Takeover

Posted on 01 Apr 2015 @ 4:21am by Captain Harvey Geisler & Emily Carter & Commander Jayla Kij & Lieutenant Hictus Dicon & Lieutenant Avery Stuart Ph.D. & Lieutenant JG Ken Rogers & Lieutenant JG Perei
Edited on on 01 Apr 2015 @ 6:26am

2,848 words; about a 14 minute read

Mission: Boarded
Location: USS Black Hawk || Various Locations
Timeline: MD 4 - 0900 hours

:: Flight Deck ::

"We've secured this access hatch," Emily said, bringing the Paradan leader over to a nearby junction. Looking back for his approval, she took note of the fifty henchmen who were ready for some action.

Before the Paradan had a chance to respond, however, a squack came over the communicator.

"Tertiary Support has an occupant."

"And?" the Paradan replied sharply.

"He's locked himself inside," came the reply. "Should we kill him?"

"You should do that if it comes to it, perhaps it would be better to convince him to serve us and the higher cause and if he refuses then kill him." Paradan replied indifferently.

A confirmation came quickly, then the radio went silent. Without a moment of hesitation, Emily entered the Jeffries Tube to lead her leader to Engineering. Once that was secure, they'd start working their way upward.



:: Deck Four ::

Helen Yates tried to open the door to Science Lab One and failed she tried again and failed again. In the distance she heard another dull sound like a thud. She was not sure exactly what it was as she continued to work on the door.

Ken Rogers leaned into the door of the Lab and said in a low voice to Helen, "Ok, let's give it another go."

Yates nodded "On three?"

Rogers nodded in the affirmative. "On three. One..two..three!" The two of them pulled at the middle of the door.

Yates started to push with two hands now versus one.

Rogers and Yates & tugged at the door.

Rogers grunted.."It's..moving...keep tugging.."

Yates paused and tilted her head "Did you hear something out of the ordinary?"

Rogers also paused; "Sounds like movement coming from down the corridor."

Though parts of Deck Four were quiet, the center of the deck was abuzz with activity. Wounded from unexpected explosions were being treated in sickbay while several dozen crewmen began to orient themselves near the ward. Not a single member of the ship's Senior Staff was on hand to assume command and issue orders, though it would not be soon before someone began to take charge.

Outside, in the corridor, amidst all of the activity, no one noticed two small canisters rolling down releasing a small amount of gas. Like other sections that had already been treated, one by one the crewmen fell to the floor, fast asleep.

As the last of the crew collapsed, twelve armed members of the Syndicate began to file down the corridor. Twenty people they could deal with quickly. Even with the element of surprise, it wouldn't take much for seventy to arm themselves and strike back at attackers. Two by two, they began to assume guard in the junctions around sickbay.

Four of them entered sickbay, weapons raised and ready to fire when needed. "Who is in charge here?" the man, a Dosi, in front demanded.

Jayla very nearly attacked the men who burst into sickbay and demanded who was in charge; she tended to not react well to weapons in her face. But, she reminded herself that they weren't likely to take kindly to an attack, so she restrained herself and instead marched to within arm's reach of them. "I am," she said defiantly, almost aggressively. "Who the hell are you and why are you pointing weapons at us?" she demanded, crossing her arms across her chest.

"This vessel is property of the Syndicate," sneered the man with a gruff tone. He nodded to one of the men beside him. "Cuff her."

He stepped away from the woman to survey the room. Whatever commotion had commanded the room had now yielded to his presence. "Don't you worry. She's insurance. As soon as we're moving again, we'll drop you on a nice planet. Starfleet likes to innovate."

He looked back at the doctor. "We'd like to see how you innovate a wasteland."

Of course Jayla wasn't going to go quietly. She started with kicking the second guy in the shins as he stepped forward to cuff her. She didn't get any farther than that, though.

The leader suspected the officer would try something. Shooting her would only rally the others in the room to try something equally rash. Not that it completely mattered. Stranding the crew on the barren wasteland was merely for insurance. The Senior Staff would be kept aboard as hostages while the rest fended for themselves.

They were the cannon fodder, which was why he didn't hesitate to fire off a shot just in front of her nose and strike one of the wounded a nurse was treating.

"You-!" started Jayla angrily, but that was as far as she got. The nurse in question- a man by the name of Thomas Corner- went absolutely insane. He rushed the man, fully intending to rip his throat out. Literally.

The leader fired a shot at the nurse as the other guards rushed into the room, ready to fire their weapons as well. Until the others from the Flight Deck made their way to this deck, these twelve were all that could hold this deck, even if they had to take down everyone in this room.

"Guys, stop!" shouted Jayla at the other nurses and Doctor Jones. "Just stop! Don't do anything rash! Besides, there's still option 21," she bluffed, winking at them.

None of them had a clue what she was talking about, but it had the desired effect. They all backed down and remained calm. "You know what to do," she said, mostly to mess with the bad guy's heads.

Tension reigned for a minute as the Dosi in charge carefully scanned the room, wanting to know for sure this attempt at rebellion was indeed over. This Option 21 would be a cause for concern, but he would ignore it for now.

"Take her to the holding area!" he told his partner who was about to restrain the doctor. "The boss will know what to do with her."

"Yes, the holding area," said Jayla turning her head slightly to look at the man out of the corner of her eye, a slow grin spreading slowly across her face, her eyes glinting evilly. "The holding area," she repeated slowly. And then, she started to giggle. Softly, at first, but then a bit maniacally.

The partner quickly bound the Doctor's wrists in restraints. "Let's go," he gruffed, almost pushing her out the door. Another henchman followed, neither of them willing to risk this Option 21 from becoming a serious matter. One led Jayla while the other followed, the muzzle of his weapon just a couple of inches from her back.

Jayla, for her part, continued to giggle. It had been forced at first, but now the stress reaction had kicked in and she actually couldn't stop. No matter. It would put them on edge. Jumpy people made mistakes. All they would need would be one mistake, one opening, and the crew would be able to take the ship back.

So, she let herself giggle.

Rogers turned to look down the corridor, just in time to see shadows on the ceiling around the corner. He whispered to Yates.."Find some cover,,now!"

Yates looked around and ducked around a cooridor corner, she peered back from the way she came to see what the issue was.

From their hiding places, Rogers and Yates spotted Lt. Commander Kij being 'escorted' down the corridor by what looked like two pug uglies. Rogers reached for his phaser, then remembered that he had given it to Stuart. When the trio passed where he was, Rogers lunged into the backs of the two guards, striking the one on the left behind the Cmdr. with his left arm into that fellow's back. With his right he sent an uppercut into the other pug's jaw, being rewarded with a satisfying 'crunch.'

Jayla was still too much in shock to really react. She found herself suddenly on her knees without any real idea of how she'd gotten there. And someone was giggling manically.

Oh, it was her.

Abruptly, she stopped. Everything was quiet for two beats. "Great," she muttered. "I'm cracking up."

Rogers looked first at Stuart, then at Cmd. Kij. "Ma'am?," He asked,"You feel ok to help us take back this ship?" Rogers stood with his hands at his side, smiling, the gold cap on a tooth sparkling in the ship's ambient light.

Jayla took a deep breath, then let it out. Then another. "Yeah," she said finally. "Can you get these things off me, though?" she added, lifting her hands- which were still cuffed behind her back- slightly.

Rogers' right eyebrow raised as he looked at the cuffs; then he went to work."These cuffs are good; but they have one flaw." Rogers hands turned a few times over the cuffs, slightly wrenching and pulling them, doing his best to not make the Commander feel uncomfortable. He blew out a breath and said out loud."One more twist and ta-da!' He was dangling the cuffs in front of Kij. He smiled at her and said. "Don't ask - I need to keep a *few* secrets with me, just in case these goons try a pair on me." He smiled and winked at her.

Jayla grinned shakily. "I probably don't want to know anyway, do I?" she asked.

Rogers grinned back at her. " Just an old trick I learned from my Uncle, many years ago. "

"Good work," Avery offered simply, her eyes focused on their now incapacitated would be captors. She kept the borrowed phaser pointed at them as she approached to make sure they were truly unconscious and would stay that way.

"Remind me to thank him for the idea, if I ever see him again." Rogers replied to Avery.

"Great job, Rogers." Yates said as she slapped him on the back. "I feel safer already." She turned towards the two that had attacked them. "But maybe we could find something to tie these two up with."

Rogers looked at the handcuffs. "How about these?"

Yates shrugged "I guess so"

She looked to Jayla, "Doctor, do you have a hypo with a sedative on you by chance? I'd like to make sure these guys are out before we take their weapons with us." Avery's mind was racing a mile a minute, images of the wounded she'd encountered intruding into her thoughts. She didn't feel like celebrating or joking about anything. Pointing to sickbay, she asked, "Did they hurt anyone in there?" Stuart was trying to establish just how much damage has been done to sickbay and the vulnerable people inside. They needed to retake the ship, but she wasn't about to leave someone in there bleeding to death that they could stabilize just because they were anxious to mount some resistance.

"I don't," replied Jayla in response to the hypospray question. "They took everything from me."

Rogers looked at the group. "Let's go and take a look, shall we?"



