5th story, A Long Day's Night, by Megan
Title: A Long Day's Night
Fandom: Magnificent Seven, Star Trek AU
Author: Megan aka issolafox
Artist: tpena19
Disclaimer: Mag7 doesn't belong to me
Rating: FRT
Characters: All
Warnings: No warnings
Summary - What should have been a quiet time between missions, instead, the ship gets thrown out of warp and the bridge gets taken over by pirates, while Buck, Nathan and two ensigns try to survive against the pirates being cut off from the rest of the ship, the rest of the seven try to figure out how to get the pirates off the ship.
Author Note - Thanks to atdelphi for her great betaing skills, and tpena19 for the great pictures
Also, there is a slight reference to Katy's fic “Clouds of Mystery”. Also thanks to Nancy W for creating this AU.
Title: Muddy Vulcan
Artist: tpena19
Disclaimer: making no money, etc., etc..
Character/Pairing: Vin, gen, no pairing
Rating: G
Warnings: none
Authors Notes: This is an illustration for a section in the A Long Day's Night story where Vin is covered in mud in a small holodeck incident. He's glaring over at an offstage Josiah, lol.
77777777777
The sudden jolt that threw him out of bed across the room and smacked him into the wall, and the computer blaring the red alert alarm was not the wakeup call he had been expecting. Shaking his head, to clear it, he took a second to make sure he was fully awake, then “Computer. Turn off audible red alert and open up a channel to the bridge.”
After a beep of acknowledgment that the request was happening and the alarms snapped off, Chris called out. “Captain to bridge! What is going on??
Feeling his patience strain when he didn't hear a answer, he cursed. And then called out. “Computer, open channel to engineering.”
With a answering beep, Chris almost growled, “Captain to Engineering. What is going on?”
For a long moment there wasn't an answer, just as he was starting to worry, he heard. “This is Martinez sir, I don't know what happened but we dropped out of warp and from we can figure out, somehow we've been completely cut off from the bridge deck.”
Chris frowned, “What do you mean we're completely cut off from the bridge? How is that even possible?”
“I don't know Captain, I don't know how is possible, but no one can get up to the bridge or received any communication from there.”
Rubbing his face with his hand, Chris sighed, “Do we know who was up on the bridge?”
“No sir, I don't know for sure, last I heard, we were rotating people through the bridge to get non bridge officers some experience.”
Growling softly, Chris closed his eyes for a second. Opening them, he took a deep breath, finding out quickly that it was a bad idea, he hissed out. “All right, get someone to get the rest of the senior officers. Tell them to meet in engineering. I want you to figure out if anything else has been sealed off and figure out what we hit.”
“I will Captain.”
“Good, captain out.”
When the silence fell, Chris took a deep breath, ignoring the burn and pain from his ribs and the bruising along his back, he untangled himself from his bed sheets and other knickknacks, he stood up. Shaking his head, he started to get dress, he wanted to know who dare hurt his crew and ship.
7777
First thing he was aware of was mud. Very cold, slimy, clinging mud. Which was trying to do its best to crawl over his body and suck him down to the bottom of the earth. With a grunt, he tried to raise himself, but something was weighing him down.
Moving his arms, he got them under what was weighing him down, and pushed. With a grunt, and what strength he could muster, he pushed the weight up. It was like pushing up a wet sandbag, the weight didn't move.
Letting go, the weight dropped the few inches, that he had been able to raise it. Grunting, when the weight went back on him, he was surprised when the object on him spoke. “I'm awake.”
Blinking in shock, Vin finally managed to talk without getting mud down his throat. “Josiah?”
A few seconds of silence, then a mumbled. “Vin? Where are you? I think something happened.”
Gritting his teeth, the Vulcan tired to speak calmly. “Yes, I agree, as to where am I, try underneath you.”
A long moment of silence, then a slightly more awake Josiah stated. “Why are you under me?”
Closing his eyes, and wondering for a second. if he would really drown in the mud that was slowly sucking him down underneath it. “Because you landed on me and I would really appreciate if you would get up and help me up.”
Frowning when he didn't hear anything from Josiah, Vin was about to speak again, when Josiah seemed to have understood what had just been said. “Ah...so I'm on you. Guess I should get up and off of you.”
Counting to five, because he really didn't think he would get to ten, Vin growled out. “that would be a swell idea.”
“Yea, I guess it would, just give me a second or two.”
Vin bit his tongue as he as Josiah tried to get off him. After four elbows to the ribs, one to his stomach, and a narrowly missed kick to his knee, he felt Josiah's weight get off him. Taking a deep breath for the first time in what seemed like an hour, he just enjoyed the feeling.
So, he wasn't quite ready for Josiah to reach down grab his shoulders and with a grunt, pull the mud covered Vulcan from the his entrapment from the mud.
Staring at shock at Josiah, Vin blinked then finally figuring out how to get his mouth to work, he sputter out. “How...You can't be that strong!”
Josiah grinned, “I'm full of surprises. Now, are you okay?”
“No, I'm not okay, I was being slowly crushed into some very slimy mud that wanted to eat me, with a you trying to help it, by keeping me down.”
Josiah felt enough guilt about that to look ashamed. “Sorry about that, I think when we got thrown, I hit my head. I'm sorry about almost crushing you into the mud. But you seem okay.”
Glaring at the Betazoid, Vin stared at the man. “I'm covered in slimy cold mud and it feels like something used me as a bouncy toy. Otherwise I'm fine.”
Grinning, Josiah nodded. “Good, so you have a clue what happened. I'm pretty sure, that wasn't included in the holosuite program I did.”
“Well, good, I didn't think you actually planed this, not when you suggested that I work on some meditation.”
Grinning slightly, Josiah shrugged, “you have a clue on what is going on?”
“No, we shouldn't have hit anything, we weren't near any active zones or pirates. It should have been a piece of cake. That's why we were rotating people through the bridge on night shift. We figured we could get people, who wanted some more expertize.”
Josiah nodded, “Its a good idea, do we know who is on the bridge now?”
Vin stilled for a second then shook his head. “No, they've been rotated through all week, Buck knows the rotation schedule, Ezra might also.”
Before Josiah could reply, he was interrupted by a ship wide announcement. “All senior bridge officers to engineering please. I repeat, all senior bridge officers to engineering please.”
The two officers shared a look and turned to stare at their destroyed mediation spot. Vin shook his head. “Well, I think it is time to go.”
Nodding in agreement, Josiah called for the arch, closing the program, the two headed out the door, and Vin's mud disappeared as he walked through the door.
77777
“This is just my luck....had a good night, no trouble, fine poker game, got all the reports done...nothing left to do but have a good night sleep...no one in sickbay, and just when I let myself relax....this happens.... universe hates me...utterly hates me...security is a good placement for you..they said...you could use your skills there...catch people..keep others safe...you'll like it...Ha! I'm going to kill that person if I ever see them again....”
JD groaned, wishing the person who was complaining would shut up and turn off the alarm. After several minutes when the muttering about the universe continued, JD sighed, and manged to rip open both is eyes. Blinking a few times, he realize who was speaking. Licking his lips once, he crocked out “Ezra?”
The rambling complaint, stopped and the man who had been muttering, spoke up, as JD felt a hand land on his shoulder. “You awake? You took a fairly good bump.”
Wincing slightly, JD sat himself up, “I'm all right. What happened?”
“The shipped was jerked to stop and we were thrown around. Then, the red alert started, and if you would be so kind as to turn off the laser before it decides that it would like to try and separate my foot from my ankle. We can head to engineering, since we were called to go there.”
Shaking his head and spotting the laser JD scrambled up. “Just a second, I'll get that turned off.”
Ezra sighed, “No hurry, really, I like holding still like this. Its only a laser.”
Rolling his eyes, JD moved himself over to the console, blinking away the blurriness, he finally found the button to push. Hitting the off button, Ezra sighed. “Thank you now, we need to get going.”
JD nodded, taking one more look at the mess that met his eyes that was at one point, coming together into a neat weapon. They just had to figure out how contain the laser a little better. When something Ezra said poke to the forefront of his brain. “Engineering? Why aren't we going to the bridge.”
Stopping in mid-stride, Ezra held his breath for a second. Letting it go slowly, he sighed. “I don't know, but I have a feeling we'll find out when we reach engineering.”
