While Oren-De and the rest of the senior staff had taken advantage of the Pandora’s unexplained wild motion to subdue Shrel’s doppelganger, War’en was hanging on for dear life. The disturbance had occurred while he was climbing down one of the Jeffries tubes and had caught him completely by surprise. His feet had slipped off the ladder, causing his body to drop and his chin to slam down hard on a rung. The shock of it all had caused his right hand to lose its grip, but through sheer willpower he had managed to maintain a hold with his left hand, even has the ship continued to shake. Finally, the ship stopped moving and War’en’s head stopped spinning enough for him to get his bearings and grab hold of the ladder again.
“What... was that!?” he said through heavy breaths as he found his footing on the ladder again.
He proceeded more cautiously down the ladder until he reached the bottom.
“Finally,” he muttered to himself as he knelt down next to one of the small chamber’s hatches. He was about to use a nearby panel when his combadge suddenly chirped.
“Oren-De to Mr. Sadda. Status report.”
War tapped his combadge then began typing on the panel as he talked.
“Sadda here, Captain. I’m almost to the computer core. If you’re contacting me, I’m guessing that you’re not under guard?”
“Correct, Mr. Sadda. We took advantage of the recent disturbance to subdue the one that was assigned here. However, why are you heading to the computer core?”
War finished entering a code into the panel, which caused the hatch to slide open. He continued talking as he crawled through into the room beyond.
“The Partition is here. It was built with local, hardwired controls that take precedence over any remote access from the rest of the ship.”
War stood up and looked around the computer core room. Most of the room was dedicated to the standard computer core of a Phoenix-class ship. However, across the room from him was another door, to the right of the main entrance. War’en approached it and accessed another doorside panel as he continued reporting.
“I’m going to use it to gain access to the Pandora’s systems. Since it’s whole purpose is to be able to infiltrate other computer systems, I should be able to use it to infiltrate the Pandora’s own systems, since the two are kept separate. From there, I can safely shut down the Pandora’s weapons and engines. I considered going to Engineering, but it was more likely that one of our saboteurs was already there.”
The doors to the Partition slid open, revealing a small room. War entered and approached the main console, which sat in front of a large black vault that took up the rest of the room. Inside was the prototype Partition, sealed off to prevent anyone from analyzing what was inside.
“I’m in. I’m going to start accessing the Pandora’s systems now, sir.”
War began issuing commands into the Partition’s control console. After a few moments, he grinned.
“Captain, I have access to the engine’s controls.” Then he paused and cocked an eyebrow. “However, we’ve apparently already stopped, sir. The ship’s engines are operating at low power... we’re either drifting or in orbit around a low-gravity body.”
In Sickbay, Oren-De considered the new information.
“Interesting, but it doesn’t change our primary objective. Can you lower the forcefield in Sickbay so that we can access our weapons?”
“I should be able to. Just give me a moment,” came War’s voice over the comm. A short time later, the forcefield around the weapons in Red’s office shimmered as it lost power.
“Done,” came War’s voice.
“Excellent. It is time to retake this ship. Access the ship’s internal sensors and determine the locations of our saboteurs.”
The senior staff walked into Red’s office to obtain their weapons. As they did so, Red glanced suspiciously at Maggie.
“How is it possible to hack a computer with itself?”
Maggie shook her head. “The Partition is a separate processing system that uses our main computer’s resources. War is taking advantage of the safeguards put in place on the Partition. Commands issued locally, from the Partition’s location itself, are given priority. This allows us to shut it down in case something goes wrong.”
Red’s eyes widened. “Something goes wrong? Like what? Maggie, what is this thing capable of!?”
Maggie pursued her lips, then simply responded with a shrug of her shoulders as she walked by him out of the office. “It’s a prototype, Red. That’s the whole point of testing it.”
In the Partition’s control room, War looked at the readout of the ship’s internal sensors on his console. He frowned and performed the sensor sweep again.
“Captain, except for your guard, it looks like they’re no longer on the ship.”
“What?”
“I’m sorry, sir. I don’t know where they went, but they’re not showing up on the ship’s internal sensors. Unfortunately, I’m rather limited in what I can do from here. You’re going to need to get to the bridge to get any more information. I can unlock Sickbay and the Bridge for you, though.”
“Do it. As we make our way to the Bridge, see what you can do about restoring our command of the ship’s computer. Oren-De, out.”
Thankfully, after Sickbay was unlocked, getting to the Bridge was simple as the turbolifts accepted their commands. It appeared that the other Maggie had only been concerned with keeping them locked in one area. When they got to the Bridge, the officers went directly to their respective positions, save for Red assuming the position at Ops.
“Sadda to Captain Oren-De. Everyone should have full access from Bridge consoles again, Captain, but voice command is going to take a bit longer. Unfortunately, until then, Dr. Redwing and I can’t restore your command of the Pandora;; voice authorization is required to redact your ‘medical leave’.”
Oren-De gave an annoyed look from his seat in the captain’s chair.
“Acknowledged. Make that your top priority, Mr. Sadda. Once you’re done, make your way to the Bridge.”
Oren-De then looked at Will, who was studying the helm’s console with a perplexed expression.
“Mr. Lacera, can you determine our position?”
“I’m not sure, sir. The navigation log says we’re orbiting Luna... but that can’t be right. Why would someone steal the ship just to pilot it to Earth’s moon?”
“Hail Starfleet Command. Maybe they can provide us with some answers. Meanwhile, Dr. Redwing, see if you can determine where our would-be thieves escaped to.”
“Aye, sir.”
After a moment, Will reported back. However, his voice had grown even more uncertain.
“Captain... I can’t get a response from Starfleet Command. On top of that... there isn’t any subspace comm traffic in the vicinity.”
“I thought you said we’re orbiting Luna.”
“We are, sir!”
Oren-De looked over at Maggie. “Ms. Matoya, is there something wrong with the ship’s sensors?”
Maggie shook her head. “I’m running a diagnostic now, sir, but I don’t think that’s the problem. I’m currently accessing astrometrics to get a better handle on our posit--”
“Lieutenant? What is it?”
Maggie’s eyes had widened in a rare moment of speechlessness. She took a breath before responding.
“Captain, we are indeed orbiting Luna in the Sol System. However, star positions indicate that the stardate has changed... significantly.”
The other officers stopped what they were doing and turned to face Maggie.
“What do you mean? What’s the current stardate?”
Maggie looked back at her console, then shook her head in disbelief.
“There is no stardate. It is currently the 21st of May... 2013.”
