Posted by Lieutenant Commander Faye Calloway (Chief Intelligence Officer) in Elsewhere- A Honeymoon

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Daggum Hammor (Chief Operations Officer) in Elsewhere- A Honeymoon

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Faye Calloway (Chief Intelligence Officer) in Elsewhere- A Honeymoon
Posted by… suppressed (4) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)

Bile touched the back of her throat as her stomach churned. But Faye fought the sensation. Not here, not now. What she also wanted to do was cry, and cry hard. Her her, for him, for the others. She wanted to say something, but there were no words as she stood there. This was different than his holodeck program. This was the visceral reality.

“I’m glad you did,” she finally whispered. “Because I have you with me, even if this place makes me want to vomit.”

~Faye

Daggum chuckled and said “You would certainly not be the first.” It was then that a tentative voice was heard from the direction of the stairs. It spoke Orion, and it seemed… hesitant.

“Hello? Whose there? You aren’t allowed in here, you know! Come on out where I can see you! Um… please.” Daggum looked at Faye and shrugged and started leading her, slowly, towards the voice.

Wait, what? They were going towards someone. Hell, no. But his hand was firmly holding hers and Faye trusted Daggum as he pulled her along.

“Uh, hi! Sorry! Didn’t think anyone was around! Just looking, we aren’t taking anything.” Daggum called out. They stepped into the light near the stairs and saw an elderly Orion male. White, bushy eyebrows and wrinkled skin showed many years, and he moved with a distinct limp.

“Nothin’ to take. Place’s been closed for… what… a decade now? Two? I dunno. Now come here so I can see who… whoa. You’re a biggun, ain’t ya?” he said as his eyes fell on Hammor. Daggum shrugged and said “Yeah, that’s what they say. Again, apologies. Didnt mean to intrude.” The figure held up a hand and said “Yeah yeah, whatever. You aren’t kids looking for a creepy place to do it. And you aren’t gladiator groupies looking for old mementos… so what are you doing here? And down here of all places? Nobody cones down here. Haven’t in years.”

Daggum looked at Faye and took a breath. “Just… spent a lot of time here as kid… watching the fights and stuff. Been gone for a while, thought I’d revist it. Didnt know it had… had…” “Gone to shit?” the old Orion said and cackled. “Yeah. This used ta be the premier gladiatorial arena and trying college anywhere, did you know that? Yessir… only the best were here. And we had everything. Man versus man, man versus beast, team death matches… all of it. Every night, every single night, this place was filled from the toilets to the penthouses. We’d have twenty, thirty-six matches a night, yessir. And the money flowed like water.” Daggum looked around and then at the man. “So what happened?”

A shudder flowed through her body and Faye didn’t even have the wherewithal to stifle it. It was the man’s tone that got her.

The man spit and said “Aw, most will it was when they started building new arenas, stat of the art monstrosities that had holographic interfaces and automated deth traps in the Pits. Gods-be-damned garbage is what they are. Places like this… the schools that had existed for hundreds of years? Just kinda faded away. Me? I think it was before that. It was the Break Out that started it. One of the fighters up and killed the Caretaker, tried to make the others run. After that? The fighters were never manageable again. Spent more time stopping the escapes than we did training. That meant the quality if fighters dropped. Matches got ugly and lopsided and boring. Peolle stopped coming. Last fight here was… oh.. fifteen years ago?”

Daggum grinned. “You don’t say? Who was the one that tried to get the fighters to leave? You know them?” The man’s eyes opens slightly and he smiled. “Not many wanna hear about those days. You must be a real fan! C’mon, let’s go up stairs first. This place gives me the creeps.”

Bile pushing farther up her throat. She already knew the story and wasn’t interested in this old coot’s nostalgic take on the fights.

They made their way upstairs and back onto the Promenade. They followed the old Orion for a while until they came to a flight of stairs up. At the top, a door was propped open. They walked into one of the boxes, the private viewing boxes the wealthy would use to watch the fights so far below. The furniture was old, but obviously expensive in its day. The old Orion motioned for them to sit.

Against her better judgement, Faye sat, though she was stock still and focused on breathing deeply.

“So the Break Out…” he began. “You have to understand something first. In all the entire history of this place, we had three undefeated fighters. Three over almost three hundred years. And of those three, this kid was by far the best. Oh man! He was like lighting and thunder all in one! He would take that big body of his, massive for his age, and just move like water. Oh, he’d get hit.. but no matter the damage this kid took, he dished out more. Why, one time I remember… they put this one kid up against six grown Klingons. That boy ate them for breakfast!!” and he threw his head back and laughed as Hammor stiffened.

