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Written by: Jon Van Pelt
Edited by: Bart Vandezande
Lieutenant Reed crawled through a narrow access tube as he held a phase pistol in his right hand, seemingly holding on to it for dear life. Beads of sweat covered his forehead. He had just managed to escape from his quarters without being detected and had reached the armory to get his hand on a phase pistol to protect himself. It had been only three hours ago when Enterprise was studying a nebula, unaware of the fact that three Orion raiders were lurking inside the nebula, ready to attack. Ship and crew didn’t stand much of a chance. The polarized hull plating fell off-line after being exposed to ten minutes of intense weapon’s fire. After that it didn’t take long before the Orions sent their shuttles, attaching themselves to Enterprise as leaches onto a dead body. Although Reed and his security team had put up a good fight against the Orion intruders, they were quickly outnumbered and outgunned. The ship’s corridors were littered with corpses of Enterprise’s crew. How many? Reed couldn’t say for sure. He counted a dozen bodies as the Orion pirates escorted him to his quarters where they thought they locked him up safe and secure. He guessed most likely half of the crew died during the attack. It could be less. Or maybe even more. Quite frankly at this moment: what did it matter? The only thing on his mind right now was to figure a way out of this mess. If he could reach a few other crewmembers, maybe even the captain - if he was still alive of course - they could start working on a plan to free themselves out of the clutches of these Orion bastards. Edison had quite the reputation when it came to dealing with Orion pirates. The man had even blown up his own ship once to keep it from falling into their green hands. He remembered Captain Edison had served under his father, admiral Stuart Reed, on board the U.S.S. Lexington when his father was still a captain. Having grown up on Vega Colony, located at the outer edges of human explored space, Edison had a reputation of being a tough bastard and difficult to work with. But apparently his father saw something in the frontier boy, a diamond in the rough as the saying went. His father always considered Edison to be his protégé and molded him into the perfect navy officer. There was no doubt in Reed’s mind that it was his father who had pushed the Admiralty for promoting Edison to CO of Enterprise. A career move no one saw coming, probably not even Edison himself. His father however could be very persuasive if it served his purpose. Always planning and scheming to strengthen his own position within Earth’s government. Edison was nothing but another pawn in his power play. Would the captain even realize that, he often wondered. Reed himself however, tired of being forced to follow in his father’s footsteps, longing to forge his own destiny without his father’s shadow looming over him, had decided years ago to resign his commission with Earth’s Stellar Navy. He soon joined the security agency at the UESPA which eventually landed him the position of armory officer on board Enterprise. His father never spoke to him again after his resignation with the navy. Not that it actually mattered much. A conversation with his father usually evolved into a discussion, finally ending in an argument. Did he even know that his son was on board Earth’s first warp five ship? Reed shook his head as he continued crawling through the access tubes. His father, the great admiral Stuart Reed, had eyes and ears everywhere. No doubt one of his minions had reported him on his son’s new posting. Deep inside, he had hoped his father would’ve contacted him before Enterprise left the drydock. If not to say their goodbyes, then at least to have one final argument between father and son. He had checked his messages daily, but nothing. Nada. How ironic was it that he Malcom, the prodigal son, would end up on board a ship together with Edison - the son his father wanted but never had. Up until now, the captain had never brought up the subject of admiral Reed. He had probably heard about their difficult relationship and decided not to push where it hurt. Perhaps if he’s invited to the captain’s table, they could talk about their shared history, Reed thought. Tackle the elephant in the room before it gets too big. After all, due to his relationship with his father, Edison came as close to a brother he never had. As the lieutenant took a left turn into another access tunnel:
***
Where captain Edison, bare chested and arms tied up to the ceiling, is being interrogated by Sakarra - the young and dashing, but cold-blooded brute in charge of the Orion boarding party. As soon as Edison realized they’d lose control of Enterprise, he and Hernandez locked the computer core with an encryption code. And since he was the only one on board who had memorized the key to unlock it, it made him the prime target for the Orion pirates to test their latest torture techniques. Having been subjected to Sakarra’s electric pain stick for the past hour, Edison’s torso was covered in bruises caused by internal bleeding. So far however, except for curses and insults, Edison had not yet revealed the password - much to the frustration of Sakarra and his two guardsmen who watched the interrogation. “I must admit, captain, you are a worthy opponent. Most humans I’ve encountered wouldn’t last five minutes. I admire your endurance,” Sakarra brought his face closer to Edison’s “But you and I both know there can be only one outcome here today.” Unimpressed by Sakarra’s poor attempt at flattery, Edison spat him in the face: “And that’s me burning a hole through your chest with my phase pistol.” One of the two Orion guardsmen started