The Rescuers

Posted on Tue Jul 7th, 2026 @ 5:05am by Ensign Henry Taylor & Tessa di'Orion

Mission: Die Hard: Chimera Edition
Location: Chimera Corridors

"Almost done, almost done, almost done," Henry chanted to himself. One more batch of boxes and they could lock up Sickbay, move over to the station and take the elevator down to the planet and enjoy some well-deserved rest and relaxation. Well, relaxation, at least. He didn't expect he and Tessa would get much rest.

He smiled to himself, as he usually did when she entered his head. He wasn't sure when the 'honeymoon' phase was going to end, but the fact that it was still going strong just made him happier. He quickened his pace towards the shuttlebay, eager to get back to Sickbay.

He heard footsteps pounding towards him and stopped, confused. Three men came around the corner and two of them leveled weapons at him. "Move and you are dead!" one of them shouted, sounding very much in distress, all three of them breathing hard.

"I'm a member of the crew," Henry said. "Are you in need of medical attention?" Henry said.

"No, we are not fucking in need," the man in the lead said, almost growling in annoyance. He glanced at the other two and gestured with his weapon. "Get to Engineering and get it secured," he said.

The others nodded and moved off. The first man turned back to Henry. "I am out of patience," he said. "We had no intention of hurting anyone, and now two of your shipmates have been blown out of the shuttlebay. That's on you," he snarled. "You are going to walk to the mess hall, you are going to stay put an if you do anything I don't like, you will be shot. Clear?"

Henry nodded, keeping his hands visible. He turned around and began walking back towards the turbolift. His mind was spinning. If he'd been a bit faster or a bit slower, he could be dead right now. Then again, he had a phaser pistol pointed at him; that wasn't necessarily better.

As they waited for a turbolift, a beep sounded. The other man kept his finger on the trigger of his pistol and reached with his other hand for a communications device. "This is Baker."

"Crew is secure in the mess hall," a voice said.

"Everyone accounted for?" Baker said.

"Yes, Sir. Last one was that blonde from their Sickbay. She looked like she was going to be trouble, but we got her. Everyone's locked up tight."

Henry's eyes went wide an his cheeks flushed as he felt a surge of rage. They put their hands on his angel, he was going to make sure they regretted it. He felt his face flush and knew he only had one chance at this. He coughed. Baker glanced at him but signed off with his cohort and ushered Henry into the turbolift that had just arrived.

Henry coughed again, then again, his knees buckling. Baker made no move to help and Henry leaned against the turbolift. "Deck five," he choked.

Baker raised his weapon but Henry held up his hands. "Please...my quarters. I need an injection first," he coughed again, every six hours. I'm due." He kept his face getting redder and coughed harder, making it sound as aggravating as possible.

Baker's hand was twitching on the grip of his weapon. "Fine," he said, seeing the other man's distress. "If you try anything...."

The turbolift stopped at the deck and Henry stumbled out, shuffling along and coughing hard. He got to the right set of doors and they opened obediently. He walked in and spotted his goal, but stopped as he heard, "hold it," from behind.

Baker had his weapon trained and was looking around at the tapestry and weapons on display. "Back out, slowly," he said.

"It's right there," Henry said, pointing at the object resting on a chair. "That's all I want."

Baker looked at the innocuous gold cylinder resting on the chair. He gestured for Henry to step back to the doorway and he walked in and picked it up. He examined it carefully, then handed it to Henry. "Use it," he said.

Henry pressed one end of the cylinder to his wrist and hissed gently as if receiving an injection. He let his face start to return to its normal complexion, and he cleared his throat. "Thank you," he said. "I'll go to the mess hall, now."

Baker gestured back into the room. "Leave it," he said.

Henry held the item close. "And in six hours when I need it again?"

Baker sighed and ground his teeth. "Fine. Get moving. No more delays."

Henry nodded and walked out of Tessa's quarters, heading down the corridor. They reached a junction and Henry stopped, looking left and right, turning around, confused. "Is this the right direction?"

"It's your ship, don't you know?" Baker said, annoyed. "We need a turbolift."

"Sorry, I'm new here," Henry said, looking back and forth. "Wait, is that the turbolift we used?" he said, pointing down the corridor.

When Baker looked, Henry activated Tessa's staff. It snapped open and he struck fast, hitting Baker's weapon hand, cracking the wrist and forcing him to drop the pistol, then swinging around and connecting with the back of Baker's knee, hooking him and dropping the man onto his back. He barely had time to register the victory, as he swung the staff around again, hitting the man in the head and knocking him out.

He took a moment to breathe, wishing Tessa had been there to see it, then grabbed the man and dragged him to the nearby turbolift. He stuffed him inside. He tapped his combadge quickly. "Taylor to Orion." The lack of response made his blood boil and a knot form in his stomach. "Taylor to security. Taylor to bridge. Taylor to anyone." He realized quickly that whoever these people were, they had shut down the ship's communications system. He spied the communications device on the man's belt and grabbed it, realizing it was now their only open frequency.

That still left the question of what to do with his prisoner, and how to rescue Tessa. He pushed the man fully into the lift and instructed it to head for the bridge. The doors closed, and off it went. He counted to three in his head then stood and accessed a nearby computer interface.

The comm system may have been down, but computer access was still there, and he immediately put a level five medical quarantine around the bridge. That turbolift would be stranded near deck one, the bridge would be locked off, air isolated, and anyone already there would be trapped. Without him or Kally, it couldn't be undone. That would buy them some time.

He stood and turned, heading back to Tessa's quarters. He was going to rescue his princess, or die trying, but he'd need more gear first.

