The March to Subrek

Posted on Sat Apr 5th, 2025 @ 3:42am by Kaldri & Lieutenant Commander Victoria Cross & Lieutenant Cassian Maritz & Ensign Noah Balsam & Ensign Mei Ratthi & Andrew Munro & Lieutenant Irynya

Mission: Seven Souls
Timeline: Mission Day 1 at 1750

[Holding Cells]
[Unknown Location]
[MD 1: 1750 Hours]

The world snapped into focus with a cold, mechanical hum. One moment, they were aboard the Sojourner, the next, shimmering motes of light solidified into hard reality. The metallic tang of recycled air filled their lungs as the transporter effect dissipated, leaving five Starfleet officers, one civilian biologist, and one Kazon assassin standing on a grated metal floor, surrounded by jagged shadows and the sharp lines of an alien brig.

Dim amber lights cast long, fractured shadows through the narrow cell. The walls were an unsettling patchwork of technology—scavenged Federation panels, rough-hewn Kazon metal, and alien circuitry pulsing with dull, greenish light. Thick metal bars enclosed the group, old-fashioned but effective, with no visible control panel within reach. A muffled hum of ship systems vibrated through the floor, unsettling in its irregular rhythm. The air was cool, tinged with the acrid bite of poorly filtered atmosphere. Outside the cell, the corridor stretched into darkness, punctuated by the occasional hiss of steam or the sputter of a failing light fixture.

The truth settled heavily on them, the reality of their capture washing over each Sojo crew member in waves. The abduction had been so sudden—just seconds between stability and chaos, between safety and this. Their combadges were gone, as were any weapons or tools they might have carried. The only resources they had now were each other and whatever wits they could muster. For now, though, they were alone. The oppressive quiet of the ship loomed around them, broken only by the faint hiss of air through vents in the ceiling. But that silence wasn't to last long...

"The Kordra-Lisrit," Kaldri snarled, immediately beginning to pace like a captured razor beast. She'd been here before. In this exact cell, in fact. The smell alone was enough to establish where they'd been stolen away to. But it was a darkly-brown hand that went to a carved letter "K" that adorned one of the cell's bars -- an etching that had taken her months and, somehow, given her the flow state she needed to remain herself.

Turning her gaze back to the group, the Kazon woman gestured wildly around them. "The First Maje found us apparently..." As her eyes fell on Mei, she sighed deeply. Of course he'd taken her too. He loved killing anything or anyone she loved. But how did Subrek know she'd grown so close to the spunky, chatty little scientist? Did he have some kind of spy aboard the Sojourner? They were all likely to die here but she assumed Subrek would reveal such details in the gloating she knew would eventually come.

"Are you all alright?" Kaldri asked, again making the rounds with her intense eyes and looking for any injuries sustained in what she felt must have been some kind of ambush of the Sojo. She, herself, had been working out in the gymnasium when it happened and while her klon'thek dagger was not in its scabbard on her hip -- left empty there in the transporter no doubt to remind her of what she'd lost -- Kaldri at least had the padded armor she'd come aboard the Starfleet ship with from Hukatuse Tagumik.

Victoria slowly came to, a bloody gash on her forehead. There was a shimmer of light, a brief struggle, one she lost, and darkness. Laying flat on her back, she pressed her hand on her face and slurred her words somewhat. "Whhh . Whuh happened?" Something wrong. A cell? She remembered now. A Kazon man hit her with the butt of a weapon. She sat up. "Kaldri?" A familiar voice. Vic began to put things together.

"I was in my quarters reading a book, and .. oh, no. Okay. We don't panic." She slowly stood to a wobbly stand, barefoot, dressed in a SOJO shirt and casual pants. "Sound off, everybody. Name and rank."

Voices, distant voices. They sounded stretched out and strained through a tinny mesh. Noah's eyes- or eye- blinked open and half-lidded with a heaviness. His right eye was swollen shut, already purple and blue. Like Cross, he'd been rendered silent with the blunt force of a weapon. For Noah, he was pistol whipped across the face and the cake of blood from drying double nose bleeds told the rest of the tale. He groaned and tried to push himself up. Everything hurt. His face hurt. When he touched it, he felt gory crust.

He was confused. His addled mind was trying to piece together what'd happened. Yellow flashed to red. There were explosions. Then there was a big explosion and then a sucking feel. Noah breathed into the dust of the jail. They'd been hit. The computer control room had been hit. OK... He pieced that together. Garret and Crispin had been with him and Basheer. Then not.

