Smugglers' Paradise? Part III of V

Posted on 22 Jul 2016 @ 9:47pm by Commander Luke Wyatt & Ensign Miraj Derani
Edited on on 28 Jul 2016 @ 4:05pm

1,937 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Episode 11 - Divinum Mundi
Location: Celes IV
Timeline: MD 21 1800 local time

Previously, on Smugglers Paradise?

"Do you trust me?" He asked looking to the men moving towards them, smiling and looking hungrily between the two.

She wanted to say no. No-one who said that ever followed it with anything good. "What are we going to do?" She knew it was a pointless question. Right now if he had a plan, they were going with it, however crazy it was.

"Jump!"

And Now, the continuation...


Miraj gave a short scream, more of surprise than fear, and then remembered that she was about to hit water and grabbed for a mouthful of air just before they plummeted into the water.

The water was cold and the shock of hitting it knocked that breath from her lungs. She got no time to even register that before they were under. Beneath the surface it was pitch black and for a long moment there was no sound but the brown noise roar of water churning above them. Beneath the fall was deep, and they didn't touch bottom, and as they struggled upward to the surface the force of the water coming from above shoved them away and out into the river's centre, where a vicious current snatched them up and was swinging them into a series of short cascades where the black water frothed and churned.

Miraj had to fight hard to get to the surface. She'd never been a strong swimmer, and she flailed upwards without grace until she broke the surface, already ten feet from the curtain of water and gulped for breath. She couldn't see Luke. "Sir?" she was treading water to stay on the surface, but couldn't fight the drag of the current. "Luke!"

Having in the chaos of being pulled under by the raging current let go of Miraj Luke struggled to swim as he was thrown along the bottom of the river. Trying to regain himself Luke grabbed for the surface, his fingertips breaking the surface followed by his head and doing so took in a large breath "Miraj!" The first thing he said now frantically looking around to only see her trading water only a couple of feet away. "The river bank" He pointed and began swimming.

She headed over, the current pulling her downriver a bit more so when she finally crawled up onto the bank, she was several feet away and she dropped down, gasping for breath and spitting water. She lay there for a few minutes, feeling like she'd just been rolled around in a shipping crate at high speed.

After a moment she sat up, looking up to the top of the waterfall, now someway away, trying to see if their pursuers had given up, or were trying to find a way down. She got to her feet, and came over to Luke, dripping wet. She put her day sack down, and stripped off her jacket to wring the water out of it. She felt like a drowned rat with her clothes plastered to her and her hair streaming water.

"Are you alright?" she knew he was hurt, and the fall and swim couldn't have helped.

Lying face down in the dirt not wanting to move an inch Luke managed to find the strength and pushed himself up onto his knee and slumped up against a tree "I can certainly say I have felt better" He said between chattering teeth as the cold bite at his body. He was covered in bumps, bruises and a few minor cuts from the rocky river bed however his main injury the stab wound till pooled blood which could be seen through the holes in his ripped damp shirt.

As he rolled over she saw the raw wound on his side and her eyes went wide. "You're hurt." She dropped to her knees next to him and rummaged in her day sack for the first aid kit. The whole thing was waterlogged and the dermal generator only hummed fitfully.

She used the snips there to cut his vest back away from the wound and wiped the blood away from his stomach with the wet hem of her own shirt. The puncture into his abdomen was the width of two of her fingers and the edges were ragged.

"Tell me if this hurts." She applied the generator as best she could but the thing didn't have the power to do more than lightly seal the surface. It would tear open again if any force was applied.

Grunting as the pain ignited around the wound he took her hand gritting his teeth "It hurts" Luke gave in finally realising that Miraj would see him in such a weak state, something he hated the idea off. He was the one meant to be protecting not her.

She decided to give it another pass but when she thumbed the switch the small wand like device sparked brightly and then died.

"That doesn't seem good" He joked chuckling before moaning again the pain in his side flared up again. "We should move to some cover, I spied a small cave as we were on top of the waterfall and it will keep us concealed. “Help me up?"

She offered him her hand, and helped heave him up, before tucking herself under his uninjured arm. He outweighed her by fifty percent, and even with him taking most of his own weight, she found herself wishing she did more weight lifting.

