Rescue

Posted on 23 Jun 2018 @ 4:28pm by Lieutenant Amaranai Franklin & Lieutenant Lake ir-Llantrisant & Lieutenant JG Rizil Chaya & Lieutenant JG Manuel Lucero & Commander Allyndra illm Warraquim & Petty Officer 3rd Class Constantin Vansen
Edited on on 21 Aug 2023 @ 2:42pm

4,356 words; about a 22 minute read

Mission: Episode 16 - A Far Sun
Location: Pleione - Main City
Timeline: MD 03, 1200 hours

[ON]

Allyndra hated loosing her wings but they would grow back soon enough. The worse right now was the contacts which were a bit irritating. The dress she wore was not a problem as dresses were what was generally worn by women on Akkadia.

The group shimmered into existence in an alleyway not far from where Manuel had indicated the native doctor's office was. She pressed her comm link disguised as an earring and said quietly =^=Allyndra to Schofield we have arrived, stand by.=^=

"This is awesome," Chaya whispered to her team as they materialized. She smoothed her hands down over the flowy blue skirt she was wearing, clutching a straw hat over her head so it wouldn't blow away in the gentle breeze. Her five je'shii had been hidden by a piece of medical tape, and like Allyndra her d'ja pagh had been transformed into a communicator. "Look at this place! OK, also, not a fan of this skirt-thing." She ruffled the lace with a grimace and then held up her tricorder. "I'm picking up a large infrastructure, traces of coal and metals. They're definitely industrialized, super pre-warp." Her classes at Starfleet Academy, in particular Interspecies Ethics, had taught her a bit about the most major events in Earth history, so she held a passing familiarity with the period.

Manuel piped up, "I like it. Hopefully we can get this done as quickly as possible. That flare is going to fire off at any moment between the next few minutes and the next few hours, and if Sandoval isn't able to get the pyramid working soon, then we're all going to have a very nice tan."

"Alright Lieutenant Lucero, lead on. I suspect we should pair up male and female as this appeared to be a more primitive society. I am with you Lucero."

"Excellent idea. These people have a tendency to report even small aberrations in their cultural norms... Hence, our present situation. So..." He looked to Rizil and Constantin and said, only half-joking, "...just act as mildly overzealous and blissfully ignorant as possible, if you can". Manuel briskly walked out of the alley and into the street. He looked around briefly for landmarks to orient himself. When he felt confident with their relative location, he made a slight gesture. "It'll be this way. We're only a couple hundred meters away."

The group moved along the narrow sidewalks in pairs. From all outwards appearances, it was clear that they had somewhere to be.

Constantin Vansen frowned as he looked at the scans that were coming in. If anything, he was making sure that things were coming in properly. He wasn't...the most experienced when it came to things like this, but he was going to do his damn best.

They finally reached the modest office. Manuel checked the knob on the door, hoping to all that the doctor was in.

The office was indeed open and the group walked in. The secretary looked up and asked if they had an appointment. "Not formally," Allyndra said and then said, "we are relatives from out of town."

The secretary looked them over and then got up and went to the back. She knocked on a door and then opened it. "Doctor a group of people out here that says they are relatives." There was a response and she came back.

"Please take a seat, Doctor Lensher will be here in a moment, can I get you coffee?"

Allyndra shook her head and took a seat.

Doctor Lensher emerged with an older woman and talked to her a moment before turning his attention to the group with a puzzled looked. As he noted Manuel his brows went up and he nodded.

"Mrs. Pratt, please cancel the rest of my appointments for the day and take the rest of day off. Indeed, these are people I have not seen in awhile. Lock up when you leave. Come, come," he waved to the group.

The secretary just nodded and began to make calls.

Lensher turned and looked at Manuel and quietly said, "Are these some more of your alien friends?"

"Yes, actually. None of the green-blood that you enjoyed before, though." They chuckled lightly. No sooner than the humor began, Manuel became serious again. Leshner noted that the visit wasn't some courtesy-call between friends. Manuel asked the Doctor to move the conversation into the back-room where they would be hidden in the event that someone walked in. He led them into the back.

