MSNPC Administrator Soldu tr’Kharis - Mutually Assured Destruction

[Teayl Thorn]

((Transporter Room, Deck 06, USS Ronin))

As the Two armored figures moved through the threshold of the transport room, phaser rifles raised, Soldu did not retreat. He stepped forward, dropped his phaser, grasped one of the Tholian’s blade-like crystalline legs with his good hand, and hauled backward with surprising strength. The hostile staggered, off balance as its hold on Solana loosening just enough.

tr’Kharis: ::straining:: Now! Shoot it Now.

Winters: Going low!

Solana reacted instantly. She planted a boot on the Tholian’s compromised leg and vaulted upward, grappling its upper body. Her curved knives punched through exosuit plating and locked into the seams, giving her leverage as it thrashed.

Singh:  You should not have come aboard this ship.  

Solana: He didn’t, Soldu beamed it up. 

The contrary Romulan released the leg he had been pulling abruptly, destabilizing the creature again. The flailing limb lashed outward scoring a vicious tear across his containment suit from collarbone to hip. The impact spun him off his feet. He hit the transporter pad hard and rolled, a pained snarl escaping his composure.

tr’Kharis: ::breath sharp:: Arrg…there…there is your reinforcements. Senior Chief… you are welcome.

Winters: Get between it and the exit, now!

Soldu was wracked with new pain, shakily he pushed up to his knees. A green stain smeared on the transport pad beneath him. With his suit ruined, and possibly his hide beneath it, he detached his helmet, dragging in a fresh breath of starship air and locked eyes with Solana. She was wounded also and kept going. Not wanting to show weakness, the Romulan wrenched himself to his feet. 

Singh:  Computer, erect a level ten security field around the transporter pad.  

Computer:  =/\= Unable to comply, field emitters are offline.  =/\=

That brought him out of his daze and Soldu half stumbled, half stepped back, away from the creature and towards the exit as Solana crouched by the transporter console, bringing her rifle into her grip. The other warriors pressed the Tholian on multiple sides.

Singh:  Can either of you two tell me something useful...quickly?  

Solana: The thing ambushed us as we were beaming out. I told Soldu to call for help, not beam us both onto the damned ship. But here we are. 

Soldu turned till his good eye fell on the Oriorn witch in a harsh glare, a hand pressed to the torn front of his suit.

tr’Kharis: ::faintly incredulous that she was throwing him out the airlock:: You told me no such thing, Senior Chief. Perhaps your memory is impaired by blood loss. ::a nasty grin flickered over his face:: Regardless, there was no time to explain…::strained breath::...to convince your personnel of what had to be done. 

Winters: ::holding her fire:: Get back on the transporter pad. This will be the only warning.

The Tholian emitted a piercing shriek from deep within its armored torso. 

Singh:  In a few seconds you will be outnumbered and disabled.  You could resist but I promise, if anyone else dies today...you will be among them. I encourage you to make another choice.  

Solana: Maybe sooner than that.

Soldu took several stumbling steps back. He had done all he was going to do for these ungrateful starfleet officers. He had kept Solana alive as his honor demanded. He owed her nothing more.

Winters: I'm wide open to suggestions, Major. Last time I dealt with these guys, they offered no surrender to our teams.

Singh:  I believe if this one could've killed us they would've done it already.  Back out slowly and make a hole for the security team.  We need to get these people medical attention.  ::She nodded towards the Tholian::  Surrender and no further harm will come to you.  Resist and you die here, today, a failure.  Choose wisely.  

Solana: It’s already a failure. Couldn’t stop us from disarming your Sencha weapon you sent your workers to deploy. Just like you couldn’t take Thirty Three from us. 

The Tholian froze. Its upper body inclined slightly, not quite a bow, but a cessation of aggression.

tr’Kharis: ::quiet:: Your masters will not reward incompetence, your crystalline memories are all you have to pass on now. You have survived… for now. Consider that your single victory today.

The Tholian folded its working appendages fully inward and lowered its head.

