The Alice
Posted on Wed Mar 26th, 2025 @ 1:25am by Commander Rhupert Tyree & Lieutenant Tavana Kolan, Daughter of Kretorg & Lieutenant Katya Davi & Lieutenant Amy Gordon
2,924 words; about a 15 minute read
Mission:
The Foragers
Location: Treadis System, Moon V871. Cardassian Space.
Timeline: Five weeks after Get the Party Started.
It was cold. Rhu’s eyes moved around the barely lit, cramped transport chamber aboard the S.S. Alice, an old and decommissioned freighter that had, in its second life, been a blockade runner during the Dominion War. The Cardassians had captured her and imprisoned the crew.
The Gul’s official report claimed that the <>Alice must have been on her return leg, because she’d been empty. But Nob claimed she’d been full of various valuable items that had gone missing on the report to Cardassian command.
The Alice had been impounded around the outskirts of the Treadis System, landed on the moon only known as V871 and mostly forgotten. Nob’s plan had been to hire several groups of spacers to liberate a handful of ships, get them to a chop shop and then pay the crews off while the ships were either dismantled for parts or repurposed.
Each of them had been promised 5000 Leks and a bonus of five strips of latinum for pulling the job. Rhu had balked at being paid in Cardassian scrip, but that was the job.
Good thing he wasn’t really in it for the money.
“Any atmosphere in this crate,” he asked. The EVA suit he was wearing was ancient and claimed there was a breathable atmosphere. But Rhu wasn’t taking any chances. They’d need the suits for heat if nothing else.
Snearing, Disco had already opened his helmet and was sniffing. “Old air, but it’s good enough for now. Nob said there would be so there is. You all know what you’re supposed to be doing, so get your asses to work.”
Kimi (Katya) volunteered to work on life support, power relays, and shields first, then move on to weapons. This was her bailiwick and if they were going to appropriate it, she wanted to make sure it was spaceworthy. It hopefully meant that she would be left alone as she wasn't messing with engines or weapons. Not right now, anyway. Life support was top priority because the air smelled stale with a tang of rot. And it was cold. She didn't like being cold. To help pass the time and keep from thinking too much about their watchdogs, she amused herself while she worked by singing sea shanties. This was definitely not the place for musicals.
Rhu (Logan) followed by Disco to what passed for engineering on the Alice. He found the past engineers log in crystal form and began (slowly) cycling through the warp core start-up sequence, bringing the plant online. He was no engineer, but he had the basics and Disco had supposedly been one on a tramp freighter.
"You ready yet," Disco half snarled two hours later as the plant fully powered up and Rhu began powering up secondary systems one by one, pushing power to test various relays and conduits. "Yes," Rhu responded, keeping his tone half resentful. Disco would assume the pilot called Logan would think he should be in command. "Things don't look too bad, mostly green."
"Mostly," Disco grunted. "But not all. Looks like there's something messed up with the relays going to the port side nacels. Get over there to those junctions and began going through them. And remember, we only have about six hours more before that patrol comes by and we want to be gone by then. Don't piss around."
Purposely biting off a resentful remark, Rhu (Logan) threw the Klingon a mocking salute, grabbed his tool kit and began tracing the indicated schematics on an old-old tricorder he'd put together for this mission. On the outside, it looked like a battered Bajoran model but it's guts were all cobbled together from a half-dozen species. The programming was jumbled. Unless Rhu was holding it, then that filtered aside for the sate of the art Federation package he'd installed.
"Right," he said as he figured out where he was supposed to find the relays." The air was starting to smell better already so he knew Kat was doing her magic. "Don't blow us up, yeah?"
Disco sent an angry string of curses toward Rhu's receding back, then grinned and pulled out a flask, found the best chair in the bay and sat down to monitor the power plant.
Kimi made good progress with life support. Fortunately, it had been a priority and suffered little damage. Neglect, yes, but not a lot of actual damage. That was good, because she liked to breathe clean air. If there was dust in the ventilation system, they could all get sick--or worse--if the wrong spore or fungus got into the wrong vent. Now that the air was flowing--even if it was dusty--she'd taken off her helmet and wrapped a bandanna around her nose and mouth so she could hear and smell better--both were critical if she wanted to do the necessary repairs. In all honesty, it would take at least a month to get the ship to where it worked like it should. If they could get more help, it would cut the time in half, but Kat was pretty sure Nob wanted the ship space-worthy in days, not weeks.
