Posted by Lieutenant Commander Natasha Knight (Chief Medical Officer) in Starfleet Academy - First Mission, Out the Gates

Posted by Captain Dante Knight (Commanding Officer) in Starfleet Academy - First Mission, Out the Gates

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Natasha Knight (Chief Medical Officer) in Starfleet Academy - First Mission, Out the Gates
Posted by… suppressed (9) by the Post Ghost! 👻
30 minutes later and Dante stood beside the beaten car that they had taken from the garage in the main building they had been shown to after landing. “See, I told you I could lose them,” he said to Natasha with a wide grin. In reality, Dante knew that the officials and security team had simply stopped chasing them the moment they had burst through the barrier arms of the security stations leading outside the walled city and into the slums beyond it. Still, he was going to claim the win.

Picking a piece of barrier arm out of the car bonnet where it had pierced the soft alloy and wedged itself, he dropped it to one side. “I hope they have insurance, these things are pretty flimsy. Probably IFEA make, right baby.” Dante looked around the small side street where he had hidden the car, under a small lean to of some kind to try and hide it from any aerial surveillance. Once through the barriers they had driven for maybe ten minutes more, looking for something that looked official. Having seen it, Dante wanted to park a small distance away so they didn’t ring any alarm bells by simply bursting through the fence in a beaten up security car.

Moving over beside Natasha, he rubbed the back of his head and shrugged slightly. “We need to find a way inside, find what you are looking for then get the hell out of here. Kelly should be back in a few hours.” As he spoke, he became aware of movement outside the lean to and turned his head. Outside a small crowd was gathering, and they looked angry.

“You’re in the wrong neighborhood, Clean Freak!” One of them yelled. “Mama’s boy’s looking for a sick day!” Another replied to the first, and several laughed.

“Clean freak?” Dante muttered, “Okay I enjoy a regular shower but you don’t need to get all insulting over it.” Looking at Nat, he blinked and then suddenly straightened up. “Oh! The uniforms!” Baby strip with me,” he said to Natasha and began to unzip the security coveralls. “You know, like that party last weekend, but faster!”

Moving in front of Dante, she slid her fingers under the material and pulled in one rapid motion sending every button flying off the shirt like plastic shrapnel. Before the fabric slid back, she had already slid her fingers under the waistband of his pants and yanked down in a fast motion. By the time Dante had worked the belt and the tie, she already had him undressed.

It wasn’t his record time for getting his outer clothes onto the ground, but in seconds the Security coveralls were lying in the dirt and Dante was standing there in his Starfleet uniform. “Baby, you gonna strip too?” He whispered out of the side of his mouth to her.”

Dante Knight

“Okay but I am wearing that pink thing you got me. I think it is going to draw the crowds and not disperse them.” Natasha pulled at the neck of the shirt and had her shirt off in two seconds flat with her buttons flying off in all directions and a hip wiggle-dropping pants that were already barely hanging on her body.

“The pink one? Really?” He repeated what she had said and then turned to her, completely forgetting the crowd. “The one with the lace up side and clips for the thigh high.... ohhhhhh,” he let out a long note of understanding, and then crossed his arms to watch her shake the coveralls off.

The crowd had stopped their chanting and just stared at the two individuals now wearing only their Starfleet cadet uniforms. “Oh come on people. Put your tongues back in. I don’t see a stripper pole and I am not going any less clothing without some incentive,” Natasha let out a sigh shaking her head.

“Oh I can give you that incentive later,” Dante smirked at her. “You know, when we have to spend like four hours in that decontamination chamber that you are going to have us sit in when we get back to the ship.”

“I got a twenty,” a voice yelled out from the crowd. While the comment was slightly lewd it was said with an entirely hopeful tone.

“Must be talking to you,” Natasha said out of the corner of her mouth to Dante. “I am so worth a hundred even in something like a cadet uniform,” she ran her fingers through her hair.

Natasha Daye cadet

“How ‘bout tree fiddy?” Dante asked her, putting on an entirely un-Italian like accent with a smirk.

Natasha let out a laugh and winked at him. “You got a buck twelve in your account handsome. I will wait however until you get paid next week.”

“Okay people,” he said turning back to the crowd. “We are Starfleet Officers,” he lied slightly. They were Officer Cadets, sure, but he felt that leaving out that small detail wasn’t going to hurt. “We’re here to find out what the hell is going on here and report back.”

