In My Enemy's House [Part 3]
Posted on Thu Nov 20th, 2025 @ 5:22am by Lieutenant JG Kurumi Hatanaka & Commander Chisato Nishikigi & Lieutenant Jasad Yuvek & Lieutenant Nezuko & Lieutenant Teneca Quinn & Lieutenant Takina Inoue & Lieutenant Mizuki Nakahara
1,426 words; about a 7 minute read
Mission:
The Return
Location: Disabled Herald Raider
Timeline: A few minutes after Part 2
Previously on "Star Trek: Tokyo":
"Your suggestion has been taken into consideration, Lieutenant," Chisato noted. "However, I think we can all agree that, in the event of an ambush- and there is a very high likelihood of there being one- we stand to benefit from having strength in numbers. So, regardless of whether it’s 10 minutes or 2 hours, my orders stand- we will not be separating the group."
Nezuko nodded. The point was well taken.
Yuvek's jaw clenched visibly, his grip tightening on the Herald staff until his knuckles went pale. For a moment, he looked like he wanted to argue further, but instead he gave a single, sharp nod.
"Understood, Commander," he said, his voice clipped and formal. "Your orders."
The words were correct, professional even, but the tension in his shoulders and the hard set of his ridged features made his displeasure unmistakable. He stepped back into formation, positioning himself toward the rear of the group where he could watch their six.
Strength in numbers, he thought bitterly. Tell that to the Kanna. Tell that to Amerind. Numbers didn't save them.
And now... the continuation!
As the away team took the left passage they soon entered a huge cavernous room. It was far bigger than any of the corridors, by Starfleet standards it was at least eight decks high. In the center were two huge circular cut outs in the floor. Each circle was at least twenty meters in diameter and one could see the room proceeded downwards as much as it did upwards.
"Jesus Christ..." Mizuki gasped as she took in the sheer scale of the chamber.
In the very center of each circle stretching from bottom floor to ceiling were two huge plumes of orange and purple energy. The energy swirled and danced in circles much like a warp core, but much bigger. Around the circles four pedestals from earlier each with the fancy floating ball over them stood, the ball spinning slowly.
Nezuko pointed to the swirling energy, and signed to Chisato something she’d taught her not long ago. {Found it.}
"That I think we did, Lieutenant," Chisato agreed as she pulled out her tricorder and moved over to investigate.
Smirking behind her respirator, Nezuko started scanning. She set her tricorder to read short phrases she typed out loud. “Energy equivalent to fifty warp cores. No Omega detected.”
"So what is it, exactly?" Takina asked aloud. "Their idea of a warp core, or some kind of over-complicated super-computer?"
Teneca pulled out her own tricorder. "Whatever it is, my tricorder is having trouble identifying some of the materials that its constructed from." She said.
Kurumi looked around, waving her tricorder around. "They must have some form of computer terminal in here somewhere..." she said a hint of frustration in her tone. "How are we supposed to get Intel with no interfaces?!"
Nezuko got Kurumi to look at her. Then she tapped next to her eye. Watch. Then she tapped her head. Learn.
Even if it couldn’t recognize a lot of the materials, her tricorder was able to parse the basics of the structure, including the closest thing it had to a computer processor, which was at a high level similar to the one on the Dyson Sphere. She smiled as she typed away, and a moment later she brought up her speaking app. “When no interface is found, make one.”
A light on her tricorder turned green. She nodded to Chisato.
"Link your tricorder to mine," Kurumi suggested. "We can combine the processing power "
Nezuko nodded and within a few seconds, the two handheld devices were linked, sharing bandwidth and processor power.
"This is very complex," Kurumi said as she looked over the interface.
"Bingo; we're in," Chisato proclaimed. "What are we looking at, Kurumi-Chan?"
"I think I can activate one of their consoles..." Kurumi stated. She tapped at her tricorder and narrowed her eyes as she attended to bypass their security. 'I think I have something..."
Instantly the pedestals with the floating balls all changed. Holographic screens appeared over them with interface controls. "Oh... So those are Iconian consoles..." Kurumi stated. "Looks like those balls are like the holoprojectors or interface nodes. That makes sense now..." she looked over at Chisato. "We're should download what we can from each of them."
"Then let's get cracking," Chisato nodded.
"Initiating a link." Kurumi stated as she moved over to a console and began to examine its interface. "Lieutenant Nezuko. I believe these are data access consoles. We should be able to get something, but I have no idea what."
Nezuko stood beside Kurumi and nodded in agreement. “Anything would be useful. Can run cursory exam now, and sift through data later. Preserver artifact helpful for that.”
"Agreed." Kurumi stated as she used her tricorder to translate the interface. "The UT isn't doing well with the translation. Their language must be so vastly different that its having a hard time translating it." She sighed.
"There's gotta be something in there that we can use as a reference point," Chisato speculated. "We know that they're in cahoots with the Elachi, so... perhaps there's some kind of correspondence between the two that may have been transcribed in both Elachi and Iconian languages?"
Kurumi scowled as she tried more translation matricies. "I'm not a language expert." she grumbled. "But, I'm getting some basic words here and there. This room seems to be configured a little like what our Main Engineering. Much of this data seems to be related to ship functions."
Both Chisato and Nezuko moved over to get a better look.
"Let's see... Ooh, what's this?" Chisato asked, indicating to a strange looking set of controls.
"That seems to be some sort of control panel for their warp drive system, or maybe the gateways. I'm not sure..." Kurumi explained.
"Well, if they can just use their gateway network to get wherever they need to instantaneously, then what would be the need for them to use a warp drive?" Mizuki pointed out.
"Perhaps they've had to reckon with the possibility of their network being compromised?" Chisato hypothesized. "Some sort of critical flaw in their system they've identified, but haven't been able to overcome?"
"Maybe gateways aren't always useable?" Kurumi suggested. "If we can find out then it would be a huge tactical advantage."
"Like some sort of interference?" Chisato speculated. "Say, an ion storm or solar flare?"
"No idea. That information isn't here, at least I don't think its here..." Kurumi replied. "I imagine that sort of information would be deep within their computers and probably heavily encrypted. I highly doubt even I could break into that. Their computers are so advanced I'm not getting through anything apart from basic access." she let out a sigh of frustration.
Chisato was about to speak up when suddenly all of their comm badges started going off.
"What in the butt-?"
=A=Tokyo to Away Teams,=A= Came Captain Aisaka's voice. =A=Return immediately. We're going to have to beam any lifesigns from the Denmark aboard with you and deal with them later." Taiga ordered. "Starbase 234 is under attack and is sending out a general distress call. Report back and take up your battlestations.=A=
"Wait, they're what?!" Chisato squawked as the transmission cut.
A moment of awkward silence fell over the away team as it dawned on them what was going on.
"Crap," Chisato muttered as she ran a hand through her hair. "Alright, wrap it up, Kurumi-Chan, we gotta get a move on!"
"I got as much as I could..." Kurumi muttered as she disconnected their tricorders.
Lieutenant Yuvek's comm badge chirped with Captain Taiga's urgent order, and his entire body tensed.
Three weeks. Three weeks into this war and they're already hitting our starbases.
His jaw tightened as the implications settled in. Starbase 234 wasn't just a repair facility - it was home to thousands of personnel, civilians, families. And if the Iconians were hitting it with the same force they'd used on Amerind...
At least I'll be back at my station. Back where I can actually do something. He thought as he began to ready himself to head back to the beam-out site.
To be continued...
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