The Many Headed Hydra
Posted on Wed Jan 25th, 2017 @ 11:09pm by Captain Liarra Von & Colonel S'er'in'e
Mission:
Shadows and Whispers
Location: Fighter Hanger
S'er'in'e was completing his end of night rounds, with many fighter bays still vacant and there was only so much the ground crews could do he dismissed everyone for the night. The backup crew were in the recreation room waiting for the CAP already in flight to return in five hours. This left just himself in the entire hanger surrounded in silence and the clear signs of lost pilots and missing craft.
Many times he looked at his own fighter as it sat in its place repaired and certified. It had been a close call during the fight, he still sometimes shuddered with the feeling of his craft as it ground along the floor to a halt into the safety nets. Watching Federation fighters destroyed with no signs of ejection. Since that day moral was low with many friends lost, comrades in arms, trusted wingmen never to return. Everyone knew the risks putting on the uniform, everyone knows that one day that blank cheque they hand over upon signing up could be cashed in some day. The unwritten rule for a fighter pilot was the average life expectancy in a battle was 7 minutes, if they were lucky.
Each step rang with the sounds of his claws on the floor as he continued towards the right of the hanger where secure lockers for munitions were housed and just above, his office. Nobody enjoyed losing people, some even took it personally and found it hard to let go and S'er'in'e was in part at least the same. His department had been savagely slashed in half following the battle and he patiently waited for resupply in both pilots and craft.
The loud sound of the heavy double doors to the hangar deck were rarely ever heard during typical days. The hustle and bustle of fighter crews going about their work and preparing for launch usually made enough commotion in the large bay to drown out the sound of a couple of doors sliding against each other. But tonight, whine they made was almost deafening in the silence of an empty hangar.
Von had never seen this part of the station so quiet before, but she had never seen it this understaffed before either. It was an on going battle between her and the fleet brass. With the disagreements between the Gorn and the Klingons escalating into an all-out conflict, Starfleet has been more interested in reinforcing the border to make sure that neither the Gorn or the Klingons got too trigger happy. Liarra argued that the Rhitorians could pose just as much a threat as the Gorn, especially now that they had apparently acquired cloaking technology, but so far she was losing that battle. Some of her requisition requests had been filled, but with so many casualties taken as a result of the battle with the Sojourners, all of her departments were understaffed. Starfleet was only willing to send her so much help. It was becoming painfully clear when she entered the hangar just how understaffed the fighter groups really were.
As she crossed the dim hangar deck, she spotted the only other sign of life in the room, though he was hardly mistakable. Few members of her crew stood as tall or as imposing as her air group commander, Lt. Colonel S'er'in'e. He was inspecting his personal fighter, or at least that's how it appeared to Von. She called out to him, carefully, not wanting to startle him in the silence. "Good evening, Colonel. It's awfully quiet in here tonight."
S'er'in'e turned but he knew by the voice who it was. "Captain Von." He bowed as customary and then righted himself. "The technical teams and ground crews have completed everything they could, with so few craft a routine maintenance cycle takes but a brief time instead of normal." The quiet however was peaceful, almost tranquil in fact. "This is the second time in so short a time you have visited the deck." He wondered if she, like he, had some issues that only the two of them could deal with. "Do you still have problems surrounding our last mission Captain?"
"There are certainly still some concerns that have been weighing on my mind," she replied, her voice lowering as she came closer to S'er'in'e. "But I'd be lying if I said I wasn't still worried about you. I know our last conversation ended a bit abruptly, but you seemed like something was still bothering you."
S'er'in'e could be seen to visibly ease, though only slightly. "A conflict of ones self." S'er'in'e replied then turned to face her, looking down at her much smaller frame. "When you see me you see this first." Indicating with his hand the feline features. "A predator, a natural and also trained killer. You have read the reports from The Dive at what I can do against a trained opponent, you know I had killed the Human on the planet surface."
S'er'in'e took a few paces around. "To my species many others such as Humans...even Trill for example are fragile. When I joined Starfleet I had to undertake classes to further teach me restraint on a more serious scale because of that risk that I pose to others because of my species. Since then I have had to maintain restraint, uphold the image of my kind and Caste. I have worked hard to create myself in a image that people do not fear, do not be intimidated by, can look beyond what I am but on the planet I had to become what I was. I used what I am to get the job done, Starfleet had nothing to do with it, I became first and foremost...what I am."
