Nicole had left the Rigger, a dark dingy slum of a bar and headed to check on the loading of her shuttle and her small quarters in the Spacers Hall off the main level of the docking facility. She was tired, eyes gritty and more then a little tipsy. She thought she'd gotten lucky when she didn't find the blond and his friends with the purple powder.
She her thoughts revolved around the shower she was dying to crawl into when she carded into the dock facility and realized it was later then she thought as the later day lights were on and everything was in shadows. She could hear a plasma torch and a team working off to the port side but other then that it was quiet. She walked by the dock masters office and noticed it was dark...how odd she thought.
She was half way to her shuttle, Yukon Plastics, supplied. She heard the entry behind her open and looked back over her shoulder to see a rowdy group of five or six stumble through with lots of noise. She turned back, taking her hands out of her pockets, but knew the knife in her boot top and the length of fine chain that resided in her jacket pocket. She squared her shoulders and walked with a purpose directly toward her ship. She could barely make out the engines of the shuttle when a hand landed on her shoulder and yanked on her jacket.
"Look who we have here." The blond from the Rigger snickered. Nicole kept trying to walk backwards not letting them form a ring around her.
She looked around and said, "Didn't see you there tonight." She placed her left hand in her jacket pocket and grasped the chain.
"No." The blond let go of her jacket and watched as Nicole stumbled, "We saw you." He watched the woman behind Nicole shove her back into the center of the circle. "Heard you spent the night in station security, after our last party."
"Yeah. You know how it goes..." Nicole said raising her voice hoping to attract attention. She made eye contact with all four of the guys and started looking for weapons. She spotted several knives and a length of rope. It looked like her best chance of escape was to take out the blond and the woman on either side of him. "Look." Nicole said, then added, "I didn't tell security about the 'Dust' that night."
The blond smiled. "Our employer wanted us to invite you to work for him...the pay is good."
"Thank your employer for thinking about me, but I already have a job." Nicole said with a smile.
With a nod both muscle bound guys to either side of Nikki made a grab for her but anticipating the signal she ducked and rolled taking out the woman to the left of the blond guy and made a brake for the entrance. She was maybe ten yards from the doors when she was tackled from behind and taken to the ground. She rolled this way and that and kept her arms moving in an effort to keep them from being held, a second member of the group joined in the fray and finely they had her pinned. She was pulled to her knees and held in bilateral wrist locks. She sucked her split lip and tried to take several deep breaths. The blond and the woman she surprised had caught up to the group and he said, "Shouldn't have done that!"
Nicole tried to relax all of the muscles in her arms and shoulders but it was difficult after the hard sprint. She made eye contact with the guys and then looked front. "I don't want any part of your business--that night, I was bored and looking to party...Why are you harassing me?" she added a whine and acted more hurt then she actually was.
With a slight nod from the lead, both guys let up the pressure on Nicole's arms but didn't let go. "Really, from what I saw you were shopping. So you've changed your mind after only a night in the station lockup...too bad. You have a ship and a clean record and unless you die tonight there isn't any way out of working for our boss."
"I will not be part of this trade!" Nicole said looking to the other and silently pleading for their help. The third guy stepped behind Nicole and grabbed a hand full of hair and pulled her head back. The lead move in with a small vial of purple liquid. Nicole saw him advance and she pulled the guy on her left in and bit his hand which caused him to let go, she used an elbow strike on the guy standing behind her with his hand in her hair, and as she went to her feet round house kicked the guy on her right wrist who was trying to increase the pressure on the wrist lock and take her to the ground...but the kick to his face made him lose his grip. The Blond lead guy splashed Nicole in the eyes with the liquid. After the roundhouse kick she pulled the boot knife and with her left hand. Both women grabbed up pipes and took several swings at Nicole and connected once on her shoulder and her right hip. This gave the three guys time to get back on their feet.
Her eyes burned. She couldn't spare the second to wipe them before the blond moved in. She hit him with an elbow strike to the face, reverse punch and forward kick; and a round house followed to take out the woman who was moving forward again with the length of pipe, but the man she'd roundhouse kicked in the face was standing and pushed the woman with the pipe away and moved in and punched Nicole several times in the gut and then slapped her face.
Nikki hadn't realized someone was behind her until she was grabbed from behind...she slashed with the knife and caught the blonds right upper arm with instantly spurted arterial blood. She squirmed and tried to get her arms free to take out the big guy holding her but ended up snapping several kicks to those who tried to move in from the front to secure her with the rope. She struggled and dropped all of her weight onto the capture to hold up and was able to get free.
She was desperately trying to attract attention. She slid her hand into the pocket of her pants and got hold of the communicator button she'd forgotten about and placed in on her left sleeve and tapped it and yelled, "Security alert Docking Bay, Green-2. Security officer down, repeat officer down."
The guy holding her dropped her to the ground and took off. The two woman helping the blond with his arm quickly ducked the exit and the others melted into the shadows. Nicole other then her arms being very sore, minus cuts and bruises sat on the dock. A minute later she moved further down the dock torn between the safety of her ship vs staying at the scene... She moved rubbing hr face and eyes with a dry corner of her torn and bloodied shirt.
Nicole sat on the loading ramp to her ship, with her jacket huddled around her, shivering, as she heard security descend on the scene. She heard Tara Carmichael's accent before she saw the Chief.
Tara appeared with two medics and some security. "I want you to fan out. Search the area." She closes her eyes momentarily. "There are 5 assailants. I want them found immediately. If they don't go easy, take them in roughly. Let them know we mean busy."
