The Search for Elysium

[MattyIce]

Earth Date: July 14, 26 After Contact

Location: Proxima Centauri system, asteroid colony Sterling, docking bay E-4, ship Reisende

Toomas Vaerbetsov woke up due to the ringing of the comm channel in his room. Someone left a message. A message meant a job, and a job meant money, and God knows Toomas needed money right now. Between his drinking and...other activities... he had nearly run out of cash from the last job they did. He shakily stood up from his bed and looked at himself in the mirror, his short blonde hair was a mess, and his light blue eyes were unnaturally bloodshot. He rubbed a hand across his chin, felt a little stubble of hair and the scar that was present from his time in the military.

The comm channel was still ringing, much to Toomas' annoyance. "Hey, Captain! You have a message, answer it!" he yelled out loud enough so that anyone on their small ship would hear it.

 

[T'Shara]

Appearance:

http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/memoryalpha/en/images/4/45/Ishara_Yar.jpg


Captain Morena Jenkins was in her bunk, a small cargo hold with barely enough room to stand. It was right across the passageway from Toomas' bunk, which was a similar minuscule cargo area. The ship was flying on autopilot for the moment, and Morena was taking a pleasant break from fixing the ever-breaking systems to settle down with a book.

The comm beeped, followed by the inevitable dulcet tones of her first mate yelling at her. "Well, that relaxation lasted all of ten minutes," she muttered before turning on the commpad on the wall.

The call was not about a job, as hoped, but it was a distress call. A beacon was just under an hour out at their highest speed. The written message just read, "Need help. Have wounded. Attacked by Sidarians."

"Get up, Toomas. It's a distress call. They were attacked by Sidarians, apparently. Could also be a trap!" she shouted, climbing out of her cabin and heading to the bridge, expecting him to follow.

 

[MattyIce]

"Sidarians? This far out from the core? What the hell are they doing out here?!" Toomas shouted back to Captain Jenkins. He put on a pair of khaki combat pants and his thick brown boots. "Plan for a trap? I'm bringing grenades!" Toomas reached over and grabbed his rifle, a Type-80, standard issue to the Human-Centauri Alliance military. After making sure it's battery pack was fully charged he took some time to sight the rifle and make sure it was accurate. "Flashbangs should be good, no need to pierce a hole in the ship" He said to himeself as he grabbed two flashbangs, It had been a while since Toomas had needed to use his rifle, so he was itching for a fight.
After putting on his combat vest, Toomas stepped out of his room and followed behind Morena. "You're going in unarmed?" He said to her, noting she didn't have a rifle with her.

 

[T'Shara]

"Okay, you can take your stupid flashbangs, but chill. It may be a trap, or they might really need help. We don't want to scare anyone," Morena replied, packing the medical kit. "And I'm not unarmed. What do you think I am, stupid?" she pointed out, pulling a small and easily concealed laser pistol from a holster under her trench coat.

"But we don't need to act like its an attack either. Put the rifle away and take something smaller... less threatening. We are here to give aid. Don't go looking for trouble or startin' a fight." The captain paused for a second. "Besides, if we do get into a firefight, it will probably be in close quarters, so a full on rifle won't do you all that much good, now will it?"

"Unidentified vessel, we are within ten minutes of your location. Here to offer what aid and medical assistance we can. How would you like us to proceed," she announced over the comm. At this range, the message would be instantaneous in subspace.

 

[MattyIce]

"No rifle? You never let me take the rifle..." Toomas responded. He walked back to his room placed the rifle back in the gun case he had, and instead pulled out a much smaller but still powerful pistol. He really needed to get one of those newer rifles that could be used for long range and close quarters.

"The message said they were attacked, I don't see why we don't treat it as an attack." Toomas muttered to himself. Oh well, Captain's orders... It was tough enough finding work before he joined up with Morena, he did not want to be left on some backwater moon surrounded by aliens.

