A New Adventure
Part II; A stranger in strange lands.
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*I remember that dance of ours*
*The first time our bodies swayed as one*
*The way we smiled under the starlight*
*That will always be our moment*
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The bridge crew looked on at the screen as the brigand cruiser dropped its cloak. Everyone was stunned at the sight, confused as to why an Orion vessel had cloaking technology. Minds raced every which way regarding the how and why, and the implications of such a thing.
“Captain, we are being hailed, audio only.”
“Open the channel.”
“Yes Captain. Channel open.”
“This is Captain Rider Talons of the USS Pa-” The Captain was cut off from his sentence as a determined voice of a female hastily spoke.
“Starfleet Odyssey Vessel. Surrender now or face destruction. You have ten minutes to comply and acknowledge your defeat. Your vessel shall be claimed for the Orion Syndicate.”
“Captain they closed the channel.”
“The nerve they have to order us to surrender!” Shouted Reaver at the view-screen.
“It is a rather bold little speech that woman gave. But we must not underestimate them. Give me a tactical analysis Mr. Beldon.”
“Aye sir. Analyzing.” Beldon’s hands motioned over the tactical console hastily. “I’m reading two disruptor cannons and two disruptor arrays, with two torpedo launchers on their bow. Four disruptor arrays and two torpedo launchers in the aft, sir. Nothing we cannot handle.”
“They only have that, and they are trying to take our ship?” Questioned Marietta. “I say we fire on their weapons and take -their- ship.”
“Now, now. Open a channel to the Orions.”
“Aye sir, Channel opened.”
“Captain, I’m happy to see you being wise and surrendering.”
“Oh no, nothing of the sort. I’m telling you the exact opposite.”
“Come now Captain. I’m sure neither one of us want to fight. No bloodshed is needed here.”
“Precisely. So tell me why you are here.”
“I’m merely invoking the rights of salvage, Captain.”
“On what vessel? We are the only ones here.”
“Why, on yours Captain, of course.”
The Captain shot a look to Reaver and then to Narciso. “I fear we won’t go down as easily as you are implying… forgive me, I didn’t catch your name.”
“The lack of manners is mine, Captain, as I failed to introduce myself. I am Captain Mariana of the IKS Lokapāla.”
“Well, Captain Mariana. As I said prior, we will not go down without-”
“Hush Captain. There is still six minutes and forty three seconds left on our terms. Once that has expired we shall see where you stand. Lokapāla out.”
The Captain placed his elbow on the arm of his chair and then rested his chin upon the palm on his hand, scratching his well-kept beard gently. He pondered for a few seconds then looked over to Reaver. “She’s plotting something. She has something that she has up her sleeve, an advantage of some sort.” He turned his attention to Narciso. “Tell me counselor, what do you think?”
“She is extremely confident, Captain. So much so that she is entirely relaxed. Her fixation with the time she set is beyond intense. She -knows- that she will win.”
“Captain, you don’t think this has to do with…” Reaver asked and was cut off.
“I would bet so. I had hoped the two weren’t connected. They may not be, but we can’t rule out the possibility. We need to act before that time runs out. Mr. Beldon, fire on their weapons system. Shields up, Red Alert.”
“Aye sir.” Beldon sounded the Red Alert and began to power up the phaser banks.
“We’re at the advantage, keep them to our port helmsman.”
“Aye captain, I’ll maintain broadsiding.”
“Fire Mr. Beldon.”
“Yes sir!” Beldon locked onto the Lokapāla’s weaponry and began their precise assault. The Pallas Helena fired two of her port phasers, both of which hit their targets. “Minor damage to their hull, they have lost their forward disruptor arrays. They are returning fire Captain.”
“Maintain shield strength of our port side, power engines, ease to port. Encircle them. Continue firing on their weaponry.”
“Aye sir, keeping steady to port.” Spoke Hal as he piloted the large Odyssey. The mood within the bridge was calm, everything under control.
