by Salvek, *O’Sullivan and Reece
81227.0200
…continued from part one…
-=Aboard the Romulan Ship=-
81227.0200
…continued from part one…
-=Aboard the Romulan Ship=-
“This is it, the shuttlebay is on the other side of that hatch,” Keiran said.
Farnsworth was already scanning the hatch and beyond. “Arie definitely went through here, Commander. There are no Romulans in the shuttlebay.”
“Proceed,” Salvek ordered. Keiran opened the hatch, and stepped through into the shuttlebay along with the rest of the team.
“She’s in the shuttle!” Farnsworth yelled, finally picking up Arie’s life signs.
Arie heard the shouting, and peeked out the cockpit window, expecting a hoard of Romulans to be converging on her. To her surprise, the first face she saw was that of her father.
“Oso-mekh!” She shouted, pounding on the cockpit window. Salvek saw her and waved to indicate he knew she was there. Before they could make it to the shuttle however, the bay doors opened, and Romulans began flanking the doors, firing at the away team. Salvek, Keiran, and the others all dove for cover behind storage containers in the room. They were still too far from the shuttle to make it there safely.
Several disruptor blasts hit the shuttle itself, burning holes into the hull.
“Arie! Raise the shields!” Salvek yelled over the firefight. He saw her nod, and a moment later the shuttle’s shields snapped into place, deflecting the weapons fire. Arie had already tapped into the controls and was ready to blast the shuttlebay doors off to make her escape, but now with her father in the room there was no way she could do that without having Salvek, O’Sullivan and the others blown out into space.
Before long, two dozen Romulans were flooding the bay with weapons fire. Salvek and his team were hopelessly pinned down and doing everything they could just to hold the Romulans at bay.
-=Serendipity=-
“Take us out of warp and raise shields,” Reece ordered the moment Hok indicated they were in range. “Hail the Polaris.”
Ashton Ledbetter appeared on the viewscreen. He clapped his hands together in delight.
[Oh! I’m so happy you are here! Salvek’s team was heading for deck six over there. He said he needed your help there in the main shuttlebay. You can’t beam though, their shields are up.]
“Not for long!” Reece said, and Ledbetter could tell by the gleam in his eyes that he was not kidding. “Keep the Polaris out of the fight in case we need you to beam anyone up. Serendipity out.”
[You’re welcome!] Ashton shouted, just before the screen winked out.
“Reece to Liis. Hey, that rhymes!”
[We’re ready for transport.]
“We can’t. They did get their shields up. What’ll we do?” Reece asked.
Liis responded with only two words.
[Fix it!]
“You heard Crinkles. Let’s get those shields down.”
“Phasers ready.”
“Then by all means, shoot them!” Reece said.
Talbot worked the controls, and fired on the already weakened Romulan ship. It took only a few moments to bring their shields back down.
Sue Tenney grinned, as her comm panel lit up.
“The Romulans are hailing, Commander.”
“Oh, this should be good,” Reece said. “On screen.”
[I am Subcommander Tolleth. We request a cease-fire to discuss our… disagreement.]
“Sweet. Let’s discuss. I say, you will stop your attack on our Away Team, return all of them, including Lair Arie immediately, or we will resume attacking your ship. What say you to that?”
[I’m afraid that is not possible. We do not know where the girl is.]
Reece rolled his eyes. “I don’t think you understand just how screwed you are. I’ve got every phaser array and torpedo tube on the ship pointed right at your head. And I mean that literally. Talbot, lock on weapons on this dude’s head.”
“Ready sir.”
“Good. Now, let me explain to you the level of screwedocity you’ve achieved. Right now on your ship there is an overemotional Vulcan missing his daughter, and there’s about to be a really pissed off Bajoran hot head with an axe to grind because you just cut her Honeymoon short by about twelve days. I’m the closest thing to a voice of reason you have left, and being that you almost killed me and my best buddy back on Lethus, I’m perfectly happy to blast you out of the stars right now. But since I am the voice of reason, I’ll give you one chance, right now, to surrender unconditionally and return our people.”
[I’m afraid that’s not possible.] Tolleth knew surrender meant an immediate execution at the hands of Taris.
“So you are choosing the Vulcan and the Bajoran? Your funeral.”
Reece shook his head, and ordered the channel closed.
“Transports in progress,” Talbot reported, as the Serendipity crew began to flood the Romulan shuttlebay.
Reece smirked, right up until the ship shook around him.
“Romulans have their weapons back! Shall I raise shields?”
“No! We need to be able to bring the away team back. I have an idea,” Reece said. Suddenly the strangest sensation of déjà vu came over him, like he had done this before. “Hok, move us so the Consequence is between us and the Romulans. That way they’ll hit the empty ship instead of ours.”
-=Romulan shuttlebay=-
The transporters deposited Blane, Zanh, and the rest of the first wave of Sera crew onto the Romulan ship directly behind Salvek.
“Captain!” Salvek said with surprise, as the new arrivals took up the fight with the Romulans. “It is good to see you. Arie is in the shuttle.” Salvek was drenched in sweat. The sheer heat from the battle had increased the temperature in room fifteen degrees centigrade.
Liis looked across the bay, and caught sight of Keiran on the other side. Alive and well, and himself being joined by the next wave of transports from the ship. He looked back and saw her. His expression was a mixture of relief and sadness. Relief to have her in his sights, sadness that their inability to rescue Arie before she arrived meant she was now in the place where he least wanted her to be.
“We’re going home, all of us, I promise you.” Liis said to Salvek. She gripped his shoulder with all her might. His eyes looked so exhausted to her, emotionally and physically. This needed to end, and it needed to end now. “Blane! Melt the controls to the bay door. We don’t need the Romulans opening it up and sending us out into space.”
-=Serendipity=-
Reece chuckled, as the Romulan weapons fired several times over, but could not reach the Sera. His plan had worked, and the Consequence was taking each shot meant for the Sera.
“Can you hit their weapons array? Nice and easy, we got a lot of people over there.” Reece asked Talbot.
“Yeah, a few shots on minimum power.”
“Go for it,” Reece ordered.
Talbot fired the phasers back, hitting the unprotected disruptor array, and knocking it off line, but not before one last shot ruptured the core of the Consequence.
Reece saw small explosions tearing through the ship’s hull. “Get us away from that thing Hok!”
The Ferengi slid the ship safely out of range, just before the Consequence erupted into a fireball, sending shards of the TI vessel hurtling in every direction.
“We’re being hailed,” Tenney reported.
“Our Romulan friends?” Reece asked.
“No, Captain Ledbetter.”
“Oh.” Reece said, the smile disappearing from his face. “Forgot about him. On screen.”
[My ship! My ship! What have you done!]
“IT WAS THE ROMULANS!” Reece shouted defensively, in protest.
[I’ll have all your pips for this! You and Zanh Liis both!]
The screen went blank once again, but Reece continued to argue with the view of the Romulan ship.
“It was the Romulans!”
----------------------
Commander Salvek
First Officer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012
*Commander Keiran O’Sullivan
Security Liaison,
The Alchemy Project
and
Commander Dabin Reece
Chief of Sciences
Currently in Command of the USS Serendipity
Commander Salvek
First Officer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012
*Commander Keiran O’Sullivan
Security Liaison,
The Alchemy Project
and
Commander Dabin Reece
Chief of Sciences
Currently in Command of the USS Serendipity