Escape from New Sydney, Finale
Posted on Monday 15 April 2019 @ 16:33 by
Mission:
Academy Days
Location: New Sydney
Timeline: 11 Years ago
Tags:
1488 words - 3 OF Standard Post Measure
In the back of the car, Stephanie had sagged against Sarah, who had had her arms wrapped around her lover.
"Steph, Do you remember TargBreath saying something about Gralth looking for you?" Sarah asked.
"I do."
"Then don't you think going back to the bar may be a phenomenally bad idea?"
"It probably is."
"Then why are we doing it?"
"Because t' expidite things, I ran a data link with my machine so I could use th' extra processin' power. The problem is that it keeps a log of everythin'. If they can break th' encryption codes, they have an entire record o' everythin', right down t' the credit chip numbers that th' Bank o' Bolius issued us. They'll be able t' track you, me, or m' family anywhere we go with that kind of information."
"Okay, so, justified... But couldn't ya just do it remotely?"
"If were easy t' execute a full data scrub over a data link, anaone could do it. Besides, I have a much more direct solution in mind."
"You know they're probably watching the bar, and even if they don't recognize us, we are still going to be super conspicuous in that neighborhood dressed like this.
"We don' have a choice. But I'm sure we can change there. I doubt Daffy went t' th' trouble t' pack ana o' m' shite."
The car rolled up to the curb and dropped them off. Stephanie kicked off the shoes the minute she stepped through the threshold and the door closed behind her. She walked over to the bar, reached down behind, feeling around until her hand closed on what she was looking for...
"Stephanie," Sarah asked slowly. "Why do you have a disruptor?"
"This is my m' more direct solution." She said simply. She walked upstairs, entered her room, leveled the disruptor at the tower of computer equipment on six foot tall wheeled rack and fired. It vanished into stain on the floor. She repeated the process with her terminal. "Done! Sarah, sweetie!" She called down stairs. There was no answer. "Sarah!?" Stephanie called again...
There were several more tense moments of silence before she heard the terror-filled sound of Sarah's voice scream "STEPH! RUN!"
Dear god, what have I done? "Sarah! I'm comin' Baby!" She ran down the stairs, she was still holding the disruptor. To her horror, she saw Gralth and his Klingon and Naussican associates. The Naussican, Tiny, had his hand around Sarah's throat.
"Looky who we found, boys. The woman of the hour herself. The Boss is very interested in speaking to you, young lady. Though, I must say, I'm digging the new look. It makes you look older. "
"Tell Bokar I'll be happy t' pencil him in f'r next week. Now put her down."
"I'm afraid he was rather insistent that it be today."
"This is how Bokar operates now? He threatens th' innocent?"
"No," Gralth said. "It's how I operate, and Bokar gives me a wide lattitude to get things done. If you wish no harm done to her, I suggest you comply."
"Let her go first!" Stephanie demanded.
"You are really not good at this. What incentive do I have to give you what you want?" Gralth said. "I know you, O'Hara. You won't shoot me. You don't have it in you. If anything happens to me, she dies."
"But so do you," Stephanie let a disruptor bolt fly about a foot shy of Gralth's ear. "D' ya need more incentive than that? Try me. Ye'll see what I can do."
"You know, if he didn't want you alive, I'd have killed you already. I never liked you. A shame about your girlfriend though.. Her death warrant was signed the moment you turned on the Syndicate. Seems a shame to destroy such a beautiful young thing." He nodded to Tiny. "Kill her."
Tiny laughed as he gleefully flicked his wrist. The sound of snapping bone made Stephanie cry out in horror. Tiny unceremoniously threw Sarah's corpse to the floor.
That was about the time Stephanie Iris O'Hara lost her mind. She opened fire at the thee men who were responsible for the death of the woman she loved. And she kept firing until she had drained the disruptor's power cell. When the smoke cleared, there was a barely conscious Klingon slowly bleeding to death from hole shot through his leg, the lower about two thirds of a Naussican, and a burn pattern on the back wall that was roughly the size and shape of Gralth.
She walked over to Sarah's limp body, and cradled it. She sobbed. "Nononono.... Please be all right." Stephanie checked her neck for a pulse. There wasn't one. She kissed Sarah. She hoped against hope that the fairy tales she read as a little girl were somehow real and that true love's kiss would wake her up and everything would be okay. It wasn't. It never would be again. Stephanie sobbed into Sarah's shoulder for what seemed like an eternity.
I can't leave her her like this.... Bonnie and Clyde. She promised. I promised. It was in that moment when Stephanie had fully resigned herself to die with Sarah, that she heard movement outside. Apparently Gralth's failure to return had not gone unnoticed by Bokar. This complicated matters. It was in this moment that a new plan was born. She had to make Bokar pay.
The gravity of the predicament she found herself in was starting to make itself known. She had just killed three people with a disruptor registered to her father in a building that her family technically still held the lease on. This was not how one keeps a low profile. A war was being waged in her mind as to how she should proceed. The practical part of her told her she should leave. The grief stricken part told her that she couldn't just leave Sarah there. She knew that the first step of any plan would be to don more sensible clothes and shoes. She did so, selecting black pants, a black hoodie and black sneakers. She decided to keep the wig. Gingers still stood out.
To avoid strolling out through the front door into more potential trouble, she put the hood up and opened the window of her bedroom. It faced the backside of the house, and let out into an alleyway. She had been getting out of the house this way for years. She climbed out just in time to hear a crash as the front door was kicked in. She didn't hang around to find out who it was or what they were looking for. Instead she shimmied her way around to the side of the building where the fire escape was. Once safely on it, she simply walked down the stairs and moved away. None of the people inside O'Hara's pub knew she was even there.
She picked her way along the streets, doing her best to stick to alleyways and dark side streets so she wouldn't be seen. She eventually made her way to the spaceport, using the time to develop her plan a little more fully. She obviously had to get off the planet. There was no place on New Sydney that she could go where Bokar couldn't find her. It also dawned on her even through her rage and sorrow that she was only one person. One teenage girl couldn't take on the largest criminal syndicate in the quadrant. She was going to need help. There was only one place she could think to go.
Arriving at the spaceport, She dropped the ID that TargBreath had made for her and one of the credit chips on the counter. "Earth," She said. "One-Way."
The all too chipper ticket clerk, took up the ID, which identified Stephanie as 'Diana Prince', examined it, fed it to his computer and smiled. It had apparently passed muster. "Absolutely, Miss Prince. What city?"
"San Francisco."
On Earth, in the headquarters of the Starfleet Intelligence Office, a redhead in a black hoodie strode up to the receptionist. She didn't say anything but pulled an Isolinear chip out of one her pockets and dropped it on the desk. When it's clattering had ceased, and she was sure she had the full attention of the receptionist, she spoke.
"M' name is Stephanie Iris O'Hara," She announced. "I'm th' hacker known on New Sydney as WarpDiva. This isolinear chip contains enough information to indict every member o' the Orion Syndicate on New Sydney. Who do I talk to about cuttin' a deal?"
FIN
●○ LTjg Stephanie O'Hara
Chief Engineer
USS Merlin
