[snip]

“Doctor Cross told me specifically ‘no if’s or buts’, so you must do it,” Hercules replied. “Do it now! We have made contact on the Bridge with some kind of powerful AI working on behalf of an Ascended species, and she is worried that we are no longer safe here. We don’t have time for questions now. Don’t you still have the Transporter lock on the crew who beamed down?”

“Er… well that’s the problem,” the Chief replied. “Technically speaking, I still had the lock on them as ordered but some of the crew who beamed down came back on the shuttle a few minutes ago, while some that went down on the shuttle stayed down. They’ve all split up and separated like white girls in an old horror 2D movie! Some have gone underground into the mines, where I’m not sure I can get a lock on them anymore. Some went off along the river, some into the village, some up the hill. I think I can bring most back easily, but it’ll need to be in small groups… and it will take some time!”

“Well… okay! But can you start now? …Can’t you?” Hercules asked.

“Yes, but shouldn’t we inform the Captain?” the Chief asked. “He’s in negotiations. He wouldn’t like it if we just take him away!”

“I’ll speak to him,” Hercules replied. “Doctor Cross said that she would take any stick for making this decision, but she believes that it is important.”

“Okay, I’ll start right away!” said the Chief. He began pushing buttons on the console and then pulling down the big lever.

The first group to be beamed back aboard were those still at the original landing party beam-down site, where the samples had more recently been assembled and packed onto the shuttle. Then he began working his way further out, picked those who had been sampling by the river or in the village. Those who had gone down the mines, the Security detail, and those who had gone to the Elder’s Hut would have to wait until later. That meant that the Captain and senior officers were going to be the last to be brought back.

Kahuna spoke to the first group before sending them on their way, “Sorry to interrupt what you were up to,” he told them. He was thinking particularly of one couple in an unusual pose who looked, by the expression on their faces, as if they had been startled in the beam of a flashlight. “Emergency recall. You will be debriefed later. Please leave the Transporter Room immediately in an orderly manner so that we can beam up the next group.”

This was going to take way too long. Then Doctor Cross would rightly blame him for not executing her very clear orders. “Hey! Chief! Can’t we hurry this process up? Can we use the other Transporters at the same time?”

The Transporter Chief replied back, “I told you this would be difficult. There are crew who have wandered off up to a click from the original landing site, and I only have one pair of hands since O’Sullivan left to join the USS Monitor.”

The first group had left the room now. “Okay! Okay!” replied Kahuna. The Transporter Chief next brought up anyone he could find along the riverbank. They were also ushered off the Transporter Pads by Kahuna as quickly as possible, and he gave them the same instructions about a debriefing.

“How long before we have everyone?” Kahuna asked the Chief, annoyance sounding in his voice.

“Please, Mr. Kahuna! You aren’t helping here at all. I think I can get all the scientists in the next two beam ups, then the people down the mines, and then the senior staff from the Elder’s Hut area, and then the remaining Security officers. So, about five more cycles if nothing goes wrong. You can tell Doctor Cross that it will take about 25 minutes. That’s the best I can do. I’m not a miracle worker and I can’t change the laws of physics!”

The second group had now left and the third was materialising on the pads. Kahuna had worked up a routine and script now, and he repeated it to get them all out of the way as quickly as possible. Almost all of them were very surprised at the lack of notice given, and the fact that the ship didn’t appear to be on any kind of alert status. They wanted to ask questions, but Kahuna dismissed them all, telling them that they would be answered later.

With the third group out of the room, the fourth and final group of scientists was materialised on the pads and they were sent away.

At this point an NE Security Officer from the Bridge arrived. “Sir, this is to be given to the Captain as soon as he arrives!” and he handed over a data disk to Kahuna.

“I’ll see that he gets it,” replied Kahuna. “Does it explain why we are carrying out this emergency evac?”

“It does Sir!” replied the NE Security, which relieved Kahuna, as it meant that he wouldn’t need to explain.

The Transporter Chief was now trying to get clear Transporter Locks on all the engineers in and around the mines, including the CE and some others underground.

Beam ups could occur without problems, the trickiest was the engineering team by the mines but some careful scanning refinement got through the minor interference from the Dilithium deposits.

The lock on the CE and miners was achieved at last, and they materialised. Now it was just the CO, CSO, Hunter a few remaining redshirts to collect. With the miners escorted from the Transporter room, the Chief could be ready to locate them too.

Kahuna had the data disk ready to give to the CO once he materialised. He expected that he would be very surprised when brought up to date of the discovery of the AI station, and what it had told Doctor Cross about experiment VA 19. It appeared that VA was real after all. And that there were at least 18 more of them!

When Max arrived back on the Merrimack, he had a very confused look on his face. He was not expecting to be beamed back up yet and had no warning on why. He looked over at everyone as he stepped down and noticed everyone was there except the CO and CSO and a small group of crew. He looked at the transporter chief and asked, “Do we know why we were beamed out without any warning?” Max was hoping for a quick answer as he assumed it was an emergency and needed to get down to main engineering very quickly to deal with potential problems. He waited a second or two for an answer.

“Emergency evac!” replied the Chief. “Contact made with some kind of threat! You need to take it up with the CMO on the Bridge,” he added.

The Chief returned to searching for the final remaining crew, including the Captain and CSO.

“This is too slow and it’s taking too long,” Kahuna told the Chief. “You’ve got to do something to speed it up or we’ll be here all day!”

“I’m doing the best I can with what I’ve been given,” replied the Chief. “I have a lock Captain Glen, and on the last group of Security. The CSO and Doctor Hunter have moved away from the Captain. I can’t isolate them from whoever they are with… I’m bringing up the Captain first…”

• Kahuna, Weapons