Rescue Off The Books (Rescue, Part 1)

Posted on Thu May 30th, 2024 @ 8:06pm by Lieutenant JG Jane Sinclair & Lieutenant Mia ‘Banshee’ Amaro

1,695 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Junichi Koyama
Location: Main Shuttlebay
Timeline: Concurrently with "Ambrose Hartley Must Die!"

The comm clicked open for Jane as a call came in for her, “Chica, I’ve got a problem with one of the shuttles down here. A varmint was tryin’ to get in one and I think it’s gonna require your presence to deal with.” It was obviously Mia, “Can you get down here real quick?”

"On my way," Jane replied. Mia's request was made informally but others on the bridge would hear her answer, so best keep it formal until she saw her friend and colleague. She signaled for a relief officer to take her place, nodded to the OOD, and got in the turbolift.

The silence of the lift was deafening, because the blood vessels in her ears threatened to burst. Alisha was in danger. And they couldn't get to her. It was maddening. It was agonizing.

A few minutes later, she was in the main shuttlebay, where Mia was standing next to the shuttlecraft Ahiru. "What's this about?" Jane asked.

“It snuck into Ahiru.” Mia whispered loudly as she gestured Jane over, “Gotta sneak up on it and close the door so it don’t escape.” The two of them quietly entered the hatch, which Mia closed behind them, then she spun, “I been listen in’ to what’s been goin’ on the bridge.” She pointed to a bundle of clothing on the chair, “So I decided that rather than waste time waitin’ for Takahashi to talk about and think about and THEN decide to go lookin’ for Alisha, that I was gonna go down there. What with Kurumi and Ami and Ruby goin’ down and whatever happened to get the weapons firing, I gots this gut feeling that your girl’s in trouble, chica. I don’t know who else would be wanting to go, but I’d really rather have someone to watch my back down there and I figured you were the safe bet not to go tattlin’ on me.”

Jane didn't know what to say at first. Mia had said it all. Alisha was in trouble, there was no doubt of that. Hartley's people had tortured their Tactical Officer. Jane was 100% sure that they would do the same to an Intelligence Officer, if not worse.

Of course they knew who Alisha really was. Arresting Alexis Silverstar, even if she had broken some of Gamma Zednor's discriminatory laws, would be bad PR. These people were monsters but they weren't stupid. The instant Alexis got in front of a holocamera she would tell the Federation what she experienced and it would certainly lead to economic and political consequences for the planet. Loyalty evaporates pretty quickly when the amenities people are used to are blocked behind sanctions. The only way the calculus worked was if they knew they had captured a spy.

**

“Only Commander Ebisuzawa and a kid? Where’s Lieutenant Reno then?! She’s almost definitely down there, if it’s where they’re keeping prisoners. Maybe deeper in where we can’t get transporter locks?”

"One step at a time, Lieutenant. It's entirely possible that Lieutenant Reno might not have even been at this location: For now, we must hear Commander Ebisuzawa out before we determine our next move."

“Understood.”

**

At the time, Jane had indeed understood. Rationally speaking it was best to know all the facts before acting.

But she just had this gut feeling. Something was wrong and they had to act quickly. Immediately.

She had hoped that Captain Takahashi would have spoken to the security chief, understood the situation, and immediately ordered a rescue party beam down into the complex, recover Alisha, and get out. That she hadn't made that call yet was disconcerting.

They didn't have time to wait anymore.

Jane pulled Mia into a tight hug. "Thank you," she whispered.

"Don't gotta thank me, Chica," Mia hugged Jane back and patted her on the back, "I'm rootin' for the two of you and well, my loss I wasn't here to act earlier, no? Besides, she's down there and prolly just waiting for us to come and pick her up."

"Now then," Jane said, "it was your shift as deck officer today so there isn't anyone around we need to worry about reporting our launch. But we need to make sure we're not seen launching or they'll have a tractor beam on us right away. Any ideas?"

The smile on Mia's face grew broad as she nodded, "Purloined letter approach, we're going to be showing in front of God and Myogi. Get changed, no Starfleet uniform goin' down there in the open, got a pistol there too, set on kill." She grabbed Jane's shoulders for a moment and looked her in the eyes, smile fading, "Don't change it. Anyone we run into down there is complicit in whatever they're doin' to your girl. I'll take the lead, but I ain't holdin' back." She patted Jane on the shoulder, "I'll get us out of the hanger, we're gonna transport down while the shuttle does our work for us."

