The Travails Of Cargo Bay 8

Posted on Wed Apr 30th, 2025 @ 1:49am by Lieutenant JG Katie Kellerman & Captain Calypso Skyie & Lieutenant Commander Alexander Espersen & Petty Officer 1st Class Kael Draven

Mission: Doing What We Do Best
Location: Cargo Bay 8

Transporter Room 2 - After Enor's Exit

As soon as Kael was sure the sickbay team had things under control and that Chief Enor was in good hands, he slung his phaser rifle back into a ready position and bolted out of Transporter Room 2. The defensive phase of this mess was over—it was time to push back.

He quickly linked up with a small fire team of junior Petty Officers, all of them looking tense but ready. “Alright, let’s go make some new friends,” Kael quipped, giving his rifle a quick check as they moved out at a fast pace.

The distant sounds of phaser and disruptor fire weren’t distant for long. The moment they rounded the next corridor, they were thrown into the middle of an intense firefight. “Down!” Kael barked as bolts of green energy flew past them, scorching the bulkheads. He dropped to one knee, leveling his rifle and firing off a controlled burst, clipping one of the intruders and forcing the others to take cover.

"This is not ideal!" one of the Petty Officers shouted as another volley of disruptor fire forced them back.

Kael gritted his teeth. "No kidding!" he shot back. Their position was quickly becoming untenable. They needed a fallback point, fast.

His eyes darted toward a nearby control panel—Cargo Bay 8 was just ahead. "Move! Cargo Bay 8!" he ordered, firing another burst before leading the team into a full sprint.


Cargo Bay 8


"Stand by on the satellite, Captain," the XO replied into his commbadge. The intruder alert alarm continued to sound, and lights flickered as the power grid took hits, but thankfully their space remained safe. For now. "Kellerman, tell me you have something."

"I have something," Katie said, sweat on her brow as she typed furiously.

"Really?"

"No, not really," she said, sounding irritated.

"Then why did you--"

"You told me to tell you I did," she said. Suddenly she let out a cry. "Hold on! Okay I really have something this time!" She typed furiously, the lights on the satellite blinking in time with her efforts. "I'm in!"

"What do you have access to?"

"I've got....everything!" Katie said, excitedly. "Everything's networked! Explains the paranoia. Once you're in, you're really in. Satellite positions, cloaking frequencies, positions of....." She frowned and checked her readings again. "There's another ship out there, still cloaked within the field. It's...big."

He was about to ask for details the cargo bay doors opened and a cacophony deafened them.

The moment they cleared the bay doors, Kael hit the manual override, sealing the entrance just as another disruptor blast barely missed him. He exhaled sharply, checking to make sure everyone was inside and in one piece.

Then he turned—and immediately froze.

Standing near what was very clearly an alien satellite, Lieutenant JG Katie Kellerman and Lieutenant Commander Alexander Espersen stared at him, their expressions somewhere between surprise and mild annoyance.

Kael blinked. "Uh... hey, sirs," he greeted, adjusting his grip on his phaser rifle. “So, fun update—there’s a small army outside, and they are not here for a guided tour.”

His eyes flicked between the two officers and the alien satellite before he gestured vaguely. "Also, should I be concerned that that looks like the kind of thing that either saves the day... or explodes spectacularly?"

He let the question hang for a moment before adding, with a lopsided grin, “Just, you know, trying to manage my expectations here.”

Katie glanced at Espersen then back at Kael. "Um...I'm like...99% sure I've got it not in the exploding category."

With that out of the way, Kael adjusted his phaser rifle, exhaling sharply before flashing an easy grin. “Right, introductions. Let’s get those out of the way before this turns into a disaster movie.” He straightened up slightly, adopting a mock-formal tone.

“Petty Officer First Class Kael Draven, Boatswain, serial number 6-7-9-4-Alpha-Theta—here to assist, look competent, and, if needed, provide sarcastic commentary under duress.”

Katie held up a hand. "Lieutenant j.g. Katie Kellerman, here to hack computers and look terrified."

He gestured vaguely behind him at the fire team, shifting back to a more casual tone. “And this fine group of enlisted excellence? Uh… well, we all ran in here together, so I assume they work on the ship.” He pointed at one of them at random. “Petty Officer Second Class Ramirez—tactical specialist, probably good in a fight. We’ll find out.”

The petty officer frowned. “It’s Reyes.”

Kael blinked. “Right, right—Reyes. That’s what I said.” He moved on quickly. “And this is Petty Officer Second Class Tillman, our… uh, systems guy?”

