<USS Avalon> "Federation vs. Coalition" Pt. 4

"Federation vs. Coalition" - Part Four
by Commander Javan Sierra
& Lieutenant Caine Reilly McKinsely



Section 31, he's section 31, Caine thought to herself for the millionth time. It was insane to think that the man she poured her heart to, was the same man that had killed people with his bare hands. No wonder he seemed to not be that bothered by her past, he had his own past to deal with. This is insane, she thought, shaking her head. Everyone knew the rumors about Section 31, but Caine had always wanted to believe the rumors to be false but now she knew better. Section 31 was a real thing and a dangerous thing, she just hoped she could keep anyone from finding out she knew, Caine did not know what to do if anyone found out. I'm in a huge mess, what am I going to do? Do I tell him I know or pretend I know nothing?

She knows, Javan thought, his mission to the Avalon had just been completely slandered. The typical rule when being discovered was to promptly dispose of the guilty party. He looked at her over his shoulder briefly and took in her beauty, her innocence, and her past that he knew had plagued her for so long. Javan had to put that behind him, he loved her and that was all that mattered. Or, was it?

Acacia.

It had been so long since he'd thought about her. He remembered the cliff overlooking the endless amounts of water thundering against the barren shore. There was more to this situation than that one, Javan tried to reassure himself. When he thought about it, though, there was nothing different. He loved Caine. He had loved Acacia. Caine had found out. Acacia had been told. Did that make a difference here? No, Javan thought, it didn't. "We have to go to the bridge. You three head for engineering, Caine and I are going to the bridge."

At the sound of her name, she whipped around and looked at Javan. She suddenly realizing that she had been tuning everything out and no longer knew the game plan. But of course she wasn't going to let them know that she hadn't been paying attention, instead she nodded to the others in the party as they headed away and began to follow Javan. Her heart was beginning to beat a little harder and faster now in worry. Caine knew she loved Javan, but didn't know what he would do if he knew that she knew and she was pretty sure he knew; how could he not? Javan was Betazoid and her Imzadi, Caine was pretty certain that Javan knew what was going on.

The Jefferies tube hatch popped off with ease and Javan put his phaser compression rifle in the conduit first before sliding in after it. He felt that the situation was beginning to lighten - there had been virtually no resistance on the Tempest and there had been none at all on the Avalon upon their return. There were no forcefields to override; it was smooth sailing all the way to the bridge. The hatch popped off after they had climbed the ladder and Javan found himself in the Executive Officer's office - just off the bridge. Whipping out his tricorder, Javan did a quick scan. "Five people total. One in the command chair, one at tactical, one at operations, one at the helm, and one at the strategic command control panel. You ready?"

"Wait," Caine said, thinking a moment. "Javan, doesn't this seem weird to you? I mean, where are all the bad guys and from the set up you told me of people on the bridge, it sounds like a normal bridge crew, not the set up that there should be during this sort of thing. Besides, don't you remember, that one ensign told you that the bridge had been taken." Stopping for a moment, Caine thought about it a little bit more, wishing she had the gift to read those people's minds out there. "It seems a bit weird to me, almost like it could be a trap."

"A trap? On the bridge?" Javan shook his head and activated his weapon. "I've been in far worse situations than this. And, besides, if we take the bridge we can lock out all the other areas of the ship and hopefully get the hell back to our own time. I have no qualms about taking a jaunt into the future - this is ridiculous." Javan looked over at Caine one more time, "You ready?"

Closing her eyes and taking a deep breath she nodded her head. "Yeah, I'm ready." She activated her weapon and moved up behind Javan. "I love you," she whispered so low she wasn't sure he heard her, right before he opened the doors. Now Caine felt ready to take on whatever came their way.

Javan sprinted across the bridge as fast as he could, with two follows he took out tactical, who shimmered into oblivion, and operations, who collapsed behind console, before tackling the helmsmen. Before he had much of a thought his phaser rifle smacked the head of the Cardassian at helm and a sickening crack emanated and echoed around the bridge. Javan didn't feel remorse, he'd taken out three of the guards and the other two didn't even enter his mind - he'd let Caine deal with those.

