Enquiries

Posted on Tue Apr 13th, 2021 @ 5:26pm by Lieutenant JG Miaxi Etaalu

1,743 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Episode 109 - The Dust Settles
Location: Security Office

ON:



Miaxi arrived at work to find several messages. The first was a message that Xalanth was off station, and how to contact him. She took note of it, glad she had had the opportunity to meet him before he left, and looked at the others.

It appeared that while she was off duty, engineering had been able to get the cryo pods open, and medical had given their occupants a once over. No doubt more than a once over, she thought to herself, but the two people seemed to have been released from sickbay proper and into some temporary quarters. A guard had been assigned to them "for their protection," she noted. Given the size of the station and the fact that they had been rescued from slavers, she could see why.

There had been no definitive identification made on the woman they had found. Medical had reported that she had refused to give her name, and her race had seemed to be a mix of several, including Orion, Antaran, and Tyran. If she wouldn't or couldn't give much information, perhaps Ensign Curan Mides would.

She pulled up his service record, both out of curiosity and of necessity. He had been in Operations before he had gone missing, and his record had nothing bad to say about him - two years out of the Academy and an adequate officer. And then a prisoner of war nearly turned slave. She would question him first.

A short walk later, and she found himself in front of the temporary quarters he had been placed in. She introduced herself to the officer guarding the door, and found out that he was actually guarding both sets of quarters, as the woman rescued with him was right next door. He explained that with an office on the same floor, the risk was negligible. She nodded and rang, waiting for permission to enter. For all she knew, he could be asleep.

Ensign Mides was not asleep. Anything but drugged sleep brought nightmares, and he was not prepared to take medication until he was extremely tired. When the chime went, he was playing idly with a deck of cards, but put them down and activated the door, wondering who it was. He got his answer when Miaxi walked in and introduced herself.

"Ensign Mides?" she asked. "I'm Lt. Miaxi Etaalu, the Assistant Chief of Security. I'm sorry to bother you at what is probably a very difficult time, but I need to ask you a few questions so we can look into what happened to you."

He leaned back in the chair he had been sitting on. "I see." he began, putting his hands on the table in front of him, palms down. "I take it you mean what happened between the time they knocked me out and I woke up in the sickbay here?"

"Yes." Miaxi asked, moving toward the table he was sitting at. "May I sit here?" He nodded, and she sat down on the side of the table that was next to his, instead of opposite. "When you say 'they,' do you mean the people who were running the prisoner of war camp you were in?"

"Yes. There weren't very many of us that I could tell, but I only knew who was kept in the same room as me." he told her.

"I see." Miaxi had opened her PaDD and started taking notes. "And was there a constant number of other prisoners?"

"At first. After awhile, they'd take one of us, every so often."

"How often?" Miaxi followed up.

"It was impossible to tell." Mides shrugged. "We weren't keeping track of time by that point. Someone would leave us food once in awhile, and we'd sleep. Sometimes we could talk without being yelled at. Less frequently, they would pull someone out for a 'health checkup' and we'd never see them again. When they pulled me out, they knocked me out and I woke up here."

Miaxi nodded, making sure to note it all down. "Did the people in sickbay - a nurse or doctor - tell you what had happened?" she asked.

He nodded.

"I need you to confirm that you were not on that freighter of your own free will." she continued.

"I can confirm that, lieutenant." he said. "The very idea... it makes me feel sick."

"I'm sorry to have to bring this up." Miaxi said, sounding sorry. She was, too. "I asked for a little background, because we are concerned that there may have been others who could have already been sold into slavery. Obviously, that would be a huge problem, and any information you might have would help in rescuing them."

He sighed and shook his head. "All I know was that we had a mixed set of guards made of up races from the Pact. I don't even know where we were held, let alone where they might have been sending me. I'm sorry."

"It's ok." Miaxi replied. "You're safe here, and we have the slavers in custody. If you can think of anything, talk to the officer outside. He'll make sure to get your information, or find someone who can."

"Do you know what's going to happen to me?" Mides asked.

