Trouble on Prom Pt 4

Posted on Tue May 19, 2020 @ 10:44pm by Lieutenant Annora Tessaro & Ensign Relyna Coleman & Civilian 'Key Holder' Dorian Gabriel & Captain Maritza Soran & Commander Amia Telamon M.D. & Lieutenant Yukiko Winters & Lieutenant Alanna Wells & Captain Lazanos Torena & Lieutenant JG Natalie Cross & Civilian 'Key Holder' Yolanthe Ibalin & Ensign Jessica Mayhew & Gunnery Sergeant Terry Henderson & Civilian Hydel Turvan & Civilian Tianys Dalav’ni & Civilian Thereen Tera & Civilian Dorian Torel

3,434 words; about a 17 minute read

Mission: Et In Arcadia Ego
Location: Promenade: Box of Delights
Timeline: Day 2 08:35

Previously in Trouble on Prom

At the local security station, Ensign Jessica Mayhew and her partner Petty Officer Travis Nottingham strapped on their vests and helmets and grabbed up their stun batons and phaser rifles. It wasn’t full riot gear, but that team would be coming. They raced out to the chaos on the Promenade.

At the edge of the crowd, Jessica and Travis each took a knee and lifted their rifles, before Jessica tapped her comm into the public address system.

“Everyone clear the Promenade! If you have a weapon, you will be shot!” she warned.

Travis blasted his phaser on a heavy stun at one of the Cardassians with a disruptor.

And now the continuation

---

Gil Lajel's comm unit chirped loudly as his team made their way down the corridor. "Gul Denat to Gil Lajel. Glinn Rasten and the remainder of the platoon have been delayed by Starfleet's deactivation of the turbolifts," the Cardassian commander reported. "What is your status?" he inquired. The Cardassian Embassy had received the emergency call from Gil Jurati and had dispatched a platoon-size Quick Response Force to retrieve the fellow soldiers.

Gil Lajel and his squad of six had thankfully been away from the Embassy when the lockdown occurred. They were on their way to docking bay to depart for a training exercise when they received the hail from Gil Jurati. The bulk of the platoon had been obstructed due to the deactivation of the turbolifts, leaving Gil Lajel's squad the only unit able to respond that wasn't 60-odd decks away.

Gil Lajel had exited from a service jefferies tube in an adjacent corridor and was waiting for the other six members of his squad to exit beside him. He checked his padd and saw that they were less than a few dozen meters away from the source of the conflict. "Let's move!" he shouted as the group made their way down the corridor.

"Gil Lajel here. We've reached the deck of the Promenade and are en route to Gil Jurati's location. What should our response be if we encounter any resistance?" he asked while in full-sprint.

"You are to use your judgment to carry out the rescue of any Cardassian personnel in danger. Even if that requires the use of force," Gul Meran responded.

Gil Lajel did not need to respond. Just as he had come around the corner he saw the Starfleet Human fire directly into the chest of Gul Jurati, knocking him to the deck. Gil Lajel roared with rage as he and his squad made their way through the thin wave of spectators and confronted the Starfleet Security team that had arrived.

"We're here to retrieve Cardassian citizens in danger. Move or be moved, Starfleet!" Gil Lajel said intently to the lead officer.

Kawalsky and Jackson noticed the Cardassians and moved to intercept. The Cardassians shoved them aside before moving through the crowd. Following them through the crowd, the security officers trained their rifles on the newcomers. Coleman had picked up the discarded stun baton from Jurati. Turning it off, she tossed it aside as more Cardassians pushed their way through the crowd.

For her part, Annora glared at Gil Lajel. "I'm afraid you're out of your jurisdiction. The only authority Cardassian security has on this station is confined to the embassy grounds. The rest of the station is patrolled by those under me, and to a lesser extent the Marines."

Over the crowd she could see the tall frame of Nabeh leading another SRU team to the scene. A few in the back of the crowd decided to heed the various warnings, but several still remained.

"I have over a dozen security guards on site with more on their way. There's plenty of witnesses to the fact that it was the Cardassians that fired first. As for who started the fight, that's a separate concern right now."

Gil Lajel directed his squad members to secure Glinn Suvall, followed by Gils Wutan and Jurati and an enlisted crewman with a severe wound on the back of his head where he was struck by the large object thrown from the crowd. One of the available Cardassians immediately began to provide medical aid to the still unconscious Cardassian.

