Mini-Mission - Pt 3

Posted on Mon Oct 12th, 2026 @ 10:03am by Commander Jennifer Baldric & Commander Jenna Ramthorne & Lieutenant JG Jacob Rosen & Lieutenant JG T'Lar & Lieutenant Commander Bonnie "Bon-Bon" Durnell

2,582 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: September
Location: DS9 / USS Sunfire

Tessa began routing comms from the bathroom, effectively playing the role of phone operator. Comms still were rudimentary but now flowing. Harrold had finally put some pants on and headed to work.

Back at Engineering the crew were making progress keeping the computer occupied whilst they tracked the source of the problem.

"How are we tracking everyone?" Jennifer asked as the CPU usage began to redline.

Bonnie looked up from the Engineering console as she pulled another rod from the main computer. “Doing well, I think. The computer is operating at twenty-five percent capacity and is struggling to form a complete sentence.” She glanced toward the display, then added, “I feel kinda bad about purposefully making a computer have a bad day.”

It was now her turn to query the system. “Computer, please run Durnell Scenario Three, War Games, and evaluate all possible outcomes.”

The computer replied slowly. “Processing.” The voice sounded almost sick.

Her tricorder chirped, and she immediately brought it closer to the console. The readings were beginning to separate into distinct patterns, with one section of the computer architecture behaving very differently from the rest. A grin slowly appeared on her face. “Oh, you're clever.”

The computer had isolated one portion of its central server, a redundant system rarely used to house its new malicious code. "You see it?" Jennifer asked as the computer began to sound like a dying animal.

Bonnie looked toward Jennifer and then back at the console. “I think it knows we're looking for it.” She tapped another control and watched the system struggle to respond. “So let's see how clever you really are.”

"Do what you need to do Bon, this thing needs to be gone before someone gets hurt, or worse" Baldric said solomnly, aware that everyone in the room was acutely aware of the stakes. Kira was still missing, as were half a dozen other key officers.

Dean gave a glance a moment, "Not as clever as you are."

"My latinum's on our Bonnie - always" Jennifer smirked as she kept the computer busy with menial tasks whilst Bonnie ramped up the pressure.

Bonnie was focused on the problem at hand. She heard the praise and was grateful, but she couldn't afford to let it pull her attention away. The computer was down to twelve percent of its available processing power according to her readings, and she was running out of ideas almost as quickly as she was running out of patience. “Déagóir trioblóideach,” she muttered under her breath. Troublesome teenager.

She stared at the readings for another few seconds, then slowly smiled. “Alright, you. Try this one.” Bonnie leaned toward the console. “Computer.”

Several seconds passed before the system finally responded in a slow, distorted voice. “Processing.”

“Listen carefully,” Bonnie said. “Everything I say is a lie.”

The computer gave a distorted chirp.

Bonnie waited. “Now... I am lying.”

For a moment, nothing happened. Then everything happened. The lights throughout Operations began flashing in rapid, completely nonsensical patterns. Consoles flickered between normal displays, diagnostic screens, and menus that appeared to have absolutely no business being there. Somewhere in the station, a replicator began producing glasses of water at a rate that suggested it had developed an obsessive relationship with hydration.

A nearby console announced, “Temperature nominal.” A second later, it corrected itself. “Temperature critical.” Then, immediately afterward, “Temperature nominal.”

"What the....Bonnie, this is you doing this right??" Jennifer assisted a nearby crewman who passed out from the wild variation in temperature. It began to snow in Quarks, leaving the Ferengi complaining bitterly.

The station's environmental controls suddenly cycled from warm to cold and back again. Doors opened and closed with no apparent purpose. A turbolift arrived at Operations, opened its doors, waited for several seconds, then closed them again and departed without anyone entering.

Bonnie watched the chaos spreading across her tricorder readings.

Then somewhere else on the station, Harrold disappeared. There was a brief shimmer in the middle of the Promenade, followed by the sudden appearance of the waste reclamation worker, standing completely naked except for one sock. He looked around.

A passing Bajoran stopped dead. Harrold stared at the Bajoran. The Bajoran stared at Harrold. Harrold looked down at himself. “Oh, for the love of...”

Back at the Engineering station, Bonnie's tricorder registered the transporter event. “Oops.” Another power fluctuation rolled through the station. The lights flashed once. Twice. Then every system went completely dark. For several seconds, DS9 was silent.

Bonnie stood motionless with her tricorder in hand. Then she smiled. “Got ya, ya cac beag.” you little shit. She quickly ran another sequence through the console, her fingers moving over the controls as the tricorder confirmed the change.

