Shark Attack

[Joe Manning 0]

The GC-07 sailed through the air after hitting a steep hill. The impact of its fall sent the nearby Goldrock hill moles scattering for their holes. In the driver's seat, a 310 pound beast of a Klingon named Shark bellowed uproariously. Driving the armored car was always a good time.

 

The vehicle ascended the final crest before the shallow valley where the large Bird of Prey was nestled, then suddenly it came to a stop. Shark surveyed the scene unfolding before him on the forward scanners, and he bore his fangs with a ravenous grin.

 

"Why have we stopped?" a deep voice growled from the port gunner seat.

 

"Look ahead, sir," Shark answered. "Some guests have arrived."

 

Every viewer in the GC-07's cockpit was directed to QoB's valley, where a fierce firefight was currently in progress. Over a dozen hoverbikes was skittering back and forth in front of the ramp leading to QoB's cargo hold, their forward guns occasionally turning to direct a shot into the vessel. Even more marines were on foot in the valley, taking cover behind rocks and trading phaser beams with the disruptor blasts emerging from the unseen hold. Surprisingly to the GC-07's occupants, a Starfleet shuttle was lifting off from behind the marines.

 

"Excellent!" Shark said. "I was hoping we would get a chance to meet the local security force."

 

The burly Klingon gripped the steering handle and propelled the vehicle over the crest and into the valley. The floor of the cockpit trembled as the gunners charged up the weapons. Shark laughed out loud as he watched the marines turn to face the new threat with shock in their eyes. Shock turned to horror as the vehicle's main gun discharged, sending a massive disruptor burst directly into the center of the largest marine formation. A few marines near the outer perimeter managed to dive away; the unfortunate ones were flung away by the blast, which concurrently rocked the ground with sufficient force to knock down many of the marines in the other formations.

 

Shark looked at the marines scrambling back to their feet and his grin widened.

 

The thumps of bodies hitting tritanium filled the cockpit as the GC-07 smacked into any marine that Shark could spare attention to. A few were unlucky enough to be flattened beneath the vehicle's wheels, bumping its occupants up against their seatstraps. The side guns sent small disruptor blasts out from the vehicle's flanks, spreading even more death and chaos throughout the marine unit. One of the hoverbikes was hit by a lucky disruptor shot; it burned up and crashed into the ground with an explosion that rocked the vehicle again. By the time the GC-07 reached QoB's cargo ramp, security chief Petrov had already ordered a full retreat.

 

The Starfleet shuttle was leaving the planet's atmosphere, its occupants flustered at the local security's grotesque mishandling of the crisis ...

 

* * * * *

 

"Halfway done!" Shark yelled to Bekk Redd as he popped out of the driver's compartment.

 

Redd looked like he was ready to cry. The Human security officer's rifle was shaking in his hands and his knees were trembling. Several Klingon and Human bodies lied scattered around the hold. "W-we're under attack!" He cried out.

 

"I noticed! Hahahaha!" Shark jumped out of the vehicle. "Too much excitement for you, Human? Do not fear -- before long, the planet's entire security force will be wiped out, and we will be able to retrieve the rest of the tritanium without interference."

 

"Where is Commander Mench?!" Redd yelled. "I wasn't expecting this kind of resistance! They have hovercrafts!"

 

"I told you," Shark stepped over several bodies as he circled to the GC-07's hold and opened it. "He is in the mines, keeping the tritanium secure. I will bring news of the battle to him when we return and relay his order when we bring back the next batch. Settle down! You have Klingons with you! What could possibly go wrong? Hahahaha!"

 

Redd blinked at him, uncovinced. He looked around at Bekk Green and the officers that were tending to the wounded. The other Klingon in the armored car's hold yelled to him for help with the tritanium. Redd looked up and noticed that Shark was again leaving. "Where are you going?"

 

"To the engine room," Shark answered without turning. "I told you. I am an engineer. I need to check on things."

 

* * * * *

 

It was not difficult to locate Ag'gh sitting at his station in the cramped engine room. The Klingon looked up when Shark approached, then glanced around to make sure no one was nearby. "It is done," he said, holding out a remote controller with a speaker phone. "I have tapped into the shipwide comm. It is accessible from this device, by pressing the green button. The voice pattern has been coded in as accurately as I could manage, and the signal will be boosted significantly to bypass the interference from the beacon."

