Let the festivities commence ....Part 4

Posted on 06 May 2019 @ 1:47am by Captain Jonathan Reynolds & Commander Amelia Fox & Lieutenant JG Naiya Hope Dr & Lieutenant JG Lilura Karakalakss & Lieutenant JG Jorel Merrock & Lieutenant JG Razant

Mission: Shakedown
Location: Starbase 308 - Officers lounge
Timeline: MD3 20:00
2628 words - 5.3 OF Standard Post Measure

Previously on "Let the Festivities commence"

Jon noticed his Reman officer was scanning the room. "What's wrong?" He said lowering his voice so not to cause any alarm.

Razant gripped Jon's left elbow and pulled him toward the wall where fewer ears could hear.

"Those two," he hissed, pointing across the room, "they carry Son'a disruptor pistols. Was a Son'a delegation invited to this event?"


And now the continuation ………...

"They were along with a Ba'ku one but that's the So'Na ambassador over there," Jon scanned the room pointing at a prettty blond humanoid. From one of the So'Na colonies on the planet. No one should have any weapons. I don't like this," he informed his security chief.

Jorel probably looked as awkward wearing his dress uniform as he felt being in it. When he walked into the Officers Lounge he made a concerted effort not to make eye contact with anyone, he was still getting used to being a commissioned officer, and it didn't help that he could no longer hide the fact that he was Romulan. He took a moment and briefly scanned the room, hoping he could make a b-line straight to the bar. "Here's hoping they're serving Romulan ale," he mumbled to himself as he began to walk, adjusting his sleeves with each step.

Naiya noticed the new arrival and as he came towards the bar, right across her line of sight, she took the opportunity of Jon's distraction and removal with Razant to make a new acquaintance. She approached holding out her hand in introduction.

"Hello" she said with a cheerful welcoming smile. "I'm the CMO, Naiya. I don't think we've met yet."

Jorel's right hand met Naiya's left hand, it was a robotic responses. "A pleasure, Doctor," he said as he tried not to blush. She was a beautiful woman, as far as Doctors go. "That's probably because I haven't come in for my physical yet, but I promise as soon as we depart, I will!" He added with an awkward chuckle.

"I'll hold you to that promise Lieutenant but don't worry, there's no rush. Get settled in and chilled first." her smile was lovely and it radiated.

Jorel was still surveying the room, a bad habit it picked up over the years, there wasn't any immediate threat, but still he liked to keep his guard up. It was a couple of seconds before he returned his attention to Naiya.

Jon headed back to the Ba'ku ambassador indicating his security chief come with him but before they could reach him one of the robed figures threw off their robes and aimed his pistol at the man.

This commotion caused Lilura to move a little away from Amelia. She wasn't sure what was happening, but wanted herself clear in case she needed to defend herself, or any of the crew. Her full senses came to bear on what was happening.

"You WILL hear us," the figure quite clearly a So'Na who had not been anywhere near the Ba'Ku planet and it's restorative radiation going by his ugliness yelled.

"This is a mockery," the other yelled. "To coexist with them. They who held is back. They who exiled us. To celebrate this," it was a female but it was difficult to tell.

"What do you want?" The So'Na ambassador demanded.

"Revenge," the first figure screeched.

Jon shared a glance with Razant it was obvious that trigger was going to get pulled and they had a semi clear run to charge while everyone around was stunned at the turn of events.

"Not on our watch," he gritted his teeth, squared his shoulder and ran at the man. That had the good luck to knock his pistol out his hand giving the ambassador a chance to try get back but he hadn't counted on how solid the alien was. Jon sensed the anger that hit him empathically in the face before the aliens actual fist.

As all his boxing training came into play Jon ducked the next one as beside him he could see his Reman officer had followed suit. He made an attempt to see where the disruptor had landed but that split second of distracted concentration allowed his opponent to punch him in the gut.

Staggering back he knocked into several of the party guests. It was only a matter of time before station security waded in but he got back to his feet anyway. "Razant," he yelled, "Don't let that one get away." The female was attempting to get through the crowd now.

Razant's veins coursed with adrenaline, or something like it.

"With pleasure, captain!" he shouted back, throwing off his dress coat. Whipping out his phaser, he took aim - he had a clear shot.

BZZZzzt! BZZZzzt!

