The Great Escape

Posted on Mon May 20th, 2019 @ 10:48pm by Captain Wilkan Targaryen & Galatea & Commander Nathan Hawkins & High Commissioner Jasmine Haynes
Edited on on Thu Jan 2nd, 2020 @ 5:32pm

3,947 words; about a 20 minute read

Mission: Atlantis
Location: Abandoned Street, Undisclosed Planet
Timeline: 2429-12-02, 12:00

There was something frightening about a city without its people. The massive metropolises of Earth were normally filled to the brim with people running back and forth, to and fro from this or that. Personal business, professional duties, the sounds of the symphony of life normally filled a town. People talking, children playing, automobile horns blaring as traffic flowed always brought about a clamor.

Today was far different from the norm. A few vehicles were parked about in the town at odd angles, abandoned by their passengers in a rush. Accidents were visible here and there. The most shocking thing of the hustle and bustle though was by far one devastating fact.

No people.

The town was deserted, not a single soul. The music of the strong winds the only sound to be heard. Debris and other flotsam of ages past littered the streets and got drawn up into the flowing wind. The seaside town did have one happy denizen. A family of alligators slithered about, exploring and studying the empty streets. Refuse bins fall as they plow through them, sending garbage flying everywhere. One, the father, scurried from amidst an ancient bank sending the money fluttering about in the wind, its tail sending a large cloud of the forgotten bills into the sky.

As the cloud scattered they came to land atop the rusted out frame of an ancient vehicle from an era long forgotten. One of the gators skittered up atop of it to get a better vantage toward the sun. It's legs, struggling for footing, lightly breaking into the windscreen. Beneath the spidered glass the bones of a long dead woman sit in the pilot's seat, her final resting place forever disturbed by the bulk. Beside her the remains of her passenger, a child, lay in the other seat broken and misshapen. The tail of the monster slammed against the window, shattering it into thousands of splinters that rained down atop the dead.

In the distance the sound of footsteps on pavement disturbed the reverie of silence. A shadow started to move closer and closer to the source, the darkness starting to envelop the craft as it took on the shape of a human. Blinding light from the sun that the alligator craved so desperately made the man's face hard to discern, but something was dangerously wrong with the town's denizen. His skin was dark and a mix of blue and grey. Blood was caked across his chest from a massive gaping wound that had never healed.

He wasn't alone. Behind him hundred, perhaps even thousands, more lumbered amidst the streets. They came in every size, shape, and color that someone could imagine as they maneuvered slowly through the streets. They wandered about without purpose, without need, throughout the metropolis. The city has become theirs without the firing of a single shot, the last remnants of the town's humanity. Some had tried to end it, to save themselves from this disturbing fate on their own terms. One, picked apart by the birds and other scavengers, struggled to free itself from a noose. Its struggles costing it the last remaining arm, having lost the battle with deterioration. The black flesh cracked more and more, the bulk breaking free from the neck and slamming into the pavement. Bones and sinew shattered like clay, splintering and skittering out on the ground.

"Damn," Admiral William Teagarden cursed in a whisper as one of the bones rolled into his foot. The citizens of the graveyard turned toward the source and stared, their blank eyes piercing into the space where the Admiral was hiding looking for the origin. Watching closely the Commander of Starfleet One hoped, prayed that they wouldn't decide to investigate. Their base instincts wanted them to search for food, to propagate their deadly virus, but would this be enough to draw them near?

The vast majority continued on their merry way - the never ending search for food drawing them away. But not all. A small group of four broke free from the main and pursued him, coming near in their slow pace. Checking the readouts of his phaser pistol he knew his chances were slim. The power pack had been depleted fast fighting these ghoulish monsters. 100 shots were available per cell and now he was down to only 8 left. A perfect hit was needed to take these creatures down, but the chances of getting such a perfect shot grew harder and harder as they began to swarm.

The other option was the best choice. Making too much noise would attract the herd and he'd surely be killed. Direct hand to hand was the best choice if he could lure them away. Pulling his dagger from its holster, the Admiral went into a defensive stance and lowered himself down. The first of the monsters lunged for him and the Admiral met his attack by slamming his body into it. Pushing the frail creature back, William moved as quickly as his body would allow. The dagger plunged into the neck first and was quickly followed up with a second in the side of the head. The creature immediately went limp and collapsed at his feet.

Two of the others weren't impressed. Mindlessly, they moved toward him and both plowed into the Admiral this time. He fell back as they grabbed for him. William shifted, breaking free from the hold. Backhanding the monster with a closed fist it stumbled back as its emaciated face shattered. The third grabbed for the Admiral's back, but he was able to break free before it grabbed hold. Kicking back into its chest, the ribs cracked and collapsed. He thrust the knife up into the jaw of the fourth and through the brain in time to free himself and kill the second by breaking the neck and pulling the head free.

