United and Conquer
Posted on Tue Aug 11th, 2026 @ 3:36am by Ensign Henry Taylor & Tessa di'Orion
1,889 words; about a 9 minute read
Mission:
Die Hard: Chimera Edition (main)
Location: Environmental Control/Deck 2
The trip to deck nine down the turbolift shaft had been blissfully uneventful, although Tessa had chided Henry for going first. He assured her it was not in any way him trying to be overprotective, then grinned when she finally realized he was sneaking glances at her legs and chided him for that.
They stepped off the ladder onto deck nine and ran down the corridor to environmental control. Henry entered his authorization code and they stepped inside. "All right," he said, grinning maniacally. "Let's do some damage." He started typing quickly, scrolling through medical supplies, industrial cleansers and aromatherapy scents. He wished Brad was there, as a chemist would know something truly noxious to put together, but being in the medical field, he often knew what not to combine, and that would be good enough.
"All right, Angel," Henry said, "are you aware of the idiom 'fish in a barrel'?"
"I know what fish in a barrel are." Tessa said, with a look of confusion, "But why would we keep them in a barrel? And if they're still on the ship, wouldn't they get eaten by the Baryon sweep?"
"Idiom, sweetheart. Not literal," Henry corrected. "Basically, you get to go hunt, but I'm going to have them all nice and contained and debilitated for you," he said. He put the finishing touches on his handiwork and then pulled his phaser out of his holster. "Take this, just in case. I'm going to give you ten minutes to get down to turbolift shaft B, take the lift to Deck 2, then get back to the doors for turbolift A. They'll come pouring out of the 'lift only a few minutes after that, so don't slow down."
Tessa looked at the phaser, "Won't you need this? Lord Valleroy has had me practice, but I'm not good with them yet." She offered it back to him, "I can be there fast enough and unless there's a lot of them, I've got enough arrows."
"That's the thing, we don't know how many there are," he said. "And I can grab another one. I'm not doing to dictate, but I want you to have the best tactical advantage and the most options, okay?"
She gave a look of annoyance, but tucked the phaser in her waistband anyways, "I understand. I'll try it, Henry, I promise. Now..." She reached up and dragged his face down for a kiss, "You be careful, understand?"
He kissed her hard and smiled. "Always. I'll meet you by the turbolift shortly after. Happy Hunting, and you stay safe too. I still need to marry you, you know." He grinned at her.
"Now's not the time to be joking about the future." Tessa admonished him, "Now I get to have some fun! And yes, I'll stay safe, ten minutes, start now." She smiled brightly. "And thank you. Now I can feel like I'm actually useful!" She pressed her lips to his once more very briefly, then turned and ran off.
Henry watched the timer on the computer screen. The bridge had an independent air supply, as did Sickbay, to help isolate it in case of attack or quarantine. His putting a quarantine lockout on the turbolifts and emergency exits had contained the people up there, but he had no doubt they'd be trying to get out. His only regret was that he couldn't see the bridge to know when they'd make a run for the turbolift, ergo his having to give Tessa a head start.
After seven minutes had passed, he initiated the additions to the air supply and entered his authorization code to drop the quarantine on the bridge, but activated quarantine in turbolift shaft A. That would funnel them right to their doom.
Trying not to imagine what they were about to go through, he ran out of the room and down the corridor to get another phaser.
Tarin was pacing the bridge like a caged animal. The second prong of a three-pronged attack, "Agent Beta" was a dulled prong if he couldn't get off the damn bridge. They weren't locked out of ship's systems, exactly, but somehow were under a medical quarantine, which kept them from getting off the bridge by the elevators. A few had posited trying to access the transporter systems, but no one was brave enough to risk beaming into a bulkhead, and the computer wasn't any help, reminding them they were under medical quarantine.
He was tired, hungry, his head hurt, and despite its size, the bridge was feeling more and more oppressive by the minute. He'd spent the better part of an hour in the turbolift, first unconscious, then banging on the doors demanding to be let out until they'd managed to force them open.
And while he was pleased to see that the six others on the bridge meant they still had two men on the ship to handle the jackass who got the jump on him, it also meant that if the bomb they placed went off, it would take them with it. A hefty price, but they'd all signed on to this knowing this could happen. To save Orgrann, any price was worth it, even their lives.
