Caught Off Guard (Part 2)
Posted on Mon Oct 2nd, 2023 @ 5:07pm by Lieutenant Maki Nishikino 'Bones' & Tadao Yoshikawa & Captain Kagami Izumi & Commander (la') Tormek & Lieutenant Nash Winters & Lieutenant Ashreth "Ash" Th'Raanin & Lieutenant (Sogh) Vep Ka of the Empire & Lieutenant JG Nico Yazawa & Hatsune Izumi
Edited on on Thu Nov 2nd, 2023 @ 7:03pm
2,754 words; about a 14 minute read
Mission:
Lockdown
Location: Various
Timeline: MD02 - 10:30 Hours
Previously on Starbase Frontier:
Nico smirked. "What she's not telling you is that we were good friends. If not closer."
"Friends?" Maki scoffed. "More like you decided we were friends, and I just happened to tolerate you."
Nico just smirked at Maki in response. "But I'm such a loveable brat!"
"In whatever la-la land you seem to think you live in, perhaps," Maki sighed. "Anyhow, are you here to bother me, or do you have an appointment or something? Because I'll have you know I've been very busy since Lieutenant Sh'Alkins was transferred off-site, so I don't have time to be messing around."
"Just need my checkup. I'm newly assigned here," Nico replied simply.
And now the continuation...
[Galleria, Deck 10]
By this point, it was not an uncommon sight to find Hatsune wandering into the Final Frontiers Bar & Grill by herself. If she wanted to be fed, she knew just where to look- even if that meant ditching her preschool classes to grab a quick bite to eat. A small handful of patrons stole a worried glance every now and then, but most of them had already sort of accepted her as one of the regular- an unusual regular at that, but a regular all the same.
"Hatsune," Tadao greeted as he happened to spot Hatsune wandering into his establishment. "What are you doing here, Sweetheart? Don't you have class today?"
Hatsune shook her head. "Class finished early and I felt hungry. So I came here." she explained with a cute smile.
Tadao smiled. "How is it that I don't believe that, you little rascal?" he chuckled as he took Hatsune by the hand and led her to a table. "But I'll let it slide just this once; it does give our chefs something to do around here, after all..."
"Next thing you know, Tadao, she's going to be sixteen and cutting class just so she can get herself a rice omelette," one of the servers teased as Tadao helped Hatsune into her high chair.
"Don't give her any ideas," Tadao retorted before turning her attention back to Hatsune. "The usual, sweetheart?"
Hatsune nodded simply in response. His rice omlettes were very tasty and she liked eating them, it was simply and easy food to eat.
Tadao glanced over at the server and nodded.
"Rice omelette, extra ketchup, and chocolate milk," the server acknowledged before ducking back into the kitchen to prepare Hatsune's order. "Coming right up!"
[Everywhere]
A loud klaxon suddenly began to wail out on every deck on the Starbase. The alert lights illuminated to the colour of blue, bathing every area in blue light. Doors across the base all slammed shut and locked themselves, transports base wide went offline. All turbolifts came to an immediate abrupt halt. Bulkhead doors and maintenance hatches slammed themselves shut and sealed. Air locks sealed and the stations shields activated shielding anyone from transporting on or off the station.
"WARNING. QUARANTINE LOCKDOWN IN AFFECT. STAY IN YOUR LOCATION AND WAIT FOR INSTRUCTIONS!" the computer began to announce over and over again.
Deck 9 Galleria Bar
Lieutenant Nash Winters had the good fortune of running into two pleasant memories from his past while passing through the Galleria this morning. Lieutenant Ukram, and Ensign Remira Johansen. His two friends hadn't met one another, but he had made the introductions, and the three quickly became lost in conversations and old memories.
Ukram was still lost in good friends and good food when the alarm went off. "Christ," he said, borrowing a term from the Terrans.
“What the hell is that?” Winters asked. The klaxon was louder than usual and began out of nowhere.
“Remy, try to raise engineering on comms. Ukram, call Security.”
Nash tapped his communicator and attempted to get a call out. “Winters to Ops. Winters to Infirmary. Winters to Izumi. Captain, this is Chief Winters on Deck 9. Respond please. Damn. No responses anywhere.”
There was an emergency communications console behind the bar. Winters climbed over and tapped the controls to make the comms come to life.
“There’s no power getting to the panel. What the hell just happened?”
Ukram stood up, yelling in Klingon. "Zad keuf miry?" He shouted down his comms. They weren't working. "Comms are down!" *
(What the f* just happened)
The bar replicator was within Winters’ reach and he maneuvered to pull the cover off. He wanted to find a power conduit and he was hoping the one within the replicator was operational. Much to his dismay, there was no life in the isolinear chips or the circuits providing power to them.
“Hey, guys! There’s no power to anything. The comm panel is down, replicator, the chips, ODN lines, all of it.”
