The Child

Posted on Fri Jul 26th, 2019 @ 6:16am by Lieutenant Commander Aurelia Taylor & Commander Liselle Qwyyn

Mission: Episode 1: Hell is a four letter word
Location: Cell Block C
Timeline: MD 12
1253 words - 2.5 OF Standard Post Measure

With Gary and Taam gone to find the Captain, Liselle found herself exhaling a breath she had long been holding. Being in the same space with Gary still bothered her. It felt wrong. Maybe that would change, someday. But for now...

"Tana," Liselle said, cutting her own wandering thoughts short. "Where is your child?"

"She's in the 'C' cell block. Over here," she said tapping the prison map display. "There's really no way to get in there on foot. But we have your transporter. And that changes everything."

Liselle looked to Holmes. "What do you think, Lia?"

Lia looked at the block, "Who knows, it could be a cake walk. Or knowing our luck, it's bumper to bumper Romulans. But I guess we're going in, there's a kid in there which needs our help". She glanced at Liselle and Tana, "Elle, what's with you and Gary? You don't have to say, but next time just keep breathing eh?"

Qwyyn set her jaw. "Commander Taylor and I..." she began, but then decided to brush the explanation aside. There wasn't time to explore the depths of her anger just now. "Things happened in that cell. Things that he could have stopped. If he wanted to. Once we get back to the Elysium, I promise to tell you all about it."

Nodding, Lia started forwards towards C Block. "Nuff said, but please. Can we still be friends? Now that's out of the way, any ideas how we're gonna crack that block?"

Tana immediately perked up then. "They separate the children from the adults. C-Block is not really so much a 'prison' as it is a functioning orphanage of sorts. Security to get in is high, but once you're in there's not much you need to worry about. If we can beam in here --" she tapped the map "-- I think we can quickly grab Sarilla and then beam right back out again."

"High security to get in, but little or no security once your inside. I find that suspicious, almost to true". She looked to Liselle, "What do you think?"

Qwyyn bit at her bottom lip. "I don't know..."

"Please!" Tana interjected. "I'll give you whatever you want. Kill me if you want to, I don't care. But, please, you have to save Sarilla." She took hold of Lia's arm, clinging desperately. "You've seen the things they do to the prisoners here. When she gets old enough, they'll do it to her, too. I can't allow that. Please. She must be spared. I'm begging you."

Lia's memories of Khoal and his little trick came back with a rush, "Nobody is going to kill you, and I for one don't any anything from you. But I'm not going to make any promises".

Liselle caught something in Lia's eye. A look. Pain, the depths of which she hadn't fully realized was buried there. Was it because of life in this prison, or was it because of a child in danger? She shook the questions away. They could wait until they were free from this place. In the meantime, they needed to move. "Low security or not, as soon as we beam in, that cellblock is going to go into lockdown," Qwyyn said. "I'd love to save every kid in there, but there just isn't going to be time for that before we get ourselves killed. How are we supposed to find Sarilla?"

Tana straightened. "I'll find her."

Qwyyn turned back to Lia once again. "After what they did to us, I can only imagine what they might do to children," she said quietly. "I'm willing to try this if you are."

A cold chill settled on Lia, "Tana, you go find Sarilla when we get inside. Liselle, you round up as many of the kids as you can and get them out of there. I'm going to be having a small set to with our Romulan hosts, so just a heads up. Don't get in the way, and don't ask what I did once we get out". She contacted the shuttle, "Computer, three to beam into structure 60 feet to the front of my location".

**********

As soon as the transporter beam faded, Tana was on the move. They were in a large circular chamber with cell doors surrounding them along the walls, like the numbers on a clock. Liselle watched her run to one of those adjoining cells where she immediately began prying off the accompanying door control padd. Somehow Tana had known exactly which cell Sarilla was being held in -- the one at the 4 o'clock position. Perhaps something she had learned during some form of child visitation? Was it even possible that the guards would show such a kindness? Liselle doubted it.

The room darkened, painted in a deep angry red. An alarm klaxon began to sound.

Qwyyn wasted no time, running for the 12 o'clock position at the north of the chamber. As best as she could tell, it was the main entrance from the rest of the prison. "We've got company coming!" she called out to Lia and Tana.

Lia checked her phaser, with a full charge she moved to intercept the on coming Romulans. She heard more than saw them and turned to Liselle, "Elle, get a move on. Start getting the kids out of here, leave this to me". She pulled a Romulan proximity mine out of a bag over her shoulder, "This should slow those bastards down". Activating the mine she stuck a grenade on top, "And this little baby should set the whole kit and caboodle off". She then threw the mine as hard as she could towards the on coming squad, "Cover your ears!!!!" A loud resounding explosion shook the building, the approaching Romulans were for now stopped.

Liselle already had the first cell open. Tana hadn't been lying when she said that security wasn't nearly as high here as it was in the rest of the prison. She had to remove the panel clean off the wall in order to short the lock on door, but the phaser made the work easy. Within the cell, a young human boy shrank back against the wall.

"It's okay," Liselle assured him we're here to help you. "Hey. What's you name?"

"Pa-Prisoner," he stammered. "Prisoner."

"That's all they've ever called you?"

The young boy nodded.

"Come with me. We're getting out of here."

With Lia defending them, Qwyyn and Tana were able to make quick work of bringing all the kids out of their cells. "I'm starting to transport the children back to the shuttle!" Qwyyn called out to Lia. "How are we doing for time?"

Taking aim at a Romulan head, Lia responded. "We're doing ok for now, but things are starting to warm up. Just get the kids out, I'll let you know if I need us to bug out". Another Romulan appeared, Lia just gunned him down.

Liselle nodded and turned back to the wider group of gathered children. "Everyone stay together. I'm going to start beaming you back up to the shuttle in pairs," she told them. With a tap of her communicator she gave the order to the shuttle's computer. "Computer, begin evacuation sequence Qwyyn One."

Nothing happened.

Qwyyn tapped the comm badge and gave the order again. But the computer was quick to give the grim news: "Transport function is being inhibited by transport dispersal field actively in effect in your area."

"Lia!" Liselle jogged back to her friend's side. "We have a big problem."

OFF