Visiting Friends, pt. 2
Posted on Sat Jun 19th, 2021 @ 6:24pm by Uhlan Ezra Perez & Major Ashley Rogers & Lieutenant Hatham tr'Krotash
3,657 words; about a 18 minute read
Mission:
Chapter IV: Unravelling the Mystery
Location: U.S.S. James Bedford
Timeline: 238702.18
Perez nodded as the order to deploy came in. "You heard the boss. Go time. You all have your orders. Happy hunting." They tapped their badge. "Transporters, energise."
Perez materialised in an empty corridor, and immediately began shouting out orders. But when no reply came, they looked around in confusion. "Fuck. Wilhelm? Tako? Anyone? Fuck!"
They tapped their badge. "Amelia, this is Perez. Where's my team? I materialised alone."
"There's been an issue with the transport, stand by." The Captain's voice on the other end sounded anything but reassuring.
"Seriously, Cap, if you are telling me the transporters malfunctioned again, I'll rip them apart when I get back."
"No, Sergeant. Everyone beamed out. We have no idea what happened. Must be some kind of transport blocker. Hang on, Lieutenant Lynn says she has an idea. Stand by for a moment."
Suddenly, Hatham and Ash materialised right next to Perez. "Oh, am I glad to see you guys," the Sergeant exclaimed, almost hugging them both. They tapped their badge again. "Right, I got the Major and the Romulan. Where's the rest?"
"We're working on it. Focus on the mission."
Perez took a deep breath. "Right. The mission. Okay. Looks like the others won't be joining the party. Transport blocker or something. Let the eggheads figure that one out. We have some refugees to save." They drew their greatsword in one hand, and a pistol in the other. "And we'll have a lot more work. What's your thoughts, they're locked out of the computer, so, start on the bridge and work our way down?"
The rest of the teams are gone? What the hell? Ash looked at Hatham and quipped, "Looks like we are getting more practice at overtaking vessels. Perhaps when this is all said and done, piracy might be our next gig."
She then turned to Perez, "We need to seize the engine room too, make sure they can't get away. Everything else will be a fun bonus."
"You mean piracy wasn't our current gig?" Hatham deadpanned, though the humor was in part to cover dismay at the situation. Only the team leaders transporting in was just too bizarre to quick believe as a transporter glitch, but other than putting him on an even higher level of suspecting a trap, there was nothing to be done but focus on the mission. "I agree on the engine room. With computers locked, the bridge can't do much, but engineers ...you never know what they might come up with enough leeway."
"That jammer must have come from somewhere, though. And because we don't know where it is, we can't turn it off."
Mila Lynn's voice came through on the comms. "Perez? Hatham? Ash? You there?"
Perez tapped the badge. "Perez here, come in."
"It's Mila. Lieutenant Lynn. We figured out what that transport jammer did. Somehow, it filtered out human and romulan DNA specifically, and broke up the transport signals. Hatham and Ash were the last ones out, so we were able to reconstruct their patterns from the buffer. I... I don't think we can get the others back. I'm sorry, Sergeant."
Perez was seething in rage. That team had been their family. Those people, they had been everything to Ezra. "Have you located the jammer?"
"Seems to be linked to their shield emitters. No idea how it stayed online when we shut everything down, though."
Perez looked at the other two. "They set us the perfect trap, and we walked right into it."Perez?
Ash took a moment to ponder what Mila said before pointing her weapon at Perez, "Or you did... if human and Romulan life signs got filtered and you didn't get reassembled from backup molecules.... of which I am not particularly pleased about... who are you?"
Perez shrugged. "Master Sergeant Ezra Perez, Terran Empire MACO. I told you. I think, Major, the question you are really asking is what I am. Honestly, I wish I knew. All I know is that I am not a Terran, or human as you call them in this universe. Not entirely, anyway. Medics, scientists, they've tried to figure it out all my life, but if they did, they sure as fuck didn't tell me."
Mila came back on the comms. "That's not important right now. What is important is getting those refugees, and that jammer. We scanned the ship for life signs, there are eighty Romulans on board, not counting Hatham. All of them in cryostasis, from the looks of it."
The Sergeant nodded. "Right. Dispose of the vermin, free the refugees, see if we can retrieve that fucking jammer. We have our targets. Only thing left to decide is if we stick together or split."
