Here We Go Again

Posted on Tue Aug 27, 2019 @ 5:57pm by Lieutenant AJ Taggart & Fleet Captain Rhea Kennit & Lieutenant Nicole Anderson

4,446 words; about a 22 minute read

Mission: Plaga Navis
Location: USS Langley
Timeline: During 'Bishop Takes Queen'

ON:

AJ and his team sprinted down the cramped corridors of the [i] Langley [/i] with his team falling into perfect step close behind, their phaser rifles at the ready. Coming to a halt outside of a set of cargo bay doors, the team assumed their positions- four on either side of the door with two facing it and AJ in the center. Two of his other team members were in the adjoining Jeffries Tubes to do a bit of recon and eliminate any potentially deadly 'surprises' that might be waiting for them. Reaching into the satchel at his hip, he removed a small, rectangular device and placed it onto the entry console on the side of the door. With any luck, the device would cause the doors to unlock and give his team an easy entry point. As it stuck with a metallic click, lights on the front began to blink rapidly before they turned red and the device shut down. AJ fought the urge to sigh as he put the device back into his satchel.

Looking to his breacher, a redheaded Marine Corporal with a buzz cut by the name of MacGregor, AJ motioned for him. "Any chance of getting through these doors quietly without alerting our bad guys? He asked.

MacGregor shook his head. "Probably not. This is reinforced tritanium plating, we'd need explosives to even make a dent. The subjects have locked off the command codes for these doors and according to the recon teams, they've got motion sensors and potential explosives mounted throughout the area as they're reading trichloroethylene signatures."

AJ nodded and fought the urge to utter an expletive under his breath. "Pull them out now. In the meantime, get me comms to our guests so we can figure out what they want." Breaking into a slight jog, he walked over to the staging area that had been set up with communications gear had cables snaking into an open bulkhead. From here, they had nearly complete control of the deck.

"Cut their computer access and start making them uncomfortable. Cold ought to do it. Set the internal temperature to four degrees Celsius and see if that cools their heels a bit and cut the lights in this section." AJ said quickly. His idea was to leave in the cold and darkness. Typically, hostage-takers tended not to plan for discomfort and cold tended to slow them down and dull their senses- the darkness helped to lend a dose of uncertainty to the situation. As the lights went out, Sam tapped his commbadge and spoke into it.

"This is Sierra Actual to all squads. Activate night vision mode and stand by for breach ." a moment later, he saw that his orders were being heeded as he saw three dots of blue light appear on each of his team member's heads in the distance. Flipping his own NVGs down, he now had a fully illuminated Heads Up Display with the names and designations of each of his team members above their heads.

The Ensign at the staging area tapped him on the shoulder. "Sir, comms are open."

AJ nodded again. "Patch it through to the team's comms." walking calmly to the door, he kneeled down.

"This is Lieutenant AJ Taggart of Strategic Response Unit Delta. To whom am I speaking?" he asked, his tone full of concern and listening for anything in the background that might help him plan his next move.

After a moment, a husky feminine voice speaking with a slight accent to her words replied. "Lieutenant A.J. Taggart of Strategic Response Unit Delta. That is quite a mouthful. You must think quite highly of yourself."

AJ cocked his head slightly. "You know how it is, the Fleet likes to create big names for things. Since we're on the subject of names, you never told me yours, ma'am. As soon as you do, that gives me some leeway to start talking terms. What do you say?" he said, bringing a bit of a smile into his voice. It seemed as if this woman wasn't going to give up even the smallest bit of information easily.

"Knowledge of one’s name, gives others power over you. You may call me simply, Phoenix,” she answered.

With a slight smile, AJ leaned against the bulkhead. "Well, Phoenix. I can't argue with that. So tell me- what is it that you want? You've got a few innocent people in there and a hell of a lot of fissile material. You sound like a smart and incredibly articulate woman, so you and I both know what could happen if you decided to be reckless. I want to avoid everyone to be able to walk away from this but I need your help. Can you help me?" he asked, the positivity and concern not leaving his voice.

Inside the cargo bay, the slender woman calling herself ‘Phoenix’ shook her head and smiled a little at his words. A former member of Starfleet herself, she’d been recruited into Section 31 and ultimately betrayed by those she had trusted. Now. She was after a little payback. And she was going to get it.

