Nothing I Ever Had - Part 4
Story by ChakatDeirdre on SoFurry
The last part of this arc with Jesper and Kari. What happens? Why was Cain doing what she did? What happens in the end? Read on!
8 years later it's finally done! typos and stuff in all!
Oh did I mention I am already 2/3rds through the prequel and there might be a sequel? I will take bets now on how long it would take to do a Sequal.
Nothing I Ever Had
Part 4
by
Chakat Deirdre
Chakats, The Chakat Universe, Chakat Midnight, M'Lai, Leanna, Baneth, etc are Copyright Bernard Doove.
Admiral Kline and Rosepetal (Rose) Silpurr are the creations of Boyce (aka Boycie aka Admal aka Mewmal) Garald Kline jr and are used with permission. (or at least he knows about it ^.^)
Skunktaurs are Copyright Bob Reijns.
The following book is Copyleft by Chakat Deirdre 2009.
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Kari walked out from the quarters she shared with her master. Jesper had to be holding something back, she knew her master to well. A decade had taught her how he deflects and avoids the truth or conflict. A dry attempt at humor was often his shield and he had been quite… different in recent days.
She walked up to a lift and waited a few moments thinking about what she needs to do and estimating when Jesper will be back home. Two… three hours perhaps. Then she will have to finally press him for what's actually been bothering him. Normally her training would make it clear to show deference to her master's wishes, however it seemed now to be impacting him and quite troubling. She would carry out any action ordered directly or indirectly so long as it was Intentional, in his best interest, and lawful.
The trans-lift's doors opened revealing another anthro kangaroo inside. A male in an engineering division uniform. He was still digitgrade but his leg structure and hips were different, whereas hers were more like a feral roo his were more a closer cross to the human side then the feral form.
He smiled, “Hello miss Roo."
It wasn't time for a fight, she didn't want this argument. It was getting annoying to correct him.
She walked inside, deciding to carry herself more professionally than she normally would… which was saying something considering she had only her collar on.
“Its Kari, we have been through this before I am a slave. I don't wish any honorifics, titles, or modifiers. I understand you're used to them, but outside of direct military service, Chimeras don't have them where I come from."
This buck had apparently been keeping tabs on her on and off, seeing another roo is rare in the Federation just as it is in the LNAW. It didn't take much for her to conclude this male was interested in her and was just poking around the edges to try and find an 'in' as it were.
“My apologies Kari, it's just we don't normally use first names in Starfleet… or where I was raised. Its a hard force of habit to break."
Nodding her head she completely understood, still it bugged her and tonight she just wasn't in the mood.
“Are you on your way somewhere?" he asked almost hopefully.
Kari smiled a bit on the question and… felt different like her mood had swung for some reason.
“hmm," she smiled, moving her arms down under her ample chest and lifting up a little, both accentuating her breasts while making it look like a warm hug to herself like reflecting on a warm memory, “I guess I could go for a little jog or work out a bit… I think you have always liked that."
The male tried to take a step back, startled at suddenly how receptive the female of his species had begun… well not quite… species meant almost nothing to Chimera/furs in reality. However Kari seemed more disturbed by her behavior in her mind. Something was wrong inside her… something different. She would never flirt overtly after being irritated. There was a big difference between the enjoyment and pleasure of the bodies of slaves in their design and going beyond flaunting it to openly inviting or promising. It was always strange to her the different standards Chimera had in the Federation… they seemed almost desperate to simultaneously demand they be humans while simultaneously demanding they be treated differently.
Separately… something separate… she looked up to see the Ensign now looking quite uncomfortable at her.
“Sorry about that I… just don't know what got into me," she offered and paused again in thought.
“It's, um, ok Kari, I wasn't expecting it. Well I just got off my shift starting some fabrication work and I guess…" he started back.
