Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Nov 15, 2006 3:19:08 GMT
“Can anyone think of any where, where we could spend the night?” Hannah asked looking at Steve and Lorre hoping for suggestions.
Melain was pretty certain she new this city better then Hannah or Steve, even if they where both humans. She could think of one place, in fact given that it was a weekend it was probably the perfect place. Besides she still looked Bajoran, granted she looked a lot older and different then she did. She could remember that the public transit system had a trip right from the university campus to her neighbourhood, she had taken the route regularly when she was in nurse’s training...
“Lorre, you have a funny look on your face that makes me feel both hopeful and worried.” Steve said, brining Melain back into the moment.
“Sorry, I was just remembering something. The temple I attended as a child opens it’s doors on weekends to any off-world travellers in need of a place to sleep, specifically for any visiting Bajorans. There is a bus that should take us right there.” She paused, wondering if this idea would sit well with her comrades, not everyone liked religious buildings.
“Sounds all right, will we be questioned about anything?” Hannah asked.
“Probably not, one of the monks might ask what province I am from or my D’jara. I’ll just say that we are some musicians or something and we where unable to get a room because of the festival.” Melain was liking this idea, and if the monks asked her to play something she would not have to pretend she knew what she was doing.
Hannah nodded. “all right then, let’s head out.”
They had to wait almost 15 minutes for the next bus, this late at night they came rarely, even on festival days. This did however give the trio a chance to skim through some of the data, they came up with very little, mostly things they already knew. Just as the bus pulled in Melain stumbled on the transcript from her debriefing and paused. She was not sure she wanted to read it, that had easily been the worst hour of her life. It was even worse then the interrogation she’d been through on Tammeron.
The bus ride was rather short and soon they found themselves standing on the curb watching the bus head off into the dark. “This way.” Melain beckoned.
The temple did not look like anything special, in fact it was an old community centre that the local Bajoran populations had purchased almost twenty years ago. They still had not got around to renovating it. There was a sign beside the door announcing it as “Celestial spirit Temple” in both standard and Bajoran, there was a subscript listing the service times, the Vedek’s name, and the monks who worked there. There where lights on inside and Melain could hear some chanting. It brought back a wave of memories. She sounded the door bell.
There was a flutter of movement visible behind the curtains, and then the door slid open. “Welcome children, I am Vedek Jaren, what can I do for you today?”
Melain’s first instinct was to hide her face, but he obviously did not recognise her. “I...” she took a moment to disguise her voice, trying to make it deeper. “I was told we could spend the night here. Our hotel was booked up.”
“Of course you can, we already have one visitor with us this evening. Come in, Come in.” Vedek Jaren stepped aside so that the trio could pile into the entrance. “Please remove your shoes. Kera, we have more guests, put on some more tea and get out some more bed rugs!” he called out into the sanctuary. “What did you say your name was?”
Melain paused, she had to be careful, if the name she shared was someone he knew he’d be asking her a lot of questions. “I didn’t share my name. I am Tana Heran, these are my colleges Benjamin Fisher and Lois West.” she slipped off her shoes and gave him a warm smile. “We are very grateful for your hospitality, I feel like I am back home in Jo'Kala.”
“That is a nice city, I passed through there the last time I was on Bajor. Now we have some tea on, and then we’ll leave three be.” Jaren turned his attention back to Melain. “You are welcome to join us in our chanting, we are praying for a young women from our congregation who has lost her way.”
Why did Melain have a feeling this young women was her? “I would love to join you.”
Jaren gave them a courteous bow and then headed into one of the back rooms, presumably to fetch the tea. Melain turned to Hannah and Steve. “I’ll occupy them, so you two can take a look at that data.”
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Melain felt oddly revaccinated after joining in meditation and chants with the monks. She had not worshipped properly in ages, although it was odd to be praying for herself. Jaren had asked what her profession was, so she had an opportunity to play some music. They had a klavian she could borrow, since hers was still “at the concert hall.” They lamented the fact they had missed her performance, but insisted that they felt the private concert she gave them made up for it. By the time she was able to head off to bed without seeming rude, it was almost two in the morning.
Both Hannah and Steven had fallen asleep, and the tea the monks had left them was cold. Melain poured herself a glass anyway and picked up one of the PaDDs, she was not tired anymore and it wad unlikely they had gone though all the data yet. She began to read through various reports, duty shifts and other useless data, and then stumbled on exactly what she was hoping to find. It was her JAG record and it was a lot longer then she would have thought.
Subject in question gave orders that directly defied Star Fleet protocal as outlined in section..... There where far more sections of protocal then Melain would have thought herself possible of breaching. Subject became involved in a local war, directly contributing to the deaths of hundrads of pe-warp aliens and fellow Nevada crewmembers including, but not limited to..... Every name of every crewmember Melain had lost was listed, her stomech clenched, how could she possibly have caused that many deaths? Subject directly and knowledgably defied several direct orders given by her superior officers Melain could not recall defying any of Harrias’s or Hannah’s orders Subject’s over all composure from time of recovering consuosness to composure of this file has been unbecoming of a Star Fleet officer Melain had thought her friends where dead, how exactly was she supposed to act? This entire file made her seem like some sort of neglegent, self centerd, destructive individual. There was a final note, Melain hesitantly continued to read.
“Subject is to be kept under close watch and has been released into the care fo her parents. Subject may not communicate with any other Nevada crewmembers, or have access to a computer consul. All changes to this arrangement must be passed by Captain John Smith. This information is classified.”
By the prophets, no wonder that hearing comitee seemed to hate her if this was all they where told about her.
(101940/10801)
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hannah
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Registered: Mar 29, 2024 6:01:32 GMT
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Post by hannah on Nov 16, 2006 22:56:52 GMT
Hannah awoke feeling refreshed. She hadn’t had a decent night’s sleep on a comfortable bed in days and she had been starting to feel the consequence of her lack of sleep. She sat up in bed and turned her body so her feet dangled over the bed. She looked around to see Lorre and Steve still faster sleep. She lowered her feet slowly down to the floor trying not to make a sound incase it woke the others.
Hannah then crept out of the room and down the hallway towards the bathroom. She moved over to the mirror and looked into it. The face that stared back at her made her jump, she looked so different and she had also forgotten that until now. She moved in closer to the mirror to see if she could see any resemblance of her old self. Her hair had been dyed strawberry blond, she had been given freckles and now had blue eyes and her face had been reshaped slightly.
She washed her face quickly feeling uncomfortable having this new face stare back at her as her reflection. She had gotten use to seeing Steve and Lorre looking different now but it always felt weird to her to have an unknown face with very little resemblance to her stare her back in face in the mirror.
Hannah quickly took a shower and felt a lot better for it. She hadn’t realised how dirty her skin had become. The only downside to it was when she had to get back into the dirty, sweaty clothes she had been wearing for the last few days.
When she got back to the room, Lorre and Steve were up and were waiting for her return before they headed to breakfast. Hannah picked up the bag contained the pads of information and followed Lorre and Steve out towards the breakfast hall.
They were greeted by the monk and showed them a buffet of Bajoran breakfast food laid out on a table at the end of the room. Hannah grabbed a plate and picked a selection of foods, she didn’t know what most of it was as she rarely had Bajoran food and had never it for breakfast.
After breakfast they headed back on the streets to find somewhere quiet to sit and read though the information they had download from the JAG database. Hannah and Steve had only glanced though the information last night, trying to search for relevant information for them to look though further in the morning. Hannah had given in to tiredness after about an hour and headed to bed leaving Steve to it.
They strolled though the streets, she glad that as they walked passed people they paid very little attention to them unlike yesterday at the festival after the announcement was made and everyone’s’ eyes were on them.
They found a small quiet café down a side street and took up seats in the couched area and they began to work there way though the large amount of data they had downloaded from the JAG database.
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lucykanz
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Registered: Mar 29, 2024 6:01:32 GMT
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Post by lucykanz on Nov 17, 2006 1:08:50 GMT
The search had proved fruitful. After a short time she had managed to find an article about a fairly recent mission the USS Nevada A had been on. All fairly routine stuff, but this was definitely the link she was looking for. She even recognised a couple more names from bits of different conversations she'd heard since her arrival.
However it took her quite a while longer before she realised what was so odd about her findings. There were regular reports about the crew dating back to when the ship was commissioned, as would be expected. But they stopped suddenly about 6 months back. She had to know what had happened to cause this.
Lucy started a new search, this time for all recent data on the Nevada. She kept having to check herself to ensure that she didn't get too carried away and start using techniques that hadn't been approved for general use yet.
With the parameters set she sat back to relax for a bit. The amount of data that had to be sifted through meant it could be the evening by the time she got her answer. Looking out the window she saw the clouds moving across the sky. She started to relax and calm down, almost to the point of a hypnotic trance. But a loud beep snapped her straight out of it.
Going back over to the computer, Lucy saw that she had a new message from central security. *This is it* she thought as she instructed the computer to open it. A now familiar voice spoke out.
"Dear Miss Kanz. Thank you for your cooperation with participation in recent discussions. Your assistance in this matter is greatly appreciated."
*Just get on with it* Lucy thought.
"As discussed, we are concerned that you are not currently equipped to deal with the kind of vulnerable situation that you could be potentially exposed to. To help rectify this situation, I myself will be providing training on a regular basis to bring you up to the standard of all those carrying privileged information."
*Woo hoo, special ops training.*
"Also to add to your safety, and to complete your integration into this society, we have decided that you will be required to work under the supervision of a Starfleet Commander for a period of at least a year. We have concluded that this will provide you with necessary training and discipline, as well as vital work experience to balance out your missing academic record."
*Oh that's going to be fun.*
"We have found a job for you here at the security centre to ease your transition. We are also able to provide you with board and lodgings for as long as you require them. Once the year is completed we will review your progress and make our next decision accordingly. "Thank you again for your assistance. Commander Timothy Samuel Ryder, on behalf of the security council."
There was another beep to signify the end of the message. Lucy sat back to start to let it sink in. It looked like her plans for the near future weren't anything she would have to worry about for a while. All she had to do was try to relax and wait for her job details to appear.
That was, of course, until 4 armed officers barged into her room and escorted her off.
She was very relieved when she was allowed to go home. At first she had thought the whole thing was a set-up from Commander Ryder to see how much training she needed. Then Lucy worried that it was the real thing.
But she had quickly realised that this interrogation was nothing to do with her past, more her present interest. And in part it had only fuelled her curiosity to find out what was going on. It wasn't as if she had much else to do with her time. Lucy was almost certain her new job wouldn't start for a few days and this could have been the perfect thing to occupy her time.
Well, that was if she thought there was the slightest chance that she could research normally and not be abducted again. And then she ran into the people she was thinking about. So for about the 5th time in as many days her life changed completely.
Listening to the 3 officers, or ex-officers of whoever they were, Lucy tried to get a better picture of what they were actually up to. Unfortunately they moved out of the complex all too quickly for her to judge the situation properly.
"Listen to the Captain" the Andorian, whose name she couldn't quite remember from the files, said to her.
She obligingly stopped, actually intending for a moment to go straight back to her new 'home' of the security centre. But her need to actually do something got the better of her. Not to mention an idea she had if they really were good officers. Next thing she knew she was running to catch up.
"Hey! Wait up! Umm, I don't exactly have a lot to do for a few days so… I don't suppose you could use a computer expert or anything?" She asked hopefully.
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davidramsey
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Registered: Mar 29, 2024 6:01:32 GMT
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Post by davidramsey on Nov 17, 2006 18:34:45 GMT
David awoke with a start. His head felt like it had a wooden stake sticking out of it. He settled back on his bed and closed his eyes. The last thing he remembered was standing on the ramparts of a castle-ish structure, looking down on a scene of considerable carnage. Then pain in the back of his head and now this. He opened his eyes once more the blurring lights eventually snapped into focus. He tried to get up and found himself loosely bound about the elbows, waist, and thighs.
He tilted his head up and nearly screamed in pain. His head felt like it was near to exploding, but he forced himself to keep looking. He could move his arms, but it would take a considerable amount of effort to unhook the mechanism that held down the arm straps. He put his head back down and considered calling for help. He opened his mouth and began to tilt his head once more, when suddenly the doors directly before his bed slid open. David quickly put his head back down and closed his eyes.
A rather nervous looking doctor entered the room, quickly looking from side to side. He shuffled his way to the unconscious Operations officer's side. He wiped his forehead and pecked at the console next to the patient's head. He then withdrew a hyprospray from his coat and quickly wiped more sweat from his forehead. He undid the arm strap and pulled David's left arm over and moved to inject him, when suddenly the arm shot up and slammed into his jaw. The doctor fell to the floor with a thud and the hyprospray flew across the room and landed in the far corner.
David swivelled up and unhooked the waist strap and after holding his spinning head for a moment, he unhooked the leg straps as well and hopped off the bed. He made his way to the corner and inspected the hyprospray and found that he was right to fight back. The thing contained Dylamadon, a poison that he knew to cause a person serious brain damage. He came back to his attacker and kneeled beside him and searched for some identification. He moved the coat to one side and found a starfleet insignia staring back at him. He sat back and considered his next move. The "doctor" was roughly the same size as he was and something told him that if he stayed here he wouldn't have a chance as good as this one.
