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“Rescued”
Previous post: “Cold Walking” by Marissa
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Setting: P8746, Cave Corridor
Stardate: 37014.1625
Without taking the time to investigate to whom the sets of hands belonged to; the prone CNS voiced her frustrations via a simple yet telling question. "Are we there yet?"
The voice of Hailey Graham of Shipboard Services rose in pitch from the strain of helping Adriana Lopez to her feet. "Are you really in a hurry to go to battle?"
Captain Erik Morningstar, his face lit from below by the cold blue-green light of a Bornodin glass lantern in one hand, had also helped lift the Hispanic woman off the ice-laced passage floor. "Are you okay?"
Adriana gently shook herself so both let her go. "I tripped, is all. There is no need for you to fuss over me."
The Native American smiled, a telling sign in itself. "Just me returning the favour. As I recall, you have done so for me more than once."
The HATHOR officers and support crew in line ahead of Adriana had continued trotting down the undulating lava tube. Their footfalls echoed. The blue lamps bobbed and faded. Behind her, the rest of the line had halted.
From up ahead, a phrase came ringing off the circular walls as one person passed it to the one behind. "Captain upfront!"
Erik raised his eyebrows at the CNS in a silent question.
"Go," Adriana said. "I'll catch up."
Erik glanced at Graham. She nodded in silent agreement to keep an eye on Adriana. He pushed his way forward.
Shar'El waited until he was near her as she trotted behind the hulking tiger-esque A'Janni and massive lizardly Zub Enel at the point of the line. "Seven wants us to hurry. You especially."
Erik said, "We can't arrive at a physical fight winded."
She shrugged in the soft phosphorescent blue from gurgling lanterns.
He turned to his EXO Misaki Mitshiba in line behind him, "Pass on that we need to hurry it up." Her delicate features were pinched with tension. She was thinking ahead to the upcoming fight. Nevertheless, she nodded as she ran forward but turned her head back to pass on his message.
Erik said to the tiger-like FCO and lizard-like Security Chief, "Let's catch up to Seven. Don't worry about the rest of the team. They're right behind us."
The two huge males said, "Aye!" Their broad backs disappeared up the corridor.
Surprised at their burst of extra speed after already running so far, Erik muttered, "Okay, I'll keep up."
Behind him, as he pounded down the stony corridor, he heard Shar'El, his former EXO and now ILO, greatly quicken her pace. He listened to Mitshiba's footfalls keeping up behind her. Admiration for his crew's fitness let him share a rare smile with the darkness.
Erik silently poured it on, stretching his legs into long sweeping strides. He caught up with the furry Caitian and scaly Voth and matched their blistering gait. The three thudded through a snowy spot that blasted them from the side with freezing wind from the blizzard outside a large opening.
Back in the darkness again, the volcanic tube rang with the cadence from their running feet. Erik heard the timbre of the echoing change and deaden, a sign the three were approaching a much larger chamber. Both males in front of Erik, well trained in hand-to-hand and having already fought together many times, brought up their long black and white pain-sticks.
They barreled into a large chamber filled with the stench of bear sweat and filled with fog from huffed out breaths. The mist was lit blue from lamps. The trio skidded to a stop lest they plowed into a group of bears on all fours, in armor and wearing over their backs long wooden axes bladed with obsidian.
Seven, the ursine leader of the rescue assault team, made a sweeping paw gesture at the three Federation officers toward a small opening in the far wall rimmed with ice. Two of Seven's bear team crouched against the wall, stood on their hind legs and peeked through the hole before withdrawing.
Several bears moved aside so Erik, A'Janni, and Zub Enel could get to the vantage point.
The spy hole appeared surreptitiously melted through a massive wall of ice that blocked access into the next chamber. Smaller than a face, the hole came up to 7-foot-tall Zub Enel's chin. He hunched for a quick peek. A'Janni had to go up on tiptoes for a peek. Erik couldn't reach it. A'Janni laced his fingers, bent at the waist, and offered his CO a living step for a look beyond.
The next chamber was large and open to the storm. Several gigantic Masters moved around. Some held clubs of what looked like metal pieces they had yanked off a ship. Sadly, others held wooden axes with obsidian blades, the sort of weapon a Bornodin wielded and likely had not given up voluntarily.
Half a dozen blue-skinned Andorian researchers sat in a huddle through a smaller opening into an antechamber beyond the patrolling Masters. They hugged each other for warmth but shivered so violently that their semi-rigid antennae thumped together.
As Morningstar stepped down off his FCO's hands, Seven arrived. The Ursine Bornodin leader sat on his haunches which raised his head roughly even with Erik's. Seven said in his deep voice, "You see our task ahead. These giants fight well. We have had losses. Adding your numbers might sway Fortune to favor us."
The chamber with bear folk filled to capacity with the arrival of the HATHOR crew. The fog from breathing the cold air thickened.
Both big Federation males faced Erik and the bear leader.
A'Janni rumbled, "Sir, I've checked a couple more times. So far, there are still only 7 of them."
