Smugglers’ Paradise? Part V of V

Posted on 25 Jul 2016 @ 9:07pm by Commander Luke Wyatt & Ensign Miraj Derani
Edited on on 28 Jul 2016 @ 4:05pm

4,165 words; about a 21 minute read

Mission: Episode 11 - Divinum Mundi
Location: Celes IV
Timeline: MD22 1200 local time

Previously, on Smugglers’ Paradise?

"Let’s get out of here. There's got to be another med kit in Marina. Come on." Miraj hurried back to the runabout's door to open it for Luke. The door shot up into its housing and Miraj jumped in.

Straight into the blast of a disruptor set to Heavy Stun.

Luke barely had time to react as he watched Miraj fall back out of the door of the shuttle, before finding himself being shot at. However, despite the warning Luke didn't even have time to turn before he too felt the hit of a phaser on stun.

And Now, the Conclusion...

There was no way of knowing how much time had passed. When Luke came round he was in a room barely three meters square, windowless, with a single light behind a metal grille recessed into the ceiling. His ribs throbbed, his lip was swollen and bloodied. He had bruises on his shoulders and stomach and arms. Everything hurt.

He was on his front, his arms were cuffed behind him, and numb from poor circulation and where the ratchet had bitten into the flesh of his wrist. The wound on his abdomen where's he been stabbed wasn't quite split open, but it was oozing clear plasma around the edges, and the spot was a like a poker of fire prodding at his kidneys.


Twisting his body Luke managed to sit himself up with the aid of the wall, taking in his surroundings he tried to look for Miraj but it was obvious she was not there, ignoring the pain despite its ferociousness he tucked his legs in and began standing, using the wall once again.

No was the best difficulty, setting his shoulder against the wall he moved his hands under his feet and in one quick motion disco located his shoulder allowing for them to set in front of him. Letting out a grunt of pain as tears rolled down his dirty face.

Now his hands were in front of him Luke quickly disposed of the cuffs by means of biting and rubbing them against the rough wall and just like that they snapped open.

Now... To escape.

There was a sudden scraping, the door swung out and Luke was facing the gruff man from before. Flanking the man, rifles pointing squarely at Luke's face was the rangy Cardassian and another human.

They saw Luke standing and shot him. It was just a light stun that fried his nerves but left him conscious, collapsed on the floor.

"Well, aren't you the resourceful type." The man looked down at Luke. "I’m not done with you yet." He turned to his men. "Get him out of there and for Pete’s sake make him secure this time!"

The Cardassian stepped into the tiny room and couldn't resist kicking Luke in the guts. Then they hauled him out into what looked like a garage or machine shop. They dumped him into the metal frame of a pilot’s chair, devoid of any upholstery and rusting round the edges. this time they used lengths of cabling to tie his hands behind the chair.

"Can we talk yet?" the man asked him. "I need to ask you a couple of things, and you aren't leaving until I’ve got answers. How’s the tongue doing? got control back yet?"

Luke was still feeling the effect of the stun but could respond, choosing by complying, resisting and doing both he spoke "I remind you that by taking us captive you are breathing violations of..."

The cardassian punched him in the gut.

"The federations law and hereby committing a crime against some Starfleet personnel. Therefore I must remind you that this will result in your arrest." Luke finished his eyes rolling slightly from the pain of his stab wound and the recent abuse to his body.

The man gestured for the cardassian to back up. "I'll get to the point. Where’s your ship? When will they be looking for you? What sort of response will be looking for you? Am I going to be dealing with some hospital ship, or am I going to be hip deep in Marines? "

Luke coughed and wheezed as blood dripped from his mouth, smiling widely he eyed the man "Where is the Officer I came with" he asked unflinchingly.

"Pinkie? She's fine." The man shrugged. "The worst she's endured is some crude speculation on whether the rug matches the curtains. Now. Would you like to answer my questions or would you like to quote regulations I quite obviously don't care about?"

He shook his head "and I think you and me both know that I'm not going to give up any valid tactical information, so whatever I say will most likely be a lie or a part lie" he admitted.


"I know." The man gave a shirt sigh, and since you managed to break Olf's neck with your bare hands you’ve had more training than most fleeters. Trying to torture it out of you will probably be a waste of time." He wandered over to a stack of drawers, opened one and poked around. He pulled out something that looked like pliers or wire snips, sniffed and dropped them back. "Let's change the subject. Have you ever watched a gang rape?"

Luke face instantly snapped to rage, it was a look of someone who had been pushed too far and their buttons pressed. "You touch a single hair on that girl’s body It's not Olf's neck you should be concerned about." He replied through gritted teach the venom registering across his face.

