Corrigere Praeterita (Part VI)

Posted on Tue Apr 8, 2025 @ 4:52am by Ensign Matilda Cromwell & Lieutenant Bronwyn P’ril & Lieutenant T'Lul & Lieutenant JG Ace Cannon
Edited on on Fri Jun 13, 2025 @ 2:35am

1,812 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Tergum In Tempus
Location: Deep Space 5
Timeline: Two days before the attack

[PREVIOUSLY]

“Never mind,” said P’ril, taking hold of Matilda’s arm. “We have it under control. Come, Ensign Cromwell. Let us leave the Lieutenant to his tasks.”

"I don't believe you do," Ace responded to P'ril before she had a chance to leave. "There's something going on here and I do not like it. You, P’ril, I've never seen before and are mucking about my department. You say you're tired and now you're ready to work. And you, Ensign, just who put you up to this nonsense? I know I did not call for you."

[CONTINUED]

Matilda straightened up giving Ace a direct gaze. "No, you didn't call for me, but you need to come with," her voice urgent. She then moved closely saying in a Sotto Voce. "I found something in the programming. It doesn't belong there. It doesn't belong there. I wanted to get some help to chase it down. Or eradicate it. I am hoping that it isn't going to cause a cascading effect and I believe it is starting to take effect, as evident with the fluctuations on the station. Does that catch your interest?" her cheeks having a red spot which complimented her agitation. "Just please, let's stop this before something dire happens."

"You are both engineers and do not belong in my department," Ace replied to Matilda. "Nothing you said explains why either of you failed to notify me and were working in my department without authorization. It also does not explain why you were mucking about in my systems. How do I know that neither of you are causing these problems?" He looked at them both skeptically. "Convince me," he told them both, crossing his arms and hoping they came up with something creative that he would enjoy.

Matilda shook her head moving away from Ace to P’ril, "Let's go find that. Obviously, he's not going to listen. Not go see for himself, and I thought he was one of the hot shot operations officers I heard about and people whispered that he lived up to his name. Ace Cannon, the man who has an ace up his sleeve." She heaved a sigh. She snorted as she headed back to the Jefferies access hatch. "Every nano second that passes by makes the moments of precious time dwindle. "We don't have any more time to argue or even time to convince you." She looked back at Ace before stepping inside. "And not even a chance to see you in action."

"You want to see me in action, do you?" Ace asked with a mischievous scowl. He knew he was being baited but there was something about Matilda that made him want to take the bait. "Fine. After shift, you will have all the action you can handle from me. If there's no problem or I find that you or Lieutenant P’ril caused a problem, then I pick where the action starts. If there's a problem and it was not caused by you, then you get to pick where the action starts. Deal?"

"Deal," Matilda responded. She glanced at P'ril. She would have to talk with P'ril later on, but they did need Ace to go with them.

Ace gave Matilda a lecherous grin. "Alright, Red. Lead on." Give me a great view of that rear as you crawl through. It will just whet the appetite. He climbed up into the hatch after Matilda, as he called back to P'ril. "You coming or going to sleep?"

P’ril resisted the urge to sigh heavily. “Very well,” she replied. “I will follow.”

Matilda led the way to the ODN and the Micro Junction. "This is where it is, at I feel deep in my bones." Her brow was furrowed, eyes filled with worry. "Have you ever had that feeling of an impending doom and can't quite put your finger on it? I feel that so strongly, it is a palatable sting like being stung by a wasp."

The Assistant Chief Operations Officer opened the panel and started running a scan. Just as he thought, there was nothing on a level 1 diagnostic. "Looks like I won my bet...." However, hearing Matilda's pleading tone, he sighed and complained, "Fine, I'll look harder, but if there's nothing there or you did this, just be prepared for a night full of action."

Once again, he conducted a diagnostic with his tricorder, but raised it to level 3. "Well, well, well. What do we have here?" he asked admiringly. "This is some pretty sophisticated work." He looked over at Matilda and P'ril. "So, how would either of you know about this?"

"Level three diagnostics? Holy smoke! What is that? As to your question, I was on the hunt trying to find out what's been messing around with the power. Not fun getting stuck in the turbolift. Long story short, I wasn't certain if I was seeing things. A ghost in the machine so to speak. I thought I was going crazy. You say it's sophisticated? Think you can get rid of that thing?"

