Retrieval - Part III
Posted on Tue Jul 15th, 2025 @ 7:42am by 1st Lieutenant Kara Melo & Major Cameron Bourne & 1st Lieutenant Maria Zamorano & 1st Lieutenant Mazal Falk & Ensign Chevy Tuff
1,495 words; about a 7 minute read
Mission:
Broken Mirror
Location: Mirror Mercenary Ship
[PREVIOUSLY]
Crawling through the Jefferies tubes, following Maria's directions, Cam lead his small team through the ship. These tubes were definitely not designed for comfort, especially for someone as tall as him. While the majority of lifesigns they had picked up were humanoids, Humans, Orions and Nausicaans, there were a few non-humanoid pirates running around the ship. one of them appeared to be Something squid like while the other was a birdlike creature similar to an Emu.
[CONTINUED]
--Search Team--
Maria was already moving forward, her mind focused. She really wanted get done here and get back to the Calypso. Just being on the other side of the mirror made her skin crawl. It just felt so wrong on so many levels, almost like sandpaper against her skin. She paused to look back to see if Cam and Mazal were keeping up. There was a sound of someone opening a hatchway and someone grumbling about having to crawl into the Jefferies tube to go fix part of the system.
"Confounded, jerks had to hurt my ship how dare they and if I catch them I would like to fry them with my welder." then the grizzled man his hair all awry came around the curve letting out a few colorful metaphors that could singe the hairs of anyone's ears.
Maria had given the sign for stopping, and laid down flat.
Mazal paused, taking note of the man who had come into the Jefferies tubes to work on the ship relays. She lowered herself to where she wasn't in line of sight. She also wondered if Maria was going to do something.
The old engineer found where the problem was, and began to work on it, becoming involved with his project.
Maria decided to belly crawl forward, knowing he'll eventually realize he wasn't alone in the Jefferies tube.
The relay being fixed, the engineer pulled out a small bottle to take a drink when he noticed he wasn't alone. "Now what are you-"
Maria didn't give him a chance to finish his question. She did an immediate uppercut to the jaw, knocking him back off his knees, quickly putting him into a sleeper hold, knocking the man out.
Watching Maria work, Cam nodded his approval. She knew what she was doing alright. Quietly moving over to her, Cam looked over the old engineer, "just not his day"
"No, it wasn't but, couldn't have him send out a warning either." Maria looking at the man and double checking he was okay. "Okay he's good, hmmnn need to put him somewhere. Don't want him to starve to death either"
Mazal thought for a moment, "We'll just need him placed somewhere, then he can wake up. There are no closets in a Jefferies tube." A twinkle in her eyes appeared after he comment. "Either way, let drag him to where he can be found later."
"I'll scout out the way and find a closet of some kind to put him in there. Captain?" Maria looking at Cam.
Cam shook his head, “not the mission, leave him here, tie him up.” He said, retrieving a set of zip-tie hand cuffs from his leg pocket and tossing them to Mazal. “We need to keep moving”
Maria moved forward, leaving Mazal to zip tie the engineer. She continued down took a right instead of the left. Stopping at a hatch way she opened it up, revealing the ladder which led down to the next level. "Okay here we go." lowering herself downwards, and climbing down the rungs of the maintenance ladder. She came to the hatch which opened into the Jefferies tube, that opening she crawled inside and headed to where they could get out into the corridor which contained the holding cells. Right now, there didn't seem to be anyone there. Down a slight ways, she could see a camera keeping watch on things. Maria moved out, hoping that no one was actively keeping watch over security monitors. She went up to the camera and shot it.
"Okay, let's get going." she whispered.
Following behind her, Cam quickly pulled out his tricorder again to take another scan. He was hoping to make an internal map of the ship as they went. Reaching Maria's position, Cam motioned for her to pause, "ease up on the damage. Taking out too many cameras could raise the alarm." he said, looking up at the burnt camera. looking down both directions of the corridor, Cam moved on ahead to check the holding cells one by one.
