Trial by Fire (Part 1 of 2)

Posted on 10 May 2012 @ 7:53pm by Lieutenant JG Kestra Orexil & Ensign Im'er Mor'an & Chief Warrant Officer 3 Marek Pawlak (KIA) & Chief Warrant Officer 2 Mark Davidson (KIA) & Petty Officer 3rd Class T'Paaru & Senior Chief Petty Officer Anthony Davis & Crewman George Ruktah & Petty Officer 3rd Class Justin Smoak (KIA)
Edited on on 10 May 2012 @ 7:57pm

2,522 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: Episode 01 - Project Sienna
Location: USS Galileo: Deck 2, Holodeck 1
Timeline: MD03 - 0300 hrs
Tags: security department

[ON]

Kestra yawned, took a sip of plain, harsh Klingon kava, and stretched. The holodeck training simulation was complete. Now she only had to get her team in there. She could do it by groups, by shifts, but that would leave gaps in the team building she needed. Besides... she smiled grimly. They didn't have time to be soft about it. There weren't weeks of downtime where they could appropriately train. She needed to see what each of them was capable of and what their instincts were in order to appropriately gauge their skills.

She tapped her com badge and spoke quickly and exactly, =/\=Chief to all security/tactical personnel, ten fifty three, ten seventy one, ten sixty six, code blue, report to location: holodeck one. Doubletime; move, move, move!=/\=

In all her years of training, Mor'an could remember but three or four times when she jumped in surprise as high as she did when Lt. Orexil's voice barked in her ear. Jolting out of her sound sleep, Mor'an immediately sprang into action. Again, her previous training had prepared her for this type of wake-and-run moment. Throwing on the first uniform she found, Mor'an flew down the corridor to holodeck one, quickly tying her long hair into a messy bun on the way.

Entering holodeck one, she saw her superior waiting less than patiently for the others to arrive. Much to her chagrin, Mor'an was not the first to have arrived despite her hurrying.

Within the holodeck was a replica of the Galileo and walking through the doors was eerily like walking out of the holodeck might have been. Except in this mirror holographic universe, the emergency sirens shrilled and the emergency lighting was on. Orexil waved Mor'an over to duck with her against the broken holographic holodeck doors as soon as she was inside. "We've been boarded by a Klingon force. So far, we're unclear on the number of assailants on board. Pawlak and Ruktah have gone ahead scouting. T'Paaru has gone to try to lock down the security office." Down the holographic corridor there was the sound of phaser fire. Orexil glanced towards it and then back past Mor'an's shoulder as Smoak wheezed in. "Ten six alpha bravo nine," she nodded to their com badges.

Smoak, his normally shaved chin rough and his hair a wild mess, gaped at them, "Are you bloody kidding me? A drill at three in the morning after-" He stopped short under Orexil's steady gaze and immediately panted the channel change command into his com badge.

"Ascertain and contain the threat. Go."

Mor'an slinked away from the Lieutenant, practically crawling on all fours in an effort to avoid being seen by any potential enemies. Choosing a different corridor than the one from which the laser fire had come earlier, Mor'an cautiously tip-toed away from the entrance, phaser at the ready. Pausing for a moment, Mor'an blinked and saw heat signatures of several bodies, but whether they were her comrades or enemies she wasn't sure. Peeking around the corner, she saw a body lying in the floor. If the person was dead, it was recent since it was still giving off heat.

"I have a ten fifty four," Mor'an whispered into her comm badge, "Ten twenty three." She crept forward, low to the ground and phaser aimed incase the body wasn't dead. She saw that it was a male Klingon and, as far as she could tell, was not dead because his signature was not decreasing. "Not dead, just unconscious. Shall I do him a favor and send him to Sto-vo-kor?"

"If you're waiting to hear from the Chief, you're wasting time," Davis rumbled from just behind her shoulder. "This is a test. She wants to see what we do without her orders." He crouched back to back with her, keeping an eye down the opposite side of the corridor. =^=Ten eighty-six central?=^=

=^=They cut the ODN feed to central,=^= T'Paaru reported, sounding annoyed.

=^=Pawlak and I are en route to engineering. If anyone down there is alive, they can get it up and running again,=^= Ruktah's voice rumbled through the com.

=^=Good. Tret-eh count, report,=^= Pawlak's heavily accented nasal voice pierced the com waves.

=^=Three in two dot twelve dot o-nine-hundred,=^= Davis reported. =^=Plus the one cadet found.=^=

=^=Ten three,=^= T'Paaru hissed.

