Re: CH03: S [D06|0915] Escaping Chimera
Reply #12 –
[ LT Korbin (NPC) | Cargo Bay 1 | USS Theurgy | Embarking on a Search for Answers and Escape ]
The Vulcan Conn Officer and A-CTO Of the USS Bellerophon was among the last survivors on the bridge when he ordered all hands to ‘Abandon Ship’ and to take spiteful countermeasures against the hated crew of traitors and terrorists. Or so Starfleet Command had claimed. The dutiful Vulcan and Dominion War survivor or Project Eagle had never questioned orders outright in his professional career, but knew how to raise or cast perspectives into light. It was not his place to do so during their months-long hunt for the Prototype Dreadnought.
Lieutenant Korben had previously infiltrated the Maquis up until the first overture of of the Dominion War, when the Jem’Hadar arrived to assert their presence in the badlands and over Cardassia. He was posted as a weapons and conn officer for his talents as an undercover arms runner sympathetic to the Maquis movement and his combat experience against the Cardassians, but he was in actuality sent to arrest or locate key leaders, such as Cal Hudson and Michael Eddington, but never got the chance before the movement was categorically snuffed out and their worlds, moons, caves and bases were obliterated or overrun. Korben felt a sense of genuine pity for many of the families who were killed, and an uncharacteristic sense of vengeful justice became one emotion that seemed to strengthen who he’d become when he returned to Starfleet Headquarters.
When he was debriefed and cycled back into service with a promotion to Lieutenant after two years, Korbin was assigned to the Nebula-class T’Kumbra when Project Eagle was formed and later the Bellerophon when A diplomatic summit was held, and word came from a source on the homeworld that Korben was in truth the son of a Romulan sympathizer of Ambassador Spock’s unification movement, and that his identity had been hidden and his features surgically altered at infancy to protect him from the Tal Shiar by his Vulcan father, also a Unificationist believer, explaining his origins as an orphan on Rigel, where he practiced what Vulcan faiths and schools he could under the circumstances of living on the gang-occupied world, where martial arts and gunplay were a way of life for anyone with the necessary survival traits.
When the escape pods were away and the Intrepid-class was in its death throes, Korben, despite being injured and somewhat emotionally compromised, however, had ordered Security to join him in a spiteful bid to seize control of the ship and turn it over to the Task Force, even if they would shoot it on sight, Logic demanded justice, or answers. But in the state of mind he was in when he hastily coordinated this effort without properly being ready to beam in and shoot in the right direction, he beamed into the path of a punch by the same man who destroyed his ship. A fellow Eagle Project survivor. Perhaps Korben’s recognition of the human, Marquez, was such an illogical twist that he hesitated, or simply was misfortunate or the transporter beam was damaged. Whichever happened, the human got the upper hand, then got ahold of Korben’s gun and their bid failed.
Korben awoke upon being treated, disarmed and corralled into a Cargo Bay. Sooner or later, one of his Conn Officers, Jaesa, an unjoined Trill, had awoke the Vulcan with a hypostim. “Hey, Lieutenant. Get up! This is a jailbreak!” After a groggy start and a cringe as Korben stood up as if to join the others before staggering as the stim’s effects were still purging the effects of the stun bolt by his own sidearm. Fortunately, Jaesa had thoughtfully managed to procure one as Bellerophon security brought in a few officers and their sidearms. Hostages. Though the Ship’s security could seal them in, space them or beam them away, or any of the three combined. The movement at his goldshirts was telltale they were already making their move continuing his orders to the mixed survivors of both crews, though the Dauntless personnel were already rallying behind their ranking Security official, who'd managed to ambush a patrol and take their weapons and the patrol themselves as prisoners.
