Second-Hand Prophecy

Posted on Apr 20, 2015 @ 10:31pm by Captain Michael Turlogh Kane
Edited on on Apr 20, 2015 @ 10:31pm

Mission: Limbo

"SECOND-HAND PROPHECY"

(Continued from "Blind Luck")

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"Persistent prophecy is a familiar way of assuring the event."
- George Gissing

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Captain's Log, Supplemental - Commander Drake and I have arrived at the Pit to meet Major Thytos and for the showdown with Rawyvin Seth. Except the whole place is going up in flames...

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Location: Limbo
Stardate: [2.15]0419.xxxx
Scene: The Pit


Michael Turlogh Kane stopped dead when the shooting started. He and Drake were somewhere halfway up the south stand of the Pit's main stadium, having gained entrance through a poorly-guarded turnstile off a side alley in the Atria. They were too late to stop Kassandra's fight - Kane could see that immediately - because the action was already underway. Both Kassandra and Kalenda the Black were stabbing and hacking at each other with their weapons while the crowd bayed like wolves on a blood-hunt.

Kane looked around helplessly. The fear and panic was like a subspace radio wave, travelling through the crowd. At first, only a few hundred people around the main entrance knew anything untoward was happening - they saw the Black Stars rush in, shooting down Alket Daheel's security guards and closing the turnstiles. The exit tunnel forcefields fizzed into being, cutting off any escape route. The rest of the crowd kept their attention focused solely on the blood-letting in the arena, but that began to change when the Black Stars began to run amok, lobbing grenades into the crowd and indiscriminately spattering them with heavy blaster fire.

The spectators around the main entrance were slaughtered, and as they died, a stampede began. People scrambled to escape the killing, fleeing away from the Black Stars - they ran into the arena, higher up into the stands, anywhere they could get away. But all the exits were covered or blocked, and when a panicking family appeared in the crosshairs, the Black Stars manning the street exits gunned them down.

Kane saw Kass go down to Kalenda's blade and his heart leapt into his mouth. There were thousands of people on the arena floor now, a tsunami of desperation flooding away from the guns of the Black Stars. He could see no way to get to her.

"Captain!" Drake was at his shoulder. "Tella Yavin is eliminating her competitors! We have to move!"

"I can see that, Commander," Kane grated. Drake's face sent shockwaves running through him - was this the moment that Drake had prophesied? Was he only minutes away from his own death here in the arena? He looked around at the scene, spying Kajek's blood-red armour down by the entrance, watching the Black Stars step over the bodies of those they had slain.

His view of Kassandra had been blocked by the bulk of a large man leaning over her. As Kane watched, the man hefted Kassandra on to his shoulder and made a beeline for one of the smaller entrance tunnels. As Kane's eye followed him, his path took him right by her.

Selyara.

She was standing amidst the shitstorm, a telecom headset half-wrenched from her head. Her features were more angular than he remembered, like she had been surgically altered, but the line of the mouth, the sculpt of the jaw sweeping up to the pointed ears - it was her. After almost eleven years, it was her.

He grasped Drake's forearm. "There!" he pointed. "It's Selyara, look!"

Drake squinted and looked but the sheer size of the crowd prevented him from seeing her. Kane looked around - the nearby bleacher steps were crammed with people trying to flee - and he started vaulting down over the seats, moving in her direction. Behind him, Drake began to follow.

The first few leaps were easy, but then Kane's bones started to rattle. His breath came heavy. Not so young anymore, he thought, trying to keep his eye on where Selyara was standing. Why isn't she running, he wondered, but then the thought hit him.

It was all converging, here in the Pit. Kane, Selyara, Rawyvin Seth, Drake. The latter's second-hand prophecy was finally being fulfilled. Selyara must have seen Seth somewhere in the stadium and now Kane and Drake were closing in on her. It was all going to happen, right here, right now in the Pit. The thought gave him pause for a breath, but he kept on going, reminding himself of the flaws in Drake's story of the future. No Romulan invasion, no sudden Neo-Essentialist coup, no death of the Discovery. The revelation that Drake - the Drake vaulting down the bleachers behind him - was a clone, one of several clones that had been briefed on the future by one of his fellows, gave Kane a semblance of hope that his story might not be wholly accurate. When Drake had first approached him on Earth telling him a fantastic story of the future Pendragon returned from a dystopian future, it had been easy to believe. But as time passed, history was changing, diverging from the bare bones of what had been a simple cautionary tale into something totally different. The dystopian future had become a nightmarish present, and Drake's warning that Michael Turlogh Kane would die at the hands of Rawyvin Seth on Limbo suddenly had a question mark on the end of it.