Noah pushed up with an arm. He wen t to touch his commbadge and it was gone. His SOJO t-shirt had been torn from the top hem, the head hole still around his neck but a flap ripped from there to mid sternum. He'd gotten into a jacket... a lined thermal jacket, the kind used to go into the core. He felt a faint sense of an air mask around his nose and mouth, but now it was gone. But he didn't remember how, none of it. Jacket, mask, anything. Noah looked at his hands in the jail cell dust. One was bloody. He remembered- dimly- that it wasn't his after a spike of panic. It was Basheer's. Noah had tried to call for help from Sickbay when he found the Chief under a toppled status board readout.

Noah craned his head up and filtered his eyes from the sickly sodium amber light. Vague flashes... hull breach. That's where Garrett and Crispin had gone. Gone... out. As he heard the strained and strange voice speak, Noah realized he couldn't remember his... name. Or rank. It was on the tip of his tongue. It dripped its way through the trauma. "Balsam..." He said. Noah blinked his good eye. What rank was he again? "Ca... um..."

“Name, rank,” Mei repeated blankly. She put a hand to the back of her head, then stared at her fingers for a moment as though shocked they hadn’t come away bloody. Small miracles. Her ears were ringing and the pain in her head promised not to fade anytime soon. “Name, rank,” she said again. “Ratthi, Mei. Ensign? Science, definitely. Anthropology.” She rubbed her eyes and blearily blinked at her crewmates, not quite focusing on the brightest- or palest– among them: Cross. “What happened?” she asked, her voice small and frightened.

Thankfully the lights were dim so that when Cassian opened his eyes the best he could, it didn't blind him. The last thing he remembered was making his way back to his console and there was a massive bang, followed by him being launched forward and the bridge of his nose collided with a sharp edge and everything went black.

To anyone looking at him, Cassian had a cut on his head, the makings of two black eyes and a bloody wound across the bridge of his nose as he sat himself up. He groaned at the pain ricocheting through his skull and said in a kind of strained voice that was barely above a whisper, so he didn't make it worse, "Maritz, Cassian. Lieutenant. What happened?"

"Munro, Civilian, Biology," Andrew replied, his tone uncertain. His gaze flickered from one crewmate to the next, struggling to piece together what had happened. Absentmindedly, his index finger traced the ragged edge of a hole in his lab coat, the skin beneath it still stinging.

It was starting to make sense. He'd been in the biolab when the power fluctuations began, too focused on reinforcing a containment field to notice the intruder until it was too late. A Kazon—barely more than a boy—had been there, moving fast. Andrew had turned just in time to feel something sharp sink beneath his ribcage. The last thing he saw was the boy’s triumphant grin before the lab dissolved into a cascade of shimmering light.

Unlike most of the group, Irynya was largely unharmed. She'd arrived in the cell at a crouch, back arched outward and one hand scrabbling at her shoulder as if it had, a moment earlier, been attempting to pry something... or someone... off of her. She'd gotten to her feet quickly with a growl of frustration, whirling and then stopping short as her surroundings registered first, and then the people with her a quick second.

"Irynya, Lieutenant, Flight Control," she bit off the formal reply in response to Cross's request for confirmation, training kicking in where instincts were failing her. Her head swiveled from Cross to Kaldri, to the rest of the group ultimately landing on Mei and Noah. She moved quickly to put herself closer to Mei and Noah and then crouched again, gaze bouncing back and forth between her two friends as if unable to decide who to check on first.

"Okay, everyone." Victoria drew a breath, thinking of the situation through her clouded brain. Her father's memory took over, and in a moment, Victoria was treating it as an away mission. "We have been abducted by hostiles. Our chief concern now is staying calm, and cohesive as a group. We're getting out of here. Remember your Academy training. Ms. Kaldri, a ship this size, how many crew does she have, typically?"

She knelt by Cassian, taking his hand and giving it a squeeze. She motioned to her nose. "Mate, can you breathe?"

Cassian winced again as he let out a cough and the pain in his head radiated. He looked at Vic and squeezed her hand back, "Struggling, but I'll survive. How are you doing?" He could see the gash on her forehead.

"I'm awake, mate. So long as I don't go to sleep before I get a check on this head wound and none of you catch me passing out, I have to soldier on." She winced on touching her forehead. A coat of red coated her hand, and trailed down the curve of her nose and face. "Bollocks." She cursed.

Without a word, she stripped her shirt off, and chewed a hole in the seam of one of her sleeves, creating a big enough rift for her to tear it off. She then tugged the sleeve down her head, creating an improvised headband and bandage for her wound. She then tugged her shirt back on.

"How is everyone else doing?" He managed to stand up with Cross's help and realised bearing weight on his left knee was almost a no go. Spotting the guy who'd brought Blue back to him, Cassian realised he'd been injured moreso than himself. "Noah? That you? Are you alright?"