Unfortunately he hadn't been able to avoid the herd. The group turned, having seen the melee, and started for him.

This was not going to be a good day. He wondered how the other two were fairing...

Jasmine was a little caught off guard, luckily her training as a security officer came in handy. She find herself, on the defensive. For every move her opponent made, she was able to counter it. Clearly the creature she had been fighting with, had years of experience with hunting wild animals. The hand to hand combat, was not really working between Jasmine and her unknown creature. They kept anticipating each others move. Jasmine, finally managed to get her knife out of her sleeve. The two of them, were breathing pretty hard. The creature gave a loud growl like sound, that seemed to make time stand still. Everything felt like it had been travelling in slow motion. Shaking her head, she motioned the creature to come after her now. She had the knife, prompt and ready to strike.

The creature came full speed at Jasmine, she managed to avoid the charge, and slice a small incision into the creatures forward right leg. The creature cried out in pain, which only seemed to be pissed it off. Jasmine, prepared for the creatures next charge. She noticed that Admiral had finished off his creature. She did not say anything as the creature came charging again, this time instead of stepping to the side, she jumped over it, stabbing it in the neck, this caused the creature to drop on the floor. It was not moving, but still breathing hard. Maybe she stunned it, she thought. The knife was still in the neck of the creature. Jasmine prepared to remove the knife, when she looked to William.

Another gator slithered into view, it seemed to hesitate momentarily as if weighing up its changes against the third Starfleet Officer. Like his colleagues the power cell in his phaser was near depletion and he too had to resort of the standard issue knife to defend himself. Maybe the creature had sensed weariness or the scent of previous spilt blood it charged at Hawkins with luster, its heavy body covering the rough ground surprisingly quickly. It's jaw opened wide with a menacing hiss, teeth bared ready to strike, it ploughed forward causing Hawkins to quickly leap aside. The hissing sound intensified annoyed its prey escaped as the jaws slammed shut, now standing to the side Nathan was able to thrust his blade forward slicing into the fleshy exposed side.

Angrily it thrashing its powerful tail connecting with Nathan's knees bring him down in a whirl of dust. Sensing the upper hand the gator twisted to chew on the clumsy human only to see a blade rushing toward its head before realising its error Hawkins had pierced its skull killing it. With a grunt Nathan heaved the dead creature aside and retook his feet. He'd heard the others battling similar foes and could see many more making steady progress toward them. "What's the plan?" he asked softly.

"Get out of here, before more of those creatures show up. Is my recommendation." Jasmine said, as she looked to Nathan. Making sure he was okay, then she looked at William to make sure he was alright. She was a little agitated, that their hand held phasers, depleted so quickly. She would have to explore that mystery another time.

The Admiral positioned himself to observe the coming herd, having broken free of the last of his undead attackers. Once the herd overtook them there would be no escape so they had to move quickly if they were to achieve their objective.

Finding the other two officers he called out, "Fall back to the marina. Double time!"

Jasmine started to fall back with the Admiral and and Commander Hawkins. She could see the creatures, were ready to strike again. At the moment, Jasmine and the team had the advantage over the creatures. She kept the knife she had, close to her side. She was still curious, why her power cell on her phaser, drained so fast.

The Admiral double checked his power cell as he moved. 8 shots remained from the unit as it had to be set on kill. This was one of the few things about the new weapons that he didn't like. They always seemed to be depleted when you needed them most and there was no where to recharge on this entire planet. Its technology was ancient compared to their standards - prewar actually - and their presence here was against every policy that the Federation had. But they had to be. This is where their mission was.

If they could reach the marina they could use the boat there to escape from the continued enemy onslaught. They had set up their emergency escape craft when they first arrived and it was nearing that time. They had accomplished their objective and found the source of the signal from this planet, but it had been too late. The caller had fallen to the effects of the virus and the team had gotten separated during their retreat. Worse, they couldn't be beamed out because of some unknown interference.

Turning a corner the Admiral lifted the phaser to probe the area before moving forward. It was clear. Slowly he walked, waiting for the others to catch him and hoping they didn't get outflanked by the enemy.

How does she keep getting themselves into these predicaments? First a Governor now some creature is threatening her life. The team started to make there way to the marina. As they approached the the marina, another group of creatures started to come from the road to the east of their location. They were being corned, a classic attack approach. Jasmine called out, "To the east Admiral." She said, giving him fair warning.

William looked to his side, seeing the approaching group. He smiled, "Just another challenge, Commander. Not the first time I've faced odds like these. Remind me to tell you about the Gorn warship."

