One Shall Stand...

Posted on 15 Mar 2017 @ 10:06am by Commodore Harvey Geisler & Lieutenant Commander Joey Geisler & Lieutenant JG Shay Mitchell & Master Chief Petty Officer Mila Rasputin

3,864 words; about a 19 minute read

Mission: Endgame
Location: USS Black Hawk | Deck 7
Timeline: MD17 || 1025 hours

The doors to the auxiliary bridge closed behind Harvey as he ventured out into the corridor. Since he woke up in the morning, he'd had a phaser holstered at his side. He withdrew it from the holster to inspect the charge and the setting. The power loss since its withdrawal from the power station was acceptable, and he made sure it was set at heavy stun.

He was determined that Jackson would stand trial. But, if it came down to it, and the safety of the ship was completely jeopardized, he would do what he must for the security of the Black Hawk.

A shudder ran through the deck plating. He regretted leaving the bridge during a combat mission, but with the maneuvers Commander Teixeira had been issuing, he was comfortable with the Executive Officer holding things down until Harvey could return. If only Lieutenants Di Pasquale and Corwin were around... they'd have this situation handled immediately. With a third of the ship's security off of the ship, however, Harvey found himself in a terrible situation with no real leadership in the department.

All the Black Hawk had to do now was hold together while the internal cancer was taken care of.

"The alert came from computer control, correct?" Harvey asked the ensign who accompanied him. That was one deck above them.

"Yes, Captain," Shay said as she kept in step with him. She didn't like the fact that he was going to handle this personally, but the fact she was with him, and would remain with him until all of this Consortium business was over, made her feel better. Still, though, the young woman knew they were dealing with a first class psychopath that had already taken the lives of others. This was a situation not to be taken lightly.

Keeping the man walking with her safe was a top priority, as was neutralizing Jackson, and thankfully, there was strength in numbers. She'd managed to contact a couple other Security personnel that happened to be patrolling the deck, so now their Commanding Officer had three people to look out for him. Despite their being strength in numbers, though, it also made them a larger target, but that wasn't going to stop them. Not when the ship and her crew were in danger.

"I don't have full details on his escape and rampage, but I do know he managed to do some damage in the control room, as well as take down some of the crew," Shay stated.

"I'm sure we'll find out as we go," Harvey said, placing the phaser back into the holster. "Contact the rest of security. We need the Flight Deck, Engineering, Sickbay and the Bridge secured. Then we go for Jackson."

Shay tapped her combadge and dispatched the personnel left in her department to those areas with orders to set their phasers on heavy stun, but she had a feeling Jackson wasn't going to allow himself to be taken alive this time. Honestly, she felt as though they'd be doing the galaxy a favor if they disposed of him permanently. Of course, that wasn't the Starfleet way. Hell... it wasn't her way. "Teams are moving to those locations now," she said, looking to the Captain. "Do you have any idea where he might be heading? Maybe we can cut him off at the pass."

Harvey shook his head, stopping at a nearby Jefferies Tube junction. "No, he has the high ground. He won't give it up." The junction was locked by a keypad, and Harvey immediately used his personal override code to open the hatch. Turning around, he gestured at two crewman in engineering gold who were responding to a damage beacon near their location.

"Trade us your badges," Harvey immediately ordered, taking his off and extending it out towards them.

"Captain?" asked one of the crewmen, her expression one of total confusion.

"There's no time to explain," Harvey said. "Suffice it to say, the Consortium is attempting to take control of the ship. I need the both of you to pose as us and go through this tunnel towards the computer core. Keep your tools. You'll need them to escape."

With a moment's hesitation, both crewmen nodded, thinking this would be an unpleasant conversation with the Chief Engineer when this was all over. The Bolian crewman handed her badge to the Captain and took his.

"You too, Ensign," Harvey told his escort.

Shay reluctantly took hers off and exchanged it out for the other one. She trusted the Captain's judgement, but found herself hoping this wouldn't come back to bite them in some way. It wouldn't do well to question his motives, either. "Should we let him find us?"

"Certainly not," Harvey replied as the engineering detail slipped inside the Jefferies Tube. "If Jackson is monitoring us, and I'm certain he is, then he'll think we're in there. That buys us time to get the drop on him."

"Understood, Captain," the young Ensign said, removing her phaser from its holster and adjusting the setting to heavy stun.

