From the schematics she had seen back in the Infirmary, she knew that each level of the second section had a mini transporter room, consisting of two pads. She was hoping that with the lack of staff available, she could gain access to one of these rooms and transport directly to the ship. The plan was to check the transporter rooms on each level, working upwards.
Hopefully, all before Security discovered her escape from sickbay.
Luck was on her side, as she quickly found that the first transporter room was unoccupied and she managed to get inside without being seen.
Quickly stepping inside she found the transporter controls and found that all the controls had been locked down. Amelia quickly managed to release the lock-outs and started to program in her destination, using a stored transporter pattern to mask her true identity. Otherwise she would be prevented from transporting to the central docking bay.
Suddenly the lights dimmed and the yellow alert klaxon started to sound.
Guess my five minutes are up She thought.
She stepped onto the transporter pad and dissolved into the Ether.
She stepped onto the transporter pad and dissolved into the Ether, re-appearing moment later on the transporter pad of the Mystique.
"Monica ?" Amelia said.
There was silence.
"Monica, stop playing games." Amelia demanded.
Still there was silence.
Amelia decided that the best course of action would be to head to the command deck and get off the station, quickly.
"OK, Monica playtimes' over. We need to get out of here fast, charge up the energy reserves and prepare for Starburst as soon as we are clear of the station." Amelia requested.
Still there was silence, then slowly the humming of the energy transfer began to rise.
"Good girl Monica." Amelia said.
[You know I hate it when you patronise me.] Monica replied.
"Glad to hear that you're talking to me again. Have you had a good time whilst I was away ?" Amelia asked.
[Actually I met a very nice young man who was trying to access my primary systems. I gave him enough information to get him to leave, but I think he may be back.] Monica replied [If there's one thing worse than being patronised, it's having someone clumsily trying to access my systems. Cute though.]
"How are we doing ?" Amelia asked.
[OK I guess, we have full power and all systems are green. We can leave at any time.]
Slowly Amelia started to pilot the Mystique away from the docking berth and towards the still open docking bay doors.
[Amelia, they're closing the bay doors.] Monica remarked [We're not going to make it through.]
"I can see that, how are the capacitors doing ?" Amelia asked.
[They're at 90%, you're not thinking of doing what I think you're thinking of doing ?] Monica remarked.
"Prepare to Starburst on my mark." Amelia ordered.
[We can't do this !] Monica protested.
"Now" Amelia shouted.
The Mystique 'shot' out of the docking bay like a bullet from a gun. After twenty seconds the power reserves were depleted and the Mystique was outside the range of the Supply bases weapons and tractor beams.
Within ten minutes, they were in the Briar patch, hidden from sensors.
"Any sign of pursuit." Amelia asked.
[None.] Monica replied. [You know Amelia, they're are times when I think I should go my own way without you, find myself a new owner.]
"But what would you do for excitement ?." Amelia replied.
[I'm sure I would cope.]
"Did you know that Jacen was aboard the station, probably along with the Talon and all it's crew. ?" Amelia asked.
[Yep. I detected that 'virus' Caro trying to access by database about a day ago. Why did you ever create such an invasive program for a man like Jacen ?] Monica asked.
"I was young and needed his help. He was the only one willing to provide me with the materials I needed to create your central processor." Amelia replied.
At the time, Amelia had recently been taken under the wing of Captain Dawson, after he'd found her trying to 'hack' into a planetary database. When Jacen had come to Dawson, he'd managed to persuade Amelia to create the program Caro. In return for the sophisticated 'worm' program Amelia had gained the Posetronic circuits that she had long required.
The program 'Caro' was designed to do two functions.
Firstly it was to attempt to infiltrate any computer system that it encountered and secondly it was to erase any sensitive information on the Talon and her crew. Caro had become the source of Jacen's power. With it he was able to gain access to thousands of computer systems, all unknown to anyone.
[So where do we go now ?] Monica asked.
Amelia thought for a moment, about what Jacen had told her about Keldon. Amelia and Captain Dawson had encountered Keldon on several occasions. An Andorian with no morales, he was the kind of person who would sell weapons of mass destruction to both sides in a war. Now it appeared that he'd stolen cloning cells from Section 31, which he'd allegedly sold to the Son'a.
"Monica, have you been monitoring communications whilst I've been gone." Amelia requested.
[Of course. I also noticed the departure of a Defiant class vessel about twenty hours ago, but I was unable to keep track of it once it left my scanner range. There was a distress call received a couple of hours before the vessel left, which originated in the vicinity of the New Canada system. I managed to decipher some of the message. From what I could discover the Son'a have attacked. There's been a colony on New Canada for over a month now and a group of engineers were sent from the Supply Base to construct a relay station a couple of days ago.] Monica replied.
"Been doing a little bit of sneaking around the supply bases' computer systems yourself." Amelia remarked.
[You weren't around much, so I had to do something to pass the time.] Monica remarked.
"OK. Let's set a course for New Canada, maximum speed." Amelia said.
[Course laid in. We'll reach the colony in about two days.] Monica replied.
Great, two days travelling. Maybe I can finally get my latest recovery installed. Amelia thought.
"I'm going to do some work on the main deflector array, let me know if we encounter anything unusual." Amelia said.
Amelia headed off the command deck and down into the bowels of the ship. She came to a hidden storage locker and opened it. Inside was a small device, which she had recently 'acquired' from a Romulan science scout vessel.
Amelia headed onwards to the deflector section of the ship and disabled the primary sensor array. She started to take the sensor array apart and once that had been accomplished she started to try and install the Romulan device.
Within six hours, Amelia had integrated the device into the forward sensor array and reconnected everything. The final action was to reactivate the sensor array.
She then headed back to the command deck to test out her new toy.
"Monica, run a level one diagnostic on the primary sensor array and give me an output check." Amelia asked.
[Running.... Primary sensor array is operating at 120 percent of standard.] Monica replied.
"Great, just as Joka had reported." Amelia remarked.
The new sensor relay had increased the power of the forward sensors by nearly 15 percent, more than Amelia had hoped. Amelia also hoped that it would detect cloaked vessels, as Joka had told her which was its primary function.
Joka was a Ferengi trader who regularly dealt with the Romulans. He was also a bragger and easy to bribe. When Amelia had overheard Joka talking about the Romulans looking for a lost test vessel, it hadn't taken much persuading (or gold pressed latinum) to get all the information Amelia required.
She'd soon discovered that the missing vessel was equipped with a new type of sensor system designed to detect cloaked vessels and had gone missing in the neutral zone. Amelia knew that others would pay a high premium for such a technology, including the Klingon Empire and the secretive Section 31 of Starfleet. Amelia also knew that the Romulans would do anything to get the device back.
"Time to get some sleep. See you in eight hours Monica." Amelia said as she headed down towards the living quarters.