Taming the Legend

Posted on 27 Jul 2016 @ 5:00pm by Commodore Harvey Geisler & Lieutenant JG Catherine Cooper

1,987 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Risky Business
Location: USS Cochrane
Timeline: MD 6 || 1120 hours

Cooper beamed in kneeling and holding a phaser on wide beam, a exographic targeting sensor on her head. She wore her utility belt with the mini med kit, the door opener, the multi-tool, the slug thrower, the type 2 phaser, the collapsible baton, breathing mask, tricorder, 2 flashbangs. And was loaded for bear with a Palm phaser in her pocket and one back up palm phaser in an ankle holster other leg has a dagger with a small pocket knife and another palm phaser under her shirt. She also carried a small flashlight and a pair of night vision goggles, to be fair even Corwin said she wouldn’t need them but being helpless in the dark was not Cooper’s favorite thing so she kept them in the handy leg holster/pouch Lt. Corwin was kind enough to replicate for her when Cooper drooled over hers during a planning session.

The device she wore on her back with a strap, trip wire in a pocket. Though most of hers and Corwin’s gear was the same, they were both highly trained security officers after all, some of her gear Corwin had suggested and she was grateful for them like: An emergency transport armband she now wore on her left arm. A rope and grappling hook, a transport chip, additional power cells, extra commbadges and Cooper’s personal favorite, Grenades. She carried a few of each, stun grenades, Anesthizine grenades, EMP grenades, and photon grenades.

At first Cooper was leery about carrying so much, she’d wanted to travel light but Corwin demonstrated the full functionally of the leg holster/pouch and Catherine had been sold. It was so armed that she appeared, she noted she was alone and not where she meant to be. The immediate area was empty, only now did she draw breath…and immediately regretted it. The stench from the nearby tubes in the small room was like if someone grabbed you by the nose and beat you into the ground.

It wasn’t as clean as one would imagine a Starfleet Ship either, it had been neglected as of late so no one cleaned up the minor leaks from the piping. Cooper looked up at the large pipe that was on the ceiling and went through the room to a large box like device at the other end. Thankful she didn’t appear inside it, so very thankful. The smell reminded her of the gas mask and she put it on, immediately able to breathe easier. She’d leave it on just in case.

She shifted to step away from the small puddle of something liquid and brown, then used the exographic targeting sensor to look through the walls. It took a precious few seconds but it was needed if she didn’t want to walk into a herd of security officers on her way to the nearest comm unit.

The turbolift opened just as the deck plating shook. Lieutenant Gershwin, a stocky female, did not brace herself in the open doorway like her two companions. No, that fire that they started taking from the Black Hawk was not yet concerning.

What mattered to this Assistant Chief of Security was that, just as predicted, the Black Hawk had borrowed a page from the Cochrane's playbook. Sensors had detected the appearance of a singular individual, whereas the Cochrane had sent over six personnel. This did not make sense to her. If this were a matter of crew, the Black Hawk outnumbered the Cochrane more than three to one. Why make the odds more tragic?

Still, as the shuddering stopped, she exited the turbolift with her compression phaser rifle in hand and ready to use. One intruder would be easy to take down. Gerswhin smiled. She would enjoy this.

Cooper cursed, she saw the three security officers moving efficiently and swiftly down the hall. The stocky woman in the lead carrying a compression phaser rifle. "Damn they mean business..." She muttered pulling out one of the very few Anesthizine grenades and prepped it. They were between her and the escape pods but even if not they were moving too fast to avoid. They also weren't wearing gas masks, this was good. She mentally calculated their speed, distance and the number of seconds before the grenade would go off to time it so it would activate as soon as it reached them. Her mind working swiftly through the needed math then, still using the exographic targeting sensor so she wouldn't have to shove her head out, she tossed the grenade and prepared to follow up with a wide beam stun.

"Grenade!" Gerswhin immediately announced, forcing her officers to retreat behind nearby corridor braces. One of her officers could not escape the blast radius in time and was immediately caught in the gas. Quickly, the lieutenant took in a deep breath of untainted air. She figured she had a minute, minute and a half before she'd have to breathe the Anesthizine, which was still gave her plenty of time to do what she needed to do.

Gerswhin quickly changed the setting on her rifle to provide a continuous beam at Level Nine. She then raised the rifle and fired at the edge of the nearby hatch, welding it shut and trapping the intruder inside. Satisfied, Gerswhin and her fellow officer retreated to a nearby area that would be unaffected by the Anesthizine and regroup.

Cooper tried the door, "Clever girl..." she muttered a line from a favorite old time movie and glanced around swiftly, hoping what her mental map said would be there actually was. "Where is it?" She muttered then saw it, a half covered entrance to the jeffy tubes, It was partly covered by a tube and looked to be sealed so Cooper modified her beam and had to use precious seconds to run beam around the entrance, all the while glancing over her shoulder gauging responses as far as she could see with the targeting sensor. Precious time ticked by as she worked neither too fast nor too slow, a professional at work.

