White Flag

Posted on Jan 25, 2016 @ 8:52pm by Commander Jacob Crichton
Edited on on Jan 25, 2016 @ 8:52pm

Mission: Promethean

= White Flag =

(cont’d from “Nursery Rhymes”)

LOCATION: LAVENZA II Facility

SCENE: Laboratory Level

STARDATE: [2.16] 0125.1735

THe PHOENIX crew moved cautiously through the laboratory level, silent except for the occasional crunch of shattered glass beneath their boots. They had their phasers out - those of them that had phasers, at any rate - and pointed low, ready to snap up and fire at the slightest movement from the darkened corridors ahead. This deck look destroyed, as if the bio-engineered creatures skulking around had trashed the place before spreading out into the rest of the facility. Doors lined the corridors, many of them twisted and bent, some just ripped wholly from their mounts and tossed carelessly down the hall. Large, savage-looking marks had been gouged into the walls here and there, no doubt left by some enormous clawed thing as it made its way through the abandoned deck. Every now and then, they would find pools of blood or viscera; the creatures, it seemed, were equal-opportunity killers, and had started hunting each other as surely as they were hunting down the Starfleet crew.

They came to a T-junction, and Aerdan put up a balled fist, indicating for the crew to halt. His eyes searched the gloom ahead, shifting left and right. His antennae twitched.

“No readings,” Eve said, squinting at her tricorder. “No thermal signature, no air displacement. Corridor looks clean.”

Aerdan nodded. “How close are we to those coordinates?”

“They’re somewhere ahead, but it’s hard to get an exact reading with all the interference,” Eve said. “We should be getting close, though.”

“Are we sure about this?” Russ asked. “Whoever it was on the other side of that comm-link, they must be with the pirates or part of the facility staff. Either way, they shouldn’t be in any hurry to turn themselves over to a bunch of Starfleet officers.”

“The situation in this facility is out of control,” Aerdan said. “We may be their only chance of escape.”

“I still say we hightail it out of here and just nuke the base from orbit,” Russ frowned.

“The forcefield cut off our escape route,” Jake reminded him. “We want out, we need to disable the lockdown. Our mystery friend said we’d be heading for the control center, and if there’s anywhere we can override the lockdown, it will be there.”

“Still don’t like it,” Russ frowned again. Even though he didn’t see any alternatives to their current course of action, Jake had to agree with Russ. He didn’t like being led around by the nose, not in a place as dangerous as this one.

“Keep on your guard,” Aerdan said. “And quiet.”

They started forward again, Aerdan leading the way. Eve kept a close eye on her tricorder as they went, sweeping it left and right, looking for any sign of something lurking in the corridor up ahead. The device’s tiny screen suddenly flashed, catching her attention. She froze, angling the tricorder in the direction she’d been pointing when the device had hit on something, and her eyes widened.

“Hold it,” she said in a hushed whisper. “I’ve got something here.”

The crew halted, their phasers up now, pointing into the darkness at the other end of the corridor. They heard nothing up ahead, and nothing emerged from shadows, but Eve’s reading on the tricorder remained steady.

“At least two, maybe three,” Eve said. “Interference is bad, but I’m picking up thermal signatures.”

“The creatures don’t show up on thermal scan,” Russ said.

“This could be a new variety,” Aerdan said. “Stay focused.”

“They’ve stopped,” Eve said. “There’s a bend in the corridor about 15 meters ahead. I think they-”

“DOWN!” Aerdan shouted, suddenly tackling Eve by the waist. She didn’t have time to cry out before she was falling, and when she looked up she saw a vibrant, green blast of energy part the air in the space where she’d just been standing. Russ and Jake had dropped as well. Russ brought his phaser up, and the energy lance sizzled down the corridor, giving it an infernal orange glow. In the split second the corridor was illuminated, Jake Crichton thought he could see a humanoid figure at the far end of the corridor, ducking back behind a corridor to avoid the spray from Russ’s phaser.

“It’s the pirates!” Jake said.

