Madness in Talons

Posted on 14 May 2016 @ 5:57am by Lieutenant Commander Camila Di Pasquale & Lieutenant JG Catherine Cooper

1,826 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Outbreak
Location: Talons (ship's bar)
Timeline: MD8

Selah kept her eye on the two men sitting in the middle of the room. They appeared agitated- glancing around nervously, muttering to one another- and like they hadn't slept in days. She knew the disease going around made people delusional, possibly violent, but she seriously hoped nobody was about to freak out in here.

But, they were getting louder.

"... thinks he can... to the Consortium!" one of their voices floated across the busy room to her. She couldn't hear his companion's reply, but it seemed to enrage the first man, who threw his drink across the room with a roar.

She ran to the com panel on the wall and pressed the button. "Security to Talons," she said.

Luckily, the other officers around them were attempting to subdue the men, who were now shouting almost incomprehensibly at one another. All she heard were random words here and there. "Consortium." "Kill." "Goal." "Differently." None of it really made any sense.

"On the way," Camila responded and tapped her combadge. "Di Pasquale to Security. Report to Talons on the double. She headed to the nearest turbolift, the belt around her waist feeling heavy but she was getting used to all the extra weight. Once there, she requested deck six and waited impatiently until it stopped at the destination and she quickly exited and ran down the hall into the ship's official off duty spot.

When she saw the men who were shouting at each other, she moved forward through the crowd. "Security! Move aside. What's going on here?"

"No!" shouted one of the men. "She's one of them! She's going to have us killed!"

The other man panicked and attempted to flee in the other direction, but there were so many people he could not got through. Elbows and knees made contact with random bodies and, understandably, the crowd objected loudly and irritably.

Cooper and a security petty officer jogged into Talon's sizing up the situation. Cooper gestured to her partner and he slid closer to the Chief to watch her back and act as a perimeter guard. Cooper slid in between people, using elbows as needed to get through until she was near the the man. She pulled a hypo spray and tagged him wherein then dropped like a rock, she tapped his commbadge and activated a site to site to sickbay then looked around at the crowd, gauging it as she caught her Chief's eye.

Nearby, a woman screamed. A second woman near her shouted, "they're going to kill us all!" This triggered a domino effect as those on the verge of the delusional phase of the disease started to tip over the edge and pretty soon, half the bar was in a panic and the other half was trying to calm them down or subdue them.

"Calm down!" Camila bellowed as she pulled out her hypospray and began to inject person after person with a sedative and waded through the bodies. A man swung on her and she was forced to drop the hypo while she grabbed his arm, twisted her hips and threw the man onto a table. "No grabbing the Security Chief," she mumbled before she looked for the hypospray again. Sadly, it had been kicked away in the scramble and she had to make do with her other forms of offense and defense.

Cooper had known that hypo'ing the man may set off the crowd but at this point it didn't take much. She saw the security petty officer pull out his hypo spray and make his way to the security Chief. She caught his eye and gestured to the door, nodding he shifted tack and pulled out his phaser too as he caught who he could by the door. Cooper had thought to just wide stun the room but decided against it, one couldn't always stun their problems. Besides that could always be a back up plan. Cooper then began to dance, it was with a fluid grace that wove her around the crowd they dropped as she hypod them, sometimes before they knew she was there. She began to sing the first random song in her head, if she could confuse them she could maybe slow them down. At this point she would take what she could get, there would be a method to her madness.


"I know you, I walked with you once upon a dream
I know you, that look in your eyes is so familiar a gleam
And I know it's true that visions are seldom all they seem
But if I know you, I know what you'll do
You'll love me at once, the way you did once upon a dream

Ah-ah, ah-ah, ah-aah mmh
Ah-ah, ah-ah, ah-aah mmh, mmh-mmh, mmh-mmh"

She saw the Chiefs hypo and bent to pick it up without missing a beat as a body flew over her head. Now dual wielding hypos she grinned and continued her way to the Chief still moving dodging people and hypo'ing as she went.

"But if I know you, I know what you'll do
You'll love me at once
The way you did once upon a dream

I know you, I walked with you once upon a dream
I know you, that gleam in your eyes is so familiar a gleam
And I know it's true that visions are seldom all they seem
But if I know you, I know what you'll do

You'll love me at once, the way you did once upon a dream...."