Noah looked with his own clear eye from his bloodied hand to the man speaking. He was blurry but Noah could recognize him as the man he'd found the cat Blue for. And the mixer. It felt like processing the question was pushing through sludge. His words were hard. So Noah just shook his head. It took him moments more to find the words and they came out clogged and nasal. "Computer. Took a hit. Hull breach. Then..." he gestured at the wreck that was his face similar to Cassian's.

Next to him Irynya sucked a breath through her teeth and laid a hand gently on Noah's arm. Between Noah and Mei he seemed to be the worse for wear. At the least he had visible blood where Mei did not. "Hey," she said softly, re-situating so she was in front of him. "How many fingers?" She held two of her fingers up for him.

Noah smiled weakly, leaning his head against the bulkhead. He blinked his unswollen eye. "Depends. Like this... two. Like this," and he closed his good eye, trying to open his hurt one, "None?" He opened his good eye and moved to push up from the wall with Irynya's help.

"Stay with us, buddy." Cassian commented as he took in the scene around him and saw who else was there, "Once we've assessed injuries, we should start looking for a way out of here and see where the hells we are."

"Yessir," Noah said with a nod. He looked at Irynya again. "You're OK?" His eye scanned her, almost pleading for some visage of normalcy.

The Risian pilot nodded, her face a bit stormy as she did. "Yeah, mostly just injured pride," she said quietly. They were too close for things to be truly private, but she hoped most would assume that had been for Noah's ears.

With Noah upright she shifted her crouch to check on Mei, offering the scientist a smile. "Hey," she said. "Need me to do the fingers check?"

“No, I think I’m good.” Mei smiled weakly. “Relatively speaking. I’ve definitely been better, but I think my head’s still on straight. You okay?"

Iry offered a weak smile in return, reaching down and squeezing the other woman's hand. "Yeah, I'm alright."

"I'm-I'm..." Noah trailed off. He was not okay. He could feel his fear close to the surface. He tried to repeat his mantra- its my ocean, its my ocean... but it had little affect. He could feel his body wanting to vibrate and his fingers wiggled as if they were his only acceptable output. "Um... just... need to keep myself busy."

Something in Noah's tone brought Iry's gaze back to him quickly. There was nothing about his voice that sounded ok, but she also knew that saying so wouldn't help. She met his eyes. Held them. She tried hard to brighten the weak smile she'd already offered to Mei. It was a valiant effort, but not a terribly effective one.

He flashed a quick smile and then Noah sort of ducked toward the wall and he resumed trying to find anything he could use.

Kaldri waited for Cross to finish her check-ins before answering the second officer's question. As the woman made her quick rounds, the warrior's eyes shifted again to Mei and settled there. She seemed frightened perhaps and Kaldri's instinct was to move protectively to her. But the stick-like insect boy and his free-loving companion seemed to serve as adequate social insulation for the moment. Which was good because Cross now seemed available and perhaps expectant of the information she'd asked for. Kaldri was unsure how much Cross knew from her post-Hukatuse debrief sessions with the Golden-Eyed Warlord and his demure mouth piece so she started at the beginning, thinking it might benefit the rest as well.

"The Kordra-Lisrit is a large, Tyrant-class warship, designed to carry many, many warriors for boarding and ground assaults," the Kazon explained. "The First Maje also treats this vessel as a traveling stronghold for the Kazon-Lidrum. So confident is he in this ship's armor and teeth," Kaldri sneered, "that he is utterly confident his people will be absolutely safe here. It would be a shame," she subconsciously rimmed her upper teeth with the tip of her tongue, "if we escaped and something happened to end them all here and now. Before they can do anymore damage out here..." she alluded without further explaining.

Kaldri's eyes then went, again, to Mei and this time she locked them there. "Are you alright, Little Defiant One?" She'd often used "little one" as an affectionate name for Mei but the "defiant" part was added to remind the scientist of the buried steel she'd shown to carry within; steel that would be essential given their current situation.

“I think so. Ow.” Mei winced as she rolled her shoulders and gingerly tilted her head from side to side. “They hit me from behind. I didn’t see it coming at all. But I’m not bleeding, so that’s good” She gently probed the back of her head again and checked her fingers, just to be sure, but they came away clean. “I guess my hair took the brunt of it.” She gave Kaldri a wavering smile, took a deep breath, and straightened her shoulders.

"I am glad..." Kaldri's posture relaxed just a little as she regarded Mei with what could only pass for Kazon relief, "that you are alright." Unvoiced went the thought that she was sure much worse was to come. But she would protect the little scientist from as much of it as possible, reassuring herself that Subrek would only play with Mei to get at her. Perhaps she could use that somehow.

