PLOT - Cmdr Valeese, Ngezzod, Rassid | "Stranger Things" pt 1/2
Posted on Wed Mar 14th, 2018 @ 4:24am by Commander Valeese Stacker
Mission: Lacuna
Heartbeats. First one, then another, soon there were five distinct beats that could be picked clean one from the other. One was so rapid she almost mistook it for the distant sound of a galloping horse heard through the fathoms of water… It didn’t take long for her medical knowledge to kick back in, along side the rest of her synapses, and for her to realize she was hearing the steady, healthy beat of an extremely young fetus. It wasn’t hers. That she was firmly aware of. The sound wasn’t humming along from within her own body – and that, in and of itself, was an extreme relief. Where it came from, though, almost made her wish that it was her own. Her eyes peeled open for the second time in twenty-four hours… Just enough to make out the form of the angelic little face of the Stenellis Lieutenant laying nearby. She was asleep, her face serene, unworried… She wasn’t hurt. If anything, she was completely and totally relaxed. It didn’t make sense at first until that same knowledge came to whisper in her ear that Si’a was, without a doubt, drugged for easy handling. Someone had done their homework. A conscious Stenellis was a dangerous Stenellis – prone to delivering a particularly nasty high voltage, though low amperage, shock that acted not unlike a stun gun… Unless of course the deliverer was Empress Xue’Daio Nox. A tag by her was a kiss of death, her strength unparalleled. Even still, their captors had done well to leave her asleep and cocooned in a wealth of warm blankets. It was readily apparent that she was considered valuable, precious cargo even.
Words… An ear flicked in their direction, muffled as they were by distance, food, and… chairs. Ah ha. They were in a shuttle, not a small ship. A runabout, maybe? It was clever. Not many would consider something so small to be so lethal or carrying kidnapped memebers of Starfleet. She listened though, sharp as she could as her head continued to swim.
“… The Vorta would.”
“What do you mean the Vorta would? The Vorta is Theta’s doctor, not the Vindicator!” There was a crunching sound, almost like potato chips being fished from a bag, but that could hardly be it. Too simple. The ear strained, pricked as far as flesh and muscle would allow the fan-like bit of cartilage to move.
“So? She’s Vorta. They’re nosy little shits, aren’t they? Always watching and calculating. I’m telling you. She knows who the father is. Can’t be full Stenellis anyway, there ain’t no males in Starfleet or roaming around away from Apsha, and we need that information.”
“Ahhhh I get you now. We know the cross, we market it, more profit.”
“You’re not a dumb as you look. Alone she’d fetch a pretty penny. She ain’t virgin, but she’s got a pup in her belly.” The crunching continued. Whatever it was, it was definitely food. “Makes her worth a fortune to the right collector and that collector is gonna wanna know what they bought. No one likes a surprise.”
Valeese cringed. Their plans for Si’a were readily apparent, and it didn’t take long, even with her poor eye sight, to catch a flash of green. Orions… Plus the Naussican that had taken her… Syndicate. Sludge running slimeballs that sold live flesh for reasons deplorable and disheartening. The sound of her knuckles hitting the deck as she rolled onto her back startled even her, and it certainly didn’t go unnoticed by her jumpy captors.
“Vorta’s awake. Question and answer time.” The one with the chip-like noises announced and then there was the squeak of a chair being left, the sound of friction as a body slid out of it catching her attention before the uneven footfalls of heavy, boot-clad feet. The boots were too big for the wearer, she could hear the foot sliding along the innersole. It almost made her laugh, would have, except for she wasn’t given a chance to do so before big hands closed around her arms and hoisted her to her feet. Next she was drug towards the front of the runabout. “Barely awake, but awake.” The voice behind her reprised with a chuckle.
“She’s such a pretty thing. The Vorta never were ugly physically, but her? I like her.” The seated Orion sucked a seed from his teeth as he spoke. His fingers reached for her, tracing the underside of the swell of one of her breasts, “Might actually make an offer on this one myself.” He grinned lasciviously, finding the bright violet of her eyes as he studied her face, leaving her chest alone long enough to grasp her chin in his fingers. Her head was turned one way, then the other, and his eyes scrutinized every millimeter of skin and every feature, no matter how minute. This was product and he wasn’t about to let anything go that could be fixed. Scars would be removed before he placed it in the ring to be sold at the highest price possible. “I know I said to advertise her for a canned hunt, but…” His gruff voice rolled in his chest, “I think we can use her up a bit before we do that. Yeah. Prepare units to be in holding, we’ll be making sure we purchase her for our own holdings.”
