Broken Past Conclusion

Posted on 13 Dec 2015 @ 7:35am by Chief Warrant Officer 3 Greg Mitchell
Edited on 21 Dec 2015 @ 7:42am

1,426 words; about a 7 minute read

"Don't worry Captain. Send over your wounded. We'll take care of them here."

And now, the conclusion....

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Location: USS Ohio, Cargo Bay Two
Timeline: August 4th, 2388 - 17:50 hrs

Greg ran at full sprint to the Cargo Bay with Ted close behind. So many things flooded his mind:

Why, why why! Why the hell would they shoot a hospital ship filled with their own people. What is wrong with them. Stupid friggen....thank goodness I didn't get my hands on them. I would show them how it feels too....

"Greg, slow down! We're here!" Ted yelled.

Greg just now noticed how he almost ran past the Cargo Bay doors. He slowed down and ran inside.....no matter what he prepared himself for, this wasn't it.

Injury and chaos filled the room. Starfleet personnel and Romulan civilians were all scattered around, being laid on beds and on the floor. Dead bodies were being piled in corners. The smell of burned clothing filled the air.

"Oh my...." Greg looked around at everything he saw. He had to keep from losing balance. He was already upset that his fellow Starfleet personnel were injured, but the men, women, and children who weren't expecting this. Who just wanted to go somewhere peaceful....

"Greg? What do...what do we do?" Ted asked.

Greg looked around one more time before snapping out of it. "Secure the area. Backup will be here in a second. Make sure everything is ok.

For the next few minutes, Greg and Ted walked around helping anyone they could. Throughout it all, Greg was filled with anger to the ones who did this. These people didn't deserve this. These people didn't do anything.

"Please, help me..."

"Where's my husband, he was just with me!"

"My leg, I can't...I can't feel it!"

"Hold still, I need to re set this."

"Mom! Mommy!"

Greg couldn't drown out the sound. Both he and Ted returned to the center of the room.

"Greg...these people." Ted began.

"I know. We aren't medical. Let's just do what we can and..." Greg began, while turning around to look around the room.

The moment his back was turned, Ted felt a hand touch his side...the side that held his phaser. He brought his hand down to check it, when suddenly, an arm came around him and he felt the feeling of his phaser muzzle sticking next to his head.

"Don't move Federation scum." the Romulan said.

"Gre....Greg!" Ted yelled.

Civilians screamed as Greg looked back his partner. He only looked back for half a second, before drawing his own phaser and leveling it at the few inches of Romulan head sticking out behind Ted.

"Drop it buddy." Greg ordered.

"Stay back, I'm warning you." he ordered. "I want off this vessel, right now!"

"Easy pal, it's been a tough day. This doesn't need to happen." Greg warned. Outside, he tried to be calm. On the inside, however, he was fuming. How dare this guy pull this stunt after all that happened?

"I want a shuttle, I want one right now! I will kill him!" The Romulan yelled.

Damn it where is that back up? Greg thought. "Partner, you doing ok?" Greg asked Ted.

"It's my own friggen fault Greg. I let my guard down. Just shoot him." he ordered.

"You try to kill me, and I will kill him." The Romulan said.

"No you won't." Greg explained. It was all coming together now. Someone had to get the Warbird's attention. Someone had to let them know where the fleet was. Greg was guessing it had to be this man.

"You want to test me human?" The Romulan sneered.

"If you kill him, I will kill you." Greg explained, "If you let him go now, I promise you, you will walk away in one piece."

"You humans are weak. Pathetic. You don't have what it takes to kill me." the Romulan mocked.

Now Greg was pissed. He lost any composure he previously had. Through gritted teeth, he made one last comment: "You just destroyed four Federation starships and damaged a fifth. You killed hundreds of Federation personnel and your own people. We just destroyed your ship in response. Now I want to make this perfectly clear. If you kill him: I. WILL. Blow. You. Away."

"Not the best...way to calm him down partner." Ted said.

"Shut up Ted." Greg ordered.

The next few minutes felt like an eternity. Greg stared right into the Romulan's eyes. He knew he wasn't bluffing. He would kill Ted. But the Romulan could see the same thing. Greg would kill the Romulan, if he so much as twitched the wrong way. It was the same feeling he had a thousand times before as a street cop. His hands gripped the phaser right in front of him. He steadied his aim dead at the Romulan. His finger hovered over the trigger.

The Romulan twitched. He brought the phaser right to Ted's head and.....

The doors to the cargo bay opened. Three other security officers, the back up running late, charged in weapons drawn. One of the Medical personnel must have called for them.

The Romulan heard the noise, he turned to look. Seeing them come in, he brought his phaser around to aim at them. Ted felt his phaser move away. In that instant, he elbowed the Romulan in the gut and jumped out of the way. In reflex, the Romulan dropped his aim and clutched his stomach. He had one second to look back up at Greg.

"You son of a..." were the last words he blurted out.

Greg fired his phaser. The beam traveled straight and hit the Romulan dead in the chest. He was sent flying backwards, near the doors. Screams from civilians filled the air again. The Romulan took his last breath, then was still.

Greg, still pointing at the Romulan, looked over at Ted. "Are you alright?"

"What?" asked Ted in shock.

"ARE YOU OK?" Greg asked, adrenaline kicking in.

"Yah, yah. I'm fine. I'm...." Greg looked back at the body.

Greg ran up and kicked the dropped phaser over to Ted, then ran over to the Romulan. One of the other guards was checking his pulse. "Nothing...Greg. He's dead."

A nurse ran over to check the Romulan. One swipe of the tricorder was all that was needed. The guard was right. The Romulan was dead.

Greg stood there, in a daze. He had just done something he never thought he could do. He looked down at his phaser, still in his hands and attempted to control his breathing. He had fired his phaser before, either at the firing range or while stunning someone. But he had never actually killed someone before. He never actually stopped someone's heart.

The guard who had checked the pulse walked up to him. "Greg, you did what you had to do. He was going to kill Ted."

Greg just stared at the body.

"Mitchell?" the guard asked.

Greg stared at the body.....it was over. Regaining his composure, he slowly holstered his phaser. Taking one last look at the Romulan, who was being pulled out of the room, Greg looked over at the guard. This time, emotion spread into him. Anger, like he had never felt before.

"Where the hell WERE YOU!" Greg yelled at the guard.

"Greg, wait." The guard started. "There was an issue in Bay two, they needed help moving some equipment..."

"You were supposed to be here ten minutes ago! You could have seen this coming! Ted almost died, BECAUSE OF YOU!" Greg yelled back at them.

"Partner, hey. They had nothing to do with that. There was no way they could have known" Ted started.

Greg didn't want to hear any of it. He started storming out of the room. "He's dead. He is dead, and all of this could have been avoided! All of it! All of it...." He left the room, heading to the nearest restroom. He was going to be sick.

Ted took off after him, turning to the lead guard. "He doesn't mean it. He's just....he doesn't mean it. Secure the room. I'll be right back."

Greg stormed into the restroom, went to a stall....and tried to forget everything that just happened. He could hardly breathe. He could hardly think. And for the next few minutes, something rare happened to him that barely ever does.

For the next few minutes, Greg started crying.

[OFF]

CWO2 Greg Mitchell
Security Officer
USS Ohio

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