Stowaway

Posted on Sat Nov 2nd, 2019 @ 6:31pm by Jinx Jorasco

Mission: Mission 10 - Temperance
Location: SS Mary Rose - Deck 20 - Jeffries tubes
Timeline: MD 04 :: 0149
906 words - 1.8 OF Standard Post Measure

Jinx wasn’t sure how long she’d been down here. One good thing about the ships of the Big Folk is they had a nice network of tunnels running through them. At least ships like this. The Orion and Ferengi ships she’d stowed away on often had exposed power cables and such dangerous things. But these Federation ships were nice and tidy. At 2’10”, the child-sized redhead didn’t even need to stoop as she walked along the jeffries tubes.

She had created quite a nice little nest here in one of the junctions where she had space to spread out. A collection of stolen blankets and towels made a nice bed, with a stolen duffel as her pillow.

Jinx curled up in a blanket, yawned, and stretched. After escaping the Orion slave auction by stowing aboard a Ferengi ship, a series of other stowaways had ended up with her getting caught and dumped off on some water world. Lucky enough another ship was leaving soon, so she snuck on board the Mary Rose and crawled into the guts of the ship.

A skittering in the corridor caught Jinx’s attention. She gave a soft whistle and click in her native Kisongo, and a small raptor the size of a cat skidded around the corner, its claws tap-tapping on the deck plating. It had a large, furry thing clamped in its sharp teeth. Depositing the dead thing at Jinx’s feet, the raptor gave a chitter and a squeal of triumph.

“Good girl, Zambi!” Jinx said, digging out a piece of dried meat and scratching the raptor’s purple and blue back. She nuzzled into Jinx’s hand. “Good thing this ship has a vole problem,” she said, pulling out a knife and starting to dress the Cardassian rodent. Soon she had it gutted, tossing the fresh innards to Zambi for the raptor to eat.

“Let’s go,” Jinx said, wiping her hands clean on a towel and standing up. They wound through the tubes and found an access hatch. Jinx pulled out a stolen tricorder and scanned beyond. She was familiar enough with Federation technology from her time on Narendra Station. It was late enough that no one should be up, and when her scan confirmed that no one was in the next space, Jinx quietly opened the hatch.

The heat and humidity of the hydroponics bay reminded Jinx a bit of home on Peponi. A lush jungle moon, it was very different from the savannahs of Kisongo, the center of the Confederation. Jinx jumped down into the room, followed by the skittering Zambi. The raptor sniffed, hissed, and rushed off into the foliage.

Jinx strolled along more lazily, She checked the plants as she passed. She was careful to take only what she needed. No sense in someone realizing all the vegetables were going missing. She picked a large, red fruit from one plant, something called a tomato, and bit into it, the red juice flowing down onto the leathers she wore. She sniffed and frowned. She was getting a bit ripe. Maybe she should try the bathhouse they seemed to keep on this deck. A swim would clean her up, and she could clean her leathers.

One of Jinx’s problems was that she didn’t have computer recognition, so she had no door access. That meant having to go around the long way. The only replicators she could get at were seventeen decks above in the mess hall, and that was a place that often had someone in it at all hours. Raiding hydroponics and hunting voles was preferable to getting caught. She had lucked out last time. She had been caught on planet and simply dumped on the planet. If she was caught out here, they might just dump her out of an airlock.

Jinx picked a few other fruits, putting them in a satchel at her hip. The things these Bigs just left lying around! She pulled out a bottle and filled it from a tap. At least hydroponics had plenty of water. She just had to make sure she got it before all the plant growth nutrients were added.

Giving another whistle, Jinx retrieved Zambi. She shook the water off her hide and leapt up, scrambling up the Kisongo’s shoulder as they crawled back into the tubes. The bathhouse was on this same deck, and Jinx hopped out into the chlorine smell. The place was odd for a bathhouse. There were no different pools for hot, warm, and cold water, just the one big pool, and no seats for lounging in the water. There was a locker room, where she had raided some of the towels she slept in, but no apparent soap or other cleansing agents. It was dark and empty, but Kisongos had excellent night vision.

“Keep watch,” Jinx told Zambit as she started to unfasten her leathers. She pulled off her clothes and dumped them beside the pool and dove in. The water was warm, but after the heat of the hydronics bay, it felt cold. She came up and pushed back the mass of red hair, wishing she had some shampoo. She started to quickly wash, then cleaned her leathers before emerging and lying on a deck chair to dry, naked and unafraid, and thinking of home. Someday, she would get back there. Someday.

FIN

Jinx Jorasco
Stowaway
SS Mary Rose