“Thompson,” the petty officer corrected with a sigh. “And I work in engineering.”

"Are we really doing this?" Katie said to Espersen.

Kael gave an apologetic nod. “Right. Thompson. Engineering. Good, we needed one of those.”

Before he could introduce the last member, Crewman Patel suddenly stepped forward, clearing his throat.

“Uh, yeah, hi. Crewman Patel. I just—uh—I just wanted to say that I’m actually a cook. I work in the mess hall. I was cooking twenty minutes ago. This is my first time in any kind of combat, and I really don’t—”

Kael, without missing a beat, pressed a firm hand on Patel’s shoulder and smoothly pushed him back into formation.

“And this is Patel, who will be just fine,” he said, forcing a reassuring grin. “Great guy. Solid instincts. Definitely not freaking out right now.”

Patel swallowed hard but wisely kept his mouth shut.

"This is not filling me with confidence," Katie said, under her breath.

Kael turned back to Lieutenant Kellerman and Commander Espersen, clapping his hands together.

“So! That’s us. You’re you. There’s a firefight outside. And you’re working on something that looks like it either saves the ship or turns us into a cautionary tale.” He gave them a quick shrug.

“Just wanna make sure we’re all on the same page before things get… interesting.”

"Cool...I'm going to go back to hacking the big alien ship off our starboard," Katie said, sitting back down with her tablet.

Petty Officer Tanikawa was ready to introduce herself to the group, but caught the eye of the XO and returned to her silent signal analysis.

"Are you all finished getting to know each other?!" Espersen snapped. "If you're not too busy, maybe you can get back work! Plan your team building outing after we get out of this!" He tapped his commbadge. "Espersen to Bridge. We're sending you tactical data regarding a command ship hidden by additional cloaking satellites. It's big and heavily armed, but unshielded while in the cloak, and we assess that they don't know that we see them." He nodded to Kellerman to send everything she had to the bridge.

Katie nodded and sent the coordinates of the ship to the bridge, along with its specs as she could find them. With some luck, she could do some damage from behind the scenes as well. She set to work trying to deactivate their weapons systems, hoping they wouldn't notice her lurking right away.

Kael snapped to attention, throwing up his hands in mock surrender. "Aye, sir! Team bonding officially postponed until after we survive this!" He cast a glance at his fire team. "Sorry, guys, trust falls will have to wait."

He slung his phaser rifle back into a ready position and turned to Reyes and Thompson. "Alright, you heard the Commander—let’s do some actual work before he decides to space us." He motioned toward the cargo bay doors. "If those intruders breach, let’s make sure they immediately regret their life choices."

As Kellerman worked on the alien satellite, Kael positioned himself behind a stack of crates, peering toward the entrance. "No pressure, Lieutenant, but if you could, I don’t know, shut them down before they blast through those doors, that’d be fantastic."

He threw a quick glance at Patel, who was still looking mildly horrified at the whole situation. "Patel, buddy, you just… stay low and, I don’t know, manifest some good vibes. Maybe pray to the Great Spirit of the Replicator or whatever kitchen deity you believe in. We got this."

Katie blew out a lungful of air and tapped her tablet. "Um.....oo! Okay! She entered a command and the satellite lit up and began to hum. "I'd say hold on...not sure what this will feel like," she said. There was a brief increase in volume and then a brief pulse of purple light.

Okay that was impressive, Espersen had to admit to himself. He gave Kellerman a quiet thumbs-up.

Kael flinched slightly as the purple pulse of light washed over the cargo bay, ducking instinctively behind his crate. "Okay, that definitely wasn’t in the manual," he muttered.

Peeking out cautiously, he looked over at Kellerman, eyes wide with mock alarm. “Lieutenant, if I grow a third arm or suddenly start speaking fluent Tholian, I’m blaming you.”

Then he blinked, patted himself down quickly, and gave a relieved sigh. "Alright, everything’s where it’s supposed to be—except maybe my dignity. That might’ve teleported."

He gave Espersen a thumbs-up right back. "Good news, sir—still intact, still sarcastic, still ready to shoot something. Orders?"

"Everyone keep quiet! They can't see us!" Katie said in a loud whisper, hunkering down behind the satellite as the cargo bay doors were forced open.

There were only eight hostiles this time and the breaching charge had warped the cargo bay doors and blown a hole wide enough for two to enter at a time and they rushed in firing wildly to keep any heads down as they bolted for cover.