"I count at least two Cardassians that have been shot at point-blank range by a Starfleet officer!" Gil Lajel said accusatory. "Not to mention another Cardassian non-responsive after being struck in the head by some object thrown by a Human," Gil Lajel continued, speaking much louder over the chaos that surrounded the two individuals and while continuing to look directly into Annora's eyes.

"These are Cardassian Embassy personnel, and more importantly they are Cardassian citizens who have been attacked by the same Human-endorsed terrorists that previously attacked our Embassy," he said. "My orders have been to retrieve our men and extract them before you lose any more control over you--"

Before the Cardassian squad leader could finish his sentence, a Human civilian managed to force his way through the crowd and lunged towards Gil Lajel's back.

"Spoonhead bast--" he began to shout as he had managed to close the distance and was just feet away from driving the sharpened fragment into the Cardassian soldier's back when he was stopped in mid-motion by a gloved hand.

Another Cardassian soldier had just put down his equipment and was assisting in the medical treatment of his fellow soldier when he saw the Human's quick movement. He reacted quickly and grasped the Human's right arm and brought it down on his knee, causing the Human to cry out in pain and drop the jagged shard he had carried. The soldier drove his knee into the Human's stomach while grabbing his hair and slamming him backwards onto the deck, immediately knocking him unconscious.

"Enemy down!" the Cardassian soldier said as he withdrew a set of zip-ties and turned the Human over to properly secure his hands.

Gil Lajel paused for several moments as he watched the attempted ambush take place almost instantaneously. He turned back towards Annora and quickly said, "But please, tell me more about these impartial and unbiased witnesses you have, Human," he said sarcastically as he continued to direct his team to get Suvall, Wutan, and Jurati to their feet.

Silk had to be fairly forceful to try to clear people away while waiting for the security and the marines, but when she saw the Cardassian squad show up, she knew it was all going down the drain. She knew that they probably had their own comms, and while it might not help much she went ahead and put a call from her own comm to the embassy that they could send out.

"This is Lieutenant Winters, the diplomatic officer. If you do not recall or have your personnel stand down, every single one, I will have them declared persona non grata. We have security and marines on the way to quell the crowd. Let us handle this!" she said.

***Cardassian Embassy***

Gul Denat Meran was monitoring the situation from the embassy communications center. From here he could see the situation had gone way beyond the control of Starfleet.

That did not surprise him.

What did surprise him was the piercing call from the supposed diplomatic officer. He was already furious that Starfleet had hindered Cardassia's rescue efforts by deactivating the turbolifts, but to have some feckless paper pusher lodge some threat against the Empire….

"This is Gul Meran of the Cardassian Embassy to Lieutenant Winters. I assume the fact that I'm communicating with a mere lieutenant is an indication of how serious the Federation takes your role on this station," he retorted. "Considering the undiplomatic situation that is unraveling on your Promenade, I suggest you dedicate your energy to confronting the terrorists behind him," he said into the comm unit.

***Promenade***

Annora was reminded of the pitfalls of dealing with foreign embassies, although she was used to being on the other side.

"Gul, if the roles were reversed and we were on Cardassia, I doubt you'd let Starfleet security anywhere near a similar incident, even if our own people were involved. I repeat, you are out of your jurisdiction and are ordered to stand down. Your soldiers were stunned by security for threatening others with a weapon. Others in the crowd have been stunned as well, so you're by no means being singled out in that manner. Once the crowd thins out we'll check the security cams and go from there."

The familiar whine of a transporter beam marked the arrival of more security teams.

"If the roles were reversed, we would have put down this terrorist revolt a long time ago. Instead, your government has proven to either be unable or unwilling to deal with it. Now you have outright riots happening right in your face," Gil Lajel responded.

Glinn Suvall placed his hand on Lajel's shoulder, indicating that he was to stop talking. "You and your men will depart from the scene and get our people the medical aide they need. As the senior officer, I will stay and provide a report to Starfleet's investigators," he said above the cacophony.

"You trust that they will actually investigate the matter appropriately as opposed to finding a scapegoat?" Gil Lajel asked, turning to face his superior.

"Of course not, but that is not a battle worth fighting. You are to get our people back to the embassy and treat their wounds. We'll deal with these terrorists at another time," Glinn Suvall said in a lower tone.

Gil Lajel nodded before turning towards his gathered soldiers. "Squad, fall out. Fall in at medical bay," he said as he holstered his weapon and assisted in helping carry the still unconscious soldier away from the immediate area.