“Anyway, the other fighters… even the older ones… they respected this kid. And one day… I told those morons it was a mistake. The owners decide that this kid should fight the next best fighter… his best friend. I told them not to! But they were adamant. ‘Gonna be the fight of the year!’ they said. Yeah right. It lasted less than ten seconds. And the kid? The one I was talking about? He just leaves the Pit, picks up the Caretaker and swings him headfirst into a pillar, takes his keys and let’s everybody out. Then… he just up and dissapears. People talked about it for a loooong time. Few said they’d seen him working for the Syndicate. Few said he was a merc.” and he laughed. “One guy I know even said he was in Star Fleet!!” and he howled with laughter. “Like he’d manage that…” and he laughed again. Daggum leaned close to Faye and whispered “I think I did ok…” and grinned.

Faye met his gaze and while she agreed with her husband, she did not grin.

“Anyway… thats when it started getting put of hand. Nothing was the same after that. And when they finally shut this place down, well… that was that. Now if you want a good fight you gotta go to Medsil or Hyvania. Fights in this city are just spectacle. They have no heart.”

The Old Orion

A switch flipped in Faye and she bolted to her feet. She took one step towards the old Orion, her eyes holding intense fury that few others had ever seen. But she stopped herself from advancing. “Not all that long ago I would have strangled you and probably not felt too much remorse about the fact. You disgust me. This whole place disgusts me.” She spun and stormed off. “I’m leaving before I get myself arrested. Gods forsaken planet!”

Faye couldn’t get out of there fast enough and just headed for the entrance they had come in through. It was like Dag said, if they got truly separated, they’d meet back at the ship. If he wasn’t to wax nostalgic with the bastard, that was Dag’s prerogative, but Faye couldn’t stay another second.

~Faye

A few moments later Daggum caught up to her outside the main doors. He put a hand on her shoulder and slowed her momentum. “Hey! What the hell, Faye?! I have to sit and watch you have goo-goo eyes made at you for an hour by a long lost love; but you can’t wait long enough to see me tell that toad who I am and that I was glad his entire life was ruined by me? Wow… thanks for that.” His words were severe, but his tone was more concerned than angry. “Seriously, slow down. You’ll attract attention.” he warned.

Daggum

Flight or fight. Flight or fight. She wanted to do both so bad right now that it was causing physical pain throughout her body. His hand has still her motion and he could probably feel her shaking. Faye pulled away from him, move a couple steps along the wall and, bending at the hip, threw up. She coughed a couple times and wiped her mouth her sleeve, closing her eyes to steady herself. He was right: she had failed to do for him what he had done for her. But he had also said that if at anytime it was too much she could get the hell off the planet.

“You should have warned me about the cages. Before we set off to this place I told you I woke up in a processing centre. What exactly do you think they kept us in?” she said, still bent over.

“And I told you I lived the first at least twelve years of my life in one. Sorry, love. Didn’t think that through, I guess”

Her blasted amygdala didn’t care about anything some days. Much to her annoyance. The rational part of her knew how to put things into perspective a helluva a lot better these days. But that was when she was calm. When stressed, well, all bets were off. “Score one for brain damage,” she said.

Standing up, Faye forced herself to take deep breaths. “What do you want to do? Do you want us to go back so you can finish the conversation with the bastard?”

~Faye

Daggum rested his hand on her shoulder and smiled slightly. He held his other hand in front of her and she could see the bruises on the knuckles. “Already did. You should have e seen the look on his face when I pulled up my sleeve and showed him the brand from this place. I swear, his eyes were wider than yours when I asked you to marry me.” and he laughed softly. “Bastard had a hard head, though. But it’ll be ringing when he wakes up. Now… c’mon. Let’s get the hell outta here and never bother with it again.”

He put a hand under her arm and started walking her away from the place. From his pocket he pulled out a small metal box of breath mints. “Here. And brush your teeth first thing when we get back.” and he chuckled.

Daggum

She took the mints and popped a couple in her mouth. “No vomit kisses, got it.” She was’t quite ready to laugh about it, but at least she could fall into their easy banter.

Moving away from the hellhole that had bene his life, Faye sighed. “I’m sorry. I wanted to be there for you the way I you were for me. Maybe if we had started here, I would have been okay, but it was like being at the manor house made everything feel innocuous. People think I am exaggerating about being in a gilded prison, but I fought for my life and my sanity there. Sometimes I think I wished I could have gotten into a physical fight because then the fight would have felt real. Does that make any sense?”

~Faye

“You were there. The rest? Yep. Makes sense.” Daggum said flatly. “It does.” He maneuvered them through the crowd and back towards the public transporter. Soon they were in line. He looked down at Faye and said “I think I’m good. How about you?”

Daggum