Relaxing and Recovery

Posted on Sun May 2nd, 2021 @ 8:41pm by Johnathan Anderson Junior & Jinx Jorasco & Beya & Jeassaho Kea (*)

Mission: Mission 13: Stowaway
Location: Planet Freecloud, Stardust City
Timeline: MD -08 14:00
3234 words - 6.5 OF Standard Post Measure

Slant's Bar, while not exactly seedy, is the kind of place that caters to a certain type of clientele who don't desire to rub elbows with the snooty upper class. It's a medium-sized establishment, with a few four-top tables in the front, a few billiard tables and other gaming equipment towards the back. The air is a bit smokey, and a little musty as well, mostly due to the vast range of patrons that frequent its locale. The sound of conversations, laughter and arguments mixed with the near-blaring sound of local music coming from a computer panel near the back of the room.

There are Andorians, Klingons, Ferengi, and a few other unidentified species present, each enjoying themselves with either drink or game.

Micheal sat at the bar, enjoying the establishment’s version of a strawberry mojito. It had been quite a while since he had had one of his favorite beverages, and this version wasn’t half bad.

Jinx sat nearby, a little less enthused. The establishment wouldn’t let Zambi in. Sipping on a pina colada, the little Kisongo, perched with short legs swinging from the barstool, sent soothing thoughts to the raptor that waited in the alley. Well, at least there were rodents for her to hunt.

Micheal glanced over to Jinx and said, "Remind me again, how did you get your little pet out there?"

“I would like to hear the story myself” Jeassaho piped up taking a long drag from her bottle of beer hoping she was heard over the noise. Jeassaho had no idea how she had ended up in the group that she had done but was interested to hear the story herself. It was not normal for her to hang out with anyone other than Gregnol or the engineering crew due to her nature and wanting some privacy. It was okay with the engineering gang; they were the people with whom she fought literal fires daily, but she wanted to keep her distance from others due to being the captain's wife.

"What story?" Beya asked, dropping by. She really didn't know many of the crew outside medbay very well, but she had had her hands in Michael's guts, so it didn't seem like coming by his table would be intruding.

Jinx perked up and smiled. “Zambi? Oh, I’ve had her since she was a hatchling,” she said. “Kisongo can telepathically bond with animals,” she explained. “I grew up on an agricultural moon, so we had a lot of various saurids on the farm. Reptiles are the dominant animal species on Kisongo, and came with us when we settled the various moons and planets around us,” she explained. “I was fifteen when Zambi hatched, about ready to go off away from home for the first time to the Knowledge Institute on Kisongo, and my mom thought Zambi would keep me from being too homesick. That’s almost ten years now,” she said with a sigh.

Micheal smiled as he listened to Jinx's story. "Reminds me of the shepherd-Rottie mix I had as a boy. His name was Roscoe, and he was the sweetest, most protective, yet the dumbest dog I have ever had." He chuckled heavily at the memory. "Well, he wasn't really dumb, he just did dumb things a lot. It was because he had brain issues. Poor guy would go into these grand mal seizures from time to time. Had to give him puppy Prozac with each meal to keep his mind calm." He shook his head thinking of his favorite dog.

Jeassaho said something. Betazoids did not really connect with pets well due to the way telepathy worked. You did not want to get caught up in the emotions of an animal. "Interesting concept. Betazoids do not really bond well with animals." She mused with a shrug. It did not matter to her, she had never felt like she had missed out on anything. Was not like Reuben liked animals either.

Turning his gaze to his friend, Micheal was surprised by this little tidbit. "Really? I always thought that it would be an awesome bond. You'd actually know what your pet is thinking and wanting. Unlike the rest of us, who simply stumble along." He chuckled good-humouredly.

"Does not work like that," Jeassaho said smoothly. "What about Orions? Do you do pets?" the Betazoid wondered, bringing the other woman into the conversation so she did not have to explain more about why Betazoids did not overly do pets like that.

