In a Heartbeat

Posted on 01 Oct 2013 @ 4:38pm by Petty Officer 1st Class Siren Hex Saalm

2,140 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Episode 04 - Exodus
Location: USS Galileo: Deck 3 - Corridor, close to the Armoury
Timeline: MD 03 - 0200

[ON]

Siren looked down to the boy with a frown. He was maybe 8? If he was human. He looked human though. Dark hair, dark eyes, so serious and looking right back up at her.

She had no idea who he was. She assumed he'd been on the Venture though. Since he had decided to lock his slender arms around her waist, Siren couldn't shake the boy off her. Which made facing down the Borg kind of tricky. Well, trickier than usual anyway.

"You've got to let go, or those things are going to catch us," she said breathlessly, looking around the corner and down the length of the main corridor. They were cut off from Amynta, Mormont and Stark down this end.

The boy didn't reply, only tightened his grip on her, making it all too clear that he had no plans of moving away from her anytime soon.

Siren sighed, looking up and down the main corridor as she tried to work out what to do. She'd been assigned to the armoury with the others. She was torn between trying to get back there, or trying to get back to the Intel offices.

Her heart was thumping hard in her chest, so hard it hurt. Borg had become the stuff of nightmares. She hadn't imagined that she would ever come face to face with one...or several.

"Okay," she whispered, just as much to gear herself up as the boy holding onto her. "Okay," she nodded, touching his shoulder to squeeze firmly. "We can't stay here, they'll pick us off like vermin. We should find you someplace to hide, and then I can get back to the armoury."

The dark haired boy frowned sharply at that, shaking his head as he pulled closer and pressed his face to her tummy. His whole body went tense...to make it harder for her to move him.

Siren rolled her eyes, shaking her head with frustration. "What! I don't know what to do with children! Go hide and find a real adult who can take care of you!"

He shook his head firmly, his fingers tightening on her back and his face hiding against her, so all she could see was his mop of dark curls on his head.

Siren sighed, knowing they didn't have much time. They were vulnerable staying where they were, and the quiet corridor might not last. "Fine...Fine! But you do exactly what I say when we get moving, okay? If you don't, we're going to end up like them. You don't want to be a robo-reptile with a gooey white face, do you?"

The boy screwed his nose up and shook his head firmly, making his hair even more wild.

"Didn't think so. So you have to be fast, and do what I say. No buts," she warned, pulling her uniform jacket and sweater off, needing the freedom to move faster and cool down. She fixed her badge back on to the vest she was left in though, taking a shaking breath. "You're small. Keep small. Don't let one of them touch you, okay? So long as you're not near their hands, you'll be alright. If they try and grab you, duck and run and don't look back." Siren stood, but reached for his hand to hold. "Ready?"

He looked up and watched her with serious dark eyes, giving a firm nod.

"Good lad, let's move," Siren squeezed his hand and moved around the corner into the main corridor with him at a run, keeping a firm hold on him.

She ran fast, catching her arm around his waist to lift him neatly off the ground so they could jump over a fallen drone, setting him back running on the ground again the moment her feet touched the ground, the pair continuing to run seamlessly.

Half way down the corridor, and her heart was thumping in her chest. Not long now. Not far. They could get there.

Siren hit the ground hard, not even realising she was falling until her forehead smacked the deck hard enough to make her gasp. A steely grip had caught hold of her ankle as she ran, and as she tilted her head up to see the dark eyed boy staring with wide eyes at whatever had a hold of her, she knew from the look on his face that it was a Borg Drone.

"Run!" she shouted to the kid before half screaming with shock as she was dragged along the deck by her foot. Her hands reached out on instinct, trying to get a grip on the floor, but unable to get anything more than a few nails clawing.

She threw her head back enough to see the boy was still just stood there, watching with a frown...and decidedly not moving.

"I said run!" she half shouted half gasped as she was tugged again. Her eyes widened when the boy remained resolutely still, refusing to leave her.

"Oh come on!" Siren hit the deck with disbelief. She took a breath and rolled onto her back, looking down at the drone who was also lying on the ground from an earlier injury, trying to drag her closer to get a proper hold on her. "Get the hell off me!" she shouted, using her free foot to kick it hard in the face, not stopping, breathing hard with the effort of shoving her booted foot as hard as she could into its grey, mottled face, over and over.

She gasped as the grip on her ankle weakened and she managed to scramble back up to her feet, turning to look at the kid, catching her breath. "Now bloody run! I'm coming too, see!"

The dark haired boy gasped, pointing behind her with an urgent finger.

Siren didn't need to look behind her to know what he was pointing at, and it was just as well as she didn't get the chance.

White fingers grabbed her by her long, red hair and pulled her backwards, making her half stumble back into the grip.

She turned hard on her feet, twisting with the grip to face the drone that was recovering from the smashes to his...its...face.

Siren reached into the back of her belt, pulling out the Nyxian dagger that she'd put there the moment the word 'borg' had been banded around the ship.

