The Last Stand

Posted on Tue Feb 1st, 2022 @ 10:34am by Captain Shran dh'Klar & Lieutenant Aiko Kato & Lieutenant L'Rissa

Mission: Respite
Location: Cait

The runabout sat in the docking bay undisturbed. Activity in this part of the docking bay was quiet with few bodies around. All was as he had expected.

Quintus Anatolia stepped to the hatch of the runabout and glanced around briefly to make sure no one was watching. He was well aware that there were cameras monitoring every portion of the starbase's docking bay, but he hoped he did not stick out in his Starfleet uniform, complete with an engineering maintenance kit.

For all anyone knew, he was just another deck hand trying to access a runabout to complete a maintenance check. He reached into his jacket and pulled out a round device he placed by the controls of the hatch, making sure his body obscured it from any camera angle.

He punched in a few keystrokes and the device ran a quick decrypting program that tricked the runabout's computer to thinking the right access code had been entered. As expected, the hatch of the runabout popped open revealing the interior. Quintus took off his jailbreak device and quickly made his way into the runabout.

This was the easy part he realized...the hard part would be what came next and he quickly got to work trying to set the perfect trap for his unsuspecting targets...

L'Rissa walked towards the runabout with the intention to make sure everything was ready for departure. Aiko had recovered but she wanted to make sure she had enough time to truly recover. She felt guilty that Aiko had been injured on a trip to her homeworld. she had contacted the captain to update him and to let him know they would be heading his way a little earlier than originally planned, but he considered that prudent. She wondered if they would have any more issues before leaving. She also wondered if she would see her mother again before leaving.

L'Rissa approached the runabout and hit the panel to open the hatch. She entered the runabout and made her way to the front cabin to do her prechecks. She was surprised when she saw what appeared to be an engineer in the cabin. "Excuse me, who are you and why are you in my runabout?"

Quintus was startled by the sound of another person in the cabin but luckily he was professional enough that his brain quickly kicked into damage control. "Stars almighty..." he stated putting a hand to his heart and turning around to see L'Rissa but no Aiko.

He wondered what that could mean and wondered if this was yet another wrench to his plan. He had come on board the shuttle with a simple plan to ambush the pair and commandeer this shuttle with both captives back to the company. He was undecided what he would do to L'Rissa. He figured he would drop her off somewhere on the road, since she was not of interest to the company. The fact that she was also this station commander's daughter also meant the quickly he abandoned her, the less trouble he would have to face.

An easy smile came to his face as he used his palms to fan his face. "You put quite the scare in me Lieutenant, creeping up on me like that. Petty Officer Derrell ma'am."

He had made sure to build a cover for himself for instances like this. But it was a rush job and not exactly his forte. It would be enough to pass the standard test, but any further probing would reveal his ruse.

"Did you not get the memo...from Lieutenant...huh...I always forget the name..." Quintus feigned an expression of trying to recollect a name. The truth however was he did not know enough to know who would be in charge of shuttle maintenance on a station this big, and to give a fake name was risky. But there was a Lieutenant somewhere in charge of something. That was less of a risk.

"Forgive me Lieutenant. I am new, just transferred in only yesterday." He paused as he stood up and stepped aside assuming that L'Rissa would want to access the main console. "But anyway, I was told that this shuttle needed a maintenance check...and here I am, trusty little Terrence Derrell on the job."

L'Rissa was on red alert in her mind. Something was certainly off, but she wasn't going to tip her hand. Her parents had taught her all about gamesmanship, and she had gotten plenty of practice of playing coy over the years, especially serving with so many humans and playing poker. She took a sniff of the air and she could smell it, the scent coming from this human, the scent of fear.

L'Rissa smiled, playing along, "I am sorry to interrupt you while you were working. I suppose I didn't talk to anyone before coming aboard. I came straight from the medical ward. My friend was hurt you see. We are heading back to our ship a little early." She smiled once again as she covertly looked about and saw the hidden phaser only a few steps from her reach under the console right next to her.

