Commander Ash MacKenna - The Gift of Sencha

[Marissa Jeffrey]

((Ops, Deck One, Central Module, Deep Space Thirty Three))

Ash was not used to being idle.

In cases that felt a lot like this, she was generally milling around with the general populous, or attacking (poorly) with the mob. Deep cover operations had come easy to her as she had a knack for blending into walls, corners, and shadows. Being the one protected in the command center definitely did not come naturally.

But it did come with a healthy dose of regret. 

The sounds of weapons fire at the doors had faded ever so slightly and now most of what they could hear was pot shots, and silence. Multiple attempts had been made to take the command center, and multiple attempts had failed, but they all knew that the defenses were growing thin. There were only so many living, breathing people that could be put between those beings within the command area and those who wished them all dead. What plagued Ash was, who decided that she was somehow worthy of that status?

Again the deck shook. They had almost gotten used to it and as she was perched on her chair, Ash moved gently as if on a gyroscope. This time, the shaking came with new and different alarms. At least it was something new, right?

Stergis:  What the hell...

No sooner had the woman's words spilled into the open than the speakers crackled to life.

Zerva: ::coding the message:: =/\= Khitomer to Deep Space 33. =/\=

Stergis: =/\= Thirty Three here, state your intentions Khitomer.  I show you on a collision course.  =/\=

Ash, the one who rarely showed much emotion, who was well into overwhelm at the moment, somehow found a second to smile.

Mackenna: =/\= It's good to see you! =/\=

Off topic and totally unhelpful, she let her thoughts and voice fade as the important information was conveyed. 

Zerva: =/\= We’re coming in hot and causing a distraction. Our goal is to fire on a non-inhabited part of the station. We’ll need you clear a cargo bay. =/\=

If the smile wasn't already gone, that would have taken it away if for no other reason than the cognitive power necessary to process what had been said into something that made any sense at all.

Stergis: =/\= Say again Khitomer, you intend to fire on the station?  Doesn't it look like we've got enough problems at the moment? =/\=

Mackenna: =/\= We're taking fire from quite a few ships that probably don't need help. =/\=

There was her stoic cynicism.  

Zerva: =/\= We’re hoping the Alliance will think we’re here to destroy a vital asset that we don’t want them to get. This should cause any boarding parties to send number of them to one location. And with luck a number of their ships to us. Use that to your advantage. =/\=

At those words, the commander of the station looked at her.

Stergis: Do you trust them to pull this off?  

Ash shrugged in return. It wasn't like there was much more in the way of options laying around. 

Mackenna: They wouldn't be doing it without the captain's blessing.

A few commands on a nearby console and the conversation resumed.

Stergis:  That's good enough for me.  =/\= Khitomer, passing you targeting data now.  Be advised civilians are sheltering in adjacent bays...keep that fire tight. =/\=

Zerva: =/\= Let’s hope this confusion works. We’re going radio silent. Good luck =/\=

Stergis: =/\= And to you all.  Thirty Three Stands. =/\=

There was nothing more for her to say because anything she might have said across those open lines would have been to the captain. Shayne. While everyone knew going into things that this was going to be a hell of a fight with some dim chances of success, she hadn't quite told herself that there was a very real chance that the last time she'd seen him might be the last. A quiet dread encased her heart and mind and all of the regrets, the time she could have spent with him, the things she could have done differently and all the time she wasted solidified into a wall of regrets.

The commander, however, seemed to have an entirely different view on things. Her grin showed her pleasure in the act and as the Khitomer moved away to join in the firefight.

Stergis:  I'm starting to get what you see in Captain Shayne.  

Ash turned her head towards the woman ever so slightly.

Mackenna: Perhaps that's something to build on.

If they survived. The woman tapped the ops table as if it would help things work better. It didn't seem to. 

Stergis:  If the Khitomer is here the Ronin can't be far behind.  Think they've got a chance against all of...::She gestured with her head towards the tactical display on the wall and the massive arrangement of Alliance forces swarming over them.::...that?  

Mackenna: Always a chance.

She had to hold on to that or she would descend into a spiral of catastrophizing. Now was not a good time for that. Now was a time to focus and get something done. The rocking of the station under the hits the Alliance was delivering reduced, and Ash held on to some kind of hope that maybe the tide would turn. But how could they with everything seen outside.

Stergis:  It's working!

A glance at what raw data was still flowing in told her that a number of the ships had moved to intercept the Khitomer, but that meant they were then in danger. More of a warship than the station was, the Khitomer would take a few of them out along the way at least. Not long after, another signal joined the fray as well.

Mackenna: The Ronin has just dropped out of warp. Looks like a strafing run.

Stergis: Response?

It was hard to tell exactly what any of the ships out there were doing without contact, but they both had been in Starfleet long enough to make good guesses. Moments later the station rocked again, with new alerts and alarms sounding around them. She blinked and spoke almost silently to herself.

MacKenna: Hmm. Tricobalt torpedoes. 

Stergis: Response?

It was getting hard to follow everything, but that wasn't even necessary. The largest and most critical threat seemed to take up the majority of the screen now. Larger than the other Alliance ships, it hunkered along and seemed to be directing itself towards the station.

MacKenna: Not sure much of that will matter. Whatever that is...

Stergis: Response?

She didn't need to say the rest. In horror, she watched things play out on the screen in exactly the way she had hoped they wouldn't. There were lights brighter than anything they could have imagined and even with the computer compensating, Ash found herself squinting. And then she saw the result. The woman, who was usually quiet to the extreme somehow found a voice in what she figured were the last moments of her life.

MacKenna: BRACE FOR IMPACT!!!!

Gunshy from the last time she had wedged her feet beneath a console and broken them both, only to be carried around by the then first officer Commander Niac like a backpack, Ash simply tucked herself into a ball and waited for it to come.

And come it did.

Flashes and sparks flew as she passed by them as if she were wearing a rocketpack in the middle of a fireworks display. Smoke belched outwards from sheared power conduits. Deckplates and bits of bulkheads torn from their connections flew around as deadly decapitators, sharp and seeking the easiest path in which the forces directed them. The bodies of others were tossed around as if they were no more than bits of clothing. At one point she was pretty sure that her body collided with someone else, but she remained tucked until everything stopped. 

Were they still alive? Or was this what came after?

MacKenna: For the afterlife, this seems a bit underwhelming.

Attempting to move, Ash groaned at the pain that shot up her arm. Her uniform was in tatters in some places, and scratches told the tale of so much flying debris, but as she moved everything it all seemed to work. Seconds ticked by as a few alarms rang out in an almost sickly manner. A betazoid officer that had come to land a few feet from her stared at her with lifeless black eyes and she hoped that he had passed out before the mortal strike had been given. If so, at least the s-waves had given him that respite and gift even as life itself had ebbed away. 

Stergis: Response?

So it was confirmed, this was not the afterlife. That meant that maybe Shayne was out there too. Deep in her heart she knew he was, she could feel it.

MacKenna: I believe I am in one piece, but not everyone made it. 

She pulled herself up. What culd they do now...?

Stergis: Response?

TAG/TBC

--

Commander Ash MacKenna

Chief Intelligence Officer

USS Khitomer

R238605KN0