by Dane Cristiane and TC Blane
Hours after Now Hiring
-=Aboard the Rixx Rewards on the surface of Klaestron IV=-
Dabin Reece had tried every trick in the book and then some in what he personally considered a very valiant attempt to locate Carrick O'Sullivan.
He'd searched back and forward using the DNA information provided to them by TEMA, hunted high and low through the public admission records of every hospital...even the descriptions of unclaimed bodies in the planet's Health Ministry database. Nothing, and no one fitting Carrick's description had appeared in any published records. He hadn't been arrested, found dead, or taken to a facility for treatment anywhere on the planet, Reece was sure of it.
Whether or not the boy was even still on the planet...he had his doubts.
His hopes were beginning to falter.
He began asking himself how they would ever find this kid if their search had to expand beyond the...
Then, it occurred to him.
Morgue.
Dane.
Deliveries.
He reconfigured his search grid with a new set of parameters based on the information that Blane had given them earlier, activated the scan cycle, and held his breath.
Then he began to hoot, loudly, and point aimlessly toward the panel before him. "Liissy! LIISSY!"
The woman who's attention he sought sat silently in the pilot's chair, rotating slowly back and forth. Thoughts on three separate subjects struggled for supremacy within her mind; and as she tried to sort them out knowing that she couldn't possibly assign one higher importance than another, she was growing more weary by the second.
"What?"
"Blane did say this place that Dane is going to is supposed to be the City Morgue, right?"
"Yeah," She rose from her chair and approached. "Why?"
"Because...last time I checked the official public records. This time, with our new sensor upgrades I did my best impression of a peeping Tom and...this is not right. But this is BIG!" Reece crowed, pointing to the data, "Of all the bodies that they appear to have in their storage tubes, only eight of them are actually suffering from what you could call a terminal degree of deadness."
"Reece- you're babbling again. In Standard please..."
"Most of the bodies are in stasis, but they're not dead yet."
Liis eyes reflected her horror. She hurried to the com panel and tried to signal Blane. "Damn, it's too close to the meeting time, he's turned off the com."
She knew that Blane and Steele were going to trail Dane as he made the pick up for his deliveries...she only wished there was a way to get word to them that they needed to take a different approach if they were going to get to the bottom of this, and get out alive.
-=Meanwhile...=-
Dane paced nervously back and forth at the back entrance of the morgue. Up the street, he could see Landry Steele, and as much of a pain in the ass as she was, he was really getting worried about her.
She was still playing the part of a prostitute.
Badly.
The irony was that Dane had lived a long time in that world, in what seemed now to be another life. He knew that Blane had to stay close by her if she was going to make it through this assignment unscathed.
She had no idea the kind of danger she was playing with- and all it took was drawing the attention of one wrong customer and she would be taking up space in the morgue, herself.
It had come very close to that for him. On more than one occasion.
*If not for Zanh Liis,* Dane now thought, his conscience heavy with guilt, *My miserable existence would have ended that way.*
Dane now looked over his shoulder and saw TC Blane in the shadows around the other side of the building. He could only make Blane out because he knew exactly what he was looking for. The man had the ability to become invisible, it seemed, to all but those who knew exactly what he was doing.
It was a skill that Dane hoped maybe Blane would agree to teach him, if he could only straighten up and fly right.
[Tell him you're waiting for a friend,] TC instructed Landry via her earpiece when, just as Dane feared, someone took too keen an interest in her and didn't want to take no for an answer. [If he doesn't back off in a minute, I'll-]
Dane was about to risk blowing his cover to intervene himself as the man grabbed Steele by the arm when the huge door at the back of the morgue began to screech, opening upward.
The man from the bar was inside, with another Klaestron male who was dressed in dark clothing covered by a white lab coat.
"I'm here, just as you said to be," Dane offered to his new-found employer. He couldn't worry about Landry any more now. She and Blane were on their own.
"Congratulations. You've just proven you know how to tell time. Shut up and grab a gurney."
Dane did what he was told.
"This way."
He followed the men into a large room, lined with rows and rows of simple coffins.
The hair on the back of Dane's neck stood up. *Place creeps the hell out of me...*
"Start loading these into the vehicle in the bay around the corner," the bartender instructed.
Dane worked as quickly as he could, all the while wishing he knew if Blane was now inside the building, or still outside with Steele. The bartender had made the mistake of leaving the back door open- and Dane knew an instant was all it would take if Blane saw his opportunity...
