In harm's way
Lucida grinned as she looked at the eleven, now unconscious sentries lying on the floor. Ray's nose was bleeding and Wiuen's upper lip was bruised and swelling up. Another guard ran into the room and fired his disruptor rifle wildly.
Everyone dived for cover, most blasts were aimed at Wiuen. Ray was caught off-guard and was unable find any cover. He considered another option, but he knew he was too far to attack the guard directly.
"How rude!" Lucida roared as a blast from her pilfered disruptor pistol struck the guard hard in the back. But she was a split second too late, as the guard fired a shot of his own, hitting Ray squarely in the chest. Both groaned and fell to the ground.
Lucida was first to reach Ray. She picked up her fallen medical tricorder and scanned him as he recovered his bearings. His uniform was smoldering where the disruptor hit, a small circle of charred clothing. The padded protective material saved Ray's life.
Lucida let out a sigh of relief and smiled, putting a hypospray to his neck, "You are going to be fine. Lay still for a minute, alright ?" The hypo hissed softly.
"Is that your expert medical opinion ?" Ray teased.
She slapped him on the chest as revenge, causing him to see stars, "Do you ever find yourself at a loss of smart remarks ?"
This time Ray was hurt, "Yeah."
Wiuen was in the next room when a muscular Nelkatite male quickly but silently entered the room. He grabbed Lucida from behind and hefted her to her feet. She writhed in his grip, but the man had her arms pinned tightly to her sides, she was unable to kick or struggle, he held a knife to her neck.
The man made a sudden noise of surprise as his feet left the ground. He dropped Lucida and the knife. The next thing she knew, the man was flying across the room. He slammed into the wall, slid to the ground, and just laid there in a daze.
"Thanks, " Lucida said turning to face her rescuer. "Nice toss."
"You would have done the same for me," MRess responded, shrugging.
She grinned, "Maybe not the exact same."
MRess went down on all fours, claws extended and bearing his canines and tail whipping as he glared at the big man who was trying to stand up. The Caitian grinned.
It was his friendly grin, but apparently the fact it showed his fangs made people uneasy, which he liked to take advantage of. The guard looked like a canary that a cat was busy torturing. "I would not move if was you," Lucida laughed. The guard was flinching with every movement MRess was making.
Wiuen and Lucida peered around the corner; the room was filled with yellow computer panels, flickering with blue readouts and indicators. The floor beneath them was strange, like rigid, warm, polished glass. It had no texture Ray could see, but it wasn't slippery, either.
Wiuen examined the machinery, taking in all the buttons, switches and gauges. "Where to begin ?" Wiuen mused aloud.
"I really don't know where to start." Lucida admitted. "I am a scientist, not an engineer."
With MRess standing guard, the Mouse, Wiuen and Lucida started to take apart numerous panels, opening cabinets of hardware at random in a tedious search to find a way to shut down the generators. Wiuen was first to find a generator's controls.
The entire cabinet was filled with alien technologies, various components stolen or acquired by other means. Everything somehow meshed together. Wieun rubbed his hands together and popped his knuckles, a huge grin spreading over his face. "Time to improvise."
With a grand maestro flourish, Wiuen began hitting switches and buttons in quick succession. After nearly thirty seconds of this random attack, the generator shuddered, coughed, and fell silent.
"Well, that was easy," he said, almost disappointed. As he watched, he slowly became aware of a high-pitched whine. He frowned, puzzled, as it increased in intensity. Wiuen stepped back from the generator, watching the bizarre effect. "What is that ... uh-oh ..."
Suddenly, everything was on fire and smoke was rapidly filling up inside. Quickly, the four of them performed a quick search before the heat and smoke forced them back outside, coughing.
Something to protect
Stryker was carrying the Romulan woman while Demona, the towering Avian ambassador walked by herself. MRess, Alice and Stryker walked in front as they crossed a catwalk heading towards the beam out point when an explosion rocked the catwalk beneath their feet. "Why would there be any explosions around here ?" Alice asked.
Stryker's voice carried an odd sarcasm, "Apparently, you have not been around Wieun long enough."
"Guilty by association ?" she asked.
