The explosive, which had a thick ‘mucous’ feel to it, was heating up and swelling on LeCroy’s own chest, and the engineer desperately computed ways in his head to get out of this situation. But he could only think of one way to escape in the next few seconds: take off the damn uniform.
In the next instant, almost like he had stepped out from an invisible door, Lieutenant Commander Thorn materialized from behind the unsuspecting Annecta humanoid, and smashed his head against the wall with the force that only a Breen soldier could exert. The humanoid fell in a daze, but he was not unconscious.
Thorn took the few precious seconds he had to examine the predicament that LeCroy was in. He grabbed the explosive with one hand, and took a sharp blade from his other hand to try and slice it off his uniform. It wasn’t as easy as it looked; the material on the new Federation uniforms was tough and resilient. It was designed to handle stresses of all kinds, most notably from sharp objects as knives and Klingon bat’leths. The material actually strengthened at the point of stress.
“Here, try this…” LeCroy said, pulling a cutting tool from his belt. He only prayed that he didn’t cut through his flesh.
Thorn managed to get the explosive loose from LeCroy’s uniform, and he immediately forced it onto the humanoid’s forehead before he could get up and fight back. The humanoid twisted and turned to try and escape the inevitable explosion, but Thorn fought hard to keep a firm grip. He would make sure that the humanoid got what was coming to him.
LeCroy realized what Thorn was doing. No, DON’T…he quietly thought.
And it finally exploded.
LeCroy desperately looked to search for his fellow officer amid the thick smoke; he had to assume that Thorn could not have survived such an explosion. The Annecta humanoid certainly didn’t, who laid there with half of his torso and head just gone. But to his surprise, Thorn still indeed was alive, but with one arm cradling the other. When LeCroy could finally see what had actually happened, his jaw just fell. The explosion had blown Thorn’s left arm.
It was at that moment that LeCroy realized that he had never heard a Breen scream in pain.
