Securing The Gladiator
Posted on Fri Mar 11th, 2022 @ 4:42pm by Captain David Hawkins & Commander Liala Ziyal & Commander Khelev ch'Koro & Lieutenant Commander Timia Svidi & Lieutenant Edruj Daughter of Thrawn & Lieutenant JG Eira Cortez & 1st Lieutenant Kyle Walken & Cadet Third Class Aarfa Barakzay & Petty Officer 1st Class Tia Smithy(Kosugi) & Emmah (Svidi)
Mission:
The Goddess
Location: U.S.S. Gladiator
6335 words - 12.7 OF Standard Post Measure
As the shuttle picked up from the cargo bay and headed for space, Timia looked back at the XO and the Captain of the other ship. "Alright, so who is giving orders here? Because we need to start looking for life signs. The tricorders and sensors were not really clear."
Liala cocked her head a little at Timia's comment as moments ago she had just given orders to move towards engineering. "I am Timia, Captain Hawkins was quite clear on that," she said looking towards Commander ch'Koro. "I have already said we are going to head towards engineering. If we come across signs of life we can investigate in pairs with a marine in tow for safety but we need to secure the ship first so we know the environment is safe before exploring further. As always I am open to suggestions but for now, let's go." she said moving towards the shuttle bay doors.
Cortez had been following behind everyone and was getting her gear in order so that she could start trying to get the Gladiator up and running again. "I've got no indications of any of the major systems being active as of yet. What do you think the chances we'll be able to get them up and running in Engineering?"
"With both Commander ch'Koro here and you, Lieutenant, I would wage pretty well," Corporal Zul'arra spoke up as she gripped her rifle in her hand. She was young, still, but that didn't cause her to worry to much as to what was before them. She had spent a bit of time on the Gladiator, both before and after her marine training. She had followed Captain Hawkins onto the Arcadia in the marines and had been a fully qualified dog handler with Hayter's own dog, Meeka. But on this mission, the canine was not required. They all knew what to expect. Even those that didn't have first hand experience as those of the old Gladiator crew with the Trinity cult and what they were about to walk into.
As the away team started down the large corridors of the secondary hall of the Gladiator. She had seen the works of the clan both in images and recreations on the holodeck to prepare herself. The horror of the atrocities was beyond what she had seen in person while alone on the planet with all the other children of her kind. She had hoped not to find such negativity once she had started to branch out of those that had rescued her and her people. But all it was doing was showing that the evil and twisted minds that had sent their people through to where they were found. She only hoped she could help those around.
Khelev arched one of his brows as his antenna shifted, Hawkins might have said she was in charge but he was the CO of his own ship. He would do what he needed to do to get the ship up and running. Turning to the team that had come with him, an engineering team and six members of the twelve man SPEAR team that were with him. The rest were heading to the civilian ship to back up the engineering team he'd sent that direction from his ship.
"Hawkins might have put you in charge, but this isn't my first time on a derelict. We need to secure the battle bridge and engineering. Master Chief, split the team in two and prepare to move out. As for our chances, we'll need to get power to the systems and run a few diagnostics but our scans showed the ship in salvageable shape."
Liala smiled at the Andorian, they sure had a fine personality and way with words. "You are right, he did put me in charge Commander." she began leaning in closer and quieter. "And because this is my 'first time' I have the grace and humility to accept ideas and help from people who think of things that I do not, from experts with that experience like yourself." she added leaning back out to speak to the group. "Commander ch'Koro is correct, securing the battle bridge is also essential. Thank you for your input, Commander. I am sure your team will keep us informed of everything." she said broadly turning to her own team from the Arcadia.
Walken wasn't sure if it was his time as an Enlisted marine coming back but he never got why officers had to fight over who gets to make the final call on something, he shook his head at the bickering before turning to Sergeant Rico. "Take Bravo team and cover our colleagues while they head for the battle bridge. Zul'arra take point, eyes peeled for anything."
"Good for you," Khelev replied quietly, the girl was in for a lot more than she bargained for. Whatever was going on here, it was only going to get worse before it got better. He had his fears, as he'd found a lot of ships like this in his time, but he was holding off on getting into detail. "Would you prefer me in engineering or the battle bridge?"