The Pallas Helena moved forward as her engines powered. It leaned to the port side, curving in that direction to find itself perpendicular to the bow to the Lokapāla, which in turn unleashed a volley of cannon fire. Their spraying attack hit and missed as the circular range of the cannons were just wide enough.
“Minimal damage to port shields. Their weaponry is lacking in power.” Voiced Beldon. “Returning fire.”
The Pallas Helena unleashed it’s only volley of phasers, much better aimed than their opponents cannons. The phasers disabled their targets effortlessly.
“They have lost all forward weaponry Captain. They are not powering their torpedoes.” Reported Beldon.
“Keep course steady, hold fire.” The Captain looked to the view-screen, unsure of why they weren’t attacking in full strength. “Open a Channel…”
“Captain, are you sure-”
“Yes Reaver, I am. Open the channel.”
“Aye, sir. Channel opened on screen now.”
For the first time, they finally saw their would be captors. Orions, all of them. But the one seated took all the attention to herself. Even by Orion standards, she was gorgeous. Her eyes were calm but within them were a determination that matched those of angels rebelling against their Lord. She raised her chin slightly, so as to look down on those upon the bridge of the Pallas Helena. “Well Captain Talons, the time is nearly complete. Have you given up your silly attack and decided to surrender?”
“Tell me. We have disabled your forward weaponry and you still believe with strong conviction that we will surrender. Why?”
“Oh look at the time Captain. 6… 5… 4… 3… 2… 1. You’re mine!”
As the countdown reached zero the lights of the Pallas Helena flickered and on some decks they were shut off entirely. The Odyssey soon began to rotate to its starboard side, ready to go belly-up. The consoles all shared the same failure as the lights, some having difficulty to stay on and others giving out entirely. The crew began to panic, bombarding Narciso with their worry. He tried his best to filter them out. He raised a hand and lowered his head down onto it, trying to concentrate.
“Captain! Power failures and fluctuations are appearing throughout the entire ship. We’ve switched to secondary reserves, but even that is not holding!”
“Sir the helm is nonresponsive! I can’t stabilize us!”
Mariana was still visible on the view-screen as she leaned her head backward and erupted in laughter, that should the situation be different, would be seen as angelic. She managed to calm herself and wiped away a tear that formed in the corner of her right eye. “Ah, just like the Romulans, you fools just handed over your ship. Thank you for your generosity, Captain Talons. I’ll make good use of your technology! Just as I did the Romulan’s cloacking device. It’s quite handy isn’t it? Allowed me to fire on you without you even seeing me!” Mariana got quiet for a second and then straightened herself on her seat. A seriousness came on her face as she began to speak once more. “You should have surrendered when I asked you to Captain. Had you complied you would have saved your crew. Now I must wait until you lose life-support functions. Then I’ll salvage your ship, just as I said. Goodbye Captain. Shame we could not have become friends.”
The view-screen cut off and went dark without any power being sent to it. The bridge crew remained their calm and cool demeanor. It could be worse; they could be fired upon by the Lokapāla. No doubt that woman had weaponry hidden away. The Captain stayed in his seat, trying to work on his chair’s console. However the thing refused to be powered and was unusable. “Blast! I should have seen this coming!” The Captain cursed out as he slammed a fist into the arm of the command chair.
“Yeah you should have.” Spoke Marietta, only to receive the glare on the entire bridge crew. She shrugged and waved her hands trying to dis-sway their looks. “Sorry, nervous tick. Back to what you were all doing.”
“Enough. We need to get control back of our own ship! Beldon, go to main engineering and-”
“Actually Captain,” Narciso cut in, “Let me be the one to go. I’ll take Marietta with me. Beldon needs to try and regain control of the bridge consoles here. We’ll work in tandem.”
“Fine, make it so Counselor.”
“Yessir, Marietta?”
“Right behind you.”
Narciso arose from his seat and made his way to the turbolift. Marietta walked behind him and suddenly bumped into him as he stopped short.”