"Of course Orions have pets," Beya said. She almost added that Orions could love animals just like any other species, except that it sounded like Jea's couldn't. "I suppose we're blessed to be somewhat impervious to telepathy. It would be interesting to be bonded to an animal like Jinx, but our connections are made by physical closeness, by seeing affection in eyes and body language, and by demonstrations of loyalty and devotion. Good pets give all of that even if they aren't technically sentient. We had kiseu, felines a little like an Earth cat. They earned their keep like all of us -- cleaning up rodents and sometimes bits of food that fell on the floor -- but they also snuggled up with us kids at night." She smiled a little at the memory. "They were good protection too; a customer who thought any girl should be available to him got a taste of claws, right where it discouraged him best." She chuckled.

“That is nice,” Jeassaho commented. If it had come from anyone else it would have sounded like someone dismissing the opinion of the others, but Jeassaho generally looked interested. “Shame there are no pets onboard the ship. Sounds like you are all pet people.”

Micheal smiled at the thought. "Hey, maybe we will. I mean, there's already your dragon, and there's a spider or something too?" He was trying to remember what he had heard in sickbay after he returned. "Why not a few others?"

"I had forgotten about Stan," Jeassaho muttered with a roll of her eyes. How, she was not sure, but she had forgotten about the creature they had discovered on Temperance.

"I heard one of the engineers had a robot dog or something," Beya put in. "A robot spider might be useful though if it could climb."

"A robot, sure, but Stan is... well, it's odd." Jeassaho did not begrudge a creature life, but something about the creature freaked her out just a little bit. Something felt off, but Jeassaho dared not share that with anyone else; they would think her mad. "And I have never seen a robot dog in engineering. If someone had it, they've been holding out on me."

Micheal chuckled softly as he listened and enjoyed his drink. As he briefly scanned the room, out of habit, his eyes locked on someone, passing by the front window, he hadn't seen in a very long time. But the sight he saw didn't compute. "John?" He gasped, a confused look starting to cross his face.

"Huh?" Beya looked around. There were people around them, but no one who stood out as new or surprising. "Who's John?"

Micheal stood and started towards the door. "Johnathan Anderson, Cassie's missing husband!" he called out over his right shoulder as he pushed through the crowd.

By the time the large Texan had made it through the doors to the sidewalk outside, the person was gone. He quickly pulled out his tricorder and began scanning, looking for any Human life signs other than theirs.

Jinx turned on her stool, a bit difficult when her legs didn’t reach and sipped her drink, watching Michael’s strange behavior. “Isn’t John a very common Human name?” she asked, looking around the bar. “Cassie has a husband? Why is he missing?”

Jeassaho stayed silent on that question. Was not her place to tell it, and she was pretty sure that her version would be Cassie’s. She downed her drink, feeling they were going to be off on an adventure or at least stalking someone any minute.

Outside, Micheal was seeing hundreds of Human life signs on his tricorder. He quickly punched in a few more commands, adding filters, like age, gender, and even possible length of planetary contamination. That narrowed the search down to four, one of which just vanished from his screen, possibly into a sewer or some other subterranean structure.

Jinx clambered down from her stool and headed outside, watching Michael study a tricorder. She gave a little whistle, and Zambi came scampering up, her long claw tapping on the duracrete. “You sure it was him?”

Eyes still locked on his tricorder as he continued to enter more filters, Micheal replied, "Am I sure? Honestly? No. However, my gut is telling me that the flash of a face that I saw was John. And if it is, I'm not leaving this planet without him." He thought for a second, then looked at Jinx. "If we can get something that still has his scent on it, could Zambi hunt him down?”

“Oh, certainly!” Jinx said enthusiastically. “Zambi is a great hunter!” She reached down to scratch the raptors eye ridges.

“Then let’s do something. If the goddesses have aligned to give us this opportunity, let’s go for it,” Jeassaho said, shrugging, not wanting to waste time if the stars had aligned.

Pulling out his communicator, Micheal activated the device. "Cassie, this is Robertson. Do you read me?"