"Well, given this is 'not your first time on a derelict', I would say your skills are more suited to Engineering than the battle bridge. So, I'll head up to the battle bridge and see if we can make sense of what's happened on the way and once some power is restored I can get into the command logs for more information." Liala responded to the Andorian. "I believe we reach a break in the corridor ahead for heading to each section."
"That sounds wonderful," Khelev replied, his antenna thrashed at the air in irritation as he looked at her for a long moment. "All right, everyone heading to engineering with me. Let's get this old girl up and running."
Huddled in the dark, Aarfa hugged her knees to her, tail wrapped around her boots. The ship was cooling, not so much that a natural fur coat wouldn't protect her, but enough to notice a chill, especially for a Kainan who'd barely eaten in days. Cold, lack of atmosphere, radiation, or starvation - which will kill me first?
Tipping her head back, she half prayed that it was atmosphere. She'd done what she could to find a place better shielded from radiation, but while there was a head to supply water, the replicators had stopped working days ago. She was almost grateful she'd run her phaser out of charge trying to cut through the bulkhead that had sealed her away from the killing floor. If isolation drove her mad before the oxygen ran out, the madness wouldn't combine with hunger to drive her to cannibalism before the end...
An unexpected vibration sent her head snapping up. The sense of shift in the ship's motion brought her to sudden alert like a klaxon. She placed a hand flat against the deck and an ear against the bulkhead she leaned against. She couldn't hear anything, but there was a change in feel. Someone or something had altered the powerless drift that had been a rhythmic white noise of sensation for the past week.
Rescue? Or terrorists returning? She flexed her fingers - the normally neatly filed tips grown now to sharp claws. Every sense alert, she inhaled deeply, but no scents had yet filtered far enough through the air ducts, or none strong enough to be noticed beyond the smell of old blood and rotting flesh.
As the group moved forward in to the hall way the signs of a fight continued, clearly it had been a hell of a fight. Timia opened her tricorder as she hefted her medical kit on her back. "I'm still getting sporadic readings, there might be a life sign, but there might not be." she grumbled. "Hey you... Marine people..." she called ahead, "Make sure we're checking every room until we figure out if there are life signs or not!" she called ahead.
Ensign Romanoff had gone along in the team up to go to the Gladiator, she was here to gather more information as to what happened, running her own scans. The Russian scientist stepped forward following the medical officer from the Arcadia, she grimly looked at the signs of the battle, silently cursing the radiation that was playing with her equipment. She readjusted the instrument, to see if it would help more.
"Oof this is a mess." she remarked in a Russian accent, to Commander Svidi.
"There is an almost metallic smell in the air." Liala commented. "One I would quickly associate with the iron in blood." she closed her eyes for a moment and listened. The ship was truly dead in space with not so much as a hum from power conduits nearby. As she opened her eyes she noted streaks along a wall and moved towards them.
It was a handprint, one that began with a press before becoming a streaked and stretched marking on the wall. Liala nodded towards Timia to come over and look.
Walken poked his head in the room for a second before, "Corporal Zul'arra, stick with the Commanders search the room. I'm gonna take the next room." He moves further down the hallway, the door to the room stuck closed and powered down. Slinging his phaser rifle the marine pulls the door open, pushing into the room he scans it with the flashlight attached to his rifle after unslinging it.
"Copy," the young corporal responded and raised her rifle up with the laser addon active. She knew that they weren't going to find a living threat on the ship. But she knew not to take that chance.
Noise, a voice, and the door yanked open! Aarfa might have cried for joy at no longer being alone, but the scent of an unknown human hit her, and along with the sight of rifle barrel, she reeled, flashing back to the terrorists, the attack. The part of mind that had been tipping half feral from isolation rose, reacting to images of crewmates slaughtered, the smell of their blood filling her nostrils... They would not take her! Not without paying blood for blood! With deep growl, she sprang from her hiding place, using her powerful hind legs to leap at the human and sink her claws into the arm and shoulder controlling the rifle.