Whoever, or whatever, was behind her seemed to agree. She could practically hear him bobbing his head in agreement as he flexed his fingers against the flesh of her arms. “New advertisement needed?” The voice asked, and the Vorta remained perfectly still. If she didn’t move, didn’t speak, then maybe they’d forget why they drug her up there in the first place and just toss her back into the hold where she could keep an eye on Si’a and plot their escape.
“Absolutely. Let everyone know that they can get their revenge on a full blooded Vorta bitch. Five bars of latinum a go. Everything but killing or permanently altering her is off the table.” More crunching. It was straws of what smelled like fried vegetable matter… Not potatoes, but close enough. Maybe it was that simple. “They will pay to fuck her and when she’s no longer profitable that way? They will pay to hunt her.” He was touching her again, examining a series of ugly bruises against her throat from where she’d been choked to unconsciousness. The touches were soft enough, sliding along skin they had no business touching but acted as if they owned the territory they claimed with every pass. “I see you looking at me, Vorta. I’m going to ask you a couple questions and you will give me answers.” He was already unzipping her uniform’s tunic as he spoke, wrinkling his nose in disgust as he rid her body of it and left her standing in a camisole and her duty slacks. Those would need to go as well, and he was eager to make quick work of them and rid her from any of Starfleet’s branding. They didn’t own her now. He did.
Valeese felt her ears plastering themselves to her skull in sheer irritation and discontent. Some how her shoes had already gone missing, leading her to wonder whether or not she’d twisted out of them during the scuffle with the Naussican. The memory of such made her fingers ache anew. The fingertip with the broken nail throbbed and stung as she balled her hands into a fist. “I have nothing to tell you.” She replied with a shrug that was all but blocked by the hands holding her steady while the Orion undressed her. Cool as a cucumber on the outside, she could feel her heart ready to jump out of her chest on the inside. Her belly quivered; cold with dread, anxiety, and even fear instead of the heat that Stacker had generated just a day or so before. This wasn’t ok. None of it was ok.
“I think you do.” He replied, allowing the pants to fall away and leave her with nothing more than the thin fabric of her panties to guard her womanhood. Lucky for her, he had no interest in sampling the wares. She wasn’t his property yet, but she would be soon enough and he was a patient man. Most of the time. Patting her hip, he steadied her and gazed up at that pretty face with that little turned up nose. Full lips… A heartbreaker to be sure. Had she been born human, she’d have been something spectacular, but as a Vorta she was truly stellar. The beauty of knowing he’d captured her, this unicorn of the cosmos, was enough to fuel his ego. The fact he’d obtained two oddities was making him drunk on his own legend… And then there was the unseen third. “Your friend… Who is the father of her child?”
“My friend?” Valeese’s eyes narrowed and she tilted her head as if in thought. She knew who he meant, but there was no friendship there – just a damning need to protect her and bring her back to where she belonged. She was Stenellis. A cousin of the Empress. A member of Starfleet… She belonged back aboard the Vindicator or somewhere on the beaches of Apsha, not in someone’s harem far away from anything she’d ever known with the life of the baby she carried hanging precariously in the winds of currency and trade. “The Stenellis is pregnant?” She asked.
The Orion’s jaw tensed and he nodded with a heavy, nasal sigh. “She is. You already knew that, though, doctor.” The smile shone through as he allowed his massive hands to rest on either side of her slender waist. His head tilted as he saw something he hadn’t expected. A belly button. Vorta clones grown in pods didn’t have them, and he’d slain plenty (dismembered them and sent them home to their puddle-masters) to know that intrinsic fact quite well. His brow wrinkled and a hand left its seat in order to study the oddity with a single finger. “You’re not a clone…”
“No. No I’m not.” She responded without thinking. It was a mistake and she tasted it the moment the words left her mouth – bitter and metallic as she realized she’d more or less given him additional ammunition. Valeese, like Si’a, was a profound oddity.
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To Be Continued...
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Lieutenant Commander Valeese
Chief Medical Officer
COLD STATION THETA, SB-1170
Ngezzod & Rassid (APB Spaceman)
Orion Syndicate
