By TC Blane and Zanh Liis
80301.17
Following Give Them What They Want
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-=Transporter Room One, USS Serendipity=-
80301.17
Following Give Them What They Want
-----------------------------------
-=Transporter Room One, USS Serendipity=-
TC stood in the transporter room, silently awaiting the call from the bridge confirming that Commander Salvek’s ruse had been successful.
He checked his phaser rifle again for at least the seventh time over the course of the last fifteen minutes. Although you could never tell from his calm and silent exterior, inside he was full of butterflies.
This was the part of these types of missions that he hated- the wait.
He looked over the other officers and crew that were assembled in the transporter room and tried to measure up each individual's state of mind. He could feel the overall uneasiness in them, after all they were not boarding a Romulan Warbird, or a rogue Ferengi ship. It was one of their own, and even despite the fact the man in charge of the Gauntlet would gladly blast the Sera into space dust, it was hard to fight your own.
TC made his way to the captain.
“Are we set?” He asked quietly.
"As set as we'll ever-." Zanh began, but her reply was cut short by the sound of Salvek's voice.
[Salvek to Zanh, their shields are down. You may commence transport.]
"Understood. Well done." She grinned at Blane and tapped her combadge. "Captain Zanh to all transporter rooms, be advised that I am sure Spangler will raise shields again the second our first teams board. Your orders are to secure and maintain control of the crew, my team will take the bridge and thereby the ship herself. Energize!"
-=Bridge of the USS Gauntlet=-
"As soon as you have those chips, bring them directly to the Alchemy, I'll meet you there." Dylon Spangler instructed his transporter operator over the com.
[Yes, Sir. Energizing.] A moment of silence followed, then another.
Spangler tugged at the collar of his uniform nervously. "Transporter room, report!"
[Intru-] The sound of the transporter chief was heard for a split second, and then his transmission was cut off.
"Damn it! Raise shields!" Spangler smacked the arm of his chair with a clenched fist. "Tell Commander Salvek that I hope he's enjoyed his career, because it is over now."
"You can tell him yourself," A low pitched, gravelly female voice invited softly from over his shoulder. "When you meet him, which will be soon."
Zanh Liis and her team had materialized at the rear of the bridge, and Spangler grabbed for a phaser at his hip. Cristiane and O'Sullivan moved forward, Blane stood beside the Captain, and Dengar rushed to the Engineering station to carry out his personal orders to take control of the ship's engineering systems.
"I wouldn't be doing that, friend," Keiran O'Sullivan cautioned Spangler, quickly snatching the phaser out of his hand.
Zanh Liis turned to the man at the tactical station, approaching him slowly with her own phaser leveled at him, set for heavy stun. "Keep those shields right where they are for a moment, Lieutenant. I am taking command of this ship, and I do not want anyone coming on," She glared at Spangler as she spoke, anticipating his next move. "Or transporting off."
TC quickly made his way to the operations station and with only a glare, caused the lieutenant manning it to move. He frowned as he found that the terminal had been locked, preventing him from accessing it. Apparently the lieutenant was quick on the draw and had entered his personal security code to secure the station before the boarding party had the chance to secure the bridge.
He looked over at Zander Blakeslee, who had also had made his way to the tactical station.
Apparently Zander did not command the same level of respect as TC did, because it took Zander threatening the officer there with a phaser shot to get him to move.
“OK, we are looking good here.” He worked to pull up the information on the Gauntlet’s tactical systems.
TC turned back to the Ops station. “Unlock it.” He instructed the Ops officer.
His reply was silence, with a smattering of defiance.
TC glanced back at Liis. Liis sighed. "Keep me covered, Commander."
Zanh marched over to the officer who was standing with eyes fixed on the far wall, arms crossed over his chest.
"Hi. We haven't met. I'm Zanh Liis, and you guys stole my prototype. I'm here to take it back. Since you are also all responsible for the destruction of a Federation starship, that ship being the Executor, I am also here to convey a message on behalf of Admiral Vox. You're all under arrest."
The man just kept staring, and finally Liis had had enough.
"If you have any chance of saving your sorry ass from a future in a penal colony, you will unlock that console and stand down!"
"You're talking about career futures, Zanh Liis, you should know that your stock just hit rock bottom," Spangler growled at her from across the room, where O'Sullivan held him in his chair at the point of his phaser.
"You're one to talk." Zanh shot back.
"Are you kidding? My true employers will be thrilled when I deliver the Alchemy to them. You have no idea what's begun here."
"Shut him up." Zanh growled at O'Sullivan, but before Keiran could react, Spangler closed his mouth. Zanh addressed Blane softly. "Okay. So you're special ops. Now is when you get to show me what makes you so special. We need control of that console, Commander. Go."
