Episode 307: Cassandra Lockdown, Part Three

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And the blast doors to the command deck come down.

Crewman: Lieutenant Commander! It’s like every alarm on the ship has gone off. We’ve got fires on every deck. We’ve got hull breaches. We’ve got….locks are opening.
Joshua: They’re accessing your computer. Focus on the munitions, please. I don’t like the idea of what they –
Harry: (yelling) It’s Cassandra!

“Cassandra” being the lock down protocol in event of catastrophic failure. Brian reaches for his sidearm and scans the bridge for something to shoot. Harry’s on the horn to Security.

Harry: Send a security detail down to munitions. (to the bridge crew) Work on getting these doors open. We need to override. The Captain’s not on board…okay.

She taps the intelligence officer on deck.

Harry: What are the protocols for overriding these alarms?
Intel Officer: I’m not sure we can.
Nika: Arden. Help her out.

Nika gestures and we start moving.

Arden: Okay.
Rina: I’ll see if I can’t do something on the locks.
Nika: (to Rina) Rick is down there. Get us out.

Down below, Rick hears the alarms go off. Before him, the four men disconnect their databook from the computer and keep going. Rick follows, looking around for anything he can use as a club. There are various wrenches and a fire axe or two.

One of the men stops to look behind them. Rick ducks behind some cover to avoid being seen and cautiously puts eyes on the group again. It looks as if the one man is standing back to provide look-out while the others go ahead. But where are they going?

The look-out has got a commanding view of the path behind them, but the compartment they are all in is at least twenty-five feet high. Rick decides to take the high road and continue tailing the men from above.

Back on the command deck, people and personnel are sorting themselves out to the task of shutting Cassandra down. Harry and the Intel Officer have their heads together, working out how to circumvent the protocols locking down the ship.

Brian: (loudly) Let’s move the civilians to the back of the deck, please.

The crewman Arden is helping gives him a look and Arden steps back.

Arden: Okay. It’s your ship.
Rina: (to self) Fine. They can open their own damn doors.

Rick pauses before climbing up the missiles to find a different channel to comm his crew on. As he’s doing so, the automated alarms calmly advise him what to do.

Alarm: Move to safest area. The safest area for you is Doorway A-13. Wait for door to open.

Very helpful. There being no time really to talk, Rick begins climbing. On the way, he spots a power loader suit, a sort of wearable walking forklift with articulated waldo arms outfitted with power clamps for loading the munitions. Huh. Looks like there really are robots involved. If only marginally. Rick notes it and moves on.

Back on the command deck, Nika grabs Brian away from Arden’s direction.

Nika: Brian!
Brian: Nika, what’s up?
Nika: Connelly. Tell me what the protocols are when all the alarms go off, what is the first thing that happens down in the munitions bays. Do they lock down? What happens?

God forbid should someone steal a nuke. Or set the damn thing off while still aboard Decatur.

Brian: I don’t know. It’s not exactly my field. I’m a Tactical Officer, not a Security Officer. I’m guessing yeah, the bulkheads would lock. It’s possible the fire suppression systems would come on.
Rina: Nika, what’s this about munitions?
Nika: Rick is down in the munitions bay. He was following someone and they were accessing the computer. Somebody blew the computer—
Rina: Yeah-yeah, I’m there, I’m there. What’s wrong?
Nika: If you were to blow the alarms, what would be your goal? What would be the first thing you would try to do to create chaos here?
Rina: Lock down the ship.
Nika: That’s what they just did. Paranoid Schizo-Woman. Tell me what happens. If you want to lock down the ship and get all of these people out of your way, what would you take? What would you be trying to do?

No hesitation from Rina.

Rina: I’d try to take the ship. I’d scramble the personnel off it. We’re being hijacked.
Nika: That’s my concern. Harry? Commander—?
Joshua: They were Blue Sun personnel.
Arden: Or disguised as Blue Sun personnel.
Joshua: Okay, disguised but maybe they are Blue Sun personnel. For the sake of argument—
Nika: (prompting us) Quickly!
Joshua: What do you do—does Blue Sun need to steal a planet buster?
Nika: No. But if they want to get it out of the way, they just have somebody in the munitions compartment blow this place sky high.

Paranoid Schizo-Woman much?

Nika: Harry. Are there any passageways to get us down there through the lockdown?
Harry: Nika. The automatic bulkheads have sealed. Nobody’s getting anywhere.
Rina: Atmo vents. Sub-ceilings.
Nika: There are no vents, no crawlspaces, no nothing?
Harry: There shouldn’t be. Everything’s that’s keeping atmosphere on the ship is keeping the atmosphere in its own sections. We’re working on shutting those down but it’s going to take some time.
Nika: Yeah. I know that.
Harry: If the Captain were on board, she’d have the override codes. I don’t.

Security measure, to be sure. But….

Nika: How far away is she? Is she in radio contact?
Rina: Can we suit up, walk outside? Get in that way?
Harry: Distress calls have been sent out all over. I have no idea what other people are going to respond to this. We’re sending out a message saying that we imminently going to explode. Not intentionally. We can’t control that either.
Nika: Yeah, I know.
Arden: Is the Captain on the planet.
Harry: Yes.
Arden: That’s the target.
Rina: What? They’re after her?
Nika: That’s a stretch.
Arden: No, if this ship can’t respond to something that needs responding to, then it’s discredited.
Nika: It already can’t respond, it’s under construction.

Is this a ploy to keep the construction work from being completed? What the heck is being mounted to Decatur’s hull, anyway, and who would benefit it never going online?

Harry: People blew up Parliament. Maybe it’s the same people.

Down in the munitions bay, Rick continues watching and waiting for an opening to make his move. The compartment is pretty big—100 feet on a side—with the loader bots in the center section of the floor, next to the freight lifts that travel between decks. Look Out Man is holding his position, watching the bulkhead door they’d last come through. Examining the man as best he can, Rick doesn’t see any weapons on him. The man appears to be unarmed. Rick gauges the distance between him and the Look Out. He’s on a missile group right above the man. All Rick needs to do is step off, fall from above and pile-drive the bastard into the deck.

So he does.

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Part 1

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