Happy Anniversary pt 2

Posted on Thu Mar 14th, 2019 @ 11:30pm by Jacaranda

2,042 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Episode 97 - Cultural Exchange
Location: Cardassia Prime
Timeline: MD 3 Midday-Early Evening.

Maria just blinked then got up, a little weak in the knees, finally managing to stabilize on her feet and walked to get blood flowing again. This was just too intense. She felt her stomach roil, Oh god if she puked that would be awkward, plus she was sure they’d make her clean it up.

Jaca gave the cabinet one more look over before being satisfied it was repaired in full. She spoke to the note-taker in a low tone, then turned to leave the circle for a break as the Cardassians moved the cabinet to another room and began bringing out the next items to be repaired and the equipment Jaca needed. Once she crossed the circle, she seemed to switch back to the same old Jaca Maria knew. Jaca seemed surprised to see Maria, “I...wow, I didn’t think I’d be so long you’d check up on me. Did I miss the ship back?”

The look on Maria’s face was one of ‘are you high?’ “Did...you miss the ship? You just made a portal to Hell and that’s all you have to say?”

Jaca blinked, “That is not a portal to anywhere. It’s just a Box of Questions in need of repairs and it’s still under warranty. They did get a good value going for the ten thousand year one, only have nine thousand something left on it.”

Maria blinked still having the look of, ‘what the hell’ on her face, “I….I...I don’t want to know more, What else can you make, no wait, don’t tell me, I might be breaking at least 12 laws, 3 commandments and I’m pretty sure at least one of the big Canon laws.”

“It’s okay.”, Jaca said with a smile and a hint of a nod to one of the Cardassians who looked over in concern, “You remember all that time back when we were discussing running a shop and what we could offer? I showed you that long list of Federacatl okays and no-nos?”

All Maria could do was nod numbly.

“Well, this is all stuff that’s on the no-no list. Why I don’t know, but it scared the envoys when we showed them everything we have to offer. Inside the circle, it feels like home again and I can flex my ability like I can back home. All of this is properly bought craftworks from a while back. It’s just even craftwork gets old and needs a repair or a tune up.”

She looked at her and nodded, “Ok, so this is just warranty work? For the hellcabinet? Jesus. So if Roberto’s puzzle breaks 5,000 years down the line your descendants will fix it?”

“It is not a hellcabinet.”, Jaca said, rolling her eyes, “It’s just a Box of Questions, some Stealth Eyes Walking and a Pillar of Insight and Inquiry. And if his box breaks, I’ll still be here to fix it.”

She shook her head, “I think I need a drink, hell I need all the drinks. Portals to hell, portals to hell.” She muttered as she walked back to her room, “Let me know when you’re done summoning Lucifer or something.”

“We’d have to visit the Cathedral of Flesh and Bone on my homeworld to talk with the Founder of our Society.”, Jaca yelled as Maria walked into her room.

Jaca returned to work. From Maria’s room it was just a stream of strange smells, sounds, chants, hammering, with one agonized scream that was followed by Jaca telling the screamer “Oh it’s nothing, you big baby. I can unmelt that easy.”

Maria grumbled again and tried to ignore the scream. She heard Jaca’s response. Luckily she was better with Roberto.

There were more groans, chantings and the sounds of something flaring, along with a “No problem, I’ll mix up a good sized batch of Life Blood of Worlds for you so you can just perk them up as needed”. Almost unheard was what sounded like tiny footfalls nearing Maria’s room and a figure around a foot tall with a carved skull face carefully peeked in.

Maria looked up from the bed and saw the….thing looking at her, she blinked and sat up, “What the hell?” it seemed to be her favorite phrase today. So she started to head over to look at the little thing/

The figure squeaked in surprise at seeing Maria looking at it and it ran back to the main room. Jaca hollered loud enough for Maria to hear, “Almost done. One more thing to go.”

She poked her head out, “Oh thank God, finish the hellportals and we’ll get out of here. Because I think I need a big ass drink…..” then she looked over the small figures, “What the hell?”

There were around a dozen foot high figures all looking at Maria in wonder, each had a different appearance such as one looked like a Cheron Harlequin, another like an Orion dancer, one in a gold shirt Federation uniform from Kirk’s day with six arms. One of the Cardassians delicately shooed them off to another room.

“If I drank enough booze to forget this shit I’d be dancing on a table in my damn drawers.” She went back in to her room and shut the door

Again more sounds, smells and chanting sounded from the other room. A loud bang didn’t sound particularly good since it was followed by swearing. Jaca was inwardly pleased that Maria had headed off by this point since she knew her friend wouldn’t want to see what was going to be required to repair the pillar.

