The Appeal

Posted on Sat Feb 15th, 2014 @ 9:08pm by Ensign Corrine Steiner & Captain Liarra Von & Commander Brian Ratchford

Mission: Manhunt
Location: Starbase Bridge Command

ON:

As though frozen in time, the bridge command crew all stopped in their tracks. They stared at the distraught woman pointing a weapon at their Captain. Eyes furtively glanced to and fro, contemplating various acts of attack or security activation.

Captain Von stayed calm and collected, staring down the fugitive. Her previous assessment was that she had no desire to actually harm anyone, but now she couldn't be sure.

Corrie froze for a moment with wide eyes. "It's you!" Exactly as in her dream, she noticed in horror that this phaser was set to maximum. Quickly, she turned it aside and pointed the one set on stun. Those around her, though, wouldn't know if perhaps she hadn't done the reverse. The fear pouring through her made it difficult to speak coherently, "I dreamed you."

Liarra gave her a puzzled look, but didn't say anything. She still wanted to size Corrie up.

One of the bridge ops whispered, "Oh my God... What a psycho!"

Corrie didn't hear that, but his fellow crewman did. Instinct told him to not try and hide his reaction. With an exaggerated smile, he slowly tipped his head made a gentle point. He calmly warned, "Not one word about the nice lady, or you will eat that console."

With anguished expression, Corrie pleaded, "I don't want to hurt anyone! I swear I don't! Please, I just want- GET AWAY FROM THAT!" Out of peripheral view, the comm officer had been slowly reaching for an alert button. Corrie spun around and took aim. The comm dived away from the station just in time as Corrie blasted the console. Badly agitated, she blinked hard at the petrified officer, "I dreamed you, too." Panic beginning to overwhelm her, she stared wildly at Captain Von.

Brian had taken the opportunity whilst the distraught woman had fired at the console to move himself quickly, placing himself between the woman's weapon and Liarra. He was still having a hard time believing that their security had been so lax as to allow her to get to this point, but he was damned if she was going to shoot at the captain before going through him first. He was about to try to instruct her to lower her weapon when the captain beat him to it.

Liarra gestured to her officers. "Hold your fire, put your weapons down." Her eyes focused on Corrie, Von sidestepped Ratchford and raised her arms to show that she was unarmed. "We don't want to hurt you. Let's just talk."

As Corrie stood there shaking, her eyelids half closed and tears began to stream. Her voice was soft and raspy, "I will. Lock me in a penal colony. You don't have to let me go. I beg you, just..." Her teeth clenched as she grimaced. She reset her aim, "Don't let them take me back!I will not let them use me! No more experimenting on me!"

Beekman had warned Liarra that Steiner would be delusional, but she wasn't expecting the girl to claim that they were experimenting on her. She decided to humor the girl to buy them time. "Who was experimenting on you? What do they want with you?"

Having to explain reopened too many deep wounds. Corrie began to break down. She began lowering her weapons. "They want me... because... I have dreams... about events that are about to hap-"

A phaser blast hit her in the back. The beam intensity, normally used against Klingons, was dangerous to humans. When Corrie was struck, one of her phasers went off. She had been lowering it, but the target point was still near a bridge officer's feet. The maximum intensity beam caused a phaser splash which, without emergency medical treatment, would be fatal.

Corrie herself was hurled forward by the powerful hit. Her phasers tumbled across the floor, and she flew virtually into Ratchford's arms. When everyone looked to see who fired, they saw Major Beekman and his security team. USS Wolverine had dropped out of warp close to the starbase, and they beamed in just outside the command bridge's security screens.

As soon as Ensign Steiner had been hit, the comm officer raced and knelt by Corrie. After a moment, she cried out, "She's not BREATHING!" She tapped her commbadge, "Alert! Casualties on the bridge!"

At the same time, one of the horrified junior officers ran to his critically injured crewman. Insubordinate or not, he lashed out in disbelief, "What the hell were you THINKING?"

Major Beekman realized his blunder, but covered with a plausible sounding reply, "The prisoner has been known to use body shields. I had to make sure that she wouldn't injure any more people than she has!"

The comm officer lost it, "SHE'S hurt? YOU'RE the one who did this, you p-"

Liarra cut him off with a gesture before tapping her commbadge. "Von to Security. Send a team to Ops, immediately."