As refreshing as it would have been to quite the whole three-in-the-morning-training-session, Mor'an tried her best to focus on the problem at hand. She spotted movement to her left and leaned closer to Davis, lowering her voice until it was nearly indiscernible.

"I will be back in a moment," she whispered before slinking off again to investigate the new heat signatures she has just noticed. They looked massive, which made her think they were Klingons. Being as large as they were, Klingons gave off a greater level of heat. Mor'an had not gone far when she realized the signatures were bearing down on the spot where she and Davis were positioned, as though they knew the two were there. Turning, she quickly found her way back to Davis. Knowing he couldn't see the Klingons coming, Mor'an knew she had to get the two of them out of the corridor.

"Four Klingons nearly here," she hissed when she reached Davis' side. "We have to move."

Davis nodded, pointing the opposite direction from where she'd come then motioning to the left. Grasping his phaser, he began treading down the hall away from the oncoming threat. The footsteps behind them because audible as they rounded the corner and it sounded as though the enemies Mor'an had spotted were coming their way, when there was sudden phaser fire from the corner opposite them.

Three shots and Smoak stood there, phaser raised. Three Klingons were on the ground. "Where to now, kids?" the young man grinned.

Mor'an looked at the three Klingons lying on the floor as their signatures faded. "There should be one more around here," she whispered, "But we cannot worry about him. What is the update with the ODN? We have to get that fixed before anything else, no?"

"Ruktah and Pawlak are on it, they said," Smoak cocked his head to the side. "Right?"

"Yes, I did not mean us three," Mor'an replied, "I meant us the crew." Sometimes she forgot Federation Standard did not exactly match Ta'rkan, her first language. "But enough talking, we, that is, us three, must aid Ruktah and Pawlak in any way we can. Keep corridors cleared so they are not disturbed, and make our way to the bridge to be at the ready when the ODN is fixed."

Davis nodded once and pointed towards the turbo lift down the corridor. "You two head to the Bridge. I want to make sure T'Paaru has support," he said in an undertone.

Smoak watched the older man depart and headed off towards the turbo lift alongside Mor'an. "How many do you think boarded?" he asked.

Mor'an glanced over at Smoak as they boarded the lift. "Enough that we lost control," she said, "The exact number I do not believe is a necessary piece of information. Once we regain control they will regret ever harboring the thought of boarding us." The gaze of her blue eyes nearly bored a whole in the wall, her loyalty to her ship and fellow crewmen showing.

"But how to we regain control?" Smoak asked, frowning. "Where is the Captain in all of this? Do you think Orexil didn't program her in? And the XO? Shouldn't we be taking orders from them? Or the Chief?"

"They are probably either captured or dead," Mor'an replied in a flat voice, "Davis said this was a test. Orexil is testing our abilities to handle these kinds of situations on our own -- that is the best way to learn." She was silent for a moment as she blinked at the wall. "There are six, maybe seven, Klingon on the Bridge," she said, "At least they look like Klingon signatures. We will have the element surprise." She tightened her grip on her phaser. "Ready?"

Smoak narrowed his eyes on the door. "Ready."

The doors whirred open to reveal six Klingons in full warrior kilt. One of them was holding a large gleaming blade to John Holliday's throat, demanding command codes. Scattered around the bridge, officers and crewmen lay dead or unconscious. There was no sign of the captain.

Mor'an's phaser hand shot up and an instant later one of the six Klingons was on the floor. She didn't dare shoot the one holding Holliday for fear of hurting the XO. As she moved in range of the others, she was vaguely aware of Smoak at her side, exchanging blows with a Klingon. She downed another of the massive opponents before she realized Holliday was with in greater danger of his life then a moment ago.

"Put down your weapons!" bellowed the Klingon, his bat'leth dangerously close to Holliday's jugular, "Or I slit his throat!" Mor'an glanced at Smoak and they both lowered their phasers. She looked around and saw three of the six Klingons dead. They hand't accomplished quite what they had set out to do, but they hadn't counted on the XO being in such danger.

"You are fierce, little children," the leader bared his sharpened teeth at them. "But children, none the less. Put your weapons on the ground."

Mor'an slowly sank to her hunches, exchanging a look with Smoak. What to do now? Though she would never let it show on her face, she was roiling inside from the uncertainly of the situation. Her phaser was now on the ground and virtually useless, it was two against three, and the XO was about to die if she and Smoak didn't act soon.

The leader nodded and sent one of his men to collect their phasers.