Neither option was great - mostly because Hatham was inclined to think Rogers' instincts were good. Perez not really being human was another suspicious coincidence. He tempted to at least stun Perez and clear the ship with the one person here he (mostly) trusted ...if there was anyone to clear. Considering a different sort of trap, he tapped his comm. "You said 80 Romulan in stasis, Mila. How many crew?"
After a moment, Mila came back on the comm. "Sixty-five non-Romulan life signs on board, not including yourselves. They seem to be clustered in three places mainly. The bridge, the rather sizeable medical bay, where the Romulans are, and engineering. There seems to be about fifteen people in groups of varying sizes patrolling the vessel."
Just as Mila spoke, Perez raised their pistol, and fired three shots, right in between Ash and Hatham. "Make that sixty-two," they commented, as three bodies hit the floor behind Hatham and Rogers. "Safe to say they know that we are here now. We better get moving."
"I'll take engineering," Ash said simply. She looked at Hatham, "We have to split up... "
Perez nodded. "I'll take the bridge. That leaves the cryo bay for you, Lieutenant. Having a Romulan go in there is probably the smartest move. Stay in contact. If you need emergency evac, three taps of the badge will activate your transport beacon and take you straight back to the Amelia." They grinned mischievously. "And you better keep count. I'm already on three, after all. Let's be quick and wipe this place clean."
Just as they turned to head towards the bridge, Perez turned back. "Oh, and Major do me a favour. If you come across the piece of shit that operated that transport jammer, make it slow and painful."
Ash looked at Perez and then at Hatham before saying to her Romulan colleague quietly, "I can't tell if I want to kill Perez or by them a beer .."
"Depends on whether there are any more surprises," Hatham replied, drawing a disruptor. "Particularly ones from the bridge."
Ash nodded and whispered to Hatham, "Get the Romulans, I'll make sure engineering is secure. We'll sort out the bridge once the hostages are safe and we aren't going to get kidnapped ourselves. I'll jettison the core before that happens."
She then turned and prowled the corridors for enemy, which was rather easy since they were coming for them now. A few well placed phaser shots eliminated the immediate threats but as much as she was enjoying this, she knew the priority was to secure engineering. She opened up an access panel and made her way to engineering.
Perez shook their head as they made their way down the corridors towards the bridge. Of course the other two didn't trust them - understandable, really. The passing patrols were quickly taken care of with a few well-aimed phaser shots. Just as the Sergeant reached the doors to the bridge, however, they overheard something from inside.
"We're nearly back in the system, Commander."
"Good. As soon as you are, vent cryo. Drop all the pods."
Perez drew their greatsword, and, using it as a crowbar, forced the bridge door open.
Phaser and disruptor bolts flew back and forth for what seemed like a long time, but probably only was a few seconds. As Perez yanked their sword from the skull of a gorn, they spotted an orion frantically tapping away on a console.
"Systems unlocked."
With a bone-chilling scream, Perez leaped. The whites of their eyes turned black, their ice blue irises red, as they ran the whole length of their sword through the Orion like a hot knife through butter.
"No you fucking don't," the Sergeant roared in an almost demonic voice as they shot the console controlling the cryo pod release.
They tapped their badge. "Perez to all," they announced, their voice still distorted. "They unlocked their computer access. Bridge is secured, but they were trying to vent the cryo pods. Amelia, keep an eye out for anything dropped by the ship and beam it on board. I'm on my way to medbay now."
Ash was about to breach Engineering when she heard Perez. She sighed, "It's always something..." The crew in Engineering didn't know what hit them as she lobbed a flashbang into the middle of everything. She fired her phaser at the disoriented personnel, neutralizing everyone in sight before they realized what had happened.
Several stragglers tried to mount a defense, but it was not particularly successful. One man threw a wrench at Ash from behind her. She turned to look at him, "Seriously?! That actually hurt!" before she threw her knife into his chest. She crouched over the dying man and yanked the blade out, "Don't bring a wrench to a knife fight..." she growled.
Now she looked at the console to see if she could figure out a way to lock out the bridge controls. She briefly looked at the wrench and thought about just smashing everything, but she knew if she did that Mila would give her grief for days. She hit a few commands and the entire ship plunged into darkness. "Rogers to Away Team... I just cut power to everything but life support."
Hatham moved toward the cryo bay with the air of someone who knew that deadly menace stalked the corridors.
And he was it.
