Combat Patrol

Posted on Tue Jul 16th, 2024 @ 3:54pm by Ensign Gazo Daw & Ensign Gianna Djokovic

3,427 words; about a 17 minute read

Mission: Mission 1: A Long Hard Road Ahead
Location: DS 18, Deck 37, Cargo Storage Unit 4
Timeline: 25 August, 2396 - 1000 Hours

[ON]

Deep Space 18 wasn't in much better shape than when they arrived in the Gamma Quadrant, riddled with structural, engineering, and security problems. Gia and Daw, decked out in combat gear with rifles and side arms, were the closest team to what station operations had described as 'some kind of life signs' detected in one of the cargo holds. It wasn't their first call like this, but the other two had turned up nothing. They had arrived either too late or the sensors were glitching and there was never actually anyone there.

Gia tapped her commbadge to close the connection to Ops and gave her friend Daw a wary side glance. "Two decks down. What do you think?"

"What do I think? What do I think?," Daw said as he swiveled his head around looking for anything that would try to kill him. "I think that I am a Propulsion Specialist. Which means, that I am really good at fixing engines. We found no engines on the last two of these little trips and I seriously doubt we will find any engines on this one either. But, sure, let;s go down into that dark jeffries tube and see if we can find something."

"Ensign Gazo. You are an amazing engineer. You're also a very good security officer," Gia assured him in a calm tone as she put a hand on his forearm in what she hoped was a comforting gesture. She had witnessed the Cooperation's retreat and reasoning when confronted and she knew Daw's escalated emotions wouldn't help if they actually did manage to find anyone, though somewhere deep inside she didn't feel much differently about the dangers than Daw did, she just needed to get them through it. "These are just people, not unlike us in a lot of ways. They're frightened and cut off from others."

She gave him a hint of a smile and squeezed his arm one last time before letting go and resuming a more neutral and professional posture. "Let's go before they move, I'll go first if that helps!" Gia headed away to find an access hatch before he could counter.

Daw sighed. He knew Gia was right, which was annoying by itself, but he also knew he was acting unprofessionally. "Right behind you, Gia," He said and stayed close behind her, eyes roving constantly, as they made their way to the access hatch. He stood guard while she moved the heavy hatch open.

"I'll go first, if you want," Daw said, trying to make up a little for his behavior.

The hatch gave a mechanical click as she pushed it into the open position. "It's fine. Everyone knows they pick off the last person first, anyway," she said, barely containing a giggle. Gia poked her head into the dark vertical shaft. She reached into a pocket and extracted a small round disc that glowed vibrantly, illuminating her face and the ladder-like rungs of the tube when she snapped it. She looked upwards as far as the light would reach, and then downward. Then she dropped the light and watched it descend into the darkness. "It looks clear," she determined after a moment and climbed inside and made her way downward into the darkness.

"All the jokes, Gia. All the jokes," Daw muttered as he climbed down into the tube. He could hear Gia's footsteps clanging on the metal rungs below him. They were cold to the touch, probably due to the environmental controls lacking the energy to keep up with the influx of cold through the hull breeches. His train of thought lasted until he finally reached the bottom and stepped onto the deck. He ducked through the hatch and stopped next to Gia. The small round disc that Gia had dropped was generating more than enough light to see by. They were a hallway that was easily twice as wide as the ones on the Firebird. To the left, the hallway continued for twenty feet and ended in a T intersection. To the right, continued forward with doors on either size at regular intervals.

"Which way to the contact?" Daw asked his friend.

"This deck is huge," Gia answered with exasperation in her voice, clearly not knowing. "This is the main corridor. It should make one wide loop around the deck... so I think we split up. You go left, I'll go right, and the first one that finds Cargo 4 calls the other."