"Many warriors. Perfect. We're all unarmed, essentially naked, and many of us are injured." Cross scratched her chin, taking a moment to think. She squat low to the floor, resting and elbow to her knee, and drew an invisible map on the floor with her finger, murmuring softly to herself.

Vic stood, turning to the captives, and began a speech. She wasn't often the center of attention, but she knew as the ranking officer, she needed to ensure her people knew they would be going home.

"Okay. I have a plan, but it's risky, and we have to assume they're listening. We should hold off on acting before we know more and it's absolutely an opportunity. These pirates may be looking to ransom us. They had the drop on us in the nebula and attacked like cowards do. This is about sending a message, so I want you all to keep your spirits high. We'll get out of this. The Kazon have been reeling from bruised egos ever since Admiral Janeway and the Voyager miracle. I don't think the lot of us are keen on letting them get a win, eh?"

Noah blinked his good eye. "Ma'am," he looked to Cross and then Kaldri. "Wha-what is this Maje like? Are we, um, like trophies? Or is he going to come back around and take more of us from the-the ship?" Noah started looking for anything that was any kind of interface- anything that indicated food, water, power, toileting, showering.

Kaldri wondered what kind of plan Cross could possibly have beyond "Stay in the cell, wait for the shit show to start" at this point but did not comment such audibly. Instead, the pointed-nose of the Kazon turned toward Noah, her coal-black eyes glittering curiously at him in the less-than-optimal lighting of the cell. For one so green and seemingly pre-pubescent, his instinctive questions were sharp and well-thought out.

"The First Maje," she replied, having gathered her thoughts during a self-soothing gesture of clenching and unclenching her fists, "is exceptionally cruel and strategic to the extreme." Kaldri let those words freeze into heavy ice crystals in the air, the dangerous gleam in her eyes denoting the seriousness of her characterization of Subrek. "He would not risk another attack and theft of the Sojourner at this point. But," she leaned forward towards Noah, "those he took...he took for a reason. If he wanted us dead," she shrugged, "we would be. But since we aren't, we would be wise to discern why he took the ones he did."

"That one is most obvious, I think," she pointed then to Andrew -- the Golden-Eyed Warlord's paramour.

"The captain won’t make any concessions for my sake!" Andrew snapped, his voice edged with anger—and something perilously close to desperation. His hands curled into fists at his sides, knuckles bleaching under the pressure. As much as he hated to admit it, Kaldri wasn’t wrong..

"Andrew, I'm ..naming you an honorary Cadet." Victoria drew in a breath. "Congratulations. Now that you're in the chain of command, I need you to stay calm and rest assured we're going to get out of this, but it's going to be dangerous and take work, so please, stay calm and don't get riled up. Miss Kaldri,"

Victoria steepled her hands to her chest and leaned somewhat. "I need information. Anything that can be useful. Armory location, comms, if there's a jefferies or maintenance skeleton of the ship. Anything you know can be useful."

"My access to this ship as a..." Kaldri's eyes suddenly grew very, very sharp, "would-be concubine to the First Maje was limited. Had I given him what he wanted, perhaps I would have been given more freedom to roam. However," she straightened her posture, "I can tell you that this ship has a honey comb of maintenance tunnels. I often saw workers going in and out of them. Subrek also seemed very protective of access to this vessel's shields and weapons systems. Only a select few were given access to their innards."

Mei stood and folded her hands tightly across her chest. She took a few steps away from the group, staring toward the cell’s door. “What are the guards like, if there are guards down here? Are they lower-ranked people given the tedious work, or are they higher-ranked people trusted with important things?”

Kaldri's gaze returned to Mei, a nod of approval sent her way for a smart question. "The guards here are not middling pushover grunts. They take their jobs seriously," she relayed cooly. "And their implants seem to help them stay awake and fresh for many hours on end. Even I," she stiffened with self-pride, "could not stand guard for an entire 26 hour shift like they do." And while said guards did not, presently, seem visible beyond the bars, she noted, "I am sure they are listening to us now. And they are never far..." Kaldri warned.

Irynya had been quiet to this point, listening and trying to piece as much as she could together in her head. She hated how helpless she felt, unable to do much beyond listen and offer support. Why Subrek would have chosen her was beyond her ability to imagine in that moment.

"When you were here before," she spoke up after Kaldri's warning had a moment to settle. "How did they handle food and water. If they intend to keep us alive what should we expect? I mean..." her she stumbled a bit, feeling silly, "alive and whole are two different things."