After switching out and holstering his weapons, Toomas walked back to the bridge to wait for the injured vessel to respond. "I sure hope you're right about this Captain." he said as he could see the ship just coming in to view.

It was a large ship, much larger than the Reisende. The markings on the side of the vessel indicated that it was part of the Procyon Hegemony, a small alien race whose home planet was in the Procyon system, but were very popular for their exotic spices that their bodies naturally produced, this ship was one such spice freighter. The ship showed scorch marks from plasma blasts, indicating it had been attacked by a Sidarian ship, and the rotation of the ship showed that it had no engine power, one section was venting atmosphere, and the ship had recently been boarded and then left alone.

"Captain, you ever had Procyon spice? Some of the hottest flavoring in the 'verse" Toomas said aside. "Those scorch marks, they weren't trying to destroy this ship, must've been pirates or slavers. I see lights on the side, so most of the ship still has power"

 

[T'Shara]

The ship before them was indeed astounding. It was completely made of ornate, flowing curves, and seemed almost "grown" rather than built. The Procyon used a strange luminescent alloy that glowed even in the lowest light of distant stars in the vastness of space. That is, unless it was cloaked. It had occurred to Morena that if they helped these Procyon, then perhaps they might share the schematics for such technology. Goodness knows cloaking tech would be a lifesaver for getting around the Integalactic Dominion patrols.

"Can't say I have, Toomas. The idea of eating spices excreted from a creatures body is a tad disgusting to me," Captain Morena responded to her partner before activating the comm again. The lack of response thus far was concerning. Either the passengers were too badly injured to respond, or something more sinister was going on.

"Your distress call said you'd been attacked by Sidarians?" the captain asked calmly, looking for some form of communication before docking the ship and waltzing into a situation that was looking more and more like a trap. Morena gave Toomas a concerned look, wondering what the hell was going on. But she quickly broke it off. A captain had to be in control of her own emotions, and of the situation, at all times. Even though her crew was only one person at the moment, it would not do to let herself be vulnerable.

The Sidarians were a fearsome species, expanding their territory from the Ophiuchi sector out towards Eridani and Cygni, the heavily populated systems where most of the Reisende's jobs were conducted. They had a hunter mentality, constantly seeking new and more dangerous prey. Few humans had seen one up close, but all feared them for the stories they had heard. Raiding ships, killing anyone who resisted, and selling the survivors into slavery or else taking them back to Sidar for their own sick hunting games. Such friendly species like the Sidarians were a major reason why even a tiny cargo vessel like the Reisende packed as many weapons as Morena's meager budget could spare.

Finally, a crackled answer sounded over the comm. "Yes... please... we... wounded. Commun- malf-ing. – Assistance."

Morena looked at Toomas as she docked the ship with the Procyon vessel. "It's probably a trap, but if it's not, then we need the allies. Get the rifle though, just in case. But have your medkit too."

 

[MattyIce]

"Yes ma'am!" Toomas said as he ran back to his room to grab his rifle. He grabbed an extra battery pack as well just in case a firefight really broke out.

He then grabbed an extra medkit and downloaded the layout of common Procyon vessels of the size and shape they were about to board. According to the schematics they would enter near the back of the ship, right above the cargo bay. The comm system was on the bridge, which was almost the entire length of the ship. That means, if there was a trap, then almost every corridor could have Sidarians hiding in it. After thinking through this, Toomas grabbed another battery pack for both his rifle and his handgun.

Toomas walked back to the airlock just as the walkway umbilical connected to the Procyon ship. "Well, if there's a Sidarian ship waiting in the wings, now's their chance to get two birds for the price of one..." Toomas said aloud listening for the sounds of plasma striking metal that would indicate their doom. After hearing no such sounds Toomas was content to accept that the most likely trap was not there to be sprung and stepped forward to open their airlock to cross into the Procyon ship when a different thought occurred to him.