If the half dozen dead bodies littering the decks behind him weren't enough evidence of that, but the impression was reinforced by the extra weapons he'd acquired: two disruptors, five knives, and his personal favorite, a shock whip. Acquiring it had cost him - the whip had shredded the sleeve of his favorite jacket and left a livid burn on the side of his wrist, but it made watching its wielder writhe in agony as he disintegrated from a blast from Hatham's Varon-T. He was experimenting with the feel of the whip, holding it ready to lash the next pirates to show themselves when he heard Perez' warning.
"Vent the cryo chambers?" he growled and ran for the bay.
The lights went out just as Perez entered the corridor that led straight to the medbay."Good thinking," they growled through the comms, before finally reaching the door, now only illuminated by the emergency lighting. When they pressed the button to open the door, nothing happened.
Perez cursed under their breath. "Revise that statement. You locked all the doors, too, from the looks of things. Manual override is behind the control panel." With no time to waste, the young Sergeant simply slammed the pommel of their sword into the panel, easily breaking through the glass, and ripped the whole panel out with their bare hand before yanking the lever to release the doors.
By now, Perez had calmed down a little, and their voice had gone back to normal. Their eyes, however, still looked as if they were possessed by a demon. "I'm crashing this party, with or without you. Only thing leaving this medbay alive will be Romulans, and us, if you guys get there before I finish cleaning out the vermin."
Without waiting for a response, they stormed through the slowly opening doors, and cleanly decapitated the two Orions that had been guarding the entrance.
Ash furrowed her brow at the sound of Perez's voice and she responded over the comms, "You okay, Perez? What's your current location? Hatham, do you have eyes on Perez?"
"I don't have eyes on much since the lights went out," Hatham replied. "But I'm at the bay doors. There's an atmosphere warning." He jammed the end of the whip into a panel and yanked it open. "I'm grabbing a breather before going in."
As Hatham entered the medbay, Perez briefly turned to him. "Welcome to the party. I took out three while you were on your way, by my count there's only one of them left." Their right sleeve was ripped open, and a disruptor burn was obvious even in the low light of the emergency lighting and the glow of the consoles monitoring the cryo pods.
Just as Perez spoke, an Andorian popped his head and rifle out of cover, and aimed at Hatham. Without hesitating, Perez leaped over and smashed their sword through the counter behind which the enemy was cowering, nearly cutting him in half. But not before the Andorian fired. A phaser beam hit Perez right in the chest. They briefly recoiled, before grasping the sword and finishing off their attacker. "Well that was not very nice of you, was it," they growled as they rammed the tip of the sword through the head of the already dead pirate.
Pulling back the sword, Perez turned to Hatham and grinned. "Chalk up another one for me. That should be the whole crew exter-" Suddenly, their eyes turned back to normal, and the young Sergeant collapsed onto the floor, motionless.
Ash made her way to the medbay, "Looks like you guys had all the fun...." Then she saw Perez lying on the ground and Hatham standing over them, "What happened?"
"Fvadtar if I know," the big Romulan said, kneeling to check for a pulse. "Took a shot to the chest but ended the shooter and turned all grins to say that should be the whole crew, then just hit the deck like a puppet with cut strings." He stood back up frowning. Nothing about Perez smelled right. "Still breathing, but that's about as much as I can tell you. But then that's about as much as I could tell about a human. Whatever Perez is..." He shook his head. "I think we should transport them back. Their crew should know how to deal with them."
Ash nodded, "Let's take a look at those cryo chambers before something else happens. Perez is alive, they can wait."
She tightened her grip on her phaser, it's already been established that this ship has been full of unpleasant surprises. "Am I a bad person if I just want to shove Perez into the cryo chambers to see if there are any booby traps?" she asked Hatham.
A puzzled eyebrow rose. "Why would that make you a bad person?" Hatham looked at the cryo chambers. "And considering what we found last time, checking these before sending them over strikes me as a good idea."
"Try shoving me into one of those and you'll end up with my sword in a place you really don't want it," Perez weakly remarked from the floor. "Someone explain to me how the fuck I ended up on the floor in medbay, and why everything hurts? Last I remember, I was on the bridge and someone wanted to vent the pods."
Ash shrugged, "I cut power to the ship... you sounded off so I made my way down here and found you passed out on the floor. Are you okay?"
Perez sat up. "Chest hurts, shoulder hurts, arm hurts. And I can't remember anything since I was on the bridge. Otherwise, I guess, yeah." They shook their head. "I went berserk, didn't I. Fuck. It's been years since that happened. Help me up and let's check out those pods?"
Ash looked over at Hatham as she adjusted her grip on her phaser, already tight from getting ready to checkout the pods, "Go... berserk? Does that happen often?"