"Something like that. We used to call him, Meltdown."
She looked at him, a quizzical expression on her face. "Long story, " he explained.
He put down the Romulan woman, lying her back against the wall. Her blond hair is extremely unusual. Romulans are known to be xenophobic, yet he was sure she was not completely Romulan. Their hair only comes in one colour, black which turns white as they age. "Hey, Alice. Look at this, I think she's a human Romulan hybrid."
She looked at the unconciseness woman. "That is very strange."
Ray approached them from behind and looked around, "Where is Mouse ?"
"She is coming." Alice answered.
Ray spun around and took off. Stryker yelled after him, "Ray, no !"
He was about to run after Ray but MRess put his hand on Stryker's shoulder, "I will get him."
Stryker nodded. MRess returned to quadrupedalism and took off, disappearing across the corner. Moving at inhuman speed, on all fours, MRess leapt down the hallway and across another catwalk. Lucida dodged MRess as she made her way to the beam out point.
Alice and Stryker looked to their right and left, where two fully armored, but unarmed Orions arrived from a staircase, running towards then. They are regaining control of their station, everyone onboard is proberly after us now. Stryker thought miserably. With nowhere to flee, they fought against their attackers.
Amid the noise and confusion, two sentries tried sneaking up on Alice, but he saw them and yelled, "Alice, Look out !"
Together Alice and Stryker fought them but more arrived, and making matters worse, Lucida was in trouble. Due to her height, she was unable to proberly defend herself against her larger opponents. A Cardassian attacked her, a blow to the head sent her falling backwards, unconciseness.
The Cardassian looked at his downed opponent then turned to Demona. She shrieked a profanity and rushed forward to engage him.
Another figure appeared from the same elevator that the Cardassian emerged from. She was tall and lean, with an angry, mean looking face. Her skin was a lime-green color, dark eyes surrounded by brown rings of makeup, lips of the same colour, and long reddish-purple dreadlocked hair. Her attire included long navy pants, blue and gray metallic body armor showing a number of battle scars made by energy and projectile weapons. He could not help but notice that her left arm looked mechnical. She glared at Stryker, "I will tear you apart !"
He struck a fighting pose and taunted her, "I don't think so !"
Behind him, Demona was overpowered by her four opponents and fell to the ground, dizzy and barely conscious she could not help but to close her eyes. A short distance away, Alice traded blows with a mean looking Nelkarite.
A pair of Orions arrived, turning their attention on Alice, surrounding her. Stryker fought his crazed opponent and knocked her out with a well-timed roundhouse kick to the head. But not before she nearly broke his arm, bruised his jaw and landed punches so powerful his ribcage felt crushed.
With a battle cry, he charged at Alice's attackers with a strength born of love, fear, and anger. Like the armored woman that attacked Stryker, they were the outpost's most skilled and experienced fighters. The trio easily defended themselves and worked together, pushing him backwards and over the railing.
Alice cried out as Stryker fell backwards, "Nooooooooo !"
Stryker grabbed a lower railing. He tried to pull himself up when another round of explosions rocked the entire deck. His grip slipped and he fell. The drop was the longest moments he had ever felt.
The three aliens smiled. One of them pulled out a long dagger and swung it in the air. Three down, one to go. "Alone, now, little human." the one holding the dagger sneered.
Alice unholstered her phaser and prayed, "Please work."
The three aliens laughed. "That weapon will not function." one of them said referring to the dampening field. She pressed the discharge button.
It worked!
Alice zapped the sentries. Once her opponents were down, her ran to Lucida and checked her for lifesigns. Lucida's pulse was strong. Relieved that she was okay, Alice picked her up and dashed forward to a spiral staircase leading to the lower level. She tapped her combadge, "Our phasers work again."
MRess lost his tricorder a minute ago, someone picked it up and threw it down a disposal chute. He encountered several sentries and fought them when he could not simply run past them. His uniform and mane was scorched and he ran with a slight limp. "Dammit, Ray. Where are you ?"
