The Final Chapter

Posted on Wed Oct 26th, 2022 @ 1:45am by Captain Calypso Skyie & Lieutenant Commander Alexander Espersen & Lieutenant Mark Valleroy & Lieutenant JG Faith Vianelli & Captain Natalya Markova & Ensign Raven Windancer & Lieutenant F'Arra MD
Edited on on Wed Oct 26th, 2022 @ 1:45am

Mission: Pirates! (Or Yo Ho Ho And A Bottle Of Yum)
Location: Chimera's Bridge

There was a sound of a comm line opening and a voice came over it, a familiar voice, “Washout to Chimera. Washout to Chimera-Actual. Calamity, please answer." The last was said almost in a pleading tone.

Tears sprang to Cally’s eyes, unbidden but she dashed them away, taking a few moments to compose herself, but emotion still filled her voice as she answered, "Calamity here. What's your status, Washout, ready to return home?"

"Affirmative, Calamity. Prepare to transport two on my mark, Washout out." The signal ended with that, not giving chance for follow-up questions.

"Copy, Washout." Cally stated to the empty comm signal, then turned slightly to Operations, "On her mark Ops, get her out of there."

Raven jerked at the sudden noise. "What the Krill!?" Raven spun to the Captain's chair. "Captain! Snap out of it!" Raven wanted to get up again...but remembered her place, and stayed seated.

Alexander could not hold in a smile. “Relax, Ms. Windancer. The Captain knows what she’s doing.” He gave Cally a look which said ‘we have your back’, with subtle undertones of ‘we’ll need to talk when this is over’. He had been briefed on the plan, if a bit after its execution, and it was good to know that it had actually worked. “Keep us moving, but keep us within transporter range,” he added, not actually certain what the retrieval plan was but assumed it might require beaming.

"Aye, Sir. Maintaining transporter range," Raven took some more deep breaths, feeling The Voice at the edge of her mind, but trying to, at least for now, ignore it.

It was fifteen, maybe twenty seconds before the comm signal came back. "Calamity! MARK!" The sound of weapons fire could be heard in the background.

At the front of the bridge, one woman materialized crumpled on the ground in an outfit that had most definitely not come from Starfleet. Cally shot to her feet, instinct reaching for the sidearm that wasn't on her belt, then immediately began moving to where the woman was laying, another instinct kicking in, "Medic!" She called as her walk kicked into a brief run before skidding to a stop next to Natalya Markova and she went to one knee, "Nat? Nat are you okay?"

Nat came unsteadily to her feet. Her ankle hurt like hell. It had been the one to twist when she fell, when she had been unable to get to... "Fuck." The Marine breathed under her breath.

Raven couldn't help shooting to her feet and drawing her phaser. Raven froze at Cally's reaction. "You know her, Captain?" Raven asked, still keeping her phaser leveled on the woman.

The look that only a pissed off Marine could give bored in on Raven. Nat didn't have the time. Her gaze shifted to Valleroy. "Lock down Main Engineering and Security! Those two, and the Bridge are their primary objectives." She took in the Lieutenant, the Captain, and the Commander. "The three of you are their targets." She hoped Cally would get the meaning of her words. "Where are the Marines?"

Cally raised a hand towards Raven, gesturing her to lower her weapon, "I know her, she was on a mission at my orders." Then her gaze turned back to Natalya sadly, "They're... Not on board anymore. The Gunny took them to another posting after I 'fired' you. I couldn't stop her without telling her the truth, and I couldn't risk it."

Nat swore in Russian, the translation slipping outside of the Computer's ability to translate. "The guy leading them is a former Marine Major. He..." Nat dropped her gaze, not quite able to look Cally in the eye. "He knows what he needs to know. With your permission, Captain. I have a matter of honour to settle." She pointed her old-school phaser pistol to the ceiling, making her meaning clear.

