nothing could ever go completely right.

Hearing Chapman's request, Walker said to his team, "Alright people, if you have any familiarization with any systems that might be helpful in ascertaining the problem, get to them. Katrina, head to the infirmary and be ready to treat any injuries the have already or may occur. Let's go!"

Breaking up, the team went to their places. Walker came over to one of the wall displays to speak to a Lieutenant operating the console. "What have we got?" the Marine inquired. "Well sir, I'm getting some crazy readings from the nearby system," the bridge officer replied. "Fluxuations in the gravitational fields, as well as a string of neutrino emissions building up."

Leaning back, Robert frowned. They weren't nearby any black holes according to their charts, and there wasn't any activity of concern according to their equpiment scans ... this was odd.

"Colonel, Lieutenant Gall has some strange readings on gravitational fluxes and neutrino emissions you may want to look at," SD-3's leader called the the Icarus's commander.

<Tag EVERYONE>

[Marcus Garret]

1342
BC-303B Battle Cruiser Icarus
Crew lounge

Marcus stepped over to one of the computerized displays on the bridge, quickly looking over the information presented before heading to one of the doorways leading from the bridge. He pauses for a moment at the display that Erin’s at, and he smiles slightly.

“SERE stands for Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape. Everyone in high risk of capture career fields has to go through one form or another of the training.”

He turns look over at Colonel Walker, and calls over the din of the bridge.

“I’m heading to the computer core.”

With that, he hurries out of the bridge and down the corridor, taking full advantage of his long stride.

<Tag anyone>

[Katrina Logan]

1340
BC-303B Battle Cruiser Icarus
Bridge

"...Katrina, head to the infirmary and be ready to treat any injuries the have already or may occur. Let's go!"

First, the major looked around at the current personnel standing around dazed by the jolt. Scanning each one individually for any obvious cuts or scrapes, the medic wanted something to keep her mind occupied and now she got what she wished for. Wasn't exactly what she had in mind, but it'll do. Everyone seemed to be ok. Turning her head towards her commanding officer, a simple nod in acknowledgment without much expression relayed her understanding.

"Yes sir", came out like a tape recorder sounding than anything as the young woman headed to the infirmary.

1345
BD-303B Battle Cruiser Icarus[/b]
Infirmary

Walking through, there were several officers sitting on gurneys with burn marks mainly on the upper body area and face. Concern quickly overcame the major when the areas of the burn signified that extreme damage that possibly could have been taken to the ships core reactor. Pressing her com, she notified her commander. "Commander, several officers here have some burns across their neck and face that could be radioactive. We may have a breech in the engine room or somewhere else. I need to ascertain the problem a little more. Logan out."

<Tag: Walker or Paul and SD-3>

[Paul Chapman]

1342
BC-303B Battle Cruiser Icarus
Bridge

Paul was in deep discussion with his helm officer about possible causes for their exit from hyperspace when Robert called out that he'd found something. "Colonel, Lieutenant Gall has some strange readings on gravitational fluxes and neutrino emissions you may want to look at," the Marine Colonel said. "On screen," came Paul's reply. The forward view screen swiveled into focus, and revealed an interstellar object in the distance. The image zoomed in, revealing something Paul hadn't seen this close up before.

A dying star, a supernova about to happen. He recalled his brief introduction to their during his initial posting about the Prometheus: Supernova are extremely luminous and cause a burst of radiation that often briefly outshines an entire galaxy before fading from view over several weeks or months. During this short interval, a supernova can radiate as much energy as the Sun could emit over its life span. The explosion expels much or all of a star's material at a velocity of up to a tenth the speed of light, driving a shock wave into the surrounding interstellar medium. Long story short, it wasn't something you wanted to be around when it went off.

"Well that doesn't explain why we dropped out, but it's not something I'm keen to hang around for much longer," Paul said, sitting upright in his chair. "Sir, message coming through from the infirmary," the comms officer announced. Paul asked for the message to be patched through, the Major Logan's voice filled the bridge. "Commander, several officers here have some burns across their neck and face that could be radioactive. We may have a breech in the engine room or somewhere else," Kat explained. "I need to ascertain the problem a little more. Logan out."

"Copy that Major," Paul replied. "Sergeant Garraet is on his way there now. Link up with him and we'll meet you down there." While the nova represented a serious problem to them, they needed engines back online before they were going anywhere. He needed to get down to engineering with SD-3 and see what was going on, and hopefully sort it out before that nasty looking star went critical. Rising from his chair and leaving his helm officer in charge of the bridge, Paul made his way to Robert's side. "I think it's time we got a little more hands on with this, wouldn't you agree?"