He quickly disrobed the would-be assassin and took off his own patient's garment. He put on the doctor's uniform and coat ... and just in case it was needed, he placed the hypospray in his pocket. He then put the other man into his discarded clothing and, with some effort, hoisted the man up into his bed and strapped him in.
He then moved out into the corridor and made his way toward what he hoped was an exit. He noticed starfleet ensignias everywhere and yet he had a strong feeling of distrust and nervousness. He wanted out and he wanted out now. His head was swimming and he fell back against a wall, a few nurses gave him curious glances and one nearly came to help him, but he bounced off the wall and waved her off. The last thing he needed was someone figuring out he wasn't who he appeared to be. He found a window and looked out onto San Francisco. He nearly jumped back in shock, he was all but certain he was on some strange planet or possibly a space station. Was this Earth? Why was someone trying to kill him? Where was his crew? What had happened to the two warring factions on that planet? What the hell was going on?
He swivelled around and noticed an exit. He speeded his way toward it and didn't dare look back. He had to figure out what was going on here.
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Deleted
Registered: Mar 29, 2024 6:01:32 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Nov 17, 2006 21:22:57 GMT
Melain had been silent all morning, and she had barely slept. Whenever she closed her eyes the voices from her debriefing returned, reading those horrible things off her JAG file, so she feigned sleep until the others arose. Neither Hannah nor Steve seemed to notice her quietness, which was fine for the moment although Melain knew she would have to speak with them about her discovery soon.
While Steve and Hannah went to find a place in the small cafe to study the files in peace, Melain fetched some drinks from the baristo. She ordered a large cup of chai tea for herself and a coffee for Steve and one for Hannah. She was not sure how the two humans liked their coffee, so she grabbed a few creamers and a packet of sugar on her way over to the couches where they had settled down. Without a word she passed them their drinks and sat down.
“Is there something wrong doctor? You haven’t said a word all day.” Hannah asked as she took a sip from her beverage.
“Yeah, did you guys find your JAG files last night?” Melain asked, gesturing with her free hand to the PaDDs on the table. They both shook their heads no. “before I went to sleep I found mind, let me show you want I found.” Melain took the PaDD she had been scoring through and handed it over to her colleges. “Does that sound at all like me? I know I made some mistakes down there, but those are pretty extreme.”
Steve’s brow was furrowed as he read the list of alleged infractions. “You are right doctor, I believe this have been fabricated, and I can say with some certainty that our records are probably the same.”
Melain was feeling a little reassured since her colleges stood behind her, And reached out for the PaDD. “Thank you, I guess we had better find your logs as well then.
It took almost two hours, and 3 more beverages for Hannah’s and Steven’s logs to be uncovered, it took another half an hour for them to find the other senior officers’ logs as well. They decided not to poke through those logs, it seemed a little bit like a peak into someone’s privacy. Hannah’s and Steve’s files held similar allegations to Melain, allegations neither of them deserved.
“You know what else is puzzling, we have files and paper work in here that is over two months old, and these files are the only things that mention the Nevada or its crew.” Melain commented, stuffing the files into her bag. “Does that seem normal to you guys?”
“Not at all, perhaps this is connected to the false information in our files.” Steve suggested. “Whoever did this stuff knew what they where doing and I would suspect they know us rather well and were on that planet with us.”
“You think it’s a crewmembers?” Melain exclaimed, the prospect was shocking and not one she wanted to entertain.
“Possibly, but we should discuss that theory with the rest of the team once we meet up again.” Steve replied. “I wonder if the Nevada has been wiped out of public records as well....”
“It might have been,” Melain interrupted. “I was pursuing the “Federation Gazette” a few days back, the Nevada was never mentioned. That struck me as odd, you would think the destruction of an entire ship and the deaths of a dozen or so Star Fleet officers is something the “Gazette” would publish.”
“Then it looks like our job is far from over. Let’s find a news stand and search the archives.” Hannah proposed. ‘I saw one down the block.”
As they got up the leave the Barista intercepted them. “It’s about time you guys headed out, we don’t allow loiterers in here.”
Melain rolled her eyes. “We bought six of your over-priced drinks, I think we earned the right to enjoy the atmosphere as long as we wanted to.”
Before the young man could reply the trio headed out of the cafe and onto the street, still busy with the weekend festivities. The news stand was not very crowded, which was both good and bad. It made them easy to spot (but with their disguises this was not as bad as it could have been), but also less likely to have someone reading over their shoulder. Hannah and Steve allowed Melain to search the archives while they stood watch.
Melain went back one month, there was nothing. She went back two months, still nothing, she jumped to check articles from the last 5 months, still no results. She checked for 10 months and the latest articles she had was from about 6 months ago. There where a few commendations, some newly assigned crewmembers, a birth, a wedding, the usual reports that people back at home would want to know about. Then suddenly it was as if the ship had vanished.
Melain scanned the articles and a name jumped up that she recognised. It was the new Ops officer who had joined the ship shortly before the Nevada had self-destructed “Where is David anyway?” she asked.
“I saw him in sickbay on the Rutherford, he looked like he was in bad shape.” Steve reported. “Harrias said he tried to find out where he was, but could not find anything.”
“Do you think he could have died?” Melain asked in a low, hesitant voice, his death had not been listed on her JAG record like the others.
“Either that or he is in a hospital somewhere.” Steve replied. Then, as if reading her mind he added “There isn’t anything you can do for him Doctor, and we have work to do here.”
“Can either of you recall what we where doing six months ago?” Hannah asked. “The sudden absence of information could be do to something that happened then...”
“Or that happened within those dates, whoever did this is probably smart enough not to give us such an exact time frame.” Steve added.
“We where on a very dull survey mission if I can recall. Star Fleet sent us to search for dilithium on some back wash planet. Nothing interesting happened, and the readings we found where too low to be of any use.” Melain replied, she recalled the immense boredom vividly.
“I was hoping it would be something a little more useful to us then that.” Steve sighed.
(103012/11873)
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hannah
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Registered: Mar 29, 2024 6:01:32 GMT
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Post by hannah on Nov 18, 2006 17:48:34 GMT
Melain question about David stuck in her mind and she couldn’t fight it off, was he any danger and she decided that it would be best if they found him. Hannah quickly looked though the pad in front of her looking for any reference to David, ignoring the conversation Steve and Melain were having and everything else that was going on around her. Lucky it didn’t take her long to find the relevant information; it wasn’t as if there was any reason for the JAG to keep it very well hidden.
“He’s in a Starfleet hospital,” Hannah blurred out. Melain and Steve looked at her confused.
“David Ramsey he’s been kept in San Francisco Starfleet medical hospital,” Hannah clarified.
She turned her attention to Melain.
“Do you know where that is?” Hannah asked Melain. She nodded.
“It’s about 20 minutes walk from here,” she informed them starting to walk up the hill. The other followed quickly behind.
They approached the hospital and looked around for a way in. They couldn’t go though the main entrance because they would ask for id, as it was a Starfleet hospital and all the side doors were card operated. They searched around and noticed a man in doctor’s uniform stumbling away from the hospital; from the way he was walking he was injured, ill or drunk.
“This may be are way in,” Hannah said pointing towards the man who continued to stumble towards grabbing anything that would help his balance, “He has got to have an id card that we can use to get though one of the side entrances.”
“If you go in front of him and I’ll go behind and knock him out,” Steve suggested.
“That’s David,” Melain said. Hannah had taken the opportunity to look at the man face and turned her attention towards him. Melain was right that was David.
The three of them rushed over to him. Hannah and Steve grapping each arm to keep him balanced.
“I’m alright leave me,” he said trying to push them away.
“It’s Hannah Stevenson, Steve and Melain from the Nevada,” Hannah said trying to resume him.
Hannah looked up at Melain with concern. Melain had already got a tricorder out of her bag and was standing him.
“What’s wrong with him?” she asked very concerned.
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davidramsey
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Registered: Mar 29, 2024 6:01:32 GMT
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Post by davidramsey on Nov 18, 2006 18:42:53 GMT
David glared around at the people around him. Only one was even remotely recognizable ... and he had never known her name. He turned toward her as she scanned him with a tricorder.
"You, I remember you ... wha ... ?" he said as he started to collapse once more.
Apparently, all this activity was catching up to him and he was vaguely reminded of the concussion he suffered when he fell out of a tree back home, but this was much worse. The world was spinning and the faces of the people around him would continually blur and then slip into focus before hazing over again. He felt like he was going to be sick.
"I ... I ... I need to sit down," he stuttered as he gropped for the ground.
His crewmembers tugged him toward a bench and while the figures of "Steve" and "Hannah" stood around them to block the view of passers by, the woman with the tricorder continued her scans.
"He has a severe concussion and he's suffering from some kind of retroactive nerve toxin," she said after a moment.
David glared at her for a moment. He put his hand in the jacket pocket and withdrew the hypospray, "Nerve toxin like this?"
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Deleted
Registered: Mar 29, 2024 6:01:32 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Nov 19, 2006 2:24:23 GMT
Melain grabbed the hypospray from David's hands and scanned it "Where did you get this!? This is Dylamadon, and to my knowledge it is considered illegal in most systems, including earth. Where you injected with this?" the last question was stupid, if David had been injected with the Dylamadon he would not be speaking with them at the moment."
"Doctor.. he tried to inject me, I stopped him and got free." David replied weakly, he was beginning to look very pale.
"I believe this was the second attempt to kill you." Melain replied, examining her scans. "The first neural toxin obviously did not have the desired affect, they where hoping to send you into neural metaphasic shock." She attempted to program tricordrazine into her hypospray with no luck. " She cursed in Bajoran. "I need more then a residential medkit to treat him."
“Here.” Hannah grabbed the ID card David still had on him and passed it to Melain. “Use this.”
Melain looked at the picture on the ID, it was a human male. She looked over to Steve and held the ID up, comparing them. Who would have expected Steve’s disguise to be so similar to this murderous doctor. “I need a full medkit, their should be a well marked storage room by the main desk. If anyone asks why you need it tell them it’s a code Delta and you don’t have time to explain, no nurse will question you, and doctor will nod in understanding. GO.”
Steve pulled on the lab jacket David was wearing, thrust the ID in his pocket and rushed towards the hospital.
“I’m going to give you something to clear your head okay David, you might feel odd for a few minutes, though.” Melain explained, programming one of the few things she could using her mother’s home hypospray. Concussions where one thing residential kits where well stocked for. She pressed the hypospray into his neck and he gave a faint groan.
“Oh my God, what happened to him?” Melain turned around to see a teenager, jaw gapping, staring at them. “He doesn’t look so good, you guys should take him in there.” he pointed to the hospital.
“It’s okay, it’s just a drill. I’m a doctor and I’m teaching them first aid. You should sign up for one of our courses they are very helpful. In fact I have a flyer in my pocket somewhere.” she began to reach into her coat pocket and gave the young man a huge (and ideally creepy) smile.
“No, Ahh, My school teaches us that stuff.” the young human protested as he quickened his pace .
“That was close, Hey, there’s Steve.” Hannah pointed to their colleagues form coming out of the hospital and running their way. He had the med kit.
“I was lucky, they had a bunch right by the desk and the receptionist just let me grab one when I flashed the ID.” Steve explained, handing Melain the kit.
Melain took the the hypospray and successfully programmed the tricordrazine. She administered the medication into David’s neck. “Is that better?”
<Tag David>
(103527/12388)
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davidramsey
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Registered: Mar 29, 2024 6:01:32 GMT
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Post by davidramsey on Nov 19, 2006 4:11:37 GMT
David felt the slight sting of the hypospray and he sighed. His immediate pain started to fade, but when he opened his eyes he found that little had changed in the way of stabilization. The world was still spinning, a bit slower, yes, but still spinning. He focused on the woman treating him and his vision centralized a bit more. He smiled slightly at her and an uncontrollable giddiness took hold of him and he laughed.
"Are you a good witch or a bad witch?" he asked with another queer laugh.
The doctor glanced up at her companions and smirked a bit herself.
"Delerium, probably caused by the imbalance of chemicals in the brain," she said quickly, "David, what happened?"
As the world settled a bit more, David laughed again then screwed his face up as he tried to concentrate.
"I woke up, he came in, I hit him, he fell down, I got up ... here I am," he said gleefully as he stared at a spot just beyond her head.
Almost without delay David began to fall asleep. He snuggled up to the doctor and proceeded to pass out with his thumb in his mouth and a strange smile on his face.
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fthelev
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Registered: Mar 29, 2024 6:01:32 GMT
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Post by fthelev on Nov 21, 2006 21:05:59 GMT
Frek stopped and quickly glanced over his shoulder, the footsteps rapidly approaching. He tensed his muscles, ready to make a run for it if necessary. He hoped it wouldn’t be, but he was ready, despite his aversion to physical exercise. A streak of light from a lamppost fell on the face of the pursuing character and revealed her face. “It’s that girl again Captain,” Frek declared after making a positive identification. “Lucy?” Jira said remembering her name correctly and sighed, “Hmm, they never listen, do they?” He turned around and resumed his course, followed by his officers. By now Lucy had caught up, and walked after them panting slightly from her little sprint. “Umm, I don't exactly have a lot to do for a few days so… I don't suppose you could use a computer expert or anything?” Lucy halted and hopefully looked at the captain on the run. In turn Jira didn’t stop and kept on walking. Frek turned around walking backwards for a few steps, and shrugged at the somewhat bewildered looking Lucy who was left staring after them.
