Back Again part II

Posted on Sunday August 28th, 2022 @ 11:27pm by Lieutenant Finchley Kerr & Lieutenant Commander Niali Deval Dr & Lieutenant Steven Edgeware & Lieutenant JG Talerian Maxx

Mission: New Worlds
Location: USS Oberon
Timeline: Current

Niali burst out of the turbo lift phaser in hand trailing a drip of her own blood. Looking about her she saw the CMO waiting. She gave a sigh of relief. “Commander I have reason to believe Commander Kerr and Ensign Karadis are somewhere on this deck. I think Commander Finchley is wounded and I know Ensign Karadis is. I have no idea why they should be here but we need to find them. I have not involved security at this stage. Neither of them has their COMM badges on.”

Steven dug in his med pack and pulled out a dermo healer. He ran it over her arm.

“ This is a temporary fix. Once this is over you visit me in sickbay. Is Karadis with Commander Finchley?” Steven asked.

“Yes doctor, that is what I believe what scares me is the fact that we found their communicators and know they are both badly injured. I am hoping you are able to track Klingon bio signs?

“ Yes and no. I have noticed that our attackers share almost but not quite the same bio readings. Even though they do not look anything like each other. I may…Naili?” Steven saw her lean back with her eyes closed. He scanned her again. Then he pulled out another hypo and pressed it against her arm.

“ You have lost a lot of blood. Best rest here for a while.” Steven started to scan the area. He picked up Nurse Kitans readings.

“ I have Nurse Kitans' readings plus what could be Klingon and human bio signs. If I find the nurse first Kitan can help me find Finchley and Karadis. You stay here and rest. Doctors orders!” Steven said

Niali nodded, she felt too weak to move and it was warm where she was. She closed her eyes to rest them.

Meanwhile, Nurse Kitan was scurrying through the maintenance shafts hoping to find help or a safe place to not get phased. She was scared as she kept moving through the shafts. It was a bit claustrophobic and silent in a creepy way as she had no clue what was going on as the intruders were on the ship. Granted she managed to warn the crew in the few seconds she saw them but in the back of her mind she knew they were armed and many other crew members would not be able to escape in case a firefight broke out. She hoped they were only trying to stun everyone to take over the ship but part of her feared they were going to shoot to kill. Alara's hands began to shake as the worst-case scenario ran through her mind. Eventually, she took a break as she needed to calm her nerves down and do her breathing exercises. After a few minutes, she managed to calm down and began moving through the shafts again.

Luckily for Minister Valev shortly after leaving his hiding place, he bumped into two of Tor’s soldiers. Convincing them of the need to assassinate the First Minister they began to find their way to Ara’s quarters.

Jo heard the alarm go off, was someone firing a phaser inside the ship?

"...and that's about the size of it" Karadis finished her report to Finchley

"Elliot went full skitzo with a machete and Maxx kicked the living shit out of several prisoners who were cuffed, kicking them in the groin and stomping on their heads?" Finchley asked.

"Yes," Karadis replied.

"Right, if we get out of this, that's those two suspended and a psych evaluation getting done" Finchley replied "It was wrong to have Elliot promoted, it came too soon, he's not ready, that's my fault for thinking her was. As for Maxx, he's a Science Officer, the fact that a couple of his toys got destroyed doesn't give him the right to attack prisoners unable to defend themselves and do the damage he did. I'll be calling for disciplinary action against him, a permanent black spot will be placed on his record and there's a good chance he'll be suspended from duty and demoted for the brutality of his actions. He's a bloody Starfleet Officer for goodness sake, drones can be replaced, he knew that but instead, he took his anger out on prisoners not able to defend themselves as I said."

"Easy there Bird," Karadis said "you'll give yourself an aneurism that'll kill you before the knife will," she said, nodding at the handle sticking out of his chest.

Finchley coughed and some blood flecks came out his mouth "There's no excuse for either of their actions!"

She patted him on the arm "Ok Bird, ok..."

"First things first though, we need to deal with Tors rebels trying to take the ship," Finchley said.

"Yes," Karadis replied.

"In a minute though, I just need to catch my breath," Finchley said.

While moving through the maintenance shafts Nurse Kitan found a data PADD that was left behind by accident by an engineer. She sighed at her luck and used it to help navigate her way to where Arle's quarters were located. She knew she was expecting and all this excitement might be too much for her. Granted it was an unpleasant route to for her to take, Nurse Kitan managed to make her way to the hatch near Arle's quarters. She looked through the cracks to see if the coast was clear.

[Primary Life Support]

Paradis watched as Finchley's head began bobbing and his eyes closed. Tapping him on the arm she said "Hey Bird, stay awake, talk to me!"

"Mmmmm?" Finchley said, opening his eyes again.

Karadis struggled to her feet, "UP!" she said loudly.

"What?" Finchley asked.

"UP ON YOUR FEET COMMANDER!" Karadis shouted.

