Fuyu's fingers flew over the runabout's control console with the speedy confidence of someone who'd spent their entire lives as an operator, despite this having been the first one of this type he had ever seen. Operation of local equipment was a high priority imprint for the mission, and in seconds, he had entered the command lockout overrides, stolen by Shrike and uploaded to his implant as one of their ship's final acts. With full control of the craft's systems, Fuyu quickly commanded it to power up, shields raised by the time he heard the hatch seal up behind his sister.
With any pesky transportation devices now blocked by the rapidly cycling shields, only then did he command the microtransmitters in his bloodstream to stop.The ones that weren't already burning up, anyway. He sent them an emergency purge order as he pushed away from the console, blackness already creeping in at the edges of his vision. He'd been fighting to stay conscious since entering the shuttlebay, less than sixty seconds ago. His implants blocked pain sensation but not the feeling of profound discomfort of cooking himself from within. All he could hear was his own overheated blood in his ears. He glanced over at the hostage, instantly regretting the quick movement. Anti-nausea dosed in on top of the potent cocktail already surging through his overheated veins. He'd had to all but throw the blue-skinned doctor in ahead of him when he boarded the craft, and hoped Rubhal wasn't broken too badly.
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The Andorian was at the moment just emerging from an externally induced panic, beginning to regain his senses. His shoulder hurt like it had been strained or dislocated. He vaguely remembered, through the clearing haze of pure fear, being thrown quite a distance. It must have happened then. He was still trying to get control of his breathing and racing pulse, propping himself up against the bulkhead when Rubhal saw the white Hattoran push away from the console and turn, dropping shakily to his knees.
Rubhal blearily watched as the Hattoran vomited out a rather alarming quantity of blood. Partially congealed and so dark red as to be almost black, it spread over the runabouts floor in viscous clumps, steaming. No, not steaming, smoking. Smaller splatters of the bloody mess were bubbling, cooking as he watched. Fuyu flopped over onto his back, wings spread out wide over the floor, his maw spread open as he breathed quickly and steamily. There was enough heat radiating that Rubhal could feel the runabout's climate control intensify to compensate.
"That isn't good and proper, right?" Rubhal managed to call out to Arashi, who was charging in from the back hatch. The Hattorans had been dressed loosely in light patient smocks, which hadn't been intended for activity, much less actual combat. Fighting had reduced the clothing to mere tattered scraps, torn in places, burnt in others. In contrast, Arashi's scales still looked perfect. Either way, the Hattorans didn't seem concerned about the state of their clothing.
Arashi spared a glance down to her brother, and the sizzling mess of blood and nanomachines on the deck.
"Nah, that's fine."
She pushed past, going right for the panel that concealed the emergency survival kit, simply ripping the clamshell case apart rather than unlatching it, and dumping out the contents onto the deck.
"He won't admit it but he loves martyring himself for the cause." Throwing a high-density emergency ration into her mouth, she bit down once and swallowed, ignoring that it was still fully wrapped, or that it was meant to sustain a marooned crewman for two full weeks.
She threw the medical tricorder and kit over to Rubhal before activating the two ice packs that were buried in the kit, dropping them onto her brother's chest.
"Fix yourself up." Arashi dismissively rumbled, scooping up the survival kit's hand phaser and snapping it in half as casually as a twig.
Rubhal flicked open the medical tricorder and began to stand... when his head bounced off the bulkhead behind him, leaving him stunned and seeing stars, a clawed hand about his neck pinning him to the wall.
"You don't get to do that." Arashi snarled right in Rubhals face. Her eyes wide, the usual vertically slit pupil split in a broad cross across the deep green. "We aren't your fucking patients or your fucking project. Do you understand? Strictly speaking, we should destroy this whole ship just for what you've stolen already."
Rubhal gasped as his hands dropped to the scaled arm effortlessly holding him aloft. His injured shoulder howled in protest. He had only just decided to head toward the fallen Hattoran, to help. Thought had barely translated to movement when Arashi crossed the meters between them in an instant.
"Touch either of us again, and I'll kill you, It will be messy, and not particularly quick, and you'll be aware of it long enough to feel bad for the night terrors it will give the poor fucker who has to clean up what's left of you." Arashi's fingers slowly released Rubhal's uniform and he settled back down onto his boots, his heart racing.
Something tickled the back of Rubhal's mind as Arashi turned away, bristling. A memory from more than 60 years ago, during the Kentari war, Rubhal had witnessed firsthand the effects of the use of combat drugs, and the Hattoran's behavior of the last couple minutes ticked all the boxes. He decided at that point to just be as small as possible for a while, tending to his own shoulder with a regenerator.
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Arashi returned from the cabin replicator with two pitchers of chilled water, dumping both of them onto her brother on the floor, some of it at least hitting his mouth. Dropping the empty pitchers, she went back for two more. The runabout's climate systems buzzed a little louder to begin to deal with the sudden steamy increase in humidity.
<+ We're ahead of schedule by four minutes. +> Fuyu sent, as he swallowed some of the water being poured over his steaming mouth.
