Chapter IIb: On Your Own

Alex tries not to laugh aloud at Lorq's comment, which she's mostly successful at. She puts a hand on his shoulder with a fond smile as she walks past him. "Admirable goals," she murmurs. "Zephyr, Meyers, take point beside the door, phasers ready. Lorq and I will take cover. When everyone is in place, open the doors and see if anyone's awaiting us inside."

She takes a deep breath to calm her nerves, which are visible only in the way she keeps absently straightening her uniform. "Good luck, everyone," she says, and goes to get into position away from line of sight of anyone on the other side of the door.

Zephyr stands at the ready on the other side of the door to engineering, opposite Ensign Meyers. Looking down at his rifle, he confirms it is set to stun. He then gives everyone a look to confirm they're ready, and then waves his hand in front of the door.

Zephyr immediately fires his rifle at the guard who fired at them.

Alex remains in cover as best she can, though she tries to get a line of sight to the area beyond the door from where she hides if only to provide warning should another pirate join the fray.

I will stay out of line of fire the best I can, but go into the room so we are not noticeable from the corridor.

If someone want to get that guy away from the guns we can sedate him and I will try again to get a message out.

Zephyr steps into the room with rifle pointed at the remaining person and says, "Now, I don't want to pretend to tell you what the best thing to do here is, but I do insist that you not make any sudden movements. Your life is too important to be wasted."

Zephyr walks toward him with the intent of kicking the phaser rifles away. "It's obvious that we now have the upper hand. Step away from the console."

"Come on in Lorq," Zephyr says over his shoulder, "you and I can work together to send the message. Ensign Meyers, please make sure our friend is well behaved."

Alex enters with the others and picks up one of the phasers. Better to have a chance at defending oneself than not, even if she is likely as not to stun the wrong person at the wrong time. She comes to stand next to Meyers and shakes her head. "Not yet. Let's not escalate this farther than we need to," she says quietly, calmly, hoping to ease Meyers' nerves. Alex points her own phaser at their temporary prisoner. "I'm confident that one of the two of us can manage to stun him, should he decide to take his chances," she adds, smiling warmly at the pirate captive, as though welcoming him to try.

Zephyr turns to look again at their captive, "We may need him to access the control panel for us if we can't get in again. Plus, if we keep him awake we may be able to communicate with him. Maybe even find out more about what their purpose is here. Assuming we have that much time anyway."

Zephyr turns back to the console with Lorq and begins to work at accessing the panel.

Okie doke. Let's try this again
Lorq walk over to the panel and tries to get a message out.

Oh, we are not sure if these thing do infect others for sure. And definitely not how they do it. So, be careful.

Alex takes a single step back from the captive, training her phaser on him more directly. This technical manipulation went wrong last time, and she’s just a bit worried about how it might go this time.