"Let's try not to make this habit Admiral, all these challenges will catch up to you." Jasmine said, as they continued to head towards the marina.

Hawkins kept pace with the other two as they hurried toward the marina. The swarming, giant creatures were relentless in they'll advance as they pressed in. Yet, despite this Teagarden had the gall to make a joke.

The Commander of Starfleet One looked at the group, "I have 8 shots left on my phaser. I can overload it and lessen the crowd, but then I'd be without a weapon. The Marina is right down that street less than half a kilometer. Think we can make it?"

"Recommend we use them to scare the creatures, in slowing down their advance, give us more time to reach the marina." Jasmine said, wishing she still had rounds left with her hand held unit.

"Could use mine instead," Hawkins injected. "There's only six shots left. Given how many things we've already seen I think a distraction would take the heat off us. Might buy us enough time to make it to safety."

William grinned as he looked at his new Security Officer, "Your choice, Chief."

"Good idea Commander Hawkins, we should use your weapon to keep the creatures at bay, while we all fall back to the marina." Jasmine said, as he looked to the Commander and then the Admiral. They were not going to win this fight with phasers.

Catching Haynes concerned gaze Hawkins hoped the explosion would buy them enough time to make it to the harbour, board the vessel and move to safety to be rescued. Alligators were built to swim not clamber over ground especially not in a hurry seeking prey over distance. They'd be easy pickings in the water, and with only one phaser between them.

"Just say when," Nathan drew his weapon and keyed the controls.

The Admiral looked at the two others, knowing that time was of the essence. When their makeshift bomb was thrown they would have a few moments of freedom, but moments only. They would have to run as quickly as possible to avoid the enemy and get to their escape route.

"The second it detonates run, double time, to the marina and don't look back."

"Understand," Hawkins nodded flicking a glance over his shoulder. "Like to do the honours Admiral?"

The Commanding Officer nodded. Holding their makeshift grenade he carefully surveyed the scene, studying the environment as quickly as he could to make their last ditch weapon as effective as they could. He threw the weapon, knowing that they had only three seconds until the detonation.

Jasmine watched as the Admiral prepared to throw the makeshift bomb, as he did the three of them started to make a run for it. Jasmine raced as fast as she could for the marina. She did not want to be in the blast radius. She never felt such urgency in her life. She felt her body pushing itself harder than she ever thought it could. The three of them made it to the Marina, but not before the percussion wave of the bomb hit them. Luckily they were far enough away, the only thing she had was a slight ringing in her ears.

They surveyed the scene of the rickety marina long forgotten. Time or the gators and destroyed several of moorings, the boats had drifted away years ago, the wooden piers we're rotten and sections were missing their planks. Luckily their escape raft was waiting for them:"That's a relief," Hawkins panted.

The Admiral stumbled behind them, crimson coloured blood coming from the side of his torso as a piece of shrapnel from the thrown grenade was embedded in his side. He looked at the two from his tactical department, "Looks like I may've misjudged the situation a bit." He coughed, a little blood coming from his mouth as well as the enemy forces started to regroup.

"Christ," Hawkins whispered moving closer to his superior and supported his weight to help him toward the craft.

"Get me to the escape craft. We hid a medkit on it," he commanded as they started down the stairs toward their vessel. "We have to escape from here." The alligator creatures were near, but so were the undead humanoids. One bite and they would become one of them.

The Admiral lifted his phaser and fired a pulse to destroy one of them, knowing now he only had seven shots remaining. He hoped he was still alive when they reached their escape craft.

"Haynes, go ahead and get ready to launch!" Hawkins ordered helping the Admiral down the final few steps.

Jasmine got into position. She was already on the craft, preparing for emergency departure. She was firing up the engines as they hummed to life. The sound created a small vibration. Jasmine was unaffected by it. She looked to see if the Admiral and the Commander were on board. It was time to go.

Desperately wishing they had a second weapon to defend themselves Hawkins hurried, half dragging the Admiral aboard the craft with there foes nipping at the heels. "We're in, go, go!" he called loudly fumbling with the manual door controls and keeping themselves both upright.

The craft started to build up momentum, to leave. A couple of creatures were trying to attack the door, when Jasmine pushed the throttle up and they raced out of the area. Her adrenaline was pumping. As they made their way out of harms way. "What was that, a welcoming party?" She asked, as the craft started to take off.

"Oh sh -!" came the response from a started Hawkins.

Before the door had been fully secured a bulky gator had muscled it's away aboard!

The Admiral fired his phaser square into the chest of the creature as it approached. The energy pulse enveloped the enemy, quickly overcoming and making it vanish as the phaser set to heavy disrupt disintegrated the alien. "I hate uninvited guests," the Admiral quipped when it was finally gone.

