Asking Around

Posted on Sun Jul 28th, 2024 @ 7:58am by Lieutenant Marikit "Kit" Urso & Lieutenant Commander Andrei Petrov

Mission: S1 Episode 8: Resolutions
Location: Vridis III
Timeline: Date 2371-12-27 at 0530
4286 words - 8.6 OF Standard Post Measure

ON

Andrei materialized on a busy street corner beside what looked like a lamp post. It was arched in shape, and was a pale bluish-green, a color that seemed to match the strange shaded tint of the morning sky. It was a large moon on the fringes of Vidiian space, so while most of the people who walked by him were of that race, there were many from various other races they’d encountered, and even more that Andrei had never seen before.

Checking the map he had uploaded onto his patch, he walked across the street, ignoring the almost frightened glances he was getting from people. It seems that Terrans were becoming recognizable in the area, and the impression was that they should be feared.

He entered the double doors of a hospital complex and stepped up behind an old Numiri woman in line. He decided to be patient rather than simply push her out of the way. Perhaps being nonchalant would get him somewhere.

The person in front of the woman stepped away and began to walk down one of the large hallways and in turn she stepped up and began to speak to the middle aged Vidiian woman sitting in a red uniform behind the desk. Thankfully, the woman seemed competent and not inclined to be chatty past what was polite, and it took only a few minutes before the Numiri was walking away.

The Vidiian woman looked up to the next person in line pleasantly, but the expression faltered when she saw the Terran man standing there. She frowned, cleared her throat, and then smiled again though it was markedly smaller and more reserved.

“Good morning, sir. How can I help you today?”

“Hello, I would like to get some medical information from your database. It’s very important.” Andrei said, smiling at the alien woman. The smile was handsome, but not intended to be particularly disarming. “Can you help me with that?”

There was a certain suspicion in her pale brown eyes, but the plastered on smile remained. She gestured with a hand to the left. “If you go down this corridor past the first one and take a right at the second, you’ll find the library as the second door in that hall. One of the attendants there will be able to help you.”

“Thank you. You’re very kind.” Andrei said in a soothed voice. He turned then and walked in the direction she had indicated. Once he reached the library, he walked through the doors and looked around for one of the attendees the woman had assured him would be there. When he saw a Vidiian wearing what looked like a uniform, he headed over to him. “Excuse me, I need help searching your database.”

The Vidiian man turned toward Andrei without a smile. He was older, not especially attractive, and by the look on his face he was already having a bad day. He ran a hand through his cropped brown hair and gave a sigh. “Yeah, what are you looking for exactly?”

“I’m looking for the cure to a rare insect-borne virus native to the planet Gamma Eridine II.” Andrei answered. “It seems that the cure is obscure, and my searching hasn’t uncovered it to this date.”

“Alright well,” the man walked over to one of the consoles on the floor and put his hand on it. “Here you go, you can look for the information here.” He tapped a few buttons to bring up the medical library regarding diseases for Andrei.

“Good luck.”

Andrei leaned forward immediately, his hands moving across the console as he searched the database. He searched for Gamma Eridine II and nothing came up. He searched cures for diseases from the area of space they were in, and it wasn’t on the list. Finally, he searched for cures created by Dr. Danara Pel, and came up with a short list which also excluded the relevant disease. He balled his fists and stood up. With frustration in his face, he walked back over to the man who had helped him.

“It’s not in there, or if it is, I couldn’t find it.” he said, pointing to the console. “Would you mind taking a look for me instead? I hardly know how your system works.”

The attendant who had been sitting down and probably taking a break looked up at Andrei and immediately gave an exasperated sigh. He stood though, and trudged over to the console he had left Andrei next to. He began to tap at the controls, but only did so for about thirty seconds before giving a shrug. “Sorry, not there.”