As Mia vanished into the cockpit, she triggered the comm, "Bridge, this is Ahiru, launching for the visual inspection of the phasers and torpedo tubes that Lieutenant Rori requested. Try to keep them from blowin' us out of space?" She activated the anti-grav on the shuttle and it lifted off the deck beginning to move forward.

Someone on the bridge acknowledged Mia’s transmission. Jane sat at the co-pilot station and remotely opened the hangar bay. Moments later they were in space. “Circle us like we’re doing the inspection,” she said. She stood up and went to the cargo area, where she began to get out of her uniform and into the jumpsuit Mia had left her. “Find us a good parking spot. Outside the Myogi's shield range, ideally. Just in case they get wise.”

Mia started the 'inspection' tour of the ship by passing by the rearward facing torpedo tubes, making sure to use the sensor suite to perform a detailed scan of them, "Roger that, Jane, I have just the spot in mind." She goosed the thrusters after several seconds, letting them burn for many long seconds as she maneuvered the shuttle wide around the main hull of the New Orleans-class ship. It was as if she was wary of the phasers and how they had just opened up as if by random and she wanted as much reaction time as possible. This time as she brought the shuttle to a stop at a point that should be about fifty meters outside the shield's standard range, she began a new sensor sweep of the phaser array, rapidly punching in additional information into the auto-pilot.

As Mia was getting ready, Jane replicated four nondescript communicators and tied them into the shuttle’s systems. She then fiddled with the shuttle’s emergency transporter. Once done, she handed a pair of the comm units to Mia, pocketed the other two, and then checked her weapon. “Non Starfleet issue and lined with viridium. Triple tap to activate. Shuttle transporter will pull us back after a five count, regardless of depth or interference. You ready?”

Finally Mia had joined Jane in the back of the shuttle, pocketed both comm units, "Shuttle's going to change positions soon, but it'll keep in range. Triple tap, got it, and as ready as I'm going to get."

“When we get back, I owe you a drink,” Jane said lightly as she took position in the emergency transporter. “Well, you know, once we’re out of lockup. So in what, ten years?”

Mia pulled one of her phaser pistols out, checked it, reholstered it, then repeated with her other, but kept it in her hand as she stood next to Jane, "I think you may owe me more than just a drink, chica, but we'll deal with that tidbit later." She gave a cheeky grin, "But don't toss your chickens into the gulag before it gets built. We succeed, we're heroes, we fail, we may not have to worry about it."

"It's good to think of the bright sides of things," Jane quipped as she activated the transporter. Her own phaser pistol was in hand, thumb hovering over the trigger as the two of them dematerialized off the shuttle.

**

The facility was a wreck. The alarm klaxon was deafening and everything was doused in red light. Smoke billowed from down the hall. The floor, however, seemed empty of personnel. Likely everyone was repairing damage and putting

“This was as low in the complex as I could get a lock,” Jane called over the alarm. “Transport inhibitors or there’s something in the rock. Either way, best guess is they’d keep a suspected spy as deep as they can. Let’s find stairs down.”

Mia's weapon was up and twitching around as her eyes swept the room they had appeared in. No, she wasn't a Marine or even Security, but she'd been through SERE training and it was similar. "Right. We're gonna move and cover, move and cover, right?" She was all business now, but her confidence showed, "I'll move first. Door." She had her weapon pointed at the door as she asked Jane to open it.

It was clear behind there and Mia moved through it, first sweeping left, then right as she glanced down the hall and pointed to the left, "Cover right, moving left, door at the end should be stairs."

Jane followed Mia's lead, moving and covering, until they reached the door at the end. Her own combat training was taking over and despite the urgency, the personal stakes involved, she was focused 100% on the mission. "Stairs are clear," she reported once in position and able to inspect them. "Take point, I'll cover."

Mia slipped around the open door to the left pointing at the upstairs with her weapon before transitioning to the down and peeking over the edge before starting her way down, "Roger that, Chica, going down."

********
A Mission Post by:

Lieutenant (jg) Jane Sinclair
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Myogi

and

Lieutenant (jg) Mia Amaro
Fighter Pilot
USS Myogi

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