Consequences

Posted on Sat Sep 12th, 2015 @ 11:13pm by Ensign Reva Madhava & Captain Li Hawke
Edited on on Sun Nov 22nd, 2020 @ 4:11am

Mission: Further Challenges
Location: Fisher's Ship

* Fisher's Boat *

Waking slowly, Reva felt complaints from every muscle in her body as well as from more than a few bruised areas. Her muscle aches, she knew, were from the slave collar's effect; the bruises were all from Fisher. One, high on her inner thigh, she saw now, was a deep green and black mark, the type that would soon turn completely black and then slowly fade away. Touching it lightly, she recalled how it had gotten there and stifled a sob. This was the life of an Orion, she reasoned, not liking it one bit, and decided to get moving, before her aches and pains made her freeze up completely. She winced as she moved, and relaxed slightly when she saw she was alone.

She was also naked and her dress was nowhere to be found. Sighing,she stood and was surprised to find that even the soles of her feet hurt. After a few minutes under a hot shower, though, she felt more herself and came out wrapped in a towel. Remembering her find in one of the drawers the day before (or had it been two days before?), she opened the drawer and picked through the undergarments, finding a set that fit and putting it on. As she adjusted the bra and settled her breasts into the cups, she felt the underwire and paused for a moment. "Oh...."

She reached into the drawer and found another bra with an underwire. With her claw-like nails, she picked it free, ripping the fabrics wrapped around the stiff metal piece. It was a thin, flat thing - just what she needed for picking the lock on the ankle shackle. Grinning, she set to work on the lock, recalling how she had picked the locks on the Federation ankle monitor just a couple weeks past. Popping this lock open was simple compared to those and she was free within a few moments.

Tenderly rubbing her raw ankle, Reva considered her next move - and whether she actually had one. Could she risk leaving these quarters? What then? She wasn't sure how big the ship was or whether there were shuttles on it. An escape pod would simply float in space, a target for Fisher to circle around and pick up. She winced at the idea,knowing that escaping only to end up back in his control would mean at least one hit from the collar, and probably a lot more than just that. Could she sabotage the engines? That idea had merit - if she.... She realized she was overlooking something: what was the range of the collar?

"Computer, where is Fisher?"

"Captain Keval is on the Bridge," was the computer's response.

"Keval, huh? Interesting," she murmured to herself.

Deciding to risk at least a short foray out of the cabin, she tiptoed through the living area to the door then looked both ways before stepping out of the quarters. Hoping that Fisher ran the ship with a skeleton crew, she jogged along the corridor to an engineering access hatch and pulled it open. Inside, nearly blocking access to the Jefferies tube beyond, was a mass of tangled wiring and conduits. "Oh no... Poor ship, no one's been taking care of you," she whispered. "And I'm about to really hurt you. I hope."

She pushed past the mass and slipped along the tube to a junction. There, she stopped to examine the conduits and intersections; it was a disaster - she wasn't sure which conduits held what or where they led off to and had no way of figuring it out. Taking a guess, she used her stolen underwire to jab a hole in the conduit and then ripped out a random section of wiring. If she was lucky, the wiring controlled something vital like the engines or shields or... something.

Terrified of being found outside of Fisher's Quarters, Reva hurried back down the tube, replaced the hatch and sprinted back to Fisher's Quarters.

* Bridge *

Fisher's Kazon helmsman frowned at his console then reported, "Port-side sensors are offline, Keval."

"Port-side?" Fisher frowned. His quarters were on port-side. He called up a scan of the ship's internal security sensors and cursed as he watched a replay of the Orion entering the Jefferies tubes. "Locate the Orion, Pash."

Pash nodded and did a quick scan of the ship. "Outside your quarters in the corridor. And... now inside."

Fisher's features hardened. "Get the shifter. Take it to cargo bay four." He comm'd his engineer: "Daleek, get Almans started on repairing sensors. Then grab your girl and meet me in cargo bay four." He closed the line without giving Daleek a chance to ask why. He and Pash then left the bridge together.

* Fisher's Quarters *

Reva had just replicated a sandwich when she heard the main door of the quarters open. She dashed to the bed and slipped the shackle around her ankle. Too late, she realized the sandwich would give her away, even if the shackle's lock had caught again, which it didn't.

