Lt Alex Storm - On the Tactical Shelf

[Karen Morris]

The thought of trying to take the Dark Things on in an open pitched battle seemed ludicrous to Alex. She paused, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath. Even non-tactical officers understood the balance of risk and reward. She couldn’t see how the risk didn’t outweigh the rewards unless they could find a way to tip the scales in their favor.

Storm: The first tactical rule of thumb before planning a major offensive is to have solid intel. That’s just not something we can get in this case. We’re walking blind.  

Silveira: I know, but we can’t really run a proper recon, we will need to adapt and improvise.

Bancroft: We may not be as blind as we think. ::glancing at Storm:: As long as we stay tight, nothing will sneak up on us.

Alex cast him a half smirk and a sidelong glance. She knew he didn’t think in terms of how many there were, which direction they would strike from, or what weaknesses remained undiscovered. But that wasn’t what he had been trained for.

Jovenan: Response

Storm: I think our best bet is if we can get the majority of the holes closed up quickly, and there was only one way they could come at us, then we could try to draw them into an ambush, but not before then. That would be suicide.

A small pause followed.

Storm: And dying today doesn’t fit into my schedule.

Silveira: Not today… Neither tomorrow. And we will get this box match of a ship back up there, even if we have to grow wings and push it.

Alex caught a glimmer of a smile beneath Roy’s debonair beard, and it elicited one from her own lips.

Jovenan: Response

Silveira: OK, first get a few more of these. At least two more. ::He looked around, searching for another node:: Then I say we follow Lieutenant Storm's plan. We get the stuff and start welding down the holes. Always keeping surveillance and safe. The more we close the less they come.

Silveira: If you agree, Commander.

Jovenan: Response

And because she thought they needed more of the canisters, Alex found herself once again creeping through the Jeffries Tubes, heat flaring across her back with every movement of her hands and knees, determined not to give Roy another reason to doubt her abilities - even injured.  

Time blurred.  

Air sat heavily.

Even uninjured muscles ached.

Silveira: I am not sure if our little climb has brought us to deck three yet. Do any of you got a better look at the Karnack’s deck plant?

Alex’s head snapped up. All she had been thinking was, ‘left hand, left knee - right hand, right knee.’ She had no idea where in the world they were. Here, she craned her head around, but the eerie green glare of the chemlights made it hard to distinguish wall from markers.

Bancroft: ::pointing:: Looks like we’re still on 4. That’s good news - not far to go to get back.

oO Oh thank the Four.Oo But as soon as her brain conjured the thought, Alex’s jaw tightened. 

Storm: Then let’s get moving, so we can get back and get started.

Jovenan: Response

They retrieved more extinguishers and began the crawl back the way they had come. Once she was handed her own canister, she tucked it under her arm and used her other arm to steady herself as she moved along. But with each step of her knees, it cost her a little more. She knew how it worked. She wouldn’t have to pay that cost now, but she would have to pay it.  

But her movement was arrested when Sil paused, and she almost ran into him. Setting her canister down, she tipped her head, her free hand hovering in the air, unsure of what was going to happen next.

Alex couldn’t see his face from her position behind him. And while she wasn’t actively using telepathy, she could sense a feeling alien to the Sil that she knew. When he turned his head to look at Alex, she held her chemlight up, cascading a conglomeration of green highlights and black shadows across his face.  

Silveira: I’m OK… Just a flashback or something… That transporter might have done a number on me, but we have things to do. Let’s move we got to plank these holes and kick some Things up if they bother us again.

She opened her mouth to ask a question, but closed it just as quickly. He started moving again, and Alex hung back to watch him. His gait was steady, easy, almost cat-like. This time, her jaw clenched for an entirely different reason. He looked as if he could be on the prowl. Alex’s eyes never left him the rest of the way.

The group moved past their first junction without turning down it. It was only a short bit down that section of the tube - in the opposite direction from which they started where they found the last of the canisters, and then reversed their direction with Roy now leading the way back.

When they reached the spot of their ingress into the belly of the ship, a hush fell over the group. Not a silence, but an inward breath that they seemed to collectively hold.

Roy rested his hand against the locking mechanism.

Bancroft: Ready? Steady?

