Command and Control

Posted on 05 Dec 2019 @ 3:35pm by Lieutenant JG Charles Carmichael & Commander Thiago Teixeira & Commander Terry Walsh & Lieutenant Commander Joey Geisler & Lieutenant Commander Gemma Alexander & Lieutenant Commander Camila Di Pasquale & Lieutenant JG Damian Akorem & Lieutenant JG Daniella Blake & Ensign Kelly Khan & Staff Warrant Officer William Griffin
Edited on on 05 Dec 2019 @ 3:36pm

7,084 words; about a 35 minute read

Mission: Truth and Justice
Location: Bridge | Space
Timeline: MD 15 || 1820 hours

===[Bridge]===

As Kelly started to take them out of the minefield, Carmichael tried to think of what he could do in this situation. "Damien, shift as much power as you can to shields and weapons. Try and get communications back online too. We're going to need them now." He then looked to the Boreriri. "Get Cooper up here for tactical. And alert the squadron to provide protection from the Guardians once we're out of the field."

Being called by the Boreriri Cooper made her way to the bridge, arriving quietly, and took her station.

Kelly executed a Kappa Zero Two Zero and began flying the ship on a carefully-calculated arc through the minefield and saw a group ahead start to cluster on her current trajectory. She muttered a curse changed to Omega two, sending the ship into a dive to port and a long S-turn as it she did.

Damian looked to Carmichael. He spoke, or rather his voice spoke, Damian was screaming inside. "Shifting the power now." He tapped some buttons. "Shields are at 120% of normal, weapons at 110%, I can't give you more than that for now. Communications will be a little harder. Some of the systems are physically damaged, so it's taking time to reroute."


===[Flight Deck]===

On the flight deck, Griffin's eyes were watching the situation develop on the main display. The Dolmoqour had discovered that it generally hadn't been the maintenance chief's role to command fighters, but it needed to be done and it saw no reason why it shouldn't be the one to do it. Griffin's fingers keyed the comm button, "All fighters, this is home plate. Assume an escort formation and clear the debris for the Black Hawk." His bass voice grumbled.

Aurilia's body ran for her downed fighter and climbed into the cockpit, but she twisted around to glare at Griffin. "You. You made this fighter disabled. Fix it!"

The big engineer switched his focus for a moment from the tactical display, his left hand entering a series of commands that once again accessed the prefix code of the fighter and released the lock-down he'd put on it. "The fighter is re-enabled." He replied coolly, not even taking the time to look at the pilot.

Aurilia powered up her Gryphon and was seriously tempted to fire on Griffin, but didn't want to waste her energy on a worthless slug like him. Yet. She turned the fighter gracefully and exited the flight deck before circling the ship and heading out to find her wingman.


===[Outside The Ship]===

When Alexander finally got her craft under control, she immediately checked the others. They too had regained control and were now in a position of relative stop to the ship. Her eyes flicked to the HUD as it reset itself then those same eyes widened. She lacked the vocabulary to describe her level of concern over the sight of the ship with a large hole, the debris, and the mine field. A little further out were 26 Guardian ships moving in. However Archer had two words of a foul nature that seemed to cover the situation. It managed to sound awed, concerned and impressed the Captain's move and how screwed they were in one go, "Holy S..." Archer started to think before the Dolmoqour told her to shut up and refocused as the ship began to move without its deflector. "Clear a their path, our lives depend on it." So shields up, weapons hot they pulled into formation and began to do just that.

Galahad, who had been about to start winging enemy pilots in the hopes of sewing confusion immediately changed gears, after all his purposeful near miss of Alexander's craft had helped before. The ship, though, was moving without its deflector shield a pebble could do damage at this point. Concerned for the surviving crew he focused on saving who he could by clearing the way, biding his time.


===[Bridge]===

As the Black Hawk neared the edge of the minefield, the Guardian fleet began to move to intercept the large vessel. Each of the twenty six ships quickly established target locks on the Black Hawk. Their orders were to disable the vessel, and destroy it only at Varke's command.

Cooper calmly stood, weapons at the ready. Monitoring the shields and the situation. Internally the ride along was feeling a great deal of deep emotions, panic being one of them. Long practice held her externally calm as she waited for orders, carefully monitoring the many weapons locks on them.

"How..." Charles asked, now on the edge of his seat. "How many are out there?"

