Out of the Frying Pan…

## Authors

Ethan Talon

Jolie Kyo

Aimee MacDonald

Dougal MacDonald

Dressed in a desert uniform, Ethan put the canteen to his lips and drank heavily from it. He was none too careful with his drinking, and water ran down his chin, dribbling down the front of his uniform.

“This is miserable,” Aimee said, wiping sweat from her face.

“Aye, we Scots aren’t built for this bloody heat,” Dougal replied.

“And that’s why we’re here,” Ethan replied. “Stay hydrated and keep an eye out for surface water.”

The team was on a training mission in an even more remote part of Vulcan than usual. This wasn’t the usual junior class cadets; they were supposedly the best of the best.

In this training scenario, there were no communications. Field rations had been damaged in the “crash,” leaving them with limited water and even less food. They didn’t even have tricorders, just to make things more difficult. But, they had each other and their phasers. In Ethan's case, he also had his six-gun strapped to his hip and a Bowie knife hanging from his belt.

Ethan spotted Jolie approaching from the north, shuffling through the sand. “Report, Commander?”

Jolie sat down on a knee and reached for her water pouch, taking a long draw from it. The sun had scorched her throat as she scouted ahead. “I spotted the remains of a wrecked outpost and probably a well,” she told Ethan after the water had slightly quenched her thirst.

She then reattached the pouch to her belt and gestured back the way she had come, “About half a kilometer north of our current position.”

“Once we secure water, we can proceed to the objective,” Ethan replied. “Okay, people, let’s move out.”

Ethan lay flat on the sand with Jolie at his side, studying the abandoned outpost below. The rest of the team sat out of sight behind them. “I don’t know what Admiral Hathaway is going to throw at us this time. It could be holograms or androids. I do know they are Jem’hadar, so I expect holograms. Way easier to simulate their cloaking abilities, but it also limits where they can pop up, and this is a good place for an ambush.”

When she heard the name Jem’Hadar, Jolie muttered, “Fuck.” After removing her face from the scope of her rifle, she buried it in the warm sand. Her mouth made a soft groaning sound.

“Jem’Hadar, are you fucking kidding me?” she said softly as she turned to face the Commander, sand stuck to her face. Her voice was strained as if she were yelling but in hushed tones. Even if she was speaking in hushed tones, anyone within hearing distance could hear the hatred in her voice.

Ethan stared at her with an odd look on his face trying to understand her reaction. Turning his attention back to the abandoned outpost, he visually scanned it for any signs of movement. They needed water, but it wasn’t time for doing something reckless.

“Relax, Commander, it’s only a simulation… a highly realistic simulation designed to push us to our limits, but none if it’s real.” He let out a low chuckle, “We had a forest training a while back, and one of the new combat specialists soiled himself at the face of a robot Klingon raising a bat’leth and charging him. Needless to say, I washed him out of the team. In that scenario, they employed an EM dampening field. With my pistol, I was the only one armed with a ranged weapon. Everyone else had to make do with improvised weapons. Clubs, rocks, or whatever they could take off the Klingons.”

Jolie was immediately embarrassed by her outburst. She usually kept her emotions close to her chest and didn’t let them show. Swallowing hard to try to relieve the dryness in her throat, she returned her gaze to the scope and looked down into the outpost, knowing she only had about a swallow left in her water pouch.

“You know, Commander, I could cheat this exercise with your knowledge of how these simulations tend to go,” she said, gently caressing the toggle on her scope but not activating the electroscope. “However, because this is as much a training for me as it is for the rest of us, I will need you to place your voice command over the electroscope function of my rifle until this training is over,” Jolie said as she moved away, on her belly, so Ethan could disable the function on her scope.

Ethan looked at her and frowned, “A pistol isn’t exactly Starfleet issue. But, it’s something I normally carry just in case. Will the electroscope be something you’d normally have? Is it something that would change the outcome here, but not in the field? And to that end, we are already operating in a moral gray area. We do some damned distasteful things at times. I got to know your character is above reproach. If I can’t trust you to do the right thing without me physically preventing you… well, you’re probably not a good fit for this team.”

