1. You wanted it, you got it. Another chapter since it's been a good while since the last one.
2. Blatant B5 reference. But hey, I'm only quoting one of the best characters in the entire show.
3. Also, blatant movie reference. Yay!
4. Immy swearing. Those who are... er... sensitive to that sort of thing might want to cover their ears, close their eyes, skip this entire chapter... whatever makes you feel better.
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“Two? Two! What’s your status?” In frustration, Falynn pounded a gloved hand against the durasteel door that had sealed two of her troopers (one of them her younger sister) into what was looking very much like a deathtrap. “Seven, do you copy? Seven, this is One. Acknowledge, over!” She dialed up the gain on her tactical radio, but when no answer was forthcoming, she whirled around to where Omega Five was busy tinkering with the door’s control circuits. “Damn it! Jan, get this door open!”
“I’m trying, but this is even trickier than trying to replicate my great great grandmother’s turnip-rum-cake recipe. I never could get that one right. Always used too much turnip, and not enough rum. Or maybe it was too much rum and not enough turnip. Hmmm, now that I think about it, the real secret behind Grandma-ma’s recipe was probably the rum. Use enough Turmish rum and anything will taste good. My great great grandfather always used to say-”
Falynn ground her teeth together. “Jaheira, could you do me a favor, please? When they court-martial me for cutting his tongue out with my combat knife, would you testify in my defense?”
“I don’t think that will be possible, seeing as how I’m going to kill him first.”
“Raven, this is Harlequin, can you read me?”
Falynn’s eyes went skyward for a moment, and she mouthed a silent “Thank you” to whoever might be listening. “I copy, Omega Two. Now could you please tell me just what the frack is going on in there?!”
Imoen’s voice came back grim. “Our Dominion pals rigged up a little surprise for us – a little surprise with a really big bang. I’m working on getting the access panel off – stand by. Cipher… Cipher, wake up. Here… hang on to this for just a second. I need my hands free to pry this thing loose.” There was the brief clatter of metal, some manner of rustling, and then a low, drawn-out whistle. “Well… butter my backside and call me a biscuit. They’ve got some motion sensors in here, and a couple of biorhythm scanners. That’s how they picked up on us in the first place.”
“That’s just wonderful, Imoen,” Falynn said, sarcastically. “But can we praise the wonderful orcish design of this thing -after- you’ve prevented it from vaporizing you?”
“I’m working on that. Need a little more light here, Seven. Little lower. That’s it. Hold that beam steady so I can see.”
“Well?”
The noise that followed over the open communications line was definitely a sigh. “One, there’s a lot of anti-tampering gear in here. Looks like some pretty sensitive gyros inside, too – we even try to move this thing, and it’ll set off a premature detonation.”
“Can you defuse it?”
“Don’t have much choice but to try. I… oh, fuck me.”
Outside, Falynn took in a slow, shuddering breath. “Sis, my nerves are just about ready to implode on themselves here. Please quit saying stuff like that…”
“Sorry. But I’ve got some bad news, and some really bad news. The bad news is that there’s a canister of nerve agent tied into the system to… discourage anyone messing with it. The really bad news is that there’s enough high explosive and poison gas in this thing to blow the whole room and kill everyone within a couple of hundred meters.” Imoen spared a second to glance over her shoulder. Nalia’s hand had started trembling slightly, and the flashlight beam danced a little to reflect that.
“So… this is how I’m going to die,” she whispered to herself.
Imoen switched off her mike for a brief moment, “Not if I can help it,” then flicked it back on. “Omega One, recommend you evacuate the rest of the team, pronto. Clear to safe distance.”
“Hell no, Two, we’re getting you out of there! Just stand by. Five’s working on the door, we’ll have you out in a minute.”
“Negative on that. The Dominion probably gimmicked the control circuits so I doubt Ratchet’s gonna be able to get that door open the same way we did the first time. There’s no way he’s going to be able to get us out of here before this thing goes off. We’ve got one chance, and that’s to shut this bomb down before it explodes… and, uh… you’re kinda distracting me from it.” There was a strained, but still mildly sarcastic tone to Imoen’s voice as she spoke those words, but the lightly amused tone quickly gave way to grit and determination. “Back everyone off, Lead. Do it.”
“Imoen, if anything happens to you and Nalia…” she left the rest of the threat unvoiced.
“I’m aware.”
“How much time on the detonator?”
“Two and a half minutes… well, two minutes, twenty-eight seconds, now. Get out of here, Lead. Go!”
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“What do you mean, ‘cut the blue wire?!’ They’re all blue wires!”
“Ensign! Calm down, ok? You can do this… you have to do this. Um… because if you don’t, we’re dead.”
“Oh, yeah, that’s really helping my nerves.”
Imoen sighed and tried to keep her frustrations in check. She knew Cipher was still a rookie at all of this, but she’d exhibited the ability to learn and adapt quickly. Right now, that was critical to their continued survival. “Well, get over it. Fast. I can talk you through the process, but you’re the only one of us with a free set of hands. Just do what I tell you, and we’ll be laughing about this over breakfast tomorrow, ok?”
