by S M Briscoe
Kern felt no relief at having the pressure shifted temporarily from himself to Elora, who had previously appeared to be in a near catatonic state, but at a glance she now looked calm, collected and in complete control, not at all wilting under the officer’s interrogation.
“I was using the lady’s room,” she answered evenly, her eyes locked with those of her questioner.
“She was in the lady’s room,” Kern agreed, hoping by some miracle that the pair of officers were far more dimwitted than they appeared to be.
The lead officer regarded them both skeptically for a moment before glancing back at his counterpart. “Run another scan.”
* * *
The docking bay control center would normally have been a hive of activity, dock personnel busy routing the constant flow of incoming and outgoing transports at the numerous control and comm stations lining the room’s bulkhead perimeter. Now, it’s usual staff of operators, along with the missing dock ground crew, sat or stood at their stations in complete silence, observing the squad of TrySecs, apparently under the command of the lone Sect military officer accompanying them, as they crowded around only one of the room’s many control terminals. Dock surveillance.
The station had a long rectangular monitor, broken up into a dozen equal segments, each displaying a different area of the dock floor, all of which were currently tracking in reverse. Searching. Searching for something Jarred could not allow them to find.
Fortunately, with all of their attention so focused on the surveillance monitors, not even the security officer positioned closest to the lift tube door noticed it sliding open.
The Gnolith Commander barked an order for the operator manning the monitor controls to stop tracking and isolate one of the display segments. The monitor immediately changed to a full view of the selected field, displaying one of the two lift pads that gave access to the docking bay floor. As the recording played in regular time, the lift pad’s doors opened and a group of mixed pedestrians began to disembark. The Commander barked again for the footage to freeze, this time stepping forward to touch the interactive viewscreen himself, causing the still image to zoom in on the area.
As Jarred recognized himself and the others on the display, he knew it was only a matter of seconds before Orna would be spotted and the communication to swarm this docking bay would go out, giving him only seconds to neutralize the Commander and four TrySecs, by hand. With the dock’s security systems active, a single weapon discharge would cause an automated lock down of the entire bay to occur. Once that happened, nothing short of blowing the entry port wall off of the docking bay would allow them to make their exit. That wasn’t an option, at least not yet. Not hesitating further, he sprang into action.
The inattentive security officer closest to him was just turning to look back towards the open lift tube as Jarred reached him, driving a hard strike into his temple. Not breaking stride, he let the guard tumble to the floor and continued on towards the rest of the squad who were just beginning to turn their attention to him along with the control room’s surprised looking operators.
Jarred launched himself into the group, sending the closest of the TrySecs flying backwards into another with a front kick to his chest. He caught a glimpse of the Gnolith Sect Commander reaching for both his comm and sidearm with each hand, at the same time catching the hand of the fourth security officer attempting to take hold of him. He drove a ridge hand strike into the man’s throat and cranked his arm up at the elbow, spinning around to launch him into the Sect Commander, sending them both to the ground in a tangled mess, the comm and pistol clattering off in different directions.
The two TrySecs he had previously knocked over were already getting to their feet, one of which had come up to one knee and was bringing his rifle to bare on Jarred, who side kicked it out of his hands, snapping his foot back sharply to catch him in the jaw. Turning, he then took hold of the second officer’s rifle, as he had managed to get both feet under him and take aim, stepping to one side as he twisted the weapon over, causing the man to do a midair cartwheel that ended with him sprawled out on the floor, looking up in time to glimpse the butt end of his own rifle being swung into his face.
Ten seconds had passed.
Jarred spun back towards the fallen Sect Commander he knew would be up and moving for either his comm or weapon, but instead felt the wind knocked from his lungs as the large Gnolith barreled into him, crashing them both into a control panel and sending two operators sprawling to the floor.
Driving his elbow repeatedly into the Gnolith’s head, neck and shoulders, Jarred tried to stun the larger opponent, who simply lifted him off his feet and threw him into another bulkhead of control panels.
Before he could regain his footing, Jarred found himself being lifted from the ground again as the Gnolith took him by the throat and smashed him into the one way transparent viewport overlooking the dock. Jarred shot his leg up hard into the Gnolith’s groin, only partially loosening the death grip on his throat, but enough to let him breath again. In one motion, he pressed down on his attacker’s wrist with one hand and drove a palm up strike into his elbow with the other, breaking the arm at the joint.
The Gnolith growled in pain, attempting to keep hold of Jarred with his good hand. Jarred threw a quick knife hand strike into his throat, twisting over the arm he still held to drive him face down into the control panel. He side kicked the Gnolith’s leg, breaking it and causing him to drop down to both knees, and wrapping an arm around his neck in a reverse headlock, Jarred yanked hard upwards, hearing the crunch of snapping vertebrate as his opponent went limp.
Jarred let the Gnolith’s body crumble to the floor and gave the room a quick scan as he caught his breath. Confirming that all members of the security team had been neutralized, he turned his attention to the room’s stunned control operators.
Thirty seconds had passed.
