"The Betrayal"

[Garnoopy 0]

Lieutenant (Jg) Garnoopy

Operations Officer

Personal Log Stardate 10307.28

 

Lieutenant Commander Tepi

“The Betrayal”  

 

Tepi sighed as he activated the contingency program hidden in his personal files. He hadn’t thought it would be necessary to use the program but the Arcadia engineers had gotten to close and were working to hard to prove that Tepi was behind the virus being planted on the colony. If they only knew.

 

The program did its job perfectly. All biosigns excluding Tepi’s were locked onto with the transporters and beamed out of the building. Then, all entrances to the building were magnetically sealed and forcefields covered the entire building. No one could walk or beam in without Tepi allowing them.

 

The water reclamation center’s backup power source came online. The contingency program was designed so that Tepi could finish his work without interruption. If the Arcadia engineers decided to attempt to shut down main power in an attempt to deactivate the forcefields the backup power generator would take over instantly, ensuring that the building was locked down for at least 2 hours. All water reclamation system would remain online.

 

Tepi reached down and tapped his cane in several locations along the side. Instantly the holographic generators housed inside of it went offline and Tepi’s face returned to its normal 36-year-old self.

 

He paused for a moment as he realized he had just most likely thrown away any chance he had at returning to Starfleet. When he had left 2 years ago Starfleet had requested he stay, but he turned them down. However, they had told him if he ever wanted to return they would welcome him back. His career had been hugely promising.

 

At the age of 32 Tepi had become a very young Lieutenant Commander. He had been chief engineer of a brand new Sovereign class Starship. Tepi held a Doctorate in the medical field with a specialty of rare diseases. He was expected to be a Commander by the age of 36 and a Captain by 40.

 

However, 6 years ago when Tepi turned 30 he had gotten married and had a daughter. Two years ago Tepi had nearly been killed in a ship accident and had realized that Starfleet was no place for a family. He left Starfleet and took up the position of chief engineer on the colony. Life was good and Tepi and his family were happy.

 

Unfortunately a month ago a group of persons had taken his family hostage and held them in his house. They threatened to kill them if Tepi did not proceed with their demands. The persons wanted the lodinite that surrounded the colony and would do anything to get it, including the murder of Tepi’s family. Despite his entire life’s training and beliefs Tepi agreed to help them.

 

The plan was simple; Tepi would create and introduce a virus into the colonies water system. People would get sick, help would be summoned, and then the help would leave after solving the virus. Then Tepi would introduce a new more dangerous virus and the help would be called back. Time would be short and the help would be required to evacuate the colony immediately.

 

Everything had been going according to plan until the Arcadia engineers had gotten to close. He had been forced to jump ahead of the plan and introduce the new virus. The new virus was a much more dangerous breed.

 

Tepi tapped the panel in front of him and hit the emergency cleaning of all water on the colony. The filters were already shut down, the virus would be allowed through with no problems. In 15 minutes the virus would be spread throughout with no way to stop it. Within 45 minutes over 15% of the colony would be infected, and within an hour the virus would be airborne, destroying the planet of the ability to hold life within 3 hours. Once the virus was airborne anyone who remained in the atmosphere of the planet would be in danger of having permanent brain damage. Once removed from the atmosphere the persons would be fine however. Tepi had designed it that way. There was a cure, he had it, but anyone who didn’t know the intricacies of the virus like Tepi would take days upon days to find a cure for it. Only Tepi could stop it and he had no intention of doing so for he wanted his family alive and safe.

 

He activated the comm. system and sent a message to the location where his family was being held. The message was simple, “Security Breached. Continuance Program Initiated.” They would understand what was going on.

 

Tepi locked down the main computer. No one but him with his authorization code could do anything with the water reclamation systems. Then, Tepi initiated a power overload of all panels that could access the main computer system. He stepped back and watched as all of the panels shorted out and the main computer was left to run itself. It would ensure that the building remained locked down and power was provided, it would also ensure that the water systems remained online and running. Even if the engineers managed to gain access to the main computer they would be to late, for within 15 minutes the virus would be unstoppable.

 

He stepped forward and opened a hatch down into the pipes. The forcefield for that door was deactivated and Tepi climbed downward, and then reactivated the forcefield. He tapped the site-to-site transporter he had and beamed out.

 

Tepi would do anything to save his family, including the betrayal of everything he had stood for his entire adult life.