Jolie closed her eyes as she felt what the Commander had just said and bellied up to the rifle and dismantled it. With her eyes, she answered him, “I have what it takes,” she states in a tone that was dark. She then slid down the side of the dune leaving the dismantled rifle behind.

Just before the dune shifted to the bottom, she rolled onto her back and then kicked down with her heels and rolled backward onto her feet just as her back came into contact with one of the sides of one of the ruined buildings. Her hand reached down and retrieved her phaser. She looked up at where Ethan was still at the top of the dune. Had he been able to see her eyes, he would have seen the devil inside of her.

Steeling herself, she slowly squatted down and moved toward the edge of the ruined building and peeked it. Her eyes darted from building to building searching for any signs of movement. Keeping her eyes moving, she reached to a small pouch that sat on her lower back and retrieved a small scanner and slid it into place over her right eye. As soon as it was in place, she blinked twice activating the device; instantly her right eye was fed information about her surroundings. Normally, this information would have been fed to her from the Pike as it circled in orbit or nearby; however, in these circumstances, she was being fed information from a Vulcan satellite instead.

Without taking her eyes off the simulated battlefield before her, she signaled for Ethan and the rest of the team to follow her down.

Ethan swore under his breath. He turned to the others. “Aimee, you provide covering fire from up here. Dougal, flank the building to the north. I’ll try to keep them off, Jolie.”

Dougal smirked, “Aye sir.” The big Scotsman didn’t enjoy killing, but he did love to fight. These simulated training missions were a guilty pleasure of his.

Dougal shuffled low on the dune, staying out of sight, while Ethan crested over the ridge and slid down it, mirroring Jolie's earlier movement. A quick glance back revealed Aimee's phaser rifle barrel poking out over the sand.

Closing the gap, Dougal arrived just as a Jem’hadar soldier dropped his shroud, aiming at Ethan. A phaser beam from Aimee’s rifle dropped the holographic enemy, thudding to the ground. Three more soldiers appeared; Ethan shot one, but another hit him directly in the chest. As he fell, consciousness fading, he fired once more, striking a second enemy. Aimee took out the third.

Jolie, witnessing the Jem’Hadar materialize from her scanner, turned back in time to see Ethan take a hit to the chest. Anger flooded her as she rushed to his side, checking his pulse once his momentum faded. The hairs on her neck stood up; she twisted to avoid an incoming attack, landing on her back and firing shots from her phaser to end the attacker's life. She unintentionally stirred up more Jem’Hadar.

Jem’Hadar dropped their shrouds around her. Realizing she was likely done with the team, Jolie focused on keeping the Commander safe. Without thinking, she sent phaser bolts into the holographic images, yelling as adrenaline surged.

Dougal, successful in flanking the outpost, eliminated two sentries unnoticed. Suddenly, phaser fire erupted, presumably Aimee firing at unseen enemies.

“Aw bloody hell. The wee bisom kicked the hornet’s nest,” Dougal muttered.

With the element of surprise, Dougal knew things had gone awry. “Oh, bloody hell!” he shouted his battle cry, “Creagan an fhithich!”

Dougal shot three before being enveloped by four attackers with bladed kar’takins. Valiantly fighting, he managed to take one down, but they knocked him down, burying a blade deep into his chest.

On the dune, Aimee frantically fired, drawing attention. Remaining stationary was a sniper's cardinal sin.

But she wasn’t a sniper. She was a doctor. Aimee heard the shroud drop and, before she could react, darkness.

Jolie watched her teammates fall, anger rising. Hearing the dreaded sound of an energy discharge, she saw the red flashing light on her phaser, indicating a depleted energy pack. Realizing her mistake, she tossed the phaser aside and charged at an incoming Jem’Hadar. Slamming her shoulder into the soldier, pain seared as her shoulder dislocated. Trying to spin around, another blow hit her from the back of her head. As she blacked out, she saw a figure standing next to a kneeling Aimee amid the red Vulcan sands.

A sigh escaped as defeat settled in.