Chapter 04: Invictus [05: Anodyne] Attn: Brutus, Searcher, The Counselor, Doctor Maya, Triage, IronFerrox, Nolan, Zenozine, Sirus & RosariaRosette[ USS Theurgy | Medical Lab 01 | Sickbay | Deck 07 ] Attn: Sarresh Morali, Ryuan Sel & Eve Jenkins. Optionally: Morrigan Sarresh Morali, together with Eve Jenkins, had effectively put the plan to action - synthesising a large amount of Lexorin in the Medical Labs when T'Rena's voice was heard on the intercom.
[Captain T'Rena to Lieutenant Commander Trent, this is not acceptable, and I hope you realise how futile your efforts truly are. We are about to upload a reprogrammed version of the Ship A.I. from her mobile emitter and into the pasitronic brain core. Whatever access you might have gained from Lieutenant Fedd will then be rescinded and if you do not surrender immediately, Thea's first act to further our cause will be to shut down life support on your Battle Bridge. So unless you put away your weapons and surrender, you will be taking the lives of everyone on that bridge with you as you draw your last breaths. You will not be able to shut her out of her own systems, so I do suggest you comply.]Vulcans never lied, did they? Had Thea truly been compromised? And would Carrigan Trent's stand and his attempt at assuming command for the Ives Loyalists come to such a swift and gruesome end?
[State your choice, Lieutenant Commander.]Present in the Medical Lab was also Security Officer Ryuan Sel, who had accompanied Sarresh Morali and the Head Nurse in order to assist with the plan to disperse Lexorin through the modified Life Support systems. Mainly, the delicate operation needed to be protected, and given the large amount of fluid that needed to be moved, so it was fair to assume that the Nurse and the Temporal Affairs Officer might've need a hand as well. Yet right then, after the words of the Vulcan fell silent, her presence seemed to be the last line of defence in case the mutineers had already won. Yet beyond moral support, what more could she truly offer if Thea - the digital soul of the ship - would turn against them?
Right then, in the stunned silence, entered two people through the sliding doors. A man and a woman, both with white collared uniforms. Tactical Conn pilots from the
Harbinger that were under Phantom's command. Both of them held hand phasers. "Hands where we can see them," said the woman, a platinum blonde woman with a scar down her right cheekbone. "No sudden moves."
The other one, an imposing Trill with auburn hair that fell to his shoulders spoke up in her wake. "I suggest you listen to Freya," he said with a small grin. "I'm Riptide, and we are to escort you to a cargo-hold so that Captain T'Rena can show you how to defeat the enemy. After that, you will understand what that guy on the intercom doesn't; that we have no choice if we are to save the Galaxy. First, round up in front of us and tell us where to find Dr. Nicander, will you?"
Meanwhile, Carrigan Trent gave his reply to T'Rena on the intercom...
[ USS Theurgy | CMO Office | Sickbay | Deck 07 ] Attn: Hayden O'Connor, Doctor Maya, Vinata Vojona & Lahkesis Saugn. Optionally: Morrigan The words of the Vulcan had been heard in the CMO Office as well, and now, the Intelligence Officer's voice returned.
[T'Rena, this is Lieutenant Commander Trent. First, as an officer and a delegate of this ship's lawful commanding officer, I do not recognize your authority or your rank as you and Vasser have obviously chosen to dispense with any Starfleet protocols or procedures unless you find it convenient.]The exchange was the only thing truly happening in the office since Doctor Maya had begun her mind-meld with Cir'Cie, so Dr. Saugn, Counselor O'Connor and Nurse Vojona could do naught else but listen while the Intelligence Officer spoke. Soon, they would learn if Doctor Maya was successful, but until then, they had to keep hiding in the office.
[You want to murder me?] continued Lieutenant Commander Trent.
[Be my guest. But bear this in mind. I'm betting not only my life but that of everyone in this room with me that right now, there's dozens on this ship who just decided to start fighting back. And over here, I have Ensigns Kenneth Urban, Nizni Peri and Pavel Yelchin as well as. Master Chief William O'Connell and again, I'm wagering all our lives that they've got friends who would take exception to their being murdered.]And speaking of murder... it just came to visit them.
The security override was heard as a chirp from one of the doors, and in walked the face of death. The sight of Phantom' burned countenance was like a kick in the teeth, and in the garish light of the primary surgical suite, every gruesome detail could be seen. The left half of his head was stretched tightly against his skull, and the slick skin was scarred by deep rifts into the flesh. His pale hair grew only in patches on the scarred side. Where a cold eye had once been, only a lidless white orb stared back at the gathered medical personnel.
"There you are," he rasped, his voice reverberating in his chest as he circled the area - a hand phaser in the grasp of his calloused fingers. He looked at Doctor Maya, who was still in active mind-meld with Cir'Cie. His eye fell to her shapely behind before it moved to the woman on the biobed. "I figured the botanist had fallen short of her task again."
Having met the eyes of everyone gathered, his gaze finally settled on Hayden. "Where is the Chief Medical Officer?" He raised his weapon against her, this former
Harbinger woman who conspired with the Ives Loyalists. "Where is Doctor Nicander? We need him. If you don't answer me, I will kill you, and ask that Nurse instead. I will keep asking until everyone is dead... or I have a firm lead on where to find him. I suggest you answer wisely."
His grating demand overrode the voice on the intercom...
[ USS Theurgy | Corridor | En-Route to Cargo Hold 02 | Deck 02 ] Attn: Hylota Vojona, Heather McMillan, Aisha S'Iti, Natalie Stark, Simon Tovarek & Rory Callahan Heather McMillan only got a minute or two to tell the people she had saved what she really was, then T'Rena had begun to speak on the intercom - and the matter of the xenobilologist's nature had to be shelved for a more opportune time. It was a matter, however, that Dr. Nicander would pursue later on.
While the exchange lasted, Lucan had stepped off the turbolift on Deck two, still carrying the two bundles with xenon canisters. Hylota Vojona and Heather McMillan were armed - despite their lack of proficiency for combat - carrying hand phasers and trying to spot mutineers that might get in their way. They were heading for Cargo Hold 02, and it was just ahead - further down the corridor. The Intelligence Officer was not done talking yet.
[Unless you can show me where in Starfleet regulations and orders it states that sabotage, murder, coercion, mind-rape, mutiny and conspiracy are lawful ways to relieve an officer of his command, I. Will. Not. Yield. This is a Captain Ives's ship and I will fight to keep her as such. Go ahead. Murder us and make martyrs of the five of us. Polarize every man and woman you haven't brainwashed or murdered against you, encourage them to fight to the death. Even if you prevail, you won't have a crew left in the end.]Lucan was just about to comment on what as being said -stumbling and still weak from having used his Câroon abilities - when he heard a lot of noise coming from inside the bulkhead next to them. Cautiously, he watched the wall, trying to make out the muffled voices. He heard phasers going off as well - as if there was a chase through the maintenance tunnels of the ship. Wary, he moved a bit slower, confident that the two women in his company was hearing the same thing he did, and that they were ready to shoot if there were mutineers behind the bulkhead.
[Now here are my terms. You, Vasser and your cohorts will disarm. Captain Ives, Commander Rez and any other detainee you hold will be released. You and yours will return to the Harbinger and you will surrender all command authority over her and wait there with your warp core cold and all tactical systems physically disabled. Then, the brainwashing will be reversed and we will part ways. Whoever willingly buys into your vision will be allowed to join you and everyone who still sees themselves as Starfleet personnel will be allowed to stay with us.]Then, one of the grates just ahead of Lucan, Heather and Hylota sprung open, and one by one, people spilled out into the corridor. They crawled, rolled or fell out of the low opening, some armed and some unarmed. One or two bound with ropes around their wrists. Had the danger of the situation not robbed him from his sense of humour, he would have laughed at the display. As it were, he could but stare as the four people emerged.
[Comply and have a chance at going forward with your vision of things or face an entire crew that will fight you tooth and nail. Trent out.]The ones that had tumbled into the light of the corridor were Chief of Operations Natalie Stark, Chief Science Officer Simon Tovarek, the Cardassian woman that was usually found at the helm of the
Harbinger, and... the lounge keeper who sang on Theta Eridani IV? How had he gotten all that blood over himself? To Lucan, it was plain that someone had died given the amount of blood, but that did not explain anything.
"Who's side are you on?" he asked the group collectively, bewildered, since half of them hailed from the
Harbinger. He thought it would be a shame if the lovely Miss Stark had been turned against them, mostly since he had invested time to make her trust him. Time well spent, for certain, and not entirely in vain... but a shame nonetheless.
OOC: Attn: All - In order to read the dialogue between T'Rena and Carrigan Trent in its entirety, which most people on the Theurgy will be able to hear on the intercom, you should read the paragraphs in italics in the different relevant sections in this post.
RosariaRosette, you can choose to join either of the two Sickbay scenes - be it in Med Lab 01 or shadowing Phantom into the CMO Office. Same as in 04: Retaliation, there is little time for detours and she'll have to take the turbolift to get to Sickbay in time for these scenes.
This Chapter in the Theurgy story is dedicated to Mr. Leonard Nimoy, 1931-2015. May he never be forgotten.
[ Heather McMillan | Corridor | En-Route to Cargo Hold 02 | Deck 02 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: Lucan cin Nicander & Hylota Vojona(https://tinyurl.com/k36v3c3)(https://tinyurl.com/m74m4d6)
When Nicander spoke of consequences for hiding her true nature, McMillan had become withdrawn. She now shied away from the doctor, looking nervous, and flustered. She constantly fussed with her hair, which was another source of proof that she was not human, with the way they floated around so easily, as if weighing less than even a feather's weight. She struggled to think of explanations and even lies, but considering that she had little social interactions, and her own generally honest nature, she was hard pressed to think up any logical excuse. The only thing she could do was tell the absolute truth, and when the intercoms went off with the exchanges between T'Rena and Trent.
"I'm a Radiant." She finally said during a brief moment of silence over the speakers. "My people have been living amongst humans for centuries. And we prefer to stay hidden, because unlike humans, we can't handle aggression."
That statement was rather ironic of course, especially since she had used it to help Nicander and Vojona, and actually succeeded in knocking out a man. She might well be the first Radiant in centuries to have ever wielded a weapon of any kind.
"I came aboard to serve," she added, "and also to learn about the origins of my people. Where we came from, who we might have once been."
Though she carried a phaser now, she kept it in one of her coat pockets, and when there was noise in maintenance tunnels, McMillan froze, then colour left her face as she pressed herself against a bulkhead, presenting a smaller frame that was harder to hit. Also, since Nicander and Vojona were aware of her inhuman nature, she no longer felt the need to keep secret her abilities, and kept one hand behind her, lit and ready to blind people with an intense flash of light. A ragtag and bloodied group of people emerged, all of them strangers to McMillan, and Nicander asked them to identify themselves, waiting for an answer.
She couldn't wait for all this excitement and mishaps to be over with. She just wanted to go back into her lab and stay there.
Ryuan Sel | Medical Lab 01 | Sickbay | Deck 07
To say that Ryuan Sel did not like to be threatened would be putting it mildly, it would be more accurate to say that she reacted violently to any threat. However she knew that in this moment she was out gunned, having set her phaser rifle down to grab a couple of the canisters. Her mind raced with ideas and only came up with one. "Alright, we surrender," she said setting the canisters down.
"Get down," she called to Sarresh and Eve as at the last second she flipped a switch on the cannister, causing the Lexorin inside to erupt out as a cloud of thick gas. As she dove behind a table she grabbed her phaser rifle. She wasn't sure what the gass would do to them, if anything, but with any luck the medicine would have some effect on them, maybe even give her some sort of tactical advantage.
Lahkesis Saugn | CMO Office | Sickbay | Deck 07
Lahkesis Saugn had never known terror, not once in her relatively short life had terror been a part of her thoughts. And yet as she saw the highly scarred and damaged face of the man she knew it. Memories that were not her own flashed into her mind. Violations unlike any she had felt before. She could not look away from that face, that evil twisted face. She would have screamed, but she had no voice to use. Instead she slowly sank to the floor, shaking as tears welled up in her eyes. "Maya, help me..." was all she could think, her mind practically screaming it.
The Cardassian looked up at the Doctor's brash question. Taking aim with her Type three in hand as a reflex to any potentially hostile encounter. "Now that's an interesting question since both sides cant devise a plan that has any sense of care for its sacrifices. Make no mistake I think Ives plan to attack a starbase on the random chance we MIGHT get the word out was a bit too risky for my taste. That said I would rather die a hopeless martyr than side with rapists, murders, and brainwashing green blooded tyrants. I have no side. Consider me what i was before this uniform. I am Maquis" she said with an angry almost indignant tone of voice.
"As for my colleges, Stark and Tovarek are for the most part unaltered and unharmed, Doc though you may want to examine them for injuries sustained in captivity. I have to give Rory here credit for springing them before I had a chance to. As for his state well. I guess thats what happens when all you have on hand to rescue two captives is a whiskey bottle and a Box cutter. Vasser's security officers who guarded them sadly were unable to subdued without lethal force. If it is any consolation regarding his choices by the look of the officer who's blood is splattered on Rorys shirt, his state of clothing indicated he was probably attempting to rape your OPS chief. I really cant blame Rory if he may have acted over-zealously in his rescue of the two." She explained not giving them time to state their own case. As the person on point she felt if anyone should bear the brunt of a first strike it would be her.
[ Vinata Vojona | USS Theurgy | CMO Office | Sickbay | Deck 07 ]
At the sudden commotion in the medical office Vinata was snapped out of his meditation and attempt to get over what had happened to him and his cool blood flt chilled as he heard the demands of the scarred man. By some chance Vinata was missed by Phantom's initial scanning of the area as he had been over by the desk away from the others curled up on a chair, he had not been seen and remained unnoticed as Phantom began to yell at the other staff and demanded the location of the CMO.
In the time after the initial situation in the Sickbay Vinata had learned that his sister and Doctor Lucan Nicander had escaped into the jefferies tubes, and if this man as after Nicander, he would have to go through his sister to get to him...and he needed to protect his sister. Looking from his spot in his chair Vinata slipped out of the chair and too a blanket with him as he quickly darted to the wall that Pantom had his back to ad slowly circled around the rounded walls so that he might get the drop on the man.
The entire time Vinata was doing his best to remain calm and quiet. He needed to do this, if he didn't his sister might be in trouble, and it was the duty of Ovri male to lay down his life for the women, they are more beautiful and colorful for this very reason, He clenched his jaw as he held his blanket firmly in his hands and peeked round the corner at Phantom's back, he would likely not have much time, his best choice would be to come up behind Phantom while he was yelling at someone and wrap the blanket around his face before beginning to violently kick him. If that failed...well he wouldn't be around long enough to regret it...on the plus side he would not have to worry bout his rape either.
[ Hylota Vojona | Corridor | En-Route to Cargo Hold 02 | Deck 02 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: Auctor Lucan & Triage
Hylota was finding it very hr to get invested at this point in time. with all the shit she was going through she was expecting a few days of leave to recover from this hectic adventure, and while she was in heat no fucking less. with a sigh she nodded and just did a she was directed, there was only so much she could put up with before she got tired of it all. with her new hand phaser in her one good hand Hylota let herself fall back a little so she could recover from the effects of taking a phaser rifle shot to hr shoulder. she could still not believe that that stupid salve that had numbed her arm had actually prevented the neural shock that the stun setting of the rifles would have used to knock her out, in the grand scheme of thing it was a back handed blessing, 'congrats you didn't pass out, but your arm is numb and you have to keep going through this hell now, yay.' If there as an omnipotent force controlling things, she was sure it hated her right now...Lucan would probably get all credit for this hole event anyways despite her vital role in all of this.
as Heather explained her species and her goals Hylota could not help but feel a distinct lack of interest and just nodded. "You know what Heather, I find your difference in race fascinating and all...but right now I do not see any reason for us to share life stories on our goals, I will accept that you are not human and just ant to be treated normally, but like many other things right n I think you should do as I am doing, take those things and put them in the back of the line of priorities. how about this, when it is all over you and can meet up for a drink and gt to know each other better...you could probably do with some friends as well as me."
Their planning possibilities were cut short as the people came spilling out of the Jefferies tubs right in front of them, it was at this point Hylota began to look the over and noted a lac of com badges and she felt slight relief, but she remained holing hr weapon level with the new arrivals as she waited for Lucan to give her further directions, she was in such a mentally addled stat that to have her doing anything would be quite unwise. So it would be best if she just waited for things to happen she figured. After all they wee not that far from their finish line an ll that she had left to do was open the tanks, best focus on that and let Lucan handle the rest.
[ Simon Tovarek | USS Theurgy | Corridor | En-Route to Cargo Hold 02 | Deck 02 ]
With a slight thud Simon landed on his feet out from the Jeffrey tubes. His hands were loosened up a bit around the wrists so he could use the phaser more easily and he stared straight into the eyes of the three man party that stumbled upon them. Simon could recognize Lucan yet the other two were complete strangers to him. Although he could have sworn that he remembered the face of Heather from somewhere. Yet his eyes still needed to adapt from the poorly lit tubes and with all the excitement going on he wasn't sure at all. He heard the question that Nicander asked them and Simon let out a soft chuckle before replying.
The speech that Trent was giving to the entire ship was pretty impressive and Simon couldn't help but laugh at some points of it as he wondered what the hostile commanders would have thought about Trent his demands. Somehow it would probably make Simon look as if he was busy with something else in his mind besides plotting where to go next, though in all fairness, the Cardassian was leading them for most of the part. Yet Simon felt the urge to reply as first since he wasn't sure in what state Natalie was with her blood covered lover and he was presumably the most recognizable face from the party holding rank.
"Well, unless you guys were chasing us through these darn tubes, I think we're on the same team. Besides, I wouldn't be half tied up if I was flipped over to the other side." Simon replied and when he thought of it it probably could be a good tactic to confuse the foes, which in this case would be the people on his own team. "Anyway, we just escaped security from the bridge, the barkeep from Theta rushed in first to help us and after that... The helms..woman from the Harbinger cut us loose. After that we escaped though they're not far behind. What about you guys?" Simon carried on as the last of his party made it into the tubes.
[ Sarresh Morali | USS Theurgy | Medical Lab 01 | Sickbay | Deck 07 ]
This certainly wasn't how Sarresh had wanted his day to go. Then again, nothing had been how Sarresh had wanted it, not since he had (apparently) volunteered for the assignment on the Theurgy and ended up a castaway in his own time once more. So really, having two armed goons walk into a medicL lab while he was trying to synthesize a drug that might very well save the combined crews of two starships from the twisted machinations of a psychopathic Vulcan and her ego ridden CO wasn't the worst thing that had even happened to him that day, let alone since he started serving on the blasted ship. And somehow, he doubted the word of the crazy bitch calling out over the comm system. While most people might believe the old adage that Vulcan's would never tell a lie, one of the few nuggets of information from the 29th century that Cpt. Ducane had left intact was just how much bullshit that line was.
So it was with calm aplomb that Sarresh watched as the pilots made their threats. He sized them up, deciding that Riptide was the more dangerous of the two. Not that it really mattered. His glare was as calm as it was artificial, his hands frozen over the machine before him, the formula for the next batch of Lexorin halfway entered into the system. He heard the Petty officer Sel begin to surrender, and heard her equally quiet warning. Despite the almost detached façade he had in place, he was ready, hand raking across the table top, scooping up whatever he could get a grip of as he dropped, like a rock, at her word. He hit the deck, rolled and collided with Nurse Jenkins, quite on purpose, dragging her down to the floor with him. "Stay down," the only apology he gave, as he kept right on crawling across the floor, the room filling with gas.
Gas that would block them from the view of the two Harbinger assailants - but would do no such thing for the artificially enhanced eyes that Sarresh now possessed...
[ Natalie Stark | USS Theurgy | Corridor | Deck 02 ]
This was...unexpected. She was still shaken from everything, and knew that when this was over - if it was ever over - she was going to have one hell of a breakdown. The anger that she'd held inside would get her though just about all of it - but Rory, sweet, innocent Rory - had seen her...forced to service that bastard. And sweet, innocent Rory had taken things into his own hands. Hands that had been gentle only one night before, hands that had touched and explored every inch of her, had...had...had done what needed doing. Again, for her. Whatever else had happened, she wasn't going to shrink away from those hands. No. Natalie was not going to abandon him, despite any burning shame she felt. There was every chance that when she had her breakdown, she'd wait till she could ride it out in his arms.
And now was clearly not the time to dwell on it. She looked from the Cardassian, eyebrows rising as another of her would be saviours declared herself Maquis, and answered the good Doctor. She was relieved to see him, though he was the only one of the three (concious) individuals they had stumbled upon that she recognized. She squared her shoulders, reminded herself that she was a Starfleet Officer and held the highest rank (technically shared the highest rank with Dr. Nicander), and added her own thoughts on the subject at hand.
"As Lt. Tovarek explained, we're kind of on the run." As shaken as she felt on the inside, she didn't let a damn bit of it show on the outside. "He and I are very likely suffering the after affects of close range stun blasts, and....some slight manhandling." Not the best word choice. She glanced over her shoulder, where Rory stood nearby, and a brief - if bitter - smile flickered over her face, before she turned back to the other three refugees. "You don't look very well yourself, Doctor." She frowned and tried not to let the heat rtise in her cheeks as she remember him looking quite healthy not all that long ago. Those blue eyes moved to the canisters the trio were smuggling along, and her eyebrows rose higher. "I...I am going to guess that we're all on the same side here. And that you have a very good idea on how to assist Lt.Cmdr Trent in his efforts to regain our ship."
She silently prayed that whatever well of strength she'd found lasted, because she wasn't sure at all how much longer she could keep on faking being in control, being calm and collected.
[ Maya (https://fc02.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2014/219/e/7/maya_row_01_by_auctor_lucan-d7u6n3n.png) | Main Sickbay | Deck 07 |]
The effects of the mind meld had been unrewarding; that was hardly unexpected considering the haste that Maya had put into the procedure. The truth of the matter was that the little Vulcan simply wasn't prepared to undo the brainwashing that T'Rena had inflicted on Cir'Cie. It was only the Lexorin administered by Lahkesis that broke the spell, but when the dosage wore off would Cir'Cie fall under T'Rena's influence again?
Maya shifted her consciousness out of Cir'Cie's mind and back into the real world as she slowly broke contact. The little physician would have to resume their session later, after Maya had rested and meditated enough to restore her psyche to its proper balance. Quite illogically, Maya looked forward to collapsing into a chair after removing her fingertips from Cir'Cie's face but fate intervened.
Bursting into the room was Lieutenant Commander Phanatos Kilinvoss, callsign Phantom, the man who had the singular honor of representing all of Maya's nightmares and compromising her medical competence.
"There you are," his raspy voice sneered coldly. "I figured the botanist had fallen short of her task again."
Maya didn't open her eyes. She froze in place bent over Cir'Cie as she instinctively suppressed her emotions. The primal instincts that plagued her people thousands of years ago would only get her killed but if she could convert her savage emotion into calculating motivation it might be possible to act.
"Where is the Chief Medical Officer?" Phantom's voice rasped dangerously close. "Where is Doctor Nicander? We need him. If you don't answer me, I will kill you, and ask that Nurse instead. I will keep asking until everyone is dead... or I have a firm lead on where to find him. I suggest you answer wisely."
Maya opened her eyes and slowly stood up and turned to face her rapist from the night before.
As Maya stared into Phantom's eye the analytical part of her mind assessed the situation. How to keep the scarred pilot from harming Lahkesis and the others? An act of defiance would be ill advised. The glimpse into Kilinvoss' mind taught her that he preferred total compliance. He didn't like games, not even ones he was sure to win. His mind acted on a logic based on assumptions completely foreign to Maya, but it was logic nonetheless. He was extremely dangerous because his philosophy was so self-destructive; it was essential to keep him fixated on a goal. "Doctor Nicander is not here. He left sickbay without informing us of his destination. A search of the area can verify my information."
"Maya, help me..." Lahkesis Saugn's voice seemed to come from far away, even though the willowy girl was standing right beside the telepathic doctor. She had heard her in her mind, not her pointed ears. The temporary mental link they had forged was still barely active, but only the girl's distress could have made Lahkesis' thoughts strong enough for Maya to sense actual words without physical contact.
Maya took a step forward and fell to her knee as she reached for Lahkesis' hand to steady herself. With injured dignity she pulled herself to her feet while using the handclasp to communicate using her touch telepathy "Remain calm. Hide your thoughts. Don't give him any reason to harm you. Prepare to defend yourself but wait until the opportune moment. It is essential that he remains overconfident. If violence is necessary, it is likely that we will only have one attempt before facing repercussions."
OOC: Continued editing. Phantom is alone entering the CMO office.
[ Vinata Vojona | USS Theurgy | CMO Office | Sickbay | Deck 07 ]
As Phantom began to squeeze for he information that he wanted Vinata swallowed hard as he knew he would have to be acting soon, he had to act quickly or else something a might happen. As Phantom began to get more aggressive with the local crew Vinata knew he needed to move, but he froze up, shaking as he bit his lip and looked at the frightening man from around the corner as he tried to work up the courage to move, but he found himself frozen in place, he was scared, the other man was just so frightening it was making him freeze up, how could he do this, how would he, Vinata Vojona a simple nurse going to help?
He would have kept wallowing in his self doubt but as Phantom began to move back to the office he realize his time to think about things was gone, he could not stand idle by any longer, he had to act now or people would begin to die. Swallowing hard he circled back around the wall and he stood there and watched Phantom move into place to look for Nicander and he found the perfect time to move as Phantom turned away from him.
In a swift movement Vinata charged up to Phantom and put a cloth over his head and pulled it back in a swift movement before he drew back his leg and swiftly kicked into Phantom's groin to hopefully put him into shock an take him out of the conflict, but Vinata was too enraged, his instincts kicked in and he began to kick over and over again to cause a lot of pain to Phantom so that he would not be able to retaliate, to make him unable to harm anyone, and if Vinata had his boots, he would have stomped Phantom into a bloody pulp. With the blanket blocking Phantom's face Vinata hoped that he would not end up shot as Phantom could not see where he was aiming...he also hoped that the others would not remain passive and would come help him before he lost his steam.
[Dr. Hayden O'Connor| CMO's Office | Deck 7]
It felt like days since Hayden had moved or said anything, but in reality, Hayden knew it hadn't been that long. Her instincts were at war with one another and the longer she sat, the harder it was becoming to remember why she needed to remain there in the first place. Part of her understood she was incapable of helping anyone overcome the mental conditioning they'd endured. Rightly or wrongly, the first step in the right direction was in Maya's hands now. She also understood it wouldn't do anyone any good if she struck out blindly all because of her inability to control an urge to do something, anything, that didn't involve hunkering down and waiting for more information.
The other part of her? The other part of her was spoiling for a fight. In what seemed like the blink of an eye, not only had she been betrayed by the Starfleet she believed in like everyone else, she'd sent several of her former cremates to their deaths, learned of two rapes, and had come to the realization her former captain and several of her former Harbinger crew mates had plotted to destroy whatever sense of loyalty remained.
All the while O'Connor watched as Vinata's sobs turned to silence, just another reminder that terrible things had happened and she could do little more than bear witness to, not just the events, but the agonizing aftermath which she would be expected to address while knowing in her heart of hearts, she would never be able to truly heal any of it
One part of Counselor Hayden O'Connor could do nothing but stew with these thoughts and their subsequent rage. Even when she and the others heard the battle of words between Carrigan Trent and T'Rena, a big part of Hayden couldn't allow her spirits to be fully buoyed by Trent's righteous words, for nothing could be truly accomplished if they couldn't cut the psychological strings which left so many of the crew marionettes to the mutinous regime.
Pushing herself to her feet in a single forceful motion brought on by the fight or flight rush of energy to her limbs, it was at that moment she was given an opportunity to act. When the grotesquely scarred man barged into the office demanding answers, the counselor was far from startled. In fact, it took what seemed like only mere heartbeats for the sensory input from her eyes to trigger her mind's recollection of Maya's description of her rapist from the night before.
This was Phantom. This was the man who'd so brutalized the slight Vulcan from the night before, it had taken Hayden over an hour to remove the large green contusions and abrasions from her body, to say nothing of the internal damage. Flashes of the night before came unbidden to her mind. She could still see the finger -shaped bruises around Maya's neck, could see her wincing in pain as she took each step.
Hayden was barely aware of Maya nearby. For all the counselor knew, the images were psychic shouts from the Vulcan herself, one part of her mind forced to stay in the present. In one swift movement, she saw Maya fall to her knee and before she knew it, there was even more movement before her. Snapping out of her reverie, she realized it was the traumatized male Ovri, overcome by his own rage, who had placed something over Phantom's head and was now kicking him ferociously.