Major Beekman had his agenda. He activated comm, "Wolverine! Target is secured. Stand by for beam out." He then turned to Captain Von, "Drop your security screens."

Von shook her head. "I don't think so, Major. Just what the hell do you think your doing firing a phaser in my Operations Center. I had the situation under control." She looked at the tactical station. "Make sure the shields up and don't drop them without my orders."

The tactical officer looked at Beekman and back at Von. "Aye, Captain." He entered the commands to keep the station shields raised. No one else was beaming on or off the station.

Liarra picked up the phasers dropped by Corrie and handed the one on stun to Ratchford. The other she kept for herself, only taking a moment to note the power setting before lowering it back down to stun. "How did you get aboard the station?"

Beekman's own team had weapons up, but since he was obviously being recorded on ship's cameras during the alert, he gestured for them to stand down. "Captain Von, my ship was already inbound and had been granted clearance."

Liarra kept the phaser firmly in her grasp, thankful that his men lowered theirs. "Actually, I don't recall you having clearance. In fact, I seem to remember not having any contact with your ship at all. And I don't appreciate someone moving in on my hunt."

Beekman took offense. He coldly squinted at her. "Your hunt? It was mine from the beginning, and it still is!"

A medical team raced in. Relieving the officers administering CPR, they injected the patients with triox and continued the heart massage. As a medic waved a tricorder wand, the worried comm officer asked, "Will they make it?"

"He will. But I don't know about this one." He hit his comm badge, "Sickbay, standby for beam-in of patient one. Patient two's molecules are too unstable for a transporter ride. Clear a path, we're running her in. Set up two stabilizer fields!"

Confirmed, med team, the infirmary replied through the comm channel.

Beekman wasn't about to let go. "Wolverine has JUST as advanced facilities as you do!"

"If they are just as advanced, then it shouldn't make a difference if she is treated here or on your ship. Besides, she's still my prisoner." Liarra kept her glare focused on Beekman.

The young comm officer was still emotionally shaken. She stared at the major in disbelief, "Didn't you hear? The woman is too badly injured to beam out!" One of her fellow officers took gentle hold of her arm to get her to back away. "But-" She realized. "I'm sorry, Captain."

The major gave Von a fierce look, "This is a matter of..." He stopped himself. Up until now, he had been maintaining that Steiner was nothing more than a mental Awol. "The prisoner must be secured. She has... classified information and must not become known!"

Von nodded. "Oh, she'll be secured, but there will be an inquiry into her crimes she has committed here, as well. Don't worry, Major. She will be secured. I won't let her get loose again."

The doors to Ops slid open and four security officers ran into the room with phasers drawn. The team leader looked to Von. "What is the problem, Captain? You said it was urgent?"

"It is, Lieutenant." She nodded her head towards Beekman and his bodyguards. "Take the weapons from these men and escort them to a holding cell."

For a moment, Beekman's team considered resisting, but Von's superior numbers already had the drop on them. Beekman stared with steep astonishment. Not thinking properly at this point, he hit his com device, "Wolverine!-"

A guard snatched his comm away and spoke into it, "USS Wolverine, your major is temporarily indisposed."

"Ma'am, I think we're about to receive an urgent hail." Von's comm officer looked over at smouldering console and then shrugged.

Enraged, Beekman was literally fit to be tied, "YOU'LL BE COURT-MARTIALED FOR THIS!"

Liarra never let her resolve waiver. "I doubt it. You are under arrest for unauthorized entry to the station, unauthorized possession of a phaser, reckless discharge of said phaser, interference in a security operation, attempted murder, and if my crew member doesn't make it, manslaughter. I don't think I'm the one that should be worried about being court-martialed."

Completely thrown that any fleet officer would dare challenge Intelligence Division, the major didn't know how to respond. The only words he had to say were classified, and this base wasn't bowing down to home space security like she should.

As the guards led Beekman and his men away, Von turned to her comm officer. "Alert the Wolverine that there has been a delay. Also alert Starfleet that Steiner has been apprehended."

"Aye, ma'am! Even as she walked to her station, techs had lifted out her damaged modular console components and plugged in a replacement. The quick diagnostics showed all green, and she made the transmission. Some time later, a reply came from the nearest fleet office, =/Who is Ensign Steiner? We have no such general alert.\=

OFF:

------------------------------------------------------
Captain Liarra Von
Commander Brian Ratchford
Ensign Corrie Steiner

Starbase 332
Pegasus Fleet