Primary Objective - Part Two

Posted on 13 Sep 2012 @ 7:58am by Captain Jonathan Holliday & Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Lieutenant Commander Evelyn Coleman & Lieutenant Aria Rice & Lieutenant Lilou Zaren & Ensign Im'er Mor'an & Commander Andreus Kohl & Petty Officer 1st Class Gabriel Stark & General ('aj) D'Grath Son Of N'Vor (KIA)
Edited on on 13 Sep 2012 @ 12:51pm

2,858 words; about a 14 minute read

Mission: Episode 01 - Project Sienna
Location: Klingon Bird Of Prey - Holding Cells
Timeline: MD09 - 2320hrs

[ON]

Previously, on Primary Objective...



The flicker of a Federation transporter signal was the only source of light in an otherwise darkened Klingon corridor.

The tricorders so far showed no sign of Klingon lifesigns in the immediate vicinity, it seemed that the away team had picked the perfect point to materialise, phaser rifles armed and ready for whatever might come ahead.

"So far I haven't picked up any resistance, in fact there's nobody within 100m, unless they've found a way to elude our tricorders....."

At the end of the corridor, were two final doors, each sealed shut. In front of them lay a pair of Klingon bodies...bloodied and burned, with a sparking plasma conduit at their sides. It seemed that the conduit must have overloaded, and these two unfortunate guards were caught right in the middle of it.

"Stark, Kohl, Rice - take the left hand door. Mor'an and Peers with me."



And now, the continuation...


Holding Cell One


Aria frowned as she got the door open, taking a deeper breath as she looked around. "Oh God," she breathed softly. "Stark, Kohl...in here!"

Gabriel took a slow, tight breath as he surveyed the scene, his rifle lowering absently in reaction. He knew it would be bad, even so, it was still horrific.

Inside the interrogation cell, the sight was grim. Like much of the rest of the ship, the power was barely functional and the bright overhead lights flickered while casting an eerie hue of shadows across the walls. The air was thick and smelled foul, a combination of burnt flesh and electrical smoke. With her uniform torn to pieces and still strapped to the table, Lirha lay barely conscious. Her head lolled slowly from side to side as she quietly rambled incoherently in her native tongue, a result of the neurolytic pathogens that had been injected into her and begun to break down the pathways in her brain. Splattered all across her legs and arms was an alarming amount of golden blood, so much so that it seeped from the sides of the table and collected in small pools on the metallic floor. Her face was badly bruised, her left eye was swollen, and she was oblivious to the sudden presence of the rescue team.

By the time Kohl sprinted across the chamber, he had his medical tricorder out and was running its sensors over Lirha. Despite the readings that began to appear on the display instantaneously, Kohl's eyes darted away from the tricorder. His gaze was drawn to the blood, all that blood, and suddenly it felt like the tricorder was giving him information far too slowly. With his free hand, Kohl opened Lirha's mouth to visually inspect her airway. Her breathing didn't appear to be restricted by blood or another other obstructions. After he checked her pulse, Kohl returned his attention to the tricorder screen. The numerical vital signs confirmed his manual examinations.

Aria moved forward quickly, her eyes dark as she got the woman -the Captain- free. She caught her with her arms, easing her down as she removed her jacket to put under her head for support. "Is she stable?" she asked Kohl, her eyes going to Stark for a moment...her face grim, her blue eyes wide with something close to shock.

"There's... some-unfathomable-thing going on with her brain chemistry. Don't-- I don't know what to do about that," Kohl said, his inflection bouncing between distress and irritation at his helplessness to save her life. Despite his tone of voice, Kohl moved purposefully and with steady hands. Setting tricorder alarms for any sudden changes in his patient's vital signs, Kohl placed the tricorder on the bloody table. As he opened his medi-kit, he retrieved a couple of tools. Kohl began running a sterile-field generator over Lirha's body to clean away the worst of the blood and grime to allow him to tell the different between smeared blood and open wounds. Then, with the rays from a vascular regenerator, Kohl began to messily stitch together damaged blood vessels from the deepest cuts. Kohl's haphazard waving of the device over Lirha's injuries wasn't providing a clean recovery -- the doctors would need to repair his work, in addition to the injuries he was ignoring-- but he was staunching the worst of her bleeding quickly. "I need to stop more bleeding before we can move her," Kohl answered.

Gabriel watched Aria for a long moment, his own eyes dark. He took a slight breath, his features almost expressionless as he reached to touch the Captain's head with a gentle hand, trying to ground her. "We're Starfleet crew, we've come to take you home," he said firmly, but in Low Orion dialect, hoping the language might help to get through to her. "We need to get her moving. Now."

"Another thirty seconds," Kohl firmly said. He increased the intensity of the vascular regenerator, and he held it close to a gaping wound on Lirha's thigh.

Aria nodded, taking a deeper breath as she watched him work. "Tell me what I can do," she said softly.

"Light," Kohl asked, and he thanked her with a look because they didn't have time for the words. "Point it where I"m working."

