Simple Explanations

Posted on Mon Oct 10th, 2022 @ 6:01pm by Leiddem Kea (*) & Executive Officer Jake Ford & Delaney O'Callaghan & Chief Engineer Michael Burnstein

Mission: Mission 16: Hysperia
Location: Village Gaol
Timeline: Not long after "Hic Sunt Dracones"
2384 words - 4.8 OF Standard Post Measure

Sat on the cement slab that served as the cell's primary seating arrangement, tucked into the corner with her back and head leaning against the wall, Delaney closed her eyes as a fresh attempt to block out the ruckus in the neighbouring cell failed to produce adequate results. As far as she could tell, between the slurred protests, occasional indignant outburst, and subsequent pleading laments, the cell's singular occupant was due home over an hour ago and was facing a great deal of incrimination from his significant other, an ordeal he didn't feel like he was receiving a lot of empathy for. For the past half hour since the man had been brought in by the local constabulary, Laney had counted only two occasions when he'd stopped shouting out; once when he'd realised they hadn't taken his hip flask off him, and the second when he'd emptied half the contents of his stomach down the sink closest to her corner.

She'd always heard that waiting for trial was half the punishment; now she understood why.

Reaching up, her hands as clean as cold water had allowed, the redhead swiped at her cheek and looked at her fingers as they pulled away slightly smudged with ashy residue. It had been a misunderstanding, of course, and just as soon as someone took the time to corroborate their story, they'd be released and the pair of them could return to their normal lives slightly sheepish but no worse-for-wear. It had been touch and go; broody mothers were persistent and being chased up a slope that had virtually no cover had only proven how out of condition she was despite best efforts to maintain fitness in-flight. She'd had to ditch the walking stick too, more was the pity.

"You think they've forgotten about us?," she joked as their buddy next door broke into fragments of a song he might have known once but now struggled with.

For his part, Burnie had stretched out on a bench, hands behind his head and done his best to tune out the guy in the next cell by running through engine schematics in his head. It was the sort of thing that could absorb him so completely that he became oblivious to everything around him, a fact that had frustrated a certain number of crewmates, possibly led to several past break ups, but was certainly useful in situations like this. A firm belief in 'easier to beg forgiveness than ask permission' meant that this was hardly his first time in a brig. At least this time there was no actual destruction of Starfleet property, or any property really, unless you counted some scorched hair and some marks that would have to be buffed out of a fireproof jacket.

However, the bits of ash that still occasionally drifted off his hair and hit lashes or tickled his nose, brought him close enough to awareness of surroundings that he caught Delaney's question. "Probably just making us cool our heels," he answered laconically.

"No one has forgotten but I am tempted to leave you both here and get Gregnol and Livaam." A voice called from the doorway and Leiddem stood there looking half amused and half exasperated by the situation that involved his girlfriend and the chief engineer. He was still at a loss as to what had happened but he had been allowed to come through the door to speak to them whilst Ford sorted it out more.

"Hey." From her corner, Delaney met her boyfriend's gaze with a mixture of apology and mild defiance. "This isn't what it looks like."

"I can't wait to hear what it is, in that case," Jake grunted, appearing in the doorway behind Leiddem. "Honestly, I sort-of expected a little trouble, but my money was on Liha or Kali being the ones getting locked-up first..."

"You know Liha is going to avoid trouble just to spite you," Burnie laughed and swung his legs around to come up to a sitting position. "And we did try. We were all the way up on the overlook ridge, right where the map said it was safe. You can pull my comm's for geolocation data for verification." He stretched, dislodging a small shower of ash. "Which I told the officers when they picked us up."

"We were told they'd send someone to investigate," Delaney added, though she remained where she was. With the heavy iron bars more for show and an actual forcefield in place to keep them secure, it wasn't as if moving closer was going to involve any capacity to lock hands with Leiddem for the poetry of it all. "Though I'm starting to realise they didn't actually say when."

“No one has explained properly what happened.” Leiddem admitted as he glanced at the other cell as the man was glaring at them now instead of singing. “Or why you guys look so… ashen.” Leiddem could hazard a guess but he wanted to hear it properly from them both.

Delaney shot Burnie a look, still somewhat chagrined but also laden with survivor's humour. Finally unraveling her legs so that she could rise, she wandered over with arms folded across her stomach to stand opposite her boyfriend. "There's piles of it everywhere up there, it's just easier to avoid them when you're not trying to outrun a really disgruntled dragon."

Burnie shrugged and flashed a grin. "I guess if I don't start a fire, the fire comes to me." He rubbed a bit more ash out of his hair. "Of course, I never imagined it coming as a super protective mama dragon. But honestly, chased by dragon... that's one to tell the grandkids someday, right?"

"If Nollel ever lets you have grandkids. I'm not sure what I'd rather have chasing me: Angry dragon or angry girlfriend," Jake replied. "So is there some sort of local custom you both broke? Are we going to have to bail you out now?"

"The breeding grounds are protected by conservation laws," Delaney hunched a shoulder. "We were given very strict instructions which I swear we followed, but there was a rogue nest and the broody mother looked like she'd already been in a scuffle or two. We disturbed her without even realising she was there."

"Hey, I was talking about your grandkids," Burnie replied with a wink. "And Nollel will understand. After all, I wore my fireproof jacket and we did all all the rules and boundaries we were told. But apparently no one explained them to that mama dragon."

Leiddem could not help but just roll his eyes. “Well at least you wore protection.” He commented on shaking his head at the look pair. It was impossible to be mad when they both looked the way they did. “Did they say anything about getting these two out?” He wondered.

