Dead Men Tell No Tales, Part 3

Posted on Sun Nov 29th, 2020 @ 8:20am by Lianej Derani

Mission: MISSION 0 - History Speaks
Location: THe Romulan Neutral Zone, Prime Universe
Timeline: June 2386
1142 words - 2.3 OF Standard Post Measure

Previously on Dead Men Tell No Tales

June 2386

She patted the body of her crewman down. He had to have something usable. She found a knife, and a hypospray of something, and a box of Felicium. From the look and the smell, it was the dried leaves rather than the processed drug. The box was not quite 10cm long and 5cm wide and deep. She hefted it in her hand thoughtfully. The thing looked a lot like a grenade, especially in smoke filled semi-darkness.

What the hell, as a diversion it was weak, but it was worth a shot. If he reacted like he should... She pushed herself up to a standing position, took a breath, and threw the box into the room. “Fire in the hole!”

And now the continuation

It was a calculated bluff. Would he believe she’d just tossed a grenade into the room? She couldn’t wait to find out and crept cautiously into the state room, phaser held up, ready to shoot the blasted Romulan, or anything else, that moved. Nothing stirred though. The exchange of blasts must have set something on fire; tendrils of smoke were starting to rise through the room. Where was the bastard? It was a large room. He could be anywhere.

She moved further in, advanced pace by pace, checking corners, and furniture. No sign of him. Was there a back way out? There better not be. He could be anywhere by now. And with the prize she’d given up years of her life to find. She’d rip his balls off when she got him. She’d open his belly and show him his own entrails, glistening green and wet in her hand. She’d -

She saw the movement in the corner of her eye. It saved her life.

Rh’Cerek stepped out of the shadows. He had a phaser held out in front of him, and foolishly hesitated rather than shooting her. In that fraction of hesitation she brought her own weapon up and fired. He moved faster, knocking her phaser aside, and the beam took off the top of his pointy ear, but no more. She retaliated by kneeing him in the fruits. He wheezed, but grabbed for her phaser and the two went down in a scrabble of limbs as she struggled to keep control of the weapon. The Romulan ended up on top and began to force the business end of the energy weapon back towards her face.

Rh’Cerek was stronger than she was; Boslics were no stronger than most humanoids, they didn’t have the higher strength of vulcanoids or Klingons. Her muscles burned with the effort of keeping the phaser away from her as Rh’Cerek pressed it inevitably down. She didn’t dare let go. The lack of resistance would mean instant death. But just pushing back wasn’t changing the situation either.

She head-butted him. The dense bone of her orbital arches cracked against his forehead and he was stunned for a moment. It was long enough to turn the phaser round so it was pointing at him. He recovered with a shake of the head, and tore the phaser out of her grasp, sending it spinning across the room. Then he clamped his hands around her neck.

His strength had her head swimming in seconds, the tightness rushing across her skin, sight going white at the edges. There wasn’t much time. She pulled the sharp knife from her belt, and stabbed at him, once twice, the thin blade sliding easily into the gristle over his hip, meeting no bone, just kidney. The metal was cold but it set streaks of fire through Rh’Cerek’s abdomen and he reared back with a scream, green blood flowing, coating her fingers. She kicked him all the way off.

The Romulan seemed to realise how badly injured he was, and he stumbled back, deeper into the room. She scrambled up to follow him. The smoke from whatever was burning was getting thicker. It was getting harder to see, and harder to breathe. The fire suppression system must have been damaged during the fighting, as with this much smoke she should by rights by drenched in water or choking on CO2 or Halon.

She cast around for a clue where to go, found one in the trail of blood he’d left over the cream carpet. She dived through the open door to the bedchamber, came up in a roll, knife out before her. Rh’Cerek was fumbling with a strong box on a table to one side, He looked up, frantically stabbed at the key panel with a finger and opened the lid. He fished inside and drew out a slender isolinear rod.

Under the heavy brow of her orbital bone, her eyes went wide. He had it. She charged across the room. “That is mine!” she howled, determined to snatch the rod from him. She’d followed that slender collection of light and data half-way across the quadrant. She was so close. So close! The score to end all scores, the safest of safe harbours and the means to make it all happen was encoded in that slender wafer. She hadn’t risked mutiny, rape and death to lose it now. She jumped for it, meaning to wrest it from him

He also pulled out a disruptor pistol, and fired.

She hit the beam as much as it hit her. It cut into her side just over her hip, burning a chunk of her liver away into nothingness. The pain was like nothing she had ever experienced before. Not even giving birth had been like this. She collapsed onto her knees, realising she had erred gravely. Her own greed had overcome her caution. There was no one to blame but herself. She had to get out of the way of the next shot, or she was dead.

She rolled aside, hand clutched to the missing section of her belly. The blast had cauterized as it had gone through. At least she didn’t have to worry about bleeding out quickly. But she was still in shock. Move, woman! she growled at herself, hauling herself up, waiting any moment for a killing blow.

It didn’t come. The Romulan had scarpered with her prize. She reached for her communicator. “This is Derani. The Romulan captain is armed on Deck 2. A bar of latinum to the hand who brings him back to me! I’m not fussed if he’s dead, but I want the body!”

The trail of blood leading away was clear enough. But she needed a better weapon. She limped back to get her phaser, and then followed green blood deeper into the ship.

To be Continued…