Unexpected... part 3

Posted on Tue Dec 12th, 2023 @ 1:32am by Lieutenant Commander Jaal Jaxom & Lieutenant Kell Asaa Dr & Lieutenant T'Lira Sh'Karra & Lieutenant Commander Isabelle Savette & Lieutenant Commander Kevin Kilbane
Edited on on Tue Dec 12th, 2023 @ 1:35am

2,039 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Investigate the Chintoka Shipyard Buildup
Location: Cardassian Territory
Timeline: current

“Right, I’m about to give the order to beam me back, then the fire order, I suggest you ready yourselves for what comes next” he finished.

[Sickbay]

Kell stood back and rolled her head around on her shoulders... She nodded at her assistant and they started to clean up Kilbane. "Now we wait. I wonder what's going on upstairs? We haven't exploded so I guess we're in the clear..."

[Bridge]

Dukat turned his communicator on again and said “Dukat here, it’s futile, the Federation crew won’t give up their ship, beam me back”

“Yes Gul” the reply came back.

The haze of a transporter beam engulfed Dukat and he disappeared. Re-materialising back on the Galor bridge, Dukat gave the order to the Keldon ships to fan out for the kill shot. He watched as they did, and his heart began beating faster, timing was now critical. After ten seconds counting, he saw the Glinn at the Operations desk send the pre-arranged codes out, then at eighteen seconds he said “Fire!”

Both Galor class ships fired full phasers and the Keldon ships exploded like fireworks going off, their hulls breaking into a hundred pieces. Dukat knew there would be no survivors, and there wasn’t time for them to send out any emergency messages, the job was done.

Walking over to the Communications desk, he sent the Blackeagle’s re-initialising codes for their weapons and shields.

At Operations on the Blackeagle, Karadis said “Weapons and shields are back online.”

Jaal stood in front of the captain's chair and behind the operations and helm control boards. He let out a quiet sigh of relief. "Raise shields please and go to yellow alert. I suppose now we wait and see what Captain Kerr wants us to do now."

“Aye Sir, raising shields and going to yellow alert” Karadis replied, following Jaal’s orders.

As the alert sounded, Karadis to wanted to know what Kerr was going to do next. He was in a zone she hadn’t come across before, sure, he could be unpredictable and sometimes offhand, but this was a whole new level, even for him.

At that point, the Communications console pinged, so she rose from her seat and walked over to the console. Opening the channel, the voice of Dukat came through “It’s me, get Jaxom and yourself over here, we have a job to do still and I need to explain it. It’s not a request, it’s an order, out.”

Karadis turned to Jaal, “It’s your call Sir.”

He let out a short breath. If one didn't know him well, they might say he was a bit exasperated. "We follow orders." He turned to the science station, "Lieutenant Sh'Karra, you have the conn. If Commander Kilbane wakes up before we get back fill him in on all that's happened. OH, and please, don't get the ship blown up."

Tag T’Lira

Turning to Karadis he said, "Signal Captain Ker... I mean Gul Dukat," and here he rolled his eyes. "...that we're ready to beam over. It's time to be big damn heroes," he finished with a not quite happy smile on his face.

[Galor class ship]

As the transporter beam faded, revealing Jaal and Karadis, Dukat stepped forward.

“This way” he said, leading them to a room off the bridge. Once inside and alone, he turned to face them. “We don’t have much time, so here’s the plan. I’m going to give you the co-ordinates of the Founders ship, you’re going to take off towards it, we’ll give you a ten minute head start. The Founders ship isn’t heavily guarded, only one Galor class and two Keldon class, they’re so far inside Cardassian territory, they believe it’s unthinkable that anyone would dare attack. It’s three hours at warp seven to get there, that’s all the time McCrudden has to make sure the cloak is working as it should. Once you get to the Founders ship, drop out of warp, we’ll be travelling at warp seven point five so will nearly be on top of you. The Galor and Keldons will automatically start to attack, thinking they’re helping us get you, but then it’ll be a dog fight as all three of us will attack them. No matter what the outcome of that fight, one of us has to get through and try to destroy the Founders ship. Any questions?”

“You don’t happen to have the computer codes for the founder’s ship do you,” Jaal deadpanned. “There seems to be a lot of that going around.”

“Do you have a problem with my decisions and the way I do things Lieutenant, flippant comments such as the one you’ve just made suggests you do?”

"No problem at all Sir," Jaal stood at attention. He realized a bit late this was not the time for jokes at all no matter how much he used humor in stressful situations.

He walked up to Jaal and stood right in front of him, eyeball to eyeball “Feel free to ask for transfer anytime, believe me, I’ll grant it.”

"Wouldn't dream of it Sir," he replied earnestly. "How soon should we be underway once we're back on Blackeagle?"

“I didn’t think so” Dukat said vehemently “Remember your place in future. I suffer her” he said, pointing to Karadis, “because she’s earned it, you’ve earned Jack, and until you do, you’ll keep your wise cracks to yourself. To answer your questions, no, I don’t have the codes to the Founders ship, and you’ll return to the Blackeagle now, get Lieutenant Asaa to return you to your normal selves then leave immediately.”