***

Jackson moved through the corridor with his unconscious hostage still over his shoulder. She would be coming to soon, which meant this needed to end now. "Computer... locate Captain Geisler," he instructed, listening as the emotionless voice gave him a location inside the Jeffries tube. Oh, this would be like shooting fish in a barrel, and it wasn't far from his present location.

He made his way to a hatch that led right to deck above him and smirked as he set the woman on the ground. They'd be coming his way soon enough, but he just didn't want to wait for that. Opening the hatch, he set his phaser on the highest setting once more and thumbed the beam to wide. He quickly peered inside and saw two figures moving up the ladder toward him. Oh... what he was about to do was beyond nasty, but Geisler deserved that and so much more.

The Marine inserted his phaser into the shaft and fired, blasting through bulkheads and vaporizing the poor souls that had no idea what was coming their way. With a twisted smile, he shut the hatch and replaced the power cell, being mindful he was running low on them, then adjusted the setting to kill once more as he looked to the woman. "He made that too easy, but sadly, I don't feel any better. I won't feel better until this ship is wiped from existence."

He picked her up again and tossed her over his shoulder, then moved forward again.

***

Shay heard the distinctive sound of a high blast coming their way. Instinct kicked in, and she found herself diving toward Harvey to knock them both to the floor, using her own body to shield him from whatever was coming their way.

That blast was timed along with another shudder that rippled through the corridor. The ship was taking a pounding now. Harvey could only imagine that the battle was now progressing in manners far worse than what he'd seen while on the bridge. "We have to keep moving," he said, getting up off the floor and trying not to think about what Jackson had done.

Shay got to her feet and looked toward the hatch. There was just too much going on inside and outside of the ship, and the young woman hoped the old girl would survive it. "Looks like we need to go up," she said, gesturing for the other two officers to ready their phasers as she began to proceed forward. "I know you aren't used to being told what to do, and that most people don't have the guts to try, but in this case, I'm going to. For your safety, you need to stay between the three of us."

"Safety be damned," Harvey muttered. The entire ship was in jeopardy and she was worried about safety. With any luck, if this thing went south, he might be the only thing or person left of the Black Hawk. It was a troubling thought indeed. "Just get us to the core."

Without a word, Shay made her way toward the nearest turbolift. She had no idea where Jackson would be heading, but she doubted it was going to be the computer core. He'd already done the damage in the control room, but she had to follow orders.

She stopped when the door to the turbolift opened, and her blood ran cold when she spotted the very man they were after step into the deck. He had a woman over his shoulder, but from where she stood, Shay couldn't see who it was. Quickly, she grabbed Harvey's arm and ducked into an alcove with the other two individuals with them. Thankfully, they hadn't been spotted, which meant they still held the element of surprise.

The young woman had seen the reports. She knew Jackson had it out for the Captain and Lieutenant Corwin, but she wasn't on the ship. "We still haven't lost the element of surprise, but we need to move quick."

"So much for meeting him at the computer core," Harvey mumbled, withdrawing the phaser from the holster. "He's a Marine. Frontal assault is out of the question. We should split up and surround him."

"I somehow doubt he was going to the computer core," Shay pointed out, gesturing for the other two Security officers to make their way out after letting them know to come in from the sides. She turned her attention toward Harvey once more. "Sixty seconds. Wait here for sixty seconds, then come up behind him." Instead of waiting for him to argue with her, she glanced down the corridor and moved out as well while the Marine remained oblivious.

He wasn't thrilled to be left alone in the junction. Dammit, he was the captain! Peeking out from the junction, he saw the Marine continue down the corridor, wondering where the hell he was going. The Auxiliary Bridge was in the opposite direction. Why go that direction?

Then he saw her. Harvey's eyes widened, recognizing the woman Jackson carried by the mess of brown hair. How did he catch Mila? Whatever plan security had concocted just suddenly came under his extreme scrutiny. He couldn't risk another member of the crew getting injured or killed, including Chief Rasputin. "What are you up to, Jackson?" Harvey muttered, leaving his cover well before it was time.

Son of a bitch! Shay mentally cursed when she saw him leave before time was up. She was working with the plan he'd concocted about coming at Jackson from all angles, but now that plan was thrown right out the proverbial window. Right now, all the young woman wanted to do was pummel her superior officer and suffer the consequences, but there was a much bigger issue that had to be dealt with.

The two other Security officers continued to make their way toward Jackson, trying to keep themselves as quiet as possible. So far, so good. At least that's what the thought since the Marine was showing no signs he knew they were even there as he continued on his way. Still someone like him couldn't be trusted.

