Linda made it passed the deadline, but was it enough?

"12 minutes," the guard presumably named Segmet announced.

Vorgul curled his lips and pulled Kari toward him. "What's the ship status?"

Segmet tapped into his communicator, "Enzhi, what's your status? Have they given up the bridge yet?" There was silence. "Enzhi?" He looked to Vorgul.

"Bah! I'll check it myself... kill this one," Vorgul said, shoving Kari over to his second in command. "Then kill the performer next."

Kari used the momentum to bump into Segmet and quickly grabbed his arm pistol and flipped him over. The mercs on the upper catwalks trained their weapons on her, but she had the one alien in her grip and managed to get his pistol. She aimed it at her captive.

Vorgul turned back and smirked. "Go on and kill him then. He is a failure if he was overtaken by the likes of you..."

Kari frowned, thinking things through. She switched targets to the man in charge, but left herself open to getting flipped by Segmet. She it the ground and Vorgul ordered, "Shoot her!"

All the guards fired! I looked at Kari and she looked at me, both of us helpless at what was to happen next.

The beams shot out and stopped. A barrier had been erected in front of the invaders! The ones on the catwalk pushed the invisible boundary to no effect as the ones that lines the walls found similar difficulty. Vorgul looked around, seeing his men trapped behind **** fields and hissed. He took out his own pistol and aimed it at Kari. I leaped in and threw his arm up just as he fired and the beam shot harmlessly up at the ceiling.

Vorgul swung me aside into the rest of the crew, who helped cushion my fall and went targeted Kari again. The cargo bay door shifted open and Tiloth stepped through firing. Her shot hit Vorgul from behind, taking him down. Segmet tried to fire back, but Tiloth dodged and took him out as well. Amasova and Barbieri came in behind the security chief and swept the room.

"Tiloth to Bentham, cargo bay is secure," Tiloth announced.

I sighed in relief as we were all saved. Tiloth took a look at me and grinned, "I look forward to reading your report, ensign..."

I get the feeling that the entire crew will have a different perspective of me after this ordeal. It's going to be a tough image to break away from after what I just did in front of everyone too... Kari was thankful for it though. She told me if I hadn't done what I did, she might have been vaporized, so it was worth it.

I found out later what had happened. The mercenaries had been tracking our ship ever since we entered the region. They were looking to capture it and sell it off in the area's black market. Starfleet tech is much more advanced than what they have. They waited for our ship to break shields in order to stealthily transport themselves aboard. Once inside, they captured the **** crew first, like us in our quarters, before capturing engineering and then the bridge. By the time they had captured engineering, the bridge had been warned and made the necessary precautions to hold out against the strike. From there, Barbieri snuck out as planned, got to sick bay to find the doctor and Bentham who retreated back there. With backup, Bentham was able to take back engineering, gain control of ship **** fields and trap the mercenaries at the bridge and then they doubled back to rescue us. Just in time too.

The mercenary group were all apprehended and taken to the local authorities. Apparently there was a reward for these notorious band of thugs, but Captain Lance declined it. Instead she accepted local star charts and information about places we could go to seek out technology to help us on our travels. So, everything is back to normal, aside from the fact that by now everyone will have either seen or heard about what I did during the hostage situation. I think I'll take another day off, holed up in my quarters. I'll make sure to keep the door locked this time.