"There are twenty-six, with more incoming on the edge of sensor range. I can't give you more details until they are closer." Damian replied.

If he could, the real Charles would have winced. The Dolmoqour, however, did it for him. Even though the Guardian vessels were no bigger than Starfleet's Oberth, they would prove to be a nuisance. "Boreriri, let's get some reinforcements up here to man the extra stations, then let's lock down the bridge. Damian, see what you can do to get this ship ready for warp speed. Kelly, helm is at your discretion. Cooper..." Charles leaned back and smiled. "Fire at will."

"Aye." Was Cooper fatalistic reply as she choose the most efficient of the possible firing solutions. Enough to do damage but spread it over several targets. Her hands moved smoothly pausing only to pull more detail from her hosts labyrinthine brain. Phasers and torpedoes flew toward their targets, Cooper resetting to continuously fire, trying to keep the enemy from solidifying an offense around them.

Charles watched the battle unfold. So far, the Guardians were doing their best to keep the Black Hawk at bay, especially by continuing to push themselves into her flight path to keep the Starfleet vessel from jumping to warp. Their containment strategy was working.

Suddenly, he felt a wave of anxiety ripple over him. It was not his emotion; it came from the Boreriri. He turned to look at the alien natives and asked, "What is it?"

"We've lost contact with several Dolmoqour," the Triosian reported, keeping his eyes fixed on the Boreriri. "The Captain's wife. The Chief of Security. The Doctor. Gomez."

Charles frowned. With barely one hundred and twenty on board the Black Hawk, they could not afford any losses. "Dead?" he asked.

"The Dolmoqour are," the Triosian answered. "But the hosts live. Except Gomez."

This was dangerous now, Charles thought. If the Captain had a way to rid the Dolmoqour from their hosts, then every minute counted. The turbolift doors opened, depositing a few extra bridge officers and security. "They will come for the bridge," he simply stated, looking back to the viewscreen. "Guard the turbolifts. Nothing enters that isn't Dolmoqour."

Kelly heard the report from the Triosian and hissed. The host memories indicated that the Black Hawk had a predecessor that had also been through hell before crash landing on a planet on the other side of the Zone and the current ship was starting to get a history of misadventure. Now Kelqour fixed her gaze on the console in front of her as they exited the minefield and began to play something her host called footloose and fancy free. She danced her fingers over the console, using the thrusters after micro jumps to impulse and changed their heading towards the Zone in the distance just a little more with each maneuver as she plotted a course where they could go to warp.

"Shields are down to 80%. They are targetting our weapons and areas around shield generators. There are also some plasma fires in Desk 16." Damian replied. "Suppression systems appear to be containing them for now."

"Give me more power and I'll be able to do more," the possessed petite brunette shouted from the helm. She made the Century class ship turn, twist and stretch the limits of the Structural Integrity Field as she switched from maneuver to maneuver. The Dolmoqour accessed her memories again, then looked at the woman at Tactical. "Dump fifteen photon torpedoes out the after launchers in a mine configuration," she suggested. "Then target them when the Guardians approach and let them have it!"

Cooper didn't pause she continued to fire, her mind working quickly considering the mine option. The one downside was they were stationary and thus could be dealt with but at this point the more chaos the better in her mind, perhaps she was getting used to the way Cooper's mind worked. Her hands flew across her console, if they got a few of the enemy as well, all to the good. "Tossing Mines. Can't hurt." She said changing the firing solution to toss out an effective screen of torpedoes, programmed for the purpose. It would have been better had Cooper more time but that was not something that they had a lot of. the Interloper pulled freely from Cooper's memories even as Cooper continued to seethe and tried to confuse the Dolmoqour.

Amidst the struggle to escape the Guardians, the red alert klaxon reverberated through the bridge in three quick cascades, followed by the monotonous voice of the ship's computer. "Destruct sequence is activated. No further audio warnings will be given."

"WHAT!?" shouted Charles, leaping out of his chair and turning to face the rear situational display. A readout of the auto destruct timer was already there, counting down from ninety minutes. "No! No, no, no!" he shouted, sounding almost like a scolded child. This was not how it was supposed to end. "Damn you, Harvey Geisler."

Charles looked to the Boreriri. "Tell all Dolmoqour to kill everything that moves, and then get to the flight deck. We'll get the Black Hawk past the blockade, and then we'll let Geisler keep his ship. Whatever's left of it."

