Kirin led Ril and Kerry to the storage locker near the transporter room. On entering they removed their uniform jackets and pulled out the lightly armoured combat jacket as well as leg and arm guards that had become increasing standard placed on ships for when away teams expected to come under fire.

Kirin and Ril quickly pulled on their equipment before Kirin turned to help Kerry. “Let me help you with that Kerry,” she said as she helped her check the jacket and other guards ensuring they had been locked in place correctly. “Looks like you are good to go Kerry.” She said with a smile seeing the clear nervousness on the ensign’s face. “Don’t worry, we will be in and out quick. Follow our lead ok.”

“Yes Ma’am” Kerry said with a nod, “I have done all the training but, this will be the first actual time…”

“It can be daunting, I remember my first time, it was a real Trial by Fire,” Kirin said as she pulled down a phaser rifle and handed it to Kerry before turning to hand one to Ril, “Ril…” her voice trailed off. 

Ril was pulling out of a long box a bat’leth, she looked at Kirin and smiled and then shrugged anticipating Kirin’s next comment. “What, it is a traditional and effective weapon. I am part Klingon Afterall…and…it strikes fear when people see one. Makes them more like to surrender. What would you suggest as an alternative?”

“I have always preferred a simple long blade, superior to the bat’leth in many ways,” Kirin said as she grabbed a rifle for herself and attached a phaser pistol to her hip.

Ril watched her and smirked, “Ar matey, got to appease the pirate in ye. Y’ll make them walk the plank unless they tell us about their booty…” she said barely containing her laughter.

Kirin looked at her with a blank expression and shrugged. “Let’s go.” She led them t

== Romulan Bioweapons Research Station; A-5736 Gamma ==

The three of them, weapons at the ready, materialized into an empty corridor about 200m command centre according to the map.

Kerry pulled out her tricorder and a moment later looked over to Kirin, “All clear Ma’am, no one is moving close by.”

Kirin nodded and glanced at Ril, “Ril, you’re on point, Kerry you stay behind her and I will bring up the rear.”

Over the next few minutes, the three of them advanced through the Romulan base. As they did they passed multiple empty labs and storage rooms. In several of the labs large clear tubes big enough to hold an adult Romulan stood empty until they got closer to the centre of the station. A large lab, double the size of the others stood unoccupied. Ril peered around the door and muttered, “Bloody hell,” before she waved the others in.

As they entered the room both Kerry and Kirin stopped and stared. Unlike the previous labs, the large tubes were not empty, twenty such tubes each holding a person lined the walls. The majority held Remans, both male and female, but several held individuals from other species; Ferengi, an Orion and even a Romulan.  Each and every one of them was horribly deformed with grotesque mutations and tumours covering their bodies.

Kirin stood and looked at them, “What the hell are they doing here…” she muttered as she pulled out her tricorder and started to scan the nearest one “Dead, they are all dead…”. Turning her head to Kerry, “Check those terminals, download anything information you can, the Federation will want to know about this. Someone must be held accountable….”

Ril looked over at Kirin and Kerry as she stood just inside the door peering out. “Captain. We may want to come back here after we secure the facility…”

“I know. But in case they can wipe their records from there we should get what we can.” Kirin responded before glancing at Kerry. “Kerry, how long do you need?”

“It is a large database, it will take 20 minutes,” Kerry said with slight annoyance before tapping the controls and muttering a curse. “Ma’am, it looks like they have started to purge the records. I can slow it down from here while the download is underway.”

“Shit, Ok, waiting is not an option then. Ril can that door de secured from inside?” Kirin asked to which Ril nodded. “Ok. Kerry, we are doing to go secure the command centre, as that seems to be where the Romulans are and have a chat with them. You lock this door as soon as we leave; make sure that data is secure.” She paused for a moment. “Then try to prevent its destruction. The investigation teams will likely want to see go through this place and we need as much information intact. It will be up to them to lock this away forever.”

Kerry between Kirin and Ril, a nervousness on her face. “Alone?…I, um…ok. I will lock the door, access the files and download.”

