Betrayed : Outside

Night was falling as the team of five Starfleet officers, dressed in body armour approached the house. Over their armour they wore sensor absorbing suits to avoid detection by the security grid that surrounded the house. Their target however was the hidden Genti-tec complex which was underneath the house.

The house was also the only way in or out of the labs; transporters were useless as the labs were protected by an impenetrable outer shell that prevented anyone beaming in or out that way. Quickly and quietly they moved towards the house.

To anyone who didn’t know, it looked like a normal Kritarus dwelling, a little larger than most, but nothing out of the ordinary. The team moved closer to the house until they reached the only entrance. Dan knew that getting into the house would be easy, getting to the labs would be the hard part.

To avoid too many suspicions, with people coming and going, most of the staff lived within the complex itself. Amanda Scott was one of the few people who had been allowed to live elsewhere. As she was the sister-in-law to the lead scientist and his brother, who kept up the pretence of living in the house, there would be no suspicion on her visiting her sister everyday.

With such a small group of people, most of the security was handled by automated systems, monitored by a single security guard, who was stationed in the house itself. The team could circumvent the automated systems and once the guard was taken out, they’d be free to access the lab below.

Entering the house, everything looked normal, but Dan pointed to a room off to the right. Two of the team headed for the room, whilst Dan and the others headed for the access lift.

Two minutes passed before the team was fully assembled once more. The guard was sedated and wouldn’t wake up until morning. Dan placed a device on the control panel for the lift and the sound of the cab rising up the shaft could clearly be heard. Everyone checked their weapons.

“OK, you know what our objectives are !” Dan stated. “We want to take the facility intact, which means phasers on stun. Our primary objective will be to secure the computer core, with that we’ll have enough evidence to shut Section 31 down. Secondary objectives will be to capture all the scientists and to ensure that the three children in the lab are safe.”

The lift arrived and the doors opened.

What the team didn’t expect was phaser fire to come out of the cab as the doors opened.

“Fall back.” Dan shouted as the team spread out and started to return fire.

Six men appeared from inside the lift, all firing Starfleet issue phaser rifles. The damage they were causing to the room showed that unlike Dan’s team, these weapons were not set to stun.

The fire-fight lasted two minutes, as the six attackers were forced back into the lift. As the last of them re-entered the cab, he was hit by a phaser bolt. The man dropped to the floor, firing a single shot upwards. The shot blasted through the roof of the cab and into the shaft itself. The blast hit the roof of the shaft, sending debris back down into the cab, finally sending it down the shaft once more.

Seconds later, there was a group of screams and the sounds of metal grating on metal as the cab dropped the hundred feet to the labs below. As the cab hit the bottom of the shaft, the doors to the shaft were blown out, sending a fireball both upwards and out into the labs below.

The fire rose up the shaft and for a few seconds raged out of the doors, before being pulled back down the shaft by the vacuum it had created for itself. Then the lights went out. Dan moved forward and peered down the shaft. All he could see was fire and smoke.

*Amanda…..* He thought.

As he looked down, he could see the burning wreckage of the lift and smell the burning flesh of their former attackers. Smoke filled his eyes and he pulled back with tears filling them. Wiping his eyes, he then noticed what appeared to be a hidden door on the other side, with a small ledge, obviously an escape route. As he looked down the shaft for a second time, he noticed that there was now a set of small ledges, which must have extended from the shaft wall, forming a ladder.

“See if you can find a fire extinguisher or something.” Dan ordered. “We need to get down there ASAP.”

Seconds later, one of the team returned with small fire extinguisher, which he handed to Dan. Dan quickly jumped across to the ledge with the canister and proceeded down the shaft. A minute passed before any of the team heard or saw anything, the smoke from the fire obscuring their view.

“Get down here now.” Dan ordered. “If there are any more extinguishers, bring them down with you.”

In the lab, there was utter chaos. The entire room which led out of the lift had been burnt to a crisp and beyond, Dan could see fires taking hold through the window into the main labs beyond. The extinguisher in his hand had put out the fire in the shaft and allowed him to finish off what the fire-suppressant system couldn’t when the power had failed, but it now was exhausted.

The rest of the assault team appeared from the shaft and looked around. They had only been able to find one more extinguisher, which they handed to Dan.

“Let’s get this mission over with.” Dan ordered. “Find anything to put out these fires. Our objectives are still to get to the computer core and capture the scientists; their only route of escape is this shaft, so we have the advantage.”

Just then there was what could only be described as an earthquake, the entire lab rocked under their feet.

“What was that ?” One of the team asked.

“Sounded like an explosion of some kind.” Another said.

“Go check it out.” Dan suggested to the two officers. “It appeared to have come from the far side of the lab. We’ll see if we can control these fires and secure the core.”

The team split in two and Dan led the rest of the team towards what he knew was the area where the experiments were secured. The second team headed off in the other direction.

As Dan reached the doors to the inner research labs, he could feel the heat coming off the door. There was no way they were going to get the doors open, if they did then the chances were that they would be hit by flames from the back draft. Then from behind them they heard a sound. All three turned phaser’s drawn aimed towards the direction of the noise.