Letting out a gasp of effort, she lifted it with a well practiced hand, slicing in an arc just in time to cut off slithering tubules that were snaking at her. A second, harder sweep of the strong dagger back the other way cut off the clasping fingers in her hair, four of them dropping to the ground and twitching close to her feet, making the drone recoil for a few moments to assess and address the damage.

Siren shivered with the sight, her arms shaking in a distinctly squeamish way at the wriggling tubules and amputated fingers at her feet and she couldn't stop herself from stamping on them for good measure, shuddering with revulsion. "Sick bastards..."

Tightening her hand around the gemstone adorned handle of her dagger, keeping it in a reverse grip, edge out, hand turned downward with the blade held horizontally in front of her, she moved quickly, making a fast slash at the drone's good hand reaching for her, making two quick cuts, but knowing it was nothing more than an insect bite to the thing.

She breathed hard, trying to keep calm and measured and not let her anger get the better of her. It was hard though. Really fracking hard.

She ducked and weaved away from a swipe of the borg's arm and took the chance to push forward at it. She stabbed it hard in the real, pale eye, crying out with the effort of shoving the blade as deep as she could into its eye, to the hilt, twisting it as much as she could and turning her face away from the disgusting excuse for 'blood' that sprayed her.

Tugging her arm, Siren yanked her dagger back from the drone that was spasming after the attack...but the resilient Borg managed a swipe of a heavy arm that hit her hard across the side of her face.

The hit sent Siren off her feet, falling backwards onto the deck, the dagger spinning out of her hand. She hit the ground hard, gasping out with the crack in her shoulderblade. She swore loudly, grabbing the side of her face where it had hit her, rolling with pain and trying to catch her breath.

The Borg was relentless though, even with a spasming, sparking body that wasn't properly in control of itself anymore, it half bent, half fell onto the deck at her feet, grabbing her. It kept tugging at her legs, hands clawing higher up her legs with each grab, dragging itself a few inches up over her body with each new grip, never stopping, even half broken, like a nightmare.

Siren gave a high pitched gasp when a hand managed to reach her thigh and she started kicking as hard as she could...at it's hands, arms, head, face, anything.

She scrambled forward on the deck, half crawling, half sliding as she could, kicking as she went, her chest painful with how hard she was breathing, trying to keep the panic down as she slammed a shoulder with her boot.

She accidentally kicked the already damaged bulkhead as she pulled her leg back, the burnt panel half falling open after being battered by phaser fire earlier and now the crewman's foot.

Siren's eyes narrowed as she saw it and she bolted forward to sit up, grabbing the panel. She slammed it into the borg's face, hitting hard, crying out with each hit and the effort it took before just holding it there, pressed against it, using her whole body strength to keep it as a barrier between them.

Reaching into the guts of the open bulkhead, Siren desperately pushed her hand around, her fingers grabbing and searching until they closed around a thick, broken, but sparking cable. She yanked hard, shouting when it refused to pull out of the hole in the bulkhead.

"Come on! Come on, come on, come on!" she shouted at the top of her voice, the drone already managing to start crumpling the panel she had wedged against it, even in its injured, twitching state.

She suddenly fell backwards as the cable gave way, pulling out as her upper body fell back onto the deck with the sudden lack of resistance.

The air was knocked out of her, and in only a moment, the drone was on top of her, grabbing.

Pushing her arm up between them, Siren shoved the end of the damaged cable hard into the open wound in its eye socket where she had stabbed it earlier, gasping at the sudden, violent jolts of the heavy body on top of her, but it only made her push as much of the cable in to the eye socket, as deep as she could.

A violent fit wracked the drone before it finally fell lifeless on top of her, pinning her to the deck with its weight.

Siren couldn't do anything but just catch her breath for a few moments, closing her eyes with the sweat that was cooling on her skin and making her shiver.

She swore loudly and pulled a face in her revulsion, using the last of her energy to heave the body off her, shivering as it thudded to the deck, making her rub the parts of her exposed skin that it had touched with a grimace.

Carefully getting back to her feet, a little unsteady to start, Siren retrieved the precious dagger from the deck, wiping it off on her thigh before replacing it at her belt. She half stumbled forward towards the dark eyed boy that just watched her.

She bent enough to have her face more at his level, watching him with disbelief. "Why the hell didn't you run! We had the running plan, remember? And the you do what I say plan!"

The boy watched her resolutely, his arms folding, his young features setting with stubbornness and his brown eyes serious as he just shook his head.

Siren shook her head, too tired to argue. Not that it was technically arguing when the kid had yet to say a single word to her.

"Come on," she took his hand and led him down the corridor. "The others are up here. Don't worry, pup, ain't nothing going to touch you."

[OFF]

CN Siren Hex
Intelligence
USS Galileo
(PNPC - Scarlet Blake)

Brown Eyed Boy
Civilian Child
Presumed USS Venture
(NPCd by Scarlet Blake)

Ex-Borg Drone
(NPCd by Scarlet Blake)

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