The Anesthizine had nearly dissipated, allowing Gerswhin and additional security to return to their initial positions. She'd already briefed them on a plan to blow the doors and sweep the room with phaser fire. Knowing that the excrement from more than thirty species aboard was mixed and processed in this room, she'd ordered her team to don facemasks to keep the smell from interfering with their jobs. As soon as they were in position, she gave the order to a nearby ensign to blow the hatch.

Cooper glanced behind her noted how close they were and finally the hatch popped. She wasted no more time mucking about but dove into the jefferies tube, pulling the hatch behind her. She did use a few seconds to spot weld it into place. It wouldn't hold as well as a full weld but it would buy time. Then she hustled down the tube like a rabbit on fire, or at least a pretty good approximation. As she crawled to a junction point a part of her many faceted mind pointed out that she should have just followed up the grenade toss with a charge, "That's stupid shut it..." was her mental reply even as she focused on her mission. Deck 14 was still escape pod access but deck 12 had that and environmental control plus a few more places. She was heading up climbing as fast as she could wishing she had time to leave a gift for the security behind her.

True to form, Cochrane's security began flooding Waste Extraction with weapons fire. After a few seconds, the firing stopped, permitting four security officers to storm the room, searching for the intruder. "Here!" one of them shouted, spotting scorch marks around a Jeffries Tube hatch. "They're in the Tubes!"

Gerswhin, understandably pissed, tapped her combadge to security control. "Seal off Tube One Three Gamma." As soon as she was done talking, the ground shuddered a bit as the ship took more fire from the Black Hawk.

Cooper grabbed one of the extra combadges in a flash of inspiration, activated it and dropped it down the well to deck 14 and she continued to climb swiftly. The hatch for One Three Gamma closed so close on Cooper she'd swear it took off the bottom of her shoe. She continued to move, she made her way to the exit on deck 12 checking quickly with the tricorder to determine life signs within range of it, to make sure the coast was clear. Her mind working on multiple levels, one part kept a map of the ship in her head, keeping track of mission goals, tracking sensory input and on it went.

Behind her, at every junction, a hissing sound sharply filled the air, along with the rapid erection of multiple force fields. It would only be a few seconds before the intruder was trapped in the Jeffries Tube.

Cooper heard the familiar sound and nearly threw herself at the hatch to deck 12 managing, just barely to fall out of it fortunately there'd been no one on the other side. And also fortunately there'd been no one to see her sprawled out on the deck. She quickly gain her feet and with phaser on wide beam and using the targeting sensor to 'see' around corners she moved swiftly but carefully toward environmental control.

A woman in blue happened to turn a corner near One Three Gamma and saw the unexpected figure. She was unarmed, solely unequipped to stand up to the unknown woman. Therefore, she did the best thing she could do. He hand slapped the combadge on her breast and shouted, "Security! Intruders on Deck Twelve!"

And Coop did as she had been trained. She stunned the woman with an apologetic look and grabbed her commbadge, thumbing the commlink closed. The immediate area being empty, she quickly holstered her weapon and grabbed the device shunting it around to the front of her body then she hit the woman's commbadge again this time activating a shipwide comm, then she hit the button on the device. The overriding need for speed locked into her mind, she couldn't avoid security forever they were too good so she had to move it.

Though security was starting to approach, not a single person was prepared for what hit them. That sound was overpowering, too loud to even hear the person next to you scream. Sadly, the timing was not totally perfect as force fields were erected around Cooper's location, trapping her with the stunned ensign.

Cooper's shout of triumph as she saw security running at her fall was cut short as the force fields snapped into place around her, "Well crap." She said. Quickly considering her options, the most efficient she didn't care for. It was so embarrassing but it couldn't be helped.

"Cooper to Black Hawk, Do you read?"

The corridor around Cooper shuddered as the Cochrane took another hit. A moment later, a voice came over the tiny speaker in her combadge. =/\= "This is the Black Hawk," =/\= replied Captain Geisler. =/\= "Tell me you have good news, Cooper." =/\=

Cooper braced herself, automatically trying to also protect the unconcious science ensign from rolling about on the floor. "Device deployed Sir, I have visual evidence it has worked..." Slight paused, "Slight glitch I seem to be trapped in a force field, it's going to take me a bit of time to get out..." She said reluctantly but straightforward enough.

There was a pause, then the Captain responded. =/\= "Do it quickly, Lieutnant. Help is on the way to secure the Cochrane. Get to the bridge." =/\=

"Aye Sir, Immediately Sir." She said, as she tried to figure out just how that might happen. After the commlink was closed she asked the unconscious ensign, "Any ideas?..." pause, "Well you're no help..." she asked as she worked through her options.

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