Posted by Lieutenant Jasmine Wynter (Chief Medical Officer) in Mundai Colony - A need to get away

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Maxwell Wynter (Chief Engineer / 2nd Officer) in Mundai Colony - A need to get away

Original Post - https://www.star-fleet.com/core/stf1/manhattan/notes/43195/

Snip

“A fee?” Max smiled then, right back at the Ferengi but it was a sight that made the small villain’s own smile fade. “I think we can come to an arrangement, and I’ll tell you what, I won’t even charge you a fee for helping me.” At that Max turned and thrust the butt of the phaser into the Ferengi’s stomach, bending him over double with a grunt.

Pulling him back upright again, Max stared into his face without expression until the Ferengi stopped wincing, and opened one eye to look at him. “Stop! Stop we can make a deal!” He almost pleaded, and Max simply answered with Hmmph.

“Your ship is the Ferengi shuttle on the PaDD at the space port,” Max said bluntly, “and your friend there was your boss, he’s carrying the key card to get into it with the security codes. Why would I need you? I’m an Engineer, I can get into the computer and find your docking locations.”

“Hahaha,” the creature laughed and veritably hissed at Max, “but you can’t use it, only he could, and you killed him! Hahaha!” The Ferengi found great joy in Max’s new issue, it looked like he would have to strike a deal after all. “Make a Deal, Hooman! Let me call my employer, get the shuttle switched to my signature, and I can take you anywhere you want to go, for a modest sum. Deal? You need me, Hooman.”

“And warn your employer that I’m coming? No deal, but thank you for warning me about the security.” Max suddenly shoved the butt of the Phaser into the Ferengi’s stomach once again, and this time as he doubled over he swung the phaser up, and then down on the back of the villains head, stunning him. Max pushed him to one side and let him crumple into a heap, then knelt down and turned the dead Ferengi’s face towards him. Pulling out a Tricorder, Max took a scan of him and then tapped a decorative looking metal bracelet on his wrist. “Bob, what do you think?”

Seconds later and a shimmer appeared beside Max, and the dead Ferengi stood before him once again. “How do I look?” It asked in a nasally voice, “You know this isn’t what I was thinking when you said we were going on an outing, right? I could get my programming wiped, do you realize that Maxwell Amadeus Wynter? And poor Jasmine, why did that have to happen?”

“Oh hush Bob,” Max said, smiling tightly at his and Jasmines Emergency Marriage Holographic Counselor. “Your job is to help our marriage right? How can you do that if she’s been abducted. Now you get to actually help us out properly.” The Ferengi/Bob looked at Max confusedly. “But we saw her get shot, what are you talking about?”

Max leaned down and picked up the Ferengi’s key card for the shuttle and the weapon he had dropped, then turned it over. “A Transport Marker pistol,” he explained, “It sends out an energy beacon on impact so that a waiting ship can beam the target directly aboard. We have a chase on our hands, Bob. Jasmine is out there, and we are going to find her.”

Tucking the keycard and pistol into his belt, Max picked up the unconscious Ferengi’s foot and began to drag him out of the alley way and back to his car. “This thing might yet be of use to us, and I’m not leaving him here so he can call is boss. We can always drop him off somewhere handy if we need to, plenty of asteroids in this sector.” Max glanced back at the Ferengi who immediately let his head drop back to the ground to pretend he was still unconscious, although several shades paler than he had been a moment before.

Lt Cmdr Wynter, CE

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Somewhere on Mundai Prime
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Jasmine pulled off her surgical gloves and the mask down from her face. Approaching the glass that separated them Jasmine banged on it with her fist. “Hello,” she called out more than annoyed. Her head hurt and she felt like she was going to throw up. Whatever they gave her to knock her out was taking a long time to leave her body. She was in no shape to do surgery but the man was either going to die if she didn’t. “Is someone going to tell me what is going on,” she banged on the window hard enough to hurt her hand. Not getting an answer she moved to the cabinet that housed numerous bottles and tablets. Flipping through several of them she found what she needed and loaded a hypo. Depressing it to her neck, the pneumatic hiss of the medication being delivered was followed by the instant rush of it working. The nausea was vanishing along with the headache that had plagued her since she woke up.

“You can not stop stealing you filthy little whoman can you,” the Ferengi from earlier entered the room.

“What is going on,” she demanded slamming the hypo on the counter. “Is Lauren backing this,” she demanded waving her hands about. Jasmine had always felt Lauren’s mission in life was noble but her methods at times seemed a bit rogue. How she had gone from helping women and children with vaccinations and basic first aid to apparently running a hospital was more than Jasmine wanted to be involved in.

“Who is this Laur wren,” the Ferengi studied her intently. It was clear from his expression that the man was just as confused as she was in this second.

“You know what, forget it,” she waved her hand before running it through her hair. “Let me walk out of here and you can keep the meds and whatever else you are doing. I came here to drop off supplies. What you do with them is your own business.” There was no way Jasmine was going to let this end but he didn’t need to know that.

“Yes and you need to understand that whatever you use will result in longer to pay off your bill,” he said pulling out his PaDD. “That drug is seventy five credits and the other one is fifty so you owe me one hundred and twenty five credits,” he stated proudly. This deal was going to be lucrative. Once he added her food and lodging to the daily bill this doctor would never be able to buy her freedom.