Two orange beams lanced out at the fleeing female. With a yelp, the Son'a woman crumpled to the floor. Two direct hits on heavy stun. As Razant scanned the crowd for further threats, he allowed himself to breathe in the chaos. It was almost intoxicating. Like it or not, his people were bred for war. The phaser whined noisily as the power cell recharged, noisily enough to obscure the approach of a third, and much larger Son'a female from behind.

Without warning, a thin, jagged blade sliced deep into Razant's back. The cold steel felt like ice in his back. Releasing an unearthly howl, the Reman spun in place, lashing out at his assailant. The larger Son'a female staggered back as a meaty Reman claw slammed into her face.

Razant gasped while his opponent recovered, clutching his back. He dared not remove the blade. If he pulled it out, he would almost certainly pass out from shock and blood loss.

The large Son'a charged at Razant again, eyes ablaze with fury. He side-stepped her clumsy overhead swing, then answered with a precise reverse punch to her open jaw. The counter-strike clearly rattled the Son'a woman as she struggled to stay on her feet. In desperation, she reached out with both of her arms to catch Razant in a hostile embrace, but the Reman was too slippery.

He darted around her and lept onto her back, locking his elbow around her neck. He grabbed his wrist with his free hand and squeezed. She tried to shriek with rage, but could not. Wide-eyed and panicking, she gripped at his arm with her massive hands, trying to shake him off.

She was extremely powerful.

Razant's head pounded as he fought to maintain his grip. Darkness tugged at the edge of his vision and the ice of the long blade in his back had turned into a searing-burn sensation.

The blade, it had to have been poisoned.

He had to stop her now. With every passing second, the poison worked harder against his will to remain awake.

Just a little longer...

The Son'a female's flailing grew weaker and weaker. Finally, with the blood supply to her brain temporarily severed, she slumped to the floor in a heap.

Razant smiled woozily, stepping back to survey his handiwork. He wasn't feeling too good, but it was nothing the doctor couldn't fix. Slick green blood covered the ground that he stood upon - his own blood.

"Razant to Doctor H-" he began, reaching for his commbadge. Then he remembered, his commbadge was sitting in the corner of the room along with his discarded dress coat. His smile turned to a frown.

"Aww Shox'ai," he croaked. He managed one uneasy step forward, then promptly collapsed over his opponent's unconscious body.

I hope everyone else is alright, he mused before drifting off.


..............


Lilura's strides had quickly closed the space, but as the Captain was holding his own, and the ships security officer was with him, Lilura hung back. Besides, she didn't want to tip her hand at her strength and training, not if needed, as she would be playing Tongo later that evening with her Ex Oh and a Ferengi Ambassador.

The male laughed at him approaching him again. "Star fleet, another scourge. You're too late."

Jon shoved his jacket off, knowing he had more movement without the stiff garment if this idiot decided he wanted to dance further but the words too late had alarm bells running.

The back end of the function room suddenly went up in flames, a loud boom beforehand causing a shock wave.

Moments earlier, Amelia had still been pondering how and where she was going to get this tongo game started when she heard some shouting from the other side of the room, looking round, she then saw the Captain engaged in a bare knuckle fist fight with a couple of So'Na. She thought to herself he was having words with me for wanting an innocent card game and now he's the one now punching people as she started to head towards the commotion. Suddenly the back wall of the room was engulfed in flames.

Lilura sensed the sudden conflagration and shifted to be between it and as many people behind her as she could. She stood full up with her tail bracing against the ground. She took the shock wave full front, knowing her physical nature could take it, hoping to protect others behind her.

Amelia brought her hands up to her face to shield it from the heat when she suddenly felt someone grab her waist. It was the Ferengi ambassador, using her as a human shield. He cried out "Don't take me take, kill her! She's a weak female. I have Latinum and will pay handsomely for my safe.....Ufff!" He was cut off by a well placed elbow to the face from Amelia.

Stopping two ensigns who were nearby, Amelia took charge. "You start evacuating the room and make sure the ambassadors are safe. I'm afraid this one was injured in the blast." She motioned to the unconscious Ferengi. The two young men snapped to attention and replied "Yes Sir!"

She made her way to the wall where there was a computer terminal with a comm panel "Lieutenant Fox to security! There's been an explosion in the Officers lounge. We need assistance down here."