Just a few more levels to go,and they would be on the arena floor. In the line of fire.

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Location: IRV Akhmogai ("War Hawk")


Admiral Delora Radaik sat in the gloom of her ready room, waiting for news. The flashing icon of Defence Status Two underlit her satanic features with a steady, pulsing glow from the monitor in front of her. Throughout the ship, the crew of the War Hawk were standing at their stations in anticipation of a crisis. Non-essential personnel had cleared the decks.

[[Merak to Radaik.]]

It was what she'd been waiting for. "Radaik here. Go ahead, Commander." In the background of the transmission were muffled thuds, the whine of disruptor fire, and the general hubbub of screaming. It was happening, then. Tella Yavin was moving to eliminate her enemies on Limbo.

[[The assault on the Pit is underway, Admiral. I and my team have been ordered to join the Black Stars in massacring civilians. Your orders?]]

Admiral Radaik's lip twisted with distaste. What Tella Yavin was doing was not entirely unprecedented in the annals of Romulan history - a good massacre here and there was occasionally necessary to keep the people in line - but the idea of indiscriminate butchery was unwholesome to her. Most of the aliens that were dying on Limbo might one day make good subjects of the Empire.

Still, needs must, she mused. Tella Yavin might have engineered the situation on Limbo with political skill, but she had been out of the game too long. And no-one was a better manipulator than a Romulan flag officer. When Admiral Radaik spoke, her voice was full of authority. "Commander Merak, you are to ignore any orders that Tella Yavin gives you. You will use the cover of the massacre to locate and neutralise Rawyvin Seth, then return to the ship immediately. If you are fired upon by the Black Stars, you are to defend yourself. Is that clear?"

[[Yes. And if we encounter any Starfleet personnel?]]

"We are at war, Commander. In war we kill our enemies."

[[I hear and obey, Admiral.]]

The connection was cut, and Admiral Radaik sat back in her seat, the taste of betrayal sweet on her tongue.

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Location: Limbo
Scene: The Pit, outside the main stadium


As Russ and Eve watched in both directions for marauding Black Stars, Jake Crichton feverishly worked on the gate controls. It was harder without an engineering kit - even though he knew what he had to do, there was no way he'd be able to fine-tune any of his work. No, he mused, looking at the quantum-fibre power distribution cable in his hand, what he was doing was butcher's work.

On the face it, it was simple. He had pulled a panel off the wall, revealing a power distribution relay. The relay was made up of old isolinear chips and a veritable web of cabling. Even though the Pit's local control over its computer systems had been over-ridden, the power itself was still there, still lurking in the distribution network, ready to be bidden by whoever was at the controls. Severing the link here would cut power to the forcefields keeping the people inside this area - the forcefield would disappear and the exit would be clear. It would be just one exit, but that one exit could save hundreds of lives from the slaughter going on inside. There would be other relay nodes around the stadium, he knew, but getting to them was going to take time.

He glanced down the tunnel to the Pit. The fizzing blue forcefield still stood, blocking the exit. Beyond it, people were dying. Behind them, the wide corridor was separated from the cavernous depths of the Atria by a steel railing.

"Hurry up, Commander!" said Eve again, looking up and down. There was nobody in this section of their street right now, but that could easily change. "The Black Stars might be along at any moment, and we're unarmed!"

"I know," said Jake. He flexed his fingers and started pulling out isolinear chips, watching as the system began to reroute power through the remaining ones.

"If Xana saw you now, she'd pull your balls up over your head," said Russ. "Actually, she's going to do that anyway."

"I know," said Jake. Isolinear chips lay scattered on the ground around his knees - he couldn't extract any more while the power was live without risking injury. Instead, he reached into the tangle of quantum-fibre cables and started to separate them out, trying to see where on the backing panel they were connected.

There was a scurrying of approaching footsteps. Eve and Russ looked fearfully in the direction they were coming from, expecting to see a squad of heavily-armed Black Stars, all come to kill whoever was messing around with their power distribution network.

A family of green-skinned Orions were running for their lives from the hubbub behind them. The father had a child in each arm, his offsprings' faces buried in his shoulders while his fat wife huffed to keep up behind them. While the trio of Starfleet officers watched, the Orion family ran on by, passing in and out of their lives forever.

"How many more families are running for their lives like that?" breathed Eve, as she and Russ shared a glance of worry.

