The Founder, the war and an ‘eagle - Subterranean Pt 4

Posted on Fri May 26th, 2023 @ 6:53pm by Commodore Finchley Kerr & Lieutenant Commander Kevin Kilbane & Commander Shr'Nesh Karadis

3,980 words; about a 20 minute read

Mission: Investigate the Chintoka Shipyard Buildup
Location: Planet Runamen
Timeline: Current.

It was easy enough for Karadis to make it look like a fire had engulfed the room. An explosion would only have drawn unwanted attention, so a fire was easier. Yes, she had disabled the fire suppression unit so it couldn't be put out. She'd also checked that the fire would be contained within the room. Satisfied, she set a timer to make sure that each and every part of the room would be set alight. She's carefully ensured that the main Vexis unit was burnt to a crisp so that anyone checking would be in no doubt, that to them, the Vexis holographic unit was gone and couldn't be recovered.

Now back out in the corridor, she made her way up to where Kell and Shon were "We have an hour before the fire rips that room to shreds, so wherever we're going, we need to get to it fast and check it quickly."

“Let’s move out then” Shon said as they continued down the corridor. It had been against her better judgement that they were continuing. The longer they were here the more chance of them being discovered. Her nanites appeared to agree as they were beginning to become very active within Shon’s brain. She turned “Asaa make sure you still have your finger on that button, something is happening inside me. Karadis if anything happens to me get yourself and Asaa back safely do not continue to explore is that understood?”

Kell nodded grimly.

"You won't care what we do, you'll be so many agitated atoms floating around in space" Karadis grinned at her grim humour "but yes, I'll make sure we get back to the Captain safely. There's one thing though Commander, the further we've come into this underground complex, it's odd we haven't encountered any guards. What's more odd, we haven't seen any kind of medical facility either."

“Ha” Shon laughed, “they wont be agitated Karadis because you won’t be there!” She retorted.

Karadis smiled at the retort and turning to Kell she asked "Are you able to use your medical tricorder to ascertain if there's any kind of medical facility close by?"

Kell nodded, glancing at her display as she panned her probe around. "I can get a fix on equipment or profiles that match medical applications or similar... Besides those pods and some random stuff so far, we haven't seen a regular medical space. That might be this deep, so it's close, but there should also be one closer to the surface. Given what they had going on down here, I agree, there should be more preventative and reactive measures available, and where are the deterrents?"

“So long as those new weapons are stashed in a place we can recover them I suggest you take point and take us to whatever medical facility you can find. Remember we don’t have long before that room goes up.” Shon rubbed her forehead, “Asaa please give me some more analgesia my headache is worse!”

Kell nodded to the XO and gave him another hit to relieve some pain but she knew it probably would only be getting worse, then a sudden relief at the end. Would she welcome that by then?

Kell turned and waved a hand around with the probe and strolled forward. She paused long enough to set a timer so they'd be reminded before Karadis' fireball went off.

"There's something else about this place" Karadis said "Have you actually been aware that there's no temperature change? We've been neither to hot or to cold, it's always been 'comfortable'. Now, I've been in quite a few similar situations as this, and in no other can I ever remember it being so constant. There's always been some kind of variation...but not here, and that's unsettling."

"Breen air conditioning?" Kell wondered... "I haven't noticed a breeze either. We are a good ways underground, so that would allow for a more stable environment. Could be radiant heating or cooling through the walls or floors..."

She paused at a door, hand not quite touching the surface. "Might be vacuum on the other side..." She continued down the corridor, doing the same thing to doors on either side. "Inert... storage probably... cold again... woo, high electrical field..."

After several doors and the timer running ever shorter she finally paused longer at a door, moving her hand away, then closer again. "Maybe medical... I'm getting chems, gases, analytics, scanners, at least one.. two, bio-bed links... stuff in a sickbay. Wanna try this one?"

Karadis looked at her timer "We're going to have to be quick, forty minutes till the balloon goes up in that other room...I say we take the chance."

Kell nods, "Closest thing we've come across. We have no idea how extensive this complex is, so we're gonna have to cut our search at some point. Let's do an assessment and we can head back to the Captain, see if he's ready to wrap up this shindig. We have coordinates now for our next jump in the sequence eh?"

Kell prepares to one side as the others line up on the door. She keys the door and prepares to follow them in...

Shon turned the handle and pushed the door inward expecting to find the same dusty room as the others had been. This however was a gleaming sickbay. She stood aside for Asaa to examine the place.

Kell stepped in, crouched low, then stood, transfixed. She let loose a whistle. "Wow... pretty." She realized she was just standing there gawking and jerked into action, doing more of the hand-waveum and glancing alternately from the display on her forearm to the surfaces around her.

