Those Below

Posted on Tue Mar 4th, 2025 @ 6:36pm by Lieutenant Commander Bonnie "Bon-Bon" Durnell & Remal Kajun & Captain Rhenora Kaylen

1,180 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Ramant
Location: Ramant

The Children of Ramant were a small group of social misfits who believed in the old ways and kept their motives secret. They did have key operatives in high places, such as on board the science vessel that had been tasked to 'save the Ramant race' by using innocents as surrogates and performing all kinds of medical experiments. Having overheard what the Scientist and the Intern had achieved was remarkable and went way beyond anything that they accomplished so far. It shone a beacon of hope that all was not lost.

"Quickly now" the guard ushered the small group along a corridor when Rhenora noticed Bonnie inside one of the medical labs. A man was with her and was performing some kind of medical procedure. From the look on Bonnie's face she was conscious.

"Not on my watch" The blonde Bajoran grumbled and grabbed Remal's wrist to get his attention.

Bonnie had been moved into the Doctor's private lab and for the most part had been made to feel comfortable as she recovered. Her eyes were still dark from how weak she had been made by the improper implantation of the fetus. The Doctor on the other-hand seemed to have taken pity and was vowing to do no harm, a medical creed familiar even in the Federation.

He was leaning over her bed, inspecting her heart rate when the doors opened and a series of boots and bare feet entered the room. The Doctor stopped, frozen in fear while Bonnie tried to peek around his frame at who had burst in. That's when the angry shouting started.

Angry and protective, Remal stepped up to face off with the Doctor. "Step away from my friend." He growled.

Rhenora stepped forward towards Bonnie. "Can you walk?" She asked gently but firmly as the security guard seemed to be getting anxious with yet another complication in their plan.

"Yes, I think so." She replied to Rhenora before addressing Remal, "It's okay, he was helping me recover. Saved my life actually and he was going to provide me with a computer terminal." She spilled.

The Orderly shut the door and locked it, then applied a darkening screen to the windows. At the news the Doctor was helping he felt some relief that he wouldn't be operating alone, but was skill skeptical considering the Doctor was not a member of the Children of Ramant.

Remal backed away, "If you're sure." He then provided a hand for Bonnie to use as leverage to stand up.

"How did you all escape?" Bonnie wondered out-loud before noting to herself that now might not be the best time to play catch up. She then asked the Doctor, "Can I still use your terminal?"

"Of course. It's on a separate network, so you'll have safeguards, but maps and such should be easily accessible." He gestured to the computer terminal in the corner at his personal desk. "Mind the mess."

She smiled at the familiarity of it all. Her own desk always seemed to be a mess as well. Bonnie moved over and sat down before addressing the Captain, "What is our priority?"

"Getting a message to the Sunfire, then getting our people out of here. Disrupt the security grid and unlock the transporters. Our people would take advantage of that and get out of here." Rhenora said firmly, utterly grateful the Sunfire's Chief computer nerd was on her feet and Compos Mentis.

Bonnie hesitated, knowing she would not be able to do all of that without a bit of time. "I'll try." She said admittedly. "Overriding their security might be difficult." She turned to the terminal and started searching through it for what she needed in order to activate the communications array. It was a complex system, filed with a unique coding language but at it's root there was some familiarity. Her main qualm was that she was blocked from certain access pathways due to access restrictions. And she was trying to carefully navigate those restrictions so not to set off any alarms.

Behind Bonnie, the men were milling about. Remal was gauging the Doctor and the Orderly. The Technician and the Intern were hanging close, uncertain of what to do with themselves. That was when Remal piped up, "So, my name is Remal Kajun, what do we call you?" He asked the people surrounding himself.

"Doctor-Alpha 005." Replied the Doctor.

"Monitoring Technician-Beta 989." Replied the Tech.

"Intern-Theta 8550." THe Intern piped up.

"Orderly-Delta 99B." The Orderly said quickly, his nerves seemed to still have him on edge.

"Okay then, no real names only designations. Sort of like the Borg. Works for me." He said Jovially.

Minutes later Bonnie declared, "I managed to send a signal but it bounced back. There seems to be a planetary shield between us and the Sunfire. It's blocking all outgoing traffic and I'm guessing, blocking all incoming. But, I think I can deactivate the cell block gas injectors and shielding. It will trigger the alarms, but everyone will be free." She looked to Rhenora for confirmation.

"Do it, it's time the lab rats fight back. The chaos will just us time to work out how to beam people off. Whether it's to the ship or to the planet I don't care. Just off this ship" Rhenora confirmed. Knowing that their people would take any advantage they could. The scientists and medics wouldn't be expecting a mass revolt and the chaos would most likely take them by surprise.

"Wait.. if we drop the forcefield, what will your people most likely do?" Rhenora paused for a moment and addressed the Ramant in the room. The threat of them simply gassing everyone was a real threat.

"There is a contingency plan for most things." The Doctor, eldest of the bunch, declared. "A breakout of this magnitude has never been attempted. We've never had this many experiment subject at one time before. It's quite possible the Bureaucrats will force a lockdown and flood the ship with Anethzathine or something more paralyzing. They wouldn't dare risk the loss of so many, we can't afford to." He admitted.

"Is there any other way?" The Orderly with the phase pistol asked, scared for his fellow Ramant people. It was Rhetorical, but his fear was real.

"Drop the forcefield, we'll have to risk the gas unless you can isolate the environmental systems in the next few minutes." Rhenora looked around as the ship started to shudder. "What's happening?

"We're landing" the orderly said simply as the shudder increased as the ship descended through the atmosphere.

On the Captain's orders, Bonnie deactivated the gas controls to the cell blocks and a moment later dropped the shielding to the cell blocks. The effect was immediate as the alarm klaxons blared. She pulled up the camera feed and showed those in containment had started to emerge from their individual holdings. Bonnie then received an alert on the terminal she was working on and announced, "The command crew have been alerted and have dispatched security to this location. We're compromised."

"We need to move, now." Remal stated matter-of-factly.

TBC

 

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