With Miraj as support he attempted to support as much weight as possible. "It’s just over there" he said eyeing the rock formation which was almost in front of them, the concealment from the tree's vines and bushes perfect. "If we bend some of the vines towards the rocks it will be invisible and it looks like it has a natural chimney so we should be able to light a small fire and still stay hidden.

She saw where he was pointing and together they managed to navigate the tangled roots and dense undergrowth between then and the cave. Once inside, Miraj let Luke slip down to the ground and she busied herself obscuring the entrance, and finding anything dry enough to burn. After thirty minutes she had managed to obscure the entrance enough that it was worth risking lighting the fire so they could dry out.

She checked her tiny phaser to see if it had survived drowning and being thrown off a waterfall, and satisfied that it had, she pointed it at her tinder, mostly dead ferns, and started the small fire. With the smaller fuel burning nicely, she rested a couple of large chunks of dead vine onto it.

"How are you feeling?" she asked.

Having fallen asleep during the time she had been messing with the concealment of the cave Luke startled and opened his eyes, the pain, though slightly subdued was still there. "Better now I've had a rest, how long have I been out he asked? Any sighting of our friends?" He asked, Luke being Luke and trying to put a bit of light humour on the situation.

"I heard the buggies drive off about five minutes after we got inside. I think they've given up for now." She looked at his wound site again. It still looked tender but the seal was holding. It would need a session under a medical arch to fix it properly but for now the damage was hidden by the slightly pale, slightly puckered mark on the edge of his otherwise firm and toned abdomen. Very toned. Very very toned. Sculpted. Ripped.

She suddenly realised she was staring at his muscles rather than the wound and her face flushed as pink as her hair. She dropped her eyes hurriedly and busied herself with trying to restore life to the dermal generator with some light percussive maintenance.

"So, Err, has anything like this happened to you before?"

Luke chuckled lightly as he watched her work "A few times, well similar experience. I've never had to jump off a waterfall before but I have many times found myself stabbed or shot perhaps more times that anyone should in once life" He admitted. Growing impatient Luke began collecting Stones in the cave creating a fire pit around the fire helping the heat increase inside the cave. Sitting back down next to Miraj he gave a harsh groan before being finally in the sitting position next to the fire. "How’s it coming? More importantly how are you doing?"

She ached all over and she could feel the bruise on her face coming up. "I'm okay." she reassured him "Just cold. And wet." She slapped the dermal generator against her palm a couple of time to no effect. "And I really, really, don't want to get caught." she admitted.

He gave her a light smile "Don't worry, if it's the last thing I do I'll make sure they won't lay a single hand on you, I'm sorry you had to see what you did but you must understand I had to do lt." The sadness in his eyes turned the shade dark which deepened the colour which only looked more brilliant as the flames from the fire licked at the caves walls causing a light glow. "You should get some rest, we have a fair walk tomorrow and with any luck they haven't found the shuttle, even so we’ll be over our safe time period and Galileo will send another team to look for us"

She nodded and tried to settle down, not easy since she was cold and damp, but didn't want to strip down in case they had to move suddenly. "Sir. You don't have to be sorry. You kicked ass. And it was way better than the alternative."

"I do because seeing that level of violence is something no one should see especially be a part of, anyway get to sleep. There is no point one of us staying up to watch because if we get found then we’ve got nowhere to go" Luke said moving some vines and foliage over using his bag as a pillow "Here, sleep near the fire we need to get dry." He lay down.

She shifted over so she was closer to him and the fire and closed her eyes, not sure she could sleep knowing that there were men out there. By her estimate there were still eight or nine hours before they'd be overdue. Allow for three hours to reach here and an hour of faffing beforehand and there was a minimum of twelve hours before they could expect rescue. They just had to hold out till then.

With any luck their pursuers would have given up till sunrise, so realistically that was only...what?... how long was night here? Six hours? Eight? Be optimistic, say nine. That left just three hours to dodge whatever was sent after them. They could do that.

But despite the positive thought she feels onto a fitful sleep haunted with the sensation of hands on her body and the sound of snapping necks.

Luke drifted off after Miraj, lying flat on his back so that he didn't aggravate his healing wound and also to allow Miraj more room next to the fire, though cold and wet he kept a comfortable distance away from her as to not invade privacy but close enough they could share each other’s warmth.

To Be Continued...

A JP by

LT Luke Wyatt
Strategic Operations Officer
USS Galileo

&

Ensign Miraj Derani
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Galileo

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