But then she caught up and was walking next to them again. “Come on,” she pleaded, “I’m sure I can help you somehow. I can’t just walk away. I’m already in it, more or less.” “No you can’t, yes you can and you shouldn’t be,” Jira respectively reacted in quite a brusque manner. They had rounded the corner by now and were well out sight and earshot. He was standing still and turned to the young woman standing amongst him and his people. “Whatever you are thinking, this is clearly not a game,” he went on, “Not anymore, if it ever could have been called that. “These people,” Jira pointed in the global direction of the clubhouse, “These people are serious. And from what we just gathered, in a deadly manner. And you want to get in this mess?” Jira smirked, “Hell, voluntarily? If I’d have a choice, I’m quite sure I, we wouldn’t be here.”
Frek looked from Lucy to Captain Jira and Loki. The three of them not saying much, or better said nothing at all. He himself wasn’t exactly bursting into song either. For a moment they all just stood there. “Just thought I could help someway or another,” Lucy finally said with a small voice. “If…” The Captain took a sharp breath, looked up desperately for a moment and ran a hand down his face. “Listen, you’re a civilian and…” “Captain,” Frek interrupted laying a hand on his arm. “What?!” “Someone’s coming.” Jira cursed and released some muttered words into the atmosphere Frek wasn’t sure Lucy was old enough to hear. But he was quite sure you wouldn’t encounter them in any educational program. Well, okay…apart from the Klingon variant of course, but really, you could hardly expect anything different from them. “Let’s keep walking. And act normal, Frek...” Jira said softly and a bit warningly on the latter part.
Act normal. For all they knew it was just someone walking his dog late at night, leaving unpleasant dog things all over the sidewalk. On the other hand it could also be a patrol of security men out on the look for them, or a nudist tourist group streaking through the old part of town. Diving in the bushes or behind a tree at the road sides could be an option, but that would look rather suspicious if spotted. And not only to law enforcement. Not too mention the bushes would probably be full of thorns, biting bugs or other things that made it into the unpleasant things category. Two pair of footsteps reflected against the pavement and two figures, humanly shaped emerged in opposite direction. It was one of those moments you proverbially had your heart in your mouth. Although Frek wasn’t entirely sure it was entirely proverbial. It was a good thing he didn’t have a cold, cause to together with his tongue it left little room for breathing. Imagine that with a stuffy nose as well. When they finally passed each other the couple found them barely worthy a look and with a short nod they simply walked on, holding hands and with more attention for their respective partner than for anything else around them. “If we only have such look with others,” Frek sighed. Loki stared after the couple. “I doubt that those looking for use will do that friskily charging through the city holding hands,” she said sarcastically, “On the other hand, you and doctor…” Frek quickly recuperated from the initial shock. “Heh,” he quickly came in between, “Sir, we can’t do this all night until our scheduled meeting tomorrow evening.”
During the day perhaps more people on the streets, but they were expected to be there. And it would be very unlikely those people would be examining everyone who the passed them in the hope of detecting a possible fugitive. But a group of people from various galactic origins roaming the streets late at night, that were supposed to be empty in this part of town, could arouse some suspicion. Not only because they were slightly turning into something that would fit the term dirty tramp quite well. He was still wearing the same clothes he had put on two days ago and hadn’t washed himself completely in style with his outfit. And he wouldn’t be surprised if he was cultivating some indigenous life form in his hair as well. Not to mention the weather report gave up rain for later that night. And if you have to be under a continuous stream of water, he did prefer a shower.
Jira stared down the road. “You’re right,” he said, and altered his position to face them, “And don’t call me sir.” “Right Cap…” “Or captain,” Jira cut off, “So what do you suggest?” “Well…” Both Loki and Frek were looking at Lucy. Her face brightened up. “Told you I could help…” Jira stared at the officers. “You can’t be serious?” He didn’t have to be a psychologist or a telepathic counsellor to see that he wasn’t entirely thrilled with the idea. It was a fairly safe bet a visually challenged over-aged baboon would have been able to make that allusion.
Loki made a helpless gesture. “We do need a place to stay. We need something to eat, some rest.” The way she said it all sounded rather sensible. That must be because it was. “She was just brought in for questioning,” Jira said considering the pro’s and contra’s. “Because they wanted to know what I know,” Lucy quickly said, “Because I was looking at some…uhm…hard to get files.” “They probably only monitor queries about us,” Loki put in, “I doubt they’re physically monitoring everyone who gets too curious. And she hasn’t got any ties to us whatsoever.” Frek nodded. “Her face hasn’t been spread around,” he added, “We need things, things we might not get ourselves. Supplies, clothing. She can get that for us.”
Slowly Jira started get convinced and gave in, although perhaps not whole heartedly. But given the situation they might be much of choice. By all looks of it, this was bigger than just them. “Alright, I see your point,” he said slow and thoughtful. “We need to alter our appearance a bit as well. So far we all…” A look at Frek. “Well, almost all, look the same as on pictures they’re send to every security office on this planet. Something simple as some hair dye might help some.” He turned to Lucy. “So where did you say you lived again?” Lucy coloured slightly and carefully grinned. “Now, heh, well…”
“What!?” The three of them exclaimed at approximately the same time after figuring out where she was actually housed. “Starfleet Security?” Frek asked quite unbelievingly. Perhaps this wasn’t such a good idea after all. “Look at it this way,” she said, “The building itself is basically unguarded, and nobody will come looking for you there.” It actually made sense. Not the comfortable kind of sense, but still. “In the town they’re searching for us everywhere,” Frek said. Probably more to try to convince himself than anything else, “There we never will be found. We are a crew on the run. She’s right, who would look for us there?”
“Okay, we’ll give it a go,” Jira finally said. He looked worried. And they all knew with a good reason. It was amazing how things could change in such a short time span. The one moment you are before a committee determining whether there is cause for court-martial, the next moment you are in the middle of....of well, a conspiracy? It began to look like that. “Frek, I’m sure you’re good with teenagers. If anything happens to her, you’re responsible.” “But cap…I mean, Jira…” Frek wanted to protest. Perhaps he was okay with teenager when was one himself, but even then they were always trying to pull his antennas. “You can call me Harrias now.” “I’d rather stick to Jira.” “Whatever.” Jira said and turned to Lucy, “You just listen to Commander Thelev, do as he says and stay close to him.” “In that case something is bound to happen to her,” Loki grinned. Jira raised an eyebrow and glanced at Loki. “Hmm,” and then to Lucy, “You’d better listen to Lieutenant Loki as well. Now let’s go.” Frek reconciled himself in the situation and started walking. “Frek!” “Hmm?” “The other way.” “Oh.”
[12540/130967]
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hannah
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Registered: Mar 29, 2024 6:01:32 GMT
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Post by hannah on Nov 21, 2006 22:22:09 GMT
“We can’t stay here,” Steve said, “People are asking to many questions and they will soon notice he is missing.”
“Can we wake him?” Hannah asked. Lorre shook her head.
“It’s not a good idea, he needs at least a few hours of sleep to recover,” Lorre answered. Hannah didn’t like the idea and they knew they couldn’t carry him very far.
“Me and Steve will go and find somewhere close where we hide,” Hannah said, “You stay with David.”
They walked around the edge of the hospital exploring the side streets for any quieter place to hide. The only thing they found were a few back alleys and a park area with trees around the edge and a large secluded pond. The park was fairly empty with the winter approaching only a few families on the playground but they could hide well away from them.
They returned quickly and lifting David up and dragging him towards the park. It took quite an effort to get him to the park and they dropped him down on the grass in a quiet spot. And the other three dropped down next to him catching their breath.
They talked for the next few hours reading though the information on the PADs trying to work out what was going on and why they had tried to kill David. They didn’t come up with much information there was just too much data to get though.
Hannah looked down at a bracket on her right arm. She tapped a sensor on it and it displayed the time.
“We are due to revue with the captain in about half an hour, we really need to get moving,” Hannah said. She looked down at David who was still asleep on the ground, “Is there any way you could wake him, we don’t really want to carry him all the way.”
Lorre nodded but looked a bit reluctant when grabbing a hyprospray out of her bag and pushed it into David’s neck. His eyes slowly opened. Hannah and Steve lifted him to his feet placing one arm over each of their shoulders.
“This way,” Lorre pointed leading the way. Steve and Hannah followed behind dragging David along who was now quite hyper. They got a few funny stares as they walked down the street and then one elderly couple approached them.
“Is alright?” one of them asked.
“He’s fine, just had a bit to much to drink,” Hannah lied, “We are taking him home now to sleep it off.”
“Next time he’ll stay on sythahol,” Lorre said with a smile and they continued to walk away.
The couple walked away in the opposite direction displaying the fact that they were disgusted and she could hear them complain under their breath about the youth of today.
They entered into golden gate park that was empty now, but the ground was covered in litter from food packets to beer bottles and the bins were over flowing. She was glad she wasn’t one of the people who would have to clean this up. They moved towards the centre of the park and the big oak tree. Hannah and Steve dropped David down to the ground slowly. Hannah sat down the ground next to him, needing a bit of rest from helping carrying him all this way.
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Deleted
Registered: Mar 29, 2024 6:01:32 GMT
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Nov 23, 2006 1:50:10 GMT
Melain looked down at the sleeping form of Lieutenant David Ramsey. “He looks like a little child, poor thing.” she giggled. “He is going to be tired for some time, and rightly so. His body fought off that toxin better then I would have expected from a human, and it’s earned a little rest.”
“We should move on.” Hannah urged, Melain followed her gaze to the street that was now growing crowded. “I think the days festivities are beginning.”
“Right. Steve, can you carry him?” Melain asked, Steve was not as fit as he used to be, but he was bigger then Melain or Hannah. “We’ll need to get him some real clothes too.”
“Hospital scrub pants are in style again, and I can lend him my jacket untill we can find something better.” Steve replied, He removed his jacket and carefully slipped it on David, who remained in a deep sleep. Steve picked the other man up and settkled him over his shoulder like a twenieth century fireman. “If anyone asks, he celebrated a little too hard.”
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Back in the park Melain sat down with her back against the large tree, she wanted to sleep and rightly so considering she had maybe 1 hour of rest the past night. But Hannah and Steve already had their eyes closed and someone needed to keep watch. She tried to keep her mind off their situation, forcing her memories back to when her uncle and mom took her to this park for her eighth birthday, but the memory was soon suplanted by this shadowy feeling of doom. The same type of feeling she had back at the Academy during finals week, of course she had always done relativly well and they would, or rather she prayed they would, get out of this situation well too.
They where not the only ones still in the park, althought the days family oriented festivities wher eover there where advertisements for some sort of music concert later that night. By the looks of the posters the music was not the type they would be piping over the comm system at Aspen Lane Center for the Elderly. There where groups of threes to half a dozen to even one group Melain figured had about 20 youths in it spread about the park. They seemed to blend in, untill Melain rememberd she looked like a 50 year old Klavian player.
‘Is that them?” David asked, raising his head slightly and pointing to a group of 3 that where aproaching.
Melain jumped up and shaded her eyes against the sun, there was an Andorian in the group but... Nope, it ws not Frek. This fellow was much leaner then Frek and sported a spiky hair cut. As the trio came closer several of the groups surrounding them stirred. “It’s Them, it’s Noxiose Nebula!!!” One girl screamed. As if on cue the entire population of youth leapt up and congregated around the Andorian and his collegues. Melain picked up one of the posters that had blown over, sure enough the picture on the poster included the spiky haired Andorian. When she was a child she wanted to be a music star for awhile, but watching those guys get mobbed reminded her why her job was so much more... peaceful.
All the girlish screaming arose Steve and Hannah with a start, they lept up as if ready for action. ‘Who, what, where!?” Steve asked, fists clenched.
Melain stiffled a laugh. “Fan girls, nothing to worried about.” She pointed to the mob that was now heading towards the stadium. “They must love the attention or they would have stayed in their dressing rooms. As she watched a group of 4 figures broke off from the mass and headed back in the Nevada Crew’s direction. They where older then the average person in the park and one raised his arm to point in their direction. “Oh no.” Melain gasped, how could there people possibly know who they really were?
‘Star where you are okay, we’re just catching out breath on our way home for the night.” Hannah advised as she sat back down.
Melain nodded and placed David’s head on her lap, taking care to point his face in towards her stomech so it would be hidden from any curiose passerbys. The group of four came closer.
”Good after noon, or is it evening yet?” Melain called out as they came within ten feet. “I don’t supose either of you have a watch?”
The four stopped, they didn’t look too threatening. They where all humans and women and three men. They where casualy, but not in shorts and a T-shirt like a lot of the people in the park. “Um, ah.” one of the man mumbled. “I left mine back at our hotel. You guys look kind of familiar have I seen you before?”
“You must be mistaken, I never forget a face... Oh wait, you didn’t happen to be here yesterday where you?” Melain asked, she assumed this was a safe geuss, almost everyone in San Fransisco had been here.
“Yeah, yeah that must be it. We got kind of caught up in that crowd. I was wondering what all the fuss was about and we got sucked right in.” The man replied giving them a weak smile. They had something to hide, but it was probably innocent enough. Melain’s only question was why they had decided to pay a visit.
‘Listen, we don’t know the transit system around here very well and I thought you guys looked like you might. have you got one of those guide things?” The women asked, she had a thick accent Melain could not place. As she was talking the other two guys sat down in the grass and fished some sandwiches out a bag.