"They bring it whenever they feel like," Kaldri snorted. "This is not some Draysh prison where basic needs are always met. We are here to be played with," her mouth broke into a sharp-toothed snarl. "That," the Kazon shrugged, "or tortured. Or perhaps, if you are lucky," the warrior-woman cooed, "simply pressed into the First Maje's service as a slave. I'm sure he will want you," she chin-jutted to Irynya, "for his personal collection of playthings. A place I know well," she muttered darkly.

This last made the Risian woman quail though she worked hard to keep it from her features. She had no illusions about the type of slavery that Kaldri was referring to and it was a sort that was so deeply ingrained in her upbringing as an evil... a violation... that just the thought of being taken personally to be the pleasure toy of the Maje made her stomach churn. Though she felt like she ought to say something... anything... in answer to Kaldri's suggestion that such a thing would be lucky, she couldn't find the words, so instead, her expression dark, she nodded her understanding.

Noah, meanwhile, had begun to surreptitiously slink about the edges of their shared cell. His fingers were running over the panels, feeling for irregularities and anything that suggested hidden panels, redesigns, retrofits. The material, he was pretty sure, was some kind of a duranium alloy of an inferior grade to Federation fabrication. But he was no materials engineer. If he had his tricorder he could do a better scan of the materials and try to find some weaknesses.

Next he turned his attention to the light fixtures- ambient light was mostly a harsh light from above and was mostly out of reach. But lighting was always a vulnerability in a design. He started looking back to the floor, finding things to sit on- that he could stand on. "Is any of this bolted down?" Noah asked of the areas that had for seating. He stooped and went on his hands and knees, examining the meager bits they had, looking for strippable makeshift tools. An engineer, it seems, must engineer.

As Noah explored, he could see that the cell’s benches were bolted securely to the grated floor, their thick metal frames designed to withstand the restless shifting of prisoners. Most were completely solid, the bolts holding them in place unmoving. But one of them—near the far end of the cell—had a loosened edge. The metal wobbled slightly when pressure was applied, barely perceptible, but enough to suggest that someone, at some point, had tried to wrench it free. The grooves in the bolt were worn down, the area around it subtly warped from repeated attempts to break it loose.

As the engineer looked overhead, the harsh lighting flickered intermittently—not just the random dimming of aging fixtures, but a rhythmic fluctuation, as if the power supply itself was unstable. The pulses suggested an interruption somewhere in the ship’s power grid, a malfunction in the flow of energy. The fixtures were mounted high, just out of reach, but if someone could get high enough to examine the wiring, they might be able to manipulate it for some purpose.

"Lieutenant? Commander?" After examining the light fixtures, Noah had dropped to his hands and knees and was carefully examining some corner of a corner bench. Noah's fingers were feeling about the space, his gaze with his good eye narrowed. "I-I need good peepers..." He said to Cross and Maritz. "If we can move this bench... and I can get this piece off," he pointed at a sturdy piece of metal. "I can get into those lights. There's something w-weird up there. I need to look closer, but its either too many things running on one grid, or its alien technology not uh playing well together."

"Alright, cobber, we're moving the bench. Everyone that can stand, help us. This is a start that we need." Victoria approached the open corner of the bench and braced herself, straining to pull it with Noah. "These bloody pirates - think they have the run of the place, have the run of us. No sir, not us. My entire ancestral line has worked itself to the bone not to end in a trash heap like this ship. Lads, we're breaking out, we're going home."

Even though the pain in his skull was almost blinding him, Cassian scrunched his eyes and blinked a few times to get the now persistent spots out of his eyes. Happy for Cross to take the lead on this one, he grabbed a hold of the bench and strained to pull it himself, "Stupid thing's not budging for me."

"Me either," Irynya echoed. She'd joined the effort last, seeing no other way to be useful and feeling a caged animal like need to do something. Maritz's voice was laced with pain, too, and she shot him a sympathetic look.

"O-Okay..." Noah said. His sympathy for the poor Security Chief pushed into his soft heart and Noah couldn't bear to see him struggle like that. He almost wanted to abandon the plan. "I-I'll work on getting this piece of metal first. Sorry sir." He said softly. He offered Cassian a tired and pained but genuine smile, one marred by his own injured shut eye. "Maybe if we can't move the bench... once I get this metal off... I can just get on somebody's shoulders." Noah said as he began to collapse down. He started to work the thick metal clasp. He was already deciding how he needed to shape it into a wedge.