Jake said nothing, turning back to his work.

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Scene: Inside the Pit


Kane and Drake had made the blood-spattered floor of the arena, but were being hampered by the sheer volume of the crowd. The Black Stars were moving out from the main entrance now, splitting into smaller groups as they moved up into the bleachers to hunt down hiding people, and slowly advancing along the arena floor. A few brave souls were trying to charge them, and somewhere up in the stands someone had gotten hold of a Black Star blaster rifle and was returning fire.

Kane kept a hand on his hip pouch, wishing he had thought to bring a phaser. Eight years in Security had taught him never to be far from one, but it was so long since he had been off the bridge of a ship. Command weans you away from what you're used to, he thought.

They were maybe fifty feet from Selyara now. She was keying something into her forearm-mounted control panel, but whatever she was doing wasn't working. He face twisted into a mask of furious anger as she wrenched her headset and control panel off her body, flinging it onto the sand.

There was nothing of the woman he knew in her, he could see that from here. Ten years in the Jaros stockade had turned her into a wild-eyed monster. A panicking Efrosian ran into her, trying to get away from the killing. Selyara touched his cheek, looked into his eyes, and he collapsed, his limbs all akimbo like a puppet with its strings cut.

The crowd parted like a breaker hitting a rock, and suddenly the way to Selyara was clear. "Come on!" yelled Kane, bursting into a run, ignoring the throbbing in his leg muscles from their trip down the bleachers. Explosions blew holes in the wall of people, and everywhere the sickly green lines of the Black Stars' blasters were lancing through the crowd. Kane ignored it all and ran on, eyes fixated on Selyara, Drake hot on his heels, as bodies flopped onto the sand all around them.

They nearly made it.

At the last second, Selyara looked up and caught Kane's eye. Her jaw dropped in shock as he skidded to a halt in front of her, one foot crushing the discarded telecom headset.

They stared in each other's eyes for a moment, then Selyara's slowly raised a hand to Kane's cheek. "Michael...", she said, but he couldn't tell what sort of emotion was in her voice.

Before she could touch him, Kane depressed the hypospray into her wrist. The heavy dose of one hundred parts-per-million anesthezine flooded her system, and Selyara collapsed in a heap onto the sand.

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Scene: A few dozen yards away


Surrounded by the nine other members of his commando team, Commander Merak lifted the rangefinder to his eyeline and started scanning the crowd. In the screen's sidebar, an image of his quarry appeared. The rangefinder speedily scanned the crowd, attempting to match the image to the sea of faces careering across its sensor area.

He was here somewhere. Rawyvin Seth, wanted by all major galactic governments, was finally within the grasp of the Romulan Star Empire. Somewhere, in this crowd that heaved and rolled like the tide, the most prolific killer in the galaxy was about to be brought to bear.

[[Tella Yavin to Merak.]] Merak's jaw set as the voice of Limbo's mistress cut into his reverie. The last he saw her, she was striding into the Pit like a conquering queen, her Black Stars bowing to her as she stepped over the corpses of the people they had murdered. [[What are you doing, Commander? You are supposed to be bringing down my enemies, as per my alliance with Admiral Radaik.]]

Merak ignored her, watching the rangefinder cycle through the hundreds of people within its scope. He nodded to the nearest commandos, and they all took up a circle around him, bringing their disruptor rifles up to their shoulders.

[[I see that my own people have once again betrayed me. So be it. I have killed Romulans before, and I have no qualms about doing it again.]] Tella Yavin cut the connection abruptly.

"Stand ready for combat," ordered Merak. Then, on the rangefinder's screen, a match was found.

Rawyvin Seth was nearby.

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Scene: Outside the stadium, as before


"Whatever you're going to do, Commander, do it quickly," said Russ. The corridor they were in had busied up all of a sudden - more and more people were around, milling in confusion, pushing each other up against the yawning chasm of the Atria and the hardened plasteel walls of the Pit. They could hear the shooting from inside the Pit, and didn't know whether to flee or go and see. Their vulture instincts were too strong to simply go home - after all, there might be easy picking on the bodies of the slain - but nobody wanted to get in the line of fire. Living in the shadow of the gun makes for a jumpy populace.

"I think I've got it," said Jake. He had been pulling cables out from their connections, trying to keep ahead of the system's software that automatically rerouted any power hiccups. The trick was to isolate the local forcefields so that the power distribution network wouldn't be able to do just that. It was like a big game of Chutes and Ladders, except you had to block off all the ladders or turn them into chutes so the power could never complete its circuit. Wrenching the entire web of cables out would be exactly the wrong thing to do - in that case, the system would simply reroute control to another node that might be hundreds of metres away.

