Burning (Backpost)

Posted on Sun May 17, 2015 @ 11:42am by Lieutenant Nicole Anderson

1,884 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: All this has happened before...
Location: Holodeck
Timeline: Just before the Bethesda mission

Nicole stepped into the holdeck. "Computer," she said, "load program Ommadawn-3."

The gothic ship formed around her and she repressed a shudder.

Alec arrived a few moments later, he wasn't sure how the Doctor was going to receive him after their last team up on the alien ship but he gave his word to help her and he would. "Doctor." He greeted her. "Ready to knock the bad guy on his ass?"

"As I can be," she said without meeting his eyes, picking up her phaser rifle. She took aim down the corridor and held steady. "Ready?"

Alec picked up his own rifle. "As I can be." he repeated her own words back to her. "Lets do this." As he looked down the corridor.

"Computer, begin program," she said. The computer beeped an acknowledgement, but the sentry she expected didn't come down the corridor. Instead, one jumped down from the ceiling above them, knocking her to the ground. She threw the body off to the side, diving for her rifle.

Following behind her, Alec had a clear view of sentry jumping and knocking the Doctor down. His rifle was up in an instant. He sighted and fired. The beam hitting and frying the sentry where he stood. "Are you alright Doctor? That was new wasn't it? A new wrinkle in the program."

"It likes to throw curves now and again," Nicole said. "Soon as I get used to something, it changes a bit. I think it's adap--" she stopped and fired past Alec as another sentry slinked up behind him. "Let's get on with it," she said, heading for the stairs.

"Wait." Alec told her. "If the computer can change things up, then so can we.We'll adapt to the new wrinkles as well. I'll lead up the steps, you follow me."

Nicole hesitated, but nodded. "All right," she said, stepping back and bringing her weapon up again, shooting another sentry, putting a hole through his chest.

He nodded turned back , bringing his rifle to a ready position and began going up the steps.His eyes adapting to the low light as he spotted a sentry ahead of them and fired. Killing him instantly. As they moved up the steps, Alec was also listening, his ears straining to hear any tell tale sounds the creatures might make that would make it easier to pinpoint their positions.

Nicole followed behind him, covering their rear. "I can hear more coming," she hissed.

Alec became even more alert as he tried to hear the sentry's approach. "Which direction?" He whispered as he swung his rifle in a practiced arc before him.

"Down the third corridor," Nicole said, her superior hearing listening to the scrapes of his claws on the deck, several meters away. She directed her light towards the opening in the wall on lower deck and then aimed it back toward's the Leech Lord's doorway. "If we keep moving, we'll get in ahead of them."

"Is that what they expect?" Alec questioned. "Maybe we need to do the unexpected, keep them off guard, put the shoe on the other foot for once."

"We can pick off the foot soldiers till our phasers run out of power," Nicole said, "it won't help, they'll just keep coming."

"Then we should improvise. I don't relish running out of power with these things around." Alec replied. "We need to keep them off guard."

"We'd transported over with a UV bomb, courtesy of our chief engineer, but we'd already used it by this point," Nicole said. She looked at her phaser rifle. "What the hell." She upped the setting and the light emitting from her phaser brightened. "I set it to overload," she said. "It'll funnel through the UV light and light up the throne room."

She stepped around him and took the lead. "Computer, one katana." The computer beeped and a sword appeared in the air. Nicole plucked it and tossed it to Alec. "The Captain's standard sidearm," she explained. "It was the only other weapon we had, but it was broken quickly."

Alec caught the sword easily and let out a low whistle of admiration. "Nice sword. Hey it beats using my hands. You want my rifle?"

Nicole took the proffered rifle and switched hands, her overloading one beginning to whine. She rushed up to the top of the steps and swung around the threshold, tossing the rifle like a javelin, straight up towards the ceiling to do the most damage.

It went off like a flash grenade, a roar of pain following it. Nicole pulled back a bit as a mass dropped to the floor and fired at it, eliciting another roar and the creature jumping back up. She moved further into the room, trying to track it as she fired, not wanting to give it a chance to heal.

As the phaser rifle overloaded and exploded, Alec muttered softly, "Now maybe we're getting somewhere.'' as Nicole fired at the creature. He gripped the sword with both hands. Finding he had better control that way as he followed Nicole into the room, ready to deal with whatever came their way.