Daw nodded. "Ok, acting Ensign Djokovic!" He said with a grin. I'm going left, which is the better way to go." He turned and started moving down the wide, silent corridor. When he reached the edge of the light emanating from the disc, he reached up and switched on the spotlight attached to the end of the rifle. It was powerful but the beam only created a path of light, forcing him to sweep the rifle from side to side to examine the entire corridor. He thought he could hear Gia's footsteps moving away but soon they faded, leaving only his own footsteps and the sound of his breathing to break the eerie silence. This is what Potter would call a less than ideal scenario Daw thought and continued forward.

Gia, too, was sure as she walked in the opposite direction that this was not the optimal strategy. The beam of light that came from the rifle threw every nook into question, causing her to hold tension everywhere in her body. Despite the constant feeling of being on edge, she made good progress, passing by cargo storage 2 and 3 and approaching a large door with a 4 on it. "Gazo," she said quietly as she pressed her badge. "Found it."

She didn't wait for him to arrive, though. She popped the cover on the door's manual release mechanism and disengaged the locks. The door slid partial open. "Hello? We come in peace." She strained to listen for any sound inside, but nothing was heard.

Daw was creeping down the hallway, trying to ignore the sweat that was forming on his brow, when he heard Gia's voice call out.

"Thank the prophets," he muttered and took off down the corridor. He finally found cargo bay 4, noting that the door was open and it was dark inside. He sighed but continued forward.

"Gia," he whispered and immediately wondered why he was whispering.

The two small aliens had heard the door open and huddled together, cooing softly so that nobody else could hear. Two sets of eyes watched for the intruders and the other two sets looked at each other, colors whirling.

Gia was standing not too far into the hold, but she also was focused on the aliens. She glanced over at Daw and gave him a nod before going back to addressing the aliens. She slowly let go of the phaser with her right hand and held it up, meaning it to be a friendly gesture.

She had no idea if the universal translator was going to work with them, but she started anyway. "Hello... my name is Gia and this is Daw," she indicated to herself then Gazo. "We're here to help. Are you injured?"

One of the aliens shook both heads in unison and, surprisingly, the universal translator was able to render their hoots and cooing sounds into words.

"Thank you but, no, we are not injured. We have misplaced our other party member and are attempting to locate them. Have you seen another Ygin?" the being asked.

Daw was captivated by the owl like aliens. Their heads were not quite the same as a Terran owl but it was close enough. The had four arms but the top pair of arms was shorter than the bottom pair.

"Uh, no. We haven't seen any other beings like you," Daw said. He wasn't sure if he should keep pointing his phase at the Ygin. They didn't appear to be armed. He decided to lower it but not put it into the belt holster he wore.

"We feel much sadness at this news. We have received communication that indicates we are to place ourselves at your mercy. We will comply. We only ask that you not eat our eyes while we still live."

"Oh.." Gia hesitated, not quite sure in the moment how to explain they don't eat sentient beings. "No, no.. we have no interest in eating anyone... or their eyes... and we hope that feeling is mutual..." She gave a glance over to Daw as she slung the rifle over her shoulder and then took out a tricorder.

"If your other party member is still on the station we will find them, but right now this is not a safe place to be because of the damage. We'd like to use our transporter to move you to a better place on the station. A place with lights and heat." She began to scan the immediate area, looking for signs of other life.

"Yeah. We don't... ah... eat people, Ygin included," Daw said. "I actually prefer hasperat. Extra spicy."

"We understand. You do not eat those like us. We are grateful for this. We accept your offer to serve you for the rest of our lives," The Ygin said and then both it and the other Ygin bowed at the waist, holding their hands outstretched, palms up. "You make take us where you choose."

Gia visibly cringed at the mention of having servants. They were so compliant and peaceful, very likable, but they were not pets or servants. She wondered how they ever managed to be aligned with some of the other alien species they'd been briefed on. She flipped the tricorder off and holstered it. "There's no one else here," she confirmed to Daw and then tapped her commbadge.

"Djokovic to Ops. We have two very friendly and cooperative Ygin here needing transport to the main habitat area. They also report they were with a third member, but have lost contact. If you see them on a sensor sweep, let us know." She closed the connection once it was acknowledged.

