Battle of the Bay (Part 2 of 2)

Posted on 07 Aug 2012 @ 3:43am by Rachel Hardaway Ph.D. & Anthony Hardaway Ph.D. & Lieutenant JG Brayden White Ph.D. & Chief Warrant Officer 3 Marek Pawlak (KIA) & Justice Abernathy Ph.D. (MIA) & Chief Petty Officer Lucalin Mrina Ph.D. & Lieutenant JG Delainey Carlisle & Lieutenant Aria Rice & Eric Anderson & Captain Jonathan Holliday

2,689 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: Episode 01 - Project Sienna
Location: USS Galileo - Cargo Bay #2
Timeline: MD07 - 2255 hrs

[ON]

Helping transport the patients, Eric knew that Anthony would grab the key with the information transfer contained on it. As he heard Marek's words, he paused in his steps, balancing the patients against his arm. "Anthony stopping being so stupid. If you care so much for this project than consider this. If we loose both you and the equipment we will have lost everything. This way at least you and Rachel are safe and we can rebuild."

Marek did not have any idea just how stubborn Doctor Anthony Hardaway could be. He eyed the man right back, looking him up and down, just like he would perform a scan with a tricorder, analyzing the man. "I do not intend to remain here," he told them both, "You must take the rest of the team, but in order to ensure the Klingons have no access to myself, my wife, or Sienna, you must allow me to do as I must. Now, the comm badges, if you please." He held out his hand expectantly.

Aria looked at Marek, her blue eyes doubtful. She watched them before touching her own, fingering it almost distractedly. "Mission comes first," she said quietly. "And our mission is to protect project Sienna. It was the briefing I got, Sir."

Looking between everyone, Eric felt his temper starting to rise for the first time in all of this. "We haven't got time to be standing around debating all of this. Right now the Klingons are closing in and we've got injuries to get to safety. If they wish to sacrifice their lives at the risk of us loosing everything then that is their choice. Our choice is to save these people."

"That's enough!" Anthony declared darkly, speaking to everyone but eyeing Eric. "All of you will leave immediately, Rachel and I will be fine." He pointed to the door. "Go, now, before it's too late. And I need those comm badges!" He strode towards the security officers as if he might take the comm badges forcefully, an unlikely prospect.

It was not something she was going to advertise, but in that moment, Delainey was ok with leaving Hardaway and Rachel to their fate. Of course as a healer, she would have liked to protect everyone, but as a Starfleet Officer, she understood these sorts of decisions had to be made, and frankly, she had a number of injured people already in need of her help.

Carlisle looked down at Lucalin, still unconscious, but alive, and it was only her professionalism that kept her from screaming. She knew if he didn't receive treatment, he would die. That just seemed particularly unfair for a man who had been cheating death his entire life. "We can't save everyone, but if we don't go now, we'll save no one."

Aria looked at them all and took a breath. "Right," she said and took off her own commbadge, thrusting it into Anthony's hands. "Here's one." She moved to the emergency kit, opening it up and taking out the one spare she knew was there. "And that makes it two," she offered it to Anthony, holding his eyes. "We all do what we have to. Best of luck."

Staring at Anthony, Eric still couldn't believe that his Boss had come to this decision. Surely he realized that this was inviting death. There was no way that two scientists on their own would be able to fight off the Klingons and save the project. As a beeping noise emitted from the console beside them, Eric looked a final time across at Anthony, "I can take the upload of information. At least it means that if you don't survive we have a copy."

"No," Anthony said quickly, pocketing the comm badges and hurrying forward to take the information node. He stopped though, to put a hand on the scientist's shoulder. "We'll be fine, and so will Sienna. You need to trust me and go." Without waiting for a reply, he turned and plucked the node from the console.

Watching Anthony, Eric opened his mouth to say more before closing it again and just nodding his head. Hoisting back up the patient who had been watching the converse between the scientists, Eric started to follow the crowd of people being rushed away from the cargobay. "Be careful, Anthony," Eric tossed over his shoulder before leaving.

The silence would not last long however, as the Klingons had known from the moment they set foot aboard Galileo that the cargo bay and it's contents were going to be their primary objective. It took only a moment for the crimson red flash of a Klingon transporter beam to cycle as additional troops appeared in the corridor, sent to reinforce their earlier comrades who for now had been rendered ineffective by the timely arrival of Galileo's security detachment.