Familiar voices echoed throughout the chaos inside of Lirha's head, and she vaguely realized they were coming from close proximity. She couldn't exactly identify them, but felt herself finally free of the restraints. Who? How? she wondered incrediously. Trying her best, she attempted to open her eyes, but the room suddenly began to spin in a bright blur of colors. She groaned in discomfort, but tried her best to speak. "...Troxx...body..." she managed to whisperer before her eyes fluttered and she slipped into unconsciousness.

Aria took Lirha's hand, giving it a gentle squeeze. "It's okay," she said softly, watching her face. "We're here to get you. You're safe. Just let Kohl do his job and we'll get you back to the Galileo..."

"Okay, you're right," Kohl said, looking to Aria and Gabriel in turn. He tossed the sterilizer back into his medi-kit, but kept hold of the vascular regenerator to keep working until they could transport back to Galileo. "We shouldn't wait any longer."


Holding Cell Two

"Your Federation ship seems to have been a little more effective than I might have originally thought El-Aurian...no matter....the Empire will still have it's victory. But at least I will get the honour of killing you myself!"

D'Grath, having been on the Bridge during the last engagement with the Galileo bore the scars of a dozen battles, but this most recent set were still fresh, blood dripping from his face where an eye had once been, lost to the rigours of war. His arm held tightly against his body with evidence of plasma burns, the General fought through every ounce of pain to continue his mission.

Coleman simply stared straight at him with no fear. "Well at least I'll die knowing you failed."

"Very well El-Aurian...a race of listeners....hmph....the last thing you will ever hear...is the sound of your own flesh being torn apart!"

Raising the dk'tag that he had carried for so many years, the General extended his arm, summoning a mighty roar from somewhere with himself, as the bloodlust ran through his veins.

As he did so, the sound of the metallic doors beside him opening echoed through the chamber, a surprising situation for the General to be disturbed partway through an interrogation.
What surprised him even more was the sight of a Federation uniform on the other side. The human that he had seen before, on the viewscreen...from the Galileo.
Turning to face his opponent, D'Grath prepared to charge his opponent, but would not get the opportunity. With a look of steely determination on his face, Holliday wasted no time in pulling the trigger of his rifle, sending a white-hot ball of energy flying towards the bewildered Klingon. The last sight he saw was that of an El-Aurian...alive....as he slumped to the floor, dropping his weapon as he did so....defeated.

Panting heavily, Holliday looked at his opponent...an old man who had threatened his ship, kidnapped his crew, and hurt his pride....dead at last.

"Cadet...you and Miss Peers watch the doors...in case we've attracted any attention."

Lowering his rifle, the XO moved into the room, kicking the knife that lay on the floor near to him away from the still corpse of D'Grath, not wanting to take any chances, before turning his attention to the woman hanging from chains before him.

"Coleman...you still with us? Your er...uniform has seen better days. Ready to go home?"

For the first time in what felt like weeks, Evelyn relaxed and looked down at her uniform, or what's left of it. "Yeah well, you took long enough." she smirked, as she turned towards him. "But your timing was perfect to say the least, and while I know the view is tempting... my arms are getting numb."

Smirking in response to her comment, Holliday quickly moved towards her and reached up to unclasp the shackles that had been holding Coleman up for quite some time, reaching out to help her steady herself as her feet took up her entire bodyweight after a while of confinement.

"Sorry, hard to get a reservation around here....think you can manage a light stroll to the beam in site?"

Once free from her restraints, Evelyn's arms fell like dead weight, and she was extremely fortunate for Holliday for helping her retain her balance. She lifted her head up slightly, chuckling lightly at his question, "I can do a light stroll, but I'm afraid I won't be able to carry anything." She blinked, "Did you get the Captain?"

"I assume next door...it's alright, I have people in there now..." Reaching down to his belt, Holliday unclipped the type two phaser from it's holster and handed it out for Coleman to collect.

"Just in case...ready to get out of here? The rest of my team is across the corridor then Galileo should be able to get us the hell out of here."

Coleman grabbed the phaser, and looked at him, "Always." she smiled, "lead the way, hero."

Holding Cell One

Tapping his colleague on the shoulder as she collected the phaser from his hand, John turned on his heels and headed out of the cell, taking one last look back in disgust at the Klingon corpse, eyes still wide in shock. Moving onwards to the second cell. John entered the room, and realised his worst fears as the injuries to his captain became obvious.

"Kohl! What the hell have they done to her? We need to move fast here."

Kohl shook his head quickly, when he said, "Sir, I haven't even begun to categorize the trauma to her body. I, uh," --he bit his lip when he was going to say 'I think' and he packed away the last of his instruments-- "I've stopped her from bleeding out, but there's something wrong. With her brain."

"Dammit...ok people load up, we're getting out of here. Mor'an, Kohl, help the captain."