“You think?” Russ asked. He prepared to fire again, but Aerdan clamped a hand down on his arm to stop him.

“Wait!” Aerdan said. He turned and looked up the corridor. “Hold your fire!”

The person at the other end of the corridor replied with another green blast of fire from his own weapon. He didn’t have the angle quite right, and the beam passed harmlessly over their heads. Aerdan frowned, but tried again.

“Hold your fire!” he shouted. “We will not hurt you!”

“Bullshit!” came a voice from the far end of the corridor.

“We’re in the same situation!” Aerdan called. “This base is in lockdown, none of us will be able to leave until-”

He was interrupted by another blast from the far end of the corridor. This one was closer. Behind him, Aerdan heard Russ cry out. He turned, saw that the FCO had fallen to his back, clutching his arm.

“BaShen!” Aerdan said.

“I’m okay!” Russ said. “Just a graze!”

“They had their chance,” Aerdan said, raising his own phaser and staring back up the hallway in the direction of the enemy. “Open fire!”

Aerdan, Eve, and Jake leveled their weapons, sending a trio of phaser beams shrieking up the hallway. In the glow of the beams, Jake got a better look at their attacker, instantly recognizing the blue-tinted skin of a Bolian. The pirate was ducking behind the corner once more, narrowly avoiding the blasts from their phasers. As Jake watched, the Bolian withdrew, disappearing around the bend, apparently beating a retreat.

“He’s making a run for it,” Jake said. Shadow-images of the phaser beams danced in his eyes, and he blinked them away. “We had him out-gunned, I think.”

“We have to get after him!” Russ said.

“Steady, lieutenant,” Aerdan said, hunching down over Russ BaShen. “We need to see to your arm first.”

“He may have reinforcements!” Russ protested, but Aerdan forced him to remain seated.

“Jake, Eve, keep watch,” the Andorian ordered, then leaned in to inspect the damage to Russ’s arm. The shot had only grazed him; his uniform had taken the worst of it, but Aerdan saw some of the flesh beneath had blackened and warped from the heat of the blast. Aerdan gingerly flexed the pilot’s arm, trying to get an idea about the extent of the damage. BaShen cried out when he did so.

“Careful,” Russ said through clenched teeth.

“It’s nothing we can’t fix,” Aerdan said. “Once we get you to a sickbay, that is.”

“This place isn’t exactly lousy with sickbays, Commander,” Russ said darkly.

“They have to have an infirmary somewhere,” Eve said.

“No time to go looking for it,” Aerdan said, shaking his head. “Jake, give me your thermal gear.”

Jake passed the garment over to Aerdan. The Andorian held up his phaser, adjusted the settings, then angled the weapon down towards the thermal wear. A thin, tight beam of focused energy shot out, slicing neatly through the fabric. Aerdan cut a few strips of the material, then turned back to Russ. A moment’s work saw Russ’s wounded arm bandaged and supported with a makeshift sling. Aerdan took a moment to make sure the material was tightly nodded, then looked up at BaShen.

“Good?”

“Should hold for now,” Russ nodded. Aerdan stood, then reached out to take Russ by his non-injured arm and helped him back to his feet.

“No sign of the pirates,” Eve said. “Though with the interference, I can’t say how far off they’ve gone. They could be lying in wait just ahead.”

“The coordinates we were given are in that direction,” Jake said.

“Jake, it was probably those pirates,” Eve said. “They took their shot, they blew it. Let’s not give them another one.”

“We still have to get to the control center,” Jake said. “If that’s where the pirates have holed up, we’ll have to deal with them sooner or later.”

“Commander Crichton is right,” Aerdan said. “We keep moving. I want phasers on maximum stun.”

“Stun?” Russ asked incredulously.

“If we capture one of them, we can question them,” Aerdan explained, “They may have information that will help us get off this base.”

They started forward again, with Russ bringing up the rear.