<+ Probably not enough time for more interference but you never know. Will you be ready to go by then? +> Arashi threw the empty second and third pitchers onto the floor.
<+ I would rather not. +> He replied. He was still starving of resources, and was prioritizing damage repair with whatever was left. Circulatory and respiratory efficiency were down by half. Pushing the nanomachine signal broadcasters that far had caused hundreds of burns and clots within his bloodstream. He was straining matters just by electing to stay conscious, when a regenerative coma would free up more resources for recovery. A high density survival ration pack was pushed into his mouth. He bit down and swallowed, the action causing a brief flash of pain along his burnt throat before being intercepted and suppressed. He needed more metals but the dense nutrition at least would help.
<+ Stay there, I can handle it, like I always do. +> Her nerves were still singing from the fight. Purging all the enhancers always took a few minutes. She walked to the control console and stabbed the display that read "Receive incoming hail", that had been bleeping for the past minute. An image of the bridge appeared on the main forward display. Arashi recognized the officer she had spoken with on the Heinlein, seated and having a nasty gash on his forehead attended to with a cell regenerator. Ahead of him was a tall, dark-skinned man who affected an air of control.
"First I'd like to welcome you to my starship. I know we didn't get off to the best of starts but I'm confident we can reach some understanding. I am Matthias Grosvenor, captain of the USS Relentless."
Arashi dragged claws through her short grey mane, a grin full of teeth. "You can open the bay door or you'll have some really quickly escalating problems. I'm not familiar with these weapons and might get a little messy."
"I'm hesitant to let you go while you still have my head doctor. Is he unhurt?"
"That's the wrong answer." Arashi jabbed the weapon control and was met with a cluster of warnings, the red lights reflecting off her scales.
[MALFUNCTION: WEAPONS CONTROL RELAY INOPERATIVE]
"Ha! Worth it!" Layton exclaimed from the back of the bridge. He had nearly lost his fingers earlier racing to remove the relay before the Hattorans got the shields up.
Captain Grosvenor cleared his throat. "Please, things are not unrecoverable here. Power down and I give you my word, we will hear you out."
Arashi slid her fingers over the console. In the shuttle bay, the runabout came around, facing directly away from the giant door instead of towards it. "Open the door. I'm not sure what one of these distortion drives will do inside an active field going the opposite direction, but I'm guessing it's pretty terrible for everyone."
"The Runabout's warp drive is coming online." Matthias heard from over his right shoulder.
"Helm, bring us out of warp now!" The Captain looked back, seeing Commander Layon conferencing in hushed tones with Captain Hawthorne. "Something to share, gentlemen?"
"Only if it works." Hawthorne replied. "But you'd better do what she says."
Arashi knew they were planning something, but she was too. She turned the runabout back around to face the bay doors as they began to open. "We're not monsters. At least we're not yours. Your officer will be dropped off somewhere safe with a beacon once it's clear we're not followed." She closed the channel, but not before seeing a commotion over at the bridge operations console. There it is. Right on time.
<+They will wait to try something until we are clear of their ship. Wait for the right moment. +> Fuyu's thought popped into her head like it had been there, complete, the whole time.
<+ I know what I'm doing. You're supposed to be recovering in case this doesn't work. +> This whole plan was far too shoddy. They were losing bargaining power like sand out of a mesh bag. Arashi found herself missing Shrike's comprehensive, perfect, tactical forecasts. So long as something, anything goes right, maybe they've got a chance.
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The main holo-display winked back to the forward view of deep space when communications were closed. Immediately someone spoke up.
"I am seeing unusual activity from the main computer core. I am unable to switch to backups."
"Get down there and switch it manually." Captain Grosvenor ordered. "I need tractor beams on that runabout as soon as it's two klics out."
A deep rumble vibrated the ship, at the same time the main viewscreen switched to a rear view, showing the runabout blasting out of the shuttlebay on a column of fire. Simultaneously, the lights flickered. Matthias recognized it as a switchover to the bridge's independent backup power.
"Widespread power outages, all decks. Gravity plating, life support, everything is down!"
Hawthorne put a hand on his fellow Captain's shoulder. "Okay, the plan didn't account for strictly everything."
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At full thrust, in the captured air of the shuttlebay, the runabout's engines created a roar that reverberated through the 1200 meter starship, scorching the bay and crashing one of the smaller workbees into the bulkhead behind. In an instant the runabout was clear, blasting away from between the twin nacelles of the Relentless main drive and dragging a trail of ignited atmosphere behind it.
"Just gotta get distance. Doesn't matter where." Arashi toggled the viewscreen to the aft view, just in time to see the cruiser's lights all go dark. Perfect. She set the current course and activated the main drive.
Instead of the expected thrum, it produced a loud bang as the suddenly darkened cabin started to fill with smoke, and Arashi was tossed forward into the blanked controls.
"Ah shit."
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In the darkness of the space between stars, two crippled ships drifted steadily further apart, the much smaller of the two tumbling, spewing a thick trail of smoke into the void.