“You paid attention during training.” She purred, working quickly with her team members placing shaped explosive charges along the bulkhead. On the other side of the interior paneling and insulation space was the ship’s hull, and open space. “Active listening, ask questions and make the terrorist feel you are paying attention, in doing so you think you will gain a sense of empathy with us. Make us believe you understand and can recognize our reasons.”

AJ muted his feed and switched to a secured channel. "Alright, team. This woman is reading us like a damn book, which leads me to believe she knows how we do things and any of our tactical plans. Wade, see if you can access Starfleet Intelligence personnel databases and run a query on the name Phoenix. Everyone else, keep poring over the blueprints and find me a way inside the cargo bay." he said over the channel quickly. Master Chief Petty Officer Wadislawbramov 'Wade' Debromir was his 'man in the chair', a hard as nails ops officer who had been in the fleet longer than AJ has been in existence and if anyone could do a run through their records, it was him. Switching back to address Phoenix, he clenched his muscles slightly and released them to prevent himself from shaking.

"So you know the playbook like a pro, almost like you wrote it. So tell me Phoenix, you've got to be getting a bit cold in the dark, so why don't you tell me what I can do for you so we can all go home safe, hm? My job is here is simply to get everyone what they want or close to it, so the sooner you open up, the sooner I can make things a bit more comfortable for you and maybe get you a deal. The ball is in your court." he said, offering an olive branch in the form of heat. Discomfort was a powerful motivator, especially when you began to deprive people of their sight. Cutting the channel, AJ clicked his tongue slightly, he walked over to a nearby table and leaned on the digital blueprints in front of him and began tracing his fingers along some of the lines. Something he did notice was that there were two high diameter water and inert coolant lines running through the deck and above one of the massive storage units in the bay. If worst came to worst, they could breach there, which would potentially neutralize the explosives but conversely, they would flood they entire and potentially give a group of hostages minor chemical poisoning or worse, drown them.

“Some of us like the dark Lieutenant AJ Taggart. If you want to help, you can just slip on back to where ever you came from and let us be on our way. The hostages are your doing, not ours. We will take what we came for and leave.” Phoenix told him.

AJ smirked a bit. "You know I can't do that, Phoenix. Mainly because I don't know what you're planning on doing with it. What kind of man would I be if I just let you walk outta here with a few kilos of benamite and deuterium?" he asked. The Ops Officer motioned to him to come over to the console and spun his screen over to face AJ. It was a dossier- a highly redacted dossier but a dossier nonetheless of this person that called themselves 'Phoenix'.

“One who lives to fight another day.” the enigmatic woman answered. Her attention was on the charges being set, and the carefully packed containers holding the material they’d come for. The hostages had been bound and left under guard by one of the small group. A pair of backpacks rested nearby, holding their escape plan. Once the charges were set, she’d send a signal and then they’d just make their own exit.

AJ gritted his teeth. He was rapidly tiring of this woman and her puzzles and it took everything in his power not to order a full breach. Turning off his comms, he looked over to his two team members that were still in the corridor. Pointing out the two massive fluid lines, he motioned. "Gear up for a swim. Each of you take the lines that extend- here-" he pointed in one spot above the cargo bay "- and here. He said, pointing to another pipe. "If this fails, you perform an aerial breach. Code word is Shark. Take this woman and her people out. Got it?" he asked quickly. Both of his team members nodded and ran off towards the briefing room where the replicators for new gear awaited them.

Receiving a tap on the shoulder, AJ turned around to find Master Chief Debromir holding a PADD. "You wouldn't believe how much it took me to get these released. Give that a read and let me know what you find out."

AJ stopped for a moment and perused the information on the PADD. "Good God. She's Starfleet and it looks like she's done a few blacker than black operations. Nothing I can see anyways but her being a doctor might give us something to work with." Switching his comms back on, he addressed the woman on the other end.

"Phoenix, are you still with me? Or should I call you Doctor Scott?" he asked, his hand tightening on the sling of his phaser rifle.

“Ahh.” she purred in response. “You’re smarter than you look Lieutenant. I am still with you, as you put it. Where else would I go?”

