Fly the Nest

Posted on Mon May 22nd, 2023 @ 5:15am by Caeda & Lieutenant Commander Andrei Petrov

Mission: S1 Episode 5: Ex Post Facto
Location: Banea/Shuttle Harbinger
Timeline: Date 2371-08-16 at 1900
2439 words - 4.9 OF Standard Post Measure

ON


The dull thrum of the warp core filled the silence of the nearly dark room, the only light being provided by a very dim lamp on the bedside table. Her silken dark brown hair was wrapped around his fingers as he played with it, and his raven locks were between her fingers, her nails massaging his scalp pleasantly. Her warm body was gently pressed against his, her caramel skin soft against the rigidity of his muscles. It was one of those quiet moments they enjoyed together - the cuddling they'd rather die than admit they really enjoyed doing. One of her long toned legs was draped over his, their breathing was slow and in time with each other.

Her head shifted and she kissed his shoulder gently. With a smile, she looked into his eyes. "I love you, you know."

“Mmm. I know.” He responded, his mismatched eyes meeting hers in return. He exhaled slowly, the feeling of her body against hers calming him. “I love you too.”

It wasn’t a phrase he said often, so it really meant something when he did. He smiled at her in return and leaned in to kiss her.

As he leaned in to kiss her, he could tell by the look on her face and the shine in her eyes that she loved hearing those words from him. Her fingertips found his cheek with a gentleness reserved for him alone as she returned his kiss. Her lips played against his, her tongue teasing but never invading. Her body pressed a bit closer, and then she moved to shift herself on top of him. She rested her weight against him with confidence given he was able to take it and liked it when she did this. She continued to kiss him, growing in passion until she finally broke to breathe. She smiled down at him and was about to speak, when she was very suddenly and violently ripped away from his body and out of his arms. She let out a startled cry, reaching out wide eyed for him.

“Andrei!”

Despite his best attempts to grab her, she was pulled by something unseen off the bed down onto the floor and into the darkness of the living area.

“Andrei!” She called out to him desperately.

“Lyra?” He asked, his brows knitted together, “LYRA?!”

Andrei shuffled out of the bed, his defined muscles decorating the path down his strong body, his stress evident through the subtle flexing which occurred. He wore red boxers and nothing else, and his state of dress became apparent to him as the unnatural chill of the room filled his consciousness, and everything but the bed behind him and stark darkness hid itself from his perception. Disoriented, he took a step forward.

“LYRA?!” He shouted, his face contorting in panic.

“ANDREI! Help me!” Lyra called out to him in the darkness, the panic and desperation in her voice rising. As he stood there, he could feel her delicate fingers on his arm only to be pulled away quickly and when he grabbed toward their origin, there was nothing.

“Get away from me! No! NO!” She started to scream, but it was cut off by an all too familiar sound for Andrei; the sound of the blade piercing flesh. The scream had ended abruptly in the natural startled gasp followed by a sound between a groan and a whimper. He could hear her body fall to the ground somewhere to his left, but her voice called out to him one final time from the right.

“Andrei…” It was a pained whisper, still calling to him for help with her dying breath. At his feet he could feel warm wet starting to flow around his toes and the sides of his feet, it was thicker than water, sticky, and came with a distinct metallic smell. He didn’t need to see it to know it was blood.

“No…”he said, his eyes wide, as he thoughtlessly bent down to the ground to feel the liquid for himself. His fingers were thick with crimson-black when he pulled his hand back up. His breathing increased until his broad chest was heaving from the rage that had broken out. The veins in his neck and forehead jutted out angrily and his fists were clenched into balls of hot fury.

“NOOO!!”

When Andrei woke, he found himself in a small and unfamiliar room laying on a cot. He was still in what he had been wearing, though he had been of course disarmed of his weapons. Inside of the room were both his and Lyra’s belongings from the suite, a small alcove with a toilet and sink, and a chair and small table. On the table was a sectioned off platter that had various foods in the sections, and he had been provided what appeared to be some sort of non-metal fork to eat with. Also on the table appeared to be the Banean version of a PADD which was sitting active There were no windows or doors in the room and it was impossible to tell exactly how long he had been out; the watch on his wrist offered that it was now 19:06 the last time he had looked it had been around 1600 hours… so he had either been out for three hours or over a day.

Andrei was covered in sweat and he was still breathing hard from the effects of the dream. Waking to find her truly gone was even more of a horror for him. His feelings were peaking and he was obviously beyond the edge of his typical control. After spending several moments looking for an exit and a weapon, he happened upon the activated PAAD.

There was a message there for him.

Commander Petrov, it saddens me that we could not see eye to eye on the matter of your officer. Rest assured she is in good hands and will be taken care of until your ship arrives. We have gathered and left all of your belongings for you and we now ask that you leave our territory. Know, however, that should you return to your ship and attempt to contact the Numiri, we will have no other choice but to destroy you. I am sure you can understand why. When you return to your vessel, we expect you to depart immediately.

As a gesture, I have decided to include the recording from our patrol vehicle and perhaps you will understand why I told you we gave your officer mercy.

Andrei’s eyes darted to the video link and he clicked on it. What were these people going on about?

The video began with a split view, one in the front of the vehicle with the seven Baneans - including Kiva herself in the front passenger side - sitting in their seats with a view of sectioned off back and Lyra sitting there, and the second directly in the back focusing on Lyra alone. Immediately, Andrei could tell something was off. She was sitting there, but her body was swaying and being jostled by any little bump in the vehicle. Her eyes weren't really focused on anything, and she was opening and closing them slowly. When they were open, it looked like she was trying to focus, but the effort to do so was a strain. They hit a particularly large bump, and she nearly fell over onto the bench seat. Lyra was a woman who carried herself with poise and precision; it wasn't to the point of rigidity, but regality.