=[/\]=

Evaer, Brass, and Crichton had fled up the corridor, until they’d stumbled across a room with the door bent violently out of shape. It created enough of a gap that they could slip inside. It was another ruined laboratory, with large storage tanks that appeared to have been smashed from the inside, judging at the dispersal of glass around the base of each tank. Evaer waved Brass and Crichton away from the door with his blaster, not wanting either of them within arm’s reach of him, before turning to peek out the gap in the door and into the corridor.

“No sign of them,” he said, more to himself than to either of his crewmates.

“If we’d had our own weapons, we could have helped you out back there,” Crichton said. Evaer barked a desperate sounding laugh and glanced back at him.

“You’d shoot me in the back the first chance you got,” he said.

“Well, seems to me that Starfleet’s about to come shoot you in the chest,” Crichton shrugged. “Six of one, half-dozen of the other, don’t you think?”

“Shut up,” Evaer growled. He turned his attention back to the hallway, straining his eyes for any sign of the pursuing officers. He didn’t see anything, though he thought he could hear their voices distantly echoing down the corridor.

“We can’t just wait here,” Brass complained. “This is a dead end. They have us outgunned.”

“I said shut up.”

“When they find us, we will have no chance,” Brass continued.

“I’m thinking,” Evaer said, whipping his head around to scowl at the Ferengi. Brass gave him a snaggle-toothed sneer.

“Think faster, Bolian,” Brass said. “I know it must be difficult for you, but it’s very important.”

Evaer looked like he was about to say something, but he bit back his response. The problem was, the toady little Ferengi was right. If the Starfleet crew gave chase and cornered them in this room, there’d be nothing Evaer could do. His one blaster wouldn’t hold them off forever. Besides, all the noise from their firefight might attract the beast that had killed Trixie. Evaer had an idea that none of them would stand a chance if that thing showed up again.

So staying put was out, and given the imbalance in available weaponry, standing and fighting was out too. That didn’t leave very many options. Evaer cursed in his native tongue, then turned to look at Crichton. The cyclopean engineer was staring at him, arms crossed, as he leaned casually against a testing station. He wasn’t smiling, but Evaer could see the defiance in the engineer’s one remaining eye as he stared back, as if daring Evaer to try something. Evaer considered killing them man then and there, but then his mind flashed back to a conversation he’d had with Cassidy Rainner before they’d landed here.

“You,” Evaer said, turning his blaster now to aim at Crichton. The engineer straightened a little, apparently wanting to die on flat feet if given the opportunity.

“What about me?” Crichton asked.

“Those officers are from the PHOENIX,” Evaer said. “When we spoke to them on the comms, they told us they have an engineer with them.”

Crichton must have known what Evaer was driving at, but his face betrayed no sign that he understood. His pale blue eye stared back, his face expressionless.

“So what?” Crichton shrugged. “You want me to talk shop at him until he keels over from exhaustion or something?”

“Don’t play games with me, Crichton,” Evaer scowled. “Cassidy told me what she learned about you. She told me who you are.”

“What is going on?” Brass asked, sounding annoyed that he was being left out of the loop. “Who is the hoo-man?”

“Tell him,” Evaer said, his face splitting into a mean-spirited grin. Crichton stared back, still expressionless. Then, a sighed, and looked over at Brass.

“There’s another Jake Crichton,” the engineer said. “I’m - that is, he’s… well, there are two of us.”

Brass stared back at him, uncomprehending. “You’ve lost what little mind you have,” the Ferengi said, shaking his head.

“Parallel universes, Brass,” Evaer said. “Probably over the head of a gremlin like you, but there it is. Our man Crichton here happens to be a parallel version of one of our uninvited Starfleet guests. I guess you could say he’s a copy.”

“Fuck you,” Crichton said, his voice suddenly savage. “I’m no copy.”

Brass stared at Evaer, then at Crichton.

“I don’t understand,” the Ferengi said. “There is another Crichton? On the Starfleet ship?”

“Don’t hurt yourself, Brass,” Evaer said “Point is, we’ve got someone who can negotiate for us. Our Crichton talks to their Crichton, and they work out a deal.”

