Post 303: Burning Down the House

Stardate:70713.1900
Title: Burning Down the House
Authors: Lair Kellyn and Salvek
Scene: Beach House, Holodeck Four
Time: Following "Shuffle Up Part Two" and "Crashing Down"
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Salvek, K'Pajek, Blane and London went from room to room of the holographic beach house.

Every door, every window, locked. K'Pajek even tried throwing a chair through the largest living room window, but the glass would not break.

"It appears as if there really is no way out." the Klingon concluded.

"I wonder if the others are all right," Blane's worry came through in his voice. "We can't count on the safeties at all at this point."

"Agreed." Salvek concurred. He looked over at Arie as she lay sleeping, oblivious to the fact they were now trapped within a most luxurious prison.

"I wonder if we tried the windows in the basement," Blane thought aloud. "Maybe the malfunction doesn't cover the whole grid and-"

"Did you hear that?" K'Pajek interrupted, craning his neck. "It sounded like gunfire."

"Fireworks." Blane pointed, looking out the window. "Over the beach. They're." His expression quickly changed. "Oh, sh-!" He was horrified as the barge explode into flames. "Everyone, get DOWN!" he shouted, as he saw that shells were firing off the barge in all directions. Just because they couldn't get out, he realized, didn't necessarily mean that things couldn't get in.

They heard a spectacular explosion above them and Arie screamed, waking up and not knowing what was going on.

"I'm closer, I'll get her!" Blane yelled, yanking Salvek back to the floor by his arm. But before Blane could crawl to the couch to remove the child, another shell came blasting through the large picture window, shattering it and flying over the furniture. The firework impacted against the opposite wall, setting it ablaze.

"ARIE!" Salvek scrambled across the floor even as more and more shells impacted the house and spread fire through the roof, the trees outside and the upper levels.

Salvek could hear his child's muffled sobs, but didn't know where she was. The couch she had been laying on was now an orange blur as fire chewed away the upholstery.

"I have her, Commander!" K'Pajek yelled."Over here!"

Struggling across the broken glass and debris on the floor toward the sound of the Klingon's voice, Salvek finally reached him and saw the man was bloodied from the shards of glass from the window and had suffered burns to his arms and face. He had pulled Arie off the couch at the last moment and shielded her with his huge form as the shell had exploded, protecting her. Still he crouched above her, covering her as glass continued popping and shattering around them. "You are all right, little girl. I will keep you safe." he promised.

They looked up as they heard groaning and creaking. The large beams above them warned that they would not withstand the heat and flames on the upper floors for long.

Trick London got to his knees, ducking and dodging between pieces of furniture as debris flew all around him. He continued until he got to a stand in the foyer where Lily had left her prized companion, the parrot Viola. He grabbed it, swearing as the heated metal of the top of the cage singed his hand, and then got back down on the floor, dragging the cage behind him. "The things I do for you and your girlfriend, MacDougal. You owe me big!"

Hoping that they could get out of the broken window now, TC stood up, picked up a chair and tried to break the remaining shards of glass out of the window frame. They wouldn't move, and even though the glass appeared to be gone, still the window remained impassable.

As smoke rapidly began to fill the ground floor of the house, Salvek addressed his daughter. "Arie, stay with K'Pajek. I have to find a way for us to get out." He kissed the top of her head before joining TC in trying to figure out why they couldn't get out through the 'broken' window.

"It must be a larger problem than just the holodecks." Salvek surmised. "The whole ship must be in chaos. If not, they surely would have figured out by now that something was wrong down here and," his words halted as he began to cough from the smoke.

He feared that they had very little time left. He imagined Kellyn outside on the beach, and prayed that she could not see the fire. He thought about the way he'd spoken to her earlier, and hated the fact that if he did not make it out of this, her last memories of him would be of his anger.

"What if we-" TC shouted as they dropped to the floor again, where there was less smoke. Then in an instant the popping noises, the explosions, and the fire all simply stopped. Smoke still hung heavy in the air, but everything else was still and silent.

"What the holy-" Trick gasped, afraid to trust that the danger had simply evaporated.

"Perhaps," Salvek began again, then stopped, coughing still. "They are more aware of our predicament on the bridge than we know."

"Trick!" London heard Angus calling his name. MacDougal was beating on the door, and Lily was beating on the window with one of the chairs from the deck. "We're trying to get in!"

The pair had been trying to fight their way into the house from the outside since seeing the first explosion but had not been successful. But now the door seemed to just let go, and it swung open wide. K'Pajek lifted Arie up, hurrying to get her outside. The rest followed closely. The last to emerge from the house was Trick London- still carrying Lily's bird cage.

When they looked back at the structure from outside, they realized just how close they had come to complete disaster. Both upper stories of the house were virtually destroyed and threatened to collapse. If the safeties had not been reestablished, they would certainly have perished.

"Remind me to thank whoever is working in engineering this shift." said TC, exhaling sharply with relief.

"Honored Warrior K'Pajek?" A small voice said softly, between coughs. Arie showed signs of bruising from the bumping around she'd taken, but otherwise appeared unharmed.

K'Pajek gaped at her, surprised to hear someone so small and alien speaking such flawless Klingon.

"Yes, little girl?" he replied, in his first language as well.

"From this day, you are my hero." she replied, her tiny arms barely reaching all the way around his broad shoulders as she hugged him.

"It is nothing." K'Pajek replied uncomfortably. "Commander, your child." he handed Arie off to Salvek, and she buried her face into her father's shoulder.

"Viola!" Lily cried, and she grabbed London and kissed his face before taking the bird cage from his hands. "I can't believe you saved my bird."

"All in a day's work, Love." Trick replied, "Now, if you don't mind, I'd really like to find a way to get the hell off this holodeck."

They descended the steps toward the beach but discovered quickly that they could not see the others, or reach the area where the bonfire pit had been.

"The perspective control relays must be offline" Salvek announced. "The others could be standing mere meters from us and we would not know it if the system is not operating within the proper parameters."

"Commander!" K'Pajek called, having run a ways ahead. Salvek handed Arie to Angus and followed.

The tactical officer indicated a black line of holodeck flooring, now visible between where they stood and the other half of the beach. "The program appears fractured. We will not likely be able to get to the others."

Suddenly, Salvek felt the sand beneath his feet begin to move. It sifted away from below, and he teetered as if he might fall. He jumped backwards, gasping as he watched the hole in the sand grow larger, and darker. Fearing additional peril, he called to everyone to stay back.

A moment later a very unexpected and familiar face appeared, popping up from the hole in the beach like a gopher.

"Is this a private party?" Zanh Liis inquired, "Or is anyone invited?"

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Lt. Commander Lair Kellyn
Engineering Officer
USS Independence NCC-90791

~AND~

Commander Salvek
Acting First Officer
USS Independence NCC-90791