Zub Enel stated, "The chamber they guard is like the inside of a gourd with a bent neck. There is room to fight in the body of the gourd. The opening to the outside is at one end of the bent neck. To defend the neck, they would need to turn away from the little chamber holding the Andorians. They'd have their backs to anyone coming in from another direction." He finished with, "The Andorians look miserably cold. I doubt they could help fight, Sir."
Ya'Han, the acting CMO, had listened. Her thick hair shone shocking white in the Nylaan way to signal her medical skill. "Their life signs were dying when we started down from orbit. All this time has passed. We need to get to them right now."
The CO took a moment to consider the reports. "We're going to have to draw the Masters off while a team goes in to free the researchers. I need seven officers to engage the Masters while Ya'Han affects a rescue. Ya'Han, take any Shipboard Services crew willing to help move the Andorians to safety."
The red-headed Chief Engineer Sonja Paquette shook her head. "Sir, there are seven huge deadly giants in there. Little tiny us going one-on-one with them will be fatal to more than one of us. Can't we double up on each?"
Erik said carefully, "I don't have enough officers to double-team them.”
His ILO Shar'El asked, "Aren't these big bears going to help us?"
"Yes, but we don't know how to fight with them. We might get in each others way. We need to rely on ourselves."
Acting Chief of Security Ensign Bractor Rixx interrupted. His blue Bolian face, bifurcated by a bony ridge from top to bottom, was lit by a bright smile. "Hey, Bossman, how about if me and the two big guys duck out that hole back there in the tunnel and swing around to draw a lot of those goons outside? That blizzard ought to even some odds. Me, the cat, and the lizard can hide outside and make a lot of noise. I'll even rush in and taunt the dopes. They'd follow me out. That'll work, right?"
Erik equivocated, "Well…."
"It'll work," Sonja pronounced. "The rest of us can gang up on anyone left while Ya'Han and the rest rescue the researchers."
Erik looked at Zub Enel and A'Janni. If anyone had a chance of besting more than one Master each, they could.
A'Janni said, "We can make it work, Sir. Just give the word."
Zub Enel said, "I will be behind him 100 percent, Sir."
From the way A'Janni's lips rose, Erik knew some private joke had just passed between the Caitian and Voth.
Erik turned to Seven. "You have heard our plan of attack. While some of us go outside, the rest need another way into that chamber."
The bear leader eased down to all four paws. "That is easy enough. Remember, the Valkyr have favored us with an ice breaker." He gestured to the bear named Raud.
Raud approached the thick ice plugging the passage on all four paws. On his broad back was a long rod caked in rust with an egg-shaped knob on one end and two long tines on the other that formed a cursive U.
Upon seeing the tool again, Maya, Chief Science Officer, couldn't help herself. She enthused to Raud, “That appears to work on the principle of a tuning fork that generates low frequencies. What an amazing tool. Where did you get it?"
Busy pulling it off his back, Raud said offhandedly, "The sky."
Seven looked at Erik. "Now, if we are ready?"
Erik didn't have a flood of thoughts about it, just a cold, clammy, sinking feeling. He was sending his crew unreservedly into harm's way—a pitched battle with only clubs, hands, and feet. And wits, it occurred to him. The icy draft into his soul took less than a heartbeat before he said, "Decoy the Masters. Save the Andorians."
Ensign Rixx grinned as he bolted back down the corridor toward the hole to the outside. A'Janni and Enel shared surprised glances as they followed the enthusiastic Bolian. Three of the bear folks loped after them into the tunnel.
Raud stood on his hind legs and rested the wide knob at one end of the metal fork near the bottom of the ice wall plugging the passageway. He brought out his wooden-obsidian axe and waited to strike the U-shaped tines at the other end. Seven stood at the hole, watching the Masters.
Erik, his senior officers, and the crew faced the ice wall.
Sooner than expected, a horrible racket issued through the little spy hole. There was lionlike roaring, mixed with a throaty crocodilian grunting and an all too thin humanoid voice taunting saucy sailor insults about the Masters’ progenitors.
Seven said, hope registering in his voice, "The giants have turned."
Rixx's voice issued louder as though he had come into the Masters’ cave. "Hey, you ugly heaps of soon-to-be bear scat, you want a piece of me?"
Seven’s tone rose a notch. “The Masters have accepted the little blue one’s challenge.” He raised a paw-hand toward Raud who locked his bear-eyed gaze on Seven and held his axe near the tines. Seven dropped his arm. Raud hit the tines.
Deep enough to feel inside, a resonant wavering filled the room where the Bornodin and HATHOR crew waited. Ice chunks pelted them from the ceiling. Pain-sticks rattled. The bears' chitinous armor gave a clicking sound in harmony to the droning. Even the body armor worn by the senior officers buzzed. The ice wall began to jiggle and crack. Raud hit the tines again, restarting the thunderous shaking.
Booming, the ice wall collapsed. Bear folk and Federation officers issued out into the larger chamber. There were only two Masters left. Each was nine feet tall and in body armor. Both raised purloined Bornodin wooden axes, their facial expressions murderous.