"Yes, Ma'am," she heard as her small unit dispersed lead by Jayson. She approached Nicole with two medics. She made a hand signal to the two medics trailing her to hang back.
Nicole was intensely watching the security team move and wasn't listening or paying attention to the woman that stood next to her. "Nicole. Nicole," She squeezed the young woman's shoulder and got a flinch, and asked again. "Are you all right?" As she looked at the woman she knew things had gone way beyond anything she had expected to happen. Another image came to her mind. "Contact Stephen Maruu immediately. Let him know Nicole has been injured." The young woman moved to a station com to place the call. The other medic worked with the security team at the scene collecting forensic evidence. Nicole thought about how she felt and numb was what came to mind. Tara had said something but Nicole hadn't been paying attention.
"I'm okay....just surprised and bruised." Nicole hid her face from the Security Chief. "Have you caught them?" She asked.
We're searching right now, Nicole. I promise you, we're going to get them."
Just as Tara began to approach Nicole once again, another sound echoed from above her.
"You bitch!" she heard a male voice yell. It came from the top of Nicole's ship. As the man tried jumping Tara she automatically lifted Chiron and fired. The man flew off the top of the shuttle unconscious.
"Is this one of the men?" Tara asked walking over to him.
"Yes." Nicole said from the ramp.
Tara nodded. "One piece of garbage taken care of!" She motioned to the medic to take care of him and then remove him as soon as possible.
"Chief, we found two woman hiding. We think they are two of the perps," came a call in.
"Were there two women involved?" she asked Nicole.
Nicole nodded her head and stood, heading into her shuttle. She didn't feel safe in the openness of the dock and headed aboard to wash up and change.
Tara keyed her com, "Affirmative, take them to security we'll do the ID there." She followed Nicole into her ship and found the young woman washing her face. She watched as Nicole stripped off her jacket and top to pulled on a clean shirt, and the jacket.
"I want the medics to give you a full check. You might even have to go to sickbay," Tara said as she looked Nicole over, knowing what had happened.
"I'll be fine." Nicole riffled though a duffle on a chair and found a couple of Acetaminophen and started to pop them into her mouth when Tara's arm blocked hers. After a minute of serious eye contact Nicole tossed them onto the bed, threw the duffle onto the floor, and sat in the chair. "I don't need any medics."
"Anyone that's had dust exposure like you have, has to be checked," Tara replied. "That was a large amount into an area of the body with a high absorption rate . . . You're probably lucky you aren't dead. Now, I will bodily take you to sickbay myself if you do not cooperate." She looked at Nicole. "This is for your health and protection. I have seen what dust can do . . ."
Nicole worked her fingers though her hair. "All right." She rested her elbows on her knees and rested her head in her hands and waited.
Tara's com beeped and another voice that both women recognized as Jayson's said, "I've another one."
Tara looked at Nicole and said, "Four." So there's one still unaccounted for.
There were voices on the ramp and Tara moved to check. One was Toren Len who moved past Tara and moved to stand beside Nicole to run his scan. He frowned, looked to Tara who put a finger to her lips to be quiet and to join her on the ramp.
"Ma'am, we found this one trying to get outside the docking bay. But we managed to catch him," replied the young Ensign.
"Well done!" Tara replied as she looked at the man. "This one is the leader of the pack, I believe. Make sure he gets special treatment . . ." she smirked.
"Yes, ma'am!" the Ensign smiled back.
Nicole looked up from her position in the chair. "You got them? All of them? Now what do I do...Identify all of them at the security?"
"Your first stop is sickbay. They'll all be detained in the brig in separate cells until you can identify them. We're going to see if any of them are willing to turn on the others; and perhaps give the names of any bigger fish in the pond," Tara smiled. "But we have to make sure you're all right. That's my first order of business."
Nicole used her arms to push herself out of the chair and felt the abused muscles in her arms , upper body, and neck protest the action. She had a headache too but that she blamed on the attack and the anxiety of waiting for their capture. "Okay. But I think you're wasting both of our time...a shower, acetaminophen and a nap and I'll be fine." Nicole was walking to the door and exclaimed, "Oh hell, I was suppose to meet someone."
"Don't worry," Tara replied, gazing at the woman. "It's been taken care of. He'll probably be meeting you in sickbay as we speak . . ."
"No." She paused and Tara's hand gripped Nicole's elbow, and pushed her out onto the ramp, where Toren Len waited to walk with them to sickbay. "He can't...I mean... I don't want to be a problem to him...to get him involved...Tara you understand, right?" Tara waved her hand over the control of the shuttle and on a security lockout sealed the ship.
"Nicole, I don't know what is best right now, but Stephen is your friend," she replied seriously with her soft British voice. "If he truly cares about you, he'll want to be there for you . . . And that shouldn't be a problem. No matter what his past . . . Perhaps this will help him heal from whatever it is he's hurting from . . ." At that moment, she wished she had Kassia's ability of clairvoyance to see what the future held. But all she could do was guess . . . The Atlantians didn't have the gift of foresight, she surmised.
Toren Len took hold of Nicole's other elbow and between the two they walked off the docks, to the turbo lift and rode it to the required level and stepped off. Nicole really dreaded walking through those doors. The doors opened, and they walked in and Nicole let out her breath when she didn't see Stephen waiting and realized that she was a little disappointed--but a part of her still din't want him inconvenienced. Now, if she could just be so lucky as not to have absorbed any of the liquid that was splashed in her face...