“Please help me.” A young boy of about one said. “My mum’s hurt.”

Dan immediately realised that the boy was Zack, Amanda’s child. Instinct took over and Dan rushed over to where the boy was pointing. He frantically pulled away pieces of rubble, until he saw the face of the woman he loved.

“Medical tricorder…….” Dan ordered. “………..Now.”

Quickly one of the team pulled out his tricorder and passed it over Amanda’s unconscious body.

*She’s alive.* Dan thought to himself, giving a sigh of relief.

Then they heard the screams coming from beyond the doors. The screams were those of children, two of them. Dan realised the twins must be trapped behind the doors and if that was true, then soon they’d be dead too, either burnt alive or killed by the smoke.

The rest of the team arrived back from their investigations and reported what they had found.

“Looks like you were wrong about there being only one way out.” One of the team announced.

“What did you find ?” Dan enquired.

“There’s a short tunnel leading away from the labs. It leads to what could have been a hanger bay.” The man reported. “There’s a lot of rubble around, but the hanger has a vertical shaft leading up to the surface. My guess is that most of the team escaped in a shuttlecraft.”

“Dig her out.” Dan ordered. “The rest of you, let’s see if we can find another way into that lab.”

“I know a way.” Zack suddenly announced. “There’s a room on the other side of the lab, which has a door that goes into the main lab. I’m not supposed to go there, but I’ve seen the dead lady they keep there.”

“Dead lady !.” Dan enquired. “Show us.”

Zack moved with alarming speed down a side corridor until they reached another door. Dan removed his glove and gently pressed his hand to the door, which felt cold to the touch.

“The doors cold, no fire.” Dan stated. “Let’s get this door open.”

The team worked on the door lock, until suddenly there was a hiss and a blast of cool air hit them. Pushing the doors opened, they stepped inside and looked around. The room looked like a cross between a morgue and a maternity delivery room.

“Where’s the dead lady ?” Dan asked.

“In there.” Zack pointed along the far wall.

Dan stepped across and hit a few buttons on the console set into the wall. Suddenly there was another hiss of cold air and a drawer appeared from out of the wall. The drawer however was empty, but was long enough to lay out a body.

Zack realised that the dead lady wasn’t there and that he was probably now in trouble.

“She was there.” Zack announced, pre-empting Dan’s response.

“I believe you Zack.” Dan replied. “Looks like whoever or whatever was in here is gone with the rest of the scientists. Let’s get that door open and see who’s trapped inside.”

Dan felt the door to the research lab and although it felt warm, it wasn’t as hot as the other door.

“Grab an extinguisher and prepare to get through these doors.” Dan ordered. “Zack, stay well back, this could be dangerous.”

Dan prised the doors open and was hit by the intense heat of the fire, which was burning at the far end of the lab. Opening the doors caused a rush of hot air to rush towards them, bringing the fire with it.

“We’re going in.” Dan announced, firing the extinguisher at the small fires.

The other two team members followed, spreading out and searching the room, putting fires out as they went. Dead and dying scientists lay across the floor of the lab as they progressed through towards the tiny screams.

“Over here.” One of the team suddenly announced.

The others rushed across and looked at where the man was pointing. Hidden under an examination table, hidden by the sheet were two small children, huddled together sobbing. Dan reached for them, but the children suddenly turned wild, hissing at him.

“Hello girls.” He said softly. “I’m not going to hurt you, but you can’t stay here.”

Dan’s soft voice seemed to calm them, or maybe it was the way he spoke.

“This place is on fire and we need to get you out of here.” Dan continued. “Come out and we’ll take you somewhere safe.”

The first child, with blonde hair and green eyes seemed to want to come out, but her friend kept a firm hold of her hand. The blonde child, looked at her companion and suddenly they rushed out into the arms of Dan, gripping onto him as if their lives depended upon it.

Quickly, Dan rose and carried the two girls out of the lab and away from the fire. As they reached to far side of the lab and closed the doors, a huge flame erupted and the lab finally fell to the power of the flames. The small group, including Zack and the two girls headed back down the corridor towards the rest of the assault team. By the time they reached the other, they had uncovered the unconscious body of Amanda and were using some of the rubble to make a stretcher.

“Let’s get out of here.” Dan suggested.

“How ?” One of the others asked. “We can’t carry her up that shaft.”

“We’ll use the hanger bay.” Dan said. “Is the ship on station ?”

One of the team pulled out a tricorder and checked the readings.

“It will be in two minutes.” He announced.

“Let’s go” Dan ordered, still carrying the two children. “Zack, stay close to me.”

The other four picked up Amanda and placed her on the hastily created stretcher, before lifting it up and following Dan and Zack. They soon found themselves in the hanger bay. With the shaft uncovered, there was no problem using the transporter and a minute later, they were all safely on the ship.

Zack had survived totally unharmed, Amanda had several broken bones but she’d survive. As for the two girls, they had minor burns and were suffering from smoke inhalation. But the worst injuries were not physical, but emotional. Being trapped, alone in a fire was a terrifying ordeal for anyone, to be an infant was far worse; fixing that problem would take time.