Chaya gave the newcomers a smile, doing her best to be unobtrusive. This whole mission was relatively think on your feet for her, so she was taking cues from the others who held more familiarity with the situation and doing her best not to rock the boat, so to speak. She was, however, silently amazed at how similar this culture was to Earth's, even down to the names.

Once the secretary had finished up. Lensher went out and drew the shades and shook his head. "So what can I help you with?"

Allyndra took the lead. "I am Allyndra. I am a senior officer aboard the star ship orbiting this planet. We have a team inside the pyramid..."

She was cut off as Lensher remarked, "You mean inside the pyramid of the Protectors? No one has figured out a way into that thing in thousands of years."

She smiled, "well it just takes a different approach that your civilization has not quite gotten to. That being said, I believe we have figured out what it is for which is to stabilize the star and from reports it appears that at least for now the machine is working again temporarily if I understand correctly. Now we need to rescue our other two people that were detained."

Lensher knitted his brows. "Rescue and then disappear and leave us with a machine that we still do not understand, have no way of fixing and when it breaks again all die?"

Allyndra shook her head in the negative. "No, your culture has been interfered with once already. There will more that will come but with much more ability to present themselves such that it is not such a shock. We will help you. Now to the task at hand. This is Chaya, and the other is Constantine. Chaya is a security expert and Constantine is operations which on a ship works with logistics. If you could answer to the best of your ability their questions so we can effect a rescue." There was no question on that sentence the tone of a command came through.

Lensher sighed and nodded. "Alright I will do my best. What can I help answer for you?"

"Okay," Chaya looked around, and offered Lensher a smile. "Hi, also, what's up. Okay, so what we'd like to do is generate a map of the area where they're being held. We can use this to scope out the place and track all movements, which should lessen the need for open conflict. We'll be looking to mark guards and landmarks, take them out silently one by one. Get in, get out, bing bang boom." She looked to Allyndra. "We shouldn't need to hurt anyone, either. I'm aiming for least disruptive, quick, and precise. Can you help us with the schematics?"

Lensher looked a bit puzzled but he went over the secretary's desk and pulled a book and flipped it open toward the front. "The phone book here has a general map, and then a more detailed downtown area, does that help any?"

"It's a start," Chaya grinned and ripped out both of the pages, placing them side by side and grabbing a pencil. She drew a rough outline of the pyramid based on the telemetry from their ship, marking down points of interest with large Xs.

Manuel looked over it all, "It looks good."

Allyndra waited a little bit. "Think you have enough to get started with?"

"Definitely," Chaya nodded and completed the finishing touches of her map, demarcating areas where security guards were likely to be in high concentration.

"Alright, Mister Vansen, I am going to leave you here to coordinate the EMF pulse with the ship.

Constantin's eye went to her, lightly wide for a moment before he looked away. "Yes ma'am," he said and pulled back, frowning.

"Doctor please stay here and thank you." Allyndra said.

Lensher nodded, "Nothing to nasty I hope? People are afraid enough."

"There will be a series of blackouts, electrical disruptions."

"I see..." the doctor replied and then said, "could you manipulate the civil defense system? That would get people to shelters."

"Ah, I had almost completely forgot about those damned things." Manuel said with a hand to his chin.

"Interesting, Mister Vansen, please work on that as well with the ship. We will keep in touch."

Want me to get you an asteroid with platinum while I'm at it? Constantin thought but outwardly he just had a small smile, nodding quickly. "Yes ma'am."

Allyndra, Chaya and Manuel made their way out of the clinic and headed toward the pyramid. The building was not easy to miss, being big but that was the newer built piece the actual machine was housed inside. That was not the goal right now. The goal was the security section that was off to one side.

People were lined up to go inside and Allyndra got in line as well. "I am thinking once we are inside, perhaps activate the civil defense and then the pulse. That should give enough distraction for us to get into the security section."

"Yes, that is probably the best course of action. Once the sirens go off, most of what seems like their law enforcement or military personnel are going to be very busy directing the population to shelters and keeping them there." Manuel noted.

"Agreed," Chaya nodded, her muscles tensing as she scoped out the area and pointed to an entrance point that was least crowded with personnel. "Through there, that's our best shot."