Security teams flooded the transporter room, phasers trained on the crystalline horror, bathed in red emergency lighting. Solana, seemingly ignoring her own injuries, approached, grabbed him, allowing him to lean into her shoulder. Permitting the help and admitting his weakness hurt almost more than the wound across his torso. He kept an arm wrapped around his middle, while allowing her to help him into the brightly lit corridor. 

Despite the dull pain wracking his frame, for the first time in years, Soldu felt the weight on his broad, angular shoulders ease. The game had finally shifted…And for the first time in years….he had chosen his move. 

((Corridor, outside Transporter Room, Deck 06, USS Ronin))

The former Administrator of the The Lid stumbled out into the corridor. The lighting was too bright. He detested Starfleet lighting.

Medics had arrived with urgency, hovering medical stretchers and waving buzzing little medical scanners. He half heartedly waved them away like the hovering insectoids they were. It didn’t have much effect on their determined attempt to scan him or drag him prone onto a stretcher.

Singh: Are either of them going to die in the next five minutes?  

The medtech emitted a strained sound and shook his head.  

Singh:  Good. Senior Chief, if you're not too busy bleeding perhaps you could explain to me what just happened and who that...::she gestured towards the wounded Romulan being lowered carefully onto the grav-sled::...is.  Or do you still have enough blood in you to introduce yourself?  

Soldu’s good eye shifted to fall on Solana as the accusation was already forming on her lips.

Solana: I’m fine, Major. ::she said curtly:: That’s the stubborn Romulan in charge of the facility we just beamed up from. ::she glared:: The Tholian attacked me right as we were beaming out, knocking me out of the transport. I was all content to fight the damned thing as needed. When I beamed on board I saw our people unconscious and him by the controls. So, I can only assume he thought beaming that thing on board with me was better than just letting you know I needed backup. 

And…there it was. The corner of his lip lifted in a mirthless sneer. They blamed him, tightened their grip on their weapons around him. He had fooled himself momentarily to think they were different. But they were just Starfleet afterall.

Winters: Welcome aboard the Ronin. ::beat:: If you live, consider yourself under arrest.

Soldu inhaled carefully. Pain flared across his abdomen. He turned his head toward Singh, easily sensing who was in charge, ignoring the rifles, ignoring the medics adjusting field sealant over his torn flesh. He smiled at her with his cloudy eye and radiation lesions growing on his jaw.

tr’Kharis: ::sarcastically:: Jolan tru. You can call me Soldu, I am…I was Administrator for The Lid. ::words weighted with much older pain:: There was no time to convene a symposium or whatever you people do instead of taking decisive action!  ::glancing at Solana:: Your soldier is alive. The Warrior is restrained. Your ship remains intact. ::to Solana:: Again, no need to thank me for saving your life.

The woman in charge seemed to dismiss his words. 

Singh: Well done Captain. Perhaps I should have you take the Senior Chief through a refresher course on the use of a phaser rifle...since she often seems to forget to use one.  

Solana’s head snapped up sharply.

Solana: Tried that. It didn’t give me much choice, ma’am. The only reason I still have it is because of the sling. Bastard would be dead already if they hadn’t improved their suits since the Siege. 

Winters: ::looking to Singh and then Solana:: Hand to hand with a Tholian, I think that should be on Kessler's Security Bingo Card for you guys Senior Chief.

Soldu studied them through a half-lidded eye as they half-threatened and half-jested among themselves. Clearly only upset with one another because they cared so much for each other's wellbeing. It was insufferable. 

Soldu rolled his good eye closed as a med tech fussed over him.

tr’Kharis: Most creatures in a fight with a Warrior at that range do not survive long enough to complain.

Singh: Response

Solana: It's locked up its suit. We’re not going to get that thing secure. We can’t beam it back down because we still have people there and I wouldn’t want to put them at risk. As long as it’s here it’s a threat to the entire ship. We should kill him and be done with it. 

Winters: The Senior Chief is right. The longer that thing is not secured, the more people we are going to lose.

tr’Kharis: :::coolly, without opening his eyes:: Killing it would be… satisfying. But reckless. Its disappearance without explanation may provoke deeper scrutiny from the Alliance. You may solve one problem only to invite another… far larger one.