Khan's and Cooper's tactic, meanwhile, did prove quite effective, taking out two of the Guardian vessels, and disabling a third. Ahead of the Black Hawk, however, five more ships dropped out of warp and opened fire on the Black Hawk, rocking the bridge. "Report!" Charles called out.

"RCS Thrusters on the port side are out," Kelly reported as she struggled to get away from the attacking ships before her and then saw the ones in front of her. "Oh banjo!" she exclaimed as the Kelly inside of her began to play Deliverance style dueling banjos and broadcast it as loud as she mentally could to the Dolmoqour. "Everyone hang on!" She cried as she initiated a Omega Two and rolled the ship from side to side to give the weapons maximum exposure against the enemy ships.


===[Space]===

Alexander was pissed but kept at it. All the pilots she could muster from the flight deck were now flying in expert formation, pulling from the memories of the highly trained pilots they occupied. There were a few minor errors but battle tended to focus ones mind wonderfully as flew in their small, fast ships and stung whereever possible. "Three team sections, battle plan swarm 34.A." Alexander called ignoring the mental middle finger Archer was giving. They scattered in three ship 'fire teams' and overlaid fire at targets as they dodged incoming fire.

Galahad had managed to disable one of the two fighters he'd been 'assigned' , "ooops" He grinned, then the grin faded as the other turned on him, getting on coms to let Alexander know about the traitor on their midst.

Alexander had her hands full with the rest, she tasked the one to chase down Galahad but was too busy dodging fire to worry overmuch about one pilot. More of the enemy appeared and Alexander tried not to panic as Archer not so quietly gloated.

Space was a bloated cluster of ships around Aurilia and she realized that the Guardian ships were shooting at her and the Black Hawk. Her job was to take out the Guardians and ensure the ship survived. Her hosts survival wasn't in her thoughts as she rolled the Gryphon fighter over and passed by a Guardian ship quickly and fired several torpedoes at what she believed the bridge was and veered off again.

Alexander, now getting used to the host memories, flew more expertly with her small group. Other sections flew in clusters as they aimed and fired, "Go for weapons or engines, we need to keep them off the Hawk." Alexander said. Two others flew to Aurilia and took positions as her wingmen, following her lead.

Galahad twisted his craft just barely avoiding another shot by the Dolmoquor pilot. Fortunately that host was new, barely out of the Academy. That gave Galahad an edge and he used it. He let the other chase him before coming to an emergency stop then dropped his craft as the frantic pilot passed overhead, Galahad fired targeted shots. Disabling the fighter, "Sorry not sorry." He said into coms as the pilot raged in his compartment.

He quickly shifted focus, looking at his HUD, being a lone fighter he was trying to stay out of the thick of it and just focus on the perimeter. Unfortunately his luck took a hit and while dodging Guardian fire got clipped a good one by one of the Dolqmour. "Shields 75%..." he read on the HUD, it had be a solid kiss. He couldn't take many more dates like that he knew as he continued to dodge.

Aurilia banked her Gryphon around hard and did a flyby on another Guardian ship, this time firing her phasers and torpedoes on the weapons systems. She was pleased to see that she had scored a hit, but had to bug out hard as another ship opened fire on her.


===[Sickbay to Secret Passage]===

Once the three senior officers had left Sickbay, Camila had finally accessed the internal layout of the ship on a PADD and was looking for the entrance to the secret passage leading to the Captain's Ready Room. However, unlike the first Black Hawk, she had never been in this versions secret passage, but knew it had to be in the schematics somewhere. She looked over at Teixeira and Walsh and raised an eyebrow. "Either of you know where to start looking for this passage?"

"I wouldn't have any idea about a secret passage into the Ready Room," said Terry. "Commander Teixeira would be the only one outside of the Captain that would know, as far as I'd guess."

Dani couldn't remember how long ago she'd taken off running, or how long she'd been hiding. She was exhausted, and couldn't stay holed up inside the Jeffries tubes forever, but the fact she'd witnessed two fellow crewmembers get phasered for their lack of compliance to being herded to the cargo bays like cattle was enough incentive to do just that. It still surprised her that she'd managed to get away with her life, although, things had gotten close when a phaser beam narrowly missed her head as she disappeared into the first hatch she came across. Perhaps, she could thank her small size for that.