Hatham kept his weapon ready, but he was more sanguine. It happened. He'd seen it a few times, especially with youngsters who hadn't been trained well enough, but his experience with that was among Romulans. Who knew what was normal with whatever Perez was, but he knew even humans had legends about something similar. He reached down to offer a hand up. "Maybe the Viking thing on that ship is catching."
Perez chuckled as they took Hatham's hand and pulled themselves up. "I wish. But to answer your question, Major, no, it doesn't happen often. It hasn't happened to me since before I joined Starfleet. And I had hoped it would never happen again. It's caused by an adrenaline overload, caused by emotional or physical trauma. It's basically a survival instinct reaction. Losing the team and then hearing that their sacrifice may well have been worthless must have triggered it."
They wiped away a tear and shook their head. "Get your shit together, Master Sergeant Ezra Perez," they growled at themselves, before turning to Ash. "Can you turn the lights back on? Feels like the air is getting a little thin. I would like to finish the job and get out. I reckon if we keep them in cryo, the Amelia's cargo bay and hangars will be large enough to carry all the pods back to somewhere safe."
Hatham reached into the compartment he'd just opened and handed a breather to Perez. "Here, put this on. Atmosphere is probably even thinner in the bay. If you need to go back after that, go ahead, but I'm not sending those pods back without having a look to be sure what's in them. It's too easy to spoof life signs." He didn't say more. No need to tell anyone from Starfleet how he'd help destroy one of their vessels back in the day.
Perez took the rebreather and put it on, taking a deep breath. "That helps, thank you." They smiled at the mention of spoofing life signs. "Oh, yes. That can be quite fun, that trick, when done right. Causes a whole lot of confusion when a seemingly empty freighter is suddenly full of soldiers. You make a good point. What do you suggest? We can't really release them all and then put them back in."
"Mila said there were 80 Romulan life signs besides me, so if we each open three at random that's a sample a bit over 10% which ought to be enough to catch a bomb or planted pirates or..." Hatham paused, not liking the thought of the sort of experimentation that the previous empty but bloody cryo pods suggested, "...other issues."
"Or... we open one at a time. Between the three of us, I'm fairly comfortable that we can handle one of anything...." Ash pointed out.
Perez looked at the rows and rows of pods. "Is there a way to open them without thawing out the inhabitant? Oh, and someone turn the damn lights back on."
Hatham shrugged. "I'm not a tech expert, but I wouldn't want to risk any of the refugees by doing something dicey with half thawing them if there's not."
Ash looked at Perez, "Afraid of the dark, are we?" Sensing the eyes on her, she shrugged, "I'm not a tech expert either. And I actually don't know how to turn the lights back on from here. What? My Forte is to make things dead and leave the clean up for others. I never stick around to... turn the lights back on. Let's see if Mila can talk us through this..." Ash opened a communication channel, "Rogers to Lynn, what are our options for defrosting these pods? And also turning the lights back on."
Perez shook their head. "Not afraid in the slightest. But seeing as we are looking at sensitive equipment right here, having the lights back on would definitely help figure out how they work."
Mila's voice came through the comms. "Lynn to boarding team. I take it you have secured the vessel?"
The sergeant smiled. "All hostiles eliminated, Lieutenant. But when the major made her way through engineering, she thought it would be a good idea to turn off everything except basic life support."
Mila chuckled. "Yep, that's our Ash all right. Bad news on your team, though. They're gone. I'm sorry, Sergeant."
"I am sure you did all you could, Lieutenant," Perez replied, a solitary tear rolling down their face. "But this is not a time to dwell on our losses. Is the Captain there?"
On cue, Mannerheim joined the call. "Mannerheim here. Good job over there. We're sending over an engineering team to restore power to the ship, and a few medics to check out the pods. Stand by."
It did not take long for the technicians and medics from the Amelia to arrive. Within moments, the lights on the James Beford were restored, and the medics had begun opening some of the cryo pods.
"These have a failsafe system integrated," one of the Amelia's junior medics explained. "With the right override, you can open the pod without breaking the stasis, for things like medical checkups. Or, in our case, to make sure they contain what we expect them to."
Over the next twenty minutes or so, under the watchful eye of the boarding team, a number of the pods were opened, inspected, and resealed. None of them were trapped, and all of them contained Romulans.
Satisfied, Perez turned to the other two. "We make a good team, the three of us. Mission accomplished, I would say. Shall we head back to the Amelia? I am sure you would like to discuss the next steps with the Captain."
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