Jayme was resting with her hands and her knees on the mat. Her head was ringing and she could taste the blood from her split lip. After several cleansing breaths which caught in her chest, she sat back on her knees and looked up at Issira. Her nose was bloody, her tank top was torn, and she was favoring her right arm. Jayme used the back of her hand to wipe her lip, and asked with a snort of a laugh, "So. Who won this round?"
"Neither--let's call it a tie, go clean up, and meet at my quarters and share a meal." Issira reached out her good hand and helped pull Jayme upright.
"Okay, fruit and cheese and your on." Jayme limped back to her barracks where she cleaned up, put on a clean uniform, and applied a stypic tube to her lip to stop the bleeding. She walked out and around the base to Mer'an's and Issira's quarters. She knocked at the door and Issira answered. Jayme entered and the door closed behind her and she saw Rae sitting at the table, then she looked back at Issira and noted that her nose was fixed and her arm had normal use-"Damn! I should have known!" Jayme crossed her arms over her chest as Issira pushed the humanoid toward the table.
Rae smiled as Jayme took a seat, and said, "Well, now I know whom Issira's been sparring." Issira took a seat across from Jayme. Rae stood and picked up her medical tricorder, and said, "I need the practice. You don't mind, do you?"
Jayme sighed and glared at Issira, then shook her head No. She sat and waited for her to finish her scan. "Anything broken?"
"No." The physician shrugged, then added, "four bruised ribs, a cut lip, dehydration, exhaustion, and one screwed up knee." Jayme recognized the dermal generator; which painlessly corrected the split lip. "For the ribs I'd have to have you accompany me to sickbay, either here or on my ship to fix the ribs and the knee. Although I can hypospray some Metropan into the knee."
"I'll take your assessment and treatment recommendations under advisement."
Jayme sat forward and took the tumbler of water from Issira. "Well it's a good thing it's my day off." Rae took a seat and everyone filled a plate and ate. After the meal, Rae cleared the table and gestured for Jayme to turn so she could treat Jayme's knee. "Captain. I won't take NO for an answer!"
Jayme turned, sat tense after she'd braced her foot against an empty chair so Rae had easier access. Jayme swore loudly after the first injection; after the second injection into the knee, Jayme bit her lip and waited for the sharp pain to abate. The G'kar physician placed an ice pack on it and then moved to her own chair with a laugh. About thirty minutes later the door opened.
Mer'an entered the quarters and saw Jayme. "Captain, the op you've been waiting for has been approved. There is a Mulluran freighter insystem. F'lak's ship will assist you and your troops in stopping, inspecting and possibly detaining. You have one hour to get into place.
Jayme picked the ice pack off her knee and tossed it to Issira. Said as she stood, "so much for a day off." And to Mer'an said, "Yes. Sir." In G'karian. Jayme left and gathered three dozen troopers and boarded F'lak's lightly armed converted freighter.
On the transport Jayme inspected her troops and issued assignments. It took them over two hours to position themselves where they could wait doggo in the path of the freighter. Mulluran registry was evident from the design of the vessel. Jayme had moved to the bridge to wait and watch. Moving at impulse through the corner of the quadrant, no light or heavy escort vessels; she also traveled with no shields, and no weapons hot . When Jayme was convinced the op was a go she gave the word to F'lak, then ran down the corridor to join the teams that would board via the transporters.
The large station-keeping tractor beams and the transporters both in the cargo hold and in the personnel bay came hot at the same time. The modified freighter that was F'lak's ship bumped and shuddered when it collided with the hull of the Mulluran ship. The smaller transporter sent six specialists with engineering skills to main engineering and auxiliary control tech to lock the ship down. A six-man team was at the actual cargo airlock preparing to run a diversion there by forcing their way onboard while Jayme's team beamed onto the bridge to take it before continuing on to search and secure the rest of the ship.
Jayme listened via her ear bug to the first teams transport and action then heard from the team leader, who announced. <Alpha team in place. -Engineering and aux. control rooms have been taken; and drives, weapons, shields, and communications are off line>.