"Captain, their ship is probably running just enough power for life support and comms...that means they don't have gravity...." he said glancing behind himself to Morena

 

[T'Shara]

Morena sighed and grabbed the emergency rope. Yes, the Emergency Rope. Nothing high tech and fancy, they really did not have time to go back to the cargo bay. If someone was dying out there, they had waited more than long enough. "I hate zero G," Morena muttered as she docked their ship with the Procyon vessel.

"Remember, keep your weapon down and non-threatening. We want to hope that this isn't a trap, and that people realy need our help. So don't go in with guns blazing," she ordered, eying Toomas fiercely.

The Captain led the way to the cargo bay and opened the hatch to step onto the other ship. The first thing she noticed upon peering in was that the artificial gravity seemed to be working.

"So glad you were wrong about that one," she muttered. "Did I mention I hate zero G? Makes me ruttin' queasy."

 

[MattyIce]

Toomas watched the Captain grabbing the emergency rope, noting how she was already quite agitated with the whole situation. "Captain, look at me... Everything about me says I'm friendly..." Toomas said, grinning in a way that would cause mothers to hide their children. "Besides, what's the worst that will happen? We look nothing like Sidarians"

Toomas followed Morena as she stepped across into the Procyon ship. He noted that they had artificial gravity and her remark.

"Darn, nothing makes me happier than seeing my Captain lose her lunch all over the place because of a little zee-gee." Toomas remarked to himself.

Once they were inside the Procyon ship Toomas looked down into the cargo hold and saw nothing. The whole cargo bay was empty. "Well, I think we know what the Sidarians wanted... not a container of spice left. Damn, I was hoping they'd give us a box or two." Toomas said, with obvious disappointment in his voice.

He pulled up a small PDA with the ship's layout. "The crew quarters should be up this corridor and to the right. The bridge is up the corridor, past the stairs, or...elevator...or...What is that?" Toomas said pointing ahead to an opening further along the ship.

 

[T'Shara]

Morena noted the lack of spices, or any cargo for that matter. These Procyons had been hit hard.

"Stay behind me. I'm still suspicious of this whole thing. Wouldn't want you to get hurt," she whispered to her partner, smirking at the irony of her own statement. She crossed the cargo hold quickly and went towards the opening. "It turns into what looks like a hallway," she called back.

Just then, a Sidarian female dropped down from the ceiling. Like all Sidarians, she possessed yellowish-green, scaly-looking skin, sharp fangs, and four short antennae on the top of her head. The creature stood at at least seven and a half feet tall, and her teeth and claws were each at least two inches long, but the look on her face was pleased as she wrapped her arm around Morena's stomach and held one claw up to the Captain's throat.

"Move a single muscle and I'll slit her throat right here and now," the unnamed Sidarian threatened coldly, glaring straight into Toomas' eyes. "You wouldn't want to kill your precious companion, now would you?"

Another, much smaller Sidarian appeared behind Toomas, pointing a laser rifle at his back. "Drop your weapons. We are taking your ship," was the cold command.

 

[MattyIce]

As the first Sidarian appeared Toomas started to raise his rifle, but he was too late as the large alien grabbed Morena. He lowered the rifle as the second Sidarian approached from behind. "It seems they got the drop on us, Captain." Toomas said calmly. Right now they needed an escape plan.

"So, a Sidarian and her mate?" Toomas said, glancing behind him to judge how far away the male was. The male stepped closer "drop your weapons!" He shouted, his claws flaring out. "Well, your female said if I move a muscle, my companion dies, so I can't exactly drop my weapon."

With that bit of snark, the male Sidarian grabbed Toomas from behind, turned him around and slammed him against the wall. Toomas grunted as his rifle fell to the floor. He looked the Sidarian in the face and said "you sure are ugly." The Sidarian growled before the female barked at him to take the humans onboard their new ship.

With a smile Toomas looked over at Morena and winked. "Don't worry, I got this." He said as the male Sidarian dragged him into the Reisende's cargo bay.