Manuel looked around before motioning for the rest of the team to proceed into the line of people walking to the entrance of the temple. He whispered back over his shoulder. "They have a symbol. A gesture really, we should probably execute the blackout prior to anyone realizing that our sign is poorly imitated as opposed to having been done every day for a lifetime."

The line moved seemingly slowly but it was not really that long. As they entered the actual machine was in view and people started to make some sort of complicated sign. Allyndra leaned over to Chaya and Manuel and said, "Get ready." She pressed the comm disguised as an earring and said, =^=Mister Constantin if you please, sirens and black out.=^=

=^=In three, two...=^= Constantin did the countdown both for them and for the ship, frowning as he saw the mayhem unfold the second the count reached zero.

"Let's move!" Chaya whispered, leading the charge and gesturing for the team to stay behind her as they sneaked past.

As the lights went off and the sirens came on, it was general pandemonium as people screamed, and the guards and docents were completely caught off guard. It was almost absurdly easy to get to the security offices. Backup lights had just started coming on in that area but there was still confusion. Allyndra had taken the concealed phaser out of her purse which she then discarded. Four people were inside one of the offices. One went for his sidearm.

"Nope," Chaya said, kicking his leg out from under him and twisting his arm behind his back to bring him to his knees. With her other hand she reached for her phaser. "Hands up, keep it cool and we'll all get out of here," she addressed the rest.

The rest just lifted their arms not wanting to chance what the device the tall lady held was.

"Lieutenant, any of these familiar to you?"

"There! Dark hair, long coat." Manuel pointed at a male of average height near the front of the group, his hands in the air. The man he knew to be Officer Tanian.

"Fine, you go with those two, I will hold these men here. Contact me as soon as you have our crew mates. We beam out using the transponder implants."

"Roger." Manuel said as he motioned Tanian to approach. To his credit, the interrogator looked relatively calm during the whole thing. Only the slightest hint of surprise lit up his eyes as he saw Manuel's face. He approached the lieutenant cautiously. Then smirked.

"So... You're a subversive after all." Tanian commented as he let Chaya pull him in front of her.

Manuel's brows furrowed. "A wha-? Oh. No. No, trust me, I couldn't care less about overthrowing your theocracy, Tanian. I just want to get back home with my friends."

"To Aragon, right?" Tanian replied sarcastically.

Manuel was irritated by his tone. "No, that's way too far from here. My home is a giant hunk of metal that's been hovering just beyond your atmosphere for the past few hours." His tone was matter-of-fact.

Tanian laughed in incredulity as though he'd just heard a bad joke. But, when he looked around at the rest of the team and saw that there faces were all-too serious, he quickly shut up and swallowed, becoming a bit nervous. "W-Well, what do want with me? A ransom or something? Well good luck with that, we don't negotiate wi-..."

Manuel interrupted him. "The other two you interrogated with me, where are they? That's all we want. After that, you and your men and your planet and your 'protectors' can all go about your happy existence and never see any of us again."

The interrogator looked dubious at first. Knowing that he was in a bad spot no matter if they were lying or not, he just sighed. "Here..." He hesitated for only a moment. "Just follow me." He started to walk to an adjacent hall with a staircase clearly visible at its end.

Manuel stopped him, "Keep your hands where we can see them and don't walk to fast. We don't want any incident, Tanian." The lieutenant looked to Chaya and made a motion with his head that said to get behind the man.

"We just want our friends. Lead us to them, and you'll be home to your family in no time. Got it?" Chaya motioned at him with her phaser. "Show on the road, people."

Chaya and Lucero walked into through the hall and filed down the stairs, with Tanian silently leading them to the detainee cells.

Tanian sulked but lead the way. He knew there were guards on the level as they entered the elevator and he pushed the proper button. He stood in front and when the doors opened he yelled out, "Help! Subversives!"

The three guards looked toward the elevator. Two were standing and one was behind a desk. They looked startled for a moment but it did not last long with the two standing ones drawing their own weapons while the one at the desk reached for a button to call for help.

Chaya immediately stunned the person reaching for the call button and tightened her grip on the hostage she'd taken. "Drop your weapons, now. Don't make us do this the hard way. Your friend will be fine, provided you follow our instructions. Got it?"

