The team left the shuttle and proceed carefully through the hallways towards the town hall. Dobbins explained his plan to the team as they headed forward. Their goal was to get into the Mayor’s office, where they expected to find Desmond. Based on Leon’s knowledge of the Town Hall, this office was on the upper floor of the building, unless Desmond had moved it. They would sneak back in through the auxiliary entrance and work their way upward to Desmond’s office, hopefully encountering minimal resistance along the way. The only other option was a frontal assault on the Town Hall, something that would draw every security android on the ship.
They arrived at the Control Center door and had little trouble bypassing its lock. Inside, the same two androids they stunned previously fell again, disabled with a shot from Samuelson’s blaster. “Rough day for those two guys,” Skylar commented.
The team moved through the Control Center itself and found the staircase that led up to the upper levels of the Town Hall. With Ella constantly scanning ahead for androids, they crept up the stairs, ready for a fight at any minute. When they reached the top floor, they paused while Ella scanned for guards on the floor. She could detect two in front of the mayor’s doors and one inside the mayor’s office.
On Dobbins’s signal, Samuelson and Skylar burst through the stairwell door and disabled both android guards with one shot each. The team quickly stormed into the Mayor’s office.
Inside, they found themselves in a vast, open, airy room. Along the far wall stood a vast bank of windows that overlooked the town square. Doors on either side led off to other rooms. A bank of computers stood along one wall and seemed to be a miniature control center. Lavish couches and opulent tables were placed all around the room, giving the room the appearance of the lobby of a five-star hotel instead of an executive office. In the middle of the room was a vast desk, piled in papers. Beside the desk stood a woman, presumably the mayor’s secretary, a middle-aged woman who started at the newcomers in shock. Seated behind the desk was the Mayor himself, who looked up as the team entered. His face showed no indication of shock.
Smiling slightly, he said, “Captain Dobbins! So nice of you to drop in. I just had received word that you and your team had not arrived as expected at the security facility. How nice of you to save me the trouble of having to track you down. You will, of course, surrender right now.”
Dobbins ignored the other man’s arrogance. “We need to talk, Desmond. Your mutiny of this ship is unacceptable. I expect you to relinquish command to Chief Engineer Sapens right away and assign yourself to the brig. That’s an order.”
“I am afraid that I cannot do that, Captain,” replied Desmond. “You see, on this ship, I give the orders; I do not take them. Momentarily, I think you will find that twenty guards will be coming through that door. I summoned them here via a silent alarm as you came in.” The sound of the stairwell door opening and closing came from the hallway outside the room. “Ah,” continued Desmond, “here they are now.”
Twenty guards entered the room, all of them the same height and build, some with brown hair, some with blond, but all with unnatural golden eyes. They pointed their blasters at the team. “Surrender your equipment, now,” ordered one of the androids.
Dobbins and the team had no choice but to comply. As they began to hand everything over to the guards, Dobbins hyperwave communicator began to chirp.
“You may answer it, Captain,” Desmond said smugly, “but no tricks.”
Dobbins grabbed the device and activated it. “Dobbins.”
“Captain,” responded Brackers’s voice, “Brackers here. Lieutenant Sawyer did not find anything on her search, sir. But she contacted Fleet Com, who sent us back the necessary program. We’re ready to run it when you are, sir.”
Desmond looked at Dobbins in a threatening manner.
“Hang on, Commander.” Dobbins ordered. “I’m not quite ready for it, yet.”
“Is everything all right, sir?” Brackers asked.
“Yes, everything’s Code Blue,” Dobbins answered. “Get everything set-up, but wait for my order to execute.”
“Understood sir,” Brackers said. “We’ll wait on your order. Hyperion out.”
“Excellent job, Captain,” Desmond said condescendingly as Dobbins handed the hyperwave over the guards. “Anything more foolish would have cost you dearly during the re-programming. We have ways of making it, shall I say, less comfortable, if we need to.”
Dobbins did not respond at all.
“Are you not going to say, ‘You will never get away with this, Desmond?’ ” asked the Mayor, mockingly.
“Do you really think that I’m going to say something that cliché?” countered Dobbins.
“No,” responded Desmond, “but you do have an entire ship out there, and you could send more of your crew over here and take over my town. I cannot allow that to happen. Call your ship again, Captain, and order them to…”
The beeping from the computer bank interrupted Desmond’s orders. One of the android guards spoke up without even looking at the computer screen. “Mayor,” he said, “someone is accessing our computer system without authorization.”
“Who?” demanded the Mayor.
“I do not know, sir. It appears to be coming from outside the ship.”
Desmond glared at Dobbins. “Very clever, Captain. I did not realize that Fleet Com had changed the code for personnel in distress over the last 30 years. I am afraid, however, that your little plan, whatever it is, is going to fail miserably.
“Jam all external and internal communications,” he ordered the guard.
The guard attempted to comply, but before it could complete the procedure, the computer sounded a different warning tone and began to display a ten-second countdown.
“Sir,” the android said flatly, “someone has activated the android shutdown proto….” It collapsed to the floor, unable to complete its report. The other nineteen guards likewise shut down and fell to the floor.
To the team’s complete astonishment, Desmond, too, slumped forward in his chair, apparently unconscious.
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