laughing, apparently amused by the captain’s dark sense of humor. Sakarra’s eyes burned with anger as he wiped the spit of his face. He reached for the knife that dangled on his belt. As he took it out and slowly pushed its point against Edison’s throat, blood started to trickle down. And just as Edison closed his eyes, preparing himself for the afterlife that was soon to come, in a swift and elegant move Sakarra swung round and cut the throat of his guardsman who, only moments ago, was laughing at Edison’s comeback line. The smile on the guardsman’s face disappeared as he dropped down onto his knees. His eyes widened in disbelief as he put his hands on his throat in a futile attempt to stop the blood from spraying out of his artery. The life finally drawn out of him, the guardsman dropped dead onto the floor in a pool of green blood. As Sakarra took out a piece of cloth to wipe his knife clean, Edison mockingly noticed: “That’s one Orion less I have to kill. Guess I should thank you.” “I wouldn’t start thanking me just yet captain,” with a sinister smile Sakarra looked at his other henchman, “Let’s see if this ship’s first officer is as tough as her captain.” The other guardsman smiled and nodded as he turned around and exited the mess hall, on his way to commander Hernandez’ quarters. The thought of Sakarra torturing one of his crew to get him to talk, made Edison even more furious. Frustrated, he started pulling at the chains that kept him locked to the ceiling. Sakarra started laughing, pleased to have finally found a way to make Edison talk. “You ugly green bastard,” Edison shouted. “Spare me your insults captain. They are nothing but wasted energy”, as he placed his knife up against Edison’s throat, “Just tell me what I need to know. Let me have Enterprise.” As Sakarra turned round again and started walking towards one of the portholes, looking out into space: “I read your resumé captain. I have to admit I was quite impressed. Someone like you is destined for greater things than commandeering a vessel filled with scientists. Men like you and I are true bred leaders.” As he spun around, holding his knife up in the air: “I can offer you a world of riches you never thought possible. Join me now and I will reward you generously.” Edison looked down at his feet, seemingly contemplating Sakarra’s offer. In reality however he was trying to buy a bit more time as he noticed, a few meters further down the mess hall, the ventilation grill being lowered and then pulled up through the ceiling. Someone was carefully lowering him - or herself - down into the mess hall. This could be their only chance to turn the tables on the Orions. His heart pounded inside his chest. Suddenly, with a big thud, lieutenant Reed landed on both feet on the mess hall floor. Startled by the noise coming from behind him, Sakarra turned around. His eyes widened, shocked and horrified as he stared straight at the phase pistol pointed directly at him by the lieutenant. “Your timing couldn’t have been any better lieutenant.”, Edison smiled, “I was getting tired of being this asshole’s punching bag.” As the initial shock subsided, Sakarra soon realized the dangerousness of the situation he found himself in. As he slowly and carefully raised his arm, trying hard not to draw attention to the knife he was still holding in his hand, in one swift move he hurdled the knife straight at Reed. “Watch out Mal!”, Edison shouted. The warning came just in time as Reed managed to duck away as the knife hit the serving cases behind him. Down on one knee but with the phase pistol still firmly in his right hand, Reed instinctively pulled its trigger. A yellow phase beam left the barrel of the phase pistol and hit Sakarra straight in the chest. As Sakarra saw the flesh wound in the hole burned through his jacket, he started panicking. Green blood started spilling out. His hands reached for his chest in an attempt to somehow miraculously heal his wound. And just then, as if his body somehow realized it could not be saved, his eyes turned white as his body dropped dead onto the mess hall floor. Reed lowered his phase pistol as he puffed out the air that had been building up inside his lungs. That one came pretty damn close. He looked back up as he heard Edison rattling his chains. “You have to get me out of this chains lieutenant. One of his henchmen is on his way back up here with commander Hernandez. We’ve got to move fast.” Reed quickly got back up on his feet and put on a spurt towards the captain. As he changed the setting on his phase pistol, he carefully fired a narrow beam at the metal shackles that were holding the captain constrained. Finally freed, Edison grimaced as he looked down at his bruised and painful wrists. “What are your orders, captain?” Edison looked up at Reed, vengeance written all over his face: “Let’s get those Orion scumbags off of my ship.” Suddenly the door to the mess hall slid open as commander Hernandez was being pushed through the doorway, soon followed by Sakarra’s henchman. As the door closed again behind them, the Orion stopped in his tracks as he saw the lifeless body of Sakarra laying on the floor. He immediately reached for his disruptor, but before he could reach for its holster, Hernandez was quick enough to punch him in the stomach with her elbow. She then turned around and in one quick move, using her right leg, she managed to floor the Orion. She dropped her knee on his back and pulled out the disruptor from the holster hanging on his belt. As she placed it against his head: “One wrong move.” Realizing there was no way he could get out of his precarious situation, he put his head down onto the floor thus signaling his surrender. “Good.”, Hernandez dryly replied. As she looked up at Edison and Reed dryly stated: “So. We managed to free ourselves. What do we do next?” Edison took a look outside the viewport. As he saw one of the Orion ships hoovering next to Enterprise: “We’re outnumbered, outgunned and surrounded by enemy vessels.” Reed placed his hands on his hips as he contemplated their predicament when suddenly his eyes caught a glimpse of the wristband communicator on Sakarra’s left arm. As he looked back up at Edison: “I think I may have found a way to get these pirates off our ship, Sir.” On Edison’s questioning look:
***
All the Orion pirates that had been part of the boarding party seemed to have gathered down here at the launch bay. It was part of Lieutenant Reed’s clever devised ruse to use Sakarra’s communicator to order them to assemble down here. The three of them would’ve never stood a chance against the Orions if they had to fight them off deck by deck. Luckily for them, the Orion pirates weren’t known for questioning direct orders from their leader. The Orions wandered around. Sounds of banter and laughter echoed across the launch bay. None of them seemed to notice the presence of Reed above them, on the top level of the launch bay, as he crawled down on both hands and feet towards the control booth. Once safely inside the control booth, he got back up on his feet to get a better look at the control system board. Finding the right entry codes, he quickly locked all exits inside the launch bay. Meanwhile the Orion pirates kept on talking and laughing, unaware of the doom that loomed on all of them. Suddenly an alarm claxon went off, soon followed by the red emergency flashing lights. Startled by the alarms, the Orions looked around the launch bay, trying to figure out what was happening. Finally a few of them looked up at the control booth as they noticed lieutenant Reed standing behind the controls. Suddenly some of them started shouting as they pushed the others out of the way to get to the stairs. Inside the control both Reed smiled as he watched the chaos unfold beneath him. As his finger hovered above a red key: “I’m sorry guys. Don’t take it too personal.” As he pushed the red key, he activated the decompression of the launch bay. After that the doors of the launch bay slowly opened. The Orions who were still standing on those doors, were the first ones to drop out of the ship and into the vacuum of space. As the remaining air was blown out of the launch bay, so were the remaining Orion pirates. Some of them desperately tried to hold on to the railings but even they couldn’t fight the laws of physics. As the last Orion was sucked out into space, Reed pushed another set of keys on his control panel to close the launch bay doors again. Activating a com channel to the bridge:
***
Where Edison had taken a seat at helm control and Hernandez found herself manning the tactical station. As lieutenant Reed’s voice echoed over the ship’s intercom: “We’ve just ditched our Orion guests captain. The ship is yours again.” Edison pushed the com key on his control panel: “Thank you lieutenant. We’ll take it up from here.” As he looked over his shoulder at Hernandez: “Ready to do some hunting, commander?” Sitting somewhat uncomfortable behind tactical, realizing that with just one push of a button she had the power to decide over life and death, Hernandez just slightly nodded her head, signaling Edison they were ready to go. As the captain turned his attention back to helm control: “Well, it’s all or nothing now.” On the view screen they saw one of the Orion raiders coming up close as Edison steered the Enterprise into firing range. “Now commander!”, he shouted without looking back at her. It took Hernandez a few moments to align the targeting sensors, but as she got a clear lock on the Orion raider’s engineering section, she fired the phase cannons. Up on the view screen, they witnessed the Orion raider getting hit by a series of yellow phase beams coming from Enterprise. It was clearly a direct hit as the raider’s nacelles flickered on and off before coming to a dead stop. Edison turned the ship around as another Orion raider came into view. Meanwhile Hernandez executed the command codes to target the Orion’s weapon’s system. As she did, on the view screen we saw another yellow beam as it hit the Orions, crippling their defenses. Looking at the burning hull of the Orion raider, Edison reflected: “I think we’ve done enough damage here to keep themselves busy for the next couple of hours, don’t you think?” “The sooner we get out of here, the better Sir.”, she calmly replied. “I couldn’t agree more, commander.” As Edison turned the ship around and prepared to go to warp, suddenly the bridge around them turned pitch black.
***
Where doctor Adanna Soong was busy monitoring the bio signs of captain Edison, commander Hernandez and lieutenant Reed who were all sitting in a chair wearing a VR headset and matching black gloves. As doctor Soong disconnected them from the simulation, Edison was the first one to take off his helmet: “For a moment there, I had almost forgotten we were in a virtual simulation.” “I just hate these assault scenarios.”, Hernandez continued, “How were our readings doctor?” “Within normal parameters commander”, the doctor answered with a worrisome look in her eyes, “I just hope we’ll never have to endure this kind of stress levels in real life.” “Congratulations lieutenant,” the captain said as Reed took off his helmet and gloves, “If it weren’t for you, we’d be all sold off as slaves. How does it feel to be the man who saved Enterprise?” Trying not to show too much excitement - it was just a simulation after all - Reed responded with a smile: “Like the good doctor just said captain: let’s hope we’ll never face this kind of situation in real life.”
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