Kari was just lost in thought. Separately… Chimera… Being like humans yet not… Reproduction. Yes that was it… Chakona had contacted Jesper about her medical file being concerned about chimera reproduction… HER reproduction. To help control the population and eliminate unexpected births Chimera in most of the LNAW were either physically made unable to produce without assistance, or a few biological tricks were carried out to prevent ovulation and reduce potency of sperm outside of controlled or authorized breeding.
Jesper had told her they objected to this and said he may have to work on reversing the hormonal block to trigger a normal reproduction cyc…
“... if you want I could go with you and help you with anything you would like." The uniformed kangaroo continued.
“Its ok hun…" she smiles and lightly blushed herself, “I actually was on my way to see the other recovered slaves… my master asked me to just check over them quickly before freeing me from his service for a while."
The injection was a large dose of hormones designed to resume her normal cycle instead of the series of false heats and other actions her body was designed to carry out most of the time. All of the motions but none of the fertile results… now her body in the next few weeks will start to actually go through them for real for the first time in her life.
He nodded enthusiastically. Young fit buck ensign, a close cousin line to her own. She couldn't help but start working her mind of the permutations of a hypothetical cub they could have. It must be hard on him though, seeing her that first time hopping along the large track in the ship's gymnasium. Probably had to switch his shift to be able to just watch her more… working up the nerve to get even this close to her.
“I would be happy to accompany you… um… Kari." He said, mouth most likely dry as his cheeks continued to blush under his fur.
Ten minutes was all it took for the trans-lift to get to the designated bay holding the intelligent chimera slaves. She took the lead, leaving him just a few steps behind and she was sure to put on a little show of moving her rear and tail side to side for his benefit. Screw Federation Standards, if he is amicable she will introduce him to how its done back home after this.
She walked up to the panel at the side of the wide doors and announced herself. It took a few moments and a simple explanation. She was just doing a routine check on behalf of Dr. Card and she was let in.
“Ah Kari it's good to see you back again," One of the shift guards called down from a control room overseeing the bay.
The bay itself was quite large, normally used for storage or transport of materials. Despite what people thought, the Federation didn't use even their industrial replicators for everything. Energy to matter conversion was extremely costly and despite using anti-matter as the power source for the ship distributing large quantities of that energy was tricky at best. The replicators normally had an energy and quasi-matter buffer helping with peak demands for even the small in-room replicators. The large industrial scale ones found in a few fabrication labs and a few bays had massive power usage and buffer requirements making them quite a drain on ships resources especially while also running FTL. As such there were still large stacks scattered across the ship of finished goods, parts, and equipment at the ready.
They had moved quite a few containers off to the side freeing about three-quarters of the medium warehouse like bay clear for their unexpected cargo. Transparent to semi-opaque panels were assembled creating essentially a “cell" for each of the Chimera they were charged with transporting. Inside was a pre-fabbed bed fused to the floor, mirror, wash basin (sonic of course), bench, table, and a personal item they could request. The cells were surprisingly spacious, feeling more like small little studio apartments than anything else.
There was a monitoring room elevated about a story to story and a half above the ground allowing an easy overhead view when they bay was full, they could select a container and have it moved over the others in front of the door for easy retrieving what's inside or positioned on a cargo transporter pad.
“Its good to see you again princess!" a female raptoress chimera shouted to her with a soft hiss.
There were four members of security present, the one up at the control/observation post, another by the door, and two stationed essentially observing the “freed" slaves that were out of their little homes for a bit of socialization.
Eight chimera in all were in the group freed with her. The Utahraptor was a hybrid reptile/mammalian, not a transitional reptile/avian like the original found in Earth's distant past. She had breasts and scales, no feathers or hair. She also was the one closest to Kari during their trip… they had shared in several intimate moments and seemed to bond over the fact both tended to be the more “exotic" ones out of the group.
Kari walked into the bay proper letting the doors close behind her tag-along guest. When the security guard was about to question the engineer… turned out he was specifically a fabrication and design engineer she learned on the way here… she just simply stated he was with her. They seemed to accept that.