TC nodded and turned back to the resistant Gauntlet officer. “Give me the code.”
The man continued to stand his ground. TC admired his courage. “OK. You can either give me the code willingly or I can extract it from you, unwillingly. One way is relatively painless and the other is relatively enjoyable, well, for one of us anyway.” He leaned in closer, no hint of emotion on his face. “I’ll let you guess who would have fun with option two.”
The man wavered slightly, but maintained his position.
TC finally whispered something into the man's ear. The lieutenant turned ashen, and looked at the Admiral with panicked eyes.
“Three, nine, Delta, Zero. That’s the code.” He stammered quickly.
TC turned and entered the code and unlocked the ops station. He scanned over the information then scoffed, turning back to the captain and admiral. “Our partial scan was correct Captain, A skeleton crew only.”
Zander chimed in. “Maybe so, but this bucket is armed to the teeth. Double capacity phaser banks, tri launchers for the torpedoes, and for defensive purposes, three shield generators that run separate for the main power system.” He shook his head. “No wonder they chewed up the Executor.”
"Let's end this." Zanh concluded.
"Gladly." Spangler snarled, as he leapt out the command chair.
He pulled a small firearm the likes of which Zanh had never seen in her life, and started shooting. First he shot O'Sullivan, and the man fell to the deck like a ton of bricks.
He took aim at Cristiane, who screamed maniacally and charged him. But Dane was forced to abandon his assault, having to drop and roll out of the way and under the science station to avoid sharing O'Sullivan's fate.
The rest of the bridge crew of the Gauntlet took advantage of the distraction and began to struggle with the boarding party.
"We need back up on the bridge!" Zanh shouted into her combadge, leaping past another volley of phaser fire. She ran toward Blane, who was struggling with the Ops officer with one arm, and with the other unceremoniously shoved her to the deck.
"Hey!"
"Keep your head DOWN for gods sake!"
Zanh took her phaser and stunned the officer that Blane was struggling with. "Only trying to help."
“Nice shot.” He turned his attention to finding the Admiral and caught sight of the doors to the turbolift closing. “He’s rabbiting!”
Then his eyes fell onto their downed security officer. TC wasted no time in bolting to his side and checking his injuries.
"Keiran!" He tried to stir the man, without success. O'Sullivan appeared to have a burn that went clear through him, in through his chest, out through his back. It was impossible for TC to tell what the unusual weapons fire was doing to O'Sullivan internally, but he had a sinking feeling that there was likely a residual energy discharge running through his body and he needed treatment immediately if he had any chance of surviving.
Zander had dispatched two of the bridge staff with two blasts of his phaser rifle. Now seeing that they were out numbered and that their fearless leader had abandoned them, the remaining special ops crew surrendered.
"Captain!" Dane shouted at Zanh from the security station. "Somehow he's transported from the lift to somewhere on deck twenty-two. He's trying to override the shield lock out."
"He's going to try to transport off the ship. Find him! Dengar, lock onto me and initiate an emergency site to site transfer- send me to his location," Zanh ordered.
"Both of us." Blane shouted to Dengar. "Do it!"
With no time to argue, Zanh upped the setting on her phaser. She nodded to Rada and he initiated the transport.
They found that they were standing, a moment later, in Main Engineering of the Alchemy.
"It's over, Spangler! Do you hear me?" Zanh shouted. Spangler shook his head.
"It's only beginning." He taunted, a twisted grin consuming his features as he began to shimmer and fade from her view.
"NO!" Zanh shouted angrily, but it was too late. Somehow Spangler had dropped the shields and transported off of the Gauntlet, from their location aboard the stolen Alchemy in the shuttle bay, to points unknown.
A warning alarm began to wail, and TC stepped up to the main console to try to determine its origin. "Captain, we have a problem," he announced, his voice rising slightly.
"What?"
"He's done something to the Warp core of the Alchemy-" Blane announced, "And locked us out of the controls. We have a hundred and twenty seconds until the core explodes, taking the Alchemy, the Gauntlet, and the Sera with it."
Realizing that they had no time to get Dengar down to engineering to stop the breach in progress, she tapped her badge.
"Zanh to Salvek." She addressed the Vulcan evenly. Still, something in her tone caught his attention.
[Is there a problem, Captain?]
"Could say that. You have a hundred and seventeen seconds to tell me how to shut down the Alchemy's reactor core, or we're all dead."
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Commander TC Blane
Second Officer/Chief of Operations
USS Serendipity NCC-2012
and
-=/\=-Zanh Liis
Commanding Officer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012
Commander TC Blane
Second Officer/Chief of Operations
USS Serendipity NCC-2012
and
-=/\=-Zanh Liis
Commanding Officer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012