The man beamed. "That's what I thought." He rubbed his hands together briskly. "So alive with chivalrous rage. I sympathise. I really do. I don't want to hurt her. She's sweet. Reminds me of my baby sister at her age." The jovial expression vanished. "But I won't hesitate to have her dragged in here and let my boys take turns at her right in front of you if you don't start talking. It’s totally up to you."

Luke eyes the man for a moment, the blood which had left his mouth earlier was dried down his cheek and chin, sweat beaded down his forehead. "I think that you overestimate my chivalry, we could just end this now both go our separate ways and forgot about one another. This is my last warning to you"

The man returned the look, searching Luke's face for any sign that the officer might be trying to bluff. "You are a cold bastard." He shook his head sadly. "There goes my profit." He turned to the Cardassian. "Gillak, go get the girl. Tell the lads to come too, we're going to have a party."

The cardassian grinned broadly, holstered his rifle and turned for the machine room exit, on the far wall.

Luke had only one chance now between them bringing Miraj in and then then doing vile and cruel things to her but he had no idea where she was being kept and at least now they were bringing her to him, he knew that he could cut the restraints with the object in the drawers and also knew he could use that same object as a weapon. What he didn't know was how quickly he could kill all the men, and he would do or die trying but he knew something else that he didn't want to admit, if he wasn't going to make it he would have to kill Miraj to save herself from them.

With Gillak gone, the silence stretched. The man walked off again, poking through the draws, glancing back at Luke every so often, not quite believing that a Starfleet officer could be so stubborn. "Cold bastard," he murmured again.

After a couple of minutes there was a commotion from the open door at the other end of the room, Miraj could be heard screaming at them to let her go, interspersed with vile deprecations of their parentage, their intelligence and their manhood with every breath. There was the occasional yelp of pain in a male register, followed by gale of laughter.

Miraj was dragged in between two Orion’s, her feet not even touching the ground. another half dozen men of a variety of species followed behind. She'd lost one of her hair bands so her hair hung loose on one side, and had lost her jacket and red shirt somewhere along the line so she was down to just her sleeveless vest, but other than that the man had told the truth. She was unharmed.

When she saw Luke she stopped her futile struggles and looked at him in shock.

"Aww," The man said. "Pinkie obviously cares more for you than you for her." He walked over to Miraj "He's not talking. He's a cold and heartless bastard. Not like you, huh sweetheart?" He cupped her face, fingers sliding under her loose hair and thumb stroking her cheek. She jerked her head away. He laughed at her, and went back to stand next to Luke.

"Before we kick off the main event, which is totally his fault by the way, I will just ask. Which ship are you from, sweetheart?" He emphasized his question by igniting a small hand held blowtorch. it caught with a soft whumping sound, and threw blue light over Luke's features.

Miraj hesitated, and looked to Luke, eyes wide and wild.

Luke couldn't bare looking at Miraj, throughout this entire endeavoured they had been each other's sword and shield and now both were broken and torn down to the very bone and all that remained was their loyalty to one another and to Starfleet, the only question was which loyalty meant more to one another and Luke's own professional pride was getting in the way of saving the girl's life

The blow torch flame was perilously close to Luke's face. She knew that even the slightest touch would mutilate, maybe blind, maybe even kill him. She couldn't face that "Galileo! It’s on Celes III!"

The man turned to her, looking pleased, moving the blowtorch away slightly and raising an expectant eyebrow.

"It’s just scientists putting up a colony, but they'll look when we don't come back. We didn't come here looking for you. Please, don't hurt him!"

And just like that Luke's last string holding him down was broken, he had emotionally and physically had enough and now his eyes raged like a burning supernova, he had already charged and incapacitated two men by pure brute force, adrenaline and fury alone using his body as a weapon. A blaze haze fell over his eyes as he ripped through the men and at some point freeing his hands which now gripped a romulans head as he squeezed the two pressure points with his hands sounding a blood curdling scream as he killed another.

In the confusion of Luke tearing free and charging into the crowd, Miraj broke free of the Orion who'd been hanging onto her, rolling under a workbench and scrambling to her feet next to what looked to her like a nail gun. The men were regrouping now, reaching for holstered weapons. In a moment, Luke would be surrounded.

She grabbed up the nail gun and fired it randomly and repeatedly into the knot of men that had come last into the machine shop and were getting ready to shoot. They jumped for cover, but she didn't hear anything that let her hope she'd disabled anyone, just punched the small nails into random items. But Luke now had only two people trying to kill him, instead of six.

Thankful for the assistance with the number of attackers down to two Luke could make light work of them. Deflecting a flurry of punches and kicks he attempted to return a few himself. Missing more than half or hitting not enough to do any long term damage Luke twisted and picked up an ornament that had been carelessly left on the countertop and swung it towards one of the men. With a thump the man went falling to the floor unbalancing his companion allowing Luke to hit out in one fluid motion till they were both crumpled bodies at his feet.