“Now now love," The rooess said smiling to the reptilian chimera, “We don't want to give the others the wrong idea."
She walked over to the said scalie and gave her a deep kiss on the lips before watching what the other 7 were up to. A few were just lounging around, the rest were seated at a table playing a game. After getting a better look she realized it was a unique game played by some Chimera in the LNAW. It combined logic puzzles, strategy, and even elements of cryptography… impressive since it was hard just to design and produce the intricate pieces let alone learn the rules. Judging by the fact there was no original box or instructions they must have made it themselves by giving the computer or some of the crew instructions on making the needed pieces.
“Kari," one of the guards, a human man, walked up to her looking over, “Do you know how to play this game?"
Pausing a few moments she decided on how to answer the question, “No, I never picked it up… it's hard for humans and even most Chimera. I have watched a few games during some of my… specialty training though. The hexagonal shapes represent territory, the circle discs are randomly generated numbers denoting difficulty, the cards are puzzles, and the little figures are the players. You all start at the middle and work your way out from the center to exit the maze… but each time you solve one it slides out from the center to the extremity… essentially you're playing against everyone including yourself."
Her follower for the night slowly walked up behind her, looking over to watch five of the remaining seven slaves play.
“But why?" the human asked.
“Its a giant logic puzzle, millions of permutations constantly shifting with every move someone makes. It was developed to keep intelligent chimera entertained during downtime, distracting us from boredom. There are many different types of cards, you can use it to work on any number of different subjects. Trivia, situation response, language, and the list keeps going on and on."
“What's so difficult about it?" her tag-along ensign finally asked.
She chuckled a bit and gave him a little nuzzle before responding, “Its designed for people with eidetic memory, understanding of probability, and have some knack for spacial awareness. It doesn't require much creativity outside of strategy and anticipation. Essentially you play it not to be first out, but to hope someday you CAN make it out."
“Others," this time it was the male lion speaking up as he moved his figure to a new area, ironically it was back a space, “belive the only way to win is not to play at all… but where is the fun in that?"
Kari gave him a little glare as the red panda girl picked up a card and read, “Associative, Dissociative, Blank, Concept."
“Associative is correct, Dissociative should be Commutative, the blank is really Distributive. Concept is Mathematical laws. That is my answer," The lion replied proudly.
The red panda just chuckled waving the card at him, “Sure this isnt a masked psychology question?"
Once again he shook his maned head, “No, Blank is the main clue as are the two terms. The terms reflect adding and subtracting, despite not being correct terms in this context, while the Blank is an entry box on the card not an underlined field. The box is for when the game wants numerical or symbolic entry, not printed text like would commonly be found in answers regarding psychology. Its a trick thats easy to see through."
Kari looks over to the human that seems quite… confused. The other roo at her side seems to be impressed more than anything as the others around the table grumble.
“I guess no challenges then," a furred hand places the card down leaving the Lion quite pleased with not causing a major shift in the playing field for his turn.
“Of course not," Kari began, “he is right about that one. Let me explain. Back home tests have specific features. In the same way an essay is not found in general education math, there are different forms standardized and bulk tests are given based on subject. The square for the answer to be written in was a memory trigger, just like each of those other terms were memory triggers. What looks like a highly complex series of deductions and understanding of a subject is really just a recall of early math classes and a tiny bit of reasoning."
The other LNAW chimera at the table nod and smile before going back to their game. Kari reaches down and takes the lion's left ear between forefinger and thumb, extracting him from his seat, “I am borrowing this one for a little bit, I will be right back."
Several of the other Chimera snickered watching the large male forced to his feet and followed her to the other end of the cargo bay. The security officers enjoyed the display, the male often seemed reluctant to accept anything other than direct orders and often forced them to carefully consider the wording or risk unintentional consequences.
“Fine, what do you want, Kari?" He asked away from the others, the other roo male now seeming interested in watching the others play the game.