Hayden saw movement out of the corner of her eye and realized Phantom still had a weapon in one hand. Acting on pure instinct, Hayden rushed forward and stomped the wrist which held the weapon as hard as she could. O'Connor knew she had to incapacitate him, but whether it was out of morality or sheer practicality, she knew she couldn't afford to kill him.
Feeling the solidity of his flesh under her boot, Hayden allowed herself a small amount of pleasure at the realization the man who referred to himself as a being who couldn't be contained any more than the wind was anything but. This Phantom was very much made of flesh and bone.
[ Eve Jenkins | USS Theurgy | Medical Lab 01 | Sickbay | Deck 07 ]
Eve had been quiet, internally driven to try to help get the Lexorin made and distributed to stop the insanity. It also kept her from thinking about what she had done and knew she would have to do again at some point. She was also trying to suppress her body but without the vaccine it wouldn't be long before there was absolutely no controlling the release of pheromones.
As if that thought brought on more, two of the Harbinger fighter pilots entered and that twisting feeling in her gut nearly took her breath away. There were two of them, just like before. It would be so easy once they were close, letting them smell her and set fantasies afire. The cruelty in their eyes was obvious and the guilt in her gut lessened quickly as she gazed at Riptide, smiling warmly.
Of course there were others here who were quick to take the defensive and the next thing she knew, Sel was setting off a canister and Morali tackled her. She landed harder than she hoped and felt the air rush forcefully from her lungs which she immediately started trying to suck back in lest she lose even the stars dancing about in her vision. Damn trigger happy security personnel!!
Thankfully Saresh kept crawling away from her because the feel of his body on top of hers set off the fire within her. The vaccine not only controlled her pheromones but also her drive, allowing her to choose with whom she was intimate but now that control was eroding as well and she lay there on her back, staring at the ceiling wishing for him to return or Riptide to come to her ... or both.
[ Rory Callahan | USS Theurgy | Corridor | En-Route to Cargo Hold 02 | Deck 02 ]
Rory had mutely caught the rifle tossed at him by the Cardassian and rushed over to slice away the bindings on Natalie. His pupils were dilated as he looked into Natalie's eyes and whispered "I'm sorry I didn't get here sooner." After that he handed her the rifle, knowing she could use it better than he and followed them into the Jeffries tubes.
He was numb, felt like he was just floating along. He'd always known he had a temper but he'd never killed anyone before. True it was Natalie being assaulted that sent him into the murderous rage but he knew deep down he would have fought for almost any woman. It had also been the first time he had been truly able to strike out against the craziness he found himself in and he'd lost control.
As he watched Natalie move along with the others, he felt steel forming in his spine. For what he had done to her, it had been worth it to see that bastard dead. He just hoped she would forgive him and not see him as a monster; that she would remember that he could be tender and loving like the night before. If she never wanted to see him again, he would understand though his heart squeezed tight at that thought.
As they spilled out into a corridor, he heard someone call out for which side they were on and he instinctively moved to stand in front of Natalie. It was then he realized he hadn't cut the bonds on the man with them as they faced off with the other three. "Fookin' hell ... sorry Man," he said as he blithely whipped out the box cutter again and slashed at the bindings.
He glanced at the Cardassian then, his skin nearly as red as the blood now. "An' I'll have ye know I only killed th' one," he said defensively. "Two'r trussed up down in a supply closet at the bar an' another's trussed up in th' loo outside th' room I found ..." He glanced at Natalie, his expression softening for a moment. "So I jus' knocked out three an' th' last ... th' last deserved t' die an' I'd do it again." For you, Natalie. For you I would do anything, his eyes seemed to tell her.
[ Freya & Riptide | Medical Lab 01 | Sickbay | Deck 07 ] Attn: Sarresh Morali, Ryuan Sel & Eve Jenkins
"Dammit, you idiots..." snarled Freya and raised her hand phaser to shoot the three Ives Loyalists in the medical lab when the gas began to fill the room, but she had been too late - all three of them diving into cover. She opened fire nonetheless, but hit nothing - three quick energy beams illuminating the growing cloud with orange light. In the interim of searching for movements, Freya could not quite shake off the impression of that Nurse's smile, swallowing and wondering what the hell her mind was doing in the gutter all of a sudden. Why were they even there, shooting their allies instead of working with them?
As for Riptide, he might not have opened fire because he was cautious about what kind of gas that had been released, but since the security officer dressed in white underwear had opted to fill the entire lab with it, he reckoned it was merely a way to distract them and shroud their line of sight. He too could not quite shake the Nurse's smile while he tried to rifle through their potential tactics. Were they even armed? The security officer had not held a weapon, but she would have kept one close by, wouldn't she? The gas was, somehow, making it hard to think straight.
"Wide dispersal..." said Freya, sounding as confused about the situation as he was. She was not thinking straight. Riptide had heard her like this before, knew she was not at her full wits. Finger trembling, she changed the setting on her hand phaser. Was she really about to pelt the entire lab with energy? Riptide opened his mouth to object, knowing that even a stun setting caused - besides unconsciousness - minor skin burns to organic matter. They were in a bloody medical lab, and she was going to fire at all the chemicals stored there? He was no scientist, but even he didn't like the outcome of the risk analysis. That smile from the nurse, and that he felt less compelled to harm anyone with each passing second, compelled him to do something. Fast.
"No!" he called and struck Freya's weapon from below, just when she pushed the button. The wide beam expanded from the muzzle, and they were both hit in their faces at close range. Riptide did not have the time to regret his impulse before he died, because at close range, even a high stun setting was lethal.
What he didn't see was how the beam also seared the ceiling, which automatically activated the emergency systems installed into the lab.The entire room was lit by emergency lighting, filtered through the Lexorin gas cloud. The doors sealed shut, the current mixing sequences were halted, and the air in the room was vented out. Anywhere else than in lab environment, sprinklers would have dozed the flames, but chemicals might have violent reactions to H2O exposure, so the fuel for the potential fire was vented instead.
Moreover, fire extinguishers were lit up along the walls. Breathing masks fell out of the ceiling as well, dangling like gallows in the maelstrom of venting gas. Fortunately for the surviving crew in the lab, the air-venting would never drop to lethal levels, but cause light asphyxiation until someone reset the systems via one of the computer consoles. The door had to be opened by authorised medical personnel, which was - incidentally - only Nurse Eve Jenkins.
OOC: Further posts to come here soon...
Ryuan Sel | Medical Lab 01 | Sickbay
The seconds ticked by, each causing Ryuan Sel to get more and more ready for the inevitable fire fight. She did her best to visualize the counter she had set her phaser rifle on so that when the time came she would be ready to leap up and grab it, defending the others from what she could only assume would be something unpleasant. Though part of her mind whispered quietly that she should learn whatever it was that they wanted to share, even though she was all but certain that it would likely end with some insane Vulcan rearranging her mind to make her more willing to take aim at her crew.
She was lost in thought when she was slammed back to reality by the sound of a phaser going off. Without thinking she leapt across the table she was hiding behind and grabbed her phaser rife. She did not even notice what had happened until she took aim at the two now dead mutineers.
"Well that was a bit unexpected," she said as she walked over to the two and bent down to check their vitals. Even the stun setting could kill at close range and it looked like the two had been far to close to the nozzle when the gun had gone off. She turned to where she was pretty sure the other two were hiding. "It's ok, they won't be a problem anymore." As she spoke she heard the fire suppression system kick in and felt the breeze as the room began to empty of breathable air. "Though that might be."
[ Cir'Cie | CMO Office | Sickbay | Deck 07 ] Attn: Hayden O'Connor, Doctor Maya, Vinata Vojona & Lahkesis Saugn
When Cir'Cie opened her eyes, she could barely move - vision blurred.
She judged that she had likely been drugged, and quite recently. In part because she found herself lying underneath the distinctive lights of the primary surgical suite in Sickbay, and also because she was Vulcan and knew her body's faculties quite well. She was injured, and remembered the fighting in Sickbay, and how determined she had been to obey orders that made no sense to her now. That determination was gone, replaced with the understanding that she had been mind-melded by the Master Acolyte and made to believe she did the right thing. Maya had unravelled the bindings on her mind. It was a lot to take in, and the emotions threatened to overtake her - compromising her. Nevertheless, she might have been a young Vulcan, but she quickly got her mind clear enough to process the visual impressions around her.
She lifted her head and slowly propped herself up on her elbows where she lay, and the first thing she saw was the Ovri nurse stepping up behind a tall human with a severely scared face. Cir'Cie remembered him quite well, knowing he was called Phantom and that he belonged to Tactical Conn on the Harbinger. The Ovri male was naked, securing his blanket across the human's head from behind and keeping him unbalanced. Cir'Cie had never seen Ovri fighting, and it seemed they could make excellent use of their strong digitigrade legs, because in what seemed like unchecked rage, the Ovri began to kick the human between his legs or wherever he might hit while Phantom struggled to get the blanket out of his face.
The Lieutenant Commander was armed, a hand phaser gleaming in his grip as he flailed about. He opened fire immediately even if he could not see anything. A couple of beams scorched the ceiling, while another dug into the edge of the biobed. Cir'Cie tried to edge away on top of it, but her body did not respond as quickly as she wanted it to - the drugs in her system still in effect. Fear was an emotion she could control, so her face remained impassive despite the commotion. Still, the Ovri kept kicking the man from behind - holding on to the blanket, refusing to let go while he kicked the human as hard as he could. Soon, Phantom went down on one knee, and he tried to shoot behind himself - pointing the weapon backwards over his shoulder. Yet he damaged nothing more than the interior of the surgical suite, and with another couple of kicks, he was on his back - the twisted blanket still around his head.
That was when the Counsellor sprang forth, stomping with all her weight against Phantom's wrist, which made the phaser clatter against the deck plates and the Wing Commander let out another muffled sound of furious anger - which likely expressed his pain as well.
Yet even if he was unarmed, he was clearly not going to surrender. Cir'Cie saw him roll over on all four and lash out with his unhurt arm against the Ovri - suddenly twisting himself free from the blanket. Both sides of his face were red and equal in a murderous snarl. He tried to pull the Ovri closer using any grip he could make - likely meaning to wrap his hard fingers around the nurse's throat. Perhaps even bashing his head in against the floor. Unless the Ovri got free, the human would end his life by any means possible. Then he would move on to the women in the room. Cir'Cie knew this because she had come to know the man from T'Rena.
"You must subdue him now lest he will kill us all," said Cir'Cie, her passionless tone in stark contrast to the meaning of her words.
OOC: Another one with Lucan coming up soon...
[ Dr. Nicander | Corridor | Deck 02 ] Attn: Hylota Vojona, Heather McMillan, Aisha S'Iti, Natalie Stark, Simon Tovarek & Rory Callahan
Pale grey eyes darting between the four people that had emerged from the jefferies tubes, Lucan made his decision as soon as he was confident they presented no hostility. He had set the bundles with xenon down while they spoke, and he stepped close to Heather - the Radiant - and whispered to her. "Sorry, I have to borrow this," was what he said, for once not even considering how his warm breath caressed her ear when he did. As the four spoke, he reached down into Heather's pocket - fishing up her hand phaser.
The Cardassian seemed to be cooperating with them even if she claimed that she considered herself Marquis, and Lucan supposed that was good enough for the time being. Who was he to judge her for not quite living up to the standards of the Starfleet uniform? Private humour, which only made the thing inside thrum in amusement. The Cardassian suggested that he'd see to their wounds, but while he gave a quick nod, he said, "In a moment. Excuse me."
He pointed the hand phaser against the grate from whence they all had emerged and began to weld the opening shut - effectively blocking any pursuers. His tattooed hand trembled from fatigue as he held the button on the phaser down, but while he worked, he listened. So while he made no comment besides a lop-sided smile on the remark upon his appearance - knowing he looked like he had been on the loosing side in a Reman fighting pit in the dirties levels of their dilithium mines - he did explain what he and the two women behind him had been up to and what their plans were.
"More than an hour ago - when they first made their move - Declan Vasser spoke on the intercom. He ordered all volunteers that were prepared to fight the battle on his terms to gather in the second cargo hold on this deck. Nurse Hylota here came up with the plan to sedate them all, perhaps even managing to do so when T'Rena or Vasser inspects their new crew. We are carrying these xenon cylinders to that purpose - about to empty them into that cargo hold without being spotted."
Finished with his welding job, Lucan turned to everyone present - assessing their injuries with his exotic eyes alone and deciding that there was no more time to waste on medical practice. Not when there was so much at stake and so little time to do it. "We need to carry on, but Nurse Vojona might be too injured to help with the xenononce we get there." Lucan gave the Ovri a quick sympathetic smile. "I could use someone besides Miss McMillan to accompany me, and we are too large a group to move about unseen, so I'd rather not ask the whole lot of you to follow."
[Lieutenant-Commanders Nicander and Stark, can you hear me?] asked Thea on the intercom.
"We are here," said Lucan and could not help but let out a chuckle, "and it is marvellous to hear your voice, Thea. I trust you are not reprogrammed, are you?"
[Negative. Selena Ravenholm tried, but...] There was a pause before Thea changed topics, [There is no time. The Calamity is here, just outside the nebula. I have not revoked command privileges from Commodore Vasser because he may need it if he goes to warp and seeks to deploy the mines against Cala. Nonetheless, he needs to be removed from command. I am sending up five people from Deck 05 to join you, and they are all armed and ready to retake the bridge. Can as many of you as possible rendezvous with them and find some means of access?.]
There was a lot to process, but Lucan weeded out what needs they still had. "How many personnel have come to Cargo Hold 02, volunteering to support Vasser?"
[Twenty volunteers, and there are two security officers present as well. If deployed, they could ruin our chances to reclaim the ship.]
"I suppose..." said Lucan and looked to the whole group, "you all have to decide where you can contribute the most. The mutineers in the cargo hold are too many to be ignored, and I will be heading there. Who among you will you come with me, and who will head to the turbolifts and join the strike team Thea has mobilised?"
Oh, how did it always have to be him? Why did he continue to stick his neck out for the cattle?
OOC: Post the choice your character make, going with Nicander or not. IronFerrox, I suggest Aisha goes with the strike team to take the CONN?
[ Heather McMillan | Corridor | En-Route to Cargo Hold 02 | Deck 02 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: Lucan cin Nicander, Hylota Vojona, Aisha S'Iti, Natalie Stark, Simon Tovarek & Rory Callahan(https://tinyurl.com/k36v3c3)(https://tinyurl.com/m74m4d6)
McMillan glanced irritably at Vojona when she suggested that the Radiant's timing couldn't be worse. She bloody
knew that from the time she had set foot on board the
Theurgy, as far as she was concerned. And the only reason she provided any exposition was for Nicander's benefit so that he would understand, and maybe be a little less intimidating to her. But what she did agree with her on was that maybe the time for talking, on her part at least, was best left for later, in less strenuous times, whenever that might be. As the newcomers slowly explained themselves more and more, the petite young woman gradually released her concentration on holding the light ready for use, as they appeared to be on the same side.
Nicander had lowered the cannisters and spoke to her, taking the phaser right out of her coat pocket, and she squeaked in surprise. She felt his breath against her ear, and flushed nervously. "Keep it." She suggested, seeing as she didn't like the first and only time she ever held a weapon, she didn't feel inclined to hold on to the device, and if he found a use for it, well, better him than her. And then her heart sank when Thea's voice came over the intercom, and addressed Nicander and Stark. She had been lucky when she made it back to the ship in the wake of the
Calamity's assault. And who the bloody hell names a ship
Calamity anyway? That was just plain bad luck. Or asking for it.
When Nicander asked who was going to join him or join the impromptu strike force who would attempt to retake the bridge, she slowly moved to stand by Nicander. Since he had already mentioned her accompanying him, but still, she simply picked up the cannisters, still supported by the anti-gravity generators. She was ready to put an end to all this nonsense. In all honesty, with the
Calamity out there, Vasser and his cohorts should really be focusing their efforts in keeping everyone alive, and no one should be fighting one another within the two ships. They had enough enemies as it was. She idly wondered if she would ever see her parents or her friends on Earth ever again.
Then another thought hit her, and she looked over at Nicander, "Doctor," she said, "with the
Calamity so close by, shouldn't we at least let Vasser know? Maybe convince them to focus their efforts on working together to survive a greater threat?"
It seemed so foolish a thought, but McMillan was hoping that this would end the confusing violence sooner. "I know Vasser and his second-in-command are rather...bonkers right now, but maybe there's still some measure of reason left to them, couldn't we at least try?"
She glanced nervously at one of the men nearby, who's eyes she had caught for a moment, then she turned to look back at the doctor, to see what he had to say.
[ Hylota Vojona | Corridor | En-Route to Cargo Hold 02 | Deck 02 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: Dr. Nicander, Heather McMillan, Aisha S'Iti, Natalie Stark, Simon Tovarek & Rory Callahan
Hylota took stock of the entire situation as it unfolded before her, each added complication seemed to fall upon her shoulders like packs added to the back of mule, it was all just too much, and as she began to run through her options Hylota shut her eyes tight and took a deep breath before she shook her head. There was no way that she would be of any use to a force taking back the bridge, and crawling around in the jeffries tube she would need to bind her arm otherwise it would be dragging along the ground as she went.
On the other hand...she looked to Lucan and he spoke firmly and professionally to him. "Doctor, I cannot provide much service to anyone right now in the missions at hand, but I can provide ad for you in another way." She raised her hand phaser again smiled slightly."We will need to ensure that no on can escape the gassing, and that means disabling the door before you go in to release the gas. And it is likely they would have enough people in there with some tech skills to get the door to open again or at least force it, so I propose I just go to the other side and disable the door and then weld it shut."
She smiled a little more as her exhaustion from the whole ordeal was beginning to show."Besides I doubt that we would be losing much if I were to get stunned by these mutineers, I am not in that great of shape any longer and I will just slow down the group I would be going with to be honest." She sighed. "This way we do not have to put anyone able bodied into harms way and I can still be of use to the cause." She stood up straight to show that she as still able an ready to do her part for the sake of the ship, while internally she was just wanting to rest, she was a damn nurse not a commando! What the hell was she doing here?
[ Vinata Vojona | CMO Office | Sickbay | Deck 07 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: Hayden O'Connor, Doctor Maya, Cir'Cie & Lahkesis Saugn
As Phantom freed himself fro the feeble blindfold and lashed out at Vinata he gasped as he was dragged to the floor, the enrage man having caught him off guard with how strong he still was despite the beating he had taken.As he felt the strong hands tighten around his throat and squeezed his windpipe shut he began to panic, but as he began to be violently slammed against the floor his face distorted in pain and fear. In his moment of panic he look through he haze and looked at Phantom's ace twisted in rag and he did the only thing that he could think of to fight back. He reached up with his hands and pushed back against Phantom with one while the other went over Phantom's face an he began to press his thumb into his right eye, threatening to crush it. Unless someone else got involved he was going to keep with his current path of action, he a unable to do much else with his legs pinned down.
[ Simon Tovarek | Corridor | En-Route to Cargo Hold 02 | Deck 02 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: Lucan cin Nicander, Hylota Vojona, Aisha S'Iti, Natalie Stark, Heather McMillan & Rory Callahan
Hearing about the plan with the canisters, Simon looked over at Stark before turning his eyes back to Nicander. While he might come up with a better way to release the gas inside of them he opted that his chances of ingenuity and skills would be stronger with the team heading over to the cargo hold. Thus he spoke up "If possible I'd like to join Lt Cmdr Nicander. I possibly might have a theory on how to spread the gas more efficiently or on how to enhance the intake of it if I manage to change the parameters in the life support systems in the cargo hold." His eyes went over to Stark to see if she was prone to agree with his way of thinking since he assumed she would lead the strike team. Again she was just as high ranking as Lucan so the two might come upon an agreement where Simon would be placed best, he only made a proposition to the two.
While awaiting for their go ahead he already started to make calculations inside of his mind. By hacking into life support he could increase the intake of oxygen which would react to a quicker absorption of the gas if it were released, more oxygen might also make it possible for the inhalers to spread the gas into their bloodstream knocking them out cold much faster and longer than without any fiddling to it. Besides that you also had the chance that they would be able to get out and escape if the gas didn't work fast enough. Perhaps a modification to the gas could help, yet he had little time and ample resources to work with.
Eventually he laid his eyes back on the flustered civilian over by Lucan and he smiled a bit and nodded to her as he slowly made his way beside her to show the other that he'd preferably go with this part of the squad. His eyes were caught by the radiant as he seemed to inspect her, wondering how she got in all this mess, yet the time for proper introduction and the sorts were for a later more suitable time. Simon diverted his eyes over to Hylota and he asked "How's the wound keeping up?"
[ AIsha S'Iti | Corridor | Deck 02 ] Attn: Dr. Nicander, Thea, Hylota Vojona, Heather McMillan, Aisha S'Iti, Natalie Stark, Simon Tovarek & Rory Callahan.
Aisha had already made up her mind before anything else was mentioned. She knew it was dangerous and she would essentially be going back to the very den of lions who she may as well have provoked moments earlier. Still she knew where she was needed the most. "Thea this is Aisha S'iti. I am requesting the authorizations that you undoubtedly whether intentional or accidental took away with the restriction of Harbinger personnel authorities. I am hereby requesting reinstatement as temporary chief CONN officer of the USS Theurgy. Prior to my attempt to break out Stark and Tovarek, Vaser and I set up a contingency plan for launching the mines in the event that I was not on the bridge or if the CONN or Tactical station were damaged during Cala's attack." She paused a moment hoping Thea had made the correct reinstatement of protocols. Thea, if the main bridge is unaware please advise Vasser of current proximity and location of Calamity and advise him to activate CONN Override Preset Calamity Protocol One and advise use of the manual control column. Once we arrive unless there is someone of greater knowledge or ability on the team reassign Vasser as acting Chief Tactical Officer. Please advise on how to proceed in preparation for the assault team's arrival. S'Iti out"
[ Maya (https://fc02.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2014/219/e/7/maya_row_01_by_auctor_lucan-d7u6n3n.png) | Main Sickbay | Deck 07 |] Attention: Hayden O'Connor, Phantom, Vinata Vojona & Lahkesis Saugn
Back in sickbay, Maya was staring down her rapist as the injured nurse Vinata Vojona crept up to Phantom, intending to envelop him in a blanket. The Theurgy's new counselor Hayden O'Connor crept up behind the azure Ovri, as nervous and as silent as a cat ready to spring.
Looking into Phantom's eye was paralyzing. Maya's large hazel eyes narrowed as she struggled to suppress the primordial passions that the philosopher Surak had locked away over two thousand years ago. As Vinata Vojona and Hayden O'Connor attacked Kilinvoss from behind Lahkesis Saugn could hear the little Vulcan's thoughts through the temporary psychic bond they shared. Despite the fact that they were less than a meter apart from each other, Maya had to be concentrating intensely for her thoughts to be as clear to Saugn at all.
"This mustn't register on an emotional level," Maya told herself. In an instant, the little Vulcan used the distraction of Hayden and Vinata's desperate attack to retrieve a medical instrument from a compartment in the biobed. "Subject: Phanatos Kilinvoss, Species: Human Gender: Male Physical age: 46 standard years," the logical part of her mind analyzed as she held a medical instrument smaller than a fountain pen and faced the spectacle of the commander of the Harbinger's Dor'GhItlh Squadron fighting two members of the medical division. "Height: 1.5 meters, weight: 84.4 kilograms. Physical analysis: Despite scarification and other permanent injuries, a capable soldier fit for battle. Expert in both Cardassian and Terran unarmed martial arts." She activated the little device in her hand, revealing that it was in fact a scalpel that used a colored transparent force field to create a tiny blade less than two centimeters long. "Psychological analysis: Post-traumatic stress resulting in tribalism and antisocial personality disorder. Ruthless and contemptuous of Federation values, a throwback to earlier eras. No evidence of psychic manipulation. Likelihood of surrendering before inflicting permanent physical harm on staff and patients: Unlikely."
Before Maya's unblinking gaze she saw Phantom break free of the blanket Vinata had entangled him with and lunge at the Ovri. "You must subdue him now lest he will kill us all," Cir'Cie's lifeless voice announced from the biobed.
This was the moment Maya was waiting for. The sight of the interior of the human's upper arm was all she needed to dart forward. Point of weakness detected. Nick brachial artery to neutralize threat. Summary prognosis: hypovolemia with expected symptoms of tachycardia, tachypnea, and pale skin revealing the absence of perfusion. The subject will encounter increased heart and breathing rates as the body attempts to oxygenate itself. Subject will suffer sweating and chest pains. Estimated time of death in ninety seconds. Ability to harm Lahkesis: neutralized."
The little Vulcan's arm moved as quickly as a cobra strike. The puncture Maya would make to Phantom's ventral upper arm would seem to be merely a tiny nick, but the wound would cause sever a major artery and be fatal in a minute and a half. Phantom would then be forced to surrender and receive treatment or he could keep fighting and bleed to death. The cold look in Maya's hazel eyes indicated that the latter was preferable.
[Lahkesis Saugn | Main Sickbay | Deck 07 |] Attention: Hayden O'Connor, Phantom, Vinata Vojona & Maya
Almost all that went on around Lahkesis was lost on her fear-plagued mind. She could not look away from the conflict, and yet it seemed like it did not register at all. She watched as her crewmates struggled to take down the horrific man. She watched as he fought them off. She watched as the phaser fell from his hand and to the floor. And yet the fight went on.
Then, like a whisper she heard the voice of Doctor Maya, the cool calculated diagnosis of the situation almost seemed to calm her. She watched as the small Vulcan woman moved lightning fast and slipped the scalpel into the man's arm. She knew immediately what the woman had done, she could see it in her mind, though this was likely the result of the psycic connection that lingered between the Vulcan woman and her. The wound would be lethal in a matter of seconds, though it would not be apparent to the man until it was to late. At least not unless he noticed the rather large amount of blood he was losing.
And then something broke in her. She scampered across the floor and grabbed the hand phaser he had dropped. She gripped it so tight he hand began to hurt, but before she could stop herself she had taken aim. A phaser set on stun could kill at close enough range. This phaser was set a couple step above that on heavy stun. Combined with the adrenaline in the man's system and the shock his body was undergoing it should not have taken more than a couple of quick bursts to cause a complete cessation of bodily functions.
And yet Lahkesis did not shoot only a couple of times. She shot as many times as she could. He died and she shot him more. The skin burned and distorted and she shot him more. She couldn't stop herself. She just kept shooting.
She did not stop until the battery indicator on the phaser went off. And then she fell back limply, the hand phaser slipping from her long fingers and clattering to the floor. And yet she stared a the man before her, fear still playing it's way across her face.
She had seen the face of the devil and she had killed it.
OOC: Hope this is ok. If I need to change anything just let me know~
[ Vinata Vojona | CMO Office | Sickbay | Deck 07 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: Hayden O'Connor, Doctor Maya, Cir'Cie & Lahkesis Saugn
Vinata was struggling to hold Phantom at bay despite his own throat being held firmly shut, if not for his lower rate of oxygen use he would have been much more fearful of being choked out, but little did he know that he was soon going to be wishing that he could have been knocked out in a few moments. As his hands pressed against Phantom and tried to hold him off he felt the familiar pain of physical strain began to fill his arms and he opened his eyes to look up at Phantom. And from there things only got worse.
The world around him seemed to slow down as Phantom too a stab to the arm from Doctor Maya, his mind quickly made a medical analysis of the injury, noting the damage and his eyes widened further as he watched the steady flow of blood began to soak into the man's uniform, it did not take log for him to feel the warmth of the blood against his neck, it slowly wrapped around his neck and he began to squirm as he did not want to be under Phantom when his body finally gave out.
Vinata thought that that was it, hat he would jut be bloodied and have to be dragged out from under Phantom as he passe out from the blood loss, but he was no that lucky, because at that point in time Lahkesis got her hands on a hand phaser and began to open up on Phantom...while Vinata was still pushing against Phantom. The first few shots missed where Vinata was, but as Lahkesis began to fire more wildly a stray shot his Phantom in the shoulder not hitting Vinata, but close enough that the radiant head singed his hand making Vinata give up holding Phantom back as he held his burned hand close to his chest.
I was at this point that gravity to over and Phantom fell flat on top of Vinata, his face pressed against Vinata's as the Ovri male went into shock, this was just too much, he felt the warm wet sensation of Phantom's blood against his skin as the corpse bled out on top of him. His grip was still relatively firm even in death ad Vinata was having trouble breathing, but he was getting weak breaths as he shuddered underneath the slaughtered remains of Phanatos Kilinvoss as it got shot over and over. Was there any way this could get worse? His only hope was that his sister was safe an better off than he was...that and that his comrades would get over their own shock and Get The CORPSE OFF OF HIM!!!
