round 10 Major Irina Pavlova - Not Now, Not Ever

[Brayden Jorey]

((Temporal Anomaly, Typhon Expanse - USS Apollo Shuttlebay))

Pavlova: That's a negative.  Nobody leaves that runabout until the shuttle bay is secure.=/\=

Oddas: ::deciding on a softer approach:: =/\= Are you going to be ok? =/\=

Pavlova: ::Sadness in her voice.:: : =/\= Ask me later, and don't get assimilated. =/\=

Oddas: =/\= That goes double for you. =/\=

::There was one more drone outside, but it was far enough away that Irina ignored it for the time being.  If the Borg were smart, and she expected they were, they’d be beaming into the Glenn, and so that was where Irina headed at a full sprint.::

Oddas: =/\= Oddas to Pavlova =/\=

Pavlova: ::Panting with a combination of exertion and pain.:: =/\= Go.=/\=

Oddas: =/\= We need you back at the runabout.  Thetis could use your help. =/\=

Pavlova: =/\= What’s your status? =/\=

::The last drone had obviously anticipated Irina’s action, and appeared just outside the Glenn’s door, or at least it did until Irina fired, again reducing a formerly humanoid head into so much goo, slime and Borg circuitry, but that was the last shell in her weapon.::

Oddas: =/\= Just not getting assimilated =/\=

Pavlova: =/\= Please hold on. =/\=

::Irina made it the last few steps and with her injured leg shoved the dead drone aside while she lifted open the hatch with almost enough force to damage it.  What she saw beyond was three of the hologirl from the ship, the limp form of Dr. T’Leira and one drone with a phaser trying to get a bead on an injured Oddas Aria.::

::CLICK::  : Her shotgun was dry, but the sound of racking the slide was enough to momentarily distract the Borg drone. Irina had actually met Captain Jaxx once.  He had boarded the USS Vigilant to brief the crew on their mission to protect a Romulan base that had come under suspicious attacks.  She hadn’t spoken to him, but did sit opposite him at the staff briefing and the look in his eyes when their eyes briefly met made her suspect that he had read her mind, which at that time was working feverishly to learn the equations for the slingshot maneuver and time travel.  None of that registered at this moment though.  It didn’t matter if he was an admiral, or a captain as his uniform indicated now.  No, all that mattered was that he was trying to kill, or worse assimilate the woman she loved.::

:: Irina focused on the moment like Lynthia Waltas had taught her, and for a split second to Jaxx, Nia and Aria, Irina had what felt like minutes to think, remember and plan.  She thought back to the Admiral’s engagement party and how Aria looked standing alone at the bar, and how finding love was the farthest thing from her mind though somehow she had managed to find it anyway.  She remembered waking up in Aria’s arms that night after a particularly vivid nightmare, and of later introducing her to Katya and Jazmine.::

::Irina remembered her subspace unofficial wedding to Dimitri and her real and wonderful wedding to AJ, but how it was only Aria who had seen her at her most vulnerable, and somehow loved her anyway.  She looked into Aria’s unmoving eyes, frozen time with everyone else, and thought of her taste for sweets, her tendency to babble when nervous or excited, and of how somehow, when during their first dance and Aria stumbled into Irina’s waiting arms, that she had suddenly realized not only that she wasn’t dead inside, but that this engineer, from a completely different species, had tripped not only into Irina’s arms, but into her heart.::

::As time returned to normal, Irina was a blur of motion as her plan was fully formed.  With her left hand she grasped the shotgun by the barrel and swung it at Jaxx with all of her considerable strength, while her right hand went to her to the small of her back, under the shirt, and came back with her 463-year-old Walther PP pistol in hand.  The pistol, liberated by a distant ancestor from a captured German officer at battle of Khursk in 1943, had been in Irina’s family ever since.  The blueing and almost all of the engraving were long since worn off, but the weapon remained in perfect mechanical condition as it had always been well-maintained.::

::The butt of the shotgun hit Jaxx in his prosthetic arm with enough force to shatter the butt stock and even bend the barrel, and while the strong alloys of the arm weren’t dented, the hit was strong enough to physically shove Jaxx almost a meter to the side.  More important than moving him, it disrupted his shot from Irina’s chest down to her left thigh and gave Irina enough time to bring the Walther to target.::

::Despite the rather puny .32 caliber round, the roar of the pistol was deafening inside of the small runabout.  The weapon held 8 in the chamber and 1 in the pipe, and Irina fired all of them in such rapid succession that it sounded almost like a machine-gun, and had a similar result.  The first round went through Jaxx’s organic right eye, and each successive round went into the same hole or just next to it, with the end result being a twitching, nearly headless body collapsing to the floor, assimilation tubules flailing about, but not making contact with any of their would-be targets.::

::Irina looked down at T’Leira while instinctively reloading her weapon.::

Pavlova:: looking at Oddas :: : Was she….?

Oddas: She's alive, I don't think the drone had time to try assimilation.

Nia: It didn't. When Aria pulled me away, it drew its attention toward us. That was was a brave thing for you to do, Oddas. You not only saved me but the doctor as well. Thank you.

 

::Irina slumped back a bit and did a sort of controlled fall into the bulkhead, which caught her and helped her stay upright.::

 

Pavlova: I thought I’d lost you.  I can’t lose you, Aria.  Not now, not…… ::Irina lowered her voice to a whisper :: : ever.

 

Oddas: ::trying to smile:: it's good to know the Borg aren't going to keep us apart.

 

Major Irina Pavlova

Chief of Security

Duronis Embassy / USS Thunder

Author ID  0238908HA0