She pushed open the hatch and climbed out onto the deck, her hair and uniform as disheveled as she felt. There had to be someone who could help her, but Dani doubted it. Something was wrong with the crew, and she was on her own. That was, until she heard a voice not too far from her location. Rather than approach, though, she stuck close to the open hatch in case she had to make another escape. "Who's there?"

Camila's phaser was in her hand before the unidentified voice finished saying who's and she motioned for the Executive Officer and CAG to get their disc guns ready. "Chief Di Pasquali. Identify yourself."

Terry raised his disc gun and pointed it in the direction of the voice.

"Lieutenant Junior Grade Daniella Blake," she answered, still sticking close to the hatch. "I've watched two of my fellow crewmen be murdered by other crewmen, and nearly had my head blown off as well." Needless to say, she didn't trust anyone right now.

"Come on out, Blake," Camila called. "It's okay. We're retaking the ship." If it was a Dolmoqour possessed nurse that came out firing, she'd be stunned and disced, and if she wasn't a Dolmoqour possessed nurse, the same would happen. No one escaped one of the two of those now. The time was running down and if they didn't get as many personnel as they could, they'd all die.

Dani didn't trust anyone right now, and she wasn't armed, so there was no chance of her defending herself. "I'm sorry, Lieutenant, but I think I'd like to stay where I am. I feel a bit safer here," she called back. "The others said they were retaking the ship, too."

"Walsh is here, too!" Camila called out, hoping the little blonde would take comfort in that since the two of them were a couple the last she knew. She motioned for Terry to say something and kept her phaser aimed forward.

"I am," he called out. "It'll be okay. We really are trying to retake the ship."

When Dani heard Terry's voice, she took a step in that direction, but stopped herself. He'd never lied to her before, but something was going on with the crew. The petite blonde was completely torn. She found herself wanting to go to them, but what would happen when she got there? Would they kill her? She couldn't risk it. "If it's all the same to you... nope," she said, deciding to abandon the hatch and take off on foot.

"Why is nothing simple?" Camila grunted when she heard running footsteps and the 'nope'. She really couldn't blame the woman, but she blamed herself for surrendering the away team to the Scruna controlled Dolmoqour on the planet that had resulted in several deaths already, an attempt to take the ship still in progress, and the people that she had killed while being controlled. She put her phaser back in the holster and resolved to leave it there, raised the disc gun and ran after the footsteps. She saw the rapidly departing petite nurse and called out. "Blake! It's Di Pasquale! We talked in Talons! You're not safe alone!"

The corridor and the Jeffries tube both shook as the Black Hawk suffered another weapons volley.

"We don't have time for this," Camila said. "Let's go." She entered the Jeffries Tube that Dani had abandoned and started to climb.

"Go up to deck three," Thiago instructed. He was aware of the location of the passageway, though he had never used it. When he was on the run from the infected Scruna, he'd briefly considered utilizing it, but had decided that getting closer to the Bridge was a horrible idea. "Head towards Administration."

Camila began to climb as quickly as she could with the added weight of the unfamiliar disc gun over her shoulder. It was only a few decks and her SAR training had been much more rigorous. She was halfway up to the next deck when a head popped out over the tube. "Hey! We got people in here! Hand me that phaser!"

"Stand down!" yelled Terry as he held on. "It's Lieutenant Commander Walsh! I have the Exec and the Security Chief with me!" He wasn't going to say anything else until he had even a small idea of which side they were on. That hasn't gone so well for them lately.

Camila spat out an Italian curse the translator wouldn't repeat in front of polite company and released her right hand grip from the rail. She grabbed her phaser as she hung on with one hand and her legs braced a couple rungs down. She raised it and fired at setting three and was pleased to see at least one person slump and block the way for the others. "Come on!" she cried and fired a few more shots up the shaft.


===[Bridge]===

Sparks and smoke billowed from the port Mission Operations station, which had exploded under another polaron barrage from several Guardian ships. "Someone get those ships off our port side!" Charles growled.

Kelly veered hard to starboard and brought the Black Hawk on a parallel trajectory that gave her port side weapons open season on the enemy ships that continued to fire on them. "Sure. No problem," she chirped cheerfully.