The wild shots didn't hit much, but one struck the satellite. Katie grabbed her tablet, checking quickly to see if it had hurt the cloak. She breathed a very, very quiet sigh of relief as she saw the indicators showing they were still invisible, then nearly jumped to the ceiling as her combadge went off.

"Kellerman, if you're in their systems, tell me you can shut them down. If not, I'm in a 'shoot-first, ask questions later' mood right now," the Captain's voice said.

Katie hit her tablet in a panic, trying to send a notification to the bridge while she tried to move away from her position. She was in a difficult position. If she entered the shutdown commands, the enemies would lose shields and their cloak....but so would the cargo bay. The Captain, however, made the decision for her. "Katie? I need an answer, now or never."

Katie quickly entered the shut down command as she saw the enemy aim towards the sound of her combadge and shouted "losing cloak!" as she entered the command and watched the hostiles press the triggers.

The moment of respite the cloak had given them was enough to let the Starfleet Officers pause, think, and flank their enemies. "Now!" Espersen called out to Draven and his assembled team of misfits. His own phaser was in hand and he dropped an enemy before the lot of them became visible.

Kael didn’t need to be told twice. The second Espersen shouted "Now!", Kael swung out from behind his stack of crates, phaser rifle already up, eyes locked on the nearest intruder.

"Lights out, vacation’s over!" he barked, squeezing the trigger and dropping the lead attacker with a clean, controlled shot.

"Reyes, left flank!" he called. "Thompson, with me! Patel—do not stand up, I swear to the stars!"

The team moved like clockwork—well, like a slightly dysfunctional but still highly motivated clock. Reyes took position behind a crate and laid down suppressive fire, while Kael and Thompson surged forward, flanking the enemy’s right as the cloak dropped fully and the element of surprise turned the tide.

“Now we’re visible, make it loud!” Kael shouted over the chaos, hitting another intruder square in the chest. "No one shoots at satellites under my watch!"

He ducked as a disruptor bolt slammed into the crate behind him, bits of scorched metal flying. “Okay, that was way too close to my face!” he yelled, popping up just long enough to return fire.

"Come on, let’s show these guys how misfits handle a boarding party!" Kael grinned wildly, adrenaline surging, already lining up his next shot.

After a moment, the firing died down and Espersen gestured for the group to move around the cargo bay to check behind containers for anyone hiding. A chorus of 'clear!'s meant the situation was in hand.

"Alright, you lot, keep this space secure," the XO ordered. "We might not be out of the woods just yet. I'm going to the bridge. Kellerman is the ranking officer. Oh, and good work," he added hastily before dashing out into the corridor, phaser raised -- just in case.

Katie's eyes were as wide as old-style deflector dishes. She looked at Kael. "Okay, so...um....secure anyone who's still alive, and since we don't have the protection of a door anymore, we should set up a line of defense in the corridor so they can't just gang up at the entrance."

Kael slung his phaser rifle across his chest and gave Katie a big, toothy grin, completely unbothered by the gaping hole where the cargo bay doors used to be.

"Copy that, boss. Secure the bad guys, build a fort. Childhood dream, unlocked," he said, clapping his hands once like it was the start of a birthday party.

He turned to the fireteam with mock-serious authority. "Alright, Avengers—assemble! Reyes, Thompson—sweep the bay. If it twitches, stuns easy, or even looks like it had bad intentions, hogtie it. If it doesn’t move, poke it until it does. Then hogtie it."

Reyes gave him a long, tired stare. Thompson just sighed. Patel looked like he wanted to disappear entirely.

Kael pointed dramatically at the nearest stack of crates. "Phase Two: we are now professional interior decorators. Theme of the day: 'Post-Apocalyptic Panic Chic.' I want a barricade so good even the Borg would say ‘nah, too much work.’"

He grabbed a crate and, with a grunt, half-dragged, half-shoved it toward the breach. "Patel, congratulations—you’re now Chief of Strategic Crate Placement. Big responsibility. Lives are depending on your stacking abilities. No pressure."

Patel gave a small, strangled sound that might have been acceptance. Maybe.

Kael winked at Katie as he tossed another crate into position. "Don’t worry, Lieutenant. We’ll have a proper wall up faster than you can say ‘Oh no, they’re breaching the cargo bay again.’"

He paused, bracing a crate like he was posing for a holonovel cover, and added, "Also, just a heads-up—when this is over, I’m submitting myself for the Starfleet Medal of Improvisational Architecture."

"And I'll put in for a 'you survived the assault on the asylum' award," Katie said to herself as she sat back down with her tablet against the satellite, breathing hard.