Abduction of an Abductee Part 2/3

Posted on Fri Jul 8th, 2022 @ 1:48am by Cenva Zanzi & Game Master

1,563 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: How Did It Happen? Prequel Stories
Location: Zanbar Universe - Various Locations
Timeline: Shifting

“Did you just abduct me?” Cenva broke out of the arms wrapped around her and looked at very unfamiliar, pale beige walls. Not certain, she presumed it to be a starfleet shuttlecraft.

“Uh, yeah?” Kevin answered. “Did you want me to leave you in a room full of Klingons with weapons?”

“They weren’t after me…” she pointed out before she corrected, “Well, now they will be if they think I helped you escape. I’m not going to be able to go back there.” There was regret and sadness, and even fear in her voice.

“You literally helped me escape,” Kevin replied and quickly took a seat in the cockpit.

“But they didn’t know that.”

“I don’t understand what this argument is about. You’re safe now.”

“No… I was safe before.” She watched his hands on the controls and recognized the trajectory of Kevin’s flight plan. Her panic grew exponentially. “You can’t take me back into Syndicate space,” it didn’t seem possible for her eyes to get any larger than they already were. Her heart was pounding hard in her chest, and she was certain it could be heard all the way back in The One Temptation.

“What’s wrong with Syndicate space?” Kevin slid fully into his seat and engaged the cloak, then the engines.

“Everything. Politics. Economics.” Her fists clenched and released helplessly. She quickly realized life as she had known it was over and she would have to plot her escape all over again. “I had a job and a place I called home…”

“Waiting tables and whoring is not a job.” Kevin did not see the slap coming. It threw him back in his seat. “Oow,” he finally looked at the girl he abducted to see an actual person standing there, scared. The sting of her hit watered his eyes, and he felt the impression of her hand redden his face. “What the hell?”

“You did not drink enough to justify calling me a whore.” Her voice squeaked in outrage.

“But that’s what you were doing. How would you describe your job?” Recovering from the shock, he checked his display to make sure he wasn’t being followed by Klingons or any other vessel. “The USO is a civilized territory, not like this dump you call home. You’re going to have to explain what you don’t like about politics and the economy.”

Cenva sat down in the seat next to Kevin. She reached out to the controls and shut down the engines. Kevin was instantly locked out of the panel. “Then we’ll discuss it right now,” she decided.

The controls bleated at Kevin. “We’re still in BC space. If we’re caught,” he didn’t actually know what would happen if he was found… He didn’t want to hazard a guess either.

“With that logic, what were you doing there in the first place?”

But he didn’t hear the question. He was more interested in making the shuttle move again and hit every control in front of him, receiving the same bleat of “access denied.” “How did you do that?” Kevin worked at the controls, but nothing he did allowed them to recognize his inputs. Sitting still out in the open was very, very uncomfortable. They had barely moved beyond the planet’s moon. His fast escape was really, really slow.

“Focus,” Cenva said, her fingers directing him to make eye contact with her. “I don’t want to leave here. This was not in the plans when you paid for ‘other services.’”

“Why are you not interested in leaving BC space?” Kevin finally asked. “You’re not a runaway slave, are you?” he laughed, the question was meant to be a ridiculous joke. A pretty, young girl with an aristocratic accent couldn’t be a slave. But when Cenva didn’t share his humor, he stopped and shook his head in denial. “You’re not laughing… Who did you run away from?” he asked after correctly surmising her silence indicated the truth of the matter.

Cenva had nothing to say. It made Kevin uncomfortable. She sighed.

“Look, I’m sorry I messed up your hiding spot. What do you want me to do? We can’t travel back in time to fix it, so I need a little direction. Who did you run away from? I’ll make sure to get you back here as soon as it’s safe to do so.”

“Shriken.”

Kevin laughed again, “Sure you did.” He knew the name. He knew the reputation.

“What were you looking for at The One Temptation?”

Kevin’s head tilted, realizing she thought he was looking for a person - her. “Starfleet doesn’t work for criminal organizations.”

“That doesn’t answer the question.”

“I wasn’t looking for a runaway slave. Can we go? I don’t feel comfortable sitting out in the open like this.” Kevin said.

Cenva lifted the lockout to let the engines resume. “It’s…” she hesitated. “If… When I’m found… I’d rather be slaughtered by Klingons.”

“I’ll make sure you’re safe,” Kevin promised. “I’m pretty sure I owe you my life, so it’s only fair for me to return the favor.”

Timeline: Day of Station Encounter

Cenva sat at the controls of the shuttlecraft, directing it into the bay of the mysterious station. The last four months had been busy for her. She had earned a temporary commission in Starfleet and had started to feel comfortable in her new surroundings and identity. Landing the shuttle, she powered the systems down and opened the doors. "All environmental systems are reading as stable, but ..." something was wrong, the computer wasn't giving her specifics though.

"But?" Lieutenant Kevin Hatch stopped, one foot out of the door.

Cenva changed to a tricorder, "There are readings of life, but not really any signs of activity - if that makes sense."

"Well, that's why we are here. Let's go see what's happening."

The shadowy figure was pleased with itself and looked down at the new arrivals to the station. Only two individuals were aboard, a female and a male. Force fields and directional indicators were a new idea it’d had, helping to guide his collectables to the Stasis chambers.

It watched them in the shuttlebay. There were various other auxiliary crafts of different designs on other raised platforms and connected via extended umbilical covered walkways. Though all were powered down, the shadowy figure realised it should put them into storage when it encountered a free moment.

Cenva quickly found a docking bay control station after leaving the shuttle. She found communicating with computers to be soothing in unfamiliar settings. Computers normally didn't lie and she could parse out the information she needed to make informed decisions. Only, the panel she found was powered down.

The bay was eerily silent except for random creaks and clicks. She couldn’t place the sounds, but they seemed to echo through the bay. She longed for the familiar hum of … anything.

Kevin waited patiently while she tried to troubleshoot the problem, looking for any switches that might wake up the controls. But after a few minutes, Kevin waved his hand at her and suggested, "Come on, let's see what's over here."

They returned to the lighted path and followed it to a lift. At the far end of the bay, something clunked and clattered causing Cenva to flinch into Kevin’s side. "What's wrong?" Kevin asked when they entered the lift.

"Nothing," Cenva said instantly, but then regretted it. "That's not true." She adjusted her balance automatically when the lift shifted routes and she thought to herself in silence for a few more moments. "Not being able to wake a sleeping computer is unsettling. And I don't like leaving the shuttle back there... We have no idea where we're going, how is that okay with you? Why is it that only a few lights and the turbolift are working?"

Kevin shrugged. "We have communicators. Transporters can pull us out if there are any problems. We just call back to the ship."

"We used the shuttle to come here because the transporters couldn't get a stable lock on any place in this station," Cenva reminded him.

"And, we have transporter enhancers with us. So, now that's not a problem." He looked down at Cenva with a smile, "Relax, we'll be fine."

The lift doors opened and Kevin stepped out, then he stepped back and pushed Cenva out to the corridor. "Look," he pointed out an area where the lighting was brighter. "Maybe we'll find someone over there?"

Cenva had her tricorder up and instead of noticing the ambient lighting, she noticed the storage tanks.

"Or, maybe we'll find an active computer for you to hack into?"

"You don't think that maybe this place is haunted?"

"What have you been reading? Haunted houses aren't real," Kevin answered. He paused, "Why do you ask?" he queried moments later.

The shadowy figure appeared behind Kevin and only Cenva could see the figure as it performed for her, a scary pose as if it was going to grab Kevin. It disappeared once it knew Cenva had seen it but before she could point it out to Kevin.

 

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