< Tag SD-3 >

[Katrina Logan]

1345
BC-303B Battle Cruiser Icarus
Infirmary

Meanwhile, back in the infirmary, Kat was busy attending to the needs of another patient when something out of the ordinary caught her eye in the ICU area. At first, the Major put it off as just another nurse or doctor getting supplies. That was until she decided to look up from the suture she was performing on a fellow officer's torn right finger. "You'll be back to the core reactor in no...." she began glancing up and seeing the figure again.

It seemed there was something underneath the arm of this....this....what in God's name is that? From the backside, it looked like a terrible rendition of Jack Sparrow only the hat wasn't brown and curled up on the sides. It was a helmet with points and curves almost mimicking a pirate? For a moment Kat thought she'd been really too stressed out lately and shook her head. "You ok Major?" asked the young soldier she finished up on. Looking back to the room, the figure was gone, but Kat was going to investigate further. Patting his arm, but never looking into his face, she simply spoke and left. "Just remember no water on that for 24 hours and if you need something to take the edge off the pain, I put a prescription in the data bank for you already."

1346
Walking around the ICU, the medic didn't see anything until the cabinet to the farthest wall was swung open. The height of the door was nearly 6 feet tall, so a whole person could easily......a foot came out that looked like a boot. The swaying material around the leather looked like satin, but it didn't compare to the rest of the ensemble. Out of reaction, the Major reached for her hand gun, but it was gone. She must have removed it while attending patients. Looking around for something to grab, she attempted to quietly make it to the com and inform the commander of the intruder. Tip toeing, she almost made it when a click and suave laughter overtook her from behind and the blunt coolness of metal was rubbing against her temple. "I wouldn't be doing that if I were you poppet." It was then a blade of a sword was under her chin lifting it up to meet the eye of the intruder. "Well ain't you a pretty one."

<Tag: Anyone>

[Admon Halevi]

1345
BC-303B Battle Cruiser Icarus
Corridors

This trip didn't seem to be going near as well as they had originally intended. Admon had never been a technical kind of guy, so most of the things that he had been hearing about were foreign to him. He knew nothing about the idea of hyperspace or even what exactly this ship was that he was aboard. He was a somewhat simple man, and these technological wonders were far beyond his comprehension. He was merely along for the ride on this one, at least that was the plan. He was a trained soldier, his skills far exceeding most of the rest of this team when it came to combat situations. This however was not a combat situation, and he literally had no experience in something like this. He had left the bridge moments earlier to make his way to his quarters, hoping to get his rifle. He didn't like the fact that things had started going wrong and he was almost unarmed.

His walk was short, as the quarters where SD-3 had been put up were near the bridge. As he stepped through the doorway he saw something unfamiliar to him. On the cot that was his there sat an object, something which hadn't been there when he had left the quarters this morning. The blade seemed to glow in the dim lights of the quarters, and Admon was already able to recognize what it was. It was a rapier, somewhat similar to the swords used by pirates. What however, was it doing on his cot? Could one of his team members have brought it along and simply sat it on the wrong bed? Of course that was a possibility, although he doubted it. Drawing his sidearm, Admon slowly began to pace around the quarters, his keen eyes searching for whomever had left the mysterious blade. No one seemed to be in the quarters beside himself, and so he pushed the door shut, locking it as he did so. A lone hand reached out for the blade.

As his fingers curled around the cold steel of the hilt, Admon felt something spark through him. The sword was doing something to him, although he couldn't begin to explain what it was. He felt different, far different than he had ever felt before. Looking down at his hand he saw that it was glowing, a faint orange glow that seemed to be spreading up his arm, ever so slowly. It crept toward his elbow, and try as he might he couldn't seem to unclench his hand. Fear began to overtake him as the glow reached his shoulder. In moments it would reach both his head and heart, almost at the same time. With a deep breath he dropped to his knees, no longer capable of supporting his weight. A bright flash surrounded him as the glow reached his eyes. Within seconds it was over, and he lay unconscious on the floor of the team's quarters.

