STF

Deltana V - The Ritual

Posted Nov. 24, 2020, 10:49 a.m. by Commander Ardashir "Jack" Creed (Executive Officer / CIO) (Steven Sigle)

Posted by Lieutenant Celina Rodriguez (Chief Tactical Officer) in Deltana V - The Ritual

Posted by Lieutenant Celina Rodriguez (Chief Tactical Officer) in Deltana V - The Ritual

Posted by Commander Ardashir “Jack” Creed (Executive Officer / CIO) in Deltana V - The Ritual
Posted by… suppressed (7) by the Post Ghost! 👻
SNIP
Spreading her legs apart, Celina plunged the dagger at her knee level and began cutting the fabric in a horizontal line turning her Amish skirt into something more practical. While her anger was misplaced it had to be vented somewhere. As Celina watched him looking for something to cover up, the site of his glistening bronze, chiseled chest just mad her angrier with Dwynwen. Moving her hand slightly she noticed the glint of the sun coming off her diamond was blinding. Tilting her hand so that the shine was directly in Jack’s eyes made her feel slightly better as she watched him blink and squint. The move was jealous and petty but there was no coffee and that in itself made her more bloodthirsty.

Lt. Celina Rodriguez CTO.

“Stop it…” he said as he slapped her hand downward. Pointing at her as he spoke it would be clear from the look he was giving her he was about to dig into her on something. “This is Cesars fault you know… ‘Oh help my hermano, he needs us… you are like his big hermano…’ blah blah blah. If I wanted to be his big hermano then that would make this.” Jack said as he pointed between the two of them as to indicate them as a item, “Very Lanister like if you catch my drift.”

Creed, XO

Celina froze struggling to contain the emotions in her body. She started to shake and clenched her jaw biting back every word, phrase and sentence begging to spill from her lips. Her eyes bore holes into him desperate to say with her eyes what she was holding back verbalizing. After several long minutes, all the cascades came crashing down as Celina erupted in laughter. “Stop making me smile,” she said angrily fighting to keep the stern expression on her face.

Jack and she had a very tumultuous relationship, that typically lasted under ten seconds at a time. After ten seconds of fiery rhetoric to two things happened. The first was never going ot happen now because they were on a beach and she learned at sixteen living in Peurto Rico that making up in the sand was a no go no matter what the situation. The other was someone laughed because the other shot, scored, and sunk the comment of the night. “I,” she started before a familiar voice rang out from seemingly no where.

“Dude bro why you wanna make it so weird,” Cesar called out. “I mean yeah she is my sister but why you acting like you are mad at me mi hermano?”

Celina Rodrgiuez

“Mad… at you!” Jack said, completely bypassing and ignoring the fact that somehow Cesar was upside down and dangling.

“Jack remember your command training to remain calm in tense situations,” Celina tried to keep up with Jack as she half stumbled, half ran in the soft sand about her ankles.

“Phew,” Cesar smiled. “I thought you were mad at first.” If Celina had a gag she would have used it to stifle her brother for his own good. Cesar never seemed to be able to read Jack or that Jack was mad at him.

“Who else am I going to be mad at? You drug us out here for some god forsaken treasure hunt… and for what.” Jack said as he gestured around. “Where is the treasure Cesar? All I see is a bunch of crazy loons who drugged us and… well I don’t quite know what we did… and where are these people.” Jack asked as he looked back over to Celina.

“Over.....there,” Celina gestured to her left dragging out the word. She would have added more to the sentence but it suddenly occurred to her that they were alone. Why this fact hadn’t registered earlier surprised her. “The are....around…somewhere.” Her eyes darted up and down the sand dunes and beach desperate to find another living soul but Jack seemed to be correct. Looking back at Jack she raked her top lip with her teeth.

“Why is it just us three? Does that not strike you as odd?” he asked her, wondering if she was feeling just as uneasy as he was.

Creed, XO

“Because they went to get us breakfast?” Celina struggled not to cringe at her comment.

“Oh is that what they are calling it nowadays when someone just takes off with all your items…” Jack murmored under his breath. He should have known better, he should have been paying closer attention. Never had anything Cesar dragged him into though required this much focus.

“Nah there was no one here when I woke up…upside down,” Cesar responded wiggling some in the cocoon like rope bindings that had him suspended upside down from the tree. “You guys picked a really weird place to camp. Why didn’t you follow the guides I hired to,”

“What guides? This people took us out on bird back and said you sent us to them. They mentioned you by name… so unless there is another group of people these were our guides!” Jack yelled at Cesar as he began running his hands through his hair in frustration.

