The Runaway

FINALITY

Whee see security team arrived at the VIP quarters, they found Newman resting on the couch, reading. “Where are the two guards assigned to your door? And what about some mysterious gas coming into your room?” asked the lieutenant in charge. “Beats me,” replied Newman. The man was suspicious. “Look around,” he told his men. Newman stood up and looked into the security man’s eyes. “Look, if you’re going to accuse me of some crime, fine. But don’t insult my intelligence by playing mind games. You guys have abducted me against my will, refuse to return me, and for what? What have I ever done to you?” said Brian.
“Computer, locate ensigns Levalle and Ryder,” said the lieutenant. There was no response. “Computer?”
“Maybe you didn’t say please,” said Newman sarcastically, and sat down to continue reading.
Suddenly, there was a response. [Security to Engineering!]

USS PALADIN – ENGINEERING

Newman had started by taking out his phaser and stunning everyone within reach. Even after a few blasts, most of the crew just stood there in shocked disbelief. Before too long, Kelso said the magic words. “Security to Engineering!”

Outside the VIP quarters, the security detail ran towards the nearest turbolift, and the lieutenant had placed one guard outside Newman's door, to be on the safe side.

The force fields were in place, and now the computer had ‘protected’ Newman inside main engineering. No one could get to him or even ‘beam’ inside. After disabling the straggling crewmembers, he could now work in peace. He started to access the main engineering control panel, and told the ship that essentially, a hostile force had taken over. It was time to shut it down. Everything went dark, including emergency power in response to intruders, except for engineering, where the ‘good guys’ were. Newman activated the comm console on the main panel. It was time to introduce himself to the Captain. “Hello?”
[This is the Captain! Who is this?]
“Sorry we never met, Captain. My name is Brian Newman. And I just thought you’d like to know, I’m going to destroy this ship.”


BELGIUM

The US Army cargo truck crashed into a signpost just outside of Brussels. The Romulan didn’t know how to operate such a vehicle very well and lost control. The pursuing jeeps, the general’s car, and now a UH-1 helicopter followed close behind. Lyson and the shuttle crew had no choice but to pursue and risk detection in daylight. Sitting and doing nothing was usually the wrong choice. Lyson decided that he would risk detection and deal with the consequences later. The Federation shuttle zipped at top speed and set down inside Brussels close to where the Romulan had crashed the army truck. They hid in an alley behind some fairly tall buildings and Lyson and two others left the shuttle to search on foot. “Ok, let me see if I got this sir,” said Renfro, “The people here think they’re looking for Newman, an escaped mental patient. We have to find the Romulan before they do, and before he causes whatever damage he’s planning, and before his ship picks him up. All without being discovered, and in broad daylight. Is that about it?”
“You got it,” said Lyson. “Listen up everyone. We don’t have the luxury of finesse here. Try and stay out of sight, but we must retrieve the Romulan at all costs,” he said.

The citizens of Brussels woke up that morning to a lot of commotion. Normally, US Army helicopters didn’t fly over rooftops just after sunrise. The NATO command headquarters received numerous complaints about being woken up too early. The NATO response was that it was all just an exercise.

The Romulan ship hovered close to the Cathedral of St. Michael, near the center of Brussels. It was still cloaked and relatively silent. It scanners were rapidly trying to pick up Romulan bgns.gns.

The medic Renfro swept his medical tricorder around in a slow arc. They had moved behind the alley of Rue des Bouchers, a street known for its many restaurants. Renfro stopped. “Commander, I think I may have something,” he said.

The Romulan started to move along Blvd. Leopold III, heg fog for his objective. He hadn’t heard from his ship, but most likely, they would come back for him. It was important that he could communicate with them. If his plan was successful, he could alter history, which would make the Romulan Empire the ultimate force in the Galaxy. His ship could return, and maybe even glorify his name. But that was not important. This plan might not even work. He had come up with it on such short notice, but it just might cause the humans to des the themselves.


