Boom Crash Opera

Posted on Wed Dec 8th, 2021 @ 4:36am by Captain Rhenora Kaylen & Remal Kajun

Mission: *CD*
Location: Bajor

It was still dark when they returned to Jurel’s house, senses on high alert lest someone be watching them. Prising the key from it's safe location she ran a tricorder over it, trying to search for DNA traces other than her own. "3 DNA traces found" the tricorder intoned, filing the information for it's keeper. There wasn't time to travel through Bajor's DNA database at the moment, that was a task for later in the evening. She couldn't read any lifesigns inside the house at the moment but didn't entirely trust the tricorder readings.

Turning to regard her companions she raised the key in one hand with a phaser in the other. "Ready?"

Ever vigilant and currently a step behind, Remal stopped short of saying yes. There were voices in the distance. “Wait. Someone’s coming.” He looked around and spotted a thin spot in the hedgerow about ten yards from the house, which was mildly obscured in the morning darkness. “Quick, let’s hide back there.” He pointed and then moved off in that direction.

Rhenora scooted back behind the shrubs that Remal had indicated and crouched down, peering through the foliage to watch what was going on.

The voices approached at a temperate pace. In the light of the early morning, Remal could make out a Constables uniform and what looked like a deputy. Their voices were low but carried just enough to make out what they were saying. “This is the place. And you’re sure the lead you’ve been given is a credible one?” The older man asked of his younger sidekick.

“Yes sir. They wouldn’t give their name, but they gave very specific details. They described the two perps in detail. Tall, older man, stocky build and a smaller, blonde haired woman wearing a shaw. I passed the information on to the constabulary along with the provided names.”

The constable was just about to insert his master key into the lock of the house when he turned to his subordinate, “Do you smell something?” To which they sniffed the air briefly.

“Yes, smells like… like… natural gas maybe?”

Rhenora's blood ran cold, someone had seen them enter the day before and reported it, now they were coming back to substantiate the claim. The problem was, yesterday there hadn't been a strong smell of gas leaching from the building. As whilst she was all for covering their tracks or at least proclaiming their innocence, there was a deep feeling that something was about to go very bad very soon. It was an old resistance trick, fill the building with natural gas, then devise a spark from a flint underneath the door striking on the floor. Instant explosion.

Dread filled Rhenora, if she didn't warn the constables they would meet a fiery end and they could be in even bigger trouble.

As she rose and surged forward the constable reached for the door, turning the knob.

Watching the scene and sensing her reaction, Remal reached out to stop her, his hand clasping for her midsection. From beneath the door a spark, small but powerful, jetted into the room. Like a wave, the gas ignited and spread outward in an arc. The flame burned blue then white then red as it spread through the gas building pressure as it spread.

While mostly made of stone and brick, the structures' weak points were made of wood. They gave way first. In the span of a breath and a blink of an eye the pressure had expanded within to the point there was nowhere left for it to escape, and therefore it found the weak points and continued its expansion outward and upward. The wood splintered into smaller and smaller fragments as they pushed outward.

The first to feel the sudden pressure expansion were of course the Constable and his deputy. Like rag dolls, they were tossed upward and backward at a rate their bodies weren’t designed to handle. The heat and expansion continued to travel faster than Remal or Rhenora could react and they were hit as well. Being ten yards away, the impact wasn’t as intense, but the heat and the debris struck them all the same, throwing them through the bush, which immediately caught fire, and landing them with a heavy thud some 15 yards further away in a field.

She felt the hand round her waist, restricting her forward momentum and then a bright flash and the feeling of weightlessness. The house had been boobytrapped and not by the local constables. She only hoped to live long enough to figure out the how and the why.

The last thing Remal felt before the darkness took him was the skin of a reptilian arm, taking him, and dragging him to safety.

TBC