Stryker fell four meters, and hit the ground hard flat his back against the metal floor. The wind knocked out of him and he heard the sound of something snapping. "Ow, my landing was less then perfect," he muttered to himself, involuntarily closing his eyes as rolling waves of dizziness took hold.
A phaser rifle laid crushed beneath Stryker. Nearly 60 seconds passed as he laid there, and in pain. He was unaware of a jagged head wound, a small puddle of yellow blood had already collected under his head when Alice arrived. She put Lucida down and reached out to him. "Stryker, say something !"
Forcing the darkness that threatened to overtake him to the back of his mind, he swallowed, but his tongue felt swollen and thick. Stryker opened his eyes. "You still with me ?" Alice asked him as she helped him sit up straight.
He rubbed the back of his neck, working off some of the pain in his body. "I think so. Might have a few bones left unbroken."
She looked him in the eyes for a second then started pounding his crest with anger. "Takim darta himya. Why did you do that ?" she cried out.
Stupid stubborn idiot ... Wait ... where did she learn those words ? Stryker wondered. " ... But of course, Wieun.
"I could not let them hurt you." he looked at her lovely face but angry face.
"Trying to be protective is cute, but it is not going work, " Alice snapped. "I am trained in security. I have to take chances and I can take care of myself."
Stryker gently pushed Alice away and looked into her eyes as he tucked in a stray strand of her hair around the left ear. Still angry, she looked at him. "It's not over yet. Come on, get up."
Rescuing the rescuers
Aurora and the outpost was exchanging weapons fire. Aurora's shields was down to 51 . The outpost's shields at 70 even after taking direct hits and two dozen photon torpedoes were fired at the outpost.
"Moderate damage to torpedo launcher 2. Two fatalities reported on deck nine. Injuries on other decks." Lt. Throm told his captain.
Ensign Newkirk looked at his console, "Captain, energy build up detected. I found them. Multiple fires in the outpost, judging by this, I'd say someone is doing a pretty good job at sabotage."
"Keep them out of my engine room," Lieutenant-Commander Shaedal joked. Captain Holden gave him the don't you have somewhere else to be? glare. Shaedal ordered his engineering tech to take over, then headed to the turbolift.
"Lifesigns ?"
Ensign Newkirk studied his console at OPS, "Erratic sir. Unable to seperate individuals. Looks like about 70 lifesigns in the outpost."
Ensign Perl and Lieutenant Xanatos worked together at science station two. "Captain, subspace comminications are back online."
Captain Holden nodded to Bardley who opened the com-link. "Bridge to away team. Report !"
Stryker tapped his combadge, "Stryker to Aurora. Captain, we found the ambassador and a Romulan. We have cascualties."
Alice tapped her combadge, "Brangwin to Bridge. Sir, did you find Lieutenant Soto ?"
"Yes we did cadet. She is in sickbay, being operated on right now." Holden reassured her.
"Beam them out." Ciro barked.
His console beeped errors at Bardley, "Still unable to estabilize transporter lock, sir."
Holden shot a glace at Newkirk and Bardley. Newkirk shook his head while Bardley kept tapping away at his console, "Sir, I found a micro breach in the force field. We can beam our people into that section."
Holden barked orders with extreme urgency. "I want med teams in there immediately. One security officer for every medic. Get in and get our people out. Move it, move it !"
Ciro tapped his combadge. "Bridge to sickbay and security. Report to transporter room one throught eight. Prepare for an emergency rescue operation."
Ambush
Moving with the speed and agility, but not the stealth, of a mouse, the Vellorian ran from room to room, attempting to find her way to the beam out location. Crash it, my combadge is missing. Where did I lost it ? Too late now.
Mouse spun, skidding on her momentum. She came to a halt crouching, one hand lightly touching the floor for balance. "Got yourself all worked up over nothing." Mouse laughed and sighed in relief, approaching one of the rooms near the central chimney.
Once inside, she noticed the lights from the overhead halogens flickering on and off, rows of security monitors along the walls shut down without the necessary power allocated to them. Mouse smiled as she recalled Alice had redirected power from security to waste management. Bet that would make them angry.
Startled by a cluttering sound, she looks around. Training in on a general direction, she cat-steps towards the noise. It's coming from across the room. She smelled sweat, very strong, almost nauseating. A-pew! Something reeks!
