In The Crawlspace Part II
Posted on Thu Apr 2nd, 2020 @ 9:03am by Michael Taggart & Chloe de la Vega
Edited on on Thu Apr 2nd, 2020 @ 9:06am
2,074 words; about a 10 minute read
Mission:
Episode 9 - Empok's End
Location: The White Stag, Empok Nor
Timeline: MD003 0100 hrs
"Call me Mickey darlin. And I will tell you what I will set us up with a strong drink, some stronger bangers and mash and we can chat all night. Tomorrow is anuther day one that I think will be the start of something great." He smiled and ushered the woman toward a booth that was lined with reindeer fur near the fireplace. "Whaddaya say?"
"Sorry sir... I mean Mickey." Chloe always found respect in elders and even though Mickey was not that much older by what she could tell, or was told, she felt he had an old soul. "But yeah, that sounds great, especially the drink. Although I'm not too sure what 'bangers and mash' are but I'm sure you wouldn't try and poison me." she finished with a smile as Mickey laughed and went off to fetch what he needed.
The past two hours were probably the most enjoyable that Mickey had since the Cardies came. Chloe was an interesting person and the only person who could go drink for drink with the Scot. "So what do you reckon we can do about these idiots? I mean until the Pioneer and a rescue team get ere" Mickey asked and scooped a forkfull of bangers and mash into his mouth.
Chloe was a little fuzzy around the edges. It felt like a competition between her and the Scot who could consume more alcohol and they ended up drinking a little more than they should. "Well..." she began raising her hand, pointing, her eyes rolling a little and her words a little slurry. "They are lizard people right? What do they hate? Don't lizards like it hot... we should make it cold!" she said rambling a little as she closed both eyes. As they opened the left one opened first followed by the right.
Taggart smiled lazily at the idea. If he didn't know any better he would have thought he was in love, but that was most likely the booze talking. "That is... A... Fantastic IDEA! But how do we get access to the environmental controls? And once we are there how do we get the computer to do it? We do not have the proper access." He liked the idea, but it was rather risky. Mickey's other thought was whether or not it would be worth it to cause the injury and possible deaths of Cardassians. In other words, the Scot was having a battle of conscious.
"Well... I know a guy here, doesn't matter how..." She trailed off, a small memory flashing through her drunken mind, "But we were in the environmental controls for a small period of time. I remember the code to get in... but as to how to work the controls I have no idea... I can just push stuff right? I mean look for a button that points down?" she half asked.
"Hmm perhaps if we recruit one of the officer's that are stuck here to help out. Maybe they can communicate with you covertly and let you know what to press. We would not want you disconnecting life support to the whole station now would we." Taggart said with a small cock to his eyebrow. He would hate to see her go into this mission alone.
"Well... no. I like breathing the air that I breathe. To not be able to would be the death of me." Chloe said as she began to stumble over her words. She did realize this and gave a small smile as she went over the rest of what he had said as she looked around the room at the grubby bunch of people. "I don't know anyone in here..." she offered with a shrug. "He's cute though." She said nodding to the strapping young ensign in red whom sat in the corner. Chloe was sure though that Mickey had someone else in mind.
"Ah Ensign Blauvelt he should do nicely." Mickey said with a broad smile. He really did know everyone that had come into his pub. "Oy! Blauvelt why don ya come join us fer a drink." Mickey hollered in the Ensign's direction. The Ensign quickly obliged seeing Mickey sitting with the beautiful woman.
"Hey Mick can I get a cider? Who's this?" The young man said with a grin as he sat down on a stool.
Mickey poured the cider and placed it on the bar. "This is Chloe from da Pioneer." Is all he said, Mickey figured he would leave the res to the lady.
"Mistress of After 11." Chloe said with a tip of a glass she was drinking from. Looks like the man she had been looking at was indeed the man Mickey wanted to assist them. He did look nice to the eye. "You must go to the gym a lot..." Chloe found herself tracing his arms with her eyes.
Blauvelt blushed a bit, he was not used to the attention despite being a good looking man. "Ummm I do ma'am..." He quickly took a swig of cider. "But I thought the Pioneer was at Camp McCoy with the rest of the of the evacuees." Blauvelt added sheepishly and then as an after thought added. "...Oh I am Eugene, Eugene Blauvelt."
"Ma'am?" Chloe looked at his with a frown. "Do I look over 30 to you muscles?" She asked half teasing, half serious. "You Starfleet boys need to loosen up." she then noticed him take a quick gulp of his drink. "I was here to get supplies. Figures. I'm always in the wrong place at the wrong time. Here getting supplies then Cardassians take over the station. Some guy's bed, wife walks in. Never ending story." She rolled her eyes.