“Now, we know there is some kind of super disease like space leprosy going around, but we don’t know why it isn’t being treated out here from what we can see. We need to get into that building where they keep the local records and medical facility,” he pointed in the general direction of the building he had driven past. “My colleague here is Dr Daye, from Starfleet Medical. We just need proof of what is happening here and we can bring the whole damn Fleet down here with enough hypo juice to fix this, but we need help getting into that building. Think you lot can arrange some kind of distraction?”

Cadet Knight

“Why should we trust you? What is going to stop you from turning us in for not turning over to the Authority?” A woman approached them. It was clear she was sick but in the early stages.

Natasha looked at the woman and then back to Dante. Taking a step forward, she put her hand on the woman’s forearm. “Because we left the safety of the city by choice and have now set the clock timer for our own exposure.” She hadn’t bothered to tell Dante this but the man was smart. He had probably already figured it out or would have in the near future. “Regardless or not if you help us Starfleet will be investigating this place because two of their officers will be infected. The problem is that could take up to a month and from the basics, I have read so far people don’t last that long. Help us get into that building and I promise you that we will have help here in less than twenty-four hours.”

“Our own exposure?” Dante echoed from behind her, and then his eyes widened as he realized what she meant. Initially, the thought of being at greater risk if they left the city hadn’t actually occurred to him. They were Starfleets’ brightest Cadets, and were only going to be out of the city a short time. The very real risk of what they had planned hadn’t actually crossed his mind in full until Natasha pointed it out. “Okay I was going for finding documentation or lab results or even a direct order not to treat people outside the city,” Dante chimed in. “But yeah, okay. Us getting this thing would work too. It might have been Plan C, but it might work.”

A man moved forward and signaled to someone else in the crowd. “Give him your uniform Jael.” The insignia showed he was probably a security officer of some sort. “She is going to be a problem but if we say we caught her and turn her in it will get us into the building. You will probably pass the scans but she has the blotch.”

“The what?” Dante asked, looking confused for a moment.

Pointing to Natasha’s wrist small red marks were starting to form.

Natasha Daye

“What the hell is that?” Dante asked and made to rush to Natasha’s side, but he was stopped by two men rushing in to grab him before he could get to her.

“Crap,” Nat said running a hand through her hair. Once they got back to the ship, the condition would be treatable but they needed to get back to the ship.

“Don’t touch her you fool, she’s contagious,” one of the men said as he put a hand on Dante’s shoulder and bodily pushed him back.

“Pfft,” she waved the man off. ” I can guarantee if I got it so does he. Most things are transmitted via bodily fluids.” Looking at the group of people she rolled her eyes. “Oh come on we are dating and just went through a life and death crisis. Code says he gets a little fun time for saving us however right now he had to settle for a rain check and a kiss.”

“She’s a time bomb now,” the other one said, looking back to make sure Natasha was staying where she was and not trying to come forward to the man they were holding back.

“What’s the contagion progression,” she asked everyone and no one in particular. While this was a question most laymen didn’t know, in a plague or pandemic, even the smallest child knew the symptoms and rate at which they progressed.

“Twenty-four to seventy-two hours,” a man said from among the crowd. “Once the blisters start the skin necrotizes and there is no treatment after that.”

“Dammit Nat,” Dante almost growled at her put it was laced with an undertone of panic. “We’ve been out of the city five damn minutes, how did you get that already? Do you have to lick everything you find?”

Dante Knight

“I am going to lick you,” she shot back with a wink. The condition was treatable. They just needed to get the medicine. Nat didn’t think there was a point of no return and even if there was, Kelly was due back before twenty-four hours.

“Okay so this is not a bad thing. This thing is airborne so the odds of anyone not catching it are next to impossible. The reason the planet has not ground to a halt it because there is a treatment. So we need to get in there, find the treatment, get out, get to Kelly, contact Starfleet, and then come back and give everyone the treatment. Since it is airborne we might be able to aerosolize it for faster distribution but I need to see it first. Trust me this is going to be easy. Now there has to be some kinda hospital or research facility. Time to lead the way and save the day,” she said letting out a sigh.

“Is she serious,” one of the men next to Dante raised an eyebrow.

Natasha Daye Cadet

“About licking me? Completely.” Dante deadpanned. “It’s kinda her thing.” Looking at the man, Dante pretended to be lost for a second at his blank stare.