 

[T'Shara]

Morena rolled her eyes at Toomas. Yeah, sure you got this, she thought sarcastically. She struggled briefly against the female Sidarian twice her size, but she did not really expect to be successful. So eventually she stopped struggling so much and allowed herself to be led to the Reisende's cargo bay, where she was unceremoniously thrown beside Toomas. That's going to leave a bruise in the morning, she thought ruefully, looking at her friend and crewman.

The Sidarian couple were moving off of the tiny ship to maneuver and tether it into the cargo bay of the Procyon vessel so that they could carry both ships with them back to their base. The Alphas would be pleased with what they had brought back to the tribe. Two ships, with a bonus of two able-bodied human slaves.

"Well, they didn't tie us up. Clearly they don't think we are enough of a threat to be of concern. Good, should be easier to get out of here this way. It's safe to assume the Procyons are alive, and trapped somewhere. Sidarians like to keep their prisoners alive so they can sell them into the slave trade. The problem is whether or not we can find them. Let's assume we have to take on the Sids by ourselves. We should get out of here and get some weapons," she said. It was a damn good thing that their captors did not know her vessel like she did, because it only took her about five minutes to find a loose panel to one of the ship's many maintenance tunnels.

"Come on!" she ordered, climbing into the tiny crawlspace headfirst. Toomas would barely fit, but he could manage it.

 

[MattyIce]

Toomas followed behind Morena and watched as she climbed into a maintenance tunnel. "You're insane, Captain." he said as he followed behind and replaced the panel, trying to make sure it didn't look amiss. "You know, Sidarians get pretty pissed when their prisoners up and disappear." he grinned a bit after this. The maintenance tunnel was lit by small red lights every three feet, casting an eerie light on the two humans. Toomas came up to a small grate and looked down through it, he was now looking into the mess hall, which consisted of a single burner stove, a small refrigerator, and a table with room for six, not much, but it made due for them.

Suddenly below him a cooking pan, two plates, and the entire box of silverware flew by and crashed into a wall. Toomas could hear the Sidarians screeching and hissing at each other in their language, something that they never allowed to be installed into universal language translators, like the one that was surgically added to Toomas' ear almost like an old hearing aid. Toomas watched as the larger female picked up the male, hissed at him angrily then tossed him into the fridge, crushing the door frame. Toomas looked up to see Morena farther ahead of him, he caught up and said "First, they know we're here. Second, we need a new fridge."

Toomas took a right at an intersection and headed towards his room "I'll grab some weapons, you turn out the lights, remember, Sidarians live naturally in a ternary system. They can't see for shit in the dark." When Toomas served in the military, they fought pirates and slavers on an almost weekly basis. When they were Sidarians, the most popular way to take them down was to first blast the engines so the ship couldn't escape, then find the power generator and hit that. Sidarians were very likely to panic if all the lights went out, so when the military would throw in flashbangs, it caused Sidarians to go into a complete frenzy, and they'd kill each other nine times out of ten. Unfortunately, Sidarians learned, and starting installing redundant power generators, solar lights, and sometimes even carried lights on their bodies.

Toomas arrived at the maintenance grate next to his room and pushed it open, catching it before it hit the ground. He stepped into his room and noticed the Sidarians hadn't been in here yet. He kicked up his bed, underneath were two heavy plasma rifles, both of them made in the Alpha Centauri system. Next to that was a small rocket launcher, small in that it had enough firepower to take out a troop carrier or scout tank, but would barely scratch a combat tank or ship. Inside the Reisende though, it would send shrapnel everywhere at best, and pierce the hull and kill them all at worst. He smirked and thought "Morena would kill me if I brought that..." he picked up one of the plasma rifles, walked over to a small gun case he had next to his bed and opened it. Inside were a pair of human made pistols, which still used physical bullets. he grabbed each, along with several magazines, and slid them down the maintenance shaft. He thought to himself "I'm pretty sure Morena has no idea how many weapons I have in this room." he then grabbed a pair of low light vision goggles, slid them down the shaft as well, and put on a pair for himself.