Lucero looked at Tanian with a curled lip, his anger creeping beyond its inhibitions. He made sure that the interrogator was clearly in front of both him and Chaya, breaking the guards' lines of sight, then Manuel spoke loudly, "I'd drop it if I were you. She's seriously not the one you want to test right now, gentlemen."

The two standing guards looked nervous. They had never seen anything like the beam that had hit their sergeant at the desk. There guns wavered just a bit but they did not have a clear shot around the lead interrogator. Finally one put his weapon down on the desk and raised his hands. The other looked at him a moment and then followed suit.

"What do you want?" the one on the right asked.

"The officers you took," the woman spoke calmly. "We want them back. Leaf us to them and no one will be harmed, you have our word."

The guards looked at each other. "You mean the crazy one and the quiet one? Alright come this way."

The two turned and lead the way down the hall there were various cells with metal doors. "I will take you to the quiet one first." As they walked the one guard glanced at his buddy and gave a little wink. His buddy made just the littlest of a response. They would unlock the cell using the door as a shield and grab the woman inside to use as a hostage. They reached the cell and the one guard slowly took the keys and unlocked the door. As he turned the handle he suddenly pulled the door open and rushed inside. His fellow held the door and pulled a back up weapon.

When Amaranai heard a commotion, she knew that it was time to leave. She wasn't sure exactly what was going to happen, but she had to be ready for anything. She saw the guards being led by Starfleet security personnel - her personnel - and smiled. This was going to be a piece of cake. But of course, it wasn't.

The metal door was pulled open quickly and Amaranai, despite standing, was rushed by one of the guards. Not having enough time to react, she took the blow. But she was quick in hand-to-hand combat, her brothers had learned that long ago and her teachers had always commended her for being able to counter attacks from much larger foes.

Once she regained her balance, Amaranai turned her attention to the person holding her. With a quick thrust of her elbow, she struck him in the gut. With his pain diverting his attention momentarily, she shoved him against the wall and prepared to get out of the cell.

The other guard had held the door and concentrated on the woman with the weapon. He fired a bit wildly hitting the wall. The sound very loud in the narrow hallway. The commotion though diverted his attention. This quiet girl was now fighting like the devil. He turned his weapon toward the two but could not get quite a clear shot. He fired into the roof to startle the woman.

Amaranai was not going to give up. This was her only chance of escape and her people were doing the rescuing. She wasn't going to go down easy. She took a few punches but was not going to relent. The female security officer was giving just as much as she was getting. The sound of the weapon, though different than a phaser, did not stop her, nor did it scare her. She continued the fight, hoping her crewmates could finish the guards off soon.

Manuel took hold of Tanian in a quasi-choke hold with one arm and bent the interrogator's arm with the other while motioning at Chaya with his head towards the cell. "Help her!"

Chaya burst onto the scene and exchanged a few looks with Amaranai before they both took the first to the ground and pinned their arms and legs. She delivered a stun shot to the man's neck and rose swiftly, hand on her weapon to survey the rest of the situation. "Oh, perfect, and there's that guy." Chaya stunned the other guard. "We got a two'fer over here."

Through all the commotion in the hallway, a once-locked doors had been left ajar. One of the officer’s stray shots —that had missed the intended target— had landed in the centre of that door, nudging it creaking open farther. It was through that dark opening, the silhouette of Lake ir-Llantrisant could be seen in black and white. His hat, his shoes and his socks had been long removed, and he still wore the dark slacks he’d beamed down to the planet wearing. Instead of his suit jacket, Lake had been tightly laced into a white straightjacket, with his long sleeves tied even more tightly behind his back. Somewhere around the mid-back of his straightjacket, Lake had been hooked onto the middle of the wall. There, he was suspended, halfway between the floor and the ceiling, with a gag tight firmly across his mouth. The officers hadn’t been referring to Amaranai when they mentioned the crazy one after all…

After securing the situation with Amaranai, Chaya handed her a spare phaser and jerked her chin toward the open door. "I was going to go for something quippy, but I think we've overstayed our welcome. Honey, I'm hoo~oome," she sing-songed as they burst through the door. "OK, so I did it anyway, sue me. Right. Hang on, buddy, we'll have you down in no time. Can you grab him? I'll shoot the mechanism, you catch." Her brows bounced at Amaranai as she leveled her phaser at the hook.