Fisher was on her before she could fix her errors. His face was drawn and tight with rage; his fingers dug into her arms as he yanked her off the bed. "You need to learn that there are consequences for every action, Orion. Sometimes, you're the one who pays. Sometimes, someone else will pay for you." He kicked the shackle against her ankle and it fell away. Fisher then caught her hair in his fist and dragged her out of his quarters.

* Cargo Bay Four *

Reva's stomach clenched with fear. Why a cargo bay? At that, why a nearly empty cargo bay? And who was the Kazon and the girl next to him? She eyed Fisher, noting that he had his little device out and his thumb on the toggle switch. If he triggered that... her breath caught in her throat and she knew she'd beg him not to.

Her fear deepened when another Cardassian entered the bay, followed by a naked Bajoran woman. The woman didn't look up and was careful to stay within two feet of the Cardassian. Reva could feel the woman's crushed spirits. The other female in the room - Reva thought she looked human - was careful to stay close to the Kazon.

"What--", she started to ask but Fisher interrupted her by backhanding her hard enough that she dropped to the deck plating. Wiping blood from her lips, she looked up at him.

"You will not speak unless I give you permission," he said, pulling her up with one hand under her jaw. "As I said, actions have consequences," he changed his focus for just a moment, "Shifter, this lesson is for you, as well. Pash tells me you've been stepping out of line."

Reva looked at the woman by the Kazon. A shifter? The woman's collar was different from hers: heavier and far more utilitarian looking. She could only guess that she was a shapeshifter and the collar negated her abilities.

The engineer spoke up, "And this one? She's been a good girl, Keval. Needs no punishin'."

Fisher didn't respond to the man. Instead, he pulled the Bajoran away from the engineer, then the shifter away from the Kazon and placed them next to Reva. "Orion, you damaged my ship. Ordinarily, I'd have you lashed for that. But I think this will be a more effective punishment. Choose which of these two will take the consequences for you."

Reva gaped at him. "No! Neither of them! Whatever it is, I'll take it."

He laughed harshly. "Fleeties can be so predictable. I'll choose for you. Just remember: this is your doing. Shifter, take heed of this lesson, too. Toe the line and behave." He caught the Shifter's arm and shoved her towards Reva.

Making sure that both were watching him (Reva was, wary that he might suddenly lash out and hit her again), Fisher uncoiled a short whip whose tails were tipped with wickedly sharp points. Reva's eyes went wide, watching those tips trail on the floor. The Cardassian swung it almost casually, letting it wrap around the Bajoran woman's torso. On the return, he jerked the handle back and the points drew garish red slashes across her body.

Daleek nearly protested, but knew better than to do so: the women weren't the only ones subject to Fisher's wrath. He reached out and held the Orion, making sure she didn't rush in to 'save' the Bajoran.

The woman screamed and kept screaming as Fisher's lashes came faster and harder. Finally, the woman stopped screaming; she was dead. Fisher, breathing hard, smiled grimly at Reva and the Shifter. "Step out of line and I'll choose another for the same punishment." Blood coated his hands and dripped to the decking as he coiled the whip and stowed it away.

"Pash, Daleek, get out," he ordered, taking hold of Reva by the arm and pushing her against a cargo bin. Once the two men had left, he kissed her, biting her bottom lip and leaving bloody handprints everywhere he touched her.

Shocked to her core, Reva was shaking and barely aware he was touching her. Finally, as tears ran down her cheeks, she asked, "Why? You could have just... used the collar.... You killed her."

"That?" He looked over his shoulder at the body. "Just a Bajoran. But you and the shifter? The two of you are worth a hundred of that - probably more. While I don't mind some bruising," he tenderly brushed the back of his fingers against her cheek, drawing lines of blood on her skin, "I don't want to damage either of you too much."

He glanced at the shifter and frowned. "I want you terrified; I like it when you're afraid of me," he told her, "To really drive this home, I'm leaving you two here with the body for a while. Try anything and I'll bring another woman in here and kill her just as creatively."

Reva looked him in the eye and read that he wasn't bluffing. He really was a monster through and through. Her skin crawled and she was glad when he finally stopped touching her. Then she was alone with the shifter and the dead body. The woman whose death she'd caused.

*******
Ensign Reva Madhava
Fisher
Pash