by David Smith
All hell broke loose as she dropped the force-fields of cells forty-three and then forty-four. One of the guards heard the noise of the force-field dropping and headed into the block with an agoniser in one hand and a phaser in the other.
He wasted no time in trying to disable the crew, swinging his agoniser at the nearest crewman and using his phaser to stun another.
Unfortunately for him, the nearest crewman was Jane Doe. Struck by the agoniser she collapsed in pain, but in a second, she had recovered and stood back up.
Surprised that she’d managed to stay conscious, the guard swung his agoniser at her again. What happened then happened so fast the rest of Tiger’s crew barely had time to register it.
Doe calmly stepped inside the guards swing, blocking his blow with her left forearm. In the same instant, her right arm shot upward, her open hand smashing into his face, the whole weight and strength of her arm in line with her palm as it smashed into the guards jaw, audibly shattering it, snapping his head back and knocking him out cold.
Before he’d hit the floor she’d crossed the open space to the entrance to the cell block in a single step followed by an amazing leap, the heel of her right foot smashing into the temple of another guard as she reached the door. She landed in the middle of the corridor to the alarm of the last guard, who was still taking cover in the entrance of the cell block opposite.
He swung his phaser around at her, but before he could draw a bead on her she grabbed his wrist in her left hand, stopping his movement immediately. She jumped athletically, thrusting her right knee upwards as she did, and everyone groaned as it caught the underside of the guards elbow, cleanly dislocating it, bringing a howl of agony from the guard.
Doe landed and pivoted on her left foot, wrapping the dislocated arm around her and using it as a lever to throw the guard over her shoulder and down onto the floor with a frightening thump. Even before the guard was fully down, she’d placed a knee across his chest and used her forearm to smash his head into the ground hard enough to knock him out too.
Without a pause she performed an elegant back-flip to land on her feet in a menacing stance, weighing up the area around her with an icy-cold stare that promised horrific agony and an extended convalescent period.
Involuntarily, everyone still standing took a step back and hands shot up everywhere to make sure she understood that there were no more threats.
Chief Belle took a tentative step forward, open hand held up in a plaintive gesture of friendship. ‘Easy Doe, let’s calm down and get the hell out of here.’
There was a tense pause, but suddenly the fury visibly drained out of her and Doe seemed to physically shrink before their eyes: ‘Why’s everyone staring at me?’
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Dave took Belle’s communicator and called Sato. ‘Excellent work, Lieutenant! I assume you’ve got an escape plan.’
‘We have sir, but we didn’t count on Commander Mengele being outside the Brig. We’ve got a clear path to the nearest Transporter Room, but the Doctor is up on Deck 26, and I don’t think I can create a safe-route that far without anyone noticing.’
Dave paused and took stock. They needed to act fast. ‘Ok Sato, carry on with the plan, get everyone back to Tiger, I’ll take a party to rescue Mengele. Hollins out.’
How were they going to get up there and back without being noticed? They couldn’t. He looked at the fallen guards, the females amongst them still dressed in their very revealing outfits. He smiled. Actually, it didn’t matter if they were noticed!
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O’Mara was mortified. ‘I’m not wearing that!!! My mother would turn in her grave!!’
Chief Belle had volunteered for the rescue party immediately, but had to relent as none of the Star-bases female staff had a physique even remotely close to hers.
Handley, Larkin and Deer had already changed into the guards uniforms, but O’Mara was still holding out.
‘Aisling, I wouldn’t ask if there was an alternative, but you’re the only one of us who we know for sure is an easily recognisable member of the Star-bases crew. You’ve got the run of the station and can get us anywhere without being questioned.’
He could see her resolve melting and pressed harder: ‘I really don’t think we can do this without you.’
There was a tear in her eye, but for all his empathy for the shy and self-conscious woman, he knew that she was their only real chance of success. He played the trump card. ‘We can’t just leave her to her fate. Do this for Katrin.’
‘But . . . it’s just . . . well . . . oh bugger . . . yeah, you’re right.’ She slouched off into one of the cells with the skimpy uniform in one hand.
