Too Close for Comfort Part Three

Posted on Mon 21st Aug, 2023 @ 10:59pm by Commander Zed & Commander T'Venderath & Elizabeth Anderson M.D. & Criswell Sandbags

1,643 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Neither Yours Nor Mine
Location: USS Thunderchild/ USS Comfort somewhere near the Abrades System
Timeline: MD15 1148 hours

{Turbo Lift One, Bridge USS Comfort}

"How long?" Michaels asked.

"About 30 seconds, sir." The man said as he continued to switch around isoliniar chips and electrical cables.

Michaels pointed his pulse rifle forward as did his team, "Stun only, we have people here too." Everyone checked the rifles and made sure that they were on stun.

{Secondary Command Center- Comfort}

Captain Gladstone took his victories where he could get them. The bastard on the bridge had a photon grenade, but without comms relaying it to security teams, the message was impossible. So Chin-Ro devised a confinement field that would save the majority of the crew and direct the blast toward the unoccupied forward quarter of the bridge.

"Sir, more attempts to beam off."

"Did Infirmary Four get our message in time?"

"Yessir, security packaging is being used."

Gladstone smiled, "Let 'em have it, let 'em go. Keep these guys on the bridge. Thunderchild can handle them from here.

"Thunderchild is still trying to hail, I can't send a counter reply in this interference. I'm sorry sir."

"We are in their hands now, and I doubt I could do any better.. Continue assisting the security team at the turbolift."

The captain opened the comms array, "Oh dear god, Chin-ro you're a saint for trying."

On the bridge, Dr. Jenna Kohl was stunned and dropped to her knees before slumping over. Their Conn officer had thankfully not been killed but now there were two injured, and Gladstone could only watch. The next in line was Ytonn, a young Vulcan who had nothing but good to offer. Emmanuel found himself gritting teeth at the sight, but suddenly the gunman seemed to move to Pallatso, and Gladstone presumed the brusque Starfleet Officer had drawn attention to protect the medical staff.

"Chin-Ro, hurry, they're taking hostages!"

Chin-Ro didn't reply to that but rather said, "Captain I cleared the impediment for the security team, they still need to part the lock. They should breach any second."

Gladstone waited to deploy the containment field, if it was activated too soon they'd short out the field emitters.

"They got it!"

He hit the button just as the screen went white.

-----------------
SWIFT DEMON
-----------------

Stuelpe was tired of waiting. Cursing under his breath, he stormed out of the bridge and turned the corner into the transport room. Their Chief Engineer was furiously manipulating the controls.

"Please tell me our transporter is working." Stuelpe's booming voice startled the Chief Engineer, who was furiously manipulating the transporter controls.

"I'm doing everything I can..." The Engineer's voice was quickly halted by the whining noise of the transporter.

J'Noor and the others who had been on the retrieval team suddenly materialized in columns of orange light. Behind them on the transporter pad were the goods. He stepped down with a satisfied grin. "Let's move out. Quickly."

Glad to be relieved from the command chair, Stuelpe gave his quick report. "I would love to, Big Brother, but we're still waiting on the bridge team."

J'Noor's grin disappeared. "They're not back?! Why?!"

"Something's wrong with the inhibitor," the Engineer said. "We've been trying to bypass it for some time. I believe Starfleet may be jamming it."

J'Noor muttered a curse and stood next to the Engineer. "Narrow up the annular confinement beam!"

"I've been trying to do that, but the pattern buffer can only get a partial lock," the Engineer replied. "I could probably transport one of our crew now, but it would take too much time to adjust the confinement again before the other ship arrives. The others would have to stay behind..."

J'Noor clenched his jaw, then exhaled sharply. "Grab one, and let's go." He turned away and headed forward to his bridge.

----------------
USS COMFORT
----------------

The four brothers who comprised the bridge team stood near the helm console with their backs to each other. They pointed their disruptors towards every conceivable avenue of approach.

Sutall, that was the name of the leader, put his communicator down. It was no good to him now. Slowly, he pulled a photon grenade out of his pocket. He genuinely hoped it would not come to that. This was a small bridge, and a grenade in such a confined space would cause unimaginable carnage.

He glanced down at two of the ship's bridge crew who lay stunned and unconscious on the deck. They might make good shields, no? He shook off the thought just as quickly. No, there was no time.


{USS Thunderchild}

"Report!" Zed ordered.

"Captain, there is another ship in close proximity to Comfort. It's a Pirate ship, Orion Interceptor."

