Fic: Breaking Orbit | STXI | Joanna McCoy, others | PG-13 | 5/6
Title: Breaking Orbit: V. Attaining Escape Velocity
Author: saavikam77
Artist: team_fen
Fanmixer: bonesofyou
Beta Reader: acroamatica
Fandom: Star Trek XI
Character/Pairing(s): Joanna McCoy, with Jim Kirk/Leonard McCoy, Jocelyn Treadway, Gaila(/Scotty), Chris Pike, Spock, Winona Kirk, Sulu(/Chekov), and an OC (Teva) all in supporting roles
Rating: (this chapter) PG-13
Word Count: (this chapter) 4,344
Summary: Joanna McCoy has big plans for herself, and she isn't about to let anyone hold her back. She'll do things her way, even if it means breaking the rules and burning bridges behind her. Five times Joanna ran away, and one time she didn't.
Chapter Summary: Age 21. Jo knows there's more to this training exercise than meets the eye. But following that hunch could land her in more trouble than she wants.
Disclaimer: Paramount and CBS own everything but Teva (she's all mine!). I'm making no money off this story. Darnit!
Master Post | Next Chapter
V. Attaining Escape Velocity
Somehow, Jo suspected the Kobayashi Maru had nothing on this training cruise. Three days out on the USS Lincoln―an old mid-sized cruiser with equally old systems―in a region normally used only for Starfleet training and war-games exercises, no one could have expected they'd actually hit an honest-to-god gravitic mine.
Since the initial chaos and shock of the unforeseen collision and subsequent detonation, conditions on the ship had gone from bad to worse. In one violently shuddering instant they'd lost their warp drive and impulse engines, in another their tractor beam and weapons systems had gone down, and now, after an hour and a half spent stranded and drifting, chasing the cascade of system failures, they'd lost power to pretty much everything they needed, with even life support starting to fail. It was so utterly absurd, Jo wanted to tear her hair out by her tight braid.
She just couldn't figure how a ship full of the best instructors―Admiral Pike included―and brightest senior cadets could've let this happen. It was simply... unthinkable.
But she didn't exactly have time for seething over the situation; with systems out all over the ship, Jo was running herself ragged trying to head off the damage. She'd already helped redirect power from astrometrics to bolster life support, reconfigured the computer core to bypass several non-essential programs and boost efficiency, and had repaired two stations that had overloaded when they'd struck the gravitic mine. Now she was wedged into a Jeffries tube between D and E-decks trying to fix the mess that passed for an ODN conduit on this hunk of junk to get the internal and external sensors both back online.
It was crazy.
Three more connections repaired, the last of the torn optical cable fused into its original configuration just beyond the scorched access panel, and Jo tested the conduit with her portable diagnostics station, a stream of data lighting up the small screen immediately.
“Thank God,” she breathed into the otherwise empty tube, propping the station up so she could type unfettered. It was awkward, but she'd manage.
She typed in a few commands, watching the data scroll as it came through the conduit. Spatial coordinates, extrasolar gas, dust, and debris proximity, damage reports―
Wait a minute.
Jo scanned back over the internal sensor readings from the areas that were initially reported heavily damaged, sections of the outer hull on decks J, K, and L that had been breached, three sections of each of those decks that had been automatically sealed off when decompression was detected, and two EPS conduits that had been disrupted, blocking power flow to the impulse engines.
According to these readings, there was no damage whatsoever.
“What the hell?”
Keying in a few more commands, she backtracked through the sensor readings to the time of the collision. Still nothing, inside or outside. No indications of collision, no telltale marks of explosion or decompression, nothing. And the data was correct, as far as she could tell. Running a remote diagnostic on the sensors themselves, she waited a moment for the results.
If there was a glitch somewhere, she was gonna pitch a fit, she swore.
And... nothing.
The diagnostic completed itself, and reported not a single indication that the sensors had malfunctioned.
Jo sat back as much as she could in the cramped space. Why the heck would all her readings point to the collision never happening? Unless....
No, that was just plain crazy. There was no way this was just another training exercise, not with the very real casualty reports the Bridge had received from Sickbay. Jo had heard Dr. Benard's voice over the comm herself before she'd been sent to start repairs. Three dead, at least ten wounded, and more coming in from damaged sections of the ship. Unless the CMO was one hell of an actor―and Jo very much doubted that, having taken his Comparative Humanoid Anatomy course two years ago―this was one real, serious emergency.
But the sensor and diagnostic readings didn't support it at all. And that just made no sense.
So, the question now was, was anyone on the Bridge seeing these sensor readings?
Pressing the comm button on the diagnostic station, Jo stared at the readout again in the low light of the tube. “McCoy to Bridge.”
“Bridge, Tanaka here,” came the tinny response over the comm.
“Lieutenant, I've repaired ODN conduit 42-B. Are you receiving sensor readings on the Bridge?”
After a pause, the Lieutenant spoke again, “Everything looks good here, Ensign.”
Jo took a deep breath. “Do the automated damage reports appear correct to you?”
Another pause, then, “Aye, external hull breach on decks J, K, and L, three decompressed sections sealed off, two blown EPS conduits. Why, is there a problem on your end?”
“I―” she started, but then she hesitated a second. This was gonna sound so crazy, she'd be lucky if they didn't think she was crumpling under the stress. And then where would they all be?
But again, there was no time for that now. Another deep breath, and she went on, “From where I sit, the sensor readings show absolutely no damage to the ship. No hull breaches, no decompression, nothing. Like we never actually hit that gravitic mine. In fact,” she checked the external readings again, “it looks like there never was a gravitic mine.” Finished, she stifled a huff of frustration.
A moment passed, the other end of the comm silent. Then another.
Figured. They were probably calling Sickbay to drag her away for sedation, maybe even a straitjacket.
Thanks for the paranoia, Daddy, it's workin' out real well, she groused to herself as she waited.
Finally, a response came back over the comm. “Ensign, Admiral Pike. We have no indication of that, here. Why don't you run a diagnostic on your system?”