Von nodded along. She certainly couldn't argue with him. In comparison, she certainly was frail. That was obvious just from how quickly she was incapacitated in the crash. And S'er'in'e was certainly an imposing figure. She couldn't deny that either. But being lost and alone with someone on an alien world has a way of drawing people closer. S'er'in'e saw her when she was her most vulnerable. But she saw him when he was vulnerable. And now they stand here, safe not in small part thanks to his actions, and he was focusing on what he was afraid he could become, not who he is.
"S'er'in'e, it's hard for me to argue with you about how much stronger and more powerful you are compared to me. You keep accentuating the negatives. Yes, I've seen the reports from the incident in the Dive, but they all point to you defending your mate from someone that wished to do you both harm. I wasn't there, but I can imagine what happened. But I don't need to have been there to know that you did what you had to do because our lives were in danger. You're not an animal. You're not a beast. You are a Stafleet Officer, a protector, and a friend."
S'er'in'e smiled, even now others saw the better parts of himself even when he questioned inside what they saw. His Mate made her position clear, her views concrete and though he accepted it, when compared to the essence of what he felt was himself was something else entirely. The peace of the Hanger bay was broken by the footsteps of someone else, S'er'in'e's keen eyesight saw this was a technician of the ground crew clad in overalls with a bag clutched in one hand, a device in the other.
"Is something the matter?" S'er'in'e asked as the figure drew near.
The clutched bag dropped and the hand held device became active. The Hanger Bay doors opened but the atmospheric shield was in place, one of shuttles powered up. "No sudden movements." The Human male spoke holding his hand out in front of him showing the active device. From behind him, no doubt tucked into his belt he produced a hand phaser.
"I have disabled communications and rigged false sensor inputs, the doors are sealed and I have rigged the shield generators to explode if I press this button." The male stopped a fair distance from Von and S'er'in'e, he was not stupid. "Captain I hope your security doesn't beam in, that shuttle is generating ionic particles, it will scatter any transport beam and before you hope they can mount any form of rescue, you will pay for what you have done."
Von held her hands in front of her at chest level, careful to keep her movements slow. There was no reason to give him a reason him a reason to fire. "May I ask what it is that I've been accused of doing?" she asked calmly.
"Gross negligence," the man replied with just a hint of uncertainty in his voice. "My family was killed when the Sojourners bombed the station, my wife, and my two little girls. I saw your speech. You promised to make the Sojourners pay for what they did!" His hand was shaky, but he kept the phaser pointed in Von's direction. "And what happened? They came right back to our doorstep. You did nothing. How many more people must die before Starfleet gets the message that you can't be trusted?" Von started to answer, but he interrupted. "I'll tell you how many more. Just two."
Von was hesitant to reply. She had lost someone in that bombing as well, though Alexander was never as close to her as this man's family was to him. "I could only imagine what you must have gone through."
"Spare me your pity Captain, I could kill you right now, but....that would be too quick and you deserve to suffer for what you did." He tossed away the phaser hearing it skittle across the floor. He knew firing the phaser would set off the internal alarms. He pressed the button and a red pulsing light could be seen from the first level walkway.
S'er'in'e had to make a difficult choice, leave Von to fend for herself while he dealt with the console and be party to her injury as a result or fight this man and risk the lives of both of them. With his feline agility S'er'in'e leapt up onto a nearby fighter leaving claw marks on its surface as he rushed across the top of it. From the tail section he leapt for the railing of the upper level, his hands made the grab but his feet didn't, several claw marks and growling made the effort up onto the railing and along the path. He kept low running on hands and feet like a feline as he raced towards the console which as he neared could tell it had been modified with cables and connectors leading away from it.