Instinct kicked in for the Marine as the claws sink into his arm and shoulder. Letting go of his rifle his Judo training growing up was his fall back, without the light not being able to see anything Kyle strikes out with his elbow swing at the unknown thing that had jumped him now. "Live one!" He shouts out in pain as he repeats his strike.
The man fell back with her weight, but Aarfa had practiced Dalraw since she was a pup and instinctively shifted to keep from a full roll that leave her on the bottom. The strike from his opposite elbow surprised her, but the sharp pain only made her dig her claws in harder, and after the second strike she snapped her head around, clamping jaws on the forearm before it could fully wind back for another strike.
Walken was running out of options, he could feel blood escaping his wounds now. Arms useless at this point and legs didn't have much of an angle or momentum to do much, the young man felt he had only one option back as he does what he can to headbutt the thing that had jumped him in the dark.
Timia jumped back as a fight began, she wanted to shoot the intruder and be done with it, so she could start medical treatment on Walken, but there was no way she would get a shot right now. Her hand was still on her phaser as she looked at the other marines, "Hurry up and stop that monster!" she screeched.
At the head butt, Aarfa had snarled, but she had not let go. The new person caught her attention though, or rather her nose - Starfleet Medical; that was a very distinct scent. Yes! The good guys had arrived just in time! Shifting a hand to arm-bar her attacker's throat, she released his other arm so she could yell, "Yes! I've got the monster down - someone shoot him!"
"Budet! That will do! Don't be a slaboumnyy, imbecile!" Ensign Romanoff yelled out. "We are tovarishch, I mean comrades!" shining a light towards where the combatants were. The light catching the dirty Star Fleet uniform on the humanoid canine.
"What the hell?!?!" Zul'arra questioned as she fixed her rifle on the two. The creature was a new to her and she had to decide to shot her or not. So she quickly shoved the rifle to her side and tackled the creature in uniform away from the officer. She quickly shuffled and unholstered her side arm to point at the threat. "Freeze!"
Aarfa blinked, staring in disbelief. Starfleet was attacking her now? Only half the ensigns words had made any sense, ratcheting up the sense this was a some kind of ploy or trap, and now someone was threatening to shoot her and not... She looked down and blinked again, the flashback that had overlaid... whoever this was... with the terrorist that first had come after her fading. Her eyes weren't best for static detail, but in the spot where his flashlight illuminated a patch of fabric she recognized with a jolt that he was in a marine uniform, just like the ones worn by so many in her extended pack. Releasing him, she lifted her hands, catching the glints of blood on her claws, tasting the salt and iron tang of his blood in her mouth. She lowered her head beginning to shake with the horror of what she had done. Oh gods... the madness did take me...
"That is enough!" Liala yelled at the top of her voice to ironically quieten the room and situation down. Walken had been released and the canine looking creature had backed off. The blood matted and wet into their fur Liala could see the panic in the persons eyes. Liala moved towards Walken and helped him up. "Dr Svidi, please see to Lieutenant Walken." she said passing him to Corporal Zul'arra to assist.
Liala then turned to face the very thing that had jumped them and could see the remnant of a uniform very much like their own but not quite meeting the grade. She walked forwards, her hands upwards and her walk slow and steady. Looking to the others with their weapons raised and nodded to lower them slightly but not so much that they couldn't use them in a flash if need be.
"I am Commander Ziyal, of the USS Arcadia. We do not mean you any harm. Please remain calm and we will have a much easier time together. Can you tell me your name?" she asked softly, never losing eye contact with them as she spoke.
"C-cadet..." Aarfa gulped air, trying to steady herself. Head still lowered with the weight of shame, she cleared her throat, willing herself to give a proper answer. "Cadet Aarfa Barakzay, assigned to the USS Gladiator."
Walken sat up through the pain gripping his wounds, adrenaline partly letting up. "Don't you hang your head in shame, Cadet Barakzay you kept on fighting! Would have done the same thing." Kyle grumbles in pain before laying back down on the ground.
