Refraction (Part 3 of 3)

Posted on 31 Aug 2019 @ 12:51pm by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Lieutenant Lake ir-Llantrisant & Lieutenant JG Matthew Plumeri & Captain Hiroshi Tanakata & Commander Teegan Jones
Edited on on 31 Aug 2019 @ 12:53pm

3,855 words; about a 19 minute read

Mission: Episode 17 - Crystal of Life
Location: Latari A III Orbit, USS Trial
Timeline: MD 01, 0638 hrs

Previously, on Refraction (Part 2)...

He sprang to his feet and rushed towards the XO's position near the bulkhead and on the floor. The methane gas followed the source of its life and ignited the conduit. Like a blowtorch, the bright blue and yellow fire shot down the corridor at an angle that afforded the historian the precious seconds he needed to get to the side of the XO. He got to her side and got as much cover as he could. "JONES! XO??!!" he said as he looked her over trying to see if she was conscious, bleeding, alive or dead. He hoped alive!

"Jones?!" He looked at her face...was she conscious?

And Now, the Continuation...

[ON]

The XO groaned in response. She vaguely remembered taking a hit. "How bad...is it?" She wanted to know about the battle, the Tholians. And if she was going to die. Not that it mattered at this point.

"Whew! You gave me a scare!" He was relieved that Teegan was alive; but she was in critical shape. Even Matt could see that. He quickly looked her over and cursed that he didn't have a medical tricorder on him. He looked at her head, her eyes were closed but she was conscious. "XO, it's good you're still with us! Come on, let me look at you. You're still all in one piece." Matthew said as he gently propped her up against the bulkhead. Making sure not to injure her further and moving her out of the line of fire.

Her injuries did not look good. Her tunic and undershirt were burnt and so was her chest. The flesh had been burned and cauterized so the blood on her was from the outer edges of the damaged tissue. He tried not to make a face; but she was in need of immediate medical care. He looked into her face and tried to speak calmly, smoothly and reassuringly. "You took quite a hit there. I could use someone like you on my Parresis Squares team. Someone who has wings and can block. Plus, I think Starfleet is going to have to rebuild the Trial from the bulkheads up - so you'll have plenty of time to train and play...whaddaya say?" All the while he examined her wounds, gently looked for sign of concussion and other trauma.

She tried a short laugh, but it turned into a gasp of pain. She opened her eyes and looked at him. She knew it was bad, that if she didn't get help right away, she was going to die. "That...bad?"

He grasped her hand, "Yeah, it's bad XO. You took the beam right in the chest. We need to get you to medical. And we will. Focus on living. I need to get you out of here and to sickbay." Matt looked back over his shoulder and back to Hiroshi's position. Then, he looked back at the XO, "On your feet XO; lean on me. Captain needs us and he needs you alive."

The fireball was impressive but not anything like the chlorine triflouride. Hiroshi saw Plumeri scoot toward where his XO was but his attention was focused on the remaining Tholians. When the smoke began to clear he spotted a container near the computer core and again shouted out. "Tholian commander, I will destroy all the records. You have seen what that stuff can do. Last chance to talk. You have thirty seconds to respond!" If the Tholian commander and remainder fired again he would attempt to target every container there was and burn the crap out of the computer.

Incoming tetryon fire slowly ceased and an eerie silence ensued. The clicking of multiple Tholian EVA suit legs against the deck plating came from every direction as the remainder of the silicon boarding party took up reinforced tactical positions. Then, a series pf piercing high-frequency shrills nearly incapacitated the Starfleet biologicals.

"...Starfleet..captain...." the universal translator from their commbadges translated as best as it was able, "...you will..surrender......information." There was a pause and another sequence of alternating shrieks. "Or we ..will destroy..your vessel....."

Hiroshi thought furiously about the situation. He might be able to destroy the core but then again the ship would be lost and nothing gained from not understanding the even more aggressive than usual Tholians.

He hoped Jones was alright, the Galileo lieutenant would be with her at least.

Finally he tossed his phaser out and stepped out into the corridor with hands up but not knowing if the Tholians understood. As he did so he said, "Very well put your weapons down so we can do what you are asking." He would not give up anything too secret but hopefully might get what the Tholians were after so badly. The ship was so badly damaged there was not more that could be done anyway.

The large and robust Tholian commander took notice of the red-collared Human through glowing eye slits near the top of its EVA suit. None of the Tholians fired and instead remained stationary. More silicon shrieks pierced the air in a language uninterpretable by humanoid ears. "..Open this door..." the UT translated. The Tholian faintly gestured to the computer core doors behind it which were already half-cut through.