 

Shark looked at the dark green button on the controller, then looked at the warp drive. "And what about our other little surprise?"

 

"Also accessible from this controller," Ag'gh answered with a grin. "By hitting the red button. Do us all a favor -- do not get the buttons mixed up."

 

Shark laughed and looked around the engine room. A few Klingons manned the stations, their faces grim and resolute as they performed their assigned duties. A few Humans were there too, some of their faces nervous after all the blasts that could be felt from outside the ship -- cowards, unwilling to welcome death in battle. Shark could tell that many of the Klingons were noticing the fear of their crewmates; the disgust was evident in their faces. Animosity had been boiling between the two sides for years.

 

Time to blow the lid off. "Let's go," Shark said as he turned toward the exit.

 

"We're done here?" Ag'gh asked.

 

"All done," Shark answered.

 

* * * * *

 

By the time Shark and Ag'gh reached the cargo hold, the marines outside had regrouped, and a new wave of weapons fire was being exchanged. It was not as furious this time (the marines were, no doubt, exercising greater caution and readiness), and Redd and his men seemed fairly well assembled even as the last crates of tritanium were being hauled out of the GC-07.

 

"Wh-wh ... " Redd looked back at Shark and his unexpected companion. "Who is he?"

 

"Another one of the engineers," Shark answered as Ag'gh scowled at the Human. "He will be accompanying us to lend an extra hand in the mines. With all this activity outside, we will want to move more quickly."

 

"Ah ... r-right ... " Redd nodded slowly, glancing back as another phase beam entered the hold. "I assume you'll be giving us some more support out there?"

 

"We'll send them running," Shark said as he stepped back into the driver's seat. Ag'gh circled around and joined the Klingon in the car's hold. "This time, we're going to have a few surprises for them. They will not be expecting what happens next." He laughed at Redd's inquisitive gaze before shutting the driver's door and settling back into his seat.

 

"Everything is in order?" the voice to the left growled.

 

"Aye, sir. It is showtime, as the Humans say." Shark grinned and hit the green button on the controller device.

 

The GC-07's engines revved up as the vehicle prepared to back out of the cargo hold. The security officers lined up at the hatch parted to let the car pass. Shark gripped the steering handle with one hand and lifted the controller to his mouth with the other.

 

"Now hear this!" the Klingon yelled.

 

"This is Lieutenant Sargh to all crew on board!"

 

The GC-07 roared out of the cargo hold, but the attention of the security officer was locked on the comm speakers.

 

"Commander Mench is dead, by my hand. He has proven incapable of responding to the threats which have arisen on this world. As of this moment, I am assuming command of QoB. We will be leaving this world with only the tritanium we have collected, to profit ourselves from its acquisition rather than follow the unknown desires of a faceless employer who cares nothing for the Empire.

 

"But first we must combat the true threat which is facing our crew. For too long now, we have weakened ourselves by allowing impure elements to infect our ship. The cowardice and the ill judgment of Humans have cost us on numerous occasions, starting with the decisions of our former Commander, decisions motivated by selfishness and not one shred of regard for honor or for our mission to retake the Empire from its undeserving caretakers.

 

"My first order as Commander of the starship QoB is to its only -true- crew members! To the sons of Qo'noS whose true allegiances have not wavered even as they have been tested by non-Klingons, I order you thus -- kill all of these infiltrators at once! We will not take off from this planet until every one of the Humans and their weak brethren lie dead on our decks! Let us retake our ship, my Klingon brothers and sisters! Qapla’!!"

 

The silence which hung thick over the cargo hold defied even the din of the GC-07's renewed massacre of the marines outside. Redd and his men glanced at each other meekly, beffudled at what they had just heard. Then their gazes found the Klingon members of the security team. Their mouths seemed to be tightening and their eyes bulging as they stared back at their Human team mates.

 

"Well, wh-wh-wha ... " Redd barely managed, before the Klingon behind him screamed. He turned just in time to watch a bat'leth blade be planted in his chest.

 

"Qapla'!" Bekk Trog yelled as he pulled the bat'leth out of Redd's chest, dropping the young Human to the deck. His cry was echoed by the other Klingons in the hold.

 

Before long, full-blown anarchy had erupted throughout the ship.