The Waiting Game (Part II)

Posted on Tue May 30th, 2023 @ 4:04pm by Commander Grace Vetur & Lieutenant Haruna Mizuhara & Lieutenant Amanda Rose

1,117 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: The Bandits of Black Rain
Location: Pirate Ship

[PREVIOUSLY]

"Turn up the temperature in their room and give them each a piece of bread." She headed for the door and paused. "Also, put up a force field and don't let either one of them out of your site."

"Yes, ma'am." The other pirate quickly made the adjustments.

Lady Scarlet nodded. She'd continue to monitor them from command. She hoped they wouldn't prove to be more trouble than they were worth.

[CONTINUED]

Amanda placed her back against the wall and sat against it. Watching Haruna was not thrilling. The child was either pretending to or actually sleeping. Since there was nowhere to go and nothing to do, Amanda figured that there was nothing that required her attention. Even Haruna could not prove to be problematic, well, unless she was part kender. If that was the case, she might be in quite deep trouble, as there was nothing so fearsome as a bored kender. Giggling at the thought of Haruna being part kender, she relaxed as much as she could, closing her eyes to rest.

She did not know how much time had passed but however much time had passed between Haruna closing her eyes, her closing her eyes and relaxing and now, Amanda started to feel warmer. I'm not getting sick, am i? She tugged a little at her collar, trying to get a little more comfortable.

After a while, a small slit at the bottom of the door opened and a tray with two bowls of stew slid into the room. "Food."

No spoon, Amanda noted. So much for Haruna's wild plans. And, perhaps the food is drugged, though I doubt it. They want something from us. I wish I knew what. She looked at the food and then at Haruna and said, "I'm not eating under these circumstances."

Haruna yawned, she sat up, stretched and looked at what they had been served. She crawled over to the bowls and dipped a finger in it. She then tasted it.

"Hmm..." She said. "Not bad, but not good either. It's edible, I guess..." she told Amanda. "Although, their replicators need some work, I can taste the rearrange proteins..." she added. She dipped her finger and took another taste. "Yeah, definitely Klingon style replicators, whatever made these ingredients has some sort of faulty power transfer coil."

"Next time, we give them gagh," the pirate monitoring them said to his companion.

The other pirate chuckled. "Ain't our ship, ain't our food. Looking forward to gettin' out o' here, though."

"Soon as her ladyship hears from the boss."

"Are you certain it is a faulty power transfer coil? Maybe it is a faulty cook. Not everything is handled by a machine, Haruna," Amanda reminded her juvenile companion.

"I'm pretty confident..." Haruna yawned. She pulled her knees up to her chest and began to rock back and forth. "It's so boring in here!" she whined.

Amanda took the information in. So, Scarlet may be a big fish but the bigger one is above her. She needs something from us. And if this is not their ship, where did they steal this one from? she wondered silently. Amanda opened her eyes and looked at Haruna, "Perhaps we could play a game. I'd say 'I spy,' but there does not seem to be a lot of variety here."

[Outside]

Lady Scarlet walked into the observation room and watched for several minutes. "The room next to theirs is empty. Let the engineer find her way through an access panel to the next room. Let's see if she's half as good as she claims." She looked at the pirate. "But only into the next room. Shield it so they don't get out. Not until I'm ready."

"Yes, ma'am." He made several adjustments to the security so that Haruna could find an access panel into the next room.

Haruna yawned as she stretched from her little nap. She then noticed something different about one of the panels in the room. She looked around slowly before making her way over to the panel.

She ran her hands over the panel as she could feel it was slightly loose, she wasn't sure how she had missed this before. "Hey..." she said looking over at Amanda. "I found something..." she said with a smile.

"What did you find, Haruna?" Amanda asked curiously.

"This panel is loose" Haruna explained. "I might have missed it earlier..."

"Do you mean to tell me that you, of all people, missed something having to do with a ship?" Amanda asked skeptically. "I find that difficult to believe. Do you want to hear what I believe?"

Before she could really answer Haruna had removed the panel to reveal the crawlway behind it. "I can get in here, see what I can find." she grinned.

"Another mousetrap," Amanda called after Haruna. "I will not play Scarlet's game. You can if you wish."

"I'll take the risk!" Haruna replied as she crawled through the hatch. She found herself in another room, it was more or less identical to the room she had just come from. However, to Haruna it was start. Slowly she approached the door and tried the handle, it was locked.

"Hmm..." she pondered for a moment. She crawled back into the hatch and sat cross legged in between the bulkheads. "Looks like we have a few little wires and stuff in here..." she muttered to herself.

Reaching up, she pulled at some of the wires and began to examine them. They were all different colours. "I think this is some sort of power cable..." she muttered to herself. She held the wire and closed her eyes as if feeling the current in the wires.

She popped her head out of the hatch and beamed at Amanda. "I have a cunning plan!" she said.

Amanda was less than convinced but she responded, "Dare I ask?"

Haruna popped back inside the wall, she reached for a support bracket and managed to yank it away. It had a sharp edge, which she began to use to strip some of the wires she had located. "I need something to bond these together..." she muttered to herself. "But no solder...".

Haruna clicked her fingers, she began to yank at the bottom of her uniform. The sound of fabric ripping could clearly be heard inside the cell where Amanda was.

The ripping sound caused Amanda to stand up. Curiosity was starting to get the better of her. "Just what do you think that you're doing, Haruna?"

(To be continued...)

Lieutenant Amanda Rose
Chief Counselor
USS Ontario

Lieutenant Haruna Mizuhara
Chief Engineer
USS Ontario

Lady Scarlet & Pirates
NPC by Grace Vetur

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