Hiroshi began to walk toward the clustered group his hands still up. "What information are you seeking," he asked genuinely interested in what might bring the Tholians so far, and risk so much. Their technology was good but against the Federation and allies they would definitely loose. There was something going on here and this had the earmarks of a hoped for run and snatch going wrong. However, on the other hand, if he could reason, come to some sort of mutual trust perhaps just perhaps the Tholians might just might relax and be more open to exchange with others.

He was upon the first troopers and paused but they moved slightly aside to let him pass.

Two of the Tholian troopers nodded at the Tholian commander. All of the troopers stepped aside, making way for Hiroshi. Although they allowed the alien commander to pass between them, each of the troopers kept their eye-slits pointing in his direction. Even more importantly, each of them kept upper extremities on their rifles.

Helping Teegan to her feet, letting her lean on him as much as she needed, Matt helped her take the first few steps. Seeing Hiroshi standing there, surrounded by the Tholians was...awe inspiring. Matthew said, "Would you look at that. My god. That - now that is what Starfleet captains are made of!" He looked at Jones, "You OK? You're doing great XO. You're doing great. Keep going! You are as tough as your Captain I gotta say!"

"Me? I just don't...know when...to quit." She had to pause to slow her breathing. Everything hurt, more so when she moved. "I owe you one." Seeing the captain surrounded by Tholians was pretty impressive, even in her state.

Hiroshi waited to see what the Tholians would do next. He spotted the two crew members and just gently shook his head in the negative. He saw Jones on her feet and while not good shape she was still alive. He sort of jerked his head slightly toward another area. There was a medkit in that room and hopefully the Tholians would concentrate mostly on him.

"Plu...meri," Jones whispered, not sure how much longer she could keep on her feet. "Go...where...captain..." She was no good to anyone this way. "Med...kit."

"Oh yeah...right. Sorry." Matthew said. Seeing the Captain's non-verbal communication and the deteriorating condition of XO Jones, Matthew continued moving towards the safest area that he could see. Once inside the science lab, he looked around for a medkit and found one. It had been blown off the wall mount and landed on the floor. He assisted the XO further, "Here....you're doing great XO. There. Nice, have a sit ay?" He assisted her into a leaning sit against the wall.

Matt opened the medkit and retrieved a medical tricorder from it. He flipped it open and started scanning. The tricorder read off internal bleeding, a punctured lung and damage to her internal organs. Her sternum was fractured but not broken. The tetryon damage had caused third degree burns. She was dehydrated and he would have to stop the internal bleeding.

"Well, the good news is that you will be on vacation after we get out of here. A lot of sitting on your ass in a hammock sipping mai-tai's." Matt said to try and mask the seriousness of her injuries. He reached for a hypo and selected the anesthetic Neurozine. "Here, this is for the pain." He pressed the hypo against her neck and the hiss of the drug being injected could be heard.

She sighed with relief as the anesthetic began to ease the pain. She slumped against the wall, almost losing consciousness.

He snapped his fingers a few times in front of her face to keep her awake, "Hey, hey, hey now. XO? Don't pass out on me now. Stay awake; stay with me!" Matt said as he made sure she didn't slip away in unconsciousness.

Next, he reached for the Dermaline to treat the burned area on her chest. "I need to get at your....chestal....area." He gestured in front of her breast area. He retrieved the drug which was a spray and held it in his hand.

"Fine." It was barely a whisper. At this point, he could strip her naked and she wouldn't care.

"Fine? OK." Matt knew that there was medicine that he could give her that would keep her awake. He didn't know what it was and he remembered that there were risks with such medicine. Something about elevated blood pressure and he guessed that higher blood pressure would not be a great idea right now. He carefully and gently undid her uniform tunic. He decided not to remove it to keep her warm. When the tunic was opened he could see her blood soaked undershirt. It was half-burnt and stuck to her skin. It was wet with fresh blood too.

"What were you thinking? Getting in the way of the shot anyway?" he said because he was nervous and afraid. He was not a medic and here was a superior officer who was dying and all he had was basic medkit survival skills. He reached for a salve of hand sanitizer; his hands were shaking. He moved from kneeling to sitting. Now that his hands were clean he said, "This might sting a little. Your undershirt is...burnt to your skin a bit. There we go...ok...peeling away nicely. I'm going to rip open your undershirt. Huh, I never thought I'd use a pickup line quite like that."

She made a noise that was half laugh, half cough.