“No sorry, we’re from out of town as well.” Hannah replied.
“Darn, oh well, a friend is picking us up in about an hour, we’ll just have to wait.” The women sighed, before sitting down beside Melain. The third man followed suite. “You guys sure know how to pick a resting spot... what happened to him?” she asked, pointing to David.
“He got a little too festive.” Melain smiled. “I’m hoping you will sober up, my friends are getting tired of carrying him.” When would these people leave?
(104584/13445)
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loki
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Registered: Mar 29, 2024 6:01:32 GMT
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Post by loki on Nov 23, 2006 23:12:40 GMT
To say that Lucy’s living quarters were cosy was an understatement. Lex considered the possibility of fitting herself and all her belongings into a flat the size of this, but quickly dismissed the thought. She did wonder, however, how on earth the room was going to sleep the four of them when there was barely enough room for one. That question was answered when she found herself squashed up in a sleeping bag between Frek and the wall. She and the andorian got along well enough (when they weren’t taking the mickey out of one another), but nonetheless Loki had no great desire to be pressed against him in such a manner. And it was this, more than anything, that kept her awake amidst the dull snores of her comrades.
I should be used to this. she thought to herself casually. All those months of archeological missions spent living inside a tent… She wriggled about a bit inside her sleeping bag, inadvertently elbowing Frek in the side. She stifled a smile as he grunted. It quickly disappeared, however, when he jostled in his sleep and rolled even closer towards her, pinning her between his own body and the wall. She put her hand on his shoulder an tried pushing him away. It was difficult without waking him, but the more she applied pressure the heavier he seemed to become. The andorian’s eyes drifted open slowly, and Loki withdrew her hand as fast as if it had been burned. Arranging her face into a look of innocence, and wondering slightly why she felt so embarrassed, she hoped that Frek hadn’t noticed.
“Ahem.” He cleared his throat sheepishly, noticing their close proximity in the corner of the room. He tried to edge himself away discreetly.
Loki sighed and rolled onto her front in the space he had made for her, crossing her arms at the wrists and using them as a pillow for her chin. She made no effort to sleep.
”What are you thinking about?” Frek asked in a whisper. Lex started; she was sure his eyes had been closed. She cursed herself for looking vacant all the time.
“Just wondering what I’ve done…” She said dreamily. Frek didn’t seem to understand.
“How do you mean?”
She picked at some loose threads on the carpet. “Just whether I’ve done something…or whether we’ve done something that would make these…whoever-they-are, target us.”
Frek seemed to consider this for a minute before answering. Loki suddenly thought that the two of them had not really ever spoken in private before, which was quite remarkable considering they had shared duties on the ship together. Still, she supposed, the majority of the last mission had not been on board the ship, so there had been much less time to worry about personal relationships. Looking up from the carpet around the less than spacious room Lex found it a slightly strange setting for such a discussion.
“I’ve been wondering that too…” He answered, but stopped there, having nothing further to offer for his troubles than her.
“And whats this got to do with an assassination…last I checked, we weren’t planning one…” She wondered out loud.
“Of course we’re not!” Frek answered indignantly, as though she had made an outright accusation. He recovered himself. “I’m just worried that they are…” he trailed off again.
“But…who? Surely not one of us?” She suggested with slight hesitation. “Why would anyone want to assassinate one of us?”
Frek shook his head. He didn’t have an answer to that. Surely they weren’t important enough to have done anything worthy of being assassinated. Loki though she in particular had never done anything remotely exciting in recent years. Granted, she was always branded a bit of a troublemaker, it was in her genes, but the long list of archaeological missions behind her struck the average person as merely dull. And what if one of the other crewmembers had done something? Was it possible that one of them was involved in something bigger than all of them knew? That theory seemed a little far-fetched; it would be difficult to keep an assassination-worthy action secret for too long, and besides, the whole crew had been targeted.
Lex sighed again. There must be something she was overlooking. That little detail that fitted all the pieces of the jigsaw together. With a halted laugh she wondered if they even had all the pieces, and deduced it was highly unlikely. She felt a little better having decided that none of the group were up for elimination (either that, or the whole crew was!), and turned back to Frek.
“Typical.” She complained when she found him asleep again. At least he wasn’t snoring. Lex rolled over onto her back, her temples aching dully. She hoped tomorrow brought them better luck: she hated guessing games.
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fthelev
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Registered: Mar 29, 2024 6:01:32 GMT
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Post by fthelev on Nov 24, 2006 12:20:33 GMT
When he woke up that morning it was with a groan. He stretched himself, spreading his arms out with a painful grimace. It invoked a ‘Hey!’ from the person directly next to him, in this case Loki, as he almost caught her in the eye. Somewhat drowsy his eyes glanced over the minimised accommodation and it slightly occurred to him it would rather suit a company of dwarfs pretty well. Or perhaps you should call them the ‘gravitationally more susceptible’ these days.
“Sleep well?” Loki informed politely. She herself looked as if she hardly closed an eye since their little conversation last night. And apparently she had been plucking some more loose threads in the carpet. And okay, let’s be fair. No one here would admit the carpet was in its best condition ever to begin with, the fraying carpet had been, well, frayed. But at Loki’s ‘pluck-spot’ it has simply gone bald. Normally you would say that worries would make you grey, but in this case bald was the other option.
“So you sleep well?” Frek rubbed the sleep from his eyes and turned to look at his colleague. “Mwhoa,” he said in a rather good imitation of a sick sea-cow. Doctors and physiotherapist could say whatever they wanted, about that sleeping on a hard surface is good for your back and all that nonsense. Let them spend the night in a thin sleeping back on a non-comfortable floor, and see who’s talking then. At this moment his back could actually do with some backing. “It was alright,” he more or less lied. At least he did manage to sleep and catch up on some badly needed rest. And to be honest, it was more the waking up that was not well, being stiff and sore over his whole tender and delicate physique. “It would’ve been better if someone wasn’t poking me half the night long,” he added somewhat semi-serious, with a slight smile playing on the corner of his mouth. The only person who probably had a nice comfortably rest would without a doubt be Lucy who had been warm in her own bed. His mind drifted to the other group, Melain, the thought bringing back that tingling sensation and wondered how they passed the night. For all he knew they could be off a hell of a lot worse.
Captain Harrias Jira emerged from the bathroom. He looked about what you could expect from a missionary who had spent a year in hardship with a primitive tribe in strange dark lands. One that found him self, on the night he was supposed to go home, in a large cooking pot surrounded by dancing cannibals, chanting to their gods to spice up their food and that they could enjoy this banquet without getting a belly-ache. In other words, he didn’t look happy.
“I’m not happy,” he declared pretty much what his face already betrayed. For a second Frek played with the idea on asking him if he had a nice bath, but somehow that didn’t seem a very wise thing to do if he valued his two antennas and wanted to keep on doing so. Last night they had tried filling Lucy in about the situation to their best knowledge. But there wasn’t much to fill in since most of it was still a mystery for them as well. They had been talking until two, when she said it was time for bed. Loki agreed, and said they had work to do in the morning and let out a laugh. Somehow he rather didn’t, and Jira had crawled of to sleep in the bath.
“A bath is no place to sleep,” he complained as he helped himself to some muesli and handed it to Frek. According to its package ‘Inter-galactic whole wheat exotic fruit mix’ was the best in the universe or at the very least in this quadrant. “I already took out the toy,” Lucy said as she saw him examining the box. “Oh.” He poured some in a bowl and stared at the pieces that according to the package should be dried exotic fruit. It probably had all kinds of nutritious values that would make you all healthy and bring you in a hip-hip hooray mood. That’s what it did on Tellius 4, years ago. But on the other hand, it was unlikely this was the special variety.
“So what’s the plan,” Lucy asked. They were hurdled around the small table consuming their breakfast. It was a valid question, because so far there wasn’t much of a plan. Jira swallowed a mouth full of Inter-galactic’s best. “We hang low for the time being,” he said looking over the table, scooping up a next spoonful. Perhaps he should have paid more attention to it. The spoon destabilized, canted and half its contents fell. Partially in the bowl. “We need to assess our situation and what we know,” he continued, giving the scooping up a second try. “With a little luck we can draw a clearer picture if we piece together our findings with those Hannah and Melain have been able find out.” “So we stay here until it’s time to make the rendez-vous?” Frek asked. Jira nodded. “I think that would be safest.”
From the window they could see Starfleet security personnel come and go. Some going to work, some coming off their shift. It had been a lot easier than expected to walk into the complex. The section designated as living area was unguarded, it basically came down to it that no-one really cared who walked in or out as long as they didn’t burn down the building or did something nasty in any other way.
“We need to make ourselves harder to detect,” Loki remarked, “We might slip passed the general population, but I doubt it’ll be as easy with security and whoever they can control.” They could all agree on that. With their description out there it was no time to be imprudent. “Lucy,” Jira addressed her, “When you’re finished here see if you can get some hair dye, as well as some clothes. Something average that won’t stand out.” Lucy made a confirmative move. “I can help you with that,” she said. “Some simple cosmetics would help to cover up these spots,” the Trill said and went on, “If we want to get around more easily it might be a good idea to get our hands in some false ID’s as well.” “Perhaps Steve still has some contacts around that can help us with that?” Frek suggested. It would seem plausible that a former intelligence officer might be able to help with that.
Earth might be considered paradise in the twenty-forth century, but that didn’t mean there was no security, no image scanners guarding public transportation. Altering some physical features would make identification a lot harder to do, unless they did full scans and DNA tests. But that fortunately for them, was not something found in your average metro-station.
[13706/132133]
ooc. Right, I'm really off to Germany now. See you all on Monday.
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davidramsey
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Registered: Mar 29, 2024 6:01:32 GMT
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Post by davidramsey on Nov 24, 2006 19:04:44 GMT
David started to protest when the young doctor all but suffocated him in her stomach, that was until he heard a voice from over his shoulder.
“Yeah, yeah that must be it. We got kind of caught up in that crowd. I was wondering what all the fuss was about and we got sucked right in.”
He immediately went stock still. His head was still reeling but an intense feeling gripped him at the sound of that voice. He'd heard it before, but he couldn't figure out where. It was a tid bit piece of his subconscious that was screaming for attention, but he just couldn't comprehend the message it was sending; however, the fear was real.
He'd felt this feeling many times before, usually it was well founded. His mother claimed it was a kind of deja vu and she'd always attributed it to David's betazoid ancestry. He'd never enjoyed it and tended to find it quite creepy, but nevertheless it was seldom wrong. He tugged at the doctor's shirt until she finally stopped talking to the visitors and leaned over.
"They are bad news," he whispered at an almost inaudible level, "I can't explain now, but you have to lose them or they'll get us killed."
He hoped she wouldn't just assume it was the delierium talking.
She probably would. After all, she was a doctor, not a betazoid. David decided to try and make a case for his intuition and he sat upright, with his face still away from the four mystery tourists.
He stood up and stretched.
"I'm feeling a bit better, why don't we go ahead and get home before we're missed." he said plainly and loudly.
The four people that David felt to be a danger to their little group also stood up and the man that had spoken before spoke again.
"Where are you going?" he asked.
David ignored him and decided to take a chance. He turned around and faced the man with a smile.
"Come on, let's leave these nice people to await their ride in peace," he said to Hannah and Steven.
His legs felt like jelly and his head was starting to swim yet again, but he managed to keep his feet firmly planted on terra firma and a small unassuming little smile on his face.
As their little group grudgingly stood up he tugged the doctor away and started walking away as quickly as his dilapidated muscles would carry him. He turned to her after they'd gone around a tree and nearly collapsed.
"They must have a tracking signal on me and if they are tracking me it's not in these clothes ... it must be in my flesh. Those people meant us harm, I can't really explain how I know that, but believe me, pain was in our future. We need to get somewhere out of public view so you can ... can ... can search me," he said hoarsely as Hannah and Steve rounded the corner, "is there any place you can think of where you might be able to do that?"
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hannah
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Registered: Mar 29, 2024 6:01:32 GMT
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Post by hannah on Nov 26, 2006 22:06:38 GMT
Hannah looked around and then noticing a small building about 20 metres away from where they were stood.
“There are toilets over there,” she said pointing to a small building, “They should be quite with everyone watching the concert.”
“Me and Steven will keep an eye out for the others,” Hannah continued. Hannah and Steve kept themselves hidden in the trees keeping their attention on the oak tree waiting for the others to approach and on the toilet block.
Hannah glanced over to the stage that was step up in the centre of the park, the Andorian and his group were playing to the large masses of mainly teenage girls all gathered around screaming and throwing the occasional item onto the stage.
This made her mind drift back to her teenage years when she had been obsessed with a boy band called nexus, which consisted of three young men, one trill and two humans from mars. She had been so exited when her father took her and few friends to see them in Hyde Park and she remembered screamed just like these girls were doing now.
Her thoughts were interrupted when Steve nudged her getting her to look back towards the oak tree.
“There’s 4 people approaching the tree, one seems to be a male Andorian, one male human and two female humans,” Steve said pointing. Hannah looked closely, their faces looked familiar but she couldn’t be certain if it was then and if it was who was the extra person.
Hannah walked forward towards the oak tree gesturing for Steve to follow. She had an idea to find out who they were.
“Do you know where the Nevada restaurant is it’s on Tammeron way off Klerd Street?” Hannah said not wanting to reveal that they were wanted criminals to the general public. Luckily the captain caught on to the hits.