[Sarresh Morrali | Medical Lab 01 | Sickbay]
The fog filled the room and the hiss of phaser fire cut through the confusion, even as Sarresh kept rolling away into a crouch. His nostrils flared, and he shook his head. The Leroxin had no affect on the Ash'reem turned Human - his mind hadn't been warped by the less then gentle touch of T'Rena's mind meld, so there wasn't anything for the now vaporized drug to do to his system. The same could not have been said for the two would be assailants. He hadn't expected the drug to be quite so immediately effective. Then again, he hadn't expected it to be dispersed in such an abrupt and violent fashion. Needless to say it worked, if not exactly the resolution he was looking for. And with no i'll effects to himself. But the sudden heat in his cheeks - and lower - well that was an unwelcome surprise. He'd been pressed close to Nurse Jenkins when he'd pulled her down, and he swore he could smell her on him. Similar to how he would have been able to smell Amikris, had they been similarly close.
A voice pulled his thoughts away, and he slowly stood, watching as Ryuan Sel confirmed that their would be assailants were no longer among the living. Artificial eyes drank in every inch of the Bajoran woman, scantily clad as she was in naught but regulation drawers, and while his Ash'reem standards were still well and truly in place - mentally at least - physically, his body was reacting to...whatever was going on, and to the Bajoran as much as the memory of the woman on the floor, slowly getting to her feet. His head was swimming with thoughts, all of them highly inappropriate. Gone was the focus that he'd had earlier - whatever was at cause here, his hard wiring, and new human body, neither we capable of shunting it aside.
"What the hell is going on..." He muttered, that analytic mind that had served him so well drawing a blank. Up until the fire suppression systems kicked in. The already dim lights turned an eerie blue, and Sarresh swore. "Grab a mask," he managed to call out, snagging one dangling from the ceiling and dragging it down towards Nurse Jenkins, who was still on the floor. "Quickly!"
[Natalie Stark | Corridor | Deck 02]
"I'm sorry I didn't get here sooner." The words from earlier kept playing in her mind, over and over. She could hear the whispered, hushed tones, the pain, in Rory's voice, and she wished she had the time to pull him aside and let him know that...well, she wasn't ok. She couldn't be ok, but that she couldn't be prouder of him, either. There wasn't the time, and her focus, unfortunately, was needed elsewhere. Even if all she wanted to do right then was take his hand and pretend everything was ok. Natalie kept her face schooled as Dr. Nicander filled her in on the remaining details of his plan. There was plenty of merit to it, and she could already see ways to increase the likelihood of success. For a medical man, the good doctor had more than a few tactical ideas worth considering. But she couldn't really add her two cents, because Thea hailed the two of them.
On the one hand, Natalie was thrilled to find out that the AI had not, in fact, been compromised. Having recently gained status as her own sentient being, being reprogrammed would have been a devastating loss, as far as Natalie was concerned. The news that the AI had for them was less then welcome, however, and the brunette sucked in a sharp breath, repressing her fear. Her subordinates immediately began offering up their preferences, and she had to agree with all the choices made. She shared a look with Lt. Tovarek, as if assessing him, and silently asking if he were up for the job he'd just volunteered for. But she could find no fault in his request.
"I agree, Simon. Accompanying Dr. Nicander would be the best bet for you," she took another deep breath, because what came next would not be fun "Personally, i'd love nothing more than to space Vasser and T'Rena. Since that isn't an immediately available option, I suppose that means the best thing I can do is to accompany Ms. S'Iti to the bridge, and hope everyone there can be reasonable a bout not getting us all vaporized by that death ship bearing down on us. Can't say I like the odds much on that. They're both full of all kinds of crazy." She hoped she sounded more confident than she felt.
[ Maya (https://fc02.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2014/219/e/7/maya_row_01_by_auctor_lucan-d7u6n3n.png) | Main Sickbay | Deck 07 |] Attention: Hayden O'Connor, Phantom, Vinata Vojona & Lahkesis Saugn
Whatever Maya was expecting Lahkesis to do; it wasn't scoop up Phantom's phaser and shoot him. The part of Maya's mind that was capable of feeling emotion reeled with horror as she realized that she had subconsciously sent the darling girl the impression that Phanatos Kilinvoss was a painful cancer to be excised from the body, or at the very least, a terminal patient that had to be allowed to die in triage so that the medics could concentrate on the ones they could save. Belay that; Lahkesis had gotten a peek at the part of the Vulcan psyche that Vulcans didn't admit they possessed and felt Maya's primal desire to kill Phantom for what he had done and for having the audacity to threaten someone who Maya loved after betraying everyone aboard the Theurgy.
Maya's reaction had been to give Phantom a fatal wound that if left untreated would result in death in less than two minutes. Under normal circumstances, it wasn't a death sentence if it happened in main sickbay. There were plenty of people who could save him in time. Lahkesis had decided to end it quickly, sensing that Phantom's very presence was painful to the little Vulcan. With the innocence of a child, Lahkesis had acted quickly and instinctively to take the scarred pilot out of the equation in the fastest most expedient way possible so they wouldn't have to worry about him in the future.
The cold logical part of Maya admired the skill in which she handled a phaser. Her hands didn't shake, and somehow she had managed not to hit Nurse Vinata and Counselor O'Connor. The combat skills of the officer she was based on had apparently been transferred to Doctor Saugn. In addition, putting Phantom out of his misery was probably the best action in the long term. It was unlikely that Phantom would be anything but a danger in the future, for he would blame the Theurgy's crew for any casualties that Dor'GhItlh Squadron had suffered during the mutiny.
As Lahkesis, fell backwards after draining the hand phaser, Maya caught her with a jerkily smooth movement that was reminiscent of an automaton. "Calm yourself precious one," Maya assured the willowy redhead as she gently lowered the girl to a sitting position. "I'll be back once I remove the remains from atop Nurse Vinata."
"Counselor, your assistance would be welcome," she murmured as she crouched next to Phantom and began to roll his body off of the Ovri. There would be time to deal with the repercussions of their actions once the crisis was over. Right now Maya had to be the voice of reason and take care of the others.
[ Cir'Cie | CMO Office | Sickbay | Deck 07 ] Attn: Hayden O'Connor, Doctor Maya, Vinata Vojona & Lahkesis Saugn
Whether or not her warning had been heeded didn't matter, because Cir'Cie saw the whole ordeal as she moved to sit on the biobed. Phantom had tried to strangle the Ovri, who had pressed his thumb into the Wing Commander's remaining eye. The human had screamed, perhaps in pain or perhaps in ire, but he he had let go of the Nurse's throat with one hand to save his eye from being hurt. Cir'Cie could not tell how bad the damage had been to the mutineer, but at least temporarily blinded, he had not been able to fend of the cut Doctor Maya sustained upon him. Perhaps he hadn't even felt it during the commotion, and the blood had poured down the arm that still held Vinata Vojona - gushed over his blue and minutely scaled skin.
Cir'Cie had almost got to her feet by the time the other Doctor - the Teslyliac duplicate named Lahkesis - picked up Phantom's hand phaser and started shooting him. Cir'Cie had raised an eyebrow at the display, seeing how the Ensign close-proximity fire into Phantom's back even as he had fallen down upon the Nurse. The human danced a galvanic gavotte where he lay on the Ovri, twitching from each discharge of the weapon - bleeding out even as his tall frame had been rendered unconscious. The smell of seared textile and burnt flesh filled the room gradually, and in the end, the power cell of the hand phaser was depleted by the consecutive energy beams. By that time, Cir'Cie was standing next to Doctor Maya and Doctor Saugn.
The other Vulcan in the room made the appropriate call to free the nurse that still lay trapped underneath the dead human, and Cir'Cie replied before the counsellor. "I will assist you," she said in her halcyon intonation, moving slowly because of the drugs in her system, but could with some assistance nonetheless get the Wing Commander off from Nurse Vojona - the Ovri covered in red human blood once revealed to the stark light of the primary surgical suite. "He appears physically unharmed."
Of course, there were three doctors in attendance counting Chief Counsellor O'Connor, so her comment was not required. They were the ones to make the assessment using their tricorders, while she was just a Botanical Scientist - perhaps only able to judge the health of Doctor Saugn if needed be. The reason she had spoken, she realised, was because she felt a uncontrollable need to remedy the acts she had performed when under T'Rena's influence. With this in mind, she squared her shoulders.
"My gratitude. I would require an inoculation of a substance that can clear my mind and body from the effects of what I have been drugged with," she said, voice even as she looked towards the exit of the room - her intentions bent upon the work ahead of her and Doctor Maya. "Too many have been shown T'Rena's vision of the future. Their minds must be cleared of the illusion forced upon them. Right now, they still believe there is no recourse but to escape Federation space and breed pure offspring to lead the next war, for they believe this one has already been lost."
Blinking, she began to look around herself in the CMO Office. She added more words as the realisations dawned upon her. "They seek to use Doctor Nicander and this room to genetically re-engineer all children-to-come whilst they are still in the womb. They were to be given the Velsren sac of the Asurians, granted superior healing abilities, but that is not all. The genetic template they mean to use is Declan Vasser." Her green eyes returned to the people who had restored her, one last thing to be revealed about their adversary.
"The reason for this is that Declan Vasser is an Augment," she said, as if she spoke the photosynthetic quality in a rare growth, "perhaps the most powerful one of this century. He must be approached with great caution, lest we will loose more of our crew."
OOC: More posts to come here. :)
[ Dr. Nicander | Corridor | Deck 02 ] Attn: Hylota Vojona, Heather McMillan, Aisha S'Iti, Natalie Stark, Simon Tovarek & Rory Callahan
The two women who had been with Dr. Nicander so far would accompany him the rest of the way, even if Hylota was injured and Heather was no more a soldier than Lucan was. Hylota suggested how she might assist in keeping the mutineers inside the cargo hold, perhaps devaluing herself a bit too much in her suggestion, and Heather made the sound judgement call that they had to warn Vasser that the Calamity was on her way. Lucan was about to voice his agreement with the Radiant, but the Harbinger's helmswoman immediately put the very same idea to action.
[System Access granted,] said Thea to the former Marquis, and besides asking for restored authorisations, Aisha S'Iti gave voice to reason.
"Thea, if the main bridge is unaware please advise Vasser of current proximity and location of Calamity and advise him to activate CONN Override Preset Calamity Protocol One and advise use of the manual control column. Once we arrive..."
Hearing this, Lucan gave the Radiant a smile where she stood with the bundles of xenon canisters. "Are you sure you belong in a lab, Miss McMillan?" he asked rhetorically, then Tovarek - the new Chief Science Officer - moved to aide them, and Lucan was rather grateful that he had ideas on how to disperse the xenon effectively since he had not yet recovered from using his inborn abilities on Deck 03. He would not be able to move the air in the cargo hold without risking that he fell unconscious in the attempt. Lucan gave the bearded man a grateful - and quite genuine - nod as he came to stand by Hylota and ask how she fared.
In the end, Stark made the obvious call to accompany the Cardassian, who had the best chance of piloting Thea as well as Winterbourne once had. Strange to have heard that the white-haired youth was dead. Lucan would miss the house calls he'd made to the helmsman, but more importantly, he had lost a valuable asset. Natalie Stark, however, was very much alive, and the encouraging smile he gave her looked very much the same that he had given her in the jefferies tubes that morning before the Calamity first attacked them. They'd shared an experience when the Ishtar entity had found them, and before that, they had been at the mercy of the infected in the Garden of Eden. Fate did seem to bring them together, and it was something Lucan meant to exploit if he so could.
The time had come for the two teams to go separate ways. "May the winds carry your purpose," said Lucan to the ones heading up to the Bridge, then singled out the Cardassian with his pale gaze, "and your aim be true."
Then he turned on his heel and led the way down the corridor, hand phaser by his hip and the beast chanting for murder in his mind. If only xenon had been flammable, then he could have arranged for a horrible accident in the cargo hold... In his minds eye, he saw it happen, and the darkness relished the sight. "Let's see if we can take care of those two security guards if they are standing guard outside the door," he said, glancing towards Heather McMillan and wondering if she was prepared to use her strange abilities again. Hylota had to take their place outside the door. "If they aren't, we will gas them along with the rest."
Once they reached the intersection, not a minute later, a quick glance made it was plain that they were not so fortunate, for the guards were right there, and it was up to Heather to - perhaps - blind them before they could be taken out. Lucan looked her way. "We will cover you. Just pretend you want to join the ones inside and then catch them off their guard. Can you do this?"
Simon Tovarek might not have known what what going on, but there was no time to explain.
OOC: Suggested posting order: 1) Hylota answering Tovarek etc. 2) Heather McMillan doing something about the guards 3) Tovarek's reaction to Heather's display and stunning the guards if so required 4) Lucan again
Post with Thea leading the two halves of the strike team coming up in an hour or so.
[ Theugy "Thea" NX-79854 | Corridors - Turbolifts | Deck 02 ] Attn: Fasha, Tessa May Lance, Aisha S'Iti, Sten Covington, Natalie Stark & Rory Callahan
To those who would attempt to seize the Main Bridge, namely Natalie Stark, Aisha S'Iti and Rory Callahan, Thea gave instruction on how to join the strike team that was about to arrive on Deck 02.
[You must make your way to the turbolifts located fifty meters towards the aft. Follow the corridor behind you and await the arrival of Junior Lieutenants Lance and Fasha from the Lone Wolves Squadron. Chief Warrant Officer Covington is with them as well, along with a number of his deck crew. Unless you are already armed, they will be able to provide you with weapons. Go now, because I can see other life-signs moving in on your location with my internal sensors.]
As if that was not incentive enough, the grate that Dr. Nicander had welded shut was suddenly attacked with brute force, and soon, the security personnel that had followed them from Deck 01 would be cutting themselves out. It was a confrontation they couldn't afford.
[Quickly, my sensors tell me that my corridor to the turbolift is clear,] said Thea again.
Once they arrived there, having escaped the mutineers for the time being, the turbolift doors opened as if on cue. The people that Thea had mentioned filed out into the corridor. Tessa May Lance was on point with a phaser rifle, and Fasha was right behind her - the only difference beyond similarities in armament was that the Catachan Colonist wore nothing but undergarments, even if that did not seem to bother her in the least. Then, of course, came Natalie Stark's closest man - Papa bear - with a tail of Bear Cubs filing out behind him. It was only yesterday morning that he'd brought Natalie breakfast and asked how she was holding up. Now, they were were about to try and reclaim the Bridge together.
[My readings say you are all gathered now,] said Thea through the intercom, addressing the two groups as a whole. [On my wall you can see a control panel. I will bring up the layout of Deck 01. I have marked access points, current Harbinger crew locations and the route that two of the guards patrol. Time is of the essence, so I suggest those with appropriate combat experience decide on the method of approach and you move out. Lieutenant Commander Wenn Cinn and his team is just about to liberate Captain Ives. Vasser knows about the presence of the Calamity and setting a course at maximum warp.]
(https://orig03.deviantart.net/653d/f/2015/150/c/d/chapter_4_commodore_vasser_by_auctor_lucan-d8vb118.png)
Right then, to emphasise the urgent need for haste, the Red Alert was heard across the whole of the ship. If there was any any lingering doubt as to the fact that the Calamity was coming for them, the whole ship was now aware that they stood divided against a common foe.
[You have an access point to my jefferies tubes behind you,] said Thea, telling them were to go once the plan was set. [I can unlock the doors on Deck 01 as required.]
OOC: Suggested posting order (and to let our newest member's character shine a bit): 1) Fasha, suggesting how they do it 2) Tessa May Lance, to verify and/or alter 3) Aisha S'Iti, to verify and/or alter 4) Sten Covington to verify and/or alter 5) Natalie Stark giving final say or seal of approval as superior officer 6) Optional since Searcher is having health issues: Rory lamenting but will be protecting Natalie? 7) I finish with Thea wishing them luck and setting things up in the next thread.
[ Theurgy "Thea" NX-79854 | Medical Lab 01 | Sickbay | Deck 07 ] Attn: Ryuan Sel, Sarresh Morali & Eve Jenkins
In short order, the vents fell silent and the air was restored to the Medical Lab. The masks remained where they hung, but the lexorin gass had been cleared from the room - revealing the two dead bodies of Freya and Riptide in front of the door - a door that remained locked.
[This is Thea, do you read me?] came the sound from the intercom, [is there anyone present in the medical lab? I can see life-signs but no identities, only two of which just vanished, and they were the only ones wearing combadges. What happened to Frida Armistead and Rillian Hav? Please identify yourselves.]
After this quick verification, Thea continued to speak. [Acknowledged. I can detect that you are synthesising a large amount of Lexorin in the Medical Lab, so given the compound's properties, I'd say that there is a 98,344 % likelihood that you have not only derived the method in which the Theurgy crew was turned against itself, but that you are loyal to Captain Jien Ives. I contact you to tell you that I have not been compromised. My pasitronic brain core has been restored and I will assist you in order to disperse the Lexorin through my Life Support Systems. You do not have to synthesise more of it either, because I can target the areas that the mutineers occupy with the amount that you got as soon as you get the Lexorin plugged into Life Support.]
There was a chirp from the door when it was unlocked - Thea overriding the emergency lock-out system.
[There should be a portable biobed outside the door. Load all of the canisters unto it and make haste. One of you will have to provide cover fire once you leave Sickbay, for there are four of them moving down the corridor outside sickbay, heading towards the Emergency Entrance. Please hurry, because the Lexorin could be the only means to subdue the majority of the mutineers aboard, even if they will not be completely restored unless given corrective treatment through a second mind-meld.]
On top of the haste that the Ship A.I. urged for, the Red Alert klaxon resounded throughout the ship. It could only mean one thing.
[The Calamity is here. Captain Ives is not yet freed from the Brig, and Captain Vasser is still on the Main Bridge. We will not have any chance of survival unless the Theurgy crew is restored to their real selves again. Please, hurry.]
OOC: Suggested Posting Order: 1) Ryuan Sel, where Sirus covers the loading of the Lexorin unto the portable biobed and setting off to leave Sickbay. 2) I will post again with Thea and with the mutineers moving in on them. 3) Sarresh Morali 4) Eve Jenkins (after verification from Searcher due to health issues) 5) Me again, playing Thea and the mutineers
[ Ryuan Sel | Medical Lab 01 | Sickbay | Deck 07 ] Attn: Sarresh Morali & Eve Jenkins
[This is Thea, do you read me?] came the voice of the Theurgy AI from the intercom, [is there anyone present in the medical lab? I can see life-signs but no identities, only two of which just vanished, and they were the only ones wearing combadges. What happened to Frida Armistead and Rillian Hav? Please identify yourselves.]
"They're dead," Sel reported with a sigh as she snatched the commbadges off of the two dead mutineers, pinning on to her standard issue bra and tossing the other to the head nurse. She figured it would be best if she, the only security personnel there, and the highest ranking officer had the badges, they could get a third later. And after taking a deep breath, to calm herself she continued, "Petty Officer 2nd Class Ryuan Sel here with Lieutenant Junior Grade Sarresh Morali and Lieutenant Eve Jenkins." She her thumb over the sensor on the confiscated combadge to set it to identify her as the owner. The last thing they'd need is for the ship's AI to confuse them with the mutineers.
[Acknowledged. I can detect that you are synthesising a large amount of Lexorin in the Medical Lab, so given the compound's properties, I'd say that there is a 98,344 % likelihood that you have not only derived the method in which the Theurgy crew was turned against itself, but that you are loyal to Captain Jien Ives. I contact you to tell you that I have not been compromised. My pasitronic brain core has been restored and I will assist you in order to disperse the Lexorin through my Life Support Systems. You do not have to synthesise more of it either, because I can target the areas that the mutineers occupy with the amount that you got as soon as you get the Lexorin plugged into Life Support.]
There was a chirp from the door when it was unlocked.
[There should be a portable biobed outside the door. Load all of the canisters unto it and make haste. One of you will have to provide cover fire once you leave Sickbay, for there are four of them moving down the corridor outside sickbay, heading towards the Emergency Entrance. Please hurry, because the Lexorin could be the only means to subdue the majority of the mutineers aboard, even if they will not be completely restored unless given corrective treatment through a second mind-meld.]
Sel had just picked up a couple of canisters to head toward the door when the klaxons sounded and the red alert lights flicked on.
[The Calamity is here. Captain Ives is not yet freed from the Brig, and Captain Vasser is still on the Main Bridge. We will not have any chance of survival unless the Theurgy crew is restored to their real selves again. Please, hurry.]
"Well this should be fun," she said as she walked over to the door holding the canisters. Her pulse was still pounding in her ears and though she did her best to stay focused on the task at hand she could not help but feel a growing anxiety. She had been in security for some time now and yet she still wasn't used to actual combat, much less firing on people wearing Starfleet uniform. As the door slid open she glanced around cautiously, spotting the portable biobed across the hall. She didn't see anyone nearby so she made her way over to it. Once there she quickly unloaded the canisters onto the biobed and, pausing once to say a brief prayer and run her finger over the red beads of her earring, hurried back to the lab.
Once inside she picked up her phaser rifle and threw the strap over her shoulder. She looked to the others as she picked up as many canisters as she could manage. "We have a clear shot to the portable biobed, after that I'll take point. I need you two to take these idiots guns," she gestured as best she could to the guns on the floor, "and keep sharp. I'll take point and if there is any trouble I'll tap my badge twice, right?"
[ Lahkesis Saugn | Main Sickbay | Deck 07 |] Attention: Hayden O'Connor, Phantom, Vinata Vojona & Doctor Maya
The world moved around Lahkesis and yet she was still. She was aware of her friend, Doctor Maya, near her, and then she was not. She felt someone touching her, but then she did not. She could not have been truly sure of either of those two facts, the real world seeming so distant from her current frame of mind. She trembled as tears welled in her pupiless eyes and slide down her pale cheeks. She looked paler than she normally did, the dark red fluid that gave her skin color retreating to her muscles and organs to ensure they had the nutrients and energy to move when the time came.
Though her eyes were open she did not register what was in front of them. In simple terms she had retreated into the farthest corner of her mind. She was in shock, she had never shot anyone before and if she had her choice she would never do it again. She did not really know why she had done it in the first place. She felt like she had no control. It was this, and the fear in the first place, that had thrown her into shock.
All she could do was breath in and out. Carbon dioxide in, oxygen out. Her biology a seemingly a marriage of both that of a mammal and that of a tracheophyte. Carbon dioxide would flood into her body and be quickly converted into sugars that could either be used as energy to move the long fibers that made up her muscles or regrow damaged tissue. The process of doing this would in addition convert water into oxygen, the hydrogen becoming part of the sugars. She would need a long soak in some mineral water after this was all over to regain the liquid water she was losing.
OOC: Yes I know this whole post could be reduced to the words "Lahkesis did nothing" but I felt the need to elaborate on her mental state and at last explain how she breaths. I've been doing some research into plant biology and felt a little bit of info would be a good idea. This also explains why all of Lahkesis's bodily fluids are sweet.
[ Fasha "Morrigan" | Corridors - Turbolifts | Deck 02 ]
Fasha followed Tessa out of the turbolift her own rifle at the ready for any possible threats that they might unexpectedly encounter. Upon seeing no immediate threats she lowered her rifle and moved to stand beside one of the walls of the corridor sparing a glance down the hall every now and then to keep an eye out for any unexpected visitors. She spared a glance to the new additions to the small strike team they'd put together. Her grip on her rifle tightened just a bit not exactly pleased with the numbers they'd gathered. As Thea spoke her eyes were drawn to the control panel on the wall where a display was being brought up for the group to see.
On the display was a blueprint of Deck 01 with illustrations of guard positions and patrol routes. She took a moment devoting every detail she could to memory. Her eyes were drawn to the exit points that Thea's jefferies tubes let out at. She turned her head to Tessa cradling her rifle in her arms "I think we should take the jefferies tubes...We can take control of the outer sections of the deck and work our way inwards." Fasha said extending her finger to point at the exit points in the Yeoman's office and WC and tracing a circle around the deck around the main bridge. "If we can do that we have more entry points to work with than when we began provided we can accomplish our first objective quietly, We'll also have far more room to move our forces around allowing us to give the illusion of a far larger force." Fasha said lowering her hand to her side.
"Judging from the size of the tubes I think we can squeeze two people through each tube without wasting too much time. The rest of the group can insert from the main turbolift letting out into the outer corridor and reinforce the group already on deck once it's secure before we move on to assault the bridge." Fasha said glancing at Tessa. "What do you think?" She asked.
[Dr. Hayden O'Connor | Main Sickbay | Deck 7] Attn: Lahkesis Saughn, Phantom, Vinata Vojona & Doctor Maya
The out of body experience continued for Hayden as the tension that had been building in the room ever since the mutineers first arrived in sickbay boiled over and out in flurry of frenetic activity. One moment O'Connor was filled with a blind rage that propelled her to act to ensure their very survival, and the next, it felt like her brain was drained of all its oxygen and her feet were rooted to the floor as events became even more surreal. She felt not even a twinge of guilt as her boot connected solidly with Phantom's arm and hand. Hayden knew better than to celebrate at that moment, but she felt a flare of primal satisfaction they were all working together now to take down the man who'd come to embody everything Hayden despised: a man who used his own suffering as an excuse to dominate and violate others.
Then, in an instant, the tide had changed, and Hayden watched in terror and shock as the monster found impossible strength to take out his fury against the most vulnerable being among them, the recently assaulted and psychologically traumatized male Ovri, Vinata. Her brain screamed at her to do something even as her body refused to comply. It was Maya who moved the fastest to deliver what would normally be the death blow. No doubt her repeated exposure to trauma allowed her to take in her emotions and quickly repress them to deal with more immediate matters.
By the time O'Connor remembered the phaser, it was already firing wildly and Hayden ducked for cover to get a handle on whom was where. The last thing she needed was to get stunned by errant phaser fire and become literally more dead weight. What felt like an eternity but what was probably only seconds passed, and for a moment, all Hayden could process was her own ragged breaths and Vinata's stunned sobs.
Maya's simple words were enough to bring her out of her daze, and though her body was fighting to either laugh or cry, she ended up doing neither, as she helped Maya ease the shell that was once known as Phantom off Vinata. She prayed he was not so traumatized that he was lost to them forever. "Is anyone else hurt?"
[ Eve Jenkins | USS Theurgy | Medical Lab 01 | Sickbay | Deck 07 ]
It took her longer than it should have to get up off the floor and her hand absently went to one of the oxygen masks but she shook her head and swallowed down the bile. She was affecting Saresh, could feel his emotional arousal and confusion. She needed to get away from them, should explain but she couldn't find the words and then Thea's voice broke through her own mind fog.
She and Ryuan were talking, planning, and Eve knew it was their best bet but when the red alert began because of the Calamity and Ryuan suggested she go with her and Saresh, she blanched and shook her head. "I can't go with you," she said with obvious distress. "I missed my last injection and my Deltan pheromones are getting stronger and you'll both be in just as much danger around me."
The head nurse looked ... ashamed. "I've already used it to take out two of the Harbinger crew to try to save those in sickbay and I can stay here, hold off those who would follow you so you can get the Lexorin into the system and Thea can take care of them. There's no more time to explain, just hurry and get the biobed. There's a back entrance for only medical personnel but I can let you out and then ..."
Then she would occupy the mutineers, bombard them with her pheromones. If their minds were overridden by lust, they would fall into orgiastic bliss. She just hoped they could get the Lexorin in the system before she turned too many into mindless husks of the people they once were. It would be more merciful to kill them but she hadn't the skill to do so, at least not a group.
[ Rory Callahan | USS Theurgy | Corridor | En-Route to Cargo Hold 02 | Deck 02 ]
The talk of Vasser had Rory clenching his fists again. The Harbinger captain had always been cold to him, ignored him really, and now he was bent on an insane mission which was only destroying both crews. To top it off, that Calamity ship was hot on their tails again and though he didn't know a lot about Starfleet tactics and whatnot, he knew that this civil war between the two crews as going to get them all killed ... and he wasn't ready to die yet.
They were going to divvy up this party and Rory waited to hear what Natalie was going to do. She made her decision and then he noticed the smile Lucan gave her, a smile that made the Irish ire raise up in Rory. He'd seen that sort of smile many a time in the bars, the kind of smile that a lot of women didn't understand but Rory knew a slimy bastard when he saw one. "I go where Nat goes," he stated, knowing there was a 'stay away from her' look in his eyes but not caring.
Thea gave some more information and while Rory had no idea what he was going to do, he just knew he would follow Natalie and follow her orders ... as much as he could at least. The boom from the place they'd just crawled through set him on edge and he gripped the box cutter a little tighter. As they moved out, his free hand touched Natalie's shoulder to get her attention for a moment. "I won't get in th' way but I'll help however I can," he promised her.