He replaced the last isolinear chip, and glanced down the tunnel that led into the Pit. Nothing happened for a moment, then the forcefield fizzed and popped, winking out like it was never there.

The effect was immediate. Like a dam being opened, a huge slew of people began to come down the exit tunnel. At first a trickle, then a flood, then a breaking wave - they came on in a stampede.

"I did it!" exclaimed Jake, as Russ hauled him to his feet. The three of them flattened themselves against the wall of the Pit as the river of people flooded out, flowing in all directions.

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Scene: Inside the Pit


"Help me, Drake!" snarled Kane, leaning down to grab Selyara's legs.

The El' Aurian put his hands under Selyara's shoulders. Together, they heaved her up. "You knocked her out?" he said incredulously.

"I told you at the briefing when we first got here. Don't let her touch you," said Kane, indicating with his head in the direction he wanted them to go. "The crowd seems to be moving in that direction. Maybe there's a way out over there. Let's go."

Drake obeyed, but shook his head in amazement. "You knocked her out?" he asked again.

Kane nodded. Between his legs and now his arms, his whole body seemed to be on fire. He made a mental note to do more workouts. "Selyara is able to disrupt the nervous system of anyone she touches through the power of her mind. It's called a thinkstrike. I don't know how it works but it does. Vulcan mysticism or something. You saw what she did to that Efrosian."

Drake nodded. He was having to keep glancing down on the ground to make sure he didn't trip over any corpses. They were deep into the thick of the crowd. Behind them, the Black Stars had slowed their advance, mopping up anyone left behind. "You couldn't take the chance that she wouldn't do the same to us," he said. "I understand. But what about Rawyvin Seth?"

Kane looked around at the carnage. In the distance, back at the entrance to the Pit, he caught sight of Tella Yavin. Several Black Stars had brought Alket Daheel to her, and shoved him roughly to his knees. As Kane watched, Tella Yavin took out her blaster and shot Alket Daheel through the head. The Cardassian's corpse collapsed at her feet.

"Captain!" said Drake again. "Rawyvin Seth?"

"I couldn't give a tuppenny fuck about Rawyvin Seth!" roared Kane suddenly, making Drake jump. "Your prophecy is bullshit, Drake, can't you see that? Whatever your Pendragon-clone told you of the future has all been for nothing! Everything's become unravelled in the telling of it! We're making our own damn history now! Now move faster or we're all dead!"

Drake didn't need to be told twice.

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Scene: Near the main entrance


Commander Merak put the rangefinder back into his utility belt and signalled his team to move forward. They had no sooner taken a dozen steps when the air around them screamed alive with green blaster bolts, splattering into them like rain. Half of the Romulans fell immediately, cut to pieces by a rapidly advancing squad of Black Stars. At their head was an enormous Nausicaan in blood-red armour.

"Cover me!" bellowed Merak, leaping foward into the throng of people. The remaining four commandos hit the dirt, opening up on the Black Stars with their disruptor rifles, cutting down several, giving Merak the time he needed to lose himself in the crowd.

He pushed through the mass of bodies, keeping his eyes up, relying on his peripheral vision to tell him when to step over a corpse. Through the bobbing sea of heads, he spied the one he was looking for.

Rawyvin Seth. The name alone incited fear. Merak could see the Terran clearly now, moving surreptitiously through the crowd, dressed in a dirty black suit, flitting from place to place like a shadow. With a start, Merak realised that Rawyvin Seth was not just seeking to escape - he was following two people.

Merak's eyeline followed Rawyvin's direction, coming to rest on two Starfleet officers making their way through the crowd. They were carrying what looked like a limp Romulan female between them. Her weight was slowing their progress but they were following the crowd, keeping up with the flow of people. Merak saw that one of them wore a red-banded black jumpsuit, with four golden rank pips at his collar - the commander of the Phoenix was here.

The Black Stars were not giving chase to the survivors of their massacre now, happy to finish off whoever was lingering behind. The killing was coming to an end. Merak gathered his strength and pushed on.

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Scene: Outside the Pit


The crowd continued to flee for its collective life, out into the street where Eve, Jake and Russ stood flat against the wall of the Pit. Many of the aliens that passed them by were wailing for their loved ones, or had been borne along like flotsam and had become separated from those who they were with. The crush was bad but manageable - nobody was in any danger of falling over the barrier, down into the great chasm of the Atria.