As the Cardassian troops retreated from the area, Glinn Suvall looked around the area and again back to Lt. Annora. "I assume you have a prison cell large enough for all of these belligerents?" he asked.

"I have plenty of room in the brig. Ensure your men don't fill them up."

Annora watched the Cardassians leave. Hopefully that would help calm down the situation.

River and her medical teams had tried to help anyone injured, but the whole scenario was getting out of hand and too dangerous to be working in the middle of, so she told the second wave of four per team to retreat to sickbay and take any patients they were treating with them. She then rounded up the remaining teams of two and stayed with them at a distance to see if they were needed, but out of the range of the shooting.

The Marines had cordoned off the perimeter to keep any more new elements from joining the fray and helping send people out as security moved them from the center of the fracas. Laz passed off the Human he'd arrested to a security officer. He saw Annora meeting with the Cardassian, and somehow managed to prevent another element of shooters from joining in. He tapped his comm badge as he moved towards Annora. "Torena to Marines. Maintain a perimeter, assist station security. Do not fire unless fired upon." The last thing they needed was more phaser fire. He got the feeling the Cardassians would respond in force at any second.

As he was heading out of the center, he spotted another Human retreating away from the Cardassians, and a glint of metal in his right hand. He spotted Laz almost as soon as Laz saw the small knife he was carrying, apparently having lost his nerve after his compatriot went down to the Cardassians. The Human turned to go, but the crush of people slowed him down and Laz was on him quickly. He spun, stabbing at Laz's stomach, but the Marine intercepted the cut, blocking his forearm with his own, grabbing his wrist with his free hand, and twisting. The man cried out as Laz easily stripped the knife from his fingers. "If you're gonna carry one of these things, at least learn how to use it," Laz said, holding the Human's wrist behind his back to march him to another security officer.

Kriss could feel the blood trickling down his nose as his face roughly made contact with the surface of the deck. He used his free arm to struggle with the Marine in hopes of getting the man off of him.

"GET OFF ME! I'M A HUMAN JUST LIKE YOU! GO AFTER THOSE RIDGE-NECK BASTARDS!" Kriss shouted, blood beginning to pool around his face.

Ryceejo didn't have a lot of information when she beamed onto the Promenade with the rest of her security team. By all accounts it was a fluid and potentially dangerous situation. It didn't take long to identify Ensign Mayhew as the ranking member behind the crowd. "Ensign, what's your take on the situation?"

Silk breathed a sigh of relief as the Cardassians finally decided that it was more prudent to retreat then confront. She doubted anything she said had any real effect on them. It was pretty obvious that they were outnumbered, and with station security and marine forces arriving it was like Tongo, better to evade than confront. At this point, she decided her best course was to keep an eye on things and let security and marines do what they needed to do. She wished she could scan the crowd better, but as it was the constant pressure was like someone had put a weight on her head.

“It’s a shit show,” Jessica told Ryceejo. “Why the Cardies were armed on the Prom, I have no idea. Start moving people beyond the perimeter. Confiscate any weapons you find. Don’t move alone. Stay with us.”

"Will do, Ensign. Thanks for the info. I'll pass it along."

She turned to the senior members of her team to give orders. "Our orders are to move people beyond the perimeter. No less than teams of two. We have authorization to confiscate weapons."

"That I will do," Silk nodded. This was out of her hands for the moment. "I will have a little sit down with the Cardassians later though and anything I find out I will pass on."

Terry did an emergency medical transport on the man he was going to work on before the chaos further erupted. He was sure there were more wounded, but with the fighting going on, he couldn't get a good bead on any. He hoped the security call for people to disperse worked, or things would get much worse. It was not a good way to end a day.

Bastille dropped to the ground and made her way around the legs and feet of the angry crowd. She heard the shouts and felt the rising anger, but she had no real way of getting out of harm's way, especially with the fighting.

Someone grabbed her arm and hauled her to her feet. "Get up. You will be trampled if you stay there."

Bastille looked into the face of a Romulan woman. "I thought it was safer than being shot, she said, dusting off her knees.

The woman shook her head. "You own the book shop, yes? The Evil Librarian?"

Bastille was surprised the woman knew who she was. "Y...yes. I don't recognize you, though." She would definitely remember a Romulan in her book shop.

"I have only passed by until today. I came to purchase a book and found...this. Come, I will help."