Nicole's first shot struck, but her second shot missed as the Leech Lord sprang from a perch and landed between her and Alec. She pulled back, trying to draw the creature towards her and give Alec room to strike. The creature suddenly rushed her as she fired, her phaser blast making a good gouge in his shoulder. He reared back a moment, howling and Nicole could see Alec driving the sword into the creature's back. The beast swung around fast, striking Alec in the shoulders and knocking him down. Nicole moved in to grab the sword and twist, doing as much damage as she could, but the beast was too quick.

It swung back around, claws extended and plunged them straight into the side of her chest, tearing her uniform and her flesh in the process.

Nicole coughed blood as she suddenly felt her momentum die. The creature's roar of triumph was cut short however as he, the sword, and the scene vanished.

Nicole gripped her bleeding side, gasping and dropped to her knees, then to the deck.

Alec moaned and got slowly to his feet, he staggered over to Nicole and dropped to his knees. "You okay?" he asked as he looked into her eyes. As they were once again in an empty holodeck. "I think that was better than last time. Yay us." He muttered.

Acerbic comebacks weren't easy with a punctured lung, and the best Nicole could master was a gurgling gasp for air. She rolled away from him onto her hands and knees, a hand under her mouth to catch the few drops of blood still coming from her lips. The tattered side of her uniform fell open and her flask slipped out, landing with a clink on the holodeck floor as the puncture wounds and slashes in her exposed side began to heal. She pulled her shoulders back, spreading her ribcage and snapping it back into place. It took her a minute before she was breathing normally again. She sat up, resting back on her heels and wiping her hand on her uniform. "Not...quite..." she said.

He was about to make another quip when he heard her gasp for air and saw blood on her lips. Alec's quips died quickly in his throat to be replaced with genuine concern. "Doctor! I had no idea you were injured. Lets get you to Sickbay."

Nicole shook her head and took a deep breath, expanding her lungs to capacity and let it out slowly, tightening her diaphragm. Satisfied she was sufficiently healed, she coughed once, groaning at her still-sore ribs. "I'm fine," she said. She reached into her uniform top for her flask, but her hand suddenly came out the torn side by her bra. "Did you see where my flask landed?" she said, frustrated, looking around.

Alec looked at her for several long seconds, debating whether to argue with her and then recognized the folly of that course of action. He nodded his head curtly accepting her verdict. Her question about her flask caused him to shift his attention. Looking around the holodeck, he saw the a fore mentioned flask lying a few feet away. Walking over, he bent down and picked it up, returning to her he handed it to her, "Here you go Doctor, it seems to have survived the encounter unharmed."

"That's it's job," she groused, uncapping it and taking several long swigs. She recapped it and sighed gently. "I HATE this," she said, slamming her fist on the deck.

Alec waited a moment before replying and when he did he did so with great empathy for the CMO. " Temper, temper. I know you do, Doctor, and my job is to help you do your job and defeat this program. So let's concentrate on doing that."

She drew her knees up and took another drink. "A UV bomb didn't work, cross fire hasn't worked. Hell, a sword through him hasn't worked. I'm not sure what else is going to cut it."

"Correction. They worked just not as well as we hoped but they did work." Alec offered as a weak rebuttal. He paused thinking on what she said. "I know this is going to sound far fetched but what if we could cut him up? He can't regenerate than right?"

"And how do you propose we do that?" Nicole said. "Ask him to stand still while we carve?"

Alec rolled his eyes at her sarcasm and added his own. "Ah rapier wit of Dr. Nicole Anderson.In a manner of speaking yes. We can rig up a small stasis field, trap him in that. Alter the rifles to a higher frequency, more like a plasma torch but the power will be far greater and then slice and dice him."

"I'm a Doctor, not a munitions expert," she groused, then mentally kicked herself. "How do we make a stasis field out of a phaser rifle?"

"Some difference of opinion on the former and on the latter no question you're not." Alec replied "As to making the field, we reconfigure one rifle's power settings to establish the field. It won't last long but with the other and you former Captain's sword we can make shish kabob out of him"

"Fine," Nicole said. "Reconfigure the phaser." She looked down at her uniform and played with the ribbons of fabric on her exposed flank. "I suppose I should get a new uniform," she said, getting slowly to her feet and tucking her flask into her waistband.

"Of course Doctor. Thy will be done." Alec deadpanned. "A new uniform would be a good idea, unless of course you're thinking of starting a new uniform style which by the way, I don't think the Captain is going to approve."

"Bet you would," Nicole muttered. She rubbed her eyes and headed for the exit. "Until next time," she said, putting her fist through a holo-emitter and barely grunting at the pain as she walked out.

"Until next time." Alec answered as he watched her leave. Once he was sure she was out of earshot, he muttered, "Warrior Doctors from the planet Xenan. I like it."

 

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