“Won’t work,” Crichton said, shaking his head. “He doesn’t trust me, and he’s right not to.”

“In that case, all I lose is one mutinous engineer,” Evaer shrugged. “I can live with that.”

“If you think I’m going out there-” Crichton started.

Evaer fired his weapon. The blast exploded on the ground at Crichton’s feet, causing him to cry out and jump back. He glared up at Evaer, his expression now twisted with anger, his hands once more balled into tight fists.

“The negotiation isn’t in here, Crichton,” Evaer said. “It’s out there. Either you can go talk them down, or you can stay here and die. It’s your choice.”

“Do it,” Brass said to Crichton.

Crichton glared at Brass, then back at Evaer. The Bolian hadn’t budged, and his blaster hadn’t wavered. Crichton shook his head, and against his better judgement, he started forward.

“Gonna regret this, blue,” he muttered as he passed Evaer.

“Get going,” Evaer said, digging the tip of his blaster hard into the small of Crichton’s back to hurry him along. Crichton squeezed himself through the gap in the door and stepped back out into the corridor, feeling painfully exposed.

“Hello?” he called out down the corridor. No reply.

Crichton swallowed hard, then took a few shaky steps down the corridor, in the direction they’d come from. His footfalls sounded deafening as he went, and he kept looking back over his shoulder, each time certain he’d see the large, clawed hand of the beast swiping rapidly down at his head. But each time, there was only empty corridor behind him. Crichton took a few more steps, then he tried again.

“Hello?” he called. “Starfleet? I surrender!”

From the darkness ahead: “Show us your hands!”

Crichton put his hands up. He squinted, trying to pick out the Starfleet crew in the darkness at the far end of the corridor. He thought he could see the outline of three humanoid shapes, holding out what was almost certainly phasers pointing in his direction. Crichton swallowed again.

“Where’s the Bolian?” the voice called again.

“He’s… not available,” Crichton said, risking another glance back over his shoulder. “We want to talk about this. We figure you’re stuck here, we’re stuck here, so why not set aside our differences and work together?”

“Come closer,” they called. “Slowly. And keep your hands in view at all times.”

Crichton nodded. He took a few steps forward, passing by a sealed set of laboratory doors on his left as he moved. He thought he heard something behind him, but when he turned to look, the voice called out again.

“Keep moving!”

Crichton kept moving forward, taking slow steady steps. He could make them out clearly now, even against the curtain of darkness behind them. He couldn’t see their faces yet, couldn’t make out which of them was the *other* him, the other Jake…

A piercing shriek filled the corridor. Crichton turned, saw a grey shape moving towards him. He dropped to the floor, in time for the winged creature to swoop past him and towards the Starfleet crew. Phaser beams criss-crossed the air, but the attacking creature was moving too fast for them to get a clean shot. In the bursts of phaser energy, like camera flashes, Crichton could make out the shape of the beast. It was smaller than a man, but only just so. A thin membrane of corpse-like flesh stretched over pointed, bony wings that nearly spanned the width of the corridor. Its head reminded him of a crocodile; a gradually tapering snout bursting with rows of needle teeth. It shrieked again, so high and sharp that it hurt Crichton’s ears. He realized he didn’t see any eyes.

The shriek of the creature was joined by the whine of phaser fire. One of the orange beams splashed across the creature’s snout, and it cried out in anger as it swooped down. Crichton looked up, seeing the Starfleet crew scatter as the bat-thing landed hard in the corridor where they’d been standing. Its jaws snapped, nearly taking off one of their arms at the elbow. They retreated down the corridor towards the place where Crichton still lay prone, firing their weapons at the beast. The blasts slammed uselessly into the creature’s sides, eliciting more high-pitched shrieks. It turned towards them, using tiny claws at the tops of its wings for purchase on the grated floor of the corridor. Then with two mighty beats of its wings it was airborne again, shrieking through the air towards them, its jaws opening as it came.

