With a loud thump, Jaidaa instantly fell to the ground, her face smashed in with an imprint of Klingon ridges.
Immediately, the Klingon warrior woman jumped up, swinging her bound hands under her feet from behind. She grabbed hold of the disruptor pistol and fired at the two other Orion pirates on the bridge, disintegrating them into nothing before they had time to react.
Within seconds, Eroga had regained control of the bridge, leaving only her and her two companions, Lusaalli and Heluna.
"Well done, Commander!" Lusaalli cheered, trying to maneuver out of her cuffs.
"Thank you, Ensign," Eroga acknowledged her compliment, disintegrating the Orion captain on the ground into nothing. She then moved to her two captive allies and fired a thin beam from her disruptor at her ally's cuffs, breaking them off immediately. "However, we are far from victorious. We have much to do to reclaim the ship."
"Do you have a plan of action, Commander?" Heluna asked, standing up and stretching her arms in freedom.
"First things first, we need to take stock of the situation," Eroga stated, walking over to the computer consoles. "The Captain locked down the entire ship and all systems," she added, typing on the consoles to no avail. Every system remained fully locked.
Heluna pressed buttons on her personal communications console, but still absolutely nothing, no response, no beeps. "Nothing on my end. The Captain really locked the whole thing out."
"The ship won't budge either," Lusaalli added, tapping on her console, which remained black and lifeless. "We're fine, and all systems seem to be working, but we're not moving a meter. We're dead in space."
"Transporter pads seem to be dead," Eroga noted, looking down at the unlit transporter pad on the bridge. "At least no one can access the bridge… but we can't leave either…"
She stepped off the pad and began pacing around the bridge, thinking hard about what to do next.
Tapping her comm badge, Eroga stated, "Computer, this is Chief Operations Officer Eroga, respond."
Nothing, only silence.
"Thoughts on what we could do, Commander?" Heluna asked. "I can't even access internal communications from my console."
Eroga tapped her comm badge again. "Eroga to any Chief Officer."
Nothing, only silence, except for Heluna's badge chirping.
"Well, that answers that," Eroga sighed. "Eroga to any Secondary Officer aboard," she inquired, looking up at the ceiling hopefully.
"I'm here, Commander!" Kayuli's translated voice came through. "Commander, what's going on? Why have we stopped?"
Sighing in relief, Eroga replied, "Dr. Kayuli, you're awake then! How are you and your team?"
"Uh… fine?" Kayuli replied, obviously unaware of what had transpired aboard the vessel. "Did… something happen, Commander? All our systems seem to be disconnected from the main systems, but we're all good at Cetacean Observations."
"So the Siren's Kiss toxin didn't affect anyone in Cetacean Observations?" Eroga confirmed. "The sleeping poison the pirates of Liberia's Grace planted aboard the Nexus."
"Was the poison airborne transmitted?" Kayuli asked over the comms.
"Affirmative," Eroga explained. "It was transported aboard when the Captain's 'guests' came aboard."
"That would be why we're fine," Kayuli replied. "Cetacean Observations has a completely separate air and water filtration system from the rest of the ship. The airborne toxin would have been immediately filtered out, if it even made it into Observations in the first place. As for the…"
"That's all well and good, Doctor," Eroga interrupted his elucidation. "However, are you able to access any computer systems down there in Cetacean Observations?"
"Uh… yeah?" Kayuli replied. "Can't you? We…" He paused for a moment before continuing. "Ohhh, that's why you asked. The Cetacean Observations computer is also relatively isolated from the rest of the system, with limited sensors but mainly for water and atmospheric readings. It seems we've been disconnected from the rest of the ship. What happened, Commander?"
"Just before our 'guests' attempted a full takeover of the ship," Eroga explained, "the Captain initiated a full and complete computer lockdown. We are completely blind on the bridge and have no clue what the current situation is on board. The ship's internal transporters are also down. Anyone on any deck is currently locked on their current floors, unless they use the Jeffries tubes or find some other way around the ship." She shook her head, cursing the "new" Tzenkethi transporter system.
There was a long pause and silence before Kayuli came back, "Well, we here in the Cetacean pool seem to be fine, and… AHA! Yes!" The young doctor almost shouted in surprise. "We still have access to our holographic projections! We can still go wherever there are holographic projectors, and we control when and where we go from here!"
"That's excellent news, Doctor," Eroga stated. "And what…" Eroga started, only to be interrupted by the distinct digitization sound of Kayuli appearing in his Na'vi hologram form on the bridge.
"Well now, that seemed to work quite well, didn't it?" Kayuli said, appearing in his Na'vi form, complete with a blue Starfleet uniform.
"Nicely done, Doctor," Eroga nodded with a surprised grin. "Now, how do you and your fellow Cetacean officers feel about retaking the ship?"