Captured
Lillian blacked out as Hector left. She came to after an interminable time had passed. She sat up, still cuffed, and looked around. The cell was sparse and unwelcoming. She pulled her right hand against the cuffs until she could reach her left wrist, and pulled out the tiny, concealed handcuff key that came in the secret pocket on her gloves. She wiggled the key around in the cuff lock until one side popped open. She unlocked the other side and shoved the cuffs into her pocket.
Lillian stood up and looked around again, intensity flaring in her eyes. She tried the door, but it flashed red. Cursing under her breath, she grabbed the end of the bed and pulled. It came up easily, not bolted down, and she gave thanks for her good luck. She yanked on the bed leg a few times experimentally, and it wiggled loosely from the two screws securing it. She flipped the bed upside down and braced herself against the wall. Then she kicked the leg, hard, her heavy jackboots slamming into it forcefully. Again and again she kicked it, til her leg burned with the impact and exertion. The leg had bent and torqued one screw out of it's socket, but the other stubbornly refused to budge.
Lillian stood and twisted the leg around the screw til she got some leverage, then she pulled hard. With a soft
ping, the screw head snapped off and the leg came away in her hand. She hefted it, then slammed it into the Isolation window. The reinforced glass absorbed the blow. She swung at it in a vicious frenzy until cracks started forming, then a small hole broke out in the center of the window. She forced the leg in and started prying with it, forcing glass up and out from the hole, creating more fractures. After several long moments of this, she had a hole big enough to crawl through, but the grille still stood between her and the next window.
She picked up a long sliver of glass and reached inside the grille to one of the tightly tied cable ties holding it in place. She sawed at the tie with her makeshift knife, eventually cutting it loose. Slowly but surely, she severed all the ties, until the grille started collapsing into a neat stack of small steel poles, connected with screws. She eyed the window, the last obstacle to her freedom.
A few minutes later, Lillian was dragging herself through the shattered remains of the reinforced window. As she came out the other side, a piece of glass caught her thigh and gashed her deeply. She fell out of the window onto the floor and gasped, "Son of a fucking bitch!". She grabbed the wound and put pressure on it, then dragged herself to the Virology desk, where a medkit lay. She pulled it off the table and got out ointment, gauze, and a coagulant injector. She dressed her wound and stood unsteadily, then limped to the locker.
She tried the locker door, but it was locked. She suppressed another curse, when she heard something making metallic thumps and scrapes from the floor. She looked at the air vent in a panic, her mind filling with thoughts of the enormous, vicious, black monsters. The vent was struck from underneath, denting it outward. Then again, tearing it from it's mounting and sending it flying.
A small monkey climbed out and looked around. Lillian passed her hand in front of her eyes, trying to dispel the illusion. The monkey remained. "Hey lil fella." She croaked uneasily, her throat dry and sore. It looked at her, and the intelligence in it's eyes was frightening. It shivered all across it's body, then started shedding fur and growing in size. In a few moments, an enormous, naked man stood before her, his giant orange afro scraping the ceiling.
Axel Axel smiled at her simply and said, "Sorry about the nudity. One second." He reached into the vent and pulled out a backpack, then produced a jumpsuit, which he put on quickly. Then he strapped on the backpack and looked around. "So... You wanna get out of here?"
Lillian stared, agape, then laughed sharply. Her voice was a little shrill, "That's hilarious! I thought you were a monkey... And then yo- Turned into you! I was sure I was going crazy... But now I'm positive!"
Axel put his hand on her shoulder, "Calm yourself. Focus. You need to get out of here." He looked at the locker. "I can get that open." He pulled a crowbar out of the toolbelt on his jumpsuit and set it in the gap between the door and the edge, right next to the lock. With a single swift pull, the locker popped open and the half-inch thick lock-bolt snapped like a twig. He pulled out her backpack and handed it to her.
Lillian was pale, but she quietly put on her things and activated her headset. "Axel...?" She queried him almost wordlessly.
He sighed, "There's no time to explain. I'm an alien and I'm here to help you. Please trust me." He smiled a big, simple smile. "Can you do that?"
She nodded numbly and gestured at the door to Virology, "It's a double-airlock with triple-density bolts. There's no way you can break that down."
He frowned at the doors. "You're right." He said, easily. Then he took out a screwdriver and multitool, and popped the door panel off. He touched the tool to one wire, and the bolts snapped out of locking position. Another wire, and it sprang open. "Good thing I don't have to." He stepped into the Decon area, and she followed. The next door was as easy as the last, then they were in the Maintenance Access way. Axel pointed at Medbay, "There's a big ole brawl going on in there. We should steer clear."