She returned a minute later, trying incredibly hard to cover the huge quantity of flesh the uniform exposed with her hands and arms. She pulled the waist of the tiny skirt up to cover more of her stomach, but then grabbed the hem and pulled the skirt down to cover her thighs and bum. She was crimson with embarrassment, and it was made worse when a couple of the crew offered wolf-whistles.
She tried desperately to find a put-down, ‘You . . . just . . . ‘ but failed, going more and more red as words evaded her. ‘Oh, feck off!!!’ she growled, and raked her hair back, tying it back behind her head.
Dave looked her over, trying to remain professional and detached. ‘Aisling, you look great and you are an absolute dead-ringer. No-one could tell the difference.’
‘Why, does she look like a cheap hooker too?’ she grumbled.
She adjusted her sash to cover an inch more of the back of her thighs and pulled her boots as high up her thighs as she could. Looking at the rest of the team she said ‘My god! We look like a bloody gay pride march!’ but after an audible sigh added ‘Ok, I’m ready.’
She led them towards the door of the Brig but paused as she was about to walk out: ‘But . . . just . . . don’t look at me, ok? Just pretend I’m not here.’
Handley put a pair of cuffs loosely on Dave, and O’Mara led them to the turbo-lift. Dave was hugely proud of O’Mara, who did her level best to hide her hideous embarrassment behind a confidant strut, which wasn’t easy in heels that were a good fifty millimetres higher than anything she’d ever worn before.
The change of altitude got the better of her once or twice and she stumbled, so Handley moved up alongside her ready to catch her if the unfamiliar territory caught her out again.
The lift stopped at Deck 26 and O’Mara strode out of the lift, trying to look aggressive and arrogant, then pivoting aggressively and arrogantly as Handley hastily whispered ‘Wrong way!!’
She stomped off down the corridor, and Dave noticed with some satisfaction that the few staff still around at this time of the morning all acknowledged her, but immediately got out of her way. The O’Mara of this universe was clearly not a person to mess with.
They arrived at Sick-bay without further incident, but found the door closed.
O’Mara tried the call-button beside the door but nothing happened. ‘Bugger!’ she whispered, ‘I think it’s been locked from the inside.’ She tried the call button again, but still nothing happened.
A couple of passing staff gave them an odd look as they wandered past, and Dave hissed ‘Hurry up before we’re rumbled!’
‘Susan, open the bloody door’ O’Mara hissed into her communicator.
‘I can’t,’ replied the computer, ‘the door lock is coded, and access has been restricted to those nominated by Commander Mengele.’
‘Buggeration!!’
Dave whispered ‘Try your access code! It might be the same as it is in our universe’
O’Mara nodded and trying to calm herself she said ‘Lieutenant-Commander Aisling O’Mara, Science Officer, authorization code Tiger Sci, One Sigma.’
The door slid open quietly, and with a sigh of relief they crowded through the entrance and locked it behind themselves.
Inside, Dave shook off the loose cuffs and drew a small phaser from inside his uniform. Handley
and Deer flanked him while Larkin turned to watch the door. They edged forward and Dave whispered ‘Commander Mengele? Katrin??’
There was no reply, and they edged further into the Sick-bay. Dave heard a noise and held his hand up to stop the team. There were more noises, and Dave realised they were coming from the far end of the compartment, where the isolation rooms and operating theatre were. He crept forward.
The noises resolved themselves into muffled grunts of pain and discomfort and increasingly loud groans, getting clearer as they headed deeper into the Sick-bay. Eventually it was clear that the noises were coming from behind the door marked Operating Theatre.
Poor Katrin thought Dave, she’d been up here being tortured for days. His determination increased and he levelled his phaser in front of him. He motioned for Handley and Deer to guard the door and for O’Mara to draw her phaser and follow him in.
Setting himself, he opened the door.
Dave was going to shout ‘Freeze!’ but the tableau that presented itself left him completely speechless.