While she waited for the air filtration system to cycle the detritus through the freighter, she figured she'd move on to her next task: shields and force fields. She started with the biggest problem, which was a junction of wires and conduits that had some sort of leak and now half the bolts and exposed wires were seized or rusty. She sprayed lubricant on a sticky patch of tubes and wires connecting to a power junction and finally got one of the bolts loose. "Finally." She needed a box of clean stem-bolts, but since she had to make do, she cleaned it off, then cleaned off the area around it so she could replace it.
Just then, she heard a zzzt followed by a power surge sizzled through the conduit, burning out two fuses and a capacitor. She caught the sharp scent of burnt insulation around the electrical wiring and jumped back and grabbed a mostly-clean cloth to contain the sparks and stop the still-small fire from spreading. It wasn't the smartest idea, but with all the lubricant she'd sprayed, it was better than the alternative. When the cloth caught fire--as she knew it would--she dropped it on the deck and stamped out the flames.
She hadn't seen a fire extinguisher. It had probably been taken along with everything else that was worth anything. That left her with one option: cannibalize parts from a secondary system. She wondered who the neanderthal was who failed to run a system check before activating the systems. She didn't blame Rhu or Amy, but the two troll guards were dumb enough to force them to activate power before doing the proper verification. As soon as they got out of here, she was going to lock the two trolls behind a force field--if she managed to get them working.
Rhu (Logan) found the junction set he was looking for and spent a minute getting the panel open, then winced as the lights went out for several heart beats. Bringing out a palm light, he peered in and winced. Instead of isolinear chips or jell packs, there were actual wire leads wrapped about the posts and soldered into place. Taking out his tricorder, he removed the remote sensor and began scanning: when a short jumped at him, singeing his fingers and causing the remote to do a hard reset. Blinking and imagining a tendril of smoke rising from his hand, he sat back on his heels and tried to sort himself.
Half way to where she hoped she'd find some parts she could appropriate, the power went out. She turned on her tricorder light and headed to where she remembered Rhu was working. Just to be sure, she sent him a telepathic message on a tight mental channel so it wouldn't be picked up if there were any telepaths in the area. "Need a hand?" She still needed parts, and helping him might keep them both out of trouble.
There was a metallic clang and then a thud, and the sound of something metal being hammered by something else metallic followed afterwards. A feminine voice could be heard, "If you won't fit, I will make you fit!" It was Amy working out her frustration as to getting an access hatch to close properly. She came into where everyone was, digging through several boxes and crates. "Oh there you are." picking up a laser welder and turned back to her project. The lights suddenly went out, and she paused for a moment digging around in her pockets. There she found it, a light coming on. "What happened?"
Rhu glanced around the compartment. In a freighter like this, every space would be crammed with something that might be worth something to something. Now it was little more than junk, at least by his eye. ~Maybe an update to my tetanus booster on this bucket~ he joked, mentally back to Kat. As he pulled up more decking and then stretched out to reach into the space. "We've our hands full getting the Alice running before the deadline. As soon as I finish here, Disco will likely tell one of us to start running power sequencing through the harmonic's chamber." Looking down into the junction box he'd uncovered, "Well. This isn't completely fused. We need sensors to monitor the other ships they're stealing so we're the last to leave the party."
"I can do that, as soon as I repair the shielding. That power surge fried some circuits." Kat began looking around as she added telepathically, "They're pushing us too fast and skipping protocols. I get it, but now I need to see if there's anything I can use here. So you know, I'm going to put a subroutine in the computer to keep track of the four of us in case we need an emergency transport. I also want to set up a special code to put our two jailers behind a force field if they get too power hungry." She figured Rhu needed to know so he could use either option if it became necessary.
Kat (Kimi) bounced on her toes as she looked for the parts she needed. "It's too cold in here. Temperature controls are now third on my list." She continued to open anything that looked like it might contain spare parts., but any non-essential items were gone.
"Good," Rhu said, his mind moving through the dueling purposes. "I'm going to get on Communications. DIsco and Franks will be interested in passive comms. We'll want to control that. There's a hub below the decking on the bridge, so I'm headed there next. Controlling the bridge and engineering will give us everything."
"Let me know if you need a hand with that,"Katya replied telepathically. It was too bad she didn't have her data crystal with her as she kept several programs that would help Rhu. But that would draw too much attention, so it was back on the Valiant.