[ Vinata Vojona | CMO Office | Sickbay | Deck 07 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: Hayden O'Connor, Doctor Maya, Cir'Cie & Lahkesis Saugn
Vinnata was just in sock, the warm wet feeling of blood on his sin, the stinging of his burned skin where his hand had been grazed, but what made it all worse was the fact that he could not see or rather he was not opening his eyes. He didn't need them to know what was atop of him, he could feel the body grow still atop of him and the smell...oh by whatever forced that be the smells. It was like he was back at the triage center, the smell of burning flesh and textiles, the smell of ozone from the discharge of energy weapons and he blood, of the blood. It as there t the back of everything, an what made that even worse was he could feel it pooling under him and getting collecting over his body.
His eyes tightened further as the others around him began to talk, he did not care what they were saying, he would just stay here, he would be left along here. But he as not abandoned, as the body was lifted off of his chest he took a deep breath and quickly found himself taking labored and ragged breaths as his remaining panic began to grip him and he clenched his hands firmly, he could feel the blistered skin screaming in pain as he did his, but he did not care, he was just too scared.
As he felt hands upon him Vinata's eye shot opened, his breath caught in his throat as he looked over he people who had come to his aid. His mouth opened and and closed very slightly s if trying to form excused, to tell others that he was alright, but he couldn't his mind was filled with the screaming. Tears began to trail down his face as he finally got a sound out in the form of croak before he began to sob. He was never going to be free, it had not even been a day for him, only a matter of own of consciousness ha passed since the events of the triage center, where he saw his comrades die, swallowed up in conflict and fire only to end up waking up to live though another hell. His body shaking as he began to mutter things between his sobs, it was unintelligible, but Vinata was trying to ask to be frozen again, to let him just sleep until this was all over.
[ Hylota Vojona | Corridor | En-Route to Cargo Hold 02 | Deck 02 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: Dr. Nicander, Heather McMillan, Aisha S'Iti, Natalie Stark, Simon Tovarek & Rory Callahan
Hylota looked to Simon as he asked how her injury was holding up and she shrugged. "From the best we can tell it is not that badly damaged, the numbed nerves kept me from being knocked out by an earlier hit, but it is completely useless at this point in time. It would make creeping around in vents or bring in combat situations fairly difficult, and without it I doubt I could provide any worth while medical aid as I am." Hylota sighed an she looked over the slightly discolored spot on her uniform from where she had been shot."In all honesty I have been getting very lucky with how this day has progressed and I do not want to keep pushing my odds as they currently stand."
And then they were moving out, Hylota as going to look forward to whatever time she would get or recovery when this was over. As they moved down the halls Hylota's heart sank at the thought of guard, she had been hoping that since this was so far into mutineer territory that they would not ant to bother wasting guards here, but sure enough there they were standing beside the hanger doors watching for whoever was coming in to join up. If thing went the best way possible they could catch the guards off guard and rush the door.
As Lucan began to talk about sending Heather to take the door Hylota shook her head no. "No Doctor we do not need to do such a thing, we have hand phasers. I am an accurate enough shot and if someone else is we can round the corner and take them out in a quick strike before rushing the door and shutting things down, there is no need to send people into harms way just to get an opportunity to do the same hing we intend to do with my plan. And this way if we move quickly we can seal the door without any type of commotion being caused." Hylota hoped that hr plan would hold some merit with he rest of the team so they could get this entire ordeal over with more quickly.
[ Maya (https://fc02.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2014/219/e/7/maya_row_01_by_auctor_lucan-d7u6n3n.png) | Main Sickbay | Deck 07 |] Attention: Hayden O'Connor, Cir'Cie, Vinata Vojona & Lahkesis Saugn
"I will assist you," Cir'Cie announced as she carefully removed herself from the biobed and helped Maya and Hayden pull Phantom's body off the Orvi. Nurse Vojona was covered in red human blood but thankfully didn't appear to be bleeding himself. "He appears physically unharmed," the taller woman commented.
Vinata Vojona was nearly delirious, gibbering and whimpering and as his emotions burst free. Any doctor who had been through a war recognized the symptoms. The mind simply couldn't cope with the horror. So much had happened in such a short amount of time that asking Vinata to remain rational would an irrational act. Maya felt Vinata's forehead and did her best to comfort the poor man. It looked like Hylota's brother was going to be first in line for a session with Counsellor O'Connor, but Maya could calm him and provide a temporary fix if he let her. "His physical injuries are minor," the shorter Vulcan conceded. She didn't elaborate on the emotional.
"Is anyone else hurt?" Hayden O'Connor asked.
"We seem to have escaped physical injury," Maya replied, placing emphasis on the word 'physical,' "but it would appear that your docket will be very full this week," the greenblooded physician continued as she noticed the stunned and helpless expression on Lahkesis' face. "We need to clean the blood off Mister Vojona. In the meantime, could you ascertain the state of Doctor Saugn?" She glanced at the botanist, who seemed to have something to tell them. "Ensign Cir'Cie? Have you something to add?"
"My gratitude," replied Ensign Cir'Cie. "I would require an inoculation of a substance that can clear my mind and body from the effects of what I have been drugged with," she continued as she looked towards closest exit.
"Doctor Saugn or Counselor O'Connor can get you a stimulant to counteract the effects of the sedative we gave you," Maya assured her.
"Too many have been shown T'Rena's vision of the future," Cir'Cie declared calmly but firmly. "Their minds must be cleared of the illusion forced upon them. Right now, they still believe there is no recourse but to escape Federation space and breed pure offspring to lead the next war, for they believe this one has already been lost."
"What will they do once they escape Federation space?" Maya asked as she helped the Orvi to his feet and helped him to a decontamination chamber where they could wash Phantom's blood off.
"They seek to use Doctor Nicander and this room to genetically re-engineer all children-to-come whilst they are still in the womb," Cir'Cie replied. "They were to be given the Velsren sac of the Asurians, granted superior healing abilities, but that is not all. The genetic template they mean to use is Declan Vasser."
"That should be proof that Captain Vasser is mentally unsound," Maya replied dryly. It was unfortunate that Doctor Nicander was not present; he would have had a witty remark that would raise morale. In Maya's assessment her own comment was completely inadequate. "What reason could they have for believing that cloning a race of Vasser is desirable?"
"The reason for this is that Declan Vasser is an Augment," Cir'Cie replied, nearly causing Maya to stumble, "perhaps the most powerful one of this century. He must be approached with great caution, lest we will lose more of our crew."
"That is a task that should be delegated to others," Maya commented as a she and Vinata entered one of the decontamination rooms near the reception duty station. "Before you go, could you make a list of all of the personnel you have compromised? It would be helpful to know who needs treatment." And who we shouldn't trust, she added silently.
[ Tessa May Lance (https://fc00.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2014/219/0/d/tessa_row_01_by_auctor_lucan-d7u6mx6.png) | USS Theurgy | Ship's Corridors | Deck 02 ] Attn: Thea, Fasha, Sten Covington, Aisha S'Iti, Natalie Stark & Rory Callahan
"Quietly is the objective word," Tessa agreed, not wanting to admit that she had no alternative plan. "Okay Thea, we'll get to deck one using the Jeffries tubes."
She was a bit disconcerted by the presence of the Harbingerhelmswoman, MCPO Aisha S'Iti . The Harbinger had a Cardassian helmswoman, just like a bad holonovel. But Natalie Stark Rory Callahan were standing next to her not batting an eyelash. That confirmed it. Vasser was so far gone that even members of his own crew realized he was leading them into darkness. Despite expectations, the Cardassian was fighting for what was right and the Vulcan first officer was going along with Vasser's plan hook line and sinker. Looks like Starfleet Academy was right; prejudice and species profiling was for the birds.
"There are nine of us," Tessa continued, not quite sure why she was talking while Lieutenant Commander Natalie Stark was there. As both a ranking officer and a department head, the operations officer had seniority. "Anybody who doesn't think they can be quiet climbing through the ducts should come out through the head. Whoever comes out near the turbolift will have to be quick; that's where they're expecting us. That leaves the way in through the yeoman's office that would be a great way into the bridge if the sentry on patrol doesn't give us away. I suggest three through the portside head, three through the yeoman's office, and three through the turbolift hatches where they can split up and join each group as reinforcements. Does anybody have a better idea?" she asked, desperately hoping the answer was "yes."
Goldeneye glanced around at the others. Lieutenant Commander Natalie Stark and Petty Officer Adara Hussein were smaller than Tessa was. Hopefully that meant they were stealthy and quick. Master Chief Petty Officer Aisha S'Iti, Lieutenant Junior Grade Fasha, and Petty Officer Kumal Koothrapali were about Tessa's height and weight. Chief Warrant Officer First Class Sten Covington, Petty Officer Suvok, and celebrity musician Rory Callahan were as tall as trees. They should probably come out of the Jeffries tube in the head to make sure no one heard them.
[ Heather McMillan | Corridor | Outside Cargo Hold 02 | Deck 02 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: Lucan cin Nicander, Hylota Vojona, Simon Tovarek(https://tinyurl.com/k36v3c3)(https://tinyurl.com/m74m4d6)
McMillan smiled quietly at Nicander when he questioned whether she belonged in a lab. She certainly believed that would be her preference. Though it was doubtless that meeting people was good for her too. Considering that she'd been separated from her few friends on Earth, when she was only supposed to be on the
Theurgy for a short duration originally, making new friends wasn't a bad idea. And they were on their way to their designated target already, after wishing the other group well, the young woman was trailing Nicander, stumbling over her feet now and then, though managing to keep from crashing or falling outright through sheer desperation and quick, clumsy compensations. She cautioned when the others slowed down, however, and soon found out why. More guards.
McMillan felt slightly dismayed, as that meant more violence, but still, she had to accept that it was a necessary course of action, and braced herself for the inevitable, but was surprised when Nicander asked if she could help provide some distraction once more. The temptation was strong. Her parents had been right: The more you used the Light, the more you'll want to keep using it. It was like a drug, an addiction that had almost no repercussions or negative results except of course in excessive overuse, which was unlikely, since no Radiant would be able to push themselves too hard, but in limited and controlled uses, it felt...pleasurable, and she actually looked forward to lighting up again, because it would help her friends, and also help give them an edge.
The nurse, Vojona was opposed to this, however, as she was most likely concerned for McMillan's safety, and it'd be a valid concern, especially when one considered that she was a mere civilian, with absolutely no Starfleet training whatsoever, and worse still, she was a pacifist who preferred to hide rather than fight. Still, the Radiant felt a pang of disappointment that she might not get a chance to light up again. The desire for her to use her gifts was almost...all-consuming. And it made her grasp at straws desperately, but then she hit upon something that might answer both Vojona and Nicander. She leaned in closer to them and whispered, "Maybe I might have an idea that could answer Vojona's concerns, and give you the assistance you suggested, doctor."
She glanced around, to make sure she wasn't drawing attention or speaking too loudly, and then whispered more quickly and urgently, "Amongst my people, we can exhale a kind of vapour that can light up as brightly as we do, and it lasts a few minutes. This way I won't be putting myself in danger when I blind the guards. Just make sure you lot aren't looking at it yourselves. Hmm, now that I think about it, I suppose you'd need to at least know where the guards are, because I can't make the vapour disappear after I've released it, and it can last for quite a while. So, take a sight, and once you've got a good idea where they are, I'll do my part. That is...if you think this is a good idea..."
[ Simon Tovarek | Corridor | Outside Cargo Hold 02 | Deck 02 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: Lucan cin Nicander, Hylota Vojona, Heather McMillan
Once Simon had heard the response of Hylota he nodded and smiled "Alright, we'll try to not get us in cramped spaces anymore." he said to her and tapped her on the not injured shoulder. He followed his new group as they made their way to the cargo hold. His mind calculating the figures and variables as he readied his mind for the dispersion of the gas in the cargo hold. Yet his thought process came to a halt when the group stopped and Nicander suggested Heather to go in. He could notice that Hylota didn't agree with it yet he didn't understand it fully as he first had to come out of his 'zone'.
He quickly however grasped what was going on. Heather would serve as distraction and they would on their turn shoot them. Yet Hylota believed that they could pull it off without sending Heather in. Now this however was the turning point, Heather came up with a sort of plan that just made no sense to Simon. "You can exhale a form of fire?" he blurted out as his heart started to race. This skillset was unheard of, brand new, ground breaking, a scientific discovery! It was the wet dream of every scientist! Heather seemed to be something unearthly, something new..
"Apologies for the crude reaction." He quickly apologized to Heather for his rather primitive behavior "Hold on and roll it back to me though. You say that you can exhale a sort of gas that could blind people?" It was just the tip of the iceberg of questions that piled up in Simon his head. His eyes were sparkling with scientific curiosity yet also with personal intrigue as he wanted to know more about this civilian. When she was done with her explanation he nodded and was a bit prejudiced about his choice for going further. "I think we should see what this lightning vapor can do." he said excitedly "The guards will no undoubtedly be blinded and Hylota and Lucan or I can fire at them, taking them out swiftly. The trick however will be not to look in the light... Everyone wants to look in the light at some point..." he concluded and smiled at Heather before looking at Lucan and Hylota.
[ Heather McMillan | Corridor | Outside Cargo Hold 02 | Deck 02 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: Lucan cin Nicander, Hylota Vojona, Simon Tovarek(https://tinyurl.com/k36v3c3)(https://tinyurl.com/m74m4d6)
McMillan urgently shook her head at Tovarek's excited inquiry as to whether the Radiant could breathe fire. And she was about to verbally exclaim that she simply couldn't do that. And even while she did this, her hair flailed about in an unnatural way from humans (in addition to the way she had a tendency to stand on tip-toe, which could be associated with her being rather short), since her hair appeared to be very feather-light and silken, that it floated down extremely slowly after flying up at the slightest movements. All this would definitely affirm to Tovarek that McMillan was very much not a human, expecially now that flecks of light spots seemed to appear and disappear around her due to her growing excitement about using her abilities in some way or another like little sparks.
Before she could speak, though, the man had apologized and rephrased himself, and now she nodded, affirming his rhetorical questioning about her ability to blind people with luminous vapour, and she smiled, since he appeared to be in support of her idea, though it could be because he himself was curious about her abilities now, since he had not been present with her, Nicander and Vojona earlier. "Just try your best not to look at it, because it's going to be really bright, even not looking at it can still get you blinded."
She turned to look at Nicander and the Ovri woman, "Are you both okay with this idea?"
[ Aisha S'iti | USS Theurgy | Ship's Corridors | Deck 02 ] Attn: Thea, Fasha, Sten Covington, Tessa May Lance, Natalie Stark & Rory Callahan
Aisha nodded, "All of those were on my short list of ways to get to the XO's office when I was initially coming up with a plan to rescue Stark and Tovarek. Though, In hindsight, we were all missing one thing that could aide any assault of breakout attempt. A distraction." She paused to let the idea sink in.
"Prior to leaving the bridge I had programmed in a means of control for Vasser to use in the event that he were still in command if and when the Calamity attacked. That said, he knows that for the mines to be deployed the best tactic is to have both someone at the helm, and someone at tactical leaving each to focus on their respective duties. Given the circumstances, despite my own betrayal of his trust, I am still in all probability the person he would like to see taking the helm as--he should know by now--my first priority is the survival of the ship as a whole. I propose that I do the one thing he would never expect. I walk into that turbolift right there," she said pointing at the nearby turbolift wide in the open of the corridor, "head straight for the bridge and inform Vasser from inside it that I am on my way to the bridge, armed for my own protection, to re-man my helm station." She allowed herself a moment of levity smiling as she imagined just brazenly walking back onto the bridge with the knowledge that Vasser wouldn't dare gun her down since he needed her here now and he had little other option.
"If he trusts me to retake it then that puts at least someone at the helm that won't be in shock when the rest of you bust in. If he don't then the security people will have their weapons trained on me and may not be quite as aware of the threat that may befall them instead. Either way, we lose one person as part of the surprise assault, but you gain the distraction of likely two guards on the bridge itself as well as potentially Vasser himself, and an armed presence on the bridge since. After all, I have no plans on parting with my only means of protection from his retaliation," she said nonchalantly patting the type three slung comfortably over her shoulder.
"Besides, if the shit hits the fan I can reactivate Calamity preset 1 and just take the control stick and fly Thea and fire the damn mines myself." She added making it obvious that she had contingencies in place that at the minimum could give them a chance at survival. "Anyone got an objection for my own take on getting back to the wheel?"
[ Sten Covington | USS Theurgy | Ship's Corridors | Deck 02 ]
Between the fire from his deck apes, his own and Thea's, the incoming reinforcements to the junction between the Vector 2 Battle Bridge and Life Support never had a chance. The Chief of the Deck, if anything, attributed their less than professional approach as a combination of a complete breakdown of their discipline and overconfidence as they probably did not expect serious resistance. But from there, the trip to Deck 2 was almost surreal in its uneventfulness. No ambushes, no time under contact, no checkpoints. Nothing save encountering another island of resistance, one in which Lieutenant Commander Stark featured.
And his young superior looked only slightly better than death warmed over, but she was still a sight for sore eyes. There had been rumours of a hunt through the ship for a number of senior officers, how at least one of them was dead at this time, but the information had been often conflicting. All in all, there was little reliable information to go on other than what they'd witnessed on their own. And even then, between the speed of events and the confusion of combat, even Sten was unsure of some of the details he had been involved in, especially in the early stages of the mutiny.
However, his eyes found the Operations Officer and he nodded before allowing himself a very slight moment in which he completely broke every protocol and mode of address he enforced on himself and others when in public and he stepped up to Natalie and landed his huge paws on her shoulders. "Good to see you, Duck," he simply said before Lieutenant Lance went on about her plan and the subsequent discussion.
Of course, Stark, as the senior officer present, was now the final say in the matter. And there was the matter of Mister Callahan, who obviously hadn't seen it fit to follow the instructions he had been given back in Down Below and to him the Chief of the Deck shot a dark look. "First of all, Mister Callahan, no." The last word was spoken flatly and with the kind of finality that only a forty year veteran could manage. "I don't really give a crap what you've been up to but there's no way you're heading up there. Not just that you will be in the way one way or another but there's no damn way a civilian got any business on the Bridge in this kind of situation."
Then, he turned to his companions, particularly Tessa and the Cardassian before turning back to Stark. "Ma'am, the Chief's plan's hardly the safest but right now I think that's the only game in town. We got Calamity up our ass as it is and while I haven't been briefed about the whole thing, I get that right now last thing we can afford is a lapse at the helm. I think that once she's up there, she finds a way to signal us. We come up in force, right through the Bridge turbolift and make it clear we're here to get the ship into battle, not screw around. And once we got people convinced to play nice, Lieutenants Fasha and Lance and myself ought to run back down to the flight deck. I get the feeling we'll need every bird we can get into space sooner rather than later."
[ Dr. Nicander | Corridor | Deck 02 ] Attn: Hylota Vojona, Heather McMillan, Aisha S'Iti, Natalie Stark, Simon Tovarek & Rory Callahan
Lucan listened to the discussion as it went back and forth and yet he couldn't shake the notion that it was a bad method, even if he was no true tactician when it came to it. He did have something else, and that was the instincts of the thing inside - the killing instincts of a thing beyond their present limitations.
"If the shining mist is supposed to linger for minutes afterwards, it would not serve us in two distinct ways," he said, thinking aloud and never appearing superior in his posture in any way, even if he was about to protest Heather's ambitions. "For one, if the light is too harmful even with eyes closed, we cannot be expected to pick our targets and aim towards them through the mist. Furthermore, it would prevent Nurse Vojona to position herself by the door and weld it shut - unable of stopping the defectors to escape the gas through the exit."
Pausing, Lucan made his own suggestion. "Earlier, on the deck below us, you seemed able to project light from your own body; a light that should be well able to blind and disorient these guards. Moreover, we will be able to aim at the mutineers safely since they will not be shrouded by the mist any more. It would mean you'll have to approach them, but it would also ensure success." Little did he know that his suggestion might entail a degree of removed clothing. "Otherwise, I am inclined to believe Nurse Vojona is right, that we should take our chances and hit them from afar. So will you be able to help us or not, Miss McMillan?"
Time was of the essence, and every moment lost was a moment gained for the Calamity to catch up with them.
[ Cir'Cie | CMO Office | Sickbay | Deck 07 ] Attn: Hayden O'Connor, Doctor Maya, Vinata Vojona & Lahkesis Saugn
"I suppose I could make a list," said Cir'Cie with the intonation that she did not see the immediate need for it since that info would have a short life expectancy and only show half of the truth. "Yet I do not have the ambition to go alone. You and I should be working together to ensure safe unions with the crew we encounter. Our list would be a verbal one, our pace swift, and our touch the way for the two crews to realise how wrong they have been to share the views of T'Rena."
Cir'Cie's eyes fell on the Ovri and the Teslysliac duplicate in turn, knowing that they had not taken the development in the CMO Office well. Still, the finest therapeutic expert was present in the form of Hayden O'Connor, and there were likely Ives Loyalists in the wards that could help her in that sense.
Right then, the Red Alert was sounded throughout the ship, heralding the arrival of the Calamity. If they were to turn the minds of key personnel back to their real selves, then they did not have that much time left.
"What say you, Doctor Maya?" asked Cir'Cie, not yet leaving the office. Cir'Cie did not know the other Vulcan well enough to know if she'd rather treat the Ovri in the decontamination chamber outside the office or not.
[Sarresh Morrali | Medical Lab 01 | Sickbay] Attn: Ryuan Sel, Eve Jenkins, Thea
Mask firmly in place, Sarresh stood, watching as P.O. Sel went over to check and confirm what his eyes already told him - well and truly dead. He sucked in a few more calming breaths as fresh, untampered oxygen filled his lungs and helped push some of the worst...attraction away. Oh, his pants were still a tent at this point, though careful adjustment as he had stood up helped mitigate that particular embarrassment.
He warily eyed the nurse next to him, wondering just what the hell had been going on, then back to the petty officer who seemed remarkably unphased by it all. Training, or life experiences he wondered. At the moment, his own time altered brain didn't offer up much more than it already had about who the Bajoran was and what she was capable of in a fight, but he found his arms crossed over his chest as he listened to the update from Thea, as she and Sel went back and forth. His reserve was shaken when Thea announced the presence of the Calamity bearing down on their ship, however, and he swallowed back a bit of fear tinged bile that threatened to rise up the back of his throat.
Before he could speak, Nurse Jenkins broke her own silence, explaining just what was wrong. He was glad that he hadn't yet removed his mask, wanting more time to purge his system of whatever he had inhaled. Scent of a woman some part of his mind cackled in the background, making him wonder idly if he was slipping into insanity. He pushed that depressing bit of insight down and tugged at his collar. His words were slightly muffled from behind the O2 mask, and they held an awkward bit of sympathy that clashed with the otherwise alternating taciturn and slightly bloodthirsty persona's he'd presented.
"I understand," simple words that conveyed far more meaning that socially tact sympathy. He empathized fully with the woman. Ash'reem had to wear suppressant wraps around their bodies to dampen the effects of their pheromones. And while his new body no longer packed quite that punch, he was familiar with what could happen when one did not make accommodations for the diverse biology represented on a Starfleet vessel.
Having to use that natural ability as a weapon...well. He reached out and placed a hand on her shoulder, despite any risk, and squeezed, once. "Good luck." Anything else seemed pointless. How she would mentally deal with what came next, well. He squeezed and started let go, but the nurse placed a hand on his, keeping him in place while she transferred authorization from herself to Sarresh. More responsibility for the Temporal Affairs officer, it seemed.
Nodding in understanding, and moving away before removing his mask, Lt. Morrali prayed to Gods he rarely believed in that her touch would not have affected him. It didn't help. The flood of pheromones was instant, and the heat built again. Perhaps he was simply more susceptible, who knew, but it was suddenly much harder to force his hand to reach down and pick up the other combadge, to swipe his thumb as Reyun had done. He kept his eyes on the floor, refusing to look up at the scantaly clad Bajoran while he palmed that badge and phaser, or back at the flush faced nurse. Checking the setting on the phaser, and holstering it to free his hands (and adjust himself again), Sarresh stood and lifted up what canisters he could to load to the bio bed.
"As the nurse suggested, we'd best take the back entrance," he forced the words out from between clenched teeth. Any trepidation Sel felt was not nearly as visible as she worried, and right then Sarresh was noticing just about everything about that woman too. He needed to get out of there, and now. "I've got the cart," he added, adjusting the controls on the portable bed so that it hovered near his waist, conveniently blocking what had just become much harder to ignore. He walked over and punched in a new code, the one Eve had given him, before addressing the ships AI. "Thea, we're off." Time was off the essence, and he pushed the bed aside to allow the Petty Officer to take point, doing his best to advert his eyes from her rear and not look back at the forlorn nurse they were leaving to...deal with whomever would attempt to follow.
[Natalie Stark | Corridor | Deck 02] Attn: Aisha S'Iti, Rory Callahan, Thea, Fasha "Morrigan", Sten Covington, Tessa May Lance
Natalie hoped very much that her cheeks did not heat any at the way Lucan smiled at here, albeit briefly, while they all divided up 'assignments' for what was to come. The man had a way of packing even a small expression with a reminder of shared, heated moments, and it would do no good for her to blush like a school girl when they were about to storm the bridge. Nor would it do any good for poor Rory to see it and wonder why. Now wasn't the time to have that conversation at all. So she took a steadying breath and forced all thoughts of the awkward, heated, and passionately intense tussle in the cramped Jeferies tube aside and refocused on the tasks at hand.
"May the winds carry your purpose," said Lucan to the ones heading up to the Bridge, then singled out the Cardassian with his pale gaze, "and your aim be true."
A slow nod in turn was accompanied by a simple, "Good luck," from the Lt. Commander, before she turned to her charges. Thea's voice rang out and accordingly, orders were given.
[You must make your way to the turbolifts located fifty meters towards the aft. Follow the corridor behind you and await the arrival of Junior Lieutenants Lance and Fasha from the Lone Wolves Squadron. Chief Warrant Officer Covington is with them as well, along with a number of his deck crew. Unless you are already armed, they will be able to provide you with weapons. Go now, because I can see other life-signs moving in on your location with my internal sensors.]
"You heard her, lets move," Natalie stated briskly, not looking back as they peeled off from the others. The thought of seeing Sten again was like someone had given Natalie a slug of whiskey against the cold night. It bolstered her, even thought she knew that - like the whiskey - it was a false comfort. Still, the man was her friend, and mentor, one of the few people she trusted and a cool head in a hot moment. Knowing that whomever was leading the other team had Sten with them made her worry much less. Her subordinate simply inspired that kind of confidence, and she knew it would not be misplaced.
"I won't get in th' way but I'll help however I can," he promised her. God, but that man's voice. She kept her eyes forward, less any of the other Starfleet personnel see her turn to Rory, but her hand came up. How she managed to avoid jumping when he came in close was anyone's guess, after what had happened, but she touched him, briefly, a graze of fingers. "I know," she said very, very softly, so soft that hopefully no one else would hear. "I'd be lost without you." Truth be told there was every chance she would have broken down by now but for him. And perhaps her training. She didn't give herself nearly the credit she deserved, but given what she had been through it was perhaps understandable that she undervalued her own worth, even if she knew she couldn't let that show, either.
It took little work to get into place, as the other group came around the corner. What could have been a violent encounter was instead a quiet, muted affair, thanks to the presence of Thea. She gave a small start when the man she'd been thinking of not moments before walked up and clamped hands on her shoulders. It was a breech of every protocol known to Starfleet, but for a moment she didn't care. "Good to see you, Duck," he'd said, before turning back to the group, and damned if it wasn't good to see him too. She managed a quick smile, and nod of the head. "yes, it is," before addressing everyone else. "It's good to see all of you," she added, asserting the role she least welcomed but had no choice in the matter.
[My readings say you are all gathered now,] said Thea through the intercom, addressing the two groups as a whole and cutting of any thing else Natalie might have said.. [On my wall you can see a control panel. I will bring up the layout of Deck 01. I have marked access points, current Harbinger crew locations and the route that two of the guards patrol. Time is of the essence, so I suggest those with appropriate combat experience decide on the method of approach and you move out. Lieutenant Commander Wenn Cinn and his team is just about to liberate Captain Ives. Vasser knows about the presence of the Calamity and setting a course at maximum warp.]
Natalie gave another glance around the group. Just as Thea's initial report had suggested, she was at least somewhat dismayed to find herself the highest ranking officer currently present. That meant that she would have the final call. And while time was short, she was also learning that a good leader let her subordinates flourish, providing simple guidance where needed, but taking the time to let them expand upon what to do. It wasn't simply pulling orders out of her ass and slamming them down. She needed to let hte people that knew what they were doing, do just that.