“Hannah… Steve,” he starring at her face for a moment and then looked towards Steve looking for any kind of hint of what they use to look like. Hannah nodded in reaction to there names; she could see the familiar facial features of Jira, Frek and Loki. They had a few changes to there appearance with Jira having his spots covered up and the other have a new hair colour and clothes. Her attention then focused on the young women at the back of the group.
“I’m Lucy,” the girl said extending her hand out as she noticed Hannah starring at her.
“She been helping us,” Jira informed Hannah and Steve.
“Hannah,” she introduced gasping the girl’s hand and shaking it.
“Where’s Lorre?” Jira asked.
“She’s gone to the toilets to check David over for any tracking devices,” Hannah informed him.
“Where did you find David?” Jira asked.
“In a starfleet hospital…” Hannah said interrupted by the approach of Lorre and David.
“Did you find anything?” Hannah asked.
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Deleted
Registered: Mar 29, 2024 6:01:32 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Nov 27, 2006 0:14:27 GMT
Melain found David’s certainty about the strangers to be rather unsettling. She had read over his records and ws aware of his betazoid ancestry, however she never expected it to have an influence like this. Of course having worked with Grace Mitchell she had learned to go with the intuition of even slightly telepathic colleges. She grabbed David by the arm and helped him over to the bathrooms, he was still in bad shape, but it was nothing a little time and rest would fix. Given their current situation Melain was hoping just rest would be fine.
“Any tracking device would have been concealed somewhere... out of site.” Melain explained as they neared the building. “Can you modify my medical tricorder to scan for a faint transmission signal?”
“Yeah, no problem.” David replied, he took her tricorder and fiddled with it for more time then Melain would have thought necessary, perhaps intrusting such a tricky job to a man hung over from a cocktail of toxins and anti-toxins was not such a good idea. “There.” he declared handing the tricorder back. Melain examined it skeptically, but found he had done exactlty as she’s asked.
As they enterd the lobby of the building they suddenly encounterd a delema. Melain looked to her right at the Men’s and then left to the Women’s. “Which should we?..”
“Here.” David rounded the corner and opened up a third door. “Handicap and special cases.” Most public buildings had either modified the original handicap lavatory, or added a new room to make a suitible space for non-genderd aliens, transgenderd individuals, androgenouse individuals, and individuals who where just wierded out by the regular bathrooms use. This was one of those rooms. “I think right now we are a ‘special case.”
“I guess so.” Melain replied as she followed him in. “Drop your drawers.” she instructed as she closed the door behind her
“What?”
“Your pants, the transmitter will probably have a very small signal and since we don’t know what the signal is any obstruction between my tricorder and you is going to make the search less efficient.” Melain paused. “I’m a doctor Lieutenant, It’s not like you have something I haven’t seen before.
“Oh, okay then.” David replied slowly. “Could you... could you turn around?”
Melain rolled her eyes and did as he asked. For some reason most species seemed to bhe botherd more by having someone watch them undress then watching them while they where undressed, it was usually easier to just accept that then anything else. Besides, contrary to what David might have thought, Melain was not enjoying this. The transmitter could be anywhere, and most like that anywhere would be in a concealed area of David’d body, which really limited the possibilities to a select and unsettling few. “Are you done?” she asked after giving what she was sure was far more time then anyone would have needed.
”Yeah.” David replied.
After several very awkward minutes Melain had found the tracking device, imbedded in David’s hair right behind his ear. This came as a relief to both of them. Removing it ws tricky, but with the help of her exoscalple it was gone and David was left with a small bald spot. “You can cover that up if you just brush your hair the other way.” Melain reassured him.
“We should leave it on someone so it’s less obvious that we found and removed it.” David suggested as he pulled back on his shirt and pants.
Melain nodded, “You can do that, here.” she handed him the device and pocketed her supplies. She’s had enough with this particular little adventure and was ready to move on, hopefully somwhere with Frek’s company.
They left the room to find a rather annoyed looking Vissian cogenitor waiting. He, or rather it, gave them a interested glance as Melain and David slipped past before entering the lavitory it’self.
As they headed back to the group Melain could see that Hannah and Steve had been joined by four people. Had those strangers David was concerned about called for back up? As they came closer she could see that everyone looked at ease and her concern was lifted. As she came even closer she recognised a very familiar face. Her heart practically lept right into her throat“F....rell!” She exclaimed, correcting herself mid-stride as she ran to greet Frek and lept into a very long embrace. Melain felt the eyes of the rest of the crew on them and realised in a start she had made a slight scene. Trying to act casual she let go and stood back to look at him. ‘I liked the orange better.” she grinned lifting one hand to stroke his newly dyed hair.
“You look so... so old.” Frek replied, “It’s kind of creepy.”
”Yeah, we paid a visit to an old friend of mine.” Melain replied, “Now I remember why I cut my hair in the first place. Glancing ovr Frek’s shoulder Melain noticed a young human girl hanging out a little back from the group. Where had she come from, was she with them or was she an obviose evesdropper. “And you are?...”
“Lucy Kanz, I got tangled up in all this too.” The girl replied, Melain could see by her tone and stance that this girl was not a child.
“I’m sorry to hear that, I’m Doctor Lorre Melain.” Melain replied, how had someone so young got into this type of trouble. Melain turned her attention back to Frek “I’m so glad you made it, I was getting really worried. I got a hold of my record and it says such horrible things...”
“Save it for the debriefing doctor.” Harrias interupted. “There is no use repeating yourself. Let’s go find somewhere we can talk without watching our backs. Any suggestions?”
(105555/14416)
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loki
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Registered: Mar 29, 2024 6:01:32 GMT
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Post by loki on Nov 28, 2006 13:20:26 GMT
Arranging her features into a grimace despite her current amusement Lex frowned at Frek – he was a fine one to talk about being kept up all night. She was fully prepared to return with a well placed jibe when Harrias stalked into the room. He looked like someone has stolen his SOMETHING. Amidst his complaining Lucy hastened to organize breakfast, which was rather a novelty for Lex, as she didn’t usually bother. She found the ‘Inter-galactic whole wheat exotic fruit mix’ quite to her liking, and tucked in enthusiastically. Stuffing spoonfuls into her mouth (after realizing quite how ravenous she was) she wondered how it was that she could be in an overly cheerful mood this morning with all that was going on. Perhaps it was something to do with that famous word ‘overcompensation’: the more dire the circumstances, the greater the need for happiness became. On the other hand, it could be her psyche’s way of pretending their current predicament was non-existent.
Shortly after breakfast, Lucy left the three of them alone while she went out to gather whatever she could find that they might use as a disguise. When she returned, Lex praised her fashion sense. She now was sporting jet black hair, with snippets of dark red that had been left undyed; Lucy had applied a light layer of makeup that had not agreed with her indignant expression, as well as which she now had on a pair of slightly flared dark grey trousers, a beige body warmer over a terracotta T-shirt and a dark red neck scarf. It reminded her of how she used to dress back in the old days, when they would spends months at a time out on a dig. The scarf was her favourite: she missed wearing scarves.
“Shall we?” Jira said finally, putting down the newspaper he had been glancing at and getting up from the table. Lex nodded and followed suit, eager to be getting out of Lucy’s cramped quarters. She thought perhaps her light mood would dispperate if she didn’t get some fresh air soon. Considering the building they were staying in, the group decided it would be better if they left in twos. Lex went first with Lucy, who made some healthy conversation with a couple of officers going the opposite way. She cast a quick look over her shoulder as they turned onto the street; the men took no notice of Frek and Jira as they walked out to join them.
A ten minute walk later they found themselves at the east entrance of the park where they were supposed to be meeting Hannah and the others. After a quick glance around, they could see no sign of them, but Lex supposed they would have disguised themselves as much as possible also.
“I think we are late.” Jira said, after checking the time. “Let’s get something to eat so we can have a good look round.” He said, motioning towards a nearby stand selling hotdogs and burgers. They joined the queue, and Lucy bought a couple of portions of chips between them. They headed over to a bench sheltered by an enormous oak tree, and Lex sat down next to Frek, who was already eating. A couple approached Jira and Lex just heard the woman say;
“Do you know where the Nevada restaurant is it’s on Tammeron way off Klerd Street?”
She smiled, waiting for the cogs to turn inside Harrias’s spotless head. “Hannah… Steve…” When Harrias said his name, Lex couldn’t help but cast a careful eye over the male officer, making sure he was ok. He looked a lot different now than when she had last seen him: she thought that she much preferred his old appearance, even if his disguise was almost impenetrable. Must stop thinking about Steve… she told herself firmly. Find somewhere else to look. It was difficult though. Despite their rocky beginnings and abrasive relationship with one another, she couldn’t help her eyes wondering back over his form every few seconds. She was interrupted when Lorre and David turned up shortly afterwards, emerging from the ‘special cases’ lavatory back by the hotdog stand. Loki raised an eyebrow. David did not look at all well, she wondered what on earth Lorre had been doing to him. The irony of the situation was lost on everyone else, however, as they started to recount recent events.
“Save it for the debriefing doctor.” Harrias interrupted. “There is no use repeating yourself. Let’s go find somewhere we can talk without watching our backs. Any suggestions?”
He was met with silence. Loki was racking her brains to try and think of somewhere she used to haunt as a teenager. She and Danny had been very good at disappearing back then, and finding things that didn’t want to be found. She dismissed most of them: it would be too suspicious if they were seen.
“There is one place…Danny and I used to go there…” She said, a twinge of guilt returning as she thought of her friend.
“Oh yeah?” Lorre asked with a sly smile.
Lex rolled her eyes. “Not like that.” She reprieved. “It’s a little way out of town though. Probably a metro ride.” She added.
Harrias considered this. “Is it safe?”
“Well, noone ever goes there…” Lex said. “As long as we aren’t seen getting in. It’ll give us time to go through what we know.” “Alright. We can give it a go. Out of town is probably better anyway. Mingling is good for us, but we need somewhere to talk.” He decided as there were no objections. With a nervous nod Lex lead the way to the metro station, hoping this was a good idea. She didn’t even know if her old hideout was still there, but it had seemed like a good suggestion when she had mentioned it.
They only waited a couple of minutes for a metro to arrive and they all piled on. “I think its better if we split up.” Harrias whispered. “We’ll go into the next carriage.” He said, ushering Lucy and Hannah through the door between them. Taking the lead from there, Lorre and Frek headed up to one end of the carriage, taking a couple of empty seats. That left Lex and Steve by the door. Great, him again… Lex thought irritably. This was definitely a bad idea.
“I am glad to get away from the noise of that concert.” Steve said suddenly, making sure that everybody staring at them would hear. Lex got the idea.
“I know, not really my thing either. Better a trip to the countryside hey?” She said with a false cheer and grin. Steve nodded, and they continued talking amicably until everybody had gone back to their business. By the time they reached the last stop (which admittedly was only a seven minute ride away), there were only a handful of people left in the carriage. Lorre and Frek came to join them and they met the others on the platform as they exited their own carriage.
“This way.” Lex said, setting off out the back of the station and onto the path leading up an enormous hill. They all followed her, and a small group of strangers set off up the path aswell. When panting, they reached the top, Lex stopped and took in the familiar grey parapets of the castle on top. It was one of the few remaining buildings in the city that Lex actually liked. Thank god they weren’t allowed to tear it down.
“A castle?” Frek said, looking confused. “Haven’t seen one of these for a while…”
“It’s the last one for miles.” Lex said, “Became listed after it survived the war and they’re not allowed to pull it down.” She said triumphantly. “I studied here at one point.” She added to their questioning looks.
”The entrance is round that side, so hopefully noone will see us…” She continued, as she headed in the opposite direction. Baffled, the others followed. She lead them across an open field with what looked like a sheer drop on the other end, and down a narrow path between some trees. They followed this for a few hundred yards before the right side began to drop away steeply. Frek looked rather horrified as it was now possible to fall off either side of the path.
“We have to jump.” Lex said.
“What, into the moat?” Harrias asked, plainly thinking it was a bad idea.
“Yes.” She said, and using her hands to steady herself dropped into the gap between the path and the castle wall. Nobody else wanted to take the lead, it seemed. In the end Harrias himself went first, jumping down the ten feet or so to join her. When everybody was down, including David, who was still a little unsteady on his feet, Lex stumbled through the mud towards the castle wall. From the look of the ground, it had been a long time since any water had run through this moat.
“There.” The science officer said finally, pointed to a battered door that fitted very badly into the hole in the wall. Steve stepped forwards and with some effort, hoisted it open. Dust clouds emitted from the battered frame. The all piled inside. It was a high ceilinged, unlit room, with a cold flagstone floor. The walls were dark and grey, and clustered at one end were elaborately decorated stone crates.
“It’s a crypt.” Lorre said, horrified.
“Yes.” Lex confirmed. “That’s why no-one comes here.”
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davidramsey
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Registered: Mar 29, 2024 6:01:32 GMT
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Post by davidramsey on Nov 28, 2006 18:22:20 GMT
David wondered vaguely who these people were. He was certain that one of them was the captain, but to be honest, his head was still swimming and he'd never actually met the Nevada's captain. Upon entering the big structure, David immediately slumped down onto something hard and leaned back onto something comfortable. In his dreamy state he no longer heard what was being said. He just drifted off into his own little world.