-=In the vehicle bay around the corner...=-
"Take them off NOW." Blane hissed into Steele's ear. "Before you get us both killed!"
She sighed and removed her shoes, the heels of which were making an awful clatter against the smooth, dark flooring. *If I step on something sharp, I swear,*
"Crap, they're coming. In here." Blane pulled her around the corner, and up into the back of the large utility craft that was parked there. Realizing that there was nowhere to hide inside the open hold, he anxiously looked around for another way out.
"Through there," he pushed Landry up and through the small window separating the cab of the vehicle from the storage hold and for once, without protest, Steele hurried to follow his instructions.
She and TC crouched down beneath the front seat, but Blane knew that they really were in a great deal of trouble if he couldn't find another location to hide. Quickly.
Dane began stacking the coffins in the back of the cargo hold, and it was something that he said and TC overheard that made the commander realize Dane might have just saved them all.
"Why is this one so light?"
"Don't ask questions." Came the terse reply.
TC saw a chance, and had no intention of wasting it.
Dane turned around and the man paused a moment to wipe his brow with a dirty rag, which looked to TC a lot like the one he had been using earlier to wipe down the bar at his fine establishment...
The man finally followed Dane back out of the room, and Blane slowly activated the door hatch, climbed out and ran around the back of the vehicle. He opened up the coffin, and just as he suspected; this one was empty except for some isolinear chips and data rods.
"Steele, now!" He whispered as loudly as he dare, and she hurried to join him in the cargo hold.
"No..." she shook her head, turning stark white. "No, no no."
"NOW." Blane shoved her inside, and then, hearing voices approaching, managed somehow to also cram his own large frame into the coffin beside her before pulling the top on over them.
The first thing he noticed when the lid was completely closed was that he could still see faint pinholes of light. Reassuring, since he did particularly happen to enjoy the sensation of breathing.
It was then he came the shocking conclusion that these boxes were meant to transport the living in secret, not the dead in public.
"Did I ever tell you that I'm claustrophobic, Sir?" Landry's shaky voice inquired meekly.
"No,"
"Well," Landry squeaked, "I am."
*Super.* TC thought.
He felt her body begin to shake beside him. “Steele, you need to relax,” he whispered.
“I can’t!” She growled a little too loud for Blane’s liking.
“OK. OK.” TC soothed as best he could.
“I can’t breathe.” Landry gasped as she started to hyperventilate.
“Easy, ensign.” TC warned as he struggled to peer out of one of the air holes. “Look, I know a trick that might help you.”
He moved his arm behind her head, so that it rested in an elevated position on his bicep. Then with a move as quick as cat he used his other hand to apply pressure at the nape of her neck, sending her into unconsciousness.
*Thank you, Vulcans.*
He gently laid her head back down and checked to make sure that she was not hurt. Nodding that she was indeed out cold, he peeked through the air hole again to make sure they had not been discovered. He was relieved to find that no one had taken any undue notice of their coffin.
Satisfied, he laid back and glanced at the now calm Ensign Steele.
*Claustrophobic.* He shook his head. * With my luck she probably snores, too.*
-=On the Rixx Rewards=-
"They're on the move. Wait a minute..." Dabin stared at the screen in disbelief. "Now that's really interesting."
"What is?" Zanh tried to read over his shoulder as he bounced up and down in his chair. "Reece, hold STILL or I will tie you to the damned chair! What is interesting?"
"There are two healthy lifesigns in the cab of the vehicle they're hovering around in," Dabin pointed, indicating the readings. "A couple completely dead people in the hold, about a dozen who are in stasis...and two in the hold who have very strong lifesigns."
"Blane and Steele..."Liis whispered, "Okay, Reece. I need you to pinpoint their exact location once that cargo hauler stops."
"Because..." Dabin bit his lip nervously, already knowing, and dreading what she was about to say.
"Because, Spot, as soon as we find out where they've landed, we're going in."
"You're not serious. What makes you think that any of this is any way related to finding O'Sullivan's brat?"
"One thing only," Liis answered honestly, standing and gathering up an array of weapons and other gadgetry with a new sense of purpose. "Instinct."
Ensign Dane Cristiane
Driving The Cart
USS Serendipity NCC-2012
and
Commander TC Blane
Not Yet Dead
USS Serendipity NCC-2012