So she listened with more patience than she felt, cradling the phaser rifle in the crook of her arms, copying (if awkwardly) the stance she'd seen a few of the others do, and trying to project a calm she did not feel. It was easier, oddly, with Rory behind her. She could draw strength from him, even though they were both so very shaken. Shaken by the taste of that man in her mouth, for her, and the action of slaughtering him, for Rory. Having Sten on her other side didn't hurt matters.
The plan of using the jefferies tube seemed sound enough, and she met Lt. Lance's eyes. Natalie was surprised that she could practically hear the question in the fighter pilots gaze, about Aisah S'Iti, and over the Cardassians' shoulder, the Ops Chief gave the smallest, barest of nods. The woman was...off-putting, but she was doing everything in her power to save them and that earned her Natalie's vote of confidence. And it seemed her faith was not misplaced, as S'iti began to expand upon Tessa's plan, incorporating a distraction. It all came back to those damn mines she herself had been working on. A frown grew on her face, lips pursed, and it took a moment for her to realize that it could be taken for disagreement with the flight officers modifications.
While she wasn't thrilled with the idea of the Cardassian putting herself at risk, she felt it was - so far - the best option put forth. She hated that it was because Winterbourne had been gunned down and there was no one else as qualified to fly the vessel as Aisha at that moment, but that was that. Just another crime to make Vasser pay for. It was a long, long list of crimes in Natalie's book and a small part of her really wished she could shove the bastard out an airlock without an EV suit.
But then Sten spoke up against Rory, and Natalie found herself in the awkward position of being caught between two people that she found she relied upon very, very much. Shit the crude thought surfaced as she tried to keep the deck from reeling under her feet. Not that it actually moved, but the way her stomach felt like it had plummeted made her wonder.
"First," she said, summoning up some ice into her voice, calming her features - god she hoped they were calm - "I agree that officer S'iti's plan is the best modification to what Lt. Lance has suggested that we have come up with. You're right," she looked between both women, and then CWO Covington, before sweeping the rest of the assembled group. "We need a distraction; and we need the best person we possibly can have at the helm when it all goes down. Because - not that Thea will ever let us forget - but the Calamity is on its way and we have a madman with his twisted pet psychotic running our ship. Our. Ship." She snapped those two words off, letting some of her anger out into her words. And oh, there was anger, anger most unbecoming an officer.
"And we need every hand on deck, Chief," she added, turning back to the man she considered one of her closest friends. Hell, family. This was almost like arguing with her father. "I do not know what Mr. Callahan has been up to prior to all of this, but he managed to rescue both myself and Lt. Tovarek from...from a rather grisly fate." She turned to CPO S'iti, "with reinforcement from the Chief. If not for the both of them, I would not be here right now," it was as close as she could come to outright dressing Sten down. "I want all of you to understand this," she continued, making this less about any disagreement between her and the Chief of the Deck, or her trying to bolster her...what, lover? Boyfriend's? confidence, and more about making it clear to the crew. "Mr. Callahan is a civilian. CPO S'iti is from the Harbinger. Both have proven themselves to me, personally, and I would hope, to this crew. We need them both. We need everyone we can get, and we need to do this right and smart and we need to do this NOW." She had been pacing, she hardly realized it, her hands clasped behind her back as she had seen Cpt. Ives do on more than one occasion. It wasn't even a conscious thought as she moved herself over to stand by the display panel, separating herself out from everyone else.
"Chief," she said to the Cardassian, "You're up first, good luck and God's speed, the balls' in your court. Once you hail Vasser, the rest of us go." She turned to Covington and Lt.'s Lance and Fasha, "You three know everyone here better than I, what they are capable of in a fight. Divy them up as you see fit, but make it fast." She stood a bit straighter, "I'll be in the turbolift when we breech the bridge," she stated bluntly, with a resolve she didn't feel at all but prayed she could fake. "If all goes well we take Vasser down hard and fast, but no matter what, as senior officer, I need to be at the forefront." She didn't turn to hug Sten and reinforce that she needed him. She didnt rush over to Rory and offer quite words of faith in her lover, to bask in the comfort she drew from his arms. She stood, removed from the others, making it clear that she would broker no disagreement and that the time to act was now.
OOC: that was a doozy of a post. Let me know if I missed anything
[ Search Party | Medical Lab 01 | Sickbay | Deck 07 ] Attn: Ryuan Sel, Sarresh Morali & Eve Jenkins
The back entrance doors chirped before sliding open - letting Sarresh Morali and Ryuan Sel out into the corridor with the biobed. That the canisters stacked on top of it did not roll off already was some kind of miracle, but they were out, and the winding corridors of the T-intersection they stood in was lit with the Red Alert lighting. Otherwise, there was no immediate movement to be seen.
Behind them, however, the situation was not quite the same.
Four mutineers appeared before Eve Jenkins, laying eyes on her through the opened doors of the med lab. They had just missed the TAO and the Security Officer's escape with the Lexorin, and now merely saw her - and their eyes came to linger whilst their Type III assault rifles were lowered. Their steps slowed in, and two of them frowned - probably in reaction to their own thoughts upon seeing the Head Nurse standing amidst the dangling O2-masks.
"We... we are rounding up those... Those still loyal to Jien Iv-" the one on point said, and then his blue eyes fell to the two bodies lying inside the door to the lab - Freya's and Riptide's wide eyes stares meeting his as he stepped inside and stood over them. Seeing them, blue-eyes scowled and brought his phaser rifle up to take aim at Eve Jenkins. "Did you do this?"
Behind him, a woman at the age of thirty with blonde hair stepped in, and she swallowed as she looked between the bodies and the Nurse, but she remained undecided about what she might do. Her and blue-eyes were both wearing Engineering jump-suits. The two men who stepped inside after her were Petty Officers belonging to the red collared CONN or Tactical. One was tall and dark and the other of average height and had a shaved head. The latter had a British accent as he lay his hand on top of blue-eyes' rifle - lowering the muzzle.
"Easy now, let's hear what the woman has to say first, shall we? Perhaps she did not do it," he said, and then stepped past the others - eyes smiling as he looked at Eve, "Tell us, love. What happened? What are you doing here all alone?"
OOC: Sirus and Searcher, you are next respectively in the split scenes. Sirus, I advise that you cover how things go as they head towards Life Support besides reactions to Searcher's and Brutus' posts. ETA to that specific area of the ship should be three minutes if they move quickly. Leave it open ended as to what may happen once they arrive to Life Support. I will take it from there.
[ Heather McMillan | Corridor | Outside Cargo Hold 02 | Deck 02 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: Lucan cin Nicander, Hylota Vojona, Simon Tovarek(https://tinyurl.com/k36v3c3)(https://tinyurl.com/m74m4d6)
"Yes, yes of course!" McMillan nodded happily, and turned to look at Vojona, "Don't worry, I'll be fine, I think I can manage this."
In a ways, a near-addiction might serve well for her, since she was nearly reckless in her courage now, in a hurry to unleash her light. Her eyes were already beginning to flash with spots and sparks, much like the soft, gentle spots of light appearing and fading all around her. The first time she had done this, McMillan had been a little less shy, since she thought neither Nicander nor Vojona had been conscious to see her. She was a little more self-conscious now that there were not only one, but two conscious men in her presence, so opted this time for keeping her clothes on, but rolled up her sleeves, took off her lab coat, and loosened her collars, allowing more exposed skin, which in turn would ensure more light.
"Okay, then. Wish me luck." McMillan smiled, and before she could second-guess herself, turned to walk around the corner and head straight for the guards. They had guns...dangerous, killer guns, and suddenly, she felt nervous, so she kept reminding herself,
I get to use the Light, I get to use the Light...and in this way, she was able to get close enough, but not so much that she'd be in the way of the line of sight for her friends. "Heyyy..." she said, waving at the guards like she knew them, "...I want to join Vasser. I'm a civilian biologist, but I'm sure I can have some use...like uh...like...this...?"
She drew in the Light, and tried to focus it, face it forward, so that she didn't accidentally blind her own friends with her light, and a flash of white shone out from her face, arms, and body. She still couldn't steer it much, and ended up lighting up the whole place when she used so much unbridled energy. If she tried to use just her palms, it wasn't so hard, but also less delightful. After a few seconds of shining continuously, she stopped, turned and ran for her life, "I think they're not happy." She announced unnecessarily, running on tip-toe as fast as she could, and barely avoiding tripping on her own feet.
[Fasha | Corridor | Deck 02]
Fasha remained quiet for the most part as the others in the newly formed "Strike Team." continued to build upon the original plan she'd suggested. So far the plan was still somewhat the same. Individual elements would be inserting from the Jefferies tubes and clearing out the outer sections of the bridge. After which they would take the bridge with a show of force in order to keep the bridge functioning at full capacity during their soon approaching engagement with the Calamity. Even if they did take the bridge successfully with the least bloodshed possible she could only wonder if it would make a difference. Would they be able to fend off the Calamity with the ship still as divided as it was?
Now wasn't the time to ask questions! She shook her head pushing the thoughts that had previously occupied her mind away in order to focus on their current situations. She already planned on being one of those assigned to infiltrate the 1st deck through the Jefferies Tubes. Now it just needed to be decided who else would be coming along. She turned toward Tessa "Let's let Papa Bear pick who's most suited to go through the Jefferies Tubes with us. It's his deck crew he knows them better." Fasha stated nodding her head towards Sten and the bear cubs who seemed to gravitate towards him for leadership.
"Are you ready for this?" Fasha asked it wasn't meant as a jab at the other woman's capability it was a simple question seeking an answer. "Once we're up there we'll need to be quick and efficient there is no margin for error." Fasha stated. Perhaps Tessa already understood this, Perhaps she didn't either way Fasha would be sure to cement the importance of what they were about to do into her fellow pilot's mind.
[ Simon Tovarek | Corridor | Outside Cargo Hold 02 | Deck 02 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: Lucan cin Nicander, Hylota Vojona, Heather McMilan
Simon was still curious to what the result of these powers would be. So far he only had heard what could happen and his scientific mind had made numerous variations about it, yet he wanted to see in person what this was all about. "Good luck." He offered to Heather after she had pulled up her sleeves loosened up her collars. He watched her as she walked into the corridor towards the new guys and readied himself for whatever was about to happen. He looked at the phaser he was carrying with him and checked the power cells before setting the weapon to stun again.
He gazed with one eye past the wall in a crouched position, allowing however would fire next to stand up behind him so he or she could overlook the situation as well. His eyes were trained on Heather as she walked over to the guards, a bit conspicuous he had to admit yet it seemed to get the job done as the guards first looked at each other before eyeing out Miss McMilan. "She really needs to work on her conversation skills in these kind of situations.." Simon whispered towards the two others with him and he couldn't help but chuckle.
Yet what happened next was just amazing, mind blowing even. His eyes were affected a bit by the strong light and the guards seemed to be blinded entirely by it. A bit baffled by what he was seeing, Simon felt his mouth fall open a bit in amazement as he readied himself to get into action. When Heather stopped and made her way back he had to smirk at her obvious comment as the guards were dazed "Get down, on the floor!" he called out to her and when he was sure he wouldn't hit her he called his target "Firing on the left one." He fired two rounds at him, the first one hitting the guard in the upper right shoulder while the other one hit him in the chest. He aimed at the other guard in case the second shooter would miss.
[ Sten Covington | USS Theurgy | Ship's Corridors | Deck 02 ]
If anything, the Chief of the Deck knew when to shut his trap and when to speak. And when an officer made a decision, that decision was final even if it was a bad idea. As a senior non-commissioned man, it was his job to minimize the damage their calls would make, or work around them in such a way as to accomplish the desired end-goal without anyone getting hurt. And considering that Commander Stark had decided not to bench Callahan as he should be, that forced the veteran to re-adjust the plans he had started to formulate.
But at the end of the day, once the officers made their call, it was his place to follow it.
"Yes Ma'am," he simply replied. Perhaps Sten was not pleased, but it whether he was on not was irrelevant. The Chief knew his officer well enough to know she had some feeling for the Irishman. And if she said she needed him close at hand, then it was probably a good idea, in the greater scheme of things, to work with it instead of opposing the idea out of hand.
As such, considering what they were about to do, Covington found himself looking at a very reasonable alternative. He did not want that civilian anywhere near the heat of things, and considering the composition of each element of their strike team for Deck 01 was left in his hands he reckoned he had a way to deal with his presence. "In that case, I recommend Lieutenants Lance and Fasha, PO Hussien and Mister Callahan take the Jefferies tubes and take care of the sentries in the areas around the Bridge. They can link up with us once they've taken care of them. Remainder, with the Commander and me on the turbolift."
Then, he turned directly to look at Stark. "Ma'am, as always, last word's yours. But please, consider staying behind me and the rest of the lads in the turbolift." The older man had a responsibility. Not only to the ship or to the Lieutenant Commander, but to Natalie herself. And to himself. He'd already lost one person whom he'd, against all odds, began to care for a great deal that day. He wasn't about to lose another one.
However, before Stark would give the final word, Sten drew the hand phaser that was holstered at his waist, at rest since he had acquired a rifle a few decks down and flipped it in his hand, offering it handle-first to Callahan. "The Commander trusts you. It's set on maximum stun. Aim center of mass, press the button. Short, controlled blasts or you'll run out of power in no time flat. Questions?"
[ Maya (https://fc02.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2014/219/e/7/maya_row_01_by_auctor_lucan-d7u6n3n.png) | Main Sickbay | Deck 07 |] Attention: Hayden O'Connor, Cir'Cie, Vinata Vojona & Lahkesis Saugn
Leaving sickbay. Not the first option Maya would have chosen. All of her training since arriving in this century had been to serve in a sickbay or hospital. Maya was ready to react to any medical situation, whether it was multiple surgeries or dealing with an epidemic. Outside sickbay the little Vulcan would have to improvise, something that past experience had indicated was outside her skill area. In light of the red alert signal, Cir'Cie's point about time couldn't be denied. Although Maya's place during a red alert was in sickbay, if she didn't reverse the mental conditioning of her shipmates and get as many people back to their stations as possible, everybody on the Theurgy was at risk.
"Doctor Saugn, take over for me in sickbay," Maya ordered as her long spidery fingers prepared two hyposprays with stimulants and painkillers that would not interfere with telepathy. "Counselor O'Connor will help you with the patients, as will Mister Vojona if he is able. I shall be accompany Ensign Cir'Cie and attempt to reverse the conditioning on our shipmates as expediently as possible," she added as she injected the contents of one of the hyposprays into Cir'Cie's neck. "I shall need a medkit for I shall no doubt encounter injured crewmembers out there," she continued as she injected the contents of the second hypospray into her own wrist. "I shall return to assist in sickbay as soon as I am able."
[ Tessa May Lance (https://fc00.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2014/219/0/d/tessa_row_01_by_auctor_lucan-d7u6mx6.png) | USS Theurgy | Ship's Corridors | Deck 02 ] Attn: Thea, Fasha, Sten Covington, Aisha S'Iti, Natalie Stark & Rory Callahan
"Are you ready for this?" Fasha asked Tessa. "Once we're up there we'll need to be quick and efficient there is no margin for error."
Then why the hell are you bringing me along? Tessa's topaz yellow eyes seemed to say. There's no way in hell I'm ready!
Tessa's mouth, however, said something else entirely. "Yup. Good to go. No worries."
Tessa May Lance was distracted. Truth to tell, it was hard to concentrate with the red alert klaxon heralding the approach of the Calamity and the Theurgy's destruction. She frowned and tried to concentrate as Sten Covington modified the strategy she had suggested.
[ Ryuan Sel | Medical Lab 01/Corridor | Sickbay | Deck 07 ] Attn: Sarresh Morali
Leaving someone behind was not something Sel was overly comfortable doing, even in the worst of times she hated the idea of it. Yet in the past few weeks she had been forced to do it more times than she could admit. And now especially she knew she had no choice. The effect of the Deltan's physiology was plain to see and it could not be risked. She could not only see the effect of the Deltan pheromones on the former Ash'reem, she could feel them effecting her own thinking. The effect was not as pronounced in her as it was in Sarresh. While he showed all the symptoms of simple sexual arousal she could feel the pheromones making her more aggressive, ready to fight for mate, a leftover trait from her Bajoran heritage.
She did her best to keep her mind clear, though the mixture of her aggressive impulses and the raw sexual feeling flooding through her as well meant she had to get out of the room as fast as possible. "Be careful," she said to the nurse and with little choice she left the room, letting Sarresh push the biobed.
Once they were in the hall Sel lifted her phaser rifle and took aim down it's sight. She moved slowly down the corridor, slipping through the doors and out of the Sickbay. She moved around the corner, sweeping her phaser at eye level. When she saw nothing out of place she gestured to her companion to follow.
She moved as quietly as she could down the corridor toward the Life Support Systems. She glanced back to the Temporal Affairs Officer. "How are you doing Lieutenant?" she asked in little above a whisper.
[ Vinata Vojona | CMO Office | Sickbay | Deck 07 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: Hayden O'Connor, Doctor Maya, Cir'Cie & Lahkesis Saugn
Vinata took shaky breaths as he was lead into a sterilization station, sonic waves broke down anything sticking to his skin and as he began to be sterilized he whimpered as he just rubbed all over his bod to try and free himself of the drying blood more quickly. He felt like it was still all over him in every pore despite it being removed from his skin, but it did not matter he was just done, he was not going to bother trying to do anything more, he was broken for now, and he did not see any reason to try and fix anything, he was not going to have any time to enjoy it. the way he saw it he would just be building things back up so that he next situation could smash him back down, he had seen so many die, people who were just as confused as him, who had no idea what was going on, an now some big event was happening that he did not understand again, an it stole form him his dignity and had just been a reminder of the horror of his life.
As he sulked however he could hear the people outside the station talking about how they had to do things, to make things better, and he touched his forehead, his fingers tracing the mark of his post, the mortar and pestle. He took a deep breath, he had to remember his post, he was a nurse, he was trained to be a healer, a helper of those in need, and if he could not do that he had no reason to live. Getting up on shay leg he walked out of the station, his legs shaking and his arms braced to the walls to keep him upright as he looked to his current CO.
Taking a deep breath an swallowing down a lump in his throat Vinata spoke, his eyes unable to meet anyone's. "I-I do not know how m-much use I am...bu-but I promise, I will s-stand my post and help those in n-need." He shuddered and took a shaky step forward and did his best to appear that he was alright. "I-I just n-need a gown or uniform." It was painfully obvious that Vinata would no last, he would not be able to stand casualties, he was in distress and using all he had left to keep from falling apart again, but he would do his best to serve until relieved of his duty.
[ Hylota Vojona | Corridor | En-Route to Cargo Hold 02 | Deck 02 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: Dr. Nicander, Heather McMillan, Aisha S'Iti, Natalie Stark, Simon Tovarek & Rory Callahan
Hylota was just so out of it at this point, she did not want to talk any more, she was going to take part in this plan weather she was listened to or not. She would follow orders, she would take care of the guards and do her part to save this damned ship and its crew, but oh if they dared call her in to question her motives she was going to get herself frozen and be done with this. She was tired, stiff, sore and she was not going to b the point of debate after what she was putting herself through...hell she still needed to crawl through the jefferies tubes to get her boots again, that was just going to be perfect.
Hylota moved close to the wall as she watch Heather get closer to the guards, and it went just about as well as she would have predicted, the girl as sincere, but she was terrible with talking, and just as she expected things went south and Hylota was not going to stand by and let things play out any longer. As Simon called out his shots Hylota nodded an she stepped out, her arm stiff as she aimed down at the right hand guard, she held her breath, the world around her slowed as she fired, the beam shot out and hit the guard in his weapon arm, but Hylota did not stop, she walked out from cover and fired again.
Hylota's second shot hit the guard in the neck causing him to fall back into the wall and crumple to the ground as Hylota waled to the door. As she neared Heather she spoke in a more hushed tone. "Your safe Heather, get back to Doctor Nicander, you will be needed for this mission, I will take care of the door and the guards from here." Hylota looked down at her phaser and turn up the strength as high as she could get to before she fired at the seam in the door, melting the metal an fusing it all into place before turning down the phaser and looking back to Heather to make sure she was going before Hylota went to try and disable the door further by pulling out the control chips.
[ Eve Jenkins | USS Theurgy | Medical Lab 01 | Sickbay | Deck 07 ]
More than his words but his look of understanding both helped and made Eve feel a little more guilty. She could sense his arousal strongly and it spurred her own, leading her to grasp his hand for a moment. It wasn't just the arousal though but the need for that moment of a comforting touch. Then she forced herself to let go and moved away from him just as he moved away from her, giving more distance between them. "Thank you," she said and then hurried to help the two get out the back door. "Be safe and ... good luck," she said then moved back to the open area to just in time to greet new victims.
Three men and a woman, not so great number-wise she thought to herself but immediately raised her hands as the rifles were aimed at her. She needed all of them nearer, to inhale the pheromones her body was starting to pour out from her. "I'm unarmed ... didn't do that," she said, letting her rich voice caress their auditory processes. "They started arguing and then struggled over a phaser ... scorched the ceiling which set off the hazard alert. Oxygen was being drawn out and I had to override the protocol, causing the masks to drop," she stated using the truth to her advantage.
"There was nothing I could do for them," she said, letting her tears of guilt well in her eyes and then slip down her cheeks. "I've dedicated my life to helping people ... not hurting them," she continued truthfully, easing closer to the man and hoping she was close enough to the other three. "I was here to start getting things ready for all the changes ahead. We're simply not properly equipped for the amount of children that are about to be conceived," she said, hoping that would help trigger their more sexually based impulses regarding procreation.
[ Rory Callahan | USS Theurgy | Corridor | En-Route to Cargo Hold 02 | Deck 02 ]
Rory wanted to do more, say more, to help Natalie but he held himself at what he hoped was enough distance so he didn't distract. Still that moment she had touched him had been enough to keep him bolstered. He was helping, even if it was just his presence, and that's all that mattered right now as she led them about in this hellish situation.
When they rendezvoused with the group Thea had been guiding them to, his gut twisted when he saw Sten but even as Sten spoke out against him, he held his temper and his tongue. He was determined to support Natalie, not put her in a position that she had to defend him and herself. Natalie did defend him though and in a professional way, something that somehow made him even more proud than if she'd done it like a besotted school girl.
That didn't mean he still didn't want to punch the bastard and at a later time, if they all survived, he might just share a word or three with him. It was obvious the Irishman didn't appreciate being looked down on the way Sten did but somewhere he found the strength to not say or do anything that would put Natalie in a bad spot when suddenly he was handed a phaser. With a steady hand and steely gaze, Rory took it from him. "No ... Sir," he replied, figuring the man gave him all he needed to know. If the damned thing did run out, he always had his box cutter.
[ Dr. Nicander | Corridor | Deck 02 ] Attn: Hylota Vojona, Heather McMillan & Simon Tovarek
With Heather McMillan's help, Simon Tovarek and Hylota Vojona managed to stun the two guards by the entrance to the cargo hold, and the latter quickly moved into position so that she might keep the people inside from getting out. It was time for the xenon gas to be released, and if Tovarek wanted to do it via the Life Support systems, it mean that they needed a maintenance access point adjacent to the room. Lucan knew the way, so he waved for Heather and Simon to follow him, but not before speaking to Hylota down the hall.
"This was your idea, so if make it, I will have you promoted," he called and gave her a quick grin. "Captain Ives will know what the Ovri are capable of."
Then he was off, having tried to bolster her morale and support her in the crucial task of keeping the mutineers from getting out. In the end, he had no interest in having the plan backfire on him and put him in unnecessary danger. It was just happenstance that his own ends served the people next to him just as well. With great haste, he led the short way to the wall-mounted hatch that would take them into the jefferies tubes, knowing that the maintenance access to the cargo hold was just inside. Reaching out with his tattooed hand, he turned the valve and swung it open.
"Hurry, get inside," he said, waving for McMillan and Tovarek, "Bring the canisters in there too. I'll cover you." He had his hand phaser out, pale grey eyes looking down both ends of the empty corridor in turn. The Red Alert klaxon made the bulkheads vibrate with the sound of imminent danger, and Lucan could but roll his eyes at the suggestion that the Calamity had found them right then of all possible times.
"Splendid," he said bitterly, not feeling very much as the clandestine manipulator when subject to such irony: That he might fall prey to the very design his kin had opted to use to destroy the Theurgy and stop its crusade. Did they even know he was aboard, or Acreth for that matter? Were they an acceptable loss after all? Had they thought them compromised after Acreth's reports fell silent? Either way, it was plain that he might fall victim to his kin's devices, and that was in direct conflict with his personal agenda. Yet what gnawed him the most was that he had so little means to oppose his own kin without using the crew of the ship. As it were, he could but have faith in Natalie Stark and the strike team that was heading to the Bridge.
Once Heather and Simon were inside, Lucan climbed in after them, and he crawled his way over to the maintenance access - getting up next to Heather so that he might see what Tovarek was doing with the control panel and the gas. "Can we help you somehow?" he asked, the brow he raised split from the brief fight against a security guard not ten minutes past. The Radiant, in her almost ethereal presence, smelled quite lovely when so close. Which was, of course, irrelevant to their current plight... but nonetheless pleasant.
[ Search Party | Medical Lab 01 | Sickbay | Deck 07 ] Attn: Eve Jenkins
The shaved man tilted his head while the Head Nurse spoke, eyeing her up as he stepped closer. "So they struggled over a weapon?" he asked with his thick accent, looking like he might check the bodies but not quite ready to look away from the beautiful woman before him. "Which one was the Ives Loyalist?"
"It couldn't have been," said the other man with a red collar, the tall and dark-haired one with a southern accent. "These are both Harbinger people, Tactical Conn people, led by Phantom. They would not likely defect."
The woman frowned, looking at the bodies. "Neither have combadges, but there is only one phaser between them - which would make sense if it is like the Nurse says. There is no telling who was using the ship communication system, though. If there was someone believuing in Ives' futile cause, it could have been either.
The blue-eyed man in the golden jumpsuit was eyeing Eve Jenkins closer too, but as direct as his question was, the hostility in his tone was deteriorating under her influence with each word spoken. "Why aren't you wearing any combadge?" he said, eyes seemingly not ready to leave her chest area. "If you are preparing... for what is to come... why are you not..."
He seemed to have lost his train-of-thought - words tuning out. He was just as close as the shaved man, who - in turn - seemed to fall back on courtesy all of a sudden, regardless of the suspicious circumstances they had found her in. "Forgive me, Nurse," he said and cleared his throat, "A delightful pleasure to make your acquaintance. I'm Crewman Dillard and this is Cadet Sherman." It was the muted man in the jumpsuit.
Dillard then introduced the woman behind him. "This is Lana Preston and my tall friend back there is Petty Officer Vargas." It was the red-collared man who was lingering by the bodies, hanging back, but Lana could not help but slide up next to Sherman. She was also a Cadet, despite her age.
"We might all be Harbinger people and a tad busy, but perhaps there is some way we can be of assistance?" asked Dillard, running a hand over his scalp as he circled the nurse - green eyes trailing over her body as he brushed aside the breathing masks hanging in his way.
[ Hylota Vojona | Corridor | En-Route to Cargo Hold 02 | Deck 02 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: Dr. Nicander, Heather McMillan & Simon Tovarek
As Hylota was praised for her actions and planing by her CO she smiled and nodded, it made her feel amazingly happy and proud. And putting in the idea that she might see herself promoted for this show of dedication. She nodded to her CO and spoke in her tired voice. "Thank you Doctor...I did come here with the intent to show the Federation what the Ovri were capable of, we wanted to prove ourselves as a valuable member of your Federation and even now with all that is happening I will serve to make my people proud and show that we will do whatever it takes to get the mission done."
Hylota watched hr companions go off on their own while she looked to the knocked out guards with sigh an then across the hall at a door to some room. Taking a deep breath she opened the door and began to drag the guards into the room and separated them from their weapons and com badges in case they woke up and tried to call for help. Once they were in the room, for the third time that day Hylota took apart a door and too out the chips to begin shutting things down. When it was all over Hylota sat down in the hall and began to rest up after her adventure for the day. She just hoped that it would be over soon.
[ Simon Tovarek | Life support systems access | Deck 02 ] Attn: Hylota Vojona, Heather McMillan & Lucan Nicander
As Lucan talked to Hylota about a possible promotion, Simon took the time to turn his attention to Heather. "I must say that what you did back there was pretty... Mind blowing." He smiled and looked at her in the eyes "I've understood that you are a scientist, so if you would like... After all this is over I would like you to join my team. I'm the Chief science officer aboard this vessel and I think that you'll fit in rather perfectly in our department. That is if you would be up for the task." He spoke calmly and determined and when Simon noticed that Lucan was ready he let Heather go first as they re entered the jeffries tubes.