Looking around the room, Holliday knew that the thoron dispersal field surrounding them was going to make a transporter lock virtually impossible. Pulling his tricorder free of it's holder once more, the Commander flipped it open and began searching for the edges of the field. The nearest clear zone was a few metres away, at the far end of this section. Apparently the Klingons were betting on having sufficient numbers available to stop any would-be rescues.

"This way." The XO confirmed, pointing his phaser rifle towards the far end of the prison section corridor. Putting the tricorder away, he steadied his weapon.

Kohl slung his arm around Lirha's upper back and he hooked her arm around his neck. Sharing the weight of her with Mor'an on the other side, Kohl lifted Lirha to her feet. Briefly, Kohl wondered if a phaser might now be the only instrument he needed to keep Lirha alive.

Evelyn pressed the palm of her hand on Lirha's forehead and closed her eyes. A flashback of memories flooded Eve and a moment later her eyes opened, "She needs to be in a sickbay. The Klingons used a neural toxin, but she won't suffer any permanent damage if we get her to the Galileo now." She said pulling her hand away shaking it as she noticed the looks on the other officer's faces. "El-Aurians do more than just Listen." she explained.

Mor'an momentarily sagged under the dead weight of the captain before securing her arm around Lirha's waist. "We shall not squander any more time, then," she said as her eyes scanned the area for the enemy. She was in no mood to fight at the moment, not with the captain so close to death.

Rifle at the ready, Holliday began the slow walk along the corridor towards the beam-out point. The thoron field was slowly thinning out, but it would be a few more metres before they would get chance to have Galileo beam them out. It was still quiet, extremely quiet, and the blood in Holliday's veins was pumping harder than it had done for some time - the excitement of battle had given him a new lease of life during these last few hours.

Reaching a junction, Holliday gave the signal to stop, before lowering his rifle again and pulling out his tricorder, smirking as he saw the field density finally drop almost to zero.

Slinging the rifle over his shoulder, the XO once again put away his tricorder, and reached up for his combadge.

=^= Holliday to Galileo - mission accomplished. Time to get out of h-- =^=

Before the Commander could finish his sentence, a bolt of green plasma launched itself along the corridor, burying itself in Holliday's shoulder, burning its way through his uniform and into his flesh. Whilst nothing that he hadn't experienced before, it was enough to make him drop to his knees in shock.

From the far end of the corridor stood a figure that the crew of Galileo were very familiar with, the feminine outline of a Klingon captain who had been defeated time after time by a science vessel, brandishing her disruptor. K'Nara.

Screaming at the top of her lungs, the Klingon began to charge along the hundred-or-so-metres that separated her from the Starfleet crew, blinded by bloodrage and anger at the officers who had crippled her ship, and now helped themselves to her prisoners.

Evelyn's actions were swift. As Holliday collapsed to his knees behind her, she twirled taking his discarded rifle, her fingers darted on the small padd, increasing it's setting, aimed and then fired. An orb of orange energy ejected from the tip of the compression rifle, rapidly flying through the air to meet it's target. The orb made a direct impact to K'Nara's chest, the energy pulsed through the Klingon's body and then... she vanished. Vaporized.

Evelyn lowered the rifle, and turned to face her comrades. "Is he going to be alright?" She asked Kohl

Having left Lirha with Mor'an and a security officer, Kohl was already dropping to his knees by Holliday's side. He didn't spare a moment's though to answering the question, despite it coming from a superior officer. Kohl curled his fingers through the burn-hole in Holliday's jacket and worked to tear the hole wider. He needed a clearer look at the wound. As he tore through the uniform, Kohl's gaze was on Holliday's pupils, watching for any signs of reduced levels of consciousness. When he was confident Holliday appeared alert, Kohl pulled a thin silver patch from his medi-kit --a burn dressing-- and he slapped it atop the plasma burn.

Grunting in pain as he allowed Kohl to tend to his immediate injuries, Holliday slowly worked himself up into a sitting position, having managed to sprawl himself across the deck only a few moments ago.

"I've been better...mind you...I've been worse. I'll let Mr Kohl here be the judge of that however."

Eve nodded, "Would someone with a communicator please tell the ship to beam us up already?"

Lilou pressed her fingers to her communicator, aiming down the hallway with her phaser in case any more enemies approached. =^=Peers to Bridge. Eight to return. Sooner rather than later.=^=

"Yes Ma'am" Came the call from the Nova-class' transporter room, and in the blink of an eye, the rescue party were taken by the mirrored shimmer of a transporter beam. Their ordeal was over.

[OFF]

Lt Cmdr Jonathan Holliday
Executive Officer
USS Galileo

CMDR Lirha Saalm
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo

Lieutenant JG Evelyn Coleman
Chief Intelligence Officer
USS Galileo

Ensign Andreus Kohl
Nurse
USS Galileo

PO2 Gabriel Stark
Security
USS Galileo

Ensign Aria Rice
Security
USS Galileo

MWO Lilou Peers
Assistant Chief Engineering Officer
USS Galileo

Cadet Senior Grade Im'er Mor'an
Red Squad Intern
USS Galileo

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