An Unexpected Discovery

Posted on Sun Jul 28th, 2024 @ 7:40am by Lieutenant Commander Lyra Cassiel & Lottie & Lieutenant JG Sipov Boros
Edited on on Sun Jul 28th, 2024 @ 7:41am

Mission: S1 Episode 8: Resolutions
Location: Dralian Trading Post
Timeline: Date 2371-12-26 at 1545
2917 words - 5.8 OF Standard Post Measure

ON

After her successful negotiation with the slavers, Lyra had decided to linger on the station for a while longer to explore. There was nothing particularly troublesome about this place, and she had found it a good distraction for her troubles for a while. Lottie was following her in step and just behind and to the side, and the Kazon brute she had brought along was certainly dissuading any unwanted attention. It felt very natural to move like this through a crowd for her, her slave attending her and another guarding her. She had quite made up her mind that if things did move forward with Andrei, she would put her plan into action. She had no particular aim for the rest of the day so was simply moving through the open air shop fronts set up in the large open bay area to see if anything else would strike her fancy.

Her intense dark eyes moved from stall to stall, but it was a simple pass through the middle of the aisle that finally drew her complete interest. Ahead of her, being walked forward in a line of other aliens was a Cardassian man in chains. She surged forward immediately and while she heard the slight yelp Lottie gave behind her as the Kazon man pushed her forward to keep up, she paid it no mind. She caught up to the group in seconds and identified the guard who was herding the group.

“You there, where did you get that one?” She asked with an urgency in her voice and pointed to the Cardassian man.

The guard heard the woman but didn’t pay her much mind for the moment as he continued moving his prisoner towards their destination of the holding cells. Sipov paid well to ensure his ward was secured properly. The Cardassian however couldn’t help but shoot off his mouth “You’d better answer her or you’ll end up in the cell next to me…”

The next sound to escape Daraan’s mouth was a loud cry as a club found the back of his knee, causing him to fall to the floor in pain “Keep your place, pig” the guard said. With the temporary stop in movement, he turned and addressed the woman’s question “My client prefers a low profile. But I can take you to him, for a couple slips. Just let me get this fool to his cell first. But you should know he already has a contract to sell his services so you’ll have to wait…..”

Lyra looked at the alien man trying to extort her and then down to the Cardassian on the floor. With a slight movement of her head, her Kazon guard moved and hauled Daraan back up to his feet and Lyra easily moved herself between the guard and the Cardassian. She looked at his bruised face and found it strangely comforting in a familiar way; a piece of home, even if it was in this filthy slave.

“Who is your master?” She questioned him directly.

“You must be a fool if you think I’m going to answer you Terran, you’re all the same. Pure trash. You belong in these chains more than I do.” Daraan spat in her direction, uncaring of the help he’d just received.

The guard rolled his eyes “You see? He cares for you less than I do. I’ve given you an answer, woman. Now move out of my way and if you are in agreement we’ll complete this transaction and you can know his master. If not, we are done here.”

Lyra just looked at the Cardassian for a moment. “Not a very good master, then. We’ll have to fix that.”

She then turned abruptly to the guard and grabbed him by the chin, looking down into his eyes from her impressive height, then her hand gentled to cradle his cheek and her expression became one of sympathy. “Now then… certainly you can’t be so foolish to speak to a Terran of the Vengeance in such a way? I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you simply didn’t know.”

Her hand slid down back to her side. “Now that you do… don’t test me.”

The guard looked back at her for a moment, the name bringing familiarity. Part of him hoped that his payments in the future for the extra handling weren't going to be effected by his next decision, after all he and Sipov had a very particular arrangement, but he also knew the man was looking for a way off the station. He motioned to a nearby colleague that had gotten caught up in the commotion “Take the prisoner to the cells, I'll be along after I'm done here.”

The other guard reached over and took hold of the lead chain, pulling Daraan forward not bothering to care of the grip of the others still holding him.

“Now, if you will, I can lead you to his master. Or if we keep going back and forth I have little doubt eventually my neck will end up snapped and a fight will ensue, which will be of little consequence to me because I'll be dead. Either way my life is pathetic enough that my level of care only goes so far Terran.” The guard knew he was pushing limits but either way wanted the interaction to be finished.

