Captives

Posted on Sun Apr 16th, 2023 @ 9:59am by Lieutenant Sky Jansen-Carey

Mission: Starship Side Quest
Location: Deepspace Salvage Lard
Timeline: Directly after "Ambushed"

***Warning potentially disturbing content***

(ON)

Soran opened his eyes. Everything's black with the bag the man put over his head. The chemicals they injected into a system were making all of his muscles feel heavy. A mix of muscle relaxers and sedatives he thought. The fools didn't realize the bag blocking his vision allowed him to focus on his other senses. During his voluntary and involuntary experiences with substances he'd found that his hearing was less prone to hallucinations. So he began to focus on breathing through his nose. His face was swelling up. He didn't think his nose was broken but he could taste blood in his mouth. Probably from the nose bleed. He put his rage aside, that would be useful later. He had to stay calm; they needed to believe he was unconscious. He began focusing on his other senses.

Sky was finding the experience of having the bag over her head extremely difficult to bear, that was until she felt the change in Soran. His emotions had changed, his focus was changing too. She forced herself to calm, focussing her breathing on Soran’s breathing pattern. She wasn’t in his mind, she daren’t even try that path, instead she focussed herself solely on him.

Soran focused on what he could hear and smell, the cloth bag on his head had a strong familiar odor. He heard the hum of a sensor…

"Full DNA match, it's him. Help get him on the sled." Another voice said.

Soran felt himself being lifted onto the sled; those who lifted him obviously had training. They laid him on a hard flat surface and strapped him down.

"Hey, is that his blood!? Be careful they're no good to us dead!"

"Relax he can take a bump or two, what about her?" The woman said.

'One man is Angosian, Soran deduced. The woman and the other man's accents were familiar as well but he couldn't place them.

"Get her on her feet, she can walk."

Sky was focusing on her senses, just as Soran was on his. She felt and heard someone coming towards her.

"Get up, Cow." The woman said.

Sky did her best to get to her feet, but it wasn’t easy with her hands tied and head covered.

The woman grabbed Sky by her elbows and lifted her onto her feet. "What's this?"

Sky felt a moment of panic as the woman frisked her roughly, the communicator in her pocket was an easy find. She cursed herself wishing she’d dumped it somewhere after she’d activated it.

"She's probably sent a distress signal" The woman said. "When did you send that fucking signal!?"

Sky smiled to herself underneath the hood. “What makes you think I sent one?”

The woman grabbed the bag on Sky's head and pulled tight around her neck. "Answer the question Cow!"

Sky gasped, she hadn’t been expecting that. The hood was pulling tight around her neck, making it difficult for her to breath, let alone try and answer the question.

"What the fuck Maras!?" Repa shouted. "She can't answer if you're choking her and It doesn't matter, we'll be gone before anyone gets that signal."

"Don't go soft me Repa," Maras sneared.

Sky coughed, and gasped for air as the woman released her grip just enough for her to get air. She focussed herself back on Soran, trying to keep as calm as possible.

'Maras?... She's an Orion… They must be mercenaries; the Angosian government doesn’t deal with Orions.' Soran thought as he focused on what he could hear. He was totally helpless right now, So he was saving as much information for later as possible.

Sky was worried, they were taking them somewhere else, question is where were they going to? Who was behind all of this? What did they want?

Soran was fighting to stay conscious, but he was losing. The chemicals were clouding his perceptions, so he concentrated all his mental energy on Sky. Remain calm. Stay strong. Be Silent. until I wake.

Sky could sense Soran was losing his fight against whatever they’d given him. I will Ren, hold on... please hold on!

"Turn his head, we don't want him drowning in his own vomit." One of the men barked, "His vitals are very weak. How much did you give him?"

"The whole hypo cartridge."

"You idiot! That's too much! Get the hood off his head." They pulled the hood and the one with the medical equipment began checking him.

Sky wanted to help but Soran had told her to stay silent, all she could hope now was that whoever wanted them would want them both in a healthy condition.

"What's the hold up?" It was the first voice they had heard in the chamber. "Seriously? We have enough leverage. We don't need theatrics, take the hood off."

Sky heard the voice, though whether it was good or bad having the hood off was another thing. At least she wouldn’t feel like she was being suffocated anymore.

Maras stepped behind Sky and removed the hood. Two of the men were looking over Soran; they looked human, possibly Angosian; the third was an Orion and had his weapon trained on Sky.

"Dosing an augmented Angosian is far from a exact science, if his vitals go any lower we could have a problem." The man speaking was Angosian and clearly the leader. He wore a dark gray coat over a nondescript black uniform similar to what the others were wearing. "We have a strict timetable, we must get moving."

He looked to Sky, "Counsellor are you trained in medicine as well?"

Sky nodded. “I have some medical training, yes, but I can’t do anything with my hands restrained behind my back.”

"Maras, get her out of those shackles." He looked to the next man. "Repa give her what she needs from the medkit, but watch her… Counselor if he dies my employer will have no use for you.

