Aftermath

Posted on 08 Jan 2023 @ 7:13pm by Lieutenant JG Riley Ames

Mission: Through the looking glass
Location: USS Andromeda
Timeline: Sometime after Touched by Dark Fire
1059 words - 2.1 OF Standard Post Measure

ON

They were still in the Mirror Universe and the shuttle came in. Two Ron Bumbles had come out of it, C'Tora and Cassandra as well. They left at a dead run heading towards the bridge. The shuttle looked rather worse for the wear, and so he went inside to check it out. A security officer came in, he had been sent to secure the shuttle. He was an ensign, his name Victor Traconis.

"I was told to come here to secure a passenger here?" Victor remarked to Riley.

"A passenger? I only saw two Lieutenant Bumble's, the CMO and the Chief Counselor come out of the shuttle they were escaping in. I don't know of anyone else-" Riley stopped when he noticed the unconscious form of a woman who looked rather familiar.

"Wait that looks like Commander Blackthorn, what is she doing here and she is unconcious!" he gasped out.

Victor took a look at her. "That isn't the commander, I am going to put her in a holding cell until she wakes up."

Riley gave a quick glance towards Victor. "You sure she should be there?"

Victor looked back at the red headed Engineer.

"Yes we've had enough trouble with people who are duplicates of those we know especially, Mirror Fox, that it is protocol for the security of the ship, for anyone who we know nothing about to be placed there. " Victor having a rather serious expression in his eyes. And before you question me further, I have on good authority that Commander Natasha Blackthorn was not sent out on an away mission."

Riley scratched his head then gave a nod. "I remember that happening, Michael er.. Lieutenant Hawkins wasn't too happy about that event. It really made him pretty darned angry. I hadn't seen him that angry in a long time. Okay if you'll take care of that lady I'll check out the shuttle and then report to Hawkins."

Victor gave a nod and AU Natasha was beamed into a holding cell in security and he left as well.

Meanwhile Riley tapped on his comm badge to give a report to Michael.

"Lieutenant Hawkins, its Ames here. Shuttle is secure... and the passengers are out..."

There was no response to his hail, Riley tried once more. "This is Ensign Ames. Lieutenant Hawkins, please respond." still no answer.

"Bridge this is Ensign Ames, is Lieutenant Hawkins there?" speaking over the intercom. A moment of silence then a voice came back.

"I am sorry, Hawkins is no longer on the bridge and we need an engineering team right away. " was the response.

Riley was greatly concerned, and grabbed a few of his fellow engineers and headed up to the bridge and once the lift had stopped and he stepped through, he was dumbstruck at seeing the damage that had been done to the bridge. He ordered his team to start taking care of making certain there were no fires being set off by the sparking viewscreen.

"So, what happened here?" he asked someone there.

A voice came from behind him, it was Victor. "There was a fight, and several people had been injured and three were killed."

Riley spun around to look at Victor. "Who died?" then his eyes dropped down to the floor, in the middle of debris, he spotted a commbadge he recognized. He bent down to pick it up, and took a scan. "No wonder I wasn't getting any answer from him, I will have to get him another one. Was he part of the injured?" looking back at Victor. "I'll have to go check in on him, in the infirmary."

Victor had a solemn expression in his eyes, "I am sorry to inform you, that Lieutenant Michael Hawkins is no longer amongst the living. And the same for Lieutenant Xu as well as Ensign Morgan. Chief of Security Harper Matthews is in the infirmary along with Captain Reynolds, and Lieutenant Higgens. " he woodenly said.

Riley gave a slight shiver, he'll have to find out the details afterwards, trying to ignore the bloodstains upon the Captain's chair as well as on the floor. It was time to clean up things before the Captain is able to get back. He will have to deal with the loss of his long time friend, Michael later. Michael would want him to get the job done then deal with fallout later.

"Okay people, get to work we don't have a lot of time to do this, and.. oh hell! the Ready room is messed up as well." Giving a deep sigh, Riley set to work on dealing with clean up and repairs.

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Later on
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Back in Engineering, Riley went into Michael's office, and closed the door, taking a good look around it. He saw the picture of Michael, himself and Desmond dressed in costumes, sitting on the desk. He sank into the seat and stared at the picture giving out a deep sigh then he screamed out shaking his fists to the ceiling. "You son of a bitch why did you have to die!! You stupid, stupid man, my brother in all but blood. Why.. why.. why.. why..." he bent over and held his head deep wracking sobs coming out from him, his body shuddering.

Outside in engineering, the engineers looked towards the office and quietly returned to their duties, it was a dark day indeed with the loss of their own.

About a half an hour passed then Riley stepped out from Hawkin's office. "Alright, as you most likely now know, we have lost three of our crew, our operations chief, another operations officer and Lieutenant Hawkins, and we've had injured as well. Amongst the injured, the Captain, the Counselor and our security chief. There will be time to mourn or give those who have died a good old fashioned wake, for now though lets get things worked on, get the ship back into shape and we can get out of this hellish place. Are you with me!!"

There was a brief loud sound from those in engineering, "yes we're with you!"

Smoothing down his hair, Riley smiled, albeit a watery one, his eyes redrimmed from crying earlier. This was a good crew, he'll be damned if something else happened.

END

Ensign Riley Ames
Defacto Assistant Chief of Engineering
USS Andromeda

Ensign Victor Traconis
Security
USS Andromeda