JD nodded, turning away from the ruined experiment to follow Ezra out the door, it would still be there when this crisis would be over.
7777
Reaching engineering, Chris stood back from the chaos that was happening for a long minute, watching the engineers move in a fluid grace of trying to figure out what happened. Though, it wasn't long before someone noticed him.
“Sir! You got here faster then I thought.”
Chris waved his hand, “Its alright Martinez, you got some space here were we won't be your way?”
“Yes, once the others get here, I'll show you to it.”
Nodding, the Captain sighed. “You have any idea what happened?”
Taking a deep breath and running a hand through his hair, Martinez shook his head. “No, there was a thump and jolt of us dropping out of warp, then the bridge seemed to seal itself off and red alerts started. Best we can guess is something or someone on the bridge sealed it off.”
Growling softly, Chris sighed, “Do we know who was up on the bridge?”
Before the chief engineer could answer, a voice from the hallway answered the question. “Yes, and you aren't going to like it.”
Turning, the Captain stared at the rest of the senior crew and frowned at who was missing. “Ezra? Let me guess....”
77777
He was going to shoot himself. It would be for the best. All he wanted was one quiet night to work on some backlog projects. He could do that easily while keeping an eye on the training bridge crew. They were in empty space, warping to their next planet. Nothing should of happened. Nothing.
Minding his own business, happily getting some progress on the a couple of pet projects, when the security officer let out a short warning, just enough to brace himself. As the next moment, he found out what it felt like when a ship went from warp to normal space in a second.
Looking up at the bridge crew, he was glad for a split second that they were able to keep their place, shouting for shields, he was a just too late as three beings appeared on the bridge with weapons drawn.
Realizing what he had to do, he shouted out, “Computer, security code M7BB8ZOP3BravoPeso.”
As he got the last digit out, he was hit in the face with a fist.
Grabbing his jaw, he waved the rest of the bridge crew to stay at their stations. The being that hit him roared. “What did you do?”
Buck working his jaw to make sure it was all right smiled. “Hopefully make life a little harder for you.”
The alien captain frowned, “Undo it now!”
Buck ginned. “Nope, don't know how.”
With an enraged howl, the Captain raised his phaser and fired.
7777
Staring at the Daliwakan Captain, Nathan stifled a growl. Turning his eyes towards Buck, he slowly release a held breath as he saw the man's chest moving up and down. Turning back towards the interlopers, Nathan waited to see what would happen next, knowing protesting would just get him laid out next to Buck.
Nathan could see the Daliwakan looking distantly at group in front of him. The pirate Captain shook his head, he turned to look at his other five men, who shook their heads. With a deep breath, the Captain to turned to his captives. “I'm Captain Kirak, you are my prisoners until I get your ship or I kill you. Its up to you which it will be. Now you two,” the captain said as he pointed towards two ensigns, “take you leader here and drag him and yourselves into that Captain's room. You shouldn't be able to escape from there. Now go, while I see if I can break the security here.”
Nathan moved to follow the two ensigns who were carrying Buck. As they got into the room, Nathan watched as the the Captain looked at the room for one second then grin. “Good no weapons. Now don't try to leave, or we'll shoot you on the spot. Now behave.”
With that he withdrew his head and the door slid shut.
Immediately moving over to Buck, Nathan keeled down next to the unconscious man and wonder why he thought he wouldn't need his tricoder on bridge duty.
After checking to make sure he was breathing, Nathan rolled back on his heels and faced the other two starfleet officers. Realizing for a second he was the highest ranking one, he cursed softly. They didn't train doctors for these type of things.
7777
Chris stared at Ezra. “You're sure?”
The security chief nodded. “Yes, I'm sure Nathan is up there too. He wanted to refresh some of his skills. In case he had to jump in.”
Cursing slightly, Chris stared at the five men in front of him. “Do we know how they put a shield around the bridge?”
There was quiet for a second, then Vin sharing a glance with JD, spoke up. “I have an idea. It was brought up one night with Buck, he had been reading some reports. Vin and I got talking on it, and well, we figured out how you could maybe do it. I guess he did it.”
Chris frowned, “How did he do it, and why didn't he tell anyone?”
Ezra cursed, “He did, but I thought it was just something to test the security on. My team has been tinkering with it, got a working model, but Commander Wilmington didn't say anything about implementing it.”
Chris sigh, “Knowing our luck, I have seven memo's on it and a meeting in a week about it.”
Grinning slightly, Josiah had to agree, “sounds about right. Though, it doesn't help us now.”
“You're right it doesn't. Ezra, do you think you have a copy of this program anywhere, we need to get eyes on the bridge. Take JD with you, he can help figure it out if you have the copy. Vin, try to figure out what hit us. We don't need to have a ship sitting out there that we don't know about. Josiah, find out who is running the sickbay with Nathan not there and find out how many of crew may have been injured in that sudden stop and check to see what damage the ship might have taken.”
Taking a look at the group, Chris smiled slightly. “We need to know what is going on, and find a way to get eyes and ears on the bridge. Report back in two hours with anything you've figured out.”
The group nodded and dispersed getting to work. Chris watched them leave, then slumped down into the nearest chair. Glaring at the table in the room, he wondered how this could happened. Whoever did this to his ship would regret it, and a certain first officer will have a long chat about upgrading the ship without telling the Captain about it when this was over.
77777
Waking up from being stun was never pleasant, the pin and needles feelings over his body, then the moment where he didn't know what had happen, then the crashing down of the information into his skull of what stupid thing he had done to get this way.
Groaning softly, he opened his eyes, ignoring the pounding in his head, he look up at Nathan. “What happened?”
Nathan, who was closest, quickly moved over to Buck and hovered for a moment, before squatting down next to the man.
“Before or after Kirak stunned you with his phaser?”
“After the phaser, I remember up to that point.”
Nathan sighed, “He had us carry you to in here, took anything we could use as a weapon and have left us here for now.”
Nodding at the explanation, Buck frowned. “He hasn't gotten the computer working for him yet?”
“No sir,” stated a young ensign.
Staring at the ensign for a second, Buck smiled. “Good, thank you Mrs Davenport. If they haven't gotten to he computer yet, there we're safe for awhile.”
“Buck? What is happening, how did you block off the bridge?”
Smiling at Nathan, Buck turned to the ensigns. “Mr. Galloway, do you think you could use your programing skills to get communications with engineering?”
The Ensign frowned, “Sir?”
Sighing slightly, Buck looked at the officers. “The program I activated, it isn't finished, it was put in for testing, right now it blocks any type of signal from coming in or coming out. We need to be able to contact the rest of the ship without those pirates knowing about it.”
Galloway frowned, “Do you have a copy of the program, I would need to look at that and I need help.”
Grinning, Buck nodded, “I'm sure Davenport can help you. I believe she knows security regulations.”
Davenport nodded. “yes sir, I can help.”
“Good, the top padd on the desk there has the program on it, work over by the windows, make sure that Kirak doesn't find it.”
The two ensigns nodded and hurried over to the padd and then moved over to a corner of the room, protected by the desk and chair.
Nathan watched the two for a long moment then turned to Buck. “What is really going on? Does Chris know about this thing?”
Glancing around the room, Buck took a hand and rubbed his head, “By now, I would say yes.”
Staring at the first officer, the doctor shook his head. “You didn't tell him! Did you tell anyone?”
Moving his gaze to the ceiling, Buck was quiet for a long moment. “Well, Ezra was in charged of working this out, and I know JD helped with a lot of the programing. They gave it to me, and I've been doing computer models on it. Checking to see how well it is working.”
Nathan sighed, “So, they may or may not know what you just did and we're stuck in here and without any communication with the rest of the ship. Also, just to top it all off we have Kirak and his five crewmen outside on the bridge trying to get into the computer.”
Reaching over and patting Nathan on the shoulder, Buck levered himself up. “Nathan, you're worrying about stuff. It isn't that bad. We'll figure it out, we'll get these guys off the ship, we just have to calm down and take a deep breath. We aren't going out their with phasers blazing and finish it in a few minutes. Its going to be a chess match, and we need to relax and work on small things to figure this out. We don't know anything about their ship or how they stopped us. We need information. They'll be a time to act. Till then, we get in contact with the rest of the ship without taking the shield around the bridge down and work from there.”