Del'an always told Mor'an to follow her instincts. Right now her instincts were telling her to do the impossible. As the large Klingon moved closer, Mor'an adjusted her stance ever so slightly. In one, swift movement, Mor'an kicked out the Klingon's knee, sending him crashing to the ground, at the same time slipping her fingers around her phaser. In the moment it took for this to occur, Smoak had retrieved his own phaser, which he now had trained on the Klingon leader. The Klingon that Mor'an had just downed was motionless, probably having slammed his head on the chair nearby.

"Release him!" Mor'an commanded the Klingon leader, though she knew that any Klingon would rather die than surrender. Suddenly a guttural yell came from behind, uttered by the last Klingon. He came bearing down on Smoak, but the young human was too quick. He spun, aimed and fired. The Klingon dropped instantly. "You are the only one left," Mor'an said, both her and Smoak aiming their phasers. She saw the bat'leth was still close to Holliday's throat, but not as close.

He bared his teeth in a broad grin. He didn't draw back his sword for the cut; only shoved forward with his arm and the bat'leth plunged into Holliday's neck. "You will all fall in the fires. You will all burn-" He was thrown backwards by the flurry of phaser shots - all kill shots, burning through his head, then shoulders and torso as he fell.

The XO wrapped his own hands around his throat, trying to staunch the bleeding as he choked, blood frothing on his lower lip.

Mor'an leaped forward, dropped her phaser and wrapped her hands around Holliday's throat. "Smoak!" she yelled, "Help me!" Smoak knelt next to her, tore off his jacket pressed it to the XO's throat.

"I don't know how much good that will do," he said as he bent Holliday's head down and cut off the blood flow.

"We can only hope," Mor'an said softly.

Holliday made a coughing sound and nodded slightly, helping them hold the jacket to his neck. "Captain-" he croaked.

"We've got to get him to a doctor," Smoak worried.

"Find-" the XO coughed. "Find the Captain- You have to-" The Captain's chair blinked twice and then the war-torn bridge was bathed in red light.

"Warp Core Malfunction. Ship will self destruct in ten, nine, eight-"

Suddenly Mor'an and Smoak were kneeling on the bare holodeck floor, holding his jacket between them. A few feet away, T'Paaru looked up from her busily moving hands. Pawlak and Ruktah knelt, back to back, further into the room. Davidson was off in a corner, Davis stopped short before running full-tilt into Kestra.

"Interesting," she said calmly. She didn't appear upset or tired, just focused. "All right. Gather round. The Captain and thirty crew members were saved and evacuated. The security office came back online about a minute and a half before the ship exploded, killing everyone on board. Would anyone like to say anything?"

Mor'an looked around a her fellow trainees, not sure what Kestra meant by "interesting." She stepped forward. "So everyone died? Did we fail?"

Kestra looked at the cadet with a slight smile, then opened her gaze up to the rest of the group, "Who considers the scenario I just described a failure?"

"The Captain survived," Davidson said. "The department heads escaped - except for you-"

She nodded. "Except for me."

"The data was uploaded to the escape shuttle and we were rendezvousing with the closest Federation cruiser."

"So you're saying it was a success," Kestra said, although the way she phrased it almost made it a question.

"Thirty out of eighty isn't bad," Davidson insisted.

Kestra made a humming sound in the back of her throat. "Pawlak? Assessment?"

"We didn't reach Starbase 152."

"One vote success," Kestra tallied. "One vote failure. Anyone else?"

"We took down the Klingons who boarded. That'll have consequences with the Empire," Smoak answered.

"Success or failure?"

"Success," he answered.

"Failure," T'Paaru finally said, consideringly, "for the same reasons."

Kestra inclined her head to the Vulcan. "Very well. Two and two. Anyone else. Ruktah?"

He shook his head. "I can't see it as either. We failed the mission, too many died, but some were saved. I... can't see it as either," he said again.

"Two and two, one abstain. Mor'an, would you like to break the tie?"

"I think we failed," Mor'an said frankly, "On one side we did save the Captain, but we could not take back the ship and complete our mission. We have aggravated the Klingon Empire by killing their people, and the majority of our people died. The damage outweighs what little good we could do, therefore I see it as a failure."

"And the vote swings to failure." Kestra spread her hands. "The people have spoken. Computer, reset the simulation." She nodded to them all as room shifted back to the hologram of the ship. "Three, two-" There was a crash and Kestra stepped back. The hologram absorbed her as though she'd never been there. "One," her disembodied voice announced, and then there were only sirens.

--
[TBC]

LT JG Kestra Orexil
Chief Security/Tactical Officer
USS Galileo

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

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