Mutiny on the Bounty [Backpost]

Posted on 06 Jul 2025 @ 4:03pm by Lieutenant JG Faith Benson & Lieutenant Commander Remington Dodd & Lieutenant Commander Leland Hawksley & Lieutenant JG Tosrol Ze & 1st Lieutenant Cassandra Matthews

2,485 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: General Sim Postings
Location: Engineering Lab 3
Timeline: sometime prior to Captive State

Faith was yet again doing exactly what she was told not to do. After enough tests on the holodeck, she went back to practical tests. Of course it had to be off hours and when no one would be there. She also had to play around with disabling security. That of which wasn't a problem for her. Just loop feeds also and there we go.

She gave a sigh a little bit, "Okay..test number 389. Thrusters at 3 percent." Closing her eyes before flexing her wrists to push up. Lifting off of the ground a few feet before they fizzled out. Dropping her back down. Hawksley and Cassandra may or may not have noticed the excessive use of the holodeck and then an alert of a massive amount of data transfered to one of the engineering labs.


A few minutes prior-


Cassie had been monitoring the usage alright. It had been aggregating to say the least. She had needed to run a few training programs and kept finding it occupied even though she'd tried to reserve it. Though once she'd figured out it was Benson aggravation gave way to curiosity. What could Faith be doing in there all these hours? She'd even gone to Hawksley about it. Sharing her curiosity. Hoping that perhaps he might have some idea just what Faith might be up to. That's when the two had noticed that the data from that Holo suite had been transferred to Engineering lab 3. This was getting ever more curious by the minute. Like Scooby Doo it was time to solve a mystery.

"You see it Hawksley? she's was in there again. I was thinking it could be holodeck addiction. But now.. I'm not so sure." Cassandra asked a note of worry in her voice. "The program is encrypted maybe you can figure it out either way? Or do you suppose we just go drop in on her in the Engineering lab?". They could obviously use the Holo program for clues if they could decipher it.

Then again knowing Benson it was likely that the fastest way was simply to go find her and ask. But according to the Tomcat currently, Benson was supposably in the Holodeck again..."But.. but I thought she was in the lab..?" Cassandra muttered. "It's like her life sign blinked.."

This was getting beyond curious and touching onto bizarre. "I'll check the security feed, see if she has really gone into engineering lab three. This doesn't make any sense at all. Leland can you get the holodeck open? Better to double check. See if she's really in there now." Cassandra wondered if perhaps Benson had used the sight to sight transport.. but no.. looking it up nothing was in the current log.

Leland’s eyes fixated on his Engineering console. There certainly something going on. He didn’t understand it either. As far as he knew, Benson always had some sort of project ongoing in her spare time. One of them was… “Wait.” Hawksley closed his eyes in frustration and then blinked as if this was happening. “I think I know what Benson is up too.” And if it was her exoskeleton armored suit, last he was involved with her and Somers and there was a full stop on it.

This was not full stop. “Benson has been working on a prototype armored exoskeleton body suit. It has been a pet project of hers. Last I had involvement with Benson, I was prying her from a punched-out metal bulkhead in the Engineering Lab. She was told to stop at that moment by Somers herself.”

“What I don’t understand… There is slight emissions of an annular confinement beam resonating between the Engineering Lab and the Holodeck.” Hawksley punched in the lcars revealing a crude site to site type of energy. “This would be a good way of hiding a site to site on the Tomcat. Or even a type of cloak confusing onboard bio sensors.” Hawksley turned to Cassie.

“I can force the holodeck doors open by creating a false power feed back loop, triggering a low power, emergency open. It is a safety feature.” He looked to Cassandra in her eyes, not sure what they should do. He certainly didn’t want to get Benson in trouble, he liked her. He even found what she was working on was revolutionary to say the least. Just, wow. “She’s got balls!” Leland chuckled.

Little did the two of them know, they know they were about to have company.