“No, they have to be there. Why would a Vidian medical record not be there?” Andrei asked, an irritation for the man’s apathy starting in his chest. He controlled himself though. The man didn’t know how important this cure was to him and to the Fleet.

“Generally means it is classified, new, or just doesn’t exist.” The man replied with an uncaring shrug and deactivated the terminal. “Sorry about that.”

“I know that it exists for a fact, so it can’t be that.” Andrei said, forcing a smile. He was clearly trying to be civil, but his patience would wear thin quickly if he faced any serious roadblocks. He would figure it out, of course, but he hoped he wouldn’t have to compromise someone’s health to make it happen. “If it were new or classified, how would I go about finding it? Who might I talk to directly? Perhaps you have a technician or doctor on staff who can help me resolve this quickly?”

“Uhh… I really don’t know. I suggest you go back out to the front desk and ask the woman there. I just help bring up files here, that’s all.” The man gave another shrug, clearly not caring about the urgency Andrei was feeling nor the fact that he couldn’t help the much taller, larger man.

“Godsdamnit.” Andrei said, balling up his fist. When he left the library, he forced open the door which was going far too slowly for his taste. He marched out without thanking the man and stormed toward the front desk. This time, he ignored the line and interrupted the woman behind the desk.

“Excuse me. The file I requested isn’t in your database. I need you to connect me with some database for sensitive or new files.”

“Sir, there’s a line. You’ll have to wait and then I will help you.” The woman replied calmly and indicated to the line which was five people long. She then turned her attention back to the man she had been helping and ignored Andrei.

Without missing a beat, Andrei reached and grabbed a closed cup she had sitting on the welcome desk, opened it, and poured it all over the counter, being careful not to get the dark brown liquid on any of the technology there. He then closed it, placed it back on the desk, and took a deep breath.

“I understand..” he said, his jaw tight. Then he turned and walked quickly and angrily to the back of the line. The Delta Quadrant was yet another experience in the total superiority of the Terran race. These people didn’t know what was good for them at any stage.

“Hey!” The woman yelled in alarm and immediately started pulling tissues from a box to stop the liquid from flowing all over. A few of her colleagues moved to help her clean up the desk once they saw what was going on, and angry glances were thrown in Andrei’s direction.

“Oh come on, you ass.” A man turned to Andrei, he looked humanoid but the strange ridges on his face marked him as an unknown species. “Now you’ve just made it take longer for everyone.”

Andrei looked at the man, his visible eye showing every possible bit of the cold brutality he was capable of. His jaw set. He didn’t like being insulted, especially by those beneath him.

“Shut your mouth or I’ll shut it for you.” He said like a growl.

“Okay, relax.” The man rolled his eyes but looked away from Andrei and watched as the Vidiians finished cleaning up the mess behind the counter. Once it was finally done, the receptionist resumed her seat and the line continued to move though a bit more slowly this time. Finally, Andrei was next and the woman looked up at him through those pale brown eyes.

“Yes?”

“I already told you what I needed and I’m not going to repeat myself. Get it for me now.” He said, all semblance of politeness, gone from his voice and his face after the long wait in line.

“Sir, I do not have access to that information.” The woman replied calmly. “I am sorry, but you will have to seek it out elsewhere. We are a minor facility on a moon.”

“Couldn’t you have told me that when I came to the front of the line before?” He asked, scowling now. “Stupid…” he seemed to take a deep breath and steel himself. “Alright, fine. Then I need you to search the personal database for a Dr. Danara Pel. I need to find out where she’s stationed.”

“No, there was a line and people were here before you.” She replied and blinked at him once. On hearing his second request, she shook her head. “I’m afraid we don’t hand out personal information on patients nor doctors to people who are not employed at this facility or next of kin. You will have to look elsewhere.”

Andrei narrowed his eyes and leaned in toward her a bit, using his height and size to tower over her seated position.

“I’m going to get that information from you, or you’re going to tell me where I can get it. We can do it the easy way or the hard way.”