“Think this is even working?”
“The reserve power is still on, just fluctuating right? So it should… even with a few hiccups.”
Narciso began to second-guess himself as he walked forward and entered the turbolift. “I don’t want to climb a ladder 20 decks down…”
“I would LOVE to do that.”
“I know you would…” The pair stood inside as the door closed behind them. Turning to face it, Narciso took notice of the flickering lights inside. “Ho boy… Deck 25.” The computer chimed and the turbolift took off on its descent. Marietta nudged Narciso on his arm and laughed slightly.
“See? We’re perfectly fine.” As she finished her sentence the turbolift came to a dead stop. Narciso looked to Marietta through narrowed eyes and she replied by just shrugging. The lights still flickered, so there was some power still being sent to the turbolift. Marietta, not wanting to wait, began cursing at the machine. “You get moving this instant or a swear I’ll-” She delivered a swift kick the back wall and was met with a response in the form of the turbolift once more descending. “See? Sometimes it just needs a little love!” Marietta stood proud of herself, folding her arms under her bust. A few seconds later the turbolift came to a dead stop yet again.
“Still proud of yourself?”
“A little.”
“I think we should just get off on this deck and take the Jefferies tube.”
“We don’t have the time. Hold on.” Marietta gave another kick and the turbolift instantly began to move again. “There, I’ll just do- WAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!”
The turbolift was suddenly in a free-fall. Marietta instinctively took hold of Narciso, embracing him tightly as if to protect him. “You’ll just do it, huh!? Way to go Marietta!” Narciso cried out as his face was being smothered in between Marietta’s breasts.
“It’s not my fault!” She cried back, holding him tighter. The two suddenly crashed to the floor of the turbolift as it stopped short. Sprawled and entangled on each other, Marietta moved to get up, careful not to put her heel on Narciso. “Ack! I think I bruised my spleen!”
Narciso groaned slightly as he lifted himself up from his facedown position, trying to move his legs to anchor his motions. “I think I broke my ass…”
“No, not your ass. I know how much you love that part of you.” Marietta joked somberly as she helped pick him up onto his feet. “Okay pry open the doors. We’ll make time to get down to Main Engineering.” Alright let’s try to get some leverage. Take that side.”
“Here we go! Pull!” Marietta chanted that last word as she and Narciso dug their fingers into the opening of the dual doors of the turbolift. They managed to take a firm grip and used their body weight. The doors soon opened, revealing a dark corridor with flickering lights. Marietta peaked through, only to say a few words. “You know, I hate horror movies.”
“I love them.” Narciso spoke as he held the door open.
“You first then.” Marietta said as she placed herself under Narciso and lifted him up and over. The turbolift had stopped between two decks; the bottom door had refused to open so they took the top. Which opened up, much to Narciso’s delight, as he didn’t want to climb any ladders.
“Gentle! Gentle!” Narciso cried as he was pushed through the small opening.
“Quit whining. Now help me up.” Marietta called for him as she raised her hands up. Taking hold in a crossway grip at the wrists, Narciso managed to pull her up and through. Looking around he found a flickering panel, on it was the deck number they were on; ‘24’. “Finally some good news. We’re at the highest level of Main Engineering.”
“Right. Let’s find some rope and propel down like in that really old movie.”
“Or we can walk in through those doors.”
“Tch, buzz kill.”
“Let’s go already, we’re basically there.” The pair ran down the hallway and was met with a door that refused to open, so they once again did the prying tactic that they used on the turbolift doors. Upon the large doors opening, they saw the hectic state that was Main Engineering. People were running back and forth, others at consoles trying to work even though the consoles kept powering on and off.
“This is not going to be easy.” Marietta spoke, looking down at the various Ensigns that scurried about.
Narciso took note that the warp-core was fully functional and pointed to it. “At least the problem isn’t with our power source. Then we would be-”
“Utterly Screwed!” A voice from the floor below shouted up at the pair, finishing Narciso’s sentence for him.
