Stowaway: Ladies Night

Posted on Wed Nov 6th, 2019 @ 5:33am by Jinx Jorasco

Mission: Mission 10 - Temperance
Location: SS Mary Rose - Deck 7 - Recreation Deck
Timeline: MD 08 :: 2000
578 words - 1.2 OF Standard Post Measure

Jinx heard voices in the air ducts. This wasn’t unusual. There were people everywhere on this ship, and the ducts carried their voices well. These weren’t as big as the Jeffries tubes — she had to crouch a bit to move through them — but they led her to more places, places behind doors she couldn’t access because she didn’t have one of those badges. Jinx considered. Maybe she should get one of those badges.

The tiny woman moved to the grating to look out over a rather large room. It was decorated up for some kind of party. There were tables with food, music playing, and women. Lots of females, just chatting. It was like sitting in her grandmother’s kitchen, all the talk about attractive males. She saw Humans, of course, but there was one of those spotty ones, what were they called? Trulls? Most surprisingly, there was a Romulan. Or was that a Vulcan? No, she was laughing. That was a Romulan. She had been told Vulcans had no sense of humor and never laughed. In her experience at Narendra Station, they mostly just looked disapprovingly at her.

Jinx sighed. This made her miss home a little, the camaraderie of the females in the barracks. She’d been alone for a while now after escaping the Orions, tucked into small places in ships, with no one but Zambi to talk to.

The little raptor hissed and paid attention, suddenly aware Jinx was thinking about her through the empathic link they shared.

“Calm down,” Jinx told the small carnivorous lizard. “We’ll get some food. Just look at all that! Alcohol too! You stay here,” she warned her pet.

Jinx pulled a small tool and pair of dark goggles out of one of the small pouches at her belt. She’d stolen them from some workshop. She settled the goggles over her head and settled the device against one of the fasteners holding the cover over the air handler. A bright blue light winked into the dark field of her vision, barely illuminating the area she was working as she used the laser torch to cut the first fastener onto the bottom. The tool was dual function, so she could use its other setting to weld the grate into place again when she was done.

Soon Jinx had the grate carefully removed and slid to the side. She was only a few inches above the floor, so with her tiny size she could crouch and not be seen. She darted to under one of the tables as the women chatted and laughed. The table cloth came low enough to conceal her as she moved. She opened her bag and reached up, grabbing a tray of canapes and dumping them into her sack before she replaced the tray. She moved along the line, checking what looked good, taking some. She even grabbed a bottle of champagne and shoved it in, followed by some bottles of beer. All in all, this was a pretty good haul. She didn’t know how long it would last before it went bad, though, so she had best eat it soon.

With her pilfering complete, Jinx snuck back to the air handler and pulled the grate up behind her, using the welder to seal it up again behind her. She tossed a canape to Jinx as a reward as the females erupted into giggles behind her.

FIN

Jinx Jorasco
Stowaway