She could hear the shuffling behind her as she worked her way around the room. "In a nutshell," she started, still wrapping up, "fully functional, it's built to handle bodies as large as 12', and proportionally wide. I betcha there's another hologram entity that cleans up regularly, and yep, it's all sterile, not a microbe floating around! Odd though it is ready to use, but everything is unused, supplies at full levels. I..."

She paused, re-scanning a couple of spots. "This has all been rebuilt and newly installed. I'd guess something happened, didn't go well, damage ensued, sterilize and neutralize, replacements installed. Whatever they had going on, as horrid as we've seen from the other labs, they were all too comfortable with the abundance of unsuccessful experiments, and their consequences."

That news didn't enthuse her. "Maybe that's what happened to their defense force, something got loose... 'Course if there is a Founder involved, secrecy plays a part, but I'd say something got way outta hand and they're only now firing the ole place back up... Y'all find anything? We could try to fire up a console, but that would throw up a flag in the system if they don't already know we're down here mucking up the works."

"No, I don't think it would" Karadis replied "If that were the case, then anything we've fired up so far, including the Vexis system and it sending out a message to Cardassian High Command would have done that" Karadis replied "I think we'll be safe turning on at least one system here, you just have to think of which one."

“We need to be sure we are doing this for the right reason Doctor, why are we doing this?” Shon said.

Kell shrugs, "We don't know what we don't know. Every clue we gather could help us elsewhere, get a glimpse into what they're planning and/or capable of. For the sickbay, maybe they have a log of patients and treatments that have gone through here..."

Kell checks a diagnostic console, scratching her jaw now and then as she works through the foreign interface. It takes her a minute but she comes up with a data chip. "I didn't waste time going through all the records, but there is a pretty good chunk of data, so regardless of the age of the equipment, I might glean some handy info later. This bay doesn't alarm me like the vats and stuff in the other lab."

Shon nodded, “then explore away Doctor but remember we are on limited time and I want to get back to Captain Kerr.” Shon took a stance outside in the corridor.

Kell nodded, securing the data chip. "Ready to roll, there's too much data to do much right now."

"You know, it seems to me that the further we've come into this underground complex, the better the finds have become" Karadis said, and at that point she spotted a Klingon dress armour "That's Krell's armour, what the hell..."

Shon heard Karadis explanation and bobbed back in. “Who is Krell Karadis?” She asked.

"Krell was the Supreme Commander of the Klingon sixth Fleet" Karadis replied to Shon "His ships chased the Dominion Third Fleet back from Deep Space Four in the last days of the war, but contact was lost with them."

“Then why is his armour here?” She said. “Doctor do what you can to try to find out when happened to the Supreme Commander, maybe he is still here dead or alive so go carefully.”

"That's a very good question Commander, one which I'd like to know the answer to myself" Karadis replied.

Kell's eyebrows scrunched up and she went back to the diagnostic console, cross-referencing Klingons and Krell, sifting through multiple reports, analysis patterns... She realizes the clock is ticking ever onward towards Karadis' fireball.

Karadis approached one of the consoles and began looking through the medical records. Scanning the screen quickly, she saw that there was indeed a record of Krell being there and of his wounds.

"It appears that his ship was attacked and boarded" Karadis read, "Krell was captured, along with four others and brought here. He was quite badly wounded, it had taken several Jem'Hadar soldiers to bring him down, but finally they had. A broken arm...broken humorous...several stab wounds...but he was alive. They operated on him, but to save his life, not Frankenstein him. In fact, he's still here according to the records...in one of the recovery rooms down the corridor!"

Kell nodded. "Yes... they tortured the others and then reduced them to component parts... you don't wanna read all that.. but looks like Krell is in stasis. He should be relatively healthy, if recovering at some point in the healing process still. After this period he might be somewhat weak, at least initially, which could tick him off so you better do the talking and we won't mention that part. Once he gets his bearings, and balance, we need to get back to the Capt and Kilbane, and get the farfenugen outta here."

Kell glances up at Karadis. "I assume we're going to get him?"

Shon looked amused. They seem to have forgotten she was here. “We have to find him, think of the points we would gain with the Klingon Empire not to mention Karadis!.Follow me I know where we are going and there is no time to waste.” She headed out of the door in the direction of the recovery room the nanites egging her on.

Kell wide-eyed Karadis and resumed her usual trailing posture to see where Shon takes 'em.

Karadis followed on as Shon led the way. She'd met Krell on two occasions, the first being as an Academy Cadet when he was giving a lecture on battle tactics, the second when she and Kerr were being transported by his ship on a joint Federation/Klingon operation. She doubt he'd remember her as she didn't get to really meet him on either occasion, but for some reason, she was excited to see another Klingon, it had been a long time.

As they crept along the corridor, she saw that Shon was at a door, listening intently.

She turned and nodded at Asaa and Karadis, “someone in here” she mouthed. She rushed the door. Inside was a stasis tube activated and working. The room appeared to be empty for a second then a shadow burst into the room. Shon shouted and fired her phaser. The Vorta dropped.