A diagnostic? What kind of idiot did he take her for?
“Already ran a diagnostic, sir,” she replied calmly, trying not to grind her teeth. “Twice. All systems check out at this end.”
Another pause, then, “All right. I'm sending Delaney down to give you a hand. Sit tight.” And with a tiny chirp, the comm line was deactivated.
Oh, this was not happening. Jo could count on one hand the number of times Pike had shut her down, and they'd all been in her first year, when she was still green as hell and pissed off over her Momma not coming to her Junior Academy graduation.
Seething and scowling, she packed up her mobile diagnostic station, slung the pack across her shoulders, and climbed out of the tube. Hitting the closest turbolift, she pressed the controls to take her to C-deck.
~*~*~*~
Crammed into the fourth Jeffries tube in twelve minutes, Jo unpacked her diagnostic station yet again and went to work immediately on the ODN conduit at hand. Connections made, scan started.
Nope, no physical damage to this one, either.
A few commands typed in, and she watched the sensor data flow across her screen.
Same results as before, and... and now it looked like the long-range sensors were picking up two ships just within range. The hell? They were―she glanced at the sparse details―both Starfleet ships, the Lexington and the Norfolk, based on their registry numbers.
Responding to the Lincoln's distress call? Or out there for backup if anything went wrong with the training cruise? Either scenario made sense at this point, and they certainly would have been in the general area to begin with, being part of the larger training exercise.
Scowling to herself, Jo filed away her suspicions as she recorded the readout and shut down her station to pack it back up. So far, every ODN conduit and junction between her first stop and the Bridge was functioning perfectly, and all had given the same sensor readings. No damage to the ship, no collision, no gravitic mine. Nothing but business as usual, now with added starships just on the edge of sensor range.
The whole thing was absolutely ludicrous.
“Pike to McCoy,” came a sudden intruding voice, echoing loud in the tube.
“Shit,” Jo murmured, reaching for the nearest comm. She was so screwed. So utterly, totally screwed.
But with an itch to get to the bottom of this whole thing running down her spine, she paused, finger hovering over the button. There was still one more junction to check, conduit 1-B, just beneath the Bridge. One more chance to figure out just what the hell their instructors were trying to pull.
Sucking in a slow, deep breath, Jo tried to center herself like Teva had taught her last year. She could do this, she needed to do this. One junction, one conduit, one shot to either reveal the simulation for what it was, or earn herself some good old-fashioned disciplinary action.
Well, if Daddy Jim could beat the no-win scenario by turning it on its head, why the hell couldn't she?
Drawing her hand back, Joanna packed up her mobile station and clambered back out of the tube, Pike's repeated call echoing behind her. Odds were, this wouldn't end well, but it wasn't like it would be the first time she'd done something stupid. And the day was young, yet. There was plenty of time left to gain or lose a stripe. Jo just hoped the odds could be tilted in her favor.
~*~*~*~
By the time she made it into the last Jeffries tube, Pike's call was starting to sound downright angry, the Admiral demanding her location and status immediately. But Joanna ignored it, unpacking her station and connecting to the last conduit swiftly.
Last chance, come on, she urged the circuitry as she waited, giving the junction a visual once-over. No damage here, right underneath the security station at the back of the Bridge. But....
As the mobile station connected to the conduit and came to life with data, Jo spotted something that definitely shouldn't have been there. It looked like a tiny chip, attached to the back of the conduit and blinking red and green.
“What the blue blazes are you?” she wondered in a low whisper, leaning closer to give the found object a quick scan with her tricorder.
From her readings, it appeared to be a literal programming patch, feeding false readings to the system.
Oh, now wasn't that interesting?
Hell, it was even USB, the old standby, hooked into the conduit with a modified optical dock.
Shaking her head with disbelief, Jo checked the readings on her mobile station. Connected to the conduit upstream of the patch, it gave her just what she'd been seeing: no damage to the ship, no decompression, nothing. Obviously. A quick reconnection to the downstream side, and Jo waited for the results.
The data stream started, and... holy hell. Red alert, gravitic mine, explosive decompression, the works. All there, all panic and destruction. And the ships she'd seen on the other readings were nowhere to be found. Of course.
Leaning back on her haunches, Jo scowled some more, everything finally making sense.
Now, the question was, to remove the patch or not? If she did, wow, what a surprise that would be for the Bridge crew! But then, what if the Bridge crew was all in on it?
With another bee in her bonnet, she set to work on her mobile station in a hurry. The encryption protocols on this system were so flimsy, she could get through them with one hand tied behind her back if she had to, and down here, connected right to the source, it wasn't any kind of challenge whatsoever, even with her tiny mobile station and a level two connection. Entering the right commands, she was in, and she started scrolling through the log quickly.
2270.451: 0821.56: Gravitic mine struck, sector 34
2270.451: 0822.02: Adm. Pike signals Red Alert
2270.451: 0822.31: Lt. Lefler taking sensor readings, damage reports hull breach J-deck/section 21, K-deck/section 21, L-deck/section 22, decompression J-deck/section 21/22, K-deck/section 21/22, L-deck/section 21/22/23
2270.451: 0823.08: Warp engine reported off-line by Lt.C. Jotero, reading confirmed by Lt. Kelso
2270.451: 0823.45: ODN conduit damage reported by Lt. Lefler, explosion in ODN conduit 42-B overloaded and damaged computer systems. External sensors reported off-line by Lt. Lefler.
2270.451: 0824:16: Internal sensor sweep from secondary station on B-Deck reports cascade failure in several systems, Lt.C. T'Lal taking readings
And on and on it went, more damage reported, more readings taken from the secondary station on B-deck, while Jo had been sent on repair missions throughout the ship, chasing the damages all the way to that damned ODN conduit in tube 42-B. But something was itching the back of her brain. There was a pattern here, but what the hell was it?
