So I think this is going to be a twelve part story, the next part will most definetly be where they finally escape Kadek and make it home, I hope.
Please enjoy and have a nice day!
Part 8: The Showdown.
Things happened quickly both times the bridge was taken, both times it was bloody, quick, and very traumatic. The first time the whole bridge as the distress beacon was activated and failed to be shutdown. At the same time someone noticed a recording device on the ceiling scanning the room in a way that it was not supposed to, Captain Taggert then ordered the Sensors officer, filling in for Bernhard Morris, to lock the door to his ready room. Just as she moved to do so the door flung open and a green bolt blew her back like a shock wave. Razkii, the First Officer, had been standing around the corner with his pistol drawn, he came out to shoot but was suddenly hit by a one armed swing of a bat'leth, the heavy weapon mostly removed anything from the right side of his face to just below his armpit, his blood sprayed Elisa Flores. The tactical officer screamed and fell back, climbing under the sensors console as she tried to run from the blood that coated her front and had coated her mouth. The Fire Controller had stood, trying to do something, and was shot by the heavy pulse rifle of the leading warrior. Ash Potter had tried to stand from her spot at the helm but was shoved down by the heavy hand of a warrior who pressed their bodies together and held a dahar to her neck. The engineer brought his hands up and was spared yet was not spared a solid punch in his face.
The Captain was quickly seized by two short, yet extremely strong, Gorn who held him for the officer who stepped slowly and casually into the room. Yet all the deaths and mistreatment seemed little compared to poor T'Vrell, who was grabbed by one of the ugliest and worst of the gang and raped. She lay there screaming, several times Taggert tried to make them stop but was rewarded only with several solid punches to different areas of his body. Not even the men on the outside of the doors placing charges could hear the screams of T'Vrell as she was raped by something much to terrible to describe.
Then, only a few minutes after, the doors exploded and fire erupted into the room. Precise fire was taking the lives of the Klingons in the view of the Andorian's team coming up the second lift, while a wild spray of stun bolts did little but make the Gorn holding Taggert tired to the point they used him as a support. The Klingon holding Potter stood and drew her pistol, she was cut down by a tight beam of a rifle and didn't stand again. Yet the breach went little as planned, the Andorian's team was slow to claim the threshold and secure their blind spots, a plasma grenade rolled into them and detonated right in their faces. The shaft filled with screams as hot plasma burnt them alive. Morris broke down the grating to the airduct and slid out, shooting the thrower, he stood and aimed at the nearest Gorn. He was aiming for the next before the Klingon Officer beamed them away. The bridge was clear, ony the bodies and the shocked, scarred, and horribly frightened bridge crews that sat about.
Potter was leaning against her chair with her eyes wide, one hand massaging the scar left by the razor sharp dahar, Elisa was still crying and trying not to look at Razkii's mutilated form, while the engineer was laying in probably the best sleep he'd get in some time. The worst was T'Vrell, tears were streaming down her cheeks as she sat with her back to her station, hands covering her eyes as her skirt was hiked up to an exposing height, he panties actually lay ripped off the side.
Reddy finally conquered the threshold and gazed about the scared bridge. As T'Kira came through the door he leaned into the shaft and called for a medic. He turned and found Potter toying with a dahar.
"Ash." He spoke softly as he could force himself to.
She looked at him with a very scary look in her eyes. "Yes sir?" she said it sarcastically as she continued to do daring things like balance it on the tip of her finger and toss it from hand to hand.
"Where is Captain Taggert." He hadn't seen anything, he had dropped down to avoid a disruptor blast.
"They took him, a massive Gorn and an officer." Bernhard holstered his pistol as he made his was past T'Kira, sitting on the steps trying to comfort T'Vrell, and stood beside Potter.
Reddy swore and pushed past them, walked over and stood above Razkii's torn body, he removed his own jacket and placed it over the body. He came down to a knee and tried to talk to Elisa. "Elisa," he spoke. "Elisa." She simply stared at him, shaking and rubbing her hands across her face and neck, only succeeding in spreading the blood across her chest exposed from where she had loosened her jacket.
He stood, the medics were on the bridge now, moving among the bodies and working with them. He noticed that the Benzite he had connected with earlier was among them. Before long they were taking people off the bridge into the reactivated turbolift, they were bound for the sickbay where the combat medics would try their utmost to do what they could. They were after all, not surgeons or doctors.
"Mister Morris!" He swung about, suddenly remembering what the Vulcan had said earlier.
"Sir!" Morris had been speaking in a low voice with Potter.
