A wolf in sheep’s clothing Part 23

Posted on Sun Sep 1st, 2024 @ 11:34pm by Commodore Finchley Kerr & Captain Kevin, Lord Kilbane of Sanquhar & Lieutenant Commander Shr'Nesh Karadis & Lieutenant Commander Wyatt Steele & Lieutenant Evelyn Steele

Mission: The missions never over.
Location: Various
Timeline: Current.

— Previously on the USS Thall —

"That's...good..." Karadis replied, sounding distracted, "Yes...make him mad...that's the answer..."

— Now —

Eve gave Karadis a curious look. “Are you alright? You seem distracted.”

"What you just said" Karadis replied looking at Eve, "It's the answer to our problem...not with the special investigator, but with the Captain. We have to make him mad, make him lash out, that way we can kill him...legitimately...get ourselves out of this hell we're in. Can't you see, he's never going to let us go, we're here till he kills us, meaningfully or not, but if we strike first, we've got a chance of surviving, getting out..."

“What?” Eve gave Karadis a disbelieving look. “Kill the Captain? My uncle?” She shook her head. “I thought you cared about him? At least that’s the impression I got.”

"The last mission, he took risks with my life, all our lives" Karadis replied, sounding far away, "I know we're a death squad, and that technically our lives are forfeit, but being shot by Jara...it's really brought it home how much I want to live. I did my best for you Eve, I did what the Captain asked of me and kept you as safe as I could without you knowing I was there, but Kerr doesn't care about that, I see it now. We're just a means to an end for him, we're there to keep him alive as long as possible so 'he' gets out."

She stood up and walked across to the far wall and opened the lock box there and took out the phaser from within. Putting it to the highest firing setting, her arm dropped to her side and she ambled towards the door, "He has to pay for what he's done to all of us, he has to die..."

“Karadis, stop!” Eve rushed around blocking Karadis’ exit. “You can’t do this, if you do it’s a death sentence for you anyway, and besides Starfleet will only send us someone worse! There is a better side to my uncle, at least I’m hoping there is, and I for one prefer having him as my Captain to someone who could be a hell of a lot worse!”

"There isn't anyone worse!" Karadis exclaimed loudly, "why do you think Kerr was given the duty? You forget, I've served with him for fifteen years, I've seen what he's capable of, you've been here for only a short period, you have no idea what he can be like. There's no good side to him, oh yes, he can joke and be funny, but he's a cold blooded killer. Let me give you an example of what your uncle's really like. At the end of the Dominion War, we were on a planet called Archarius, a nowhere dump that nobody had heard of but was the last bastion of Cardassian resistance in the sector we fought in. Word had come to us that the Cardassian home world had fallen and the war was all but over. Now, rather than sit it out and wait till the Cardassian's we were facing would surrender once they'd found out their home world was gone, he mounted a full frontal assault on their position. Those of us Senior Officers who protested and tried to talk him out of it were shouted down by him, he wanted to prove to his highers that his squad were able to take on any task and win. Two hundred and thirty five of us began the assault, when we finished it there were seventy of us left. Oh, and by the way, he didn't lead the charge, oh no, Kilbane and Marshall did and Marshall paid for Kerr's stupidity with his life...Kilbane was wounded. Kerr waited till the main assault line had broken through before he came up with his group. When we got to the Cardassian command bunker, we found out that they'd been ordered to surrender to us but Kerr destroyed the communique and told those of us who were there that we never saw it,anyone who mentioned it would regret it. If he'd listened to us before the attack, if he'd waited just an hour, one hundred and sixty five soldiers would still have been alive...but no, he wanted the glory. That's who your uncle is, there is no good side to him...and he's going to do the same thing with this Brown situation. He's going to go after him using all of us and he'll wait in the background whilst we all get ourselves killed for him and then take to glory. No Eve, no more blood spilled uselessly, no more unnecessary deaths...he has to die."

Eve knew she needed more help, hitting her comm badge. =/\= Eve to Wyatt! I need you at Karadis’ Quarters, now! =/\=

Wyatt was working on cracking Brown's security and had cracked it. "Yes!" He crowed just as Eve's urgent call came in. Hearing her frantic words, He locked his work down keeping it safe from anyone wanting to access it. Moments later he was at Karadis's quarters. Urgently pushing the chime. "Eve!" Its Wyatt!" He called through the door..

Eve let Wyatt in whilst trying to still keep Karadis from leaving. “It’s Karadis...” Eve motioned towards Karadis. “She’s planning on killing the Captain!”

"WHAT!!!?" Wyatt loudly exclaimed. He had an incredulous look on his face but he knew to believe Eve. "We can't let that happen Eve. We need to stop her."

“That’s why I called you” Eve sighed. “I need you to talk to Karadis, she might listen to you.”

"You two really ought not to be here" Karadis said in a dulled voice, "probably best you not get involved" she added, raising the hand she held phaser in and looking at the weapon. "I don't know why it took me so long to reason this out, there were so many signs, so many situations, so many stupid decisions...and for what, just so he could live a little bit longer. I have to go now, please don't follow me, you'll only add to the ever growing list of his casualties."