2270.451: 1002:22: Lt.C. T'Lal sent out in shuttle 1 to survey external damage, reports damage is as was expected
2270.451: 1209:43: Lt. Lefler reports repairs completed to ODN conduit 42-B by Ens. McCoy, conflicting sensor readings reported by Lt. Tanaka and Ens. McCoy
2270.451: 1225:57: Lt.C. T'Lal confirms glitch in sensor system
2270.451: 1234:28: Lt.C. Jotero confirms 28 hours for engine repair and 73 hours for patchwork external hull repair
2270.451: 1234:49: Lt. Kelso confirms 27 hours 31 minutes until system-wide life-support failure
There! Lieutenants Lefler, T'Lal, Jotero, Kelso. The same four officers reporting all this damage, all these grim prognoses for the ship and her systems. None of them were instructors, as far as she knew, and they weren't even all Bridge officers, so what the hell? Maybe this thing went further than she knew―
“Pike to Ensign McCoy. Report at once!”
Dammit. Of course she'd eventually have to report back to the Admiral. And he was sure to have her hide for skittering off against orders.
Well, now that she had what she needed, she supposed there was no time like the present.
Another deep breath to center and steel herself against the verbal lashing she was about to receive, and Jo pressed the comm button on her mobile station. “McCoy here, sir.”
“Ensign, where the hell are you? I told you to sit tight, and Lieutenant Delaney reported tube 42-B deserted. You haven't answered any of my hails for the last ten minutes, and I don't have time to go chasing down errant Ensigns.”
Jo winced. “I'm sorry, sir. I wanted to check the rest of the ODN conduits between there and the Bridge, to find the reason for the discrepancy in the sensor readings, and―”
But Pike cut her off. “Report to my Ready Room on the double, Cadet. Pike out.”
Shit. Busted back to Cadet already. “Aye, sir,” she said to the closed comm line, unable to stop a full-on pout from taking over her face. Leaving the programming patch in place, Jo packed up her station and crawled out of the tube to go face the music, a dirge sounding loudly in her head.
~*~*~*~
Jo counted it a miracle she wasn't trembling in place as Pike stared her down from behind his desk in the small Ready Room. But Daddy Jim had taught her better, taught her to never show an enemy weakness if you could help it, even if that enemy was a commanding officer about to bust you all the way back to Junior Cadet for insubordination, leaving you practically rank-less for the rest of your career.
She wondered offhand what he'd think of her following in his footsteps and pissing off this particular Admiral. He might laugh his ass off. Well, until Daddy gave him the eyebrow of doom and made him get serious.
After a long moment of silent scrutiny, Pike's hands folded on his desktop, the Admiral spoke. “You disobeyed a direct order, Ensign. I don't care where you went or why, or even what you found. You were to wait for assistance, and not move until you had it. That's chain of command 101, and you failed it utterly.”
“Yes, sir.”
“You have anything to say for yourself?”
“No, sir,” she said, keeping her voice as even as she could and her eyes focused straight ahead, her hands clasped behind her. “I understand what I did, and I'm ready for any disciplinary action you deem necessary.”
Pike laughed shortly. “You've been taking lessons from Jim Kirk, haven't you?”
Jo raised a somewhat defiant eyebrow, hating how easily he could read her. “Sir?”
“Before Kirk made it out of the Academy, he managed to spend a grand total of five days in the brig, eight suspended from duty, and accrued seventy-five hours of off-duty service,” he explained, “and never once did he so much as bat an eyelash at it. Got his ass in trouble on a regular basis for disrespecting the chain of command, and took his punishment gladly. Just about the only time he ever defended his actions was over the Kobayashi Maru. Ironic, don't you think?”
The run-down of Jim's disciplinary record made Jo a little queasy. She knew damn well he'd been a smart-ass and way too big for his britches, even into his captaincy, according to her Daddy, but to hear Pike tell it, you'd think he was a troublemaker extraordinaire.
Sort of like what her Momma had always made her out to be.
And that it was a training exercise that had gotten them both in the worst trouble, well, she couldn't deny the Admiral was right. Maybe Daddy Jim had rubbed off on her a lot more than she realized.
“I... suppose it's fitting, sir,” she said after a moment, chewing over the words as they left her.
Nodding, Pike turned his computer around to face her, sensor readings showing all the damage that the programming patch wanted them to see. “It is,” he replied. “But we can discuss that later. Delaney inspected the conduit in tube 42-B, and this is what she found. Same thing we're getting up here. And she found a glitch in the system that explains why your report was wrong, Cadet. You'd have known that if you'd just waited.”
Jo couldn't help the traitorous rise of color on her cheeks, her adrenaline-fueled rush of indignation, or her blurted protest that immediately followed as she realized she'd completely glazed over that part of the mission log and her expertise was in question. “What!? That's just not possible. Sir,” she amended quickly. “I checked that conduit over three times, and there was no glitch. Period.”
Pike stopped her with an icy glare. “Cool it, Cadet. I trust Delaney with those systems. She knows every inch of them, and if she reported a glitch, then that's what was there.”
“So, you don't trust that I know what I'm doing with those systems?” Jo bit out, her face contorting with boiling frustration at his complete dismissal of her abilities, professional decorum be damned. “What happened to believing I had a natural knack for this stuff? What happened to steering me in this direction because I was damn good at it? I don't believe this! I eat, sleep, and practically breathe computers. I could take one apart and put it back together without battin' an eyelash. I can get past a level-seven encryption without so much as breakin' a sweat! I―here, see for yourself!” she finally snapped, hoisting her mobile station up to the desk, her hands shaking with righteous fury and her nostrils flared with heavy breaths. Opening the case, she brought up the recording of the programming patch she'd found, then turned the screen to the Admiral. “I found this attached to conduit 1-B, feeding false readings into the sensor system. It's a goddamn hoax. And I know you know all about it. Sir.”
At that, the Admiral sat back in his chair, crossing his arms over his chest as he scrutinized the scan she'd taken of the patch. “You found it,” he stated flatly. “Well.” And his face softened, eyes flicking up to her. “You're damn lucky, you know that? If you hadn't just put this in front of me, I'd have at least confined you to quarters for the duration, or maybe even sent you to the Brig, thanks to your dangerously sharp mouth.”
