Station: An Ops. Center

Posted on Sat Aug 9th, 2025 @ 3:04am by "Cpt." Ainkara "Kara" {SIS} {SoB} {SS Harbinger}

Mission: Stellar Problems
Location: Dark Harbor
Timeline: Current

ON:

Learning more of the lay of the land around the city, Kara returned to her familiar lair in the caverns. There was no fire which she found odd since Nano should have also been back. Using her Force techniques she found her way to where the fire pit should be, only to find it missing. She stood up and immediately reached out all around her as she tried to sense any living bodies around her. As far as she was able to sense there was not. What the hell, he thought. Just as she was getting ready to head out her palm PADD vibrated in its pouch on her belt. Bringing it out, Kara activated it when she saw it was Nano's code. "Hey, Nano. Please, tell me that my missing things are with you?" Everything was gone. Her hut, all the belongings she held dear, all the trinkets she had collected; everything.

Nano belayed her fears. "Yes, Kara, I have all of your treasures and items. I coming to you now."

A sigh of relief came from Kara before she could stop it. Amazing the attachment she had to what was basically junk to others, but it was everything that she had collected herself, to make herself feel better. To have something she had gathered or stolen, not that anyone else had given her. "Okay, I'll wait in the access tunnel. Do you have a light, it is pitch black."

Nano gave a cynical sigh out of humor. "Kara, it is me. Of course I have a light. I am almost back."

Kara made her way in the dark, using the Force, then squatted down and leaned back on a wall to wait. Far down to her right, the opposite direction for getting to her secret entrance to come down here, she saw a light glowing and getting larger and brighter as it got closer. Not able to help herself she smiled at that. On the occasional bump the light jiggled and she could see the front, top portion of Nano's rotund body as he was moving. Such a trooper, she thought affectionately. Finally, he arrived and rolled up beside her, keeping his light angled slightly away from her so as not to blind her with its direct beam. "Come, I have to show you what I found!"

She could tell he was excited, so Kara got to her feet and waved him to lead on. Going back the way he had come Nano led her through a few short turn right and left, then straight on into a portion of a subway tunnel that had been walled off professionally, with a sliding duranium blast door closed over the tracks and enclosing whatever was beyond. There was an electronic panel that still had a power source, blinking that it was closed and locked and had a code pad for accessing the space beyond the door. "Great. You led us to a locked door. Is this the surprise?"

"Part of it, yes." Nano stated. "Input three-period-seven-period-seventy+seven-period."

Reaching up, Kara tapped in the code and there was the distinct sound of the lock mechanism releasing, the panel going from a red border saying LOCKED, to a green border saying UNLOCKED. The large metal blast door then slid aside as it opened, but only enough to allow access to the walkway up above the tracks. Nano rolled into the new space, Kara following, and then a warbled sound came from within him and the panel reacted to it, closing the door and going back to locked status. "Interesting..." Said Kara, her voice dying off as she looked around.

On this side of the safety door, the area was clean and almost pristine if one did not mind a layer of dust. Permacrete floors and ceilings with walls covered in industrial strength tiles, and she was sure the walls were reinforced permacrete, as well. A typical design for a sub-level structure built for the purpose of subway travel. Also, there were overhead light panels that produced a soft white light, backed by emergency light nodes every twenty paces or so, for when the main power went down. Ahead of Kara, roughly 20 yards distant, she could see the end of a subway car facing her, with two other cars attached to it ahead of it. Brighter light came from the open space she could tell was there where the cars were parked. Probably a pedestrian loading dock if she had to guess. "How did you find this place?"

"Scans and searching, Master," said Nano. He sounded pleased as he knew she was pleased by the sight. "Come, to the control room." He rolled ahead of her towards where she saw it opened up in an alcove to the right side of the tracks from her point of view.

"Control room," she asked as she followed along. Kara's eyes went to the three subway cars that had been turned into two bunk cars and the last one closest to her as she walked, seemed to be an office and a private quarters for someone. Probably a supervisor, she thought. Entering the area for the alcove, Kara's eyes widened at the sight. It was a control room, but not a loading dock for passengers. It was a maintenance station for the subway cars and rails, complete with locked rooms and panels denoting tracks and where they all went. One small red dot was lit up along the tracks, and using her own direction sense she realized that it was the dot for where they stood now. "This is amazing, Nano! Have you checked all those maintenance doors?"

"Yes, Master. They are equipment and hardware lockers. One of them is an armory filled with tactical gear, weapons, and other items to be used by security forces in an emergency should the subway fall under attack. By the looks of them, and my own scans, they are approximately 15 years outdated, but still useable."

Kara had everything she needed now. She stood still, arms crossed over her chest with one hand playing with her chin as she thought about various ways to use this stuff. There was a constant grin on her face. "Can you tweak the equipment, Nano? Get it updated for more modern use? The electronics, I mean."

"A simple procedure, yes, Kara." Nano responded. "It is not broken down due to age, all the rooms are vacuum sealed. Just a matter of updating software and programming. Being older their durability is also a tad better."

"How secure is this place?" Kara asked. "Any sign of visitors within a reasonable short time?"

"No sign visible. As I said, it was closed down, walled off, and forgotten. There is another wall-door down the other rail passage. Same design. I have changed the code for both so no one can access this place without our knowledge." Nano explained. "It is now my base of operations for team White. Also, I have removed us from the primary network. The computer core cannot get into this section of hardware by simply networking. I have encrypted our network, planted a hydra, and planted a virus should anyone try to access our systems. We are self sufficient."

Going to the electronic map on the wall, Kara examined the controls to see what did what, all written in Federation Standard. Tapping keys she put a holographic overlay atop the tunnel system map. The overlay was what was above them on an exterior grid map. Where they were now, there was a maintenance access stairwell behind a false wall at the end of the hall with the armory. The stairs went up two landings and then came out above ground below the main bridge over the bay that separated East City from West City. There was nothing built around the structure that held up the bridge above them, and an empty lot with plenty of tree and plant growth to camouflage anyone coming and going through the accessway. Perfect. This part of East City, along the shoreline for the bay, there was very little population. No one wanted to live near the bridge tram and hear it all night long, and this was not a business district. *So, I'm a trap door Araknia* she thought to herself with a grin. Turning from the map after putting it back to its original setting, Kara went down the hall to look through all the rooms.

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