---

The journey had been arduous for Tessa, moving through the Jeffries Tubes. She still had no clue who this 'Jeffries' was and why something like an entire network of 'behind the walls' tubes was even necessary? It just seemed like the best way to have a security risk, since people could move behind the scenes and out of sight, just like she was now. Something else to ask Henry when she finally rescued him. Her commbadge scraped against the tube she was crawling through and she stopped dead where she was.

"Urd's Tits." She whispered as she glanced down at her chest, reaching and plucking the device from her tunic and looking at it. Of course, it had been on Day One of arriving on board after Trarim that she'd been given this and informed that it wasn't dangerous, just something that would give her communications with the rest of the ship and would keep track of where she was in case of emergency. THAT would be how they knew where these invaders knew where to go to find Henry and Erika and... Everyone else.

She flung the device back down the way she came, hearing it skitter along the tube before finally stopping, but she was already gone, trying to remember where she needed to go. Weapons. She needed weapons, the armor wouldn't do much good, but if she were going to rescue Henry. She turned left and then right before she came across a junction that gave her a chance to get her bearings again. She'd come in here before playing hide and seek with Henry, gotten lost, but this one was familiar enough.

She popped open the hatch slowly, peeking out as she made it the minimum possible, hearing footsteps receding one direction, away from her quarters. Time to make her move. She exited the Jeffries Tube and replaced the hatch, walking quickly and making it home without further incident, always waiting for the shout for her to stop. Inside, she made an initial move for her armor, then had second thoughts. What good would it do? Against phasers, probably nothing, but perhaps the metal would reduce the blast? She stripped off her shirt and put the mail on before putting the shirt back on over it. The sword belt she wrapped around herself and reached for her staff, but it wasn't there. Had she misplaced it the night before? No time to search. The quiver of stun-arrows that the Security Chief had insisted she have instead of 'regular' ones slid over her back and the bow was in her hands, a familiar friend.

The door hissed open behind her and she had an arrow nocked and the bow drawn back before she finished her spin to face the door to the corridor and the figure that filled it in a familiar way. The face resolved into focus and the arrow fell from it's position, clattering on the floor, "Henry?" She asked, dropping the bow and rushing towards him in relief, throwing her arms around him. "I was just coming to rescue you!"

Henry froze as he saw the arrow pointed at him, and stared wide-eyed as his avenging angel aimed at him. When she ran at him, he held his arms out and pulled her to him, holding her tight, finally letting out the breath he held.

He let her down to the ground and "Wait, what? I was coming to rescue you!" Henry said.

"I was never captured!" Tessa argued with him, climbing up a few inches to plant a kiss on him that showed him just how much she cared.

Henry kissed her back, but pulled back and shook his head. "No, they said they had grabbed you out of Sickbay and taken you. I convinced one of them to let me stop here, and I grabbed your staff and used it to take him down. You should've seen me, I was phenomenal!" he said, excitedly.

"So that's where it ran off to!" Tessa saw it in his hand now and smiled at Henry, "But no, they got Erika, not me. I was hiding in Kally's office and she was the lookout for you, but they never actually came in far enough, at least not until I'd gotten out through the tubes. And since you'd left, I figured they had gotten you and I came here to get ready. You were really coming to save me?" She finished, her eyes liquid in awe and not a little bit of lust.

"Of course! Nothing short of death could stop me," Henry said, then smirked. "And even then, it's iffy." He'd have said more, but at that point her arms went around his neck an their lips met. He kissed her both like it might be their last, and like he wanted to give them both a reason to get through it.

It took a moment before they pulled apart and both said, "Shit, the crew!"

"We have to break the others out of the Mess Hall," Henry said, helping Tessa back down to the floor. "You ready?"

"Five minutes wouldn't delay things too much, would it?"

"Tessa," Henry said, scoldingly. He was less affronted by her suggestion and more that they'd only be five minutes.

Tessa made a furtive look at her bed, then shook her head, "No, you're right." She grabbed his tunic and pulled him down for a half moment, "After this is over, you and I are going to celebrate properly." She kissed him very gently, then released him and retrieved her bow and the arrow she dropped, "I'm as ready as I'll get, you need anything else?"

"A phaser. We'll grab one along the way," Henry said, heading back into the corridor.

Tessa followed him and hurried to get in front of him and stopped him, plucking his commbadge from his chest and holding it up, “First off, they can track us with these.” She tossed it to the side, “Second, I’ll take the lead, I have the ranged weapon right now and more experience at this than you, plus… I’m the smaller target.” She went on her toes to kiss him quickly, “We’ll re-ebu- re-evilu-“ She shook her head, “We’ll come back to it when you get your phaser. Besides, we need reinforcements.”

"Bierl eaara rianricu egala sariciers caararlc ieryr toadp rayxiyaaras xiyie ycraseta?" (Did you know your accent sounds even cuter without the translator?) Henry said, grinning.

With a slight blush, Tessa gave him a look that he knew meant she was once again considering dragging him back to her quarters for a distraction, but she couldn’t. “You’re getting better with your Tialan, one of these days…” She left the sentence unfinished, exhaling deeply, “We go. Where do you think they’re keeping everyone?”

"I overheard them say they've got the crew locked in the mess hall," Henry said. "If we stop by Sickbay we can get a phaser from the security locker there, then work to get them free."

Her eyebrows raised and a smile crossed her face, “Well, I know where THAT is!” Of course she did, eating was her second favorite pastime, “Follow me, I’ll keep you safe, so you can for me.”

Henry smiled and stepped aside. "I'll be right behind you," he said.