Happy for all the self-defense lessons and workouts Caine did, she moved to take out the two officers that Javan had left for her. Moving with ease, she kicked out the one man's kneecap, causing him to fall to the floor with a small cry that was cut short as she fired at him. The one officer lay in a heap on the floor as the second officer moved towards Caine. With a silent request for forgiveness, Caine raised her phaser and shot the woman. With both officers down, she looked over at Javan, before moving to one of the consoles.

Pushing himself off the fallen soldier, Javan slid into the helmsmen position. "What our engine status, Caine? Weapons? Shields? Personnel locations?" Javan needed answers to more questions than he could ask in one breath.

Quickly moving her fingers over the console she found out the information. "Engines are off-line, weapons are disabled, shields are disabled, sir," Caine called out. "As for personnel locations, all over the ship but the main concentration is in Engineering, sir." Pushing more buttons, Caine tried to find specific people but was having some difficulty.

"How many of them are on board?" His hand flew over the console trying to do something with the engines. The initiation subroutines had been fused and the primary command interface had been scrambled. Thank his Section 31 training for basics in decryption and cryptology. "If you can get a lock on them, beam them out into space."

Caine's head shot up but she didn't say anything, only nodded and looked back down at her console. "Yes sir," she said, already locking onto the location of the enemy and beaming them out into space. Somewhere in her heart, she knew what she was doing was wrong, Caine never thought of herself as one able to kill, but she figured that when it came to her life and the lives of those around her, that she would kill for them. "Sir, I have beamed some out into space already but there are a lot on a ship, it almost seems that they emptied their ship into ours."

He felt the pain and he swiveled in his chair. "Caine, realize that once we go back to our own time that these people will never have existed. Simply stated that those lives that we've taken will cease to be and we haven't killed anyone. We have to worry about ourselves." Javan tapped the console. "Computer, reset command protocols to the bridge. Authorization Sierra Echo Nine Seven Gamma."

"Unable to comply, secondary command authorization code needed to restore bridge command access. Bridge commands have been routed through Main Engineering." The computer's dry voice echoed over the communication systems.

Javan slammed a hand against the console, "Damn it. Caine can you secure the communication lines to engineering? We need to get Captain Ketchum back up here to the bridge. That's our only way out of here."

Pushing buttons like crazy, shaking her head. "I can't, the lines are down." Caine was getting frustrated at her inadequacies, finally she got so mad that hit the console with her hands. "You stupid computer, work!"

"Calm yourself. We need to fortify ourselves." Dashing up behind the operations' console, Javan did just that. "I've disengaged the power circuits to the turbolifts and erected forcefields around all Jefferies tube access points. I've made sure that they can't beam us off the bridge either. Keep working on the communication lines and I'll work on resetting the weapon parameters." Just then, Javan noticed it - another ship. "There's two ships out there?"

Feeling foolish for her display of temper, Caine lowered her eyes to the console and bowed her head. She had already begun to work harder on the communication lines when she heard Javan ask about the other ship. Looking up suddenly, she saw what he did, the other ship. "Not another ship," she moaned out and began to work harder on opening up communications within the ship. Unfortunately, the harder she worked the more she was in. Her wound had reopened but Caine quickly pushed thoughts of her own discomfort aside as she tried to start up the comm. lines, in order to get in touch with Captain Ketchum.

"It's not of the make of the other one, it's different." Javan smiled, "And it looks to be on our side. We've taken back the Avalon - for the most part - and we have an ally. I'd say things are starting to swing in our favor."

Leaning heavily against the console, Caine looked at the other ship. She wondered how Javan knew that they were their allies but wasn't going to ask him at this point. "Do you want to me try and hail them, Sir?" she asked, looking over at him as he stared at the new ship.

Javan nodded, "Let's say hello."

No need, she shook her head, "Apparently they're attempting to make contact with Engineering."

They had, at last, an ally.

Other related posts: