Sierra Devore : Warrior Princess

Two hours later…

"What do you mean, the holographic systems have been isolated ?" Chu remarked to Lieutenant Karrie.

Lieutenant Commander Barker was in the Captain’s ready room, along with Lieutenant Karrie and Lieutenant Commander Devore.

"Just that Commander." Karrie replied. "All the holographic systems have been isolated from the main computer systems. We can’t contact the Captain or any of the crew whilst they are in there."

"I knew I should have made Marc take a communicator with him." Sierra remarked the anger and frustration in her voice at her husbands stupidity.

"Why don’t we just shut the program down ?" Chu asked.

"The power for the holodecks have also been isolated, we can’t shut them down either." Karrie replied.

"This looks like the work of our gremlin friends again." Sierra remarked. "Can we beam them out ?"

"I’m afraid not Commander, we’ve got malfunctions in the transporter system too, the targeting scanners are off-line. We can’t lock onto any of the crew in the holodeck to beam them out." Karrie replied.

"Then there’s only one thing to do." Chu remarked.

"And what would that be ?" Sierra asked.

"Someone’s going to have to go in and get them out." Chu replied.

"But how do you intend to get in ?" Sierra asked.

"Using the transporters." Chu stated. "Karrie, am I right in thinking that you can manually set the targeting system."

"Yes." Karrie replied. "But it’ still risky."

"Then we’ll do a test before I transport in." Chu replied confidently.

"You." Sierra remarked.

"Yes Commander. I’m probably the most familiar member of the crew with the holo-systems." Chu stated.

"And as your first officer, I must protest. You are putting yourself into the unknown, we don’t even know if the safety protocols are still working." Sierra remarked, looking at Karrie.

"Well, it is entirely possible that the protocols are off-line, which would mean that you could be injured or possibly killed." Karrie stated.

"I know the risks Commander, but who knows what’s happening to the crew in there." Chu said. "The Captain is important to this crew, without him I doubt the Leviathan will get home. I’m willing to take that risk."

"As am I." Sierra said, "I’m coming with you."

"If you insist." Chu remarked not giving an argument.

We’ll meet in transporter room one in half an hour. I’ve already had our equipment sent there. Plus you’ll find your ‘costume’ in your quarters." Chu remarked.

"You had all this planned didn’t you ?" Sierra asked a half smile on her face.

"Well why should the Captain have all the fun." Chu replied. "As soon as I heard about the malfunctions, I suspected that the holo-systems may have been affected."

"I’ll see you in half an hour then." Sierra replied, leaving the ready room.

Karrie and Chu followed, a few minutes later.

Shale was at the helm.

"Shale, you’re in charge until we get back." Chu said.

Half an hour later….

Sierra walked into the transporter room. Her costume was pretty revealing, being made entirely of brown leather, emblazoned with golden decoration. The outfit consisted of a corset-cum dress with a very short skirt, which stopped at the top of Sierra’s thighs. Her shoulders were bare, apart from the two leather straps that held the corset half of the outfit on her upper body. She was also wearing a pair of leather boots, which came just over her knees. Whenever she walked, the outfit squeaks and creaked.

"Is this your idea of a joke ?" Sierra asked, her discomfort about her outfit obvious.

"I think it looks good on you." Chu replied. He was wearing a pair of leather trousers and a hide shirt. Try this for size."

Chu handed Sierra a long sword, in a leather sheath, decorated in the same style as her outfit. Sierra ‘hung’ the sword over her back and then drew it out of its sheath from over her shoulder.

"It feels a little light." Sierra remarked, carefully swinging the weapon around in the air.

"There’s more to that sword than meets the eye." Chu said, holding out his hand for the sword.

Sierra lowered the sword and passed it back across to Chu. He took the sword and touched Sierra’s bare calf. Immediately she jumped back as a bolt of electricity went through her leg.

"I had it modified to emit a high energy pulse, you can adjust the level here by turning the end of the handle." Chu explained, handed the sword back to Sierra who carefully placed it back into its sheath.

"And what about you ?" Sierra asked. "Do you have a weapon ?"

Chu reached behind his back and pulled out a slightly larger but essentially identical sword.

"This one’s slightly different." Chu remarked as he pressed a button on the handle. Immediately the sword blade split in two and the sword started to hum. "This one can fire energy bolts. It’s got a range of about twenty metres, but it’s our advantage."

Chu pressed the button again and the sword blade rejoined. Chu replaced the sword on his back and turned to step onto the transporter platform.

It was then that Sierra noticed Chu’s second weapon, the Jem’hadar dagger. Sierra recognised the weapon immediately, it was the same dagger that was Chu’s most prized possession. No one had any idea why Chu had such a weapon in his possession or what the dagger meant symbolically.

"Let’s go." Chu said.

Sierra joined him on the transporter and they both disappeared, re-appearing seconds later in the holodeck.

They both looked around at their new surroundings. They appeared to have been transported into a heavily wooded area. Quickly Chu pointed to a clump of trees where their presence wouldn’t be noticed. Once out of sight, Chu started feeling the trunks of the tree until one of them clicked, revealing a holodeck control system.

"It’s just as we thought, the safety protocols are off-line." Chu remarked. "Which means that from now on, we treat everything we see as a threat."

"Can you disable the holodeck systems from this console ?" Sierra asked.

"I’m afraid not." Chu replied. "This is only a system monitor, we’d need to find the master console to have any chance of disabling the system."

"Then I guess we’ll have to find it." Sierra replied.

"First, let’s find the Captain and the rest of the crew. We’ll have more chance of finding the master console with their help." Chu remarked, closing the panel on the tree trunk.

"So which way ?." Sierra asked.

"That way." Chu replied, pointing in the direction of a path.

It didn’t take them long to come on another clearing. As they got closer, they saw the bodies of strange creatures. All of them were dead.

"Do you think these are our gremlins ?" Chu enquired.

"They look more like…. Goblins." Sierra replied. "But look at this."

They both saw the device that Sierra pointed out and stepped across to take a closer look.

"It’s a type-one phaser, heavily damaged, but a phaser all the same. As far as I’m aware, the Captain didn’t bring any modern weapons along did he ?"

"No." Sierra replied. "He wanted everything to be as authentic as possible."

"Then one of our little ‘friends’ here must have been the ‘owner’." Chu said. "Which means the odds may be in their favour."

"Look footprints and from the look of them, their heavy boots." Sierra pointed out on the floor.

There were definitely footprints and larger than those that would have been made by the goblins. But most had been covered over, hiding them from sight, whoever had done this didn’t want anyone to find them, which probably meant an experienced soldier, someone like Major Phanan or Dukal.

"Let’s follow them." Sierra said a clear tone of optimism in her voice.

"Wait a moment." Chu replied. He looked around and found a large branch. Quickly he ‘wiped’ away the remaining footprints, along with those the two of them had made. "Now we can go."