Timia knelt down next to Walken quickly, opening her kit. "One should look before attacking." she snapped as she cut away the fabric around the Marines arm. "Hold still." she said sharply. "There are tears here, more than just punctures, this is going to be ugly. I can get you stable and covered for now, but I can tell you right now you and I are going to get to know each other a little more. You'll be seeing a lot of me." she said a little more gently. She quickly sprayed the wounds to cleanse it, "Sorry that likely stings like a bitch." she said.
Kyle groans from the thought of being stuck in sickbay, "Jeez doc you should at least buy me a drink first always a good ice breaker." The marine said in jest as he laid on the ground letting the CMO do her work.
She shook her head and quickly continued her work, pressing a hypo to the upper arm and giving anti biotics, "Who knows how long its been since that beast cleaned his teeth." she remarked before she returned to the wounds and started to use a temporary sealant.
Zul'arra looked over at the doctor and raised an eye brow before looking back at the new cadet. "Beast? You sound like Colonel Hayter. Kind of rude," the corporal remarked before lowering her weapon and stepped up to the canine slowly, almost felt as though she needed to treat her like she did with Meeka, the canine. With an open palms and calm voice, the corporal spoke "You are fine. What happened?"
Timia glanced up at Zul'arra "Get used to it." she muttered before she worked to check the other bite marks.
Aarfa glanced up hesitantly. The words from the man she'd fought momentarily warmed her - such a marine thing to say, especially after how badly she'd hurt him, a human without even fur for protection - but she couldn't help but think that the doctor was right. She had lost herself and in that moment she had become a monster, a beast, a thing striking out on fear and anger and instinct... "I'm so sorry..." she turned her head, exposing her throat in abject apology. "I thought... I didn't know his scent, but it was human... and they were all... " She clamped down as something like a whimper almost escaped her throat, and then the next words all came out in rush. "I don't know what happened, how they overwhelmed us. I was helping move pups to the saucer for separation when we were called for back-up in engineering. We were ambushed on the way. I broke free and the Lieutenant ordered me to run. I meant to get back-up, report, but the doors sealed behind me, and I tried - I smelled the blood, so much blood - I tried to go back, to do something to stop it... " she took a shaky breath, "But I was trapped here. Alone."
The information that came from the muzzle of Aarfa was quite alarming and made Liala's question all the more easier to ask. "Who overwhelmed you?" she asked placing her hand on their shoulder for comfort. She would get no information out of them if they closed up due to guilt or fear.
Yes, what they did to Walken was out of that fear and understandable to a point but still nonetheless an overreaction. That would be dealt with under 'safer' circumstances and not when they were trying to restart a drive section with, at the moment, no idea what happened to the crew, aside from blood smeared hallways.
The woman's hand was a comfort, real contact that provided a reassurance to Aarfa that she wasn't somehow hallucinating a rescue, even a seriously messed up one. Nothing made sense. "I wish I knew," she replied honestly. "They were all human, I'll never forget their scents... I could hear them, muffled, chanting ...something about 'Trinity'."
Liala turned to Timia at the mention of Trinity. There had been rumours around that they had returned but nothing concrete had been seen or had happened to confirm this. Now it seems there evidence was literally smeared right in front of them.
Timia looked up as she finished with Walken, "When we get back to Arcadia you report to sickbay, with no hesitation. Understand?" she said with a firm tone.
She stood up and looked at Liala, "So the Trinity was here." she grunted, "Which means every one is likely dead... including the Captain...?" she said with worry in her voice.
A low keening howl escaped Aarfa's throat. On some level she had known - she'd had nothing but the smell of blood and death for company these many days - but still she had clung to hope that some of the others had somehow survived... She collapsed, seeming to crumple in on herself - what was the point of holding on? First SB621 and now the Gladiator, each place she'd started to feel a sense of pack everyone around her died. It was as well these people saw her no more than a half-feral monster. They'd lock her away, and this time she wouldn't fight the madness...
Ensign Romanoff put away her tricorder and knelt down by Aarfa, then looked up at Timia and Liala, "I'll stay with her and keep watch."
"Let's hope not. Maybe the saucer separation was some escaping?" Liala suggested in hope before turning to Ensign Romanoff. "Until Lt. Walken is stable to move some of you aren't going anywhere. We need to clear the walkway as quick as possible and get this ship running. We need to--" she heard shouting from outside the room.