She fought not to laugh hearing the bird back comment. Seeing Jack on the back of what was basically an over grown chicken with a saddle was going to be a memory to be shared over and over…in the future of course.

“Not helping,” Celina said in a chipper tone. Whatever Cesar was going on about, the last thing Celina needed was for Jack to be reminded of the bird he rode in on. That trip in resulted in avian comments about her mother followed by being drugged. While Cesar seemed more worried about how they got there, Celina could not stop wondering about what had happened last night. The memories were fuzzy yet one thing was sure, she had slept with someone. Celina would definitely need to light a few candes to St. Augustine the patron saint of bad choices followed by one to St. Monica who was not only the patron saint of wives and mothers but also the actual mother of St. Augustine.

“Okay help me get him down.” Moving towards her brother, Celina pulled out the knife and reached up trying to get the rope that was suspending her brother. Unfortunately it was far above her head. Not wanting to bother Jack, Celina began to try and think tactically how to cut a rope that was three feet above her head.

“Celina,” Cesar hung very still with his eyes looking past Jack who was standing in front of him.

“Not now Cesar.” Jumping in the air, she attempted her first swipe at the rope above Cesar’s feet.

“Lina…Jack,” Cesar’s tone was still happy and up beat but a little more urgent.

Lt. Celina Rodriguez CTO

“What?” Jack snapped as he looked back at Cesar, as he couldn’t help but form a smirk on his face as he watched Celina perilously try and cut him down. “You know I would have helped, I could have nicked him slightly and said it was an accident, would have made me feel much better…”

Creed, XO

“I am....fah,” she said turning to face Jack. The look on her face melted into surprise as her eyes widened and her jaw became slack. “Jack,” she batted his arm rapidly not looking at where she was striking him. “Jack we really need to get him down.” Her actions became more intense with the hitting turning into her poking and shoving his arm as if trying to physically move him.

“Fine… fine fine fine!” Jack said as he threw his hands up as he reached behind his back and pulled out a knife.

“Mi hermano,

“Wouldn’t you like to know, you learn a lot of stuff while on Orion.” he said with a wink to Celina as he began cutting the binds that held Cesar in place.

Celina’s gazed was fixed on the horizon and the small boat rowing ashore. It was moving at a rapid pace like the occupants were rowing for thier lives only the people in the boat had an unsavory quality. Plus the seemed to be waving pulse swords and firing some sort of projectile weapon in the air while pointing at them.

“Well they showed up faster then I thought they would,” Cesar announced like it was a fact the group should know.

Lt. Celina Rodriguez CTO

“Who showed up… if you say pirates I will show you knew places I can put this knife at on you and it won’t be as fun… who are they Cesar?” Jack demanded, feeling a bit tired of the games they had been playing so far.

Creed, XO

“If you don’t want me to call them pirates would you be fine with scallywags,” Cesar said in a hopeful tone as the rope snapped that held him upside down on the tree. Cesar dropped hard to the ground. The soft sand helped to break his fall since the Cesar’s feet and hands were still bound. “Ohhhh that hurt mi hermano,” Cesar groaned flipping onto his back looking up at Jack and Celina. “You could not have helped me down easier?” The tone was not angry but more jovial.

“You are lucky I like you! If you were anyone else I would have left you in the tree and counted my losses.” Jack said as he turned back to Celina. “What are we going to do here?”

Celina had no idea what was going on except the distance between the men arriving to the shore and their group was rapidly decreasing. Shouts and taunts from the men in the boats were just starting to become discerniable to those on the shore. Looking at Creed, Celina shook her head not sure what to say. There was only one thing to do right now and that was get Cesar free so they could escape. “Jack help me.”

“Fine… fine… but if they ask for a sacrifice I am choosing him.” Jack said with a gruff grunt as he helped Celina out.

“Hey later you two will thank me,” Cesar said in almost a hurt tone. “If I didn’t bring you and tell them,”

“What did you do,” Celina replied dropping to her knees and starting to cut through the ropes holding Cesar’s feet. The hemp ropes were thick and did not slice easily as one saw in the the holovids. A flick of the wrist did not allow for the captive to spring free. Instead she had to slice back and forth attempting to sever enough of the material with each swipe so that pressure from Cesar pulling his limbs out would hasten the process.