Tapping her COMM badge she said "Computer, site to site transport, one to beam to the Bridge."

==^==Transport in progress==^==

Karadis was enveloped in a blue hue then was gone.

“Dammit!” Eve cursed and hit her comm badge. =/\= Steele to Kerr, Karadis is on her way to you. She’s err...looking to harm you Sir. She’s not in her right mind. =/\=

In his Ready room, Finchley looked at Kilbane, then tapped his COMM badge, "Are you kidding me Lieutenant, why on Earth would Karadis want to harm me, and in what way do you mean 'she's not in her right mind'?"

Wyatt spoke up. "She means to kill you sir!" He yelled into the com badge and then to Eve, "Alert security! Come on!" We've got to get to the bridge.

Kilbane was first to react, he was already close enough to the lock box in the room where the phasers were and in an instant he had it open, taking a phaser for himself and lobbing one to Finchley. It was to late however, Karadis already had the doors open and had her phaser trained on the Captain.

"You...it was all your fault...you and your fucking ego..." she began, "you couldn't just go to Sestus One and play it safe, you had to make sure things were done your way, make sure the ALMIGHTY Finchley Kerr played the hero...but as usual, at a cost. Oh no, not a cost to yourself, your self preservation saw to that, the cost was to all of us...us mere mortals. The torture, the beatings and finally almost the taking of a life...MY LIFE YOU BASTARD!!!"

Finchley put the phaser he was holding down on his desk, "What's the matter with you Karadis, you knew the danger, we never get sent on any mission without there being consequences and cost...that's the nature of our squad!"

"No...that's the nature of your handling of the squad!" Karadis retorted, "you send us in, just as you always do then you come riding in at the last minute like some modern day knight in shining armour, but no more, have you got that you fucking prick, those days are gone, just like you're going to be!"

"KARADIS!" Kilbane shouted, his phaser trained on the Klingon, "DROP THE PHASER NOW BEFORE THIS GOES TO FAR."

Karadis let out a braying laugh, "Before this goes to far? Hello, I'm Shr'Nesh Karadis, I don't think we've met" she replied in irony. "You always were his lap dog Kilbane...'Yes Captain, no Captain, three bags full Captain...you've been there with me, or have you forgotten? All those times he sent others into the fight whilst he sat back. Funny, I was just telling Lieutenant and Commander Steele all about Archarius, how had the Captain waited just one more hour we could have come out of it with two hundred and thirty five soldiers still alive, INSTEAD OF JUST SEVENTY!!!!"

She marched back and forth across the room by the doors, phaser still trained on Finchley, "I told them how you and Marshall lead the frontal assault instead of the Captain there. How Marshall was killed and you were wounded...and for what...to find out that the Cardassian's had already been ordered to surrender. One hundred and thirty five lives uselessly lost for his..." and she brandished the phaser towards Finchley, "...fucking ego, so he could say 'he' took the last stronghold. No, now it's time for him to pay the price, like he should have done back there had he had the courage and balls to lead the assault himself!"

Wyatt and Eve arrived in a rush at the Commodore's ready Room. They could hear Karadis ranting, her voice raised. 'Everyone, stay back from here. We'll get this under control and handled." He looked to Eve."We have to assume she has her phaser pointed at the Commodore., so we can't risk surprising her." Then he smiled, "Computer deactivate all phasers inside the Commodore's Ready Room. This is a Priority One Emergency. ." He ordered.

==^==All phasers deactivated==^==

Inside the Ready Room, Karadis was now at a frenzied pique, spittle now forming in the corners of her mouth, her eyes bulging in hatred. "I have to find a way out of this hell, and your downfall's the start!!!" she shouted.

"KARADIS, ONE LAST CHANCE!" Kilbane said, his finger tightening on the firing mechanism of his phaser.

"WE'RE ALL ON OUR LAST CHANCE HERE!!!" Karadis screamed back at him, "THIS WHOLE SHIP IS THE LAST CHANCE SALOON, EVEN HE SAID SO!" she waved her phaser at Finchley. She stopped pacing and looked the Captain straight in they eyes, "YOU BASTARD!!!!!!!! I SHOULD HAVE KILLED YOU A LONG TIME AGO OR AT THE VERY LEAST LET YOU GET KILLED ISNTEAD OF SAVING YOUR SCRAWNY ARSE. WELL, TIME'S UP SIR!!!!!! YOU'RE GOING TO FUCKING WELL DIE N..."

At that point she screamed and held her head, the phaser she'd been holding now thrown out her hand and bouncing of the wall and onto the floor. Her body convulsed back and forth, spittle sprayed onto her uniform and the floor, finally her legs buckled and she fell down, body now twitching in spasms.

Kilbane rushed over and kicked the phaser out of reach and held the one he had against Karadis' head.

"Don't touch her Kilbane, she's having a seizure!" Finchley called out, rushing from behind his desk and kneeling down by Karadis. He could barely believe what had just happened, it was nightmarish, surreal. Finally, Karadis stopped twitching and lay still,but Finchley held back, she could still be dangerous."

Tapping his COMM badge he said, "Medical emergency, trauma team to the Captain's Ready Room now!

