From: V. Rahul Chandra (vrccan_at_gmail.com)
Date: Mon Apr 30 2007 - 04:24:32 PDT
========
“Thin Lines”
Con’t from my own “Prelude to a Rumble”
========
Location: USS COUNTERSTRIKE
Stardate: 2422 [2.7] 0430.0606
Scene: Bridge
“Sir!” Logue reported from the operations station, causing Daniel’s head to
turn quickly in his direction. “The pirate ship is turning around and
heading our way.”
Daniel frowned. “How did they manage to find us?” he demanded.
“I have no idea sir,” Logue replied honestly, his own brow furrowed in
confusion.
“What is the status of their weapons and shields?”
“Both are unarmed sir?”
Daniel blew through pursed lips as he considered the situation. Already the
pirate ship was beginning to get larger in their view as it headed back
towards them. Running away now wouldn’t be a good idea and more to the
point Daniel wasn’t even sure they would be able to get away.
He glanced over at the tactical station. “Tactical analysis of the pirate
ship Ms. Michaels.”
“Their weapons appear to be comparable to ours sir,” Trish answered. “But
it appears that our weapons would make short work of their shielding. The
ship itself is a lot larger than ours; sensors count at least a hundred
people on board.”
Daniel nodded, before turning his gaze back to the front as the pirate ship
slowed to a stop in front of them. “Sir,” Logue reported from ops. “We’re
being hailed; audio only.”
Daniel nodded again. “Put it through,” he said.
[[Federation vessel!]] the voice of the man on the other end was gruff and
sounded very angry indeed. [[Lower your shields, power down your weapons
and prepare to be boarded. I am sure you have scanned us by now and know
that we are more than a match for you. You will not harass our operations
in this area.]]
“What exactly are those operations?” Daniel asked.
[[You have two choices Federation vessel. You can either surrender, or be
blown up,]] the man replied.
“How about we discuss things peacefully instead?” Daniel suggested, half
seriously and half because he knew it was likely to piss the pirate off even
more.
[[I am in no mood to dally words around with human filth such as yourself,]]
came the reply. [[Surrender, or be destroyed. This is the last chance you
have.]]
Daniel’s mind whirled as he thought of a way out of this. Based on what
Trish had told him, he knew that the fight would be a close one, regardless
of who won. He wasn’t particularly interested in winning a fight only to be
adrift with no shields or weapons at the end of it and tried to figure out a
way to do things differently. After a few moments, an outrageous idea
occurred to him.
[[I shall take your silence as a refusal to surrender…]]
“Wait,” Daniel said, causing both Logue and Dirak to turn and look at him as
if he were crazy.
Daniel pointedly ignored their looks. “You’re right,” he said. “You could
totally blow us out of the water. But we’re Starfleet marines, trained to
fight to the death if necessary. I’m going to need some time to consider
your ultimatum.”
Dirak wore an incredulous look on his face at that and opened his mouth to
say something before he was silenced by a fierce look from Daniel.
[[You have five of your minutes human,]] the pirate answered, before closing
the communication.
“With all due respect sir,” Dirak answered. “We can beat the crap out of
those guys.”
“We can, but they might be the crap out of us first,” Daniel replied,
looking over at Logue. “Justin, here’s your chance to make up for missing
that transport earlier.”
Justin looked a bit confused at that, but continued listening. “I want you
to rig a simultaneous transport that will be triggered by the shields of the
pirate ship lowering when they transport their boarding party over here. At
the same time, I want you to send the three squads we have below over to
that ship. Send two of them to the bridge and one to the main engineering
section. In the meantime the six of us will arm ourselves and defend this
ship against the pirate boarding crew. If all goes well, we’ll end up with
both ships and minimal casualties.”
Dirak stared at him for a moment, before grinning. “You are one crazy
person,” he said.
“Crazy has nothing to do with it,” Daniel answered. “But I’d prefer an all
or nothing proposition to the uncertainty that a fight with their ship
presents.”
“The transport cycle is ready sir,” Logue replied. “And the three squads
have been notified to arm themselves.”
“Good,” Daniel answered. “Time for us to do the same.” He pulled his
pistol out from his holster, the other five marines on the bridge standing
and doing likewise. Just as they got into their positions, the voice of the
pirate came through again, demanding to know what their decision was.
“We’re lowering our shields now,” Daniel said, trying to sound as defeated
as possible. “You may send your boarding crew over at any time.”
