For the Good of the Service? Nope!

Posted on Wed Oct 26th, 2022 @ 5:31am by Captain Natalya Markova

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

ON

'Thump-thump, Thump-thump, Thump-thump,'

Nat's heart pounded in her ears. The adrenaline was coursing through her. She was sure Security was after her as well. No doubt they still hated her. No doubt they still didn't trust her. With good cause. Dishonourably discharged. A Pariah among her ship-mates. She could just about handle that. The departure of the unit she had led... that tore at her heart. She had to get them back. She had to... had to at least explain herself to the Gunny.

The assault force was down by half. Security was handling things nicely. Her own tactics had to be more circumspect. Hit-and-run. It had served her well. She had to be careful now. More than once, she had had to duck around scout teams. They were through being the hunted. Now they were hunting. Hunting her. Nat pressed her back against the wall, a T-junction just beside her. They had to come down the hall-way, right? If they had any brains - and she knew the Major had brains - they would come down here.

Was she playing it too well? The stun-and-run gambits. Pushing them into her game. Her kill box. Had they figured it out? A smart enemy, after all, might just out-think her plan. The Major was no idiot. Nat moved, her breath held, her foot coming down on the deck silently. If she could will her heart to stop, she would have. Barely a quarter of her eye peeked around the corner. They 'were' coming. She could hear the short commands, the back-and-forth of a fire-team. It was chatter she had leaned, chatter she had used.

Four came into view. One in front, the Major following, and two in back, covering their rear. Smart.

Not quite smart enough, though.

A half-second before the point man saw the bare sliver of her head, Nat moved. She dove for the opposite corner of the junction, even as disruptor blasts lanced over her head. The phaser came up, the high-pitched sound of the beam, and Point went down. Nat rolled, the bulkhead behind her taking fire. Another blast of phaser energy, and Rear left was down. The Ka-Bar came out in but a moment. Nat's powerful wrist flicking the weapon in the direction of Rear right. The weapon lodged into the man's throat, and with a gurgle, the body fell to the deck. Limp.

Major Glaswan saw his squad fall, his eyes coming to rest on Nat. "Turn traitor once. Turn traitor twice, I see." He sneered. "You think this will get you back into Starfleet's good graces? They never forget a mistake." He gestured to himself. "Same with me."

Nat rose from her crouch, pistol still trained on the Major. "Stand down, Major. Oracle is disabled, Penny-boy is likely already in custody."

Glaswan smirked. It was a clever ploy on her part. He'd prove her wrong, break her spirit, then break her. "Assault lead to Backhoe." He tapped his comms. Nothing. Not even static. The smirk faltered for just a half second. "Okay, nice game. You jammed our comms. Still gonna make you scream."

Nat tossed the phaser and launched herself at the man. It was a move he wasn't expecting. The lunge caught him off-guard, and the pair went to the deck, Glaswan landing hard on his back, while Nat used the momentum and rolled over him, coming to stop in an almost feline crouch. Before he could catch his breath, Nat ripped the knife from the throat of the guard, and came down in a back-hand grip, aiming for his face.

Glaswan dodged at the last secvond, his head jerking to the side, and the tip of the blade slashing his cheek, and just barely missing his eye.

Nat's hand impacted the deck, and she let out a curse as something felt like it popped. The knife clattered to the deck.

With the woman momentarily distracted, Glaswan scrambled to his feet, drawing himself in for a fight. "You wanna take me down, Lieutenant? For some attempt at redemption? The good of the Service?"

Nat looked at him in her peripheral vision. The pain in her knuckles was intense, and her hand couldn't close properly. She ignored that for the moment. "No." She let out, climbing to her feet. "This one's all for me."

She feinted right. He fell for it. Her left, damaged hand connected under his armpit, and while he grunted in pain, Nat's whole arm felt like a jolt of electricity had run through it. She pulled back, aimed a right hook for his head. His elbow was there, to block the blow, and he jabbed at her face. Hard enough for the once broken cartilage and bone to break once again.

Nat reeled back, stumbling slightly as she attempted to catch her balance. One foot came down on something. An arm, a leg. She didn't know. The sudden change in terrain height was all it took and Nat went down.

Glaswan was there, one hand clamped around her right wrist, her good wrist, and twisted her arm fully behind her back.

The pain from her various injuries was beginning to mount. Her hand, her ankle. Now her shoulder, feeling like it might come apart at any second. "I know your everymove." He hissed into her ear. "I was you. I know your playbook."

Her vision was going slightly grey at the edges. His free hand now tight on her throat. Her left didn't have the strength to pull him off. She had to do something. Her mind flitted back to London. The event that had landed her on the Chimera. The bar fight that had started this new part of her life. Something in her mind came together.

Her head snapped back, and the Major let go as his own nose crumpled under the force of her skull. Nat broke free, and backed away slightly as Glaswan tried to recover. Nat moved in, timing her blows, pushing the man back towards the junction. He had seen the schematic of the ship, but he hadn't seen what she knew. What she saw. The Lieutenant favoured her right. The left ankle was throbbing, her left hand not much better. Yet still, she jabbed, she feinted, she kept moving him back.

Her whole body turned, and twisted, dodging a blow, and she hit a control panel on the wall. A soft hiss announced the opening of a bulkhead. Nat drove herself into the Major, forcing him back, into the alcove. He didn't have time to process, didn't quite realise where he was unless it was a little too late. Nat's knee came up, connecting with the man's groin. As he doubled over, that gave her the couple of seconds she needed. Moving backwards as fast as she could, Nat hit the wall control again.

The inner doors of the airlock closed, sealing the Major in the small room. The windows of the inner doors letting him see the Lieutenant. A smirk played across his face.

Nat punched the comm. "Any last words?" She was breathing heavily, the rush of adrenaline waning, the pain almost dragging her to the floor. She faught against it. She was determined to be standing. To end this on her feet.

"You won't kill me." He said with some measure of confidence. "You cling to Starfleet ideals. You hold yourself accountable. You played a good game. If the Commodore is indeed in custody, then you left him alive. You didn't kill him. You won't kill me."

Nat hesitated. For the briefest of moments, she doubted herself. Staring at the man, through the clear door, her finger tapped the control almost of its own accord. She watched the outer doors hiss. Major Glaswan had just enough time for his mouth to open in surprise... and then he was gone.

She leaned against a wall, slowly letting herself slide into a sitting position. The world before her seemed to swim in and out of focus as the pain was taking over. She had to lay down. She wasn't sure if she was going to throw up or not, the sensation was a phantom one.

"Jesus..." She heard something off to the side. Did it even matter? "Sickbay. Get a medical team to Deck 9. Airlock J19,"

She was put onto her back. Reality seemed to lose meaning, lose its real-ness. A face was above her. Saying.... something. She could see the images, but nothing got through to her mind. It was like looking at a moving painting. Her self was floating further, and further away as more sounds came, more faces in the moving picture before her. The grey haze was getting stronger, and darker.

A blue-silver haze replaced everything. As the Transporter took Natalya Markova to Sickbay, she finally gave in to the sweet embrace of unconsciousness.

OFF