Season 2, Mission 4: Switch

[Felicity Ellis]

[Cargo Bay 2]

"Flick if you can hear me, its Leanna and your safe now" she projected wanting to reassure her before turning to the others.

[Medical Bay]

Moving quickly back into the medical bay, Derek guided T'Prina onto a free biobed, waving a trauma team over. "Suspected intracranial hemorrhaging, let's find it and fix it please." he ordered, patting the Vulcan lieutenant on the shoulder. "You're in good hands T'Prina. I'm going to check on Flick, will be right back." As he had directed earlier, there were guards in place around an isolated operating room, and at Derek's approach, one of them lowered the forcefield infront of the door.

"Neural scan?" He asked while entering, glancing at the display as it was projected up. "Computer, compare this scan to last physical on file, narrow search on BCPs."

"Hyperencephalograms are identical. No discrepancies found."=/\=

Derek sighed, shaking his head. "What on earth has been going on here? Let's wake her up." He directed the nurse, tapping his foot impatiently as the hypospray was held to Flick's neck and injected. "Hopefully it won't be too late and she'll have some answers."

[Operating Room]

This time when Felicity opened her eyes she saw light. The darkness steadily declined and her vision cleared, revealing surroundings that were considerably more familiar. She blinked and stared up at Derek, her mind racing to catch up with recent events.

"Chief."

At the sound of her own voice her hands raised and pressed to her throat. Still my voice. Her hands moved down her neck, tapping, reassuring herself, and stopped somewhere around her chest area, when she sat up a little and glanced down. And everything else... intact. Relief pulsed through her. That hadn't been an hallucination. That had been Leanna she'd heard, and she was back in her own bloody body. She'd never take it for granted again. She'd go jogging every morning and drink those awful green smoothies that her mother swore promoted stamina and muliebrity.

Relief quickly ebbed though, and worry began to rise again. "Did they take her?" She asked, elbows supporting her as she sat up a little further. "Are they gone?" Flashes of memories; far-away, almost intangible, teased from the recesses of her mind as she looked around, taking in the security team. Three bodies, including my own. Alien and subdued. "There were three of them."

[Derek Black]

[Operating Room]

This time when Felicity opened her eyes she saw light. The darkness steadily declined and her vision cleared, revealing surroundings that were considerably more familiar. She blinked and stared up at Derek, her mind racing to catch up with recent events.

"Chief."

At the sound of her own voice her hands raised and pressed to her throat. Still my voice. Her hands moved down her neck, tapping, reassuring herself, and stopped somewhere around her chest area, when she sat up a little and glanced down. And everything else... intact. Relief pulsed through her. That hadn't been an hallucination. That had been Leanna she'd heard, and she was back in her own bloody body. She'd never take it for granted again. She'd go jogging every morning and drink those awful green smoothies that her mother swore promoted stamina and muliebrity.

Relief quickly ebbed though, and worry began to rise again. "Did they take her?" She asked, elbows supporting her as she sat up a little further. "Are they gone?" Flashes of memories; far-away, almost intangible, teased from the recesses of her mind as she looked around, taking in the security team. Three bodies, including my own. Alien and subdued. "There were three of them."

[Medical Bay]

Derek could practically see Flick visibly deflate as she took in her surroundings, and for a troubling moment, considered what they would have to do if the counselor required a counselor. And then the even more troubling realization that the Admiral and Knox would both probably need someone to talk to themselves too. Starfleet Medical is going to roll over this one. Pointing up at the flickering lights, Derek shook his head. "Not yet. They're in the neural core now."

Slipping a hand behind her back, Derek helped her sit up. "We know. You, Adeyemi, Knox. The XO's gone to confront the others. Flick, can you tell us anything that can help?"

[T'Prina]

[Passageway]

When the Admiral used the link she had created to respond to her, Leanna was relieved to hear him even if it was in his normal stiff and formal manner but that didn't matter to her as all she wanted was to help him and return him to the right body. The bug that stood before her didn't scare her as it should with its dripping fluid from its mouth, its red eyes or its size because she knew the man within.

Moving closer this time to reach out and touch its sticky glistening shell trying to ease the anguish emanating from him as it cowered before her.

