"You guys go on ahead. I'll catch up in a few minutes," called Sam Beckett after her four comrades.
Lee Carter turned around and waved and said, "We'll be at the El Taco," (as if Sam didn't know -- they always went to the El Taco) and walked on. With Carter in the lead, Max Vasser, Jo Schmidt and Alex Dawson made their way single file along the shady boulevard sidewalk, while Sam Beckett angled down a smaller side street.
Arriving at the popular Mexican fast food joint, they found their usual table unoccupied, and so seated themselves to wait for their friend before ordering.
This short vacation had been Carter's idea, but their boss, Matthew Cross, had agreed with her reasons completely. The plan was to give Max a little down-time in hopes that she would recover from her psychological trauma and regain her self-confidence. The nightmarish events deep under the surface of Rostella IV had affected them all, of course, but Max, having been closest to Jazz, had suffered the most damage.
Alex broke the silence: "I sure am glad they opened an El Taco down here in the city, otherwise we'd have to beam up to the starbase every time we got a schplict craving. I wonder where that ruggedly handsome manager guy is -- I don't see him back in the kitchen."
"Probably back in the storeroom sound asleep," sniggered Max.
"Maybe," said Carter, smiling herself. Over the years, the five women had come to know the ruggedly handsome manager of their favorite restaurant fairly well -- they were in here almost every day -- so they knew he wasn't one to overwork himself. Still, somehow he managed to run a tight ship, and he was always friendly towards his customers, especially the ladies... "On the other hand, he might actually be working in the back," she suggested.
The four women looked at each other for a moment, then in unison said, "Naaaaah!" and laughed.
Jo ventured, "So, what do you guys want to do? Captain Cross doesn't have any missions for us for the next few days."
"How 'bout Blue Lake?" volunteered Alex, referring to the beautiful yet mysterious inland sea, reputed to be the abode of a legendary sea monster.
"That might be interesting," opined Jo. "What do you think, Lee?"
Three heads turned towards their leader in search of confirmation for their plans, but Carter hadn't been listening. She seemed preoccupied by something.
"Lee?" repeated Jo, but still failed to get a response. She reached across the table and punched Carter in the arm. That got a reaction. "Just checking if you're still alive," said Jo as Carter rubbed her arm. "What's the matter?"
Carter shook her head and tried to dismiss her trepidation. "It's nothing. It's just that Sam's been gone a long time and I'm getting a little worried. You know how she can be in crowds..."
Her friends nodded. While Sam was a beautiful woman, she had suffered a horrible, maiming accident early in her career and as a result was almost one-quarter cybernetic. While it didn't show at all on the outside, it made her terribly self-conscious and shy, and sometimes she got a little intimidated and overwhelmed by large crowds of strangers.
"Maybe we should go look for her," suggested Alex.
Lee nodded assent, and the four of them stood and moved out. Retracing their steps back to where they'd last seen Sam, they spread out and began looking for their missing friend. She was most likely perfectly all right, but better safe than sorry.
Meanwhile, Sam was wandering down a narrow side street muttering to herself. "I knew I saw a public restroom room around here somewhere..." She walked farther and farther down the street she'd chosen, peering around corners and through doorways, beginning to think that just maybe she'd taken a wrong turn.
The pressing crowd of downtown Serenity City had thinned considerably, for which she was grateful; she'd started getting a little edgy. But the farther she walked, the fewer the people were, until finally there were none at all and the surer she became that she was completely lost. She took a solemn vow that next time she'd go to the bathroom before she left her apartment.
Well, I suppose if I walked backwards I should wind up back where I started, she figured. She did an about-face and started back. It took only a few seconds however, to make it alarmingly obvious that she had no idea where 'back the way I came' was -- she'd taken too many turns. Now she came to an intersection that seemed totally unfamiliar to her. At the edge of her vision, she thought she saw the fleeting form of a man down one of the intersecting branches, but when she turned her head to see who it was and hopefully ask directions, there was nobody there.
She shrugged, chose a random direction and went on. To her dismay, the street she chose didn't look like it was headed toward a popular section of the city; quite the opposite in fact. Things were looking darker, dingier and ever less lived-in. As she walked, once again she was sure she spied a shadowy figure darting through the shadows just on the edges of her peripheral vision, but when she looked down the alley, again there was no one there. This time though, she was positive she detected the faint, retreating sound of booted feet running. Her cybernetically enhanced hearing suggested in fact that the footfalls belonged to more than a single individual.
Sam started getting anxious again. Was she being stalked? Serenity was out on the frontier after all, with lawlessness leaking into Federation space from across the all-too-near border. Sam hurried her pace, and turned another random corner, then another. She imagined that the very minions of hell were snapping at her heals, could swear she felt their hot breath on the back of her neck, but when she dared chance a terrified glance over her shoulder there was nothing there. Her heart was pounding in her chest, her breath came in short gasps, and her eyes darted all about, searching for the unseen threat.
She slowed her stride then and stopped, feeling her heart racing, ready to explode. She looked both ways down the alleyway she was in -- no one there -- and forced herself to smile a strained smile. "Just my imagination," she sighed, and tried to laugh to reassure herself, but it sounded strained to her ears. Suddenly, she realized how silly she was being; she was just lost and the dingy buildings around here were giving her the creeps -- hardly a way for a hardened Starfleet combat veteran to behave! She shook her head, clearing away her silly misgivings. As her long, willowy blonde hair settled back onto her shoulders, her right hand came up to tap the comm-badge on her uniform front so she could call for directions.
Her hand never made it however. An instant before her fingers made contact, a pair of strong arms caught her around the waist from behind, pinning her own arms at her sides in an unbreakable bear hug and lifting her clear off the sidewalk. Another hand clamped tightly over her nose and mouth stifling the scream that was already rising in her throat.
Sam struggled fiercely, kicking and straining with all her might against the adamantite grip restraining her, trying to call out for help, but only for a few seconds. One of her assailants slapped some sort of small, electronic device against her forehead. It was mind-numbingly cold, and she could feel the debilitating chill spreading quickly down the length of her entire body. Her arms went limp and fell to her sides, dead; her legs lost all strength to kick and just dangled uselessly; and a strange mist began drawing around her vision. As her world grew dim and vague, Sam's consciousness seemed to her as though it was falling down and down into a bottomless well. Perception receded, her last strength faded, and finally conscious thought closed off altogether, and Sam knew no more.
Lee, Max, Jo and Alex had regrouped after their search for Sam had proved fruitless. They were all very worried by now. Admittedly, Serenity City was a big place, with nearly a hundred-thousand inhabitants, but not so big that a person could get so lost as to never be heard from again. Besides, Sam had her comm-badge, but they'd been unable to call her, neither had anyone received a call from Sam.
The four of them were in a semi-industrial portion of the city now, making their way back towards downtown through the gray, unfrequented streets here, when Jo spotted something shiny lying off to the side in the intersection just ahead. She took a few large steps to get ahead of her companions and bent down to pick it up. Straightening, she turned it over in her hand and inspected it closely.
Her voice filled with concern, she announced her findings to the rest: "It's a comm-badge. It's Sam's."
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