“Bill me,” Jasmine looked at him shooting him a hostile glare. “I will give you my MasterCard if that will get me out of here.” The sickening twinge in her belly told Jasmine it was not going to be as easy as signing Mrs. Maxwell Wynter on a data chit to get home but Ferengi did do strange things for money.

“Oh we will but for now you need to get to work,” he grabbed her arm pulling her towards a door. As they journeyed down the hall, the building became less and less hospitable. The tiled floors blended to concrete stone and eventually slabs of solid surfaces. The wall of the hallways were much the same with the technology to light them and the control to operate the doors they passed moving like a time warp to less and less modern. Reaching a large metal door, all Jasmine could think was she was about to enter a bunker of some sort. The reality on the other side of the door was far more bleak than she could imagine.

As the thick heavy doors slid back with a clunk followed by a grinding sound as they traveled along a track of metal, her eyes opened wide as a prayer slipped from her mouth. The room on the other side was a warehouse complete with glass paneled ceilings and what looked like tin walls. Sickly yellow mute rays shone down on the floor giving the room a hazy glow that made you feel like you were in an abandoned place. The problem was that the warehouse was not empty or abandoned. Rows up rows of metal beds reminiscent of those used during Earth’s world I and II stood like soldiers lining up for deployment. People moved among the beds dressed in white. It looked like the triage tents from a war zone or natural disaster yet, nothing recent Jasmine had heard of would account for the scene before her.

Jasmine Wynter

The Ferengi, Rag, pushed Jasmine into the room and stepped through allowing the metal door to slide closed behind them. It closed with an audible click of a lock slamming into place. He stopped and looked around, then inhaled deeply. The warehouse had a strong medical odor to it, but not that of unwashed bodies or dirt. “Do you smell that, Hooman?” Rag asked her, then began to walk forwards among the beds. “That smells like profit, a nice large profit that you are going to make for me. I know you don’t remember me but you owe me, Lootenant Jasmine Wynter. You owe me for a lot of money that you lost me, and now you are going to work it off.”

Rag stopped and looked at Jasmine, and grinned. It was an evil, lecherous grin but his eyes showed a malignant intelligence and confidence that he always got his way. “Why would you think I am holding these people here against their will?” Rag waved his hand over a bed beside him where a young and underfed looking woman lay looking at them, she had a drip connected to her and a bulge in her chest that the people either side of her did not have. She wasn’t human, Jasmine had never seen her species before and it was likely native to this quadrant of space. “They all signed contracts willingly, and they are free to leave at any time. Of course, if they do, they have to pay me out for the food, clothing, rent of the bed and medical procedures we have already done plus taxes and interest, but no one will stop them leaving. I am a business man, Hooman, not a monster.”

Rag turned and kept walking, “No, you are most certainly not free to leave, you are not one of these fine, upstanding citizens. You are a liar and a cheat, a charlatan that owes me. Despite that, I will let you work off your debt. I decided that was a better use of you, and your skills, than just removing you from my ledger entirely.”

Rag reached a small desk and counter and pulled out a PaDD, notably, all communications out of the building from it were blocked. “This PaDD will tell you everything you need to know about these people, your job is to harvest the extra organs we have grown inside them, put them in the stasis containers and then my people will distribute them to the people I have waiting with the money to buy them.”

“Don’t even think about trying to damage my goods, the last doctor I had tried that and ran up a debt he could never hope to pay off. Unfortunately, the Hooman anatomy is nothing like these Carcharias people from the planet Taurus in this quadrant. They have the ability to grow extra redundant organs inside them with the right medical kick starter, Hoomans, do not. He was removed from my ledger.” He pushed the PaDD into her hands and then waved at a man a short distance away who was taking the vitals of one of the patients, the man put the old clipboard he was holding onto a clip at the end of the bed, then approached them.

“This is Cade,” Rag introduced him, “He is a Carcharian, like them and will be assisting you. He knows what to do when you have harvested the organs, you can start with her,” he pointed to the woman they had paused beside earlier, “she is ready for harvesting, and Cade can inject her with the next growth hormone for the next organ and pay her for this one.”

“Oh yes Hooman, you will do this. It is the only chance you have of getting out of here and paying off your debt if you want to see your Husband again. You didn’t even tell him where you were going, did you? Imagine how much he is going to worry and miss you, think you are gone, just left him perhaps. If I can make a suggestion, get to work. The faster you work and more you do, the faster you will pay off your debt. Just don’t eat more than you need to, food is expensive, you know.”

Rag started to walk away, and then turned back to her. “Don’t bother looking for an operating room. You don’t need one, do it there, on the bed. If we move them to an operating room it will take time and money, neither you or they can afford that. Do it right there, cut her open, take out the organs and sew her back up. See how efficient that is? Get to work whooman.” With that Rag turned and nodded at Cade, then didn’t look back as he walked down the aisle towards the exit, he didn’t look either side to the people in the beds either.

“Hi,” Cade said to Jasmine, and notably without a smile or any kind of friendly demeanor. “So I take it you are our new Doctor? Rag seems to like you, he hinted that you might be able to leave at some point without owing him your children for the next three generations.” The man was the same species as those around them, he was tall and looked much like a human, except his eyes were a solid gold with no Iris and it looked like he had gold stripes over his skin running in a pattern where they could be seen.

Lt Cmdr Wynter, CE