He ripped open the shirt, always careful, until he got a good look at her wound. He gritted his teeth. Her blood seeping out was bubbling - the punctured lung. He could see broken bones underneath the skin. He reached for the dermaline and fumbled it. His fingers were wet with her blood and the dermaline slipped through his fingers. He wiped his fingers and picked it up again. With one hand he used clean gauze to clean out her wound. With the other, he applied the dermaline to close up the wound. "I need to get you to proper medical care." Matthew looked in Hiroshi's direction and then back at Jones. "XO...stay with me! You're not going to die here like this. Stay with me man!"

Matt had to decide either to leave the Captain all alone with the Tholians or get Jones to what was left of sickbay. If that was even possible. Off in the distance, another forcefield failed and his ears popped as another compartment was lost to the vacuum of space.

Jones didn't know what the situation with the captain was, but he was a higher priority. Saving him and the ship was more important than her life, but she couldn't get the words out.

The Tholian commander's bulky EVA suit slowly approached Hiroshi until it stopped less than a meter from the Starfleet captain. Towering over the Japanese man, its eye slits looked down at the Human male. "You have created," more untranslated shrieks ensued, "proto...Tholian. You are in danger. Give us your...science...your experiments."

Hiroshi furrowed his brow. Just what the heck was a proto-Tholian. He was not sure but from the way the commander acted and obviously the attack the regular Tholians were actually scared. He nodded slowly and then hoped the damage to the door was not too much. "Computer, Captain Hirohsi Tanakata, open door to computer core, Alpha, Zeta, Episilon." There was a pause and with a grind the door jerked slowly open.

"Now commander," he looked up into the eye slits of the Tholian, "we have no experiments creating Tholians but perhaps you can give me something more and we might come to a more amicable agreement."

What was agreeable to the silcions was the data inside the Trial's memory banks. And now, the Starfleet captain had just given them the key. Turning on its multiple feet, the Tholian leader retreated from Tanakata and ducked its mantle to enter the computer core. It quickly interfaced with the Federation technology through an advanced data port embedded into its EVA suit.

Several of the Tholian troopers followed their commander into the computer core's compartment. While their commander accessed what secrets the computer core knew, the troopers searched the room for hidden Starfleet officers or traps. As it became apparent that Captain Tanakata had unlocked the computer core without caveats, those troopers closed ranks around their comamnder. They moved into a standardized formation, precisely equidistant from one another.

When the doors to the computer core ground open it caused Matt to look in that direction. His jaw dropped open, "You have got to be shitting me!" He said as he watched the Tholian head towards and then enter the computer core. " (sighs) Welp! That's somethin' you don't see everyday. OKEE - time to go." He put away the medkit, slung it over his shoulder. "Come on, on your feet XO, we're leaving. I'm getting you to sickbay, we're patching you up, as good as we can. If we're doomed to die then we might as well make good looking corpses." He assisted the XO to her feet. "There you go. C'mon, lean on me, let's go."

In the corridor, two of the Tholian troopers had remained with Tanakata. One of the troopers shifted its weight between its legs when it received a communication over the EV suit's internal comms. It was apparent the Tholians had accessed the computer core. If that was the case, what need was there for amicable agreements? One of the troopers smashed its rifle into the centre of Tanakata's abdomen, while the other swept the Captain's legs out from under him with two of its spindly legs. One of the trooper's skewered one of Tanakata's legs with the sharp point of it's EV suit's legs, and dragged Tanakata into the compartment, joining the other Tholians that had followed the commander.

The Tholian commander turned and observed the pacified Starfleet captain with no emotional regard. It relayed a series of chirps and screeches back to the boarding party to initiate final protocol before departure. All Trial crew who had witnessed their presence and had knowledge of the forbidden data must be destroyed.

Moving silently, except for the hydraulic hisses of their environmental suits in motions, five Tholian troopers skittered away from the computer core with unexpected speed. They moved as one down the corridor, the needle points of their feet resounding an unsettling clickety-clack as they connected with the plating beneath the deck's carpet. The Tholian in the lead clutched a tactical tricorder, while the others protected that Tholian with their rifles at the ready. The troopers' purposeful skitter turned into a full-on sprint when they caught sight of Lieutenant Plumeri and Commander Jones around a bend in the corridor.

“The Tholians...they killed your crew” Matt said as they walked along the corridor that was strewn with the dead. It was horrific and Matt seethed inside with anger

"That's...not good." In her more lucid moments, she worried about the lack of personnel. It did not bode well.

Matt steered them towards a wall panel and tried to contact the bridge. The panel came to life and he said, “Bridge? Ensign Waters? Deck five to the bridge? Waters? This is Plumeri. Please respond?”

It was then that the Tholian boarding party’s footfalls could be heard. They were coming and it sounded like that were right around the bend! And then – there they were!