A loud thud echoed from behind her as a Klingon charged at her. Mouse acted instinctively to defend herself by ducking to the floor and knocked his feet from underneath him, sending the Klingon crashing to the ceramic tile beside her.
He was on his feet a second later, attacking her. She plucked out her phaser, only to have it knocked out of her hand. It landed halfway across the room. Summoning all self-control, Mouse tried defending herself and blocking blows. She tripped backwards, landing on her rear-end. He threw its full weight upon her. "Got off me !" she demanded, kicking with all her might forcing him off her body momentarily.
Mouse got to her feet and breathed in deep, trying to get a second wind of strength only to have the air knocked from her lungs as he drove a huge fist into her waist.
Something within Mouse snapped as the pain entered her body. She felt fury she had never felt in her life as she sidestepped him. Mouse grabbed him by the long hair from behind and yanked, pushing the brute backwards, then spun around and pushed forward to slam his head into the duranium wall.
She took out a hypospray and injected it into the back of his neck. He started to turn around and slowly started to slump, a confused look on his face. "Go take a bath. You smell." she laughed triumphantly as the Klingon pirate fell to his knees than onto the floor. Mouse located her phaser and picked it up.
"I have to get out of here !" Mouse childed herself in a mixture of rage and panic as she starts running again.
Surrounded
Five minutes passed before Lucida regained conscious. She sat up, surrounded by Demona, Alice and Stryker who were fighting off their attackers. The Romulan was lying next to her, still unconscious. She noticed a livid bruise marred Stryker's cheek and jawline.
It was obvious to her that Stryker, Demona and Alice would not last long, maybe another minute or so, but they were losing the fight and they knew it. "Ow, my head." she groaned, feeling tired, drained of her strength.
Alice zapped her would-be opponents with her phaser, while Stryker hit them with the remains of his rifle. Demona uttered several curses as she viciously attacked her opponents. A Ferengi come too close to Stryker. He picked up the short Ferengi and tossed him backwards, crashing into the others.
The wall around the generator on the upper levels exploded. Stryker and Alice backpedaled from the concussion, flying shrapnel clanging on the catwalks and the abyss below.
On their right, two pairs of a phaser beams latched out, stunning the aliens attacking Alice and Stryker. Four Starfleet officers arrived, two medics among them. A Bajoran nurse reached Lucida and attached a device on her. She promptly dematerilized. Alice and Stryker gratefully looked at their rescuers.
Blood
Mouse headed to the beam out point. She come around a corner when she heard a loud gun shot. The source of the noise is in the next room.
Upon entering the room, she saw Ray standing there in tremendous pain, clutching his bleeding stomach before collapsing. Mouse responded by firing her phaser at the orange skinned alien. The guard grunted as he fell, unable to move but still conscious. Ray was laying on the floor. Unmoving. All she knew was that she had to get to Ray and see if he was still alive.
She crounched down and lifted his head. Mouse looked at two small round holes in his uniform, which was framed by a slowly expanding circles of red. Too much blood. He is not moving. Is he breathing ?
She found a weak pulse, his crest still moving. He appears to be asleep. she told herself. O no, he could fall into a coma!
She shook him. "Ray, Ray. Please open your eyes. RAY !"
MRess arrived next, running as fast as he can. He come to a stop next to her, and quickly examined Ray. He could not tell how serious the injury was. He looked at her instead. "Mouse, your hands ... "
She raised them and looked uncomprehendingly at the sticky red fluid on her palms. The blood, there was too much of it. Warm and dark and sticky blood.
She started weeping when three medics and three security officers arrived. They moved fast. The first medic pulled her away from her fallen (dying ?) boyfriend.
The second medic scanned Ray, while the other one attached a small device on him. The medic they tapped the device, Ray dematerialized. The third asked MRess, "Is she all right ?"
MRess helped her to her feet and Mouse found herself shaking. MRess shook his head, "She is in shock."
He handed both a small device, a transporter enhancer disk. "Touch it to activate."