Jake was at the corner where the street turned into the tunnel. He kept glancing down into the oncoming throng of people.

"Do you see them?" asked Russ.

Jake was shaking his head. They were looking out for Captain Kane and Commander Drake, who were also somewhere in the throng and who Kass had said she saw earlier. "No," he said for the fifth time.

"We should get back to the ship," said Eve. "We'll never be able to hear comms with anyone in this noise."

"I agree," said Russ. "Come on, Jake, let's go."

Jake started to nod. "I suppose so," he said. "We also have to find Solomon - " He caught his breath in surprise. Amongst the oncoming crowd he saw two Starfleet uniforms. "Wait!" he called to his companions. "It's them! They're coming!"

The trio waited until Kane and Drake came down the tunnel. Jake caught Kane's eye. "Over here, Captain!"

Kane and Drake bore their insensate cargo over to them."It's good to see the three of you," said Kane. He was tired and speaking heavily. He indicated their burden. "This is Selyara.We have to get her back to the ship."

Jake nodded. "Russ, help me out." Together, he and Russ hefted Selyara's dead weight. The crowd was beginning to peter out now.

They were just about to move when a man in black appeared at the entrance to the tunnel. He was tall, with a dark widow's peak hooding equally dark eyes, and dressed in a filthy black suit. The man stopped dead, and flicked his right wrist, revealing a bloodstained knife in his hand. He levelled the blade at the group.

"None of you are going anywhere," said Rawyvin Seth.

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Scene: Inside the Pit


Finally, the shooting died down and then stopped. The sand and dust and screams that had risen into the air were already being extracted by the Pit's air-con system. Pools of blood in rainbow hues congealed together as dead aliens of a myriad of species lay next to one another.

Tella Yavin stood in the centre of the arena, triumphant. Alket Daheel's corpse was still cooling by the entrance, and her agents were already moving to take care of Harad-Sar and DaiMon Snek. Nearby, a rapidly-sobering Willis Baker knelt with his hands on his head and his eyes on the ground while Black Stars trained their blasters on him.

Her information had been correct. Given the amount of Limbo's movers and shakers present at the Pit tonight, the Shadow Market had been taking place here. There was no way of knowing if the Shadow Master himself was lying amongst the dead, but even if he wasn't, it didn't much matter. The sudden disappearances of Limbo's rich and powerful over the next day or two would destroy his ability to host any more Shadow Markets. From this day forward, there would be only one true power on Limbo.

Tella Yavin's lips creased into a small smile. She was finally supreme.

Kajek jogged up to her, his shaggy hair bouncing everywhere. His blood-red armour was spattered with the real thing. "We leaving now?" he asked.

"We're finished here," agreed Tella Yavin. "But we have one more task to accomplish. Regroup the Black Stars and split their numbers in two. Send half to the Phoenix's airlock and the other half to the War Hawk's. Tell them that they have one hour to gather whatever remains of their crew. Tell them to get the hell off my station or it will be their grave."

Kajek bowed low. "Yes, mistress," he rumbled.

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Scene: Outside the Pit


Kane's insides turned to ice when he heard Rawyvin's voice. He spun on his heel, taking in what he could. Rawyvin was like a monolith of murder - even the way he stood seemed pent-up with deadly promise. As Kane watched, Rawyvin lifted up his knife. The blade directed itself towards Kane's heart with a bloody imperative.

"Give me what I want," said Rawyvin, as lightly as if he was talking to a group of little children, "and you can go free. Defy me, and I'll carve out your livers right here, right now." He fixed his eyes on Selyara for a moment.

Kane was frozen to the spot. Drake's words were bubbling up in his mind again, and his earlier bravado was dissipating like smoke on the wind. Rawyvin Seth kills you on Limbo. I know this because I was there nineteen years ago. I saw him take your life. I'm truly sorry, Captain. You don't see the future. You die on Limbo and Aerdan Jos becomes the captain of the Phoenix. He's the one that leads your crew in fighting the future, not you. Not you, Captain Kane.

His mind whirled. But that's not what happened, he told himself. This Drake, the one standing behind you, wasn't telling the truth when he said that. He was telling you second-hand information from one of his damn clones. And how do you know that that future-clone was being any more truthful when he told that story to your Drake? Maybe all the Drakes are liars.