<Tag Anyone>

[Erin Stuit]

1342
BC-303B Battle Cruiser Icarus
Computer Center

At Walker's request Erin had taken up a post with the other techs at one of the diagnostic computers going over the ships logs to try and find out what had happened to kick them out of hyperspace. Looking through the long list of equipment failures trying to establish the origin of the damage. The readings so far showed some signs of radiation, but not enough to cause them to fail, and as time progressed she was becoming more and more convinced that an outside force was responsible for knocking them out of hyperspace. Still she didn't want to cause alarm without proof, so armed with a slide ruler a pad of paper, ship schematics and printed damage reports going back the last half hour she went to mapping the time and location of each equipment outage and slowly but surely she was beginning to see a blast radius appear that was centralised on the opposite side of the energy spikes. Still there had been one little thing that had disturbed her, a series of small power spikes on the forcefield, almost like a ripple of something passing thorough.

Concerned Erin patched through to the Bridge "Erin here, Sensors have detected damage on Decks C, E and F, early reports hint that there may be a single blast-point, this doesn't hint at radiation as the source" Erin took a deep breath as her hands traced the paper where a series of dots had been connected to a rough circle intercepting three floors of the ship. "Also there's a small power spike in the forcefield generator" she said replacing the page with a graph of the outputs "It looks like a ripple in the forcefield, too early to tell but it's not caused by the radiation". At the same time she couldn't help wonder why none of the alarms or personal had raised the problem. It was almost as if the ship had been attacked but patched up and quietened down before anyone had a chance to realise. Erin shook her head, that was straight out of Doctor Who territory, the real world wasn't like that.

<Tag Walker, Any>

[Marcus Garret]

1343
BC-303B Battle Cruiser Icarus
Computer Center

Marcus had made a slight detour on his way to the computer center, first stopping at one of the armories on the way to quickly grab a zat. This was mostly just because he preferred being prepared. In his mind, it was better to have it and not need it, than need it and not have it. Besides, he’d read just a few too many mission reports about some of the things that had happened to and on Earth’s spacecraft. Once that’s finished, he hurried on to the computers, where he started looking through the network summary logs starting from the time just before the Icarus had dropped out of hyperspace.

While he didn’t see anything that would indicate why they had dropped out, he did notice several abnormalities in the logs during the time since they dropped out. Bringing up the more detailed activity logs, he sees something alarming.

He hits the intercom next to his workstation, putting him in communications with the bridge.

“Sir, it’s Seargent Garrett. Someone’s trying to hack the ship’s network. The firewall’s holding them for now, but I’m gonna need a couple minutes to zero in on where they are.”

He toggles off the intercom and begins working frantically, his hands a blur over the keyboard as he begins the tedious process of scouring the ship virtually to track down the intruder that was trying to infiltrate the network.

<Tag anyone.>

[Robert "Jackal" Walker]

1343
BC-303B Battle Cruiser Icarus
Bridge

As Erin's report came in, Walker looked at Paul before responding, "See if you can ascertain the source of the problem, it may be a malfunction." To Paul, he said, "Something's not right here ... I'm getting readings of power anomalies all over the ship." Just then, Sergeant Garret sent his message, and the Colonel frowned. "I've got a sneaking suspicion," he began over the radio. "Start your sweep with internal systems, see if it's being accessed from inside the ship."

Opening the panel on the bridge holding the few sidearms, Walker extracted an M-9 and two magazines before turning to Chapman and saying, "I'm headed below. There's not a lot to do up here, so if you want to come, now's the time." As a confirmation, the Marine inserted the first magazine and chambered a round, tucking the other into the cargo pocket of his black combat uniform's pants.

<Tag Anyone>

[Paul Chapman]

1343
BC-303B Battle Cruiser Icarus
Bridge

The reports coming from all over the ship weren't making any sense. First the power spike, and now their network was being hacked. They were yet to determine if the hacker was externally networked, but the ease and speed at which they were progressing suggested their were aboard the ship. How the hackers could have gotten aboard was unknown at this point, but the hull damage detected by Petty Officer Stuit on decks C, E and G could suggest a breach attempt. "I've got a sneaking suspicion," Colonel Walker declared, before activating his radio to his team. "Start your sweep with internal systems, see if it's being accessed from inside the ship."

It seemed they were not alone. The reason for their unexpected exit from hyperspace was still a mystery, but it was more and more looking at though it was intentional. If they'd somehow been yanked out by some alien technology and been boarded, the supernova would do a perfect job of destroying all evidence of the Icarus, and destroyed all traces and evidence of the enemies who had orchestrated her capture. The nova would also act as a distraction, allowing for the boarding to go undetected for long enough for a foothold to be established aboard the vessel.

Robert was thinking along a similar notion. "I'm headed below. There's not a lot to do up here, so if you want to come, now's the time," he said. Paul nodded "Major, you have the bridge," he said, following the Marine out the door. While he was at the moment unarmed, he'd make sure to grab a weapon at the first armory they passed. "We're not alone are we Colonel?"

