Echo

Chapter 32: Natural Born Killer

Author's Notes: Hi everybody! Thanks to everyone who has reviewed so far, you guys are the best. Enjoy!

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Echo

You stepped onto the transporter pad with your heart in your throat and a gun in your holster, experiencing an anxiety that you had not felt for a long while. Killing people had gotten easier over the years from when you first began. Not emotionally, the deaths haunted you long after you caused them. Physically, though, missions became simpler the longer you spent carrying them out.

Fulfilling contracts had once been second nature to you. You weren't certain if you should be glad, or worried about the fact that you were now sick with fear about what you were going to do.

Kirk had not personally told you not to kill anybody, but he had addressed your group and stated that if possible, it would be best to avoid fatalities. You were already going off the grid by taking on this assignment, and it was a huge risk for the captain. It would be hard for him to explain if one of the pirates ended up dead. As such, the phasers on your weapons had been set to stun, and he had neglected to provide you with knives, choosing instead to supply Tasers in the event that you lost your primary weapon.

Leonard was not in the room. You weren't sure if it was due to his personal disagreement with the mission at hand or his attachment to you that he had elected to skip the send-off. It did not upset you that he had elected to opt out of being present. The less exposure he had to this entire thing, the better.

"Energize," said Sulu to Scotty, and the little lights danced around your still figures as the interior of the transporter room disappeared, and was replaced with your materialization in the pirate ship.

It was suspiciously quiet and empty when you arrived in the cargo bay, Sulu and the others materializing at your sides and lifting their weapons up cautiously. The room was dark, but there was enough illumination from the ship's emergency lights to reveal your surroundings, and a decent pathway.

You had never personally seen the interior of a Klingon ship, but as you gazed around, following Hikaru's lead as he stepped forward carefully, you discovered that it seemed as dreary and intimidating as your imagination had surmised. Stacked around in high piles were crates and containers full of stolen materials, which meant that you had successfully surprised the pirates in more ways than one. They might have taken measures to hide at least some of the hijacked goods if they had known you were coming, but probably prioritized their own safety over that of their items.

"Where are they?" Asked someone from behind you in a low voice.

Sulu held up his hand, and you peeked around him curiously as your party came to a halt, waiting for his signal to either hide or continue.

He looked back at you, frowning, and asked, "Can you hear that?"

You listened hard, and picked up a subtle, but continuous vibrating noise originating from the right side. Turning cautiously to face the sound, you squatted down lower and looked between the crates, squinting and attempting to identify the source.

"Someone give me a flashlight," you stated, seeing something small in the distance.

From behind, you heard some shifting before you were tapped gently on the shoulder, and you took the cylinder, clicking the button to illuminate the pathway.

You emitted a sharp intake of breath when you noticed what was on the ground.

"Nobody move," you hissed, "there are flash grenades all over the place."

You turned to the left and pointed the beam of light towards the other side, where you saw more of them littered around. It was clear that they had scattered them in a disorganized fashion, most likely because they were in a hurry. You faced forward, still lowered to the floor, and directed it between Sulu's legs to find that there were even more in your path. If he hadn't noticed the noise, within a few steps he would have trod on one.