Smiling slightly, AJ loosened his grip on the sling. "Well, like I said, you're smart, so I'm sure you've got plenty of options, as do I. Now, let's get down to brass tacks here. You're a doctor, so you obviously have a desire to keep these people alive, which is why you haven't actually hurt anyone here yet aside from some bruised egos. If you come out now or show me some sign of good faith, we can end this here and now and I can talk to the courts, maybe work out a deal based on you and your people's cooperation. So how about it, Doctor? Help me help you." he asked slowly, a genuine note of concern in his voice.

“Oh if anyone dies here it won’t be my doing Lieutenant, it will be yours.” Phoenix replied. “I should warn you. I and my comrades have environmental hazard gear. Our guests do not. We have placed open canisters of aluminum phosphide beneath those large pipes overhead. It would be a shame if they should fail for some reason. The resulting chemical reaction would create clouds of phosphine gas which, while we would be fine. Those without breathers would have a rough time of it.”

David Tanner, the team's medic, met AJ's eyes as the leader glanced over and motioned to cut the mic. When AJ nodded, he huffed. "Phosphine gas isn't immediately deadly, but too much exposure will be fatal. Not to mention, the gas is highly flammable. One spark, hell just mixing with the air, and that room could go up and kill everyone."

AJ's face contorted into one of real anger before he slammed his hand against the bulkhead. Whether this woman was telling the truth or not was a gamble he couldn't afford to take. "Fuck!" Sending a quick message to Sierra Two, he ordered her to retreat from the water pipe. Turning to David, he stared into his eyes with a look of rage and determination and his voice lowered. "Listen to me- we cannot let her kill those people. I want options and I want them now."

"The pipes," Tanner said. "She didn't say she had gas, she said she had phosphide canisters that would release gas. They need water as a catalyst!" He took a moment and silently blessed his chemistry degree. "No water, no gas. Then all we need is some hydrogen peroxide or, short of that, bleach, and we can neutralize the canisters."

AJ frowned. "I don't see a laundry room around here, do you?" he asked, a hint of sarcasm in his voice. "Time is running short- we can either breach or those people in there are going to die, whether this woman gets what she wants or not. " he quickly tapped his commbadge. "Sierra Lead to Engineering."

"Engineering here."

AJ clenched his teeth. "Can we load a burst of chlorine bleach into the fire suppression systems for Cargo Bay Three?"

The officer on the other end seemed slightly puzzled. "I can but why-"

Interrupting him, AJ lashed out. "Doesn't matter. Get it loaded and keep me apprised- you have one minute. Sierra Lead, out." Looking over to Tanner, he motioned to the door. "We need to get those hostages out or we write them off as an acceptable loss" his tone turning cold as his Intelligence training took over. Now was the time to think of things in terms of numbers. If he gave the breach order, this would be over in about thirty seconds with at least two people on either side dead or with the ship blown halfway to hell from a chemical explosion.


Meanwhile, as the 'fleet troops scrambled to catch up:

"How close are you to having the charges set?" Rachiel Scott, formerly Commander Rachiel Scott of Starfleet asked as she walked over to stand next to where Dan Jackson (another former Starfleet officer) was setting the timers so that the carefully placed charges would trigger together.

"Another minute and we're ready on your say-so." he told her.

"Good." Scott drawled with a little smile. "This is easier than I thought. Is the Retribution on station?"

From behind them, the third member of the small four-personnel force answered "On station and standing by for the signal." he said, never taking his gaze from the hostages he was currently guarding with the fourth and final member of their team.

"Cool.” was all Scott said, that smile again crossing her face.


Opening his communications again, AJ spoke to Rachiel.

"Doctor Scott, this is Taggart again. I just spoke with the Captain and Task Force Command. They've authorized me to let you go and give you and your people what you came for but only if you show me a sign of good faith. Release those hostages and we can all walk away clean. If you don't, we will breach and I can't guarantee you come out of this alive. You told me about living to fight another day- I'm trying to give you that same chance." he lied. Feeling a vibration on his arm, he twisted his wrist and read the text communication on the small screen. -CHEMS LOADED.-

Listening to the Lieutenant’s impassioned speech, Scott gave a nod to her team. It was time to end this little charade and move along. Picking up a small black bag, she withdrew neatly folded packages and tossed them to her companions. Unfolded, the packages proved to be compact emergency environmental suits which could provide oxygen and pressure for a short time in case of a decompression event. Donning the suits, all that was left was to enter the arming sequence to set off the blasts which would open the hull and grant them their exit.