* * *
Sierra smiled seductively, masking her distaste for the task she had assigned to herself. Serving as a visual distraction was a duty she would prefer to have left to someone of lesser skill and tactical ability, especially considering that it meant laughing and flirting with a pair of half wit security grunts, but in this particular case, she had unfortunately met the physical requirements.
She eyed the military grade, standard issue plasma rifles hanging from the shoulders of both security officers with exaggerated interest. “My, you boys certainly have big guns, don’t you?”
“We have to ensure that we have the tools to properly serve and protect you with,” one of the men answered, both inflating their chests now, absurdly.
“Do they see a lot of action?” Every idiotic, bubbly word Sierra forced herself to speak was like having her finger nails torn out one at a time. Her only sense of satisfaction came from the surprising degree of restraint she had shown so far by not having killed the drooling morons yet. Yet. Everyone had their limits and she was perilously close to reaching hers.
Both men looked at one another and grinned before the first answered. “Not as much as we would like.”
The second guard stepped forward. “How about we do an onboard inspection of your vessel and you can have a closer look?”
Sierra resisted the urge to gag, and hearing her comm earpiece crackle to life, smiled instead. A genuine smile. “Sounds like fun, but I’ve got an even better idea.”
The men looked intrigued and the one nearest to Sierra took another step closer to her. “What did you have in mind?”
Sierra stepped even closer to the guard and her grin widened as she saw the bay’s entry port shield disengage behind him, the shimmering wall of energy fading out of existence. His pompous expression changed instantly as she drove a knee up into his groin, dropping him to the floor with a painful, breathless gasp. His counterpart’s reaction was slow as he stared, dumbfounded for a moment, looking from his partner to Sierra before finally moving to raise his rifle.
Before the weapon could be brought to bare on h
er it was torn from its owner’s hands, the shoulder strap slung across his body yanking him around with it, where he was clotheslined by an outstretched arm.
Sierra scowled up at Jarred as he stood over the unconscious guard, now bearing two assault rifles, the second slung over one shoulder. “Took you long enough.” She caught Jarred’s playfully indignant shrug and smirked as she wrenched the rifle away from the still gasping guard kneeling at her feet, smacking the butt of the weapon into his temple and knocking him to the floor. “Next time I’m on point and you can flirt with the guards.”
Jarred looked at the men lying on the floor. “But you’re so good at it.”
Sierra glared at him. “Don’t patronize me. I’m not in the mood.” Jarred’s grin vanished as his eyes locked on something over her shoulder and Sierra looked back to find the dock’s security mech clanking towards them.
“Halt!” the mech’s authoritative voice modulator boomed. “Throw down your firearms and prepare to be arrested. You are in direct violation of Trycon City crime code three-six-one . . .” The security mech’s sentence ended abruptly as its head was suddenly blown apart with a single blast from Jarred’s rifle.
Sierra cringed, though relieved to have the mech’s recitation of their legal infractions cut short, expecting to hear the whaling of dock security alarms that Jarred’s rifle blast should have provoked. After a moment’s reflection she turned back to face him.
“You disabled the weapons discharge sensors? You’re a lot smarter than you look.”
Jarred smirked. “Easy on the compliments. They’ll go right to my head.”
Sierra grinned, turning to look around the bay as she reopened her comm link to Kern. Small groups of spectators were watching them from some of the nearest surrounding vessels, all cautiously remaining near the cover of their ships. “Kern, the port shield is down. We’re heading back to you. Get ready for that quick dust off.”
Minus the Sect officer and four TrySecs Jarred had dispatched in the upper control center, along with the two guards lying on the floor in front of her, by Kern’s count there would be six remaining security officers on the dock to contend with. As scanning parties, they would have already fanned out, in pairs most likely, across the bay to conduct their searches. Positively, it would be easier to neutralize three pairs of guards, one at a time, than all six together. Negatively, if they all collapsed in on them from different directions there was a good chance they could become surrounded.
“Don’t get too full of yourself,” she commented back at Jarred. “I’m sure that blast got everyone’s attention. The rest of our friends in security should be arriving any moment . . . now.” Sierra turned to find herself talking to thin air. Caught in an awkward moment of confusion as she glanced around the immediate area for any sign of where Jarred had disappeared to, she felt herself jump at the loud, commanding order to freeze that came from behind her.
Cursing herself silently for letting someone get the jump on her, Sierra steadied herself and held her weapon out to one side, turning her head only enough to get a peripheral view of the pair of TrySecs that were holding a position approximately twenty feet away from her, their weapons trained.
“Drop your weapon!” one of the two men ordered.
Sierra didn’t bother guessing the odds of her survival if she did anything other than what she was being told to do. She would be lucky to get a bad shot off at one of the TrySecs before they took her out, let alone clean ones at the pair of them. And that was if she was lucky. At the rate her day had been going, it didn’t seem wise to test her luck any further.
Slowly leaning to one side, she placed the rifle on the floor by its hanging shoulder strap, sliding it away with a push of her foot. A quick glance around showed her one of the two officers slowly approaching as the second held back. No sign of Jarred.
“Get down on the ground!” the approaching guard demanded.