"Shut off the damn distress beacon and rig us for silent running, or whatever you can do, I need a sitrep in two minutes." Reddy walked across the bridge to where a gaggle of different officer stood waiting assignment.
He pointed to the Saurian, "Fire Controller." the Ferengi, "Engineering." He looked at the Vulcan, "Helm."
"No." said Potter, she was still playing with the knife-like object.
"Pardon?" Reddy cocked his head at the woman, he noticed she was becoming wild eyed, wild eyed and even stranger than he remembered.
"I'm the helmsman Patty." She said with a maniacal voice. "I'm the designated driver laddie." She practically skipped away from him and eagerly sat in her seat. Reddy could see that Sakup was just as surprised as him.
T'Kira was already on the tactical position and Morris was coming back from the sciences station with a PADD, he came up close and made a motion saying he wanted to speak privately. "Patty." He spoke lowly, they were huddling next to the primary turbolift door. "You're not from here."
Reddy understood the very subtle hint, before he could speak again he was interrupted by a robotic voice.
"Sir." It came, calm and stoic. Reddy turned to see T'Vrell, tears had ruined her makeup and her hair looked ruffled, he uniform was torn, yet she stood straight and looked directly at him. "Cadet Haymore reports that our decks have been cleared of invaders, it appears that our Acting Engineering Officer was accidentally killed by friendly fire in the barracks area, Cadet Zarva has taken control of the room and says she has heavy damage to the warp core and can't move much quicker than Impulse 5. You Cadet Triss also reports that Damage Control parties have begun work on the damage about the hull. I can get a more detailed report in five minutes."
Reddy felt sympathy for the Vulcan, feelings or not. "T'Vrell—" he started.
"Sir, I am perfectly confident I can run my station in my current state, just as is Cadet Potter."
"Cheerio! All spiffing ready, warp core or not!" Potter's voice seemed to be stuck on one tone, crazy.
Reddy looked closely into the deep green pools that stared back without emotion. "Assume you post and get me a report Cadet." She clicked her heals and scurried off. He cast a glance at Morris that said 'need you see more?'
Reddy stepped to the bridge and looked about, meeting the eye of each crew member, except Arripak who was hidden by the console that T'Kira stood behind. He thought about saying something profound or memorable. "You may not be trained to your post, but I'm sure you'll do better than me." He hated the words the second he said them, but what was gone was gone. "Sensors." Morris jumped at the address and instinctively moved to his post.
After several seconds he spun his chair about. "Pat, it appears we're being masked inside a dense cloud of radiation, they could only detect us when our shields were up or we were firing weapons, or our beacon of course. Now that they are all off and we aren't emitting anything greater than our regular power output, they can't see us or beam aboard."
Suddenly something crackled across the speakers above them. "I know you can hear me, I know you are betting you can hide inside that radiation cloud and escape me on maneuvering thrusters. You're wrong whoever you are."
Reddy walked up to T'Vrell's post. "Can we track that channel?"
"No sir," T'Vrell checked her console. "whoever it is, they're broadcasting on an open channel that isn't direct in any sense, we can view it without being detected though."
"Put it on the mainscreen." Reddy was trying to comprehend what had happened to the woman, unsure how to treat her, his order came out more as a casual request.
The screen lit up and was dominated by the picture of a Klingon, partially bald, sitting in the throne-like chair of a captain. "I'll make this easy, open a channel and we can talk."
"Do it." Reddy ordered.
The Klingon sat back. "Ah, allow me to introduce myself, I am Captain Kadek of the I.K.S. Chot, and you are?"
"Jacques Patrick Reddy, U.S.S. Chillingsworth, I answer to Commander Kel'chak Alexander only." Maybe if Kadek knew he was under a Klingon he would have some respect for Reddy.
"Ah, you speak of that baktag like he is something to be proud of don't you?" He reached ofscreen and grabbed something. "It may comfort you to know he has met his end and is soon to burn in Gre'thor." His arm came back, holding the head of Commander Kel'chak Alexande by it's neatly trimmed hair, it's expression was one of pure terror. Kadek laughed evilly, pitching his head back and tossing the head over his shoulder. "You should see your face, you miserable little man. Now," he straightened his face and became serious, "surrender you ship immediately and you will be spared."
"No." Reddy said levelly.
"You think you're brave, well maybe this will change your mind." He signaled and Captain Taggert was shoved into the screen, Kadek drew a dahar and brought it to Taggert's neck. Reddy said nothing, he was staring through the screen directly into the Taggert's eyes. "Consider your options boy, your captain and you entire crew can be destroyed, or you can live and maybe one day reclaim your honor."
