Just A Kid

Posted on Thu Oct 7th, 2021 @ 5:17am by Captain Bethsabée Leroux & Petty Officer, 3rd Class Callistus 'CJ' Jackson & Major Samuel King & Commander William Gerhard & Lieutenant Avira zh'Kenarh M.D. & Ensign Michael Sloan & Petty Officer, 3rd Class Annikafiore Szerda

Mission: Mission 4 - Eden
Location: The Caelestis - Deck 23 Aft end
Timeline: Day 168 12:00
2946 words - 5.9 OF Standard Post Measure

“Hush.” CJ hissed as he turned his attention towards distant noises. "Listen." He whispered. Somewhere in the distance below was a male voice followed by two distinctive voices - The Captain and the Petty Officer.

"But it does mean he has access to the ship's environmental systems including artificial gravity," Maddison added before stopping to listen. "That sounds like the Captain," she said with a more hushed voice.

William signaled a halt to the group and listened as well. He recognized the voices of the captain and Szerda. The male's voice was frenzied and had a strange accent to it. He then motioned for the group to remain silent as he looked for a way down to the lower levels. He spotted a stairway off to the corner and signaled to Major King to proceed towards it as he tightened the grip on his rifle.

Samuel nodded as William signaled. He began to move off towards the stairway, hopefully, it would lead to a point where he could get a shot at whomever was holding their people. They did talk a lot, about a lot of things. MACOs, of people of his background, were tighter lipped in situations such as this but there was a lot of back and forth between the team members. Another thing to get used too on a ship that wasn't necessarily a military one.

His heart rate was slow and steady, he was calm and alert as he approached the bottom of the stairs. As he reached the base he saw the Captain and Szerda... and the figure pacing the room in front of them. He signaled the group behind him to stop with a raised closed fist. He made it clear there were 3 individuals present in the room and that he was going to move across to get a better shot at taking the enemy down.

William passed the major's hand signals back to the rest of the team and proceeded after him. He kept his footsteps slow and he moved in the opposite direction than the Major. He signaled to the rest of his team to follow the same path for every other person. If they could set up a crossfire it would give them a better position to negotiate a return of the captain and Szerda.

Looking down at his phase pistol, Sloan checked to make sure it remained on the stun setting. They needed answers more than they needed another dead body for the morgue. Giving a slight nod in acknowledgement, he kept himself low and as silent as possible. Keeping close to William, Sloan kept shooting glances to see if he could make out King's team and the possible threat.

“I know you are out there.” The white-haired man called. He barely looked anything over 20 but his voice was croaky with lack of use and sounded far older. He turned from where he was who was holding Leroux and Szerda hostage in stasis units. Neither of them looked in good condition but they were awake.

Spotting Sloan switching his weapon to stun, Maddison sighed. 'Must have been speaking Klingon when I noted that stun is useless,' she thought to herself. So this man knew they were present? How? Did he have alarms? Sensors? Or did that AI inform him? But did he know how many?

William paused when he heard the man speak. He could see the captain and Szerda were being held in stasis pods. He could tell that they needed medical attention, but he did not want to risk the man causing further injury. He signaled to his team to hold position and remain quiet while he thought quickly. He was not sure how the man heard them, or if he knew how many there were, but he knew that if they were discovered that remaining silent could provoke him further. Since he was in command, he decided to take a calculated risk as he responded, "You must've known that someone would come looking for the people you took." He remained hidden, but he kept his tone calm and non-confrontational.

"Of course. You are not exactly quiet people and this ship has been pretty quiet until you came here." The man replied looking around for where the male voice had come from. He could make out there had been three distinctive voices so there were at least two males and a female in the group. They sounded muffled so they likely had some type of mask on to protect them, unlike the group he had encountered, scattered and taken hostage.

Looking to those who surrounded him, Sloan could have kicked himself. They had been told that stun would be useless, but here he was with a useless phase pistol. Shaking his head, he quickly flipped the switch to change his setting to kill. Something inside of him instantly became satisfied, ready to pull the trigger. He stayed quiet and waited to see what would happen and if William would make a call to action.