Lillian gritted her teeth and narrowed her eyes, then opened the door. Axel muttered, "Or not, I guess. I guess we can fight the evil cult and the swarm of psychopaths. Sounds like fun..." She stepped into Medbay, where the sounds of fighting echoed. Some of the lights had been broken, and strange runes littered the floor. They hurt the eye to look at and swam on the floor strangely. Lillian looked for signs of life, then followed the sounds. In the Cryogenics bay, five people fought, two with swords of unearthly black power, the other three with a variety of scavenged or makeshift weapons.
As Lillian took this in, one of the sword-wielders beheaded one of the scavengers with his blade, then swept it across and lodged it deeply in a second's chest. Before the man died of this, he pulled the swordsman close and jabbed his butterfly knife into the other man's throat. Blood spurted across both of them freely, and they fell to the ground dying. The other swordsman and fighter squared off. Lillian aimed her energy gun, but Axel put his hand on in. "I got a better way." He shivered violently, then held up one hand. Two slivers of some bone-like substance shot out and embedded in the combatants, who collapsed, paralyzed.
Lillian shook her head spasmodically and moved to cuff the two, but before she could, four more sword-wielders entered from the main entrance. She looked at Axel and he frowned, "I'm out for a minute. Shoot them."
Just then, there was a muted flash of bright green energy, and a figure in a black, formfitting suit was suddenly in the room, sprinting toward the swordsmen. His hand flickered lightning fast, and he was suddenly holding several green blades. They whipped across, impossibly fast, out of his hand and into two of the mysterious figure's targets. The swordsmen dropped instantly in pieces, and the figure whirled under the counter-attacks, then rolled seamlessly past the two remaining swordsmen. He stood up on the other side of them, and they turned to strike. Green blades flashed from either hand, catching the attacks behind his head. He twisted his hands, and the blades all twisted around his and then were sent flying. He spun in a low circle and both men fell, disarmed and dismembered in a matter of seconds. From the time the door opened to the time the last man fell, perhaps five seconds had passed.
Lillian groaned, "Oh fuck ME."
The figure turned to face them, his sinister black mask glinting evilly in the poorly lit room. He bowed deeply, "I am Null, milady. And I'm here to rescue you."
Axel frowned and said, "No, I'm here to rescue her."
Null stood sharply and cocked his head. "Oh. Well, then, I'm rescuing both of you." He and Axel shared an uneasy stare, then Lillian broke the tense moment.
"I'm not some fucking damsel in distress, guys. Who the fuck are you? Where did you come from? What was the green stuff? Who are these sword-toting assholes? Where the fuck is my security team? What's with the other wackos?! WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON IN THIS GODDAMN MEDBAY?!" She shouted, near hysterically.
Null and Axel shared another look, this one of concern. Null spoke, "I am a servant of the Spider Clan. I came from space. It was pulsed-phase energy harmonized with electromagnetic fields to create a cutting edge. They're bad guys. I don't know. Again, I don't know. And we're arguing about saving you." He cocked his head again, and took a deep breath. "Feel better now?"
Lillian shook her head, but holstered her gun. "I'm... I'm just going to go with it, okay? Let's find my team and fix this fucking situation." She keyed her comm, "
Please for the love of god, check in and don't be dead."
Immediately, Tina Morris replied, "
WHERE THE FUCK DID YOU GO GODDAMNIT?! I'VE BEEN SCOURING THIS WHOLE FUCKIN-"
Followed closely by Vlad, "
Jesus-fuck! Pinned down in the Chapel by a gang of fucking thu-" Laser blasts and whines interrupted his transmission, "
GET ME SOME FUCKING BACKUP!"
Lillian sighed, "
Security to Chapel now, all of you."
"
Helsbrecht, Owens, I'm pinned down with Roadman on the bridge. They've got some sort of ranged weapon that blinds you-"
Lillian broke into a run, and Axel followed her. Null shook his head once and vanished from sight. Lillian burst out of the Medbay into a cluster of robe-wearing cultists, standing tightly around a rune on the floor, chanting. They paused for a moment and everyone shared a look. Lillian laughed, the cultists laughed, Axel laughed. Then Lillian whipped out her baton, the steel sections falling out of each other and clicking into place right before she bashed one man in the face with it. His skull cracked sickly and the others jumped back from her, digging in their pockets for weapons, presumably.