TIma turned quickly to the shouting, trying to get out of the way if someone was going to come in with fire, she didn't want to get hit. Self preservation and also being the medic, demanded she be free.
Edruj had been tucked into the ship's computer core for only a small amount of hours. However, with the chill in the air and the frustration building for not getting the computer working it felt like days. She let out a primal scream and punched the computer. The jarring caused the computer to whir to life for a split second. However, once that died out it was dead again. "A resequencing of the ISDN chips should do the trick. By Khaless what happened to this ship... Edruj muttered to herself as she got the chips re sequenced. A moment later, the computer whirred to life and emergency power came online. "Q'Pla!"
Edruj stepped out of the computer core and into the hallway as she wiped sweat from her ridges. She heard footfalls down the hall on a ship that she thought she was alone on. With the speed and accuracy that only a Klingon could muster she dropped to a knee and drew her phaser. "Who goes there? This is a Federation starship and you have no right to salvage."
There was some commotion out in the corridor, and from behind them came the bellowing cry of a female. The marines parted like the Red Sea of Earth and Liala walked out. The marines had pointed a weapon at what now appeared to be a Klingon female in engineering colours. The lights had faltered slightly but came up at the right time to reveal all Starfleet colours in the corridor. "Stand down, we are all on the same side." Liala spoke loudly.
Edruj was both curious and elated to see Starfleet officers before her. The Commander in red spoke with the authority that Edruj knew only a command officer could. She rose to her feet and holstered her weapon as she smiled. Well, on a Klingon face the smile appeared to be more of a grimace. "Commander, I am Lieutenant Edruj on leave. I was on my way to a Bat'Leth tournament when I cam upon this ship derelict in space. Decided to board her and see what happened."
Liala closed the gap slightly but only so much that she was still a safe distance away from the Klingon. After all, she could easily have put on a Starfleet uniform to cover herself if she got caught. She input the name on the PaDD she always carried, a miniature version, and a holo image appeared with the likeness of the officer in front of her. "Can never be too careful." Liala said shutting the mini-PaDD down.
"So, Lieutenant, how long have you been on board and what have you found?" Liala asked pressingly. If the Trinity were behind this they may not be far and she had people on this ship right now she had to think about.
Edruj adjusted her family sash and straightened her uniform before speaking. After all this was an official report. "I arrived about an hour ago and docked my shuttle in the shuttlebay. When I boarded the ship I found minimal life support powered and that was all. Since the computer core is on the same level as the shuttlebay I decided to get some power online before I investigated. Which brings us to the here and now. Is there something I should know Ma'am?"
As soon as Liala was about to reply to the Klingon Emmah contacted her from engineering and reported their situation. Liala notified her of the fact she was on her way and turned to Edruj. "I guess I will fill you in on the way." She said turning to the troop of people behind her. "Everyone pack up, we need to stick together and right now we will head to engineering."
The battle bridge wasn't overly critical, she could easily get what she needed from engineering.
As they began to walk to filled in Edruj about the Trinity and about what they were about to walk into.
The trip down to engineering was slow going, Khelev didn't want to push them too fast and miss something and get someone killed. For the most part it was quiet, dark and everyone was on edge. The signs of combat weren't everywhere but they were in enough places that it was ugly. They checked corridors and hallways, climbed down through the Jeffery's tubes before the came to the main door to engineering.
The fight here had been intense, there were a lot more scorch marks than in other parts of the ship. There was blood in several places and it looked like bodies had been dragged into engineering. There was also a symbol of the cult drawn in blood on the door. The team quickly got to work trying to activate the manual override. It took some work to prime before a few of them forced the doors open.
The smell that came through once they got the door cracked was horrific, it wasn't the first time most of them had smelled death but even that wasn't enough to prepare them for what they found. There were bodies hung from nearly every part, the floor was sticky with blood and the coppery smell in the air was over powering.
No one spoke a word as they entered, their lights illuminating more and more horrors, this was beyond words. Several of the SPEAR team that was with him started to work to get the bodies down. Khelev moved to pool table and let out a breath as he started to try and bring main power back online. The ship was running on back up batteries, so he checked auxiliary power before activating it. The lights in engineering came up and it only made it that much worse.
