"Sacrifice"
(Previous Post: "Prelude to the Hunt")
======================================
Setting: NEW ALEXANDRIA, Section E8-3, Room 12
=/\= All the beer in Munich can't console them, =/\= The music blared in
Norheim’s Lab. He was off duty, so he wore jeans, and a shirt that said
"Star Fleet Demolition Inc. We Blow Away the Competition!" and a
picture of a Defiant class firing a phaser. He worked on a modified phaser,
tweaking things like it size, so that it could better fit in a dainty hand,
while keeping it just as powerful. He also attached electrodes so that if
anything got in too close, a simple flick of index finger could turn it into a
tazer. It also had a tracking device.
To others, it would seem that he is still on duty, but he enjoyed doing
this. It was also a *LOT* more interesting than learning costumes of a
planet whose name he couldn’t even spell. There was no question that he
could do it, but making things go BOOM was infinitely more fun. Of
course, it had gotten him arrested, but then he never would have come to NEW
ALEXANDRIA, and he rather liked it here.
He entered an idea for a power core modification in his personal
computer, which he kept unlinked to the ships computer. If they saw some of the inventions he had thought of, he'd be thrown back into jail within the
hour. His computer revealed that he’d already developed prototypes for
phasers, explosives, anything he could get materials for, and that they were
missing several safety devices. At his last assignment, a lab fire caused
several of his inventions to explode, injuring 4 people, including him. For safety reasons, his unstable inventions were kept in a locked box, with 3”
thick walls.
He was arrested and tried, but thanks to his god father Capt. Bill
Hendrickson, he was just being hidden from the public eye. He'd retire
before he’d go back home to Wyoming, and he’d probably never see Britt
again…
She was 13, and he was 15 when they'd met, and they became friends
instantly. After a week, she’d told him a secret. It was disappointing
because at first he’d thought she’d say that she liked him, but it soon
became down right scary when she was close to suicide. Painfully, he
had helped her through it, and they soon fell in love. She was drop dead
gorgeous, but had self esteem issues, so she wouldn’t admit it. She had
a great singing voice (something she also wouldn't admit), and was a
great conversationalist. They had talked till 1am every night back on Earth,
and that was just because a parent would send one of them to bed. For her
birthday, a month after they had met, they had talked about there
future lives, how they’d grow up, live together, and have a family. All shot
to hell over a stupid lab fire.
He couldn't focus on the weapons, so he moved on to the Quantum
Teleporter. There was a major problem about measuring what you wanted to teleport, and he was stuck until he found out how to do it. Pointless really, all he wanted to do was wallow in self pity, but that wouldn’t do any good. He
picked up his computer and chose a movie. A classic about a mathematician, trying to see a pattern in the stock market and lottery on 23rd century North America. He sat on the floor behind his desk, ordered the lights
off, and put on a pair of ear buds.
Half way through, Mattias realized that all he had to do was find a
pattern. Shutting the movie off, he started creating a computer program that
would measure something constantly, watching for change. For hours he worked,
skipping three meals before finishing. He tried to save the file, but
it was too big.
Mattias had one hope, to link his system with the ship, and expose his
files to whomever decided, and had the skill, to hack into them. But if he
could take back a couple of mistakes….
He linked his computer to the ship.
======================================
"Three things are certain in this life, Taxes, Death, and Yanis and
Britt being together." 2006 post #164
Stardate: 61012.2000
Yanis Bratlien
Ensign Mattias Norheim
Assistant Chief Engineer
-Dan "Hex" Tailby-Good Friend and Computer Nerd