Storm: I don’t sense them nearby. We should be clear.

But despite her words, she aimed her canister into the void just in case she were wrong.

Jovenan/Silveira: Response

Roy turned the wheel and lifted the hatch.

The green glow of the chemlights were doused by the brightness of the moonlight which greeted them with almost a cheerful grin. But Alex didn’t trust it. One by one, each of them exited their confines. Alex stood up, straightening her back. One hand held the extinguisher down at her side. Her other hand braced the side of her back as she tried to arch it to alleviate any residual heat- that she refused to allow herself to feel.

Bancroft: ::whispering:: I suggest we work in pairs – one repairing, the other watching the other’s back with an extinguisher ready.

Alex figured that Sil and Jo would want to be together. It made sense on so many levels. One Tactical Officer in each group standing guard. And Sil would likely be more vigilant watching over Jovenan.

Storm: Why don’t we work on this hole?

Alex looked at Roy and gestured to the aperture she had begun to prepare before their earlier ambush. The creatures hadn’t scattered the metal that was earlier laid ready.  

Jovenan/Silveira: Response

Already holding a canister in her right hand, Roy handed the torch into her left hand. She stood a little straighter and looked down at the torch before meeting his eyes again, her brows knitted, until recognition settled hard onto her sternum. Her eyes flashed and her lips flattened into their characteristic line.  

Roy held her gaze, somehow instinctively he knew the only way to challenge a tactical officer - and win - was not to fight. Instead a quiet plea blossomed across his face: The corners of Alex’s mouth twitched downward unsure of what to make of the look he gave her.  

She set both the torch and the canister down and her arms slipped one under the other across her chest, but as Alex watched Roy, her eyes softened.  

Was he trying to speak to her?

She had been ordered not to use telepathy, but MacKenzie hadn’t said that she had to stop blocking everyone else’s emotions and thoughts, and for a moment, she let down her mental guards and listened.

oO I know you hate it. I know you’d rather be the one standing guard. But you know this is the right move. Oo

Alex stood there, her arms anchored around not just her body, but her spirit. Her shoulders tightened, and she ignored the twitch she felt at the pressure between her shoulder blades.

Bancroft: ::whispered:: Let’s make quick work of this. The others are counting on us.

Damn! If he just hadn’t spoken … she could have held out, and she still wanted to. She felt - not shamed - but helpless - which was worse.  

She held his gaze defiantly for a moment. He was right, and she knew it. But that didn’t change the hurt which twisted inside her chest. She broke eye contact, snatched up the torch, looked around for the welder’s helmet, and finding it, slipped it over her head. She refused to let him see the rivulets that her tears cut through the grime on her face. Her barely audible words nipped at him as she said.

Storm: Well, we can’t let them down, can we?

Jovenan/Silveira: Response

Forcing a deep breath, she blew it out slowly under the helmet. And when she spoke again, no one would have been the wiser — unless he could sense her.

Storm: Let’s see if we can get all four of these closed up in less than an hour.

Her words came out muffled from behind the helmet.  

Jovenan/Silveira/Bancroft: Response

Alex lifted one of the panels they had earlier readied. 

Storm: I need you to hold this with me, while I weld it into place. It’s too heavy for me to hold and weld at the same time.

Once the piece was covering the hole, she pressed her left hand against the cold metal and turned on her torch. Through the helmet’s window, she could see his face flicker in its light. His eyes, about all she could see behind his full beard, were still soft. 

A chill tried to slip its way into her heart, but something in Roy’s features - even in the dimly lit space of the corridor, reached into her rumpled spirit, smoothing out the creases. She blinked several times before she lowered the torch to the metal and started grafting a seam.

Jovenan/Silveira/Bancroft: Response

About a quarter of the way around the piece of metal, she paused for a moment. The heat behind the helmet was stifling, but a cold breeze slipped through one of the holes in the ship’s hull, rippling a shudder through Alex’s back and leaving the hair of her left arm standing on end. Ignoring the chill, she called down to the other group.

Storm: How’s it going down there?

Jovenan/Silveira/Bancroft: Response

~*~

Tags / TBC!

~*~

Lt Alex Storm

Tactical Officer

USS Artemis

O240103SK2