The men who had taken cover from Miraj's barrage of nails had regained their courage and were now on top of her. One of the Orion’s had her by the throat, and her struggles were already growing weaker as he choked the life from her.

Picking up the two unconscious men's phasers Luke didn't even give a warning has he fired a colourful burst of green and orange as the men around Miraj began dropping. When they realised it was a given they tried to run but with the door blocked by bodies it didn't take long till dispatch the last of the men.

It seemed like the umpteenth time in the last day, but she said it anyway. "Thanks." it came out in a rough croak, the Orion’s stranglehold had done some damage. She checked him over, looking for more injuries. Unfortunately, she saw one, and she turned pink. "And sorry." She pointed. "For that."

Luke looked down and winced, he had two nails protruding out of his leg the pain just registering, "You're a lousy shot" He said, apparently in her furry of nails he had been hit more than most of their captors. "We should leave now, I heard them talking about our shuttle and where they moved it to earlier."

"No arguments here." she rasped in agreement.

They stepped over the fallen men in the doorway and out into the corridor. "That way." Miraj whispered, not wanting to raise her voice more, and pointed to the left. "there's not much the other way. Bunk rooms."

"Ok, let’s make up for lost time and get running. We'll head away from the Bunks since I can’t imagine them keeping the shuttle in their bed spaces" He joked taking her hand and running.

They ran past several side rooms, store rooms from the briefest glance, an office, and what looked like a mess hall, a hung with banners and flags. A circle of black flames on a white background here; a skull with a wide stripe of red across its eyes there, a biohazard symbol made angular instead of round, blue on black hanging lopsided on its hooks.

And the stylized version of a pair snake fangs, white on black, dripping red poison. The black was faded to charcoal grey now, and heavy with dust.

Miraj stopped dead.

Luke didn't see whatever it was Miraj had. He dragged her along as he continued to sprint, sweat and blood making his clothes stick close to his body showing each individual part of his chiselled body. "What is it?" He asked turning around to look at her.

"My mother's colours," she croaked. "Someone here knows my mother.” Suddenly, an alarm sounded, and between the whines of the alarm the baying of dogs started up. Hanging around to ask about her mother would be tantamount to suicide. With one last look back to the mess hall, Miraj picked up the pace.

Rounding a corner, they found an exterior door. Miraj slapped the exit button and the door slid up to show the Marina sitting a dozen or so meters away. A bored looking Klingon leant against the side, sharpening a d'k tahg, the traditional warrior's knife, whilst a targ the size of great dane snuffled around the treeline.

When the door opened, the Klingon was expecting a comrade. Seeing the pink haired prisoner and a man he didn't recognise (the other prisoner? He couldn't be sure at this distance), he hesitated.

Luke dressed in his dirty ribbed uniform was barely recognisable as someone from Starfleet so when he grabbed Miraj’s arm above the elbow and grew a crooked grin he strolled over to the Klingon “The Boss told me that he was done with this one and that you deserved to have a little play.” His voice was gruff and deep as he spoke. And when the Klingon didn’t respond straight away he growled. “Or if you don’t want her I can take her back and say that you were ungrateful”

"No! Bring her here. I'm not missing out." His original suspicion lost to his baser desires. He hadn't had a break from this backwater in months. He shouted something to the targ, which had finished marking territory and it flopped down in the shade. The klingon turned his back on them and opened the runabout's door. "Should get nice and comfy in here..."

Luke shuffled along with Miraj trying not to pull to hard as to hurt her but enough to make it look like he meant it."She's a real pretty one, I'm sure you'll enjoy all the time you have with her. I can't wait myself" He continued following the Klingon into the shuttle turning slightly so his phaser was showing to Miraj.

She nodded slightly and got ready to get out of the line of fire.

The klingon barked a laugh and hauled the covers from one of the bunks onto the floor. "Stay if you like. I don't mind sharing. Probably best if you go first even. Don't want her to split." He gave a dark chuckle and unbuckled his belt. "Come here, pretty." He turned round to reach for Miraj.

As the Klingon reached for Miraj Luke pushed her aside and swivelled around grabbing the phaser and shooting the Klingon. Screaming he tumbled out of the door his own momentum making him hit the floor with a thud. "Close the door, let's go!" He said to Miraj. The klingon had manage to grab her shirt when he reached for her and Luke slipped it back over her shoulder. "Hurry" He added with a smile.

She didn't have to be told twice, sliding into the pilots seat and activating the ignition sequence.

The klingon, right side of his chest burned, grabbed for the doorway to pull himself up, and Miraj took great pleasure on bringing it down on his out stretched arm. He screamed once and dragged it back.

The door shut she swiped a dirty hand across the helm and the runabout started to rise.