The Enemy
An hour passed since leaving the marauder outpost. The ship headed towards Federation space at warp seven. The Akira class, USS Thunderchild due rendezvous with the Aurora in about 45 minutes just in case of marauder vessel manages to pursue.
Stryker refused to go to sickbay. Ciro took a look at the stubborn cadet and smiled as Stryker entered the bridge. Counselor Fumie arrived on the same turbolift car and took his seat next to the captain.
Stryker barely managed to sit at his workstation when tactical and helm consoles warned them of an error. The mysterious malfunction may present a danger to the crew, causing the computer to activate yellow alert. "What is going on ?"
The bridge personnel exchanged confused glances with each other. She tapped her combadge, "Bridge to engineering, what the hell is going on ?" Holden demanded.
The Chief Engineer was panicking, "Everything is operating as it should captain. No, WAIT !"
The bridge crew collectively held their breaths, waiting in suspense. Shaedel was getting a bad feeling about this. "Subspace density is increasing, highly localized."
The ship shook. "What was that ?" Holden and Ramirez asked simultaneously.
"It might be a tractor beam of some kind sir." Perl announced.
The helm console beeped, three icons representing danger appeared. "Captain, we are losing speed," Stryker informed his commanding officer. "The warp core is overheating. Two thousand degrees Celcius over the norm and rising."
"Battlestations !" she ordered. The red alert klaxon wailed three times. "Drop to impulse."
Stryker dropped the Aurora to sublight speed, one half impulse as per standard procedure. Various console around the bridge suddenly started beeping, warning of a threat. A second later, Lieutenant Throm's eyes grew wide in shock. "Warbird decloaking, directly astern. They are charging weapons !"
Holden cursed, "Merde !"
Stryker's body released an incredible amount of adrenaline as he looked at the ship on sensors. Barely eighty meters away, "They are practically sitting on our hull." he said outloud.
The reverse angle on the viewscreen was filled with a close-up image of a Romulan Warbird. Under different circumstances Stryker loved looking at the majestic dark green hull and its graceful shape, but right now he was staring in disbelief at the green light emanating from its massive nose-mounted disruptor cannon. And rightfully, frightened.
He remembered Commander Key's exact words, "Romulan vessels have descent, well-built hulls and strong shields. Their ships rely upon stealth, the element of surprise attack and the ability to cripple or destroy nearly any unlucky opponent on the first strike."
"Ship to ship." Ciro barked.
"Hailing freqencies open sir." Ensign Newkirk replied from OPS.
"Captain Marjean Holden to Romulan vessel."
The ship rocked once, hit by a short burst of disruptor fire. "Transfer phaser power to the shields. Helm, evasives."
"Aye sir." the ensign and cadet echoed.
With fear in his voice, Lt. Throm called out, "Sir, two type-B warbirds decloaking directly port and starboard, triangulating on our position."
"They are trying to run us down." Ciro said to the captain.
"Cease fire, we are not your enemy." Holden pleaded via the subspace com-link.
"No response sir."
"Ensign Perl, send a priority one distress signal."
"Aye aye."
Another direct hit. And another. Stryker cannot keep the ship out of harm's way. It is simply impossible for an Excelsior class ship to engage and defeat one Romulan cruiser. No single Federation starship in existence stands a chance against three Warbirds. Going to warp was not the best possible idea as their opponents can effortlessly outperform the aging Federation vessel.
"Captain !" Throm bellowed. "Four torpedoes from opposite directions. We'll be caught in the crossfire !"
"Auxiliary power to shields." Ciro ordered. He then tapped his combadge twice to activate ship-wide. "Attention all hands. Damage control teams stand ready. Brace for impact !"
Sparks flew from the back wall of the bridge, the EPS conduit exploded. Throm flew backwards from the blow, and slammed into the back of the counselor's chair. The force of his velocity caused the chair to snap, and it toppled to the ground with Luitenant Fumie in it. The Diasoman and Bajoran was down for the count. Purple blood flowing a hairline fracture, covered Throm's fine golden feathery head crest.