"It is good of you to come to the runabout to do maintenance. What exactly seems to be wrong?" she asked, prepared to either grab the phaser or pounce ferociously on this fraud, which ever seemed more prudent. It was time to play a wild card, "Perhaps I can check with Lt Hillis regarding things and return when you are done."

Quintus could tell L'Rissa was not buying his explanation. Her mannerisms had become too defensive but her tone remained even and had he not spent time getting to know her, he might have completely missed the fact that her body and words were betraying how she truly felt. He had been made, but he supposed he should not be that surprised. His disguise was deplorable. However, he had hoped it was functional but L'Rissa had seen right through it. After all, she had masterfully evaded Krussar and his men, detecting them and their movements from a significant distance away

He did learn one piece of news though...Aiko was still in the medical ward. For a moment, he considered the feasibility of abducting her from the medical ward but judged it too risky. His best plan was still abducting her on the shuttle. But this plan was now a bit complicated now that he had been prematurely discovered by L'Rissa.

"Lieutenant Hillis," Quintus muttered. "Is that the name?" he asked as he stroked his chin in deep thought. He knew what she was trying to play at, but he was not incompetent enough to fall for it. "You will have to forgive me. I'm pretty bad at names, plus it's only my second day here. All I know is that there was concern about electromagnetic interference on your shuttle and several vessels that came in around the same time you did. There was apparently some kind of low level solar flare that went undetected until now. My job is just routine maintenance to make sure the engines are free of the interference, or if present, purge it."

He showed her a padd that was the typical work order list complete with the names of several auxiliary craft on his list of checks. "It's going to be a busy day for me."

Seeing as how she was not taking his bait to go further into the cabin and take a seat at the controls, he thought he might try a different tactic. "While I have you here...there's this energy signature I can't seem to identify coming from your runabout's computer system."

He tapped at his PaDD and stepped closer to her in as non-threatening a way as he could muster. He had studied the video of the failed abduction and knew just exactly how agile she was. He needed to be at least two feet closer to her to mitigate that agility before he could even remotely be confident that he could subdue her.

"Here," he said gesturing to hand her the PaDD, "do you mind taking a look?"

L'Rissa cursed at herself mentally as she believed they were now merely playing a cat and mouse game. This was one game she planned to win. She saw him edging nearer. She had enough combat training to know what he was trying to do. He was hoping to negate her agility. She wondered if her would be prepared for her secret weapon though, one most people tended to neglect with Caitians, her claws. She slowly extended them behind her back, trying to make herself look like a more tempting target for him to try something.

Quintus felt something change in L'Rissa that would ordinarily have given him pause but he ignored it. He had little time to think of an alternative plan.

He kept a smile on his face as he closed the distance between them. When he was finally in range, the smile quickly faded and as quick as lightning (or so it appeared), he charged L'Rissa, wrapping his muscular arms around her torso in a tight bear hug, which mostly restrained her upper body and her arms. He paused for a second to catch his bearing before he loosened his grip only ever so slightly to allow himself to move into position behind her after which he brought his hand to her neck and began tightening his grip there.

His plan was simple. He would give her little room to maneuver while at the same time cutting off oxygen to her brain so that she would be rendered unconscious.

His attempt to simply restrain her and incapacitate her via strangulation was a mistake that L'Rissa was happy to take advantage of. She did her best to leap up, which was difficult to do with him restraining her, but she managed enough to have her legs arch backwards, allowing the claws on her feet to dig into his legs and scratch him all the way down, lacerating his legs deeply. The sudden multiple blade like wounds broke his grip on her and she quickly spun around and pounced, showing the full ferocity she was capable of as she dropped him to the ground. With him pinned she growled like a true big cat.

It was at this point that the unexpected happened, as her mother entered the runabout with four security officers and another StarFleet captain. "L'Rissa, restrain yourself" her mother said in a soothing voice.

Two of the security officers leaned down to pull the man up while the others kept phasers trained on him. L'Rissa got up off him so as to allow the security to get the man. He was captured, though L'Rissa was confused as to what had happened, and she suspected the man might be as well.