Without a moment's hestitation, the Klingons drew their disruptors and began firing at the Starfleet officers within range.

As a disruptor beam exploded against the bulkhead to his right, Eric dragged the patient on his shoulder back towards the cargobay, "EVERYONE FALL BACK TO THE CARGOBAY NOW!" At this point, the adrenaline was rushing through his body as he dumped the patient on the floor of where they had originally come from.

A running firefight seemed to be the intended result here, with the Klingons not taking long to continue advancing down the corridor, each warrior covering the others as they slowly moved forward in small segments, pushing their Federation opponents back further still.

The cargo bay was relatively defensible, but only if those inside were willing to put up a fight, after all, a Klingon would not make a differential analysis between a soldier and a doctor - at the end of the day, they were all equally ready for death...

As he heard the Klingons outside, Eric looked around and managed to find Aria, "Have you got access to more weapons? We need to equip who we can, at this point none of us are going to be able to move from here unless we fight our way through."

Aria looked at him for a long moment before swearing. "Does this look like a bloody armory?" she asked before frowning. "Only what was brought in and our normal phasers, that's it here. We can get to a lockbox...means going out there though."

Glaring at the security officer, Eric was starting to realise Anthony's frustration at her, "Well Miss. Security Officer...What do you propose we do? Do you honestly think 2 people with 2 phasers is going to get through there?"

"Jesus, what is up with the attitude around here? And attention span. You can use the phaser if you want...I for one was going to take some of the weapons that Pawlak got in here," she said easily and moved to open the small crate up, taking out a phaser rifle. "Well, don't just stand there, get suited up! We're going hunting!"

Looking at the security officer, Eric figured his jaw must be on the ground now. Did he not ask her if there was anymore weapons and her reply was they only had their own phasers...for some reason he was starting to sudden worry about the woman infront of him more so than the Klingons outside. Grabbing her discarded phaser, he indicated for her to step out first, after all she couldn't harm him if she was infront...right?

Aria sighed as she watched him before taking a breath, moving forward. She supposed it was a good day to die anyway as she moved to walk in front of him. "Okay...everyone, this is it..." she whispered and moved forward, taking a position and nodding to the others. In her head, she knew one thing. She should not be in charge of this...there were others here who were better trained, better equipped mentally and physically to take charge.

Time however, was not on Starfleet's side, as the Klingons began to make their way into the cargo bay, disruptors firing and battle cries ringing through the air, targetting anything and anyone regardless of whether they were armed or not, the glory was in the victory, not the means of achieving it.

Anthony allowed himself a brief moment to despise the incompetence of "average" humans. They took too long, leaving him little time to prepare. He picked up a fallen tricorder and scanned the commbadges, then stuck one of them to the side of the information node with all of Sienna's knowledge inside. Then he turned to his wife with a serious expression.

"Rachel, take this and get into the Jefferies tubes," he said hurriedly, handing it to her. "There is an access point at the back of the cargo bay. Make sure you close it behind you. Stay there until the battle is over. If the Klingons win, put it in an escape pod and eject it into the nebula." He spoke calmly, as if giving her directions to the nearest replimat, even though he knew he might never see her again.

Taking the node, Rachel tucked it into inside pocket in her jacket. Even though she knew that this had to be done, this was their life's work but as she watched Anthony she couldn't help being scared of what would happen to him. Reaching a hand up to his head, she caressed it softly, "Tony... be careful... I'll be waiting for you."

"I will do what I must," was his only reply. He leaned forward to kiss her. "I love you. Now go, quickly."

Leaning her forehead against his for a brief moment, Rachel pulled herself up straight, briskly nodding her head. Turning on her heel, she managed to navigate the Jeffries tube and crouch on one of the ledges, her phaser firmly gripped in one hand. She knew she would guard this data with her life.

As she went off, Anthony turned to the rest of the party. He was standing behind the stasis unit that contained the core. He raised his voice, and it was surprisingly loud, booming out over the cargo bay. "Everyone put your weapons away, get to the back of the cargo bay where they can't see you, and LET ME WORK!" He did not wait for a reply but tapped the controls hurridly, as if their lives depended on what he was doing, which it did.

With the phaser in his hand, Eric was extremely tempted to just shoot Anthony and to hell with the remifications. He was absolutely and completely sick and tires of the scientists attitude and complete and utter disregard for human life. "Everyone keep your weapons with you. Move to the back and hide. Be prepared to defend yourself and the injured if it comes to that." Still staring at Anthony, Eric lowered his voice which became very calm, "You'd better know what your doing or to hell with this project, I'll kill you myself." Without waiting for a response, he turned to start helping the injured.