“I told you I was talking to my friend Pedro back home. He said ‘Yo Cesar I got a sweet deal an’ thought of you’. So I said “Yo Pedro tell me about it.”

The waves crashed along the shore like drum beat echoing the march of the people arriving. Celina paused to look at the encroachers as they jumped over the side of the boat sloshing thier way to the sand shores. The term pirate was applicable based on the haphazard dress and weapons assortment they were brandishing. Each one approaching wore some variation of leather boots, cotton tunic shirt, and muslin pants. The colors were dark and the fabric dingy as if they had not seen clean water or soap in a very long time. Most had matted beards and hair clumped into thickly knotted braids. The only unifying factor between them was a skull and cross bones tattooed somewhere on thier neck, arms, or chest.

“Jack, hurry up,” Celina snapped moving her attention back to her fiance and brother.

“An’ then Pedro was like dude you just need to go to Deltana an’ ask for a guy named Felix. I was like Rosalina’s brother Felix and Pedro was like no he is on Risa learning to surf. So I was like Yo dude thats right how long has he been gone,” Cesar continued with the story that he had shared a few days ago when he convinced his sister and Jack to go with him to Deltana.

“Jack we need to hurry,” she repeated her request frantically pulling the ropes free from her brothers feet.

She had lived with Cesar long enough to know that you need three things when Cesar began to tell a story: Tylenol, a note pad, and some booze. Right now she didn’t have any of them or the time to wing it and try to keep up.

Hooking on arm under her brother’s, she and Jack pulled Cesar to his feet. They had no direction to go, just to not stay where they were. They could see nothing but sand in all directions except to the right. A large creamy yellow sand dune blocked thier view at to what was beyond. It was the only way to head with the hope that something lay beyond the dune to give them some sort of cover.

Lt. Celina Rodriguez CTO

“Look I need information, I deal in intel… not unknown… fill me in… cliff notes edition, do I need to kill these people?” Jack asked, without a sense of humor of kidding in his voice as he helped him and Celina begin their advance away.

Creed, XO

“Yo I was getting to that for ‘Lina got all crazy and cut me off,” Cesar huffed and puffed trudging up the thick sand dunes. If they would just stop a second he could answer Jack’s question but as usual he and his sister were always full steam ahead.

Cresting the top of a sand dune, the trio paused for a second finally able to look over the hill that had obscured their view. Turning around, Celina looked at Cesar before glancing at the still approaching hoard of pirates. “Those guys just don’t give up,” she panted trying to catch her breath.

“An’ they won’t until we talk to Felix. I told him over the comm last night you had plenty of money but Felix said that you could settle up later,” Cesar smiled and backhanded Jack playfully in the gut. “We just need to give them Celina and then they will back off us.”

Lt. Celina Rodriguez CTO

“Look… all I need to know, is do I need to kill them!”

“That might be a bit overboard mi hermano,” Cesar put a hand on his shoulder. “Maybe just try to avoid them. You know like your war game things you did in college?” Jack was not being helpful right now. The last thing Cesar needed was for Jack to not play along until he had time to get all the pieces of his plan into place.

” I am not giving up Celina, for anything!” Jack said with a gruff tone as he was growing quite tired. “I have enough time to set up a blind behind that bush, stab the lead guy as I then use his body for cover before taking his weapon, throw the blade into the secondary lead guys head to distract them and hopefully have enough time to shoot them all.”

“Jack that I like the first part of the plan but stabbing them,” Cesar glanced at the men who had paused slightly staring up at them. Cesar gave a weak smile to Celina and slightly shrugged not sure what to do.

”… that’s the plan… it worked on Gravic Prime when you found that ancient aliens cult that wanted to thought you were the destroyer of worlds and needed to flay your skin and eat you,”

“Yes but that was my fault because my mother always warned me not to talk about religion,” Cesar shrugged slightly.

” it worked on Polaris VII where we had to fight that group of Vulcan zombies hopped up on that Trillium-D that brings them back to life like some damn horror movie,”

“How did I know that they were experiencing a plague and were under quarantine,” Cesar threw up his hands. “Besides Celina said you got a commendation for helping ou the planet so why are you complaining. That one at least helped out your career!”

“Mmmhmmm ehhh,” Celina shrugged looking around for som way to get out of this situation before her brother said another thing that was stupid or their attackers actually got to them.

