The Sounds of Small Talk

Posted on Sat Sep 19th, 2020 @ 5:21pm by Lieutenant JG Shaille Levine & Lieutenant Commander William Gunnison & Linza (Lin) Esni & Lieutenant Alexis Aenera

Mission: Into The Delta Triangle

It seemed like hours had passed, but in reality it hadn't been that long at all. Shaille sat leaned back against the wall, glancing around the room, eyes continually searching, body rigid with tension, startling toward every sound. It was her fault they had gotten into this position, she held herself responsible, now she needed to find a way out. At this stage she would willingly accept any and all consequences that came her way.

There was a sound, a heavy sigh. Instantly Shaille's attention turned immediately to Linz. "You okay?" she asked quietly.

Linza glanced over to Shaille. She had to admit, they saved her, and somewhere deep inside she had a feeling that there was something going on out there that was meant to kill her. She'd been the one in charge of most of the things here for so long it wouldn't surprise her if someone had it out for her life.

"Yeah..I suppose. Um...thanks for the saving and such by the way."

Alexis had poked her head through the hole in the wall, but hadn't gone any further, then rejoined the rest of the group outside of her personal one-woman cave even as she left the cuffs on loosely, able to take them off when she really wanted to, "It really is what we try to do."

"How's Alani?" Shaille turned toward Gunnison, opting to ignore the comment that Linza had made.

"She's breathing, and her pulse is a bit weak but steady," Will said. "I'd still prefer to get her into hands of Dr. Morgan back on the ship. Being out this long isn't normal, even for a Bolian."

"Alexis, if we get no more tremors in the next bit we might check that corridor. Either that or we're going to start a human pyramid toward the skylight," she quipped. "Anyone have any cheerleading experience?" Her words were light hearted, but there was a hint of concern underneath it all. Finally, she turned back toward Linza. "I don't suppose you happen to have our tricorders still?"

Thinking for a moment, Lin looked around. "Possibly. But, not sure if they got buried underneath anything. They'd be in a sealed...Starfleet box. It shouldn't be able to be crushed, I reinforced it. However, they'd be in here or the other room we came from."

"Find them," Shaille ordered, standing up and dusting off her bottom. "I might be able to use a tricorder to emit a signal. It's not going to be strong enough to reach Callisi in orbit, but I'm going to assume that someone knows we're missing and is looking for us. Will, Lexi, get Alani over against the wall and see if that corridor is going to be of any use to us."

Before any of them could move, a blonde figure appeared in the doorway, a smile turning up the corners of her mouth. "Don't bother, this corridor won't do you any good." The tone of Meka's voice was cold, almost sinister as she spoke. "Looks like I have some loose ends to clean up after all."

Stopping in her tracks, Linza heard the voice and cringed. "Of all the people," she whispered and put up a hand to the others to stay silent. "Looks like they were right. You aren't a friend...surprised to see me alive?"

Meka shrugged slightly, drawing a phaser and turning it in her hands as she kept a steady gaze on Lin. "Trivialities," she said with a smile. "I should be surprised that you didn't take care of them, but I'm not. No matter. Luckily I have no issue with doing what needs to be done."

Alexis had taken off the cuffs finally and rubbed her wrists right before Meka had entered the room, now she sidled her way between the woman and Alani. She didn't like what was going on.

Putting a hand up to Alexis, who had moved between them, Linza shook her head. She wasn't sure why they were trying to protect her, but she had bigger things to deal with. "What good would deal hostages have been, Meka? Besides, I didn't have any reason to kill them. But," she knew she had to find some way to get a hold of her cricket phaser she kept stashed in her belt without it being obvious. She took the advantage of Alexis still being slightly in front of her to do so, but kept her fists balled up otherwise.

"Why the hell I ever trusted you is beyond me. Do I even want to know how much you're making off this? Off killing me, them?"

There was no immediate response, instead, the familiar tingle of the transporter washed over them, the shimmering beams causing a moment of confusion in the room. Without thinking, Shaille reached out and grabbed Linza's arm, pulling her into the transporter beam, closing her eyes and silently hoping the transport would complete before Meka had a chance to fire the phaser in her hands.

With the transporter active, all Alexis did was close her eyes. One way or the other, it would be over before she opened them again and if Meka fired, who wanted to see their own death coming?

Will had taken advantage of Meka had been momentarily distracted by talking to Linza to start moving quietly towards the former, and when he noted the transporter begin to take effect, he lunged towards Meka and tackled her. Not the most effective maneuver by any means, but if someone was in a position to be beaming them out, he'd probably only need to get her off-balance for a few moments before the proverbial cavalry could step in to help finish the job.

Stunned by the fact that she was beamed out with the others, Linza wasn't sure if she should be grateful or not. She was likely falling right into the hands of Starfleet. But at the same time, she was going to be fighting Meka if she hadn't been beamed out. No idea what was going to happen, she just knew to drop her cricket phaser to the ground the moment they rematerialized.