“Oh shit!”, Matt said as he reached for his hand phaser and fired at the lead Tholian. The shot landed on the Tholian’s EV suit but the hand phaser was no match for it. Matt turned and said to the XO, “We have to go. Right now!” He knew she was having a hard time and so he picked her up and carried her. He ran down the corridor as fast as he could towards the turbo lift. If they could make it to the lift…maybe they could get on to another deck. It felt like the Tholians were so close…so close!

Jones just groaned when he picked her up.

The Tholian troopers continued their chase of the two Starfleet officers. They showed no sign of stopping, as they closed the distance to the two humanoids, moving in tandem. Three of the Tholians physically body-checked Plumeri and Jones into the nearest bulkhead. And once they'd done it once, they smashed into them again with their heavy environmental suits. And then they smashed into them again.

The first body-slam knocked Matt off his feet and into the bulkhead. He lost his grip on the XO and Jones was sent flying. Matt’s body landed with a THUD! into the bulkhead. He was seeing stars but he had no concussion – just the wind knocked out of him. He even managed a little laugh; for a moment he wondered what it would be like to play the Tholians at hoverball? He called out to the XO, JONES?!” and got to his feet again.

The second body slam he saw coming and braced for it as if that would do any good. He tightened up his body and tried to lean into the oncoming EV suit and even stand up to it. He felt the impact and then he felt his body lifted and into the corridor wall again. The side of his head hit the black panel that used to be a lighting pane. The crack he heard was the impact of his body against the panel and it cracked – he hoped that was what cracked. He fell to the floor, bleeding from his scalp where it was cut. Down the left side of his head, large blood droplets formed and dripped onto his undershirt.

“OOOFFF!!! You….aww – snap now – you pieces of…” he managed to curse between breaths. He hit the floor hard but Matthew knew how to take a fall – and how to get up again. “JONES!” Matt called to her again as she was getting body slammed too! His chest hurt, his back hurt and he felt like he was staggering to his feet. “That…all you got? Huh? Gonna take more ‘n that to take me down you crystal fuckers!” He said as he launched himself towards them. They were faster and the third body slam into the bulkhead was harder and more merciless than the first two.

Jones had lost consciousness and lay limply on the deck.

Those three Tholians retreated, but only to stride into a formation on the other side of the corridor. The five troopers positioned themselves into a firing squad. They raised their rifles -- two of them aiming for the humanoids' head, and the other three aiming for the centre mass. Death by fusillade was a kindness; quick and relatively painless. And necessary too.

Matthew hit the bulkhead a third and final time and slumped to the floor. “Bah!!....OK - that might do it though” he said as he laid on the floor as blood dripped out of his mouth and the world was spinning. Matthew looked at Jones but he couldn’t see her. He slowly got up again. There she was, out of his reach and motionless? He got to his knees, tried to stand but didn’t want to black out. He would look them in the eye at his last breath. He sighed, had searing pain and winced on the intake. He looked up at the five of them, “Yeah….five of you ay….uh..huh…you better kill me you ruby crystal…fff!!....I know…the damn…fuckin’…UT…is broken. I…don’t care…if you…understand me…or not. But…just so you dumb asses know…I’m coming back….to haunt you.” He nodded and there was that cocky confidence in his voice and that sly grin of his through the pain. “I’m a haunt the shit outta you!”

He got to his feet, bloody face, but it was Matt - he would not give them the satisfaction of an easy death. He got closer to Teegan Jones - no one should die alone. He would have gotten closer but they might just shoot him down. So, he faced them. Bravado written on his face.

The two remaining senior officers of USS Trial now faced their final fate. Physically broken and tactically defeated, their deaths would soon be added to the list of Starfleet personnel killed by the Tholians in their new and unexplained incursion. Another starship lost and another crew immortalized in Federation history books.

Jones became conscious again, partially aware of what was going on. She wanted to stand and face them, to defy them to the end, but she lacked the strength to stand. She opened her eyes and stared at the Tholians as a final refusal to submit.

Without possibility, two bright cerulean flares suddenly formed at the center of both Plumeri and Jones which expanded vertically to encompass each of their bodies in a shimmering Federation transporter beam. The full transport cycle took approximately 2.7 seconds, after which they were beamed away from their executions and into the momentary unknown.

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

--

Lieutenant JG Matthew Plumeri
Science Officer
USS Galileo-A

Captain Hiroshi Tanakata
Commanding Officer
USS Trial
[PNPC Warraquim]

Commander Teegan Jones
Executive Officer
USS Trial
[PNPC Sandoval]

Alpha Tholian
Commander
[NPC Saalm]

Various Tholians
Shock Troopers
[NPC ir-Llantrisant]

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