I'm here to help Admiral and I'm going to contact Tritter so we can find and reunite you with your proper body

Not letting go of him she reached up and touched her commbadge.

Leanna to Commander Tritter, I've found the real Admiral, we're in the passageway outside the Torpedo Bay 

[NPC Post as Rixxy - Passageway]

Rixxy kept a hand on the hilt of her ever present d'k tahg. The viciously sharp blade was still sheathed for now. She wasn't afraid of the oversized bug Leanna had claimed was Adeyemi, but she was concerned for the smaller woman, considering her close proximity to its sharp claws and sharper fangs.

"I dunno what kinda weird Betazoid mojo you've got going, but is it necessary you stand so close to the... Admiral?" Her lip curled in distaste, but it was unclear if she distrusted the bug or Starfleet more.

"If it so much as puts one claw on you, the thing better hope it can regrow its appendages. Also, if the Tritter comes along, you better believe he won't buy our sudden appreciation of Starfleet apparel." The Klingon growled softly. The big man was no one to cross and she'd thus far managed to skirt under his radar. The whole situation left a bad taste in her mouth and she hoped things would be back to normal soon.

[Felicity Ellis]

[Medical Bay]

Derek could practically see Flick visibly deflate as she took in her surroundings, and for a troubling moment, considered what they would have to do if the counselor required a counselor. And then the even more troubling realization that the Admiral and Knox would both probably need someone to talk to themselves too. Starfleet Medical is going to roll over this one. Pointing up at the flickering lights, Derek shook his head. "Not yet. They're in the neural core now."

Slipping a hand behind her back, Derek helped her sit up. "We know. You, Adeyemi, Knox. The XO's gone to confront the others. Flick, can you tell us anything that can help?"

[Medical Bay]

"Bliksems." The whispered curse fell from her mouth, down-turned with distaste, and was followed quickly by a few more muttered, colourful swearwords native to her hometown. She sat up fully with Derek's assistance and began to get her bearings.

"I remember being in Puzzles, then waking up somewhere else entirely. Everything in between... When it was presumably in my body is a dark spot." She suppressed a shudder and pressed the heel of her palm into her forehead, equally disgusted at the thought and frustrated with the giant gap in her memory. The language had been entirely indecipherable to her, the technology by far superior to their own and their bodies, their bodies had been so very different.

"They look like insects. Exoskeleton, elongated thorax, six legs. Big, red eyes. There was a room, filled with tech I'd never seen before. It was enclosed and it looked like a cargo hold of some sort. No. A torpedo bay. One of ours." She paused for a moment, shaking her head as her mind worked a mile a minute. "I'm so sorry, I just can't remember anything else."

[Leanna Mazal]

[NPC Post as Rixxy - Passageway]

Rixxy kept a hand on the hilt of her ever present d'k tahg. The viciously sharp blade was still sheathed for now. She wasn't afraid of the oversized bug Leanna had claimed was Adeyemi, but she was concerned for the smaller woman, considering her close proximity to its sharp claws and sharper fangs.

"I dunno what kinda weird Betazoid mojo you've got going, but is it necessary you stand so close to the... Admiral?" Her lip curled in distaste, but it was unclear if she distrusted the bug or Starfleet more.

"If it so much as puts one claw on you, the thing better hope it can regrow its appendages. Also, if the Tritter comes along, you better believe he won't buy our sudden appreciation of Starfleet apparel." The Klingon growled softly. The big man was no one to cross and she'd thus far managed to skirt under his radar. The whole situation left a bad taste in her mouth and she hoped things would be back to normal soon.

[Passageway]

Leanna wasn't too surprised when Rixxy spoke up behind her yet didn't move her hand away from Adeyemi despite what her bodyguard thought although she was right about one thing and that was Tritter's reaction to their uniforms. Up until that point she had never spoken much to the XO and yet agreed that it wouldn't look good if he saw them in their disguises but at the same time she wasn't going to leave the Admiral until he was returned to his rightful body.

" It's okay Rixxy he isn't going to hurt me and I'm glad I used my Betazoid mojo " she replied turning slightly to look at her Head Bartender. " As for Tritter your right he can't see us in these uniforms so I suggest we ditch the tunics before he arrives but I'm not leaving the Admiral". So without any further thought took her hand away for a moment and quickly took off the uniform top leaving her in black pants and the vest top she had been wearing before they changed.