Ace looked skeptically at the young engineer. "You don't know about level 3 diagnostics?" He shook his head. "They either teach nothing at Starfleet anymore or you're even more sketchy than I thought." He hated to think that such a fine young thing might be a spy but he needed to confirm things. Surreptitiously, he scanned Matilda's DNA and then the junction. She had not touched this. Instead, he found some Cardassian DNA. "Well, shit," he said. "Seems you won the bet, so your choice on the action, and yes, I can get rid of this."

He fussed with the ODN and said, "Seems this thing is set to self-sabotage in approximately two days. As I'm certain you're aware, ODN's are exceptionally fussy, especially when combined with non-Federation parts. They'll short out. This ODN was set to make it look just like that, blinding us until repaired. So, I need to decouple this, reboot, and use a recoupler with a new junction relay to avoid that problem."

Matilda's face went pale hearing what Ace had found out. "So... what would have happened if you didn't find out?" She glanced at P'ril then back to Ace. Matilda knew about the level three diagnostics, she just didn't have the clearance to do so, not yet anyway. Or did she? It mattered not, They needed an Operations officer to take care of this.

Ace scolded Matilda, referring to her turning pale, "Now look, Red, don't go ghosting me, literally or figuratively. You did good here and we can sort this out now. As to what would happen, well, I'm pretty sure a cute engineer like you would know that the ODNs transfer data between the computers and remote terminals. There are redundant systems. So, assuming this is some sort of sabotage, we have to check the others and make the same repairs. So, one going down might not do much, if anything. But if it were multiples, it could blind us, potentially disconnect us from weapons or shields or any other nasty things like that."

Matilda sucked in some air between her teeth, "Okay we definitely need to corral that thing before everything goes haywire even more."

"Agreed," Ace answered simply. "Watch what I do. Memorize it. After this, we're spreading out to cover all of the repairs for any ODN. Got it?"

“I know what needs to be done,” P’ril pointed out, somehow managing to sound cold and nonchalant at the same time. “I will head to deck 1250 and work my way down. You work your way up and we meet in the middle. Perhaps we should enlist the help of a few more engineers,” she added thoughtfully.

"Engineers?" Ace scoffed. "Well, since we already have one here, I suppose we could get more to help and I'll have all of Ops in, too." And when we're done, I will have Matilda for myself. Reward for a job well done.

"Okay sounds like a grand plan, team work the best there ever will be on such a large scale." Matilda giving an ear to ear grin. " So, we get to our respective places and get to work? All in synch and coordinated on secure channel, with no comm traffic besides our own. Can't let others know what is going on to not cause panic. Shall we begin?" Matilda heading towards the level she needed to get to. Coming over the commlink once she was in position. "On your mark, Ace and P'ril, lets do this."

P’ril managed to not roll her eyes at Ace, but could not stop the half smirk that came to her lips. “I am not doing hands in,” she teased. “Let’s go.”

Matilda didn't know how much time was passing as she worked on her part of corralling the nasty program. She was listening to the comms of each person calling in each of their successes. It seemed that there was a sense of urgency in everyone. "Ace, P'ril how are things going on for you?"

Ace responded, "Repairs are going more quickly than I expected." He mused aloud, "In fact, it appears that repairs have been made in sectors that no team has been deployed."

"Fascinating, which means we'll be done sooner." Matilda moved to her next spot. She didn't know how long it took but they were nearing their goal. "Almost to the finish line? I hope?" She was feeling exhausted and getting rather hungry. Her stomach protesting that it was being neglected. Please tell me the last component is in place P'ril and Ace?"

"Oh, I always get the last piece in place," Ace replied, dripping with innuendo. "Should be done for now, Red. We can sort out the other details later."

"Fine that works." Matilda right now not caring, all she cared about was getting done and getting something to eat. She was starving!

This time, P’ril did not resist rolling her eyes. “Nearly there,” she replied. “I estimate less than an hour. Do not rush, though; we do not want to miss anything.”

Over the combadge once she was finished with her part, Matilda gave out a "Yeehaw! Success! I am ready to go get something to eat!" at her announcement her stomach gurgled and growled rather loudly.

Ace wondered about this sabotage and how it was getting repaired more quickly than normal. Perhaps he would have to talk with T'Lul about it. The Vulcan gave him the creeps but she knew her stuff. Then again, he could just accept the victory and clock out. He nodded to himself. "Yeah, time to clock out. Job well done, Ace."

Ensign Matilda Cromwell
Engineering Officer
Deep Space 5

Ace Cannon
Assistant Chief Operations Officer
Deep Space 5

Lt. Bronwyn P’ril
Chief Engineer
Deep Space 5

 

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