Chronicles of Sol: The Fall

Sali shifted a bit on her shelf. Her mind however wasn’t really on her surroundings. Instead, she was thinking about what she had learned last night. Nothing too helpful right now, but she had learned a few things thanks to that walk with the alien captain, Countryman. It seemed to her that if she was going to make it home, it was up to her. No waiting for rescue, and there seemed little hope that these aliens would just release her. Countryman had said a few things that made that prospect seem unlikely. From the sound of it she was in a bit of a bind. One she wasn’t entirely sure how she was going to get out of.

If she was going to see her clan again, her home she was going to have to escape. The big question was how. Getting out of the cell was actually the easy part. She actually had a couple of ideas for that. It was staying out of the cell, and avoiding recapture that was going to be the hard part. Her walk may have given her some information, but it also showed her just how difficult an escape would be. The brig on this alien ship was actually fairly large with dozens of cells, and those were just the ones she had seen. There were regular patrols, guards were everywhere, and there were checkpoints. Along with strategically placed blast doors. Getting out of the brig would be no easy task. Even assuming that she managed that, there was getting off the ship as well. The problem was she didn’t even know where the brig was in relation to the hanger. From there the problems stacked up even more badly the more she thought about it. There were just too many variables, too many things that could go wrong. She sighed, at the moment that was just asking to be shot. At the moment things were bad, but she knew they could always be worse. Sali just wasn’t ready to take a risk, the odds just didn’t stack in her favor either. Not yet. Maybe later, when she actually had a plan that might stand a chance of success.

A sound distracted her, and she rolled over looking towards the door rather than the shadowed wall. The grid split open to admit a familiar face. It was the doctor. Sali’s gaze locked onto the medkit on the other woman’s hip. The kit she knew carried an injector. She pushed herself up, but she was kinda wishing that she could skip this part of her day. Sali could do without the daily injections. She hated needles. Something that just made the whole prospect of another injection unappealing.

The woman smiled, “Good morning, how are you feeling?”

She sighed, “Well enough I guess.”

The doctor pulled out her scanner, and said, “Hmm, I see. Well, just let me make sure.”

Sali glanced at the guards. It wasn’t like she had much choice. She’d tried to say no to an injection before. That had ended with her being handled like a child and given an injection anyway. She told herself that things could always be worse. “Can’t we just skip this? We both know you’re just going to give me another injection.”

The doctor chuckled and used the scanner. “Afraid not.” After a moment, the doctor’s smile widened, “besides you seem to be recovering very nicely. I think this will be your last injection.”

She gave the other woman a look. That was okay news, but not what she wanted to hear. Sighing she stuck out an arm, as the doctor pulled out the cursed injector. Only to comment, “I don’t need your arm. Show me your neck.”

Glancing at the guard one of which had stepped closer, she tilted her head presenting her neck. All the while feeling especially vulnerable. As usual, her attempts to get her to use that damn thing on her arm instead didn’t work. A moment later she felt the familiar sting of the needle, and almost flinched from it. It was followed by the equally familiar rush of ice through her veins, and tingling on her neck.

The doctor pulled it away, smiled, and said, “Alright we’re done, here. Now that wasn’t so bad, was it?”

Sali didn’t reply and wasn’t happy being treated like a kid here. As such she chose not to dignify that with a response. Even if these alien needles strangely hurt less than the ones she was used to, she still didn’t like them. Instead she deflected the question with something she was wondering about.

“You know the Captain paid me a visit yesterday, and indicated that he’d be giving me another one. Any idea when that might be? As he did not say.”

The doctor shook her head slightly and gave her a look. “Well, he is a busy man. So not really. He likely plans to show up when he has time to spare, but since I don’t know his schedule?” she shrugged, “It could be whenever. For all I know it could right now, or late in the evening.”

She glanced at the floor, “I see.” She had hoped the doctor might give her a better answer. As his timing yesterday had been a close call for her. If he had been seconds earlier... she did not finish that thought but turned slightly red at the mere thought of what nearly happened.

Countryman put aside the latest report. It was a scouting report that had confirmed that the last Valorian ship in the system had pulled out. The Enterprise herself had moved deeper into the system and into a region of the Delta Four system that was outside of the reach of Valorian ships. Still even though they couldn’t be touched here, it was nice knowing they were officially gone. Mining had gone well, and they had collected a fair amount of that Erudite stuff. Over the last few days they had been working on optimizing their formula for it, and just yesterday he had approved a production run for Erudite enhanced plating. Unfortunately projections indicated they only had enough to realistically outfit one ship with the plating. The Enterprise naturally. Of course while they were at it, it was high time they actually got to work updating her particle cannons. Something they hadn’t quite had time to do before, but now they could do it in safety.

Well as much safety as they could ensure given the circumstances. He already had a refit schedule drawn up, and the big ticket item was actually the armor upgrade. Replating the ship would take time, but they had drawn up a plan to keep the time they were vulnerable down. Right this minute new Erudite enhanced plates were being made, and preparations for a rapid swap along with it. The actual rearmoring was scheduled for next week, but the first crews were already at work updating the main guns to the new configuration.