Leanna then passed hers to Rixxy so she could get rid of the evidence by stuffing them back in her bag although kept hold of the commbadge.

[Xander Dorset]

[ Outside the Neural Core ]

Jenna looked around as the small bit of sparks flew above Xander. When the display went dark, Jenna breathed a sigh of relief for a moment. If they could get in quickly, they could make their job a bit easier. As Xander replied, Jenna began to beam. She would need a moment as so many ideas formulated in her head in that split second. Maybe it was the tiredness taking over or maybe just the spark of inspiration she needed. Molly was safe and now it was time to focus on the job at hand. After it was all over, she was looking forward to asking Dan for some extended time off to sleep. Her mind wandered for a split second before she realized she zoned out. "Those are my specialty," She began turning to him. "What did you have in mind?"

[Outside the Neural Core]

At the engineer's question, Xander didn't bother responding verbally. Instead, he walked a few paces back down the hallway with his tricorder, then swiftly shot his phaser into the wall. After a quick retrieval, he returned to the door holding three more chips. "Howell deactivated them, but there should still be a way to light them up if we try hard enough. Blunt force doesn't do it, otherwise I'd have lost my leg several times over stomping on these things. But... Maybe if there was a small explosion created next to them it would work?"

Xander went about setting the chips up with some more of the tubing from the science kit still hung over his shoulder. The tubing wove it's way around the three chips, all of which were secured along the edge of the door closest to the locking mechanism. There was enough space between the tubing and the chips that they shouldn't be destroyed, but hopefully - if they were lucky - they could trigger their own explosion in a few seconds, all that was left were the syringes of the activating chemical. He handed one to the engineer as he rose to his feet, saying, "Okay, you just insert this into the bottom tube while I get the top, then we both back the hell up and wait for the magic to happen. You should be able to manage it."

Xander got into position and counted down from three. As he efficiently pushed the plunger down, he smiled and took off running back down the passageway. By the time he counted to ten, a series of small controlled explosions occurred - followed almost immediately by three distinctly larger explosions that made Xander stumble forward a little and wince as a stray piece of smoking door glanced off his shoulder.

He turned around and squinted through the smoke - half of the doorway was missing. It was crude, but they were in.

[Derek Black]

[Medical Bay]

"Bliksems." The whispered curse fell from her mouth, down-turned with distaste, and was followed quickly by a few more muttered, colourful swearwords native to her hometown. She sat up fully with Derek's assistance and began to get her bearings.

"I remember being in Puzzles, then waking up somewhere else entirely. Everything in between... When it was presumably in my body is a dark spot." She suppressed a shudder and pressed the heel of her palm into her forehead, equally disgusted at the thought and frustrated with the giant gap in her memory. The language had been entirely indecipherable to her, the technology by far superior to their own and their bodies, their bodies had been so very different.

"They look like insects. Exoskeleton, elongated thorax, six legs. Big, red eyes. There was a room, filled with tech I'd never seen before. It was enclosed and it looked like a cargo hold of some sort. No. A torpedo bay. One of ours." She paused for a moment, shaking her head as her mind worked a mile a minute. "I'm so sorry, I just can't remember anything else."

[Medical Bay]

"We're playing catch up on this. Five damn steps behind." Derek shook his head, tapping his commbadge. "Ops, this is Black. Send security teams to all torpedo bays, there is a credible report of alien incursion. Advise them to restrain only."=/\=

"This is Ops, we already have personnel in Torpedo Bay 2, confirmed alien incursion. Also, Gibson is taking damage from an unknown energy source, you may have more casualties coming."=/\=

"Well that's just perfect, merde." Derek muttered. "Well then why the hell aren't you shooting back? Black out."=/\= He turned back to Felicity. "Who are these aliens? What are their weaknesses, how are they doing this...mind transfer? And all the equipment in the torpedo room, what would happened if it was destroyed? Would Adeyemi and Knox automatically revert to their own bodies?"