Damian spoke loudly against the din or alarms and other broken equipment. "Portside shields are down to eighteen percent. There are gaps in the field. I'm rerouting power as fast as I can, but it can't last much longer under this amount of firepower. Can someone please try harder to get rid of them." Another jolt hit the ship, more violently he thought. "Nine percent! The shield generators responsible for the bridge are under too much strain. I can't keep them up for much longer!"

"Can we reroute any other excess power to shields?!" Cooper called as she desperately kept up heavy fire, trying to do damage in enough concentration, to keep the enemy from getting a good lock. "You're all going to die here." Catherine thought brightly as her Dolmoquor tried to focus, hands flying.

Damian's voice was getting angry. "All the excess power is going to the shields? Did I not just say that!" he snapped back to Cooper.

"Take it from life support in the Engineering hull!" Charles suggested from the center seat. "As for the Guardians, send the squadron after their engines. Instead of trying to destroy them, let's stop them from chasing us!"

"Routing life support. They will have an hour or two's worth of remaining life support, once it's all in the shields," he replied to Carmichael.

"Abandon the outer sections of the hull and take power from there," Kelly said while putting the ship through a series of maneuvers that strained its already weakened hull. "Everyone should have been herded to cargo bays and if they die, who cares? They're against us anyway." The real Kelly was horrified at the thought and railed against the thing that held her body and mind prisoner, but it was like shouting to Earth from the Gamma Quadrant.

"Life support we don't need is excess! We just need to keep the offensive weapons and engines online, there are bits of the hull we don't need as long as shields stay up." She said agreeing with Kelly. As long as they had shields they could still be space worthy if they had life support and engines. She didn't have the muscle memory of Catherine and so she had to focus just a little bit more. Trying to track all the threads she needed to follow was exhausting and left little room for extra talk. She didn't know how her host did it all the time. "We still have offensive ability, keeping up full fire rotation." She said uncaring what happened to the rest of the ship. What mattered was staying alive and keeping the Guardians away. Catherine continued to be a prisoner in her own body as her rage went so deep, she actually calmed down and got very cold. The hatred the Dolqmour could feel was deep and eternal, though currently ignorable as she tried to stay alive.

Two Guardian vessels began to fire everything they had at the Black Hawk's forward quarter, trying to overwhelm the shields. A third and fourth ship pitched in, and ultimately, a forward section of the ship exploded, opening a small hole in the hull. The explosion could be seen on the viewscreen, and Charles maintained his frown. "Cooper!" he called out, not looking at the woman. "The previous Black Hawk once used a tri-cobalt device to take out a Romulan Valdore. This ship should have some, correct?"

Inside her mind Catherine cursed, she'd been busy trying to bury those memories with others. Cooper paused only a split second, accessing the needed memories. Then her hands moved, keeping up the fire, "Aye, not many but enough. We'll want some distance though, their yield is something else." she said preparing.

"I have an idea," Kelly said from the helm as she jerked the ship to and fro in an attempt to shake the Guardian ships. All fancy maneuvering had been abandoned and she had one idea left she got from the Ensigns mind. "Something called a Picard Maneuver. High speed slit second warp jump to confuse their sensors. They'll see us in two places at once. Fire the tricobalt and have it detonate after we go to warp."

"Do it," Charles ordered, leaning back in the chair so that he wasn't accidentally bounced out of it.

"Tri-Cobalt torpedo ready, prepared to stop covering fire and fire the special on helm's mark." Cooper reported, keeping up regular fire sans the tube with the Tri-Cobalt, feeling this was their last chance to survive this.

Kelly brought the Black Hawk around in a tight arc and set an apparent collision course with the grouping of ships attacking them. "Now!" she cried out.

Cooper stopped all outgoing fire, her console going quiet for just a moment. Then tapped the required keys as Catherine, deep inside hung her mental head, feelings of anger, sadness and regret flowed in her mind. The sleek Tri-Cobalt Torpedo streaked towards its assigned target with all the surety of a bringer of death.

Kelly engaged high warp for a second before dropping out of it, causing the ship to appear in two places at once to the sensors. "Fire!"

Cooper resumed the normal firing rotation, laying it on heavy.

The tri-cobalt met its target, using the confusion of the moment to detonate. The resulting explosion claimed two Guardian vessels in close proximity, and the shockwave disabling another six ships. Polaron fire lanced out at the Black Hawk's former location just before the image evaporated, leaving the real Black Hawk racing towards three Guardian vessels, which was all that remained in front of them.