AJ quickly opened up the satchel and started to attach his own charges around the perimeter of the door and pulled some additional ones to place around the center seam. Removing a small roll of what looked like thick, black, rigging tape, he placed a sticky end on the door and rolled the entire length out, ripping it from the roll and attaching a small piece of wire to the lead charge. On his wrist device, he quickly tapped out a detonation sequence and tapped into the fire suppression system as he spoke over the comms.

"All units, stack up and prep for breach on my Scorpio. Heavy stun only- I don't want to take any chances." The lights on his Heads Up Display all flashed green, indicating acknowledgment of his order.

Tanner checked his weapon and held it at the ready, crouched and poised, medical kits secured to his person and as ready as a coiled snake.

"Three."

His team 'stacked up' on either side of the door and tapped each other on the shoulder to indicate their readiness, their phaser rifles at the ready.

"Two."

"Scorpio."

With his free hand, AJ tapped his middle and ring fingers against the palm of his glove, which caused a few actions to happen simultaneously. First, a thick fog of chlorine bleach from the overhead fire suppression system released, covering all surfaces and obscuring the view. Less than half a second later the black tape ignited in a flash of incandescent light, burning a humanoid sized hole at through the door at roughly 1500 degrees shortly before the charges blew a line of holes in the cargo bay doors and caused them to slag away and the center of the door to fall with a momentous CLANG! AJ was the first one through, coughing slightly in the foul fog as his throat burned.

"SRU! EVERYONE DOWN! EVERYONE DOWN!" he yelled as he entered the room, his gloved finger tensed around the trigger. He covered the left corner, firing a rapid burst of stun setting phaser bursts, hearing a thud as three of his shots found their mark- something that he would catch quite a bit of flak for in their After Action Review. Continuing to cover the room, he fired shots at all of the standing assailants, watching orange orbs hit their marks and spread energy across their entire form and their bodies hit the deck with a meaty thud.

Clearing the room and firing stun bursts, the hostages fell to the deck as well. As the rest of his team entered, six of them took a knee and entered a defensive position, their weapons trained on the sole standing person- Commander Rachiel Scott. AJ raised his rifle and activated the illuminated sight directly on the center of her forehead. "Move and we shoot you--and at this range, our stun bursts are enough to kill you, dead. So please, move. I dare you."

She just smiled at him, mockingly. “You might wa-”

Before the woman could even finish her sentence, AJ lowered the rifle, depressed the trigger, and fired a single shot into the woman's chest, her body glowing orange briefly before she fell to the deck.

Her body spasmed, collapsing before she could tell him of the armed and counting down bombs on the hull. The timer on the control device showed only 53 seconds remaining.

Tanner moved to examine her body, scanning her quickly with the tricorder wired into his gloves. He looked at the readouts on his wrist display and looked to AJ, shaking his head. He then looked back down at her hand and the object she was holding. "Sir! Countdown! 50 seconds!"

Lacking the time to bother, AJ shouted into his comms. "Everybody grab a body and get out, NOW!” Taking Commander Scott under the armpits, he immediately dragged her out of the cargo bay. Dropping Scott almost carelessly onto the deck, he opened his comms while running back in to get another person out. .

"Taggart to Bridge."

The gruff voice of the Captain could be heard in his earpiece. "Lieutenant! What the hell is going on down there?"

AJ spoke quickly. "Sir, I don't have much time to explain- I need this section I'm in locked down with Blast Shields lowered and SIF fields set to maximum. I've also 16 people for an immediate site to site to sickbay." he said, kneeling over Rachiel and roughly removing the control device on her wrist. The countdown now read 20 seconds and was lowering as he could only stare. At this point, there wasn't time to disarm the device so their primary objective now had to be that of escape.

"What-" AJ cut the comms before the Captain could protest and saw their hostages and assailants--including Rachiel--dematerialize right before Level 10 Force Fields flashed on in the now decimated entrance to the Cargo Bay. Performing a quick headcount as most of his team rushed into the closest turbolift. Looking down at the device, he realized he didn't have enough time to make it before the charges detonated. Frantic, he pressed a large blue button on the bottom of the screen and hoped against hope. If it failed, he'd be nothing more than dust in the cosmos along with half of the ship.