Karadis rushed in after Shon, phaser at the ready. Then at the shout, she dropped to one knee, turning as the figure appeared out of the darkness. She watched as they fell to the ground, hit by a blast from Shon's phaser. She edged closer, kicking them hard, but there was no reaction. Pouncing on the Vorta, she had them by the throat, but again, there was no reaction.

Letting go, she turned to Kell "Check this one out, see what state their in."

Kell started scanning as Karadis gave her space. Other than a broken femur and cracked rib, the Vorta would survive... maybe... she tossed in a strong sedative for now and looked up as she heard her name called.

She looked at the stasis chamber, it seemed to be working still, so she got up and walked over. Looking at the control panel, she worked out that the figure inside was being kept unconscious by a cocktail of chemicals, though for the life of her she didn't know what kind.

She looked inside the chamber, and sure enough, it was Krell.

Forgetting herself, because she was in the company of a Klingon legend, she called out to Shon "Help me get this bloody thing open, now!"

“Karadis wait, Asaa will have to check it out first, we don’t want to do any damage to him. He may have chemicals in his blood which need to be stopped and I don’t know how to do that.” She grabbed Karadis by the arms “CALM DOWN!” She exclaimed. We need him alive don’t we?…Doctor, over here!”

"Let her take her rage out over there," she said, thumbing over her shoulder at the Vorta. She crossed over to the stasis chamber, stepping through the concoction, working up a reversal solution that wouldn't leave the Klingon a saggy meat bag.

Karadis wanted to lash out at Shon, tell her she was wrong and that Krell had to be removed from the chamber that instant, but as her experience had taught her, she listened to a superior officer, even if she disagreed one hundred percent. She slammed her hand down hard on the chamber lid, unknowingly fracturing her forearm, such was her frustration and anger.

Kell didn't let herself get distracted by the violence nearby. She tapped the screen, pausing at points to gauge reactions before proceeding each time, mumbling to herself about butchers and heathens. Finally satisfied, she nodded at Shon to stand next to her and tapped the final sequence. "Remember, he will likely be sluggish, but a confused Klingon is not to be underestimated..."

“Karadis? The doctor has managed to figure this out. Come over here I would like a Klingon face to greet our awakening Krell.” Shon asked.

Karadis walked over and stood with Shon next to the stasis chamber. After what seemed like an eternity, there was a beep and a click, then the sound of suction being released as the lid rose slowly. Once it had, Karadis saw inside, she was looking right at the Supreme Commander himself. Slowly, very slowly, Krell opened his eyes and looked at Shon and Karadis, but they were just s couple of blurry outlines. He blinked a few times and finally the outlines formed into figures.

His voice was a little raspy, but with his typical Klingon countenance he snorted and said "Uhhhh...Fed-e-ration...close the lid again!"

Shon, exasperated pushed Karadis to the fore. “Speak to him Karadis, we don’t have time for this!” She exclaimed. “Asaa is it okay for him to exit the stasis chamber?”

Kell nodded, "Just be ready to keep him steady."

Karadis stepped forward and looked at Krell "Sir!" she said gruffly, "I am Karadis, of the House of K'Mer, we need to get you to safety, the Klingon High Council needs to know you're still alive, there are many more glorious battles to be fought against the Dominion. They're rebuilding and re-arming, we need your strength, wisdom and courage to lead the fleet into battle again!"

Krell looked at Karadis, a wily smile on his cruel lips "Rebuilding and re-arming you say Karadis of the House of K'Mer...well, that changes EVERYTHING!!!

He began to struggle to get up, and Karadis looked at Kell for help.

She grabbed one side, glad she'd kept up her weight training... This guy was no pushover, but she hoped Karadis had provided enough motivation.

"Supreme Commander, what's the last thing you remember before waking up in the stasis chamber?" Karadis asked.

"We were in a glorious do or die battle with the Cardassians!" Krell replied in a loud voice, "Two of the Birds of Prey that had been part of our squadron had been destroyed, so it was down to us, the last remaining ship to attack. We were up against difficult odds, the Cardassians had three ships, but we've faced harder battles. Our Tactical Officer devised a strategy that would draw them in one by one. We took down the first of their ships, then the second got a lucky shot which took out our port nacelle. Still we battled on, taking that ship out as well, leaving us on a one to one with their last remaining ship. We began our run, but we didn't know that the damaged port nacelle had caused a rupture in the power links to the starboard nacelle. As we pressed our attack, the starboard nacelle gave out, taking the power grid offline and our shields went down. The Cardassians attack was swift, but they didn't destroy us, merely took out our phaser arrays and photon torpedo tubes. The cowards beamed us out and into cells on their ship. We tried to escape, but were stopped. We ended up at this facility, I was tortured for information on the Klingon fleet, but I gave them nothing, so they put me in that stasis chamber, ready to be transported somewhere."