[[You have made a wise decision and averted much blood shed,]] the pirate
declared.
“I hope so,” Daniel replied sincerely as he nodded over to Logue, who
pressed a button on his console to finalize the automated trigger. As four
shimmering forms appeared on the bridge of the COUNTERSTRIKE, all six
marines could hear the transport cycle working on the lower deck.
For the part of the Orions, they were all surprised to find that six pistols
were pointed at them before they had even had a chance to materialize.
“Drop your weapons,” Daniel ordered, taking a step towards the lead member
of the boarding party.
The pirate looked stunned at the turn of events, and by the expressions on
the faces of his cohorts it appeared that none of the four of them had been
expecting any resistance. None of them had their weapons raised.
“Drop your weapons,” Daniel said again, taking another step forward and
training his pistol right between the eyes of the lead Orion boarder. “I am
not going to repeat myself a third time.”
His pistol was on stun and the Orion probably knew that it was on stun, but
that didn’t take away the psychological motivation of an order given with a
weapon pointed right at the person’s head. The pirate quickly dropped his
weapon.
“The rest of you as well,” Daniel added, looking at the other three behind.
Slowly, they also tossed their weapons to the ground.
“Our ship will destroy your ship once they realize this treachery,” the lead
pirate snarled.
Daniel smiled. “I don’t think so,” he said. “In fact, I think we should be
hearing about that very soon.”
As if on cue, a communication came through Daniel’s comm. badge. [[Sir, we
have secured the bridge and engineering areas of the ship,]] the marine
reporting in stated. [[The captain has ordered all of the pirates to stand
down and we are in the process of rounding up the others and escorting them
to the cells.]]
“Very good,” Daniel said, nodding his head. “Casualties?”
[[Three Orions were wounded in the struggle for the bridge and one marine,]]
the marine reported. [[No fatalities. No casualties were reported in the
engineering takeover.]]
“Excellent work, keep at it,” Daniel said, before closing the comm. link and
turning back to the pirate, a smug expression on his face. “You were
saying?”
========
Time index: twenty minutes later
Location: PIRATE SHIP
Scene: Corridor -> Room
“All of the pirates have been sequestered either in the cells they have on
this ship or in the holo-brig we created on the lower deck of the
COUNTERSTRIKE,” Dirak reported to Daniel as the two of them walked down the
corridor. “The files we need on this ship that discuss the pirate movements
are encrypted and from what I gather the only person that knows the codes is
the Captain. We’ve been interrogating him for the last twenty minutes, but
he refuses to budge.”
Daniel nodded. “Okay,” he said. “And without that information, what are
our chances of figuring out what’s going on in this nebula?”
“I’d say about zero,” Dirak replied grimly.
Daniel nodded again. “That’s what I figured too,” he said, handing one of
the PADDs to Dirak. “Okay, head back over to the STRIKE and take command
there. I’ll see what I can do about the interrogation.”
“Yes sir,” Dirak answered, before turning on his heel and heading back down
the corridor. Daniel watched him go before turning and entering the room
where the captain was being interrogated.
“Listen bud,” the marine said as Daniel quietly entered the room. “It will
just go faster for everyone involved if you just decrypt those files for us
now.”
The captain shrugged. “I don’t remember how to do it,” he said. More so
than the words, it was his uncaring, nonchalant character that really rubbed
Daniel the wrong way. Frowning slightly to himself, he walked up over to
the pair.
“I’ll take it from here Private,” he said.
“Yes sir,” the Private said, saluting.
“Wait outside and instruct the guards to wait down the corridor,” Daniel
added.
If the Private was at all surprised by this command, he didn’t say so. He
merely repeated his affirmative before heading for the exit.
Daniel leaned against a console that was in front of the chair the man was
sitting in, regarding the captain intently. For a few minutes, he said
absolutely nothing, his eyes and mind taking in all of the information they
could about the Orion pirate sitting opposite to him.
Finally, he acted. Instead of speaking though, he handed the man a PADD.
The captain looked at the PADD confused, before looking back at Daniel and
demanding an explanation for what was on it.
Daniel pointed. “Commander Benjamin Kenta,” he said. “Executive Officer,
USS PATRIOT.”
His finger moved from one picture to the other. “Lieutenant Catherine
Sterling-Jade,” he continued. “Intelligence Liaison to the USS PATRIOT.”
“Those were the two officers that were on the ship you attacked unprovoked,”
the marine added, looking down at the captain.
“It wasn’t me,” the captain answered defiantly.