“It worked on Ferenginar in that back alley and the Nausican strippers tried to sell your kidney to those Gorn monk’s cause you convinced them you were some Bajoran god and they wanted to absorb your powers… and it can work here…” Jack paused as he took the knife as he used it to point at the approaching horde of people, “If you just tell me that I need to do what I always have to do in order to keep you alive just long enough so you can see our wedding!”

Creed, XO

The roar of the attacking pirates erupted from below the sand dune as they brandished weapons shaking them over their heads and around their bodies. Cesar had to think fast to save the situation. There was only one solution. Cesar just hoped in the end, Jack would see why he did what he was about to do and appreciate why. “Lina....run.” Without a second thought, Cesar reached out shoving his sister hard backward. The impact threw her off balance causing Celina to cartwheel her arms as her body tipped backward.

“Jahhhhhhh,” she barely got out his name before her body tipped far enough to begin rolling down the hill. Grunts and moans erupted from her lips as Celina tumbled down the hill in the soft sand of the dunes. Her hands dug into the sand trying to slow her body down. Spinning she was able to twist her body about so she was on her tummy looking up at Jack while coasting down the dune as if on a sled.

“Uh Jack,” Cesar replied with his eyes getting wide. “Is…is that a drop-off?” Cesar never really looked at where he was sending his sister. Now that he had a good look, the dune did not end in a soft pile of sand. Instead, it looked as if the edge was either a drop-off or the crest of another dune. Either way, Cesar had no idea what was on the other side.

Lt. Celina Rodriguez CTO

“Damnit Cesar! Only I get to drop her off the side of things, it’s kind of our thing…” Jack said as he sheathed the knife as he looked back at the horde.

“Sorry bro. Lina’ said you have done that before. Did you let her see it coming or did you just give her,” Cesar began a conversation as if time was not the essence. Jack on some level fascinated him. One did not just throw, push, stuff, or yank a Latina. It tended to get them all riled up to which the instigator paid a hefty price afterward. According to rumor, Jack had to thrown his sister off a balcony, her down a turbo shaft, stuff her into a trunk, or yank her off the top of a roof in the middle of a party. The family called it a rumor because they only had the drunk retellings weeks or months later of the events to which there was always two versions.

“Okay, now you!” Jack said as he grabbed the back of Cesar as he flung the pair of them off the side. This wasn’t ideal, but he had to get the ones he loved alive, and Cesar he guessed as well.

“Dude how....has sheeeeee not kiiihhhhh…you fooooor thissssss,” Cesar’s reply echoed as the pair tumbled down the hill bouncing at times off the not so perfectly smooth ground. His words were punctuated by the odd ahh, ohhh, and ouffff as the air was bounced from their lungs.

“I hate you so much Cesar!” Jack shouted loudly before they hit the ground rolling as they did before coming to a screeching halt.

Creed, XO

“Get up,” Celina kicked her brother’s leg and spoke sharply to Jack, “and you stop tossing me off of ledges like I have wings.” Cesar had pushed her not Jack but she was just mad in general. “And why are they chasing us,” she threw her hands up. Less than twenty four hours ago Jack and I were sipping back drinks at a two bit space port. now we are being hunted by crazy people. Cesar what did you do?”

“I got you a vacation,” Cesar said standing brushing off the dirt from his shirt. “If you just stop and listen for a second.”

“A vacation… sure… that’s not how you sold this trip to me.” Jack said as he began to dust off the dirt and grime from the fall.

A swwwwiiiip sound echoed through the air followed by several more. Instantly Jack felt a woozieness begin to wash over him after several pin pricks stung slightly on his neck, arm and leg. Celina collapsed next to Jack grabbing his arm as she was slumping to the ground. A dart was protruding from her chest just above her right breast. It was small with little to no blood since the needle of the dart was slim, small, and almost like a hypodermic needle masked as a blow dart.

===================
Two hours later.........
===================
Jack would wake to the feeling of being rocked gently. It was a soft comforting swaying sensation like he was in a hammock. The air felt damp and moist. It was dark indicating they were no out in the bright light of outdoors. The gentle sound of water could be heard as if he was sleeping on a boat. Jack was physically not uncomfortable but soon found his hands and legs were bound by thick hemp around what one could only describe as the cabin portion of the mast running down from the top deck.

“I’m gonna kill him… I’m gonna kill him.” Jack said as he looked down at his situation. He began scanning, trying to see if he could spot Cesar or Celina, wondering what else was going to be happening.

Creed, XO


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