The Battle for Starfleet Academy, Interlude

Posted on Sat Apr 22nd, 2023 @ 10:28am by Petty Officer 2nd Class Mai Ichihara

1,250 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Insurrection
Location: Access Corridors
Timeline: After "The Battle for Starfleet Academy, Part 4", before “The Upper Hand”

Mai Ichihara walked on the right hand side of the access corridor as seven cadets walked in a line on the left. It might have been safer to be in a tighter formation, but Mai wanted a clear line of sight both ahead and behind them.

The seniormost cadet, the one who had been something of a leader, Hikage Miyakawa, had stayed with Lieutenant Commander Tezeda and the Myogi team. The remaining seven cadets were with Mai. None of them stood out as being particularly leader-like, and they were scared, but they were keeping calm and listening to guidance.

The access corridors connected most of the buildings of Starfleet Academy and some went much farther. They were meant for moving cargo around the Academy grounds and existed long before Transporters were widely used. In theory, access was restricted to Starfleet personnel with special access codes, one of which Commander Tezeda had given her. But it was impossible to know for sure that they were safe, so they had to keep moving in as secure a way as possible.

“Where are we going?” asked one of the Cadets, an elongated-headed Arkenite who had previously identified himself as Seron nd’Dian. He was on point int he line of seven for the moment.

“According to my tricorder, this tunnel leads under the Bay and back into San Francisco proper,” Mai explained. “Keep on track everyone. This will be a long hike but we’ll emerge near the tram station at the Southern base of the bridge.”

The corridor connecting Starfleet Academy and other Starfleet Command infrastructure in Marin County with the rest of San Francisco was over two kilometres long. There were no other ways in or out aside from an emergency escape pod in case of flooding. So they didn’t expect to see anyone until the tram station.

“Well look what we have here.”

Mai and the cadets stopped in their tracks as a voice came from ahead of them. The tunnels were well lit but long, so it took a moment for Mai, even with her corrective lens on properly, to make out the three beings coming for them. Humans. Two men and a woman. The man on the left looked about 40, tall and broad shouldered, looking like someone who played rugby his entire life. The man in the middle was younger, maybe 30, and shorter, not fat but certainly needed more exercise. On my the right was the woman, between the ages of the two men, and between their heights and builds. All three looked ready for a fight.

“You thought we weren’t going to find anyone down here, Jimmy,” said the man on the left.

“The plan was just to sneak in closer to the Academy,” the woman said. “Fuck shit up from inside. Get around the barricades. We paid big money for that access code from Seagal.”

“Commander Seagal sold us a good code, Emily,” the man in the middle — Jimmy, apparently — agreed. “One of the few in this blasted fleet that understands. The plan still works. Sneak in, fuck around, make sure these child soldiers know they’re on the wrong side.” His mouth twisted into a grotesque smile. “We just get to teach them a lesson more directly first.”

Mai pointed her sidearm at them, but suddenly no longer part of a big team, no longer with Sinclair, or with Tezeda, she found herself shaking. “Stay back,” she warned.

“Hey Clancy,” Jimmy said to the other man, “I heard that you can’t fight someone wearing one of those red crosses. It’s a war crime or some such, right?”

“Not if they fight back,” Clancy replied. “She’s pointing a weapon at us, Jimmy. I’d say that counts as fighting back. Fair target.”

“She’s shaking,” observed Emily. “Come on, little girl. Give us the weapon and step aside. We won’t hurt you…much. We’ll just go through. Make it easy.”

“Stay. Back.”

“She’s got some fight in her,” Jimmy said. He threw a rock at Mai, which threw her off balance and let Clancy rush up to her, pushing the phaser out of her hand and holding her against the wall.

Emily recovered the phaser and aimed it at the cadets while Clancy and Jimmy dealt with Mai. Clancy held her arms behind her back while Jimmy, satisfied with a job well done, gloated by first slapping her across the face, sending her eyepiece to the ground to shatter, and following it up with a punch to her abdomen, causing her to keel forward.

“We should probably keep moving,” Emily called back. “Let’s stun them and keep going.”

“In a minute, sweetness,” Jimmy replied. “These Starfleeters take so much. I want to take my time teaching these ones that that’s not okay.”

There was nothing Mai could do. Trapped and injured, it was all she could do to brace herself for the next punch—

When the phaser went off and Jimmy was knocked unconscious.

A second later, so were Emily and Clancy, and Mai was free. She fell to the floor, but was caught by a human boy and an Andorian girl.

The girl spoke first. “Nurse Mai, are you okay?”

“W-what happened?” Mai asked hazily.

“You can think Cadet Loxol,” said the boy. “I guess these three never learned about Kazarite telekinesis.

The world was a bit of a blur, but sure enough, the Kazarite cadet held the phaser. She had never seen their limited telekinetic abilities in action (and still hadn’t, she figured), but for the rest of her life she would praise it for saving her life.

“Help me walk,” she told the two at her sides. “Loxol, you have point. Anyone not in uniform, stun them. No more chances. Nd’Dian, take aft, call out anyone following us.”

“What about these three?” someone asked.

Part of Mai wanted to see them hurt. See them pay for their willingness to do such harm. But that’s not who she was.

“We have nothing to bind them with,” she said. “And we can’t bring them with us. Anyone have a tricorder?” A cadet in gold lifted one in the air for her to see. “Scan them closely. Full biometric readings. If they wake up and flee before security comes, then at least investigators will be able to identify them. Thirty seconds, then we move.”

Eight minutes later, they were climbing a ladder into a secure Starfleet air tram station. The Golden Gate Bridge looked beautiful, with Starfleet Academy visible on the far coast.

As Mai Ichihara rested while a medic scanned her for injuries (nothing life-threatening, but she would still need some analysis and treatment from Doctor Delling back on the ship), Starfleet Security took custody of her seven cadets and saw them somewhere safe. The cadets gave the security officers a good run-down of what had happened, including descriptions — and biometric data — on their attackers and possible complicity by someone named Commander Seagal.

When all went quiet and the kids were safe, Mai was finally able to lie down and listen to the broadcasts of her Captain, Maho Takahashi, followed by the message sent out by Miyahara. It looked like things were winding down. Control was being restored.

But most importantly, seven cadets who might have been injured or killed were instead alive and unharmed.

A good day’s work.

*****

Petty Officer Third Class Mai Ichihara
Nurse, USS Myogi

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