Boarding Party - Bridge

Posted on Tue Jul 20th, 2021 @ 11:54am by Curtis Vaan & Liha t'Ehhelih & Nollel Livaam (*) & Angel Ramirez

Mission: Mission 13: Stowaway
Location: Bridge
Timeline: MD 08 23:00
2398 words - 4.8 OF Standard Post Measure

Nollel leaned back against the communication console and just stared at the ship in front of them that was still, after so many hours, just matching whatever they did and blocking any communication attempts they tried. They had attempted a modulating system, but it had yet to work, but it was something, alongside what Engineering was working on. Everyone was working or resting. It really showed the type of people that the ship had gathered together.

“So, whilst Gregnol has left us in charge, what are we going to do?” Nollel wondered, knowing that she needed to do something to keep herself away. They had all been up a long time without proper sleep and rest.

"Keep working," Liha answered simply. She stretched a little, rotating tension out of her shoulders, but was careful not to let the knives under her tunic show since Humans tended to get weird about that. "If anyone needs a break, go ahead though. I can go a lot longer without food, water, or rest than humanoids."

“I am good. I rested and got some food before I came back.” She was not going to admit that she fell asleep in the grotto whilst trying to find something helpful. All she found was chaos and stuff that interested her.

"Ha! I once pulled an all-nighter working on this awesome holonovel idea. Didn't even realise it was 6 AM until the morning clean-up crew came in." Curtis grinned, his feet propped up on the operations workstation that he hadn't even looked at for the last thirty minutes. "I bet Romulan binges are awesome."

An eyebrow lifted. Liha wasn't sure what he meant by 'binge' as eating mass quantities didn't seem to relate to his previous statement, but humans had a lot of strange idioms so she just ignored that part. "Working all night? Wow," she said sarcastically. "That would be every other day when I was in the Galae."

“I should be fine,” Angel said from the tactical station, idly fiddling with a fidget spinner, “other than hitting the head soon.” He did yawn, though. Nothing was happening, nothing could really happen. It was a waiting game now. “Just brewed a fresh pot of coffee, if anyone is interested.”

“I could use a refill if you can, milk and sugar.” Nollel took her coffee more like a latte, but if the man had just brewed it she knew it would be good. “Just go deal with your needs. Nothing happening.” Nollel shrugged looking at the others. Liha or Vaan were in charge, but the woman would rather not have a puddle on the floor.

Angel stood up and stretched. It was good to get the blood flowing again. “Be back quick,” he said, slipping the fidget spinner in his pocket and heading for the break room and the head just off the bridge.

As if knowing the security crewman was no longer on the bridge several whirls of transport beam appeared on the bridge revealing Xander Felkopin, several Ferengi, and a man who looked like he had fallen into the transporter beam by being disinterested. He stood there even as Nollel stepped back from the console in surprise, taking in the gray dreadlocks, a skinny, gloomy face. Dead black eyes, set narrowly within their sockets looking over the trio left on the bridge. He had a scar reaching from just under the right eye, running towards the other eye, and ending on his forehead. It was Xander Felkopin, the captain of the other vessel. They had run out of time a day early.

“How did you get onboard?” Nollel demanded, deciding to use her voice, as no one else was seeming to sleep. She was scared but she could talk, especially when weapons were raised and death potentially on the way.

“Well, you have been using a modulating signal to break through the communication block.” He laughed.

"What in the--" Curtis almost fell out of his chair. "Dude...so not cool!” he protested, as a disruptor poked him in the ribs.

Angel finished his business and poured two cups of coffee, black for him, milk and sugar for Nollel. Plenty of milk and sugar. “Not even coffee at this point. It’s like candy,” he commented to no one in particular as he walked back to the bridge. The door opened and he found several people not supposed to be there on the bridge holding phasers.

Angel reacted quickly. Hot coffee went into the face of the Ferengi that was turning toward him, surprised as someone came up behind them all. The Ferengi screamed as his face was scalded, and Angel pulled his phaser, diving out of the doorway for cover even as he fired, the beam slamming a second Ferengi back into a console.

"Leave him and lock the door!" Xander yelled.

Liha took the distraction to whip around, knocking aside the hand pointing a disruptor at her back with one arm while bringing the other in a hard crane's wing strike across the pirate's neck. She smiled at the crack of broken bone and wrapped her hand around the neck, continuing her spin to bring his body in front of hers as a shield. Sadly, the disruptor fell from his limp fingers, clattering across the deck and out of easy reach.

Nollel turned and pressed a button on the comms console, taking advantage of the chaos to alert the rest of the ship through the internal alarm. Xander let out a cry of anger and grabbed Nollel, slamming her head into the console hard.

Fvadt! Liha cussed silently. If Burnie's girlfriend got killed in front of her, she was never going to hear the end of it. Clasping the body/shield with one forearm, she drew a knife with her free hand. "Hey!" she yelled, hurling the knife at Xander. "Pick on someone who can take you, coward!"

The knife sailed between him and the now unconscious blonde as he dropped her to the floor, blood on her temple, not caring where she landed. "Well, if the stupid girl had not decided to be braver than she looked she would have had no need to be picked on."

Liha smiled. It was not a nice smile. "If you hadn't been braver than you look, you wouldn't be locked in here with us." With that, she threw the body at him and rolled to grab the loose disruptor, coming up on a knee to shoot another boarder in the chest and spin to clip a second one on the shoulder as he ducked. That left three against two, and as far as she was concerned, she was worth five of them.

Curtis was mesmerised as the Romulan engineer went to town on the invaders. In the commotion, the man standing next to him with the disruptor had certainly taken his eyes off the young Risan. With a little grin, he slid from his chair and shoved the man as hard as he could towards Liha, hoping that it would put him off balance and she could do one of those fancy spin-kick things or something cool to take him down.