Wyatt and Eve burst into the room and saw Kerr beside Karadis and kilbane still holding his phaser. "You can lower your phaser Commander Kilbane. All the phasers in the room have been deactivated." Wyatt explained. "What happened to Karadis?" He asked as Eve looked at the fallen woman..

“Delayed trauma from her shooting I’d say” Eve moved closer to Karadis. “Toss me an emergency med kit, we need to get this fitting under control.”

“No need” Hannah rushed through the door, fortunately she’d chosen to beam directly to the bridge to save time. “Alright Karadis, lets get you sorted out,” She pulled out her medical tricorder before grabbing a hypo and pressing it to Karadis’ neck. “That should help stop the fitting” She motioned to the med team as they arrived to take Karadis to Sickbay. “Karadis left Sickbay too early in my opinion, there’s signs of a swelling on her brain, personality changes are one side effect. It’s a good job we caught it early, for now I’m going to keep her in a coma give the swelling time to go down. It may or may not improve, plus she’ll need counselling for her trauma as well.” With that she headed on her way to be with Karadis.

Eve shook her head. “Poor Karadis.”

"Poor Karadis my arse!" Finchley replied to Eve, "she just tried to kill me. I mean, who in their right mind would want to kill their Captain?"

Kilbane gave him a side ways glance, "Oh, I don't know, it's crossed my mind on more than one occasion..."

"Ha bloody ha" Finchley said.

"There has to be more to it than what we saw, I mean, Karadis can harbour things yes, but to come out with what happened on Archarius, that was five years ago" Kilbane answered, "She's had plenty of opportunity to bring that situation up and get it dealt with, so why now?"

"We can't dwell on that right now, we've got other things to deal with" Finchley said, "like this special investigator."

He looked at Wyatt, "Thank you for your quick thinking on deactivating the phasers in here Commander, you'll get a commendation for this."

Wyatt nodded st the Commodore's praise. "Thank you sir. Very generous of you."

"Ok, with Karadis now in Sickbay again, I want both of you" he said, pointing to Eve and Wyatt, "to meet with Commander Brent. He's due here now, so off you go, get what you can from him on Admiral Brown's reasons for setting off into Cardassian space to meet this Gul Mair."

“He’s due now!?” Eve sighed. “Great, I need to get down to Sickbay, We had a plan for getting to Brent. Long story and no time to delay, I’ll catch up as soon as I can.”

"Yes sir, we can do that and oh, I've hacked into the Admiral's system and Commander Brent should soon be receiving a message about his promotion being indefinitely postponed." He looked at Kerr and Kilbane. "What? Commander Brent should be good and steamed when Eve and I meet him."

“Once I’ve been to Sickbay all I’ll need to do is shake Brent’s hand, and then we’ll need to make him angry” Eve offered a wry smile. “After that he’ll sing like a bird.” She started for the door. “I’ll meet up with you as soon as I can.”

"Sounds good. Just let me shake his hand first Eve. I don't want to get any of that stuff on my hands." He said with a smile.

“Of course” Eve nodded. “Besides it’s just a truth serum nothing more.”

Watching them leave, Kilbane turned to his Captain and said "You do realise that you added to Karadis' situation don't you?"

"In what way?" Finchley demanded to know.

"Oh come on you supercilious prick!" Kilbane began his reply, "Right after Karadis begins to recover from being shot, you go off on one of your high and mighty pissing contests and demote her, and for what, trying to protect Eve. You've got about as much tact as a bull in a china shop. She didn't deserve that, yes, a smack on the wrist perhaps, a dressing down...but to demote her...that's just fucking stupid even by your moronic standards."

"Look, you know just as much as I do about all of this, she had it coming after what she'd done...plus, her attitude!" Finchley replied.

"What, she used a few hurtful words, told you the truth about yourself and that deserves a demotion?" Kilbane said, "You really are a total shit. Tell me, the phrase 'sticks and stones', does that mean anything to you, ring any bells?"

Finchley sat silent for a moment or two then said, "But what about just now, am I meant to ignore that?"

"There's more to that happening, there has to be" Kilbane said, "We've been in situations like that, in fact much worse, but she's never reacted like that. Something else must have happened on Sestus One other than her being shot and the aftermath for her to act that way. I need to talk to her, go over everything she did, everything she was involved in."

"You carry on Captain, just don't expect me to be there when you do" Finchley replied.

"No, it's probably for the best, after all, if she was to get a second chance I'd more than likely help her" Kilbane said, rising and heading for the exit.

"With what?" Finchley called after him.

"Killing you..." Kilbane answered as he left the room.

Meanwhile Eve and Wyatt were on their way to their respective destinations. “I’ll see you in the transporter room, or wherever you get to, as soon as Hannah is finished with me.” She offered a smile.

Wyatt nodded, "I'll wait for you in the transporter room so we can both meet Commander Brent at the same time, A united front if you will Eve. I think arriving separately would look odd," He added.

“True” Eve nodded. “I’ll be as fast as I can.”

~ A little while later ~

Eve stepped into the transporter room gazing at her fingers which were now coated with fake coverings that no one would know were there. Now all she needed to do was shake the hand of their visitor.