'Finally, maybe I can sleep,' he thought to himself.
As the mumbling of the crew settled in the center of the room he suspected they would wake him if they came across ... say ... a monster ... or perhaps came up with a plan. In truth, he doubted he could be much help in his current state. After a momentary struggle between his brain's desperate need for sleep and his own desire to be a good officer. He snuggled up to the something comfortable and, for some unknown reason, opened his eyes.
Suddenly, he found himself looking into the eye sockets of a skull that appeared to belong to the corpse he was snuggled up against.
The drugs in his brain probably slowed the reaction, but not by much. In two seconds flat David had screamed and bolted from one side of the room to the other. In fact, it was a surprise to him that his feet had even touched the flagstones in his passage. After another moment, he peeked from around a stone column at his fellow crew members who were staring at him, one was holding their chest ... apparently he'd scared them. He blinked ... several times ... and slid to the floor.
"I need a vacation," he said to himself, now with so much adrenaline pumping through his body he was certain he'd never sleep again, ever.
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fthelev
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Registered: Mar 29, 2024 6:01:32 GMT
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Post by fthelev on Nov 28, 2006 20:26:19 GMT
It is actually pretty strange how you can long to see someone you have barely seen twenty-four hours ago. But as it was, for Frek it was still a thrill to see Melain again. Safe and in good health as she appeared to be in. Not much different from when they said goodbye the night before. That would be of course if you ignored the fact that she seemed to have aged about ten years in a single day. Admitted, current affairs could bring some strain, which could lead to premature aging. They always warn about that when talking about stress. Frek sincerely hoped this was not due to those very reasons. If so, nature was kind of overdoing things a bit.
He was glad to have a moment alone with her in the metro. Though he wasn’t sure how long the ride would take, it gave them a chance to be alone. Well, alone if you ignored the rest of crowd packed into the carriage. The modern-day San Francisco metro waited patiently for an average minute, floating on its anti-gravitational field, before closing its doors and readying itself for departure. As usual leaving a bunch of obscenity shouting individuals behind who had just missed the train and the occasional traveller who had gotten trapped between one of the doors. A young mother covered her even younger daughter’s ears with her hands and gave the shouting man a look that only disdained mothers can give when they think someone is having a bad influence on their child. Chilling cold, with a trace of contempt and quite possible lethal. The shouting stopped, unclear whether this was due to the mom or the metro being out of hearing distance by now.
“You look strange like this,” Frek said in a lowered voice referring to her older looking appearance and stroked Melain’s cheek, sitting close next to her. He continued more warily. “This is not permanent is it?” he asked a bit hesitantly. Melain looked up; there was an upward twitch in the corner of her mouth. “Why? You don’t think I age gracefully?” She counter-parted his question. Frek suddenly felled uneasy, and probably looked it as well. “Heh, well I mean…sure you, eh…” he started cautiously and somewhat incoherent. Melain laughed. “I’m just teasing you silly.” She pricked a finger in his side on roughly the same spot Loki had been poking him for half the night. If people kept doing that it would be unpredictable what the wear and tear on that particular part of him would be. “Ah.” He grinned somewhat more relieved. Their lips moved closers together and it wasn’t until they were about to touch, when Frek was aware someone was staring at them.
The first thought that entered him was that it was someone from the crew and hastily he pulled back when noticing it were two teenagers. If he would have to guess he’d say they were between fifteen and seventeen. You know, the annoying age. “What are you looking at?” he asked somewhat annoyed. The two youths didn’t answer, but simply kept on staring. The one with the spots was rhythmically chewing gum in a circular motion that would make your average cow rather jealous, while the other was biting on a plastic stirring-spoon as it were the best thing in the world. Both hanging in the doorway to the next compartment didn’t as much as blink on the comment. “Well?” If two of them could be so annoying on their own, imagine having to teach a whole class of them. No wonder a teacher’s best friend is a counsellor or a bottle of scotch. Set up a practice next to any school and you’ll make a fortune. And it actually wouldn’t really matter on which planet you were on. It was one of those universal constants. “Well what?” One of them asked defiantly. “You never seen someone taking the underground with his aunt?” He looked at Melain and suddenly realised that actually sounded rather stupid. The two teen-delinquents seemed to agree on that and shared a look between the two of them before returning their eyes on the couple. “Aunt?” the spotty chewer commented, his glance going from Melain to Frek, in a manner that left little doubt he didn’t believe a word of it. “Uh…through marriage,” Frek retorted quickly. “So why were you…?” An inquiring look had appeared. “We hold close family ties,” Frek said getting somewhat irritated. “Get lost!” The two shrugged and turned around mumbling something about ‘perverted aliens’. Melain cleared her throat, “Aunt? Well, you handled that well…”
The metro pulled away and the little group followed Loki to her secret destination.
Frek blinked fairly dismayed. “You mean crypt, in the sense of ‘let’s bury dead people there’?” he asked staring at the rectangular stone structures placed along side the walls. Something told him they weren’t comfortable benches, like you find in Gorky Park on a nice spring afternoon with blossom in the air during a romantic picnic.
Frek shook his shoe. Some mud spattered on the dull grey floor. While the moat had been dry, he had been unfortunate enough to step into one of those little pools in which the rain tends to gather itself to mix with the dirt, effectively creating a puddle of mud. His foot had sunk into it up to his ankle. It had created a soppy environment in the corresponding shoe, making a squishy sound every time he took a step. It was an unpleasant sensation. “That is what they usually do in crypts,” Loki wisely educated. It brought back a vivid memory of dead old ladies, gurneys and for some reason antenna gnawing bats in one of Kasheetas landmark caves. Though it was pretty clear the ladies, if any, buried here were a lot older and probably a lot deader as well. But in all likelihood the graves had been emptied long time ago by archaeologist and historians.
“I don’t want to sound overly curious,” Steve said looking around yet very curiously, “but what exactly did you came to do here in your younger years?” He probably wasn’t the only one wondering. “Well, that’s…” Loki started. “Not important,” Jira interrupted, “You can discuss that at extent later, we have more important things to do. Do we have light?” Someone nodded in response and Jira went on. “Good. Steve cover the opening, we don’t want someone accidentally spot us because of the light.” A camping lamp emerged out of the bag Lucy was carrying with her. It contained several items that might become useful at one point or another. She switched on the light and soon the crypt bathed in a clear white glow emanating from the lamp. The room itself was rather simple in its design. Somewhat rectangular in shape, with the roof supported by large arches. The stone crates aligned by the walls. The hatch, now being closed by Steve, was probably supposed to be locked, but the lock had suffered some sort of trauma along its line of existence and could now be considered severely handicapped and in need of locksmithian care.
With the lamp hanging from a rusty hook on the wall Jira seemed pleased. “This will do for the moment,” he said confidently, “You’re right. It’s private and no one will come looking for us here.” The eight men and women placed themselves as comfortably as they could on the cold stone floor. Some more comfortably than others. A certain Annabel Lee came to mind, whose highborn kinsman came and bore her away and locked her up in a sepulchre in a kingdom by the sea.
“Now we are all here,” Jira started as if they were all sitting in the briefing room on the Nevada. His eyes glanced passed his officers. “We need to compare notes and asses our situation before planning any further actions. I don’t know exactly what’s going on, but it’s clear that it’s more than meets the eye.” Ramsey had retreated and made himself as comfortable as he possibly could leaning against one of the support columns with his eyes closed. Jira didn’t much bother about him. He was still not at a hundred percent and perhaps it was best to let him rest for a while. In this shape he was hardly any use, and Jira needed his people fresh. Detailed and yet to the point Jira recounted their little trip to the club and their encounter with Lucy and what they subsequently had learned from her, at times supplemented by comments from Loki or Frek. In turn Steve, Hannah Stevenson and Melain did the same, in addition detailing on how they ran into Ramsey.
There was a profound silence after they stopped speaking. Even more so given the location they found themselves. It gave the silence something eerie. “Logs fabricated or otherwise vanished for at least the past six months?” Frek finally brought out. Melain nodded. “That’s what’s in here,” she said waiving the PADD containing the files, and missing those that should be there. “My personal files, as well as Hannah’s and Steve’s have either been altered or fabricated to portray things different the way we experience them. I…I haven’t looked into yours or any of the others, but it seems logical they suffered the same treatment.” “And that goes the same for ship reports, logs,” Steve summarised, “And perhaps even supply lists, crew chances but I’m not sure on that. It would be hard to verify.” Jira closed is eyes and seemed to let it sink in. “And this all started about six months ago?” He finally opened his eyes again in time to see his first officer nod.
He quickly recalled their whereabouts six months ago. They weren’t doing anything special. Steve, Alexis Loki and David Ramsey hadn’t even been part of the crew back then. Yet they tried to kill Ramsey. Had he found something, or did they think he might have found something? Something perhaps, he skipped passed, not seeing it as anything special? But something worth killing for? “Whatever it is that happened six months ago,” he slowly and deliberately said, “It might hold a connection to the assassination.” “But we don’t know who, where or when,” Frek said, “The only thing we are pretty sure of is that it hasn’t taken place yet.” Jira threw his hands in the air in a desperate sign. “I know, I know,” he said with an aggravated voice. “We need to find out more about that. If they want us out of the way this bad, it must be something in the near future. A visit to Earth, an event…” Stevenson looked unhappy. “That can be anything. There are constant important visitors and events on Earth. If we can find out who’s responsible for messing with the files we might gain some insight in who’s behind it and get a motive. As well as figuring out what the hell happened that was so important that six months ago.”
Lucy hadn’t said much for a while. She just sat there taking in the information and trying to follow where they wanted to go with all that. She had never even heard of the Nevada a few days ago. “You think Smith has a part in all this?” she asked. “I’m not sure who he is, or what he does,” Jira said bitterly, “But he sure isn’t making our lives any easier. I’m confident he’s part of this as well.” “Seems like we’re going to get busy,” Frek said thinking of what lay ahead, he glanced at Melain, and their futures.
As Frek commented they would have a lot of things to do. Who’s Smith? It was unlikely he would be the answer, the man behind it all, but he could be a clue. Who messed with the files? Smith, his people, or someone connected, working for the same people? And then there was this assassination. How did that all fit in with the current events, and same could be said about what happened in the past. You could say they were all parts of an onion. Layers you had to peel off to get to the core, the core of this mystery, this conspiracy. And removing one layer would just reveal another one.
“We need to get to places,” Stevenson said, reaching the same conclusion Captain Jira did that morning, “False ID’s is something we can do with.” “As are credits,” Jira added, “We can’t keep on depleting Lucy’s account.” It was one of the downsides of the type of economy the Federation was running, one where there isn’t any money. That is, physical money. All transactions were made electronically. Normally that would be very handy, but not when you are on the run and every transaction is logged revealing the position of the purchase. “So we need to sluice credits to accounts we can use and are not connected to us in anyway,” Steve concluded. He seemed to be in his element here. After all, he was the former intelligence officer. “I think I can arrange that, as well as the ID’s.” “Good,” Jira said, “Take someone and see to it as soon as possible. Now, let’s get some rest before we get started. We’re not much use if we miss everything because we are all dead tired.”
It was an interesting way of saying things considering the place they were camping out in. Frek had crawled over to Melain. “I wish he stopped using the word ‘dead’,” he groaned cantankerously. Of course he had barely uttered the word ‘dead’ when Ramsey let out a piercing scream, sending him almost through the roof. Another one like that and his heart would be pounding its way out of his chest. “My god, Ramsey,” Jira called, “You trying to scare us to death?” Again that word. “I need a vacation,” Ramsey pointed to one of the stone tombs next to the pillar he fell asleep against. The carvings portrayed a nice resemblance of a human skeleton. “I’m alright sir; I just woke up and…” The others sighed in relief and sank back to the ground, though Frek was sure he could still here some teeth chatter. [16082/134509]
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Deleted
Registered: Mar 29, 2024 6:01:32 GMT
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Nov 29, 2006 20:08:40 GMT
Melain snuggled in closer to Frek, despite a nagging internal voice telling her to keep their budding relationship from the rest of the crew. In this dark, dank and over all unfriendly environment she needed someone she could get close to, for both physical and mental warmth. The entire episode on the bus had been somewhat amusing looking back on it. Melain did look a great deal older then Frek with her disguise on, so their snogging would look rather out of place. A middle aged proper looking Bajoran with a younger hair died Andorian, the thought brought a smile to her face which soon disappeared as she glanced around the sorry looking group.
David was still visible shaken after his encounter with the “skeleton”, Loki looked vaguely interested in the surroundings, but could visibly use some rest, Steve had a strained look in his eye that seemed to scream stress, Hannah looked as though she had just been hit by a rampaging herd of some large herbivore and Lucy, who was doing her best to look confident, was as bad as the rest of them. Across the circle Harrias twitched, and Melain suspected he was praying for a drink. The Captain’s alcoholic tendencies where always a slight cause for concern with Melain, but he had always managed to keep it in check, and Melain could only recall one time where it had affected his performance as their leader. Either way they where a pathetic crowd, and if anyone from Starfleet command saw them now they would either be sent on a long vacation, or put off duty permanently. Whoever was behind this had succeeded in one thing, they no longer had the look of a picturesque Star Fleet crew.
