Lights On...Somebody Home? - Part One

Posted on Fri Dec 13th, 2013 @ 3:08pm by Captain Li Hawke & Lieutenant Raymond Benson & Commander Oralia Zeferino & Lieutenant Commander Michael Darwin
Edited on on Mon Dec 16th, 2013 @ 10:59am

Mission: Breaking New Ground
Location: Lao's / Ray's Quarters / The Cherry Pit

* * * Lao’s * * *

Li pushed her plate aside, then reconsidered and lifted the last dumpling with a pair of chopsticks. She regarded it for a moment, then gobbled it down.

“Just too good to resist. I wonder if there’s a 12-step program for these?”

“If there were, would you really want to attend it?” Oz swirled warm sake in her cup and drank it.

“You’re right, I wouldn’t. Now then, are you curious about where we’re going?” Li reached for her green tea and took a sip. “It’s been a while since we went exploring.”

“Curious? Always, but I can wait to see where it is you want to go.” She watched a couple enter Lao’s.

“I need to make a call first though. Some legal witnesses. After those drinks, I want to see if anyone’s been in there. Get my drift?” Li smiled expectantly at Oz.

“Drift? Been in where?” She hadn’t a clue what Li was referring to. As the Chief of Security (and acting Executive Officer), wasn’t she a legal-enough witness? Witness to what? She pulled her attention away from the people around them and looked at Li. “What are you talking about?”

“Suresh’s old quarters. Something’s up, Oz. Those weren’t coincidence and he’s supposed to be gone.” Li toyed with her small teacup. “I just want to make sure he is, you know?”

“You’re doubting my department, Li?” For a moment, Oz let herself take offense. “He was on that ship to the prison. He’s in that prison. I’ve seen the bioscans and the reports on him.” Lightening up, she added, “I’m not sure who was pulling our chains with those drinks, but it wasn’t Suresh.”

“No, it’s not a doubt of your department, but something’s up. I agree someone is yanking our chains, as you say, but I want to know who. Who else would know about that? Unless they’ve been in snooping.”

“Who else would know...? Lazan. Seyla. How many other low lifes do you want me to name?”

“Exactly. But since this was Ray’s case, I’d like him along. That way both JAG and Security will be there...just in case.” Li pushed her plate aside and rose. “Ready?”

“Yeah,” she nodded. “Do you want more Security than just me there? I’m sure Darwin is somewhere close by.”

“Sure, it would be a good idea as he’s currently acting chief with Aliso on the away team. Let’s just hope there’s nothing to find.”

Filled with doubts about the usefulness of this lark, Oz paused only long enough to contact Darwin (who, it turned out, wasn’t anywhere ‘nearby’ - he was at the far end of the Starbase, looking into a claim of a large, round organic item stuck to the inside of an air vent) and advise him to contact Ray and meet Li and her at Suresh’s former quarters. She and Li would undoubtedly beat both men to the designated place.

* * * Ray’s Quarters * * *

Ray swiped a strand of spider silk off the corner of the padd in his hand and smiled for a moment. His unexpected eight-legged guest the evening before had been an interesting one. Of all the strange things he’d seen and done in his time in the Fleet, having a conversation with a spider the size of a dinner plate topped the list. Correction - a beer-drinking spider whose vocabulary got much more colorful the more beer she drank. He was glad to have met her, however. Kh’ali had sent down some paperwork regarding Iggy’s officially becoming her own Federation-recognized species and now he’d seen the new species up close and personal.

The voice of Oz interrupted his thoughts as her voice came through the wall speaker and requested his presence on Deck 531. After he answered, he briefly considered sending Julisa instead but he knew her ‘friend’ had arrived and that she would come stab him in his sleep if he interrupted her. Laying the pad aside, he rose and crossed to his bedroom to get dressed.


* * * The Cherry Pit - Deck 531 * * *

Ray stepped into the turbolift and was surprised to see Darwin already within it. “Evening Darwin. Deck 531,” he instructed the lift.

"Hope we're not pulling you away from something, or -one more interesting," Darwin smirked as he sidled to the left to give the prosecutor room in the lift.

Ray shrugged, then shook his head. “Nah, just away from a brief actually, but that didn’t require uniform. Or much of anything else either. So what’s up down below that needs me?”

Darwin glanced up then down as Ray said the words. While his gaze was down, he noticed a wisp of something white clinging to his pants and casually caught it in his fingers. Grimacing, he realized it was spider silk and, while trying to get it off his fingers, grumpily muttered, "Iggy," under his breath. Louder, he said, "Oh... Ah, I'm not certain. Oz said Li-- Captain Hawke has a hunch and wants to run it down."

“I see.” Ray’s gaze dropped to Darwin’s hand and once again he shook his head. “That critter came to visit yesterday. I didn’t have the heart to tell her no animals on the sofa.” He crossed his arms and leaned against the back wall. “Let’s hope it’s worth the trip down. I’m not the most popular person in the Pit.”

"You called her an animal?" Darwin's brows rose. "Is your sofa intact and clean?"

“It is, though she claimed her ‘spot’ and demanded beer. It occurred to me that she might be underage, but when you have eight legs does that really matter?”

"No, it doesn't. And I'm not sure the legs are what we should be counting. Have you seen the length of her fangs? I think she's up to two inches now." The lift ground to a stop at Deck 531. "Let's go find out what Oz deems so important, she'd call us out at short notice."

Ray stepped out and moved along the corridor with Darwin. “We’re in a quarters section. Isn’t this normally your area? Why me?”

"Oz gave me the quarters designation," Darwin paused then ground his teeth. "This is Suresh's former domicile."

Ray stopped and raised his eyebrows as he faced Darwin. “Suresh? He’s gone. We saw to that ourselves.”

Darwin's answer was just a roll of his eyes and a shrug. They walked the short distance to the quarters and found Li and Oralia waiting for them. Oz greeted Ray first turned to Darwin and asked, "Did Iggy help you dress today?"

"What?" For a crazy second, Darwin imagined the arachnid helping him with his pants. He shuddered then saw what Oz meant: he had another swatch of spider silk on his shoulder. "She's a menace, Oz."

"Yeah. Good thing she belongs to the Chief of Security," Oz smiled at her own sharp-edged quip. "Gentlemen, Li and I just had a strange experience, so we're going to have a look inside these shuttered quarters, just to see who has been accessing them, if anyone has been."

“Care to share?” Ray asked.

Li hesitated a moment, then after a glance to Oz, turned back to Ray. “Something came up at the Nexus, and it was something that only Suresh was aware of. So either he was talking before he left or….something else is happening. I wanted you here Ray since you handled the case, just to cover our bases.”

Ray nodded. “Fair enough. Open the doors then.”

Oralia took a breath to start the unlocking process but Darwin, Acting Chief of Security, shot her a look and spoke the necessary codes before she could. The door slid open, releasing a puff of air that carried a faintly unpleasant yet pleasant odor, like the smell of a horse barn. But here, the unpleasant tang was that of stale sweat and fear. Oz’s lip curled in disgust. “I thought we’d had this place cleaned after Suresh was sent away.”

“We did,” Darwin quietly answered her and moved into the dark space ahead of the others. “Lights.”

****************

Captain Li Hawke
Commander Oralia Zeferino
Lt. Michael Darwin
Lt. Raymond Benson