:: Main Engineering ::

Emily fired the last shot and watched as the engineer slumped to the floor. Deck Fifteen had been swarmed by engineers, all of them trying to figure out why the Black Hawk had gone silent. The report still hadn't come through from Tertiary Support, and at this point, she hoped that it was good news.

What concerned her the most was that she didn't see the one person she expected: Lieutenant Dicon.

It mattered very little. The computer lockout she'd implemented could only be reversed by two people: herself and the Captain. Thanks to her prior status, she'd been able to encrypt the computer based upon his command codes. No one on board, unless they were an android or cybernetic, could even hope to override it.

But the damage she and The Syndicate had made would make anyone think this event was caused by an ion storm.

At least until systems started coming back online.

Emily walked over to the pool table and used a handheld power source to give a couple joules to the controls. Once they flickered to life, she entered a series of commands to restore secondary power to Decks Twelve through Sixteen. The lights flickered to life in the room, as did a couple of other stations.

"I'm accessing the thrusters," she announced. The Black Hawk was adrift. A little bit of stability would keep them from running into anything that would be unpleasant.

"Delightful. You shall be rewarded. How soon before we can access the ship completely and rid ourselves from unwanted pests?" The voice of the Paradan was still emotionless as if he were calm. He wanted things to hurry but knew it would be of no use to do so.

"Thirty minutes," Emily replied, working the console. Her computer hacking was easy to override, but the worms she had designed had performed all too well. The warp core's programming was perfectly intact, but the impulse engines were going to need some repair work as was the deflector.



:: Syndicate Vessel ::

Harvey sat with his arms crossed, staring out of his makeshift cell. He'd given up on staring at his captor in fear he'd get annoyed enough to strap that charge onto Harvey and send him into a populated area of the ship. Damage to the ship he would tolerate.

Harm to his crew he wouldn't.

He'd felt vibrations in the deck plates a few minutes ago. Twenty years of service quietly confirmed his suspicions that they were explosions.

His captor's radio occasionally squawked, confirming where the damage had been intentional, as well as reports that sections of the ship had been successfully secured.

The report of the Fifth Deck and the Medical Quarters was highly disturbing, including word that the Senior Doctor had been taken into custody. "Jayla," Harvey muttered quietly, thinking of the cheery doctor. A dozen reasons swirled in his mind as to why. He figured, at this point, it was insurance to keep him in line.

Or a backup plan if he didn't cooperate. Harvey balled up his fists, though concealed by his armpits, in anger. Thankfully, an order came through the radio, summoning the guard to service outside the ship.

Surely, Harvey wouldn't be alone. But while he was unwatched, he had to do something.

He looked around the enclosed space and found a small access panel near the forcefield. It took him a few seconds to pry off the hatch, only to see a mess of wiring and circuits, something a century behind in technology featured aboard the Black Hawk. Harvey was no engineer, but he knew he couldn't just start pulling wires. Who knew what alarms he'd unwittingly set off?

Harvey needed something that could be used to create a feedback loop, something with an independent power source. Of course there was nothing in the cell that could help him. Even the metal in the chair was not enough to use against the forcefield... not without frying himself in the process.

And then he saw his combadge still affixed to his chest. With the ship's communication system down, there was no need to remove it from his person. Yet, it had its own battery, and it would be enough to short out the field. Harvey removed the badge and pried off the arrowhead's cover. He carefully selected a small handful of wires and affixed them to certain parts of the badge. The badge began to feel warm in his hand and emit a fine whine, which gradually grew and grew.

Harvey pressed the exposed areas of the badge against the forcefield. The field began to resist the pressure against it, amplifying more and more every second as Harvey used the chair to keep it against the field and to act as a buffer between him and the power surge.

Suddenly, the field disappeared, leaving Harvey thankful that it did not simply explode. That would have caused more attention than he could afford.

The Captain slipped out of the cell and found his way to the exit. A lone guard stood where they'd cut into the Black Hawk's hull. His back was to Harvey, another lucky draw. Cautiously, Harvey moved down the ramp and chopped the guard in the back. The guard staggered forward and was quick to regain his composure.

He was not quick enough. As the boarders had cut into someone's cabin, Harvey grabbed a paperweight from a nearby desk and struck the guard's skull, rendering him unconscious. The Captain dragged the man into the nearby bedroom and relieved him of his radio and sidearm. He wasn't sure what to do. Should he go up a deck and look into rescuing Doctor Kij? Or should he head for Engineering, hoping to rally a few troops on the way.

His crew was paramount. Strength in numbers, as it were. Harvey cautiously stepped out into the corridor. Seeing no one, he moved towards a Jeffries tube access point. Hopefully, he wouldn't come across anyone on his way up one level.


~To Be Continued~

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