“Bastards.”  Chief of Security Seraphina Pearce handcuffed the last of the five they'd stunned when they'd made it to torpedo control.  She was furious.  They'd already been surprised a month into her time on the USS Mackenzie.  Her security teams had worked to connect across the ship while she worked alongside the Tactical Chief, Kondo La Fontaine.

Kondo had passed feeling furious several decks ago.  Whoever was at the head of this cult had outsmarted the Mack and the crew.  Furious was a few color shades down the chart as he reported, “We're missing half our inventory.” He checked his phaser rifle out of habit, “They're taking them somewhere to someone.”  He motioned towards the uncleared hallway, and the two of them moved forward, cleaning the hallway junctions as De La Fontaine continued, “Not a mainstream enemy - they've got their own supplies.  I doubt the separatists from any of the factions would be crazy enough to take on an Excelsior II class.  Which leaves…”

Pearce finished the thought, “The goddamn Syndicate…or an offshoot.”

Kondo made the point, “Or a rouge operator trying to climb the Jefferies Tube of life.  You bring a supply of quantum torpedoes to the boss; you're certainly going to impress the hell out of them."  They cleared another corridor and made it to the turbolift.  “I wouldn't want to be in engineering right now.  Chief Katsumi isn't going to be happy with us falling into the planet.”

In the secured engineer room Carolyn Crawford, Assistant Chief of Engineering, was tapping at the console, “Our inertia speed is increasing as we get closer to the atmosphere.  Computer estimates we've got anywhere from thirty minutes to two hours.”  She shook her head as she saw her chief give her a tired look in her peripheral vision, “WIth half the ship being affected by…whatever they did…the computer is operating with a deficit.”

Chief Katsumi held her phaser rifle tightly as the doors to engineering glowed hot with the implements of destruction being employed by the cultists.  Crawford had been working to figure out what they had done to the Mack.  She was coming up empty, and time was ticking.  She wondered aloud, “What could they possibly want from us?"

Crawford was wondering the same thing.  Sure, their warp core was one of the more modern, but it wasn't something you could just…steal.  That took time, planning, and careful transportation.  She kept working at the console, thinking, “Nothing in here on its own is really useful on its own…plus you'd need hours to get anything of value out of here.”  She tapped a few more times until she turned to Katsumi, “They're not after equipment or something in here…I think they're after someone.”

The commander felt her mind catch up with her, “They're going to need someone to manage what they've stolen.” Frustrated, she threw her hands up, “They're coming for me.  I'm the highest ranked and highest rated engineer.”

Carolyn pushed herself up, activating her phaser rifle, “We're not going to let them take you…are we?”

Katsumi growled as she gestured for the teams to shift into defensive positions, saying, “That'll be the day.”