“I....” she started weakly, unable to find a suitable defense at that point. Crap, she really did have a dangerous mouth, and she knew it. The McCoy charm, ladies and gentlemen. And what the hell would Daddy Jim think of her now? So much for keeping her cool. With all the shit she'd just given the Admiral, she was damn lucky to not be sent straight to the Brig, the mere thought of it twisting her stomach into a knot of nausea. Confinement to quarters was one thing, but she'd be damned if she spent so much as a minute in another tiny cell.
Groaning mentally and feeling the heat of embarrassment in her face, Jo straightened, clenching her fists at her sides. “Sorry, sir.”
Pike gave her a wry look. “Good. You need to watch that, if you don't want to wind up in the Brig on a regular basis. Most Captains don't like their officers flying off the handle, even if they are right.”
“Yes, sir. I... I understand.”
A nod, and the Admiral pointed to her mobile station's screen. “So, what's your assessment of the situation, then?” he asked. “Clearly, you're onto something here.”
Raising an eyebrow, Jo took another deep breath. Kobayashi Maru, right. She was right. And damn, despite everything else, it felt pretty good to be right.
“I suspect the entire emergency situation is a hoax, sir, since this patch appears to have been planted in order to fool the sensor readings on the Bridge.”
Pike nodded again. “Well, despite going about your search the wrong way, you're right. It's a training simulation, designed for the command track and engineering Cadets. You passed the simulation with flying colors, just by repairing all the systems you did, but this...” he shook his head, smiling softly, “this is beyond your test. It's a whole different level of challenge.”
“I... sir?”
“What if there had been a saboteur on board?” he explained. “You'd have been the first to find evidence of his tampering. That doesn't change the fact that you could've gotten yourself killed in such a situation, going off the radar like you did, but you still would've put us one step ahead. And that's important. It shows you're really ready for all the chaos that can happen out here. Well, as long as you learn your lesson about disobeying orders,” he finished with what looked like a mischievous twinkle in his eyes.
Jo was simply dumbfounded at it all. “Um, thank you, sir,” she managed, wondering what the hell had just happened.
“Now, the training exercise goes on as planned, assuming you didn't disturb the program patch.”
“No, sir. I left it in place,” she answered.
“Good. Because this exercise is not about uncovering sabotage, it's about surviving a crisis. The rest of the command and engineering crew have no idea it's a test, and we're going to keep it that way. Am I clear?”
“Crystal, sir,” Jo nodded.
“Good. You have a choice now, Miss McCoy. Either you can play along, or you can sit the rest of the mission out, confined to quarters as a form of 'disciplinary action',” Pike went on, the emphasis clear in his voice. “I'd hate to lose one of my best computer engineers in the middle of a crisis, but it's your choice.”
Jo thought about it for a moment, not quite believing she'd just been given this kind of opportunity. But... she remembered the casualty reports, and a sudden sense of indignation took up residence in her chest. “Sir, what about the supposed casualties?” she asked carefully.
“No one's been hurt. You'll find Sickbay is a pretty boring place to be right now.”
And as if that didn't take the cake. “You mean... they're all in on it, too?”
The Admiral smiled again. “Every one of them.”
“Well....” she started, feeling a little bolder as she thought of Teva, serving as a medic aboard this training cruise. She was so gonna kick her ass when they got back to Earth. “That's just not very damn fair. I mean, playing with people's heads like this. It ain't right. Sir.”
Pike folded his hands together on his desk again and looked at her squarely. “I suppose not. But this wouldn't be much of a test if everyone knew that's what it is, would it?”
“I....” And dammit, he was right. Again. “I guess it wouldn't, sir.”
“Then we're on the same page.”
Jo heaved a sigh. “Yes, sir.”
“And your decision?”
There it was, the million dollar question. Ethics aside, this was one hell of a chance to have some fun, and ride this thing for all it was worth. No wonder Pike looked so amused.
Scowling to herself, she realized she'd probably kick herself later if she didn't get on board with the plan, and fast.
Another breath.
“I'm in, sir.”
That mischievous twinkle turned into a full smirk, and the Admiral grabbed up a PADD and handed it across the desk to her. “This is a list of your contacts throughout the ship. They'll be made aware of your change in status, so all you have to do is play along.”
Jo glanced over the list, committing the names to memory as she read.
Senior Science Officer: Lee, Xin Hua, Commander, SFA 2260
Chief Systems Officer: T'Lal, T'Schin N'Kgal, Lieutenant Commander; SFA 2266
Junior Systems Officer: Lefler, Anissa Karen, Lieutenant; SFA 2269
Chief Engineer: Jotero, Manuel Roberto, Lieutenant Commander; SFA 2266
Junior Engineering Officer: Kelso, James Alexander, Lieutenant; SFA 2269
Chief Medical Officer: Benard, Michel Pierre, Commander; SFA 2255
The list went on for another three screens, and damn, it read like a crew manifest of all the senior officers. It... hell, it was all the senior officers! And there they were, the same four officers from the mission log: T'Lal, Lefler, Jotero, and Kelso. Looking at it now, Jo realized that outside of the instructors, all the officers she'd thought were current cadets were all long graduated.
She smacked herself mentally. Of course, they were all plants!
Looking back up at Pike, she handed him back the PADD. “Okay, so what's next?”
“How do you feel about a little more conduit repair down in Engineering, followed by a severe injury to take you out of the game, officially, and a little behind-the-scenes sabotage?”
Jo finally broke out into a grin of her own, raising an eyebrow sharply. “Sounds like a plan to me.”
“Excellent. Report to Jeffries tube 87-G. I understand there's an EPS conduit that still needs repair, Lieutenant McCoy.”
Lieutenant!? At that, her grin grew wider, and a rush of adrenaline spiked all the way to her toes. Man, she couldn't wait to tell Daddy and Jim all about this training cruise.