When he finally had the courage to peek open his eyes and look, the detonator in his hand was stopped at 4 seconds. The explosives were disarmed.


AJ released a breath from his lungs, his shoulders slumping as he stared at the device incredulously. Holding it gingerly in front of him, he avoided pressing any other buttons so that he didn't accidentally activate any other unpleasant surprises. Hearing rapid footfalls on the deck, he saw three members of his team running over along with the ships Chief Engineer. The senior officer stepped forward with a metal box that he opened, revealing a blue glow on the interior.

"Place that unit in the box and be careful. That'll block any detonation signals from that unit." he said. AJ slowly lowered the unit into the box almost reverently. The Engineer took the box back and closed it. Pointing to a couple of his people, he motioned to the cargo bay. "Do an internal and external sweep- let me know if there are any more of these charges left and get rid of them."

AJ sighed. "Thanks, Commander. I'll be in Sickbay-" for what seemed like the umpteenth time that day, he was interrupted, this time by the intercom. "Lieutenant Taggart, report to the bridge. Immediately." the voice of Captain Robert Forster announced.

"Looks like they're playing my song," he said. "If anyone needs me, I'll be on the bridge." he said before walking into the turbolift.

----------- Two Minutes Later -----------


AJ stepped onto the bridge, which was dead silent as every single member of the bridge crew stared at him with a look that indicated either embarrassment or pity. Skipping the steps, AJ walked over to the door to the Captain's Ready Room and tapped the door chime, taking a deep breath.

The booming voice of Captain Forster could be heard clearly across the bridge. "Enter!"

The doors slid open and AJ entered. Before he could speak, Captain Forster stood. "Square it, mister and keep your mouth shut!" he snapped. AJ straightened and came to attention as Forster rounded on him, his face so close that AJ could smell the coffee on his breath. "Goddammit, Taggart. What the hell were you thinking? You go into an unsecured cargo bay with minimal Intel, stun everyone, and don't even bother to check if the woman was wired for explosives? You could have killed everyone on this ship and you're lucky I don't have you shot into space and keelhauled! So I have to ask, are you so bone stupid that you're intent on killing everyone around you or d"

"Sir, nobody died here today. If anything, I'd chalk that up as a success-" AJ started.

"Don't interrupt me, Lieutenant! Your little playgroup lacks any form of discretion or oversight and I'll be damned-"

The Captain was stopped mid-rant as his console beeped urgently and the XO came over his intercom. "Sir, Priority One message from the Task Force Operations Center."

Forster addressed the voice. "Put it through." A few seconds later, the face of Captain Raines appeared on the view screen on the bulkhead behind AJ.

"Bob, it's been a while." Raines said with a respectful nod.

Forster nodded back. "It has, Matt. How can I help Task Force Command today?" he asked, his jaw relaxing slightly. This man was a friend and if he was calling, it was important.

"Well Bob, this is actually about Lieutenant Taggart and his team. He's being ordered to the [i] Victory [/i] - they've got a situation they need some help with and the Strategic Response Unit is the closest unit in range. Mind giving them a ride?"

Forster bristled at this seemingly intentional circumvention of his authority. "Lieutenant Taggart just tried to-"

"Bob, I'm sorry but this comes directly from the top. You've been ordered to provide every available resource to his team and proceed to the rendezvous point at best possible speed. The information's already been relayed to your helmsman. Ops Center, out. “The screen switched back to an image displaying the seal of the United Federation of Planets.

Forster turned back to AJ with a fire in his eye. "Lieutenant, get your team, pack your gear, and get the hell off of my ship once we reach the rendezvous point. Oh, and leave your prisoner. We'll drop her off when we dock at Starbase 38. Dismissed." he said with an air of finality.

AJ turned on his heel and immediately exited the Ready Room. Letting out a slight sigh of relief, he thanked the gods of fate that Forster hadn't had time to finish his rant and toss formal charges his way." Entering the turbolift, he keyed the panel for Shuttlebay One. He quickly tapped his commbadge. "Taggart to SRU. We've been retasked- everyone pack up and meet me in Shuttlebay One. Taggart Out."


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