< Tag SD-3 >

[Admon Halevi]

1346
BC-303B Battle Cruiser Icarus
Corridors

He awoke with a start, rising from the floor without a thought as to why he was even down there. Brushing the dust off of his clothing, Admon straightened his belt with his free hand, the sword still in the other. With a sense of urgency he walked back out of the quarters and toward the bridge where he knew most of the team to be. As he stepped onto the bridge he looked back and forth looking around for anyone he recognized. It seemed as if everyone had went below, and that was where he would be headed next. As he made his way through the corridors, Admon saw the outlines of the Colonel and the CO of the Icarus a decent way down the hallway in front of him. Following behind them without a word, he would wait. Eventually they would leave themselves open, and that was when he would strike.

Inside his head a battle was raging. This wasn't a battle to determine the outcome of a situation, no, this was a battle for a man's mind. For his soul. The sword had done something to him, infused him with another presence. Something in the sword was taking him over, trying to force his mind from his body. If he didn't do something soon enough, there would be no way that he would be able to fight back. Feeling his mind weakening, Admon retreated briefly, allowing the sword to have full control. It was either that, or he wouldn't have the strength to resist when it really mattered.

<Tag Walker or Chapman>

[Robert "Jackal" Walker]

1344
Corridors

As Walker led the way through the maze of corridors, he moved on auto-pilot; he knew this ship like the back of his hand, probably more so even than her new commander. "I'm afraid not, Colonel ... I hope it works out better than the last time the ship was boarded - it ended with four people dead on our side." It had been during the Ida Task Force, with the ship and its crew responding to a distress call at a planetary research station manned by the Asgard. It was the beginning of a string of assaults against the technologically superior race that the Icarus and the Ida team helped eradicate.

1346

Thinking back to the present, the Colonel saw an auxiliary armory on the right-hand side. His back to the wall, he took up a defensive position with his sidearm raised while the ship's commander keyed in his code sequence and the panel opened. Following Chapman inside the small room, the Marine set .the M-9 down on top of a cabinet and opened a drawer below. Inside were drop-leg holsters, and the Marine tossed one to Paul and strapped a second to his leg, holstering the M-9. Grabbing a tactical vest, he slipped his radio into the upper left compartment near his shoulder and transferred the extra 9mm magazine to his vest. Since M-4s were not available at the smaller armories, so he chose a P-90 instead with three magazines, locking one in and taking the safety off.

Turning to the Lieutenant Colonel, who was preparing his gear, Robert quipped, "Cut 'em off at the pass, huh sheriff?"

<Tag Chapman and SD-3>

[Katrina Logan]

1346
Infirmary Storage Room

The blade of the sword wasn't by any means unsharpened. Blood softly trickled down the major's neck, but it wasn't anything serious. She had dealt with worse plenty times before. There was a reason this pirate wasn't killing her right away and then taking whatever possessions he could find. He needed her alive. The blade of the sword was in a position where she wasn't about to make any sudden movements. One small move the wrong way and she could push it all the way through, but for some reason, it was beginning to become a welcome relief with the pain she had been through.

Not like this Major. He deserves to know. Her mind came back to the present forgetting her personal turmoil and now fighting for the lives of those she had just patched up in the infirmary and everyone else. Without much of a struggle, she tried to become the negotiator. If he was truly a pirate, a pretty young lady would be welcome company until the calvary arrived. "What exactly is it you want from us Captain, uh...Sparrow? Barbosa, or is it Bligh or Ahab? And how did you get past our security?"

The sword swiped a little more releasing more blood but still not enough for permanent damage. A wry smile came over the man's face of accomplishment, just like a dirty pirate would. "That's none of your concern. Let's just say we had better technology handed over to us during our last little pillage. That's all you need to know. Now where's your commander before I make you a nice addition to the heads of pretty woman I already have?"

<Tag: Anyone>

[Marcus Garret]

1346
Engineering

It takes several minutes, but Marcus’s frantic work at the computer pays off, and he again hits the intercom. He sets it to send out ship-wide.

“Colonel Walker or Colonel Chapman, please contact Tech Sergeant Garrett ASAP.”

<Tag Walker/Chapman>

“Sir, we have intruders. Multiple attempts to infiltrate the ship’s systems from both B- and D-decks. Also, I’m seeing unusual network activity coming from the infirmary. I’m about to head there now.”

< Tag Walker/Chapman>