~*~*~*~
Author: saavikam77
Artist: team_fen
Fanmixer: bonesofyou
Beta Reader: acroamatica
Fandom: Star Trek XI
Character/Pairing(s): Joanna McCoy, with Jim Kirk/Leonard McCoy, Jocelyn Treadway, Gaila(/Scotty), Chris Pike, Spock, Winona Kirk, Sulu(/Chekov), and an OC (Teva) all in supporting roles
Rating: (this chapter) PG-13
Word Count: (this chapter) 4,344
Summary: Joanna McCoy has big plans for herself, and she isn't about to let anyone hold her back. She'll do things her way, even if it means breaking the rules and burning bridges behind her. Five times Joanna ran away, and one time she didn't.
Chapter Summary: Age 21. Jo knows there's more to this training exercise than meets the eye. But following that hunch could land her in more trouble than she wants.
Disclaimer: Paramount and CBS own everything but Teva (she's all mine!). I'm making no money off this story. Darnit!
Master Post | Next Chapter
V. Attaining Escape Velocity
Somehow, Jo suspected the Kobayashi Maru had nothing on this training cruise. Three days out on the USS Lincoln―an old mid-sized cruiser with equally old systems―in a region normally used only for Starfleet training and war-games exercises, no one could have expected they'd actually hit an honest-to-god gravitic mine.
Since the initial chaos and shock of the unforeseen collision and subsequent detonation, conditions on the ship had gone from bad to worse. In one violently shuddering instant they'd lost their warp drive and impulse engines, in another their tractor beam and weapons systems had gone down, and now, after an hour and a half spent stranded and drifting, chasing the cascade of system failures, they'd lost power to pretty much everything they needed, with even life support starting to fail. It was so utterly absurd, Jo wanted to tear her hair out by her tight braid.
She just couldn't figure how a ship full of the best instructors―Admiral Pike included―and brightest senior cadets could've let this happen. It was simply... unthinkable.
But she didn't exactly have time for seething over the situation; with systems out all over the ship, Jo was running herself ragged trying to head off the damage. She'd already helped redirect power from astrometrics to bolster life support, reconfigured the computer core to bypass several non-essential programs and boost efficiency, and had repaired two stations that had overloaded when they'd struck the gravitic mine. Now she was wedged into a Jeffries tube between D and E-decks trying to fix the mess that passed for an ODN conduit on this hunk of junk to get the internal and external sensors both back online.
It was crazy.
Three more connections repaired, the last of the torn optical cable fused into its original configuration just beyond the scorched access panel, and Jo tested the conduit with her portable diagnostics station, a stream of data lighting up the small screen immediately.
“Thank God,” she breathed into the otherwise empty tube, propping the station up so she could type unfettered. It was awkward, but she'd manage.
She typed in a few commands, watching the data scroll as it came through the conduit. Spatial coordinates, extrasolar gas, dust, and debris proximity, damage reports―
Wait a minute.
Jo scanned back over the internal sensor readings from the areas that were initially reported heavily damaged, sections of the outer hull on decks J, K, and L that had been breached, three sections of each of those decks that had been automatically sealed off when decompression was detected, and two EPS conduits that had been disrupted, blocking power flow to the impulse engines.
According to these readings, there was no damage whatsoever.
“What the hell?”
Keying in a few more commands, she backtracked through the sensor readings to the time of the collision. Still nothing, inside or outside. No indications of collision, no telltale marks of explosion or decompression, nothing. And the data was correct, as far as she could tell. Running a remote diagnostic on the sensors themselves, she waited a moment for the results.
If there was a glitch somewhere, she was gonna pitch a fit, she swore.
And... nothing.
The diagnostic completed itself, and reported not a single indication that the sensors had malfunctioned.
Jo sat back as much as she could in the cramped space. Why the heck would all her readings point to the collision never happening? Unless....
No, that was just plain crazy. There was no way this was just another training exercise, not with the very real casualty reports the Bridge had received from Sickbay. Jo had heard Dr. Benard's voice over the comm herself before she'd been sent to start repairs. Three dead, at least ten wounded, and more coming in from damaged sections of the ship. Unless the CMO was one hell of an actor―and Jo very much doubted that, having taken his Comparative Humanoid Anatomy course two years ago―this was one real, serious emergency.
But the sensor and diagnostic readings didn't support it at all. And that just made no sense.
So, the question now was, was anyone on the Bridge seeing these sensor readings?
Pressing the comm button on the diagnostic station, Jo stared at the readout again in the low light of the tube. “McCoy to Bridge.”
“Bridge, Tanaka here,” came the tinny response over the comm.
“Lieutenant, I've repaired ODN conduit 42-B. Are you receiving sensor readings on the Bridge?”
After a pause, the Lieutenant spoke again, “Everything looks good here, Ensign.”
Jo took a deep breath. “Do the automated damage reports appear correct to you?”
Another pause, then, “Aye, external hull breach on decks J, K, and L, three decompressed sections sealed off, two blown EPS conduits. Why, is there a problem on your end?”
“I―” she started, but then she hesitated a second. This was gonna sound so crazy, she'd be lucky if they didn't think she was crumpling under the stress. And then where would they all be?
But again, there was no time for that now. Another deep breath, and she went on, “From where I sit, the sensor readings show absolutely no damage to the ship. No hull breaches, no decompression, nothing. Like we never actually hit that gravitic mine. In fact,” she checked the external readings again, “it looks like there never was a gravitic mine.” Finished, she stifled a huff of frustration.
A moment passed, the other end of the comm silent. Then another.
Figured. They were probably calling Sickbay to drag her away for sedation, maybe even a straitjacket.
Thanks for the paranoia, Daddy, it's workin' out real well, she groused to herself as she waited.
Finally, a response came back over the comm. “Ensign, Admiral Pike. We have no indication of that, here. Why don't you run a diagnostic on your system?”
A diagnostic? What kind of idiot did he take her for?
