Foothold

Posted on Wed Mar 19th, 2025 @ 3:45am by Captain Calypso Skyie & Lieutenant JG Kally Kellerman

Mission: Doing What We Do Best
Location: Transporter Room 1

Kally had kept comms open to keep an ear out, and when she heard they had wounded incoming, called for a medical team to transporter Room one before redirecting her turbolift.

She got there ahead of the team and walked in just as the operator said "Transporter Room 1 here—slight interference, I can’t get a clean lock. You’ll need to reposition."

“Draven to Chimera! Enor is down—I need an emergency beam-out! Transporter Room 1, medical team standing by!”

Kally's face lost some color but she rallied herself. "Team's on the way," she said.

“Transporter Room 1 here. There’s interference—your signal’s bouncing. I can get you out, but you need to reposition five meters east, away from the power conduits," the operator said, frustrated.

“Transporter Room, we’re moving. Get that lock ready!”

“Understood. Stand by—energizing in three… two…”

The transporter hummed and Kally breathed a sigh of relief. That feeling was cut short as a dozen of the tentacled hostiles shimmered into existence on the Chimera’s transporter pads.

Alarms blared across the ship.

The Transporter Chief shouted into the comm, panicked. “Draven! They hijacked the signal—boarding parties have beamed onto the Chimera! You have to—” One of the intruders aimed a weapon at the transporter console and fired, frying the console, the ensuing explosion knocking the chief back.

Kally stared at the invaders, her heart pounding in her chest. "Computer," she said quickly, "medical quarantine protocol level five, transporter room one, authorization Kellerman-Beta-six-green!" She dove out of the line of fire from a shot as she finished the code. The computer beeped obediently and the transporter padd lost power, and a forcefield came to life around the room.

Kally moved behind the transporter console, checking on the Chief. He was alive, but in clear pain. She knew there was a phaser and a medkit behind his console, but she wasn't going to survive a fire fight.

As if to remind her of that, two most shots whizzed past her and suddenly the aliens stood over her.

"Listen to me!" she said, looking up at them. "There is a level ten forcefield around this room! The only person, and I mean the only person who can override it is the Chief Medical Officer, and that is me! So, if you shoot me, you're trapped in here! I'm not your prisoner, you're mine! So stop firing and let's see if we can work something out!

Two of the tenacle-faced invaders came around the corner of the console with their weapons pointed at her and him, then a third one came around, clearly a leader type with only a pistol-type weapon. A squelching sound came from his mouth, which was duly translated by what he had resembling a translator device, "Release us from this room, or pay the price for disobedience." It was a command, not a negotiation.

Kally swallowed, trying to keep from shaking. "I told you," she said, "shooting me won't--" She let out a shriek as they fired at the transporter chief. His eyes bulged a moment as he had a brief inkling of consciousness and then closed as he quickly expired. She looked back up at them. "That was your only bargaining chip, and you threw it away," she said, trying to sound braver than she felt. "I told you....if you kill me, you don't get out."

The leader nodded to one of his team who held up a device that began beeping steadily. He wasn't examining the room, but rather her. He gestured at her head, then her chest and the leader looked back at her. He held his weapon out and poked her chest, holding it over her heart. She shivered and he slowly moved the weapon down her chest to her stomach, and then her hip, and then aimed at her knee. His mouth opened again, a loud squelching noise again translated into basic Standard. "Do you wish to learn how much you can live through?"

Kally wasn't sure how long it would take security to arrive, but she knew she couldn't stall much longer. "All right," she said. "If I lower the forcefield, what assurance do I have that you won't kill me?"

"None," the leader said, his tone making it clear he was at the end of his patience.

Kally nodded. "Computer," she said, taking a deep breath to steady herself. "Override quarantine and remove quarantine restrictions, authorization Kellerman-gamma-three-blue."

The computer beeped just as obediently, and the forcefield snapped off, leaving the door free to be opened. Kally closed her eyes and pictured Katie, her parents, her friends, Cally, Jadizon, everyone she cared about as she prepared for what was coming.