In his slightly tired state, Finchley slowly got to his feet and said "What's with the shouting?"

"You're not going to die sitting down, if you're going to go out, you go out standing up like an officer," Karadis said, taking him by the shoulders.

"Nice to see you haven't changed then" Finchley replied, a half smile on his face.

"Wouldn't be me otherwise" Karadis said.

"That's true" Finchley replied as he coughed again "Bad tickle in my chest" he added.

"Your jokes are just as bad as ever" Karadis said "So what's it to be then, here or out there, making Tor's rebels pay for daring to come onboard?"

"Well, you'd never forgive me for not letting you dance with the devil, so out there I think," Finchley said.

Karadis nodded and they helped each other towards the door back out into the ship.

After Karadis and Jason took off from being beamed back onboard, Maxx wasted no time racing to his lab once he found out about the enemy invasion. He had the prisoners disarmed and beamed into a cell for safety measures since the other two neglected that part. Maxx was very annoyed by Karadis and knew she was the type to push the blame on others, but he would deal with that later on. If he survived this he might be dealing with a hearing of some sort. However for now he needed to deal with the enemies at hand. Once he was in his private lab he began pushing buttons and activating the replicator drones which he then quickly modified the programming to stun the intruders not registered as ships personnel except for the pregnant one, Arle. He didn't know who was a spy at this point and would sort it out later on once the ship was safe. He then had the drone's cloak and scatter it around the ship to stun the intruders while cloaked. The replicator continued to make drones and send them out as Maxx began investigating where the ship was and how the intruders managed to get onboard in the first place. He had his lab sealed and a barrier put up to keep the intruders out.

-----

Meanwhile, Nurse Kitan finally made her way through the maintenance shafts and near Arle’s quarters. She peaked through the hatch to see if the coast was clear before she scurried down the hall to find Arle's quarters. She could hear phaser fire in the distance and explosions from damage to the ship. She muttered to herself that this was a really bad idea right now as she raced for Arle's room and then once she reached the door pad she over rode it and entered it hoping there were no enemy soldiers waiting for her. She tapped her badge and called for Dr. Steven as she said, "Kitan to Steven. I made it to Arle's room but there are a lot of enemies shooting up the place. Please stay online in case Arle goes into labor due to stress."

[Arle’s Quarters]

Arle was still in the first stages of labor and Minister Ara had her breathing as she remembered when she had had Tor. It seemed a bit quieter outside so she stuck her head out to see what was happening. “Hello,” she said seeing Nurse Kitan standing there. Can you help there is someone in here that is in labor!”

Nurse Kitan nodded as she caught her breath and then told the ships computer to seal this room from outside danger and told Steven that Arle was in labor before she made her way to Arle and checked her out. Since Nurse Kitan had her medical tricorder on her waste she was able to scan Arle Once she had her results she told her, "Wow! Your contractions are about 35 seconds apart. It won't be long now." Nurse Kitan then went to the bathroom to grab all the clean towels she could find as well as a few shirts to keep the child warm after birth. She sterilized her hands, towels, the shirts and equipment before returning to Arle and set the towels to catch the amniotic fluid when Arle's water broke. Then Nurse Kitan scanned Arle again and said, "Your cervix is about 7 centimeters long. The baby will be ready when it’s fully dilated for labor, it’s 10 centimeters. Nurse Kitan tried to keep talking to Arle to keep her mind busy as she reminded her to breath properly.

As Finchley and Karadis made their way along the corridor back to the turbo-lift, Finchley said "I have news for you, in fact, two pieces of news for you but first you have to promise me you won't hit me."

Karadis just grunted and replied, "I've never hit you without good cause, you know that."

"And I appreciate that" Finchley replied, "So here goes. Whilst you were getting ready to beam down with your Away Team, I got a message from Admiral Horn, he needs someone to head up an I2 section, basically, you'll still be part of Starfleet Intelligence, but you'll be a specialist advisor for the Command Team on the Oberon. With it comes an automatic promotion to Lieutenant Junior Grade, however, given your years of service and your specialist training, you're going to take on a team who will train and work under you. Given that this is an added responsibility to what you'll be doing, you've been given a field promotion to Lieutenant 'by' Admiral Horn...on the understanding, if you're a responsible leader to the team it becomes permanent. Congratulations Lieutenant."

Karadis stopped them both and looked at Kerr, and Finchley waited on the rebuke he was sure was about to happen. To his utter amazement, Karadis just stared at him and said nothing before making them move off again.

"Nothing to say?" Finchley asked, quite surprised at the silence.

"No, let's just deal with the current situation then I'll think of some suitable punishment for you telling me this" she replied, not wanting to get into it at that moment in time.

"Ah, there she is, that's the Karadis I know" he joked.

"Mmmmmmm...." was all Karadis replied and kept on walking till they reached the turbo lift.

TBC...