Seize this King by his arm [✱13]

Posted on Tue May 27th, 2025 @ 11:34am by Captain Rovak & Doctor Intharia T'Zor & Lieutenant JG Akaar Zuul & Ensign Nimah & Senior Chief Petty Officer Gaz & Llaudh Drusilla Creon

3,187 words; about a 16 minute read

Mission: The Serpent's Tooth [3]
Location: Foxtrot Dock Ops
Timeline: 1950 - MD08

The red glow of Klingon transporters from the hidden Bird of Prey in Docking Bay 14 left Rovak and the small team he had assembled in the dark and rather cold Ops centre for Foxtrot Dock. With him was Dr T'Zor, Lieutenant Zuul, Subcommander Saa, Ensign Nimah, Chief Gaz, Ambassador Creon, the Jaffa First Prime Kanahkt and the Marine Major Kalath.

They had been beamed on top of the central information display hub in front of the viewscreen, which creaked under their feet in a way that made anyone who knew how complex and delicate the holographic technology was uncomfortable. Suffice to say, it wasn't meant to be walked on, which among them only Saa was presently not guilty of. Quickly everyone climbed off it, and there didn't seem to be any permanent damage.

A few proximity triggered backup lights had finally kicked in by now, and the internal holographic battery of the screen showed the view from directly outside.

"Subcommander, take Major Kalath and prepare to get the reactor started." Rovak told Saa.

"Sir." Saa nodded and turned between them, picking up Major Kalath in her wake.

"Chief, you should find the network relay infrastructure in the Jefferies tube between the office and the outer door on the second level." Rovak told the Chief of Ops, gesturing up to where the entryway he described was visible.

"Yessir, I know just the one." Gaz said as he mentally revised the dock connectivity handbook segments he'd written and submitted. He started up the stairs.

"Lieutenant Zuul, please accompany him. We do not want any surprises." Rovak told the security officer.

"Yes sir," Akaar replied quickly before he followed Gaz, without weapons there wasn't much he could offer but then again maybe inspecting nearby the rooms and wall nooks could yield abandoned Romulan weapons.

"Doctor T'Zor, please assume the primary science station." Rovak told the scientist.

"Sir." Intharia said, moving to the terminal in question. She tapped at its surface, but it had only the energy to produce a visible 'no power' message.

"Ensign Nimah, if you could please assume the secondary. We will be coordinating a number of systems from these two terminals." Rovak said, gesturing to the two science officers.

"Aye, sir." Nimah moved to the secondary science console, fingers flexing as if already excited to get to work. Which she was, actually.

"Ambassador." Rovak finally said to the Romulan, who had accompanied them. "I trust you know best how to put yourself to use."

"Of course." Creon said, sitting herself firmly in the command seat, and smoothing out her robes once she was in place.

"Captain, this is Lieutenant Alph. Can you hear me?" Came the Android's voice over Creon's wrist-communicator before Rovak could comment further on her choice.

Creon was somewhat confused to hear from the Android, but did not say anything. She held her wrist up so all could hear and be heard.

"Rovak here. How are you contacting us?" He asked the Android Engineer.

"My internal communications systems, sir. I have been tracking communications across the station, and I apologise but I have been listening in since the Klingon and Romulan communicators became discoverable. We have also been tracking the movement of Hera's forces. We presume they are responsible for the situation we find ourselves in." Alph told the Captain.

"You are correct. What is their status?" Rovak asked.

"They have taken the CIC and ordered the Excalibur to dock. More than a hundred Jaffa have boarded, though I have lost track of any communicators as soon as they cross the threshold of the outer airlock. The majority of her forces seem to be patrolling the docking ring, there have been no attempts to get deeper into the station that I am aware of. One group has descended to the lower dock, where they seem to have found Battle-Brother Volsunga."

"Volsunga." Rovak said, mostly to himself. He realised they now had less time than they thought, and potentially a much greater foe opposing them. "Mr Alph, please co-ordinate with any crew or civilians who still have access to comms. If anyone in isolation can still be reached, advise them to keep themselves and those around them safe where they are until further advised. Let the team from the great hall know to divert a force to the lower dock. If the Goa'uld take control of Volsunga, the only alternative may be to use lethal force against him."

"Understood, sir. I will relay your message." Alph said, and the channel audibly closed.