Luke checked himself over. He was bloodied, dirty and probably smelt. "All systems are green... Weapon systems are online" He eyed Miraj her face innocent and worn "Are you ok?" He asked as the ship lifted off the ground everything they had been through was taxing even on him and he couldn't imagine what she was going through. He placed a hand on her shoulder.

He could feel her trembling, but she nodded, her throat to sore to speak. Bruises were coming up around it, the shape of the orion man's fingers clearly visible. She knew any moment the adrenalin was going to wear off and she was going to cry like a baby, but she couldn't do that until they were clear of atmosphere and flying free.

Luke knew that look all to see and swallowed "Here let me do it, go have a moment in the back" he offered standing and presenting the back of the shuttle with his arms "Please?" He said wanting to just help her through this tough moment.

She hesitated, unwilling to leave the comfort of a live helm. But as the altometer climbed, she trembled more and more until Marina reached the mesosphere and they were half way to space, and couldn't keep up the brave face anymore. She stood and briskly moved to the back of the runabout, until she was as far from Luke’s field of vision as she could get. She didn’t want him to see her cry. Then she sunk down against the wall and shook with silent tears.

Luke was not unaffected by the experience they shared on the plant, he had several open wounds and hadn't eaten or drank much in the past 24 hours. He was exhausted and in pain as the adrenaline slowly diminished. Setting the helm to autopilot towards the meetup point point with the Galileo. He swivelled in his chair and stood up making his way to Miraj and sat down next to her resting his hand on her knee "Want to talk about it?" He asked his voice low and soft.

She scrubbed the water from her face and croaked, “It hurts.” and then she was crying again, leaning against him, her body shaking. “They kept telling me what they were going to do to us.” she whispered, “it was horrible.”

Luke wrapped an arm around her shoulders and let out a short sigh “I promised they wouldn’t do those things to you, and I always keep my promised. I’m sorry you had to see and go through what you did. I hope you don’t think I am some kind of monster” He rubbed her arm gently caressing it to comfort her. His own Bodily pains and sores beginning to flare up in his chest, leg and well just about everywhere. Blood was once again seeping from his open wound and patched his skin and dirty muddied clothes.

“Monster?” she shook her head, “You were amazing.” she sniffed, and tried to get her crying under control. “I was just useless. If you hadn’t been here i’d be dead and worse a dozen times over.”

“You wasn't completely useless, you kept me alive when I was on death's door” he stop caressing her arm and moved her head and smiled “You were great and now it's over, we'll go back, get washed up write our reports and we can put it behind us”

A sudden fear gripped her. “They’re all dead, aren’t they? They won’t come after us?” The thought of any of them tracking her down chilled her blood. She wasn’t sure she could put it all behind her if they were still out there.

He nodded “I'm pretty certain we got all of them but even if they weren't they wouldn't be able to catch us, they don't even know who we are” Luke explained “and besides I'll be there as ever!”

"But they do." There was a note of creeping horror in her hoarse whisper. "I told them we were from Galileo. I know I wasn't supposed to but he was going to burn you."

He shrugged with his one free hand “and what are they going to do with that information? The wouldn't attack a federation starship they're opportunistic like scavengers and we were unfortunate to run into their base” Luke said before adding “but thank you for stopping me from being burnt”

The shaking was subsiding. Now she was just exhausted and sore and sitting here with his arm around her she was beginning to feel safe again. Its was over and she was out, and alive, She could stay like this forever.. “It’s what anyone would have done.”

“Exactly” Luke said wrapping his other arm around her tightly, “everything's going to be alright we'll be back to the Galileo taking a warm sonic shower before you know it and striping ourself a rid of these clothes” He added with a chuckle.

She relaxed a bit more,. “A shower would be good.” She wrinkled her nose “We’re rather fragrant.” She knew she smelt of sweat and dirt and smoke and jungle. But she was too tired and sore to care. She let her head rest on his shoulder. “But sleep better.”

“Yeah sleep would be great right about now” Luke said chuckling as he stroke her arm before slowly lifting himself off the seat grabbing a blanket from the supply chest and resting it down on the chair he had just occupied. “Here have a nap I'll take us home” he offered resting her head to the makeshift pillow.

“I should do it that's my job.” she protested, but with not much effort.

“Stop that nonsense, rest and I'll wake you when we come into range of the Galileo. Until then I can pilot the ship and make sure no one is following us.” He said leaning against the shuttles interior. “Have a good sleep, Miraj” he said using the panel to his right to dim the rear cabins brightness.

She couldn’t find the energy to argue, glad to let Luke take over. She did drag the bedding closer to the pilot's seat though, so he wasn’t so far away, and settled down on the floor of Marina and let the hum of the runabout ease her into sleep.

[OFF]

A JP by

LT Luke Wyatt
Strategic Operations Officer
USS Galileo

&

Ensign Miraj Derani
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Galileo

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