The Knight's End's pt. 2: Before The Dawn

Posted on Fri Nov 1st, 2024 @ 6:01am by Captain Aisling Banerjee & Commander Maxwell Fitzroy & Lieutenant Commander Subak Ren & Lieutenant T’Ux

1,953 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Crew Shakedown
Location: Wales, Earth
Timeline: tbd

OOC: I figured you guys should take up right where the last post left off. Let me know if you need a nudge in the right direction.

Right off, T'Ux went onto defensive mode, his fur rising as he let out a hiss as he glanced around looking for where he could hide Jones and yet unnamed Publican. If there was a hiding spot away from the doorway, he'd pull them towards there, leaving Subak and Fitzroy to handle whatever came down. Hell he could fight, but his priority were the civilians. That would free the other two to think of what was going on.

Fitzroy wakes a stand front and center near the doorway. He takes a look at Subak, readying himself for action.

Ren's phaser pistol was out even before he saw the flash of phaser fire. Where had he been stowing it? Trade secret.

"Get down!" the Bajoran-Vulcan says, eyes narrowing as he looks up the stairs. Presumably, the doctor would be attending to the publican who'd made a hasty descent of the stairs, so he was really talking to the others. Going back into his old patterns from when he worked Security. Hearing that there is a phaser rifle stowed under the console, Ren goes to look, though he keeps his eyes focused on the stairway. If he can grab the rifle, that'd be a bit more power, and he can toss his smaller phaser to Fitzroy. "Keep a wide angle from me," he says in a low voice, not wanting to be overheard from above. No use having two targets near each other, and they can cover each other better that way without the risk of cross-fire.

Ren did not see anything, but he heard movement. There were at least three people up there, moving quietly, professionally. The fact that he could hear their motion but not voices indicated they were likely using hand gestures rather than verbal cues.

Jones glanced at the three Starfleet officers and the publican's prone form. Quietly he murmured, "Ah, gentlemen..."

He spared the transporter in the corner a nod...

T'Ux glanced at the transported and nodded his head, scooting over to the transporter as he tried to remember what was covered from his training. Just to set the coordinates to somewhere familiar. In the meantime while looking, he'd activate the comm badge. "This is Doctor T'Ux of Kepler, currently in the Knight's End pub. We're under fire and require assistance. Is there anyone out there?" he asked calmly hoping for a response from Starfleet.

Fitzroy provides return cover fire. "You know" Fitzroy says "I could really do without internal federation conspiracies." I look at T'Ux . "Try activating the remote transport to the shuttle. Ren and I will keep you guys covered."

"You in the cellar!" A voice called down, "We know there are five of you down there. If you are armed it would be in your best interest to throw up your weapons well over the bar. We would hate to do something unfortunate to you. We have...questions. Such as whom the fifth person in your party is and why he seems so important."

Jones reached the publican and gingerly drew the man's good arm over his shoulders, half carrying him towards the transporter pad...

T'Ux was honestly, not the best at operating the transporter. But he knew enough about pre-programmed things... but that didn't help either. No response from anyone on the comm channel. "I have no idea how to work it," he said finally at a quick glance at it. "I'd appreciate some instructions."

"No shame in that," Jones whispered harshly as he lay the publican on the pad, his tone caused by the burden. He rubbed his shoulder and gingerly rolled it as he glanced at Fitzroy and Subak to see what they wanted to do. He spoke quietly, "It will be a tight fit but I do not think we will get two tries..."

Fitzroy looks at Subak " I'll do cover fire. to the last possible second." He holds his phaser at the ready " Subak you set up the transport then jump on."

Ren prefers to wait to fire until he can see his target. He keeps the phaser rifle pointed toward the stairs. It sounds like there are at least three people up there, and if all of them are armed it means they're outgunned. "On it," he says, when Fitzroy tells him to work the transporter. He works the control panel while ducked down, keeping one eye half turned toward the stairs. Ren dislikes having his back to danger, but the sooner they're out of there, the better. The transporter powers up and begins to whir as Subak punches in the proper coordinates. "Let's hurry."

Fitzroy saw a face, fired, the face ducked back. The transporter hummed, Subak and T'Ux's sensitive ears heard a male say, "That can't be! Why-Stop them!"

Subak saw a face peer down as Fitzroy made it to the transporter pad, everyone tucked in tight. As he dove to take his place, as the automated system kicked in, he realized something:

The face he saw at the top of the steep stairs was Fitzroy's! And then a sonic grenade bounced down, the transporter kicked in-

And everything went black...

Dr. T'Ux awoke to bright lights and an annoying buzzing in his ears. Someone was helping him to sit up. Sickbay. He was in Kepler's Sickbay.

And Elle, her hair in a bun, wearing medical blue, was standing in front of him. And he realized he could not hear a thing.