"Why didn't we pick it up until just now?" Zed asked.

"Probably the proximity to Comfort."

"Has she replied to our hails? Zed asked. Not really wanting to shoot at one of their own.

"Negative Captain." Ops paused before replying, "Coming into weapons range."

"Target the port nacelle of Comfort and fire," She ordered. The primary goal was to recover Comfort not take out the pirates, unless she had to.

A bright shimmering beam of red energy streaked out from one of the forward phaser arrays and hit the intended target. The Comfort shuddered as the energy output of the port nacelle dropped to zero. Unable to sustain a stable warp field, the hospital ship dropped out of warp.

Dr. Anderson closed her eyes, to shield herself from any explosive brightness, just in time to miss the explosion and Comfort's reaction to it. When she opened them again, her view was completely different, and her fingers, clutching the arm of the chair where she sat, relaxed.

{TurboLift One, Bridge, USS Comfort}

The Comfort shuddered causing Michaels to grab the wall with his free hand. The door to the turbo lift hissed open, and his keen senses caused the hair on the back of his neck to stand up. "Omega One!" He called out. Omega One was one of several Go-Codes that Michaels used to have one or more members of his team perform a certain action immediately. In this case, Ensign Peterson threw a concussion device into the room, followed by Ensign Drake's device of the same. Everyone hugged the walls as they braced for the devices to go off. Two loud, bright flashes erupted disorienting anyone who was conscious in the room.

A phaser had pointed toward Ytonn during this moment prior to their rescuer's assault, and they all felt a jolt of panic for it. Ytonn was pure medicine and an asset to the Federation, these scum had no business threatening one so valuable to the mission of the Federation. Sutall had taken to threats, but Pallatso knew the Captain and Security were still at work, and kept the phaser on him by running his mouth. "Hard to say if you're more scared of me, the ship incoming or those men forcing the door open." The phaser swung his way, and he added, "Or what I might do-"

The attention had been drawn from the door and it opened suddenly. Then everything went white with sound and fury. Pallatso had been stunned before, had taken massive jolts, and fallen from great heights. Blinded, and deafened, it was still a simple matter to reach out where Sutall had been and grab the grenade in his hand. Once Pallatso had a hand on the man, proprioceptive skill guided precise kicks and punches. Somehow it detonated, but the concussion was mild at best. The explosion did knock the wind out of him, as well as his attacker. Two crossing beams from security impacted the pirate as well, shorting out the personal shield. Sutall had exhausted all of his extra lives but managed to wrest out of Pallatso's grasp by firing his phaser blindly into the engineer's right arm.

As the firefight took place, Commander Abalasz had been fortunate enough to see the doors open and closed her eyes, though deafened she was witness to Kolli their conn officer, and Jenna being transported with the bridge site-to-site beams, along with his counterparts. Having retaken the bridge, Abalasz ran to her command suite panel, stabbing her auth codes in. She began shouting to the men on the bridge, "Site to Site, they are in shuttle bay 1!"

Captain Gladstone emerged onto the bridge from the ready room, phaser in hand, Chin-ro coming after to stand at his side. He surveyed the ruined view screen in a controlled fury, before turning to the senior staff. "Damage reports, casualties, inventory. All at the same time. Chin-Ro, as we discussed."

He looked to Michaels, "Good work, we are securing our system on my private ciphers, I suspect an inside job here. Chin-Ro will handle the cleanup, is Thunderchild in pursuit?"

A dirty and slightly bloody Ensign jumped into the seat at Ops. After a few inputs into his console, he replied, "Thunderchild has dropped out of warp and is circling back towards us. Shall I hail them?" The Ensign knew as well as the Captain that if they didn't respond that teams of Security Officers would be beaming over to scour the ship for pirates. They would not be delicate about it if they were not contacted beforehand and apprised of the situation.

-----------------
SWIFT DEMON
-----------------

J'Noor and two brothers leaned over the tactical plot together. Sensors showed the Federation ship was not pursuing. Good. While their ship was well armed, going toe to toe with Starfleet was not something he cared to do right now. And those left behind? J'Noor hated that he had done that. There had been no other choice. It was a steep price to pay for what they had acquired. With a resigned sigh he moved away from the plot.

"Engage cloak," J'Noor ordered. "Best speed to the rendezvous point."

The interceptor even at high warp began to shimmer and then disappeared as if fading into nothingness.

 

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