"What are you doing?!" roared a gruff voice from beyond the confines of the cell. A Kazon male was approaching, a bulging satchel of some kind strapped across his leather-clad chest and hanging at his side. A disruptor pistol was snatched from its holster then and leveled at Noah, who was busy trying to pry the metal connector away in order to move the bench. A beam of blue-white light flashed from the weapon and passed between the bars, hitting the ground at the lanky-one's feet, leaving behind yet another scorch mark on the cell's floor: clearly, this was a common occurrence when prisoners got cute with trying to escape.

"If you want this food," the warrior growled, patting the satchel with his free hand, "you will cease what you're doing now."

"Tolvoh,” Kaldri spoke up from behind Noah, ardently moving forward to place herself between the young man and another disruptor blast. "Are you still in the service of that blek-thon?" Whatever the word was, the still-functioning universal translators could not parse it. Given the warrior's widening eyes, though, it was clear the term was quite offensive.

"You will watch your tongue, woman," Tolvoh sneered back. "Watch it or I will cut it free," he threatened, licking his lips. As the Kazon stepped closer and the cell's light revealed the entirety of his face, a curious mechanical implant looked permanently affixed over his right eye. The implant seemed to be some form of camera unit given the lens-covered aperture that swirled half-closed to daringly regard the recovered concubine.

"Damage my tongue and the Maje will go unsated," Kaldri growled back, puffing out her chest to look more intimidating than she already was. She did not elaborate on how her tongue -- or lack thereof -- would cause such, though the meaning might be guessed.

"As if he would still desire you," Tolvoh laughed uproariously. "After all you have done on this ship. And all you apparently did before coming here," his voice sharpened into steel. "He knows who you are now, Kaldri. And the First Maje will not make the same mistakes with you again. Which is why I will take you to him like this," he grinned viciously, leveling his disruptor at the former concubine and firing.

Kaldri crumpled to the floor like a marionette whose strings had suddenly been let go. She was, apparently, only unconscious for her form could still be seen drawing breath, though inhales were slow and shallow. She was now sprawled in an akimbo heap in front of Noah, face impassive almost as if asleep.

Noah, who had risen and put his hands up, had also surreptitiously slipped the now-free piece of metal into the back of his uniform waist. He watched as Kaldri crumpled. He wanted to say how much he thought this Kazon was an asshole- but he didn't dare for fear that he'd draw more attention. And he wanted to keep that piece of metal on his person. He just kept his eyes down, letting the Kazon think he'd been suitably chastened. He looked down at her, in front of him. He looked over to Victoria and Cassian for advice or orders. He could theoretically stick this piece of metal through that Kazon's ear or neck- except he absolutely lacked the killer instinct to do so.

And he probably wasn't strong enough to anyway. But if the door was opened to take Kaldri out, it still occurred to him that this was an opportunity.

Behind Noah, with Cassian between them, Irynya had frozen at the first shot that had landed at Noah's feet. The sudden intense spike of fear she felt made her slow, and she found herself moving her hands slightly out from her sides. With Noah on his feet she could see he had something tucked behind him, the glint of metal unmissable from her vantage, and as quickly as she saw it she snapped her eyes up to face the Kazon menacing them with the disruptor and made a decision.

Carefully she wound past Cassian, stopping just to Noah's side before crouching to check on Kaldri, working hard not to let her relief show at the steady flow of the woman's breath.

Victoria watched as Kaldri collapsed, and violently cried out, clutching her chest. She collapsed to the ground by her side, landing near Noah. "Argh, my ventricles! The shock of it all! Please, Noah, tell my wife I- I.. !" She reached out, clutching the man's wrist and giving it a squeeze, before going limp, her head turning away from the Kazon guard

She shot Noah a wink.

The guard moved forward, though not out of particular concern for the suddenly-ailing human. The Kazon regarded the second rag doll with a dismissive eye roll before focusing the bulk of his attention on Noah. "Move back from them," he said, gesturing in said direction with his disruptor. Clearly he intended the lankiest of the bunch to create space for him to retrieve Kaldri and Cross, apparently unaware that the young engineer had procured a weapon. Unfortunately for Noah and the rest, however, this particular warrior was not stupid enough to enter the cell full of Starfleeters all by himself.

"Alvik, Lorrahn...take them," Tolvoh said, directing the command to his right, beyond the cage and into the darkness. "Kaldri and the collapsed one," he specified to whomever he was speaking.

It only took moments for two forms to manifest from the murk, both Kazon and both -- curiously -- adorned with implants as well. The pair slipped into the cell, each bearing their own weapon in a threat of force as they came closer to Noah and the others. The newly arrived warriors balanced keeping their disruptors leveled in case of shenanigans with bending to grab a wrist each to start dragging Kaldri and Cross from the cell.