Perl manually activated the fire suppression system. Ensign Enig Bardley rerouted the tactical station's functions to OPS. Ciro tapped his combadge, "Bridge to any transporter room. Medical emergency on the bridge! Two casualties !"
Throm was coming around, but he was having some trouble breathing, the back of his uniform was burnt. "No response from our hails sir." Newkirk reported. Throm and Fumie dematerialized in transporter haze.
The deck shook, "Shields at 46 "
"Long range comminications is down." Ensign Perl reported from her engineering console.
The deck shook again. Lieutenant Xanatos jumped out of the way when a light fixture fell from the roof, the smell of burning isolinear wire was everywhere and smoke started filling the bridge. "Shields at 30 , moderate damage to secondary hull, casualties on all decks." Bardley reported.
The ship rocked again tossing anyone around. Bardley's tactical display fizzed and popped. He wasn't in the mood for this. He gave the display a sharp thump with a balled fist. It whined in protest, then cleared. "Better," he muttered. Stryker chuckled softly to himself.
The lights flickered uncertainly for a moment, but held. Stryker realized life support must be damaged as the tempature on the bridge suddenly increased. "Sir, fire suppression is not responding." Perl reported.
"Aft shields are offline." Bardley announced, moments before two torpedoes struck the port side of the engine room and a several bulkheads blew out. The deck shook terribily, followed by a horrible explosion from the lower decks.
On every other deck of the ship, in a chain reaction, conduits ruptured, and people went flying all over the place. The entire bridge crew was thrown forward and many concussions resulted from the impacts. Everyone returned to their posts immediatly.
"What was that ?" The captain voice was surprisingly fierce to Stryker's ears and he flinched. This is bad. This is very bad.
The Aurora was now visibly wounded, green disruptor bolts burrowing deep into her hull, leaving vicious scars on the surface. The bridge's lights went out. The chirping voice was heard on the bridge, "Emergency power engaged." the monotone of the female Computer voice announced as pale yellow lights activated.
Stryker tapped his readout screens, which flickered erratically in the drab emergency lighting. Almost every display on his console flashed an angry red, indicating critical damage across all systems. "Computer, reverse angle on the viewscreen." Ciro commanded. The viewscreen changed to a view back over the spine of the Aurora.
The remains of the starboard warp nacelle was spiraling off into space as fires and small explosions run up and down along the strut. The bridge crew shared a collective gasp of disbelief. Holden was horrified, "Oh, my God ..."
"Readings show a primary hull breach in Engineering. Forcefields are not responding." Perl said in a choked voice.
Stryker keyed in another manoeuver, his console flashed a message at him, ENGINES OFFLINE. "We lost engines," Stryker announced mournfully.
Ciro tapped his combadge, "Bridge to Engineering, Shaedal respond !"
Static played for a moment. Ciro avoided looking at the captain. "Bridge to Engineering. Any engineer, report !"
The bridge's lights flickered while debris covered the floor. Smoke was thick, the science consoles was on fire. The floor shook again as another disruptor burst impacted on the upper decks of the saucer section. "Warning! Structural Intregrity failure immanent. Decompression danger. Decompression danger." the computer voice announced, oblivious to the chaos.
Holden stood up and realized she has been defeated. For the first time ever, the first time in her 33 years as captain, defeat has been handed to her. She punched an access code into her seat's console. A ship wide announcement whistle sounded. "Attention all hands. This is the captain."
She was about to say the eight words that no commanding officer ever wants to utter. Most captains are fortunate enough to never find themselves in this sitation. But somehow, she found the strength. Speaking clearly and louder than usual, "Abandon ship. All hands to the escape pods."
Blue strip lights lit up around the bridge and on every deck, the evacation sound repeated itself every three seconds. Ciro looked at something on his private console. "Sir, we don't have enough time to evacute."
Holden nodded in despair, "Bardley, hail the Romulans again !"
"Yes sir !"
Its a long shot, but the only one available, the last desperate attempt to save 581 lives.
Holden gambled on a slim change that she can save the lives of her crew by leaving the matter up to diplomats. She steeled herself, "Captain Holden to Romulan vessels. We unconditionally surrender. I repeat, We unconditionally surrender !"
On the rocks
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