"Aye Captain," was all Jaal said.

He turned and walked away, time for talking was over.

Jaal turned to Karadis, "All right, I believe that's our cue to get goin'." He signaled the Blackeagle and the two were whisked away by the transporter.

[back on the Blackeagle, Sickbay]

While Karadis and Jaxom were returned to their usual selves and back in their Starfleet uniforms, Jaal explained everything to Doctor Asaa, "... so, I would suggest getting things ready for the typical injuries we get during combat operations... and thanks for getting us back to normal."

Kell nodded. "You're still kind of growly, but that should wear off in time. There may be a muscle twitch here and there for a few hours, but otherwise everyone is reverting back just fine. You should have everyone available for battle stations, plus my team is ready to rock and roll as well. Give 'em hell sir."

“That’s the intent,” he replied. “Can you give an update on Commander Kilbane?”

"So far so good actually. I suspected some organ damage on top of his other injuries, but it was minor. He'll be feeling it, sensitive in a couple of areas, and probably be low on energy for a few days, so he shouldn't overdo it, if that's possible. But otherwise I'm keeping him under for another 3 hours or so if that's alright, to get him as far along the mend as possible. If you need him, you can get him, with enough time to bring him up to speed on the impending interaction." Kell scanned a report to make sure nothing had changed and nodded as she looked back at Jaal.

“Good news then, thank you,” with a curt nod he was out the door and headed to the bridge.

[Bridge]

With their course laid in and the ship now speeding along at warp seven, just as Captain Kerr instructed, Jaal opened the Blackeagle’s intercom to make a ship-wide announcement, “Attention, this is Lieutenant Jaxom, in about three hours we’ll be engaging in combat so get ready, we’ll have re-enforcements right behind us, we may be shaken up a bit but I expect we’ll come out on top. Good hunting.”

Then he switched open the channel to engineering, “Lieutenant McCrudden, if it’s at all possible, I’d really like the cloak to be ready in three hours. Sneaking in, I believe, will be our best strategy.”

In Main Engineering, McCrudden was elbow deep in a panel when the message came through. Twisting and turning a bit, he managed to tap his COMM badge, “I’ve got my people on it Sir. That last shock wave gave us a lot of trouble, we’re trying to replace the parts of the cloak we have spares for, however, we may have to jury rig some of it. We’ll have teams on it constantly, but there’s other problems we need to sort out as well. Main engines still aren’t working at full capacity, the after affects of the Berion cloud matter caused the dilithium matrix to cut off, that in turn triggered the emergency shut down system to kick in. Though we’ve managed to get the engines started again, the mix has to be monitored and adjusted manually now. Check back in two and a half hours and I’ll give you an update as to where we are, McCrudden out.”

Isabelle was still at the helm wishing she was back doing her counselling duties. Piloting wasn’t a favourite task of hers.

[Galor class ship]

With the Blackeagle now ten minutes out, Dukat gave the order to pursue. His ship went to warp seven point five and he leaned against the wall and closed his eyes. Mentally, he felt drained, physically, he was tired, but he had to keep going, the endgame was in sight… he hoped.

[Blackeagle, Sickbay]

Kilbane opened his eyes, swivelling them from side to side, taking in the room. It was Sickbay, why was he in Sickay?

The last thing he remembered, the ship had been slammed by the after-effects of the explosion in the Berion cloud and everything went south. He tried to move himself so he could sit up, but his body didn’t react. He tried to speak, to get someone’s attention, but again, no reaction, he couldn’t say anything. He was now very frightened, probably for the first time in his life. How was he going to feel and live if he was paralysed?

Closing his eyes again, he managed to calm himself down. First things first, how could he get someone’s attention to show them he was awake…

Kell noted the alert on her armPadd and walked over to Kilbane's biobed. She stood there with her arms folded, waiting to see if he would fully awaken but she didn't want to startle him and have him injure himself. She quietly tapped out a note to Jaal, letting him know Kilbane was waking up.

He was starting to act agitated and she was considering a sedative but opted for the direct method. "Well, are you just gonna lay there or are you ready to get back to work?"

Somehow she managed to suppress the smile at his expression. She keyed off the suspension gel that softly secured his body, especially the limbs, and administered the release on the neural blocker, helping him sit up slowly as he regained control. Once she saw the vertigo had passed she kept a hand on his shoulder before letting him onto his feet... "You've missed a few twists and turns sir. I'll let acting Captain Jaxom fill you in. It's about to get shakey... again..."

Doubly glad and grateful to Kell that he was now able to move and talk again, Kilbane said “Thank you Doctor Asaa, and I have no doubt that I’ll have missed a few things. I’m glad someone stepped up, have someone help me get dressed, then I’m going to the bridge.”

Kell nodded and motioned one of her medical team over to get Kilbane squared away. As she moved back to her office, she updated Jaal that Kilbane would be along shortly. She had purposely neglected to mention Kerr's involvement, glad to stave off the inevitable round of ranting and raving whenever the intrepid Captain was in the mix... Let Jaal drop that little bomb.

TBC...

 

RSS Feed