Elle placed a tricorder in his hand, then pointed to the adjoining bed where Subak lay unconscious. Then she move on to the bed where the publican lay. She passed Jones, who gave her a tired smile as S'Lace ran a tricorder across his head. Elle smiled back, their hands touched briefly before she turned her attention to the publican.

The Caitian was trying to get his bearings. His ears twitched at the buzzing sound as he studied Elle and the tricorder. The primal part of him started panicking, but he took a deep breath, quelling it as his training kicked in. A nod was given as she directed him over to Subak, although she would see him stand up unsteadily... and take cautious steps over to the Ops chief.

With his hearing temporarily off, his sense of balance was affected, but he'd make his way across the short distance to scan Subak before he started treating the man as he suspected a possible concussion. The feline fell back upon routine, taking a hypospray to stimulate the LC's mind and guide it along the healing process while he waited for his own symptoms to subside. Subak should awaken soon, though he glanced over to the publican and Jones, glad they were alive.

A curious eyebrow was raised when he caught sight of the brief smile and touch, curious, though he would take his own tricorder, while waiting for Subak, and turn on... closed captions along with the open microphone. The only hint that he was actually a lot more agitated than he let on was the flicking of his tail.

"Take it easy, Commander," the young nurse said as she swept a tricorder over Fitzroy's body, "The ringing should go away soon. It was not nearly as bad on you and the other humans, but Dr. T'Ux is temporarily deaf and Commander Ren is still unconscious."

"Well" Fitzroy laughs "It wouldn't be the first time I've gotten hit with that sort of Grenade."

"What happened?" T'Ux asked, although his voice was kind of soft cause he was trying to modulate it unsuccessfully.

S'Lace stepped into T'Ux's field of vision as Subak achieved consciousness. The nurse gently stuck something in the Caitian's ear and sound suddenly returned to it.

"The five of you materialized in transporter room one," the head nurse explained, "All of you were in difference stages of unconsciousness but you and Commander Ren had borne the brunt of what we assumed was a sonic grenade. Ensign Ferrari took us to yellow alert."

She glanced at Fitzroy, "Captain Banerjee left the ship to deal with an incident at the storage facility lieutenants Lirien and Yara were visiting. Apparently there was some sort of..."

"Heist!" Elle called out from across the room as she mended the publican's arm.

S'Lace closed her eyes a moment, seemed to draw strength from some inner reservoir of, then opened them again, "We have not been able to contact the captain but much of the facility is under ground and normally under communications black out; we will not be able to contact her until she reaches the surface."

" Well we have problems. Do we have an update on the other mission?" Fitzroy turns his attention to Elle. "Based on what happened to us, I need to look at whats going on. See who might need some back up."

The young nurse turned her head to see whom Fitzroy was talking to. Her eyes strayed to Elle. She was about to speak when S'Lace stepped into the young officer's field of vision and said to Fitzroy, "As far as I know there was no reason why lieutenants Leath and Duranik would have reported in unless they had encountered a problem. But in light of our current...difficulties perhaps their silence has more sinister implications?"

As the world came back into focus, Subak's last memory was of combat, and he tensed, hands clenching into fists. He heard voices, not at first familiar. What were they saying? He remembered seeing Fitzroy – or someone who looked exactly like him – at the top of the stairs, firing back down at him. And then a grenade, and a flash, and...

The Lt. Commander opened his eyes and attempted to sit up straight. "Where is the Commander?" he demanded, looking around suspiciously.

Fitzroy notices Ren waking up. He looks over at T'ux "Are we clear to return to work Doctor?" Fitzroy gets up and makes his way towards Lt. Commander Ren.

T’Ux accepted the hearing aid briefly. Honestly he would have gone for it though there were more pressing concerns, and he could have functioned without it. “Thank you nurse S’Lace,” he said appreciatively as he glanced over to the conversation. Missing crew members? Whatever could they be getting into?

The Caitian’s ears flicked at Fitzroy’s question. “Only if necessary for the time being. At least not within the first hour. Medical science has come a long way but let’s not overly stress our bodies unless necessary.”

He’d look over at Jones though. “You had some inkling of our attackers?” He asked.

"Oh, I do have some idea," Jones replied with a frown as he glanced at Subak and Fitzroy, "I was not expecting them to be so brazen. It implies they might be desperate. Or so confident in their position they thought they could get away with whatever they had in mind." he glanced at S'Lace and smiled, "Nice to see a familiar face, lieutenant."

S'Lace arched an eyebrow, "And I confess surprise that you are still alive, 'Mister Jones'. Time travel or suspended animation?"

"Transporter buffer."

"Ah." She slipped deft fingers into T'ux's other ear and hearing returned in full as did equilibrium.

Lt. Commander Ren looks very closely at Commander Fitzroy as he approaches. "This may seem an unusual question, Commander," he asks, "but have you a twin brother?" Subak is sure he saw what he saw; well, mostly so. It could have been a holo-projector, or something. Or, considering the mission briefing he'd already been given...well, there are possibilities....

 

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