"You and I both sir." Jasmine said, as laid down on the throttle to full power. The more distance from those creatures, the happier she would be.

"I second that," Nathan exhaled with relief.

A moment later the holographic form of Starfleet One's Artificial Intelligence, Galatea, appeared before them. She was dressed in the Starfleet Tactical Uniform used for risky missions instead of her customary uniform. "Simulation complete," she announced.

Around them the open sea and escape craft disappeared only to be replaced by the familiar hologrid of the holodeck aboard Starfleet One. The Admiral tugged on his uniform, but the blood didn't disappear this time.

Galatea was the one who challenged him, but not in the way someone would expect. "Again? Seriously?"

"You should get that looked at sir." Jasmine said, as she went on. "I do have a question, why did we limit the power cell usage on our phasers?" She asked, wondering if the Admiral liked toying with death, or if he some valid reason for it. Jasmine already felt like she had her brush with death, when John Warren was injured in the line of duty, and recovering. Last she heard, she was still in a vegetative state. Her heart went out to him. But this assignment was a dream come true for her.

Nathan smirked at Galatea's tease, clearly she and Teagarden we're exceptional close, something he didn't have a chance with the Vigilance's AI, Lance.

"You never know what's going to happen on one of these types of missions, Commander, you may have shot more things than you realized or the program may have been set to deplete phaser power at double speed," William answered wishing he'd been more careful. He felt the searing pain in his side, "I only wish I'd learn to keep the safeties engaged when I run this training program. This is the first time I'd been injured."

"Certainly a unique scenario, challenging though. Maybe, a tad too realistic." Nathan nodded to Will's injury. "Would you like us to escort you to sickbay, sir?"

The Admiral waved them away, "I'm meeting with Doctor Porter in a few minutes. I'll ask him to bring a dermal regenerator and his medkit." He smirked, "This being on report could be a career ender. Well at least that was what the Captain of the first ship I was XO on told me once."

"It would not be a hassle sir, to walk with you to sickbay. And thank you for the clarification." Jasmine said, as she looked to the Admiral, and hope he would swallow his pride, and take the assistance.

"Thank you, Commander, but I'll be fine," he said with a smile. He gave a nervous chuckle, "Had worse than this the last time my wife was mad at me and she's part Deltan. She can take pain away or make it a Hell of a lot worse."

"Maybe we should head out?"

"Come on Haynes the Admiral will be fine," Hawkins reassured her though not one hundred percent convinced himself. He gave Teagarden the benefit of the doubt knowing Porter would be more than thorougher plus annoyed at him for the lack of judgement. Admiral Kor, his previous CO was loose with the safeties on occasion, but he was also a Klingon and could take much more punishment. "Beside Galatea will keep him in check."

The representation of the Artificial Intelligence Monitoring System nodded, "Indeed I will. I have already alerted Doctor Porter to your desire to see him and that you have requested he bring along his medical kit, Admiral. We have also received notice from Starfleet Headquarters that Fleet Admiral Lynz wants to come aboard before we depart for our mission. She wants to meet with you."

"My wife is asking to meet with me on an official channel?" William asked surprised.

"I wouldn't have said it if she didn't," Galatea answered in a snarky tone.

"That's never a good sign," he said as the blood pooled a little on his uniform. Something was wrong this time, he could feel it. Sherwin would be along soon and he'd be back to normal. "I enjoyed our little match, Commanders, we'll have to do this again sometime. I have an historical training exercise from the era of the Federation/Klingon conflicts of the 2250s that gives this one a run for its money."

Jasmine tried not to smile, but what he said made her grin. That stubborn old man. She said to herself, as she started to walk towards the exit. "Let's let the doctor patch you up first, before we think about next sir." Jasmine said, with a big grin on her face.

Teagarden smiled, "Now where's the fun in that?"

"The fun will be me keeping my job, sir." Jasmine said as she tried to lead the Admiral out of the room, to see the doctors. She was very concerned for his safety. She did not agree with his call, to prolong medical help.

"Your concern is touching, Commander," Teagarden answered proudly. At least he knew his Chief of Security would always have his protection foremost in her mind. "I'm ready to head out. We should be arriving at our distress call soon and I'd like to get cleaned up before then. Anything else for the good of the order?"

Hawkins shook his head slightly as Haynes continued to push slightly. Though it was reassuring to see her concern for their CO it appears she needed to understand at accept a negative answer also.

"Very well then," Teagarden said after a minute. "Galatea, let's not keep the Doctor waiting and see you on the Bridge, Commanders. Dismissed."

 

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