The exact words Lake intended to communicate were lost in the gag in his mouth. Judging by the general timbre of his vocal noises, it sounded as if he were pleading with the away team about something, and then perhaps asking that they not shoot him.

"What was that? Lake... Here, hold on, man." Manuel handed Tanian over to Chaya and strode over to Lake and carefully removed the gag.

There were no words of wisdom coming from Lake, only desperate words: "Don't call me honey."

"Um. Alright. Well, we're in a rush, so just untie his sleeves from behind him and we'll leave all of the latches on that thing as-is.You're gonna have to wear that back to the ship, Lake." Manuel said.

Amaranai had moved closer to Lake and stayed under to support his fall. It was a little odd that the team would simply leave him in the straightjacket but Manuel was right - there wasn't any time for this. They had to leave, and quick.

"We're really, OK, we're leaving him in that," Chaya covered them as they grabbed the officer and swept back toward the open door.

Lucero looked around the cell. He picked up the gag that was in Lake's mouth and used it to tie together Tanian's hands. He looked to Amaranai and Chaya. "Do you guys think you can grab the other two guards. We're just going to lock them in here with our buddy Tanian." The interrogator began to protest but Manuel looked him straight in the eye, "We said we'd let you go if you would get us to them without problems. You agreed. Apparently you have some sort of mental malfunction if you think that this stunt you just pulled will get you anywhere but this concrete box." He then proceeded to ignore the tied man.

Amaranai moved toward one of the guards and grabbed his body and dragged him into the cell. Despite their kindness, the interrogator and his guards had been terrible people during this whole process. She knew that these people would be okay and back to their own terrible selves when this ordeal was over but she still wished things had been different.

"You got it," Chaya grabbed her new buddy and dragged him into the cell as though he were a toy. "I'm sure they'll be fine," she made a face at Amaranai as though able to tell the content of her thoughts.

Watching the away team mandhandle the guards, Lake was indifferent to the plight of said guards. In this moment, in this very moment, he couldn't much care what the away team --or the guards superiors-- would do to them. Silently, Lake just bolted towards the door. Getting out was all that mattered. However, he turned back when he heard Lucero's combadge chirp.

=/\= Lucero to Warraquim... Crew secured. =/\=


Two Floors Up

Allyndra held the guards but the lights coming on from the backup and the windows did not make for a good combination. She hoped that things were going well down below.

A quick glance showed other guards scrambling finally toward the area but as they came she finally got the call that their two missing crew had been retrieved.

She called the Schofield and requested the beam out. As the new wave of guards arrived at the door and shot off the locking mechanism and burst in there was nothing there but their compatriots looking rather dumbfounded.


Lensher's Office

Doctor Lensher was with the one person left behind. He marveled at what ever ability that these aliens managed to do with making rolling blackouts and setting the sirens off. He went to fetch some tea finally and when he came back found himself alone in the office.

"Hello? hello?" he called but there was no answer. He checked the front door which was firmly locked and the adjoining rooms but his visitor seemingly had vanished into thin air. He just shook his head and wondered if he just imagined this or what kind of technology that his visitors possessed that allowed them to seemingly come and go at will through solid objects. He had not doubt at that point sipping one of the cups of tea that his world was going to change greatly.

[OFF]

--

Cmdr Allyndra illm Warraquim
Executive and Chief Medical Officer
USS Schofield

Tanier and Doctor Lensher
Pleione Citizens
[NPC Warraquim]

Lieutenant Amaranai Franklin
Chief Security and Tactical Officer
USS Schofield

Lieutenant Lake ir-Llantrisant
Chief Counselor
USS Schofield

Lieutenant JG Rizil Chaya
Security/Tactical Officer
USS Schofield

Lieutenant JG Manuel Lucero
Asst. Chief Science Officer
USS Schofield

Petty Officer 3rd Class Constantin Vansen
Operations
USS Schofield

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