When he leaned forward, she shrank back and frowned nervously. While she knew she was of course following protocols, it certainly wasn’t worth being harmed or worse. This was a good job, but it wasn’t that good of a job. She cleared her throat and looked around, then chanced leaning in toward Andrei so she could speak quietly.

“Your best option for finding that kind of information would be at one of the medical research stations deeper in Vidiian territory.”

“You said you don’t give it out, which indicates to me that you have it. If that is the case, that means my best option is to get it from you. Log onto your system and give me her location right now.” Andrei commanded, his hand hovering by the dagger handle attached to his side. It wouldn’t have been obvious to the woman what it was, but the possibility it was a weapon would certainly dawn on her.

The woman looked up at him, the fear becoming much more apparent in her gaze when his hand moved to his side. She licked her lips and touched the console in front of her and suddenly a forcefield sprang up around the entirety of the front desk. With it in place, the woman stood and began to back away. “Sir, I am going to have to ask you to leave. Security is on its way to escort you off the premises.”

Andrei stood up, surprised as the force field raised. No matter what they seemed to do to play nice with alien races, it always seemed to blow up in their faces. His traumatic experience on the Lovarr coupled with their frustrating experiences on Ocampa, Banea, and Sikaris were prompting a slow change of philosophy in his mind. And now, when this disgusting Vidian woman resisted him, he knew something in him was different. He didn’t get angry, but looked at her calmly.

“There’s no need for that. I’ll leave on my own.” he said, looking down at her, his visible eye glowing with gray intensity. He turned then and walked straight out of the front door.

Stepping outside into the greenish tint of the day, Andrei walked down the busy street, pulling out his tricorder, and stepped into some establishment which looked to be similar to a Terran cafe. People sat, drinking warm drinks in mugs and either reading, working on portable devices, or talking to someone else. He sat down on a comfortable sofa and grimaced at the terrible music that was playing in the background. He accessed the public hospital system network and started the work of trying to hack their database. After a frustrating hour of trying, he switched his efforts to accessing their camera systems. After another half hour, he determined he didn’t have the skill for that either and he slumped back on the couch, frustrated. It was only after he had given up that attempt that he noticed the woman he had been speaking to at the welcome desk walking past the shop window with a large bag over her shoulder.

Andrei was up in a flash. Stepping out onto the street, he used his patch to scan and track her, and then let her walk a significant distance away to avoid being seen.

The woman was still on edge from earlier, Andrei could see it in the elevated pulse and stress hormones in her body. She was walking quickly and avoiding the people on the sidewalk who were taking things at a much more leisurely pace. She eventually turned down a more narrow side street that led her toward a tall building full of apartments. She walked into the front doors and out of Andrei’s sight.

Andrei was fifty feet behind her, but quickly closed the distance as soon as she walked into the building. Cautiously, he opened the doors as well and stepped inside. Inside, a moderately nice apartment building welcomed him with a long hallway and some foreign-looking potted plants. The only other person in the hallways was the woman he was following. He jumped into a small alcove in order to avoid her seeing him as she turned to unlock her door.

The woman had looked down the hall, having an unsettling feeling, but when she saw nothing she turned her door. As soon as she opened it, Andrei could hear an excited yell of an adolescent child and the woman laughing. Then the door slid closed.

“Yes, mama is home.” The woman chuckled, putting her bag down and scooping up her young son in her arms. Her husband stepped out of another room and smiled.

“You’re home early.” He noted.

“Yes… it was a rather eventful day.” She replied and sighed, still hugging her boy.

As soon as the door was closed, Andrei walked down the hallway with a calm ease and stopped in front of the door she was standing in front of. Taking out his phaser, he very kindly looked down and set it to high stun. He pressed the doorbell and sighed calmly.

“The things I do for love..”

It took a moment but the door was eventually answered by an alien man who was clearly not Vidiian but was clearly humanoid with ridges along the side of his head and forehead dappled with spots. He looked at Andrei and immediately frowned.