She had caught herself and shook her head. The rush of adrenaline and panic from nearly falling over seemed to snap her out of whatever was wrong at least for a moment. She shook her head, her still bound hands coming to her forehead and then blinked, sitting up and looking around with more clarity. She had stopped swaying, and her body now carried the tension of a trapped animal. Her eyes briefly went to the manacles around her wrists and she pulled at them. Magnetic. She looked forward toward the Baneans and spoke, but there was no sound to the video. They didn't respond, and there was a flash of anger on her beautiful features before they suddenly softened into something incredibly vulnerable. She leaned forward and spoke again, this time in seeming earnestness.

This time, one of the Baneans turned to look at her and frowned; she began to cough, sitting back and bringing her arms up as if she were trying to clutch her throat but she was unable.. The Banean looking at her grew more concerned and turned to the others, saying something as Lyra continued to cough and eventually slid out of view down onto the bench. The Banean driving rolled his eyes but judging by the shift and calming of the bumps, he had pulled the vehicle over. Three of the Baneans not in the front got out of the vehicle and appeared at the back a moment later. One opened the door, and Lyra surged.

She threw her arms around the man's head and brought a foot up to his chest. She leaned her torso back while pushing forward hard with her foot. The man's skull fell between the manacles and Andrei could tell he started to scream. The other two Baneans behind him reached out to try and grab him, pull him away, but they didn't realize they were simply assisting Lyra until it was too late. The magnetic force between the manacles crushed the man's skull as they were forcibly pried apart by his being pushed into them until they eventually came apart and freed her hands. In a fluid motion she was out of the vehicle with her sights on the next. The remaining Baneans scrambled to get out and help their comrades.

Lyra grabbed the weapon of the one nearest to her, pointing it up at his chin and immediately pulling the trigger. They were not like Terran weapons, there was no burst of pain or disintegration afterward, but the Banean's head was now gone. Lyra forcefully kicked the corpse into the third Banean, but instead of shooting him she suddenly went out of view as she bolted out of sight of the camera.

The time stamp on the video shifted to about ten minutes later and from the cameras Andrei could see other vehicles had been called in. The corpses had been taken away. Suddenly, violently, Lyra was tossed into the back of the vehicle. She was bleeding from the head and looked enraged. She flipped herself back over and tried to lunge out again only to be shot in the chest. She crumpled immediately and the rage evaporated into the neutrality of sleep, though her still slightly twitching fingers gave signs of life and fight yet.

The video ended and the screen went black, and Andrei was alone again.

Andrei watched with intense interest, and when it was done, he tossed the video down again. He hadn’t seen anything wrong with what she had done; just tried to get rid of a nest of avian pests. He turned his patched eye to the walls, scanning for an exit. He needed to get out of here on his own terms or they might just kill him. There was no telling whether what he saw was true or false, and he didn’t give even half a damn. They had a Terran woman in their prison; his woman. And he was going to get her back.

Despite Andrei’s advanced eye, there was no exit discernable to him. There had to be, of course, but there was something keeping him from seeing it; perhaps a dampening field of some sort, or perhaps the alloys that made up the room were unreadable. There was nothing but the quiet sound of air being pumped into the little box Andrei was currently trapped in. He was, however, still wearing his commbadge, and the letter given to him had indicated that he was free to leave. They seemed to know he had some way to get out, but they were making an attempt to be sure that he “got out” to his ship and not back onto their planet.

Andrei ran his hand over his commbadge, having finally given up his scans of the walls. He pressed it, picking up the PADD with his other hand, and sighed his seething command.

“Petrov to Harbinger. One to beam up with all Federation property and belongings in this room.” he said, almost growling, and he disappeared in a haze of blue. When he reappeared in the cockpit of the shuttle, he immediately went to the seat he had occupied on the way to Banea and pulled up the sensor readings. He tried to scan for Lyra and came up with nothing at all. No human life signs. No clear readings of the kind at all.

“Gods dammit!” he said, pounding his fists on the console in front of him and groaning.

Again the silence met him. The absence. On the empty chair next to him was the black throw blanket Lyra often wrapped herself in when she was simply sitting in the cockpit. Andrei liked the cold, so did she, but she also liked the cozy warmth the blanket provided to compliment the cold. The proximity alarm sounded abruptly, shattering the oppressive moment with a threat. A Banean vessel was approaching with its defenses and weapons armed. The vessel hailed the Harbinger and continued to approach.

Andrei’s heart leaped in his chest, his irritation directed in his visible eye toward the approaching ship past the glass. He raised his own shields, limited as they were, and answered the hail.

“This is the Imperial Shuttlecraft Harbinger.” he said simply, his fingers balled into a fist. “What do you want?”

“This is the Banean patrol vessel Zaltes, you are ordered to leave our space at once or be destroyed.” Came the faceless reply from the vessel as it approached.

“That would be the mistake to crown them all, Banean.” Andrei said, scowling. “Tell your leaders to prepare themselves. When I come back, I want them ready for the fight I bring.”

With that, he closed the channel and set an immediate course out of the system. He swung around the moon again and, once he was free, carelessly jumped to warp despite his proximity to the planet and its moon. He would make best speed to the Fleet, and then he would come back dragging fire behind him.

END