Ril smiled. “You’ll be fine. We have only a handful of life signs on the station and they are in the direction we will be going.”

With that Kirin and Ril glanced down the corridor and left the room. As they left they heard the sound of the door close behind them. 

As they advanced down the corridor the eerily empty station echoed and groaned around them. 

Closing in on the command centre Kirin crouched down in a doorway to what appeared a mess hall and opened her tricorder. It clearly showed five life signs ahead of them. Gesturing to Ril to move forward she slid the tricorder back into its holster. Ril slowly moved forward towards the next room, light spilling into the hallway, before stopping and raising her hand clearly listening to something in the room. 

As Kirin leaves the doorway a loud klaxon sounds through the base turning the dark halls red as strobe lights being to flash. Before Kirin is able to react disrupter fire shoots down the hall towards her and Ril splashing across the walls and floor causing both of them to dive into cover. Kirin was able to slide back into the doorway as she quickly fired off a phaser blast down the hall while Ril shouted in defiance and dove through the doorway in the room before her.

Kirin peered around the corner and pulled back quickly as the disrupter fire continued hitting the doorframe mere centimetres from her head. “Shit” she muttered, ‘Why didn’t they show upon the tricorder’ she thought before an even worse thought crossed her mind, ‘What if there are more than we thought?!’ Tapping her combadge, “Ensign Dawson, come in. What is your status?”

Kerry jumped when her combadge chimed and she quickly tapped, “I am ok. Waiting on download. It has only a couple of minutes left the estimate was incorrect it seems. The work here has been truly horrific…” she said before Kirin cut her off. “Listen, our tricorders may not be picking up their life signs for some reason, …” the sounds of the disruptor fire and shouts come through the combadge, “…be alert.” Kerry reached for her rifle she had set down on the desk beside her and glance nervously at the door.

Ril dove headlong into the doorway in front of her knowing it was a bad idea before she did it but it was the best, and only cover she had. She quickly pushed herself to her feet to find three Romulans, two scientists by the look of it and someone without a uniform, standing in a small room full of computer consoles working away. They were slow to react and were only beginning to respond to the disrupter fire outside as she got to her feet. Before the two scientists had fully turned Ril stunned them both with two shots from her phaser rifle, causing them to slump forward onto the consoles, but as she turned to face the third one he threw a knife at her forcing her to twist so it flew past. The Romulan cursed and jumped across the desk between them hitting Ril and knocking the rifle away.

Ril staggered back as the Romulan hit her, as she did she shouted in defiance and pulled her bat’leth from her back and smiled as the Romulan’s eyes went wide and his step hesitated for a moment. That moment only lasted for a second as he pulled another long knife and swung at her shouting, “Klivam Susse-thrai”. Ril deftly parried the blow and went in for a strike that was blocked by the Romulan’s blade. 

Kirin tried again to move but the moment she peered around the corner the fire resumed. “This is Lieutenant Commander Tarken from the Federation of Planets, this research station is in breach of multiple treaties. I am ordering,…I am asking that you lay down your weapons and surrender. As you are aware your warbird is disabled, its crew is currently under medical care on my ship. I am sure that you want the chance to eventually return home to your loved ones given the unrest in the Empire. I am giving you that chance.” Kirin called out, her voice travelling far through the corridors. The weapon fired continued for a moment before slowing and stopping and a smooth rich voice called out.

“Greetings Lieutenant Commander Tarken, I am Sublieutenant Celeeka the ranking officer of the Romulan military on the station. It is nice to be able to speak to you; some of my soldiers were a little jumpy seeing a Starfleet uniform after what happened to the Indak. Impressive work that.”

“The damage that was inflicted was never our intention.” Kirin called back, “May I suggest that we discuss how best we can resolve this matter as….” she continued before a shout, closer to a roar emanated from the room Ril sought cover in. Risking a look Kirin poked her head around the corner just in time to see the body of a man fly out of the doorway and impact the wall on the other side. The Romulan started to push himself up and got one hand underneath him before letting out a deep sigh and passing out.