“Cherrosk! What’s going on down here?”
“If we knew that, Marietta, we would already have fixed it! Get down here and lend us a hand!”
“On our way.” Narciso called out as he looked around and found a ladder on the back of the wall which led to all the floors of Main Engineering. He took it and slid down at an easy pace, stopping himself before he hit the floor. Marietta did the same motion, and patted Narciso on the back.
“Looks like you used the ladder anyways.”
“Yeah but it wasn’t twenty-something decks down.”
Cherrosk ran up to the pair and was followed by Ensigns, who took his orders and scurried along. The trio met with each other at a large console that sat before the warp-core. Narciso tried using it and was met with some difficulty.
“It’s like that everywhere. We can’t even use them long enough to pinpoint the problem.”
“This is why I am here.”
“Why’s that Marietta?”
Her response to Cherrosk was simply to raise her leg up high and release it down onto the console, effectively dropkicking the poor thing. Its response was to go completely dead and then spring back to life, operating at its full capacity. “You’re welcome. Now get to work.”
Narciso wasted no time in going directly to work, however he did want to question how she had just did what she did. Cherrosk shared Narciso’s sentiment, but he too hurried to work.
“Analyzing computer Matrix.”
“I’m running a quick diagnostic on the connections.” Voiced Cherrosk.
As the pair above worked Marietta looked around the space. She noted everyone running around in a frenzy. All save one who was standing still and shaking nervously. She narrowed her eyes and walked hastily until she stood behind the person. “I know it’s a scary situation, but we all need to do our duties.”
Marietta’s voice being so close startled the Ensign and caused him to drop a datapad. He spun around, revealing that he was sweating up a storm. “I-I-I’m not s-s-scared.”
Marietta looked him up and down. “Then why are you so nervous?”
“Th-t-t-they haven’t beamed me out yet. I mean – They haven’t been giving me any orders, the chief that is.” Somehow he managed to sweat more.
Marietta’s eyes narrowed even further, and then she glanced down on the datapad. On the scrolling screen was the symbol of the Orion Syndicate. “We have an intruder!” She shouted as she lunged forward in a tackling motion. However the Ensign was gone, having been taken by a red transporter beam. Going directly through her target, Marietta crashed to the floor and cursed out loudly. “Damn it, he got away!” She was helped up to her feet and patted herself off.
“Who got away?” Cherrosk called from his work station.
“An Orion spy! He was an Andorian, a scrawny little guy, roughly Narciso’s size.” She looked down to her feet and saw the same datapad. “Look he dropped this!” She flung it through the air over to Narciso, who caught it and began reading it. “Told you, you usually catch it.” Marietta smirked as she walked towards them.
“This is… Here!” Narciso exclaimed as he tossed the datapad up, which was caught by a fumbling Cherrosk.
“Mother of mercy!” Cherrosk shouted finally getting a firm grasp on the datapad.
“Don’t look at me.” Marietta joked, having finally joined them.
Narciso hastily worked on the console, which soon began to flicker slowly. He pounded away at the screen with fast fingers and just as the console died off completely he declared that he was finished. The entire ship went dark as everything went offline.
“What. Did. You. Do.” Cherrosk asked.
“Again, don’t look at me.” Marietta said as she reached out and took hold of Cherrosk’s chin, and then moved his head to face Narciso.
“Just give it a second.”
“A second!? Even the warp-core shut off! We’re finished! It’s only a matter of time before life-support functions go-” Before he could finish his sentence the entire space of Main Engineering was filled with the loud and rhythmic humming of the warp-core and the power that surged throughout the ship. “Holy shit we’re back in business!” Cherrosk tapped his combadge. “Engineering to the bridge! We’ve got full power back!”
“We see that! Good work down there!” Replied the Captain. “Now we face our aggressors. Power our weapons. Target the Lokapāla. Standby phasers.”
~To be continued~