Infernal Realization

Posted on Thu Feb 13th, 2014 @ 5:13pm by Ensign Corrine Steiner & Commander Brian Ratchford

Mission: Manhunt
Location: Near the Archan Sun

ON:

Even though the Steiner chase was still in progress, the chaos in the solar system settled quickly. Civilians now understood that the escaped criminal was now swarmed by both Ferengi ships and Starbase 332 fighters. The starbase itself could stand down from its severe lockdown. USS Wolverine's arrival was imminent, its resident intel officer livid about Ensign Steiner having escaped.

Major Maxwell's fighters had nearly gained control of the pursuit mob when the chase took an unexpected turn... into the sun. Never having had the chance to break out into full warp, the commandeered Type-11 was now too smothered to escape the system. Instead, it's elusive course took it into the sun's corona.

The Ferengi ships broke off for higher 'orbit'.
"Stay back! Stay back!"
"She'll have to come out! Her shields won't hold!"
"She's trying to blind our sensors and go for a breakout!"
"She's going in way too fast!"

Aboard a Ferengi sloop, the bridge crew gathered in front of their large holoscreen.
"Maybe she doesn't know!"
"Open a Channel, QUICK!"
The captain's tone calmed, "Hey! Miss hoo-man! We're not going to hurt you!"
The others echoed, "Oh no, not at all! That would be unprofitable for everyone!"
"Please come out! We'll make sure you're well treated! We promise!"

The captain muted the hail and looked back, "You find any restraints?"
"No Sir, but we've got lots of duct tape and rope!"
"Awesome." He cleared his throat, "Miss Hoo-mon... We all care very, very much about you!"
"We do! We do! We love you! We love you!"
"Please come out?"

Pleadings went unheeded. Shields steadily burning out, the shuttle made no transmission. The target being too far into the corona for a tractor beam to work, all they could do was watch helplessly. Finally, there was a small sensor spike.
"SHE BLEW UP! She burned herself up!"
"How horrible!"
"What an unprofitable waste! How could she DO such a thing?"
"Yeah! Didn't she realize how expensive Type-11 shuttles are?"

One of the Ferengi squinted, "Maybe it's a trick!"

Dejected, the scanning officer pushed the viewer aside with a sigh, "No... No Federation shuttle could have survived that kind of a dive."

Refusing to give up, the little man asked, "Maybe she beamed out to another ship!"

"Don't be stupid... no transporter beam could make it through that fission storm. If she was on that shuttle, then she's dead." He his eyes then widened in sheer shock. "... If... she was... on... that shuttle."

The other man made a chuckle of disbelief, "What do you mean if? If she wasn't aboard, then that means she's still..." His eyes also got big a saucers.

At that moment, phaser fire erupted on Starbase 332's command bridge. Having been given time and diversion by the space chase, Corrine Steiner used her new crewman privileges to access the bridge. People had been caught up in a moment of disbelief when her shuttle burned up. She used that moment of distraction to stun the duty guards with one phaser and fire a full intensity warning shot with the other. It was easy to tell who was in command. Trembling violently, perspiring profusely, and heart pounding with panic, she closed in with phasers pointed.

Brian immediately turned towards the hatch as he heard the unmistakable sound of the phaser fire, drawing the small type-I that he had ordered any essential command crewmembers to carry whilst in Ops. He drew and aimed on instinct, but stopped short of firing. The way the woman was holding her phaser, angled directly at Captain Von meant that he could not be sure that the ensign would go down from his own beam before one of hers hit the Trill.

OFF:

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Commander Brian Ratchford
Ensign Corrine Steiner

Starbase 332
Pegasus Fleet