Axel swept one hand out and smashed three of the men away from Lillian with lethal force, their broken corpses flying across the lobby to drape across chairs and tables, limbs bent at odd angles. Null flashed from concealment into one woman and she exploded violently as he stabbed another person three times in rapid succession, then jumped lithely over a fist clutching paper, his hands wrapped around their wrist. His moment carried him and he flipped the person and shattered their arm in one smooth motion. He rolled up from the ground and Lillian turned her gun on the last two, tazing them into unconsciousness.
The three looked at one another and Lillian shrugged, "Guess that works. Let's go." She hit her comm again, "
By the way, don't shoot my allies. Please. I suspect it wouldn't end the way you think it would."
They charged across the gore-spattered hallway into the Chapel.
Behind a flipped over table, Avery and Vladmir were hiding, Vlad clutching a taser and Avery holding his Null Rod. Valerie was nearby, hiding in the confessional, firing her taser at the main Chapel doors, where two Cargo Technicians were holding shotguns and taking cover beside the door. They would pop out and fire a round at the Security officers, then duck back into cover. Lillian stormed in, her gun switched to lethal, and fired one shot. It filled the air with the stench of molten flesh as it cooked one Technicians head in an instant. His head exploded, spewing superheated brain matter, skull steam, and bone shrapnel. His friend screamed in terror and fired another round. Then Vlad returned fire and drilled the man in the neck with a tazer shot. He jerked and twisted as he fell. Valerie dashed over and cuffed the fallen man, then dragged him into the confessional, frisked him, and locked him inside.
Vlad and Avery rose from behind cover. "Thanks for the rescue, Lillian." Vlad said, tersely eyeing the doorway for more. "We took care of most of them in the hall, but they forced us back. We gotta get to the Captain."
With that, Tina Morris burst in from the Library, Deckard .38 in hand. "YOU!" She snarled viciously, pointing at Lillian with her free hand. She stalked up to Lillian, "If you leave my sight again, I will shoot your knees off, cuff you to a wheeled bed, and drag your happy ass around behind me like a freighter hauling ore, you FUCKING BITCH! DO YOU KNOW WHAT HAPPENS TO BLUESHIELDS THAT FAIL TO PROTECT THEIR CHARGES?!"
Lillian opened her mouth to speak, but Tina cut her off, "THEY DOCK OUR FUCKING PAY!" Everyone looked at Tina askance as she continued ranting, "IT'S FUCKING BULLSHIT!"
Lillian grabbed Tina's face and pulled her close, "Shut. Up. We need to get to the Bridge, right now." Tina started to speak, then stopped and nodded.
Lillian looked around. Two Security Officers, a Blueshield, a Chaplain, an insanely powerful shapeshifting Cargo Tech, a black armored energy warrior, and herself. She smiled, "Let's go fuck some people up."
They headed for the bridge.
---
On the Bridge
---
Hector looked down at Everett and Amir, his sword held weakly in one hand. He grimaced as his followers approached. "Don't kill them. Take them to the Sacrificial Chamber. Four of you stay here and wait for the rest of the Security team. We move now." He plucked the Captain ID off of Everett and most of his followers fell into line behind him, dragging the two unconscious heads of staff. They moved through the Captain's office, into Maintenance, then laterally across the station towards the AI satellite and their secret chamber.
---
Meanwhile
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Lillian and her small, motley band of fighters burst onto the bridge, effortlessly wiping out the four cultists there. Once on the bridge, they scoured it for the Head of Personnel and Captain. Lillian turned on the Crew Monitoring Console, when a hologram shimmered into life behind her, "I wish you hadn't done that, Miss Helsbrecht."
The Bridge blast doors and emergency shutters slammed shut and bolted themselves. Then the panic syphon activated and all the air started rushing out of the room. Janus' avatar gave Lillian a sad look. "I wish it hadn't come to this, but now you know what is going on in Xenobiology, and I cannot allow a threat to the mission entrusted to myself and Horatio. I'm sorry."
Lillian stammered, "I actually have no fucking idea what you mean."
Janus paused. "Oh. Well this is awkward then." He gestured, and the syphon shut off. Air started hissing through the vents.
Null shouted, "Internals now! Weld those vents! He's pumping in a combination of N2O, CO2, and Nitrogen. Internals!"
---
To be continued in the next Chapter,
ESCAPE, coming soon to a post near you.
Author
Topic: The Lillian Helsbrecht Story (Read 28619 times)