Once inside Simon opened up the service panel to access the life support system. He started to work on it silently and shook his head as Nicander asked if he could help. "Not right now, just keep those canisters close. I just need to check the parameters of the cargo hold first and manipulate them before releasing the gas. A lot of techno babble would follow, but I don't want to bore you." he said with a sly grin and started to manipulate the values. "Unless you could turn down those red alert blares, that would be a help." Simon mumbled while his entire focus seemed to be absorbed by what he was doing.
After a minute or ten Simon leaned back a bit and nodded "Right, this should do it. Hand me over the canisters." He looked at both Lucan and Heather as they were sitting a bit cramped up in the tubes. "So in short, I manipulated the life support system in a way that the air that everyone breathes in will be taken much quicker into the blood system allowing the xenon to work faster and possible or well probably more effective." He started to connect the gas canisters with the support system so that the gas could be released in the room and he couldn't help but to smile like a mad scientist that was about to unleash mayhem. "Right, well all you need to do is press this button here and the gas will disperse into the room undetected. I would reckon that it will take no more than ten minutes before everyone will be out of consciousness. I'd say we leave the honors to the lady, do you agree Doctor?" Simon suggested to Lucan and he glanced over at Heather for a second.
[Sarresh Morrali | Medical Lab 01/Corridor | Sickbay]
"Poorly," he replied just a quietly, but in a clear, concisely blunt fashion. He was breathing in through clenched teeth, because otherwise his nose would smell not only the lingering pheromones from the nurse, but any hint of arousal from P.O. Ryuan. Sarresh was swiftly leaning that the genetic resequencing was not a complete overwrite. Some of his Ash'reem abilities remained, if more muted than they had been before. His susceptibility to pheromones seemed as strong as ever, for instance. To call it frustrating would be quite the understatement.
"Suffice to say that if the circumstances were different and we weren't all about to die from a psychotic automated ship from the future, I'd be embarrassed by the....reaction I'm having," he muttered, navigating the bed around the next corner, rubbing against it with his hips. "As is, I am grateful for the...placement of the biobed. We've enough issues going on without my physical...reactions causing problems." Sel might be thinking of aggression, channeling her response to the poor half Deltan's abilities towards protection. He was thinking far less noble and more carnal thoughts, featuring the Bajoran woman in rather compromising positions.
He was praying the damned pheromones would wear off soon. He needed to focus on distributing the gas, not easing the growing need between his legs. Why they couldn't have left him with memory engrams geared towards repressing desire in the middle of situations like this...Just his luck. The sooner he shook this the better. If someone came around that corner now, it'd be anyone's guess as to if Sarresh would actually be useful in the ensuing fire fight or if he'd just trip over his third leg.
[Dr. Hayden O'Connor| Main Sickbay| Deck 7] Attention: Maya, Cir'Cie, Vinata Vojona & Lahkesis Saugn
Although Hayden couldn't argue with Cir'Cie's logic with regard to Maya assisting with the necessary mind melds to restore the crew to some semblance of normalcy, the rest of Maya's instructions were clearly overambitious. Saughn and Viinata were in obvious shock and in no condition to treat patients, let alone take charge in sickbay, even though she deeply respected their desire to keep going and to do whatever they could to help. To say they weren't equipped to handle the stress of taking care of anyone else was not a criticism of their psychological fortitude, but simply a matter of fact.
In addition, even though Hayden was not the type to focus on rank and position, and in particular, whether she was being given the professional deference her rank and position required, it didn't escape O'Connor's notice the Vulcan was ordering the medical staff around as if she were the ranking officer. Hayden had deferred to Maya in large part, not because O'Connor was averse to taking a leadership role, but because as a Vulcan skilled in using telepathy and empathic senses to heal, Maya was in the best position to offer expertise in how to reverse the damage done by the toxic mind melds.
Given the added pressure of having to act now they were under red alert, Hayden could easily forgive Maya's eagerness to take charge despite Hayden being the ranking officer. Because O'Connor served as Chief Counselor, most people forgot she was a qualified physician in her own right. There was also the reality that, regardless of how dysfunctional it was for Maya in the long-term, her ability to suppress her emotional reactions to anything traumatic, allowed her to take action far quicker than even Hayden's emotional resiliency allowed.
Taking a deep breath to center herself, Hayden recognized she needed to act. Turning to Maya, she said, "Ensign, you and Cir'Cie go do what you can to reverse the crew's conditioning. I'll take charge here until I am relieved by Doctor Nicander. I'll be sure to keep everyone is comfortable as I can until we know more." O'Connor avoided mentioning she would take care of Saugn and Vinata specifically, as she didn't want to speak of them as if they weren't in the room, but her eyes made it clear she was speaking specifically of them as much as she was speaking about any potential casualties. Turning to Cir'Cie, O'Connor said, "if you get the opportunity, it might be a good idea to check with Sarresh as soon as you can to determine their progress in replicating the Lexorin. I have no doubt in either of your skills, but I expect you'll need the help."
Despite the seriousness of the situation and the fact O'Connor couldn't afford to be focused on anything except tending to Vinata and Saughn in the moments she had, Hayden hoped Maya wouldn't take offense to Hayden stepping into lead, if only because the two of them had established a more sincere and intimate relationship that was beyond rank and position. O'Connor couldn't help but want to avoid leaving the Vulcan feeling slighted, even if intellectually, Hayden knew such concerns were the least of their worries.
Turning toward Vinata and Saugn more out of necessity than a desire to be dismissive, she said calmly, "I'll grab some clothing for you and let's see what else can be done."
Having been given the go ahead on her own infiltration Aisha looked over to the others. "Alright, your signal that I am in place at the Conn will be an automated intercom message to all hands that mines are readied for deployment and advising that all hands should brace for impacts from potential shockwaves. Computer, I mean Thea you got that, When I take the conn you should know I am at the station, at that point make the shipwide intercom statement That can be our signal." She paused as she walked to the door to make her way to the turbolift itself. "Also, I'm not going to deck one corridors. I'm heading strait for the bridge itself. with any luck Vasser will send the corridor guards a signal to head to the bridge when I arrive there too."
Walking calmly towards the turbolift she sighed steadying herself as she secured the type 3 on her body once again. Walking into the turbolift she sighed and spoke to Thea's systems. "Deck 1 Main bridge, and open a com-channel to the Main Bridge please.
Speaking calmly Aisha addressed the bridge and its current crew of traitors and their so called commodore, "Vasser, this is Aisha S'iti. I am en-route to your location on the main bridge and am returning to take my station due to emergency circumstances. Know that I am not returning out of some form of misguided loyalty to you or your mission but only out of the need that this ship has for a skilled person at the helm. I will be arriving alone and armed and will not be relieving myself of my weapons in order to assure my own protection." she stated. "I suggest You instruct your officers and guards to stand down and allow me to take my place at the helm and I would suggest that you yourself take a station at tactical so that together this ship has the best chance of successfully disabling the Calamity. For my own protection know that if I have reason to suspect aggressive intentions on the part of any members of your crew against myself, I will open fire without resurvation. Expect me to arrive on the bridge in 10 seconds. S'iti out."
[Ryuan Sel | Medical Lab 01/Corridor | Sickbay | Deck 07 ] Attn: Sarresh Morali & Auctor Lucan
Sel could not help but quietly smile to herself as she continued to move forward. She figured getting used to new genitals would take some time for anyone, but for the first time the pressure started upto get an erection, that was just unfair. So it was the least she could do to do her best to ignore the offending sex organ. If she had not needed to stay focused on the task she might have even offered to help him out with it, he wasn't that bad looking after all.
"I'll make you a deal, we get through this alive and I'll see what I can do to help you with that little problem," she said glancing back and shooting him a teasing wink. She was really only half teasing. Maybe it was the pheremones in her brain combined with the adreniline of holding aphaser rifle poised to gun down anyone who got in her way, either way she felt like she needed a good fuck, and from the looks of it he could use one to.
Her smile faltered when she got to the door to the Life Support Systems and she saw the wall panel. it looked like it had been shot numerous times with a phaser. The display was now amelted mess of wires and isolinea chips. "Son of a bitch," she breathed as she walked up to it and poked the melted polymers wth the muzzle of the phaser.
With little choice she turned back to Sarresh and set her rifle on biobed. "Watch my back while I try and get the manual override to release the door," she said and quickly crouched down next to the door to pry the access pael open. She was relieaved to see that the manual override lever was not broke or damaged in any way. She pulled a few isolinear chips out of the slots next to it and gripping the lever tightly with both hands pulled.
There was a hiss as the door's release mechanism disengaged and the lever broke in her hands, sending her falling to the floor. The jerk of the lever snapping caused it to move forward with such force that t knocked the wind out of the bajoran woman. She could do next to nothing as the door slide open.
[ Eve Jenkins | Medical Lab 01 | Sickbay | Deck 07 ] Attn: Search Party
Eve shook her head and shrugged her shoulders, a move that drew attention to her lovely bust. "I don't know. I'd just come back from the supply room," she said, still utilizing truth to make her more believable. "It's hard to tell who is loyal to who and all I care about is trying to make sure we'll be able to take care of expectant mothers and newborns."
When Dillard commented on her missing combadge, she touched the place it should have been and genuine confusion was etched in her features. "It was just there," she muttered, thinking it must have come off in the supply room with the other two and she'd just missed picking it up before leaving. Thankfully Dillard seemed to lose his train of thought and became quite friendly.
Introductions all around were made and Eve's lips curved up in a soft smile. "I'm Eve ... Eve Jenkins." Her eyes drifted to Preston, her smile warming even more. "Are you going to be one of the mothers? You're lovely so I can just imagine what your babies will look like," she said, complimenting the woman as Dillard began to circle her.
"I'm hoping they'll choose me to be one of the women," she said, the hands that had slowly lowered over time now brushing over her flat stomach. "Of course the most fun is working on conception," she said, a hint of a purr in her tone. Her face suddenly flushed and she lifted a hand to fan herself, sending the pheromones out further in Vargas and Preston's direction.
"It's hot in here," she said, unzipping the uniform top and slipping over her shoulders. Sherman and Dillard would easily spot no lines indicating the standard issue bra underneath, see the soft giggling of her breasts underneath the thin gray material of her undershirt. "I was going to work on vitamin supplements for pregnancy and of course something to stimulate milk production," she said.
"Our nutritional needs can be met easily enough but even with all our technology there has never been a perfect substitute for a mother's milk." A soft moan exhaled as desire pulsed within her and unconsciously her hands went to her breasts, knowing a stronger wave of the pheromones had released. "And the feel of lips ... sucking ..." she whispered, eyes closed as she teased her nipples.
[ Heather McMillan | Corridor | Outside Cargo Hold 02 | Deck 02 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: Lucan cin Nicander, Hylota Vojona, Simon Tovarek(https://tinyurl.com/k36v3c3)(https://tinyurl.com/m74m4d6)
McMillan obediently tried to keep her head down, but she didn't dare try anything more fancy, like dropping and rolling, as she believed that was likely to result in her hurting herself more than necessary. She was no action hero, just a civilian alien biologist. Both Tovarek and Vojona unloaded into the men behind her, presumably they scored hits. And she nodded as Vojona assured the young woman that she was safe, and she ambled over like a slight drunk, or a giddy child, due to her excitement of getting to use her full powered light. Presently, she was still glowing with faint light, even her hair was illuminated.
As she entered the tube, she was almost smiling, despite the situation. Her hair floated behind her like the tendrils of a jellyfish in the water being pulled along by currents. She decided to light up her palms, brighter than the rest of her body, not that it was drastically needed, but the Radiant couldn't help it. She wanted to light up like a Christmas tree now at the slightest excuse. She tilted her head slightly in Nicander's direction when he moved close to her. The location was a little claustrophobic, and was remindful of when she first met him and Vojona.
Just a little earlier though, before Nicander had entered the tube, McMillan was complimented by Tovarek, and the young Radiant blushed, meaning she flashed a slight reddish glow around her cheeks, "Th-thank you..." she stammered with a coy smile. And then her eyes widened at an offer to join his team under the chief science officer. "S-s-science team??? Crikey O'Reilly, I-I..uh...I mean...that's...but I'm just a civilian biologist..."
Her attentions were distracted by the plans to unleash the gas on the unsuspecting people in the other side of the room. And they wanted her to do the honors. She smiled uncertainly at them and said, "That's very nice, but it's quite all r-
Oh bloody Nora!" McMillan had attempted to shift her foot to adjust herself but ended up overbalancing and as she stumbled in the cramped space, her hands hit two things when she tried to catch herself. Tovarek's foot, and the button. Tovarek was fine, considering that McMillan was literally a featherweight and less than half the weight that she looks, but that was still enough for the button to be depressed inwards...
[ Theugy "Thea" NX-79854 | Strike Team | Corridors - Turbolifts | Deck 02 ] Attn: Fasha, Tessa May Lance, Aisha S'Iti, Sten Covington, Natalie Stark & Rory Callahan
The Cardassian had left the strike team, heading up to the Bridge in order to ensure their survival at the helm of the ship. The plan was set, with two teams heading up via the Jefferies tubes, taking care of the patrolling sentries - led by Fasha and Tessa respectively. Once both teams reported clear passage to the remaining personnel on Deck 02, they would head up as well, using the turbolift,
Chief S'Iti would - by then - be handling the graviton mines and try to hit the Calamity before she got too close. With all thee parts of the strike team on Deck 01, they were to enter the bridge in a show of force and not with phasers blazing - this to not disturb bridge operations mid-flight from the Calamity.
[Good luck,] said Thea to the assembled people, [My surveillance systems are down so I cannot monitor your progress, but I can use my internal sensors to verify your success. I might also be able to warn you if the security guards change their patrol route.]
With a chirping sound, Thea ended her transmission.
- Fin
OOC: Busy days, but I have just started a long writing session tonight. More posts upcoming. With this post, the strike team planning is wrapped in Anodyne, and after IronFerrox posts in the new 07: Undoing, it is time for RosariaRosette and Doctor Maya to move out with their teams and take care of the security guards. Up to you if you want to do it in a single post or not. I am game either way. See posting order at the top of the new thread.
[ Ens. Lukas "Bleed" Reed | Corridor - Life Support Systems | Deck 07 ] Attn: Ryuan Sel, Sarresh Morali
Unfortunately for the Bajoran Security Officer and the former Ash'reem, the intention had not exactly been to keep the Ives Loyalists away from of the Life Support Systems. The measures taken by destroying the door's control panel did serve such a purpose, but hardly as a permanent means towards that end. No, for the Tactical Conn Officer in hiding behind the access hatch to the Jefferies tubes, it merely served as a distraction. It enabled him to climb out of behind the back of the human with the patients gown, and once he did, the combadge on the gown chirped and emitted an unmistakeably Vulcan voice.
[Cir'Cie to Sarresh Morali. What is your status, over? We have been informed that you are about to disperse Lexorin on the ship. We need to know when this might happen. Doctor Maya and I are leaving Sickbay in order to try and find some means to remove T'Rena's telepathic imprint on the crew. The dispersal of Lexorin ought to give us the window of opportunity that we need.]
Mister Reed was only half-listening to the message as he stepped up behind the former Ash'reem, and without any pause, he reached around the man's neck with his arm and caught him in a choke-hold against his own chest. There had been no time to answer the Vulcan. Across Sarresh's shoulder, Lukas' stare was locked on the Bajoran who had fallen to the floor. While his complexion was pale, his facial expression was sharp - browridge drawn down over his deep-set, green eyes. In his free hand, his Type II handphaser was pointed towards the Security Officer.
"Stand up, slowly," he said in a quiet voice to the woman as he pulled Sarresh away from the biobed and the weapon that lay on it. Being a fighter pilot, Lukas had opted to wear his Tactical Conn Exosuit since the light-weight EVA suit granted some means of protection from phaser fire. He had only left his helmet behind, and his long, ginger hair cut a stark contrast to the white and grey of his exosuit's plates. "I could't help but overhear your conversation earlier. Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Lukas Reed... but I am mostly just called Bleed."
He was the eight pilot of the Dor'GhItlh Squardon.
"My my, aren't you pretty," commented Lukas in his quiet voice as he looked at the security guard from the Theurgy. "Come over here, but stay away from the biobed. Now, you were saying that you were going to help this freak-of-nature with some kind of problem, weren't you? Would you mind showing me what you meant? I am sure the mutant wouldn't mind..."
With the Calamity inbound and the Red Alert sounded, Phantom was probably about to summon him to the Valkyries on Deck 15 any moment, but why shoot them when he could play with them a bit first? "If you don't wish to accommodate my idle curiosity," he added, setting the muzzle of the phaser against Sarresh's temple, "then I will simply remove the freak standing in our way... and you can show it on me instead."
Oh, but the Bajoran would definitely serve for breeding purposes once all this strife came to an end...
[ Cir'Cie | CMO Office | Sickbay | Deck 07 ] Attn: Hayden O'Connor, Doctor Maya, Vinata Vojona & Lahkesis Saugn
The hiss of Doctor Maya's hypospray gave Cir'Ce immediate releief and clarity of mind - the drugs in her system quickly being remedied by the counter-agent that spread through her veins. She blinked, watching what happened around her with a bit more acuity to her thoughts. At the suggestion that the other Ensign wanted to bring a medkit, Cir'Cie nodded in agreement and walked away to get one for her.
Meanwhile, the Ovri male volunteered his service to the patients despite his condition, merely requesting some clothing for his task. Cir'Cie raised an eyebrow towards the blue-and-red skinned Ovri as she returned with a medkit in her hand, thinking that he did not seem fit for duty so soon after his ordeals - whatever they might have been. As for the Teslyliac duplicate, she seemed even less capable of rising to the challenge, even less take command of Sickbay. It was obvious that assisting in killing the Wing Commander had taken its toll, but fortunately, the human counsellor volunteered to lead the work in Sickbay for the time being.
In parting, Hayden O'Connor suggested that Sarresh Morali might hold the key to simplify hers and Maya's task. Lexorin was a potent medical compound that could very well ease the impact of T'Rena's telepathic indoctrination, and if that was being synthesised in larger quantities, then it meant that the plan was to disperse it on the ship. "I will, Counsellor O'Connor. If we are facing the Calamity again, the odds suggest that there will be injured arriving shortly," she said before walking out the sliding doors along with Doctor Maya - carrying the medkit for her. Without further adue, she tapped her combadge.
"Cir'Cie to Sarresh Morali. What is your status, over?" she said as they walked, shoulder by shoulder out of the Emergency Entrance to Sickbay, "We have been informed that you are about to disperse Lexorin on the ship. We need to know when this might happen. Doctor Maya and I are leaving Sickbay in order to try and find some means to remove T'Rena's telepathic imprint on the crew. The dispersal of Lexorin ought to give us the window of opportunity that we need."
Yet there was no answer, and Cir'Cie turned her head to look at her fellow Vulcan. "It would seem we have to do what we can, assistance or not," she said, voice utterly passionless. "While I have the chance, I might as well express my gratitude towards your efforts to restore me through the mind meld. Your display of emotion bolstered my will to fight. It was... interesting how my response could be any different than I initially believed, and how your words seemed to alleviate the understanding that had me locked down. Thank you, doctor."
Having said this, Cir'Cie looked ahead down the corridor. "So where should we go first. Which area aboard needs us the most?"
[ Search Party | Medical Lab 01 | Sickbay | Deck 07 ] Attn: Eve Jenkins
Upon being asked if she were to bear children, Lana Preston's already flushed cheeks turned more red, but she couldn't help but laugh nervously in giving her affirmation. "Yes, I w-will likely bear as many children as I can - all warriors blessed with Commodore Vasser's genes... regardless who may be the fathers of them all," she said, her voice a little weak and lips pursed as if she was thirsty.
Vargas had lifted his steely gaze from the bodies at thus point - eyes locked on the Head Nurse. Dillard, who had been circling Eve at first, came to end up on Eve's left hand side, and Cadet Sherman in his yellow jumpsuit on her riht. Lana Preston and Vargas slowly stepped up to her from the front as she fanned herself, and they were both was subjected to more pheromones. The mentioning of conception caused all four of them to hold their breaths in fear of misspeaking - the very same thing on all of their minds to greater or lesser extent.
Yet it was when the Head Nurse removed her uniform jacket and teal undershirt that they made audible noises - signs that they were definitely under her spell. They listened to her, hung on her every word - imagination taking them places where they usually didn't dare venture. Cadet sherman had even made a motion to help her get the uniform off her. The grey undershirt that remained left little to the imagination, but even less so when Eve Jenkins began to touch herself in earnest - fingers teasing the jutting peaks of her breasts.
"A source of great envy," said the eloquent Dillard, sliding up behind her and his hands spanning her hips - making their way up her abdomen. "One should hope such opportunities are presented at the state of conception as well, and not just as a part of maternity. A pity if these were wasted on the children alone."
His hands had come to hike up her grey undershirt as they travelled up her abdomen and her globated mammaries were bared to the air of the Medical Lab. The undershirt was caught underneath her armpits, but not in any way that disturbed the sight of the nurse's body. Dillard wanted to see as well, of course, and stepped up against Eve's back - looking down from across her shoulder. Stepping that close, there was no mistaking Dillard's state-of-arousal against Eve's lower back. Then again, there was no mistaking Varga's, Sherman's or Lana's thoughts either. Especially not Sherman's, who looked like he didn't know what to do with himself at the onslaught of Eve's pheromones. He ended up holding his own erection through his jumpsuit.
"The Red Alert is activated," said Vargas, breathing laboured as he watched Eve's breasts being fondled from behind, "we should be reporting to duty elsewhere..."
"I don't think..." said Lana, swallowing, and loosing traction to the words she had meant to say to object to Vargas. Instead, her trembling hand went to her jumpsuit - opening it all the way down to her panties. She was wearing a white tank top underneath. She tried again. "I think it is a bit hot in here too."
[ Dr. Nicander | Corridor | Deck 02 ] Attn: Hylota Vojona, Heather McMillan & Simon Tovarek
Having followed the scientist's instructions, Lucan had bided his time in his own ruminations - trying to give the current situation some forethought. Such had been lacking for the most part during the past hour of crawling through Jefferies tubes and shooting phasers at mutineers. Of course, besides having been beaten raw by a younger man in Waste Management and nearly drained himself through his Câroon abilities in order to survive, he had the privelage of learning about the Radiants and Heather McMillan. A boon he had yet to fully wrap his mind around - her species something new for him to explore. For who knew what knowledge or benefits could be found in their DNA? The Asurians had provided him with the properties of the Velsren sac, so what could be gained from the Radiants? Oh, despite the altercations and the threat of being killed by his own kind, these were truly exciting times ahead.
"I think you will have to make due, unfortunately," he'd told the Russian human when asked about the Red Alert klaxon. He had helped connecting the canisters that they had brought from the other deck, and when it was time - two minutes having passed - Lucan simply smiled and nodded when Lieutenant Tovarek suggested that the Radiant would get the honour of pushing the button. "Certainly, we would never have been able to get here if it weren't for her. Please, Miss McMillan, proceed."
The Radiant had started to object, but ended up imbalanced in her protestations. She fell, and in the cramped space, Lucan instinctively reached out to catch her. He was not sure how appropriate he was in how his hands caught her from behind, it happened too quickly and she was so light in his hands, but it seemed like Heather was uninjured - even having pushed one of the buttons on the wall panel mid-fall.
"Did you...?" he began to ask, but the sound from the many canisters connected to the wall answered his question. She had activated Tovarek's protocol and the gas was being emptied into the cargo hold. The hissing sound they generated made it impossible to hear if Heather or Tovarek said anything, and the sound was so loud that it was likely to be picked up on if someone walked down the corridor outside. Lucan put his hands over his ears and grimaced, trying to get their attention somehow when he over-articulated the words he said. "Let's. Leave. Now!"
Lucan led the way, crawling out of the grate that had entered. He gave the Radiant and the CSO a hand to climb out, but no sooner had he closed it before they were almost trampled by at least ten people in yellow jumpsuits - sprinting past them towards the entrance of another cargo bay. Lucan recognised them as Operations personnel, and they belonged to the original Theurgy crew.
"What's going on?" he called to them, but he already had an idea about what they were up to, and so would likely Lieutenant Tovarek.
"The Calamity is in pursuit! We're going to oversee the gravametric mines deployment rig! We don't want one of those getting stuck on the way out! If the rig was damaged during the sabotage, we'll all die immediately!"
Cargo Bay 04. The Garden of Eden during the Niga Incident. Now the key to defeat the Calamity. Lucan looked towards Tovarek and then McMillan. "I'm just a doctor... but if Rennan Cooper's design was damaged, then even I can see how quick this battle will be over. Let's go help them."
Lucan had, after all, no interest in dying, even if the beast inside would rather have them all vaporised... The conflict of interest was not new, but for some reason, it had become easier to go against the will of the darkness inside.
[Sarresh Morrali | Corridor - Life Support Systems | Sickbay] Atten: Ryuan Sel, Lukas "Bleed" Reed
"Deal," he snapped off his reply with very little thought at all. The hormones rushing through him may have helped short circuit the analytical process. Then again, he seemed to need some meaningless sex. It wouldn't be like with Amikris; no, this would be simply satisfying a physical need. Hopefully repeatedly, energetically, and very loudly. But not right then. At that moment, teasing smile aside, they had a job to do. Get that all sorted, and provided the Calamity didn't turn them all into subatomic ashes, then they'd see about acting on baser impulses.
it's not your back I'm interested in, Sarresh thought, but didn't say, eyes drifting against his will to her backside instead. Blowing a short, frustrated breath out from between his clenched teeth he turned his head to the side, while Sel worked her magic on the door. Unfortunately for the both of them, it was the wrong side.
Everything happened at once. The lever winded P.O. Ryuan, and Sarresh's combadge went off.
[Cir'Cie to Sarresh Morali. What is your status, over? We have been informed that you are about to disperse Lexorin on the ship. We need to know when this might happen. Doctor Maya and I are leaving Sickbay in order to try and find some means to remove T'Rena's telepathic imprint on the crew. The dispersal of Lexorin ought to give us the window of opportunity that we need.]
His half raised hand never made it to his chest as the armored limb wrapped around his neck, cutting off a reply. Artificial eyes going wide, the TAO let out a strangled grunt, and raised his arm instead to latch onto the reinforced plastic armor encircling his throat. "Don't," he barely managed to hiss, struggling as he saw the other man point the phaser at Sel. How had he been so careless? He should have smelt "Bleed" coming from a mile away. But between his mostly human nose and the overwhelming presence of the pheromones in his system, he'd completely missed the pilot.
Twisting did nothing for Sarresh, save to have the armor grind into his bare skin from the opening in the back of the medical gown. It made an oddly contrasting feeling to that of an emmiter pressed to his head. The Harbinger pilot wasn't squeezing tight enough to cause any vision issues yet, but it was something of a struggle to both breathe and squirm at once, forcing Sarresh to hold still and wait, to see what Sel might do.
[ Ryuan Sel | Corridor - Life Support Systems | Sickbay] Atten: Sarresh Morrali , Lukas "Bleed" Reed
Sel fought to catch he breath again, she was most definitely going to have a bruise on her sternum later. For a moment the world seemed to be nothing but a gray tangled mess as she fought for her breath, and yet somewhere between the combadge signal and the attack of the harbinger pilot she manged to breath a little more regularly.
"Stand up, slowly," the pilot said. And as she pushed herself to her feet, tossing the broken manual release lever to the side, she held her empty hands up. Sel's eyes took moved from the phaser rifle on the biobed, to Sarresh, and finally to the pilot. Her sharp eyes took in every detail of him in an instant. He was in an exosuit, obviously he had been expecting some sort of fight to say the very least. He also was holding one of her colleagues at phaser point and looked like the type to shoot if provoked. He continued speaking. "I could't help but overhear your conversation earlier. Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Lukas Reed... but I am mostly just called Bleed."
She looked to Sarresh to see if he know the man, but quickly became distracted by the feeling of the pilot's, Bleed's, eye's moving over her body.
"My my, aren't you pretty," he said. Something in his tone made Sel's stomach lurch. This was not going to go well for her. "Come over here, but stay away from the biobed. Now, you were saying that you were going to help this freak-of-nature with some kind of problem, weren't you? Would you mind showing me what you meant? I am sure the mutant wouldn't mind..."
When she hesitated for a moment he went on. "If you don't wish to accommodate my idle curiosity," he added, setting the muzzle of the phaser against Sarresh's temple, "then I will simply remove the freak standing in our way... and you can show it on me instead."
Sel looked from Bleed to Sarresh. No matter what she did now she knew that it would take some degree of skill to get the tactical advantage again. For now she was unarmed and would have to do what the sick man had commanded.
