Boarding Party Evaluation (pt.2)

Posted on 31 Dec 2012 @ 5:47pm by Petty Officer 3rd Class Justin Smoak (KIA) & Crewman Indri Chara & Senior Chief Petty Officer Anthony Davis
Edited on on 07 Jan 2013 @ 9:39am

2,594 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: Episode 02 - Resupply
Location: USS Galileo - Holodeck
Timeline: MD 15 0430 hours

[ON]

Right away Jeremy noticed it wasn't Klingons coming around this time but PO Smoak, leading a group of armed crewman.

Some sense must have kicked in for Smoak because he quickly ushered them back around the corner, blocking the way himself while he scanned the passageway ahead. It appeared clear but there was something off, something that didn't feel right. He started backing up to take cover behind the corner when he noticed movement. He raised the rifle, ready to fire.

"Stand down, officer!" Jeremy hissed, glancing at Chandra, hoping she'd catch on that they were 'friendlies' and not to be shot.

The Tellarite grunted something that might have been acknowledgment and lowered her weapon only fractionally. Nice entrance, she thought to herself with a roll of her eyes. "What are they doing here?" she asked, tilting her head. Clearly she wasn't the only one who'd left, but when she had, they had all been still there.

"Report," Jeremy said to Smoak, putting his rifle into a 'low ready' position.

"Lieutenant," Smoak leaned in to keep his voice low and glanced past him to Chara, "The ship's just about lost, there's not much more we can do. I'm trying to get this lot over to escape pods but," he cast a glance over his shoulder at the various people with him. Many who outranked him but had gladly abdicated authority to him in this situation. "They're afraid the Klingons are going to shoot down the escape pods, killing them in the cold of space."

Jeremy scowled. It was a ridiculous thing to worry about. Not that the Klingons would make shooting the escape pods into a game or target practice - that was a given, but that dying in the cold of space was any worse than dying aboard the ship. Though he reasoned if he questioned any of them about it he would get diatribes about 'duty' and 'honor' and protecting the ship.

When at best, their use of the armaments they carried would be a distraction. It would be through sheer luck if they managed to actually hit and damage a Klingon enough to get them out of the fight. Most of them would just be target practice aboard the ship.

Still, distractions would be good.

"Okay," Jeremy said, "Chandra, you in front, Smoak I want you in the middle, put the most nervous and incompetent between you and Chandra so you don't have to worry about getting shot in the back. I'll bring up the rear. We're headed to Engineering to prevent them from getting the Machina Device. That's our only goal and only priority. Everything else is irrelevant. Understood?"

"Aye," Chara nodded.

"Yes, sir," Smoak said, rolling his eyes.

Jeremy turned to face the group edging around the corner. "You have your chance to get off the ship, now you're pressed into service. The ship is lost, most of its crew dead already. As I said, we have but one goal left - destroy the device at all costs. Most of you will die in the initial assault on Engineering. The rest of you will die -"

He stopped as one Ops crewmember dropped her gun and turned to run the other way. "If anyone else wants to leave, now is the time. You can still take your chances with escape pods. Otherwise, once we go through that hatch, there's no leaving until the job is done."

Jeremy watched the group, missing entirely Smoak shaking his head and mouthing What kind of psychopath is this guy? to Chara.

Chara cut him off mid-mouth, with a shrug. "Either way, we're screwed. At least in engineering we have a chance of unscrewing ourselves. Getting shot down in the hamster-ball they call an escape pod is not how I plan on going out." She braced herself, tucking down the blast of pain through her shoulder and holding her rifle up, getting into position and beginning the lead-in down the halls. She spotted the deuterium relays on the far side of the cargobay and jerked her head up toward it, bringing them to a stop.

She made a 3, 2, 1 with her fingers, raising her rifle toward the primary junction which would start a chain reaction up to the next deck and begin their final assault. "24C," she called out its precise location on the ship's interior map for anyone who needed it. She wasn't as good a shot as the rest of them, so while they fired on the area, she focused on taking out targets keen on interrupting them, firing on the biggest area of center mass to one Klingon who immediately turned from his activities (obviously they'd discovered the maintenance and storage areas in this deck).