Commander Mengele was completely naked, bent over the theatre operating table, her wrists and ankles bound to the table and her mouth gagged.
Behind her stood Commander Mengele, dressed in a skin-tight black rubber catsuit, buggering her other self with a strap-on dildo of eye-watering proportions.
The naked Mengele squirmed in alarm, and the one dressed in rubber blushed bright, bright red.
O’Mara literally dropped her phaser: ‘BUGGER ME!!!’
Dave tried desperately to focus on the plight of his ship-mate and not the stunningly lithe and statuesque blonde torturer, but was nearly choking on his words as they struggled to get out of his tongue-tied mouth. ‘Uh . . . free . . . let go. Her. Free her go.’
The naked Doctor squirmed and Dave couldn’t keep his eyes from staring at perfect, pert breasts that jiggled in a most enticing way as she struggled against her bonds. Her long, shapely legs tensed and flexed and Dave couldn’t help but admire how exquisitely firm and athletic the Doctors legs were.
His mouth was bone-dry, but he manfully re-iterated his demand. ‘Uhh . . . untie (gulp). Her . . . now.’
Still blushing furiously, the latex clad valkyrie took a step back, withdrawing a seemingly impossible length of black sex-toy from the restrained woman and quietly said, ‘Actually Commander Hollins, I think it’s me you’ve come to rescue?’
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Back on board USS Tiger, ASBeau had raced to the Bridge with Crash and Shearer. Dolplop was making his way up too, but his species were drifters, not fliers, and he couldn’t keep pace with the humans. Ensign Onohua joined them and filled the navigator’s seat, as did Lieutenant Janus to take the Tactical Station while ASBeau was in command.
Down in Engineering, Romanov and Jonsen were powering up the engines, and getting Tiger ready to make a hasty exit once the last of the crew were aboard.
Transporter Chief Andy Carstairs was now down in Tiger’s Transporter Room, along with the rest of his team. They’d transported all of Tiger’s crew out of the Station’s Brig, themselves last, and were now waiting patiently for the call from the rescue team to bring them back, too.
Everyone was now looking nervously at the clock. It had taken nearly three hours to get this far, and although Susan still had control of the Star-bases functions, the bangs and shouts from some compartments near the Transporter Room told them that some of the Star-bases crew had woken up and knew something was wrong.
They also knew that in the same position they’d be working hard to find a way to free themselves, or raise the alarm somehow, and it was just a matter of time before the entire Star-base and its attendant flotilla of ships was roused against them.
Lieutenant Jasmine Sato was still in Engineering with PO Park, who was watching the Star-bases systems and fending off all the attempts by the Star-bases crew to re-establish control of the Station’s systems. IPAD had joined them too, having extricated himself from the vent system.
Sato was watching the clock and breathed a sigh of relief when Commander Hollins finally called her from the Station’s Sick-bay. ‘We’ve got a bit of a situation here, Lieutenant. Can you drop the station’s systems so Tiger can make a clean getaway?’
‘As soon as we break the link, the Star-bases computer will re-establish control and all hell will break loose. We’ve inserted a virus into the Star-base’s system to give us some breathing space. Assuming their computer systems are similarly equipped to ours, it should give us ten to twenty minutes to get clear, sir.’
‘That should be enough. Excellent work Lieutenant!’
‘PO Park takes the credit for it sir, it’s his software that’s made this possible’ Sato admitted.
‘He couldn’t have done it without you Lieutenant, it’s a great team effort. Now let’s get the hell out of here while we still can.’
Dave cut the comm-link and called Chief Carstairs in the Transporter Room. ‘Hollins here, seven to beam across Andy, I’ll go last.’
Slightly confused, the Chief checked his display and located the seven people in the sick-bay. Hollins was easy to pick out as he was transmitting, so Andy locked onto the other six and began the transport process.
The familiar swirl of energy patterns began to coalesce into human shapes and Andy was stunned to see two versions of Commander Mengele appear. He didn’t have time to worry about it, though, as Hollins was still waiting.