Nathan stared at Buck for a long moment, taking a deep breath, the doc nodded. “All right, so what do I have to do?”
With a small puff of breath, the commander grinned slightly. “You have the easiest job. You just have to keep me alive.”
Frowning, Nathan eyed the man in front of him, noting the serious look. “Wait? What do you mean? You're fine.”
“Nate, I'm the only one who knows the codes to take the shield down. Kirak is going to try to get it out of me. I can't let him do it. And I'm no good to him dead. And I'm not going to give it to him.”
“That's suicide.”
Looking at the door to the room for a long moment, Buck turned to look Nathan in the eye. “No, its about keeping the ship and the crew on the ship safe, which last I checked was in my job description.”
Before Nathan could say anything else, the door to the room opened.
77777
“Stupid first officers.... I will shoot him, can't even leave him on the bridge without a baby sitter... maybe Nathan will finally put that tracker in him like I've ask...”
“Ezra could you please shut up.”
Stopping in mid-rant, Ezra glared at JD, “Its I either rant now, or shoot Buck when I see him next, and since I don't want to be court martial, ranting it is.”
JD sighed, “He is trying to save the ship, I don't think he planed to have the ship jerked out of warp and get attacked so he had to use it.”
Pausing for a long second, Ezra finally shook his head. “If this was the first time, I might agree with you or even the third time, but its starting to become a weekly occurrence.”
Opening his mouth to protest, then he closed it with a snap. After a few seconds of staring at the screen that was scrolling the program through, JD finally spoke. “He didn't get in any trouble in the last two weeks.”
Snorting , Ezra paused the readout. “That just means this is going to be worse.”
Sighing, JD tried to get the focus back on the computer readout. After several minutes of reading the program, the young man frowned. “Ezra, this doesn't make sense, I don't think half of this stuff was in it when we last looked at it.”
Studying the program, Ezra nodded. “I think you're right, stuff has been added, originally the shield shouldn't had been this excessive in its shielding, nor was it supposed to last that long. I think Buck changed some of the stuff. I think though if we can hack into the program that is running and change this factor and that factor, we can get communication at least.”
A soft frowned. Then JD looked over at Ezra. “Do you think Buck and Nathan are okay?”
A long pause of silence, where Ezra was looking everywhere but JD. Finally, with a lowering of his eyes, he nodded. “I'm sure they are fine. I know I said that Buck can find trouble in a bucket of water, but he is a good man and officer, if anyone can do it, he will get them all out of what ever trouble they're in with getting hurt.”
JD stared at the program for a second then softly stated. “Maybe everyone else, but Buck?”
Ezra grinned slightly. “At least this time he has Nathan there with him. Now, we need to get this done so we can find out what is going on.”
“I...”
Looking at JD's face, Ezra frowned, then cleared his throat. “JD, we will do everything to make sure that Buck is okay. He knows we're working to get to him, and Nathan is there to help. We will get him back.”
Staring at Ezra for several long moments, JD finally nodded. “You're still getting to give him a talking to.”
A rather evil smile graced Ezra's face. “Yes, a very long lecture, which I plan to give after the Captain gives his lecture.”
“Good.”
7777
Dodging the engineers, Josiah made his way over to Vin. Staring at the young Vulcan, Josiah cleared his throat. “Find anything?”
Stifling the yelp of surprise, Vin turned to look at the Betazoid, “Yes, and it isn't good news.”
“Do you want to tell me?”
Shaking his head, the Vulcan turned back to the display for a long moment. “Nope, rather get it done all at once. Besides, its almost time for the meeting.”
Shaking his head, Josiah stared at the Vulcan for a long minute, “How are you doing?”
Raising an eyebrow, Vin shook his head. “I'm fine, why wouldn't I be?”
Matching the raise eyebrow with one of his own, Josiah just waited. Vin glared at the man. “Don't try that, I don't feel guilty or wish that I had been on the bridge. I do wish that you hadn't landed on me and pushed me down into that mud.”
Chuckling slightly, Josiah moved towards the meeting room. “That wasn't my fault. Besides, the mud faded off.”
“I was still covered in mud.”
Vin protested as he entered into the meeting room. Josiah just shook his head. “You need to get over it.”
77777
Chris looked up from the report to look at the crew that was sitting around the table. “So, who wants to go first?”
The crew stared at each other for a long moment, Ezra rolled his eyes. “JD and I worked on the program that is keeping us from the bridge. It seems that Commander Wilmington has had every security guard add a bit of code to program.”
Chris cleared his throat. “What additions?”
Ezra rubbed his hands through his hair. “A lot. It seemed, he was actually using it as training for new ensigns that want to do bridge duty. The good thing is, I don't think he was ever planning to use it. Though, I have to admit, when this is over, we might want to do use it with modifications.”
“Maybe when we get out of this trouble, did it give you any idea on how to communicate with the bridge or or get into the bridge?”
Looking up from his padd, JD shrugged his shoulders. “We might be able to, but its going to take some more time, with everyone adding bits and pieces in, it made the program a little messy.”
“Will you be able to at least get us to communication with the bridge?”
Sharing a look, Ezra finally answered Chris. “Yes, we think we can, though we don't want to take the shield down until we know what is up there.”
Turning to look at Vin, Chris quirk his eyebrow, “You figured out what we ran into?”
“Yep, and you won't like it.”
A small snort then, “I haven't like any of this.”
Nodding at that, Vin brought up the ship his scans founded. “If you look its a an old Orion long range fighter ship. Its seen better days, and from what I could find. Its now own by the Dark Knife Recollections and Salvage”
Josiah interjected, “Let me guess, they're now in the business of recollecting starships?”
Vin shook his head. “They're saying that it was stolen, but I doubt that, as the trip wire that took us out of warp, was a trick the company will use to make people who run from them to stop. My guess, this is their more unethical branch that attacked us.”
“Did you get a scan on the weapons they might have?”
Looking at the Captain, the Vulcan nodded. “Yep, couple of torpedo tubes, nothing that would really make a dent in our shields. My guess, since the ship is hanging around, is that everyone on board beamed over here.”
“So, its an empty ship over there?”
Vin nodded, “As far as I can tell it is.”
Chris smirked for a few seconds, looking over at Ezra, “can you get a team over there, take control of the ship?”
“If their shields are down.”
Vin interrupted, “They are.”
Nodding towards Vin, the security chief continued. “We shouldn't have a problem doing it, though I don't know what that is going to do. It still doesn't get us on the bridge.”
“I know, but if get their ship, at least we don't have to worry about them beaming off this ship once the shield is down. JD, I want you to pull whoever you need and get that program fixed up. Josiah? How's the crew?”
The Betazoid shrugged his shoulders at the Captain. “Minor buries and couple of bumps, no one was seriously hurt. They're focus on their jobs and fixing anything that got jolted out of place.”
“Good, keep an eye on the crew. Vin..”
“I'll help out Ezra, Chris. I figure he wants to stay here, so you might want me over there.”
“Good, then lets get this done, I want my bridge back.”
With that the group separated and headed towards their various tasks.
777777
Rubbing his hand across his face, he turned and kept a look at the two ensigns, who had been working quietly on the program. Looking over at the door, he was surprise when it opened and he saw Buck's body was thrown through the door, landing with a thud on the floor.
Scrambling up to the unconscious man, he was about to lay a hand on him when he heard Kirak bellow out. “Wake him up, you got twenty minutes then I'll be back for his answer.”
Nathan glared at the man but before he could say anything the door slammed shut on him. Shaking his head, he turned to look at the first officer. “Aw Buck, what did he do to you?”
A soft cough then a moan and a whispered out, “He didn't like my answer.”
“Buck? What did he do to you?”
“Nothing much.”
With a soft growl, Nathan moved closer to Buck. Ignoring the hiss of pain, as Nathan turned Buck towards him, the doctor cursed. “Damn it, you're bleeding. How bad is it.”
“Not too bad.”
A soft huff, then “Is that not bad as Gee I still might have a pint of blood in me or it hadn't split my chest in two yet?”
A soft chuckle, then, “just a scratch honestly, he hasn't gotten to the serious stuff yet.”
“Serious stuff?”
Grinning slightly, as he pushed himself up, so he could lean against the wall, he instead of answering, look over at the two ensigns. “How is it going over there?”