She heard the person behind her depress their rifle near her ear, but didn't stop to think about it. Now wasn't the time. She kept the line, moving in quick strokes with easier footwork than phaser work, though it wasn't awful for someone only a crewman, she hit quite a few more than she missed, perhaps because they were so large. She led them to the next relay set, and pointing up at the top where the metal casing joined them together. "23A," she called, to any who needed a precise location.

Jeremy wondered why Chandra had joined Starfleet in the first place, much less Security. He would have to call up the school and obtain her course records to determine if she passed anything. At this point she almost required complete retraining and this time to do it correctly.

"You and you, stick with Crewman Chandra," he said, jabbing a finger at two of the ragtag crewmembers Smoak brought with him. "Smoak, you and a team, head up a phalanx, our goal is Engineering not all this piddly crap along the way." Jeremy fired as he said it, not distinguishing between scientist, warrior or anything else. If they were Klingon, they were enemy. He kept walking as a woman dropped next to him, a hole blown through her chest. Her dead, glazed eyes stared at the ceiling as he maneuvered around her for better coverage.

Unfortunately one of the two he assigned to Chandra thought that screaming and running forward was the best course of action. He fell to the deckplate gasping, his throat and half his face torn out by a disruptor blast. Between Jeremy and Smoak, the prime combatants were taken down, leaving their non-combatants fearing for their lives but still returning fire.

Jeremy cut them down without a second thought.

This continued for some time while their team systemically took out all of the necessary relays to start a chain reaction heading up the next deck. "Jefferies tube!" Chara yelled behind her, pointing to a small hatch on the opposite side. By now they were completely engaged in a knock-out firefight with the back-up Klingon team currently engaging them. They hadn't put their best people on this, only their smartest, but these were obviously scientists, not true warriors, still, formidable in their own right. She ducked and rolled out of the way of a burst of red energy. She wasn't exactly a True Warrior, either, okay? She groused to herself in her head. Another burst of energy caught her in the shoulder, the damaged one, and she yelped once more, gritting her teeth hard enough to feel them grinding in her jaw. Shake it off! she yelled in her head, forcing herself to her feet and running raggedly after the rest of them, ending up on the back behind Jeremy and slamming the hatch down shut. "Up," she called. "Engineering, hatch 67C," she informed them tightly against the pain in her shoulder.

"Cut the chatter!" he hissed. He stopped to avoid running into people who had put the brakes on right in front of him. Davis sat against the wall, holding up a phaser rifle.

"No, good," Davis said. His uniform was singed and he bled from several gashes. "Engineering is a viper's nest. They managed somehow to fill the entire place with plasma vent. Firing in there will kill us all!"

Jeremy knelt next to him, appraising his condition without touching him. "The Device?"

Davis stared up at him.

"Do they have it or were you able to destroy it first?"

"Taking that damned thing out would take out half of Engineering! Including the warp core containment!"

"I presume that's a 'no' you didn't destroy the device?" Jeremy sighed. He looked back at the others and frowned. "We still have our mission."

"Are you nuts?" Davis asked. "You can't open up a firefight in there! One blast will take out the entire back half of the ship. Anybody aboard not already dead won't have much longer to live!"

Jeremy shook his head, "You're presuming we do now. We do not. But I'm not going to die without at least attempting to take out that Device." He looked at Smoak and Chandra. "You two, get Davis and get the rest of these people to escape pods, take your chances there. I'll try to give you as long as I can."

Chara nodded. "Come on," she muttered to Davis and Smoak while Stone got out of the way for them to head upward. As she was the first and only one to make an active move forward, she got the jump on them and ended up in front again. "It's our best option." She gave a wordless look to Stone as if to say nice knowing you (which is probably weird, because everybody else is looking at him like he's nuts), before heading up the ladder to the nearest exit hatch before Deck Seven.

They came up and over and Chara led them through another corner, and pushed out the hatch with her foot, grunting at the pain in her arm as she tumbled out awkwardly. She pulled herself up quickly and was on her feet firing at a Klingon silhouette in the distance. Ranged weapon, she thought usefully to herself. She pointed up ahead, and stayed behind, helping the rest of the team out of the hatch as quickly as possible, taking up the rear this time.