Xander looked at his men, disgusted that not one of them was capable of taking on some Romulan, and from the looks of it some Humans. It was embarrassing, and not what the Ferengi Commerce Authority or the Ferengi fundamentalists were paying him for at all. He decided to take a chance and charged at the man. He was the weak link out of the remaining crew.

The other pirate had stumbled toward Liha as she was rising, so with no time to aim and just shoot him, she threw a blocking strike up under his chin and followed with a kick to break his knee. Then she shot him. As she turned to orient on the next target, she saw Xander rushing at Curtis. Of course, the coward was going for the weaker Human. "Hey, ryak'na," she yelled, taking aim. "Surrender and I won't blow your head off."

Xander looked at the woman and snorted. "You choose guns over a real fight. Typical of your kind," he said with the same disdain, putting Curtis in front of him.

Liha snorted back. "You came after a merchant vessel with a gunboat. You don't deserve better than to be gunned down like vermin," she said, snapping her wrist to the side and blasting the last of his men able to move. "But since you're the kind to hold a hostage in front of him, let him go,” her lips parted in a feral grin, "and you can fight me."

“I think you need to back down, little girl, and realise just how foolish you are. This vessel is carrying items that my boss wants. You could have just given them over,” Xander replied. “Your captain made this happen.”

"Awww, you poor baby," Liha mocked, voice dripping with malevolent sarcasm. "Here you thought we'd roll over in terror at the big, bad Dread Pirate Xander, but instead you're reduced to cowering behind a Human shield to protect you from this one little girl." She smirked. "Can't wait to get back to FreeCloud and tell everyone how pathetic you really are."

Angel cursed, finding himself behind the thick door to the bridge. He knew the specs on bridge access. He would likely need heavy-duty equipment to crack it. Still, he aimed his phaser at the access panel and dialed it to the cutting setting before firing, determined to access the mechanism and hotwire it open if he could. He needed to rescue his crew. Angel grabbed the cut metal of the access panel and hissed as he burned his fingers on the hot duranium. He pulled it away to get inside and studied the operating chips for the ones he needed.

“Freecloud is not my home or a place I care for. Was just the place I was when I tracked that traitor and his woman,” Xander spat with a smirk as he squeezed Curtis just a little more.

"Still a place where I'll get free drinks for the story of how you hid behind a Risian kid to avoid fighting me." Liha grinned. "I imagine the tale may get repeated in a lot of other places too."

"And you think, little girl, that you can..." He stopped as the ship shook and his grip slipped on Curtis as he saw a ship materialise in the view screen. What was that type of ship doing there? Why would the Fenris Rangers interfere in something like this?

Angel cursed as the ship shook and he dropped the door control chips. Now he had to figure out which were which! What was happening now?” He scooped up the chips, trying to peer at their number designations.

"Ha!" Curtis chuckled, despite being almost strangled. "You guys are so screwed now..."

The comm system crackled to life.

"This is Captain Kaylin Jaal of the FRS Thrai. I have a pair of plasma torpedoes locked on your vessel's drive core. Your presence on board an allied ship is unwelcome. Leave now." There was the briefest pause where one might have been able to hear the Romulan commander's smirk. "I do so urge you to challenge my patience."

Xander growled, squeezing a bit harder for a moment before he pushed Curtis away to the floor. He hit the comms station to activate his reply, watching with interest the blood on the floor from the blonde woman who had first raised the alarm. "You are outside of your jurisdiction, Jaal. You have no rights here."

As soon as he threw Curtis aside, Liha was ready to fire. She tracked his movement, smirking when he stopped. The idiot was so distracted by the Rangers that he'd forgotten all about the real threat. That gave her an extra moment to take a good aim before she fired, hitting him square in the center of mass.

He dropped like a pile of rocks. Liha walked over and kicked him for good measure. "And you have no rights here," she spat, then turned to the comm. "Thanks for the diversion, Thrai. The bridge is clear, but we still have boarders to clean up if you want to join in the fun." Her eyes darted to the view screen and she grinned. "After shutting down that pirate's drive, of course."

"Reinforcements are already on the way, Mary Rose. Leave the marauder to us," came the response.

Briefly checking Nollel, Liha motioned to Curtis. "Take care of her. Burnie's going to want to blow more stuff up if she's not okay."

"M-me? What?" Curtis blinked at the injured woman nearby. "Oh. Okay." He looked up as the door partially opened and he saw Angel through the gap. "Little help?"

Angel peered through, looking for the Ferengis. “Merde,” he cursed. “Is everyone okay?” He brute forced the partially open door further and squeezed through, phaser ready.

"All but her," Liha said, taking hold of the door and pushing it the rest of the way open. "Can you hold the bridge? I - "

Her next words were interrupted by a transport beam. Liha expected it was Fenris Rangers but leveled her phaser at it anyway; nor did she lower it once it was clear the single figure had pointed ears.

"Hey, just me," Taev said once transport was complete. "Here make sure you still had the bridge secured."

"So sure you drew easy duty, you didn't even come in weapons ready," Liha scoffed, lowering her phaser.

Taev shrugged. "I figured you had it handled." He flashed a quick grin. "And that you'd be more likely to shoot me if I came in weapon drawn."

He wasn't wrong. Liha shook her head anyway. "Fine. Now that you're here I don't have to debate about whether to go help clear the ship."

"Hold up a bit. Indigo was real determined to do it all by herself," Taev said in exactly the tone of voice one would use describing a child making the same demand. "Give her a chance to catch up a bit on your kill score here. Otherwise we're going to have to hear about how she didn't really need the help forever." The tall Romulan rolled his eyes.