[Malcolm Adeyemi]

[Location: Neural Core]

Tritter looked towards the "Admiral", he than took a moment and said "This primate has you at gun point, you might want to rethink your language, theres no loss to me if I shoot you. You will be escorted off the base, you won't be leaving on your own, who else is like you and with you?" He knew there had to be others based on what he heard, but he wanted to make sure they got all of them off the base." He wouldn't shoot them unprovoked, but giving it back to them is not necessarily out of protocol. His tone was laden with confidence and assertiveness.

[Neural Core]

"There were three of us," He said, still lying on his belly. He seemed to be more comfortable from that position, craning his neck upwards at the big XO at an unnatural angle. He was trying to adopt the posture that he was accustomed to in his own body. "And four on the ship. I can input the codes in your command center, give you control of the vessel. But I want immunity. Do whatever you want with the others. They're in the Torpedo Bay."

"No honor among thieves," O'Connell observed softly. "Commander Tritter, we must do whatever possible to stop these beings. ANaLYN may be flawed, and that may be because of your crew, but she cannot be taken from Starfleet."

[Michael J. Tritter]

[Neural Core]

"There were three of us," He said, still lying on his belly. He seemed to be more comfortable from that position, craning his neck upwards at the big XO at an unnatural angle. He was trying to adopt the posture that he was accustomed to in his own body. "And four on the ship. I can input the codes in your command center, give you control of the vessel. But I want immunity. Do whatever you want with the others. They're in the Torpedo Bay."

"No honor among thieves," O'Connell observed softly. "Commander Tritter, we must do whatever possible to stop these beings. ANaLYN may be flawed, and that may be because of your crew, but she cannot be taken from Starfleet."

[Location: Neural Core]

Tritter listened carefully, he picked up on each word and was trying to make heads or tails of the entire situation. His spidey senses were in over drive at this point. But he also had the advantage, he knew that and he figured they at least had some preference for not dying.

He found it odd they were soo eager to sacrifice their crew mates, but he than replied with, "Yes, you will do that, after that and verifying nothing has been... tampered with, to make sure you are a creature of your word, you and your friends will be escorted off the base. Don't come back" His tone had a sense of... hostility in the final three words, he wasn't one to be tested. Little did they know he was going to keep one of their friends for a bit, for... information.

[Felicity Ellis]

[Medical Bay]

"We're playing catch up on this. Five damn steps behind." Derek shook his head, tapping his commbadge. "Ops, this is Black. Send security teams to all torpedo bays, there is a credible report of alien incursion. Advise them to restrain only."=/\=

"This is Ops, we already have personnel in Torpedo Bay 2, confirmed alien incursion. Also, Gibson is taking damage from an unknown energy source, you may have more casualties coming."=/\=

"Well that's just perfect, merde." Derek muttered. "Well then why the hell aren't you shooting back? Black out."=/\= He turned back to Felicity. "Who are these aliens? What are their weaknesses, how are they doing this...mind transfer? And all the equipment in the torpedo room, what would happened if it was destroyed? Would Adeyemi and Knox automatically revert to their own bodies?"

[Medical Bay]

Felicity wondered, as she processed the Doctor's many questions, just how she would answer them all. Who were they? An arrogant species with a singular mission. What were their weaknesses? They were insect-like, their exoskeletons providing much more protection than what skin could afford to a typical humanoid. My kingdom for a giant magnifying glass. The last line of questioning she focused on; as it was most important to their "switched" fellow crew. With security teams already infiltrating the torpedo bay, they would have to ensure the safe return of the Admiral and Lieutenant Commander Knox before the aliens' equipment was fried by phaser fire.

"There is a device that they use to initiate the switches, roughly the same dimensions as one of our PADDs, though made of a toughened, harder material. There's some sort of neural connection between it and the subjects. There could be a fail-safe in place for them in case it got damaged, but it looked pretty integral to me. It's not safe to assume that if the device is destroyed, everyone will magically return to their rightful bodies. And it's not like we happen to have a few spare switchery thingies just lying around."

She stopped talking only long enough to swing her legs around to the side of the bed. She knew this wasn't her fault. She knew the thing had merely been wearing her like a suit. Logically, she shouldn't be feeling guilty, nor should she be keen to absorb responsibility for the aliens' actions while they were on board. But she couldn't help it, and a sense of urgency overwhelmed her. The Gibson was under attack, Ops had confirmed contact in Torpedo Bay 2. "They don't seem to mind what happens to their host bodies, but they might feel differently about their own. I need to go, Chief, I can help."