Aki, the EXO, rushed toward one. Every cell in her body screamed for her to turn around. She gritted her teeth and then called out, "Gah, they're so big. Gemma, this would be a great time for Anya's help."
Gemma continued forward, but her coppery ringlets didn't change to the brassier red of her deadly Russian assassin personality. She morphed within two strides into a voluptuous Kriosian female with long honey gold hair and curves that would melt the heart of males and females of any race.
Seksa came to a spread-legged stop in front of both Masters. She cooed with lips perfect for kissing, "Ooh, hello you tall, dark ice giants! You're both so big!"
The Masters seemed unimpressed. The closest raised his wooden axe with obsidian blades high.
Instinctively, Shar'El's telepathic powers leaped to the fore. In a mental thrust, the Ullian reached deep into the mind of the giant about to pulverize the space vixen. She searched for recent memory. When it hit her mind, she stiffened and stopped running. He remembered being charged by a snarling Bornodin with an axe and wicked black claws splayed. He had only a raster lever for a weapon. He felt a spike of fear that the bear's weapons delivered simultaneously would shred his arms. Yet, he was able to dodge and smash at the bear. The bear fell wounded. He loved the feel of the bear's face changing texture against his fist as he hit it and hit it and hit it.
Shar'El fought against reveling in the brutal joy of inflicting pain. She seized on the memory of fear, that tiny spark. Groaning from the effort, flexing her arms, and curling her hands into claws, she burned that memory into the brute's mind until all that remained was an ever-repeating moment of fear.
Shar'El sagged to her knees on the icy cave floor. Straining, she tore her mind loose from the Master’s.
The Master held the axe high, his face contorted with complete and utter terror. Shar'El felt a pang of guilt, but she quickly wrestled that feeling away.
A Bornodin warrior dispatched the frozen Master with an axe. Like a massive tree trunk, the Master fell.
Feeling stunned, she watched as Sonja, Aki, Maya, and Erik battered away at the remaining giant. The Master was quick. Each officer's training was barely good enough to dodge deadly blow after blow. But, being clubbed with pain-sticks from four sides took its toll. The giant eventually fell into a senseless heap. A Bornodin warrior made sure the giant would never rise again.
In the relative silence, Ya'Han led the Andorians out of the antechamber. Each was administered a shot to help stabilize their vitals, the relief the Andorians felt at the sight of their saviours was momentarily interrupted as each felt the sharp prick of a needle piercing their skin. In a world where technology was useless, the acting CMO had no other choice but to rely on more 'primitive' techniques and tools, so the emergency syringes that were aboard the HATHOR were now the best and only method of delivering any sort of liquid medication to a patient.
Shar'El staggered to her feet. A'Janni, Bractor, and Zub burst through the cave opening from their decoy/distraction mission. Their grim expressions spoke volumes that Masters were closing in on their heels.
Bractor, running deeper into the cave, panted, "Never expected giants to move so fast."
Zub was turning as he ran, preparing to face the giants. He added, "They are full of surprises."
Like towering nightmare snowmen smeared with blood, three determined Masters emerged from the blizzard, axes ready.
Erik and the three decoy-team members formed a new battle line. The bear folks stood near them. HATHOR’s senior officers joined up too.
"Young lady, get everyone over here, now!" The voice of an older woman from behind them rang out. The acting CMO gestured for the team to come closer, opting on the side of caution given the current situation. Just as Rixx, A'Janni, and Zub Enel backed against the group, the Andorian female moved a small rock and pulled a lever as she muttered to herself, "The bigger they are, the easier it is to hide things from them."
With a grinding rumble, a slab of rock descended from the ceiling. It slammed across the center of the cave floor two paces in front of the HATHOR team and the Bornodin. It didn't fill the cave wall-to-wall, but there was no room around the edges big enough for the Masters to get through.
Erik, as did the rest of the crew of the HATHOR, looked around in shock and surprise. The wall blocked the original passageway into the chamber. The crew and the Bornodin had nowhere to go now. The Captain turned fully around, his stoic demeanour melting with each second that passed. The older Andorian pointed to a narrow passage that had been nearly invisible until lit by the wavering blue lamplight.
She said, "This way. Trust me, you will want to see what we discovered, also the Masters will figure a way around that wall soon enough. So unless you want to just wait for them here, I suggest that we move. Come on."
His crew looked at him. The Native American reluctantly nodded and waved them into the passageway accepting that they had little choice in what else they could do. He noted to his First Officer as the Asian woman walked by him, “Any port in a storm.”
As the ExO entered the passage, the older female Andorian said to Erik, "Yes, how apt. That's from the Terran English author John Cleland's bawdy novel Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure, 1749." Her gaze swept over nearby Gemma who had returned to her usual self.
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David Michael Inverso
Chief Security and Tactical Officer
USS BASTET, NCC 74977
“Second chances do come your way. Like trains, they arrive and depart regularly. Recognizing the ones that matter is the trick.
— JILL A. DAVIS
and
Francois Charette
Commanding Officer
USS ANUBIS, NCC 18501
AND
Robotics Engineering Officer
NEW ALEXANDRIA