“Yes?”

Andrei Didn’t speak in response to the greeting, but instead simply discharged the phaser. With a yelp, the alien man flopped back onto the ground and Andrei stepped deftly over his body. Closing and locking the door behind him, he turned back to the Vidian woman and her child.

“Remember me?”

The woman screamed and the child instantly began to yell and cry. She grabbed him up in her arms and hurried away from Andrei down the hall. She more or less threw the boy into a room, panicked and terrified, and hastily bid him to not come out no matter what before she closed and locked the door. Remaining in front of it, she blocked it with her trembling body and looked at Andrei.

Andrei approached her with a neutral expression, reaching out and grabbing her shoulders with his strong hands. He pushed her against the door, hard, causing her to hit her head.

“It would have been so much easier for you to have given me the location of Dr. Pel, wouldn’t it?” He asked, grabbing her again and pressing her against the door. “I hope, for your sake, you’re ready to cooperate with me.”

Tears were streaming down her face, she let out a slight cry when he pushed her and her head hit the door. “Please… please don’t hurt my baby.”

“Oh, shut up.” Andrei said. He sighed, bored with it all, really. He wished Lyra was here. Something about her presence made terrorizing people so much more intoxicating. He leaned in close to her until his lips neared hers and smiled. “Are you going to help me or not?”

“Y-yes. I’ll help you. Please just leave my family alone.” She whimpered out, pressing herself into the door a bit more.

“Good girl.” He whispered, patting her cheek hard. “Thats all I wanted from you. Now, this is very simple. You are going back into work on the excuse you forgot something. You will download your entire medical database and your personal records onto a data drive, and you will bring it back to me. I will stay here and keep your strong men company. If, at any point, I even suspect that you told someone or I hear a siren or a sound that seems to me in the slightest to belong to a law officer, I will smash your son’s skull against the wall until it’s a stringy paste slightly before I escape unharmed. Any questions?”

“How do I know you won’t do that anyways?” She questioned hesitantly, frowning and not meeting his gaze.

“Doll…” he said with a playful grin. “I give you my word as a Terran. By the likes of my word, the greatest empire known to the universe was born.”

”Urso to Petrov. Checking in… again. This is obnoxious just so you know. Are you staying out of trouble? There aren’t nearly enough strippers where I’m at, I gotta tell ya.”

“Could be a good career option for you then, according to the laws of supply and demand.” He said, his eyes never leaving the woman across from him. “I’m a little busy here.”

”I don’t have enough tits or ass to do that. Also, I’m just following your rules, big boy. You wanted the hourly check-in.”

The woman Andrei was holding let out a slight whimper. “Please…”

”Ah, Andrei, what the hell? We talked about this. It was supposed to be in April.”

“Go.” Andrei said to the woman. “And remember what we talked about.”

The woman nodded and once she was released, she quickly took off, only briefly stopping to check on her husband and put a pillow under his head. The door opened and then closed right after.

“Are you learning anything over there, Kit?” Andrei asked as he tried the door to the bedroom where the little boy had been thrown.

The door was locked, but he could hear the boy still crying inside.

”Oh loads. What are you doing over there, you naughty dog?”

“I’m just gathering some basic informations. It’s no big deal.” Andrei said as he forced the door open with one swift kick from his uniform boot. It swung open and he heard the immediate scream of the boy. He rushed in, grabbing the boy by the shirt, and started to drag him out of the room and into the hallway. “It’s boring over here. I bet you’re having more fun than I am. Investigations are….a drag.”

”I don’t know about that… the hell are you doing over there? Why do I hear so much banging?”

Andrei pulled the crying child to the middle of the living room and placed him in a chair. The screaming had stopped by this point, and the boy was mostly whimpering and staring at his father’s unmoving figure on the floor. Andrei sat down on a different chair and crossed his arms.