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Down in Engineering, Park spotted that something was wrong. ‘The base’s security sensors are picking up lots of movement around the Brig. They must have found a way out of the compartments down there.’
‘We’ll be fine as long as they don’t kill the power and reboot the control systems’ said Sato.
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On his own now in the Sick-bay, Dave had a moment of panic as everything went dark. He hastily called back to Tiger’s Engineering Deck: ‘What’s happening Sato?’
‘They’ve killed the power to all the systems! We’ve lost control; as soon as everything reboots, we’re screwed!’
Oh Crap!! thought Dave. Stumbling in the dark, he found his way to the door of the Sick-bay and groped around the frame until he found the control panel. He used his phaser to blast it into fragments, sealing the door to buy himself enough time for Carstairs to complete the transport of the rest of the team and then extract him.
It was barely in the nick of time: no sooner had he done it than there were shouts and bangs from the other side of the door. The Star-base staff who’d they’d passed on their way up to sick-bay had evidently spotted the deception and the Magistrates security team were clearly on the ball.
The Sick-bay lighting came back on and close to panic now, Dave called Carstairs. ‘I’m in trouble here Andy, get me out!’
‘Trying sir, but they’ve got the power back on, and have put their shields up. I can’t get a lock on you through their shields.’
Double Crap!! Thought Dave, and then Triple Crap!! as he saw the swirl of six energy patterns as the Magistrate’s security team used the Star-base’s transporters to circumvent the jammed door.
Dave raised his phaser and backed away. He could never disable all six of them before one of them managed to get a shot off. He backed towards the Operating Theatre, planning to make his stand there, and called ASBeau on the Bridge ‘ASBeau, you can’t help me, get the ship out of here before they get weapons and comms back on line!’
The six energy patterns began to coalesce, and Dave took cover behind the edge of the door to the theatre, taking aim with his phaser at the first . . . PILE OF HAGGIS????
Dave blinked and rubbed his eyes. Dotted around the Sick-bay were six steaming piles of barely-cooked haggis.
He called Sato. ‘I’m being attacked by about half a tonne of haggis. Is it safe to assume I know what virus you transferred to the stations computer?’
‘One of several sir, if you can hold on just a while longer we
should be able to extract you’ replied Sato calmly.
The lights in the sickbay dimmed again, then came on glaringly bright, causing some of the elements to explode. The door to the Operating Theatre slammed shut, then opened, and then began to flap intermittently, as music began to drift from the speakers, apparently from several different channels all at once.
‘What the …. ‘ Dave barely had time to register the klaxon on the station showing a brown alert as red and yellow alerts and the green ‘all-clear’ signal all tried to activate simultaneously before the peculiar tingling sensation of a transport beam took hold of him.
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Safely back aboard Tiger, Dave sprinted to the Bridge.
With a visible sigh of relief, ASBeau vacated the Captain’s chair and took Janus’ place at the Tactical Station. The senior team occupied the rest of the stations, including O’Mara who was still trying (and failing) to cover up the large slices of flesh her imperial uniform exposed.
Dave took the Captain’s chair and asked ‘Status?’
‘Everybody is back aboard and all our systems are on-line, sir’ reported ASBeau.
‘Great!’ said Dave, ‘Crash, get us the hell out of here. Dolplop, lay a course out into deep space, we need some breathing room. Shearer monitor comms traffic, keep telling us what they’re doing.’
A chorus of ‘Aye, sir!’ rang out and Tiger accelerated smoothly up and away from the giant space-station.
Shearer had been watching the situation as it developed too and was already reading and decrypting imperial comms. ‘Stashunn systems arup but nat workin’ proper, liek. Thair attemptin ta communicayte with the lawcal ships, but havven manej dit yet.’
‘Err, thanks Sharon’ said Dave uncertainly as he pulled up a tactical display on the Bridge’s main view-screen. Tiger was a blue dot in the centre of the screen pulling slowly away from a very large red dot. A cloud of smaller red dots surrounded both, and Dave knew that if the Star-base managed to overcome the virus Park and Sato had planted they’d come under fire from these other ships.