Sky nodded. “I understand.” She took what she was given, wishing she had more knowledge on what the Angosian medical needs were. “I need a tricorder, to monitor Soran’s vitals” She looked at the man who’d ordered her release.

He nodded and Repa handed her a tricorder. "Repa watch her closely, Maras go make sure everything is set… And Maras, our guests must arrive unharmed. Make sure the rest of your greens skins understand that!"

Sky didn’t like the sound of being amongst more Orions, they were well known for their treatment of prisoners. Although they had been instructed not to harm her or Soran.

Maras and the other Orion looked at the leader with hate in their eyes, but she exited. They began pushing the sled moving out of the chamber into a corridor.

Sky turned her attention to Soran, running a scan she couldn’t say she liked what she was seeing. “Stay with me Ren, don’t you dare leave me on my own!” She prepared a hypospray to counteract the high dose of drugs, but it would take a little while to work fully. She gently pressed it to his neck as she gently reached out and touched his hand, she knew it was risky but she knew to guard her abilities around him now.

"What are you giving him!?" The Orion man shouted.

Sky looked up. “It’s just a counteractive agent for the sedative, I have to counteract it or Soran will die!”

"Just push the sled!" Repa barked. "I'm watching her."

Sky nodded. “I’m not stupid, I’m doing what I was told.”

"Your concern is touching," Repa said in an even tone. "These augmented freaks are tougher than they seem."

“He’s a colleague, and my friend” Sky looked at the tricorder. According to the readings Soran was stabilizing nicely, but he wasn’t yet conscious. “Why aren’t you waking up?” She was concerned. “He should be awake, he’s not waking up.”

It was all Soran could do to keep up the act, hearing the concern in her voice. He focused his mind. Play along, I still can't move

Sky still wasn’t sure how they were communicating telepathically but she was happy to hear Soran’s voice. She tapped the tricorder. “My mistake I’m just worrying too much, it’s working... slowly.” She focussed her mind. I will Ren, It’s good to hear your voice.

Repa looked over suspiciously, he leaned down and put two fingers on Soran’s neck to get a pulse. "He's breathing and his heart rate is stable, he'll wake in time."

He glared at the prisoners for a moment, before opening the next door.

Sky watched as Repa walked away. He’s suspicious, I can’t tell whether he truly believes me or not.

Soran wasn't sure what was going on, but couldn't move even if he wanted to. He was processing information in slow motion. Sky doing well all things considered, he wasn’t sure how they were communicating... Was it the drugs?

How are we communicating Ren? Is it because I’m touching you? Sky was worried in case she was hurting him, not that she could sense any pain associated with Soran’s mind.

Soran was struggling with what was happening around him, he was hearing Sky in his mind, but everything else was coming in slow motion. It was like he was underwater, he didn't know if he could open his eyes and didn't want them to know he was conscious. They might separate them, 'we have to stay together as long as possible.

I’ll drag this out as long as I can, but I don’t know how long I’ve got. Sky paused as she tapped the PADD trying to look busy. I’m scared Ren!

Soran began to focus his breathing hoping his calm would affect his friend.

Sky felt the change, matching her breathing with Soran’s as she did what she could to drag out monitoring her friend.

The corridor led to a large cargo bay where there were more mercenaries in the nondescript black uniforms. They had herded the salvage workers near an airlock.

"Is everything ready? The leader asked.

"Yes," Maras said. "It's a nice operation here, too bad they're going to have an accident."

"Get our guests on to our vessel and take care of the rest." The leader ordered.

An Orion mercenary opened the airlock and the other mercenaries began pushing the workers into it.

“Wait... What are you going to do to them?” Sky looked at the workers. “You’ve got us, you don’t need to hurt them!”

"Hush," the leader said. "The adults are talking."

One of the Orions moved to hit Sky, but the leader held up a hand. " Enough, dispose of the witnesses so we can go."

The Orion nodded and they sealed the station crew in the airlock.

Sky could only watch in horror as the events unfolded in-front of her. They're going to kill them all Ren!

Soran’s eyes twitched, nothing we can do

There must be something! Sky looked around for a weapon, or anything she could do to help the station crew. Her eyes fell on the leader. “Please! Don’t do this! Don’t hurt them because of us!! I’m begging you, let them live!”

The Orion woman grabbed Sky's hair and turned her toward the airlock. "Shut your mouth and be glad you're not in there with them COW!"

Sky could only watch, tears running down her cheeks. How did everything go so wrong? She wished this was all some elaborate nightmare.

There was a loud hiss as the airlock opened and dozens of workers were blown into space.

“No...” Sky said nothing more, all she had to fight for now was Soran and her twins. From here on out she’d do as she was told, she wasn’t going to watch Ren be hurt or killed.

Soran laid there helpless as they pushed the sled on to their ship, he could feel Sky holding his hand. A cold fury filled mind, Their going to pay for this!

(OFF)