Element of Surprise

Posted on 05 Nov 2019 @ 2:38pm by Commodore Harvey Geisler & Petty Officer 2nd Class Marioneta Gomez & Commander Terry Walsh & Lieutenant Commander Arjin Djinx & Lieutenant Commander Camila Di Pasquale & Lieutenant JG Damian Akorem & Senior Chief Petty Officer Alexander Rylan & Ensign Kelly Khan

2,036 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Truth and Justice
Location: Various
Timeline: MD15 || 1750 hours

===[Deck Six]===

Petty Officer Marioneta Gomez and her security escort did their best to clutch onto the nearby railings when the ship rocked. Power flickered throughout the corridor, which had been on Red Alert for a while, but the consoles embedded in different corridor junctions flickered as well, with some of them going out for more than a few seconds.

"What the hell!?" shouted the crewman beside Gomez. "Was... was that internal?"

"That felt like it," Gomez muttered as the shaking finished. Something wasn't right, and a new sound entered her ears. It was familiar, but quiet. She looked to her left to find six columns of blue light disappear, leaving behind a group of six. Three of them were glad in familiar Guardians pressure suits, and three others wore standard Starfleet uniforms. She recognized them immediately. She didn't have time to pull out her phaser, nor did her escort, as both were hit with two metal discs in their chests. Just before she screamed in pain, the Dolmoqour cried a message to the bridge.

Elsewhere on Deck Six, Alex Rylan, still carrying the unconscious and medically immobilized Shay Mitchell, also felt the explosion. "Dammit. What now?" Only he knew what was probably happening, and if it was, he needed to stash Mitchell and get to Sickbay. He sighed, found another Jefferies tube, opened the hatch, stuffed Mitchell into it, and closed the hatch. He drew his phaser and started to make his way to Sickbay.


===[Bridge]===

One of the rear stations exploded on impact, taking with it the bridge's standard lighting fixtures. The room rocked with the explosion down below, throwing various crewmembers about. "Report!" Charles shouted, managing to hang onto the Captain's Chair.

Damian tapped at the console, pulling up various reports. "Direct hit on deck fourteen, massive hull breaches and damage, fire suppression systems are in various states, some online and some not. It looks like it's not online in deflector control, EPS relays have blown through it, and the deck." More reports were streaming to his console, each updating the last with the growing list of damage. "The minefield device is no longer working, the deflector is offline likely due to it's control room state. The minefield is going to destroy us if we stay." I'd rather die than remain a captive like this the real Damian thought to himself, still seeing everything through his own eyes, but being unable to do anything with his own body.

Charles cursed. This was not the way he wanted any of this to go, but it seemed Geisler really would go all out to ensure that his precious Starfleet would be saved.

Before he could issue an order, however, the Triosian spoke for the Boreriri telepath. "The Captain is back on board the ship. Deck Six. We've lost contact with Gomez."

Charles couldn't help himself this time, uttering a string of curses in unknown alien languages. "Get the Captain's wife and Di Pasquale to Deck Six. Kill the Captain and anyone else who stands in our way. Helm, take us out of orbit, and get out of the minefield. We'll destroy the Guardian fleet, and then revisit how the hell we're going to get out of here."

"I'm on it," Kelly said as she pulled herself back into her seat after being thrown to the floor, then executed a Beta 3, taking the injured ship in a broad arcing turn before she began to follow the first path through the minefield that she had selected from her hosts memories. The Century class ship swung wide and headed for the nearest entrance to the field and she narrowed her eyes and focused on nothing else.

In all the confusion that followed the implosion, Arjin tensed up his muscles and used the side of the ship as means to propell himself closer towards the turbo lift door. Pretending the blast had made him fall over there. The landing almost took out his breath and did hurt as hell, but he got where he needed to be. The problem however were the restraints on his legs preventing him from walking inside the turbo lift.

As he looked up from his new vantage point, he saw a young security ensign that had also been cuffed and put aside to watch standing close. The woman only had her hands cuffed before her. Maybe she would be able to help. He carefully tried to get her attention. It took him 3 attempts before she noticed. Thanks to the turmoil however, nobody else had noticed. He nodded with his head to her, then himself and then towards the turbo lift. He saw in her eyes she understood.

Now all would depend on speed and coordination. As she stepped closer, he used one of the consoles to lever him onto his feet. Losing his footing made him fall down however. Luckily the ensign was already that close that she could catch him. Together they went for the turbo lift.

As the doors opened and closed behind them without being shot at, he let out a sigh in his gag. The ensign immediately took out the sock to be able to converse. Arjin however did not want anyone coming back inside. So he croaked out with a raspy voice: " Deck six. Sickbay."

To the ensign he said thanks. "I heard Kij was immune to them overtaking her. Seems like the best course of action I can think of. Can you get me there? "

As she nodded, they waited for the door to open again. Hoping they would come across others who were not converted and get out of their restraints.


===[Deck Six]===

By now, Gomez and the security crewman had stopped writhing under the electrical shock, and their parasites laid on the floor in a smoking mess of tissue. "You..." Gomez muttered, her true self now back in control, but her voice weakened by her fight and the shock. "You came back... Captain."