Gocx shook his head. "Damn it. How am I going to do a perimeter sweep? Guess I better go..." he said. Hopefully the doors wouldn't lock.
The quarantine announcement could be heard ship wide.
Well. There went his idea. "Well. Guess not," he said. "I guess we keep drinking," he said. From his pocket, he unearthed two flasks. One held real whisky. The other held coffee. Ukram put them both on the table. "Whisky, from Earth. Coffee, from the office," he said, indicating each in turn. "Help yourselves. I am going to institute Security Protocols." He crossed to the bar area for a moment, and jumped up on the counter.
"LISTEN UP," he bellowed. "Security Protocol Beta is in effect." He looked around to the bar's patrons. After a moment, they all moved, placing weapons on their respective tables, in case they were being invaded or something, and turned their Comms on.
“I’m not sure any Security protocol will help at this point, Ukram. This quarantine thing must be a glitch. When I got here 6 months ago, I ran level one diagnostics on every system. Everything was clean. Must be a “jack-in-the-box”.
Meaning someone’s computer access triggered this thing. If there only was a way to figure out how to remove it or whatever is causing it. Remy, any ideas? Anything you can go on from your Intelligence experience?”
"It's the newer quarantine protocols. Efficient at keeping people where they are. There are some flaws. The comms lockdown is excessive and dangerous," she responded critically. "We're stuck, until the computer decides we're safe. Dumb AI BS."
The Klingon nodded. "Protocol Alpha is in effect in MY mess hall," he grumbled. "Tell 'em, Miss Remy?"
“Son of a bitch! I guess we’ll have to make the best of it. There’s still a galley back there, right? We won’t go hungry or thirsty. Eh, Ukram? You’re probably just itching to grab a weapon and fight your way out of here. The quarantine protocols have deactivated all the weapons. So like Remy said, we’re stuck here looking at our smiling faces.”
The Klingon shook his head. "I have a Bat'leth. It doesn't require power like your...quaint human phasers," he said. "But as chief Security officer, it would look badly, I suppose." He knew when he was beat.
[Turbolift]
The Turbolift car stopped abuptly, so much that it caused it to jolt violently throwing its occupants hard against the floor and walls. As Kagami hit the floor there was a loud cracking sound. She had been thrown down so hard she had impacted with the wall of the turbolift landing the wrong way on her right leg. Her right leg was now twisted the wrong way, and blood began to pool from under her uniform.
She winced in pain as she tried to move to a sitting position. "Damn!" she said as she pulled her leg out from under her.
Tormek was also thrown off-balance by the sudden halt in the turbolift's momentum. He didn't have time to brace himself and the sudden jerk weakened his own legs and tumbled him into the nearby corner. The overhead lighting flickered then the emergency strobes activated, casting all three occupants in a deep crimson hue. He let out a deep grunt then pulled himself back to his feet to observe his Andorian and Human colleagues. His glorious flowing hair was now slightly disheveled. "Report!"
"Thats a good..." Kagami winced in pain. "Question." she said. "I think my leg is broken. And we're stuck in a turbolift..." she sighed. "Can you access the control panel? Find out what happened?"
The first officer looked back at the captain then his gaze descended to the floor where the base commander lay. One of her legs was brutally twisted in an orthodox fashion. The scent of Human blood permeated his nostrils. "You are injured...your leg appears broken," he matter-of-factly stated before stepping close to her and kneeling down. "And your wound is bleeding."
"I suspected as much," Kagami sighed wincing again in pain. "Counselor, do you have first aid training?" she asked. "Commander, keep working on that panel."
"No!" Tormek declared with sudden forcefulness rebuking the captain's orders. "You are the only one who can keep the Tholians from engaging in conflict with us. It is my duty to heal you, here and now," he declared. The Andorian officer was new to the station and he would not put any faith in such a dishonorable warrior species. He glanced over to Th'Raanin with severe Klingon eyes then back to the captain. The first officer pulled his d'k tahg from his belt then pushed its hilt firmly into Izumi's mouth. "What I must do to you will be painful. You must bite down on this."
Kagami didn't really have any option. She simply bit down on the knife. 'Is this his way of getting me to shut up or something?' she thought.
Tormek then slapped his captain across the side of her face. Hard. Not out of disrespect, but to prepare her for what would come and transfer the pain membranes from one part of her body to the other. Both of Tormek's hands now gripped her crippled leg with Human blood now flowing through his fingers. With a forceful burst of strength, he pulled both the femural and tibial bones of her leg into a straight angle. The sound of bones crunching against each other echoed again as he set her leg in a most primitive and painful fashion.
The scream from Kagami was muffled from the knife hilt in her mouth. However the instant relief she felt was rather overwhelming. She relaxed a little, starting to breathe easier, the pain was still there just not as bad. She scowled slightly as she took the knife out of her mouth. "Thankyou..." she said breathing heavily. "I still need to get to the infirmary..." she stated.