He stood next to the door, foot next to the automatic open, waiting for the lights to go out and the fun to start.

 

[T'Shara]

Morena had glared back at Toomas' initial comment questioning her sanity. "No, insane would be just waiting here like sitting ducks for those gorram Sidarians to sell us into slavery. What I'm doing is survival instinct," she replied as quietly as she could, though the harshness was not lost in her tone.She had heard the crash just as clearly as Toomas had and could not help but roll her eyes as he pointed out the obvious. A minuscule part of her wanted to be annoyed about the fridge, seeing as they did not have a lot of cash at the moment to just buy a new one. But in all honesty, if they made it out of this with just a fridge and a few food stores as casualties, she would count them fortunate.

Upon her partner's request, she nodded and turned the other direction to head to the engine room, which also held the main power controls. There was a supply box which held some attachable flashlights, which were rigged to be bound to your wrist or your weapon, and she grabbed a pair in order to find her way back. Sure, she knew her ship like the back of her hand, but there was no reason to risk it. It only took the flips of a few switches, and the tapping in of an authorization code or two, to cut all power to the lights. Only five seconds later, she cut the emergency lights as well, and the Reisende was in complete darkness.

Amid the sounds of ferocious growls, crashing, clattering, and the general disarray she had forced the Sidarians into, Morena made her way back to the junction where she had left her first mate. In the darkness, she did not bother to conceal her smirk at their enemies plight, and allowed her eyes to adjust to the darkness, as she knew the Sidarian eyes would not. As she met Toomas at the junction, she glanced down at the outlines of the impressive array of weapons he was carrying.

"I sure hope at least one or two of those are for me," she whispered. Sidarian ears were far superior to those of a human, and their plan would be for naught if she gave away their position.

 

[MattyIce]

Toomas whispered to Morena "did you miss the handguns and goggles I slid to you?" the screeching and hissing of the Sidarians was getting louder and more frantic. Toomas opened the door from his room and looked into the kitchen to see that the table was now shattered and splintered all over the floor. He watched as the male Sidarian scrambled around in the darkness, no idea where it was going, his eyes unable to adjust to the darkness. Toomas moved in the opposite direction, towards the bridge. Behind him he heard more calm and organized hissing.

Toomas turned and leveled his rifle to see that both the male and female were in the kitchen, they had finally stopped panicking and were now just standing there, heads up high in the air. They had given up use of their sight, and had instead started using their other senses. Toomas was unsure if Morena could see him, but he lifted one finger to his mouth to indicate silence. He slipped around the corner onto the bridge and braced himself up against the wall for stability. Both of the Sidarians were around two hundred feet away from him, but were standing still, listening and smelling for where their human prey had gone.

Toomas flipped the sight on his rifle up. With it's magnification zoom and auto correcting CPU, the scope made the distance look like only a few inches. Toomas thought for a second about who he should target, took a deep breath, held it, and squeezed the trigger. In an instant the male Sidarian collapsed, his back burning blue from a plasma wound. The shot instantly killed him, and the only sound he made was the impact of the ground. The female spun around, and the light of the burning plasma was enough that she could see her partner on the ground, dead. She screeched and wailed, her claws extended and she took off in the direction the shot came as another two plasma blasts came, one missed, the second hit her in the leg, but it didn't phase her at all. Her mind was full of rage, but she could still hear the human in front of her call out "Morena! It's your turn!"

 

[T'Shara]

Chalk it up to the pitch black darkness broken only by her small flashlight, or perhaps to the rush of nerves and adrenaline she felt, but Captain Morena really had not noticed the handguns, goggles, and a lovely assault rifle that her partner had passed to her. "Sorry, didn't see them," she muttered, picking up the weapons and night-vision goggles before she embarrassed herself any further.