“Okay everyone, here is what has to be done. We need to get some credits, I don’t care how we do it, just try not to break too many laws in the process our records don’t have room for anything more. We need to get some false IDs, same deal as with the credits, don’t push our limits. I also want to know who is behind this, what is their man power, who is in charge, anything that is going to help us bring them down because I am very certain that we will not get back to our regular lives until that is done. Also, we need to find out what happened 6 months ago. Melain, you seem to recall that we where on a survey mission right?”
Melain looked up. “Yeah, but sir, whatever happened could have taken place anytime between then and now...”
“Erasing that kind of data would have taken a great deal of time and energy and any day extra that you tackle is one more chance to slip up.” Harrias interupted. ”No, whatever occurred happened then. Hannah I’m sending you to find out that data, take Steve, David and Lucy with you. Pick up some false IDs while you are at it and look into getting us some credits. I’m taking Alexis, Frek and Melain with me. We are going to track down this Smith guy, maybe trail him, either way we’ll figure out what we are up against, we’ll keep our eyes open for credits and IDs as well. Understand?”
“When do we meet up?” Melain asked, she did not like the idea of separating the crew again, but it was the most efficient way for them to work, and besides if something happened at least all eight of them would not go down at once.
“Here in two days.” Harrias replied. ”Same deal as before, if you come and the other group is missing, wait another day, if they still don’t come assume they’ve been captured and proceed from there. Now we’ll catch some rest for the moment and then head out. You guys all look awful.
“Thanks captain, your compliments are always appreciated.” Steve replied sarcastically running his hand through his greasy hair. “When this is all over, I’m having a long hot shower, a real one with water and everything.”
A sigh of longing erupted from the circle. “Frek, Melain, can I speak with you for a moment?” Harrias added as he stood up. It was more an order then a question, and despite the fact that technically Harrias had no real command over them Melain stood up and followed him into the next catacomb, Frek close behind.
Harrias took a deep breath and began. “I’m not sure if it’s really my place to say anything right now, but you two need to be careful. I could have easily split you into different groups back there, but I didn’t. Things might go down hard, and I need to trust both of you to keep the interests of the whole team above what’s happening between you. Technically you two are not doing anything wrong, but I do need both of your focus to be one what’s going on, okay?”
Melain felt her throat close, she would never let her love for Frek get in the way of doing her job, would she? It was impossible to determine at any other point then the heat of the moment, and then it would be too late to weight the pros and cons of her decision. “I... Of course Commodore.” she replied, taking care to address him by his rank.
(106451/15312)
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loki
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Registered: Mar 29, 2024 6:01:32 GMT
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Post by loki on Nov 29, 2006 23:49:13 GMT
Once the Commodore (or former Commodore as he probably was now) has finished his moral boosting speech Lex watched as he took Frek and Melain over into a corner. They disappeared into the shadows, and she couldn’t hear what they were saying, but it wasn’t at all hard to guess. Try as they might to keep their budding relationship low-key, it was glaringly obvious to anyone with eyes that the two of them had fallen for one another. Almost subconsciously Lex’s gaze dropped sideways and landed on the form of Steve, who was sat with his back to her, his knees tucked up to his chest and his chin resting lightly on the top. His hands were clasped around them, writhing in and out of one another in a stressful motion. Don’t do anything hasty… Lex told herself calmly. We’re all stressed at the moment, just look away… She dragged her eyes back to the flagstone floor, lit with a fuzzy glow from Lucy’s camping lantern. At first Lex had been worried about Lucy joining them, but since she had shown how useful she could be, the redhead had quickly warmed up to her.
Just then the three missing officers reappeared and Harrias cut away from the other two. Frek and Lorre went back to where they had been before and cosied up to one another. Lex thought she was quite glad it was Lorre squashed next to the Andorian this time and not herself – Frek wriggled far too much for her own liking. Stretching her arms Lex leant back against one of the stone caskets. It was cold, and made her back ache in more than one place, but at least it was holding her upright. She didn’t usually like to rest in a sitting position, but the simple thought of lying out on the unforgiving stone made her bones creak.
She supposed it was because of their current predicament that the room seemed darker and more disturbing than it had those few years before. When she had first come here with Danny, back when they were just seventeen, they had stumbled across the door by accident. Lorre’s previous guess hadn’t actually been far off the mark. But they were young and troublesome back then; they shouldn’t really have been exploring the castle on their own at all, but their thirst for knowledge had got the better of them; so much so that they had come back in the dead of night, fumbled their way down into the moat and come across the abandoned room for their troubles. It was in here that Lex had seen her very first dead body. Of course, since the tomb was ancient, the bodies had been particularly dead, and barely resembled a human form at all. But she remembered it vividly nonetheless, and it made her shiver. She had seen more since then, lifeless forms that were not just skeletons, but still bore flesh and blood and…had been her friends…
She was awoken with a jolt in what felt like only seconds since she had closed her eyes. “Sorry, but its time to go.” Lorre said gently. Lex looked at her through blurred vision, still barely recognizing her beyond the disguise.
“S’ok..” She mumbled, wondering why her ear was numb. She peeled her face of the side of the casket and poked herself in the cheek. Well, it was still there, even if she couldn’t feel it. Harrias was on his feet, pacing up and down the room. Dust rose in his wake. The others appeared to have left already, and only Frek and Lorre remained with them.
“Are we ready?” Harrias snapped. Lex raised an eyebrow as she remained sitting on the floor, trying to adjust to the imposing darkness. Did she look ready? She hauled herself to her feet and took one last look around the room. Two days. Two days time and hopefully they would be back here. Hopefully? That sounded a little out of context when she remembered exactly what the room had been used for. She wondered if there was anyone else in the world that had ever hoped to come back into a crypt alive. A lot could happen in two days. Coming back here would at least mean that they were still alive, and she had to admit, it made a spectacular hiding place…if that was the right word.
When they emerged outside, Lex found it to be sometime in the late afternoon. The sky was a shimmering golden red and the shadows from the castle were long and foreboding. They clambered up out of the moat and stalked down the darkened side of the hill. Another metro ride later and they found themselves back in the town, where evening was definitely setting in. To their credit, Lorre and Frek were showing no signs of affection towards each other, something which, thankfully, seemed to have calmed Harrias greatly. Yet again Lex had failed to ascertain where it was that they were going, but she was getting used to the mystery by now. It didn’t take her long to work out that they were retracing their steps to the executive clubhouse frequented by Mr. Smith.
What is Harrias hoping to learn tonight that we couldn’t have found out yesterday? She complained inside her head. Harrias seemed to have some ideas though.
“I figured Smith would be leaving about this time…” He told them all as they crouched behind a row of auspicious pine trees planted outside the back wall. “Look, there’s someone coming…” Lex watched intently as a man appeared from the side of the building and scurried through the door they had come out of the previous morning. Harrias allowed a few second to pass before vaulting over the low wall and preceding to the doorway.
“I want to make sure its him. Wait here.” He ordered, and without further comment slipped through the doorway and pulled it shut behind him. Loki gave it a foul look, which had actually been meant for her CO. What was he thinking wondering off alone. When it opened again, a hand poked round the corner, beckoning them inside. The room was a crisp shade of golden yellow, reminding Lex of the shimmering insides of the Pyramids of Giza. The walls were high and merged into the floor, being held up at the corners by odd stone columns. In the middle of the room sat an enormous oak desk, a slightly browner shade of the yellow than the walls. The room was bright and airy, but warm all the same. It was almost the exact opposite of any of the rooms you would find in a Starfleet building.
This suited Lex just fine, she much preferred the older styles, and this was a perfect specimen. Jira was currently peering beyond the curtain which spanned the gap between two more pillars. She supposed that was their idea of a doorway…
“Frek, come with me, I need to make sure he hasn’t got far…” Harrias ordered. Frek’s expression showed that he was clearly wondering how long the ‘we are here to fix the door’ masquerade would last. Lex had given it about two minutes, which he considered to be a rather generous estimate. “You two, we shouldn’t be long. Have a look in here and see what you can find” He added, nodding towards an assortment of items strewn on the desk.
Obligingly, the two woman clustered around the desk, ferreting through various PADDs and paperworks that lay there. Lorre had just crouched down to open one of the draws when they heard a sharp intake of breath from behind them. Lex froze. A small hoping within her awaited the sound of Harrias’ voice, but when it didn’t come, she forced herself to look round. Instead of her captain she saw a sallow-faced, long haired man with dark piercing eyes and a pointed nose. He was already calling over his shoulder for reinforcements. He hadn’t yet noticed Lorre, and the doctor took her chance.
“Move now!!” She yelled, springing up from the floor and careering into the science officer. Stumbling a little, Lex allowed herself to be dragged towards the doorway. Taken by surprise their discoverer hesitated before drawing his weapon. It was an interesting contraption, a far cry from your standard phaser. He pointed it towards the doorway, through which the two women were disappearing, and fired it twice. Two streamlined silver darts shot out the end of it. One ricocheted off the wall, but the other planted itself firmly into the flesh of the first intruder.
Lex growled in pain as something pierced the muscle on her left arm. It stuck half-in-half-out just above her elbow, a shining, shimmering arrowhead. She kept running, however, and tumbled over the wall out of sight. Lorre looked at her in horror as she reached up to her bleeding arm.
“No don’t do tha…” The doctor grimaced as Lex wrenched the metal through her skin. “Never mind.” Lorre finished as Lex examined it closely. It was just a fleshwound. It would heal. For now they had to keep moving. She wiped the trickling blood off her arm with a swipe of her hand and staggered to her feet. What were they going to do now? And where were Harrias and Frek? She gripped the dart tightly in her hand as they hurried out onto the street.
“We have to stop running.” Lorre instructed. “It’ll only draw attention to us.” Lex slowed up, not minding in the slightest. They walked at an accelerated pace along the pavement, hoping for a glimpse of Harrias and Frek. Loki prayed they had got out in all the commotion, and that they weren’t still inside somewhere. Several minutes passed with no sign of them, and she began to get worried. Her thoughts were interrupted however.
“Hey, that looks like her. The description he gave us…” A man voice said as he jogged towards them. Several other men followed. Lorre made to back off, but Lex held her steady.
“Don’t give them any reason to suspect us.” She warned. Lorre hesitated; it was too late to get away now anyway. The man stopped right in front of them. He had short cropped back hair that flopped onto his chubby face at the front. He was both tall and broad, with his feet set very wide apart. He looked down on them through little piggy eyes.
“You there.” He challenged, as another man came up to join them. “Hold out your arm.” Lex hesitated, then did as she was told, moving her left arm towards him very slowly. He grasped it hard with pudgy fingers and heaved it towards him. She staggered forwards a step. Lorre shot her a ‘we are doomed’ look.
“I thought you said you shot one of them?” The man asked questioningly, turning round to look at the somewhat shorted person behind him.
“I did!” Said the man who had found them indignantly. “That’s her, I swear it is…I don’t know about the other one…” He added, taking a good long look at Lorre.
“Well, see for yourself. There’s nothing there.” He scolded, shoving Loki bodily in front of him and holding up her arm The woman was silently thankful that none of the blood had seeped onto her white T-shirt in the fray.
“But…but…” The man was lost for words. Where there should have been a gaping fleshwound the man only saw her lightly freckled skin. He scowled and shook his head. The foreboding man released his grip on her and Lex withdrew her arm quickly. He mumbled some half-hearted apology and the group moved on. Lorre let out a sigh of relief, but was sensible enough not to ask any questions until the men were well out of earshot. She was just about to open her mouth when they rounded a corner and caught sight of Harrias and Frek from behind.
“Where the hell have you been?” Harrias challenged. “Never mind tell me in a minute…we cant lose him now, it looks likes he's heading back into the city...” He nodded towards the figure that Lex supposed was Smith as he stepped down an alleyway and melted out of sight.
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davidramsey
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Registered: Mar 29, 2024 6:01:32 GMT
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Post by davidramsey on Nov 30, 2006 4:48:36 GMT
David had simply leaned against the stone pillar for a few moments before his desire for sleep miraculously returned. He pulled the overcoat he'd managed to save off his weary shoulders and bundled it up into a make-shift pillow, confident it wouldn't suddenly grow a skull or anything horrific like that. He barely heard the different assignments before he consumately lost consciousness. He awoke on his own and found everyone else still very much asleep. His head was surprisingly clear and he tried to consider everything that had happened and the group he'd be working with.
'IDs and credits? Unusually activity six months ago? Someone tried to kill me ... twice ... but why? I barely knew anything about the Nevada outside of it's name and serial number ... why bother?' he thought to himself as he ... took care of certain morning activities that usually include a latrine in a bush outside the crypt.
'It doesn't make any sense ...' he continued thinking as he re-entered the crypt and found Steve and Hannah stirring.
He had an idea about the credits and the ID's, but he'd have to get in touch with his father which could be tricky. His father was a die hard Starfleet loyalist and if David was listed as a fugitive he might deny them access to his resources at the academy; however, there was no one on the face of the planet that he trusted more than his father. He would, at the least, certainly not turn them in.
As Steve came up beside him he wondered again if his idea could work. Steve was the Intel officer and he more than likely had better contacts, but there was a greater chance that such contacts might be compromised because of how the Intel industry was constructed.
"Well, you seem to be back up to snuff," Steve said with a small smile, "Ready for this?"
"No idea," David replied rapidly, "but it'll take a sherman tank to stop me this time."
Steve smirked but said nothing.