“Release him.” Lyra commanded the Kazon man who complied immediately. She cast one last look after Daraan and then let her cold, dark gaze settle on the guard. “You are the one who wanted to make this into a game. Take me to his master.”

“I simply offered my services for a fee, for what you demanded. But this argument is pointless either way. Follow me if you will.” He looked behind him as he saw Daraan being led away, the guard wondering what fate may befall him after all of this. The good news was that he was more than aware of the location Sipov spent most of his time. There was a simple cafe he typically frequented, catching up on local news or looking for some venture or another, looking for his exit.
Leading the trio down the way, it didn’t take long until they reached their destination, spotting the man sitting in a small booth by himself eating a sandwich. He had a glass of juice and was scrolling through a series of listings for ships when the guards shadow cast over him. He looked up at the man, not minding who was behind him “What the fuck are you doing here? Didn’t I pay you to take Daraan back to his cell? I should kill you where you stand for cheating me!”

The guard took a few steps back and raised his baton “I’m not here by choice, she insisted I bring here to you.”

“Yes, you really probably should.” Lyra agreed from behind the guard. She stood behind him, tall and imperious, the picture of regal beauty. Her dark eyes were sharp and intelligent, and she looked over Sipov carefully. While she wasn’t in uniform, she still wore her commbadge insignia of the Terran Empire.

“Now… just how did you get out here?”

Sipov took note of the commbadge and grinned “I don’t recognize you, you didn’t come here with me. I was brought on a Cardassian slave ship. Something whisked us away into this god forsaken place and we found our way here, those of us that survived. We managed to overtake our captors. Please tell me you have a way out of here? Everyone else I was with has found their own way and is now gone” he answered. “Lieutenant Boros…” he said, scooting himself out and pushing the guard back before stepping forward with a limp or two and saluting “Long live the Empire!”

“Long live the Empire.” Lyra repeated with a mildly amused smirk on her beautiful face. Instead of saluting, though, she extended her hand out to Sipov. “I’m Lieutenant Commander Lyra Cassiel of the ISS Vengeance. What ship were you on before you were captured, Lieutenant?”

“Commander” he replied “I was aboard the Wasp. She was boarded and a number of us were captured, they used some new weapon on us to knock us out. When we awoke we were enslaved and carted around for almost a year before we ended up here. I was a helmsman prior, assistant Chief. I’ve been working to recover from my injuries here while having managed to enslave one of my captors to try and make a life for myself. But of course duty to the Empire would be preferred.”

The guard took a few more steps back as if to almost try and excuse himself from the situation at hand.

Lyra grabbed the guard by the shoulder to keep him from going anywhere. She was very tall and notably strong. It wasn’t surprising given her position, but to those that didn’t know that she held it, it would likely be rather surprising from a woman. “Where are you trying to scurry off to?”

He froze in place, her grip keeping him from moving further. “I figured I would leave you two to get acquainted, it seems I am done here.” He placed his baton by his side so as to not appear any sort of threat.

Sipov took a step forward and removed the baton from his hand instead “You failed your task, we had an agreement. We exchanged money for it.”

The guard looked him in the eye “Give me that back, you know what happens to those that defy us…


“You know what happens to those that break their transactions on this station. Or did you forget about those men you strung up yesterday for all to see?” Without giving the guard a moment to reply, Sipov head butted him in between the eyes, causing the guard to stagger back. “Now give me back my latinum. All of it, or you’ll be up there with them.”

“You’ll pay for that!” His hand covered his face, blood oozing around his hand and a nearby guard taking notice, making his way over.

“Sipov stared back at him “Who will pay more in the end? You can walk away with empty pockets, or strung up to die slowly. Either way I’ll walk out of here.” He threw the baton on the ground towards the other guard and crossed his arms. “Your move, scum.”

While the guard wanted to desperately fight him back, he knew Sipov was right. Reaching for a pouch he removed it from his waistband and tossed it at the Terran with one hand still covering his face.

“That’s better.” Sipov replied. He turned back to the Commander “Do you by chance have a need for another crew member? A seasoned pilot perhaps?”

Lyra had simply looked back to the Kazon brute she had brought with her for the man to move and put himself between the second guard approaching and the rest of the group. Her pretty young slave was standing very quietly and timidly behind Lyra with her eyes on the floor. Lyra herself hadn’t moved to interfere more than what she had already done and even watched with amusement on her face during the altercation. The alien man had chosen wisely - at least for the moment; Lyra didn’t take her eyes off of him even as Sipov spoke to her.

