Kazyah's Seven
Posted on Thu Jun 6th, 2019 @ 5:20pm by Lieutenant Karna Zsan & Lieutenant Commander BaoJun Qiao & Gunnery Sergeant Roderik Kos & Ferrofax & Lieutenant Commander Kazyah Linn & Lieutenant Arkady Sjet & XiaoLi Zhan
3,285 words; about a 16 minute read
Mission:
S1E3: Barbarians at the Gates
Location: Central Processing Division, Song of Stars, Lagashi astral arcology
Timeline: MD 2
The four man squad was anything but a team. Kazyah and Karna, two rival Intelligence officers with similar modi operandi; Bao the double agent Science officer; and Rodi the reluctant Marine. They were bound by a common mission, even if their personal motivations were worlds apart.
Yet here they loitered on the upper promenade that surrounded the central processing division--the restricted area beneath the admiralty section that housed everything from the arcology's computer mainframe to classified vaults and labs to even the guardhouse.
"I can't penetrate it," Karna said painfully. "Last time I tried, I was nearly captured. These Lagashi are not as susceptible to my wiles as most sentients, and I am under strict orders not to leave a trail of collateral damage." The Betazoid turned his black eyes upon the others. "Any ideas from the cheap seats?"
Bao turned a withering stare at the man. "Murdering the security forces of a member world is usually, indeed, problematic. Something about undermining equal sovereignty, subsidiarity, and murder in general being reprehensible," he stated rather blithely. "Fortunately for us, this is only the front gate," he added as he motioned for everyone to follow him as he walked up to the guard.
"Good afternoon, Corporal Sun," he said pleasantly. "Lieutenant Commander Qiao BaoJun with Lieutenant Commander Kazyah Linn and Lieutenant Zsan Karna of Starfleet Intelligence and Gunnery Sergeant Kos of the Marine Corps. I request access to central processing, authorization Altair 4-4-Alpha. I will assume responsibility for Sergeant Kos, and Commander Linn will take responsibility for Lieutenant Zsan."
Karna grinned wickedly and gave Kazyah's shoulder a reassuring squeeze.
Kaz shrugged off the man's touch, "Keep a distance from me," Kaz said under his breath.
The young corporal eyed the two Betazoids for a long moment before nodding. "Don't do anything untoward and you wouldn't need to assume responsibility." And stepped away from the entrance.
Rodi, long accustomed to annoying security guards gave Sun the powerful stink-eye of the experienced NCO before stepping forward.
"Wise words," Karna said to the corporal in passing.
The four men strode purposefully through the secure entrance and the narrow hallway to an open to an expansive room that for the scarce number of people in it was no less busy. Vaguely oblong, it had four lifts in a cross pattern intersected by as many corridors. Narrowing down the entrance from which they had just arrived, there were still as many as seven paths to take.
"Well?" Karna asked Bao.
In lieu of a reception desk, there was a large electronic billboard that flashed with scroll hanzi characters. Even a few 3-D holographic images burst out, perhaps emphasizing vital information.
Bao read the board quickly. Standard things, mostly, it seemed. Of course, that was expected. Only an idiot would design a system that put classified information on a billboard directly next to the entrance. He considered a moment. "This is conjecture, but I would suspect that what we are looking for is probably in, or quite near, Central Dogma. Lift 2," he said. He walked over to the lift and stared at the panel for a moment. Knowing where to go did not equate to authority to access the place. He would need a moment to work that out.
A few moments later and the lift doors whooshed open, albeit not empty as he might have hoped. Instead, a relativie tall woman, long black hair done up in a complicated twist and held in place by metal sticks stepped out, pushing her hand against Bao's chest to move him backwards. She turned a critical eye towards the others present. She smiled, though it did not quite reach her eyes. "Well, well," she said in lightly accented standard. "Right on schedule, baobei. And you brought the misfit boytoy brigade with you," she added. "Don't be rude. Introduce me to your friends, dear."
Bao clenched his teeth, noticeably tensing. He ground out, "Meet Zhan XiaoLi. Formerly Lagashi Military Intelligence. Now, nationalist agitator with the emotional range and depth of a Vulcan."
If the woman was offended, her face did not show it. "That is no way to talk about your betrothed," she said motioning everyone towards the lift. "Especially when she has access to the classified off limits area you want to break into and you do not." She paused for a moment, "And no one get any cute ideas. That means you, Betazoid," she added, with an extra sharp glare at Zsan.
Rodi internally sighed of disappointed at hearing the introductions.
The challenge presented by the woman had put Karna into the solemn disposition of a professional. But once Bao's repressed but psionically blatant discomfort manifested itself to Karna, the Betazoid could not help but grin. "As your betrothed can attest, annoying person, my mind is filled with cute ideas." He gave a light tap to his temple. "Forgive me, that was the translational gist of what Commander Qiao has called you in his mind. I can see why you pine for him. So close, yet so far." He turned his head to Bao and bit the air with a purring sound.
The woman glared at the Betazoid, the venom needing no psychic power to be evident. "Last we spoke, I believe his terms were outdated harpy relic, so you need not be polite, guizi bing. Besides, I do not need to be a telepath to know which one of us he dislikes more. Now kindly shut up, and keep the telepathy to yourself unless you would like a nice dose of neural suppressant."
For his part, Bao flinched and muttered under something under his breath that sounded suspiciously like "I prefer her, for once."
"How about we save the pleasantries for later and get a move on?" Kaz asked, taking a few steps forward towards the woman, hoping the gesture would show he was the one in charge of the team. "Zhan, we appreciate your help in this. We are truly doing what we can to help your people."
"Indeed," Karna said. "It would help us help you if you could help us retrieve a few items of interest."
Zhan ignored both men as she waited for everyone to enter the lift and caused it to set off. "I could not care less what help you," she finally said. "I would personally prefer to transport all you guizi into the nearest fusion furnace and your thrice damnable Federation with it. When we arrive, you will touch nothing, and will not make any attempt to go anywhere other than directly where you are led. You will take and observe only what you are told to. We have ten minutes to be in and out. If not, and we are caught, things will not go well for you."
Rodi couldn't help but smile. Zhan's comment was a threat, but to the marine it honestly sounded like a challenge. One he had risen to before. His hand rested comfortably one the phaser, and his gaze ran wide around the spaces they were passing through.
Though Karna clearly disagreed, he deigned not to voice it. The lift ride was shorter than expected, though long enough to saturate the group with an awkward silence.
What with the transparent walls, there was no hiding from the security personnel stationed at each level they passed. Even the guts of maintenance shafts between levels were visible to them, leaving no room for infiltrators or malfunctions to be overlooked for long. It would be little wonder to the casual observer that Karna had great difficulty traversing the restricted area.
When the lift finally came to rest, the doors parted in a hydraulic whine that was significantly louder than the familiar hushed whisper of Federation turbolifts.
"All right, ladies and gentlemen," Karna said, letting the gender designations ambiguously linger in the air, "let's go shopping. We all have our lists, yes?"
"Call me if you run in trouble." Rodi said opening his tricorder to find the odd signals Ferrofax tended to emit. Having found a blip he started jogging towards it.
"Is interesting people you pass on way to work," a man large enough to qualify for platoon status said in heavily Russian accented English. He had let Rodi pass him, and stood before the door to the turbolift in a borrowed Lagashi uniform. It was clearly borrowed, because whilst it was a black officers jacket, the black did not hide the splash of someone else's blood on it. The Russian tank company with a smile held up a duffel. "Gift from Delphi, is for man called Karna: Is you? Or do I need make forget heard name?"
Karna assessed the big, burly man who was just stocky enough to be mistaken for adult onset obesity. To be sure, there was enough muscle stuffed under that borrowed security coat to snap his neck in twain. Delphi... Karna grinned at the namedrop and decided to probe deeper. "How is Leonora these days? Can I assume she is skulking about in the shadows as well? Smart girl, knowing not to get too close." He stepped closer to the bald button-man, circumspectly to keep the center line between them constantly shifting. It would force the larger man to telegraph his blitz.
~Move~ The telepathic compulsion was sent to the other members of the team. ~This one is mine. Go collect what you will~
"So what will it take for you to surrender my personal effects?" Savagery crept into Karna's grin. "I will not leave here without it, I'm afraid."
"Given nature of contents if biological sample of bioship, and given dangers of genetic degradation if not handled properly, will not be giving to you. But is good news, is not first time have held bag of dangerous murder goo," Arkady said with a smile. "So I carry bag. Call me Ar-caddy."
"Murder goo?" Karna inclined his head, continuing to probe Arkady's mind. The bold man proved difficult to penetrate, though there was one thing that became clear. "You put the classified salvage inside my personal luggage? How helpful of you. But... why?"
Sudden realization. As soon as the question came out of his mouth, Karna's mind had already added up the score. "You're here to bring me in, and you're offering the bag in trade so my allies will not resist you. Leonora has grown quite crafty, indeed." Time to deploy the bluff. "My team won't go for it, Arkady. You will die here and now first. Surrender the bag along with its full contents, and you may leave with your life."
"I wouldn't be so sure about that," Kaz said, having stepped up behind Karna silently. "Arkady you say? I think we could happily make a deal. You get this Betazoid, we get the duffle. Everyone leaves happy."
"Damn you, Linn!" Karna said through a grin that failed to touch his eyes. "I suppose I'll just have to kill him."
And with no other warning, Karna rushed Arkady, the edge of his knife glinting at waist level. It wasn't his first strike, however. A sideways instep had that prestigious honor, allowing the leaner Betazoid to throw the bulkier man off balance. The knife thrust soon followed, of course, because it would be a shamefully wasted motion otherwise.
Arkady was big. And everyone knew big guys move very slow. That, of course, means that when they hit you they do so with a lot of force behind the hit, like getting pancaked by a slowly descending shuttlecraft. So Arkady did the one thing no one expected, he moved fast. His bulk was muscle, but it was muscle picked up in the undercity tunnels of New Kiev on Mars. Slow people died horribly, and life was cheap and plentiful to replace those lost to Darwins Law.
His hand closed around the knife and the hand, and warm blood painted them both. He looked at Karna, his eyes going a touch colder as he squeezed.
"You get duffle, I get Betazoid & ride home," he said, turning his attention to Kaz. "There are peoples who would like to speak to him."
Karna shot a telepathic spike into Arkady's mind, hoping to throw him off guard. Unfortunately it was ineffective for the same reason two positive magnets repel one another. "When you hunt a monster..." Since telepathy didn't work, Karna tried the direct approach. He slammed his forehead into Arkady's nose, mostly to throw off his balance, but the fountain of blood was a nice bonus. He relinquished the knife in the man's bloody palm, figuring he would be unable to keep hold of it, and maneuvered himself like a mongoose to the Arkady's back where he locked in a simultaneous shoulder-to-neck chokehold with his arms and legs. The subsequent body slam failed to happen, though the hook was set for a proper hold. "You are an impressive specimen, I must say," Karna said as he tottered across the man's shoulders.
"Thank you," Arkady said honestly, as he reared back and slammed his back at the Betazoid hitchhiker into the wall behind him. He then rocked his head back, aiming for Karna's as the blood flowing from his oft-broken nose made him look...well in another time, and another place, he'd be called a king among men and sit atop a throne of skulls.
"Don't thank me yet," Karna grunted, fighting to keep the stranglehold despite the devastating impact. "I just might be the end of you."
Kaz shook his head, rolling his eyes, as he watched Karna try to beat up on a man twice his size.
Zhan watched with a most unamused look of contempt at the two men. She suspected the smaller man, Karna if she recalled, had tried telepathy on them again, since she felt an odd need to move, despite having no reason to go anywhere. She'd have to punch him later. In the meantime, the time was running, and the pathetic excuse of a man she was engaged to had something that needed doing. She reached into a sleeve and handed him a small chip. "While dumb and dumber fight and the blind prophet does whatever it is he does, take this and use it to doctor the security footage," she said.
Bao nodded, "You know, if you wanted to kill them both, I am reasonably sure our illegal presence, and the crimes both have undoubtedly committed would ensure your freedom." He moved slightly away as he began working. Zhan just smiled tightly, reminded that once they did actually like each other.
Meanwhile deeper in the room Rodi finally found a rather large storage system. His tricorder reported that Ferrofax' data signature was stored on it. A few keys allowed the tricorder to read the full content, as well as transmit to it. "Ferrofax?" Rodi asked.
"What am I running on?" came a stringent, angry voice that rose up and down the scale as the tricorder's core programming was gutted and replaced by the serpentine complexity of the AI. "Its...small, and cramped...and its a tricorder?! I am not some holodeck games cartridge! What the....wait where are we? No, never mind I'll figure this out on my own. Lagahsi data signatures. Higher levels of Argon in the air supply....clean rooms are nearby. Ferromagnetic particles...a Lagashi Data Centre. Why the devil did you bring me here?!"
"I didn't bring you here." Rodi sighed as he tucked the Tricorder back into its holster. "You got captured when you entered the arcology systems. It's a jailbreak. Now be quiet, or the computer systems might detect you again."
"So to clarify this is a rescue mission without a rescue element to it. You're making a case for me to send out Mk5 Autonomous Riflemen instead of Marines on these sorts of mission," Ferrofax snorted, "The system hasn't yet detected your presence. Or, if it has, it's not giving you the time of day. I suggest moving now."
For a moment Rodi looked at the tricorder and considered just leaving it. To just toss it into the cavernous space. Then he dismissed it, he was a marine after all, no man, or AI left behind. "Keep your voice down Ferrofax." Rodi replied finally.
"Given the fidelity on the speaker Starfleet designed into this tricorder, that won't be a problem," the AI said snipply.
Rodi ran back into view of the others. Seeing a fight he accelerated, reaching for his phaser. But then he clocked both lieutenant commanders watching. Instead of pulling ot his sidearm he rested his hand on it and pulled up next to his team members. "Well, this is exciting." he then remarked.
"If you find such juvenile behavior exciting, then sure," Kaz said, still standing there with his arms crossed. He turned to look at Rodi, "Did you find him?"
"He's in the tricorder." Rodi answered as he pulled out his phaser. The marine fiddled with the settings for a moment, ensuring it was set to maybe two steps under 'kill rhinoceros' before firing a quick burst into each of the combatants, he then shot the bigger guy two more times just to be sure, and Karna again because he had been an ass. "Do we take them with, or just their gear?"
Kaz walked up to the two men who were now lying on the ground unconscious. Nudging the Betazoid with his boot, then the larger Russian man, he shrugged and picked up the duffle bag. "I'm happy with just this," he said, turning to leave the room. "But you can bring them if you want."
Zhan gave Rodi a very appraising one over. "This one," she declared. "I like. Sergeant, I have a neural truncheon and a garrote, if you would like. I only ask in case you want to be certain they are unconscious." Pausing a moment, she turned her head to Bao. "You, dearest, clearly have a type. Do you plan on keeping him?" she asked, in obvious reference to the marine. "Now, be a gentleman and you carry the Ar-caddy one while he carries the telepath. As amusing as it might be to leave them here, loose lips would not serve us, and we need to be going."
"Should I shoot her too?" Rodi offered to Kaz and Bao. The woman had the hair on the back of his neck bristling in the way she spoke.
"Yes, please keep shooting. And when the Lagashi get off their tea break, just put me down first before THEY start shooting!" Ferrofax spoke up from Rodi's holstered scanner. "Also can we get back to the Phantom now? I'm doing everything i cannot to overload the power cell of this thing. I'm having to think every other thought in binary just to keep things moving."
The sassy moment was interrupted by a chirp that sang out from the combadges. =/\="Mrazak to Infiltration Team. I want an update. Where the bogozh are you?"=/\=
Kaz rolled his eyes as he shifted the duffle on his shoulder. "Let's go before he has an absolute conniption fit," he said with a slight smile.
"I'd actually like to see him blow up the tricorder." Rodi commented before heaving the large Martian over his shoulders.
=/\="I can hear you,"=/\= Mrazak intoned angrily through the comm channel. =/\="The Phantom's systems are registering Ferrofax again. We've used the reestablished commlink to acquire a transporter lock. Stand by to beam out."=/\=
Without waiting for confirmation, transporter energies took hold of Kazyah, Bao, Rodi, Karna, Arkady, Xiao, and Ferrofax, stuck in his tricorder like a genie in the lamp.
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