Kari leaned over and picked up one of the smaller containers, the other chimera clearly able to see her muscles flex and the tension of her legs as she did so. She paused a bit and then looked to make sure the others weren't watching and moved it over her head. The container was then placed on the floor on its side.
“lift that in one clean smooth motion over your head," she finally instructed.
His feline eyes moved down over the container and saw the hazard weight warning on the side.
“Thats about 150 kilos according to the marker on the side. If I casually dead lifted that I could risk tearing muscle or damaging my bones," was his calm response. “We aren't all heavy combat bases like you are."
The rooess just crossed her arms and stared at him. The feline male just sighed to the marsupial before nodding and giving it a try. She watched carefully over his attempt, taking note a few glances from the others as she observed. How the muscles moved and strained under his fur, how he worked to try and distribute the weight, and even admiring how much of their muscle potential was cleverly hidden by their makers.
Of course she never expected him to lift it like she would, their leg structures were different and he couldn't afford to make an easy demonstration out of it. As he set down the container she already knew he must have had some of the same tweaks applied to muscle and bone that she had. The microfiber muscle tissue gene wasn't just present… it was expressed.
Kari placed her hand down on his shoulder, apologized that she made him do a test he couldn't perform and started walking him back to the others. After returning the male to the group she smiled and nuzzled her tag a-long ensign, her own male eastern gray to keep the big red company.
“So," her chosen buck began to whisper to her, “I saw you had him lift something for you. Didn't they already test how strong you all were when you came aboard, or did something happen and Jesper wanted to see if he had regained his strength?"
She nuzzled the smaller male, “If you want I could lift you over my head… could even lift the big scary lion up."
He blushed hard, both because it was in view of the security officers but more because of the smiles coming from around the table and their accompanying glances. The lion was… 120 kilos perhaps 140… the buck knew his own weight was a modest 66 kilo… it was always hard to tell with some fur species due to the ability for fur to exaggerate bulk and cover up definition. Kari was somewhere between 60 and 80 kilos… he would never ask of course though she would probably think nothing of it.
This strange fellow Kanga he found was just so… alien to him. Despite being different forms of roo they also had radically different bases in what made them. She was tailor made to specific standards and expectations, perhaps even state of the art in a completely different society's sense. Truth was he had no idea what she could do aside from what he had gleaned seeing her in the gymnasium a few times… watching her hop… even listening a few times to Jesper speaking as she stayed near her master's side.
The boomer felt a little nip on his ear and smiled, looking at the large sexy Red and softly nuzzled back before she started guiding him back to the entrance. At the door she gave a little wink to the officer stationed near the door.
“I trust in your discretion," she told him before switching to a whisper, “Who got them the game?"
After a moment of surprise at the soft whispered question he replied, “Your girlfriend did… the others didn't seem thrilled at first but now they all seem to enjoy it. Why is it important?"
Kari tilted her head to the side in thought and reflection, instead just giving him a kiss on the cheek and walking out with her boomer.
“Um, Kari?" the gray finally asked once they entered the empty corridor with the doors closed behind them. “That was a bit embarrassing, could you not… flirt so much and drag me around everywhere."
She looked down and held him out at arms length, hands on his shoulders.
“I do like you, I am sorry I had to take you there but it did help me. Sorry for putting on a show for your crewmates, but I needed them focused on you and us being together… not so much on what I was doing."
“What were you doing?" came his inevitable question.
An arm wrapped around him as she started slowly guiding him back to the trans-lift. This time letting him set the pace.
“I needed to see what the male could do, and we can talk about this more in Master's quarters."
The Engineer looked a bit dumbfounded as they walked into the lift.
“Wait your master's quarters? Aren't you taking things a little fast and… your master's quarters?"
Kari chuckled and gave him a big hug, pressing her breasts against his head making sure he gets a good dose of the new scent her body is giving off.
“It's where MY bed is and I need to tell him about what I discovered tonight after he comes back. