Off The Rails

Posted on Tue Jul 4th, 2023 @ 10:23am by Lieutenant Ty-Yak Novo & Ensign Peter Novak & Lieutenant Shinobu Miyake & Ensign Avis Larant

0 words; about a 1 minute read

Mission: Mission 3: The Peace Ship
Location: Deck 16: Main Engineering
Timeline: M3 MD04 (2268.6.14) 1700-1800

Lt. Miyake's last orders to Ensign Peter Novak had been to assemble a security team to follow Lt. Novo at all times while he was under investigation for sabotage. Their other assignment was to watch for anything unusual in main engineering especially if it turned out that Novo wasn't the saboteur.

So far Peter had tried to contain his boredom. For the past three hours he'd watched engineers run around the large bag at random. All Novo seem to do was mess with something, scream at someone, then instantly focus on something else... If you could call it focus.

"Feel like this is a waste of time?" Peter asked Avis. He was leaning on the bulkhead, but he had done security long enough to make it look like he wasn't leaning.

Avis had been summoned to security and ordered to be part of the team which would keep a close watch on this Lt. Novo. It was obvious that the brass didn't trust him but at the same time he was not in the brig, so that was something. No matter, orders were orders. Avis reported for duty and there was Peter. She had smiled at him but otherwise kept her 'on duty' demeanor with the young man. Avis always took her job seriously.

Avis was not leaning, she was ramrod straight and alert, eyes not on her boyfriend but on Novo, watching his every move.

"I have no idea. But we were told to watch him so that's what we do. This is the sort of thing you signed up to do when you joined security you know?" she answered him.

"I was hoping to do more investigating than guarding, but I guess we sort of are investigating," Peter commented, "All's the same, I'm glad we have Miyake as a boss and not Novo... Sheesh."

Avis frowned but lowered her voice lest their 'observed' hear though he seemed preoccupied with acting stupidly, "He's crazy. We need some medical person who can come to that conclusion and get him off this ship on a medical discharge."

She was determined though if Novo tried anything too crazy she was going to drop him to the deck without hesitation, she even had her phaser already set to stun.

Novo was giving orders an explaining a chamber intermix protocol when one of the consoles on the upper deck started to beep. He stopped mid-sentence and immeditately dropped the diagnostic tool in his hand. He headed towards one of the consoles at the side of the ship and started to pull random knobs.

Something was very wrong... Ensign Carter Page, one of the junior damage control officers, looked at Peter and Avis, "Stop him!" he yelled.

Peter immediately straightened up and bolted towards Novo.

Avis did not hesitate, she raised her phaser and fired past Peter to hit Novo full on. That should stop him alright. Or at the very least leave him wide open for Peter to tackle him to the floor.

The phaser blast didn't deter Novo much, but it was enough to get him off balance. Of course nothing could stop the freight train that was hurdling towards him. Peter wrestled him to the ground. Novo kept fighting as the warning klaxons were going off around main engineering.

Carter was at the control panel, quickly undoing Novo's damage.

The aggressive part of Avis was tempted, just for a second, to turn the phaser to vaporize the man but that would both risk Peter and probably annoy those in charge. So she hit the safety, holstered it and then charged over to assist Peter in subduing the madman. With two of them working at it, hopefully that would be enough.

Peter took out his handcuffs and forcibly slid them around Novo's wrists. He was still fighting, in a crazed trance-like state. He looked up to Carter, "Call security for backup and the chief!" He yelled.

The young pipsqueak ensign who was now just staring at them snapped into focus and nodded before hitting the communicator attached to the wall, "Security to Engineering on the double, alert Lt. Miyake."

---

Lieutenant Miyake arrived on the scene in less than 10 minutes' time, a team of at least 4 security officers behind her and prepared for the worst.

"What in the Sam Hell is going on in here?!" she barked as her team arrived in Engineering to find Peter, Avis, and no less than three other security officers piled up on top of Novo and attempting to restrain him.

Avis was among those struggling, it made no sense, how was this guy so strong? It's not like the security officers weren't fit and well trained in this sort of thing. Of course maybe their numbers were getting in the way?

Avis looked up, "We were ordered to watch him in case he tried anything. Well, he tried something."

The rest was all a bit obvious.

"We could... Use a hand... L.T.," Pete responded while trying to keep Novo down. "Could someone tranquilize him or something?" he offered, the sweat pouring down from his pale forehead. Despite his size and strength he was having a difficult time.

Avis was trying to hold down the man's legs. This guy couldn't be human?

"Alright," Shinobu replied, setting her phaser to the highest non-lethal stun setting and aiming it directly at Novo's head. "Everyone stand back!"

The security officers quickly got off of Novo and stood back. Peter barely got out of the way. His red uniform shirt was ripped, revealing his muscular frame. Avis rolled away as fast as she could.

Shinobu wrapper her finger around the trigger and took a deep breath.

"I'm sorry, Novo."

She squeezed the trigger.

The crazed officer jolted to his feet and was about to lunge towards Shinobu.

"What the hell?" Avis got to a kneel as she watched the man still not collapse.

Again.

Novo dropped to his knees, revealing his face. It was clear the lights were on and nobody was home.

Once more.

Finally Novo dropped to the floor, out cold.

Once Novo had finally stopped resisting, Shinobu moved over to check his pulse; it was a little faint, but stable. He'd make a full recovery in a few days' time.

"I want some answers," she began, standing up and turning her attention to Peter and Avis. "Just what caused Lieutenant Novo to go berserk, and why were five of you struggling to subdue him?"

"Ask the other engineer officer about why he went crazy, I didn't notice anything and I had my eyes on him."

As for why five of them were struggling, that question did not even deserve an answer. They had been doing their best for crissake. Avis just glared at her superior but Peter now spoke up.

"L.T.," Peter said, finally regaining his breath, "He was just working as normal... At least his normal... Then a chirp went off from one of the upper consoles and he just went nuts... Started moving dials. Ensign Page..." He stopped and looked at the young man, "Alerted us and we took him down... At least tried."

Shinobu glanced up at the consoles situated on some of the upper Engineering decks. It was evident that the gears were turning in her head, and she was beginning to piece together a sequence of events that may have lead up to Lieutenant Novo's recent episode.

"Do any of you happen to know where the source of that chirping noise may have originated from?" She inquired, turning her attention back to the security team.

"No, I've no qualifications or experience in engineering," Avis didn't know what a lot of noises meant in this department.

"Just a status indicator lieutenant," Carter Page said from the offending console, "Just indicating that a diagnostic was completed."

A confused look came over Peter's face, "Lieutenant..." he started, remembering the case notes on Novo which he and Avis were required to read, "If I recall correctly the sabotage occured right after Novo finished a diagnostic... That tone could very well be the trigger." He fixed his blonde hair which was now in his face due to the brawl.

Avis blinked, well score one for Peter. Guess he wasn't just a muscle bound hunk?

"Exactly what I'm thinking," Shinobu replied. "Tell me, do either of you know about the basic theory of classical conditioning?"

"10 words or less, subject is conditioned to react a certain way based upon a trigger," Peter responded, finally catching his breath.

OK, so now he was just showing off, thought Avis.

"Bingo," Shinobu replied. "So my theory is that at some point, that specific tone was drilled into Lieutenant Novo's head, to the point where simply hearing it puts him into a trance-like state that causes him to perform a series of actions that he doesn't even realize he's doing. Thing is, that still leaves a lot of questions- When and where would he have had the time to be conditioned like this, especially given the man's never even met a Romulan before?"

Avis was uncertain why the lieutenant was so sure a Romulan might be behind this? Of course maybe she had access to information Avis had no clue about.

"Where are we taking him lieutenant?" Asked one of the security officers who was holding up Novo's limp form, "His quarters or the brig?"

"Place him in the brig for now," Shinobu ordered. "Until we have some clear-cut answers, he could pose a risk to us at any time."

"Peter, could use a hand," the security officer holding Novo said to Ensign Novak.

Peter nodded and walked over, picking up Novo's legs as they hauled his limp form towards the door.

Shinobu watched in silence as they led Novo away turning her attention back to Peter and Avis.

"Looks like I'm going to have quite the report for Captain Faust," she sighed. "You two feel free to go on ahead; I'll catch up with you shortly."

 

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