“Who doesn’t lick what’s there’s. People who have no imagination or sense of need to stake a claim,” she ran her fingers through her hair.

“We don’t tend to do much licking around here. With everything going on,” the man waved his hands about with a frustrated expression.

“Oh! About the goobies? Yes, completely.” He echoed his earlier statement. “It’s kinda her thing. I do the pew pew and she does the ‘open wide’,” He mimicked the action of looking down someone’s throat with a flashlight. “Trust me, she knows her stuff. If she says there is a treatment for this, there is. If we can find it or the paperwork confirming that it’s being withheld from the people here, we can go back to our ship and have the full might of Starfleet point a very big angry finger at the people who run things here.”

“Here, take this,” the man who had been told to pass over his uniform said and tossed the coveralls to Dante, who caught them and looked them over. “Nat, at some point you know I am going to do a superman style reveal of my Starfleet Uniform underneath, right?” He grinned and started putting them on.

“Save it for the big evil monologue. You know when they find us and think they won and then you can be all,” she shoved her chest out pretending to open her shirt, “I’m Dante. Captain of this here mission. Did that sound too piratey,” she asked self evaluating her impression.

“If they have an issue with me or I don’t pass the scan, I’ll,” Dante paused for a moment and looked at Natasha. “I’ll pretend I’m having a fit of some kind and distract them,” he almost smirked.

“Oh that is good. People are stupid and shove a hand or fingers in someone’s mouth all the time when they panic. It will give you the element of surprise. Remember that babe,” she agreed with him. “For the rest of you if I scream out something in his mouth when and if he has to fake a seizure just know he will bite. Biting is his thing,” she winked at him pairing the earlier reference to her licking.

Smirking, he looked at the man standing beside him. The man was looking at him expressionlessly. “She’s not wrong, you know,” Dante offered by way of conversation, but the expression on the mans face didn’t change. He just kept looking at him. “Ohhhhkay,” Dante said, turning away from the mans stare.

“The building is about ten minutes walk away,” he pointed in a random direction that they had come from as they drove around. “Lets get going, time matters. Who is coming with us?”

Dante Knight

“I’ll go. We are never going to make it but I am pretty sure seeing this cluster play out could be worthy as the last thing I see before I die,” a man in a similar security uniform said from the back. Reaching into his back pocket he pulled out a pair of restraints. “Might be more believable if she is wearing hand restraints. Do you have a problem with that,” asked Natasha.

She looked at Dante wondering if he was going to reply or if she should.

Natasha Daye

Nodding at Natasha briefly, Dante took the cuffs from the man. “Oh she has no problem with that at all. The problem is getting her to take them off.” He laughed and looked back at the man who was until a moment ago standing beside him. He was still looking at him without expression. Clearing his throat, he turned to Natasha and held up the cuffs.

“In front or behind this time, Tasia?” He asked her but at the same time half answered his question by stepping in front of her.

“Well asking that takes all the fun out of it,” she said clearing her throat. Few times did Natasha see Dante like this. Sure she knew he was in security and on the command track but rarely was he ever a real officer around her. He and Kelly would show up to the medical center on thier rounds but there was a lot of flirting involved. Yes they totally played cops and robbers in the dorm room but that was a completely different Dante too.

“If I cuff them in front, you’ll have more freedom. But I’m not going to click one down into place all the way, that should let you slide one hand out if you need to get free quick.” Looking at the man who he had taken the cuffs from, he held out one hand. “Gimme the key yeah? Put it in her pocket so if someone checks the cuffs and she needs to get out after, she doesn’t have to wait for us.”

Looking at Dante, she bit her lip but it wasn’t for the usual reason. This was the Dante that Admiral McLaren saw. This was the Dante that secretly spent hours doing homework or hiding out in the library trying to find a quiet spot to memorize codes and regulations. This was the Dante that sparred with Kelly so hard, Nat had at times to secretly treat one of both of them for half serious injuries. The man talking was not her Dante, but Cadet fourth class Dante Knight, ready to graduate and start the career portion of his life.

Fitting the cuffs over her wrists, Dante clamped one down and leaned in closer to her with a whisper. “Okay, so we need a safe word in case you need to get out quick. The usual?” Standing up and looking her in the eyes, his hand took hold of the chain between her wrists and he pulled her towards him slightly.

Dante Knight

“Down Krull,” she said softly trying to now act as if this was still a good plan. When she suggested it, it sounded fine.

