A prison in the sky

Posted on Friday 21 May 2021 @ 16:44 by Commander Caroline Miller

Mission: A Cry from the Darkness
Location: Unknown planet
Timeline: MD8 AM
919 words - 1.8 OF Standard Post Measure

ON:

Caroline came round again. She had drifted back and forth in consciousness since she had been shot.

This time however she was able to sit up. She had been dressed in something different. The material was light but nothing she was familiar with. It was a full body suit.

She tried to stand and then felt pain in her neither regions. As if …. A horrible thought passed through her head. She couldn’t remember anything though.

There was a tray left on a small table. A dish of cold soup and bread that had clearly been out longer than a few hours.

Her med kit and phaser were gone. So, all she could do was wait. It of course paid off as in what felt like hours later two men, the one from before who had shot her came.

“You’re at your destination sweetheart,”

“And where’s that,” she said simply. The way the other man was looking at her was making her squirm.

“Crazy planet. Avian race, live up in the clouds. Spent a lot of money to get you shipped over,” he stated grabbing her and frog marching her out the door.

“Paid us plenty over the years,” the other one chuckled. “A nice little earner.”

She noted they retraced the original route to the room. So she was being beamed down.

“Tell the winged flightless freaks we hope they succeed further this time,” the first one said shoving her onto the transporter padd.

“Like hell, they pay us too much money …. But I will say It been a complete pleasure this time blondie,” the other said hitching his pants up in a very deliberate way.

The beam took her before the feeling to retch began.

She staggered forward gasping, lightheaded. Trying to focus someone grabbed her.

“Easy easy Caroline. Here you need this,”

She felt and heard the familiar hiss of a hypo spray before starting to feel marginally better but not fully.

“Altitude?” she said after a moment as her eyes focused more. “Bass …”

“They let me come get you. The last time they tried it they weren’t fast enough getting this administered and .. Caroline Han’s dead. The pressure. She didn’t acclimatise fast enough or get the drug in her system fast enough.

“Where are we?” she asked letting him support her.

“Your not going to believe it, a floating island very high in the sky, on a planet with people who have wings but they don’t fly anymore and they are at war,” her older colleague told her.

He walked her down a very alien looking corridor.

“How long have you been here?” she asked.

“So long I’m starting to forget my wife’s face. They believe we can resurrect an ancient extinct animal which they intend to use to flatten the other party. One of the treatments we tried, to expand neurones again. They keep forcing us to administer it not only on them – they believe they can fly again – it’s had mixed results and, on this thing,, they are growing from ancient DNA.

Caroline blinked several times trying to process it. Boy would she love a cocktail right now.

“Computer end programme,”

Nothing happened. Cass gave her a hint of a smile. “You’re not the first to try that one.”

“I don’t think you have given me enough Triox I still feel shocking,” the blond said.

“They only give us enough dose to keep us alive. They are more accustomed to these conditions and they are basically controlling us. Your going to have to get used to it. I’m sorry my friend.”
She nodded. “So this is why for years the floxaid researchers have been disappearing?”

He nodded. “There’s 6 of us including you. We have managed tweaking the neuron treatment to strengthen the wings on some test subjects, but it gets to a point where it flattens out. They manage to hover a little, a short flight but the treatments not consistent and we have yet to figure out how to make it viable. The last subject managed twice the time, so they decided to bring in another researcher. You hit the short straw this time.”

She nodded. “We knew it was a possibility. They told me my grandmother was sick. It looked like an official communicatee from Starfleet.”

“They have intel now and probably people who can make it look legit,” Cass said. “Six years ago, they just grabbed me in a market on Hepsion 3.”

“I’m sorry,” she said squeezing his hand on her shoulder.

“Well the rest of us have been lab based. Not moving around. You’re the first one actively on a ship Caroline. They must be getting either more desperate or sloppy.”

“Hopefully someone in the Federations noticed then. I know my captain will try find me,” she said firmly. “Hopefully get us all out of here.”

“Well it’s the first time they have managed to get the Embryo of the creature to viable. So, they want us to focus on that now, and if you don’t comply, they will kill you. Just throw you out of gate. They have a room Caroline. They call it the moon gate. Defy them and they will just push you off it. I’ve seen it. They throw their enemy prisoners off it.”

“Then I guess we better get Junior birthed then and see what we can do,”

OFF:

Caroline Miller
Chief Counselor
USS Merlin