Subtextual Frequences (Part 16)

Posted on Sun Dec 21st, 2025 @ 2:22pm by Lieutenant Jean-Baptiste Dorsainvil & Lieutenant JG Sakkar & Commander Irene Seya

1,748 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: How to See in the Dark
Location: North Lorna City, Barisa Prime
Timeline: MD 02, 1830 Hours

As soon as Lieutenant Willa Holmes disconnected the comm with Commander Seya she looked at JB with a sense of determination.

"It's not personal. My people come first. Your way would leave the initial crew in too vulnerable. You can go in right behind the back entry team, but make your decision now, we're going in."

Holmes nodded to the two team leaders. Each of them raised a hand, summoning their crew to rally in behind them.

JB watched as Gamma One and Gamma Two split-off from the side of the building--Gamma One approaching the front gate, Gamma Two moving to the rear--moving in a careful and steady jog with rifles drawn. Gamma Two quickly disappeared behind the fence which wrapped around the property and JB could only hope they showed restraint.

Glancing back, he noticed Holmes had now joined Gamma One at the rear of the column as it crouched near the front gate.

Holmes gave a sharp, silent signal, and one of the officers in Gamma One stepped forward with a squat, cylindrical device--matte black, the size of a thermos. He knelt by the fence, pressed its base into the metal links, and twisted the top with a slow and careful turn. A thin blue seam of light ran around the circumference.

For a moment, it felt like nothing had happened.

Then the chain softened--not necessarily melting or burning, but dissolving into a drifting cloud of silver dust that vanished on the breeze. The device clicked itself off with a polite tone, almost proud of its own efficiency.

The security team slipped through the opening in three staggered sticks: point man low and fast, flanking rifles sweeping in their practiced arcs, the rear guard already scanning nearby rooftops and shadows. Their footfalls were barely more than soft thuds on the gravel. Holmes fell into place at the tail of the formation, her eyes narrowed and serious.

Jean-Baptiste followed behind, the evening air cool against the back of his neck. The building loomed ahead--an old warehouse with half-lit windows. But before Gamma One could reach the entrance, the sound of weapons fire echoed from the rear.

[Contact!]

Stick leaders gave the signal to halt and every body ahead of the entrance crouched closer to the ground, weapons ready.

"Gamma Two, what's your situation?" called Holmes.

[We have breached. Two hostiles down. Carruthers is injured but okay.]

Holmes motioned for the the sticks to proceed to the entrance of the building while she cast a look back at JB. "Feel free to enjoy the fresh air out here," she muttered to him, before moving forward after her team.

"Dorsainvil to Seya," JB called over the comm. "Holmes and her teams are on their own channel. She is breaching in two teams and there are already casualties."

[What is your position?"] Seya's voice responded back as she waived to Emiliano to give her any additional information he may have.

"I'm situated roughly twenty meters from the front entrance of the warehouse--against a chain-link fence," he responded, his eyes darting from the side of the building to the door leading into the main foyer.

High above in the scout shuttle, Sakkar maintained radio silence but listened to the open channel with concern. The ground operation had only begun, and was already incurring casualties. Perhaps they would need the shuttle's transporter to beam the critically injured away? "Descend to three thousand meters," he said to the rest of the flight crew. The Windward's nose pointed towards the ground.

Holmes gave the signal--two fingers slicing air--and Gamma One surged forward. The breaching charge that followed wasn't dramatic. No more than a muted pulse, a shove of displaced air and the door to the warehouse foyer folded inward like an old and tired hinge simply giving up.

Phaser fire crackled immediately. It was a light show in the dim entryway.

JB pressed himself against the outside wall, jaw tight and set. He counted the bursts from inside the foyer--disciplined and short. Holmes' orders. He waited for the rhythm to break.

It finally did.

Silence collected in the doorway and for a moment, JB thought he could almost taste it.

He stepped inside to the smell of hot circuitry and dust. Three male bodies sprawled on the metallic floor, all dressed in work jackets and stained boots. These were the kinds of men who hid behind cargo manifests instead of laws.

Jean-Baptiste crouched by the first one. A Betelgeusian with more than a dozen earrings. No pulse. His skin was already taking on a waxy appearance that the dead all eventually carry.

He tapped his combadge. "Dorsainvil to Ng, mark my position--three casualties."

[Confirming three casualties, Lieutenant. On your coordinates.]

"One deceased."

The second man lay face down, breathing shallow and ragged. He was unconscious but alive--a phaser burn to the lower torso.

The third was younger. He had a shock of black hair and a phaser wound to high on the left shoulder. Also unconscious. JB tapped his comm, marking their biosigns for when medical arrived.