“I've isolated the troublesome program behind a 1024-bit encryption firewall.” She looked toward Jennifer, her exhaustion giving way to a tired little grin. “Essentially, I put the Pup back on its leash.” She glanced down at the readings again. “And... Commander?”

Bonnie hesitated. “It looks like we may have to talk to Chief O'Brien.”

"A talk, or a conversation that involves immature AI that got out of its box?" Jennifer replied with a snort. "Tell me it's back in its box... please?"

Bonnie gave Jennifer a tired little smile, then checked the tricorder again before nodding. “Back in its box. Locked, and encrypted.” She tapped the console and watched the containment routines cycle. “It's no longer actively interfering with the station systems.”

She paused, looking at the readings with the faint suspicion of someone who had just wrestled a particularly clever raccoon into a laundry basket. “I mean, technically, the box is a 1024-bit encryption firewall, and technically the raccoon is a piece of sentient adaptive code...” Bonnie glanced toward Jennifer. “But yes. Back in its box.”

Before anyone else could respond, the computer came back online. One system at a time, the lights returned. Consoles rebooted. Environmental controls stabilized. Doors stopped behaving like they had developed independent opinions. Across the station, systems began returning to normal operation. Bonnie watched the final diagnostic settle into place. She slowly lowered the tricorder. “Well,” she said, “that could've gone worse.”

Somewhere on the Promenade, Harrold would have strongly disagreed.


USS Sunfire - Bridge

"Bonnie gave the computer a problem it could not solve," Savar observed. "As such, the computer reverted to its default mode of operation."

Jenna looked over the bridge as the last systems stabilized. “Well, at least we know what happens when you give a computer a problem it can't solve.”

T’Lilbit glanced down at her readings. “It becomes as belligerent as a Bajoran.”

Jenna slowly turned toward her, one brow raised, questioning.

T’Lilbit returned her attention to the console. “The resemblance was brief.”

"I dare you to say that in front of the Captain," Ronson retorted with a cheeky grin.

T’Lilbit paused, her fingers hovering over the console. “A dare?” She turned her head slightly toward Ronson, considering the word with the same seriousness she might have applied to an unfamiliar scientific term. “A dare is an attempt to compel an individual to perform an action through a challenge to their pride, courage, or willingness to accept social risk.”

She considered this for another moment. “Logically, there is no inherent value in accepting one. And as a Vulcan I have no pride with which to challenge.”

She paused briefly as if to confer with her other thoughts. “However, declining one would deny you the satisfaction of believing you have successfully influenced my behavior.” T’Lilbit looked back toward her console. “I find that outcome considerably... less acceptable.” She returned to her sensor readings.

“I will inform the Captain of the comparison at the earliest appropriate opportunity.” There was a brief pause. “Your dare has been accepted.”

Jenna continued to watch T’Lilbit, one brow raised in quiet disbelief. The corner of her mouth twitched upward as she glanced briefly toward Ronson, then back to T’Lilbit. She said nothing. Instead she settled back in her chair, folded her arms, and watched with the patient interest of someone who had just been handed front-row seats to what promised to be an entertaining mistake.

Ronson smiled with a conspiratorial smile and set about planning a betting pool. The gauntlet had been thrown down just as the Sunfire was nearing operational readiness again.


DS9 - Ops

Everyone was beginning to pull themselves back together. Bonnie replaced the last of the control rods in the system mainframe, making sure it seated properly before closing the access panel. She straightened and gave the console one final glance, then looked towards Nog.

For a moment, she simply nodded to him, a quiet acknowledgment of everything he had done to help get them this far. Bonnie then tapped her comm-badge. “Lieutenant Durnell to Captain Kira. Come in...”

"Your voice is a blessing, Lieutenant. Please tell me the computer is back on a leash and no longer trying to kill me." Kira could be heard grunting as she crawled through the access tubes within the station's innards.

Bonnie glanced down at her tricorder, then back toward the console. “Yes, Captain. The computer is back on a leash, and the program is contained. It isn't trying to kill anyone anymore.” She paused, then added, “The station systems are coming back online now, and everything looks stable. I think we're safe to crawl back out of the walls.”

The sound of a cover plate being removed and boots hitting the corridor floor could be heard.

"How the hell did I end up in waste reclamation?" Kira swore as she looked around.

Jacob made his way around Ops, ensuring that power was being restored to the various consoles and controls before looking to Bonnie. "Commander, we have restored functionality to the Operations Transporter; we could beam Captain Kira out of the waste processor." He shrugged before adding. "The smell would then become our problem though."