Kane's heart was pounding in his chest, he could feel it. You've fought the odds before and won. Do you have to fight them now? He was aware of the eyes of his crew standing behind him, all looking to him for leadership, for strength, for guidance. He could feel the weight of their desperate expectation pushing down on him like gravity, and in his mind he sank to his knees with the pressure of it. Here's my throat, Rawyvin. Just one cut and it's over. Selyara would be saved, the Neo-Essentialist rot would be purged from Starfleet's ranks, and the prophecy would be fulfilled.

For a moment, he saw the red eye of Taramp's corona, the met'leth of the Klingon pirate Targon falling on him, felt the pain when the Calnarians sheared his left eye from his skull. He saw his own finger push the button that unleashed the nuclear firestorm on Byss, and fired the torpedo at the helpless Discovery, and which set the fire that burned Thomond to the ground.

And he was still here. He was still here. Future history be damned. Prophecies be damned. The lies of the Drakes be damned. Neo-Essentialists and Starfleet Chiefs of Staff, all of them be damned altogether.

Get up off your fucking knees, Kane.

He stepped forward to face Rawyvin. "Commander Crichton?"

"Sir?" said Jake.

Kane's voice was so hard he could driven nails with it. "Take Selyara back to the ship on the double. All of you, go. If I'm not back shortly, find Commander Jos's group, cast off and don't look back."

To his credit, Jake waited a moment before obeying. All of them turned to go, as Rawyvin began to smile.

"Not you, Drake," said Kane suddenly.

Next to him, the El' Aurian froze. "Not me, Captain?"

Kane looked at him sidelong. "Don't you want to see how this prophecy plays out?" He risked a glance behind him - Russ, Eve and Jake were all moving as quickly as they could through the crowd of people that was still streaming away from the Pit. When they were out of sight, he turned back to Rawyvin, balling his fists.

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Scene: Nearby


As best they were able, Jake and Russ lumbered through the crowd, Selyara's arms and legs dangling over her elbows and knees. Eve was ahead of them, trying to make a path through the crowd.

"What do you think is happening back there?" said Russ.

Jake shook his head. "I have no idea. Captain's trying to buy time for us to get Selyara back to the ship, I guess."

"He'll be killed."

"Don't think about it, just follow orders." Jake turned to Eve. "Keep trying to raise Byte on comms. As soon as we're clear of them crowd, tell to him to try beaming us back."

She nodded, going for her communicator. "Dalziel to Phoenix. Come in, Phoenix..."

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Scene: Outside the Pit


Commander Merak inched his way down the tunnel, brandishing his disruptor pistol in his hand. Behind him, the Pit was quiet now. There was no more shooting, and the communicator stud on his forearm was ominously quiet. His heart sank when he realised that the rest of his team must be dead.

But he still had a mission to complete. Rawyvin Seth, wanted by every power in the quadrant, was just ahead. He had slipped out of view down an exit tunnel, the same tunnel that Merak was now moving down. All the Romulan's senses were alive, tensed for combat. A light breeze blew up from the Atria and wafted down the tunnel, cooling his face.

Merak could hear voices. One of them was Rawyvin Seth's. He sidled along the wall of the tunnel, risking a peek around the corner to see a three-way confrontation. Rawyvin Seth was talking to the two Starfleet officers he had seen earlier, except that now the Romulan woman they were carrying was gone.

Merak set his disruptor to kill and inched forward, straining his ears to hear what was going on.

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Scene: By the exit tunnel


Michael Turlogh Kane looked down from the tunnel, over the railing into the chasm of the Atria. Stars glittered in its depths.

"So," said Rawyvin Seth, "the two of you are going to try to stop me?"

"Yes," said Kane.

"It's been tried," sighed Rayvin. "Most recently by another of your officers. A Trill doctor or scientist." He patted his belt pouch. "He was carrying a scanner set to scan for Selyara's life-signs. So you see, there is nowhere you can take her that I cannot find her."

Kane felt his heart lurch. "What happened to the Trill officer?"

Rawyvin looked anguished. "I murdered him, Captain. I stabbed him under his alien heart, and when he lay dying I sawed his throat out for good measure." The anguished look turned into an evil smile. "Like I'm about to do to you."

Kane tensed. he moved to one side, up against the railing away from Drake. A fight was inevitable.

Suddenly, Rawyvin spun on his heel, whipping up his right hand as he inverted his grip on his knife. He brought his hand down, and the knife flashed forward through the air, burying itself in the chest of a Romulan who was standing in the tunnel. The Romulan looked down at the hilt of the knife protruding from his chest, and opened his mouth to say something, but only a mangled noise came out. He fell onto his knees and then lay down on the ground to die, a disruptor pistol clattering onto the ground.