“Already ran a diagnostic, sir,” she replied calmly, trying not to grind her teeth. “Twice. All systems check out at this end.”
Another pause, then, “All right. I'm sending Delaney down to give you a hand. Sit tight.” And with a tiny chirp, the comm line was deactivated.
Oh, this was not happening. Jo could count on one hand the number of times Pike had shut her down, and they'd all been in her first year, when she was still green as hell and pissed off over her Momma not coming to her Junior Academy graduation.
Seething and scowling, she packed up her mobile diagnostic station, slung the pack across her shoulders, and climbed out of the tube. Hitting the closest turbolift, she pressed the controls to take her to C-deck.
~*~*~*~
Crammed into the fourth Jeffries tube in twelve minutes, Jo unpacked her diagnostic station yet again and went to work immediately on the ODN conduit at hand. Connections made, scan started.
Nope, no physical damage to this one, either.
A few commands typed in, and she watched the sensor data flow across her screen.
Same results as before, and... and now it looked like the long-range sensors were picking up two ships just within range. The hell? They were―she glanced at the sparse details―both Starfleet ships, the Lexington and the Norfolk, based on their registry numbers.
Responding to the Lincoln's distress call? Or out there for backup if anything went wrong with the training cruise? Either scenario made sense at this point, and they certainly would have been in the general area to begin with, being part of the larger training exercise.
Scowling to herself, Jo filed away her suspicions as she recorded the readout and shut down her station to pack it back up. So far, every ODN conduit and junction between her first stop and the Bridge was functioning perfectly, and all had given the same sensor readings. No damage to the ship, no collision, no gravitic mine. Nothing but business as usual, now with added starships just on the edge of sensor range.
The whole thing was absolutely ludicrous.
“Pike to McCoy,” came a sudden intruding voice, echoing loud in the tube.
“Shit,” Jo murmured, reaching for the nearest comm. She was so screwed. So utterly, totally screwed.
But with an itch to get to the bottom of this whole thing running down her spine, she paused, finger hovering over the button. There was still one more junction to check, conduit 1-B, just beneath the Bridge. One more chance to figure out just what the hell their instructors were trying to pull.
Sucking in a slow, deep breath, Jo tried to center herself like Teva had taught her last year. She could do this, she needed to do this. One junction, one conduit, one shot to either reveal the simulation for what it was, or earn herself some good old-fashioned disciplinary action.
Well, if Daddy Jim could beat the no-win scenario by turning it on its head, why the hell couldn't she?
Drawing her hand back, Joanna packed up her mobile station and clambered back out of the tube, Pike's repeated call echoing behind her. Odds were, this wouldn't end well, but it wasn't like it would be the first time she'd done something stupid. And the day was young, yet. There was plenty of time left to gain or lose a stripe. Jo just hoped the odds could be tilted in her favor.
~*~*~*~
By the time she made it into the last Jeffries tube, Pike's call was starting to sound downright angry, the Admiral demanding her location and status immediately. But Joanna ignored it, unpacking her station and connecting to the last conduit swiftly.
Last chance, come on, she urged the circuitry as she waited, giving the junction a visual once-over. No damage here, right underneath the security station at the back of the Bridge. But....
As the mobile station connected to the conduit and came to life with data, Jo spotted something that definitely shouldn't have been there. It looked like a tiny chip, attached to the back of the conduit and blinking red and green.
“What the blue blazes are you?” she wondered in a low whisper, leaning closer to give the found object a quick scan with her tricorder.
From her readings, it appeared to be a literal programming patch, feeding false readings to the system.
Oh, now wasn't that interesting?
Hell, it was even USB, the old standby, hooked into the conduit with a modified optical dock.
Shaking her head with disbelief, Jo checked the readings on her mobile station. Connected to the conduit upstream of the patch, it gave her just what she'd been seeing: no damage to the ship, no decompression, nothing. Obviously. A quick reconnection to the downstream side, and Jo waited for the results.
The data stream started, and... holy hell. Red alert, gravitic mine, explosive decompression, the works. All there, all panic and destruction. And the ships she'd seen on the other readings were nowhere to be found. Of course.
Leaning back on her haunches, Jo scowled some more, everything finally making sense.
Now, the question was, to remove the patch or not? If she did, wow, what a surprise that would be for the Bridge crew! But then, what if the Bridge crew was all in on it?
With another bee in her bonnet, she set to work on her mobile station in a hurry. The encryption protocols on this system were so flimsy, she could get through them with one hand tied behind her back if she had to, and down here, connected right to the source, it wasn't any kind of challenge whatsoever, even with her tiny mobile station and a level two connection. Entering the right commands, she was in, and she started scrolling through the log quickly.
2270.451: 0821.56: Gravitic mine struck, sector 34
2270.451: 0822.02: Adm. Pike signals Red Alert
2270.451: 0822.31: Lt. Lefler taking sensor readings, damage reports hull breach J-deck/section 21, K-deck/section 21, L-deck/section 22, decompression J-deck/section 21/22, K-deck/section 21/22, L-deck/section 21/22/23
2270.451: 0823.08: Warp engine reported off-line by Lt.C. Jotero, reading confirmed by Lt. Kelso
2270.451: 0823.45: ODN conduit damage reported by Lt. Lefler, explosion in ODN conduit 42-B overloaded and damaged computer systems. External sensors reported off-line by Lt. Lefler.
2270.451: 0824:16: Internal sensor sweep from secondary station on B-Deck reports cascade failure in several systems, Lt.C. T'Lal taking readings
And on and on it went, more damage reported, more readings taken from the secondary station on B-deck, while Jo had been sent on repair missions throughout the ship, chasing the damages all the way to that damned ODN conduit in tube 42-B. But something was itching the back of her brain. There was a pattern here, but what the hell was it?