"I'm sorry," as all she could think to say as she moved toward the now human and slowly got to her knees. Her eyes darted from Sarresh to Bleed and back again. Though normally she would not have hesitated to fellate the pretty good looking now human, something about being forced to do it at phaser pint ruined the sensuality of the moment for her. but if she was going to do it, it was the least she could do to make it pleasurable for Sarresh.
She reached forward with her hand and gently wrapped it around Sarresh's manhood. Slowly she leaned forward and took the very tip of it into her mouth, swirling her tongue around it. She did this at least until she could tell if Sarresh was enjoying it or at the very least if this was what bleed had in mind.
[ Maya (https://fc02.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2014/219/e/7/maya_row_01_by_auctor_lucan-d7u6n3n.png) | Main Sickbay | Deck 07 |] Attention: Hayden O'Connor, Cir’Cie, Vinata Vojona & Lahkesis Saugn
"While I have the chance, I might as well express my gratitude towards your efforts to restore me through the mind meld.” said Cir’Cie. “Your display of emotion bolstered my will to fight. It was... interesting how my response could be any different than I initially believed, and how your words seemed to alleviate the understanding that had me locked down. Thank you, doctor."
“You are most welcome Ensign,” Maya replied with a formal nod.
"So where should we go first?” the taller woman asked. “Which area aboard needs us the most?"
There was an old Vulcan expression: ‘Do what you can, not what you can’t.’ It sounded better in the original Vulcan, but the gist was that effort should be spent on what was possible to accomplish, not what was improbable or unattainable. Only after accomplishing everything what was possible was it reasonable to expend energy on improbabilities that resembled impossibilities. When Maya thought about, most of Vulcan’s paradigm shifting accomplishments had been achieved by those with too much time on their hands.
“We should concentrate our efforts on those you personally have compromised,” Maya announced. “They will be both easier to find and more likely to allow us to get close enough to undo their conditioning. We should start with Matthews and the enlisted personnel you brought with you into sickbay,” she suggested as she led the way into the intensive care unit where Connor Mathews and his cohorts were reclining on biobeds. “It will give us an idea of how difficult it will be to restore someone in the field.”
She was momentarily distracted by the sight of Nurse Maal convalescing and comatose with the rest. It had been Maya who had suggested that he fight and apparently she had made the wrong suggestion. Fatigue allowed illogical recriminations to echo through her psyche. Not only was everyone needed at their posts but there was a personal factor to consider. Maal was one of the few people aboard Maya considered a friend.
[ Ens. Lukas "Bleed" Reed | Corridor - Life Support Systems | Deck 07 ] Attn: Ryuan Sel, Sarresh Morali
Seeing how the Bajoran woman was so pliant and moved to indulge him, Bleed grinned behind Sarresh's ear - his straight teeth showing before he spoke. "Would you look at that," he said quietly, twisting the muzzle of his phaser hard against the freak's temple. "Women. So ready to obey their men. It is only natural that they accept their nature and become the breeding stock that they truly are."
Of course, Bleed would rather have had the Bajoran suck his own cock, but with his exosuit on, it was not very convenient. He was likely going to head out in his Valkyrie soon anyway. At least he got to satisfy his ego whilst protecting the Life Support systems. His posting had not been his first choice, but T'Rena's orders to Phantom had been adamant. The Theurgy's new Captain had likely foreseen whatever action this little resistance cell had meant to take before he intercepted them. As it were, Lukas Reed would get some viewing privileges.
"Tell me, freak," he said in his quiet voice as he looked down on Sel's moving head- apprechiating how the TAO's length came out glistening with her saliva every time she pulled back her lips. "What's in those canisters? Do you mean to sedate the whole ship? That wouldn't be wise since we are going to fight the Calamity soon. To think, I might have saved the whole ship by keeping you from getting in there."
Directing himself to the lowly woman on the floor next, he had grown impatient with her. "I don't have all day. Put some effort into it, will you? If you can't please a man, we will have no use for you. Make him happy or I might just kill you both."
[ Cir'Cie | Intensive Care Ward | Sickbay | Deck 07 ] Attn: Hayden O'Connor, Doctor Maya, Vinata Vojona & Lahkesis Saugn
Being in accord with the Vulcan next to her, Cir'Cie entered the ICU of sickbay with head held high and a dispassionate look scanning the busy area. The few nurses and non-com medics were preforming admirably despite the circumstances - evidently not too agitated by the Red Alert. She noticed how Doctor Maya's eyes lingered on a Klingon she believed she'd seen in the Recovery Ward. Given the pause, Cir'Cie stepped up to him where he lay. She believed his name was Maal.
"This Klingon is not someone I bestowed T'Rena's mind upon, yet he appears to be breathing. It would be unfortunate if he died because of my orders whilst I was indoctrinated. It would compromise my emotional stability if he did, and I would meditate long upon his demise. I would honour his name in any way I could." There was no point in lingering, however, and their task was of utmost importance. She moved on to the human named Patrick Andersson, one whom she had touched from the Harbinger crew.
"I do not know who has shot him, but this man needs to be moved to the morgue. We will never know if we could restore his mind." She moved on to the one named Sean Cameron, and next to him lay Connor Matthews. They were breathing, staring at the ceiling. It was an oddity she had no explanation for. She lay her hand towards Ensign Matthews's cheek, but she removed her hand quite quickly. She touched Cameron's cheek too before relaying her findings. "These humans have been broken beyond my abilities... likely yours too, Doctor. I do not know what has befallen them, but the integrity of their memories and minds have been shattered - residual shards suggesting an overload in the pleasure centres of their brains. I do not know the medical terms, but the devastation is... complete."
Had Cir'Cie been conscious at the time, she would have known that the two men had been present in the CMO Office before Sarresh Morali, Ryuan Sel and Eve Jenkins left to synthesise Lexorin in the Medical Lab. Sean Cameron and Connor Matthews had been the same when lying on the portable biobeds next to Eve Jenkins, and then brought to the ICU while Doctor Maya preformed the mind-meld upon Cir'Cie. As it were, she vaguely remembered seeing them through Doctor Maya's memories - a hint to the Doctor's foreknowledge learned from the mind-meld they had shared. "They were moved here, were they not? Did Nurse Jenkins tell you what happened to them?"
The rest of the Harbinger personnel that had accompanied Cir'Cie to sickbay lay - sedated - on the biobeds further on, and they were those the two Vulcans could try their hand on.
[ Heather McMillan | Corridor | Outside Cargo Hold 02 | Deck 02 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: Lucan cin Nicander, Hylota Vojona, Simon Tovarek(https://tinyurl.com/k36v3c3)(https://tinyurl.com/m74m4d6)
McMillan squeaked in surprise when she felt hands wrapping around her, and it was none other than Dr. Nicander. Well, there weren't exactly a lot of choices of people who'd catch her. Still, the young woman looked particularly embarrassed, and she lurched backwards once the doctor had let go of her. There was not much time for thinking, however, as he was about to ask her if she pushed the button - which she totally did - The sound of gas hissing loudly made her similarly to Nicander, cover her ears. The doctor had little trouble with McMillan when he helped her out of the grate, since she virtually floated down, and then the girl sucked in her breath loudly, squeaking again.
Her Light vanished immediately, and completely. She wasn't used to the sight of so many people, and didn't wish to reveal herself to them just yet. Nicander mentioned something about a certain Rennan Cooper's design, which was very very important to everyone's survival, and she nodded as she followed on tip-toe with everyone else, her long hair a reddish-gold glow and trailing behind her like wispy silken threads in the air. "What might I do to help?"
[Sarresh Morrali | Corridor - Life Support Systems | Sickbay] Atten: Ryuan Sel, Lukas "Bleed" Reed
Needless to say, in all of the various fantasies that Sarresh had - unwillingly - cooked up in his head during the past few minutes, revolving around Ryuan Sel, getting blown at phaser point was not one of them. The pressure on his throat, and against his temple, forcing his head to once side, was far from how he'd imagined this happening. Oh, the guilt of it all was odd as well. It was one thing to feel bad that he wasn't having sex with Amikris - that he'd never have her again. That would eat at his soul for, well, probably as long as he'd lived, but he imagined that would become almost a welcome companion, the kind of loss that stayed there, was always there, that you got...used to feeling.
"I'm sorry." That's where the guilt came from. She had offered to 'tend' to his needs after they got everything else sorted. The Calamity, freeing the crew from T'Rena's psychic grasp and Cpt. Vasser's megalomania. Worthy goals. Things far more important then Sarresh getting his rocks off just then. And yet here they were, wasting time, because some asshole with a phaser and a twisted sense of humor got the drop on them. His fingers curled against that exosuit to no avail, but he met Sel's eyes and nodded, just the tiniest bit, as she sunk to her knees before him. In fact, he couldn't take his eyes off her, which made it rather hard to find anything he might use against the man who kept calling him 'mutant' and was the direct cause of all this mess.
Sarresh felt it as Sel moved the gown out of the way, the tent no longer a tent, just a long, curved cock, hard and on display for anyone to see. He shivered as the air hit it, surprised at how much different his skin felt, considering the medical gown was not the most restrictive or warm of garments. Another shiver came, much to his regret, when she gripped him. Even at phaser point, the need that wracked his body was great. It shamed him that he was quite as hard as he was during all of this, though the analytical part of his mind understood that none of this was really his fault. Other than not paying enough attention. He certainly was far too distracted to notice how large he seemed in her grip, but even Bleed rambling on about breeding stock behind him could hardly distract from the feeling of her tongue passing over his engorged tip.
There could be little doubt that yes, Sarresh did indeed like the way her tongue felt, not judging by the moan he bit off. A rather strained moan, but a loud and clearly pleased one all the same. P.O, Ryuan was the first person to taste that cock - as far as he was aware anyway. And his hormones, at least, were eager for more, much more. He was genuinely ashamed that she looked as good as she did to him then, there on the floor with his cock in front of her face. Not at all what he should be thinking or feeling, and it pissed him off, deep inside. Enough that his own response to Bleed was - less then diplomatic.
"No we aren't going to sedate the crew when the Calamity is bearing down on us. Do you think we're fucking idiots?" He snapped off, trying to ignore how every inch of his cock devoutly seemed to wish to be buried inside of the Petty Officer.
[ Ryuan Sel | Corridor - Life Support Systems | Sickbay] Atten: Sarresh Morrali , Lukas "Bleed" Reed
Sel continued bobbed her head up and down on the Sarresh's shaft. She would start each bob of her head by taking the shaft deep into her mouth, at least until it began to tickle the back of her throat, all the while pressing the flat of her tongue along the underside of it. Then pulling back until just the head of the shaft was in her mouth she would swirl her tongue around the the glans of it. Slowly she worked up taking more and more of the shaft into her mouth and eventually down her throat. With her hands she gently massaged his balls, slick as they were from her saliva her fingers glided over them easily.
All the while her mind raced. She had to come up with a way to gain the upper hand, she had to take down bleed. He was obviously enjoying watching her fellate the now human Sarresh. Though the fact that he was making her do this and his continued threats of violence exposed his less than stable mindset.
And then the idea sprang to her. It was quite likely that after she had finished off Sarresh there was a chance that he would in turn wish for her to sexually please him. At that time she would quite literally have him by the balls. This meant that her time was precious. She had to make the show far more sexually appealing.
Without skipping a beat she reached between her legs and began to stroke her own sex. She was still in little more than her standard issue bra and panties, there had been no time to go hunting for a uniform or to replicate one. In addition the pheromones had quite the affect on her body. Needless to say as she touched the thin fabric covering her sensitive flesh she found it quite moist. She slid her hand into her panties and gave a low moan as she began to stroke her swollen and slick sex. As she stroked herself she bobbed her head, making a point to make the blow job sloppier and loads as she moaned loudly around his cock. Hoping that the more erotic display would in effect make the cod piece of Bleed's exo suit a little tighter.
[ Ens. Lukas "Bleed" Reed | Corridor - Life Support Systems | Deck 07 ] Attn: Ryuan Sel & Sarresh
Morali
Hearing how the freak protested when accused of trying to sedate the crew, Bleed briefly considered what else the odd companions could have planned to do.
Yet his thoughts were quickly distracted by the fervour in which the Bajoran applied herself to the task of felating the Temporal Affairs Officer. Whereas he had thought his idle idea would have ended up in a game of cohesion and threats, it seemed the security guard was not only enjoying herself, she was also making damn sure that the freak was feeling good as well. Of course, he had threatened to kill them both otherwise, but the ease in which she obeyed shocked him. It made his mouth dry, and if he was about to head out to fight the Calamity, he felt he had a right to get similar treatment.
"Wherever did you find this one, time traveller?" he said and chuckled, then he looked around - seeing what he needed. "Stand still, or you know what will happen."
Bleed let go of Sarresh and circled around him where he stood with his gown hitched up and the Bajoran servicing him with her mouth. Lukas picked up the phaser rifle from the portable biobed and set it to kill with his thumb. With a hand phaser in one hand and the rifle in the other, he pointed both weapons at the companions - the muscle strength enhancement system making it easier to wield the longer weapon in one hand. Then he kicked the biobed towards the two, making a couple of the canisters roll of it and clatter against the deck plates.
"Let go of the freak and bend over it, female," he said quietly in his ominous voice, "then continue to do what you were doing to him. You, get back in position and keep your hands behind your head. I know you want her to continue what she started."
They could surely guess what he would be doing on his side of that biobed once the Bajoran had bent over it - her lower body presented to his mercy.
[ Maya (https://fc02.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2014/219/e/7/maya_row_01_by_auctor_lucan-d7u6n3n.png) | Main Sickbay | Intensive Care Ward | Deck 07 ] Attention: Hayden O'Connor, Cir'Cie, Vinata Vojona & Lahkesis Saugn
"This Klingon is not someone I bestowed T'Rena's mind upon, yet he appears to be breathing," Cir'Cie said as she examined the comatose Klingon. Maal was injured, and despite their reputations for stoicism, both Vulcans felt what in a human would be guilt. "It would be unfortunate if he died because of my orders whilst I was indoctrinated. It would compromise my emotional stability if he did, and I would meditate long upon his demise. I would honour his name in any way I could."
"Thank you," Maya acknowledged as she moved to examine Maal's dressings. "That is very kind." The social convention was important, especially in times like this when loyalties and morale were being tested. All of the social niceties would be observed. Besides, there was something that could be mistaken for sentiment in Maya's quiet words.
In the meantime Cir'Cie had moved to Patrick Andersson, one of the Harbinger's crewmemebers who had threatened sickbay not long ago. "I do not know who has shot him, but this man needs to be moved to the morgue. We will never know if we could restore his mind."
"What has happened to him?" Maya asked as she went to Cir'Cie's side to examine Andersson for herself. As both a telepath and a neurologist, a mind touch from Maya was almost as accurate as a scan from a psychotricorder. Maya's large hazel eyes narrowed as she touched what was left of Andersson's mind. He would have to be moved to cryosleep. There was nothing they could do for him now.
She turned her head when she heard Cir'Cie's voice. "These humans have been broken beyond my abilities... likely yours too, Doctor," the taller woman announced quietly as she stood over Sean Cameron and Connor Matthews. "I do not know what has befallen them, but the integrity of their memories and minds have been shattered - residual shards suggesting an overload in the pleasure centres of their brains. I do not know the medical terms, but the devastation is... complete."
"That is not possible," Maya said softly as she placed the tips of her long spidery fingers on Connor Mathews' face. Maya's pale bloodless face lost all its color and became dead white. She hadn't dared mind meld with them before she freed Cir'Cie from her indoctrination. The examination they had received had been rushed, triage conditions. Everyone had assumed they had been stunned and would recover from it. Now they were gone. Theoretically it was possible to educate them and restore their skills, but the Theurgy no longer had the facilities to make the attempt, even with two neurologist aboard. In any case, their personalities, their memories, were gone. The people they had once been were gone forever.
"They were moved here, were they not?" Cir'Cie asked. "Did Nurse Jenkins tell you what happened to them?"
"I assure you she certainly did not," Maya remarked curtly. What could possibly do this kind of neurological damage? "Did you indoctrinate these two or was it T'Rena?"
[ Ryuan Sel | Corridor - Life Support Systems | Sickbay] Atten: Sarresh Morrali , Lukas "Bleed" Reed
Sel slowly withdrew the length of Sarresh's hard member from her mouth. Her mind was racing, she had only gone along this far as giving the now human Temporal Affairs Officer blow job was not something she would have minded doing anyway, but letting a psychopath fuck her, that was a different story altogether. And yet, as she glanced to him and saw the two weapons in his hands she was pretty damn sure she had little choice if she wished to keep her life.
Without a word she got to her feet and bent over, exposing her ass and the damp spot in her panties to the mad man. She could at least be grateful for that, the pheromones in her system meant that he would at least not be going in dry.
And then an idea crept it's way into her mind. She positioned herself within arms reach of one of the canisters. He would have to lower his guard before he could plunge into her, or at the very least he would likely have to set a phaser down to open the groin plate of his armor and free his dick. He could not hope to hold both guns at that time, there would be no way to steady himself while he entered her. In that moment she would have the best chance of gaining the upper hand, slamming a canister against the side of his head would do just that.
She knew she would have to risk it as there was little hope that anyone would find them here. There was no way he could maintain control over the situation and have sex with her.
She only wished there would be a way to signal Sarresh to get down without also warning Bleed. Then she had an idea for that too. From her position she was easily able to reach out and touch his still hard member. She lightly tapped on it with a single finger, old earth morse code to be exact. She only hoped that he would recognize the code. She looked up into his eyes, hoping for some degree of recognition of the code. ::When he tries to enter me, be ready:: she tapped out never breaking eye contact.
OOC: Just in case anyone is curious the morse code would be ".-- .... . -. / .... . / - .-. .. . ... / - --- / . -. - . .-. / -- . --..-- / -... . / .-. . .- -.. -.--"
[ Cir'Cie | Intensive Care Ward | Sickbay | Deck 07 ] Attn: Doctor Maya
The Vulcan doctor verified Cir'Cie's findings, and while Cir'Cie had been concerned about the fate of the two officers beneath the surface of her calm demeanour, the older Vulcan wore her feelings on her sleeve after touching their faces. This so far as to almost seem offended by Cir'Cie's question. The botanist did not react, however, merely folding her hands behind her back as she replied.
"I bestowed them with T'Rena's vision shortly before noon today, rallying a team to bring to Sickbay. There were no signs of ailments to them, and I have not observed these results with any other indoctrinated. While it might be a convenient explanation, it is not likely that this was a result of T'Rena's influence upon their minds. It is, in my estimation, far more likely that this was caused by an unknown party. The first line of inquiry, however, would be the Head Nurse since - according to what I gleaned from your memory - she brought them into Dr. Nicander's office while I was sedated."
Cir'Cie raised her hand to tap her combadge. "Ensign Cir'Cie to Lieutenant Jenkins," she said as she moved down the lines of beds and reached the rest of the team that had come to Sickbay. They were sedated and treated for their minor wounds. After waiting a couple of seconds, Cir'Cie gathered that the Head Nurse was not wearing her combadge. Raising her emerald green eyes to Doctor Maya, she wished to verify their priorities.
"After we have successfully determined that we can remove T'Rena's impressions upon these crew members, our next action should be to illicit help in gathering the mutineers somewhere close to Sickbay and treat them all as effectively as possible. Whoever came up with the idea to use Lexorin deserves some credit, because the components should lessen the effect and make them confused about their situation; far more compliant to accept treatment."
Looking down upon the still faces of those she had corrupted, Cir'Cie fought down the impulse to loose her façade in the torrent of guilt that washed through her. Not only had she been corrupted at Niga, but here too - acting the agent for a cause not her own. She had no idea how many might have died because of her when they had orbited Niga, but now, there was no antidote to remove her memories of her own actions. She knew perfectly well how many lives might have been lost during the sabotage inn Engineering alone.
"I... regret that I could not resist T'Rena's will. She may be a former Master Acolyte, but I have become undone before - removed from my own body and replaced by a warped image. I should have been able to repel her. I should have..." Cir'Cie blinked with her long lashes, and she almost expected tears to fall from them. "As I was saying, we need to establish contact with Sarresh Morali and verify the Lexorin dispersal after we are done here. Then we must ask the Senior Staff to send all mutineers our way. Do you concur?"
[ Simon Tovarek | Corridor | Outside Cargo Hold 02 | Deck 02 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: Lucan cin Nicander, Hylota Vojona, Heather McMillan
Once the gas was seeping through the canister into the room, Simon smiled as he looked at the civilian scientist flat down "Well done, you just gassed those guys to a long long night. I estimate they'll be out cold for the next..." he paused as he made the math in his head and he looked up at the space they were in as if it helped him to make the complex math. "For the next four to five hours... Unless we give them an antidote." he clarified and smiled contently. As they made their way out of the tubes again Simon could still notice the glow-ish aura around McMillan, wondering if he was just imagining it or if it was really there.
When they were out of the tubes Simon could hear the hurried running pace of people approaching. He instinctively reached out for his phaser to check what their intentions might be, yet he frowned as the yellow jumpsuits nearly crashed into them and made their way to the cargo holds further down. It hit Simon instantly what they were going for. "Chor.." He shook his head as he interrupted himself halfway his Russian curse "We need to go and help them!" he said right after one of them shouted where they were going for. Those mines would indeed be the end of them if one of them even misfired or bounce off in a wrong direction. Yet again, Simon wasn't sure how much they could do to help them. "Ensign, follow us!" He called out to Hylota as he didn't really know the name.
He looked at Heather next and nodded as she asked if she could do anything "Just follow us, I presume I could rerun the calculations of the current design of Cooper. Yet I'm not sure if we'll be able to do much if anything would be off on it. Anyway, I could use a scientist to help me keep up with the calculations to make sure I don't slip up." he told her as he started to run along in pursuit of the yellow jumpsuits.
[Sarresh Morrali | Corridor - Life Support Systems | Sickbay] Atten: Ryuan Sel, Lukas "Bleed" Reed
As into it all as Sarresh found himself to be, he had not expected Sel to be as equally involved. He was, in fact, bewildered as he watched her rub those panties, her legs spread more now. His eyes moved from her own, lower, watching as her fingers worked their magic, and much more to his shame, groaning again. He went up on his toes when she first brushed her fingers over his balls, muttering an Ash'reem curse that - well, it really didn't work well with a set of human vocal cords. She sucked more of him in, spit coating his cock. It was impossible not to enjoy what was happening to him, and given the circumstances, he hated that.
And then those same circumstances grew worse.
"Wherever did you find this one, time traveller?" he said and chuckled, then he looked around - seeing what he needed. "Stand still, or you know what will happen." Hands behind his head, Sarresh shot a withering glare at Bleed as the other man walked around and kicked the bed into place and manged not to jump. He was left with his cock bobbing in the air as Sel pulled back, both watching the pilot.
He ground his teeth together in frustration, as he listened to Bleed, watching as Sel bent over the biobed. Having teeth to grind was a new sensation and that crazy, detached part of him wondered how his body knew to react in such way. And yet, that was exactly how he reacted, the anger flashing across his face. It had gone from bad to worse and he had no idea how to help, as he awkwardly shuffled over to her. It was hard to line up his cock with her mouth, but thankfully she took him in hand.
The newly minted human began to wonder if Sel was actually impatient with him, with all of it ,as if she wanted to next step to happen as she tapped away at his cock. He frowned down at her, their eyes meeting and then he realized what was going on. He only got half the message though, and he swallowed hard, tensing as his eyes flashed up to Bleed, then back down to Sel. It was only a tiny nod, but it was the best he could do.
[ Maya (https://fc02.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2014/219/e/7/maya_row_01_by_auctor_lucan-d7u6n3n.png) | Main Sickbay | Deck 07 |] Attention: Cir'Cie, Sarresh Morali
"I bestowed them with T'Rena's vision shortly before noon today, rallying a team to bring to Sickbay," Ensign Cir'Cie explained. "There were no signs of ailments to them, and I have not observed these results with any other indoctrinated. While it might be a convenient explanation, it is not likely that this was a result of T'Rena's influence upon their minds. It is, in my estimation, far more likely that this was caused by an unknown party. The first line of inquiry, however, would be the Head Nurse since - according to what I gleaned from your memory - she brought them into Dr. Nicander's office while I was sedated."
"Agreed," Maya tilted her head to the right instead of nodding. "It is possible that Lieutenant Jenkins not what she appears."
"Ensign Cir'Cie to Lieutenant Jenkins," Cir'Cie called as she tapped her combage. While they waited for a response, they moved down the lines of beds and examined the rest of the team that had led into Sickbay. Aside of a variety of minor wounds and being under heavy sedation, no reason they couldn't return to duty presented themsevles. Maya placed her tips of her long spidery fingers on first one face, and then another, to verify that their minds, although indoctrinated, were still intact. Cir'Cie's emerald green eyes glanced at Maya's hazel ones. Eve Jenkins wasn't answering her combage. Had she discarded it to hide or flee? If so from whom, Captain Vasser's men or Cir'Cie and Maya once they had discovered what she'd done?
"It appears we will have to make due without Nurse Jenkins' services," Maya commented dryly. "In the meantime we must focus on accomplishments we know we can make. What are your thoughts?"
"After we have successfully determined that we can remove T'Rena's impressions upon these crew members, our next action should be to illicit help in gathering the mutineers somewhere close to Sickbay and treat them all as effectively as possible," Cir'Cie replied. "Whoever came up with the idea to use Lexorin deserves some credit, because the components should lessen the effect and make them confused about their situation; far more compliant to accept treatment."
From a certain angle, Maya's neutral expression might be mistaken for a wistful smile. Lahkesis had suggested the Lexorin, having remembered what Maya had forgotten. The green blooded physician allowed herself a nanosecond of motherly pride before getting back to the business at hand.
"With the ship at general quarters it is not a good time to concern ourselves with who has been indoctrinated," Maya decided. "Regardless of which captain they serve, the people aboard will have to man their battle stations in order to survive. Survival was the rationale for..."
Maya abruptly stopped talking when she noticed the younger Vulcan wasn't listening; Cir'Cie was looking down at the faces of those she had compromised. A human wouldn't have noticed but a Vulcan could see that the younger woman was upset at herself and in close proximity Maya couldn't miss the wave of guilt radiating from her. Right now, Maya was bolstered by motherly affection. She decided to share some of that by placing the tips of her middle and pointer finger on the back of Cir'Cie's hand. The gesture served to release a confession that the taller woman had bottled up inside her.
"I... regret that I could not resist T'Rena's will. She may be a former Master Acolyte, but I have become undone before - removed from my own body and replaced by a warped image. I should have been able to repel her. I should have..." Cir'Cie paused as Maya empathically helped her steady herself. "As I was saying, we need to establish contact with Sarresh Morali and verify the Lexorin dispersal after we are done here. Then we must ask the Senior Staff to send all mutineers our way. Do you concur?"
"Yes, indeed I concur," Maya tilted her head to the right gently before brushing the back of Cir'Cie's hands with her fingertips. "After the battle, you should be able to summon the ones you have personally compromised. We can ask Mister Trent to send T'Rena's any mutineers taken prisoner our way if his counter mutiny is successful."
[ Dr. Nicander | Mine Deployment Rig | Cargo Bay 04 | Deck 02 ] Attn: Hylota Vojona, Heather McMillan & Simon Tovarek
The small group followed the team of yellow jumpsuits into the crgo bay, and Lucan did not look behind him to see who had followed. It would just be splendid, he thought, if all the unpleasant things he'd had to endure for the past hours were all for naught just because the gravametric mines would go off inside the Theurgy - trapped in the bay doors on the way out. All because of the mutiny and the repercussions of the sabotage. Lucan remembered how he had taken his medical team to Main Engineering and kept the casualties at a minimum. Little had he known at the time that the horrible malfunction had been a sabotage. Nor had he foreseen just how much other damage it had done to the ship. He was a doctor, after all, not an engineer.
But as he drew to a stop inside the cargo bay, even he could see that they had a problem.
The ramp upon which the mines were to be deployed looked fine, but as for the bay doors, they were still closed. Two yellow jumpsuits had arrived to the scene ahead of them and were tearing out the control panel next to the bay doors - a thing looking blackened and charred even from a distance. They were likely about to open the bay doors with some kind of manual release function.
"The bay doors have to be opened but the problem is that this entire compartment is supposed to be vacated!" called one of Natalie Stark's personnel to Nicander and Tovarek, who were the senior officers present in the cargo bay. "This is like an air-lock! We need to get the doors opened or the mines will detonate against them, but we can't be here when the doors open either! You need to get out of here! We... We are willing to offer our lives to save everyone aboard, but you shouldn-"
"We need to cut the power to the deployment rig," said Nicander, mind racing as he foresaw what had to be done, "I will find the control system and do that. Tovarek, you and Heather McMillan need to raise a structural integrity field outside the bay doors before we get them open, otherwise we will all be sucked out into our warp trail. We might die instantly, but I'd prefer if we avoided that, myself."