"Beta team transport--now! now! now!" Jayme felt the familiar electrical static and then transporter lock and a blink later was on the Mulluran ship's bridge. Each of the six members of her team where facing out, backs together, and all wearing standard combat suits. Jayme saw several members of the bridge crew reach for weapons and Jayme fired first hitting the male who must have been standing watch armed, and shouted "CLEAR." She heard several others shout 'clear' around the circle and they all started moving out checking the downed members. Jayme stood weapon at ready, with her back now against a bulkhead, giving her a clear view of her troops at work and the prisoners.
They worked quickly as practiced and avoided fouling her line of fire. Soon all members of the Mulluran bridge crew were restrained. Jayme motioned one of the other troopers to stand watch as she pulled her hypospray and sedated everyone. She then opened her comm: "Jayme to F'lak-we have neutralized the bridge and are awaiting 'team D' to assume the watch." A minute later six La'kon techs and a security detail beamed over and assumed various stations.
Jayme's team had already moved to the doors and waited for her to give the signal. The young G'kar at the head saw the nod and he pulled his phaser and proceeded out into the corridor and the team flanked him and Jayme took the rear guard position. They moved quickly. Twice Jayme had ordered them to slow down.
It wasn't long before resistance was met from the front. All but one of
Jayme's team found cover and he'd had the sense to drop and roll, but only after being hit in the leg by a narrow beam that laid his leg open clear through to the bone. He'd gotten out of the way and a second trooper slid into the door-way behind him. The second maintained his cover fire while a third applied a tourniquet to the wounded man's leg until Jayme was able to get to him.
"B-3 to leader." The trooper said over the phaser fire and the groaning of the downed G'kar.
"Leader here." Jayme said through her mic.
"B-5's bleeding bad." B-3 said as he applied the tourniquet tighter and the man under him screamed.
Jayme heard the scream without the aid of her head set. "Understood B-3, continue to hold pressure!" Jayme peeked out around her firing position then looked down the hall behind. Leader to B-1."
"B-1, here." Was the immediate response, and then, "you have an idea,
Leader?"
Jayme pulled from her vest a flash bang grenade and keyed her mic for all hands, "B-1 pull a flash bang grenade and on the count of three throw, and then continue cover fire. I have to advance to B-3's position and assist with aid." Jayme flipped the safety, and yelled, "one...two...three!" Two seconds later both went off. Jayme was already moving with both hands dropping from hear ears as she slid into the alcove, B-1 took out the resistance ahead that was stunned by the grenades; while B-2 took up rear guard.
Jayme had her med gear out and immediately injected the artery with an ampoule of Hyronalin to constrict the bleeding, administered a dose of Terakine for the pain. Jayme keyed the G'kar's combadge. "Emergency medical beam-out!" Jayme reclaimed her phaser and rolled out of the way as several phaser beams from the rear targeted her. She continued to move zig-zagging until she found cover. She heard B-2's announcement, just before he threw the grenade she felt the concussion and saw the flash. B-2 grabbed Jayme's elbow on his way back to secure those behind them like B-1 and B-3 had done ahead. A minute later she'd sedated and he'd restrained all four Mullurans. Her team immediately the regrouped and took off by her count there should be about 25 more crew.
In main engineering, her initial teams were meeting resistance but were maintaining their positions. After ten minutes they taken out the opposition.
"Capt. Alcon to F'lak, beam another team over to lower level to begin search of cargo bays. We are still meeting moderate resistance. We will work our way to their position."
<Received>. F'lak responded immediately when he transported the fourth team. As for Jayme's crew, they'd found another pocket of resistance. Her team was working the situation without her. She watched as they used cover and concealment tactics to take out the rest of the resistance. They continued their search and securing of the ship. Jayme kept watch and moved along the corridor protecting their rear. Jayme checked their position against her map on her PADD, they had another ten meters before they entered main engineering. "Alpha Team, this is Leader."