Else where on the ship-


Ze had been searching for Benson for 20 minutes straight, he had left his office in that time =/\= Benson Where are you I need some help with some of these plans for the next mission ill come to you where ever you are =/\= he walked over to the nearest computer panel "computer show me where Lieutenant Benson is" he spoke as the little red dot showed her at the Hollowdeck "well I'm on my way there now" he spoke to him self as he walked into the turbo lift "Computer take me to the hollosuite" he spoke as the lift whooshed to life.


Holodeck corridor-


Leland was twisting his forearm up and into the bulkhead, the conduit outside of the holodeck master doors. The metal cowling set aside the hallway. Holodeck doors were tricky to open from the outside as there was many different protocols involved with accessing, breaking in to, or forcing open the doors. Leland had his metal engineering kit open showing a magnetic flux beam, throttle nozzle and an electrodynamic decoupled.

“I think I’ve found the-” ZZZZZTTTTtttt!!! A bright electro shock lit from inside the bulkhead, and then a waft of electric burning smell emanated. “Fawk!” Leland hit his head on the cowling in response to the shock. Pulling out his forearm from the conduit, he sucked his thumb that was blackened.

After a second, Hawksley looked at his engineering tricorder. The conduit had burnt out its locking relay. They would now need to re-code the door to open the holodeck. “I am sure Benson encrypted the doorway.”

Cassandra watched Leland work the panel searching for clues and a way into the program.

The sound of approaching foot steps caught Cassandra's attention. She glanced up to see the ships XO headed in their direction. "Oh boy.. he doesn't look exactly happy." Cassandra whispered to Leland tugging softly at his sleeve to get the engineers attention.

Leland knew Dodd well. He turned turned to see him walking their way. “Just…” Hawksley mumbled under his breath only enough for Cassandra to hear him. “Just play along…”
Cassandra straightened up from where she'd been leaning casually against the bulkhead, checking the security feeds in the Engineering lab areas on her Padd. To her surprise she had just saw the chief of security enter the lab from the feed. Then according to records shortly after the holodeck had locked up and encrypted and according to the computer her lifesigns signature had jumped from the lab in question back into the holodeck in front of them. It was alarming to say the least. What was Benson up to?

Cassandra offered the approaching XO a friendly smile and the customary salute, trying to not look as suspicious as they must look hacking into the holodeck program, er trying to, as they where.

When Dodd got closer Cassandra asked him respectfully,

"Anything we can help you with sir?"

“Sir.” Leland gave Dodd his respectful nod to his superior. “Yes. Anything at all.” No. They didn’t sound, nor look suspicious in the slightest!

"What in the name of the Great Bird of the Galaxy is going on here?" This is a great ship and we can't afford to damage it before we get our mission at Arth resolved." Dodd asked the two before him outside the Holodeck.

Cassandra looked to Hawksley, as if to say. 'well take the lead my friend.' she was ready to follow.

Hawksley held a huge grin, his teeth white and clasped together as he stared at Dodd. Dodd was a good man, a strong man, and someone that Leland relied on, almost like a father to him out in space. He learned Engineering, the morals, and what it meant to be an Engineering Officer and never to let the crew down.

He hated stretching the truth. Lately, he had to do this so much that he couldn’t stand it.

“Dodd, Sir. You have my assurance. This mess. This conduit will be cleaned up in a matter of moments. You see here…” Now, this was the thinking outside the box part. He turned to Cassandra’s eyes, his retinas blazing in pure agony of the lie.

Leland shrugged nonchalantly. “…I needed to fix a filament module for Lt. Matthews. Her quarter's lighting was stuck on some sort of strobe effect.” Leland closed his eyes and shook his head. “Can’t tell you what type of party she was going for in there, but I fixed it now.” Hawksley grinned at Dodd.

