Repayment Part 7

Posted on Fri Mar 9th, 2012 @ 9:15pm by Melody Johnson & Petty Officer First Class Tanner Willeg

1,573 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Mission 78 - Colonial Uprising
Location: The Blaze & Draken
Timeline: Current
Tags: Willeg

Melody explored the rest of the vacant building just to make sure that they were truly alone then she returned to where Garth had sat down to catch his breath. “How're you doing?” She asked as she took her communicator out of one of the pockets of her cargo pants.

“Scared out of my wits,” Garth answered. “I'm not accustomed to being hunted down like an animal and shot at.”

“Yeah well....that's what happens sometimes when you piss off the wrong people,” Melody said with a chuckle. This was not her first rodeo. She pressed the end of, what appeared to be a small flashlight but was actually her communicator* and said, “Capt. Mel to Blaze,” then waited for a reply.

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"Okay..." Tanner sucked in a breath, "this'll be okay. Open a channel."

=/=Open a channel to who?=/=

If computers could sputter, Tanner was pretty sure the Blaze just did.

=/=Captain Mel to the Blaze.=/=

"Not that channel, the other one. Small lay-up, Mel. Give me, uh... three minutes," Tanner said aloud but wasn't able to send the transmission because the Blaze had already shut it down to switch to the other channel.

=/=You want to speak with the other ship? Are you insane?=/=

Tanner rolled her eyes at Blaze's obvious doubt. "We move, they'll see us; then we're some unknown threat. But if we say hello, we're friendly folk."

=/=Friendly folk? Who even says that? You're crazy.=/=

"Possibly. Open a channel," Tanner demanded.

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When Melody didn't get a response she tried again. Still not getting a response, she shoved the communicator into one of the pockets of her cargo pants and walked to the front of the building. She spit on the palm of her hand and used it to clean off a small circle of the filthy window. She peered through the small circle and was relieved to not see anyone lurking around the area in front of the building. She turned and walked back to the back of the building where Garth was sitting on the floor with his head leaning back against the wall.

“What is it with this planet and its moons that causes so much EMI?” Melody grumbled aloud, thinking that it was the EMI emissions that was preventing her from contacting the Blaze.

“It's all of the Gratonium in the soil,” Garth answered, thinking Melody had asked the question of him. “If it weren't for all of the Gratonium mines the Drakonians would be totally dependent on the Federation for the basics....food, shelter, etc.”

Melody was only half way paying attention to what Garth was saying. She already knew what he was telling her but she decided that, instead of explaining she already knew about the Gratonium, her energy would be better spent coming up with a Plan B in case she couldn't get in touch with the Blaze.

Garth looked up at the lady captain and could see that something was troubling her, even though she was trying not to show it. “Is something wrong, Captain?” He asked.

“Huh?” Melody said...Garth's question not registering in her brain right away. ….which it did a few seconds later. “Oh. Well....other than not being able to contact my ship and get us the hell out of here,” Melody said as she reached into one of the pockets in her cargo pants and took out a small silver case, which she opened. Inside was some loose Amerindian tobacco, some papers to roll the tobacco into and some wooden matches. She leaned up against the wall, bent her knee so that the bottom of her foot could be placed against the wall, then she balanced the open silver case on her thigh and proceeded to hand roll herself a cigarette. She licked the seam and twisted one end of the cigarette then placed it between her lips...closed the silver case with one hand and ignited one of the matches and lit the cigarette with the other.

Garth watched Capt. Mel go through the procedure of rolling a cigarette with amazement. He had never seen anyone do that before. He had seen it done in some old cowboy movies he had seen that had been restored from their original 65mm celluloid to the current digital format but never in real life.

Melody put the silver case back into her pocket and pushed herself away from the wall. She wandered back up to the front of the building and looked out the small circle of cleaned glass in the window. When she was confident that nothing sinister was lurking outside she moved away from the window and took her communicator out of her pocket and flipped it open.

“Capt. Mel to the Blaze,” Melody said into the small communicator. All she got was static so she moved toward the back of the building. Thoughts she really didn't want to think about raced through her mind. What if the Blaze had somehow been discovered? Would Tanner be able to prevent whoever from boarding the Blaze? Would she be able to keep the Blaze from being impounded into some law enforcement agency's junk yard...to be parted out and sold for scrap? Would they simply take Tanner into custody for violating whatever law they were probably violating? Or were Drakonian law enforcers the sadistic type? She quickly shook her head to rid her brain of those thoughts. She tried to raise the Blaze again and when that attempt failed she went out the way they had come in and stood a few feet away from the building. “Capt. Mel to the Blaze. Somebody better answer me,” she said...her voice tinged with anger.

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=\=Why are you contacting us?=\=

Obviously not thrilled with the abrupt interaction with someone he wasn't previously aware of, the grim face appearing on the screen did not seem the sort to be agreeable with any folk, be they friendly or not. Still...

"Hi!" Smiling brightly, Tanner waved at the screen, "I'm..."

=\=I did not ask for your name. I asked what you are doing here.=\=

Tanner blinked, but forced the smile to remain on her face. "Well, that's quite a story, really..."

=\=I have neither the time, nor the need to hear anecdotes. State your purpose.=\=

The screen below the viewer was being overloaded with information. Though she silently thanked Blaze for the update, Tanner wasn't happy to see what the other ship was preparing for. Raising her hands, as though in surrender, Tanner stepped back from the viewer, and swapped the over-lit smile for a look of embarrassment. "Well... you see... I sort of broke down while..."

=\=Enough. Leave now, or you will be boarded.=\=

"Really, though. I was on my way to visit... my father's son's step-father's maternal guardian, and..."

The channel blinked closed, and Tanner plopped down into the pilot's seat. Blaze was already a step ahead of her: just as she grabbed hold of the controls, the ship pulled up from the planet.

=\=Seriously? You thought that would work? You were on the way to... grandma's house?=\=

Tanner shrugged and rolled her eyes, "it was the first thing I could think of..."


Melody didn't like that she couldn't raise the Blaze. “This is not good,” she mumbled to herself. If Tanner was in trouble and she kept trying to communicate with them it might raise the attention of whoever to her position. She put her communicator away and went back inside the building. She looked over at Garth and saw that he had dozed off with his back against the wall. She walked to the front window and looked out. So far there was no sign of anyone paying close attention to the building. “We can't stay here for long,” she muttered to herself as she turned away from the window. She walked back outside and looked around. There was a vacant field behind the building and beyond that the terrain became a series of jagged spires that created a small range of mountains. She decided that they would be better off in those mountains than sitting here in this vacant building just waiting to be found so Melody went back inside and woke Garth up.

“Get your stuff,” Melody said. “We're leaving.”

“Did you get hold of your ship?” Garth asked.

“Not yet,” Melody answered not wanting to worry Garth. “Come on. Let's move,” she ordered and walked out of the back door.

“Where are we going?” Garth asked.

“There,” Melody pointed to the mountains.

Garth looked in the direction Melody was pointing but only saw the mountains in the distance. “Where?” He asked. “All I see are mountains”

“Exactly,” Melody said and headed for a thicket of trees about a hundred yards away.

Garth found it difficult to keep up with Melody's pace and ended up lagging behind. When Melody reached the cover of the trees she turned and looked back at Garth. When he finally joined her she took one of his bags from him and headed for the other side of the thicket. She surveyed the area and spotted another small thicket. She looked around, determined that the coast was clear and headed for the thicket.

“Come on,” Melody said firmly. “If you don't keep up I'll leave you behind,” she warned and then took off at a fast jog.

To be continued

* http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y135/22639/Star Trek RPG/CaptMelsCommunicator.jpg

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