===[Ready Room]===

The trip to deck three was uneventful after the personnel that tried to stop them had been dealt with by use of discs and Camila now found herself in the Ready Room. She looked at the others as she checked her equipment and disc gun. "Everyone ready?" she asked as she finished her check.

Terry shook his head as he exited into the Ready Room. A secret entrance...this was something he was sure to keep under his hat. Couldn't let the whole crew know about this. Especially as it was most likely used to get out of the room rather than in. Terry pulled out his disc gun and ran over it real quick, checking how many shots he had left. Between the three of them, they should have plenty as the Bridge was usually staffed less than larger locations. He took up position to the left of the door and outside of it's sensor range. Leveling the weapon at eye level, he responded. "All set, Lieutenant."

"Since you both have the discs, and you've got more experience with them, I'll follow your lead," Teixeira said.

Terry looked to Camila. "When the doors open, I can take a few shots at the ones in that area. Hopefully catch them by surprise. If you've got anything that could help...great. If not, still great. Just means more fist-to-face."

"If it's wearing a uniform and moving, shoot it with the disc gun," Camila said as she went to the door and motioned the others into position as she activated it to open.

Thiago nodded, pulling out his phaser. He'd do what he could, but, at best, he'd only slow down the infected. Hopefully, though, it would be enough to give the others a chance to disc them.

As soon as the door slid open, Terry took aim at the first person he saw and fired. The disk landed on their chest as they had turned to see who was coming out of the Ready Room. All he knew was that the random Ensign fell to the floor. He immediately aimed and fired at the second random person and watched it land on their back. The third person he saw was possibly too far away for the disk to land. Rather than risk it, the old Marine quickly scanned for anyone that might be running towards them.

Camila started firing off to the side of Walsh and saw the young Ensign at the helm yelp and collapse on top of the helm consolo. The ship immediately veered off and she cursed in Italian. "I hope someone can fly this thing," she muttered as she lined up and fired at another target.

Cooper had been distracted keeping up fire so it wasn't until after the first bodies dropped she realized what was happening. Realizing she couldn't just stand there continuing to fire or she'd be shot so she tapped a few keys activated a sort of autopilot for the tactical systems, dropping to a knee behind the console as she pulled her phaser, firing at the newcomers.

"The hell!?" Charles shouted, diving behind the command chair. He drew his own phaser, set for level seven, and started firing at the group that emerged from the ready room. "Di Pasquale, you traitor!"

"Parassita sporco!" Camila shouted back at Carmichael as she ducked behind a console. She dropped the disc gun and looked around as she drew her phaser, then spotted the MSD behind Carmichael and fired her phaser at it, causing it to explode.

"Let's try not to destroy the ship," Thiago called out, taking aim with his own phaser and snapping off a shot at Carmichael.

When the MSD exploded, Charles had to duck to dive to avoid the shower of debris and sparks that it wrought on the leader of the Dolmoqour. Pain would not bother him, but burns and marring and more would. To the Dolmoqour, Carmichael was but a shell. If he could reach one of the others, that shell could be traded for a better model. Perhaps the ship's Executive Officer would make a tempting target.

Charles froze, having been struck by a phaser lance. The parasite could feel the disruption in the host's nervous system. Already, the defeated persona belonging to the real Charles Carmichael had gone quiet, but the Dolmowour retained motor control. The host body staggered, as if the puppeteer had lost a string or two on a marionette. Stranded out from cover, Charles staggered to his feet, raising a phaser with his right hand.

"Kill... them..." he stammered to the Triosian and Boreriri who accompanied them.

Cooper continued to fire at the newcomers while trying to avoid fire herself, too busy to really pull memories from Catherine as the Dolmoquor became more and more panicky. Catherine sat quietly inside her own mind, unwilling to calm the intruder as she hoped it would be over soon.

Something had hit Damian in the chest. Something was happening. The voice in his head started to speak. "Wha..." He felt his whole body tense like it was some kind of electric shock. But something was different? He could feel a tingling in his fingers. Can I feel my fingers again? He willed himself make a fist with his hand, and to his surprise, he could. There was a sense of panic, but it was not his own. Something felt strange in his ear. Like when you put on a pair of wet earmuffs, it was not a pleasant feeling. then something fell from it, as he was slumped over his console.