"Two unconscious but alive. Both suspects."

[Confirming two down but alive. We'll send medical.]

Holmes and Gamma One had already swept ahead, their shadows disappearing beyond the wide interior corridor that spilled into the main area of the warehouse.

JB followed, his boots scuffing gently across the floor.

Then he saw it.

A vast mesh cage--industrial-grade, definitely the kind used for livestock or scrap metal, rising from the warehouse floor like some cruel scaffolding. Nearly thirty Romulan adults huddled inside, their faces hollow, their clothes soiled and thin. Some held themselves upright against the bars; others sat in slumped position on the cold floor, their eyed dull with exhaustion. A single toilet in the far corner sat like an some cruel joke.

Across from them, JB spied another cage. It was smaller, but still rose from floor to ceiling. But worse.

A cluster of Romulan children--maybe eleven of them--sat in uneven rows on the concrete. Boys and girls ranging in age from four to sixteen. Every one of them too quiet. Far too still. The smallest had her head on an older girl's shoulder, her hand resting on her forearm in a protective gesture JB knew was too practiced for any child.

He felt something inside him twist. Not necessarily a hot twist--more like a cold one. It was like grief with jagged teeth.

His eyes searched the children for the girl he'd seen at the bar. It had only been three days ago, but it felt like much longer to his heart. The teenager with the dark braid and navy tunic. Zharia and Brionna had referred to her as Nerissa. He still carried with him the pendant she had dropped in the alley--the first clue that told them they were on the track of some large-scale trafficking operation.

Holmes's voice carried from farther in, short and controlled. She'd already linked up with Gamma Two; their silhouettes moved past a stack of crates, rifles sweeping the upper gantries.

"Windward, this is Gamma Actual," she said over comms. "We need an emergency beam-out for one wounded--Carruthers. Coordinates locked."

Sakkar's terse reply came back immediately. [Acknowledged.] A few seconds later, the wounded man was taken by the transporter beam.

JB's eyes roamed the cages again. The adults. The children. The quiet.

He tapped his combadge. "Dorsainvil to Seya. We need several medical teams on-site." He exhaled heavily before adding, "Immediately."

"Holmes," he said forcefully. "Have your team start tearing those cages apart."

Willa stiffened a little at what seemed to be an order from an officer of similar rank. "We should wait for Comman--"

"Now."

She swallowed, taken aback at JB's sudden anger. Several nearby team members flinched and glanced at the Haitian officer but said nothing. Holmes pointed to to the cages and addressed her team. "Open the doors. Pull them off their hinges if you have to."

[We'll send support your way, is the area secure?] Irene's crisp voice replied over the comms.

A blast sounded from the top of the rooftop stairwell. Everyone turned to look, rifles pointed.

"Belay that last request, Commander," JB said, crouching slightly at the sound. "The area is still hot."

---

Outside of the compound the roof began to open and two fliers began their ascent in the air attempting to make their escape.

"What the hell happened? How did they get the upper hand? Any chance of taking them down?" The voice came from a human male, red hair that was thinning. He hovered over the cockpit, but he couldn't have been more than 5'7" as he stood there with his lanky frame.

"Not without reinforcements or blowing down the whole compound," a more polished looking female with olive skin that had a subtle green hue to it answered from tactical. "There are two many of them, and they have some of our men. We should initiate self-destruct on the compound. They could learn too much if try to take it back and fail." Her recommendation was cold and delivered with confidence.

The red-headed man wrung his hands in nervous frustration, seeming to freeze at the thought of making a decision.

"Mark the two fliers as hostile on the tactical datalink," Sakkar ordered. "The fighters above will intercept them." He tapped in additional commands on his console. "I'm taking us down to hover over that open roof. We will block any more attempts to escape."

The Windward came down to rooftop level. Landing lights on and hovering thrusters at full cry. She began to draw some fire. In seconds she had settled over the open roof.

"We hold fire until the ground team requests otherwise," Sakkar said to the flight deck crew. The situation on the ground was already chaotic enough without Windward adding to it with her heavier weapons. Sakkar turned his head to glance out his side window. What he saw immediately caused him to cut in on the channel. "Windward to ground team, be advised, multiple armed figures advancing on foot from the adjacent street to your position. Approximately 25 to 30 individuals. Armed with rifles and photon grenade launchers. Over."

[Confirmed, Windward. Be advised Gamma Team will be moving topside in thirty seconds.]

"Acknowledged," Sakkar replied. He kept his eye on the small army advancing towards them. As a Vulcan he did not worry, but if anyone had cared to ask him he would have conceded that he was... deeply concerned.


~To Be Continued~

 

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