Cadet Krystal
hunched down and tried to make herself a little smaller behind the
metal barrel she was hiding behind. The young native of Betazed tried
to calm her breathing as she held her phaser out, ready to fire once
the ambush started. On the other side of the room, Krystal could see
Cadet Zeb hiding behind her barrel's mate, also trying to impersonate a
small rock. Behind them both, Krys imagined that Cadet Kalhoun was
doing the exact same thing.
"Krys, how do you get yourself into these messes?" she thought to
herself as the trio waited in a room somewhere in the shadowed edifice
that was an old and seemingly abandoned warehouse. Abandoned, that is,
except for her squad and maybe some two dozen others, each trying to
win the coveted trophy at Starfleet Academy's Annual Freshman Phaser
Tag Tournament. "I knew I shouldn't have let John talk me into joining
him and Zeb in the Tourney. 'It'll be fun', 'Our chance to show the
officers what we've got', 'All for one and one for all'. If we get out
of this I'm going to shove that 'all for one' up his--"
Approaching footsteps jarred Krystal out of her reverie. She tensed and
waited with her partners as another trio of cadets cautiously entered
the room, their phasers out, eyes searching the gloom for any possible
sign of ambush. "A couple more steps," thought the young cadet to
herself as suddenly, Cadet John Kalhoun stepped in from the rear exit
and yelled "NOW!" while firing his phaser and dropping the first cadet.
|
Caught off
guard, Zeb and Krystal sprung up simultaneously from behind their
barrels, just in time to be blasted by the surviving two cadets. As the
crimson beam enveloped her form, Krystal had just enough time to think
"John you stupid excuse for a human--" before oblivion embraced her
consciousness. The last thing she heard was John trading phaser fire
with the two cadets...
Adrenalin. Lots of it, and hot too. Krystal practically jumped up, her
senses wide awake and alert, the sensory input overloading her rational
mind. "Whoa there!" shouted John as he tried to hold her still. Zeb was
already awake and keeping a lookout as Krys' body slowly returned to
normal. "By the Nine Rings of Betazed, what did you do to me!?!" she
demanded. John managed to look sheepish: "Hey, I'm not the trained
medic in this group. I just pressed the hypospray to your throat and
activated this button."
"Idiot! You gave me two doses of stimulant! Don't you ever touch my
hypospray again!" exclaimed Krystal as she snatched the hypospray from
John's hand. "Aren't you humans good for anything?"
"Sorry! Just trying to help, Princess," expressed John, although
Krystal noticed that he couldn't hide his smile. In a human, that meant
that they were being sarcastic, right? She was about to retort when Zeb
interrupted: "We better get going before another group finds us."
|