=^=Understood, Ensign Djokovic. We have lock. Energizing=^=

The Ygin, obviously understanding what was happening, clasped their hands in front of themselves.

"We thank you for your mercies," the Ygin said and then disappeared in a column of light.

Daw shook his head. "You know, this was not what I was expecting when I woke up this morning," He said and glanced at his partner. "I suppose we are going to spend the next five hours looking for this missing Ygin, aren't we?"

Gia smirked as she pulled the rifle off her shoulder and readied herself to go back out into the corridor, "I get the feeling that's how our time in the Gamma Quadrant is going to go, you know, never knowing what to expect, never knowing what these interactions are going to hold... we could do much worse than the Ygin."

"Then again," she pulled out a pair of tactical goggles from one of the hidden pockets on her gear and slid them on as she stifled a giggle as she headed out of the cargo hold. "Thank you for waiting until I'm dead to eat my eye."

Daw laughed and followed Gia's lead.

---

An hour later, they had moved upward one deck and were clearing more cargo bays, along with a few labs that were mostly empty.

"Do you remember the time that the Command Cadet tried to tell you that your uniform wasn't up to regs and you went totally ballistic on them? I think..." Daw paused his rambling as his tricorder beeped. He glanced down at it and saw that there were new lifesigns.

"Gia, it looks like we've found that last Ygin after all. Bad news though, there's something else with it. Two bays over. Looks like a botany bay," he said and looked up. "And I am picking up energy readings from some kind of weapon."

"Alright, things are getting interesting, but it doesn't mean the unknown is hostile," Gia deflected any hesitation she might have been feeling, but she knew the risk was much higher now. Daw would know that already and she didn't need to remind him.

"I'm tired of the power being out, sensors being out, having no intel," she let out a frustrated breath as they continued toward the bay. "I think we pop the door lock, enter single file and separate. I'll go left. Whoever engages first with the unknown, then the other one will take up a position to take a shot if that becomes necessary. Agreed?"

"Roger that, Captain Gia," Daw said. He could see his friend was getting frustrated and wanted to lighten the mood. An annoyed Gia was fine. Normal even. But an angry Gia... that was not something he wanted to see again soon and certainly whatever was inside wouldn't survive. Sometimes his friend was downright scary. He grinned. "Let's do it. Phasers set to stun," he added and pulled the rifle close tight against his shoulder like Chief B'rala had shown them.

"Of course," Gia agreed as she double checked the rifle settings. She went to work on the door release, something she was now so familiar with she could probably do the procedure in complete darkness -- and in fact she did without even realizing it. The pneumatics gave a quiet hiss as the door released and slid to the side.

The air inside the bay was the same cool temperature as the rest of the deck but it held a wet earthen scent that rolled out to greet them. Tiny emergency lights along the center of the bay cast just enough illumination to make out the outline of rows of partially filled growing racks beneath, some of which had toppled over in the attack creating an otherworldly apocalyptic scene of metal and plant matter.

From there on in, they would operate silently and in that context Gia slipped inside, turned left, and disappeared into the darkness that consumed most of the room.

Daw pivoted to the right, moving forward slowly. He was hyper aware of the fact that nobody was behind him if things went badly.

"Don't think that way, Daw," he muttered to himself as he slid by one of the racks of growing plants. The smell was strong and he could practically taste the green on his tongue. The botanist in charge of this area would have been distraught to see the normally orderly rows of plants skewed and overturned. His feet slipped a bit and he glanced down to see a scattered spray of dirt on the floor. The overhead lights shimmered, casting an ethereal illumination that glinted off of the walls. He gritted his teeth and moved on.

Gia was a dozen meters in, well out of Daw's line of sight, and still not having turned on her rifle's built in flashlight, when her vision was filled with a painfully bright, disorienting white light. It immediately felt like someone was stabbing her in the eye. Again. She wasn't sure if the white light was real or imagined -- "Am I dead?" she wondered briefly before dismissing the thought to come back to reality.

"This is fine. Everything is fine," Daw said to himself as he eased around a toppled rack. Whatever had impacted this part of the station had to have been substantial, given the amount of energy it would have required to upend the heavy metal. His ruminations screeched to a halt. What was that sound?