"I'm going to need help getting the warp core back up and running, but the impulse engines are coming on line," Khelev finally broke the silence.
"We're going to need body bags," Master Chief said gruffly.
"We'll have to get warp power online so we can start replicating what we need," Khelev said. "And that's going to take a little more work."
"Understood, sir. How can I help?"
"Take the other side of this console, we're going to run a level 3 diagnostic. I need you to keep an eye on the read out and call out any thing the computer flags. I'm going to start a visual check of the primary components."
Master Chief nodded, as he moved the console and started to watch the readout while Khelev moved over to a wall panel and popped it open and started to get to work. It took them about ten minutes to determine what was wrong, but without an engineering team it would probably take him a very long time to fix.
Khelev tapped his comm badge, "ch'Koro to away team. I'm in engineering, I've identified the problem but I'm going to need some engineering assistance to fix it."
"I'll be there in a few," Cortez tapped her commbadge in response. She wasn't an engineer by any means but being in Operations certainly had some weight to it so she knew the basics.
Stepping in through the door, the stench brought back the most unpleasant of memories for her including watching blood splatter the walls as her brother got shot point blank because of her. The smell was enough to almost make her gag. Once she reached the others, she putting down her things, "Commander ch'Koro, Lieutenant Cortez. How can I help?"
"Try not to think about what the security team is doing," Khelev turned to Cortez and gave her a nod. "The impulse engines are operating, they were damaged and I had to bypass some of the field coils, so it's not peak efficiency but we have heat and lights. Warp drive is offline, I can only cycle two of the deuterium tanks and none of the antimatter tanks. The magnetic containment fields are still intact or the ship wouldn't be here, so we have to figure out why the fuel isn't flowing."
Emmah had followed Cortez, wanting to get to Engineering, to get her eyes on home again. When she turned the corner and saw the bodies, the drained blood, and the Trinity symbol she paused. It had been years since she had seen it in person and it never ceased to shock her. "Has this been reported to Hawkins yet?" she asked ch'Koro as she moved forward looking around at the details. It was messier than the old sites, the rituals seemed to have changed, only an experienced eye would notice it.
"No, communications are spotty and I was more worried about getting this ship turned on. You're welcome to call him if you'd like," Khelev replied, his antenna turning inwards towards each other in a shrug. "For now, we have work to do."
Emmah nodded, "Sorry, I will stay out of the way." she said and backed away. She tapped her comm badge and attempted to contact the Arcadia, but as ch'koro said the communication failed. She opened the internal channel to Commander Ziyal, "Commander, I am in engineering, we've found the ritual site." she said. "Its in Engineering." she reported. "I am starting to capture images for the report." she said, able to take them, just by looking.
"We are on our way to you now." Liala responded back. "We didn't get very far and have picked up two new Starfleet officers. One is an engineer and may be able to lend a hand. We will be there shortly."
"I'll make sure to inform ch'Koro." Emmah said before closing the channel. As she walked through the bodies she looked for those she knew. A few faces were familiar to her, mostly security teams who had been on the Gladiator for a long time. She frowned as she reached the end of the 2 dozen bodies. Captain d'Jax was not here.
She glanced up as she heard new voices entering Engineering, the Commander and her teams were arriving. Knowing they would need a moment to take in the bodies she continued looking around. Along a larger open wall in the back of the room she found the Trinity symbol. A circle, with an x through it and a V on top, it was a little messy, drips falling from it. It was made of mixed blood, the blood of those who no longer had blood in their bodies.
She looked down at her feet and saw something else that didn't belong in an Engineering room. A scroll, it wasn't big, a few inches long. Emmah picked it up and looked it over, taking snap shots with her eyes as she examined it. "Commander." she called out, not really caring which managed to answer her. "I found something."
Realizing that the away team should not be separated, Romanoff with help from someone, moved the injured Walken and Aarfa in the direction of their goal. She ended up snapping a capsule under the nose of Aarfa to bring her out of her unconscious state. "You wake up, can't carry you as a dead weight." she quietly said. "and no biting. Time to help." Then moved to help put the bodies in the bags. She did her best to ignore the symbols upon the walls, it was horrifying. And it made her blood boil.