The simulation ended around them, leaving just the four in the empty room. Jeremy walked over to the group, his PADD in his hand, scowling. "Davis, Chandra, get to medical to get looked at. I'll review your performances and discuss your evaluations later."

"Chara," Chara corrected. "My name is Chara. Please use it properly." It was the third or fourth time that she'd had to issue that correction. It wasn't said disrespectfully, but with a firmness that she usually didn't show with senior officers. A quirk, perhaps.

"Wait, what happens from here?" Smoak asked.

"You got back to your duty shift while these two go to Medical. That seems quite obvious to me," Jeremy said, the scowl lessening as he downloaded the data from the holodeck onto his PADD. "However, it appears to me that some intensive re-training may be required for the department. I'll need to review the same tests with Rhodes, Rice and Kiwoski before a final determination can be made, however."

"No, I mean, this wasn't really a fair test! It was doomed from the start! There was no way we could win this!"

"Mister Smoak," Jeremy said, placing his PADD in his pocket and folding his hands behind his back. "Do you truly believe that you will be able to win every encounter you come across?"

"When being evaluated, there should at least be the possibility!"

"Let it go, kid," Davis said, placing a hand on Smoak's shoulder. "This is a battle you can't win."

"But it wasn't fair! Crewman Chara is new! She barely even knows the ship and this is the 'evaluation' he puts us through? Chara, back me up here, you think this was fair to you?"

Jeremy watched the events unfold, mildly interested in what would be said. Apparently Smoak proscribed to a theory of 'life must be fair'. A notion which he should have been disabused of as a toddler, much less an adult security officer.

Chara put her hand on her hip and stared all the way up at Smoak. "Of course the test is unwinnable. That's the point." She gave him her best duh-face, shrugged and brushed an errant strand of hair behind her ear. Her bun was out of its clasp and several wisps of wild curly hair framed her face, looking a little frayed. "Could have done without the dislocated shoulder, though," she griped mildly.

"Holodeck simulations aren't always taken seriously," Jeremy said, "unless safety protocols are reduced. I'm not allowed to eliminate them entirely," he said the last as if it were a crime against the universe.

"Don't you understand, Chara! This is for our evaluations! That affects promotions, transfers, shift assignments! This guy is screwing with us!"

"Mister Smoak, I have allowed you some leeway at this time. You are beginning to abuse the privilege. If you believe the evaluation of your skills as they relate to the safety and security of this ship is unfairly assessed, you may avail yourself of the grievance procedure after you receive your evaluation. At this time, however, I suggest you return to your normal duties."

"But-"

Davis grabbed Smoak's arm, shaking his head and heading out of the Holodeck. "I'm telling you, kid, you ain't gonna win that argument." Davis told him as he dragged him along. Stone watched them depart.

"You, however, are going to have to be retrained from the ground up," Stone said as he turned to Chara. "Either the Academy isn't teaching basic security methods correctly or you failed to learn them. To submit an evaluation on you, at this time, would have you removed from security and placed elsewhere. Is that something you desire?"

Chara slid her eyes from Smoak all the way up to Stone, stepping back a bit so she would not look funny craning her head, but not giving an air of fright, rather fighting hard to keep her face blank. Which was a little easy for her, considering how much trouble people had reading her expressions. "No, sir," she said, keeping her voice even.

"Okay," Jeremy said, letting out the deep sigh. "I'll do another evaluation in a month. If there is improvement then I won't seek to have you transferred out. In the meantime, we'll have to come up with a more intensive training schedule."

Whatever her inner thought process on that was, she didn't show it. The truth was, she honestly wasn't sure if he was right or not. And that was enough to tell her that she obviously had something to learn. She wouldn't tolerate being second rate. "Aye, sir."

"Starting with learning to understand orders. You were ordered to Medical to have your shoulder looked at. Why are you still standing here?" he asked as he began walking out of the holodeck.

Chara gave him a single nod, walking out behind him and heading for the lift down to the medical deck.

[OFF]

LTjg Jeremy Stone
Chief Security/Tactical Officer
USS Galileo

Senior Petty Officer Anthony Davis
Security/Tactical
USS Galileo

PO3 Justin Smoak
Security/Tactical
USS Galileo

Crewman Indri Chara
Security/Tactical Officer
USS Galileo

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