Harvey raised his phaser, keeping his elbow at his side, but the weapon pointed towards the Marine as he quietly approached. He thought about resetting the phaser for a wide beam, but he knew that sound would draw the attention of the Marine. Whose idea was it to have a phaser make sounds anyway? Surely there could be a switch to turn those off. Besides, who knew what Jackson had done with Mila. If she'd been shot more than one, or even drugged, the phaser beam could be fatal. He couldn't risk that at all.

Shay kept close to the bulkhead with her own phaser drawn. As much as she wanted to throttle Harvey, he was the Captain, and would do what he felt was necessary. Still... there was an innocent involved, and getting her out of this situation unharmed was a must. They needed a distraction. Something that would draw Jackson's attention so the others could go in for the kill. She was about to provide that distraction when the situation grew more dire.

Mila woke up to a hell of a hangover feeling and saw her hands above her head and felt that she was being carried. She looked forward and all she saw was someone's backside in front of her and noticed that it looked like the person was wearing Starfleet clothing. Not thinking that it was a friendly person who was doing it considering that she felt the way she did, she did the only thing she could think of and reached between the person's legs and latched onto whatever was there in a death grip.

Jackson hadn't expected that, and the second the pain registered in his mind, instinct kicked in. With a monstrous roar, the Marine wrenched Mila forward and slammed her onto the ground in front of him as he crumbled to his knees, his hand moving to the now tender part of his anatomy. "You bitch!" He bellowed. His phaser rifle now hung at his side as he tried to get through the continuous wave of nausea that hit him.

Mila's breath exploded from her as she hit the corridor and struggled to get her body to obey her. She was still discombobulated, but when she saw it was the psychotic Marine who had caused so much damage, she fought to reach for the rifle hanging by his side.

Jackson quickly channeled his pain to rage, the anger he felt boiling his blood and causing his vision to bleed red. "I'm going to enjoy killing you," he snapped, grabbing Mila by her hair and moving into an alcove with her. Too much time was wasted dealing with her, and now the Marine was forced to revise his plan. Thinking on his feet was necessary throughout his career, and this time would be no different.

Since his hostage was still winded from being slammed to the floor, he wrapped one of his huge hands around her throat and squeezed with just enough force for her to know he meant business. "You try anything else, and I'll snap your neck. And don't think for a second I won't," he said, removing the phaser rifle from himself. "Here's what we're going to do, and don't think you have a choice. I'm going to strap this phaser to you, then set it to overload. You're going to make your way to the bridge in the thirty seconds before it detonates. If for whatever reason you choose not to go through with it.. I'll kill you and still destroy the ship. Do you understand what's going to happen?" And to prove he was quite serious, he squeezed even harder.

After being stunned and slammed to the floor, and now with the maniac's hands wrapped around her throat, Mila couldn't breath or muster the strength to fight back. Her eyes rolled up in her head and she went limp in Jackson's hands, her weight pulling her towards the deck which would force him to support her more or drop her.

"Good help is so hard to find these days," the psychotic man sighed as he set to work strapping the phaser rifle to Mila's back at an angle to where she couldn't reach it even if she wanted to. In fact, he went so far as to knot the strap in a way that would take time to undo. This wasn't what he originally planned to do, but it was going to have to do.

Jackson gave her face a firm smack to rally her around. "Wake up, sweetheart. I'm about to make you a star."

Harvey was still a good deal away, but he didn't trust his aim. Even though he'd trained beside the Chief of Security, he could feel his hand shake. Seeing what he was doing to Mila, he couldn't afford to miss. In the meantime, he could at least buy time for security to surround Jackson. He fired off a warning shot, deliberately striking the bulkhead beside Jackson. "Step away from her!" he bellowed.

He heard the voice before he saw him, but quickly ducked when the phaser blast struck next to him. Jackson had been sure he'd killed the Captain, but then he'd be a fool to think it could be so easy. "Why don't you come down here and trade places with her, Geisler?" He called back. "I'd be more than willing to allow you to be the one to take out your own ship."

Mila flinched when she heard the Captain and the phaser shot, which ruined her trying to pretend to be unconscious. When she saw the crazed Marine duck, she gathered her legs under her and kicked out at his legs and tried to roll away so he couldn't arm the phaser strapped to her. "Kill him!" she shouted as the phaser rifle dug into her back, but she ignored the pain.

Harvey fired again at Jackson, squeezing off a couple shots this time. Despite his shakes, he did his best to keep steady and fired directly at Jackson.

