"How Could You Be Worthy?" (Part 2)

Posted on Wed Jul 19th, 2023 @ 6:55am by Commander Patricia Cooke & I-400 & Lieutenant Commander Tsukasa Izumi & Lieutenant Commander Lahki Bakshi Dr & Lieutenant Commander Rebecca Stevenson & Lieutenant Akira Kogami & Lieutenant Zelea Arlidd & Lieutenant JG Danielle Sidney & Lieutenant JG Mailin & Rear Admiral Kagami Izumi
Edited on on Wed Jul 19th, 2023 @ 6:55am

1,347 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Auld Lang Syne
Location: Camp Khitomer
Timeline: After "How Could You Be Worthy?" (Part 1)

Previously, on Star Trek: Missouri:

At last Vice Admiral Kongo took the stage to deliver her speech on Manhattan Fleet Yards' acoomplishments.

"Hello, everyone; my name is Vice Admiral Mitsuko Kongo, director of yard operations at Manhattan Fleet Yards." She introduced herself. "Yes, I know, control yourselves... Anyway, I'm sure you've noticed me introducing my job title as director of yard operations instead of the commanding officer. It's a new system we're testing at Manhattan, because we're a shipyard, not a starship; there's really no point in following typical starship naming conventions..."

Several minutes of Vice Admiral Kongo droning on passed before she finally reached the part of the speech Patricia was waiting on:

"Now, four years ago, when the keels for our final Intrepid II projects were laid, we had no idea that in that time, the Intrepid II would be cancelled, and our resources would be allocated for converting our incomplete projects into the new Intrepid variants that Starfleet was rolling out. And I must compliment the entire yard staff who worked on these projects for persevering through this transition. Our Bellerophon units should be especially proud, as they are the ones responsible for seeing a new Missouri to completion; one which is set to set out among the stars on its shakedown cruise in just two weeks' time."

A round of applause erupted.

"Now, of course, the talented engineers who built it aren't the only ones that made a brand new Starship Missouri happen." Kongo admitted. "Building a ship is one thing, but the Missouri name came from an unlikely source, and frankly, I can't think of anyone more worthy of being the sponsor of this new Missouri than the long time captain of her direct predecessor, so please welcome to the stage, Rear Admiral Kagami Izumi!"

Before Kagami could speak, however, a terrible screeching sound rang out across the public address system, followed by the sound of shuffling feet.

And now, the continuation:

"Worrrrrrrrrrthyyyyyyyyyyy......" A voice muttered, seemingly fixated on the word.

The muttering and shuffling feet came from a blue haired Lieutenant wearing a gold security uniform whom had recently stumbled into the venue. The implant on her head appeared to have been corrupted, and her digital eye was only showing a solid shade of pink. Several curious heads turned in the direction of the disturbance. Finally, the Lieutenant came to a stop.

"No: How could you be worthy?" The Lieutenant asked. "You're all killers."

Patricia had stood up following the disturbance, and had turned in the direction of the noise.

"Uh... Lieutenant?" Patricia asked. "You might want to reboot your implant."

"Sorry, I was asleep. Or, I was a dream..." The Lieutenant said. "There was this awful noise... And I was tangled in... Strings... I had to kill the other one... It's a shame, too: She was quite nice..."

"You killed someone?" Patricia asked.

"Wouldn't have been my first choice;" the Lieutenant responded. "But... Down in the real world we're forced to make ugly choices..."

"Who sent you?" Kongo spoke up.

The Lieutenant twitched and a recording played from the implant:

"I see a guardian at the gates..."

"I-400..." A horrified voice realized.

It was a scientist from the Daystrom Institute. Patricia had spotted him and his partner chatting earlier in the evening, but hadn't engaged them.

"In the flesh." The Lieutenant responded. "Or... Not yet... Not this... Christmas... But I'm ready: I'm on a mission:"

As the Lieutenant, whom had identified herself as I-400, was speaking, several similarly corrupted gold shirts with implants had entered the venue, armed with phaser rifles.

"What kind of mission?" Patricia asked.

"Peace in our time." I-400 said menacingly moments before the other security officers proceeded to open fire on the partygoers.

"Whoa, whoa, WHOA!" Akira shouted as she sprang up from her seat. "EVERYONE GET BACK!"

As Patricia's mind started to realize that this was an attack, she noticed one of the gold shirts taking aim at Kagami. Looking around and seeing that she was the only one close enough to reach Kagami in time, Patricia sprang into action:

"LOOK OUT!" Patricia exclaimed as she proceeded to tackle Kagami to the ground, a phaser blast passing through the space where Kagami had stood only moments ago.

Kagami wasn't expecting that at all. She hit the ground hard. However her security training kicked in. She reached for her belt, expecting to find a phaser, but there was none.

Fortunately, Akira did have a phaser on her; flipping one of the tables on its side, she drew her phaser and began shooting back, hoping she would draw enough attention to herself to allow the other officers to escape. It didn't take long for several other security officers in the room to follow her example, and in a matter of minutes the situation had devolved into a fierce phaser-fight, with practically everyone shooting every which way to subdue the hostiles.

Lahki, being a medical officer, wasn't usually armed while off-the-clock, but she knew her friend Vila was, so she snatched the woman's Phaser as she stepped forward, her loud voice ringing over the din. She was a mother, and years and years of yelling at the boys had prepared her for this very scenario.

"EVERYONE BE QUIET," she shouted. Her phaser was set only to stun; she saved lives, she didn't take them, but she WOULD fire. She made a few quick calculations. "Someone tackle the I-400 bot. I'll see what I can do to get that corrupted implant off," she immediately also turned her brain off. The noise coming from the Borgs was LOUD. She realized it was intended to overwhelm the empaths, and turned her mind back off. "Cooke, the Empaths are out or will be. I will get as many as I can to the infirmary here, and someone get the Admiral, for Heir's sakes!" She moved around after sending the "mental message" that she was a doctor and it would be OK. "Is there a Counselor present? Grab an empath, and let's go," she ordered, still locked on the crowd of yellow shirts.

Arlidd started from the center of the crowd toward the I-400. She was running through what she knew to see if she could slow it down or disable it somehow. “Go” she pointed toward the exit as she helped a young woman to her feet.

Lahki needed zero prompting; the older Betazed hauled herself and whomever else she could grab on the way out. She tapped her badge she'd extracted from the pocket of the dress she'd worn-always the professional, she made sure she had at least enough supplies to carry five people through three days of triage on her person-and shouted into it. ==^==Lieutenant Commander Bakshi. ALL HANDS NEEDED at the conference. All hands. I need transport to medical. STAT. DOUBLE TIME, actually.==^== She didn't take time to look around her, she just did what her training dictated.

Rebecca wishes she could react quickly enough but alias she was stunned. Her fear overrode her Starfleet training and she found herself underneath the table that she was just sitting at. The fear in her face was self-evident. She was stuck in a flashback of loosing everyone she cared for.

After making sure Kagami was safe, Patricia had rushed one of the corrupted security officers and was attempting to access the master shutoff on the officer's implant, all while the officer was trying to buck Patricia off.

"Hull breach on decks... Attempting to reconfigure shields..." The officer said at random as if they were working a tactical console on a ship with hostile boarders. "Deploying countermeasures...'

"No, not that one, NOT THAT ONE!" Patricia stammered before she was thrown off the officer, landing on her back.

While Patricia was attempting to shut off one officer's implant, another officer had found people hiding; it was a couple of Lahki's friends, the ones who had been developing the advanced biobed. The officer raised his phaser rifle, preparing to execute the two medical officers.

To be continued...

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