The leader of the invading force considered Kally for a few moments, then raised his weapon and smacked the woman across the face in a half-hearted gesture, even though it had a fair amount of strength. He pointed at two of his troops and at Kally again, "Make her bring more of our troops over. If she refuses to cooperate, or tries any tricks, shoot her." He gave a disdainful look at her, then motioned the rest of his... Men towards the door. "Let's move."

****

She was in her full armor as she stalked down the corridor. Further information had been forthcoming and she knew she was up against twelve of the enemy, at least there had been fourteen lifesigns in the transporter room, with two commbadges in there according to what had been fed to her. She wished that she could have been in the room with them all, the confusion and havoc she would have caused would have kept them on their heels for enough time to kill them all, but that was out of the question.

Instead, Cass'e'Indira was two bends of the corridor away from the location she'd been 'asked' to 'resolve an issue' about, just waiting. Regardless of what she did, she wouldn't be able to rescue those in the room by sheer force of arms by rushing in. If the two Starfleet people there survived so far, she had a better chance if she could engage the enemy out in the corridor. The hiss from well away from her put a smile on her face, that was from the direction of the transporter room and she gestured her ward behind her. Tessa was capable in her own right, but she wasn't going to let her take the front line.

She drew her bowstring, arrow already nocked, three more in her fingers ready for quick reload. She had one of the Federation phasers in her belt, but didn't intend on using it unless she ran out of her own weapons. Eyes closed, she listened hard for footsteps and heard a mass of them coming her way, but also a few fading away. She'd have to work quickly to get them all. Three... Two... One...

Cass leaned around the bend slightly, exposing only the vertically held bow, an eye and her hands and released the first shot, one tentacle-faced opponent sprouting an arrow through an eye, a second falling from one buried deep in his chest before the other four reacted with a scattering of shots that didn't even come close. Another arrow and another enemy went down with an arrow through the throat and Cass stepped into the open, last ready arrow already on the string as three weapons began to swing towards her now that she was an obvious target. This arrow went into the arm of the rightmost of the enemies facing her, appendage swinging reflexively into the other two and throwing their shots off, impacting the walls as she dropped the bow with the knowledge that Tessa would retrieve it when it was safe to do so.

Then she withdrew one of her swords, the silvery blade glinting in the corridor lights and broke into a jog as she moved erratically, first away from the side their weapons were on, then taking an errant shot off her shoulderguard as she pushed off the wall and towards the other side as she closed the eighteen feet between her and the three remaining enemies in under two seconds. Close in, her blade flashed, one hand with a weapon detaching from a body with a downwards stroke, the blade turning to swipe vertical opening a second from groin to upper chest before turning again for a horizontal slash that all but decapitated the one with an arrow in his arm. Three steps into the attack, Cass whirled and dragged edge of the blade across the throat of the one with no hand and kept moving on as all three were in the process of falling.

Aside from the handful of shots, there had been virtually no sound. The sound of footsteps behind her indicated Tessa coming up from behind, bow in one hand even as she stayed behind her. Another gesture to the girl to keep back as Cass continued on, peering around the bend to the transporter room and seeing nothing.

******
Transporter Room 1
******

Kally wasn't unaccustomed to feeling a surge of adrenaline and her heart threatening to explode, but it was usually more fun than this. Her cheek stung and she knew the right side of her face would be swollen and she could tell she'd been cut. Her eye wasn't feeling right either, indicating his hand had connected from upper jaw to above her eye socket. She'd have a hard time as it was, let alone one-eyed and distracted by pain. She pulled herself to her feet from where she'd fallen after being struck, and gave an angry glare to the final two intruders who had their weapons trained on her.

"Begin transport," one of them said, without preamble.

"I'd love to," she said. "But you murdered the transporter chief." She winced and flinched as a shot whizzed past, striking the bulkhead behind her, her left ear burning from the heat of the bolt as it went by.

"That is your only warning," the intruder said, his voice stern.

Kally, because of her position, knew her way around a medical transporter, and the regular one wasn't much different, but she wasn't about to volunteer that information. She moved behind the control console and poked at the board. "Okay," she said, slowly, "I've locked onto non-Federation life signs on the station. I can bring over another twelve, but it will take me a second to lock on. You guys kind of fried the system."