Shay made it before the other two Security guards, but kept herself pressed firmly against the bulkhead. She only had seconds to act before things got dire. Crouching down, she quickly reached out and gripped Mila by whatever was closest to her, then pulled her to safety as the other two guards arrived. She quickly ordered them to get Mila to safety and stayed crouched down.

Jackson stumbled when Mila kicked his legs and let out a curse, but it was the phaser fire that had him recovering his balance and scrambling for some kind of cover. He quickly dove for the other side of the corridor leaned against the bulkhead. This was quickly becoming a no-win situation. He was surrounded. One thing was certain... Jackson wasn't being taken alive again. Not now... not ever. "I'll eventually see you in hell, Geisler," he snapped, smirking in Harvey's direction as he reached for something in his boot. It caught the light as he brought it toward his chest. In his hand was a piece of twisted metal from the ship, a piece of metal he drove through his chest and into his own heart.

An unmentionable curse barreled out of Harvey's mouth. His older medical instincts had kicked in, but it wouldn't take a tricorder to know that the Marine had committed suicide. Harvey ran to stop at Jackson's side, being careful to stay out of arm's reach in the event that the man would try something rash before the last breath of life escaped his lungs.

Mila tried getting to her feet while she massaged her throat and ended up sitting back down. "If he is not being dead," she rasped. "Kill him. He is being too much trouble."

Harvey knelt beside Jackson, taking care to make sure the phaser was still pointed at the man's side in the event he was still somehow alive. With two fingers, he reached up to the man's neck to check for a pulse. Even if he was alive, Harvey would still kill as a last resort. At least he was incapacitated enough to no longer be a threat. Jackson had to stand trial. Otherwise, Harvey saw himself as no different than the man dying on the floor.

Jackson, by some miracle, was still alive. However, he'd incapacitated himself to the point where he was no longer a threat to Harvey, the ship, or the crew. His well aimed kill shot wasn't well executed as he missed his heart and nicked his lung instead. Still, time was a factor now, especially if he was to stand trial for his crimes against the Federation.

Shay didn't waste any time. "You two... you're to go with him straight to sickbay," she ordered the two Security officers. "Remain armed, and do not let him out of your sight under any circumstances."

"Yes, ma'am," one of the officers said, calling for an emergency transport straight to medical with a critical but dangerous patient.

Before Harvey could give further instructions, the corridor shook rather violently, far more than anything they'd experienced up to this point. Harvey looked up, his eyes locking with Mila's for a brief moment. The expression he revealed was one of fear. He'd fought in the Dominion War, and several of his assignments were lost in conflicts like this.

"The shields are down," he told the group. With the klaxons still sounding, he could only wonder what kind of pounding the ship was now suffering. This ship had been taking damage to the hull for the last two weeks, damage that still hadn't been externally addressed. In fact, except for a few brief moments, the ship's warp engines had been engaged, working above their maximum outputs. For this ship to make it through the next few minutes... it would be a miracle.

Harvey reached over to Mila, attempting to undo whatever it was Jackson had done to the strap to keep that rifle affixed to the yeoman. In a lower voice, he muttered, "Get Rico and Pequeno." While he hoped for the best, he had to prepare for the worst.

Mila came to her feet with his assistance and picked up the phaser before she checked it. "Da," she said even as she thought about Chow and Aidan. "Are you saying what I am thinking you are saying?" she asked him quietly even as she prepared to do what he had told her.

Shay used a bulkhead to steady herself when the ship shook. The Captain's words combined with the look on his face told her that nothing good was going to come of this. She mentally prepared herself for what was to come while getting ready to take off after Harvey. Orders were orders, and she wasn't going to go against them under any circumstances. If giving her life for his was what had to happen, then that's what she would do.

"Just a precaution," Harvey quickly said, doing everything he could to believe those words. The ship had been through a lot in its years of service between squaring off against the Dominion, the Syndicate and now the Consortium. The Black Hawk was a survivor, and she'd certainly survive this. "I've got to get back to the bridge. Just... work quickly."

Mila gave a nod and headed off, tapping her combadge as she went and began to issue instructions to various people as a plan formed in her mind. If the Captain thought the ship was in danger, the Russian Yeoman was taking no chances and ordered a backup of the computer core to be made and put into a buoy and then contacted several other in Administration before she headed for her quarters to get Chow. After that, she headed for Deck Two to collect Pequeno and Rico, only hoping that the Captain was wrong but unwilling to take a chance he wasn't.

 

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