"Keeping the Goa'uld away from Volsunga is a priority I cannot overemphasise." Rovak told Creon. "It was only through pure circumstance that nobody was killed during our first encounter with him." He realised that officially, she should know nothing about the prisoner in the lower dock. But he was not about to diplomatically feign naivite in a crisis.

"We shall respond appropriately." Creon responded, giving nothing away about what she knew already about the situation and individual. She entered a few commands to send text-only comms to her people.

"Reactor activation sequence ready to go at your command, sir. From there you should be able to go through the basic setup steps before the network connection needs to be severed." Saa said through Creon's wrist-comm.

"Begin activation." Rovak instructed the Engineer, and after an affirmative response, the lights began to come on.

"Chief, are you close?" Rovak asked, as all the displays in the room came to life, and the sounds suggested the systems were starting up.

"Got my hands on it, sir!" Gaz's voice came echoing out of the Jefferies tube. "Network connectivity is... is..." the sound of his straining was obvious, "is... down!" The sounds of something mechanical having been broken were apparent. "This dock's computers are isolated until I fix this. No way whatever's in the main core is getting in here, sir." He emerged a moment later, carrying a broken piece of equipment.

"Good work, Chief." Rovak told the Tellarite.

"Chief, is there a way we could make a virus of our own to attack theirs?" Akkar asked Gaz as he stood watch by the operations chief.

"I don't know." The Chief said with a shrug. "Anything that can evade our security software and overwrite bioneural circuitry in a single execution must be have some serious kung fu, to borrow a human expression." Gaz thought about the question. "Maybe if we had a few specialists, a dedicated lab and several spare days. I'm counting zero for three." He said to Zuul with another shrug.

The familiar voice of the computer began to speak as a holographic Starfleet delta appeared in the centre of the information hub device. There were a couple of flickering hypopixels in the display, Rovak realised. “Starfleet DSOS 2402 Edition. Restoring to most recent default index. Commander Rovak commanding. Lieutenant Commander Alex Flynn, XO. Lieutenant Atna, Second Officer, Chief of Science. Ranking officer please establish voice authority.”

“Rovak, Captain. Authorisation theta alpha tau.” Rovak responded.

“Acknowledged. Network connection error. Unable to interface with central core or local network.”

“Enact data quarantine procedures. The central core has been corrupted.”

“Acknowledged. Please stand by. Data quarantine procedures initiated. Anti-corruption countermeasures will require physical agency in the region of the primary core.”

“Understood. Grant temporary command authorisation to Lieutenant Alph and interface with him wirelessly.”

“Interface in five seconds. Please be aware that inbound data will have up to a 500% latency increase due to quarantine filters.” The Computer explained as Gaz and Zuul returned downstairs.

The Starfleet Delta hologram above the central display morphed into the head of Lieutenant Alph.

“Captain, it is good to see you again.” There wasn’t too much slowdown in the image. The holographic image of Subcommander Saa floating in the reactor bay also appeared in a smaller display.

“You have control over all F-dock systems throughout the diameter of the docking hub, ending at the walkway. I can provide access, albeit delayed, to all internal sensor data with a direct interface.” Alph explained and suggested.

“Would direct interface with the computers not also risk infecting you, Lieutenant?” The hologram of Saa asked with concern, having dwelled on the thought since she’d commented on his capabilities earlier.

“Improbable, ma’am. It is not possible for external code to infiltrate my programming due to the photoplasmic blood-brain barrier surrounding my cortices.” Alph responded.

“If you are certain that there is no risk to yourself, proceed with the direct interface.” Rovak ordered the android.

“Beginning now, sir. Once one-way data uplinks have been successfully established, I will begin the effort of purging the system corruption.” Alph said, and the hologram of his face disappeared, leaving only Saa.

“The reactor, Subcommander?” Rovak asked the Chief Engineer.

“Starting her up this hot this quickly is going to trash our equipment efficiencies within a few months, but she’s stable.” Saa summarised with a cautious note of concern.

“Computer, can we disable station transporters from here?” Rovak asked the system.

“Negative.” The computer responded after a moment. “Lieutenant Alph does not currently have command access to that system.”

"Chief, please reactivate all combadges in the Foxtrot dock vicinity, if possible." The Captain instructed as a follow-up.