She was impressed with how quickly Toomas put down the male Sidarian, though she would have thought it would be more prudent to hit the female first. Except that female Sidarians had scaly skin that was actually quite bullet resistant. Yes, yell out and give them your position. I know when to shoot, genius. And way to give me the harder target, the captain thought, slightly annoyed. But even as Toomas had been speaking, she emptied the clip on her assault rifle, riddling the female with holes starting from her head. Only about half of her shots pierced the skin, but only the extremely lucky shot in a sensitive spot on the back of the Sidarian's neck was really important. The female fell to the ground, wearing a thoroughly shocked expression.

"Bullet in the brainpan... squish squish," Morena mocked, coming out into the kitchen area. It was not out of spite, but merely prudence, when she shot several more holes into the bodies. Sidarians were damned tough, and she wanted to be sure that they were dead.

"Power. On. Authorization Code 'Captain Morena: Bravo Oliver Mike One Zulu Seven' " she said quickly, having long ago rigged the power reactivation to recognize her voice.

"Help me search the bodies before we throw them out. We should see if there are any survivors on the Procyon ship, find the Sidarian shuttle there, and then figure out what we are going to do from there."

 

[MattyIce]

As the power and lights came back on Toomas looked across the female Sidarian's body. "You almost hit me. I'd appreciate if you didn't." he said to Morena. After searching the body, he found a small a small datapad. "Captain, I've got something here." after flipping through the digital pages he came to a financial statement. "Slavers" he said in disgust "I'm not sure how recent it was, but our lovely guests recently made a few hundred thousand credits selling humans on the slave trade. All the rest is in Sidarian though, so I can't tell what else it says"

He put down the datapad and lifted the dead alien across his shoulders. "Damn woman, lose some weight." he joked as he carried the body towards the airlock at the back of the ship. When he returned to the front of the ship he was looking at the damage the angry Sidarians had caused. "New fridge, new table, new plates" he said, picking up a shard of one of the many shattered plates. "Next time we fight Sidarians, let's fight them on their ship, yeah?"

With that, Toomas started to head back to the Procyon ship, his rifle at the ready, this time, nothing would get the drop on him. As he flipped up his digital map of the ship he noted that the there was an airlock on the other side of the ship. He walked there quickly and noticed that the Sidarians had kindly left their ship attached. "Captain!" he shouted back towards the Reisende "How in the hell did we miss this Sidarian ship?" Just then Toomas heard a noise that sounded like something falling. He leveled his rifle, crouched down and stopped breathing for a few seconds. He moved to investigate the noise. He looked up and down the elevator shaft that the Procyon's used to moved between levels, seeing nothing, he looked for a way to get to a different level. "Stinkin aliens with their ridiculous biology and weird ways of transport. Where's some gorram stair when I need them!" He said. After saying that he heard another noise, this one behind him.

Toomas flipped around, fell to one knee and leveled his rifle, index finger already on the trigger. "Stop." was the only word he said coldly. Standing in front of him was a large being. It's body consisted of a round uneven ball. Below it were at least twenty legs, two of them currently outstretched to show it was surrendering, while one other had just dropped a small blade. It's eyes were right on the front of it's body, along with it's mouth. On it's back were well over a hundred small lumps, almost like extra growths. On it's side Toomas could clearly see it was wounded, as there was a stream of orange colored liquid flowing out. "Help..." it said "help...us.." before it's legs wavered in fear and it collapsed. Toomas dropped his rifled and ran over to the Procyon, grabbing his medical pack. "Morena! We've got a survivor!" he shouted as he applied began to treat the wounds.

 

[T'Shara]

Morena was fairly disgusted by the idea that these Sidarians were slavers, but it was not surprising as many Sidarians dabbled in the slave trade. Still, the confirmation that they were in fact trading in sentient goods definitely served to ameliorate some of the guilt that the captain had upon killing the Sidarian female.