The two ensigns turned. Davenport answered, “We think we can get the communications working, its going to limited to person to person though.”
Buck nodded. “Good, I have a feeling we'll be needing it as soon as you can get it.”
Frowning, Nathan waited till the ensigns were back working on the program. “You know something you aren't telling?”
Raising an hand to swat Nathan's away from him, Buck stopped when Nathan growled softly. With a sigh he shrugged his shoulders. “They're up to something, the group that beamed over, is the only people that were on the ship. I think they planned on abandoning their ship. So the question is how did they plan to take a starship with only six people?”
Staring at the first officer for a long minute, Nathan ventured a guess. “Some sort of gas?”
“I think, which if that is the case, the shield goes down, the gas would get through out the ship.”
Nathan's eyes got wide, when he realize the implications. “They are going to kill a ship of starfleet officers? But that's insane!”
“No, its a good plan, who would of thought that someone would be that bold?”
“How are we going to stop it?”
Wincing slightly as he moved, Buck sighed. “By not telling them how to take down the shield and learning as much as we can about what they are planing, and get communications with the rest of the ship. We have to let them know what is going on up here.”
Nathan growled softly, “You throwing yourself to the lions will not help.”
A soft huff of breath, then a smile. “Right now, I need to be thrown to the lions, the longer I hold their attention, the longer we are safe.”
Before Nathan could make a comment on how stupid that was, the door to the Captain's room opened.
Kirak stared at the four starfleet officers and sneered. “I hope your little leader is ready for round two. Well, see if he can survive it, but I guarantee he won't live through round three, then I'll start on one of the young ensigns there for the fun of it.”
With that, Buck was jerked out of the room and the door to the Captain's ready room closed.
77777777777
Hissing slightly when Kirak had thrown him against one of the panels, Buck tired to take a soft breath and let it out. He could feel the skin on his chest pull away from the cut with every short inhalation. Taking a moment, he rolled himself to his back and looked up at Kirak.
“You know, you aren't going to get the code from me, and those three in there, well, you hurt them, and I'll see ya dead before morning.”
A hearty laugh then, “You starfleet filth, your brave talk is a joke. You are not in any position to talk, and by the time I'm done with you, you will tell me the codes and beg to kill those in the room for your master.”
Working up the little spit he could, Buck spat into Kirak's face. “I will never be your slave and you will never be my master.”
Not bothering to wipe off the spit, Kirak leaned forward and grinned. “I like the whores that show me spirit, and from what I've read, you aren't much better then one Rizen. I haven't even begun to try to get information out of you.”
Looking over at one of is minions, he motion for the man to hand him a a large handle, flipping a button, a long wire like tube expanded from it. Kirak, flipped it back and forth several times, it made a soft whistling sound through the air.
With a rather manic grin, he motion for two of his crew. “Hold him against the door to the lift, make sure you hold him tight, I don't want him moving.”
Dark blue eyes widen for a second, then narrowed. Licking his suddenly dry lips, baring his teeth, then speaking in a soft growl. “That won't do anything but sign your death warrant.”
The Captain laughed, “After a few lashes, and your squealing, I'm sure you will change your tune.”
With that, Buck was jerked towards the door way and spread in front of it.
77777777777
The soft rap against the door, brought Chris's head up. Frowning, for a second, he nodded to the man in the doorway. “Josiah? What can I do for you?”
Settling down in a nearby chair, Josiah took a hard good stare at the Captain. “I was wondering the same thing. You have anything you want to talk about?”
Raising an eyebrow, Chris leaned back, “Talk about what?”
A short huff, then “Well, lets see, you're stuck in engineering, with four crew members isolated with the bad guys on the bridge, you have no clue what is going on or why they attacked your ship. You have everyone else off trying to get some task done and ready to beam over to the bad guys ship. You've check on the rest of your crew and have gotten repairs started where they're needed. And now you've been staring at the stars for the last fifteen minutes, looking like you wanted to shoot someone.”
Staring at Josiah, Chris shrugged his shoulders. “Pick one? There are too many variables that we don't know, and we won't get an answer till we communications back working with the bridge.”
“And I would hazard a guess that is the very problem. The quietness from the bridge.”
Turning away from Josiah for a moment and staring out of the view port, green eyes flicked to the Betazoid then back to the stars. “Someone attacked my ship, took some of my crew hostage, and I have no clue how any of them are, or even alive.”
“Buck won't let the other three get hurt.”
A small grunt then a shake of his head. “You know I'm not worried about the other three, well...not as much. I know Buck will make sure they stay out of harms way. “
“You're worried about Buck?”
A sharp short bark of humorless laughter came form Chris. “Of course I'm worried about him. He will make sure the other three are safe. I bet you he already has the two ensigns inscrolled in a corner working on the communication problems, and Nathan watching them. All safe and sound. He though... he would be waving a red cape in front of a bull trying to make sure that the attention stays on him, even if it cost him his last breath.”
Nodding, Josiah study Chris for a long second. “That he will, but as he like to say its his job to protect the crew and captain of the ship.”
“Yes, and sometimes I think that is the problem.”
Quirking his eyebrow, Josiah frowned. “How is that a problem?”
“It isn't a problem, but I doubt he will live through it. He isn't indestructible and sooner or later his luck will run out.”
“You can't stop him.”
Anther short bark of humorless laughter, then “True, I can't, though I would wish he actually let Ezra do his job once and awhile or even let someone know what his 'little projects' involve.”
Josiah stared down at the table for a long moment as he tried to put into words his thoughts, shrugging his shoulders he went for it. “I could give you ideas on lectures or discussions you could have with him about his importance and safety, but it would be pointless, you can't change his nature. You can't change who he is. He watches out for other people, to him they come first, and he's second or third. He does what he can do to make sure the ship and the people are safe and running as a well oiled machine.”
Rubbing his hand through his short hear, Chis let out a puff of air. “I know, its just...I don't want to lose him.”
Getting up from his seat, Josiah clapped Chris on the shoulder. “I wouldn't worry, he might get in trouble, but I think he knows that if he dies on you, you'll drag him back from the brink and yell at him. He knows you have his back.”
With that Josiah eyed Chris for a second, then headed out the door. Watching for a second, Chris sighed. He understood what Josiah was saying, but it didn't make the helplessness feel any better.
7777
A hand reached out slowly, and laid itself on the shoulder of the Vulcan. “You ready?”
Later, Vin would denied that he jumped about six inches in the air. Turning around he glared at the security chief. “You need a bell. And yes, I'm ready. Chris just wants to wait until we get some communications with the bridge, just to make sure our assumptions were correct.”
Nodding, Ezra shifted his weight, Vin raised an eyebrow. “You all right?”
Rolling his eyes, green eyes glared at the Vulcan. “Yes, Why wouldn't I be?”
Grinning, Vin shook his head. “JD been complaining about you. Seems you aren't being as quiet as you should about a certain commander and about a certain job.”
A soft grin, then a shrug of a shoulder as Ezra settled into a nearby chair. “I'm more frustrated, it seems that the minute I relax, something happens, and the next thing I know, is I'm trying to pick up the pieces and trying to figure out what is going on.”
Chuckling softly, Vin turned his chair to face Ezra, “I have a feeling unless you lock us all up in a secure facility, you're going to find trouble happening even with one of us in a paper bag.”
“That might be true, but my job would be quieter.”
“Naw, you would miss us and our trouble.”
Ezra was about to say something in reply, when JD's excited voice came over the communicator. “I got communication with the bridge.”
77777777777
The thundering of the senior bridge crew going to the workstation that JD was at, was not heard by the four starfleet officers on the bridge.
Instead three of them were had celebrated the fact that they had finally communicated with the rest of the ship and the shield was still up, when the door to the room was suddenly opened.
Quickly going back to somber faces and staring at the the man in the doorway, they waited to see what the person would do.
Staring at the three starfleet officers, a sneer crossed the man's face. “You three been behaving? Seems that your commander hasn't died yet. Though, I don't know how much longer he will live.”
With that he threw the unconscious man into the room. As he turned away, Kirak paused. “By the way, I'll be back in an hour or so. See if you can't wake him and say your goodbyes to him. I highly doubt that he will live through what I have planned.”
With that, the door to the room slid shut.
