Bringing trouble onboard, Part VIII - Return

Posted on Thu Jul 9, 2015 @ 4:38am by Captain Isha t'Vaurek & Lieutenant Saria Rex & Captain Tam "Demon" Haican & Lieutenant Si'Lar Trellis
Edited on on Fri Jul 10, 2015 @ 6:39pm

1,223 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Eye of the Beholder
Location: Starbase 185 & Newgate Prison
Timeline: MD 4

===Surface Landing Pad===

As Tam was finishing his preflight checklist, he suddenly felt as if someone shoved an iron spike into his brain. He collapsed to his knees as he gripped the sides of his head and grunted in agony. A few of his pilots saw him fall and rushed to his side.

"Captain!" A female Angosian who went by the callsign of Rockstarr reached the Betazoid first. "Are you alright?"

Tam slowed his breathing as he fought to control his abilities. Slowly, the spike felt more like a needle. Slowly standing up, he had a haunted look in his eyes. “Sebina..." His voice was barely above a whisper. "Sebina's in danger!" His voice grew on volume and strength as he spoke. "Demitra, I don't know how, but I know that my daughter is in grave danger! You take over here, I'm hauling ass back to the station!" He turned and started climbing into his Raptor.

"Boss?" the Angosian asked, slightly incredulously. "Are you sure about that?"

At that moment, an automated distress call could be heard over Tam's Raptor's comm system. It was a simple computer generated message, stating that the station was experiencing a traumatic level event and any available ships should proceed for its coordinates immediately.

Tam looked down at his pilots. "Guess I'm sure. I've got the fastest ship here. You all remain and protect the transport, no matter what else happens, that's an order. Understood?"

Each of the assembled pilots nodded acknowledgement of his order.

Once Tam finished powering up his fighter, he sealed the canopy and, after receiving permission to do so from the tower, lifted off of the pad. Pushing the throttle forward, he quickly got up to full atmospheric speed. He pulled back on the stick and the nimble fighter shot straight up to orbit, then outer space.

Once he was clear of the planet's gravity well, Tam activated his warp engines, pushing them to their red line limit. At the maximum emergency speed of warp 6.6, he'd only be able to go for nine hours before he'd have to shut down to allow the engines to cool off. Fortunately, at that speed, the trip would only take him eight hours and fifty-three minutes.

Before he jumped to warp, Tam tried to send a message to Sebina telepathically. He had never sent one so far, so he doubted it would work. However, it would make him feel better.

Sebina, my precious baby girl, hang on! Daddy's coming, sweetheart!


[Hunley - Kingfisher Three]

The aquatic shuttle with the escort team and Sterling on board surfaced and moved back to the ramp.

Landing next to the Marine transport the hatch opened and Sterling was hustled across and into the larger craft and strapped in again in under a minute.

"Let's get moving. The sooner we're in space and on the way back the better," Axsdahl called forward to the flight crew.

"We'll be in the air in three," the pilot replied. "We lost our escort lead though. Captain Haican took off alone ten minutes ago. Said he had to get back to Five ASAP!"

"He did what!" Axsdahl asked. "What the hell for?"

"I dunno. Couple of the pilots said he had some premonition about his kid being in danger. Alright, strap in, we're leaving!"

Goose Four-Two lifted off and with the remaining Hunley escort climbed rapidly through the atmosphere, breaking orbit the convoy went to warp.

Axsdahl had a bad feeling. A Marine pilot abandoning his command was not good. Undoubtedly the man would end up facing disciplinary charges. Of greater concern was that Haican was flying a powerful fighter and knew all about the mission and their secret passenger. Had Haican been turned by somebody who wanted to get Sterling out of prison?


[Marine Transport Goose Four-Two]

Once the craft was at warp Axsdalh got Sterling out of her seat.

"Alright, listen to me," he told her. "This is the way it goes. The leg shackles stay on. I'm going to move your hands to the front so you're move comfortable, but they stay cuffed. When it's time to eat or use the bathroom I'll free one hand. There will be at least two of us with you at all times, and yes, that includes the bathroom." He nodded at Rice. "So you, the corporal here, and one of her female buddies are going to get very well acquainted."

Emily smiled. “Hi,” she greeted, offering her hand. “Emily. Oh, right,” she giggled when Sterling couldn’t shake her hand. “Gum?” she offered.

Before the prisoner could respond, Axsdahl interrupted, "Screw around just once, Sterling, and your hands will be behind your back again and you'll spend the rest of the flight face down on the deck with my boot on your neck! Understood?" he asked rhetorically.

Once they were well underway Axsdahl went forward to speak with the flight crew. "What's the fastest we can go?" he asked.

"We're doing three point three now. We can make warp five point five all day, but the Hunleys can't do much over three point five. Why?"

"Push it to three point five and find me an alternate route back to Deep Space Five," Axsdahl replied.

"Why?" the pilot asked again. He was happy to work with other agencies, but this Marshal wasn't his commander. "We have a set flight plan."

"Because out there is a fighter pilot who abandoned his post, took off alone without clearance, and who knows all about who we're carrying and where we're going!" Axsdahl said levelly. "Our prisoner's former commander is free, dangerous, highly resourceful, and undoubtedly still has people in Starfleet who would help her bust Sterling loose!"

"You think Captain Hacian would help Anaia Rex?" the pilot asked. "That's nuts!"

"Yep, it may be," Axsdahl agreed. "But his actions don't make sense and you want to risk getting ambushed by him if he has defected?"

"Well, let's ask him!" the pilot replied. "I can probably contact him. He's only ten or fifteen minutes ahead of us." He reached for his communications panel.

"Don't do that," Axsdahl cautioned. "We're on comms blackout and if Haican is dirty why tip him off?"

The pilot exchanged a look with his copilot. "Wouldn’t hurt to change the course some," the copilot suggested.

The pilot bit his lip as he thought it through. Haican bolting like that was very odd. Maybe the guy did have some kind of telepathic premonition...but maybe he didn’t...

He glanced down at his navigation panel and then came to a decision.

"Alright, I think you're wrong about the captain, but we'll speed up and change course. That's a fair precaution. Will add a couple of extra hours to the trip though."

"That's okay. Getting there with Sterling is more important than speed right now. Thank you," Axsdahl replied.

The pilot nodded, signaled the Hunley, and made the course corrections.

Axsdahl went back to the passenger compartment

"How we all doing?" he asked.

“Peachy, though the in-flight movie sucks,” Emily said.








Captain Tam "Demon" Haican
Bravo Assault Wing Commander

Lance Corporal Emily Rice
Marine
NPC Caleb Ryan

Inmate Victoria Sterling
Former Starfleet Commander
NPC Saria Rex

 

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