*

[Torpedo Bay 2]

There was little time to luxuriate in the feeling of returning to the comfort of one's own safe and superior body. Without preamble or fuss, it rose from the table that had once restrained it.

Report, she ordered.

Uploading has ceased, complete retrieval of the ANaLYN system unsuccessful. Successful switch of First and Third. Second host still active.

Where is Second's body. Explain.

Escaped while occupied by Admiral Adeyemi. Host has been compromised. Security forces approaching.

Request immediate extraction. ABORT.

Unable to comply at this time. Alert: Incoming hostiles.

[Jenna McKinson]

[Outside the Neural Core]

At the engineer's question, Xander didn't bother responding verbally. Instead, he walked a few paces back down the hallway with his tricorder, then swiftly shot his phaser into the wall. After a quick retrieval, he returned to the door holding three more chips. "Howell deactivated them, but there should still be a way to light them up if we try hard enough. Blunt force doesn't do it, otherwise I'd have lost my leg several times over stomping on these things. But... Maybe if there was a small explosion created next to them it would work?"

Xander went about setting the chips up with some more of the tubing from the science kit still hung over his shoulder. The tubing wove it's way around the three chips, all of which were secured along the edge of the door closest to the locking mechanism. There was enough space between the tubing and the chips that they shouldn't be destroyed, but hopefully - if they were lucky - they could trigger their own explosion in a few seconds, all that was left were the syringes of the activating chemical. He handed one to the engineer as he rose to his feet, saying, "Okay, you just insert this into the bottom tube while I get the top, then we both back the hell up and wait for the magic to happen. You should be able to manage it."

Xander got into position and counted down from three. As he efficiently pushed the plunger down, he smiled and took off running back down the passageway. By the time he counted to ten, a series of small controlled explosions occurred - followed almost immediately by three distinctly larger explosions that made Xander stumble forward a little and wince as a stray piece of smoking door glanced off his shoulder.

He turned around and squinted through the smoke - half of the doorway was missing. It was crude, but they were in.

[ Outside the Neural Core ]

Jenna loved Xander's plan more and more as he explained it. She helped as best she could and readied herself. On his count she pushed the liquid into the plastic tubing and ran not that far behind. As the Explosion happened, Jenna jumped with it. Not in surprise, but playing at the common tropes of action movies.  She also playfully yelled. "NOOO," as she jumped and caught herself laughing.  When Xander looked at her she shook her head. "No one appreciates the classic anymore man. That was a grade A amazing explosion and you didn't take the opportunity." She then followed Xander as he walked through the smoke.

Jenna took a few steps ahead of him as she entered the main core area. "I've been in here before let me guide you in," She said. The area was all to familiar, but not seeing Analyn in the area made her heart sink. The area was a void without her. "It's much more cold in here without her," She said with genuine hurt and concern in her voice. This was not the time for emotions to take over. If the job was to be done right, she needed all her focus. Even if her body was beginning to crack under the tiredness and stress. Rest was for later the Analyn needed help.

[Michael J. Tritter]

[Location: Neural Core]

Tritter had several tasks to do... The first was getting their unwelcome visitors off the base. He wasn't a fan of how they had wanted to leave their friends behind, it was more than slightly concerning to him. He than noticed Xander arrived, who had took a look towards the Commanding Officer and they had informed him that the chips had been disabled. They had arrived with one other and had took out the unconscious Knox.

Not long after, he proceeded to lead the pseudo Admiral out of the Neural Core. Tritter had stationed the pseudo Admiral in the brig as a holding spot for the time being until the rest were rounded up. Little did they know, that he would use the time to interrogate and gather information from one of the other visitors. Which would be valuable for later. Not long after, the visitors were escorted off the base. The instructions given to not return were done in a less than pleasant fashion, which was done at the end of a phaser rifle. They were escorted off through a random shuttle of the Starbase, under the control of Security, it was a mission he was nervous about since he wasn't there personally.

New Security procedures, software and hardware were under way of being implemented to keep this type of situation from happening again. Tritter wasn't necessarily the biggest fan of the child like AI, but now as Commanding Officer, she fell under his care and he would have to take special care of of her going forward.