Battle of the Corridor

[Liliana Hamilton 0]

Crewman Liliana Hamilton carefully inspected the equipment lockers in the armory warehouse, test versions for the weapons storage onboard Challenger. She wouldn't be around long. Commodore Moose had booked her on a warp 3 capable earth cargo ship to Rigel on some kind of intelligence mission. The trip would give her two weeks off duties on Challenger.

 

The engineers had done a wonderful job. The equipment lockers were accessible enough that weapons could be obtained easily in an emergency, yet the design should be secure enough to prevent an intruder from gaining unlawful access. Lily tested the handprint identification system. About 1/10 of the time, it would reject her access authorization. This seemed to be a problem when she held her hand at too great an angle. The engineers would have to take a look at that. Lily began loading a test shipment of phase pistols and plasma rifles into the lockers.

 

Suddenly, a klaxon blared. Recently, the engineers had been testing the security alert system. This time, the announcement was different: "Tactical alert. This is not a drill. Repeat, this is not a drill. Intruders are heading to engineering. All security personnel respond. Set phasers to heavy stun. All civilian personnel begin evacuation. Tactical alert..." Lily had been through training, but she had never been in actual combat. Her duty was clear. She picked up a phase pistol and headed in the direction of engineering.

 

The ship's corridors were a mass of confusion. Lily found herself going against the flow of people in some of the hallways, and with the flow in others. She pointed more than one scared civilian worker towards the docking ports as she made her way to the lower decks. As she dropped into the nearly empty hallways of H-deck, she turned a corner. The lighting on this deck was being provided by termporary construction lights while a power-transfer test to Challenger was underway. She heard loud voices in an unfamiliar language and instinctively fell back behind the wall. She had expected to encounter more scrambling security personnel by now. With adrenaline rushing into her system and a heart pounding faster, she pressed the button on the comm panel to alert Starfleet of the intruders' location. Nothing. The comm panel was not powered either. The voices moved closer from the other corridor.

 

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The Klingons kept moving fast, sweat and blood matted their hair.

 

"This way!" Magek shouted. "Keep up! You will make us fail our mission!"

 

"I'm moving as fast as i can sir!" Imag whined. "But this backpack is so heavy!"

 

"Snivelling dog! Weight means nothing to a klingon warrior!"

 

The pair turned around a corner, to find a starfleet officer pointing a phase pistol right at them.

 

"Imag! Get out the way!" Magek yelled.

 

The phase pistol discharged, and one of the Klingons fell to the ground with a thud.

 

Imag hadn't reacted fast enough and it was he who had been fallen. Magek had leaped aside and now he quickly grabbed his comrade and dragged him back round the corner.

 

"Imag!" he shouted. "Imag! Speak to me"

 

The klingon groaned. He wasn't dead, just stunned.

 

"Imag wake up", he gave him a stern hit across the face and a klingon hit is definitely not that gentle. Imag came out of it a bit.

 

"Imag? Can you move?" Magek asked. The only answer he got was a groan and a shake of a head.

 

"Imag, i must go on without you, but" he said grabbing Imag's rifle from the ground and shoving it in his hands. "If anyone comes near you, blast them. If you hear the blast of the explosives in my pack going off, detonate yours. If you don't hear it after a while, detonate yours anyway because i'll probably be dead."

 

Imag nodded solemnly. "I'm sorrrrrrrrry" he slurred.

 

"There is no need to apologise" Magek barked. "You have fought like a warrior.

 

Magek stood up and surveyed the situation at hand. The hallway was a deathtrap. This human had skill and he would be easy pickings if he stepped back out there. "What to do? What to do" he muttered as he looked left, right, down and up...up, at a ventilation shaft. Magek grinned a sharp-toothed grin as a plan came to mind.

 

"Qapla my brother" he said to Imag before hoisting himself up.

 

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Lily had desperately attempted to hold off the Klingons. The lighting panels went on as the power-transfer test was finally called off. With her heart racing, she barely noticed that the disruptor fire from the Klingons had subsided. She slammed on the nearby comm panel, trying to get a message through to security. Suddenly the sound of a metal portal opening came from above and behind her. She quickly turned around. The 5' 5" tall crewman found herself stunned, looking upwards face to face with an angry, 6 1/2 foot tall Klingon. He slammed his head into hers, then it all went black.