Commander Addison MacKenzie - A Rock and a Hard Place

[+ Yalu]

The pacing of the second half of this sim was outstanding. Real heart-pounder here by @Addison MacKenzie.

 

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(( EVA Locker Room – Maquis Vessel Daisy ))

The two had found their way to where the EVA suits were stored hoping that they’d be able to suit up, disable life support and take out their captors without any violence. That plan was torched as soon as they discovered there was only one suit.

Dakora: Well, that sucks.

She waved her hand dismissively in front of her face, as though shooing away a pesky insect desperate for blood.

MacKenzie: Remember what I said about an opportunity presenting itself? Well, this opportunity just took itself off the table, so now it’s time to find another one. Think.

Dakora: Damn. Ok. ::He shrugged.:: Even with one of them down and some weapons we're still outnumbered and outgunned.

MacKenzie: It’s a pretty small ship, but any chance we’ve got a shuttlebay? Might be possible to lure at least a few of them into the room and depressurize the bay?

Dakora: No, but that would've been a good plan.

Addison frowned. Their options were limited – the ship was small, half of the ship didn’t work, they were both injured, they were outnumbered…

MacKenzie: Any chance disabling some systems could buy us some time? ::wryly:: …I mean, of the systems that still work.

Dakora: It couldn't hurt. When... ::He frowned.:: IF the Excalibur shows up, they might appreciate any sabotage we can pull off.

She shook her head. Where was the Excalibur? Had they received her message? Had anyone? Surely it had been long enough for them to realize they’d gone missing and had started a search… If so, the transmission would no doubt have spiked on their radar. She figured there was a question worth asking:

MacKenzie: I think we should assume that if the Excalibur received our message that they’d have been here by now… It’s likely we’re on our own.

He rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands, a gesture which she assumed meant he realized it too, but didn’t want to admit it any more than she did.

Dakora: I think that's a fair assessment.

MacKenzie: Right. So I think that means we need to think about how to retake the ship on our own without any outside help.

Far easier said than done.

Dakora: They've got better weapons and numbers, so we can't take them head on. ::He squinted as he thought.:: I think we got lucky with that lone wolf, the rest are likely to travel in groups.

MacKenzie: Discretion. ::pointing to a grate in the floor::

He crouched, trying in vain to open a floor grate but it was seized shut. Hiding out in the ductwork was apparently no longer an option.

Dakora: Ok, we need a plan. ::His brain tried to process everything that had happened since they'd escaped their cell.:: Uh... We can...::He shrugged.:: I don't know...

A pair of negative beeps from the locked door and an angry bark from the pair of Klingons outside drew their attention. They exchanged a quick glance, each of them wide-eyed.

Dakora: Hide inside the suit! ::He whispered.:: They might think we split up.

He gestured to the EV suit hanging from the locker. It could work if she held still. She wouldn’t be able to activate the suit, though, lest that be an obvious giveaway. Hopefully she didn’t suffocate to death while the Klingons were making their rounds.

MacKenzie: Find somewhere to hide.

She wasted no time paying attention to what he was doing and climbed in the suit as was suggested. She managed to secure the suit’s helmet just as a shower of sparks started to fly from the door’s control panel and the Klingons forced the door open.

Addison could only watch in silence as Talos chose the option to fight.

Dakora: Aaarrrgh!

From inside the suit, Addison watched Talos lunge forward, blade drawn. The Klingon caught the Betazoid’s wrist and stopped the knife before he could make contact. With his other fist, the Klingon struck a swift blow to Talos’s jaw, sending him backward a few steps, and his knife to the floor.

Durok: Where is your female!?

Dakora: She's not my or anyone's female. ::He practically hissed the words as he lied.:: and I left her behind in the damned crawlspace because she was slowing me down.

The Klingon took a single step forward, a sort of grim determination burning in his dark eyes. Then he grinned a decidedly unfriendly grin, baring his sharp, yellowing teeth.

Durok: Die together or die alone. It makes no difference to me.

The Klingon took a brutal swing at Talos' head and narrowly avoided the impact. It wasn’t long before the other Klingon grabbed him by the shirt collar and threw him to the ground, the wind obviously knocked out of him. Durok was on him, landing a powerful blow to his cheek, likely before he knew what hit him. Addison could only close her eyes and will him the strength to get it together.

Durok climbed on top of Talos, his hands wasting no time easily wrapping around the Betazoid’s neck. Addison wasn’t sure if he was going to choke him to death or suffocate him first. As she watched him unsuccessfully attempt to pry Durok’s hands from his neck, the force of his thrashing legs starting to diminish. It likely wouldn’t be long before he lost consciousness, and she had a choice to make.

Stay in the suit: Talos dies.

Create a distraction: They most definitely both die.

Where the hell was Kalianna?

There was one item that might give them an advantage: in the pocket of her pants was one of the hyposprays that Talos had pulled from her bag in the comms room. She couldn’t get to it without getting out of the suit, and getting out of the suit meant drawing some serious attention. There was no guarantee.

From her vantage point behind them, both Klingons had their backs to her and seemed to be enthralled with slowly choking the life out of her Betazoid colleague. With the fight quickly draining from Talos, she didn’t have much time, and would need to move as quickly as possible without drawing attention.

She slowly unlatched the helmet and, despite closing her eyes in the anticipation of the suit’s decompression, no sound emitted – since the suit wasn’t activated, the oxygen wasn’t flowing.

The sound of Klingon cackling was much louder now that her ears were exposed. She didn’t think Klingons typically enjoyed watching their prey suffer, but these Klingons certainly seemed to be taking their time slowly squeezing the life out of him. Fortunately for her, the suit was far bulkier than either of them realized, and she slid out of it with relative ease after setting the helmet down.

Free of the suit, she removed the hypospray from her pocket and looked at the bottom where the medicine cartridge was loaded. She could see that the color of the medicine inside the vial was yellow – a good indication that it was likely Rexlin. She couldn’t do the math to figure out if the amount in the vial would be enough to fully sedate a Klingon the size of Durok or just make him drowsy, but they needed any advantage they could muster.

Hypospray in hand, she started to move across the room, the leather from her boots quietly squeaking with each passing step. Fortunately for her, the Klingons seemed to be enjoying the slow demise of her shipmate, and their raucous laughter likely covered her approach. Her brow furrowed and she took a deep breath. She only had one shot.

When she was within feet of the trio, she lunged forward and pressed the hypo to the back of Durok’s neck.

The Klingon’s grip immediately softened, releasing Talos, before standing up and turning to face her. He looked at her in stunned silence for a moment before losing his balance and falling to a knee. He wasn’t completely sedated as she hoped he would be, but he obviously wasn’t fully with it, either. That would buy them some time.

The other Klingon, however, noticing that his superior was in no position to be able to take care of this new imposition, moved swiftly forward to deal with the human female. In no time, Addison’s back was against the wall of the EV storage room, and she was lifted off the ground, the Klingon’s hand around her throat.

 Where the hell was Kalianna?

Eyeing Talos, who was finally starting to get air back in his lungs, she barely managed to squeak out a few words.

MacKenzie: Get. The. Knife.

Dakora: Response

 

Tag, and TBC!

 

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Commander Addison MacKenzie, M.D., Ph.D., FASFS
First Officer
USS Excalibur-A

Captain's Council Magistrate

V239601AM0