William kept to the shadows and thought before responding, "You'll have to forgive us. When we encountered this ship we detected no signs of life and determined it had been abandoned. EDEN the AI could not divulge what happened to the crew. We were simply curious." He checked his team to make sure they were hidden from sight, "If you want us to go we can do that, but not while you are holding our crew hostage." He did not know if the man knew he was holding their captain hostage, and he did not want to divulge that information. He looked over to where Major King was to see if he had established a clear vantage point to cover the mysterious man.

Beth stirred a little in the tube and looked in the direction that she thought William was coming from and frowned. She hated to be the damsel in distress, hated that she was having to be rescued but she knew she had done the right thing in getting Walker and the Doctor out of there. Someone else would be able to lead the ship but no one else would have the skills that Avira had. It was impossible to replace, leadership was sometimes knowing when to make the right choice at the right time for the greater good. "She won't let you know about me. She is not allowed to."

"He is under 18," Beth yelled having worked out why the Emergency Disaster Engagement Network was not able to comment. Her subroutines would not allow her to reveal a minor. Any system designed to protect would have done the same - the protect the young, protect the future.

"We're dealing with a damn kid?" Maddison whispered in disbelief to the others upon hearing the captain.

William looked over at Maddison quickly and held a finger up to his lips. He then looked back towards the man. It was surprising that the person was under the age of 18. He furrowed his brow as he tried to rationalize how a minor was able to viciously overpower and kill an older man with some sense of self defence training. "I see. I can only imagine how you must've felt then when we came aboard your ship," he said before deciding to shift his line of questioning. "My name is Lieutenant Gerhard, what's yours," he asked.

”You are all very noisy.” The man stated looking at the two captives he had back up a little. “My name is Nathaja.” He revealed.

Avira's antennae twitched a bit at that, she had moved as silently as possible. Not commenting on things if she could avoid it. All of the shock and horror could be processed later. She wondered if she should also reveal herself, as a doctor, but for now, decided against it. The Lieutenant was in charge of this, she'd leave things to him.

“You have a big amount of people with you. I can count at least three maybe four.” Nathaja said looking around.

“But they are not going to hurt you they just want us back. They do not leave family behind.” Beth stated loudly so everyone could hear her. Her head was absolutely pounding and she would do a lot for a rebreather at the moment to stop the tiredness and burning in her lungs.

Sam had moved in closer not only for a clear vantage point but if he had too he was now close enough to get to this 'Nathaja' and attempt to subdue him. Beth was half right, they did not leave family behind and Sam had always been a believer in that but to say he was not going to hurt this boy was a lie. Minor or not he was dangerous, capable of causing death and this much was shown by the murder of their colleague. Sam had already picked out a shot if he needed to take it but was also in a close enough spot that he could get to him in seconds. He'd told his team to hold back, he did not want to draw attention to him as he moved silently around the room.

Maddison shook her head, sighing. She needed to grab the kid's attention and away from the others. What she needed to do was stupid but she felt she had no choice in order to allow the others such as the Doc and the Major to remain unknown. She tapped Gerhard on the shoulder, out of sight of this Nathaja using hand signals to indicate herself going into the room and then gesturing the others to get in position.

William looked at Walker when he felt the tap on his shoulder. He read her hand signals and shook his head. He had seen Major King already positioning himself behind Nathaja. William did not want to blow King's cover. He used his own hand signals to point out the Major's position to Walker and then signaled her to hold the position. He knew that he had this area covered. When he heard the captain speak, he turned his attention back to him. "She is right Nathaja, all we want is to bring our people back and we will leave this ship. We are not here for you," he said. He knew that Nathaja was highly dangerous though even though he was a kid.

Nathaja started to pace looking at the people he had captured to the people he could almost sense surrounding him. It was an uneasy feeling that he was experiencing like being caved in. “You all talk too much.” He finally said. “No one is leaving for the moment.” The pale boy said clutching the knife so tight in his hand his knuckles were white. “I need a moment to think.” He said backing up towards the edge of the deck putting a little bit of space between him and the crew of Atlantis. Beth struggled in the tubbed but her wrists were jammed into the device, she could only see this whole thing going one way and it was not going to be good.

William took a moment to think as he watched the man back away. He could see his grip on the knife tightened and that concerned him. While he didn't like the current situation they were in, the situation seemed to be deteriorating. William's primary responsibility was to ensure the safety of his crew, and he was quickly realizing that there would be only one outcome. He saw that Major King was in position and he signalled his approval with a slight nod.