[ splash page][ part one][ part two]
Fandom: Magnificent Seven, Star Trek AU
Author: Megan aka issolafox
Artist: tpena19
Disclaimer: Mag7 doesn't belong to me
Rating: FRT
Characters: All
Warnings: No warnings
Summary - What should have been a quiet time between missions, instead, the ship gets thrown out of warp and the bridge gets taken over by pirates, while Buck, Nathan and two ensigns try to survive against the pirates being cut off from the rest of the ship, the rest of the seven try to figure out how to get the pirates off the ship.
Author Note - Thanks to atdelphi for her great betaing skills, and tpena19 for the great pictures
Also, there is a slight reference to Katy's fic “Clouds of Mystery”. Also thanks to Nancy W for creating this AU.
Title: Muddy Vulcan
Artist: tpena19
Disclaimer: making no money, etc., etc..
Character/Pairing: Vin, gen, no pairing
Rating: G
Warnings: none
Authors Notes: This is an illustration for a section in the A Long Day's Night story where Vin is covered in mud in a small holodeck incident. He's glaring over at an offstage Josiah, lol.
77777777777
The sudden jolt that threw him out of bed across the room and smacked him into the wall, and the computer blaring the red alert alarm was not the wakeup call he had been expecting. Shaking his head, to clear it, he took a second to make sure he was fully awake, then “Computer. Turn off audible red alert and open up a channel to the bridge.”
After a beep of acknowledgment that the request was happening and the alarms snapped off, Chris called out. “Captain to bridge! What is going on??
Feeling his patience strain when he didn't hear a answer, he cursed. And then called out. “Computer, open channel to engineering.”
With a answering beep, Chris almost growled, “Captain to Engineering. What is going on?”
For a long moment there wasn't an answer, just as he was starting to worry, he heard. “This is Martinez sir, I don't know what happened but we dropped out of warp and from we can figure out, somehow we've been completely cut off from the bridge deck.”
Chris frowned, “What do you mean we're completely cut off from the bridge? How is that even possible?”
“I don't know Captain, I don't know how is possible, but no one can get up to the bridge or received any communication from there.”
Rubbing his face with his hand, Chris sighed, “Do we know who was up on the bridge?”
“No sir, I don't know for sure, last I heard, we were rotating people through the bridge to get non bridge officers some experience.”
Growling softly, Chris closed his eyes for a second. Opening them, he took a deep breath, finding out quickly that it was a bad idea, he hissed out. “All right, get someone to get the rest of the senior officers. Tell them to meet in engineering. I want you to figure out if anything else has been sealed off and figure out what we hit.”
“I will Captain.”
“Good, captain out.”
When the silence fell, Chris took a deep breath, ignoring the burn and pain from his ribs and the bruising along his back, he untangled himself from his bed sheets and other knickknacks, he stood up. Shaking his head, he started to get dress, he wanted to know who dare hurt his crew and ship.
7777
First thing he was aware of was mud. Very cold, slimy, clinging mud. Which was trying to do its best to crawl over his body and suck him down to the bottom of the earth. With a grunt, he tried to raise himself, but something was weighing him down.
Moving his arms, he got them under what was weighing him down, and pushed. With a grunt, and what strength he could muster, he pushed the weight up. It was like pushing up a wet sandbag, the weight didn't move.
Letting go, the weight dropped the few inches, that he had been able to raise it. Grunting, when the weight went back on him, he was surprised when the object on him spoke. “I'm awake.”
Blinking in shock, Vin finally managed to talk without getting mud down his throat. “Josiah?”
A few seconds of silence, then a mumbled. “Vin? Where are you? I think something happened.”
Gritting his teeth, the Vulcan tired to speak calmly. “Yes, I agree, as to where am I, try underneath you.”
A long moment of silence, then a slightly more awake Josiah stated. “Why are you under me?”
Closing his eyes, and wondering for a second. if he would really drown in the mud that was slowly sucking him down underneath it. “Because you landed on me and I would really appreciate if you would get up and help me up.”
Frowning when he didn't hear anything from Josiah, Vin was about to speak again, when Josiah seemed to have understood what had just been said. “Ah...so I'm on you. Guess I should get up and off of you.”
Counting to five, because he really didn't think he would get to ten, Vin growled out. “that would be a swell idea.”
“Yea, I guess it would, just give me a second or two.”
Vin bit his tongue as he as Josiah tried to get off him. After four elbows to the ribs, one to his stomach, and a narrowly missed kick to his knee, he felt Josiah's weight get off him. Taking a deep breath for the first time in what seemed like an hour, he just enjoyed the feeling.
So, he wasn't quite ready for Josiah to reach down grab his shoulders and with a grunt, pull the mud covered Vulcan from the his entrapment from the mud.
Staring at shock at Josiah, Vin blinked then finally figuring out how to get his mouth to work, he sputter out. “How...You can't be that strong!”
Josiah grinned, “I'm full of surprises. Now, are you okay?”
“No, I'm not okay, I was being slowly crushed into some very slimy mud that wanted to eat me, with a you trying to help it, by keeping me down.”
Josiah felt enough guilt about that to look ashamed. “Sorry about that, I think when we got thrown, I hit my head. I'm sorry about almost crushing you into the mud. But you seem okay.”
Glaring at the Betazoid, Vin stared at the man. “I'm covered in slimy cold mud and it feels like something used me as a bouncy toy. Otherwise I'm fine.”
Grinning, Josiah nodded. “Good, so you have a clue what happened. I'm pretty sure, that wasn't included in the holosuite program I did.”
“Well, good, I didn't think you actually planed this, not when you suggested that I work on some meditation.”
Grinning slightly, Josiah shrugged, “you have a clue on what is going on?”
“No, we shouldn't have hit anything, we weren't near any active zones or pirates. It should have been a piece of cake. That's why we were rotating people through the bridge on night shift. We figured we could get people, who wanted some more expertize.”
Josiah nodded, “Its a good idea, do we know who is on the bridge now?”
Vin stilled for a second then shook his head. “No, they've been rotated through all week, Buck knows the rotation schedule, Ezra might also.”
Before Josiah could reply, he was interrupted by a ship wide announcement. “All senior bridge officers to engineering please. I repeat, all senior bridge officers to engineering please.”
The two officers shared a look and turned to stare at their destroyed mediation spot. Vin shook his head. “Well, I think it is time to go.”
Nodding in agreement, Josiah called for the arch, closing the program, the two headed out the door, and Vin's mud disappeared as he walked through the door.
77777
“This is just my luck....had a good night, no trouble, fine poker game, got all the reports done...nothing left to do but have a good night sleep...no one in sickbay, and just when I let myself relax....this happens.... universe hates me...utterly hates me...security is a good placement for you..they said...you could use your skills there...catch people..keep others safe...you'll like it...Ha! I'm going to kill that person if I ever see them again....”
JD groaned, wishing the person who was complaining would shut up and turn off the alarm. After several minutes when the muttering about the universe continued, JD sighed, and manged to rip open both is eyes. Blinking a few times, he realize who was speaking. Licking his lips once, he crocked out “Ezra?”
The rambling complaint, stopped and the man who had been muttering, spoke up, as JD felt a hand land on his shoulder. “You awake? You took a fairly good bump.”
Wincing slightly, JD sat himself up, “I'm all right. What happened?”
“The shipped was jerked to stop and we were thrown around. Then, the red alert started, and if you would be so kind as to turn off the laser before it decides that it would like to try and separate my foot from my ankle. We can head to engineering, since we were called to go there.”
Shaking his head and spotting the laser JD scrambled up. “Just a second, I'll get that turned off.”
Ezra sighed, “No hurry, really, I like holding still like this. Its only a laser.”
Rolling his eyes, JD moved himself over to the console, blinking away the blurriness, he finally found the button to push. Hitting the off button, Ezra sighed. “Thank you now, we need to get going.”
JD nodded, taking one more look at the mess that met his eyes that was at one point, coming together into a neat weapon. They just had to figure out how contain the laser a little better. When something Ezra said poke to the forefront of his brain. “Engineering? Why aren't we going to the bridge.”
Stopping in mid-stride, Ezra held his breath for a second. Letting it go slowly, he sighed. “I don't know, but I have a feeling we'll find out when we reach engineering.”