Taggert's eyes did the talking, there was no life after capture by the Klingons, only days in a cell barely five square feet with sometimes hourly 'questionings', if you had no intel you were cast out to the prison planet of Rura Penthe, where you eventually stayed motionless too long and froze. There was no hope for Taggert and he knew that, they both knew that, if they gave up they could all end up like Razkii, or T'Vrell. They could be forever locked in this brawl, to do wrong or right.
"Tell this boy to surrender before I blow him and those children out of the sky!" Kadek hauled Taggert up and pressed the dahar harder into his neck, drawing a small stream of blood.
"Mister Reddy," Taggert's voice was strained and pleading. "do what you must, I post you as captain of my ship and give you a battlefield promotion to lieutenant."
There was tapping and the sound of someone doing quick work on a computer, Reddy didn't look away, to do so would signal weakness and distraction.
"Morris!" she warned, too late. Suddenly three torpedoes were launched and tracking their way through space.
Taggert was suddenly hauled back from the screen, a sudden laugh silenced by the rise and fall of a dahar. They last heard of him, before the transmission was terminated, letting out a loud gurgling cry. Reddy spun and looked at Morris.
"Bernie what did you do?" He asked irritantly.
Bernhard stood and nodded towards the screen. They all watched as the camera followed the track of the torpedoes all the way around the rear of the ship and off. They finally exploded against an invisible object that shook and bucked at their striked.
Reddy caught on quick. "Weapons, phasers fire on that target."
"Sir phasers are heavily damaged, we don't have much juice."
"FIRE, DAMNIT, FIRE!" They fired, their rear torpedo launcher and two working phaser arrays cut paths through the radiation cloud and brought forth more explosions from the object trying to escape. "Helm come about one hundred eighty degrees." They came slowly about, torpedoes and phasers pounding at the object. When the forward launchers came about they fired rapidly, a full spread of four impacting the target. Then it disappeared. Their shots missed and they stopped.
"Enemy seems to be holding off, I think I detected heavy damage, I'm surprised she still has cloaking capabilities." T'Kira announced.
Reddy faced the sensor panel, Morris was busy with his headphones and screens trying to find their opponent. He spoke his name, Morris didn't move. "Morris!" He said more firmly. Morris sat up and looked at him. He took his headset off. "Why did you do that Morris?" he said flatly.
"He was going to die anyway. It would have been what he wanted."
"You don't know that, we could have saved him!" Reddy was angry, he shouted to let Morris know.
"Unless you didn't realize, that wasn't a B'rel or D7, that was a fucking great battlecruiser! She'd have dealt with us in half a minute if they hadn't wanted to capture us!" Morris stood and shouted as well.
"You made a command decision without orders from anyone above you."
Morris stepped up close and spoke in a low voice. "I made the decision to fire before you were made my captain."
Reddy could feel the anger building up inside of him, burning white hot like a phaser blast. He bit his lip and tried to calm himself, he couldn't stand to look at the man's face, it's hard lines, firm jaw, and auburn hair, too much like him, they were all infuriating. He had simply thought of killing Taggert and sparing him the pain, yet he had never wanted to press the button, and now that Taggert was dead he knew it was wrong. He had to banish the thoughts and try to cope with what had happened, but he could not have Morris on the bridge.
"Mister Morris." he said. "You are hereby confined to quarters, go there and do not leave them unless given express permission from me or my second."
Morris moved in closer, challenging Reddy's will. "Is that an order, Patrick?" He said sarcastically.
"Mister Morris I can toss you in the brig if I see fit. Now return to your quarters before I have you escorted there."
"Is that an order, Patty? Last I looked you weren't from this ship."
Neither of them knew why they were arguing, they didn't exactly care either. Captain Taggert was dead, dozens of other people were dead, and they probably weren't going to survive, so what was a small argument other than a bit of fun?
"Taggert made him the captain, he's a lieutenant too. So he's in charge Bernie." Said T'Kira, she had moved about and was trying to pull Morris back.
"Go, now." Reddy finally said sternly. "That's an order."
Morris let up at that last word, he straightened, clicked his heels in a comical fashion and quick marched to the turbolift. With a buzz and short wait he was gone from the room. In confines of the lift, unknown to everyone else, he was punching the wall as hard as he could without hurting his hands, he kicked it as well. Just as the lift stopped and the door came open he stopped and walked from the lift to his quarters like nothing had happened.
Reddy plopped in his captain's chair, looking at the faces about. "Rig for silent running, get us fixed and ready for what's coming next."
And they did.