ILLUMINARRPG: A Weston Family Christmas-Part 6 (9-2300) SFI Lt. Michael Weston and CMO Commander Quinna Solice

[Al Muir]

Mission:  A Weston Family Christmas

Day: 9

Stardate: 2446.12.23


(Earth - Portland, Oregon - Portland Art Museum - SFI Lt. Michael Weston and CMO Commander Quinna Solice- 2300)


Michael and Quinna stood outside the museum, watching as the last of the curators left for the evening.  The schedule had the museum closed for Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and Boxing Day.  So whatever they were going to do would not be discovered for, at best, another three days.  By that time their plan should be more than complete.


They had spent the last week perfecting their plan.  Get into the impenetrable vault, get the elusive snow globe, get it to the buyer who wants his brother dead, retrieve it from him, and get it back to the museum.  Simple.  The hard part was getting into the vault.


The past week they had spent the time planning and preparing.  He had left Quinna alone with his mother a few times, for which he felt badly. He didn’t really care what his mother thought, but the truth was he wanted the two of them to get along. Perhaps it would be a start to repair the relationship between them.


Of course, the fact that he was about to commit a major crime for his family might also be a sign to his mother. God knows he’d done worse in his childhood. He hugged Quinna tightly and rubbed her arms to keep her warm.


“You ready?” he asked.


Quinna shook her head, “I am as ready as I will ever be.”  Quinna said as she looked over to the museum.


Michael gave her an encouraging peck on the check and said, “Just relax and look like you belong exactly where we are. The hard work is already done.  We just need to stick to the plan.”


Quinna once again checked herself to make sure she was ready, but also to check her nerves.


Feeling her relax Michael smiled and stepped back. His face changed slightly and he was Michael Weston, SFI operative. He pulled out his small hand computer and moved into the shadow of the building.  It was a weak spot in the museum's sensors. He was able to remotely access the security systems and shut down the sensors. He fed a loop of the street scene he’d recorded into the video recording. They were now invisible.


The next step required them to access the museum’s independent computer system. It hadn’t been that difficult.  The clue had been when Horace admitted he designed the programming. The man had been a good programmer but a person of habit. He’d created a back door entrance to his system. It was just finding the access to it. Fortunately, Horace was not that complex a person. It took a couple of days to figure his way in, but Michael found it.


Meanwhile, Quinna was out, in charge of finding out everything she could about the globe who wanted it, and why.


Quinna waited fro the signal from Michael.  When he sent it, She entered the building and moved to the holiday exhibit.   The globe was gone, which did not surprise Quinna at all.  Looking around she noted the information on the placard.  Snowglobe was made in 1871 in the Mongolian region of China.  Quinna thought for a moment, and if her memory served, that area of the world did not celebrate the Christmas Holidays, which made this snow globe even more rare.


Moving silently Michael snuck behind Quinna and tapped her on the shoulder. “Whatcha lookin’ at?”


“Oh, you know me.  Trying to figure things out.  Why is this so special besides the age.”  Quinna said.  “Think we can access the storage?”


Michael wiggled his eyebrows and held up his gold data card. “I think our chances are pretty good. Horace isn’t an idiot, but I think I have a way in.”


He led Quinna down a corridor to an access door. After a moment of manipulating the lock, the door opened.  It led down another hallway which ended at the vault entrance.  He went up to the door and stood in front of it with his hands behind his back. It was an awe-inspiring sight. And he could feel the electricity flowing through its security system on his exposed flesh.


“As we suspected,” Michael said, “it runs on an independent power source.  We won’t be able to just shut it down.”


“I am not an engineer but can’t we do an electrical bypass circuit so it will think the power is still on?”  Quinna suggested.  “Like a feedback loop for electricity?”


Michael leaned over and kissed Quinna on the cheek with a smile. “You’ve learned a lot.”  He pulled a small device from his bag and put it in her hand. “One bypass circuit.  You know what to do with it?”


Quinna took the device, placed it above the door access, and activated it.  Suddenly a click was heard as the lock disabled.  With a nod, Quinna knew that Michael was ready to go in.  Quinna followed scouting as the lookout.


Michael heard the satisfying sound of the locking mechanism disengage and stepped up to the combination pannel. This was going to be the tough part. A hexadecimal code was bad enough but a lot more dual hex code was nigh impossible to hack.  That would be unless you knew the person who set the combination. In which you’d have some clues.


Horace would not make it something that would appear relevant, but he would also make something that he would be able to remember. A lesser hack into the museum curator’s computer system left Micheal with a few options.  A pattern that he could work with became apparent.


The hard part was the DNA coding.  Acquiring his champagne glass from the gala made that possible. He smiled knowing how beneficial it was to have a great doctor as a girlfriend. Quinna had been able to replicate Horace’s genetic code from what she could get from glass. He pulled out a vial of the synthesized saliva and put it on the panel.


Then he pulled out his gold card.  He gave it a kiss for luck and inserted it into a slot in the computer and attached electrodes to it.  He stepped back and stood next to Quinna. All they could do is wait. They had about two minutes.


They stood there, shoulder to shoulder, watching the door, waiting for it to open.


“It is a shame that we have to go through all this.  In this day and age, thievery is a concern.”  Quinna smirked at the irony of her comment.


Michael shrugged,”In this day and age, when thievery is pretty much unnecessary for the every day person, it becomes more of an art form for those who need something that they can’t acquire with a replicator.”


A moment later there was a beep and a rolling sound. The door opened giving them access to the vault. Now time was of the essence.


They stopped into the vault and handed Quinna a black pouch. She was the expert here. It was her turn. She needed to find the item they were looking for. He was certain that it wouldn’t be labeled or have a big arrow pointing to it.


Quinna slowly maneuvered around the room and checked out the crates.  In the back recesses a small box layed on the desk.  She opened the box slowly making sure there were no alarms on the box, with luck there were not.  Where rested the snowglobe.  Quinna removed the snowglobe and placed it on the table.  She inspected it to insure it was indeed the authentic snowglobe.  “Got it.”  Was all Quinna said.  As she slipped the globe in the bag.


With the snow globe in hand they stepped back out of the vault. Michael collected his gold card and the vial. The moved quickly to the exit. Once outside a strange feeling came over Michael. Something was wrong. He didn’t know what, but it was an instinct that had kept him alive for many years, so he listened to it.


A moment late his ears caught the sound of security sirens. They were coming from both ends of the street and above. He took a deep breath as he tried to think.


Suddenly there was another sound from the road. A vehicle appeared. “You need a ride?”


Michael peered inside and found a familiar face. “Dave?  With the hell are you doing here?”


“Bro,” David Weston said, “I wasn’t going to let you out your life on the line for me without some kind of support. You wouldn’t let me help in there so here I am out here. Now get in.”


Michael looked at Quinna and she looked back at him. There really was little choice. They both jumped into the vehicle and it moved silently down the street. Security vehicles descended upon the museum, completely ignoring them.


When Michael looked at him in surprise David said, “The vehicle has a stealth mode. We’re pretty much invisible unless you’re actually looking for it.  You think you’re the only with with cool toys?”


Michael began to chuckle as they headed towards home.


“Must be some tree you boys fell from.”  Quinna said as looked behind them and the Museum district became smaller in the window.


(reply none)

(posted by Al and Kris)





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