Musketeer Part Three

Posted on Thu Sep 23rd, 2021 @ 3:40am by Ensign Rene Rouen & Lieutenant JG Jenna Jade

Mission: Lower Decks
Location: Holodeck Three

Rene checked the heavy timber crossbar on the front doors of the church. It would take a battering ram time to break through this door. The back door was a different matter. It might hold for a minute before the soldiers outside could breach the church there.

Rene returned to Jenna's side to check on her progress. Her engineering expertise was would save them. Two flintlock pistols and two swords were little match against half a dozen heavily armed 17th Century soldiers. "We have about a minute or two before they realize there's a back entrance. How is your progress?"

"Working!" Jenna said in a sing-song voice as she just stared at the tile in question that she was kneeling in front of. It should be easy to open, it was designed to be easily accessible because it was there for emergencies. "Ah'm sorry, Rene, this is puzzlin'." She pressed down on the tile, more out of curiosity even as the voices from the front of the church vanished. Then the tile loosened on the hinge and she wanted to smack her head against the floor, "Got it!" She called out.

Rene smiled at Jenna. "I knew you could do it mon amour." His statement was followed a heartbeat later by the sound of a heavy object smashing into the back door of the church. Rene took the pistols in each hand and aimed them at the back door. "I think we are about to have a few uninvited guests in a moment."

“No problem.” Jenna smiled back up at him, relief flooding her face and voice as she lifted the hinge and looked into this emergency system and reached in, grabbing the manual pull handle and tugged it straight up. “And there!” She called out simultaneously, expecting the echo of an empty holodeck that… Didn’t come. She looked around the church again, eyes open wide, then put the handle back and pulled it again. Unbidden tears sprang to sudden life in her eyes as the failsafe manual abort failed to function. “No… No, no, no, no, no, no…”

Rene kept his voice calm as the soldiers outside smashed into the back door. He repeated what was quickly becoming a mantra, as much for himself as for her. "Work th problem. I will buy us some time." He glanced at her sword. "I will leave my main gauche, but I am going to take your sword." He shoved the flintlock pistols into his belt and took her sword in his left hand and moved to a position to cover the door.

Jenna nodded as Rene trotted to the back door as she rested in her heels. Think like an engineer. She wiped her eyes with the back of a hand as she looked at the screen that was on the bottom of the tile, one that showed the holodeck status. She tried to change the safety setting from ‘Off’ to ‘On’, but got an error message. That had just been random hope, since the computer had switched it without the standard warning in any case. She brought up the command prompt and considered as she muttered to herself alone, “All right… Can’t turn off the holodeck, which means it goes into default program procedure, we need to finish the program objectives… What if we…” She began to type furiously, with just a bare glance at the oversized dagger next to her as her only protection.

The back door burst in and a musket blast immediately followed. Smoke obscured the entrance, but a figure darted out of the smoke. Rene fired the pistol in his right hand and threw it in the direction of where the doorway was. He pulled the second pistol from his belt as the smoke started to clear. He saw the figure on the ground and, had it not been a holo character, would have felt bad for shooting the priest forced through the doorway first. He squeezed the trigger as a soldier filled the doorway. The soldier went down clutching his neck.

Jenna glanced up at the sound and heard the whip of the musket ball fly past her a few feet away. She had to refocus on this idea and hit the ‘execute’ key while mentally crossing her fingers. Triumph hit her as the holoprogram objectives changed from ‘Save the King’ to ‘Defeat the ambush at the church’, the green letters the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen. Now, to change the odds… She brought up a list and selected the third one front the top, then tapped the execute key again.

Rene quickly moved to the side of the entrance, his and Jenna’s swords now in hand. Soldiers dashed through the door and Rene found himself fighting four soldiers at once. He was able to drop one, but as the soldier fell he gave the officer in the doorway a clear shot. The pistol discharged and Rene felt an enormous pain in his chest before falling to the ground.

The crack of the pistol and something… Else forced her eyes up as the item she’d just added to the program materialized next to her. “Rene!” She shrieked in sheer panic as she saw Renee falling to the ground even as she stood up herself, grabbing the new item. It seemed like slow motion as the Guards officer pulled yet another pistol out and began to line it up on Rene’s head.

It wa without conscious thought that Jenna’s feet settled shoulder width apart and she racked the charging handle on the weapon, “Hey!” She called out to the three remaining Cardinal’s Guards, causing all three to turn their heads towards her, her own eyes blazing in anger, then to the oddly shaped ‘musket’ in her hands, “Say hello to my little friend.” She snapped as she pulled the trigger of the Thompson sub machine gun with circular magazine.

CLICK

Jenna glanced down and realized she’d not taken the safety off, “Oops.” She said softly and the two swordsmen leaped towards the now only threat as the officer began to swing his pistol as she thumbed the safety to automatic and pulled the trigger, free hand hanging onto the barrel grip to keep the weapon from merely shooting the ceiling.

With a firing rate of nearly nine hundred rounds per minute, the three Guards were shredded before the magazine ran dry and Jenna dropped it even as the holodeck announced, “Program completed.” And the scenery faded to the grid of the holodeck. Jenna had only had time to look towards the crumpled form of Rene when they were whisked away by a transporter beam.