2270.451: 1002:22: Lt.C. T'Lal sent out in shuttle 1 to survey external damage, reports damage is as was expected
2270.451: 1209:43: Lt. Lefler reports repairs completed to ODN conduit 42-B by Ens. McCoy, conflicting sensor readings reported by Lt. Tanaka and Ens. McCoy
2270.451: 1225:57: Lt.C. T'Lal confirms glitch in sensor system
2270.451: 1234:28: Lt.C. Jotero confirms 28 hours for engine repair and 73 hours for patchwork external hull repair
2270.451: 1234:49: Lt. Kelso confirms 27 hours 31 minutes until system-wide life-support failure
There! Lieutenants Lefler, T'Lal, Jotero, Kelso. The same four officers reporting all this damage, all these grim prognoses for the ship and her systems. None of them were instructors, as far as she knew, and they weren't even all Bridge officers, so what the hell? Maybe this thing went further than she knew―
“Pike to Ensign McCoy. Report at once!”
Dammit. Of course she'd eventually have to report back to the Admiral. And he was sure to have her hide for skittering off against orders.
Well, now that she had what she needed, she supposed there was no time like the present.
Another deep breath to center and steel herself against the verbal lashing she was about to receive, and Jo pressed the comm button on her mobile station. “McCoy here, sir.”
“Ensign, where the hell are you? I told you to sit tight, and Lieutenant Delaney reported tube 42-B deserted. You haven't answered any of my hails for the last ten minutes, and I don't have time to go chasing down errant Ensigns.”
Jo winced. “I'm sorry, sir. I wanted to check the rest of the ODN conduits between there and the Bridge, to find the reason for the discrepancy in the sensor readings, and―”
But Pike cut her off. “Report to my Ready Room on the double, Cadet. Pike out.”
Shit. Busted back to Cadet already. “Aye, sir,” she said to the closed comm line, unable to stop a full-on pout from taking over her face. Leaving the programming patch in place, Jo packed up her station and crawled out of the tube to go face the music, a dirge sounding loudly in her head.
~*~*~*~
Jo counted it a miracle she wasn't trembling in place as Pike stared her down from behind his desk in the small Ready Room. But Daddy Jim had taught her better, taught her to never show an enemy weakness if you could help it, even if that enemy was a commanding officer about to bust you all the way back to Junior Cadet for insubordination, leaving you practically rank-less for the rest of your career.
She wondered offhand what he'd think of her following in his footsteps and pissing off this particular Admiral. He might laugh his ass off. Well, until Daddy gave him the eyebrow of doom and made him get serious.
After a long moment of silent scrutiny, Pike's hands folded on his desktop, the Admiral spoke. “You disobeyed a direct order, Ensign. I don't care where you went or why, or even what you found. You were to wait for assistance, and not move until you had it. That's chain of command 101, and you failed it utterly.”
“Yes, sir.”
“You have anything to say for yourself?”
“No, sir,” she said, keeping her voice as even as she could and her eyes focused straight ahead, her hands clasped behind her. “I understand what I did, and I'm ready for any disciplinary action you deem necessary.”
Pike laughed shortly. “You've been taking lessons from Jim Kirk, haven't you?”
Jo raised a somewhat defiant eyebrow, hating how easily he could read her. “Sir?”
“Before Kirk made it out of the Academy, he managed to spend a grand total of five days in the brig, eight suspended from duty, and accrued seventy-five hours of off-duty service,” he explained, “and never once did he so much as bat an eyelash at it. Got his ass in trouble on a regular basis for disrespecting the chain of command, and took his punishment gladly. Just about the only time he ever defended his actions was over the Kobayashi Maru. Ironic, don't you think?”
The run-down of Jim's disciplinary record made Jo a little queasy. She knew damn well he'd been a smart-ass and way too big for his britches, even into his captaincy, according to her Daddy, but to hear Pike tell it, you'd think he was a troublemaker extraordinaire.
Sort of like what her Momma had always made her out to be.
And that it was a training exercise that had gotten them both in the worst trouble, well, she couldn't deny the Admiral was right. Maybe Daddy Jim had rubbed off on her a lot more than she realized.
“I... suppose it's fitting, sir,” she said after a moment, chewing over the words as they left her.
Nodding, Pike turned his computer around to face her, sensor readings showing all the damage that the programming patch wanted them to see. “It is,” he replied. “But we can discuss that later. Delaney inspected the conduit in tube 42-B, and this is what she found. Same thing we're getting up here. And she found a glitch in the system that explains why your report was wrong, Cadet. You'd have known that if you'd just waited.”
Jo couldn't help the traitorous rise of color on her cheeks, her adrenaline-fueled rush of indignation, or her blurted protest that immediately followed as she realized she'd completely glazed over that part of the mission log and her expertise was in question. “What!? That's just not possible. Sir,” she amended quickly. “I checked that conduit over three times, and there was no glitch. Period.”
Pike stopped her with an icy glare. “Cool it, Cadet. I trust Delaney with those systems. She knows every inch of them, and if she reported a glitch, then that's what was there.”
“So, you don't trust that I know what I'm doing with those systems?” Jo bit out, her face contorting with boiling frustration at his complete dismissal of her abilities, professional decorum be damned. “What happened to believing I had a natural knack for this stuff? What happened to steering me in this direction because I was damn good at it? I don't believe this! I eat, sleep, and practically breathe computers. I could take one apart and put it back together without battin' an eyelash. I can get past a level-seven encryption without so much as breakin' a sweat! I―here, see for yourself!” she finally snapped, hoisting her mobile station up to the desk, her hands shaking with righteous fury and her nostrils flared with heavy breaths. Opening the case, she brought up the recording of the programming patch she'd found, then turned the screen to the Admiral. “I found this attached to conduit 1-B, feeding false readings into the sensor system. It's a goddamn hoax. And I know you know all about it. Sir.”
At that, the Admiral sat back in his chair, crossing his arms over his chest as he scrutinized the scan she'd taken of the patch. “You found it,” he stated flatly. “Well.” And his face softened, eyes flicking up to her. “You're damn lucky, you know that? If you hadn't just put this in front of me, I'd have at least confined you to quarters for the duration, or maybe even sent you to the Brig, thanks to your dangerously sharp mouth.”