"Agreed, but I doubt we'll be given anymore choice next time than we were this time," she had replied to Toomas' comment about fighting the Sidarians on their own turf. As far as she was concerned, a new fridge and some dishes was a small price to pay given that they had been very nearly killed or sold. They were not doing particularly well for money right now, but they had enough savings to get them by for a month, even after replacing the fridge.

She had followed Toomas to the other ship and had mirrored his movements, but now as he treated the Procyon, she tried to speak to the strange creature. To her, they looked like overgrown cancer growths, but they were very intelligent beings, and she knew she had to try and overcome her human prejudice.

"Is there anyone with you?" she asked the being that was being treated by her partner.

"Yes. We are, or we were, a colonization ship. We had about three hundred passengers. The Sidarians who attacked were in a raiding party of about fifty. But we had few weapons, and few people who knew how to use them well. They caught us by surprise. Most of the passengers are dead now. The couple you saw was cleaning up the last of the goods. The others left already," she heard through her universal translator, although it was obvious from the movement of the creature's lips that he, or she, was speaking in Procyon.

"Do you have a doctor? Who's your captain?" she asked, trying to keep the fear out of her voice. Who knew how many were left? This was a mess. The only thing the Procyons had going for them is that no one wanted them for slaves, so if they stayed still and out of the way, some of them might have been left unharmed.

 

[MattyIce]

Toomas finished treating the wounds as Morena spoke to the Procyon."I've done a basic field dressing, but we need to get you to a doctor so they can treat you better." Toomas said. "Did they take the Captain and officers?" he asked. Toomas had a bad feeling about these slavers. The fact that this lone Procyon was here but no one else was gave Toomas an uneasy feeling.

"The Captain is dead. He...tried to fight." the Procyon said. "A Sidarian cut him to pieces. All of the bridge officers were executed..." Toomas thought in his head... A colony ship with three hundred passengers... "God, that could be at least fifty people..." Toomas walked toward the bridge. When he got there, the scene was ugly. The bodies had been moved, but there was blood all over the floor, and the walls where the prisoners were lined up and shot. He tapped on the computer's main computer and downloaded a few files. Just then he heard a crackling of static as the ship's communications came alive.

"You! Humans! Help us!" a gravelly voice said "I'm in the main security room. I have the remaining survivors with me. We have a doctor, but none of us are fighters. Please, get us out of here!" the voice finished. Toomas looked around warily. This could be another trap, and he was just about sick of Sidarians and their traps. He noted the small black lens of a camera in each corner of the room. Those same cameras had captured the slaughter that occurred here. It was a shame, the galactic community did so little about the slave trade, calling it "the Sidarian way of life" of course, humans were cautioned to not be too brash about attacking slavers, but that had not stopped...campaigns...

Toomas pushed those memories out of his head and asked Morena "What do you want to do? They could be lying, but this Procyon needs a doctor."

 

[T'Shara]

"I don't think they are lying. The damn Sids were here, and I have no doubt that a small hunting party could wipe out a transport ship like this. But it's normal for them to leave the lowest ranked mates to 'clean up' when they are finished. We have to try and help. But stay armed," Morena instructed and warned, as if her ex-military partner needed the warning. "I'm getting the doctor. That guy doesn't look like he should be moved."

So Captain Morena pulled out her old-fashioned revolver pistol and traversed the ship until she found the hold where the survivors had locked themselves in. Just to be on the safe side, she pointed her pistol as she kicked the door in, but she only found about sixty terrified looking Oversized Tumors, erm Procyons.

"Okay, I want whoever is in command out here to talk to me, and I want a doctor to head over to the cargo bay near where the Sidarian ship is docked. We already killed the mating couple, so it should be safe.

Two Procyon's pushed through the crowd, and one of them stopped in front of Morena while the other trotted off with a medical kit to the other compartment on the ship.

"Alright, I don't like you guys laying here like sitting ducks. How fast can you repair the ship, get back underway and work on burying your dead?"