“We need to pinch them.”  Quartermaster Henry Wyatt whispered to Hasara, the Cardassian Advisor.  They were at the far end of the engineering corridor, spying on the small group of cultists who were working on the doors.

Hasara agreed with the El Aurian’s evaluation, “The only problem with that is we need a third to keep them from coming back down this hallway.”

Henry smiled slyly, “Or a fourth.”

“Now you’re just dreaming.”  The Cardassians scoffed and then spun at the sound of the turbolift down the hall they had secured and was about to fire when two steely-eyed Starfleet officers bounded around the corner, weapons raised.

Henry was smiling now, “Chief of Security Seraphina Pearce and Chief of Tactical Kondo De La Fontaine.  It’s nice to run into such well-trained and armed officers.”  He had managed to get in touch with them using his uniform badge.  They’d stunned and handcuffed their share on the way.  Wyatt gave them their instructions, and they affirmed. They were to be the goalies preventing the attack force from escaping.  Wyatt and Hasara quickly moved to their places in the side corridors.  They counted down on their watches and slipped around their respective corners.  Both men began to fire at the group of cultists, sending four spinning to the ground in surprise.  The remaining group turned to fire and inched backward until they found themselves under fire.  Four more hit the floor, stunned.  The last remaining cultist seemed to contemplate raising his weapon.  

Instead, he spat on the ground and threw his blaster in disgust, “You can fu…,” Pearce pulled the trigger on her phaser rifle, and the man joined the unconscious bodies on the floor.

Kondo went to work with her, handcuffing them, “You didn’t want him talking anymore?”

Seraphina finished with her last prisoner, “They’ve had the run of the ship, and they’re winning whatever this race is…I wanted to be able to control a little of this shitstorm.”  She tapped her badge, “Pearce to Chief Katsumi – we’ve cleared the deck.”

A moment later, the massive doors inched open, and a swarm of armed engineers slipped out, faces filled with relief on seeing their fellow crew.  The lithe form of the Chief Engineer stepped out from behind the group, a PADD in her hand.  “We think we know how they did what they did.”

Kondo accepted it and perused through the data, “This reads like an engineer from Starfleet planned this.  They knew how to hit and where to hit.”  He looked at Katsumi, “You’ve been doing this longer than I have, so you can tell me I’m wrong.”

She wasn’t sure, “Whoever’s brainchild this was…they knew enough.  They had our shield modulation and frequency systems locked – with up-to-date details.”  She shook her head, “Someone on this ship gave them this information.”

Pearce protested, “We cleared the entire crew after Frontier Day.  There’s no way.”

They remained silent until Henry Wyatt spoke up, “Someone could have made it aboard when we got here – we had transporters and shuttles working to shift people up and down…that’s how they got our shuttles to come after us here.”  He shook his head, “We would have to review sensor logs and scanning reports…but with the ship half functional…”

There was a whimper as Carolyn Crawford inched forward with a crutch, PADD in hand.  “It’s Brody Daltone.” Everyone’s eyes spun to stare at her.  The name meant nothing to any of them.  She grumbled, “He was a fellow engineering student at the academy a few years ahead of me.  He was smarter than the rest of us and never got tired of reminding us…” She held up the PADD, “The signal from the weapon that hit us…I dug into the readings.  It seemed familiar somehow…so I went down a Jefferies Tube or two and found my notes on his project in my old Academy logs.”

Katsumi asked the obvious, “Can you fix it?”

Crawford sighed, “Yes…but we’re going to have to restart the entire ship from top to bottom.  His concept for a weapon was that any ship hit would have to do a cold start – his goal was to take the ship out of any fight it was in.  That’s why we couldn’t put it back together in pieces.  He called it the ‘Humpty-Dumpty’ which was…dumb.  He tried to be all literary with it, but none of us had ever heard the story.” The Chief Engineer hobbled back into her engine room, tapping her badge to report what was about to happen to the bridge.  Someone asked what the short version of the story was, and Carolyn winced, “A guy…or an egg, depending on the version…falls off a wall, and nobody could put the poor bastard back together again.  In this case…we’re Humpty-Dumpty.”

Kondo stood, “Whatever the case, we will need to calculate how much air the ship will have…”

Crawford held up the PADD again, “We’ll have enough.  Gravity will be the biggest problem once we lose it and restore it..  God help Daltone if I find him.  Let’s get started.”