"Both of you, too," Tolvoh said then, gesturing in turn to both Mei and Andrew. "The best friend and the Captain's plaything," the Kazon said with mocking derision. "The Maje is quite eager to make your acquaintance. Especially you," he sneered at more portly of the pair, his eyes daring the biologist to make trouble on his way out of the cell.

Dragged by the wrist, Victoria was pulled limply to the door. She jolted awake with a gasp, clutching her chest and wrenching free, rolling over onto her stomach and sputtering loudly for air, faking a serious fit of apnea. She reached out, bracing her hands on the guard's waist.

"Oh, god, I think my heart stopped. I saw my life flash before my eyes, mate." She peered up at the guard, and .. gave him a hug around the gut. "I can't believe what just happened! And you lot were going to get me medical help and everything! I can't believe how good you are to us, I think - Oi, mate, have you ever heard of Stockholm Syndrome? You really don't smell like a waste bin at all! Uh. Handsome?"

Hopefully this was distracting enough for the others, Vic thought.

Noah felt the warming metal in his hand. He nibbled at his lip, his nervous naivete an easy read. Why did they have implants, Noah noticed. He shelved it in a wave of anxiety. he wasn't sure if Cross' performance would help... and Noah had never been in real combat before. And like so many young people there was that mixture of fear and feeling like, somehow, watching all those old martial arts movie should pay off.... somehow? Noah kept his eyes on the menacing Kazon who advanced on him, and was so much bigger than he. His depth perception was already hindered by his swollen eye but he could surmise that.

The lanky one focused on the disruptor. Living beings were machines too. Cut the necessary ODNs and the peripheral loses function. Damage radial nerve to the wrist and that disruptor drops.

But still, Noah was no killer. His fingers flexed on the metal behind his back. He held his breath. If this was going to happen it needed to happen now. But all Noah felt himself doing was shifting back as the Kazon menaced above him, using his presence to shift the youth. Noah's shift put himself between the Kazon, Cassian and Irynya.

The moment passed and Noah felt a well of fear. He'd missed any opportunity. "N-nice ship you-you have here," Noah sneered ineffectually. "Be a shame if someone turned it into inert slag..."

Having no desire to be dragged off to some awful fate, Mei dug her heels in as best she could. It didn't help much; she didn't have the strength to resist the inexorable pull or pry the hand off her wrist. "Wait! No! Where are we going?" It wasn't her brightest moment; the guard wasn't going to stop, and the answer to her question was surely, 'nowhere good'. But she wasn't about to go without putting up whatever fight she could.

He knew he was about to get hurt. And it took the visage of a person like him- a scientist- to finally give Noah a mental shove. "No, ok, enough, leave her alone..." He grabbed Mei's other arm and tried to plant his feet as well. "She's a scientist, she's a blue-uni. She doesn't have anything this stupid Maje wants..." Noah's eyes focused on the Kazon- and his strange implants. Eye implant... no dry skin... no pigment loss... along its glowing edges, no dermal chafing. It wasn't Borg. "Stop!"

Andrew stirred from where he sat on the floor, sulking after his earlier outburst. They had declared their intent to take him, so he moved slowly, feigning reluctant compliance.

His gut told him they wouldn’t be satisfied until they had made an example of anyone who resisted. He glanced at Noah, who was bravely clinging to Mei’s wrist despite his injuries, and guilt twisted in his chest. He hadn’t known what to do—but worse, he had sat on the sidelines and let those in worse shape step up.

As he shifted into a crouch, the legs that had carried his bulk for years suddenly coiled and launched him forward. He slammed shoulder-first into the Kazon holding Mei, driving into the alien’s gut.

The stunned Kazon staggered and fell backward, Andrew landing hard on top of him. He barely had time to register the creature’s foul stench before rough hands seized him, dragging him toward the cell’s opening. Steeling himself for retribution, he went limp in a futile act of defiance.

It would've made him an absolutely terrible Security Chief if Cassian stood by and did nothing while everything was going on around him, regardless of the almost blackout worthy pain shooting between his eyes or not, and he would've understood if a demotion was on the horizon as a consequence. It was this realisation and the fact that he wanted everyone to survive this kidnapping that he ignored the pain and took action.

Seeing another Kazon come from seemingly nowhere outside of the cell and try to drag Andrew back out of it, Cassian shifted from the wall he was near and tackled the Kazon off the man with a grunt, causing Andrew to be dropped again. Blinding pain seared through his shoulder, but it was ignored with the rush of adrenaline that followed. The only thing that stopped Cassian from trying to land a punch was Iry yelling.