Kane rushed forward, making a ball of his fist and swinging hard at the back of Rawyvin's head. At the last second, Rawyvin swept his right arm up, half-blocking the blow that ended up bouncing off his shoulder. Kane kept going, lashing out with his left hand and trying a front kick with his right foot. The foot connected hard with Rawyvin's midriff, pushing him back up against the wall of the tunnel, the breath knocked out of him. His boot accidentally kicked the disruptor, knocking it away from the Romulan's body and out onto the street.

"Don't just stand there, Drake, help me!" snarled Kane, his breath coming heavy again.

Rawyvin thought about going for his knife, but realised he wouldn't have time. He took up a defensive stance, holding his hands up under his chin, and moved sideways, away from the dead Romulan. He was out on the street now, facing Kane while Drake maneuvered to the left, trying to come at Rawyvin from the side.

"You can't take both of us," said Kane.

"I'm going to kill you both," said Rawyvin, "and those fools you sent away will never reach your ship."

Drake rushed in, trying to grab Rawyvin's arm. At the same time, Kane slid forward, kicking out at Rawyvin's legs, attempting to unbalance him. Rawyvin broke Drake's attack with a series of spidery blocks with his hands, but the distraction was done. His legs went from under him and he fell down on top of Kane.

Instantly, Rawyvin made daggers with his fingers and went for Kane's eyes, determined to rend them from his face. Kane pulled his head to one side and Rawyvin's fingers gouged deep bloody lines along his right cheek, while Drake grabbed Rawyvin in a headlock. Rawyvin snarled and planted his elbow in Drake's stomach, pushing the El' Aurian away, and when his guard was dropped Kane slugged him in the face, putting his shoulder behind the punch, connecting with Rawyvin's upper lip and nose. Rawyvin tumbled backwards in a heap.

The three of them scrambled to their feet, and when they did, Kane saw that Rawyvin had reached down and picked up the dead Romulan's disruptor. With an evil grin, Rawyvin levelled the weapon at the two Starfleet officers.

Kane and Drake backed up slowly. They were standing at the entrance to the tunnel, while Drake had his back to the Atria's railing. Kane thought about turning to run for it. After all, Rawyvin would only be able to kill one of them. Maybe the survivor could escape - but where was there to go? Back down the tunnel were the Black Stars, Kajek, Tella Yavin, and a thousand corpses.

Rawyvin was breathing heavily. He pointed the barrel of the disruptor first at Kane, then Drake, then back again. "I told you I'd kill you both," he wheezed, blood running from his burst lip and nose. "Which one of you wants to die first?"

Kane and Drake shared a glance. "Did your future clone tell you about this?" said Kane. His own blood was running down his right cheek where Rawyvin had gouged him.

Drake shook his head.

Rawyvin wiped away the blood running into his mouth, but only succeeded in smearing it all over his lower face. "And now it ends," he said triumphantly. Then he shrugged nonchalantly. "You've got to die sometime. It may as well be at my hands."

Kane looked at Drake. ""I'm sorry."

Drake looked at him in confusion. "I don't underst - "

Suddenly, Kane grabbed Drake by the shoulders and shoved him hard towards Rawyvin. Drake cried out in surprise, Rawyvin yelled in shock and pulled the trigger, and the air was full of ozone.

Michael Turlogh Kane leaped forward and barreled into Rawyvin Seth, slamming him up against the railing of the Atria. Off-balance, Rawyvin's arms flailed wildly. The disruptor sailed away, down into the black chasm, and Kane shoved Rawyvin over the edge.

Rawyvin tipped backwards over the railing. He hung in space for a moment, then one of his flailing arms slapped off the railing, and his questing fingers seized it. He hung suspended off the edge of the Atria, dangling by one arm, his breath seized in fear.

Kane came to the edge of the chasm and looked down at Rawyvin. The killer looked back up at him, real fear in his dark eyes.

"Take me in, Captain," said Rawyvin. "You'll be a hero."

"I don't do heroics for myself," said Kane. He grasped Rawyvin's fingers with his own two hands. "I do justice for my crew." He prised Rawyvin's thumb off the railing.

"This is for Solomon Arn," he said, getting Rawyvin's index finger and breaking it with a snap.

"This is for Selyara," he continued, breaking Rawyvin's middle finger.