The cadaver parts were one thing, but some components needed to still be living. The Cardassians had a few forced laborers in another room who had been critically injured moving the craftworks here. One had already expired, leaving two for parts. The Naussican would be big enough to do unless something went wrong, the human, Jaca needed, much like a human on Old Earth using the time they took to finish a cigarette to know when their break was over. The human was pretty badly hurt and the time it took to repair him would be just the right time to pace out her repairs on the pillar.

Alternating between grafting Naussican to the pillar and recalibrating it to reconnecting the human’s circulatory system, renetworking his nervous system and reattaching muscle to bone with generous slatherings of small fleshwork vat biomass to glue it all together, it was after the pillar had been finished and was chattering as it began to spin that she started to pull the human’s back skin together to close him up, while he’d been moaning through her work, the skin was the last straw as he let out a full throated scream.

Maria tried to use the pillow to block out the screams, this was like the most messed up sleepover ever, you’re trying to take a nap in Charles Manson’s house.

She sat up the voice...was familiar….no….no….”What the hell?” That added to her counter for the day.

But she got up again and headed to the door. Once she got outside and she saw the room where the scream had come from and headed that way.

Jaca was more focused on getting this stubborn flesh of the human’s back to seal. Her eyes had shifted several spectrums over, and she wasn’t liking what she was seeing. Since she was done with the work the Cardassians wanted, she was going to take an all or nothing move. In this rarefied environ within the circle, Jaca focused her will as she would back on her homeworld. The silver pylons boiled into a fine mist and each gem atop flared before winking into her raised hand. Almost crackling with energies of her homeworld’s unique qualities, she slapped down hard on the human’s back. The skin stretched like putty, finally closing the gap and he jolted as if shocked.

Jaca’s earlier unsettling presence faded and she was back to her usual self, albeit more as if she’d run a year long marathon non stop as she sat down hard on the floor.

Maria headed in to the room, still unsettled. “Jaca..” She looked at the room, “You ok….”

Jaca seemed to have trouble responding, but she looked up groggily, trying to focus her eyes, “I..I think I’ll...need to do...my go home trip...earlier than usual.”

“Ok I can handle the store.”

The man on the table moaned, he had dark hair and a beard, he lifted his head and looked over the room. His eyes saw figures, then he began to focus and he thought he saw a familiar shape.

“Wh...Where am I?”

That got Maria’s attention and she moved over, “Hey, I think we can get you out of here. You starfleet?”

He blinked again, “Yeah….” Then he looked at her, “Do...do I know you?”

That made Maria look a bit harder at the man, “You do look familiar…”Then there was a sharp intake of breath from her, almost like a gasp. “P...Peter?”

Jaca was still out of it, but she did notice her friend acting strange at the human she’d patched up as a way to pace time, and did notice the old Cardassian watching them carefully. She staggered up and spoke to him in a low tone. The cost for the human would be deducted from her pay. Jaca stumbled over to one of the remaining chairs to sit to catch her breath some more. The Cardassians were gone, just leaving them to find their way out.

Her hands trembling Maria reached out to touch his hair, this couldn’t be, “I...I saw you die. The ship, I saw it explode.”

Click. Just click. As she helped him sit up he looked at the woman, “Maria? Uccellina”

Ok, that did it, he had called her that, his little bird. She had been trying to keep herself together, but the last days had been enough of a stress and she hugged him and began to cry.

Jaca had started to doze in the chair. The amount of effort and energy she’d expended had been the sort she hadn’t since she’d last been home. It was the equivalent of a desk jockey suddenly running a marathon. She was vaguely aware of the sound of crying. With effort she lifted her head to look for the way out. “Heyas…”, she said, forcing the words out and using the wall for support as she stood, “I need sleep…. Meet... you at the...sleepy place.”

Peter couldn’t believe it and tried to calm her down, “We need to get moving.”

There was almost a pause, “Can you walk?”

“I feel like I’m drunk, what about her?” He gestured to Jaca, How did you meet any…” Then he waved, “No, later, I’ve got a lot of questions.”

“Me too.” She smiled “Right now let’s get moving.”

She walked over to Jaca and began to slap the woman across the face, “Stay with me, we can’t sleep yet. Right now, we gotta get out of here. Get the hell up, and we are so going to talk later.”

Jaca half nodded her head, still pretty fuzzy headed. It was taking ample effort to keep standing and stumbling so it would take Maria to steer her along.

“Ok Brief introductions, Jaca, this is my husband Peter, he was dead, but he’s back. Peter this is my friend Jaca, I think she resurrected you.”

“Hey.” He said as he began to move, “I bet there’s a hell of a story.”

“Yeah. grab a side we’re going to drag her out of here.”

While Jaca was still pretty out of it, she did manage to catch “husband” so while trying to keep her eyes from rolling all the way up in her head in unconsciousness, she managed a “Happy Anniversary”.

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