Posted by Lieutenant Jasmine Wynter (Chief Medical Officer) in Mundai Colony - A need to get away
Snip

Further down the street ahead of Jasmine, two small figures stopped their stroll and leaned casually against a wall under a makeshift sun shelter. Because of the drizzle the shelter wasn’t exactly doing it’s job, and drips of water sploshed down from torn corners where the fabric strained against the weight of too much water pooled on the surface. Cloaks up and around their heads, nothing was seen of their faces, their hands tucked under the cloaks for warmth. The didn’t seem to notice her disappear into the alley way, or if they did, they showed no sign of caring.

Behind her the figure of the second person stopped. It had grown closer to her but as she turned down the alley way the figure itself stopped for a moment. After a minute, it carried on following her to the entry to the alley, and glanced down. Seeing Jasmine approaching a door, the figure carried on past the alley and stopped at a rickety street vendor who appeared to be selling a variety of goods. Shoes, clothing and some food. None of it looking very new or edible.

Lt Cmdr Max Wynter, CE

Thirty minutes later Jasmine emerged from the building. Her expression was a cross between angry and worried. She no longer had the large case with her which allowed her to tighten the collar on her coat. The drizzle of the night was icy and felt like pin pricks where it hit her exposed flesh. This was the last place she wanted to be tonight. She could have been home in her quarters, under a blanket snuggling with Max but instead, she was on a corner lying to him about having an amazing night with an old friend. Activating her comm she sent out her first message. It was simple and to the point stating what she had dropped off, to whom, and when. Since no one was going to actually talk to her about the events it was easy enough to just leave a message and be done with it. The next call was going to be harder.

=/\=Hey sexy. I am having so much fun but I miss you. Can’t wait to be home with you. Love you,=/\= she left a message for Max on his personal communicator. He was still on shift and only left it at his desk so at least he would have a small smile tonight unlike her. At least the slightly sad tone to her voice was easily hidden by the fact she really did miss him. Walking towards the end of the alley, Jasmine only had to hail a vehicle, catch the next shuttle to the Starbase, and then put this night behind her. Her footsteps were hollow clicks against the pavement that seemed to echo all around her. The sound was unnerving and only noticeable now because she had completed her task. On the way to the warehouse, her mind was fixed on getting the night over. Now it only contained loose thoughts about how she was going to lie about what she ate and what her mystery friend talked about. As she neared the entrance to the street Jasmine suddenly had other things to worry about.

“Mrs. Maxwell Wynter. Chief medical officer Wynter,” a deep but slightly squeaky voice called out from about three yards ahead of her. Jasmine would have kept walking but the voice was in the only direction she could go. Behind her was a dead end and the people in the warehouse would be long gone. She needed to get to the street.

“I’m sorry but you have the wrong person,” she replied still moving forward but lowering her head some. The best-case scenario here was the voice belong to the local authorities and her meeting with Max would be at the local detention center. The worse case was Max would be picking her up in the hospital or morgue.

“I think not,” the voice said as strong arms clamped around her waist and pushed her towards the wall of the alley. “I think you are exactly who I think you are.” The man did not descend on her which was the most typical action for this section of town. Instead, he leveled a phaser at her.

“Oh okay,” Jasmine slowly raised her hands. “I am not sure you realize what you are doing here. Lauren sent me and that woman will rip you from tip to tail if you mess up her opera,” she stopped talking as the weapon discharged. The pain began to radiate from her mid-section and spread outward. Jasmine felt like the world stood still yet the entire process only took a few seconds. Barely enough time for her to reach her wound before she was gone.

Lt. Jasmine Wynter CMO

The figure that had been following Jasmine in the other car came running around the corner at that moment. Having seen the two small figures walk into the Alley, and the sound of Jasmines voice it had stopped it’s fake perusal of the stand and begun to run.

Sliding to a stop, the figure could only watch as Jasmine seemed to dissolve under the blast of the energy bolt. The two smaller figures turned around in alarm, their hoods opening to reveal Ferengi faces and the one with the weapon raised it as if to shoot again. He never got the chance as a beam of energy extended from the figures hand where a small Phaser was held, small enough to easily conceal in a pocket.

The Ferengi with the weapon fell back against the wall of the Alley where Jasmine had just been, his own wound mortal but not set to destroy the body at the molecular level. The second Ferengi watched the first slump to the ground, the weapon drop from his clearly lifeless hand and turned back around to look at the figure. Slowly, the second Ferengi raised his hands.

“Don’t shoot, friend!” Came the pleading and high pitched voice, “I didn’t shoot her, it was him, not me, I didn’t want to shoot her.” The figure paused a moment as if in thought, then his weapon fired again. This time with a scream of pain the second Ferengi fell against the same wall as Jasmine and the first Ferengi, but he was clutching his hand.