Cassandra nodded in agreement with Hawksley. "Yeah, I was trying to set something up to help the Marines blow off some steam before the big mission air. Mazal... Er.. Captain Falk has been pretty big on the teams bonding and everything I was trying to help out. Unfortunately I seem to be a bit rusty in building such elaborate programs." They where in this together. A penny and a pound. "He almost undid my boo boo." She hated it. Hated more that this was the second lie she had had to ask of her poor friend here. The first being to get Mazal to her surprise party. Now this. She was bringing to think she might be a bad influence on the poor chief engineer.

"You both know I can tell if you are not being truthful with me, right?" Dodd replied very firmly. "Now I demand the truth."

Cassandra glanced over at Hawksley. Her eyes full of apology. She didn't dare trying their lucky a second time. "We are trying to figure out what Benson is up to... The security feed shows her in engineering lab three. But the computer it saying she's in the Holodeck and it's locked up and encoded..." Cassandra looked to the XO. "I asked Hawksley to help me get in. I take full responsibility."

Hawksley stated "I take full responsibility for my participation. I obliged to help the Lieutenant." Leland didn't want Cassandra to take all the heat when he decided to find out what LeFebvre was up to.

"Great, I noticed something was awry and so I came to see what was up." Dodd replied. "So Hawksley, manually enter 'Alpha Omega One Zero One Zero Whiskey Tango Foxtrot Two Four Delta."

Leland nodded and affirmed to Dodd. He felt bad for not being truthful to his superior. He had hoped this didn't damage his relationship with Dodd. Leland used his engineering tricorder to initiate the code access that Lt. Commander Dodd riffed off.

Looking at the panel, Hawksley watched the holodeck program access to the grid open. "We have access, Sir," Leland stated.

"Great, my chief engineer codes still work." Dodd stated. "I had them buried deep in the coding to allow me access to the ship's systems in this type of situation. It has only failed me once and that was when the computer core was removed completely and the subsystems could not recognize the code."

Inside a program ran in fragments. Parts of the room looked like an engineering lab only more advanced, patches of the program fizzled into the crossing of the energy grid. One thing was obvious though Faith Benson was nowhere to be found.

"Faith. Lt. Benson are you in here?" Leland called out as he entered through the holodeck arches. There was a weird smell in the air, almost like burning wire. "Does anyone else smell that?" Hawksley had turned to Dodd.

"Yeah, I smell it... Like ozone smell... Burnt metal and plastic." Cassie confirmed.

"I think if you did a containment field around the holodeck and vacuumed out the air, you may be able to restart the the air filtering system and that will help." Dodd replied. "However, the program that is running on the grid seems to be intermeshed with two other programs that do not seem to be by the same authors. I know as one of the panels on that station to the left is from a program I wrote when I was the chief engineer and it was sealed for specific reason."

Cassandra looked around at the chaos within. What the heck was Benson up to? One thing was obvious though. "Faiths not in here... But it's still reading that she is. Should I go check the engeerning lab for visual confirmation Incase something has gone fruity with the Holodeck?" She asked. Obviously something was already going fruity she just wanted to make sure Benson wasn't trapped or hurt or anything.

“I don’t know about you. But now I want a red delicious apple.” Hawksley looked to Cassandra and Dodd. He was placing his hands at his side. “I will execute an air evac procedure and check the holodeck matrix diodes. The gasses could have hampered the emitter's laser abilities.” He shook his head.

“Computer, where is Lt. Benson?” Leland asked.

“Lt. Benson is currently in her quarters, Deck 07, crew cabin D7-117.” The computer replied.

Cassandra looked at her Padd again. The security camera hadn't showed her leaving engineering lab 3. It was all so confusing. "Leave it to Benson to keep things this interesting. With permission I'll go check her quarters." Cassandra offered.

Faith hadn't even programmed anything to show she was in her quarters, so that was beyond her; not that she knew at the moment the computer was even showing that. It was probably just part of another code she'd used and forgot to take out this time.

Either way, she had done a number more tweaks. This time she got the results that she wanted and didn't fly herself into a wall. She was pretty happy with the results she'd gotten this time. Starting to get the thrusters/stabilizers off and packing them up.


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Lt Jg Tosrol Ze

 

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