He tried sitting down in the captain's chair again and was about to bark orders for another update on getting out of there, but he was interrupted by a sneeze. Not his own, but from one of his brothers at the rear of the bridge. He looked over, surprised something like dust would appear on such a clean ship, then felt his own nose twinge. Something was in the air. He assumed that someone was feeling unwell, and wasn't going to bring it up, but the stench was starting to grow. "I'm not going to ask who did it, but some consideration could have been shown for..." he paused as his stomach lurched and his nasal passages began to burn. "They're poisoning us!" he shouted, shocked. The Federation was supposed to be the White Knights of the quadrant. Outright murder wasn't in his mission briefing.
Others were being affected as well, two already green and looking like they were going to vomit. One began clawing at his eyes and Tarin realized everything was getting hazy as his own eyes began to tear up. The turbolift he'd rendered useless sat mocking him now, but he stood and defiantly made his way to the other exit, intending to rip the doors open himself if he had to.
To his shock, the doors opened. He sensed a trick, but he had no alternatives as others started gagging and, seeing an exit, rushed against him and shoved into the lift car, begging it to take them anywhere off the bridge.
Eight minutes later, Tessa was in position in a place that overlooked the turbolift door exit door on Deck 2 and laid down the bow and arrows. Withdrawing the phaser from her belt, she went over the sequence of buttons that Lord Valleroy had instilled in her on range safety, taking that particular protocol offline before setting the power level to a heavy stun. She knew that Henry would prefer she use it, so it would be her weapon of first resort. "Okay, sweetheart, time for you to do your thing," she whispered to herself.
Almost thirty seconds later, the turbolift doors opened and over a half dozen people spilled out. Two vomited immediately, another two stumbled forward, taking large gulps of air. The one at the back of the lift was stuck behind them, but had the sense to shout, "watch out for Starfleeters!" as his people stumbled along.
Tessa triggered the phaser and hit the outside of turbolift wall before shooting again, this time hitting the inside of the turbolift before dropping the device with a curse. "Fuck it, I'm doing this the right way." She picked up the bow with one hand before reaching for the first arrow, still barely seen around the corner and not by the ones puking their guts up, letting it loose where it hit one of the ones gasping for air, the stun setting on the arrow causing him to convulse and collapse from the overload to his nervous system. Another arrow was nocked before he hit the ground and flying, hitting one of the pukers and dropping him.
Now she stepped out into the corridor, another arrow flying, the second gasper out. The one in the turbolift who had the presence of mind to try and warn the others frantically grabbed for his weapon as the glowing female loosed another arrow into the turbolift and hit the man next to him. She stopped as she reached for one more arrow, but found her quiver empty. "Urd's TITS!" she shouted in frustration as the man took aim and she prepared to dive to the side.
A phaser blast sailed past her and hit the man square in the chest, knocking him into the back wall of the lift before he rebounded and fell forward onto the deck unconscious.
Tessa finally made the dive and grabbed the phaser Henry had given her and come up with it held in both hands before seeing who had fired that last shot.
Henry stood in the center of the corridor, posture straight, arm extended and line of sight unwavering as he held the phaser he'd just fired. "Hey, Angel," he said, smiling when he saw her.
Her eyes brightened as she saw him, walking towards the group with the phaser held out in front of her and pointed towards the ones on the ground, seeing one still moving and approached him until she was basically right on top of him before firing a shot into him from point blank range. This time she hit and she looked pleased with herself, "Well, this was fun, up until I ran out of arrows!"
"The downside of practical projectiles," Henry said. "C'mon, help me drag." He grabbed the arm of the final man who was keeping the lift doors opened.
She grabbed the arm and began to tug with him, "That just means I need to bring more arrows next time." She grinned at him.
They heaved and pulled him out of the turbolift, then the other unconscious intruder and dumped them in a pile on their cohorts before stepping into the turbolift. "Bridge," he said. "I turned the air recyclers to maximum, so it should be clear when we get there."
As he finished the statement, the doors opened and an empty bridge greeted them. They stepped out, phasers at the ready and looked around. "All right," he said, "we need to get things activated and then see about getting communications up and running." He said it like he had any idea of what he was doing. Thankfully, he had an ace up his sleeve. He took a seat in the Captain's chair and put his hand on the sensor pad of the arm. "Computer, recognize Henry Taylor, authorization code Taylor-Gamme-Blue-Seven."
"Identity verified," the computer said.
"Activate viewscreen," he said. He didn't really think it would work, but hoped as a lower priority request, the computer would grant it.
He was in luck and the viewscreen activated, just in time to see something explode next to the ship.
"Uh oh," Henry said.
RSS Feed