"Aye, sir." Gaz responded from the Ops terminal, switching away from his quick visual diagnostic of the active systems. He entered a few commands, and several seconds later everybody with a starfleet combadge heard it chirp and reactivate. "Combadges active."

“Dr T’Zor, please bring up the current positions of all Atenist forces aboard on an overlay of the station.” Rovak asked the Asari. “Keep an eye out for any who look like they might be taking too much of an interest anywhere.”

Intharia brought up the vision requested, the almost cellular aesthetic of the six-spoked wheel of the station appeared in hologram form. As they’d heard earlier, the Jaffa forces were all massed around the multiple levels of the docking ring, appearing as little individual lights. They were also spreading out around the other docks where power was active before Saa had switched it on here, but only in the outer halls. They seemed to be avoiding the inner rooms, and the inactive docks.

Strangely, there was no sign of any Jaffa aboard the Excalibur. This was particularly unusual because three of the lights disappeared into it as she watched. Thari remained quiet about it until she had more to report. She brought up the visual feed, which arrived after a momentary delay in the filters. There was a Jaffa outside waving others aboard and answering a communicator, but he did not have a corresponding light.

"A standard holding pattern. They are preparing to leave, but they have not been given the order yet." Kanahkt observed, once the movements of the Jaffa were visible to all.

“Ensign Nimah, see what you can do with the emitters and other systems to interfere with any further transporter activity. We want them on foot.” Rovak instructed the science officer.

"I can try strengthening our shields, sir, to prevent transport in and out of the ship." Nimah suggested. "It would make it difficult for them to transport out, at least."

"Do it." Rovak said.

"Can we lock the Goa'uld out of voice access?" Akaar asked, "it may have to be manually programmed and then sent via the Klingon vessel?"

“Negative.” The computer responded to Zuul's query. “Lieutenant Alph does not currently have command access to that system.”

"I wasn't talking to you," Akaar stated.

“Captain, some of the Jaffa look to be changing direction.” T'Zor announced as she realised what was happening.

"They know we are here." Kanahkt observed.

Rovak noticed a number of Jaffa peeling away from the main throng marching circles around the docking ring. Kanahkt was right, they were heading towards F-Dock. "Mr Zuul, please take the security station and raise shields across every entrance to the dock."

"Sir," Akaar replied and made his way to the security console. He programmed a series of level 10 forcefields that intersected each other around Foxtrot Dock, should one fail another will cover until the failed one can be reset. Though with only one reactor, the forcefields would be consuming more power. He found some major intersections had blast doors that can seal off sections physically.

"Subcommander, let Major Kalath know that there are Jaffa en route and that we have activated shields. She should be able to access the armoury, which should have at least one consignment of a half-dozen type-II phasers." Rovak told the hologram of the Chief Engineer, who was busily working away at the reactor, and may have forgotten she was still broadcasting.

"She heard, sir. She's on her way." Saa confirmed, looking back momentarily, snapped out of her concentration for a moment, but returning quickly to it.

"Doctor, how long until the Jaffa reach the dock?" Rovak asked T'Zor.

“They don’t seem to know about the turbolifts, they’re walking. The closest will set foot in f-dock within ten minutes.” T'Zor deduced.

"Ambassador, I believe a situation suited to your talents has arisen." Rovak told Creon.

"So it would seem." Creon said, standing from the seat she'd taken and moving swiftly to the exit at the rear of the room.

"Captain, permission to lower blast doors at entrances as well for extra security? The Goa'uld may be able to manipulate energy flow with their wrist devices and forcefields could suffer fluctuations." Akaar offered after the Ambassador had finished.

"It is a risk we will need to take. The blast doors in the active docks required clearing before they could be operated, Admiral Singh's engineers installed systems and infrastructure that impede their function, being unaware of their presence based on initial scans. Their operation may create further issues." Rovak told the security officer, it was one of the many tasks that had unsurprisingly not been a priority for the station's already overworked engineers, not in F-dock anyway.

“Captain, the other Jaffa are also on the move towards Alpha Dock. It looks like everyone’s suddenly in a hurry to get aboard the Excalibur. The group who went for Volsunga are in the turbolifts, also on their way to the Excalibur.” Dr T'Zor announced as she connected all the dots of data in front of her.