He didn’t notice if the others regarded him.

Singh: Response

Solana: With all due respect ma’am, if we have a hostile ship threatening ours that’s all the more reason to make sure he won’t be a problem. If we end up in a battle and take damage the last thing we need is a Tholian warrior loose on the ship butchering our people! 

Winters: ::turning to Solana directly:: Check your emotions Senior Chief. The Major is well aware of the risk of having that thing aboard.

Soldu cracked open his good eye to regard Orion thoughtfully. It seemed she was low in the chain of hierarchy here. On the moon she had been in her element, decisive, a prime warrior. Here her instincts and recommendations were second guessed. That was very interesting, he wasn’t sure how he could use the info but it was interesting. Perhaps there was an opportunity there.

tr’Kharis: ::soft, precise:: The Senior Chief’s instincts are correct. A Warrior loose can be… catastrophic. However, eliminating it removes a potential bargaining chip. And you will find the Alliance does not negotiate from weakness…but it does react to uncertainty.

Singh: Response

Solana: Yes, ma’am. ::she exhaled slowly:: We should beam it into the brig instead of trying to restrain it. Assuming we can, we try escorting that thing through the corridors to a cell. It could trigger the self destruct on its suit any time it thinks it's going to cause crippling damage. They did that multiple times during the Siege when we still tried to capture a few. If we're not going to kill him, beam him to a cell.

The blond pivoted.

Winters: ::turning to Singh:: We don't have to transport it anywhere. All we need to do is transport it off the ship and hold it in a transport buffer. We did it with a couple of pirates back in the Gamma quadrant and used a storage buffer to hold them. It was separated from the ship systems and had no way for the hostile to re-materialize without a transporter. Just needed a small power supply to keep the buffer active.

A faint curve touched Soldu’s lips.

tr’Kharis: Won’t work.

He felt three sets of eyes flick to him.

tr’Kharis: All it would take is damage to the wrong sub system or too much power drain and you’ll lose it and all the intelligence it holds. It’s not just a creature, it’s a connection to the Lattice.

Singh/Solnana: Response

Winters: You were saying?

The blond woman turned her rifle slightly toward him as she spoke. Soldu shifted slightly on the sled, ignoring the flare of pain.

tr’Kharis: It has sensitive Lattice Alliance intel. Do you intend to interrogate it while it’s dematerialised? ::slight tilt of his head::  I know how they think. I know what they fear. I betrayed them. I can provoke them into revealing more. Leave me alone with it. I can get it to reveal something.

Singh/Solnana: Response

The woman's voice hardened.

Winters: Trust you? ::beat:: Why in all the universe would we trust you?

Soldu regarded her as though she had asked why gravity existed.

tr’Kharis: ::calm, unblinking:: Because I have already demonstrated that my survival is now… tied with yours. ::gaze shifting deliberately to Solana:: Had I wished for your destruction, I would have left you on the moon and allowed the Tholian to finish you. I require this vessel intact to take me and my people to safety. You require information I possess and information I can extract. We need each other, you don’t have to trust me…I don’t trust you! Mutual necessity is sufficient.

Singh/Solnana: Response

Winters: ::turning back to Singh:: Your call Major but I still say we put the Tholian in a transport buffer. Worse case, the buffer loses power and the problem is off our hands.

Soldu allowed his head to settle back slightly against the grav-sled, eye never leaving Singh.

tr’Kharis: If you destroy it, you learn nothing. If you suspend it, you risk losing it. If you question it through conventional means, it will endure. ::shallow breath:: Allow me to speak with it. Under guard. Under restraint...whatever. You lose nothing by trying.

Solana/Singh/Winters: Response

[Tags / TBC]

===============================

Soldu tr’Kharis (he/him)

Station Administrator 

The Lid

As simmed by

Writer for Lt. JG T'Fearne  

Security Officer   

USS Ronin - NCC-34523

R240107T14