“Now you might be more in the mood to talk truthfully,” the figure said, it was a man’s voice and the hostility was very, very apparent and the breathing deep under his own hood which cast enough shadow to hide his face. The figure looked out into the street, faces at the windows pulled back and curtains closed. Nobody was coming to investigate the scream, nobody cared enough and knew the danger of these streets.

“You have another hand,” the figure told the Ferengi. “You have feet, and you have other things that I can shoot. If I think you are lying, you will lose them. So talk.”

Minutes later, another weapon blast broke the silence of the street followed by another scream.

------ An Unknown Amount of Time Later-----

The woman lay on the Bio-bed, she was unconscious, but her vitals were stable. Around the small room she was in was scattered medical equipment of various types, mostly Federation but a number of devices from other origins were noted. The lights were bright in the room, far brighter than the Ferengi in the room with her liked, yet they monitored her and waited for her to wake up, all the time watched over by an ugly looking Ferengi with a bent nose and scar running down his face from above his right eye to the bottom of his left chin, over the nose which was broken in a direction and point that indicated this scar was the cause.

“Wake her,” the scarred Ferengi demanded. In his hands he toyed with a small but deadly looking dagger. “It isn’t safe to wake her yet,” one of the other Ferengi said, considering he was looking at the medical readouts on the Bio-bed it appeared he had some knowledge. “She’s still too far into the coma, if we wake her now we risk damage to her brain. Hoomans are fragile, they might be tall but they break easily.”

“I know,” the scarred Ferengi said, the venom in his ratlike voice was palpable and he thrust the dagger into the table beside him in what seemed to be anger. “She’s costing me money by sleeping, if she dies I’ll take the cost of her disposal out of her husband. Wake her.”

Walking to the bed, the scarred Ferengi looked over the edge and into Jasmine’s face only inches away, so that when she opened her eyes he would be the first thing she saw. “Wake up, you Mintaran thief. You have work to do to pay off your debt to me.”

Rag, Esteemed Businessman of the Ferengi Commerce Commision

Jasmine blinked her eyes as they tried to adjust to the bright light streaming down on her as she emerged from the fuzzy murkiness of sleep. She raised her hand to block the pinpoint of light blinding her only to have her hand savagely knocked to the side. “Get up,” a voice growled locking an iron grip around the wrist that was just batted away. “You filthy, lazy whoman. You can sleep on your free time after your shift but for now get up!”

Jasmine felt her body being drug off the hard surface she was laying on. Her feet barely found balance underneath her as she was forced to stand up. Reaching behind her, Jasmine’s fingers closed around the lip of a cold metal counter. She didn’t respond to the man in front of her yet. Jasmine’s head was a maelstrom of confused thoughts. Lauren had sent her to drop off supplies. Her contact was Orion, not Ferengi. Slowly backtracking in her mind, Jasmine remembered arriving on the colony world, meeting with the Orion, and then showing up here. None of it made sense.

“Why are you just standing about? You were brought here for a reason,” he snarled pulling Jasmine’s arm towards the door.

“You work for Lauren,” Jasmine began to pepper the Ferengi with questions. In her experience the faster you threw questions at someone the more honest someone answered them. Maybe not all the questions but even one answer at a time like this was more than she had five minutes earlier. As Jasmine was escorted from the room, she could not help but notice the area outside the room she woke up in was vastly different. As she walked down the hall, Jasmine could not help but notice the walls were sleek, clean stainless steel with high tech locks and door control panels. This was in stark contrast to the concrete walls and barred windows of the warehouse. The warehouse had to be a facade to this place. The problem was Lauren did not seem like the type to play ball with Ferengi. She was more into the pirate, smuggler, rogue category than slimy business man. Lauren was also against anything to do with slave trading or kidnapping so none of this made sense.

“No I would never work for a woman,” the Ferengi shoved her into a room. “You however will work for me. Fix him,” he growled pointing to the young man on the operating table in the center of the room.

It took a second for Jasmine to grasp what was occurring around her. “What are his vitals,” she instantly shifted from kidnapped doctor to surgeon seeing the young man on the table prepped for a kidney transplant. Where are you Max and why did I not stay curled up on the couch with you tonight, Jasmine thought as a nurse began running through his stats. Grabbing a dermal re generator in one hand an clamps in the other, Jasmine began surgery.

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Back in the alley
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“If you hurt me you won’t ever find her,” the Ferengi in Max’s grasp instantly began to squeal like a stuck pig. “I can help you for a fee,” he suggested with a toothy grin. The man might be three times his size and able to bodily toss him like a bean bag down the alley but the Ferengi had something the man wanted. This would keep him alive and provide a modest pay out. Whoman’s had such ridiculous sentimentality for each other at times and especially when the placed some value on the opposite sex of their race. Whoman women did not have lobes that could compare to any Ferengi woman so it was hard to see what this man saw in the dark haired woman. Regardless though, he would find a way to make some money on this knowledge.

Lt.Jasmine Wynter CMO

Bump