Slowly he began to feel... everything again. He reached up to his ear, moving somewhat sluggishly as his nervous system was taking control of his own body once more. His hand felt the... thing on the side of his face and flicked it to the floor. It was still moving. Not for long he thought to himself, as he felt his foot move, and placed it on top of the creature, with a dull squelch.

At the Helm, a groggy Kelly came to and brushed something slimy off of her cheek. She felt really buzzed and out of it, then realized her face was against the side of the console and pushed herself upright in time to hear phaser fire and something exploding. Unfortunately, she saw that the ship was on a collision course with a Guardian ship and quickly altered course away from it.

The Executive Officer saw the helmsman perk up and reassume control. Piece by piece, they were retaking the ship.

Terry followed the Security Chief's lead and ran out onto the Bridge. He took a position behind the upright near the Intelligence console and fired his disc gun at the other random officer he couldn't reach earlier. He watched as she fell to the floor, screamed, and writhed. "Ensign Khan! Level Three Stun!" Terry yelled as he tossed his phaser over to Kelly. "Shoot everybody that's shooting us!" If they could get control of the Bridge soon, he had an idea regarding the Squadron.

"Ack!" the petite brunette said when she saw the phaser flying her way. She leapt out of her seat to grab it as another phaser lanced passed her and she quickly ducked down with it in her hand. "Go go Starfleet Gymnastics!" she quipped before she took aim at the Boreriri and fired at the red eyed alien.

The Boreriri staggered back, struggling to maintain motor control after that blast. Unfortunately, thanks to the decades trapped in the Kalisan library, the parasite lost control, and the body slumped to the floor. The Triosian companion roared and fired his phaser at Kelly, barely missing her, but striking the helm instead, causing it to explode. Throughout the bridge, two other security personnel continued to fire at the ship's command crew, along with Carmichael and Cooper.

The blast caught Kelly on her right side and shredded her uniform there and broke several ribs as well as giving her severe burns. She screamed when her hair caught on fire and fell to the deck thrashing in pain.

Camila turned her phaser on the Triosian and growled as she thumbed the setting to four and fired a steady beam at her with vengeance in her eyes when she saw the young Ensign go down.

The Triosian staggered under the blast, which caused severe damage to the host. The Dolmoqour's location kept it free from harm, and used its diminishing control to fire in the security chief's position. Another shot like that, and the parasite would be forced to flee and seek a new host.

The ombre haired woman ducked back behind cover again and looked for options. She didn't want to damage the already damaged bridge more, but it looked like she didn't have much of a choice. She upped the setting to eight and waited for a pause in the return fire, then jumped out from behind the cover she had been behind and fired several rapid shots at the alien. "Stop already! You can't win!" she shouted as she rolled behind another console.

Down to the floor, the Triosian fell in a smoking heap. All that remained now of the Dolmoqour on the bridge were Lieutenants Carmichael, Cooper, and a security officer guarding the port turbolift.

Still standing, Charles kept his phaser extended. His eyes had watched his fellow Dolmoqour, his brethren, taken out one by one. It was clear now that his mission had failed. The Dolmoqour would remain imprisoned on Penduli V. The ones on this ship would be captured or killed to the last. This host... this host knew everything. The probe. The Selubassari. Dolmoqour activity outside the zone. Information that was too vital to fall into Starfleet hands. Carmichael's eyes fell down to the phaser he held, which he thumbed to a higher setting. He then began to turn the phaser on himself.

"Nooo!" Terry bellowed. He ran from his cover near the Intel station and around the back of the Bridge, firing the disc gun at everyone else that was left. He couldn't tell if one of his two double-taps towards Carmichael landed or not. But he did see one of the disks hit Cooper before he physically hit the security officer. The man was slammed against the bulkhead and sandwiched between it and Terry. The brawny Squadron Commander pushed himself off and stepped back three steps. "To hell with you," he said and fired point blank at the man's chest.

No amount of Dolmoquor power or Starfleet training will prevent one from dropping like a stone when slammed with intense amounts of electricity. For a few precious moments she lay there twitching as the Dolmoquor leaked out of one ear.