Aarfa blinked awake at the sharp scent of the capsule, and was immediately overtaken by the intense scent of old blood and decomp. The smell that had made the humans gag hit her acute olfactory senses like a hammer, momentarily overwhelming every other sense so that she barely registered Romanoff's words. Death, decomposing flesh... it hung in her nostrils, raising unbidden memories of the aftermath of the bombing ...remnants of torn limbs, the scent of burnt and decomposing flesh...
She shook her head sharply, willing that away; though a brief memory of concerned Amala had been for evacuated cadets only made the realization that these people saw her as nothing but a beast, unworthy of concern or so much as a medical scan, all the more bitter. Jerking away from the petty officer, she stumbled toward a body bag and lifted it, lifting her eyes for thefirst time as well. It only added to the impact - the lifeless bodies hung from rails and pylons were people she knew. Kaeva, Cadlon, Shras... their empty eyes seemed to stare back at her, and she jerked her head aside only to spot Jaxom practically crucified against the upper level screen, guts hanging from a hole in his side and some obscene symbol carved into his forehead. She doubled over, retching, and almost grateful to have had nothing to eat these last five days so that it was nothing more than dry heaves.
Edruj shouldered the engineering kit as she stepped into Main Engineering. She was immediately overtaken by the scents of blood, and decay. "Whoever did this is without honor." She said as she saw the bodies. In an effort to stay on task and not dwell on anything too much Edruj turned to Liala. "Orders Commander?" The Klingon woman knew that she could leave and return to her shore leave, however, now more than ever she needed to get to the bottom of this mystery.
Never before had Liala seen such cruelty, and she'd seen a lot. The Borg destroyed her world but they weren't cruel about it. They followed their need for perfection, their addiction of assimilation as mindless drones led by their Queen. This? This was cruelty on another level.
The smell hit her like a tonne of bricks almost knocking her over as her senses were attacked. The sights, smells and even the sounds of the bodies being brought down gave her a moments pause. For that moment she did say an internal prayer for those in front of them.
"Head over to Commander ch'Koro. He's the Andorian, and he's leading the repair effort here, he will know best where you can assist. I need to get my bearings first." Liala said moving further into the engineering bay. "Emmah, please contact the Arcadia and update them on what we have discovered so far."
She watched the Klingon woman as she marched up to ch'Koro. Time she better do the same and see where they stand. Time was of the essence and if the Trinity were close by then they had better work fast.
Just then, the ship jolted causing all of the personal to loose their footing momentarily. Before anyone could question this or even check on it, the voice of Captain Hawkins came over the communications systems. =^= Away team, this is Arcadia, hold on. We are tracterring the Gladiator away from the cargo ship. The cargo ship is about to self destruct. Brace yourselves,=^= he ordered as they heard him barking orders to the helm officer and the engineering teams. =^=Helm take us out, emergency thrust! Watch that tractor beam. Resolute, get your asses going and secure yourselves near the Arcadia. Once cleared, I want our ship's shields extended around the Gladiator and Resolute if needed.=^=
There was a moment where the Gladiator started to shack hard and caused the crew to move to a location they could hold onto. Without primary power up, the stabilizers were not in place so they were feeling it all.
=^=We are out of range of the radiation, extending shields now!=^=
About that time, the ships shook hard as the explosion of the cargo ship hit the Arcadia's deflectors. Even with the shields up, the ships rotated hard. A moment seemed to pass before Captain Hawkins spoke again but this time, there was slight irritation. =^= Away team, you all good?=^=
=^=Alright. If the Gladiator is secure, get back over here, we will send more personal as needed. Transporters are active once again. We will have a debriefing in a bet. Hawkins out. =^=
Timia looked around, she was of no help to the dead. She looked back at the Marine she had been treating, and the furry officer they had picked up. After the attack she'd been rushed and the others in the group had been handling the dog like person, so she never had a chance to really check it out. She was certain she was going to get hell for that later. She shook her head, "First transport is these two. Both of you are going straight to sickbay. No arguing."