<Go leader>. The female team leader looked around and at her chronometer.
"We are approaching your position, copy." Jayme said as the forward member of her unit reached the secured doors. Jayme paused at the last intersecting corridor and checked their back trail. "Clear!" She moved back to her team with her phaser ready. "We are on your door-step and report it is clear. We are moving to help secure lower level." Jayme gestured with her chin and sent her team on around to the lift. Jayme stepped onto the lift last and was the first out, but ducked back in quickly as her presence was spotted and phaser fire laced out around her. "Crap!" Touching her combadge, she called for help. "C-team, this is Leader--we are under fire at the lift to lower level.
<Copy Leader, I am sending two to your position. Stand by>. Two La'kon troops headed off and immediately spotted the four member of the crew hired by the Mullurans. After a stun grenade took out their position Jayme and team exited the lift. Jayme paused and checked where a phaser had skimmed her gear and burnt the fabric--"Damn it!" She wiggled her fingers through the hole but came back with no blood. The rest of her tirade was cut off by C-team's leader's approach.
"Ma'am. We've secured all four cargo holds. The first two are filled with weapons and miscellaneous parts. The third one is filled with an unknown substance. Our tricorder was unable to identify. And the fourth, well you need to see." The trooper led the way between cargo containers and stopped at the entrance to the fourth. Delta team leader nodded and another trooper opened the hatch. The stench that rolled out made Jayme turn her head with a gag. But she moved to look into the container breathing through the elbow of her right sleeve. Inside in the darkness she spotted about a hundred pair of eyes in a 40 meter by 20 meter area.
Jayme touched her combadge. <F'lak, I need full medical unit with decontamination gear and everyone you have that can pull security. We'll also need ration packets for 100>.
<F'lak to Leader, request clarification>. F'lak had his crew running down the assets requested by the human.
"I have about a hundred G'kar prisoners held in a 20X40 meter cargo hold. Copy."
< Copy>. He exploded with a tirade in his native language but had several techs moving, then said. <Medical and security are being detached now>.
Jayme pulled a filter mask from her gear, ditched her pack, and moved into further into the hold. The delta team leader asked, "Ma'am?"
"Yes?" Jayme asked without turning her back on the mass of prisoners.
The young male said with some hesitation. "I don't advise you continue until security arrives."
Jayme waved a hand indicating that she'd heard him. With some reluctance the objector entered the darkened container to follow and protect her back. Moments later both heard activity in the outer corridor. Together they retreated in that direction. But Jayme had seen that the prisoners had been abused and assaulted during their time aboard most were women and children but a few old men were scattered through the group.
She took her breather gear off in the corridor and watched as security moved the prisoners one-by-one to the decontamination station and further down the hall to be checked over, processed and then taken to an area where they had room and could eat a meal pack.
"You said you had another cargo area you hadn't cleared?" Jayme asked trying to clear the awful scene she'd just witnessed. The young trooper turned and led the way. Inside Jayme looked around and found that it was the first 'cold' place she'd been since she'd started this assignment. Around her, were crates marked with food and medicinal supplies; except for the crate that was busted open and a white powder trickled out of it. Jayme pulled her medical tricorder out and ran a sample of the substance. While she waited for the analysis she looked around. When the tricorder beeped with "unknown." She frowned and wished she had the scientific module. She reached out with a damp finger and touched the powder and rubbed it between her fingers. It was very finely ground. She touched the tip of her tongue to a finger and thought about the taste--and then spit out the residue and wiped her mouth on her sleeve. "Dust!" She said standing up. "Pure, unless I miss my mark."
"Sorry, I'm not familiar with 'Dust'?"
"It's a hallucinogenic drug that's highly addictible and very expensive. It affect mostly humans." She rested both hands on her hips and looked around, then said, "Record the inventory both written and video. I want a decontamination team here to vacuum this mess up and save it for the hearing. I assumed you'd recorded the slaves in the other hold?"