"But the Red Alert," said the suicidal man from Operations, "the Calamity is right upon us. We need those mines to survive another battle against that ship. There might not be enough time to..."
"We don't know how much time we got so we better get started if we are to survive both this room and that ship, agreed? Now belay opening those bay doors until we have tried it our way. That's an order, Petty Officer."
He was neither an engineer nor all that he seemed to the eyes of those around him. However, while he might have been a doctor, he was also a Lieutenant Commander of Starfleet, with all it entailed. Despite what his kin might have to say about saving the ship which them meant to destroy, he was not about to let them kill him. Not when he had so much left to do. The conflict of interest that resided within him was an old battle he fought every day, and so far, he had yet to loose. It was only until recently he had started to wonder how he came to be so accepting towards his own condition... and he had no answers.
"Powering down the rig!" he said as soon as he found the master control lever, turning it down and making the entire ramp construction fall quiet. "How is that energy field coming along?"
OOC: One more post from 1) Triage and 2) Nolan (optionally Zenozine, but plan is Hylota will be heading to Sickbay), and we leave this scene as a cliffhanger for 07: Undoing, where I will be posting next with how it is resolved. Sorry for having such a high pace in the unfolding events, but I am keen on not loosing pace when so close to the finish. :)
[ Hylota Vojona | USS Theurgy | Ship Corridors Heading to Sickbay ]
As son as the two guards were dragged and sealed away Hylota flopped down against a wall panting heavily, it was quite difficult for her to drag around such large bodies with one arm, especially after the climb through the jefferies tubs of the Theurgy, it had all left Hylota quite winded, and in her current state continuing to aid Nicander with matters of the ship seemed out of her capabilities. It was for this reason she decided that her best course of action was to go back to Sickbay and try and get some attention before she was undoubtedly called in to provide aid.
Hylota stood herself back up and braced herself against the wall before she began to walk back. She had a small part of her telling her that she was abandoning her crew mates on their mission, but she calmed her mind by pointing out her limitations made her a liability, and that she should return to her post so that she could do her proper job when this situation wrapped up. She also wanted to check on her poor brother, she imagined this entire situation would come as a shock to him, but she had faith in her co-workers that they would keep him safe in her absence.
Hylota kept walking back to the turbolift an took it own to Deck 7 and had several layers of the ship between her and her crew mates by the time they called out for her, she could no longer give them aid, but in the current state of things where she was going was in more dire need of her than anything else. As she arrived on Deck 7 Hylota almost fell out of he Turbolift as she stumble forward, she had not been without hr boot in so long it was awkward to do so much walking on her own two feet again. Taking a deep breath she began to walk on the halls, when she arrived in Sickbay she intended to get her arm into a sling and keep it from flopping bout, from there she could check in on her brother and perhaps have him help purge her system of whatever paralytic element was in her arm. Hylota smiled, she naively believed that everything would be alright, that her brother would be recovered, and that something good would happen.
[ Vinata Vojona | USS Theurgy | Deck 7 | Sickbay ]
Vinata stumbled a little bit as he watched Dr. Hayden O'Connor wen off to gt him something more to wear an he took a stuttering breath before covering his chest with an arm and looking briefly at the body he had been dragged out from under. He shuddered ad took the blanket he had tried to blind the man with and he used it to cover up the body, he was certainly not going to move it, so the least they could do was cover it up so that no one had to look at what they had done here to survive.
As he finished covering up Phantom's body he began to shudder and his breaths grew short and weak. He shook his head and looked about, he needed something to calm his nerves, something that would be able to let him work, otherwise h would just be dead weight, and he would have nothing to do but let his mind wander to...No! No he was not going to let this happen now,just shove it aside and think about it later. Shaking his head Vinata took a deep breath and began to shakily walk towards the medical storage room, he would find himself something in there that he could use to relax he thought to himself.
Vinata stood up shakily and began to walk back through where his comrades had been held up mere moments earlier, he needed to get to this quickly before he had a breakdown and became a mess, with some drugs in his system he might be able to keep his mind off of what had happened to him, and perhaps he could also get something for the blistering that was happening all over his hand now that some time had passed from it being grazed by one of he flurry of phaser shots earlier.
[ Heather McMillan | Mine Deployment Rig | Cargo Bay 04 | Deck 02 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: Lucan cin Nicander, Simon Tovarek (Nolan) & Bridge Crew(https://tinyurl.com/k36v3c3)(https://tinyurl.com/m74m4d6)
"S-sure..." McMillan answered uncertainly to Tovarek when he asked her to follow him and Nicander, for the purpose of being an extra set of brains to keep check on calculations. It certainly wasn't her most favourite activity to perform, especially when one considered the rather "artistic" way in which she approached science. She was ironically, not a big fan of calculations. "Just so we're clear," she said, "we are talking about something that would essentially explode in our faces if we slip up? I'm asking, just so I know how badly I need to panic."
That was about the time that Nicander began to take charge of the situation, and ordered everyone to their places. Now McMillan found herself trying to jury rig a structural integrity field to protect everyone from the vacuum of space. Time was against them, and in addition, if they made one slight mistake, they'd all die anyway from the mines within the vessel. "Yeah, no pressure..." the young woman muttered to herself, her eyes wide with panic. When the rig was shut down, she instinctively began to make her hair, hands and face glow in a soft white and warm light, the slightest movement of her head causing her hair to float up and dance in the air in slow, lazy, yet graceful motions.
"Just reroute the main flow from auxilary into primary, check..." McMillan said to herself, as she worked alongside Tovarek, "Coax a little extra from non-essentials, and...uh, it's coming along!" She raised her voice without turning her head when Nicander asked how it was coming along.
"Oh God I hate this, I hate this...I just want to be in my lab, and no bloody ship shooting at us, and no Starfleet vessels chasing us across the universe...oh
Crikey O'Reilly...I'm a biologist, not an Einstein..."
[ Tovarek | Mine Deployment Rig | Cargo Bay 04 | Deck 02 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: Nicander, McMillan & Bridge Crew
Energy fields. This wasn't exactly Simon's forte yet he couldn't really say no to the challenge. He had seen the basics of it during college and in Starfleet Academy so he accessed his memory palace to bring all that info back up. "Uhm, right, power re routs..." he muttered to himself as he tapped the console and closed his eyes for a second to think. He continued with working with what he had and saw Heather doing the same. He helped her as much as she could as she typed in the data for the power redirection. Yet then it hit him. He could use the power that they rerouted to power up a small field just outside the bay doors.
This way he could be sure that the mines wouldn't bodge into the Theurgy at any point when they were jetted outside the cargo bay. He had kept in mind the fact that these mines were hardly a precise projectile to be fired off. In fact it wouldn't even be fired off. He could hear the panicky voice from Heather in the meantime and he turned his head calmly before smiling a bit and reassured her "Calm down... I know the situation looks dire, but we'll make it through. We always do... You know why?" he asked her with a coy grin "Cause we're the best Starfleet has to offer." he winked at her before carrying on.
[ Cir'Cie | Intensive Care Ward | Sickbay | Deck 07 ] Attn: Doctor MayaThe other Vulcan's gesture was oddly... soothing, and Cir'Cie looked up to meet Maya's gaze where they stood in the middle of the ICU. She realised that despite how she had behaved when under T'Rena's influence, at least Doctor Maya was ready to forgive her. That fact bolstered her morale since that meant more people aboard could be equally forgiving, despite the fact that her actions had caused a great deal of harm.
Her gaze strayed down the rows of biobeds in the ward, and she spotted the profile of one specific patient that, perhaps, embodied the harm that the sabotage had caused the
Theurgy. It was the Chief Engineer - Tia Marlowe. Through the mind-meld with Maya, she knew that the human had been given heart surgery during the hostile takeover, and Cir'Cie reckoned that it was still uncertain whether she would make it through or not. She could only hope that the capable medical personnel on the ship could help restoring the harm caused, since she had little means on her own to redeem herself. She was, after all, just a Science Officer in the middle of a voyage that she had no prior training or experience for.
"Before the battle is over, and the Lexorin can safely be dispersed, there is one more thing the two of us can do to help the rest of the crew. Since I - by you - am uniquely restored to my own mental faculties, I alone can reveal Declan Vasser's true nature as it was known to T'Rena. I would require your assistance, though, if you please." Cir'Cie said this and stepped up to one of the duty stations in the ward, and she began typing out something on a blank screen that she brought up. "If you could speak with Thea about what I told you, I will type out and upload the data I came in possession of when linked with T'Rena's mind. It would be more expedient if Thea was told directly so that she could relay the information where it may be needed aboard at this crucial juncture. I can imagine that if there is a direct confrontation taking place with the
Harbinger's commanding officer, crew loyal to Captain Ives would need to be briefed."
Working as quickly as she could, Cir'Cie compiled the profile of Declan Vasser - letting Maya read over her shoulder and pick out what might be of value for Thea to relay to all affected personnel aboard.
OOC: Here is the true character sheet from the OOC thread that I posted a couple of weeks ago (both versions, with the bottom one being the Augment one):
Offical Character Profile
Character Name: Declan Vasser
Desired Position: Captain of USS Harbinger
Desired Rank: Captain
Character Species: Human
Character Gender: Male
Character Age: 34
Character Birthplace: San Francisco, Earth
Height: 5'10"
Weight: 187 lbs
Eye Colour: Blue
Hair Colour: Brown
Interests: Art, classical Earth music, cooking
Brief Background Story: Declan Vasser was born in San Francisco, growing up in the backyard of Starfleet headquarters, where he witnessed the comings and goings of personnel and ships from a distance. In his teen years, he would often take road trips out to the shipyards on Earth to see the latest ship in the process of construction, dreaming of one day being aboard one. At the age of fourteen, he applied to Starfleet Academy, where he began his training to one day serve as an officer on-board a Starfleet vessel. His days were spent studying for hours, desperately focused on being the top of his class, a task he was able to meet. He would graduate with highest honors at the age of eighteen, accepting his first posting as a science officer on-board as a Nova-class vessel known as the Angelo.
By the age of twenty four, Vasser had reached the rank of Lieutenant, and was serving as assistant chief science officer on the Angelo, when the ship was caught in a firefight with a Ferengi battleship. They had been attempting to steal the Federation technology aboard, the resulting battle crippling the ship and killing several high ranking officers. Declan saved the day by reprogramming one of the photon torpedoes on board and beaming it in out-of-phase into the Ferengi ship's power matrix, detonating it and leaving the entire ship without power. It would become a move later referred to as the Vasser Maneuver by Starfleet, and would earn the man a promotion to Lieutenant Commander, as well as see him asked for personally by the Captain of the USS Harbinger.
Declan moved into the position of first officer beneath the Captain, learning the ropes of command. Six years later, when the man accepted a position as Admiral, he left command to Declan, who had already reached the rank of Commander, and accepted a promotion to Captain to go along with his new command position. Since then, the Harbinger had been involved with a number of military successes for the Federation, including several conflicts with Romulans and Klingons in the Neutral Zone, first encounters with hostile alien species and the destruction of dangerous technology either newly created or salvaged by warmongering races. This helped to earn Vasser a reputation as one of Starfleet's more renowned Captains and the Harbinger as one of the most capable war vessels in the fleet.
After Theurgy's departure, Vasser and his crew were ordered to pursue, given theirs was the closest ship to the Prometheus class vessel. After several days travel, an agent on-board the ship who was already compromised by the beings responsible for Starfleet's secret takeover, attempted to send an encoded message to it's superiors, which was intercepted by the Harbinger's chief science officer and brought to Vasser's attention. The Captain put two and two together on Theurgy's motive for escape, and realized that they too could not return to the Federation without risking compromise. Ordering medical scans on all crew, he continued his course, mainly as a means of not being suspected of making an escape of his own.
Personality Profile: Declan is a competent Captain with a spotless service record, with a history of perfectionism bordering on the obsessive compulsive. Indeed, he displays many characteristics of that disorder, counting paces when he is in a room or making certain that everything is on his desk in a proper order. His ship is run in much the same way, with promptness and care taken with each and every task performed. His crew are always on time and their uniforms never wrinkled, or everything can come to a screeching halt as far as he is concerned. His adherence to protocol is practically legendary. In his encounters with crewmen or officers with the ability to alter their form, he is insistent upon them having a singular form he addresses them in, often the first one he has ever seen them in,
Physical Profile: Physically fit, Declan attributes his well toned musculature to a strict routine he placed himself on years ago that he cannot bring himself to stop. The toning helps to promote good health but doesn't have a lot of physical strength, nor does Vasser have the proper training to utilize it. He is in his mid-thirties, but has an overall look of a man in his late twenties to early thirties through proper care of his body over the years. His frame is rather unassuming to those who encounter him, neither tall nor broad, with a more lanky figure that leaves him looking rather average to anyone who comes across him. It is for this reason that his mind often stands out as his best quality, and the one people take notice of most.
Unoffical Character Profile
Character Name: Declan Vasser
Desired Position: Captain of USS
Desired Rank: Captain
Character Species: Augmented Human
Character Gender: Male
Character Age: 34
Character Birthplace: Sigma Aionis
Height: 5'10"
Weight: 187 lbs
Eye Colour: Blue
Hair Colour: Brown
Interests: Art, classical Earth music, cooking
Brief Background Story: Declan's official biography on record with Starfleet Academy is very much a fabrication. Rather then being born to an average family in the heart of San Francisco, he was actually created in a test tube on Sigma Aionis, a planet thought to no longer be inhabited after a planetary cataclysm destroyed all plant life on the surface. Underground bunkers on the planet were claimed by a rogue Starfleet scientist working in the illegal trade of augmented humans. Declan was considered to be his masterpiece, bringing the human genome as close to perfection as he could without altering the genetic code in a way noticeable by standard testing. This stealth augment, as the scientist called it, would be able to submit to DNA testing without revealing it's true nature.
Purchasing an identity for the child, the augment became Declan Vasser, and was given a falsified history before entering Starfleet Academy. There, he excelled through the curriculum while pretending to struggle, making his success appear to be hard work rather then natural talent. After his graduation, his history remains much the same as the official documentation, with a few minor changes.
By the age of twenty four, Vasser had reached the rank of Lieutenant, and was serving as assistant chief science officer on the Angelo, when the ship was caught in a firefight with a Ferengi battleship. They had been attempting to steal the Federation technology aboard, the resulting battle crippling the ship and killing several high ranking officers. Declan's superhuman reflexes had saved him from an overloading console, but when the chief science officer saw this, Vasser was forced to kill him, making it appear as though the overload had done it. From there, he reprogrammed one of the photon torpedoes on board and beaming it in out-of-phase into the Ferengi ship's power matrix, detonating it and leaving the entire ship without power. It would become a move later referred to as the Vasser Maneuver by Starfleet, and would earn the man a promotion to Lieutenant Commander.
Declan moved into the position of first officer beneath the Captain of the USS Harbinger, attaining the position through blackmailing the man. Six years later, when the man accepted a position as Admiral, he was forced to leave command to Declan, who had already reached the rank of Commander, and accepted a promotion to Captain to go along with his new command position. Since then, the Harbinger had been involved with a number of military successes for the Federation, including several conflicts with Romulans and Klingons in the Neutral Zone, first encounters with hostile alien species and the destruction of dangerous technology either newly created or salvaged by warmongering races. This helped to earn Vasser a reputation as one of Starfleet's more renowned Captains and the Harbinger as one of the most capable war vessels in the fleet, all while keeping his natural advantages over others hidden.
After Theurgy's departure, Vasser and his crew were ordered to pursue, given theirs was the closest ship to the Prometheus class vessel. After several days travel, an agent on-board the ship who was already compromised by the beings responsible for Starfleet's secret takeover, attempted to send an encoded message to it's superiors, which was intercepted by the Harbinger's chief science officer and brought to Vasser's attention. The Captain put two and two together on Theurgy's motive for escape, and realized that they too could not return to the Federation without risking compromise. Vasser ordered medical scans on all crew, killing those who showed signs of compromise, and continued his course, mainly as a means of not being suspected of making an escape of his own.
Personality Profile: As a result of genetic superiority, Declan can accomplish most goals he sets for himself with relative ease. This can often leave him taking up new interests, mastering them and growing bored, discarding them as quickly as he picked them up. Cooking and art are among the only two he stuck to, simply due to the ever changing aspect of each, as well as a deep-seated pleasure he gets from marveling others with them. He can be more aggressive then the persona he puts on in front of others, and his adherence to Starfleet protocol only for the public eye. Behind the scenes, he is as amoral as he is cunning, always seeking the best options for himself and those who give their loyalty to him. Vasser can be self-serving, but if you make yourself useful to him, then his self-serving needs can be extended to you.
Physical Profile: Despite appearances, Declan is a superior being. His strength levels are on par with a Klingon warrior, watched by combat skills normally kept hidden, a combination of debilitating blows and pressure points and holds to disable and render unconscious. His figure is not just for health reasons, as he suggests, but a well honed body meant to get the fullest out of his genetic augmentations as possible. His smaller size in comparison to most affords him speed on par with an Olympic runner, while still maintaining exceptional physical strength. Only battle hardened warriors and others of superior physical ability and training can pose a threat in unarmed combat.
[ Maya (https://fc02.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2014/219/e/7/maya_row_01_by_auctor_lucan-d7u6n3n.png) | Main Sickbay | Deck 07 |] Attention: Cir'Cie, Thea
Maya's eyes narrowed as she reviewed the data on Captain Vasser. One of her eyebrows rose but otherwise she was as still as a hologram on 'pause'. Finally she spoke. "This certainly explains much. Captain Vasser was able to detect the infiltration of Starfleet because he was also an infiltrator. Once he began the chase the tells must have been obvious. It was quite an achievement for his creators to hide his augmentations in his 'junk' DNA, quite ingenious. This information renders him even more dangerous than previously thought."
"Genetic augments were responsible for Earth's third and final world war," Maya continued. "The experiment to create an improved human resulted in individuals who had not only augmented physical and mental abilities, but augmented arrogance and ambitions as well. During my lifetime Earth's genetic augments almost started a war between the Klingon Empire and a preFederation Earth, but I only found out later once the information was declassified. I myself was visiting Cold Station 13 when they invaded it."
Maya tapped her combage. "Maya to Thea, are you still with us?" At this point she didn't know if the Theurgy's artificial intelligence had been removed from the equation or not. The loyalists had held sickbay but how the rest of the ship was faring was a mystery.
[ Cir'Cie | Intensive Care Ward | Sickbay | Deck 07 ] Attn: Doctor Maya
Listening to the older Vulcan about what she had experienced and noting the facts about human history, Cir'Cie was gratified that they were hardly obligated to spend some time researching what the Augments truly were before they could brief Thea about the Harbinger's former Commanding Officer.
[This is Thea, and I am here,] said the Ship A.I. on the intercom in answer to Maya. [The Harbinger commanders tried to reprogram me but failed. I am currently establishing communication between all resistance cells and helping people get back to their duty stations because of the pending battle. Is there any way I can help you in Sickbay?]
Cir'Cie knew that Thea still had no surveillance system besides her internal sensors since the Calamity first attacked them outside the Hromi Cluster, so the A.I. was more or less blind to their current activities. "This is Ensign Cir'Cie. Doctor Maya has restored me from the mental conditioning that T'Rena gave me through the Vulcan mind-meld," she said as she typed, "I am preparing a data package for you in medical station A4832, and it contains some information that may be of import to anyone dealing with the individual known as Declan Vasser."
[What about him?] asked Thea, since Cir'Cie was not finished yet and had not saved the text to the database.
[ Maya (https://fc02.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2014/219/e/7/maya_row_01_by_auctor_lucan-d7u6n3n.png) | Intensive Care Ward | Sickbay | Deck 07 ] Attention: Cir'Cie, Thea
"It seems that Captain Vasser is a genetic augment," Maya replied. "According to Commander T'Rena's memory engrams that were duplicated in Ensign Cir'Cie's psyche Declan Vasser was created in a lab and much of his history has been faked. Apparently the plan to save the crews of the Theurgy and the Harbinger were to seize the Calamity's superior technology and find a place to breed a race of augments based on Vasser's DNA. Like the augments of Terran antiquity Declan Vasser is endowed with strength, endurance, intelligence and agility superior to the human norm. Like the augments of the Earth's Eugenics war he is also afflicted with arrogance and ambition that he believes his justified by his own superiority. Any crime against someone who isn't a Terran augment is justifiable. Ensign Cir'Cie is transcribing T'Rena's data on Vasser right now, but anyone who attempts to confront Captain Vasser should be made aware of the danger he poses, even as an individual. Such a being could be deadly even to an armed party with superior numbers. On no account should he be underestimated."
OOC: I'm assuming that this information was conveyed to Cir'Cie and that's okay to reveal it at this late date.
[ Cir'Cie | Intensive Care Ward | Sickbay | Deck 07 ] Attn: Doctor Maya
Thea seemed to absorb the information relayed to her by the two Vulcans with stoic silence until Doctor Maya had left her verbal account.
[I will make sure to forward this information to all concerned parties as timely as possible. Declan Vasser's current location is unknown since he seems to have removed his combadge. Messages have been prepared to all Senior Staff and will be relayed at first given opportunity. Security personnel have already been alerted of the threat the man might pose if directly confronted.]
"Our gratitude, Thea," said Cir'Cie dispassionately, then she stopped typing, "the transcription is complete and uploaded to your database under the name 'Vasser'. Secondly, we must know the status of the personnel that were set to work on synthesising Lexorin. Apparently, Sarresh Morali is in charge of that team, but he does not answer to communications. Nor does Head Nurse Jenkins. Can you verify their location and condition?"
[Unfortunately, no. I do know, however, that they finished synthesising enough Lexorin to allow me to disperse it where it is required. My last correspondence with them confirmed that they were about to secure access to my life support systems, but my surveillance system is destroyed so I can just see that they should be in the corridor just outside their destination. I will attempt to establish communication with them via intercom.]
"Very well." Cir'Cie gave it a moment of thought. "Please, if you are to use specific targeting when dispersing the Lexorin, do not affect personnel in key functions on the ship or who are essential to hostile engagement with any enemy ship. The idea is that the affected crew reports to Sickbay as soon as possible in order to alleviate the effects of T'Rena's mind-meld. "
[Acknowledged. I will report progress as required.]
Turning to Doctor Maya, Cir'Cie realised that as pressing as the treatment of the mind-melds were, the Chief Medical Officer was still not located, and if the Theurgy was going into battle with the Calamity, Doctor Maya needed to stay put. "As soon as we hear from Thea that the Lexorin is dispersed and that our patients will be arriving, we tend to them as well, but in the meantime, I will assist you with the current patients in whatever way I can."
- Fin
OOC: We continue in Undoing as required, but perhaps the Epilogue is a better thread to cover the treatment of the mind-melded crew. We'll see. As it is, Zenozine and The Counselor are writing a Sickbay scene with Hylota, Vinata and Hayden O'Connor, and we can jump on there as we feel fit. :)
[ Eve Jenkins | Medical Lab 01 | Sickbay | Deck 07 ] Attn: Search Party
"Fine warriors they will be," Eve crooned, bolstering the woman's self-esteem and licked her own lips in response to Lana's pursed lips. Slowly but surely they were all being reeled in, their libidos rising quickly as Eve shoved aside her guilty conscience and leaned back against Dillard as she lifted the gray undershirt the rest of the way off and tossed it to the side.
"I would never dream of denying the opportunity," she purred and pressed her firm behind against the hard cock straining against her. "In fact ... now is a perfect opportunity ... don't you think?" she asked in that sultry tone, eyes locked with Vargas. "Oh yesssss," she sighed lustily as her breasts were groped and nipples teased to become even harder. "Keep touching me," she whispered hotly.
Vargas mentioned the red alert but Eve knew they weren't going anywhere. Still she growled playfully as Lana unzipped her jumpsuit. "Don't be shy ... show us your beautiful breasts," she encouraged and pulled Lana closer by the thin tank top, kissing the woman while she ground even harder against Dillard's crotch and her free hand groped at which ever of the guys was within reach.
[ Search Party | Medical Lab 01 | Sickbay | Deck 07 ] Attn: Eve Jenkins
Lana let out a small noise deep down in her throat as she was pulled forward, but as her mouth was covered by the Head Nurse's awaiting lips, she groaned in deepest satisfaction. She heard Eve, and did as bidden, hiking up her white tanktop and her bra to rest above her aching breasts. She had never been with a woman before, but it felt so right she had no idea what to do with herself. Next, her hands joined Dillard's, as if on their own accord, and began to fondle the Theurgy woman's breasts. She knew what she wanted for herself, and with that knowledge, she reached down behind the waistline of Eve's panties - fingers pursuing the slick heat that practically screamed in her own body that it wanted to be touched. Breathlessly, she kissed the woman, hoping to be touched in kind.
Meanwhile, Dillard let Lana fondle Eve - allowing her to stand in so that he could take care of some obstructive clothing. Reaching around Eve, he undid her unifrom trousers and hooked both panties and trousers with his thumbs, pushing the garments down from her hips and halfway down her thighs. It laid bare Lana's ministrations - two fingers rubbing Eve's outer labia and her middle finger sliding wetly across her clitoris... probing into her sex. Dillard also withdrew his rigid arousal from the tight confines of his trousers - rubbed into full pride by Eve's behind. Thus freed, he seized Eve's hips and began to push into the apex of Eve's legs from his position behind his back, and the head of his cock came to touch Lana's fingers. Lana was very helpful, however, and helped press Dillard's head into Eve with her fingertips.
Cadet Sherman had unzipped his yellow jumpsuit as well, quickly making sure his arousal - larger than the other two men's - was there when Eve reached for him. Her touch made him gasp loudly, and his hands joined Lana's upon Eve's body - his thumb brushing across her lips between the kissing that the two women had indulged themselves in.
Vargas, however, was not content - his aggressive demeanour showing through in his dark face. He would not be a bystander. "You will get down on your knees and straddle me, Nurse," he said, grabbing her wrist and pulling her out of the embrace of the three other Harbinger crew members. He laid down below the hanging oxygen masks, pulling Eve down on top of him. He had his cock out, grabbing it at the base in his hard fist, and he pushed her down unto him by the hip.
The other three were at a momentary loss for what to do...
[ Eve Jenkins | Medical Lab 01 | Sickbay | Deck 07 ] Attn: Search Party
As Lana's fingers found Eve's hot core, Eve groaned just as deeply as the woman had and their tongues danced with utter joy while Eve caressed and gently tugged at Lana's nipples. The rustling of clothes all around only added to the eroticism, then she felt the questing member sliding along the bottom curve of her cheeks and slipping just inside Eve's now glistening folds. With Lana's help, she felt Dillard enter her and another lust-filled moan echoed about them.
They were melding into one being, hands and lips roving over each other in a state of abandon. It was interrupted though by Vargas, the one who simply had to be dominant. There was a slurping sound as Dillard's cock exited and Eve stumbled slightly, making it even easier for Vargas to pull her down. Almost immediately she was impaled, his member fully engulfed within her wet depths and she chuckled as she ran a finger along his jaw. "I promise I can last a long time," she purred.
Her come-hither eyes caught the other three's gazes as she slowly moved up and down Vargas' length, her voice soothing as she bade the other three to join them. Pulling at Dillard, she eased him around behind her. "You seemed to like my ass moments ago ... it's all yours," she murmured to him as she nibbled at his lips. When he took her, there was a little pain but she wouldn't ... couldn't ... stop. "Lana," she breathed and crooked a finger.
When she came forward, she helped the woman straddle Vargas' face so he could enjoy feasting upon Lana while Eve pleasured his lower region. That left only Sherman who she drew forth by his large cock, loving how he gasped every time she touched him. Giving Lana a wink, she started to lick Sherman's hefty member and invited the other woman to join her. They were all connected now, physically at least, and the longer they moved together the more their minds joined hers.
They writhed together, each of them groping and licking and sucking for several minutes and as each one reached their limits and climaxed they would slump over just like the other two had in the medical supply closet. It was when they reached the pinnacle of their pleasure that her mind would capture theirs and lock them inside themselves. She loved every moment of it and at the same time hated herself for what she was doing to them.
When at last they were 'subdued' and would no longer harm anyone, Eve extricated herself and gathered her clothing and a cleaning kit. After a few moments at the replicator, she loaded a hypospray but didn't use it just yet. Instead she took it and locked herself in one of the small rooms. "Computer ... lock this room and do not let anyone open it other than Lieutenant Commander Lucan cin Nicander. Authorization Jenkins Sigma Two Theta," she stated, locking herself away for the safety of others and hoping the rest could save the ship and crew.