The Continuing Story of Deep Space 2: Page 9
Everyone except for the two engineers were at ops now. Marianne and the two cadets at one science station examining the internal sensor logs, Nadine watching the results of the latest sensor sweep, Jan at tactical and Arthur at a terminal of the main computer. The lights were out, except for the red lights. There was a lot of talking, but when the major reported that the phaser bank was fully charged and the torpedo bays were loaded, it became very quite. Nobody had given an order to activate the weapon systems. Chief engineer Louis had no explanation. There was nothing he could do. But all officers kept their minds to the job, especially the commander.
"Computer, why is red alert initiated ?"
"This is a proximity red alert. A ship has entered the proximity zone and is on a course to this station."
"That is no reason to initiate red alert, cancel it."
"This is a proximity red alert. A ship has entered the proximity zone and is on a course to this station."
"Yes you have already told me that. I am the commander of this station. Computer cancel red alert."
"Unable to comply. This is a proximity red ..."
"Yes yes yes I have heard you before. What kind of ship is it anyway. Is it cloaked ?"
"It is a Federation starship."
The surprise was station wide. What the hell was going on. Are we going to fire on our own Federation fellow officers. Ensign Louis had to move fast. The ship would be in firing range in eight hours. Louis had to shut down all weapon systems by that time. The approaching ship would not stand a chance against the DS2 armory. And there was one more thing. Ensign Luke, the new DS2 chief of communications, was aboard that ship. He was really needed. Somehow the main computer had blocked all communications from the station.
"Commander, whatever I try here won't be accepted. It is as if the main computer is running the show. We better find a way to warn our friends out there to stay away for a while."
"I know major, and better fast. Computer what is the stardate ?"
"It is now stardate 50191.4."
"At least that is still correct..."
There was no progress in engineering. One thing they could try was to rebuild the entire conduit system. That could take two years. Another thing was to cut a way to a ODN conduit, plug a terminal into the system and take over the main computer with the terminal. Ensign Louis was not sure that when all systems were shut down, life support would still be on line. Probably not. One of the last options was to destroy the main computer itself, but there was no conclusion of the consequences.
"Major, how is your flying ability at the moment ?"
"Commander sir, may I remind you that we cannot launch a runabout because the shields are at full strength and we cannot lower them."
"That is most correct, major. So we first have to lower the shields."
But Major Jan had an other idea. As these runabouts had totally new shield generators, it might be possible to just launch with the shields of the station at full strength.
Only a moment later, major Jan sat at the helm of a runabout. At the moment the small vessel came of the ground he raised the shields and without any resistance the runabout was launched.