"Any ideas what this is all about? I heard someone mention activities from six months ago ... I was in the academy six months ago probably reviewing possible ship assignments," David continued after a moment or so, "Why would they care if I'm alive or not? I mean, they risked alot to get at me and I just can't see why I would be so special ..."
<Tag Hannah or Lucy ... remember, our group is supposed to leave before Lex and Jira's group leave>
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fthelev
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Registered: Mar 29, 2024 6:01:32 GMT
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Post by fthelev on Dec 1, 2006 20:34:08 GMT
With a last glance over his shoulder towards the two women who had started rummaging through the objects on the table Frek followed Jira behind the curtain. It was not very likely they would find anything of importance. Who would leave anything sensitive out and in the open like that? No, certainly not them. If they learned anything about their adversaries, it was that they were professionals, and not the sorts that tend to make stupid mistakes.
There was tight knot in his stomach. And that could mean three things, one, the Inter-Galactic fruity flakes, or whatever they were called, from this morning’s breakfast didn’t agree with him. Or secondly, the fact that those ‘best cereal in at least this quadrant’ had been the only thing he actually had to eat this whole day. Apart from a nutty-bar he got out of a machine on the subway station, which mysteriously enough appeared to be entirely nut-less. It invoked a second last glance at the women, in particular Loki. He suspected Lex had stolen the nuts from his bar for some dark reason only she would understand. Finally, and perhaps the most likely, it was just fear. You got to look at it this way, if they got caught on the other side of that curtain, well, that would certainly be curtains for them. You can’t really blame him for that; he didn’t want this to be the final curtain to fall before his eyes. He was too far from being old and wise. And he definitely wasn’t opposed to prolong his life a little beyond the near future. Okay, a lot beyond the near future.
On the other side of the curtain a corridor stretched over what seemed the entire width of the old building. It was decorated with all sorts of furniture and objects that seemed to have come from the mist of time. A row of paintings on the outer wall, between high, coloured glass-in-lead windows and on the other side between various doors an old chest, some chairs that appeared to be as old as the building itself and as croaked and dusty as the groundkeeper who was shuffling leaves together out on the lawn. At the far end two mediaeval armours stared in their direction without much discretion, a halberd in one hand and the other resting on a large shield. If someone would want to spy on who passed through this hall that would be right place to hide. Weren’t it that humans seemed to be quite small a few hundred years back, it would be somewhat uncomfortable, and imagine if you had to go to the toilet. That could provide a problem, together with inevitable leakage that would follow shortly after.
But for now they were not interested in the club, it was Smith. With a little luck they might learn something from him, something that would help clear their names and stop whatever was going on. “Where did he go?” Frek whispered in his commanding officer’s ear. Okay, officially Jira might not have held that position anymore, but that changed little on how the andorian saw him. Jira shook his head and whispered back equally soft. “Don’t know. He must have disappeared around the corner.” He had his head slightly tilted, if he was trying to pick up some footsteps he would have a hard time. The thick carpet on the floor, old but unlike Lucy’s in good condition, would effectively damp every sound made by an object landing on it. Good chance even a horde of Alvarian elephants dancing the rumba would go unnoticed.
“You want to go after him?” Frek asked well knowing he wouldn’t like the answer. Jira nodded and didn’t say anything as they slipped round the corner into full view in the hallway. If someone came out from one of the other rooms, or from around the corner they would be screwed if recognized. It was best hoping for the alternative. “Remember,” Jira quickly remembered him, “If we run into anyone, we are working on that door and looking for someone.”
Well, at least the latter part wasn’t entirely a lie. The problem lay in the small detail that the ‘someone’ in question was looking as hard for them as the other way around if not harder. And not with the intention to invite them over for a cup of Tarkalian tea and a slice of grandma’s cake. Unless the cake would space them out and the tea be on the lightly poisonous side. You know, the cake will make you sing like a canary, and when they know what they want to know one sip of the tea is enough to turn you all blue and keel over. Expect in Frek’s case. He already was blue.
Cautiously they strolled through the lush carpet. By fits and starts parts of conversations drifted through the open doors. Anyone could be in there. Smith, his private army, his harem if he had one, or just other club members. They walked past the first door. The room, a living room, was furnished in the same style the rest of the building’s interior seemed to share, old and expensive. Two or three men that would fit the same description had comfortably placed themselves in easy fauteuils chatting about something that was obviously not as important as their pending survival. “…if you look at it sensibly, she’s going to win. It would be the best,” Grandpa One excitedly proclaimed. “Your talking nonsense,” overly wealth Grandpa Two hummed, “It would be our doom. Someone should do something about it.” “And what do you suggest junior?” the third Grandpa mockingly wanted to know. “What I…? Well, they should…” The increasingly excited voices carrying the conversation died away behind them. Get them too wound up and their old bodies would die on them equally fast.
Frek blew out a stream of air, the feeling of a nearing cardiac-arrest dissipating together with his entire lung content. It took some fair self restraint to remain calm, inwardly and outwardly. Some people assume that after the series of adventures both these men, and their colleagues, experienced during their Starfleet careers they would be accustomed to a live full of danger and excitement. They can rest assured; those are things you never get used to. Besides, Starfleet careers can often be long periods of boredom with occasional adventurous turns that make you old before your time. They reached the corner of the two hallways perpendicular to each other without any problems seconds later. A look was exchanged as they stared down another empty corridor. Starting a room to room search would be impossible. It would take to long apart from it being a significantly bad idea that would surely result in capture and nice swim face down in the bay.
“What now?” Frek asked, staring back at a portrait with big drowsy eyes hanging at the other end above the entrance of some antechamber. Jira simply shrugged. What was there to do? He was just on the verge of exactly telling Frek that same thing when suddenly someone appeared, stepping into the corridor through a door that opened slightly before that event. First a piece of the trousers and a sleeved arm came into sight, but that was enough for the Commodore. “Damn it, it’s him!” he hissed recognizing the clothing from moments before, “Smith!” He pushed through a door directly behind them. Automatically a light switched on. They found themselves in the little boys’ room. Or as the club members would probably prefer, the toilet or sanitary room. In contrast to some toilets, this was one you would gladly want camp in for an appreciably amount of time. What they were seeing here was the kind of toilet-seats the average person would be afraid to sit on. Not because of the lack of hygiene, but more because of the fear of leaving sweat stains behind with the occasional hair stuck to it. But toilet sight-seeing was not something of Frek’s immediate concern, and one could guess the same went for Jira. Both stood ear close at door, hoping to make out when Smith would walk by. You would only find the traditional sort of doors in this building. Not like the modern ones, like you will find on every starship. The ones of the sliding kind, the kind that could cost you a finger, foot, nose, antenna, or whatever might be caught in surprise when closing. That’s not a risk they would have to fear for here. But if Smith, or someone else for that matter, felt a sudden urge for a restroom visit the door would smack right into their faces. That’s doors that swing open for you.
“I think he just passed,” Frek said listening strenuously. “Think or sure?” Jira inquired not having heard a thing. “Think.” How could he be sure? You’d have to have super ears to be able to make that claim with certainty. But how long would it take to bridge that distance? This was a moment they would have to take their chances. Wait to long and he could have gone outside and disappeared. With door ajar Frek quickly scanned the hall. Just in time to see the object of their interest moving into an area that previously proved to be the cloak-room. “He’s getting his coat,” Frek relayed to Jira and hastily added, “We better get out now and warn Loki and Melain.” “Right, let’s get out,” he agreed.
“Where the hell did they go?” Jira growled as they slit past the curtain again. The room looked the same as when they left it, perhaps not even five or six minutes ago, with one exception. Loki and Melain were not in it. “They must have heard something and fled outside,” Frek whispered positively, but a sense of alarm shot through his body, straining his nerves. Jira stared at desk in thought, but then quickly came into action. “Come on,” he urged, “We can’t afford to lose Smith.” “And…” Frek started. “We catch up with them outside,” Jira said with a sense of conviction.
There was a nagging feeling something was wrong. Outside the street was as empty as a Klingon food stand at a vegetarian’s convention. No sign of the two women. “They’ll be fine,” Jira said. But Frek could tell it was not so much for his assurance as Jira’s own, “We need to move away from here. If he comes out we’re the first thing he sees.”
It was a sense of logic that was hard to argue with, though you could never know if a Vulcan would share that same belief. Swiftly they moved away, still making sure to come across as ordinary pedestrians and keeping an eye on the clubhouse. “There he is,” Frek spotted correctly. Smith came out still wearing civilian clothing. It must be said that neither Frek nor probably any of the others had seen the man in uniform apart from during the hearing sessions. The light anthracite suit was now completed with a half long coat in a darker shade of the same colour. They were on the verge of pursuit when a sound of relief came from behind.
Inadvertently Frek grabbed Melain’s hand. “Are you alright?” he asked, there was a worried undertone in his voice. “You look a bit shaky.” She replied with a small nervous grin. “That’s because I am a bit shaky. But I’m alright.” It almost sounded like a line from a bad joke where one milkshake is talking to the other.
Following Smith was easier than you would think. Everything indicated he wasn’t suspecting a thing. At ease he strolled to the city centre and the nearer they got the more people they found on the street. If Smith was to look backwards they would just be one of the many individuals or little groups making their way. In the meantime Melain and Loki relayed their part of events.
“A dart?” Jira asked genuinely surprised, “Why would they use that, if they just as easily could have stunned or killed you with a phaser or disruptor blast?” Loki shrugged, she didn’t know either. Perhaps it hadn’t been lethal, but it did hurt. “I don’t know,” she said, “But I still have the one that hit me.” She produced the dart and showed it to Frek and Jira. “You think it’s mounted with a tracking device or a poison?” Frek asked. Loki shook her head. “If it was a tracking device they would’ve caught us when we ran into that dancing piglet trio.” That would leave poison or perhaps a sedative, but if so, why was Loki still standing? “Doctor, examine that dart when you get the chance,” Jira ordered. “I will,” Melain promised. It would have to wait until they would return to their hideout. Merging into the crowd didn’t mean carrying all sorts of medical devices with you.
Smith seemed to have reached his desired destination. He picked a seat on a large terrace. It was shielded from the wind by transparent barrier of some sort of material and covered by an awning. For this time of year a perfect solution. “You think he’s meeting someone here?” Melain wondered. “What else?” Frek replied, “it’s either that or he wants a drink before going home.” Smith had taken a PADD from a pocket and had started reading. In one of the corners at a safe distance from the person they were tailing a table for four was still available. “Anyone in for coffee?” Jira asked leading the way to the table. It gave them the opportunity to unobtrusively keep a close eye on him.
[18369/136796]
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fthelev
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Registered: Mar 29, 2024 6:01:32 GMT
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Post by fthelev on Dec 1, 2006 21:10:36 GMT
Steve shook his head. He knew as much about it as the next person here. That meant virtually nothing. That’s what they were trying to find out. “Are you ready to go?” Hannah Stevenson inquired to the members of her team. One by one, Steve, Lucy and Ramsey got up answering her question with that very gesture. “Okay, let’s move out.” Hannah let the way and exchanged a last few words with her Captain. He was to set off a little bit later. It seemed to be less obtrusive if they would leave in smaller groups, and reduce the chance of someone noticing them.
“Steve?” Hannah asked as the walked over the platform towards one of the metro carriages waiting to whisk them away. The former intelligence officer smiled. “I still have some contacts in this area,” he said, “I think they’ll be able to help with what we need. We’ll need to contact them.” Contacting someone without a communication device can sometime be a bit of a hardship, but it was a good thing you still had the twenty-fourth century equivalent of a phone-booth. The communication column. You wouldn’t find them at their desolate spot, but get a bit closer to the known world and you shouldn’t have much trouble finding one.
A while later the screen lit up after Lucy traded some of her credits for some communication time. Without wasting a moment Steve dialled in the address. It only took a moment to establish the connection. The round face of a woman in her late forties appeared on the screen. “Steven,” she said her face hardly portraying any surprise. She smiled slightly. “I’ve been following the news. I’ve been expecting you.” Steve smiled. “I have no time to explain. My word we are innocent will have to do. Can I count on you Mari?” “I still owe you a favour or two,” Mari replied, “Come see when you are ready. The door code is still the same.” Mari Hata lived only a few blocks away, in the area people still consider to be the edge of city centre. It didn’t take long to get there.
“False ID’s for eight, several accounts with enough funds to get around with for a couple of weeks…?” Mari lifted an eyebrow after hearing what Steve wanted from her, her voice sounded sarcastically. “Is that all?” “Can you arrange it?” was all Steve replied. Mari laughed. “Who do you think I am? Of course.” She peered at Steve’s companions. If she was curious she didn’t show. “You have what I need?” Steve handed over a storage chip. He had taken photographs of everyone with Lucy’s camera earlier. “Photo’s, finger prints and DNA.” The information would be linked to the accounts and the ID’s. It would stand a standard check. If it would be cross-referenced against the Starfleet database they would have a problem. But it was the best they could hope for on this short term. “When can you have it done?” Ramsey inquired. Mari looked thoughtfully for a moment. “Two, two and a half hours,” she finally said. “Make yourselves comfortable in the meanwhile.”
“She can be trusted?” Hannah asked. The same question was probably on the other’s mind as well and Steve had more or less expected the question. “She was my mentor,” he explained, “Yes we can trust her.” Ramsey had gotten up and wandered to the window. “It’s all a bit much isn’t it?” Steve asked joining him and put a hand on his shoulder.
[18956/137383]
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