Though the hairless Squadron Commander couldn't see it, both of the discs landed on Carmichael's arms just as Charles was about to pull the trigger on the phaser. Every muscle in his body seized up and the most terrifying, deafening scream was expelled from his lungs. More electricity surged through his body as the discs did their work, expelling the parasite from his head. The convulsions, however, had a side effect. The thumb fell on the phaser, and the blast grazed the side of his chest as it went wide into the already destroyed MSD. The discs depleted their charge, and Carmichael was left smoking and standing. He fell to his knees first. With his last bit of consciousness, the real Charles surveyed the bridge, locking eyes with the ship's XO. "Commander," he rasped. "I'm... sorry."

Charles fully collapsed to the floor, never to rise again.

Thiago looked down at Carmichael's charred body. "Que o Grande Pássaro o leve para casa," he said quietly. He wasn't a religious man, but he appreciated the idea of The Great Bird of the Galaxy as an overarching concept, bridging various religious traditions from across space. It was in this vein that he offered those muted words, that the Great Bird would carry Carmichael to whatever eternal home he might believe in.

Camila had ran over to Cooper's tactical console and cancelled the weapons fire and checked the status of what she could. "Tactical secured!" she called out before she moved to where Khan had passed out on the floor. She paused when she saw her injuries and knelt down to check for a pulse. "She's alive. Someone broadcast to the Guardians that we've taken the bridge. Commander Walsh, I hope you can fly the big ones, too," she called to the big bald Commander. Computer, emergency transport, two to Sickbay Di Pasquale Alpha Niner Echo Four." With the last, she expected the computer transported her and Khan off the bridge but nothing happened. She cursed when she realized that the ship's computer still wasn't acknowledging them and cursed again.

She rearranged the petite but solid brunette as best she could, then started dragging her to the turbolift. When the doors closed, she sighed and hoped there was enough time before the ship exploded on self destruct.

Terry stood at the back of the Bridge and looked at the sparking helm with only a little panel left and shook his head. He ran over to the Squadron Operations console. "Computer, transfer helm control to Squadron Operations console." Nothing happened. "Well crap." Terry manually transferred the helm to the console he was at while leaving a small area open for squadron commands. "Guess I'll have to do this one the old fashioned way, too." He set the piloting to automatic for a few seconds while he started the automatic recall of the fighters and input his authorization code. Seconds later, information scrolled across his screen. Emergency recall of Gryphon class fighters initiated. All non-essential systems powering down. Fighters en route to home station via impulse engines and will be automatically tractored into the bay.

"Perfect. Now to get this poor ole girl back under Starfleet control." Terry went back to flying the Black Hawk and posturing her in a less offensive and threatening position.

"Good work, Commander," Teixeira said to Walsh as he assumed the Ops console. "Anything we can do to look like we're not still under control of the Dolmoquor."

Cooper came to her feet slowly, a little groggy and unable to fight the waves of regret that swamped her. She stood quietly next to and behind Camilia as she got used to controlling herself again.


===[Space]===

In her Gryphon, Aurilia screamed when she realized her fighter was no longer responding to her and everything was shutting down. She screamed again and beat the controls but there was no use and waited to do her worst when it was tractored back towards the ship.

Alexander cursed as her systems went dead, nav dead, weapons dead, she tried the emergency transporter that was dead too. The Dolmoquor raged further annoyed by the sense of smugness that seemed to radiate from Archer.

Galahad had thought he was done, two of had locked on to him and he was going to bite it big when everything shut down and they were being pulled back to base. It seemed like that was not something they'd want to happen so he was cautious optimistic.



===[Guardian Command Ship]===

Nearly forty Guardian vessels had responded to Commander Varke's call for aid. Of that number, eighteen had been disabled or destroyed by the Dolmoqour in charge of the Black Hawk and its fighters. Varke's ship had fallen back and watched the conflict from a distance, doing its best to remain near the Guardian fleet. The Federation vessel was far mightier than he thought, and Varke was absolutely confident that if he needed to, he could obliterate her entirely.

When the mighty starship began to veer out of control, and her weapons silenced soon after, he'd ordered his ships to temporarily cease firing. Her flight pattern changed, as if someone else's hands were at the controls, and now its fighters had . been silenced as well, forced to return to base.

It seemed Captain Geisler was a man of his word indeed. He could have his ship, marred and scarred, if he could prove once and for all that it was free of the Dolmoqour. "Ready my shuttle," he informed a subordinate. He would have to see this proof for himself.

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