"A glorious story Sir!" Karadis said "However, the war has been over for three years, you've been in that chamber a lot longer than you think. We have an urgent situation now however, we must return to my Captain before the room we rigged with explosives goes up...in seven minutes."

"Lead the way Karadis!" Krell said magnanimously.

"Supreme Commander" Karadis replied, bowing her head and beating her right arm across her chest in a Klingon salute. Looking up, and turning to Shon, she winked at her and said "Shall we go Sir?"

Shon led the way back through the maze of corridors and passed the room that was rigged with explosives. She gave a sigh and hefted up a load of the weapons that Asaa had put by to be collected, “Here Supreme Commander help out.” She pushed the weapons into his arms and grabbed another pile for herself. How long have we got now Karadis?” She said as they ran.

Krell looked at the weapons in confusion, then dropped them onto the floor "I do not take orders from you, a mere Commander, and I certainly don't fetch or carry!" he said vehemently.

Before Shon could reply, Karadis grabbed the dropped weapons and ushered Krell to move forward again "We must move Supreme Commander, lest you get caught in the explosion that will be detonating shortly."

"Yes...well...I'm glad someone shows respect for my rank and position" Krell said, glaring at Shon and moving past her down the corridor.

Kell glanced back and forth, tapping on her PADD, sending the Captain an encrypted message about the firebomb and the timer count...

"We have about one minute Commander, we must make haste back to the Captain and Kilbane, then we all must leave, this explosion will surely bring guards to the area" Karadis said to Shon.

They sped down the corridor as fast as they could Shon bringing up the rear. The Supreme Commander was slow and Shon wished they could have left him there. In a few more seconds they had reached the shuttle and she looked desperately for the Captain as the others settled in quickly.

Kell picked up her scans again, checking the XO's continuing condition as well as evaluating the Klingon king's post-stasis levels.

Karadis helped Krell into the shuttle and unceremoniously dumped him into a seat "My apologies Supreme Commander, in my clumsiness I slipped, forgive me."

Krell huffed and puffed as he straightened himself up in the seat "Don't fuss over me Karadis, I will be fine, see to your duties."

Karadis nodded and went back to the shuttle entrance. An internal countdown told her there were mere seconds to go and there was still no sign of the Captain or Kilbane.

Suddenly, a low rumble could be heard, then a sound of splintering and tortured metal as it twisted in the explosion. Dust and debris shot out of the door they'd come back through, reaching upwards like an accusing finger.

"Biiiiiiiiiiirrrrrrrrrrddddddd!!!!!!!" Karadis called out in anguish.

“He’s not coming Karadis. We cannot wait we have to go NOW” screamed Shon over the sounds of the breaking station. she sat at the control panel. The door to the shuttle closed as the ship rose and began to leave.

As the shuttle lifted away, Kell had switched to scanning for life forms, using the more powerful shuttle system. "They're there!"

On the ground, Finchley and Kilbane stumbled out of the doorway, covered in dust and debris. Looking at the pad where the shuttle had been, he couldn't help but wonder what had happened to it, surely they couldn't have left, and what about the 'Topside' team, had they made it out, were they on the shuttle?

Alarms were now sounding and there was a commotion as booted feet, pounding on concrete, could be heard coming their way.

"If you have a plan to get out of this Butch, I'd sure like to here it" Kilbane said, coughing at the dust still swirling around them.

Finchley looked this way and that, but there was no way out for them that he could see.

"Nope, looks like the Bolivian army has caught up with us Sundance" Finchley replied, sitting down on the ground, attempting to wipe the dust off of himself.

Shon sat at the controls and went blank as the nanites took over and returned the shuttle to the platform.The whine of a phaser screamed towards the soldiers as the shuttle hovered above the rapidly decreasing platform floor space and the door opened.

Kell jumped to the door, yelling for the pair and reaching out as their forms appeared through the dust. "ALL ABOARD!"

Finchley and Kilbane were fighting a desperate, hard, rear action battle. They were just about holding their own, but their phaser's were almost empty and the amount of guards coming at them were increasing. Kilbane heard the shuttle before he saw it, and hit Finchley on the arm "Looks like our ride is here!"

"In the nick of time as well!" Finchley said. They saw the shuttle door opening and Kell shouting at them. There was nothing left but to make a run for it. They threw themselves into the shuttle, not caring where they landed inside.

As they all but flew into the shuttle, Kell returned to the console, looking for the other away team... and just realized that the shuttle seemed kinda crowded. Turning her head, she recognized the topside away team pressing against the walls to make room.

"Hi... glad you could make the trip!"


The shuttle, with everyone onboard took off at speed and reached the Blackeagle shortly afterwards.

 

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