Crichton got to his feet and started running down the corridor. The Starfleet crew were only a few feet away from him now, but all of them were looking behind, towards the rapidly closing bat-thing. They were shouting, a jumble of orders and warnings that Crichton was too panicked to sort through, He ran as hard and fast as he could, hearing the shriek of the beast filling the corridor behind him. It was getting closer. Crichton didn’t risk another look back, but he knew now it was chasing *him*, sailing over the heads of the Starfleet crew to swoop down on him like a falling bomb. He felt the weight of his slam hard into his back, and he fell with the bat-thing perched on top of him, its wings beating hard, its shriek so loud it was painful. Crichton clenched his eye shut and waited for the fiery pain of needle teeth sinking into the back of his flesh…

Then the sealed doors in the corridor, now on Crichton’s left instead of his right, hissed open. Crichton turned, seeing only boots as someone stepped out into the corridor. His eye traced upward, seeing an enormous, bearded man standing there. As Crichton watched, the man brought up a meaty fist and slammed it hard into the bat-thing’s snout. It connected with dull thwack, and then the weight of the bat-thin rolled off him and to the side. Crichton scrambled away from the fallen creature, sparing a glance back just long enough to see that it was no longer moving. His enormous, bearded savior was looking at him with a confused expression, his eyebrows raised in disbelief.

“...Crichton?” James Barton said.

“What?” came a voice from behind them. Crichton looked away from the bearded man, and saw that the Starfleet crew were approaching now. They were close enough for him to clearly make out their features. Standing just behind their Andorian commander, Crichton saw the familiar blue eyes, the wave of brown hair, and the determined set of the jaw. It was the *other* Jake, and he was looking at him now with an expression even more shocked than the one the bearded man had been wearing a moment before.

The other crew weren’t looking at him. They were looking at the bearded man. Behind him, another figure emerged into the corridor, this one much smaller and more slightly built, holding a dangerous looking pulse rifle socked tightly against her shoulder. She stepped forward and poked at the bat-thing with the tip of her weapon. The creature did not stir.

“Cold-cocked him,” the woman said. “Good arm, Jebediah.”

“Barton, Thytos,” the Andorian was saying. “It’s good to see you.”

“Likewise, commander,” the woman nodded. “Got a little turned around, but I think-”

“What the *hell* are you doing here?” Jake Crichton interrupted. They all turned, and saw that he wasn’t looking at any of them. His eyes were fixed on man with the eye-patch, standing stock still in the center of the corridor. Aerdan looked at Jake, then at the man with the eye-patch, then back at Jake. It wasn’t a perfect resemblance, but it was too close to mistake. Behind Aerdan, Russ and Eve made the connection as well.

Not seeing any way out of the situation, Crichton laughed. He reached up to adjust his eyepatch, which had been pulled slightly to the side when the bat-thing had landed on him, and put his hands up.

“Surprise,” he said with exaggerated cheerfulness. “Nice to see you again, Crichton.”

“You’re with the pirates,” the other Jake said, his expression white with shock.

“Guilty as charged,” Crichton said.

“It was you,” the other Jake continued. “On the comms. You were leading us-”

Crichton was about to say he didn’t have the first idea what the hell his unmaimed double was talking about, but the Andorian cut in.

“Commander,” Aerdan Jos said, turning to look at his Jake. “What’s going on?”

“It’s a long story, sir,” the other Jake said, without taking his eyes off of Crichton. “But he’s… well… he’s me.”

=[/\]=

NRPG: Russ has been hurt, and the team nearly got eaten by a giant crocodile bat monster, but hey, at least the gang’s back together! And they’ve picked up the other Jake besides. Are Evaer and Brass still holed up, or did they take advantage of the bat-thing attack to make their escape?

Hope I did okay with everyone’s characters!

Shawn Putnam

a.k.a.

Jake Crichton

Chief Engineering Officer

USS PHOENIX

and

Jake Crichton

Chief Engineering Officer

The Annabelle’s Lament