"I don't, I'm afraid. But I'll try and find out." she gave him a reassuring smile. "I need to go talk to the woman we found with you now. I don't suppose you had anyone who wasn't Starfleet in with you?"

"No." he replied heavily. "And there were still people there when I left." he looked down at the floor.

"I'm sure there are people working on their release." she said, standing up and picking up her PaDD. "I'll see if I can find out anything." she added, then activated the door manually and walked out.

She nodded to the officer in the hallway, and walked next door, ringing the chime as before. She had a feeling this woman would not be as forthcoming as Ensign Mides had been: if refusing to give any information in sickbay was any indication, she would be lucky to get an acknowledgement that she was taken against her will. Still, she had to try.

She stood there, waiting patiently. The door remained closed for longer than she had hoped it would. She looked over at the guard. "All the usual precautions were taken, right? No weapons, nothing she could use to hurt herself?"

"That's right, Lieutenant Etaalu." he agreed. "She might be asleep -" he stopped when the door finally opened. Miaxi raised an eyebrow, but nodded and walked in.

"Hi there." she said. "I'm Lieutenant junior grade Miaxi Etaalu. I work in security, and I need to ask you a few questions." she looked around the room. It was identical to the one she had just been in. The woman - almost a girl, really - was sitting almost as far away from the door as she could get, near the door to the bedroom. She looked uncertain, although Miaxi couldn't be sure what she would be uncertain about. She moved slowly over to the table. "I'm just going to sit here, and we can talk a little. I don't need to touch you, and I promise I won't hurt you. I'm here to help, ok?"

The young woman gave a tentative nod.

"Good." Miaxi said, putting her PaDD on the table. "Is there something I can call you? I'd love to have your given name, but right now, anything will do."

"Zuri." she said quietly.

Miaxi wrote that down and spoke at the same time. "Zuri, that's a pretty name. Can you tell me where you come from, Zuri?"

She shook her head, looking down at the table.

"What about the people who brought you to this station. We are on Starbase 400. Do you know anything about who brought you here?" Miaxi asked.

The head shaking continued. Zuri didn't seem inclined to say anything.

"You were put in cryo for your trip, and should have been taken further, but smuggling sentient beings is illegal here, so we had to take you out. Did you go into cryo willingly?" Miaxi continued.

Zuri stopped shaking her head, but didn't say anything. She looked up at Miaxi, her face in a frown.

"Zuri, the people who brought you here have committed crimes against the United Federation of Planets. We have proof, and we are going to take them to trial, present our proof, and they will be rehabilitated. What they did was wrong. I don't need you to tell me anything, but if you want to go home, if you were taken from those you love by force, or coerced, I mean lied to, then we can help you. All we need is what happened to you, and where you are from. And if other people helped make this happen to you, we might be able to punish them, too." Miaxi hated talking to the woman as if she was a child, but Zuri had given her no indication of what intelligence level she processed, and she wanted to make sure she was understood.

Zuri looked like she was about to say something, but then she scrunched up her face and shook her head. "I have nothing to say." she said clearly.

Miaxi nodded. "Very well." she replied. "If you change your mind, please feel free to tell the Starfleet officer in front of your quarters. He's here to make sure nothing else happens." she stood. "It was nice to meet you, Zuri. Thank you for giving me a name."

Zuri looked up at her, but didn't say any more. Miaxi turned and left the room. She stopped to talk to her new co-worker on her way out. "You need anything? I know what it's like to stand guard. Feel like I was doing it just last week."

He shrugged. "I'm good. Only have another hour here and then I'm off."

"Okay." Miaxi replied. "Can you pass on to the next person standing guard that if either of them have any information, to make sure it gets passed to me?"

"Will do, sir."

"Thanks, ensign." she said, and turned to head back to main security. She didn't want to bother Xalanth while he was away, but she was going to have to. This was deeper than her experience allowed for.

OFF:

LT.JG Miaxi Etaalu
Assistant Chief Security Officer
Starbase 400

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