JD nodded, turning away from the ruined experiment to follow Ezra out the door, it would still be there when this crisis would be over.
7777
Reaching engineering, Chris stood back from the chaos that was happening for a long minute, watching the engineers move in a fluid grace of trying to figure out what happened. Though, it wasn't long before someone noticed him.
“Sir! You got here faster then I thought.”
Chris waved his hand, “Its alright Martinez, you got some space here were we won't be your way?”
“Yes, once the others get here, I'll show you to it.”
Nodding, the Captain sighed. “You have any idea what happened?”
Taking a deep breath and running a hand through his hair, Martinez shook his head. “No, there was a thump and jolt of us dropping out of warp, then the bridge seemed to seal itself off and red alerts started. Best we can guess is something or someone on the bridge sealed it off.”
Growling softly, Chris sighed, “Do we know who was up on the bridge?”
Before the chief engineer could answer, a voice from the hallway answered the question. “Yes, and you aren't going to like it.”
Turning, the Captain stared at the rest of the senior crew and frowned at who was missing. “Ezra? Let me guess....”
77777
He was going to shoot himself. It would be for the best. All he wanted was one quiet night to work on some backlog projects. He could do that easily while keeping an eye on the training bridge crew. They were in empty space, warping to their next planet. Nothing should of happened. Nothing.
Minding his own business, happily getting some progress on the a couple of pet projects, when the security officer let out a short warning, just enough to brace himself. As the next moment, he found out what it felt like when a ship went from warp to normal space in a second.
Looking up at the bridge crew, he was glad for a split second that they were able to keep their place, shouting for shields, he was a just too late as three beings appeared on the bridge with weapons drawn.
Realizing what he had to do, he shouted out, “Computer, security code M7BB8ZOP3BravoPeso.”
As he got the last digit out, he was hit in the face with a fist.
Grabbing his jaw, he waved the rest of the bridge crew to stay at their stations. The being that hit him roared. “What did you do?”
Buck working his jaw to make sure it was all right smiled. “Hopefully make life a little harder for you.”
The alien captain frowned, “Undo it now!”
Buck ginned. “Nope, don't know how.”
With an enraged howl, the Captain raised his phaser and fired.
7777
Staring at the Daliwakan Captain, Nathan stifled a growl. Turning his eyes towards Buck, he slowly release a held breath as he saw the man's chest moving up and down. Turning back towards the interlopers, Nathan waited to see what would happen next, knowing protesting would just get him laid out next to Buck.
Nathan could see the Daliwakan looking distantly at group in front of him. The pirate Captain shook his head, he turned to look at his other five men, who shook their heads. With a deep breath, the Captain to turned to his captives. “I'm Captain Kirak, you are my prisoners until I get your ship or I kill you. Its up to you which it will be. Now you two,” the captain said as he pointed towards two ensigns, “take you leader here and drag him and yourselves into that Captain's room. You shouldn't be able to escape from there. Now go, while I see if I can break the security here.”
Nathan moved to follow the two ensigns who were carrying Buck. As they got into the room, Nathan watched as the the Captain looked at the room for one second then grin. “Good no weapons. Now don't try to leave, or we'll shoot you on the spot. Now behave.”
With that he withdrew his head and the door slid shut.
Immediately moving over to Buck, Nathan keeled down next to the unconscious man and wonder why he thought he wouldn't need his tricoder on bridge duty.
After checking to make sure he was breathing, Nathan rolled back on his heels and faced the other two starfleet officers. Realizing for a second he was the highest ranking one, he cursed softly. They didn't train doctors for these type of things.
7777
Chris stared at Ezra. “You're sure?”
The security chief nodded. “Yes, I'm sure Nathan is up there too. He wanted to refresh some of his skills. In case he had to jump in.”
Cursing slightly, Chris stared at the five men in front of him. “Do we know how they put a shield around the bridge?”
There was quiet for a second, then Vin sharing a glance with JD, spoke up. “I have an idea. It was brought up one night with Buck, he had been reading some reports. Vin and I got talking on it, and well, we figured out how you could maybe do it. I guess he did it.”
Chris frowned, “How did he do it, and why didn't he tell anyone?”
Ezra cursed, “He did, but I thought it was just something to test the security on. My team has been tinkering with it, got a working model, but Commander Wilmington didn't say anything about implementing it.”
Chris sigh, “Knowing our luck, I have seven memo's on it and a meeting in a week about it.”
Grinning slightly, Josiah had to agree, “sounds about right. Though, it doesn't help us now.”
“You're right it doesn't. Ezra, do you think you have a copy of this program anywhere, we need to get eyes on the bridge. Take JD with you, he can help figure it out if you have the copy. Vin, try to figure out what hit us. We don't need to have a ship sitting out there that we don't know about. Josiah, find out who is running the sickbay with Nathan not there and find out how many of crew may have been injured in that sudden stop and check to see what damage the ship might have taken.”
Taking a look at the group, Chris smiled slightly. “We need to know what is going on, and find a way to get eyes and ears on the bridge. Report back in two hours with anything you've figured out.”
The group nodded and dispersed getting to work. Chris watched them leave, then slumped down into the nearest chair. Glaring at the table in the room, he wondered how this could happened. Whoever did this to his ship would regret it, and a certain first officer will have a long chat about upgrading the ship without telling the Captain about it when this was over.
77777
Waking up from being stun was never pleasant, the pin and needles feelings over his body, then the moment where he didn't know what had happen, then the crashing down of the information into his skull of what stupid thing he had done to get this way.
Groaning softly, he opened his eyes, ignoring the pounding in his head, he look up at Nathan. “What happened?”
Nathan, who was closest, quickly moved over to Buck and hovered for a moment, before squatting down next to the man.
“Before or after Kirak stunned you with his phaser?”
“After the phaser, I remember up to that point.”
Nathan sighed, “He had us carry you to in here, took anything we could use as a weapon and have left us here for now.”
Nodding at the explanation, Buck frowned. “He hasn't gotten the computer working for him yet?”
“No sir,” stated a young ensign.
Staring at the ensign for a second, Buck smiled. “Good, thank you Mrs Davenport. If they haven't gotten to he computer yet, there we're safe for awhile.”
“Buck? What is happening, how did you block off the bridge?”
Smiling at Nathan, Buck turned to the ensigns. “Mr. Galloway, do you think you could use your programing skills to get communications with engineering?”
The Ensign frowned, “Sir?”
Sighing slightly, Buck looked at the officers. “The program I activated, it isn't finished, it was put in for testing, right now it blocks any type of signal from coming in or coming out. We need to be able to contact the rest of the ship without those pirates knowing about it.”
Galloway frowned, “Do you have a copy of the program, I would need to look at that and I need help.”
Grinning, Buck nodded, “I'm sure Davenport can help you. I believe she knows security regulations.”
Davenport nodded. “yes sir, I can help.”
“Good, the top padd on the desk there has the program on it, work over by the windows, make sure that Kirak doesn't find it.”
The two ensigns nodded and hurried over to the padd and then moved over to a corner of the room, protected by the desk and chair.
Nathan watched the two for a long moment then turned to Buck. “What is really going on? Does Chris know about this thing?”
Glancing around the room, Buck took a hand and rubbed his head, “By now, I would say yes.”
Staring at the first officer, the doctor shook his head. “You didn't tell him! Did you tell anyone?”
Moving his gaze to the ceiling, Buck was quiet for a long moment. “Well, Ezra was in charged of working this out, and I know JD helped with a lot of the programing. They gave it to me, and I've been doing computer models on it. Checking to see how well it is working.”
Nathan sighed, “So, they may or may not know what you just did and we're stuck in here and without any communication with the rest of the ship. Also, just to top it all off we have Kirak and his five crewmen outside on the bridge trying to get into the computer.”
Reaching over and patting Nathan on the shoulder, Buck levered himself up. “Nathan, you're worrying about stuff. It isn't that bad. We'll figure it out, we'll get these guys off the ship, we just have to calm down and take a deep breath. We aren't going out their with phasers blazing and finish it in a few minutes. Its going to be a chess match, and we need to relax and work on small things to figure this out. We don't know anything about their ship or how they stopped us. We need information. They'll be a time to act. Till then, we get in contact with the rest of the ship without taking the shield around the bridge down and work from there.”
Nathan stared at Buck for a long moment, taking a deep breath, the doc nodded. “All right, so what do I have to do?”
With a small puff of breath, the commander grinned slightly. “You have the easiest job. You just have to keep me alive.”
Frowning, Nathan eyed the man in front of him, noting the serious look. “Wait? What do you mean? You're fine.”
“Nate, I'm the only one who knows the codes to take the shield down. Kirak is going to try to get it out of me. I can't let him do it. And I'm no good to him dead. And I'm not going to give it to him.”
“That's suicide.”
Looking at the door to the room for a long moment, Buck turned to look Nathan in the eye. “No, its about keeping the ship and the crew on the ship safe, which last I checked was in my job description.”
Before Nathan could say anything else, the door to the room opened.
77777
“Stupid first officers.... I will shoot him, can't even leave him on the bridge without a baby sitter... maybe Nathan will finally put that tracker in him like I've ask...”
“Ezra could you please shut up.”
Stopping in mid-rant, Ezra glared at JD, “Its I either rant now, or shoot Buck when I see him next, and since I don't want to be court martial, ranting it is.”
JD sighed, “He is trying to save the ship, I don't think he planed to have the ship jerked out of warp and get attacked so he had to use it.”
Pausing for a long second, Ezra finally shook his head. “If this was the first time, I might agree with you or even the third time, but its starting to become a weekly occurrence.”
Opening his mouth to protest, then he closed it with a snap. After a few seconds of staring at the screen that was scrolling the program through, JD finally spoke. “He didn't get in any trouble in the last two weeks.”
Snorting , Ezra paused the readout. “That just means this is going to be worse.”
Sighing, JD tried to get the focus back on the computer readout. After several minutes of reading the program, the young man frowned. “Ezra, this doesn't make sense, I don't think half of this stuff was in it when we last looked at it.”
Studying the program, Ezra nodded. “I think you're right, stuff has been added, originally the shield shouldn't had been this excessive in its shielding, nor was it supposed to last that long. I think Buck changed some of the stuff. I think though if we can hack into the program that is running and change this factor and that factor, we can get communication at least.”
A soft frowned. Then JD looked over at Ezra. “Do you think Buck and Nathan are okay?”
A long pause of silence, where Ezra was looking everywhere but JD. Finally, with a lowering of his eyes, he nodded. “I'm sure they are fine. I know I said that Buck can find trouble in a bucket of water, but he is a good man and officer, if anyone can do it, he will get them all out of what ever trouble they're in with getting hurt.”
JD stared at the program for a second then softly stated. “Maybe everyone else, but Buck?”
Ezra grinned slightly. “At least this time he has Nathan there with him. Now, we need to get this done so we can find out what is going on.”
“I...”
Looking at JD's face, Ezra frowned, then cleared his throat. “JD, we will do everything to make sure that Buck is okay. He knows we're working to get to him, and Nathan is there to help. We will get him back.”
Staring at Ezra for several long moments, JD finally nodded. “You're still getting to give him a talking to.”
A rather evil smile graced Ezra's face. “Yes, a very long lecture, which I plan to give after the Captain gives his lecture.”
“Good.”
7777
Dodging the engineers, Josiah made his way over to Vin. Staring at the young Vulcan, Josiah cleared his throat. “Find anything?”
Stifling the yelp of surprise, Vin turned to look at the Betazoid, “Yes, and it isn't good news.”
“Do you want to tell me?”
Shaking his head, the Vulcan turned back to the display for a long moment. “Nope, rather get it done all at once. Besides, its almost time for the meeting.”
Shaking his head, Josiah stared at the Vulcan for a long minute, “How are you doing?”
Raising an eyebrow, Vin shook his head. “I'm fine, why wouldn't I be?”
Matching the raise eyebrow with one of his own, Josiah just waited. Vin glared at the man. “Don't try that, I don't feel guilty or wish that I had been on the bridge. I do wish that you hadn't landed on me and pushed me down into that mud.”
Chuckling slightly, Josiah moved towards the meeting room. “That wasn't my fault. Besides, the mud faded off.”
“I was still covered in mud.”
Vin protested as he entered into the meeting room. Josiah just shook his head. “You need to get over it.”
77777
Chris looked up from the report to look at the crew that was sitting around the table. “So, who wants to go first?”
The crew stared at each other for a long moment, Ezra rolled his eyes. “JD and I worked on the program that is keeping us from the bridge. It seems that Commander Wilmington has had every security guard add a bit of code to program.”
Chris cleared his throat. “What additions?”
Ezra rubbed his hands through his hair. “A lot. It seemed, he was actually using it as training for new ensigns that want to do bridge duty. The good thing is, I don't think he was ever planning to use it. Though, I have to admit, when this is over, we might want to do use it with modifications.”
“Maybe when we get out of this trouble, did it give you any idea on how to communicate with the bridge or or get into the bridge?”
Looking up from his padd, JD shrugged his shoulders. “We might be able to, but its going to take some more time, with everyone adding bits and pieces in, it made the program a little messy.”
“Will you be able to at least get us to communication with the bridge?”
Sharing a look, Ezra finally answered Chris. “Yes, we think we can, though we don't want to take the shield down until we know what is up there.”
Turning to look at Vin, Chris quirk his eyebrow, “You figured out what we ran into?”
“Yep, and you won't like it.”
A small snort then, “I haven't like any of this.”
Nodding at that, Vin brought up the ship his scans founded. “If you look its a an old Orion long range fighter ship. Its seen better days, and from what I could find. Its now own by the Dark Knife Recollections and Salvage”
Josiah interjected, “Let me guess, they're now in the business of recollecting starships?”
Vin shook his head. “They're saying that it was stolen, but I doubt that, as the trip wire that took us out of warp, was a trick the company will use to make people who run from them to stop. My guess, this is their more unethical branch that attacked us.”
“Did you get a scan on the weapons they might have?”
Looking at the Captain, the Vulcan nodded. “Yep, couple of torpedo tubes, nothing that would really make a dent in our shields. My guess, since the ship is hanging around, is that everyone on board beamed over here.”
“So, its an empty ship over there?”
Vin nodded, “As far as I can tell it is.”
Chris smirked for a few seconds, looking over at Ezra, “can you get a team over there, take control of the ship?”
“If their shields are down.”
Vin interrupted, “They are.”
Nodding towards Vin, the security chief continued. “We shouldn't have a problem doing it, though I don't know what that is going to do. It still doesn't get us on the bridge.”
“I know, but if get their ship, at least we don't have to worry about them beaming off this ship once the shield is down. JD, I want you to pull whoever you need and get that program fixed up. Josiah? How's the crew?”
The Betazoid shrugged his shoulders at the Captain. “Minor buries and couple of bumps, no one was seriously hurt. They're focus on their jobs and fixing anything that got jolted out of place.”
“Good, keep an eye on the crew. Vin..”
“I'll help out Ezra, Chris. I figure he wants to stay here, so you might want me over there.”
“Good, then lets get this done, I want my bridge back.”
With that the group separated and headed towards their various tasks.
777777
Rubbing his hand across his face, he turned and kept a look at the two ensigns, who had been working quietly on the program. Looking over at the door, he was surprise when it opened and he saw Buck's body was thrown through the door, landing with a thud on the floor.
Scrambling up to the unconscious man, he was about to lay a hand on him when he heard Kirak bellow out. “Wake him up, you got twenty minutes then I'll be back for his answer.”
Nathan glared at the man but before he could say anything the door slammed shut on him. Shaking his head, he turned to look at the first officer. “Aw Buck, what did he do to you?”
A soft cough then a moan and a whispered out, “He didn't like my answer.”
“Buck? What did he do to you?”
“Nothing much.”
With a soft growl, Nathan moved closer to Buck. Ignoring the hiss of pain, as Nathan turned Buck towards him, the doctor cursed. “Damn it, you're bleeding. How bad is it.”
“Not too bad.”
A soft huff, then “Is that not bad as Gee I still might have a pint of blood in me or it hadn't split my chest in two yet?”
A soft chuckle, then, “just a scratch honestly, he hasn't gotten to the serious stuff yet.”
“Serious stuff?”
Grinning slightly, as he pushed himself up, so he could lean against the wall, he instead of answering, look over at the two ensigns. “How is it going over there?”