Harvey knelt down beside Gomez and extended a hand. "A Captain must go down his ship," he told her simply. "Either we win today, or the Dolmoqour lose."

Marioneta nodded slowly, accepting the Captain's hand and allowing him to help her up. "Understood, sir. But, boy, do I have intel for you. Oh, and the Dolmoqour know you're here. My... well, it got a warning off."

The Captain chuckled. "So much for the element of surprise," he told her, this time turning to Commander Walsh. "Tricorders out. I need to know how many lifesigns are on this deck. And where our first stop should be."

"Do I count as a lifesign, sir?" Alex Rylan said, coming up on them with a grin on his face while they were distracted. "I kinda feel like I should count as a lifesign." The grin faded from Alex's face. "That sounds like Sickbay. I was on my way there with an unconscious and incapacitated Lieutenant Shay Mitchell. Jayla--Commander Kij--and Lieutenant Road... well, and me, too, sir, we thought if we could grab someone we knew had one of those things in their heads, we could come up with a way to scan for them. So Doctor Abrams and I went to find one. We took down Mitchell but... Captain, Abrams is hurt bad. One of his arms was shot clean off. He passed out. I had to get Mitchell back, or thought I did, so I hid Abrams in a Jefferies tube and headed for Sickbay carrying Mitchell. Then I heard the fighting and decided to put getting Mitchell to Sickbay on hold until I could find out what was going on. She's... ah... well... she's in a Jeffries tube, too. Sorry. I was a little pressed for time. Oh, and Jayla pushed the one in her head out all on her own. And that's the all the news from my part of crazy town. So... reporting for orders, Captain."

Harvey turned to see the new arrival, and naturally, the Guardian escorts had their weapons already trained on the new arrival. Before he could say anything, Gomez added, "There's over a hundred Dolmoqour on this ship. They've been distributed everywhere. I can identify maybe twenty. I couldn't tell you what happened to the rest."

The Captain then nodded. He stepped forward, standing directly under a red emergency light that only dramatically added to the burn damage to half his face and illuminated the white patch he wore. "I'm sorry for this, Corpsman," he said, just before quickly raising his pistol and firing a disc onto the Senior Chief's chest.

Alex seized up his teeth ground together as he dropped to one knee. "Ungh..." he said through a clenched jaw as he waited for the charge to wear off. He fell forward and braced himself with one hand. Then the charge ran it's course and Alex could move again. He knelt there panting for a moment, until he caught his breath. "Okay... OUCH! I take it the slimy little hitchhikers don't like electrical charges?"

"Pretty much," Harvey stated, pulling one of the weapons out of a satchel he carried and handed it to Gomez beside him.

"The Dolmoqour have been on the ship for at least four months," Gomez added. "I myself have been a host to one since the nebula where everyone was knocked into different timelines. As far as I know, they have the entire senior staff, as well as Ensigns Khan, Mackie, transporter chief Beckett--"

"Who's in charge?" Harvey asked, cutting her off.

"Lieutenant Carmichael," Gomez answered. "And he's got the bridge."

Harvey closed his one good eye and sighed. "Carmichael. Of course. Hiding in plain sight all this time. What have been the orders of the day?"

"Convert the crew, or kill them," Gomez answered simply, her voice choking up now. "Captain, I--"

"It's not your fault," Harvey insisted, stepping forward and putting his hand on her shoulder. "It's the parasites." He looked to Rylan. "And it ends today. You say you've seen these things, you weren't infected, and you were trying to find more?"

"I saw the one Jayla pushed out of her head," Alex said. "Came out of her ear. I put it in a stasis jar immediately. We were trying to come up with a way to reliably detect the presence of the parasite. We realized it could mimic nerve tissue. So when they got inside the crew, they were undetectable because they would have just appeared to the transporter filters or any other sensor as host nerve tissue. Anyway, they wanted to come up with a way to detect the slugs. To do that, we needed a test subject that we were sure was infected, or at least as sure as we could be. Doctor Abrams and I went hunting. But I guess that's moot at this point. You have a way to detect them in the immediate and it sounds like Sickbay has its own problems right now."

"Captain," said Walsh, "the longer we stand around here for our little reunion, the longer we set ourselves up as a target for the hundred-plus Dommie on this ship. We need to keep moving. They're going to know how to use our equipment, like tricorders, with just a quick memory search. I for one don't want to be standing around having tea and cucumber sandwiches when they show up. We've got new intel thanks to these folks. I recommend we move on it." He'd been a little brusque, sure. But this was a combat situation and he was in combat mode. Besides, this wasn't the first time he'd had to fight his way around a ship. He put the tricorder back in his pocket and raised his LRAD. "Should probably hand out any extra earplugs if we have them."

"Then we head for sickbay," Harvey said, nodding to Walsh. "Lead the way, Marine." Then to Kemm, he gestured to him to pass out a few earplugs. They didn't have many, but there were enough for the group for now.

Terry took lead of the group and led them down the corridor.

Little did they know the surprises that were coming up behind them...

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