Daniel ignored him. “Commander Kenta has a son, who might be without a
father now because of your actions.” He resisted the urge to smack the
captain as he continued. “Lieutenant Jade has a husband, who might be
widowed now because of those same actions.”
“Am I supposed to care?” the captain asked.
“Have you ever considered the lives you’ve ruined with the actions you
perform?” Daniel asked him quietly.
“No,” came the simple and blunt reply. Something about the bluntness of the
reply caused something to snap in Daniel’s mind and before the captain quite
knew what was happening he found himself slammed and held against a wall.
Daniel had two fistfuls of the man’s shirt in his hands and he held him off
the ground and against the wall as he glared at him, his eyes red with
anger.
“I still haven’t told you who I am,” Daniel hissed. “Major Daniel Clarkson,
Executive Officer of the marine contingent attached to the PATRIOT.
Lieutenant Jade was my wife.”
The captain grinned. “Doesn’t the Federation have strict rules against this
kind of stuff in interrogations?” he asked, almost mockingly. He was
expecting to be hit or punched and got the shock of his life when instead of
either Daniel grinned right back at him.
“What makes you think I’m not willing to accept the consequences of the
actions I am about to take?” he asked, his voice dangerously low. He
watched as the expression in the eyes of the captain changed from bravado to
uncertainty and then as Daniel held him there and continued to stare…to
fear.
“Ah, it’s starting to dawn on you now,” Daniel said. “You learn quick.” He
pulled the man off the wall before roughly tossing him back into his chair.
The pirate collided with the chair and both chair and Orion went tumbling to
the ground. Daniel walked over and crouched next to the pirate, pulling him
up by the shoulder fabric of his tunic and looking into his eyes once more.
“I’ve had a very bad day today,” Daniel continued. “My wife is probably
dead and it’s my fault because instead of saving her when I had the chance I
decided to track your sorry ass across half this nebula only to find out I
couldn’t even do *that* without screwing it up.”
“I’ve been sad, elated, dejected, guilt-ridden and now after having to deal
with you for the last ten minutes you can probably imagine that I’m just a
little bit upset.”
“A little?!” the captain questioned hoarsely.
Daniel grinned. “A little,” he said. He stood up, pulling the man up with
him and continuing to fix his stare on him.
“Now you have two choices,” Daniel said, mockingly mimicking the speech he
had been given earlier. “Either you tell me the code now, or you tell it to
me later. Either one is fine with me.”
His tone changed from a light one to a severely grave one. “But I promise
you this,” he said. “If you pick the second option, you will be begging me
to kill you by the time I’m through with you,” he said. “If my wife truly
is dead, I have nothing to lose.”
The pirate visibly swallowed, before nodding his head. “Give me the PADD.”
He said quietly.
=========
Time Index: 15 minutes later
Scene: Bridge
“Open a channel to the COUNTERSTRIKE,” Daniel said, walking out onto the
bridge, a PADD clutched between his hands.
“Channel open sir,” the marine manning the foreign operations console
reported.
“Mr. Dirak,” Daniel said, as the face and upper body of the experienced
marine flashed onto the screen. “I’m transmitting you the data we gathered
from the decrypted files. They detail everything we need to know about
Orion operations in the area. Please transmit these files to the PATRIOT
immediately along with a report of our status.”
{{Will do sir,}} Dirak said with a nod of his head.
Once the man’s picture had flashed off the screen, Daniel almost
involuntarily collapsed into the command chair. He suddenly felt completely
exhausted; mentally, emotionally and physically exhausted. He held his head
in his hands and silently said a prayer of thanks.
“What are your orders sir?” the marine at the ops station asked.
“Signal the COUNTERSTRIKE to lead us back to the PATRIOT,” Daniel replied,
almost instantaneously. “Full impulse.”
“Aye sir,”
========
NRPG: Woooo, just moving things along since we seem to be winding down a
bit. I purposely left out discussing in any detail what the decrypted files
say just in case someone else wants to cover that ;)
========
==========
V. Rahul Chandra <vrccan_at_gmail.com>
Playing...
Lieutenant Commander Jeffrey Gorman, MD
Chief Medical Officer/2nd Officer
GATEWAY STATION, GS-2
&
Major Daniel Clarkson, MD
Executive Officer - Marine Contingent
USS PATRIOT, NCC 5781-A
&
Lieutenant Sevlock
Junior ACT Instructor
Starfleet Academy, EARTH
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