“Well, Lieutenant, I certainly wouldn’t leave you in this little hell hole even if we didn’t need a pilot. As it happens, our Chief Flight Control Officer couldn’t handle the duties he was expected to perform on a ship of the Vengeance’s size and our assistant chief is still a bit too green, so yes, actually. If you are up to the task, we could use a pilot assuming our captain agrees. You can even bring your pet Cardassian along if you like. Do you have more?”

“I would love to meet your Captain. As for the Cardassian he’s the only one left, although I have a potentially strong offer to purchase him and a lifelong guarantee he’ll spend cleaning up shit the rest of his days so I may be inclined to end up selling him instead. He’s almost more trouble than he’s worth. As far as Chief Helmsman, I’d love the opportunity to serve the Empire any way needed once more, and a chance to see a doctor that actually knows what the hell they’re doing. The people here are still stuck in the damned dark ages. Anything to fly again.” Sipov Looked over Lyra and her cohorts, wondering what the rest of the crew was going to be like. If this was any indication, he was going to have quite a time pending his acceptance on board.

“It is your choice on the matter. If you bring him into the fleet, however, he will be expected to perform duties for the fleet and will need to be put through the actual breaking and training process. I know you did not have the proper tools available to see him enslaved properly, but we will not have wild slaves on our ships. If you wish to sell him for the profit, perhaps that might be more agreeable to you.” She didn’t seem particularly bothered one way or the other on the topic, but clearly wanted him to decide. “Do you have belongings you need to collect before you join us?”

“A few things I would like to gather from my quarters and some loose ends for business I should attend to. I don’t believe it’ll take me more than say an hour or so, if that is acceptable. My slave will be sold as I don’t have the time for him and would rather know he is rotting here somewhere in a setting unfamiliar to him. I do not trust he will be worth our time as it is. I await your further directions, Commander.” He stood up as straight as he could, although it was evident there were injuries hindering him that would need addressed. However inside he was happier than he’d been in quite some time. She was the first Terran he’d seen in months, and now, she was also his lifeline.

“Very well. Shall I leave my slave with you in case there are any…” Her dark eyes focused on the guard once more, “problems? I would hate for anyone to make poor choices and doom this entire place.”

“That would be most appreciated. Also I am sure he could show me to the ship as well and assist in access. While I assure you I can hold my own even now, there’s no telling what this one might try before I leave.” Part of him also knew that her guard would likely be keeping a watchful eye on him being a new intake, but that didn’t bother Sipov. “At your leisure, of course. I am ready when you are Commander.”

“I don’t think he would be that foolish. We already had a little chat about such foolish thoughts, didn’t we?” It was a question to the guard, but obviously it was rhetorical. There was a pretty, pleasant smile resting on her face, but there was something undeniably sinister underneath it all. She looked back to Sipov and the expression remained, though it was less projected toward him than it had been with the guard. “He’ll remain with you then. When you are ready to come aboard the Vengeance, contact her from here and I will meet you to take you to our Captain.”

“Very well then. I will contact you soon to board the Vengeance. I look forward to being around our kind once more as I’ve had more than enough of this place, and its inhabitants.” Sipov took a few steps forward and then looked back to motion to the Kazon “With me. I may have a few legs for you to break, depending on how stubborn some of my contacts prove shortly.”

The Kazon didn’t move and instead looked over at Lyra for direction.

“Go with him and obey. In no more than two hours I expect you to both be on the Vengeance in front of me.” She spoke to the Kazon, but as she finished her eyes had landed on Sipov again. “I will see you soon.”

“I’ve never seen someone so unenergetic to break legs..” he quipped. “No more than two hours. Understood Commander, we’ll be before you soon.”

Motioning once more as he turned, Sipov continued on this time without looking back and his limp remained showing as the guard looked on, leaving the pair to go about their business. Soon he’d hopefully be rid of all of them. Sipov hoped to be richer and rid of the Cardassian, while seeing some pain inflicted as he wrapped up his affairs. The stop by his quarters would certainly be a quick one as his belongings were far and few between. Yes, this place would definitely not be missed. And if he could help it, he’d never return….

END