"Hera has given the order to leave, no doubt. Those sent for us are not intended to make it back." Kanahkt once again observed.

"Is Volsunga with them?" Despite the oncoming squads of Jaffa, that suddenly became Rovak's primary concern.

“No.” T’Zor revealed, to her own relief as much as anyone’s.

Rovak felt a distinct pang of relief bump against the cold surface of his emotional control. "Lieutenant Alph, send a message to Colonel Vhau. Tell him I want a team dispatched to reclaim the CIC once they are in a position to do so."

"Yes, sir." Came the simple response of the very busy android.

As the minutes passed and the Jaffa grew closer to F-dock, Rovak looked at the shimmering patterns of movement, which seemed different now in Alpha Dock. Everyone in the docking ring was still moving there, but they were no longer moving aboard the Excalibur. "Doctor, what is going on?" Rovak asked, the furrowing of his brow betraying his confusion.

"They're no longer moving to pier C where the Excalibur is docked, sir. They're moving to pier E. But there's nothing at pier E." Intharia explained as best she could. Were they spacing themselves? No, the lights remained stable. "There's something there, sir. If I had to guess, I'd say it was a cloaked ship." She hypothesised.

“I believe you may be right, Doctor.” Rovak said, turning back to Lieutenant Zuul. “Lieutenant, arm and fire a single polaron torpedo, minimal yield. Set its trajectory to pass back over the station and descend along the y-axis twenty meters past the pier E docking umbilicus on alpha dock.” Rovak instructed, hoping that polaron wasn’t something they were familiar with, and that it would cause the same problems for the Goa’uld that it had caused for Starfleet when they first encountered it.

Akaar wondered how the computer didn't register an airlock being used. Goa'uld virus of course, it must have docked when they began their attack. "Aye sir, torpedo configured..." He announced. "Firing," Akaar said and watched the telemetry, he had limited control remotely but it was performing as programmed until it reached it's target coordinates.

It hit a ship. The cloak it had failed and a second later the torpedo exploded.

"It's another pyramid ship, sir. Smaller, different design, but still sufficient to accommodate all of them." T'Zor said as she reviewed the data. "Fewer than a quarter of the remaining Jaffa are still in the docking ring." T'Zor said. With slight panic, she realised it was pulling away from the station before disembarkation procedures had completed. "Sir! The ship is uncoupling by force! They've raised shields!"

They all felt a lurch as the connections to the decloaked ship reached the limit of their tensile strength and snapped as it pulled away, sending a handful of Jaffa into the void as the umbilicus snapped, before the shields could snap into place.

Rovak narrowed his eyes at the display on the viewer. "Mr Gaz, activate manoeuvring thrusters, realign the station so this dock's weapons are in range of the new ship."

"Aye, sir. Powering up." Gaz didn't say anything about his concerns that if they decided to fire the thrusters on the other docks they'd be at the mercy of whichever direction the CIC decided to point them in. Soon, the thrusters were active, and the station began to rotate incrementally. With increasing momentum, they turned towards the fleeing pyramid ship. "Realignment in 30 seconds."

"Mr Kanahkt, what can you tell us?"

"It is a Cheops-class light cruiser. A smaller ship designed for command of primitive worlds. Closer to a pleasurecraft than a dedicated battleship like the Ha'tak we came in. It is not unheard of for them to remain hidden in the hollow of a Ha'tak." Kanahkt explained.

"Mr Zuul, arm all dock weapons. Fire at will to disable with any weapon available as soon as it is in range." Rovak said.

Carrying out his orders, Akaar decided to offer a suggestion. "Sir, may I target their engines as well?"

"Do it." Rovak ordered.

They all watched as phaser beams lanced out against the yellow shields of the pyramid ship, followed up by a volley of pulse phasers. The first barrage of pulse-fire impacted on the shields, the second impacted directly on the hull. A third volley of targeted pulse and beam fire caused the fleeing pyramid to shudder and spin, the lights within it flickered and died. It drifted, rotating slowly, amid a trail of its own debris.

"Main sensors show that the fleeing ship has lost power, and it's engines are disabled." Alph's voice explained.

"Good work everyone." Rovak said. Before anyone could comment further, an alarm that nobody had heard before sounded.

Rovak looked to Dr T'Zor, whose expression did not fill him with confidence.

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