The funny part is it worked, a few of the half crazed crew just stopped, confused over the singing, somewhat dancing security deputy.

Cooper hypo'd the guy just about to jump Camilia, "Hey Chief..." and hands her back her Hypo.

"Thanks!" Camila said as she took the hypo after she finished taking down a crewman who seemed to think her light weight would be no match for his bulk. It was readily apparent that the man had no concept of Jiu Jitsu as was demonstrated by the table which she sent him crashing through. As another came at her, she ducked and spun to the left and pressed the hypospray to his leg. "We should just gas the entire place with anesthazine," she said.

Cooper grinned, "I was just thinking that..." gestures to the other officer and pulls the mask from her belt and puts it on the other officer does the same. Funny part she'd had been, great minds think alike.

Camila grabbed her mask and avoided another blow from one of the crazed personnel. "That was rude!"

After Camilia puts hers on, Cooper pulls hers off long enough to order the knock out gas to this room only before putting it back on.

Hearing the order just barely above the chaos, Selah high tailed it to her office in the back, which she hoped would be protected from the gas. She didn't need to spend several hours knocked out. On her way, she motioned to the cook, who followed quickly.

Anesthazine gas flooded Talons as soon as the order was given and people started to drop like flies wherever they were the moment they breathed it in.

Cooper saw the bartender and cook go to another room, good idea. Cat then went around helping people fall gently but only managed a few before they all hit the deck. She then went around, after putting her hypo away, with her tricorder checking for injuries. She ordered a cut to the gas as soon as everyone was out and as she worked on injuries, called to the Bartender as soon as her tricorder indicated it was safe. She put her mask back on her belt.

Selah peeked out the door and carefully stepped out. "Whoa," she said. "That stuff works really fast!"

Camila drew her phaser and moved towards the door while tapping her combadge. =^=We need more personnel to Talons. It's going to be a full brig night.=^= She tapped it again =^=Medical personnel to Talons. We have multiple injuries.=^=

=/\=Understood,=/\= came the voice of Doctor Road over the comm. =/\=We're on our way.=/\=

"They're not asleep," said Selah, looking around. "I mean, they're subdued, but they're still awake."

"How do you know that?" Camila asked.

"I'm empathic," she replied. "I can still feel emotions coming from them. When people are actually asleep, they don't really feel anything. You know?"

Cooper nodded, "I was hoping a few of them might sleep but with the crowd riled like it was odds weren't good....Catherine Cooper by the way..." She offered her hand somewhat distracted by trying to heal a cut on one of the crewmen with her other hand, focused mostly on helping make them as comfortable and healed as possible as they waited for medical. An empath could sense a deep pain Cooper felt over the suffering that she hid well.

A dozen Security personnel came in and Camila gave them orders to wait until everyone was verified by Selah as to whether they were asleep or merely subdued. She looked at Selah. "Do you know who started the brawl?"

"It was these two, here," Selah replied, going to the two men who had been at the core of the fighting. "I have no idea what they were on about, but they were pretty agitated."

Camila nodded to the Security personnel and two stepped up to each man and hefted them up to remove them to the Brig after making sure they didn't have any serious injuries. "If this is what we have to look forward to, soon none of us will be safe."

"We may want to double patrols, it's going to be rough with personnel being what they are but I don't see a way around it for now..." Cooper said with a nod of thanks at Selah as Cooper helped the others with the bodies.

"Is there anything else you require?" Camila asked Selah after she nodded to Cooper.

"No, I think we'll be okay, now," said Selah as the medical teams came in and started scanning people. "Wait... this one's actually asleep. She must not have been infected."

Cooper looked relieved, "Well lucky that I'll make sure someone gets her to her quarters when the doctor clears her."

"She's not the only one," said Selah, opening her mind to the rest of the room. "A lot of them are asleep."

"You show me which ones," said Dr. Road, crossing to the woman first indicated and taking a blood sample. "And I'll check them for the virus. Once they're cleared, we'll separate them from the infected and... well, I'm not sure where to put them to be honest. We'll figure that out later."

"All right," said Selah, and she began pointing out the ones who were actually sleeping, the Doctor following behind and sorting those infected from those who were clear of the virus.

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