Most of the cells were empty, but a few had occupants. A couple of humanoid aliens that Cam couldn't identify, a group of three Orion woman in scantily clad clothing, and in the far end, the scientist they were looking for. Motioning for Maria and Mazal to join him, he knelt down in front of the scientist's cell, "hey there, cavalry's here"
Dr Keller looked up in surprise at the familiar human phrase, not expecting to hear it from her captors. Seeing Cam knelt down outside her cell, she quickly stood up, “they sent the marines? Huh, didn’t think I was that important”
Cam gave her a grin, “everyone is important. Now hold tight while we get you out of here” he said, looking over at his team, “Maria, Mazal. Could one of you turn the forcefield off?”
"I'll do so." Mazal responded, moving towards the control panel.
The two Orion women in the cell next to the scientist, looked with great interest. "You're the cavalry? Rescue us and we'll make it worth your while." giving a winsome, hopeful smile.
Maria looked at Cam. "Captain? What do you think?"
Looking at the two Orion women, Cam felt conflicted. While this was a rescue mission and bringing back two more captives would’ve be difficult, Cam had a rather distrustful attitude towards Orions in general. After a moment, he nodded to Mazal to lower the forcefield, “alright, but one wrong move and I’m leaving you both here”
They both nodded, "Yes sir."
Mazal lowered the forcefield on the two holding cells, while Maria kept watch. As the two Orion women drew near, and stepped out of the cell, their demeanor changed. one of them leaped towards Maria, with her fingernails outstretched, their claws glistening with some substance, "Captain watch out for their nail-" The one who sprung at Maria, the marine was barely able to keep the Orion's claws from reaching her face, by grabbing the woman's wrists, using her momentum to flip her over Maria's head as the marine rolled backwards.
Quickly leveling his rifle, Cam stunned both of them before moving over to Mazal, “you good there Zamorano?” He asked, keeping his rifle pointed at the Orion.
"Yes, I am good." Maria huffed out, then grabbed the Orion woman and dragged her back to the holding cell, then put the other one in. "Appreciate the save sir, thank you."
Mazal promptly raised the forcefield on the Orion women, the forcefield that held the scientist it went down. "Are you alright Captain?"
Cam nodded, “I’m fine. You’d think by now I’d have learned not to trust an Orion” he said before giving a sigh and turning back toward the door. As he turned, he saw a serving girl coming to feed the prisoners frozen in fear at the door.
The girl looked at each member of the group for a moment before looking at the control panel on the wall beside her.
Seeing what she was about to do, Cam held up a hand towards her, “east now, don’t do it” he said, keeping his voice low and calm.
Looking at Cam with an expression of anguish, she let a tear fall from her eye, “I’m sorry” she said before she slapped the alarm and ran off back into the ship.
“Frack! Marines. Move now!!” Cam said, rushing back to pick up the scientist and start running back the way they came as alarms started to sound all over the ship.
Both Maria and Mazal rolled their eyes. What the serving girl had done, made catching them kinda flat footed. They were fast on their recovery, moving swiftly into the corridor. Mazal tapped on her combadge, "Kara the ship has been alerted, can you read us? Someone decided to kick the hornets’ nest and it wasn't us."
She looked over to Cam. "what do you think see if the Calypso can transport the scientist up?"
Cam shook his head, "no, let's get to the beam out point before we try that. god only knows what this ship is made of" he said, taking note that Kara hadn't responded. "Come on, let's go"
(To be continued...)
First Lieutenant Kara Melo
Platoon Leader
USS Calypso
1st Lieutenant Maria Zamorano
Marine
USS Calypso
1st Lieutenant Mazal Falk
Marine
USS Calypso
Captain Cameron Bourne
Marine CO
USS Calypso
Ensign Chevy Tuff
Computer Systems Specialist
USS Calypso
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