Sierra did as directed, kneeling down on the deck.
“Comm in to HQ for backup.” This was directed at the TrySec’s counterpart. After a moment, when no response came, the officer began to repeat the order, stopping abruptly in mid sentence.
Sierra glanced back curiously to find the approaching officer facing his counterpart, the latter frozen with his comm link in hand and one of Jarred’s rifle muzzles pressed against his temple. Jarred’s second rifle was leveled squarely at the officer closest to her.
Sierra scowled. She didn’t enjoy being shown up. Glaring up at Jarred, she got back to her feet. “What took you so long?”
* * *
Given the tension he felt in light of the current situation, Kern’s initial thought at hearing a laser blast was that he was being shot at and he raised his hands to cover his head. It took him another second to realize that the blast sounded too distant to have been fired, close range, at him and must have come from somewhere else in the bay. That and he was still alive.
The two TrySecs standing in front of him both looked off in the direction of the blast, drawing their weapons. Only a moment earlier he had been convinced that their scanning would reveal the being they were searching for hidden in a small compartment only meters away from them and he would be forced into action. Action that would most likely end up resulting in his own demise.
Kern felt a moment of relief at the welcome distraction, realizing of course that the blast would have undoubtably originated from either Sierra or Jarred and that soon he would be in even more trouble than he already was. The difference was that now the focus was off of him and when the time came to make his move the TrySecs wouldn’t see him coming. With their backs turned to him, that time was now.
Easing his sidearm out of it’s concealed holster, Kern thumbed its setting to stun. These men were just doing their jobs. There was no need to kill them if he could avoid it. An easy two shot and they would both be out cold with only a headache when they came to for their trouble. Catching Elora watching him out of the corner of his eye, he gave her a reassuring wink and raised his gun to fire at the officer closest to him first.
At that moment, his comm crackled back to life with Sierra’s excited voice. “Kern, the port shield is down. We’re heading back to you. Get ready for that quick dust off.”
Reflexively, Kern glanced down at the comm on his belt, looking back up to see the officers spinning around to face him again. With his weapon already raised at them, their expressions jumped from alert to alarmed and they both lunged forward at him. Cursing, Kern fired a point blank shot into the chest of his first target, an instant later being bowled over by the second.
Crashing to the deck with the officer on top of him, Kern took hold of the rifle suddenly being forced down on his throat, pushing against it as it choked the air from his lunges. Struggling to breath, he brought his right fist around with all the strength he could muster, striking his attacker in the jaw. The punch stunned him enough to allow Kern to continue the sideways movement, rolling them both over until Kern was the one on top. Able to breath again, he attempted to force the rifle, still clenched by both of them, down onto his opponent’s throat.
Quickly realizing that he wasn’t a match for the bulkier TrySec’s brute strength, he pushed himself up high enough to drive his fist down hard into the center of the man’s forehead, bouncing his head off the floor and this time knocking him unconscious.
Rolling off of the officer to sit on the deck, Kern glanced over at the first unmoving TrySec, ensuring that both were still incapacitated.
“Well, that wasn’t so hard, was it,” he stated, while catching his breath and looking around for Elora, seeing two more approaching TrySecs instead, their weapons trained on him.
“Hi,” he said between breaths. “How are you?”
“Don’t move!” one of the two officers ordered.
“Whatever you say,” Kern answered, throwing his hand up in the air and wondering when he might end up catching a break.
Another blast sounded, much closer than the last had been
and Kern fell to floor assuming again that he was being shot at. Surprisingly, he saw the lead TrySec drop to the floor instead, his body convulsing momentarily from a stun round. The second officer stood frozen in mid process of activating his comm unit, looking at something over Kern’s shoulder.
Kern followed the officer’s gaze to find Elora standing next to the ship’s ramp, one of the fallen TrySec’s rifles in her hands, aimed squarely at the remaining officer.
“I would drop that comm if I were you,” she suggested, her voice ice cold. “Unless you want to end up like your friend.”
The officer glanced down at his comrade on the deck and immediately dropped his comm unit.
Stunned, Kern got to his feet and moved over to where Elora was standing, eyeing her curiously. “Nice shot.”
Her demeanor softened a bit and Kern could see what looked like concern in her face.
“Did I kill him?” she asked, her eyes locked on the downed officer on the deck.
Kern shook his head. “No. He’s just unconscious. You shot him on stun.”
Elora looked visibly relieved.
A shout sounded out from across the bay and Kern had to duck out of the way as Elora whipped her rifle around in its direction. Recognizing the voice as Sierra’s, Kern reached up to move the barrel of the weapon away from his head and safely down towards the deck.
“I think that’s enough shooting for today,” he commented, removing the rifle from Elora’s hands. “Why don’t I hold on to that for you.”
“Looks like you two have things under control here,” Sierra commented, as she approached, Jarred already on the lone remaining TrySec, disarming him.
“Piece of cake,” Kern answered.
Sierra continued past him without stopping and headed up the ship’s ramp. “Let’s say we actually make our escape before we start patting ourselves on the back, yeah?”