“Captain? You ok?” came Ril’s voice from the room as Kirin saw her move the doorway with her phaser pistol in one hand as a single disrupter bolt shot down the hall hitting the doorframe near Ril’s head.

At the same time, the voice of Sublieutenant Celeeka came down the corridor, “Hold your fire. IT IS A SIMPLE ORDER!

“I am fine. Apologies for the interruption Sublieutenant. If you would like you can go check on your man. Then we can continue our conversation.” Kirin called out.

A laugh emanated from the end of the corridor and Kirin saw a tall and striking-looking Romulan step out from around the corner. “No need. I care not for the Tal Shiar though you would likely be more interested in him as he was the overseer of the work here. I trust your colleague has the other three contained in the room?” she said as she walked forward, completely exposed and clearly not worried. 

Kirin exhaled and lowered her rifle before slinging it over her shoulder, ‘No risk no reward’ she thought to herself and stepped out into the hallway. “Ril? Do you have three more in there?” she asked as she glanced at Ril who shook her head and held up two fingers causing Kirin to frown slightly and mouthed the words ‘Kerry’ to Ril who nodded.

Looking back to the Sublieutenat, who was no more than 10 feet away, Kirin smiled. “Well, this is nicer, weapons fire makes communicating very difficult.”

That brought a wicked grin to the Sublieutenant. “It was you, Starfleet who boarded this station uninvited after all, but…” she waved her hand dismissively, “… let’s not worry about that. It would appear that neither of us has an advantage here. I know the base and my men have their weapons trained on you but you have a ship in orbit, more in the system, and your Klingon is glaring at me…she seems angry.”

Kirin suppressed a laugh before her face grew serious again, “I believe what you just outlined was how the advantage lies with me, Sublieutenant. I also do not want to downplay what is happening here. This research station has conducted horrific experimentation and weapons research. We have seen the evidence of this already and the research files are already secured. The Tal Shiar, Empire, and whoever is responsible for this WILL be held accountable. Your options are simple really, surrender and cooperate, tell us what you know and you will be treated justly OR we make sure that this sort of research and this weapon are NEVER AGAIN researched or seen – it is a simpler option I will admit. What was done to those people in those labs was unspeakable…” Kirin said as she stared at the Romulan without blinking and tried to keep the anger out of her voice.

Celeeka sighed and deflated a bit. “I had to try, you understand but you are correct. We may be able to capture your team hear but then what?” she turned and waved her hand, “Step out slowly, weapons down,” she said and two young Romulan Uhlans stepped from around the corner. “Will you accept our surrender Lieutenant Commmander, or was it, Captain? I do not like the work the Tal Shiar has done here; we will provide you with everything you need,” she said. 

Kirin nodded towards the sublieutenant before asking “You mentioned three others in the room. Where is the third?”  before looking over a Ril who slowly stepped out of the doorway. “Any word from Kerry?”

The Romulan woman had a worried expression cross her face as she took a step to look into the room and cursed under her breath. “The other Tal Shiar operative is missing. He went in there only a minute before you came down the hallway….I assumed….”

“What do you mean operative!” Ril growled at her before looking at Kirin, her eyes going wide and mouthing “Kerry”. 

Kirin nodded and Ril took off down the hall but before she made it 10 steps there was a flash of green light and a disruptor bolt hit her in the side knocking her sideways as she collapsed to the ground and groaned in pain. Before Kirin could reach a short Romulan stepped forward from a dark alcove holding a disrupter pistol in each hand, “That was too easy. You provided an excelled distraction sublieutenant, deftly played I think I may recommend you for a promotion after this.” he said with a laugh. Now,” gesturing with one hand to the two Uhlans, “take this Orion and the Klingon and stick them into the test chambers. Let us see how they respond to the new virus of ours.”

The two Romulans looked at each other and slowly bent down to pick up their weapons when Celeeka spoke, “Ignore those orders. That will not benefit us in any way. Killing them will only result in our deaths. Do you think their ship will let us leave? Or let us wait here for another Romulan ship to arrive. Besides, what have the Tal Shiar, what have you, ever done to earn our loyalty, after all, you stuck Lieutenant in one of that vates when he disagreed with you.”