Sure enough, the surviving Dauntless and Bellerophon crew were indeed preparing a revolt. “Don’t take any weapons than we need. Use their toolkits to conduct sabotage.” He admonished to the ranking security officers, though neither was higher than a LtJG. “They’ll track them where fired and transport us into a trap. We must take the sensors and transporter beam offline, then we’ll sabotage this craft from within. Then we can route EPS cables into the replicator and cause a brown-out. Ops! Get to it!” Korben had studied the vessel’s blueprints and his Vulcan mind had committed some of the details and deck listing to memory, enough to know where the support craft could be launched from. Even a lone fighter or a runabout with a powerful transmission could reach Sankolov and the fleet. If the reports were true and the Klingons had pledged their support, a single life was irrelevant if it meant a swift end to the hunt for Theurgy.
There had been just one detail that Korben had noticed during the Simulcast during the battle of Starbase 84. He had replayed and reviewed the transmission sent on the same signals to warn of an Imminent Romulan Invasion. He’d never voiced this, even to Jaesa, who he was close to, but the Transmission had been doctored. As certain as Vulcan’s lack of a moon, Theurgy’s message was a FAKE. If there was any way to know what really happened at the Starbase or why so many Pilots defected. Either Romulus or another Species was influencing itself over Theurgy’s personnel and the Vessel could be saved if the crew were dealt with, or as he suspected, this was the work of something beyond the philosophy or mortal humanoids.
Korben’s doggedness was about to find out as he joined his Security officers, phaser in hand and had been calling out tactical formations and orders when Theurgy Security appeared. Korben reactively shot first, firing stun bolts in rapid fire. He needed to mind meld with an officer to make his next move, whether to sabotage the ship or find evidence and a way back to the Task Force.
“Sir!” Someone procured a datapad from a stunned Theurgy noncombatant. “They’re onto us.” Korben calculated what he saw as ‘Security Alert’ warnings, which called for the containment of any related decks to the security breach.
“Damn.” The Vulcan-Romulan cursed. Captain Solok detested such vulgar speech for its conveyance of emotion, but Korben didn’t really care about emotion when he’d reverted back to a prior plan: “There are replicators on this deck. Get to one, and we can cripple this ship’s auxiliary and give Archeron a blood trail. Move!”
[ ENS James "Jimmy Mariner| Outside Main Sickbay | Deck 11 | Vector 02 | USS Theurgy]
The Count? NO! Mariner realized when Six had taken his Bram Stoker reference literally. Ironic that the Borg had no concept of Vampirism, which was probably all to the better, but the Tall, almost-scary looking Reman was someone to be chummy with in case the lights went out. “You’re not Ula, are you, by any chance? Drac Ula? Big guy, wide open smile, bit of a hometown legend… Nah, it isn’t you. You look like the guy though. Sorry.”
Jimmy wondered what best moniker he could privately issue the Bat man. As good a nickname as any if this guy could fight as well as any Romulan shock troop he’d seen take the brunt of Breen and Jem’hadar fire during the war, notably how many blades the Bat people kept on their uniforms; he wished they would’ve let him fire one just once, their disruptors looked quite fetching for his virtual collection.
Darkness was quite the possibility as Jimmy saw security footage of Deck 11 and the ambush these party-crashers had set, intent on escape and sabotage, juding by the way their apparent ranking redshirt was shooting out their surveillance cams. In reality, Mariner would be doing the same thing. “Mister Lorad. Might I suggest a big stick to go with that inspiring voice?” Jimmy’s pre-battle grin didn’t seem mutual.
When they were on their way and on the move, an idea crossed Mariner’s mind just as a prospect did: “We can’t just gas the poor devils?” Jimmy suggested. “Anesthazine gas and a lullaby over the speakers oughta thin the herd, no?” Jimmy noticed as the escapees were splitting up in two equally strong groups and branching off as they tried to force entry to replicators or consoles. Many of them were goldshirts but Jimmy spotted one blueshirt make sure she rounded up Theurgy personnel. Hostages. “If they get to the checkpoint on V-3’s battle bridge they can override command of key systems. Six, can we lock them out or trick their transporter coordinates to beam them back into custody?” Jimmy asked as he characteristically preset his phase for rapid-fire automatic output at high stun setting in case this wasn’t an option and they had to go in with intent to stun or kill more Federation personnel for the greater good.[/color]
Topic: CH03: S [D06|0915] Escaping Chimera (Read 4699 times)
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