The Romulan began to push her way through the crowd, nudging people out of the way when necessary. A Human male swung at her, but she let go of Bastille to punch the man in the face and move on. Slowly the two made their way to the shop. "We will be safer inside," the Romulan said.

Bastille quickly opened her shop. Once they were both inside, she shut the door and locked it. "Thank you."

"Thank you. I do not think it is safe out there for any non-Human."

"Or anyone, for that matter," Bastille said, instinctively checking to make sure everything was okay. "Well, since we're here, what can I help you with?"

"I'm looking for an old book in Romulan."

"Ah. Back here." Bastille led the other woman into a back room where she kept the old books. It also got them both away from the noise outside.

Tai saw the carnage that was unfolding and realized that more and more gold tunic security officers would be flooding the Promenade as the clock ticked. He saw the Cardassians had retreated from the scene and that the remaining crowd goers were simply reacting to Starfleet's attempt to quell the crowd. He decided that this was his best chance to exit the area as well. There would be hell to pay for this, he and his group would see to it. But for the time being, he knew that the Raddon Corporation would not appreciate the negative publicity if any of their employees were seen as instigators of the chaos now unfolding.

River's remaining pairs of medics had treated anyone brought or coming their way, two had returned to sickbay with one badly injured Vulcan woman and River had communicated with Amia that they should stay in Sickbay as what little help they had been able to give was whittling down now as the crowds began to disperse.

“Good work holding your ground there, Commander, Amia replied, and added, “I'll leave it to you to decide when to extract yourself and the last pair.”

“Aye, ma'am. I can't see it being long. I'm sure we'd be of more use in Sickbay now that it seems to be calming down, but we'll give it just a quick assessment and then decide. Morgan out,” River said.

Her idea of an assessment was very limited, she knew, as everyone who wasn't fighting was behind the security perimeter now and she and her last two medics did a sweep, careful not to get in the way of any security actions that were still happening. They only found a few minor injuries, but those kept them busy for a while longer, and their small group of teal uniforms gave anyone who needed them an idea where to find them.

***

Tera and her rescuer were grabbed out of the crowd by Petty Officer Nottingham. “This way,” the large Human told the Bajoran shopkeeper. “You two okay?” he asked.

“Yes, thank you. Just shaken up,” Tera responded. She caught a whiff of a strong floral scent and turned to see Tianys Dalav’ni approaching. The Rowa’ni eyed the riot critically. “Come. Let’s get you out of here,” the arousing alien told them.

With the situation finally calming down, it was time to start dealing with the aftermath.
"Captain Torena, would you mind escorting our guests back to the Embassy? At the least they'll need someone with command codes to operate the turbolift, plus it helps ensure others don't try to get back at the Cardassians on their way out."

"It'd be my pleasure," Laz replied, tapping his comm badge to relay orders to the Marines. They sure knew how to throw a welcoming party around here, he thought, as he and his Marines formed up to show the Cardassian back to their Embassy.

Annora then turned to other involved parties "Lieutenant Winters, once things calm down I will get in touch with you to get your take on everything. Miss Ibalin. We're going to need a statement. You can give it to Petty Officer Kawalsky. She can talk to you at the security offices or inside the Box of Delights. Your choice."

The last major person to deal with the Cardassian officer. "Glinn Suvall. Ensign Coleman will take your statement. Once that's done, you're free to leave. I'll make sure to forward a copy of my report to you when it's ready."


With that taken care of, Annora moved to help the other security staff disperse the remaining crowd.

====


Bastille Lagrange
Owner
The Evil Librarian Bookshop

Romulan Embassy Worker
NPC Miral Annhwi

Yolanthe Ibalin
Owner
The Box of Delights

Shri'vara Troops
Cardassian Empire
NPC Thom

Ens. Jessica Mayew
Security Officer

Thereen Tera
Owner
Ten Thousand Villages Bajoran gift shop

Tianys Dalav’ni
Owner
The Lotus Lounge

Lt. Yukiko "Silk" Winters
Chief Diplomatic Officer

Cpt. Lazanos Torena
Commanding Officer
21st Marine Expeditionary Unit

Dorian Torel
Bodyguard for Geral Lasuma

Gunnery Sergeant Terry Henderson
Combat Medic
21st Marine Expeditionary Unit

LtCdr.. River Morgan
Acting Assistant Chief Medical Officer

 

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