Star Trek: Erin

Part 66: Depths

     We beamed into where we were supposed to be instead of a wall, which was nice. K-7 was exactly as I'd left it. No sign of the interlopers. The hallway curved out of sight on either side.

     "Clockwise," I said.

     Checking the sleeping pods was easy and reminded me of the Botany Bay. Rijeka did a decent job at least pretending to search as we left Klove posted at the doorway. Most were big enough for a beefy humanoid, but a few sections were cubby-sized and three were basically padded caves. Aisles were narrow, wide enough for Rijeka and I to walk abreast if we wanted to constantly touch shoulders. Which I didn't.

     It was as we were nearing the third to last pod room that we heard raised voices in the next.

     "—displeased with you, sister of the dead light."

     "Oh? What displeased them this time?"

     I recognized the second voice. Kith? I sent a significant glance at Klove. "Stun," I mouthed. The three of us drew phasers. Klove positioned himself to watch the door.

     Rijeka stepped aside to let me lead the way in.

     The scene was a problem. Three probably-humans and a Vulcan blocked passage. Kith was in the centre, her back to an open pod. Her hands were raised in a placating gesture, but her face was hard. Kith's eyes flicked to me as we entered.

     "Is there a problem here?" I asked.

     There was a tiny movement blocked by the human between Kith and I, but I saw the tiniest flinch from her. "Not at all," she said, holding eye contact.

     "Great." I holstered my phaser and turned to Rijeka. "Did you want to...?"

     "Oh, right! God, I'm so sorry to disturb y'all." Rijeka continued advancing. "I stayed on-station last night and must've forgotten my communicator here. Can you imagine?"

     "Lieutenant Commander, uh, Farntill is going to send you back to the Academy for sure."

     Rijeka was ten feet away, five. "Do you really think so?"

     I started walking too, to keep the distance social. "I know so." I tried for a wink at the Vulcan behind Kith. It probably was more of a twitch, but Rijeka was close enough.

     She turned a dramatic trip into breaking the first human's arm with a meaty crack, using her grip to swing his head into the nearest pod's frame. Her loosely held phaser came up, and in a sharpshooter stance, she phasered them in the forehead.

     I broke into a dash.

     Kith was still standing there. "More—"

     The Vulcan pinched Kith's neck and the merchant escort went down hard.

     "Fuck!" I arrived, which was when I became aware of two things. He had a triangular blade. And the surrounding sleeping pods were ejecting people who closed on us with the same purpose.

     "Fuck is right," said Rijeka.

     The Vulcan, neutral-faced with black hair shorn in a buzzcut, took a swipe with the blade. Rijeka used the opportunity to phaser-whip them across the face. They cracked into the frame and lay there.

     The operative didn't wait and began to lay into the other attackers with a combination of point-blank phaser usage and brutal hand-to-hand.

    I dropped to Kith's side. Breathing, which was good.

     For a moment, I forgot the resilience of Vulcans. Which you should never do.

     There was a sharp, stark burst of pain in my rear as the Vulcan on the floor stabbed me in the ass.

     I instinctively recoiled, which saved me from the Vulcan turning their random knife-flailing into attempted hamstringing. They sprang from the floor. I surged forward to grapple him and managed to get a hold on the wrist of their knife-hand. I remembered how to be useful and did the thing to have them drop it. Face to face with the Vulcan, there was a moment when I was very aware of every line on their face. The trickle of green blood coming from their nose. Their plum-coloured eyes.

     The hell?

     The Vulcan sensed weakness and headbutted me. I stumbled backwards, white and black pain shooting through my skull. I took a page from Rijeka's book and played it up, my other hand finding my holstered phaser.

     Action and reaction.

     I stunned them once, twice.

     Through the fray, I spotted Rijeka. She was a whirlwind. I'd never seen an operative in prolonged action and fuck they were good. In the narrow space, she used the walls as a springboard and a weapon. Her sleek phaser cracked one attacker upside the head, whom she seized and threw into the next. The ones with weapons—mostly knives—were disarmed and the blades used against them, digging into thighs and guts. So I was watching as another came from behind, grabbed her head with both hands, and snapped her neck.

     Rijeka fell and lay still. Her phaser skidded my way.

     Sound dulled.

     The three remaining lunged at me. I managed to stun two as they closed, but the third—the one who killed Rijeka—bounced against the wall and came at my head with a kick. I ducked under it, blocked the second with a forearm, and grabbed them by the ear. Digging my nails in, I wrenched their head around to stare into their eyes. Purple too.

     I jabbed them in the gut with my phaser and stunned them, letting them drop.

     I stood among eleven unconscious people and one corpse.

     Breathe. Breathe, Cobos.

     I half-turned at a slight metallic sound, a light squeak.

     "The Gilden will come for you."

     BrdrbrdrbrdrBRDRBRDR.

     I recognized the sound. Everyone in Starfleet is trained to know that sound.

     "Overload!" I roared on instinct.

     The Vulcan gripped Rijeka's phaser in their hand and smiled.

     THROW IT, my brain screamed. I slammed into the Vulcan and tried to grapple it away. Their hold was iron. FUCK! I grabbed the fallen triangular knife and plunged it through the back of their hand.

     BRDRBRDR.

     I whipped the phaser away, deeper into the room, and threw myself on top of Kith.

     Someone else landed on top of me.

     The explosion rocked the room. Searing heat screamed past the exposed parts of me, blazing through fabric and leaving burns bubbling to life.

     And then there was silence.