Their assailant was surprised by S'er'in'e suddenly leaping onto the upper railing. But in his reaction he took his eyes off Von momentarily. Liarra acted instinctively, diving for him and driving him into the deck. The impact caused him to loosen his grip on the device, the detonator flying out of his hand. It slid across the deck plates, out of reach. Liarra tried to pin him down, but the crewman grabbed her and rolled over her, reaching for the device. Liarra got an arm free enough to block him, and rolled back over the other way. She was able to spring to her feet sooner and took off after the detonator, but the assailant caught her good leg. As she lost her balance, Von's hand flicked the device further away.
The crewman got to his feet, but Von swept his leg, dropping him back to the ground. She got back to her feet, but he did the same. Standing her ground between him and the device, she put up her guard to hold him off. He swung wildly at Von, who dodged the punch. She countered with a punch to the his side. He took the hit well, and took a couple more big swings. Liarra dodged the first, but the second landed hard on her left. She may have had the better fighting form, but he had some power to his swing. Liarra just had to hope that she could hold her ground long enough to give S'er'in'e time to disarm the device.
S'er'in'e could hear the sounds of the fight but he had to focus, time was literally ticking away and he had to disarm the device. From what he could tell the setup was when the countdown finished a program would activate and circumvent the safety protocols and disable the field emitters. He was unable to release the cables and there were no tools around that were required. Time was slipping by and so S'er'in'e resorted to the only thing he could do. With brute force he started tearing the console apart, yanking at isoliniar chips, pulling out circuit boards, control nodes even power relays. The latter causing a few sparks and burning his hand slightly, the burnt smell of fur lacing the air around him. His efforts were rewarded and the console shut down, he hoped it worked as there were only 7 seconds left on the monitor before it died. A brief wait confirmed his hopes and S'er'in'e stepped over the debris he created to aid the Captain.
Back on the flight deck floor, Von and the assailant continued to trade blows. A swing and a miss from the crewman led to a counter by Von to his stomach. He winced through the pain. He took another wild swing, which Von dodged. But she left her right side open, and the crewman went for her recently injured leg. A sweep made her lose her balance, but as she stumbled he kicked at her shin, dropping her too her knees. This time the captain winced in pain. As she tried to stand back up, her assailant grabbed her by the shoulders and quickly brought up his leg, his kneecap hitting the symbiont. Liarra yelped in pain. The blow to Von left her vulnerable. The attacker grabbed her by the hair and dragged her along the deck plate, throwing her down to the side. The attacker's attention stayed on Liarra, his focus no longer on regaining his detonator. With Liarra on her side and in pain, he kicked her again, aiming for the symbiont once again. Liarra let out another yell, the blow momentarily debilitating.
Having heard the cries of pain it spurred on S'er'in'e's movements as he used the same way he used to get to the console. He saw the Captain down and the attacker laying some heavy blows into her frame, as painful as it was to grip metal he used his claws for extra grip to spur him into a high speed. The attacker was so focused on the Captain and S'er'in'e's hands and feet soft and padded his movements were very quiet and thus unnoticed. Over 500lbs of weight slammed into the man sending him reeling from the impact away from the Captain.
S'er'in'e stood up from his lowered position but his stance was crouched and fierce, the Captain now under him and between his feet. The claws appeared at their fullest length, S'er'in'e made it clear to whom they were intended.
The man went sliding across the deck from S'er'in'e's attack. The Caitian hit harder than Von, and he was slow to get up. His vision was hazy, but he looked around to get a sense of his situation. S'er'in'e was standing over the captain, no doubt having already disabled his device. He searched for anything to give him an advantage as a smile grew on his face. Nearby lay the phaser where it had flown out of his hand earlier. He quickly grabbed it and trained it on S'er'in'e, keeping the weapon aimed as he slowly struggled to his feet.
Liarra was still dazed from the pummeling, the symbiont throbbing in pain. There were so many thoughts and concerns running through her mind at the same time. Not only was she feeling her life flash before her eyes, but it its trauma, she was feeling Von's memories racing through her head. It was a dizzying experience, to say the least. As she fought to regain her composure, everything else was starting to come back into focus. Liarra could sense S'er'in'e standing over her, and through her blurred vision she saw their assailant rising to his feet with the phaser in hand. But just as she was starting to be convinced that this really was the end, she saw S'er'in'e's claws. Suddenly, she found her mind starting to clear, as if the situation was perfectly under control.