The intruder walked up to her and put his weapon to her temple. "Hurry," he said.

Kally swallowed and nodded, making a show of working as inefficiently fast as she could.

******
Corridor
******
Cass kept an ear listening as she kept her own steps fast and light making her way to the transporter room. For a moment she considered taking the bow back now, but she only had four arrows remaining and these would be closer quarters. Instead, she put her sword back and plucked three daggers from her accoutrement and took another breath before moving in front of the door and triggering it, moving in quickly.

She took in the situation within a fraction of a second, before her foot first even touched the ground. One uniform on the ground, one Starfleet and two others like the ones she'd already killed. Her hand emptied of the dagger it held in one flicker of movement that coincided with her foot hitting the ground at the one with a weapon pointed in the direction of the officer. The being hadn't even been able to look towards the door and the point of the dagger went into it's temple. An eerie light shone from Cass's head as her hair began to glow.

She began another step, towards the remaining enemy, other hand coming up in a throwing motion and both blades struck out, but with far less precision. One missed entirely, the other stuck into a leg, but Cass kept moving forward, ignoring the initial jerk of the weapon to the side, but it quickly came back towards her. She stepped into the alien's path, feeling the panicked shot graze past her and impact the wall, then grabbed the gun arm before using her momentum to slam them into the wall, bending the arm upwards before withdrawing a long dagger from it's spot on her side and shoving it into where the sternum usually was on something and jerking upwards.

The weapon fell from fingers no longer able to hold it as she pulled back and let the body drop before spinning around to make sure the room was truly clear. "My lady?" She then asked in a voice far too calm to be real, "Tessa!" She called out even before Kally could respond and the teenager darted into the room within moments.

Kally's breath was coming in gasps as her chest heaved. Her fingers were still poised over the controls, hands shaking as she had to force her mind to override previous commands and not trigger the transport. "Th-thanks," she said. "Hang on, let's buy some time." She made one small adjustment and engaged transport, a dozen fighters from the third ship disappearing, but instead of reappearing in the transporter room, they were stored in the buffer. The station would think their invasion was going to plan, and maybe it'd help anyone still there survive.

Kally turned back to the angelic-looking woman and licked her lips. "I um...I'll thank you properly later. I need to get to Sickbay," she said. "Mind escorting me, just in case?"

"There is another group out there, it is not yet safe. Her Grace can take care of you here, she's of Urd'a'Neta, a healer herself." Cass shook her head, "How many total were there? Aside from the two here, I eliminated six others."

"I don't need to get to Sickbay for me, I need to get there for the away team," Kally said. "We have wounded, and I need to tend to them." She reactivated the transporter, sending the second batch of would-be invaders back to their ship, clearing the buffer. She then input new coordinates for Sickbay and set the timer. "I'll get there directly," she said. "There were twelve who beamed in. Two here, and you took out six? Four to go."

"Wait, My Lady." Tessa had her medical supplies out and had just approached Kally, reaching out with hands that felt somewhat rough, but were gentle as she turned Kally’s face to where a magnificent bruise was forming, “My Lady, it’s just me, you’re going to be fine. You have a bruise here and it’s bleeding a bit.”

"I was struck," Kally said, wincing as she was touched. "It's inconsequential compared to what we're dealing with."

She probed the edged as she looked intently at it, “I don’t think it broke the cheekbone, but you may have a slight concussion.” She half-turned and reached into her medical kit and brought out a salve that she first put on her fingers and gently dabbed onto the welt, murmuring a prayer as she did so.

Kally allowed her to put a few touches on, then took her hand and lowered it. "Thank you, but I have work to do." She stepped onto the transporter pad. "Happy hunting," she said as the transporter beam took her, delivering her back to her domain.

Tessa watched the transporter beam envelope the Federation officer and took a glance at Cass. She could help with the injured, but Cass would object if she weren't there and the warrior priestess had other things on her mind. Like getting a hold of the Security Chief who she knew would be coming back on board. Where was that comm switch?