She was too slow. Too. Slow. It felt like things were happening faster than her mind could keep up and suddenly Noah was in a tug of war with the Kazon holding Mei and then Andrew had tackled the man and she'd done... nothing. Guilt rose up in her and one hand flew to her mouth as she took in the scene and the bolted forward, trying to find the right place to put herself so that she would be seen and heard and, perhaps, be able to help Mei, if not Andrew. Noah's demands for them to stop had gone unheeded, but she tried again anyway.

"STOP!" She put the full force of her Lieutenant's voice behind the command. And it was a command. "Are you so assured of your position that you can guarantee the First Maje will not be displeased if you harm them?" In her ears, her voice wavered, but she tried, desperately, to put as much confidence into her expression and her stance as she could.

Mei shook off her shock for the second time, holding her throbbing arm against her chest and gently flexing her hand. Her wrist seemed to be fine, if bruised. With her other arm, she reached out and grabbed Noah's arm, urging him away from the fallen Kazon and into the shadows– and toward the door.

With a panicked gaze, Noah met Mei's eyes and then Irynya's. He saw what the Anthropologist was trying to do, what Andrew, Victoria and Cassian had made. He shifted attention only briefly down to the Kazon with the cybernetic eye. And then Noah went into motion. He ducked. He doved. He stumbled through. It was not graceful, it was chaotic. But he tried to wind his way through the opening created. He made a dash for the darkness and went to get out the door.

Noah's mind set on only one goal- find a crawlspace, get in it. And then BREAK. THIS. SHIP.

Standing in the midst of the chaos, feet planted and giving off the most authoritative air she could effect, Irynya sought and held Noah's eyes for a mere second, taking in his body language, Mei's hand on his arm; tugging. She didn't have time to consider how much she understood of Noah's decision in that single glance. For good or ill she'd drawn the attention of the Kazon who remained and she felt an almost panic-like alarm as she was torn between keeping their eyes on her and following after Noah and Mei. Even the momentary thought of losing sight of him on this ship...

Her breath came quick, alarm curling in her gut, but she held her ground for one second. Two. Three.

And then she was moving, launching herself over the pile of bodies on the floor who were still fighting to tight themselves. She felt her back toe catch on someone, causing a grunt of pain when it did and she dearly hoped it wasn't Cassian or Andrew. But there was no time to look. She landed unsteadily on her front foot, stumbling into a lunge toward and under Tolvoh's arms, and then she was fast on Noah's heels.

It was Cassian that caught the brunt of Iry's foot and caused him to groan as she bounced off him and the others. After a moment he looked up to see her and Noah running out the open door, so he scrambled himself upright with a bit of an effort and launched himself into a run after them. No way was he staying in that cell any longer than he had to be.

The corridor beyond the holding cell was dim, lit only by sputtering wall panels that cast long, broken shadows across the warped decking. The scent of oil, burnt circuits, and the metallic tinge of blood hung thick in the air. Tolvoh snarled as he regained his footing, brushing debris from his armor and cursing the chaos that had just unfolded. The escaped prisoners had slipped through the cracks, and his pride simmered beneath his skin.

“Seal off access to the ventilation shafts and redirect patrols to the aft maintenance grid,” he barked into a device on his wrist. A garbled voice acknowledged the order. “Find them before the Maje learns of this or we’ll all wear our own teeth as necklaces.”

With a scowl, he turned back toward the prisoners that remained.

Kaldri, still slumped unconscious where she had fallen, was hoisted unceremoniously over the shoulder of one of the other guards—Lorrahn—who grunted under the weight but bore her away without comment. Her arms hung limp, head lolling slightly as they moved. The sharp points of her facial ridges caught in the light, an eerie reminder that even unconscious, she was dangerous.

“Take her straight to the Maje’s chamber,” Tolvoh ordered, his voice clipped with annoyance. “He’ll want her conscious when he begins his questioning. And start prepping the others for presentation.”

He eyed the remaining prisoners with a sneer, then gave a curt nod. “They’ve served their purpose. Now let’s see what the Maje makes of them.”

With a hiss of hydraulics, the heavy doors at the end of the corridor began to slide open, revealing a lift bathed in ominous red light. The guards moved in efficient, practiced steps, dragging the prisoners behind them and leaving behind only silence…and the faint echo of boots on cold metal.

The march to Subrek had begun.


=/\= A joint-post by… =/\=

Kaldri
Kazon Assassin

Ensign Mei Ratthi
Science Officer

Lt. Cmdr. Victoria Cross
Chief Operations Officer (2XO)

Andrew Munro
Civilian Biologist

Lieutenant Cassian Maritz
Security Officer

Ensign Noah Balsam
Systems Specialist

Lieutenant Irynya
Chief Flight Controller

Tolvoh and the Guards - NPC’d by Brad