A Meeting a the Crossroads

Posted on Thu Apr 24th, 2025 @ 3:19pm by Captain Malcom Llwyedd & Petty Officer 1st Class Fhiri & Commander Siora Carberos & Petty Officer 3rd Class Thyra Kevensdotter

2,013 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Mission 1: A Long Hard Road Ahead
Location: DS18

[ON]

Thyra rolled her shoulder against the stiffening muscles, trying to isolate her wound from the Jem'Hadar weapon. The injection from Lieutenant Commander t'Aegis had suppressed the pain, and a bandage absorbed the little blood that seeped from the cauterized flesh, but there was no time for further treatment. She wasn't bothered because she was confident that Federation medicine would be able to restore her as good as new, as it had so many times for her stepmother.

"Kevensdotter!" the security chief called out, "Gear up! You are being assigned to escort Commander Carberos and her team to the computer core."

"Yes, Chief!" Thyra shouted in reply. She checked to ensure her hand axes were secure on her belt and picked up the Federation-issue phaser rifle. Rifle was a misnomer since as the weapon's particle emitter didn't need to put a spin on the beam, it wasn't grooved. Projector was a more apt name, but traditions died hard.

Thyra found the Chief Engineer and snapped to attention. "Crewman Kevensdotter reporting as ordered."

Siora snapped to look at the young crewman who stood tall in front of her. "At ease , crewman. Plenty of time to work on your posture later," she chuckled and winced. The injury she'd sustained during the initial capture of her Jem'Hadar prisoner had yet to be healed due to the amount of work required to get the station in some form of battle shape.

"Fhiri and I will be heading to the computer core, secure it, and make sure the Jem'Hadar don't get in and mess up what I've spent a lot of time trying to fix. If you cover us, we can also see about what we can do to increase our effectiveness against all the baddies we have on board and outside." Siora said with confidence. "Sound good?"

"Yes, ma'am," Thyra replied, having noticed the engineer's pained wince, "You are clearly no stranger to martial combat, but if I may be so bold, should we come into conflict with Jem'Hadar soldiers, please remain behind me."

Thyra gave a nod to Fhiri and greeted her. "It is good to see you again, Petty Officer."

Fhiri smiled at the fellow enlisted woman. "You too. I'm glad you're here because the only kind of fighting I know how to do is biting, which always leaves a bad taste in my mouth," Fhiri said. She turned to look at Commander Siora. "I've got all my stuff, Commander. As long as we don't die in the process, I think we'll be fine as long as we get there first. I'm ready."

"We'll be fine, Fhiri. What could possibly go wrong?" Siora smiled as she asked the question rhetorically before turning to Thyra. "I promise I will stay behind you... not the worst injury I've had in the field, but this one does sting a little worse. Let's head out and get set up."

Fhiri grimaced at the Commander's words. She hadn't worked with the new Chief Engineer much but she knew the woman worked hard and led from the front. "War is good for business," Fhiri muttered under her breath as they started out.

“So is peace,” Thyra replied absently as she checked her phaser rifle.

“Kevensdotter. Take point,” the security petty officer in charge of the detail ordered. Thyra did not know his name. Casualties to the ship’s security detachment hand necessitated the mixing of personnel from different squads.

“Yes, Petty Officer,” Thyra replied as she moved out in front of the group, the butt of the rifle firmly against her uninjured shoulder and her cheek welded to the stock as she looked through the aiming reticule. She scanned back and forth as the group moved down the hallway, alternating her focus between the image in the rifle’s sight and her unaided eye. She identified likely danger points, clearing them with a sweep of her phaser before the group passed.

The team moved in silence, so it was a bit startling when the security petty officer’s voice filled her ear from the communicator positioned there. “That’s strange,” he said.

“What is strange?” Thyra replied quietly through the microphone along her larynx.

“The echo is returning nothing.” He was referring to the echo-locator attached to his own weapon. It was a simple device, compared to other Federation sensors, relying on ultra-high sonic emissions bouncing off of objects to form an image.

“That is good, no?” Thyra asked, a little annoyed at the interruption.

“The echo should be showing something,” he answered, “Empty space at least. But there are weird ghosts being displayed. It’s like the computer is seeing things that aren’t there.”

“Or it wasn’t programmed to display things that are there,” Thyra declared in alarm, “Everyone! Stand back!”

She thumbed the selector switch to emit a wide beam and bathed the corridor with a long burst of non-lethal energized particles.

The ghostly form of five Jem'Hadar soldiers shimmered into view. They wore heavy combat armor and, a first, helmets. But their telltale skin gave away their origins. They walked in a diamond formation, stubnosed rifles tucked tightly into their shoulders. Their footsteps were exaggerated in their caution, as if they still thought they were invisible.

Fhiri uttered a Ferengi curse word and whipped out her phaser. A sneer slid across her face and she unconsciously scrunched up her shoulders, making her a smaller target. She eyed the two security people, waiting for their response.

Thyra eyed the Jem'Hadar as she toggled her weapon’s selector switch back to narrow beam. They appeared not to notice they were partially visible and moved with purpose towards the team. They were seeking contact rather than avoiding it. Five versus four were bad odds, but she still had the element of surprise. She pressed the trigger and dropped the lead warrior before diving to the right, seeking cover.