BRIDGE – USS PALADIN

Captain Roberts looked at his second officer in the dim light. Newman had refused to communicate. “Options?”
Sulek answered, “It would appear that Mr. Newman hamplemplete control of the computer, and at least temporary control of the ship. Transporters are not functioning and force fields are in place around engineering. However, I do believe that there may be a way to get to Mr. Newman.”
“How?”
“By gaining access to the battle bridge, we may be able to manually initiate hull separation, and then use the saucer section to disable and capture the secondary hull. Since the main bridge is incapacitated, the battle bridge could be functional. The majority of the crew and civilians will be in the saucer,” said Sulek. “Mr. Newman is quite intelligent, but inexperienced.”
“We have to move fast. If he intends to truly destroy the ship, he must have thought of a way off for himself. Mr. Sokolov, I want you to try and discover how Newman intends to leave, then have a security team ready to intercept,” ordered Roberts.
“Yes sir.” Sokolov had opened the manual escape hatch and climbed down to move about the ship.
“Mr. Sulek, get to the battle bridge. Send someone to alert the crew. Don’t use comm channels, though.” Sulek moved out through the hatch, and the Captain was forced to wait.

USS PALADIN – ENGINEERING

While Newman was in engineering, he had decided to try and initiate a core meltdown. It was a lot more difficult that he thought. This was no where close to a nuclear reactor, but there were reactive materials. Antimatter was certainly dangerous, but he was unfamiliar with it. He didn’t want to cause an explosion that would damage the Earth itself. But he had his instructions. He began to release the magnetic fields that held the flow of antimatter in a tight stream, avoiding contact with the matter of the reactor, but in such a way that the computer would not automatically eject the antimatter pods away from the ship. The trick was to delay the magnetic field breakdown to allow time for Newman to escape.


Outside engineering, several security compliments were standing outside the force fields waiting for some engineering techs to disable it. “So who’s in there?” a lieutenant asked. Kelso said, “They tell me it’s someone that was brought up here from Earth. Weren’t you guys watching him? How did he get out?”
“What? It can’t be the same guy. We just came from his quarters. That guy is still there,” said the lieutenant. He looked through the field. Sure enough, he saw Brian Newman inside engineering, working at a computer console. “Impossible!”
Judy Li had come from an access hatch near the turbolift. She had been climbing down quite a long way and was a bit out of breath. “The Captain says we’re going to try and manually separate hulls. You should get all non-essential personnel up to the saucer immediately,” she told Kelso. She looked into engineering. “Brian?” she said. “Will you talk to me? Why are you doing this?” she asked.
Newman looked up at her. “Sorry. Don’t have time for shit-chat,” he said casually.
“Please talk to me. If you’re worried about anyone harming you, I promise they won’t. They were never planning to,” said Li.
“No one can harm me now,” said Brian grinning at her. “You’re wasting your time.”
Judy tried to think. “Listen. I know you have been mistreated by people back home. I assure you, we are not associated with them. Don’t you remember our talks before? I know you’ve been hurt by people. There’s no reason to destroy us, and yourself.”
“I have no intention of destroying myself,” said Newman. “Now look, Miss, I’m rather busy here. Please go do something else,” he said.
*Miss?* Judy thought. *He must be schizophrenic. He doesn’t even remember my name.*

Outside of the VIP quarters, the real Brian Newman stepped over the unconscious security guard. “Amateurs,” he said as he straightened his shirt. His hologram was certainly doing well, judging from the dim emergency lighting in the hallway. He had programmed the hologram counterpart to delay the destruction of the ship until he could steal the Captain’s Yacht and cruise down to Earth. Anywhere he wanted to go. All things considered, it seemed his hologram was doing all the hard work. It was almost like cheating on a test, but who cares? Every security man on the ship would have his eyes focused on the mobile holodeck image in engineering, and he could just fade away. He would congratulate himself later. Now it was time to escape.

BRUSSELS, BELGIUM

General Morris and his search team were moving quickly. They had found the truck, and were moving deeper into Brussels. Morris had figured that Newman was probably moving towards NATO headquarters, for what rea he he didn’t know. Probably for revenge against the government and for all the years of his Russian imprisonment. Newman had to be stopped. Permanently. He knew it was a bad idea to try and rehabilitate such a dangerous man. Newman was nothing more than a weapon now. For 3 years, Morris had been praying that the Russians would just go a and and end it for him. But they hadn’t. He deployed his men in a defensive position around the main HQ building, but out of sight. They had lost sight on Newman, but when he came here, Morris would make sure he was dead.