Blauvelt chuckled at the joke as he tried to ascertain if she was hitting on him or not. "Well I have been assigned here for three years. I work in command, making schedules and the like. Just an Ensign so I am too far down the food chain to actually command the station."
Mickey winked at Chloe, it was his way of indicating that this man was perfect for the task at hand. Just had to get him to push into action.
"Well Mr Muscle, Mr Command." She said moving close to him and running her finger down the middle of his pectoral muscles. "I am looking to tweak the environmental controls on the station and help our scaly friends leave our home."
He reached over and took her hand Eugene was mesmerized by the gorgeous creature. He only hoped that she wasn't doing this just to get something out of him. However, at the moment he was not sure that he cared. He brought her hand to his lips and kissed it with a smile. "At your service m'lady. But the question is how are we going to get to environmental controls without them catching us. We are also going to have to pray that they did not change the command codes."
"Oh I don't think 'we' are going anywhere honey." She said happily receiving the man's affection. "You are very triangular sweetie." She said pointing up and down his upper body. "I am surprised you can fit in the tubes I need to climb in. I was happy to go alone and you can just speak to me through these." She produced communications devices and shrugged as he made a face of 'where did you get these?'. She had her ways.
He looked at the device for a fairly long moment. "Mick you gotta do something. We can't let her do this on her own. It is too risky, too dangerous." Eugene made his pleas to Mickey first and the turned to address Chloe. "You would be surprised what kind of tight spaces I can fit into." He said flirtatously.
Mickey's eyes widened at Blauvelt's last comment, and then the widened eyes turned to a smile. "Listen ere boyo. If you want ta git anywhere with dis lady. You better understand that she can take care of herself and do it quick."
"Oh I can take care of men much bigger than you too Muscles." Chloe said with a sly smile. "I am not as conspicuous as you, not as 'heavy'." She said holding her hands up to imply she wasn't saying he was fat. "I'd make a good spy, if I wasn't a bartender."
"Well if you are going to do anything I suggest doing it soon. It seems that the Cardassians have something big planned. They are doing some major installations around the station and are drawing a lot of power." Blauvelt replied.
"That's the plan big boy. I didn't call you over to just watch your pecks dance." Chloe said as she put one of the devices in her ear whilst staring at his chest... man they were almost hypnotic. Looking around she moved towards the hatch and turned to look at the two of them. Gulping a little apprehensively she smiled, "Wish me luck boys?" she asked.
Blauvelt put the communication device to his ear and watched as the georgous barmaid made her way through the hatch. His mouth said "Good Luck..." but his thoughts said that he had to find a way to get transferred to the Pioneer.
Mickey raised his glass. "May the odds ever be in yer favor, and the wind ever at yer back." He winked at her and the crowd gathered in the White Stag followed the tradition and raised their glass in agreement with the Scot.
Chloe had made it to the section in which the environmental controls were situated. It had been a long drawn out affair in small cramped spaces that she was not all in favour of. She liked a good open space to stretch out.
"I forgot how hot these tubes were." She said through the comms device as she threw her top on the ground, now she just had a vest on for dignity's sake. "Right I am here muscles, remind me why you are useful."
"If you open panel J79 labeled GNDN. When it is open you will see a series of 55 IDN chips and multiple colored wires. You are going to have to carefully re-sequence the chips and then cross the wires. This will have to be done carefully because power is still running. Once that is done we can enter the command sequence into the computer and we should be good to go." Eugene waited a moment to make sure that Chloe had heard all he had said. When she responded with sarcasm he knew she had heard.
"Now remove chip number 1-15 and place it in the empty slot to the right. Then place ship number 30-45 in its place..." Once Chloe had that done he continued. "Now cross the red and the black wires through the diastatic matrix. You may feel a twinge of pain here..." Once again Blauvelt waited for Chloe to finish. "You're doing great dollface. Now using the computer panel above your head enter the settings that you want. Authorization Blauvelt-tagno-pi-six-nine. That should do it darlin..." He glanced at Mick and smirked. "...And may I add that you are sexy when you are committing sabotage."
"You should see how I look now instead of imagining it." Chloe replied cheekily. As she smiled to herself she put in the authorisation just as a voice behind her went "What do you think you are doing?!" and the sound of a phaser going off and the line going dead. The suspense would be hanging there but the job had been completed and there was a noticeable drop in temperature across the station. She'd done what she had set out to do. Time would tell if she came in from the cold.
A Joint Post By
Chloe De La Vega
Owner/Bartender "After 11", USS Pioneer
Michael Taggart
Owner/Bartender "White Stag Pub", Empok Nor
Ensign Eugene Blauvelt
Strategic Operations Officer, Empok Nor
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