Marauding Mirror Pt. 2

Posted on Thu Jul 10th, 2025 @ 1:53pm by Captain Shran dh'Klar & Lieutenant JG Kate Kono & Lieutenant JG Benjamin "Ben" Dalton

2,339 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: Wounds From the Mirror
Location: USS Washington

Eislyn cautiously led the way out of sickbay and down the corridor. She noted blood on the deck and walls as well as scorching on the walls that indicated weapons fire. She feared what they might encounter, with invaders on the ship and no word from anyone on the situation, anything was possible. Reaching the first major junction she stopped and held her position, allowing for Kate and Ben to catch up so they might get into a tactical position before they tried to get to the turbolift.

Kate pulled a PADD out of her leg pocket and tapped at it a moment before sliding it back into her pants.
"I prepared an express override for the turbolift. It will prevent the lift doors from opening when we are in there and it will stop the lift one deck before the bridge," Kate explained. "We can use the maintenance panel to get on top of the lift and scan the bridge through the doors so that it doesn't throw us out onto potential enemy territory if the bridge is taken." Kate said while readying her phaser and couching near the junction. "Nobody will be able to stop the lift on the way and intercept us, either."

Ben had his game face on. "Let's do this." He said firmly. "We need to get to the bridge and get answers though I can pretty much guess what is going on." He finished glumly.

"You sure you want to do that? Locking one of the lifts might be good for us, but it leaves others in potential danger in a real tough spot" Eislyn queried.

"It will release when we're out of the turbolift. I just don't want the doors to swing open and turn the lift into our own personal kill box. The Jefferies tubes aren't much better. It's a fatal funnel with nowhere to run so we don't -- really have any good options. The least we can do is ensure we don't get cooked while we're on it. Anyone outside the lift has more options than we do to run for cover. Anyone caught inside the lift has none at all," Kate explained simply. "It's not like I'm going to lock up the turbolift indefinitely, and I see your point. Controls will be released when we get out."

"Less talk more action. Time is precious and it's slipping away from us as is control of the ship." Ben noted. "We need to stem the tide and hopefully turn it back in our favor."

Eislyn listened to Kate's explanation. It was logical to a point, though she failed to consider that people waiting on a lift as a means of escape would be at the end of a dead-end ally, but nothing could be done about that. Ben was right, they needed to move. All her past life experiences of combat told her that they were essentially in a warzone now. Planetary combat was one thing though, this sort of combat in the corridors of a starship was different. It was exceedingly rare that anyone outside of security would ever have to concern themselves with intruders.

Eislyn moved, continuing to take point as they made for the turbolift. Reaching the lift, she hit the control panel to call for the lift and then waited in a tactical pose as Ben and Kate joined her. The turbolift arrived and the doors opened, and Eislyn glanced at the others, signaling for them to get in first while she stood covering the corridor.


Kate backed in and waited for everyone to join before calling for the floor while pulling out her PADD. ::OVERRIDE ENABLED - Stop prior to deck-1 - between decks, NO OPEN on Opearate::: Kate tapped the PADD and kept her thumb on the ::RELEASE TO NORMAL OPERATION:: just in case they needed to leave in a hurry or open the doors for any other reason. As the doors closed Kate scanned the turbolift with her other hand, using the tricorder to make sure that the lift was not rigged in any way before activating it.

"Okay, it's not trapped, rigged, or otherwise reprogrammed in any devious way and I have it set to take us straight to our destination minus one half of a deck. Express elevator to hell! Going up!" Kate chirped happily despite it just being a way to cover her anxiety a little. "Computer! Take us to the bridge please, with sprinkles..." Kate pocketed the tricorder and pulled her hand phaser out while she had her PADD equally at the ready.

Ben was quiet. He only half heard Kate's spirited banter as he was focused on protecting her, Eislyn and regaining control of the ship. He gripped his phaser tightly, pointing it out ready to use it at a moment's notice.

The turbolift took them to their destination and opened with a half view of deck 2. Eislyn slid out and took up a tactical position while Ben and Kate exited. The main attractions on the deck were the senior officer quarters and the officer's mess, and most notably, the captain's quarters. The best option for them was to take the Jeffrey tube entrance near the captain's quarters, but that was four sections away. With Kate and Ben out of the turbolift and looked back at them with a glance, "Remember, high probability that we encounter civilians on this deck, particularly children. Hold fire until you are certain you have a hostile in sight."

Kate pulled her tricorder out and put it in silent mode. She set it to scan for comm badges, and life-signs. There were a few live sign readings but no active moving comm badges on the screen. She switched the scanning conditions to detect materials and items that don't correspond with where they should be and check for traps, or sensors that weren't Starfleet issue. She continued to cycle through the scan-types until resting back on life--signs and moving comm badges once she was satisfied that they weren't going to set anything off. She put her tricorder away and readied her rifle.

"Path seems clear to the bridge but there are life signs in some of the quarters. Unknown if they're friend or foe," Kate whispered.

Eislyn remained at point and traversed the corridors cautiously. Memories of one of her passed lives roamed freely in her mind, thoughts of being aboard the Exeter on patrol near the Klingon border, 2265 and being ambushed. They fought the Klingons to what they thought was a standstill, but the Klingons were close enough for transport and began beaming troops aboard. Minimal disruptor fire. Klingons when they board you, they prefer hand to hand combat, using bat'leths, mek'leths, and their d'k tahg daggers. That was a dark day, full of bloody memories. She saw many a fine officer and friend die that day, but in the end, they held out and defeated the Klingons. And so it would be against these Mirror folks.