The Jem'Hadar immediately returned firing and herringboned to seek their own cover. Their beams missed Thyra. The senior security officer went down, but not before killing a second Jem'Hadar.

Thyra let loose with a wild multiple-shot fusillade to suppress the warriors long enough for her to retreat to where Commander Carberos was taking cover.

Fhiri slipped into the side passage where she'd seen Commander Siora shooting from. It was a secondary passageway, generally only used by engineers or ops personnel. She stuck her phaser out and shot blindly.

"Commander, there are still a few of them left. What should we do?" Fhiri said.

"Stop them," Siora said without hesitation. "If we don't put them down, they'll remain a threat not only to us, but others on the station if we slip by them," she added. She pulled a panel off the wall and winced as her wound opened, as her muscles flexed.

She pulled a component out of the wall panel, and the console above flickered as its power drained. "We can't tell Lieutenant Woodhouse I'm breaking his things," she smirked as she tinkered with the device. It began to hum louder, flash a little. "Thyra, please throw this at our guests. I hope your aim is good," he said, passing the device she'd made into an explosive to Thyra. "And don't hold onto it for too long."

Thyra took the device and noticed that the lights were strobing faster and faster. She surmised that once the light was constant, bad things would happen. "Covering fire," she shouted to Fhiri.

The Ferengi leaned out from cover and fired off several shots. Thyra added a rapid-fire pattern from her own weapon before tossing the improvised explosive device towards the Jem'Hedar. Her aim was true as the device bounced once, twice, then tumbled to a rest in the middle of the attackers.

Thyra and Fhiri ducked behind cover just as the device exploded, bathing the corridor in a blinding flash.

Fhiri stuck her head around the corner carefully. She saw a group of bodies sprawled in a ragged circle. She felt a surge of joy. Which was quickly doused.

"There's one left and he's making a run for the computer core!" Fhiri yelled.

Indeed, the lone remaining Jem'Hadar, bloodied but not downed, had sprinted up the hallway, which led directly to the computer core.

"Well, why are we still standing here?" Siora asked as the other two looked at each other before looking back at her. "This is why I'm just an engineer..." she mumbled. "I'm sick of people shooting at me..." She peered around the corner and saw the junction number the Jem'Hadar would reach. "I'm initiating a forcefield. When he bounces off it, please shoot him. He's in our way, and we need to put a defence up in the computer core before more of his buddies arrive."

Fhiri nodded and ran forward, hoping Thyra was following. This is not engineering. Why am I doing this?" she thought. Her teeth were bare as she ran. She saw the forcefield appear and, sure enough, the Jem'Hadar bounced off of it and slammed against the opposite wall. Fhiri unleashed a shot as she ran, but it missed high. The Jem'Hadar somehow fired back. Fhiri watched the blast of light leave the end of the rifle, and then she was flat on her back, staring up at the ceiling. She thought she saw Thyra run past her.

What just happened? Fhiri thought and then the lights went out.

Her phaser abandoned, Thyra descended on the lone Jem'Hadar warrior with her hand axes whirling. The warrior was maddeningly hardy. The explosion, the unexpected collision with the force field, Fhiri's shot had all taken their toll, but still he staggered to meet Thyra's advance.

Tossing caution to the proverbial winds, Thyra struck rapidly and repeatedly with her axes. She wanted to forcibly press her advantage and forbid her opponent any respite. Unable to unsheathe his own blade, the Jem'Hadar tried to fend off the maelstrom of furious blows from the security office. But Thyra was too quick.

The warrior's armor was too thick for the sharp blades to gain much purchase, but the pummeling concussion from the strikes was having a cumulative effect. Even as Thyra's muscles screamed with fatigue, the Jem'Hadar was forced to his knees, his own rifle increasingly less effective at protecting him from Thyra's determined attacks.

Seeing her opponent's guard dropping, Thyra pushed herself to one last flurry of strikes and feints. The coup de grâce was an uppercut to the warrior's jaw, the blade swinging in a narrow arc. Unarmored, the warrior's jawbone and neck were vulnerable to the axe's sharpened edge, and it cleaved deeply.

The Jem'Hadar fell backwards to the deck, Thyra's blade still embedded in his chin. She pushed forward, putting her weight behind the blade, driving it deeper as she rocked the axe handle back and forth to inflict the most damage. The Jem'Hadar's blood flowed freely, and after a moment, he was still.

Clambering to her feet, Thyra turned back towards Fhiri with concern in her eyes. "Is she alright?" she asked dolefully.

Fhiri's eyes fluttered open. She heard Thyra's voice from a distance. "I'm fine," she mumbled. There was a burning sensation in her chest. "Maybe not fine," she said. She craned her neck and saw the last Jem'Hadar on the ground.

"Nice job."

Somewhere in the distance an explosion rocked the station.

<=>Commander Siora, this is Rees. If you've got that security situation under control, I need your team to reroute power around the damage we are taking. I'm beaming you to the Firebird on the Captain's orders.<=>

"Our work is never finished," Fhiri said and then slipped away again.


[OFF]

Commander Siora Carberos
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Firebird NCC-88298
Petty Officer 2nd Class Fhiri (NPC by Llwyedd)
Computer Systems Specialist
USS Firebird NCC-88298

Crewman Thyra Kevensdotter
Security Officer
USS Firebird NCC-88298

 

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