The communicator did not chirp or Cassie respond. "She most likely is out of range. Those old fashioned things never work when you want them to," Jeassaho commented. "Plus, let's not bring her into it until we are sure. Let us not get her hopes up." It would not do to get the woman's hopes up, especially when she was already feeling a lot of things, especially as she was Vulcan.

Micheal suddenly had an idea. After closing his communicator and putting it back in his pocket, he pressed a control on the gauntlet on his left wrist. "Rebecca, do you read me?"

"Of course I do, Micheal." A small representation of the AI's full-size avatar popped into being, a few inches above the gauntlet. "Did you forget that, so long as you wear that gauntlet, I will always be with you?"

Micheal waved her comment away. "Yeah, yeah, sorry. But listen! Are there any articles of clothing on Alexandria that belong to Johnathen?!"

Rebecca took a beat to scan the runabout. "Yes, an old ball cap is still in the crew quarters."

Brightening considerably, Micheal spoke before Rebecca was finished. "EXCELLENT!! Beam it down to my right hand now!" He held his right hand, palm up, so she could see it. Three seconds later, the hat materialized a few inches above his hand. He caught it as gravity took ownership of it. "Thanks! Stay ready!" Turning to Jinx, he shoved the hat towards her. "Here!"

Jinx took the hat and knelt down to Zambi’s level. “Come here, girl,” she told the raptor and held out the cap. “Can you get a scent?”

Zambi shoved her nose into the ballcap. She sniffed around particularly around the band in front of the brim where sweat collected and gave a keening sound.

“Good girl!” Jinx said, folding the cap up and tucking it carefully into the pocket of her jacket in case it would be needed again. “Find him, girl!”

Zambi huffed and sneezed, then took off down the street, her mouth open a little to allow her to get the most of the scent.

Micheal took off after the small dino, his heart pounding from both the exertion and the possibility that his friend would soon be home with his family.

"Do doctors recommend this type of cardio?" Jeassaho wondered, jogging along. She had not done a workout like that in a while. It was one of the few things she missed about Starfleet and keeping consistently fit.

"Cardio, in general, is good," Beya replied, jogging alongside with little effort. She didn't usually jog, but she regularly practiced the dances her mother had taught her and that kept her in good condition. "But it doesn't have to be running; anything sustained that gets your heart rate up is good."

Jinx hurried after Zambi, her little legs pumping as she tried to keep up with the others, as well. It didn’t take long before they found Zambi clawing at a metal circle in the street, circling around it, giving little yips of frustration.

When Micheal reached Zambi, he saw where she was scratching. "You smell him down there, girl?" Without thinking about it, Micheal braced his feet on either side of the grate. He then took hold of it in both hands and pulled. At first, nothing happened. He started to grunt and then put more strength into it. Finally, as he started to yell from the pain in his shoulders, the heavy grate came free of its housing. Carefully, he tossed the chunk of duranium aside, then stood up and tried to catch his breath as the others caught up with Zambi and him.

"You know you could ask for help?" Jeassaho commented, folding her arms with a roll of her eyes as she noticed how out of breath she was. It was only a few weeks back that he was at death's door.

"Men." Beya rolled her eyes. Looking at Michael, she frowned. "I know you want to find whoever this is, but if he's down there he'll probably need a medic, and I'm the only one here, so don't push yourself into becoming a second patient."

Still catching his breath, Micheal shook his head and shrugged slightly. "Sorry, Beya. I promise to take it easy." He moved to drop in through the open manhole. "As soon as we have Johnathan!" he finished as he dropped down into the sewer.

Men. Beya made a disapproving noise in her throat, then clambered down after him.

Jeassaho could not help but agree. She hated when they did things like that. Her husband was known to get that type of noise directed at him often. She shook her head and quickly followed him down using the ladder.

Micheal hit the floor in a three-point thud and a loud grunt. Quickly pulling a flashlight from one of his belt pouches, he lit up the dark tunnel as he waited for the rest to join him.