The man began to raise one of his pistols to Celeeka, “You had such promise, pitty, I had thought better of yo…” began to say but trailed off as Celeeka smirked causing him to frown and the sound of a phaser cut through the air lighting up the corridor behind the Tal Shiar operative as he slumped forward leaving a shocked and slightly shaking Kerry standing behind him.

Before the operative had even hit the floor Kirin spun and brought her phaser up onto the three Romulans who all stood still. “We have surrendered to you Lieutenant Commander and we want away from this place.”

As the sublieutenant finished speaking Kerry’s voice cut through the silence causing Kirin to look back over her shoulder at the form of Ril lying on the floor clearing in pain as Kerry bent over her with a tricorder, “Ma’am Ril is in bad shape. The blast caught her in the ribs, she needs to get to medical now.”

Nodding at Kerry, Kirin tapped her combadge, “Kirin to Daradax, we have a medical emergency beam Ril to medical immediately. She has taken a disrupter blast to her sign.”

Belania voice responded right away. “Oh, Shit! Ok…Understood. Notifying medical now for beam out. Is everyone else ok?”

“We have taken the base and several prisoners. Send a communication to the taskforce flag notifying them of this. We will send an encrypted data packet shortly which needs to be passed on as well.” Kirin said with a slight edge to her voice before returning to its regular tone. “Keep me updated on Ril’s status. Kirin out.” She watched Ril’s still form for a moment before it began to glow and dematerialized leaving Kerry and her alone with seven Romulans.

Kirin watched Kerry as she stood, shaking slightly and looking down at her hands which were covered in blood from Ril’s wound. Looking back to the sublieutenant she pointed to the wall with her phaser rifle. “Could you please sit by the wall there? We will transport you over to the Daradax shortly,” she said causing the sublieutenant to wave at the two Uhlans to do as instructed. She went over and picked up each of the disruptors and moved them away from the Romulans before turning to Kerry.

“Kerry?” Kirin called but the ensign remained standing staring at her hands, unmoving. “Ensign Dawson, focus on me. Did you finish with the database?” Kirin said with more authority which caused Kerry’s head to snap up and she turned to look at Kirin.

“Yes Ma’am, I completed the download and was able to lock the system so no one can access it without my code, for a Romulan system it had very little security. I was able to stop them from deleting that data and check their logs. There have been no downloads of the data. What we have is the only copy beyond their main computer core” Kerry reported before she trailed off. “I shot someone but was too slow. I saw him just before he shot Ril. Why didn’t I shoot him….”

Before Kirin could respond her combadge chimed and Thanen’s voice came over the speaker. “We have notified the flag, and the USS Scimitar has been redirected to our location. It just arrived in the system on convoy duty. I will be here in 20 minutes. They have asked that we met them outside the asteroid field for prisoner and data transfer. They will take over the investigation of the base. We have also secured quarters for the prisoners for the transfer.”

“Thank you Thanen,” Kirin said and turned to the Romulans. “Celeeka. Thank you for not forcing my hands here. I will include all of this in my report. You and your men will be treated fairly and if you have been honest and were not involved with the work I hope you will see your homes again soon.”

The sublieutenant nodded in acknowledgement, “I will make sure that nothing is held back. We were assigned here to operate the escort vessel and provide security. I for one am happy to see the Tal Shiar get what they deserve.”

“I appreciate that Celeeka,” Kirin said before tapping her combadge, “Thanen, beam the Romulans aboard. Three are stunned, one is unconscious and three are awake and surrendered.” Without an acknowledgement, the Romulans dematerialized and vanished before Thanen’s voice came back over the combadge. “No more Romulan life signs on the station, just you and Kerry.”

Turning to Kerry, Kirin walked over to Kerry and put her hand on her shoulder. “You did well. The Doc will sort out Ril. She is tough and I know for a fact not the first time she has been shot. You did everything you could. Let’s head back to the Daradax. We have a ship to meet and then, well I am not sure.”