“No, no I don’t like that,” Dante said back just as softly. “It sounds like you’re telling me what to do.” He smirked just ever so slightly and gave her a small wink, trying to reassure her. Nat had tells, Dante had learned that early. Some were when she was excited, others, nervous, and others were when she said one thing but was thinking or doing another. Dante loved her with all his heart, and by now he knew those tells. Right now, she was beginning to doubt herself and panic. She would get through it, he knew that.

Now that she was restrained and was faced with trying to open them in the middle of a situation, she began to doubt her plan. Looking up at him, Nat gave him a closed-lip smile and just nodded as if replying to a question he never spoke about. “We should do this,” she then said still nodding but not moving.

“We are doing this,” Dante said firmly. Still holding her by the chain between her wrists, Dante turned and began to walk her to a nearby vehicle that the security people here had, that was in far better condition that the one they had stolen. “We got this, you got this. It’s going to work out just fine and be okay.”

“Of course, it is going to be okay,” Natasha said in the carefully honed tone she used when she did not believe what she was saying but had to sell it.

“That’s right, we know what we need to do and how to do it. This is what the last few years have been about. This right here.” He looked back at her, his eyes were hard though and Natasha would see that he had moved into business mode.

“This right here. You mean you have been trained on landing on a plague planet, stripping two security officers that have been hog tied to a toilet, running a check point only to decide to break back into the place we escaped from,” she traced out the train of thought as if it were on one of those crime boards he had had to do from time to time. So you are saying this,” she pointed to the ground, “as right here right now…you do this all the time,” she started to lead him in the conversation. She was still nodding as if encouraging Dante to continue with his pep talk.

“Yes I do Tasia, this is what Kelly and I do on our training missions, when we disappear for a few days on assignments and have to work with what we have to pass the scenario’s that they give us. We make do, we fake it, and we improvise. Why do you think Kelly and I get stuff done where others fail?”

Pushing some hair out of her eyes, the hand cuffs jingled slightly. “I don’t know darling but I am totally rethinking girl trips to the bathroom with Kelly if toilets’ and hog tying is your answer to what you do when others fail.” Stamping her feet she lost her calm persona for a second letting the plan move from fantasy to reality in her mind.

“I never hear you complaining about handcuffs or hog-tying,” Dante shrugged. Besides if all else fails in that bathroom with Kelly, you’ve always got pillow fights in lingerie,” Dante looked at her seriously. “I know, oh yes, I know.”

“I am really thinking you should re-improvise this,” she held up her hands, “and be better at your job!” Why Dante agreed this was a good plan was starting to make her wonder what he and Kelly actually did to earn their nicknames.

“No, I think we got this on point. Besides, I still have the epileptic fit I can throw in when needed, that was your idea, and I’m gonna make it work. That’s how good I am.” Reaching out, Dante took hold of her hands and pushed them down again, once more taking hold of the chain between her wrists.

“Yes and you are good at your job. Absolutely you are,” she nodded and let out a breath rolling her eyes. It was clear she was getting nervous at the idea of her being the only back up on this half baked plan which if failed, would go down as her plan in history, and Dante having nothing to do with it.

Natasha Daye

“Get in the car,” Dante opened the door for her, and then put his hand on her shoulder to guide her in, the other hand on her head so she didn’t knock it on the door frame, just like he was actually arresting her.

“Are we sure,” she deftly ducked her head and rolled out of his palm so that she was now next to him instead of in front of him, “we don’t need to go over this again?”

“Why? Go over it once, listen hard, understand it. If you go over it more than once, it gets confusing and complex. Keep it simple, that’s how Kelly and I get everything done. No complex plans or idea’s, just a good, solid working plan that has less things to go wrong.” Now Dante took hold of Nat’s shoulder, and to anybody watching he was no longer her boyfriend, just a tall and imposing Officer of the Law. “Now get in the damn car,” he said, and pushed her back towards it and down. This time though he didn’t put his hand on her head, which was unfortunate as in his shove, he didn’t push her down far enough and a solid thunk of skull on metal announced that Natasha’s head had met the car intimately.

Once she was sitting down, he leaned forward. “Space leprosy be damned, they aren’t going to scan me as positive in the next five minutes,” he leaned forward quickly and planted a kiss on her lips. Part of it was to save himself from the Russian insults that he knew were about to be hurled at him, and the other was to try and distract her from the fact he just smacked her head against the car door.