Amy left to go back to her project to finish the hatch way, putting on the goggles to protect her sight. A few more bangs then a satisfied "Yes!" the hatch now opening and closing properly. Better than she had found it.
The other ship systems were being looked at and worked on. Amy though decided she'd check out the head or heads. She counted that as part of necessary ship system. She noted that there were loose bolts and a leakage on the sink. This she set to get worked on, as she worked, there was something amiss on the wall on the other side of the toilet. Curious Amy went to check it out. The wall panel seemed to be just a small touch askew. She hadn't noticed it at first due to how the light she held had been angled but her movement of the light brought it to view. She wedged the panel open and to her amazement, she found a collection of small/mini bottles of alcohol! These could be useful. Amy pocketing them in to her cargo pants pockets. Medical her next stop, got to see what they had there for something useful...
Tavana/Kala was at a tactical console, trying to figure out what kind of weaponry the ship had if any. There seemed to be two cannons and a few torpedoes. She could see that there were there, but nothing else. Swearing in frustration, she realized the only way for her to find out was to physically inspect the weaponry. When she arrived at the tactical control room, the door was shut. Pulling and pushing it and trying to bypass the lock to open it didn't work. So, she ended up in a vent sweating in the uncomfortable suit as she crawled towards to the chamber. The plate covering the access point was slightly stuck, but after a few hard kicks it gave in and fell to the floor with a hard clang. "Okay, no torpedo's then," she sighed as she looked at the mess.
Franks trudged. It was one of the better things he was good at it. He was a large man and moving through the small companion ways and compartments of yet another POS tramp freighter had him dully thinking about his life choices.
But only for a moment. There was work to do and his work was to keep an eye on the new crew. Disco was monitoring the engine space, the heart of the ship while he wandered and made sure the new little idiots pulled their weight. Grunting to himself as he reached the port side docking hatch, he reviewed the life support gear there and was happy to note one of the escape capsules was still in place. After making sure the door was well sealed and the mechanism was convinced it would work, he turned around and began working his way back to check on the newbies.
Reaching what would be the tubs weapons bay, he saw the new klingon breed and stopped. "Sight seeing?" He grunted out. Not likely to get into a pitched battle unless we actually get the hrakat moving?
Tavana gave a chuckle. "If there were anything to see, it would be great," she said. "I am going to try to see if there is any other salvageable weapons, but this is not looking too good," she said. "How is it going on your side?"
"Yes!" Kat did a little pirouette. "I found the parts I need. They're part of a refrigeration system for the cargo bay, but we won't need that at the moment." If Tweedledee and Tweedledum--she'd begun to use Alice in Wonderland references for their two overseers--had a problem, she'd remind them they were on a tight schedule. Or short circuit their...somethings.
She pulled the parts she needed and grinned at Rhu. "I should have life support and basic shields up to spec in an hour--as long as nothing else blows." She didn't think so as most of the secondary systems that involved them were already up and running. On her way out, she began to hum Dancing In The Dark, knowing it irritated Disco.
As she worked, she thought about the cargo that should have been on the freighter and wasn't. She didn't quite accept that it was gone when the Cardassians took the ship. Did that mean there were still people on the ship? Or had they bailed when they had the chance? Most of the escape pods were missing, after all.
Kat wanted to have a look at the crew quarters. They were less likely to be ransacked by the Cardassians, and it would be a good place to hide something if anyone planned to find the ship later. It wasn't likely, but once the thought took root, she had to look. She finished her repairs and double-checked that the air filtration system was working, then she activated the temperature controls and counted to thirty. When she felt the gentle caress of warm air she was so happy she wished she could hug someone. Okay, NOT Thing One and Thing Two, but someone. Instead, she gathered all her tools and the remaining parts and headed back to where she knew Rhu was working. On the way, she began to sing Hot, Hot, Hot by Buster Poindexter and dancing her way through the ship.
She was very careful to stop before she got close to Disco or Franks. When she saw Rhu, she grinned. "The heat is on." Then she spun around and went in search of Amy to help her with her idea
Amy was successful in finding something to make a mickey, she had planned to drug the two guys who were watching them and get them out of the way. Well she could have used a hypo spray but that wasn't anywhere she could find. Unless there was one hidden. She hadn 't found one yet but she'll keep on doing so. Amy stepped out from medical, just in time to see Katya coming down the corridor. "I have been able to find some drinks." she said quietly.
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