The Bridge
Posted on Mon Dec 14th, 2015 @ 11:50am by Lieutenant JG Charles Kramer [PNPC: Rackham] & Commander Ashley Kennedy
Mission:
The Belle of Bellatrix
Location: Main Bridge [A Deck, USS Farragut]
Timeline: 2278.54 1500hrs [Ship Time]
Charles Kramer nursed the hand phaser to his chest as he stood in the turbolift. The bridge was his destination but he knew - like his journey to the science labs - that it wouldn't be easy to do what he needed to without being discovered. The Farragut couldn't be lost in this triangle without its captain, never heard from again.
That wouldn't do at all.
The turbolift doors opened and he expected to find a bustle of activity with people fighting their now obvious personality defects to keep the ship moving but the lights were turned down so low that they were barely functioning and there was no-one to be seen, save for the solitary figure in the Captain's chair.
Kramer dropped the phaser to his waist before speaking. A quiet, hollow hello.
She didn't move at first. Her face hidden by shadow but the right side of her uniform lit up by a light from above her shoulder. She recognised the intruder immediately - that bumbling idiot Kramer, the records officer. Figures that he'd side with the usurper, she said to herself, feeling her lip curl in disgust.
"So," she said, her voice quiet and tinged with a cruel malice, "he sent you to do his dirty work for him, did he?" Kennedy paused and rose from the chair, standing in front of the prize Kramer wanted to claim for his master. "You're an even greater fool than I thought if you allowed yourself to be his puppet," she sneered.
"I'm sorry Commander, I don't think you're entirely well." He said unconvincingly, gripping the handle of the phaser tighter as she rose from the chair. "I'm sorry about this."
The flash of the phaser burst from its muzzle but didn't get any further as it seemed to dissipate in the air just beyond it.
Kennedy smiled a predatory smile and almost laughed at the confusion on the face of the puppet. "Your phaser is useless, fool," she said. "I've erected a dampening field. If you want to take this chair for your master, you'll have to get your blood on your hands."
She pulled the blade from under her tunic, the light reflecting off the cold metal. He won't get the chance!. Raising the knife, Commander Kennedy charged, intent on cutting the puppet down. If the usurper wanted this chair, he would have to send better than the fool Kramer.
It happened before she had advanced even half the distance to her target. Like something out of a childhood nightmare. Where Kramer once stood, there now stood a towering, shrieking phantasm with glowing red eyes and a gaping jaw spewing flame. Or was it light? The sound! The awful, bone chilling scream cut through her as she instinctively fled.
She turned and tried to get away, screaming, grasping for anything to hold on to. But the monster from a long-forgotten nightmare had hold of her. She felt its clawed hands gripping her legs, the pain from the claws pulsing through every fibre of her being as if they were made of fire.
It pulled her down towards it. Terrified, she chanced a look and saw nothing but those jaws, those teeth, felt the searing hot breath of this beast. She tried to scream, to call for help, but no sound escaped her throat. Nothing could. The cold hands of the creature closed around her neck, suffocating her.
Slowly she felt consciousness slip away. The darkness took hold of her and dragged her deeper down until she could fight no longer. Her last thought flashed through her mind as it took her into its fold. Why cold?
Then there was silence.
Kramer thought that it would take more than his level of fighting ability to take on the ship's weapons officer but it was clear that the radiation was affecting more than just their levels of anger and paranoia, it seemed to be making them terrified of things too. Still, it worked for him.
He bolted over to the helm and tried a few commands. He had basic knowledge of both the piloting of a Starship and what it was like to live with an alcohol problem - all thanks to Lieutenant th'Endirhc and eventually managed to work out the basic controls he would need to bring the ship about.
Kramer was going to be the hero but no-one would ever know. Typical. He thought as he locked in a course back to Bellatrix IV.
Commander Ashley Kennedy
Executive Officer/Weapons Officer
Lieutenant (JG) Charles Kramer (NPC: Rackham)
Records Officer
USS Farragut