Lyson, Renfro and a security man had followed the faint trace the tricorder gave them. They were headed in the general direction of the US military men, which told Lyson that maybe they had sight of their target. Early morning shop keepers and restaurant owners noticed the three men in strange uniforms, but no one wanted to ask tiontions.

ROMULAN SCOUT SHIP

The Sub-commander aboard the Romulan ship had noticed the military action, and refocused it sensors in their area. Sure enough, a probable Romulan biosign was picked up. It wasn’t strong enough to get a lock on yet, but they now could follow their man. The scanners also picked up a Federation shuttle nearby. They would have to act fast. This plan was crazy to begin with. There was no need for anyone to beam to the surface, although it wasn’t a problem until they lost contact. He knew the basic idea of the plan, but not the target. They needed to beam their man onboard. Only he knew what it was, and he was the Captain.

USS PALADIN - BATTLE BRIDGE

Sulek was in the battle bridge in the secondary hull. The computer specialists were working on severing the main computer circuits and do a complete restart of the system, but that would take time. Sulek initiated a program designed to look for and destroy all of Newman’s programming. It took him only five minutes to create it, and while it would take to to undo the damage, it would give him a window of opportunity to separate the saucer section.

Up on the main bridge, the lights and all other systems came online. [Captain, this is Sulek. Separation sequence is commencing.]
“Good work Mr. Sulek. Can you get up here in enough time?”
[Possibly. However, I would choose to remain on this hull, sir. I believe my efforts would be better used to help combat Mr. Newman,] he said.
“Very well. Roberts out. Helm, prepare to take us away as soon as we’ve separated.”
“Aye sir”

On his way to the captain’s yacht, Newman noticed all of the lights come on in the hallway. He stopped and looked around. It seemed that the ship was coming back to life. This was not part of the plan.
He made a quick decision to change his destination. He had the security man’s phaser and checked to make sure it was armed.


The Paladin was now split into two separate ships. The secondary hull was still unpowered and under Newman’s control (technically), but the saucer section was now alive and well. Lights came on, shields were raised, and weapons were armed.

BRUSSELS

Renfro had gotten the team very close to the Romulan, who had apparently stopped moving. According to his tricorder, the man was just a few meters away, behind a small café. Lyson had spread his men out to cut off any way out, and he moved forward. There would be no call for surrender, but he had to stun the Romulan. He moved forward, not knowing if he had a disrupter or not. He doubted it, but you never could tell. As he slowly approached the side of the building, he heard a shout from behind. “Halt! Don’t move! Stay where you are!” Lyson turned to se several men in military uniforms running towards him, all armed.
*Great* As the soldiers surrounded him, another man, looking like a high ranking officer jogged up to him. “It’s not Newman,” he said. Looking at Lyson, he said, “Who are you?”
“It’s rather difficult to explain, but I can tell you we’re after the same individual,” said Lyson.
“You’re after Newman?” asked Morris. “Tell me who you are. What kind of uniform is that?”
[Sulek to Commander Lyson, respond please] Lyson’s communicator chimed.
Lyson winced, and responded, “This isn’t the best of times Mr. Sulek.”
[I apologize for interrupting, Commander, but we have an emergency situation. Newman had taken control of the ship, but we’ve now been able to separate hulls and can…]
Lyson interrupted the Vulcan. “I’m sorry, but we’re not alone here Mr. Sulek. Several military men are here in front of me. They all have weapons and look very distrustful.”
General Morris listened to the exchange and now stood staring at Lyson. “Ship? You know where Newman is?” He stepped right into Lyson’s face and said, “I suggest you stop the bullshit and tell me what’s going on. Do you know where Newman is? If you have him in custody, I demand that you give him to me. You have no idea what he’s capable of.”
A second later, a huge green ship seemed to materialize out of nowhere above them.