They reached the main corridor and from her perspective they had a choice to make. To the right they would get to the Jeffries tube entrance by the captain's quarters, to the left was Cmdr Grayson's quarters and Cmdr Travis quarters, and they both had kids that would be alone if in quarters at the moment. She couldn't help but be concerned for the welfare of children, especially under the current circumstances. She looked back to Kate and Ben, "Which way you want to go, to the Jeffries tube or to check on the kids?"

"I vote the Jefferies tubes," Kate said. "What if the children are kids from the mirror universe they planted there to trick us," Kate said with a sly smile. "Kidding, but really, we got to do our jobs first, tend to the kids last. Besides, if they're in their quarters, they're as safe as they can be. If they're with us, they're in the line of fire."

Ben shook his head, "No, Cmdr Grayson has small children, twins I think as does Lt. Travis. We need to at least check on them and get them somewhere where they can be protected."

Eislyn nodded, "Agreed. We are StarFleet officers. Our first duty is to safeguard civilians, especially those that can't defend themselves. We should at least check on the children. And not to put too fine a point on it, but I am the ranking officer. We have a 2-1 vote, but I'll pull rank if necessary."

"Good. Let's go but stay alert. We don't know who or what we may encounter." Ben reminded his companions as they prepared to move down the left corridor.

Eislyn nodded and moved to take point. They proceeded down to the end of the corridor where the Grayson's and Travis' quarters were located on opposite sides. Eislyn listened intently, hearing commotion beyond the soft footfalls on Kate and Ben coming up behind her. Suddenly the door to the Travis quarters opened and a figure appeared seemingly backpedaling as if being pushed while fighting. It looked like Cmdr Celes, though she was dressed strangely. Eislyn froze, unsure as to the identity of the person, but suddenly all became clear when she fired a disruptor into the Travis quarters and Eislyn could hear a visible thud as a body hit the ground.

Eislyn completely forgot she was holding a phaser and instead bull rushed what she assumed was a Mirror version of Cmdr Celes, pinning her against the transparent aluminum window at the end of the corridor. Then a shot rang out, muffled, a disruptor being fired point blank, and Eislyn fell to the ground as blood spilled out of her abdomen.

Celes looked up and saw Ben and Kate and began firing. Disruptor bolts flew down the corridor, several hitting the walls, while two making contact with targets, one grazing Ben along the right hip, and one hitting Kate in the shoulder, causing her to drop her weapon. The Mirror Celes remained at a distance, the sound of the door to the Travis quarters closing ringing out in a silent swoosh, and she began telepathically scanning the trio. A junior counselor who was a joined Trill, a junior officer of little value who happened to be human, but interesting, he is in a relationship with this other one, human female, Intelligence officer. Now she might be of interest, though her memories indicated she was generally frivolous. Perhaps she should simply kill her. No, she could have a little fun. She took aim, preparing to fire a cutting blast that would cleave Kate in two.


Kate kicked a leg in between Celes's feet, not making contact. Kate then fought through the pain and hooked her left leg around Celes's back knee. She pulled lightly which was all it took to send her falling backwards. Languidly, Kate crawled ontop of Celes ans dug her thumb just behind Celes's median nerve behind her wrist and thumb to control the phaser while she raked her face with her fingers and rolled forward to pivot leverage against her elbow by bringing her knee down on her forearm. With a knee on her chest, and a knee on her forearm she stripped the weapon from Celes and slammed her fist into Celes neck over and over with the intent of fracturing her lyrnix to suffocate her to death. With each blow, Kate could feel herself getting more and more feint as the adrenaline began to max out while still nor being enough to push back the pain that radiated from her hip. Out of breath and not sure of she had the strength she got several good blows on but wasn't yet sure if they were good enough.

Ben felt the searing pain in his right hip from the phaser shot he took. He looked to Eislyn who was down and not moving. He didn't know if she was dead or not. His head swung back, and he saw Kate battling with the Mirror Celes and on the losing side. He raised his phaser but couldn't get a clear shot as their bodies were so close together. "Get off her you bitch!" He hollered as he jumped on Celes to protect Kate and give her a few precious seconds to regain her strength. He rained blows down on the Mirror Celes, but she seemed to be wearing some sort of body armor, and his punches weren't having as much effect as they should have been. "Run Kate! Get away, save yourself!" He shouted as he continued to shield her from the Mirror.

Celes wrapped her legs around Ben's left arm as she held it taut with her hand near his wrist and wrenched it, an audible snapping and popping as the arm was ripped out of the socket and every ligament snapped and muscles tore. She kicked him square in the chest to remove him as an impediment. She stood and picked up her disruptor and then looked back at Kate and Ben, "Worthless Terrans." She took aim and fired at Kate, but Ben pushed her out of the way, taking the slicing shot himself, and he fell to the ground barely conscious; his legs sliced from his body at the midthigh point.

She looked at Kate, "He truly cares about you. I'll be back for you. Stay put." She clicked the setting on the disruptor and then fired, piercing Kate's abdomen, blood gushing out as her liver was exposed and showing significant damage. The evil Mirror walked off slowly, a slight cough echoing as she rubbed her throat. "Now where might that Science Officer be?" she mused aloud, her voice trailing off as she made her out of sight.

Eislyn's eyes began to flutter as the sound of a person closing in to her echoed in her ears. She felt hands upon her, a hand pressing her comm badge and calling for medical assistance. She focused her eyes through the haze to see who was rendering aide...a child...Shasta.

 

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