Sam rose slowly, his rifle poised at the man in front of them. He knew that the Captain and Szerda's survival, their hopes of rescue would most likely hang on the moments to come.

"Stay there," Nathaja yelled at the person as they rose from their cover pointing their weapon at him.

The anger felt towards Sam was felt well across the room. He knew what he had to do, protect those he had came on the ship to do. His rifle was set to kill but at the same time he saw a young, confused man. Something was going on and everyone's reaction to a defective stunt setting was the kill setting. MACO's were seen as a combative group and that was true, but there were other ways to take someone down. The distraction worked just as well a shot to centre mass providing the distraction did not falter.

A quickfire shot to Nathaja's hand forcing him to drop his knife, the kill setting more than enough to cause a painful release. With the quick distraction of that, he nodded to William to head for the kidnapped crew whilst he charged down Nathaja, his distraction was only getting started. He ran at him.

Nathaja yelped as the man shot him and then ran at him sending them both into the barrier that protected them from going over and down many decks. "Get off me." The young man yelled struggling against the hold on him, he might have been younger but he was not small and weak. He would never be that again.

William signaled after he saw the knife dropped, "Move in!" He exited his hiding quickly crossed the space between them and the two men struggling. He was impressed that King had shot the knife out, but the man still posed a threat and he needed to be subdued. He kicked the knife away as he heard it clatter across the deck. He then called behind him, "Sloan, Walker, and Avira Get the captain and Szerda out of those pods now!" He noticed that Nathaja had pushed King back from the railing, so William ran to his left and grabbed hold of his right arm as he tried to pry it off the major and get it behind his back.

Leaping from his plot, Michael quickly made his way to the Captain. He did not necessarily wait for Walker and Avira. Sloan did not want to lose two Captains on his watch.

"Get us out now," Beth yelled watching in horror as the scuffle continued and Nathaja got free and staggered backwards over the barrier.

"I got you, Captain," Michael called out as he reached a hand toward Beth to help her up. As his eyes quickly gave her a once over, he asked, "Are you injured?" It was not a question about the obvious, but a question about how capable she was of making a quick escape from the danger zone.

Beth clutched at the man for a second as she practically fell out of the tube and took in gulps of air trying to breathe through the sedative that she had been under. "Just my head from being dragged or something into there," Beth assured gasping for air now that she was free from the tube and the air was free of the sedative.

Since they were out of immediate air, Michael stopped for a moment. He knew there was a good chance Beth would protest, but he assisted her to a position to just breathe in the air around her.

William was by no means weak, but he was struggling to keep his hold on Nathaja's arm. With a sudden burst of strength, Nathaja threw both him and King off, but the act had caused Nathaja to lose his balance. William fell to the deck with a loud thud as he felt his head slam into the deck. He saw stars for a moment and felt an intense headache begin, but he shook his head to clear it. He looked back up to see Nathaja go over the barrier. He scrambled to his feet and started to make his way over to the barrier a little unsteady on his feet.

Watching Nathaja scramble over the barrier, from where she was contained in a stasis tube, Petty Officer Szerda called out to him, "No, wait, Nathaja." As much as she wanted to shout at him, to drag him back, the after-effects of the sedative were eating away at her stamina. Even talking took as much effort as running a marathon. "You don't have to--" Szerda started to say.

There was a moment where Beth let out a sigh of relief as the blonde-haired man held onto the barrier and then he was gone over the barrier with a collective gasp. "No..." Beth whispered unable to move from Michael who was supporting her in standing up.

Had he been merely just a Human, Beth probably would have pulled away. However, Romulans and Vulcans shared a strength the Humans could not match. “There’s nothing you could’ve done,” he offered.

Beth knew that deep down there was nothing that could have been done but it did not change that he had just been a child and scared. No matter what had happened he did not deserve to have his final moments like that.

William lunged out with his right hand but missed grabbing Nathaja's arm as he plunged down into the great room below. He watched the man look back at him with fear in his eyes as he fell. All William could do was turn his head and close his eyes as he heard the inhuman sound of Nathaja striking the deck far below. For a few moments, he could only stand at the railing and breathe heavily before turning back and facing his team. He shook his head slowly confirming what everyone already knew. He then reached into his pocket and pulled his communicator, "Gerhard to Atlantis, we have our people secured."