S'er'in'e could see the man was dazed, squinting, slow movements, heavy breathing but now he was armed. S'er'in'e needed to level the playing field and quickly said. "Computer lights off." The lights dropped plunging the hanger into darkness, he darted off to the side but a phaser shot illuminated him as it narrowly missed and spoke again using a fighter as cover. "Voice command override S'er'in'e Omega 1-7." S'er'in'e knew the Captain could override it but the darkness would give her a chance to hide and for S'er'in'e, he could see in the dark better than a Human.
The soft pads on his hands and feet made his movements almost silent as he quickly flanked the man, S'er'in'e could see him swinging the weapon left and right in not knowing where S'er'in'e would come from. S'er'in'e's first need was to remove the phaser from play. From behind S'er'in'e grabbed the mans arm holding the weapon and it was clear surprise and fear played a part in the delayed response from him. The mans arm out straight encounters S'er'in'e's jaws and he bit hard, fangs and teeth sank into flesh and then the expected give in the arm structure, S'er'in'e had broken the mans arm.
The pain delayed a defence as S'er'in'e pressed his attack all the while hoping the Captain was alright. A firm sharp claw clad grip broke the mans clavicle and S'er'in'e pushed him to the floor. 500lbs of weight should limit some movement. The man flailed trying to get away landing a knee to S'er'in'e's ribs, some damage had been done but S'er'in'e with his right foot claws at the mans leg feeling flesh and moisture.
Liarra struggled back up to her hands and knees, desperate to know what was going on. But in the darkness, she couldn't see a thing. But she didn't need to see. With the phaser never getting a shot, Von was sure that S'er'in'e was winning. But the blood curdling screams from the man confirmed it. For a moment, she actually started to worry about the man's life, and she made a decision. "Computer, lights on, override Von Echo Seven Two." Light returned to the hangar, nearly blinding Von. But she could see enough. "Colonel! Stand down. I think he knows when he's been beat."
S'er'in'e wanted to kill the man, the Guardian had questioned if he was Caitian still and he had the perfect opportunity to prove it. S'er'in'e however was fired up, charged and ready to kill but denied the pleasure. He roared loudly at the man mewling in pain and agony in an effort to expel some of his aggression. He looked to Von and walked to her nursing his side where the mans blow landed. He found he was unable to retract his claws, he was too hyped up so he kept his claws out of view but unable to hide the noise his feet made on the floor. "Lay still, I will get help." He located a phaser from a shuttle and handed it to her. "I'll get the doors."
Liarra was stubborn enough that she didn't listen, and rose to her feet. Even with the phaser, she didn't want to give her assailant another chance to get the drop on her. She reset the setting to a heavy stun; the attacker had clearly intended to kill. Out of the corner of her eye she watched S'er'in'e move across the large room to the doors.
S'er'in'e reached the doors quickly nursing his side, the doors were sealed but once he disabled the program the assailant used they opened, Security was already there waiting. "The Captain, now." He spoke stepping aside then lent against the door nursing his fractured ribs.
The security team rushed passed S'er'in'e and into the hangar. Two of the officers kept their phasers trained on the man on the floor, while a third approached Von. "I'm fine," she replied stubbornly. She gestured towards the prisoner with her free hand. "He needs medical attention. Get a medical team down here, and keep him guarded. I need him brought in alive." She looked up across the room at S'er'in'e, who was still holding his ribs. "And the colonel and I will need attention as well."
With communication out of the hangar seemingly an issue, the security officer hurried out of the hangar to make arrangements. Von carefully made her way closer to S'er'in'e. "You okay?"
"A check in Sickbay will heal my wounds." S'er'in'e spoke as a team of officers came towards the pair of them.
Liarra had a feeling that it wasn't going to be that simple. The look in his eyes as he stood over their assailant was unlike anything she had ever seen. If he wasn't going to talk about it, than neither was she. Von turned back towards the unconscious form lying in the middle of the hangar. Could it be as simple as one man with a grudge? Or was there still something larger brewing. It remained to be seen just how many heads the hydra had left.
Captain Liarra Von
Commanding Officer
Starbase 332
Lt. Colonel S'er'in'e
Commander, Air Group
SVW-17