The two ensigns turned. Davenport answered, “We think we can get the communications working, its going to limited to person to person though.”
Buck nodded. “Good, I have a feeling we'll be needing it as soon as you can get it.”
Frowning, Nathan waited till the ensigns were back working on the program. “You know something you aren't telling?”
Raising an hand to swat Nathan's away from him, Buck stopped when Nathan growled softly. With a sigh he shrugged his shoulders. “They're up to something, the group that beamed over, is the only people that were on the ship. I think they planned on abandoning their ship. So the question is how did they plan to take a starship with only six people?”
Staring at the first officer for a long minute, Nathan ventured a guess. “Some sort of gas?”
“I think, which if that is the case, the shield goes down, the gas would get through out the ship.”
Nathan's eyes got wide, when he realize the implications. “They are going to kill a ship of starfleet officers? But that's insane!”
“No, its a good plan, who would of thought that someone would be that bold?”
“How are we going to stop it?”
Wincing slightly as he moved, Buck sighed. “By not telling them how to take down the shield and learning as much as we can about what they are planing, and get communications with the rest of the ship. We have to let them know what is going on up here.”
Nathan growled softly, “You throwing yourself to the lions will not help.”
A soft huff of breath, then a smile. “Right now, I need to be thrown to the lions, the longer I hold their attention, the longer we are safe.”
Before Nathan could make a comment on how stupid that was, the door to the Captain's room opened.
Kirak stared at the four starfleet officers and sneered. “I hope your little leader is ready for round two. Well, see if he can survive it, but I guarantee he won't live through round three, then I'll start on one of the young ensigns there for the fun of it.”
With that, Buck was jerked out of the room and the door to the Captain's ready room closed.
77777777777
Hissing slightly when Kirak had thrown him against one of the panels, Buck tired to take a soft breath and let it out. He could feel the skin on his chest pull away from the cut with every short inhalation. Taking a moment, he rolled himself to his back and looked up at Kirak.
“You know, you aren't going to get the code from me, and those three in there, well, you hurt them, and I'll see ya dead before morning.”
A hearty laugh then, “You starfleet filth, your brave talk is a joke. You are not in any position to talk, and by the time I'm done with you, you will tell me the codes and beg to kill those in the room for your master.”
Working up the little spit he could, Buck spat into Kirak's face. “I will never be your slave and you will never be my master.”
Not bothering to wipe off the spit, Kirak leaned forward and grinned. “I like the whores that show me spirit, and from what I've read, you aren't much better then one Rizen. I haven't even begun to try to get information out of you.”
Looking over at one of is minions, he motion for the man to hand him a a large handle, flipping a button, a long wire like tube expanded from it. Kirak, flipped it back and forth several times, it made a soft whistling sound through the air.
With a rather manic grin, he motion for two of his crew. “Hold him against the door to the lift, make sure you hold him tight, I don't want him moving.”
Dark blue eyes widen for a second, then narrowed. Licking his suddenly dry lips, baring his teeth, then speaking in a soft growl. “That won't do anything but sign your death warrant.”
The Captain laughed, “After a few lashes, and your squealing, I'm sure you will change your tune.”
With that, Buck was jerked towards the door way and spread in front of it.
77777777777
The soft rap against the door, brought Chris's head up. Frowning, for a second, he nodded to the man in the doorway. “Josiah? What can I do for you?”
Settling down in a nearby chair, Josiah took a hard good stare at the Captain. “I was wondering the same thing. You have anything you want to talk about?”
Raising an eyebrow, Chris leaned back, “Talk about what?”
A short huff, then “Well, lets see, you're stuck in engineering, with four crew members isolated with the bad guys on the bridge, you have no clue what is going on or why they attacked your ship. You have everyone else off trying to get some task done and ready to beam over to the bad guys ship. You've check on the rest of your crew and have gotten repairs started where they're needed. And now you've been staring at the stars for the last fifteen minutes, looking like you wanted to shoot someone.”
Staring at Josiah, Chris shrugged his shoulders. “Pick one? There are too many variables that we don't know, and we won't get an answer till we communications back working with the bridge.”
“And I would hazard a guess that is the very problem. The quietness from the bridge.”
Turning away from Josiah for a moment and staring out of the view port, green eyes flicked to the Betazoid then back to the stars. “Someone attacked my ship, took some of my crew hostage, and I have no clue how any of them are, or even alive.”
“Buck won't let the other three get hurt.”
A small grunt then a shake of his head. “You know I'm not worried about the other three, well...not as much. I know Buck will make sure they stay out of harms way. “
“You're worried about Buck?”
A sharp short bark of humorless laughter came form Chris. “Of course I'm worried about him. He will make sure the other three are safe. I bet you he already has the two ensigns inscrolled in a corner working on the communication problems, and Nathan watching them. All safe and sound. He though... he would be waving a red cape in front of a bull trying to make sure that the attention stays on him, even if it cost him his last breath.”
Nodding, Josiah study Chris for a long second. “That he will, but as he like to say its his job to protect the crew and captain of the ship.”
“Yes, and sometimes I think that is the problem.”
Quirking his eyebrow, Josiah frowned. “How is that a problem?”
“It isn't a problem, but I doubt he will live through it. He isn't indestructible and sooner or later his luck will run out.”
“You can't stop him.”
Anther short bark of humorless laughter, then “True, I can't, though I would wish he actually let Ezra do his job once and awhile or even let someone know what his 'little projects' involve.”
Josiah stared down at the table for a long moment as he tried to put into words his thoughts, shrugging his shoulders he went for it. “I could give you ideas on lectures or discussions you could have with him about his importance and safety, but it would be pointless, you can't change his nature. You can't change who he is. He watches out for other people, to him they come first, and he's second or third. He does what he can do to make sure the ship and the people are safe and running as a well oiled machine.”
Rubbing his hand through his short hear, Chis let out a puff of air. “I know, its just...I don't want to lose him.”
Getting up from his seat, Josiah clapped Chris on the shoulder. “I wouldn't worry, he might get in trouble, but I think he knows that if he dies on you, you'll drag him back from the brink and yell at him. He knows you have his back.”
With that Josiah eyed Chris for a second, then headed out the door. Watching for a second, Chris sighed. He understood what Josiah was saying, but it didn't make the helplessness feel any better.
7777
A hand reached out slowly, and laid itself on the shoulder of the Vulcan. “You ready?”
Later, Vin would denied that he jumped about six inches in the air. Turning around he glared at the security chief. “You need a bell. And yes, I'm ready. Chris just wants to wait until we get some communications with the bridge, just to make sure our assumptions were correct.”
Nodding, Ezra shifted his weight, Vin raised an eyebrow. “You all right?”
Rolling his eyes, green eyes glared at the Vulcan. “Yes, Why wouldn't I be?”
Grinning, Vin shook his head. “JD been complaining about you. Seems you aren't being as quiet as you should about a certain commander and about a certain job.”
A soft grin, then a shrug of a shoulder as Ezra settled into a nearby chair. “I'm more frustrated, it seems that the minute I relax, something happens, and the next thing I know, is I'm trying to pick up the pieces and trying to figure out what is going on.”
Chuckling softly, Vin turned his chair to face Ezra, “I have a feeling unless you lock us all up in a secure facility, you're going to find trouble happening even with one of us in a paper bag.”
“That might be true, but my job would be quieter.”
“Naw, you would miss us and our trouble.”
Ezra was about to say something in reply, when JD's excited voice came over the communicator. “I got communication with the bridge.”
77777777777
The thundering of the senior bridge crew going to the workstation that JD was at, was not heard by the four starfleet officers on the bridge.
Instead three of them were had celebrated the fact that they had finally communicated with the rest of the ship and the shield was still up, when the door to the room was suddenly opened.
Quickly going back to somber faces and staring at the the man in the doorway, they waited to see what the person would do.
Staring at the three starfleet officers, a sneer crossed the man's face. “You three been behaving? Seems that your commander hasn't died yet. Though, I don't know how much longer he will live.”
With that he threw the unconscious man into the room. As he turned away, Kirak paused. “By the way, I'll be back in an hour or so. See if you can't wake him and say your goodbyes to him. I highly doubt that he will live through what I have planned.”
With that, the door to the room slid shut.
[ splash page][ part one][ part two]