Zambi was dancing around the hole, whining. “Come, girl,” Jinx said, forming a sling out of her jacket that she could carry the raptor in. Then she started down the ladder. It was more difficult for her. The ladders were made for larger humanoids, so she had to be extra careful on the slippery, grimy rungs. She made a face as she finally got to the bottom, and wrinkled up her cute little nose. “It stinks down here!”

Zambi was already scrambling to be out, so Jinx unwrapped the raptor and placed her on the duracrete again. Zambi turned a few times, sniffing, and then darted off, deeper into the sewers. It took nearly forty minutes before they reached an area that opened up, and seemed a bit higher in the city, so it was less damp. A bit of light filtered down from another sidewalk grate, and an old sleeping bag was tucked into a corner on a bit of a raised duracrete platform.

Micheal reached the site, his heartbreaking that this was where his friend had been living this whole time. He quickly pulled out his tricorder and scanned the area. He got a positive result in the search. "This is his stuff! I knew it was John that I saw!!" He started to carefully look through the items that the young pilot had been keeping.

Suddenly, a shout was heard from further up the tunnel. A filthy and very dishevelled form of a man came hobbling towards Micheal, waving what looked like a club.

Jeassaho lent out her mind for a moment, the thoughts of the man coming toward them. "It is him. He is broken," she said, pulling her thoughts back instantly, leaning against the slimy wall as she tried to compose herself. She was not a counsellor, she was not used to that type of trauma at all.

"Good thing I always carry a medkit," Beya muttered, reaching into her bag and loading a hypo. "Someone distract him so I can give him a dose of sedative."

Micheal reacted quickly. Spinning around and towards Johnathan, he raised his left hand and caught the man's wrist, stopping the club from crushing his skull. With his right, he reached up and took a strong handhold of the clothing that the frenzied pilot wore over his shoulders, then moved him as gently against the wall behind him as he could, squeezing the right wrist enough that the club dropped harmlessly away.

Once Micheal had his poor friend pinned to the wall, he grunted through clenched teeth, "Any time, Beya!"

"Got it." Stepping in quickly, Beya applied the hypo. "Don't let go. I only gave him enough to make him relaxed and drowsy."

Zambi, seeing the threat, snarled and leapt at the violent man. Her sharp teeth clamped on his backside, her knife-sized rear claws ripping open the man’s leg as the small raptor scrambled to bring down her much larger prey. Normally a pack hunter, they would hamstring their prey until they could get jaws on the throat and neck.

“Oh!” Jinx exclaimed. “Zambi! No! Down, girl!” the diminutive science officer cried out.

When Beya injected Johnathan, he started to calm, though he was still struggling against Micheal's hold on him. When Zambi bit him and then shredded his leg, he screamed like the wounded animal that he was.

"Shit!" Micheal shouted, seeing the new injury and the now, free-flowing blood beginning to pool under his friend. Without hesitation, he manhandled Johnathan into a fireman's carry, over the back of his shoulders. He didn't waste time yelling at Jinx about Zambi's attack. He had to get his friend up to Rosie and into Sickbay immediately.

Once he had Johnathan securely in position, the Texan took off towards the opening in the sewer pipe they were in. As he did so, he activated his gauntlet. "REBECCA! LOCK ONTO MY SIGNAL! EMERGENCY MEDICAL BEAM OUT ONCE I GET CLEAR OF THIS TUNNEL! BEAM JOHNATHAN AND ME DIRECTLY TO SICKBAY!"

The AI's voice came through the device. "Oh! Right away, Micheal! Trying to get a lock on you! About seven more meters and then I will be able to bring you up!

As he kept running through the shin-high sludge, Micheal called back to Beya and Jinx. "Find Cassie, get ger back up there!" As he finished speaking, the transport beam from the Alexandria captured both men and spirited them away, leaving the three women and tiny dino alone in the sewer.

Beya shook her head. "I could have patched that so he wasn't losing blood all the way to a beam out point..."

“Men.” Jeassaho commented with a roll of her eyes. “I am not telling Cassie any of this.” The Captains wife said a shrugged. She had no idea where to start with any of it. It was just too odd.