“You better hope so because I love you and if this doesn’t work I am coming back to haunt you,” she said joking but also in a half-serious tone. For all the things Natasha Daye wasn’t, the one thing she was was superstitious. She believed in curses, signs, and omens. If there was a way to come back from the netherworld and haunt someone, Natasha would find it and Dante would awaken from a dead sleep in the middle of the night with an apparition of his once love saying ‘well that didn’t work out the way we planned now did it.’ To which Dante would look back up at her and raise an eyebrow, replying with ‘Well how’s that working out for you?‘

“Baby, I love you okay. Now you have me to cure as well as you, so focus. I need you in the game, these people need you in the game. I’ll get you in, and you get what you need. We got this, you got me and I got you. They won’t know what hit them.” Standing up, he closed the door on her and walked around to the drivers side.

Looking across the roof of the car, the man that had been standing motionless beside him and just staring at him was there, ready to get in beside him. The man still hadn’t said anything. “Hey!” Dante stared at him, frowning slightly. “Enough of your chatter alright, head in the game, man! Get in!” Dante said it with an authority and force that would have made Hornsby proud, then opened the door and got in the drivers side.

Breaking the expressionless form on his face, the man suddenly looked confused, he hadn’t said a word. Nevertheless, he opened the door and got in as Dante started to move the car forwards. “Take a right,” he said, finally, as Dante began to pull out of the alley.

Cadet Knight

“I think it is a left,” she replied leaning forward in the chair. The vehicle was similar enough to most police vehicles in that it had a thin layer of wire separating the drivers from the occupants in the back seat. “You need to take a left.”

“Left?” Dante said, looking confused slightly. “Are you sure? Okay.”

Looking at Dante the man raised an eyebrow before glancing back at Natasha. “No, you need to take a right…because…it’s a right.” His tone was slightly incredulous as he shook his head and stopped looking at the back seat.

“Okay, right, not left. Right.” Dante said and began to drive forwards.

“Are you sure,” Natasha asked in that tone indicating she clearly thought the man was mistaken.

“Yeah,” he replied back and sighed heavily. “I mean, I only work there and live here, and sign into the building at 8am every morning. I’m pretty sure to get there from here, we go right.

“Because I am pretty positive if you wanted to go to that big building with the spires it is a left,” she leaned back in the seat and picked a piece of lint off her shirt.

“It’s right.” The man said in a voice that was leaning towards frustration and impatience. “Are you the one that lives here? Really? You got Gaggle Maps built into that pretty little head of yours?”

“No, but Dante passed it when we were driving like a bat of hell away from the building when we took a right,” she emphasized the word. “So if we are reversing it, it would be a llllllleeeeefffffft.” The stress on the words was showing her strained patience. “I have a keen sense of direction and I know my right from my left.”

Natasha Daye

“What is she, a homing pigeon?” The man asked Dante sarcastically. “Is she really backseat driving on a foreign planet?”

“Well,” Dante said slowly. “If you consider that homing pigeon needs to hold up her hands in front of her and see which thumb points in which direction to get right from left, yeah, she’s like a Gaggle Maps update.”

Suddenly Dante lurched forward in his seat, his head almost hitting the steering wheel from an impact that was as sudden as it was violent. The man beside Dante started in fright and grabbed the dash and the hand bar on the roof above the door, and looked from Dante to the road. “What the hell did we hit?”

Coughing to clear his throat, Dante looked in the mirror at Nat. “Oh, nothing, there was just a Cossack on the road. It’s gone now. So we’re going right.” Turning the wheel, he made in the direction that man said and was out on the main road in an instant. “Super high security plague compound on a foreign world, here we come!” he almost sounded excited.

----------------A short time later---------------------

Turning into the gate house that led to the compound, Dante brought the car to a stop and wound down the window. “These guys have Warp but haven’t invented electric windows yet?” He moaned as he wound the handle that dropped the glass so he could talk to the guards. “Electric windows? That just sounds dangerous,” the man in the seat beside him said. “Why would you want electricity replacing glass?”

“Um, I’ll tell you later,” Dante said and leaned out slightly. “Hi!” he said to the man approaching him, and hooked his thumb back in Natasha’s direction. “We caught one of those Fedrats that stole the car in the city, the other one is still loose. We’re bringing her in for questioning, and she’s got the blotch, so don’t come too close.”

Cadet Knight