Quintus was in a world of pain infused with confusion. One second, he had L'Rissa firmly in his grip and thought he was well on his way to salvaging a horribly botched mission, and the next, all he could feel was searing pain from his legs and pain throbbing through the back of his head and his back as he landed on the solid floor of the runabout, his supposed prey growling at him like a prime predator.

And then next, more Starfleet officer had shown up with phasers. He thought he recognized one of them as the station commander but by this time, he was already losing consciousness.

This was it then...he realized. Someone his level in the company could never be captured alive. If T'Vall of all people could have the courage to end his life when he knew he was soundly defeated and risked exposing the Syndicate, then Quintus would not falter.

His tongue flickered to the right molar where the poison was kept, and tapped it in the precise pattern that would release the poison. He closed his eyes expecting death, except it did not come.

He looked around puzzled even as a heavy sleep started to cloud the corner of his gaze.

Something was wrong...his death insurance was gone. Could it be from the force of the impact?

Before he could ponder anymore, the toll of the physical assault his body had endured overwhelmed him and he fell unconscious. Even in this state, Quintus knew if he did not expire soon, there would be hell to pay...for himself...and for his family.

"Let's get him out of here and over to our ship. The admiral wants him back at headquarters as soon as possible." The captain looked to L'Rissa and her mother, "I thank you for your assistance captain, and do apologize that your daughter was put in any danger. This will go a long way to us bringing down the Orion Syndicate." He pulled out a small data module and handed it over to M"Ress. "This contains the data for you to pick up the low level operatives here on Cait. The lead operative is the one still at large that attempted to subdue your daughter and her companion. I trust you'll give them a proper StarFleet hello. Good day to you captain, lieutenant." With that the captain and the security officers exited with Quintus.

L'Rissa looked confused as she looked to her mother. "What exactly is going on?" she asked.

M'Ress was torn between her feelings as a mother and her duty as a StarFleet officer. A simple, general explanation she felt was allowed. "I got a communique the other night at dinner, perhaps you recall that. It was from Admiral Carroll, and he gave me certain orders. Apparently he had gathered intelligence that suggested the Orion Syndicate was looking to get back at your crew for the events that happened at New Krakow and had targeted Lt. Kato. Intelligence was looking to capture the operative sent as he was supposed to be fairly high up and they could potentially get a great deal from him, so we made it impossible for him to leave the planet and then allowed them to attempt to capture you. You fouled up their plans when you saved your friend, and as such it was obvious the operative would have to come out of the shadows and when he did Intelligence made their move, and that is when we found you already subduing him." She turned away for a moment, "I know it wasn't something you may easily forgive, but orders are orders. I am just happy you were not hurt, and your friend will recover."

L'Rissa understood, perhaps for the first time, the difficult position her mother was in, and how hard it was to suppress her feelings. L'Rissa hugged her mother from behind, "I love you mother."

Her mother purred. "I love you too kitten."

L'Rissa smiled. Her mother hadn't referred to her as kitten since she was quite young. It was at this time that a medical team entered with Aiko. Aiko was unconscious and they took her to one of the rear cabins and then returned.

M'Ress looked at her daughter, "Safe journey my daughter. Know that your father and I are very proud of you. You have become a strong feline and a very good officer."

L'Rissa held back the tears that wanted desperately to burst forward. "Thank you mother. I will work on keeping in touch with you and father."

M'Ress kissed L'Rissa on the cheek and then exited. L'Rissa stood solemnly for a moment and composed herself. Once composed she hit the panel closing the hatch and then started on the preflight checks, spotting the work that the operative had started and eliminating any of the potential problems it might cause. She scanned the ship and confirmed all luggage had been transported over and Aiko was registering as the only lifeform aboard beside herself. She signaled the dockmaster and was cleared to leave, and she slowly took off, keeping an image of the planet and station on the viewer as long as possible, a few tears slowly running down her face as she said quiet goodbyes to her world and her mother.