Nalia was only a few steps short of panic at this point, but she was somehow managing to screw up enough… pluck… to keep herself moderately reined in. Her hands were shaking as she fumbled with a set of wire cutters. “All… all right.”
Imoen’s tone flattened – becoming almost conversational – as if she were in a classroom teaching cadets the basics of “explosive ordnance disposal.” She hoped her voice would have a calming effect. At times like this, cooler heads tended to prevail… specifically, cooler heads also tended not to get blown into their component atoms. “This thing’s got several redundant circuits built into it. If we don’t disable them first, the bomb will realize we’re screwing with it. That means we’ve got to disable those circuits -before- we mess with the rest of it. Now, one of the wires is blue with orange leads near the ends. Do you see that one?”
“Yeah… yeah, I’ve got it.”
“All right. That leads to the auxiliary power source that operates the anti-intrusion detectors. We’re going to need to kill that one first. Nothing fancy, just cut the wire near the end closest to me. That one wire and no others, got that?”
”I really wish you were doing this.” She took in a ragged, shuddering breath.
“No offense, Seven, but so do I. Unfortunately, silly me tripped one of the failsafes. If I move my hands, we die. I’d like to avoid that.”
“Ok. Blue wire… orange leads. Got it!” A quick snip of the cutters, and one end of the wire dropped a few inches downwards, its loose end dangling in mid-air.
“Good. Now that the secondary power’s out, we can isolate the anti-intrusion mechanisms. This is where things get fun. Yellow wire with the black striping, and the blue wire with the red striping. Find ‘em.”
A half second or so of searching, before Nalia’s keen vision spotted the targets in question. She nodded briefly. “Got ‘em.”
“All right. Here’s what you need to do. You need to strip the insulation off both wires. Careful, though. Don’t let them touch each other, and don’t let them touch the sides of the outer casing. You short circuit either of those two before it’s time…”
“We die. Right! I got it. You can stop mentioning that now, Lieutenant.”
“Just trying to motivate you properly.”
“Well, thanks, but not really necessary. Ok. Insulation’s gone. Now what?”
Still keeping her voice as steady and even as possible, Imoen proceeded with directing Nalia through the rest of the process. “Take the yellow, cut it, then wrap the end that’s connected to the triggering mechanism – that’s the end closest to you – around the exposed part of the blue. Do it fast. Last, snip the blue and disconnect it from the detonator. We want the junction to go from the yellow section at the detonator, to the blue section, and then have the blue trail into my end. You got all that?”
“Cut yellow, attach to blue, cut blue. On it…”
“Good job. We’re almost there.”
“How much time?”
Harlequin didn’t even bother to glance at the countdown timer. She’d been keeping a running tally in her head. “Enough. Trust me. There’s only one thing left to do. See that thick, green wire?”
“It runs from the detonator directly to the explosives.”
“That’s the one. It branches, so you’ll need to find the other ends. They should be connected to two other spots on the detonator. You see them?”
“Uhhh… yeah. I got ‘em.”
“Ok. Get this last step done, and we’re clear. First connection: the one near the electro-torsion disc.”
“The what?”
“It’s red, and triangular…”
Nalia shot her a confused look, but it quickly switched to an expression of mild realization. She bit down on her lower lip and chewed, thoughtfully. “You mean the thing that looks like a slice of pizza with an eyeball on it?”
“It’s an electro-torsion disc.”
“Why can’t you just call it the eyeball-pizza-thingie?!”
“Whatever! Cut that one first. Then find the one next to the thermal coupler… uh… the… uh… green thing that looks like half a kiwi fruit… cut that second. Then, cut the lead between the detonator and the payload. Do all three of them in one run. Fast.”
Nalia took another breath, trying her best to keep it slow and even. Her body wanted to hyperventilate, but that wouldn’t do either her or Imoen any favors. “Okay… okay, I can do that…” She reached out with the wire cutters, fighting back the tremors in her hand. She cut the first lead, then the second…
“Any time now…”
“And… three!” Belatedly, Nalia realized that she’d closed her eyes just before severing that last connection. She slowly opened them back up, seeing the room exactly the same way she’d left it about a second or two previously. “Did… did we blow up yet?”
Imoen broke out into a wide grin. “Yep. That’s why you’re still talking.”
“Ha-hah! All right! We did it! Suck it, bomb!” She pointed emphatically at the now-inert parcel of explosives and metal.
Imoen chuckled and gave Nalia a congratulatory pat on the back. “Nice job, Seven. Omega Two to Omega One. Package neutralized. Get us the hell out of here!”
In the corridor, a short distance away from the blast doors leading into the facility’s control room, Falynn allowed herself to sag against the wall in relief. “No boom?” she said into her communications microphone.
“No boom.”
Vixen came up behind her, wearing a small smirk across her half-elven features. She rested a hand on Falynn’s shoulder. “No boom today. Boom tomorrow. With Imoen, there’s always a boom tomorrow.”
Falynn snickered at the comment, but the rest of the team simply stared at their medic in mild disbelief. Jaheira shrugged. “What? Someone has to have some perspective around here. Boom. Sooner or later… boom!”