The killer howled in pain. He looked up into Kane's face, and down into the black chasm of the Atria. "No!" he screamed. "You can't kill me!"

Kane seized Rawyvin's ring finger and wrenched it out of its socket. "You've got to die sometime," he said savagely. "It may as well be at my hands."

Rawyvin's little finger slipped from the railing.

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Scene: The chasm of the Atria


Rawyvin Seth hung screaming in mid-air for a moment, then Limbo's artificial gravity took over, and he fell. He fell all the way down the three miles of the Atria's black chasm, swallowed up by the darkness into which he had sent so many innocent people. His fearful, terrified screams rose up from the empty void, reverberating into nothingness, fading away bit by bit, until there was nothing left at all of Rawyvin Seth except the echoes of his own final terror.

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Scene: By the exit tunnel


Michael Turlogh Kane watched Rawyvin fall away into the dark, sagging against the railing in sudden exhaustion. He sank to his knees and crawled over to where the Sixth Drake was lying with a smoking disruptor hole through his chest.

Drake was still alive, although he wouldn't be for long. Rawyvin's snapshot had taken him under the heart, and although the internal wound had been cauterised by the disruptor beam, Drake's blood pressure would be dropping rapidly from shock and organ damage.

Kane cradled Drake's head in his hands while the El' Aurian gasped in pain. "You pushed me into the disruptor shot. You killed me," said Drake.

Kane nodded grimly.

"You murdered me, Captain Kane," said Drake. "You're no better than Rawyvin Seth."

Kane said nothing. Drake closed his eyes and died.

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Location: USS Phoenix
Scene: Airlock


Jacob Crichton was waiting by the airlock. Selyara was aboard, Russ was on the bridge, and Eve was helping Cade in sickbay. Limbo's civil war was over - every public access screen on the station was broadcasting Tella Yavin's face as she read out a warning to everyone who would listen. There was only one queen in Limbo again, and the queen had given all foreign citizens one hour to disembark the station or face summary execution by the Black Stars.

Captain Kane appeared in the distance. He was limping and blood was flowing down his cheek and neck, and Drake was not with him.

Jake grimly opened the airlock as Kane approached him. The captain's face was as dark as a death sentence, and his eyes were as hard as Jake had ever seen them. "Commander Drake?" he said in askance.

Kane shook his head.

"Rawyvin Seth?" asked Jake.

An expression of grim satisfaction crossed Kane's face, and he nodded. Jake knew what that meant.

"Is Commander Jos's team aboard?" asked Kane hoarsely.

"Not yet," said Jake. "We need to cast off soon, sir. Tella Yavin is giving all foreign citizens one hour to get off Limbo or they'll be killed. There'll be riots along the docking bays soon."

"Give them more time," said Kane.

"You should go to sickbay, Captain," said Jake.

"No time." Kane held up what looked like a Romulan communicator stud. It was spattered with green blood. "Need to make a call. Carry on, Mister Crichton."

He turned and left Jake standing by the airlock. The chief engineer turned his gaze back out into Limbo, praying his remaining shipmates were near.

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NRPG: The Sixth Drake and Rawyvin Seth are dead (thank you Peter and Chris for the permission), and the crew of the Phoenix have completed their objective on Limbo by capturing Selyara.

The world keeps turning even when you're at rest - sometimes things happen that you do not cause, but that you must react to - and that's what happened on Limbo. Neither the crew of the Phoenix nor the War Hawk were directly involved in Limbo's bloody civil war, but if affected us like it affected the million lost souls living on the station. Now, we are evacuating along with the thousands of Federation and Romulan citizens who live here and are fleeing to their own ships.

We are in the endgame of "Limbo", but it's not quite over yet. Aerdan, Thomas, Kass and Jacen are still on Limbo along with their prisoner, Evangeline Montoya. They have to come back to the ship. Get cracking!

Those of you aboard should write a reaction post, perhaps showing us how the events of the past few days have affected your character. There might also be a final job to do - after all, how many Federation citizens living on Limbo have no way of escape, but might try to board the only Starfleet vessel in port? Think the last day of South Vietnam, the footage of the helicopters taking off the US Embassy's roof while the civilians try to get aboard and the country collapses in flames around them. This 'final part' should take no more than another post by everyone, then we'll cast off.

Also, where is Raxl Drayton?

Everyone can get writing again!


Jerome McKee
the Soul of Michael Turlogh Kane
Commanding Officer
USS PHOENIX


"He speaks an infinite deal of nothing!"
- Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice", Act 1, Scene 1.117

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