Traitorous Intent (Part II)

Posted on Sat Apr 30th, 2022 @ 12:10pm by Lieutenant JG Elizabeth Jackson & Lieutenant JG Talia "Phoenix" Richards & Lieutenant Bela Swain & Ensign Satt

955 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Eye of the Storm

[PREVIOUSLY]

"We'll be leaving momentarily," Talia announced to the group. "My name is Phoenix and I'll be your pilot today. This should be an uneventful ride, but in the case of turbulence, hold tight and stay in your seats. I'm a fighter pilot and will get you down safely." She grinned and turned on the engines. As soon as Satt was seated, she headed out of the ship.

[CONTINUED]

The Risian immediately and lightly traced her fingers along Satt's arm. "You really should be buckling up for this ride. She then spread her arms over her head, accentuating everything above her waist, as she said, "See!" referring to her buckled self. "We would not want you getting hurt now, would we?"

'I, uh,' Satt blushed a darker blue along his cranial bands and ridge. Busying himself with buckling up, he looked out a viewport while he said quietly, 'getting hurt before hitting the ground would be most ... inconvenient. For both of us.'

Phoenix laughed. "Here we go..."

It was an uneventful flight. The ion storm was still at a safe distance from the planet. It didn't take long before the shuttle landed near the main building where the colonists were sheltering.

Glancing about again, it was clear Satt was itching to go. He undid the safety harness with practiced ease and looked over at the Counsellor. 'Time to roll out then ...'

"I suppose that it is," Bela responded, happy that Satt seemed to be in a rather good mood, though a bit confused by his haste. "Time to get to work before there is more trouble here."

'Precisely,' Satt replied with a toothy smile, 'as quickly as we can before any trouble raises its head.'

"I'll help carry in supplies," Talia said. "Then I'll come back here and see if I can learn anything by scanning the building."

Satt nodded at the pilot, 'alright - let's load up.' The Bolian moved to pick up one of the crates and hauled it to a gurney at the rear of the shuttlecraft, 'let's hope they're home.'

Talia nodded and picked up a medium-sized box and followed.

Lizzie took care of her botanical supplies.

It didn't take long for them to have everything loaded and ready to go.

For a moment, Satt felt in a bit of a quandary as he couldn't work out how to hold his rifle and push the grav gurney. In the end he opted to hold his rifle in both hands and hope that someone else would buss the gurney to the building.

Bela sidled up to Satt and whispered, "You're holding that rifle like you're going to crush it."

Phoenix, picking up the gurney, glanced at Bela with a raised eyebrow. Then she gave Satt a sympathetic smile.

Looking at the weapon, then looking at the Counselor, Satt forced himself to relax his grip on the weapon. 'Ground engagements make me feel tense,' he rasped, 'during the War, I was captured during a ground operation.'

"You were?" Bela's eyes widened and became concerned. "I know that this is not a great place to talk about it, but if you want, I'm happy to do so." She touched him lightly on the arm, to let him know that she was there for him.

Satt sighed, then smiled, 'what would you like to know? I was a Marine, deployed groundside as support for an assault on a Ketracel White facility. Support was blown out of the sky, and we couldn't be retrieved.' He shrugged, 'spent the rest of the war in a camp, and the Cardassian guards were kind enough to give me this,' he pulled down on his uniform collar, exposing the thick, ugly scar tissue that wrapped around his throat.

He smiled sourly as he pulled the collar over the thick blue-white welt. 'My vocal cords have never been the same thanks to their doctors.'

"Torture?" Bela replied shocked, as she sidled up to Satt and hugged his arm, despite the gun. "Nobody could fix them in the Federation? How is that possible?" she asked, genuinely bewildered, looking up into Satt's eyes with her doe-like ones.

'I was released at the end of the War,' Satt replied simply, 'my body had been healed as best as my captors could.' He shrugged, 'it is what it is, Bela.'

Lizie and Talia brought in a sled of supplies and passed the two. "Once we drop this off, we're going to have a look at their computers."

"No, it isn't, Satt," Bela insisted. "I definitely think we should talk about this more when we get back to the ship. But right now, we do have a job to do and we should focus on that." Surprisingly, Bela did not hug Satt at this moment.

Elizabeth looked around. The colonists were all busy unpacking and passing out the items they brought. "Let's see," she said quietly. "If I were responsible for these people losing everything, where would I hide?" She noticed two men standing in the back near a door. "That looks out of place." She looked at the others. "Why don't we follow them and see where they go?"

"You watch too many old vids," Talia said, chuckling. She liked Lizzie, although she didn't know her well, but it was common knowledge that she liked old mysteries and old romances. She looked at the two. "But that does look odd." She hoped Satt and Bela would join them as she followed Lizie to the far door.

(To be continued...)

Lieutenant JG Talia "Phoenix" Richards
Squadron Leader

Lieutenant JG Elizabeth Jackson
Botanist

Lieutenant Bela Swain
Chief Counselor

Ensign Satt
Security Officer

 

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