Are You Truly Ready for Anything?

Posted on Sun Feb 13th, 2022 @ 2:28am by Lieutenant Didrea Zade

Mission: Character Development
Location: USS Colossal, en route to Starbase 32
Timeline: MD03 - 2000hrs
1092 words - 2.2 OF Standard Post Measure

"You ready?" Karav asked, looking at his assistant chief. It was time for their daily training after their shift, where they ran a scenario or two to encourage planning and coordination. Zade was the one who came up with the idea, and Karav saw the benefits: he got to watch her progress, plus try different strategies to beat the program.

"Of course," Zade replied, putting her curly hair up into a ponytail. The two were in training outfits, with their bags by the holodeck's arch. If she were to become a department head someday, she needed to know how to handle various situations. It also appealed to that part of her that just needed to be prepared, so in her eyes it was a win-win.

Karav nodded, near-black eyes watching Zade get ready. He always liked to throw in some surprise for Zade, and today was no different. "Then prepare yourself." Karav went to the arch and typed in a program, then the arch disappeared. "I swear you get some thrill out of this," he commented, picking up the two phasors that materialized and tossing one to Zade.

The Trill caught the phasor. "Hah, don't tell me you don't get something out of this too," she replied with a small smile.

A smile crept onto Karav's lips as he walked up to Zade, handing her a comm badge for the simulation. "Sure, it's training." The holodeck's grid pattern transitioned into the damaged corridors of a ship. There was a pause before the lights dimmed and the red alert sounded. "Lead the way, Chief," Karav said, holding his phasor ready. In the simulations, Zade was the chief of security and Karav switched to a non-chief security officer. In other words, they switched roles, and Zade was the one calling the shots. Knowing Zade's service history, he understood why this was important to her, but he was wary at times because he wasn't always sure if she did this to improve or to redeem herself.

Zade held her phasor up as she scanned the corridor they were in. "Zade to the bridge," she said, tapping her badge. There was no reply. Pfft, that would be too easy, she mused. "We need to figure out what's going on. This way." She took off into a jog down the corridor until she knew Karav was following, then she increase pace to a run.

They got a short distance down the hall before they ran into a crewmate. "Crewman, what's going on?" Zade asked the hologram.

"There's an intruder on deck 5," the Bolian crewmate responded. He clearly looked like he got away from a fight, but just barely. He paused to catch his breath, "near astrometrics. It looked like they were trying to make their way to engineering."

"Got it. Can you make it to Sickbay alright?" The man nodded, so Zade turned to Karav. "Alright, let's cut off this guy."

"What if he's not going to engineering?" Karav asked, keeping an eye out for any disturbances nearby.

Zade thought for a moment. It would be ideal if she could form two-man cells and split up, but that currently wasn't in the cards. "Let's go to astrometrics and see if we can find any clues then." She moved to the nearby wall monitor and pulled up the schematic for the deck they were on. "We're on deck 3, so if we take the Jefferies tubes here," she pointed, "the exit would be right outside astrometrics."

Karav listened to the plan and nodded, not giving any signs that what she was doing was correct or not. "After you," he said, gesturing down the hall.

The two started running down the hall again. "Zade to security, are comms working for you?"

=^=Page here, you're coming through for me,=^= came a reply. A couple other scattered replies came in as Zade and Karav reached the Jefferies tube access port.

"Great. Who's closest to the bridge?" She listened to the replies, then, "Page and Fairweather, you two get to the bridge and assess the situation. Mason, Aarix, and k'Leir, get to engineering and watch for intruders. Word has it they're headed your way. Karav and I will check astrometrics before making our way to engineering."

By the time Zade gave out her instructions, Karav had the port open and had crawled in. He made his way to the larger junction and prepped the floor hatch to go down.

Once she got confirmation from everyone, she crawled into the Jefferies tube and shut the hatch behind her. No need to risk an ambush from behind. She followed Karav through the floor hatch and down the ladder to deck 5.

At the next junction, Karav paused to let Zade take the lead. "Your idea, you should go into it first," he commented with a wink.

Zade's quizzical look at him stopping turned to a joking glare. "You just don't want to get immediately shot once the hatch is open," she quipped with the same energy before going down the next ladder. In another minute, they made it to the hatch and Zade adjusted the grip on her phasor. She glanced back at Karav, who nodded, then she turned back to the hatch and cracked it open to peek. The corridor outside astrometrics looked clear, so she opened the hatch wider to look again, then crawled out. Fully standing, she took a position in front of the hatch to guard in case anything happened while Karav was exiting.

As Karav exited, he had a devious idea, looking at the woman with her back to him. She does expect a surprise at this point, it would be disappointing to not deliver, he thought, a small smirk creeping onto his face as he stood.

Zade turned to face Karav. "Ok, let's check out astrometrics, then-" she was cut off when Karav suddenly kicked her in the chest, hard. The impact forced the air out of her lungs and swayed her balance backward a couple steps, knocking her to the floor. The phasor in her hand clattered out of reach. "Karav, what the hell!" she gasped, her hand over where she got kicked. Zade forced herself to suck in a breath of air, wincing as her chest protested.

"You said you want to be prepared for anything," Karav replied, calmly walking toward her. The slowly flashing red lights left intimidating shadows across his face while accentuating his dark eyes. "Are you prepared for a crewmate to betray you?"

To be continued...