Aria let out a breath, her eyes narrowed as she moved as told, frowning as she got into position but kept her mouth shut.

Seemingly alone now, Anthony waited with his hands on the control panel for the core. The Klingons would have easy access to the cargo bay, and they would be greeted by him standing there calmly and waiting for them. The unusual circumstances would, he was sure, make them pause just long enough to give him time to speak.

Indeed the invading Klingons were not ones for subtlety or any kind of delay between them and victory, quickly making their way into the cargo bay in a standard covering formation, disruptors drawn, wondering why so far, they hadn't met any resistance. Surely if this was the location where Starfleet were keeping their top secret project, then there would have been security guards, forcefields, automated defences, anything that would have presented some kind of tactical advantage, but indeed nothing was there, except one human, unarmed, and seemingly ignorant of their presence.

Anthony looked up when they entered. "Ah, welcome," he said in a pleasant voice, faking a smile that would have fooled a Betazoid. He raised one hand as if in greeting, the other he kept firmly on the controls. "Come, come see the heart of my research." He gestured to the core, "This is what you are here for, isn't it?" The stasis field shimmered over the doctor's creation.

There was a moment's look of confusion on the face of each and every one of the ridge-headed invaders as they decided whether or not to just shoot the human, or to actually listen to what he had to say. Of course they had been told about the scientists that had built the device, and they were indeed a worthy prize to take back to the homeworld if possible. Slowly, they approached the device that the human had been pointing to.

He raised his hand to halt them when they were still several meters away. "It would be dishonorable though, to die in battle for no cause, wouldn't it?" he continued, "I remember one of you Klingons told me once what Kahless the Unforgettable said, that there is no honor is winning a battle to lose the war." He brought their attention to his hand, resting over the LCARS comfortably. "If my hand leaves this console, if you shoot me, for instance, or try to get near me, the stasis field will drop and a burst of ionized gas will be released into the core." He remained calm and smiling as he spoke. "The crystal matrix is highly unstable, that would destroy the core, and the ship, and the warp core would detonate in the explosion, and it would probably wipe our your ship in a subspace implosion. The files on Sienna are destroyed. There is nothing left for you to do here but die dishonorably and take your ships in the explosion, or to accept defeat and leave with what honors remains to you. You can fight the war in another battle."

A look of almost complete horror made it's way through the pack of warriors as they heard the explanation of the scientist in front of them. Such methods were for cowards, not warriors... yet it seemed in this particular example... effective. After a moment, the forwardmost Klingon reached into his gauntlet and removed a small device, pressing down on one of the keys.

"jol yIchu'!"

And with that, the red beam of a Klingon transporter enveloped the squad and disappeared into nothingness, the look of disappointment and anger on their faces surviving right until their visage finally disappeared from view, leaving the cargo bay quiet, calm, and strangely empty.

As a dead silence descended on the cargobay, Eric dared to look out and found the doors wide open but only Anthony is sight. Stepping out of the hiding space, he walked over to the scientist. "Is it over?"

The doctor looked enormously pleased with himself, and a little smug. "That, my friends," Anthony said as he held his hand over the controls still and with the other started keying in a long sequence, "Is how an intelligent person solves a problem." He tapped the controls one last time and raised both hands, fortunately without the threatened subspace implosion. "Now if you will excuse me," he pulled the second commbadge from his pocket, "I must go meet my wife."

Still resisting the urge to shoot Anthony with his phaser, Eric turned around in order to start helping the injured out of their hiding spaces and get them proper treatment.



[OFF]

Lt Cmdr Jonathan Holliday
Executive Officer
USS Galileo

Additional Klingon NPC's
played by Holliday

Eric Anderson(NPC Lt JG Pola Ni Dhuinn)
Sienna Scientist

Rachel Hardaway(NPC Lt JG Pola Ni Dhuinn)
Sienna Lead Scientist

Doctor Anthony Hardway
Sienna Lead Scientist
NPC'ed by Psylus Anon

MWO Marek Pawlak
Assistant Chief Security Officer
USS Galileo

Lt JG Delainey Carlisle
Chief Counsellor
USS Galileo

Ensign Aria Rice
Security Officer
USS Galileo

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