“I....” she started weakly, unable to find a suitable defense at that point. Crap, she really did have a dangerous mouth, and she knew it. The McCoy charm, ladies and gentlemen. And what the hell would Daddy Jim think of her now? So much for keeping her cool. With all the shit she'd just given the Admiral, she was damn lucky to not be sent straight to the Brig, the mere thought of it twisting her stomach into a knot of nausea. Confinement to quarters was one thing, but she'd be damned if she spent so much as a minute in another tiny cell.
Groaning mentally and feeling the heat of embarrassment in her face, Jo straightened, clenching her fists at her sides. “Sorry, sir.”
Pike gave her a wry look. “Good. You need to watch that, if you don't want to wind up in the Brig on a regular basis. Most Captains don't like their officers flying off the handle, even if they are right.”
“Yes, sir. I... I understand.”
A nod, and the Admiral pointed to her mobile station's screen. “So, what's your assessment of the situation, then?” he asked. “Clearly, you're onto something here.”
Raising an eyebrow, Jo took another deep breath. Kobayashi Maru, right. She was right. And damn, despite everything else, it felt pretty good to be right.
“I suspect the entire emergency situation is a hoax, sir, since this patch appears to have been planted in order to fool the sensor readings on the Bridge.”
Pike nodded again. “Well, despite going about your search the wrong way, you're right. It's a training simulation, designed for the command track and engineering Cadets. You passed the simulation with flying colors, just by repairing all the systems you did, but this...” he shook his head, smiling softly, “this is beyond your test. It's a whole different level of challenge.”
“I... sir?”
“What if there had been a saboteur on board?” he explained. “You'd have been the first to find evidence of his tampering. That doesn't change the fact that you could've gotten yourself killed in such a situation, going off the radar like you did, but you still would've put us one step ahead. And that's important. It shows you're really ready for all the chaos that can happen out here. Well, as long as you learn your lesson about disobeying orders,” he finished with what looked like a mischievous twinkle in his eyes.
Jo was simply dumbfounded at it all. “Um, thank you, sir,” she managed, wondering what the hell had just happened.
“Now, the training exercise goes on as planned, assuming you didn't disturb the program patch.”
“No, sir. I left it in place,” she answered.
“Good. Because this exercise is not about uncovering sabotage, it's about surviving a crisis. The rest of the command and engineering crew have no idea it's a test, and we're going to keep it that way. Am I clear?”
“Crystal, sir,” Jo nodded.
“Good. You have a choice now, Miss McCoy. Either you can play along, or you can sit the rest of the mission out, confined to quarters as a form of 'disciplinary action',” Pike went on, the emphasis clear in his voice. “I'd hate to lose one of my best computer engineers in the middle of a crisis, but it's your choice.”
Jo thought about it for a moment, not quite believing she'd just been given this kind of opportunity. But... she remembered the casualty reports, and a sudden sense of indignation took up residence in her chest. “Sir, what about the supposed casualties?” she asked carefully.
“No one's been hurt. You'll find Sickbay is a pretty boring place to be right now.”
And as if that didn't take the cake. “You mean... they're all in on it, too?”
The Admiral smiled again. “Every one of them.”
“Well....” she started, feeling a little bolder as she thought of Teva, serving as a medic aboard this training cruise. She was so gonna kick her ass when they got back to Earth. “That's just not very damn fair. I mean, playing with people's heads like this. It ain't right. Sir.”
Pike folded his hands together on his desk again and looked at her squarely. “I suppose not. But this wouldn't be much of a test if everyone knew that's what it is, would it?”
“I....” And dammit, he was right. Again. “I guess it wouldn't, sir.”
“Then we're on the same page.”
Jo heaved a sigh. “Yes, sir.”
“And your decision?”
There it was, the million dollar question. Ethics aside, this was one hell of a chance to have some fun, and ride this thing for all it was worth. No wonder Pike looked so amused.
Scowling to herself, she realized she'd probably kick herself later if she didn't get on board with the plan, and fast.
Another breath.
“I'm in, sir.”
That mischievous twinkle turned into a full smirk, and the Admiral grabbed up a PADD and handed it across the desk to her. “This is a list of your contacts throughout the ship. They'll be made aware of your change in status, so all you have to do is play along.”
Jo glanced over the list, committing the names to memory as she read.
Senior Science Officer: Lee, Xin Hua, Commander, SFA 2260
Chief Systems Officer: T'Lal, T'Schin N'Kgal, Lieutenant Commander; SFA 2266
Junior Systems Officer: Lefler, Anissa Karen, Lieutenant; SFA 2269
Chief Engineer: Jotero, Manuel Roberto, Lieutenant Commander; SFA 2266
Junior Engineering Officer: Kelso, James Alexander, Lieutenant; SFA 2269
Chief Medical Officer: Benard, Michel Pierre, Commander; SFA 2255
The list went on for another three screens, and damn, it read like a crew manifest of all the senior officers. It... hell, it was all the senior officers! And there they were, the same four officers from the mission log: T'Lal, Lefler, Jotero, and Kelso. Looking at it now, Jo realized that outside of the instructors, all the officers she'd thought were current cadets were all long graduated.
She smacked herself mentally. Of course, they were all plants!
Looking back up at Pike, she handed him back the PADD. “Okay, so what's next?”
“How do you feel about a little more conduit repair down in Engineering, followed by a severe injury to take you out of the game, officially, and a little behind-the-scenes sabotage?”
Jo finally broke out into a grin of her own, raising an eyebrow sharply. “Sounds like a plan to me.”
“Excellent. Report to Jeffries tube 87-G. I understand there's an EPS conduit that still needs repair, Lieutenant McCoy.”
Lieutenant!? At that, her grin grew wider, and a rush of adrenaline spiked all the way to her toes. Man, she couldn't wait to tell Daddy and Jim all about this training cruise.
~*~*~*~