"Take a security team with you." Calypso nodded, patting her on the shoulder, looking up and behind her, "Mark? Set the Lieutenant up."

Raven reluctantly lowered both her phaser, and herself, back into her chair. "Aye, Captain. Yesh...things just keep getting better and better," Raven growled softly, wanting answers, but knowing now was NOT the time to ask.

Nat gave Cally a nod, and made her way to the turbolift. Her ankle hurt like fuck, but she had work to do, still. She had a debt of honour to settle.

Alexander left his station to find the emergency weapons locker under the tactical console. His passcode opened it, and he began gathering Type-2 phasers.

"If the bridge risks being a target," he said, "we should be prepared. Here." He walked the bridge, giving a sidearm to anyone who looked to him to not have one -- Raven, Faith, F'arra, the junior officers at Ops and Science -- and then holstered his own. "Be ready, the bridge could get very ugly very fast," he ordered. "Need one Captain?" he asked, holding the last one to Cally.

Calypso shook her head slowly, but accepted the phaser anyways, attaching it to his belt, "I don't like this configuration, but I can sing the song, dance the dance." She looked towards Raven, "While we're awaiting our demise, Ensign, try to find me someone on board that ship that can surrender it to me?"

"Aye, Captain...but it will not be US that die this day," Raven growled as she strapped the new phazer to the right side of her belt, making her look like an Ancient Earth gun slinger. Raven's hands flew over the controls: analyzing, sifting, and categorizing data. "That beast's gonna be hard to crack, but a well placed photon here and here'll bring that behemoth to it's knees," Raven threw some data up onto the main viewscreen for inspection.

"Dorsal aspect, just aft of Frame Thirty-Two and she'll crack open like an egg." Calypso settled back in her chair to avoid pacing like an idiot, "Takes a precise hit, but that was the chink in Perseus's armor in all of the simulations we ran with her. Getting around on her would normally be the hard part. Hail her and see if anyone responds, Raven."

Nat had got to the Turbolift. She paused. Her hand on the frame, holding it open. Her eyes took in the Bridge. She knew what she was about to do, what she had against her. Nat knew the chances of coming out alive. "Semper Fi." She whispered, barely above a breath. Stepping into the lift, the doors closed. She took a breath. The security teams would likely be expecting her on Deck 8, to group their forces. "Deck 13." She called, wondering just how pissed Security would be when they realized.

Raven was about to respond as she complied, when she sensed Nat's feelings. "Captain, she...[the two of them can deal with this on their own, it is none of your concern]. You know what, Voice? You WERE being helpful earlier, but now you're not. Cally, the Lt.'s up to something!" Raven turned to face the Captain's chair.

"She does, Ensign, that she does." Cally gave Raven a slight smile and a shrug, "It's a Marine thing. Sometimes one of us goes bad, then it's up to the rest of us to rectify that problem when we have the chance. Lieutenant Markova will ask for more help if she needs it. Have faith in her, Ensign, and get that hailing frequency going?"

"I'm sorry, Captain. Aye, Captain," Raven couldn't keep the slight snarl of frustration out of her voice as her hands flew over the console. "Hailing frequency open, Captain," Raven had had a chance to calm down and pull her emotions back into their cages.

“Don’t worry about it, Raven,” Alexander said, walking past the helm on his way back to the engineering station. “I had the same instinct. Don’t ignore those, even if they end up wrong.”

Raven gave the Lt. Commander a grateful smile, then turned back to the view screen.

Cally smiled at the barely heard byplay by the Exec, then clamped that down as she looked sternly at where the camera was, "USS Oracle, anyone who can hear me. You are under my guns. Your vessel is stranded in space and I mean to take her. Boarding parties are beaming over shortly and I recommend you offer no resistance." She saw a few blips of light from the shuttle bay as the few small ships inside made a break for safety and she wished she had some backup to chase them down even as one was speared by a quick tractor beam and began to be drawn back towards Chimera, "Surrender... And live."