Over by the blast, Lilura telekinetically reached out for an emergency fire extinguisher and began using it on the flames. As she did this, she brought out her engineering tricorder from under her cape along her back (she was allowed to wear the cape with dress whites as it was part of her culture) and began scanning for any weakening of the structure

Amelia was working the computer. "Also the fire suppression system is not responding...... Correction, the fire suppression system has been disabled! Someone has manually deactivated the system in this room. Bring some fire equipment."

A voice replied "Acknowledged."

Amelia continued working until finally a force field shimmered on between the guests and part of the fire. The Computer indicated the emitters had been damaged in the explosion and the field would not hold for long. With this temporary solution in place she now made her way over to the Captain.

Lilura, in her scans, found two more bombs planted around the room. It seems that the two insurgents who instigated the event had each planted a bomb, and a third of differing design by somebody else wanting to put a crimp in the sociopolitical function.

Lilura called out to Amelia, "EX OH, BOMB Left Front table, Bomb Near Kitchen... taking Kitchen one.." She figured Amelia would know who was there of the crew who could easier handle a disarming a bomb than he asking about.

Amelia heard the engineer Call out and replied "Copy that, try and get that fire under control. Starbase security is on their way. Let's get these people to safety."

Lilura called out, "Using Emergency Fire Extinguishers already, hoping backup arrives soon," as she was halfway over to the bomb of differing design from the other two, the one that had exploded and the one near the left front table. The one at the kitchen was more worrying, than the other one, though. Unknown to all, the second bomb had not gone off due to a faulty receiver, i.e., in their haste to stash them, the receiver had been knocked loose and had not set the second incendiary device off.

Amelia came up to Reynolds, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Captain, while I admire your heroic stance, I think we should be getting out of this room. There's another explosive device present!"

He and the other alien were still engaged in knocking 7 bells out of each other. It seemed he didn't even want to try run like his companion and no way was Jon letting him go before security stunned him. Of course only Amelia Fox would put a hand on the shoulder of someone in the middle of a tussle and comment on his "stance."

Security chose that moment though to appear and as the phaser blast ran out and his opponent fell, he turned round and wiped his mouth which had blood running from the sucker punch the alien had landed on his jaw. "Time to go then number one, " He looked round ready to start herding out people but it seemed his crew had already done a good job on that score. Since Amelia had mentioned another bomb no one else seemed to be sticking around either.

Over at the Kitchen, Lilura's electromagnetic sense had already seen there were no booby traps with the bomb as it was magnetically attached to a serving tray of hors d'oeuvres of varying types. However, it did have a sensor for weight as it was supposed to go off when the table top emptied, except the bomb maker didn't think that being by the kitchen, people would use it to temporarily hold food going out to the guests, so it never had went off. Lilura thought for a second, the went into the kitchen. She brought out a mag utensil holder and placed it directly over the weight sensor. The two were attracted to each other and the switch was now disarmed. She moved the food off of the table, placed a beacon upon the cart, then hit her communicator. "Starbase 308 Security, Lt. Karakalakss of the USS Andromeda, I have a defused bomb under my care. Please transport to quarantine and safely dismantle, please."

A Security officer came over to her as the food cart sparkled away to quarantine. "Ma'am, are you okay?" Lilura gurgled, "Yes, sir, I am. That was a third bomb I had found and defused. The first one went off over where your men are now, I exhausted two emergency fire extinguishers trying to keep the fire contained. A second bomb is at the left front table, I haven't checked why it hasn't gone off yet."

The Security officer, nodded even as he motioned to some of his people to go check it out. "You're safety is paramount Ma'am, if you would be so kind.." He motioned towards the entrance to the lounge.

Lilura curtsied to him and replied, "Understood, Sir, on my way. Just, be careful." With that, she now took her leave, having done all she could with her limited resources. She said out loud to herself, "If this is a boring political event for the Captain, I wonder what he does for excitement?" as she exited through the lounge doors.

OFF:

Lieutenant j.g. Lilura Siana Karakalakss
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Andromeda

Commander Jonathan Reynolds
Commanding officer
USS Andromeda

Lieutenant jg Naiya Hope
CMO- USS Andromeda

Lieutenant J.G. Razant
Chief Tactical/Security Officer
USS Andromeda

Lieutenant Amelia Fox
Executive Officer
USS Andromeda

Lieutenant Jorel Merrock
Chief of Strat Ops
USS Andromeda