"Many brownie points would be earned, the smell though..." Jennifer laughed as she granted Jacob access to the newly rebooted transporter system.

Jacob tapped his comm badge with a smirk. "Ops to Captain Kira, stand by for transport. We'll get you out of the muck." Sliding the transporter control to the top, he looked to the pad and the familiar rapid shimmer of light as the pattern coalesced into the form of Captain Kira. "Welcome back, Captain. I trust you are feeling... exfoliated." He said, nodding at the muddied boots of her uniform.

Savar listened in silence to Captain Kira's woes. He raised an eyebrow at her being in waste reclamation and the sight it presented.

Bonnie pinched her nose as Kira reappeared in Ops, her voice rising slightly as she pinched and tried to avoid breathing through her nose. “Welcome back to Ops, Captain. At least you're not naked.”

Kira was knee-deep in muck that still clung to her uniform and boots like the bad smell it carried.
"Ugh, thank you....I need a shower, maybe several." Kira took the queue to leave Ops in a hurry, brown boot prints on the floor, leaving a reminder for all.

---

Less than half an hour later, Bonnie wandered into the conference room, expecting it to be empty. They were going to sit down and discuss what happened and why. Instead, she found a veritable smorgasbord of breakfast and snack food items on display. Her stomach let out a sound that echoed in the empty room, reminding her she hadn't eaten in hours. "Oh, Míle buíochas!" (Mee-lah bwee-akus) Thank you a thousand times. She proclaimed as she grabbed a bagel.

Jennifer was walking past when the smell of bagel wafted out, a welcome change from the smell of waste reclamation that still lingered. "Food! All bets are off." she headed for the open doors.

T'Lar, having heard that the situation on DS9 had been returned to normal, was just returning to the conference room to tidy up when she heard Commander Baldric's exclamation. Wandering in, she spied Commander Durnell munching on a bagel.

"Greetings, Commanders. I am gratified that someone is making use of the provisions I replicated for my group sessions that ultimately went abandoned given the earlier uncertainties. I was just returning to dispose of them. Are we having a debrief here? If so, I will replicate some fresh carafes of coffee." T'Lar said.

Bonnie nodded enthusiastically at the suggestion of a debrief, though her attention remained firmly fixed on the bagel she was devouring. “I wud lub a cuppa cofa’,” she managed around a mouthful, making a vague gesture toward the replicator. She had been shoveling the bagel in so quickly that breathing had apparently become an optional extra, and her body was about to lodge a formal complaint.

“Hic! Hic! HIC-UP!” The last hiccup shot out at a surprisingly high pitch. Bonnie froze, bagel halfway to her mouth, and blinked in mild surprise before attempting to chew again, as though nothing whatsoever had happened.

Jennifer nodded in thanks at the promise of hot coffee, they all needed it after the last few hours.

T'Lar returned the cold coffee to the reclamator and was pleased to find that this time when she ordered fresh coffee it was actually produced upon demand. She also ordered up a dozen assorted donuts and placed them on the table next to the bagels along with a carafe of orange juice and several small disposable cups and plates with napkins. She arranged a table in the middle of the conference room where previously she had set it aside for her circle of chairs and surrounded the table with chairs before selecting an apple fritter and a glass of juice and taking a seat at the long table, tucking in with a plastic knife and fork.

"So, a most eventful day, it appears, was had by all..." T'Lar began, "I had a very difficult time this morning trying to get the replicator to work properly. It was only luck that I was able to get it to replicate the bagels and coffee, but then the door was not functioning properly and I elected to cancel the two sessions I had scheduled here and move them to the Sunfire counseling suite instead for safety's sake. It was quite crowded, but we made it work; I am pleased to say."

“Hic! Hic! HIC-UP!” The hiccups persisted.

Kira emerged through the open doorway, freshly showered and much less pungent. " I just wanted to pass on my thanks to you all for sorting this mess - I've sent a message to Chief O'Brien to advise him of the 'pup' as you called it. He will return on his next break from teaching to sort it"

“Hic! Hic! Until then... Hic! Hic! I can show... Hic! Hic! Nog how to... Hic! Hic! Show it some attention!" She forced out before desperately reaching for a drink to temper the issue at hand.

With the crisis resolved the crew enjoyed their food and drink, turning their attention to the nearly complete repairs on their ship.

" She should be ready in two days, and I have word from Command that there's a J class nebula in the Gamma Quadrant they want you to survey. Nice and routine" Kira explained as she sipped the raktijino before her. "I'm assuming your Captain will be back by them. She's probably sunning herself of some beach somewhere. Lucky wench."

 

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