Stowaway Found

Posted on Sat Dec 7th, 2019 @ 7:58am by Jinx Jorasco & Executive Officer Jake Ford & Leiddem Kea (*)

Mission: Mission 10 - Temperance
Location: Deck 7 - Jeffrey Tube
Timeline: MD09 09:30
1520 words - 3 OF Standard Post Measure

Jake's new chronic fear of cargo bays (since the unfortunate incident with some malfunctioning gravity plates and a weird goo) had not really abated, even alongside one of his security team. Leiddem probably wouldn't notice that he'd been brought along mainly so that Jake didn't have to get rescued again. Though if his rescuer was Eden again, that might not have been so bad.

"So the operations report was that there were some strange readings from the jefferies tube junctions down here somewhere. With everything going on with Rosie at the moment, I'd put it down as another hiccup, but that new engineer Burnstein insisted we go by the book and check into it." Jake sighed. "Not sure why he didn't send one of his own crew down here, though."

"I swear, if Eden has brought that damn spider back, I will be screaming like a girl and leaving you to it, Jake," Leiddem said, brutally honest like he normally did. He was not facing the thing at all. He could face knife-wielding maniacs, phaser-blasting aliens, but spiders, nah uh, he was not doing it, especially as he could read their minds.

"Wait, did you say spider?" Jake shivered a little. "Damn critters. Hate those things. Hold on, you're saying Eden actually has one?" He frowned. That was a new one, definitely not something they'd discussed.

The Betazoid wanted to laugh, but he thought he had mocked enough recently, and he had the same fear. "She has named it Stan," Leiddem said, without a moment's hesitation on how creeped out he was by the woman. Either way, he crawled into the tube first and started to make his way along, being careful as he got to junctions to not be crept upon.

"Of course she has..." Jake sighed, scratching his chin. "Women are never straightforward, are they?" He was about to complain further when he heard a sound across the bay, not unlike something small and metal being dropped to the ground and clattering a few feet. He straightened, a frown forming. "What was that?"

"I have sisters. I know this to be a fact. And you know my sister, so," Leiddem answered, as he paused, listening himself. "I do not know," the man answered, looking around, trying to figure out what direction the clattering was coming from.

Jinx felt the sense of alarm from Zambi. In surprise, she dropped the tool she was using to pry off an access panel to get to an EPS manifold to use for cooking the vole meat they had dressed from the carcasses. Zambi stood stiff, the cat-sized raptor’s head and tail sticking straight out, her nostrils sniffing in the air of the jefferies tube.

“What is it, girl?” Jinx said quietly. She reached for the tool, the only real weapon she had, though her other hand went to the wooden rod that hung on her belt. It had a red line and a blue line painted on it, and decorated with feathers in the same colors. Carefully, Jinx dug a scavenged mirror from her pack of stolen items, and her small hand held it out around the corner so she could see just what was coming. Had they found her?

Leiddem paused and rolled around, looking for anything that would give them an idea of what had made the noise, when he spotted the mirror out the corner of his eyes just as it disappeared. "Come out with hands up!" he demanded, tugging Jake in the direction that he had seen something.

Jake didn't reach for a weapon. Not yet. He didn't want people thinking he was jumpy over some noise they'd heard. It could have been anything, after all. "Roll round to the right," he said softly, "I'll try to push them your way." He eased forward and slightly to the left, giving Leiddem time to loop to the other side and pincer their mystery individual. Once his compatriot was in position, Jake moved forward to confront whoever was hiding.

Jinx cursed under her breath. She started grabbing her things and stuffing them into her duffel. She didn’t have much. Then she felt something from Zambi. “No!” Jinx hissed, too late. The cat-sized raptor leaped out to defend her master, sharp teeth at just the right height to clamp down on something near and dear to the advancing Human male.