"Yes, ma'am." He said. "You recognize the substance, why didn't the tricorder?"
"You have the basic unit and mine has the medical unit which would only recognize the broken down byproducts for a determination-but pure uncut it probably has never seen."
"Why did you recognize it?" He asked watching her face.
"I've tasted it before." She was done answering questions which would only bring memories to the surface that she didn't want or have time to deal with. Jayme exited the cargo bay and headed for the slave hold. She watched Rae and her team of medical personnel work for a few minutes before moving up beside the big G'kar and asking, "What can I do to help?" Rae nodded to the patient she'd been treating and looked to the human. "We have this under control Captain. What happened to your shoulder?" The G'kar ask and reached to check the Captain for hidden injuries.
Jayme saw the move and stepped out of the way of the physician, and said, "Near miss. It didn't break the skin. In that case, I'll head back and make a report to the Commander." With that Jayme turned and headed for the cargo door which was opened to the La'kon ship. Once on board, Jayme headed to the bridge but stopped briefly to strip off her pack and soiled and damaged jacket, and grab a cup of coffee. On the bridge she found F'lak and his crew busy at stations.
F'lak noted her presence and turned. "You can't sneak up on anyone until you shower and get rid of that sludge you insist on drinking." He paused and answered the questions of one tech while Jayme sat at closed down tech station. He turned back to her and added, "I know what you found over there. I'm sorry."
"This is a war--no one said it was going to be clean and pleasant." Jayme said with a shrug. "So, what do we do with the crew and the slaves?"
"We'll inventory the supplies and then I'll confiscate them for the resistance. The slaves, I will drop off on one of our colonized worlds. The ship, dust, and crew will be sent to the Federation for brokering and charges. Any prize money gained from the sale will go to helping fight our battle."
Jayme rolled her neck on her shoulders, and took another sip of her coffee. "Well. I am not a starship officer, but I could probably make myself useful at some station if you need to help flesh out your crew or the crew that take the ship into SB901-I'm assuming that is its destination."
"We will have a skeleton crew take that ship in with us as escort and after we pick up our crew, we'll head back to drop off the civilians and then return to Thermopylae."
"Hmmm," Jayme said as she leaned back in the chair, "Sounds like a plan." She had a headache starting in the back of her head an spikes of anxiety. Damn! Never had she experienced a reaction to dust like this--pure for sure.
"Our layover would be the better part of 24 hours. It would be a good time for you to meet with Colonel Tarik and resupply any goods you might need to take back with you to Thermopylae."
Jayme stood up. "Thank you. I'll make a list."
She moved to exit the bridge, but stopped when he asked, "How dangerous, to you, was tasting that 'dust'?"
She looked over her shoulder and met his eye not realizing he'd recognized the risk she'd taken. Then said, "minimal." She could see that he wasn't convinced. "Anything else, Commander?" She asked.
He shook his head and said, "You're dismissed. I'll have you located if we need you before we reach SB901." He watched her move through the bulkhead and off the bridge. He would have Rae check on Jayme when she was free from her duties on the freighter. He returned to the duties of command.
Jayme showered, ate a ration bar, and dug through her gear until she found a hypospray unit and a dose of light tranq. She administered a half dose to her left forearm, and placed the unit on the head of her bunk, before settling down to sleep.
Six hours later Jayme didn't twitch when the door to her cabin opened, or when she was scanned by Rae, but did flinch when the rest of the tranq dose was administered. Rae left and secured the door of the cabin with the Medical officers lockout.
Jayme woke after fourteen hours to find a note taped to the edge of her bunk, she tested the door to find it locked out. She reread the note:
You are confined to quarters until we reach SB901.
CMO Rae, of the La'kon ship Dark Fury.
Jayme fumed and then fished out another ration bar and a liter of water from her gear. After eating she practiced some of her mediation exercises and woke to the door opening and Rae standing there. "We've arrived at SB901, Captain."