From behind the forcefield, his girlfriend winced. "There's a slight snag." Exhaling, Delaney explained. "The local breeder I dealt with is something of a passionate expert. According to him, our story doesn't make sense. It didn't matter how many times we explained it, he still called the authorities on us and now I think we're stuck here until someone corroborates our story." She glanced at Burnie and shrugged. "Hopefully someone is and they haven't just thrown us in here to rot."

"Wonderful," Jake sighed. "Well, we probably have some things we can trade or barter with if there's some sort of fee to let you out on recognisance. If not...well, let's hope the prisons here are more modern jail than medieval dungeon."

"It shouldn't come to that," Burnie insisted. "You ask me, this whole thing is CYA. That local 'expert' breeder gave us the map and instructions, and we stuck to them, as our comm geolocation record will prove. We just need to get someone to look at those to prove our story is accurate."

It sounded like police and security to cover your ass in a situation with outsiders but it did not help them right now in the situation they had to get the pair out of jail. "Do you have the comms unit or do they?" Leiddem asked.

"We gave it to them, along with separate statements." Overall, throwing them in a cell had seemed heavy-handed, especially since there was an overwhelming amount of stupid audacity to the premise that they'd attempted something underhanded and then returned to the breeder to hand back the map and instructions. In those circumstances, they might as well have marched themselves to the gaol and been done with it.

The scrape of the main door provoked a fresh wave of protests from the inebriated soul next door, who was thankfully close enough to passing out that he'd dropped considerably in volume. The stern features of the duty master appeared, his expression no more welcoming than the first time they'd met him, but Delaney supposed that was somewhat fair enough. This time of year must have been especially busy for him.

Without a word, he moved to tap the access code that released the forcefield.

"Out." The single word was punctuated by a jerked thumb.

"Don't have to tell me twice," Burnie said, giving the man a friendly nod as he proceeded out.

Leiddem raised an eyebrow. Surely it could not be that simple? There had to be some type of catch or had they really gone and looked at the comms device and understood the truth.

"Well, that was easy. Did someone pull some strings, or..." Jake shrugged, looking at the jailor. "Did you finally get annoyed with having them around?"

An incoherent grunt was the only immediate response. With the felons and their entourage following, the duty master lead the way to the central processing office, which was mostly just a desk off to the side of the main door. With a groan, he eased himself into his seat, which he managed to fill quite amply, and picked up a piece of paper from his desk.

"Initial investigations haven't found anything that warrants keeping you, though it goes without saying," he peered over the top of a very small pair of spectacles he'd placed on the end of his nose, "that if the subsequent findings turn up anything, you can expect a visit and a much longer stay. If I find out you're in cahoots with this pack of ruddy mongrels trying to harvest dragon liver..."

"We're not," Delaney declared quickly, her face screwed up in mild disgust at the prospect.

"So you say," the man muttered, not sounding convinced. "Someone's certainly bolsterin' their numbers. If I were you, I'd watch myself where dragons are concerned."

"Words to live by," Jake noted. "I'm sure you won't get any more trouble from these two," he added, making sure to pointedly fix both with a 'heed my words' sort of look.

Leiddem fixed his hands on Delaney’s shoulders and started to lead her out before there could be anymore conversation or the jailer changed his mind. “That… that was certainly something.” He finally mumbled glancing at Jake with a shrug. What could he really say about it all?

"A weird something," Delaney agreed, at a volume that perhaps showed very little concern for being overheard. She consented to being lead out, though that was mostly because her brow was furrowed with the consternation of one trying to make things add up. "That's the second time someone's mentioned issues with illegal dragon farming, though I don't know why Argus gave me directions if he thought I was untrustworthy." Anyone who knew the redhead at all would recognise the calculating appeal of a mystery about her tone.

“Please do not investigate.” Leiddem murmured seeing the familiar look in her eyes. The former marine gave her a pleasing look though he did think himself that it was an odd turn of events especially with the second mention but he almost wanted to say it was not their place to do it but to leave it the the Hysperians.

"I don't know why we'd need to investigate," Burnie said. He'd more or less tuned out imagining this was all over until the desk sergeant said something about people harvesting dragon parts, then his mind had gone to countermeasures, and typical of the engineer, he'd become absorbed in the problem largely ignoring the rest of the conversation, but something in Leiddam's tone had brought it back to awareness, at least partly. "I mean, it would only take a wide array sensor net to detect non-dragon life signs in the preserve region. Once any ping, send an alert and automatically dispatch a drone for close surveillance so whoever was there could be monitored remotely using the drone's camera. Equip the drones with phasers and security could take out poachers from their desks."

"Drones...phasers...?" Jake's eyebrows raised. "I thought we agreed we were tying not to get arrested again?"

"Hey, I didn't say I was going to set it up," the engineer objected, rolling his eyes. He wasn't the kind of idiot who'd go installing security systems on someone else's land without permission after all. "I've been working with Hysperian engineers for months, so I know what tech they have available. I even know what Olde Earth-type terms they use for most of it, so I could work up design specs and offer it to the Hysperian authorities."

Leiddem decided that now was the best time to jump in and steer everyone back towards the ship and people interested in knowing that they were safe. “Well I am sure they will appreciate any help but can I suggested that for now we get back to ship and make sure people know you are not burnt to a crisps or going to be spending the rest of the dry dock in a brig?” He suggested. It seemed a better suggestion that arguing over how they were going to end up back in jail.

"Fine by me." Burnie shrugged and headed out, but schematics were forming in his mind.

"See," Delaney attempted to assuage her boyfriend's concern as she turned to face him and walked backwards to freedom. "Absolutely nothing to worry about."