Ash looked at Tormek with disapproval as he got on the floor with the Captain. "You need surgery," he said. Keeping a close eye on the Klingon, he examined her leg more closely for the source of the bleeding.
Kagami tapped her comm badge. "Izumi to Ops..." she got nothing in return just simple static. She tried tapping it again. "Izumi to Ops..." once again nothing. "Try your comm badges, see if you can get hold of anyone."
Ash tried his comm badge with no luck. "Sorry, Captain. Mine isn't working either. And we need to stop the bleeding." Ash took off his dress shirt, revealing a standard issue Federation undershirt underneath and used his teeth to start a rip along the bottom.
The first officer repeated the motions of the other two at the captain's request, tapping his own commbadge which produced no more than a chirp of fluttering static. "Tormek to Operations." He waited for a reply which did not come, then after many seconds, he forcefully pressed the small comm device again. "Tormek to any station personnel!" Silence continued to ensue.
Kagami sighed once they had established that there was no way of communicating with anyone. "Well," she said simply to them both. "Looks like we're stuck here for a while. At least until someone can sort out the quarantine alert."
Once Ash had secured enough "bandage" from his shirt he looked at Captain Izumi, in the way that Andorians do where they find a way to look up at you even when they are on higher ground. "Captain, I need to wrap your leg, with some pressure to stop the bleeding. Commander Tormek, if you can break off a piece of metal or something firm about the length of the Captain's lower leg and a little narrower, a splint would help keep her from injuring it more until we can get her to Sickbay."
The Klingon glanced around the tubolift which itself was composed of many elements of duranium and tritanium composite. Impossible to cut with personal sidearms in such a short timeframe. He then looked down to his hands which still showed spatters of the Human captain's blood against his dark skin. "I will offer my bat'leth but it must remain intact." He pulled the long and elaborate five-foot-long bladed weapon from his back then offered it to the counselor. "We will have to secure her torso to it as well. She is small and her entire body will fit its frame. It can be used as a stretcher."
[Galleria, Deck 10]
"WARNING; QUARANTINE LOCKDOWN IN EFFECT. STAY IN YOUR LOCATION AND WAIT FOR INSTRUCTIONS!" the public address system blared.
"What in the hell is going on out there?!" Tadao shouted as he emerged from the kitchen to see what all the commotion was about.
"Quarantine Lockdown just went into effect," one of the servers reported. "We're locked in."
"Do we know the reason?" Tadao asked.
The server shook his head. "It could be anything, for all we know."
"Shit," Tadao cursed as he started frantically pushing his way through the crowds, his parental instincts kicking into overdrive as Hatsune's well-being became his topmost priority.
Hatsune had stopped eating her rice omelette and was now frozen stiff in her chair, her eyes closed and her hands over her ears. She had started to cry quietly.
"Go away!" she cried as she shook her head. "Stop!"
"Hatsune? Hatsune!"
Tadao had finally managed to make his way over to where Hatsune was seated. He could tell the girl was in considerable distress- her being a half-Betazoid and all that, it was likely she was picking up the negative emotions radiating off of the other patrons- so he knew he was going to have to act quickly. He wasted no time in unbuckling her from her high chair and scooping her up in his arms.
"Shhhh," he whispered as he bounced her gently in his arms in an effort to calm her. "It's alright, sweetheart; I'm here."
Hatsune buried her face into his shoulder, tears wetting his shirt. "Scared. Want mummy!"
Thinking quickly, Tadao reached over and unclipped the com badge from Hatsune's blouse.
=A=Hello? Kagami?=A= he attempted to radio in. =A=Someone; anyone!=A=
No use; all he was getting was static.
Tadao muttered under his breath before shifting his attention towards the throngs of concerned dining patrons who were now clustering around the front entrance.
"If I may have your attention, please!" he announced. "I need everyone here to line themselves up in a nice, orderly fashion so we can start taking temperatures; remember to maintain a distance of three meters from one another until we give you a clean bill of health; and if any of you are feeling under the weather, don't hesitate to speak up now so we can screen you immediately!"
The diners looked at one another nervously, but reluctantly obliged and began to queue in front of the counter to have their temperatures checked.
Posting by:
Captain Kagami Izumi
Commanding Officer
Commander Tormek
Executive Officer
Lieutenant Commander Sydney ap Iorwerth
Chief Science Officer
Lieutenant Nash Winters
Chief Operations Officer
Lieutenant Maki Nishikino 'Bones'
Chief Medical Officer
Lieutenant Ashreth "Ash" Th'Raanin
Chief Counselor
Lieutenant Vep Ka of the Empire
Imperial Intelligence Officer
Lieutenant Abigail Halesworth-Fletcher M.D.
Medical Officer
Lieutenant JG Nico Yazawa
Engineering Officer
Tadao Yoshikawa
Civilian Merchant
Hatsune Izumi
Child
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