Leiddem turned the corner to see the cat-sized thing leap and automatically fired his phaser, stunning it before it could inflict any harm on his chief. "You okay?" he added to the man as he looked at the woman. "Hands up. It is only stunned," he added to reassure the woman as he glanced around to see the animal inches away from Jake.

Jake would have to thank Leiddem for his quick reflexes and pinpoint aim later. Right now, they had a tiny being to concentrate on. "Who are you?" he added to his colleague's statements.

Jinx growled as she felt Zambi get stunned. “Bastard,” she said, her warrior instincts threatening to take over. She had a small Orion disruptor -- a popgun really -- in her belt, but doubted she could get to it in time, and she couldn’t leave Zambi lying there. She fingered a painted stick hanging from her belt as her quick, dark eyes assessed her situation.

“I’m Jinx,” the small woman said. She stood upright, defiant, in the small space of the Jeffries tube. “I was just hitching a ride. I haven’t hurt anyone,” she told them.

"Well, you are certainly not on the manifest, so you are a stowaway," Leiddem pointed out. The only passengers on board at the moment were Perrie Fisher and a pair of Andorians wanting to get the hell away from Daucina quickly.

"Hey, we're not going to hurt you...Jinx, was it?" Jake asked. He made a short show of holstering his weapon and showing his open hands. "Sounds like you could use a warm meal and a soft bed somewhere. I'm sure we can arrange all of that if you're willing to come with us? Maybe get a doctor to check you over, make sure you're doing okay?"

Jinx frowned, suspicious. “Yeah, Human? You’d just like to get me somewhere, wouldn’t you? Like in a brig?” She balled her tiny fists, ready to fight, if needed.

Leiddem rolled his eyes just a little at his boss being a lot nicer than he would have been alone. He hated stowaways, and there had been just too many over the years. "Either way, we need to get out of the tubes," the Betazoid muttered.

“I’m not hurting anything. In fact, I’m helping!” the tiny person said defiantly. “Did you know you have a vole problem? Well, not anymore.” It was true. It was getting harder to find and catch the little buggers, and her stomach rumbled a bit. It had been lean pickings the last week, and she couldn’t raid the hydroponics much more without raising suspicion.

Jake scratched his head a little and glanced at Leiddem. "Voles, huh? Is that what you've been...eating?"

The Betazoid being glanced at shrugged. Nothing had ever shown on internal scanners, but they were as much use as a chocolate fireguard in his opinion. They had not worked properly since the 2246 lot had been freed.

“Yes. Hunting,” Jinx said. “And getting into your hydroponics bay. It’s enough.” She shrugged. “I cook it on the EPS conduit.” She nodded to the loose panel nearby. “Zambi prefers her raw.” The reptile was starting to twitch. Jinxe sent soothing emotions to her to calm her.

Jake cringed a little at 'Zambi'. "You know, we have food replicators here." He leaned in. "Name one thing that you'd like to eat right now. I bet we can get some for you."

"Well, we have four of them," Lieddem murmured watching the reptile carefully. He did not trust the thing at all that it would not attack again.

“The computer doesn’t recognize me to give me replicator access,” Jinx said. “So I had to hunt and harvest.” She paused at the offer of food. “A nice hornblower steak would be good, or a skywing breast, with hesha honey cakes, mashed tuberoot with yekka butter, and rakkaberry cobbler would be good,” Jinx said, listing her favorite food from home, her stomach grumbling. She doubted they would have that in their replicators, though. And replicated wasn’t as good as when you made it fresh from a kill anyway. “And Zambi will have the gizzards and offal. Maybe the liver, since you were so cruel to stun him. She deserves a treat.”

"I'm sure we can find something that Zambi likes," Jake nodded, offering an open hand as tentatively as he dared. He knew how Gregnol was with pets. This might not go down so well...

OFF::

Leiddem Kea
Weapons Master
SS Mary Rose
(PNPC Gregnol)


Jake Ford
Chief Armoury Officer
SS Mary Rose

Jinx Jorasco
Stowaway
SS Mary Rose