He peered around the corner of the next row. A Yygin, presumably the missing third, was being held up by one of its longer arms. He recognized the larger aggressor as the aliens called Lorcans. It was about his size, with dappled white and black fur. It wore a tightly fighting body armor over its chest, arms and legs but its feet were bare and had wicked looking claws. It was facing away from Daw, something he was grateful for... at least he was until the Lorcan spoke in a growling voice.

"Starrrrfleettt," it hissed. Its head rotated and Daw noticed a feline tail for the first time, twitching back and forth. "I'm glad you are here. Your presence provides more chance to take my vengeance." The Ygin's head lolled to the sides, clearly unconscious, and the Lorcan's paw opened, letting the smaller being fall to the metal deck with a dull thud.

"Uhh... Maybe we can talk this out," Daw said, his hands suddenly slick. We don't..."

The Lorcan lept at him, moving so fast that it appeared momentarily as a white and black blur. Daw reflexively fired his rifle. The orange beam lashed out, striking the Lorcan in the chest and throwing it back against one of the planting racks. Small containers flew into the air, sending a spray of dirt and plants in all directions.

The Lorcan landed on the floor in a crouch. Its ears twitched and it bared its impressive fangs.

"Gia!" Daw yelled.

Gia was still dealing with the whiteout of her vision as she stumbled against an upright rack, which she grabbed ahold of to keep her orientation and then froze. Slowly, her field of vision started to meld into rough blobs of greys and purples. She could hear Daw's voice and the hostile-sounding response of the alien, but she couldn't see anything and it made her feel very vulnerable, but she knew needed to move. She let go of the rack and stumbled forward just as the blast of Daw's phaser rifle lit up the bay a few aisles over for a split second.

The light, cast differently to her than it normally would have, bounced around the bay and brought some sense to the random shapes she was experiencing. More shapes began to emerge and she could make out the cool metal of vertical structures and supports. She could see vivid blues and greens that outlined the presence of living plant matter, she could see the felinoid's neon-yellow figure crouching some distance away, and she could see the blob of yellows and reds that she knew was Daw as he yelled out her name.

She ran down the aisle she was in, somehow able to sense obstacles and avoid them as she looked for a clear line to the Lorcan. When she found it, she upped the stun setting two clicks and set up the shot. "Come on," she whispered to herself as her vision continued adjusting unexpectedly. She wasn't entirely sure she could trust what she was seeing, but she took the shot just as the Lorcan leaped toward Daw.

The Lorcan slammed into Daw, driving him to the ground and driving the air from his lungs. His rifle had skittered off into the recesses of the room, leaving him no choice but to try hand to hand. He had a partial glimpse of the Lorcan's massive feline head and accompanying teeth. He kept expecting claws to rip into his sides but... nothing happened. The Lorcan lay on top of him, its eyes moving, as if it were waiting for something.

"Gia..." he tried to call out but it was no louder than a whisper.

"Hey!" Gia was moving toward the Lorcan and Daw now, slightly crouched with the phaser rifle aimed and ready. Even though her vision was still messed up, glitching every few seconds, she knew she had to intervene somehow. She watched its cat-like ears swivel at her voice. "I will vaporize you if you lay one hand...er.. paw on him," she warned.

The Lorcan slowly backed away from the two Starfleet personnel. It's eyes darted between the two, looking for the right tactical move.

There was a hum and the bright light of phaser fire lit up the area in orange. Daw stabbed the firing stub again and another bolt slammed into the Lorcan and it dropped to the ground.

He let his head fall back to the deck. "If that thing is still awake, I'm just going to let it eat me. I feel like I've been run over by a Runabout," he said.

[OFF]

Ensign Gazo Daw (NPC by Llwyedd)
Propulsion Specialist
USS Firebird NCC-88298


Ensign Gianna Djokovic (NPC by Woodhouse)
Security Officer
USS Firebird NCC-88298

 

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