That was only for the Enterprise, however. The destroyers Coto and Umikaze were not scheduled to begin upgrades quite yet. Instead they were assigned to patrol for now. Along with a fair number of fighters. The fighters thankfully didn’t need to be fit into the refit schedule since they had already been outfitted with the upgrades. It had been far easier to find time to upgrade them. No real surprise there.

He stretched and closed his apps. Before logging off of his monitor. That report had been the last item on his morning agenda. So now he had some time. He had been considering the problems that came with young Sali. He’d had her captured in hopes of establishing contact with the Valorians who had been rather trigger happy, and as it turned out weren’t even listening for his hails. Now that she was here, she was his problem. He had a few ideas on that. Especially since they could not simply let her go. Killing her wasn’t the solution either. Of course there were other considerations as well. Most importantly he had a feeling that she would prove useful. Her piloting talents were extraordinary. Not to mention having spoken with her, he had found her to be quite intelligent. Although not so good at hiding her feelings. She seemed young to him, and somewhat inexperienced. He had a feeling this may have been her first assignment or close to it.

Glancing at the time, it was about time he went to meet her. Take her for a bit of a walk, and chat. There were a few things he still needed to discuss with her. After that it would be her first meeting with the council, the people who would in part be deciding her fate. In some ways he felt sorry for her. Fate had not been kind to that young woman, he could see it in her eyes. There was a deep sadness there, and her imprisonment wasn’t the cause. He was sure of it. Why she was so unhappy, he knew not. It was something he wasn’t going to ask her either. At least not anytime soon. Perhaps later once their relationship had improved.

He slipped out of his ready room, and signaled a pair of guards to follow him. As he headed for the lift that was so conveniently placed near his ready room. They joined him in the lift, and silently took up positions while he input their destination on the lower decks, the brig. Like any ship, the Enterprise had one, and reflecting the size of the Enterprise she had a reasonably large brig, that was split across three decks with about three hundred and fifty general purpose cells, and a few high security cells. It was honestly not enough, not nearly enough. Although that was because neither he nor any of his fellows had anticipated their exact situation. With so many people aboard it was inevitable that some of them would break the rules. Thankfully they hadn’t yet had to deal with any serious crimes, but there were enough that the cells were seeing regular use. Recent measures have helped, but only so much. At least he had a few empty cells, which had allowed him to stick the young Valorian Sali in a private cell. He had a feeling she would not have taken to sharing a cell all that well.

The lift didn’t take long to deposit him near the brig. There was no lift directly to the brig for security reasons. Not that it bothered him. Setting the pace, he made his way towards the main security office that was not only the main entrance to the brig, but also a major checkpoint for those coming and going.

When he arrived he nodded to the pair on duty, and moved to the monitor room off to the side. A room he had made sure young Sali didn’t see yesterday, even though they had passed through this very room. The room was manned by several technicians when he entered, whose job was to keep an eye on the various security feeds. These techs were assisted by an AI designed to look for red flag anomalies and highlight them for the techs. The monitors drew their feeds from a series of concealed internal sensor nodes that ensured there was nothing a prisoner could not do without it being observed and recorded.

He took up position near a monitor, and used it to check in on the prisoner he planned to visit. Countryman had noticed what nearly happened yesterday, and while neither of them had said anything, he had found that she was rather easy to read, and clearly bothered by that. Honestly it made little difference to him. However he didn’t want her to be uncomfortable around him. He had plans already for her, and was already working towards them. It was just going to take time. On the monitor he found her doing sit-ups in her cell, which was maybe not the best choice. Although it wasn’t like she had much else to do.

He sighed, and made his way out of the room. The guards quickly admitted him to the cells proper, and he made his way through the row of cells towards the back of the brig. Sali’s cell was located towards the rear of the uppermost cell block, the other two cell blocks could only be accessed via either the lift or stairs located inside the brig. With the high security cells being located in the lowermost cell block. Sali didn’t warrant extra security, so she was located up here in the general area. Although her current status also meant that she wasn’t yet allowed to mingle with the general population. Something he hadn’t yet talked to her about. The brig actually had a rec yard for prisoners to mingle in.

Sali pulled herself up into a sitting position. She had been doing this repeatedly for a few minutes, but this time she froze rather than letting herself fall back. She felt herself flush slightly as she noticed Countryman standing just outside her cell door. With a clear view no less. Maybe this positioning wasn’t so well thought out...

Once again he spoke to her in her own tongue. Reminding her of the fact that she had never asked him how he had learned Valorian. “Good morning,” he greeted her as if he hadn’t just seen what he had seen.

“Um, how long have you been there?”

“Not that long, two minutes and fourteen point seven seconds before you noticed,” he replied.

She blushed her mind completely skipping over some of what he said. Instead she realized that he had seen. Sali, her face purple, “You, you saw!”

He nodded, “I did. Anyway, care for a walk? We have a few things to discuss.”

Sali blinked. That wasn’t fair. Changing the subject like that. Getting off the floor, she glared at him, “Yes I’d like a walk, but that doesn’t...”

He sighed, cutting her off. “Great! Let’s get going, as we have a lot to discuss, and not a lot of time.”

With that Countryman turned around and walked away. Just as her cell door opened. Sali just sat there not entirely sure what happened for a moment. Then after a moment, her eyes widened and she jumped off the floor before rushing off after him. She wasn’t going to be left behind in that cell. Any chance to get out was worth it.