“Sometimes banging helps to smooth the way and make things go much easier.” he said with a chuckle. “Tell me about your morning so far.”

”Really not that interesting. Most of it has been about exploring alternate power sources and means of travel, but nothing that would apply to us. I’m hoping later in the afternoon we’ll get to the more outlandish and fun things. Also the food here sucks.”

“The Vidians were never known to us for their food and drink.” Andrei said with a sigh, “or their music, fashion, or personality. I’m just happy they’re terrible at ambushes.”

”Ambushes?” Kit questioned, the surprise in her voice evident.

“”I was referring to the ambush at the nebula when-“ he started, but stopped when he heard movement behind the door. He picked up his phaser and leveled it at the door. “Anyway, must go. Petrov out.”

”He-.” Kit began but was cut off as he ended the link.

The door opened and the Vidiian woman stepped in, pale and sweating and reeking of distress. When she saw her son sitting in the chair, she let out a desperate cry which in turn made the boy start yelling and crying again. She ran toward him, her arms out to collect him from the chair and protect him from the Terran man. “Rako!”

“Mama!” The boy cried out, trying to jump from the chair and go to her himself.

Andrei watched as mother and son reunited, leveling his phaser at them casually and looking irritated and bored.

“How wonderful. Assuming you got what I asked for.”

“Go back to your room, Rako.” The woman said and gently pushed her son past Andrei, then turned her attention to the Terran man. “Yes, I’ve found what you want. Please leave my home and I will give it to you in the hallway.”

Andrei reached out and grabbed the boy’s arm as he walked by, pulling him back and into his lap. The boy yelped in fear as Andrei turned the phaser up to full power and placed it on the boy’s temple. He looked at the Vidian woman, his eyes cold.

“How about this? You give me what I want here, and then we can end this.”

“Let my son go. I’m not going to give you anything while you are holding him.” She replied, terrified but resolute as any mother would be.

“Oh, well…easily solved, I suppose.” Andrei discharged the phaser and the boy in his arms disintegrated before the very eyes of his mother. The boy was gone in vapor and dusk, and Andrei stood without the burden of having the boy on his lap. “He’s gone. Now give me the damn data.”

The Vidiian woman suddenly began to shriek, a terrible and visceral sound as she watched her son disappear. She rushed forward, weeping and grabbing at the air. “Rako! RAKO!”

Her body wretched with sobs and she looked up at Andrei. He’d taken her only reason to live and give him the information, so her gaze turned defiant. “I won’t give you anything, you fucking monster!”

“Godsdamnit, you stupid mongrel.” Andrei said, moving up lightning fast and backhanding her with his knuckles and the phaser. He watched as she went reeling backward and lost her footing, falling to the ground. Then he holstered the weapon and climbed on top of her, straddling her with his powerful legs and striking her repeatedly with his fists. “Give me the information now, or I swear I will make you curse the day you were born.”

The woman screamed and wailed underneath Andrei, but instead of lying there or trying to defend herself, she began to struggle under him and try to hit him. She slapped him ineffectually, then began to try and claw his arms, lifting her body to claw at his face in a rage. As he continued to hit her, she eventually went still, her pretty face bloodied and her body unmoving underneath him.

Andrei kept striking several times after she stopped moving before he stopped himself. Huffing and puffing from anger, he used his bloody hands to get up off the floor. He reached for his face and felt the sting of small cuts from where she had raked him. They were minor, and he hardly cared. He knelt down and ran his hands down the sides of her body looking for pockets. When he detected a small lump on the side of her pants, he fished out the small black device he had instructed her to use to get him the information he needed. He scoffed at her lying on the ground unconscious. If the foolish woman had just done what he said, her son would still be alive.

Andrei knew he would need the shuttle computer to search the device, so he looked around the room one more time to take in the terrible scene, then he activated his patch and initiated transport back to the Aeroshuttle.

END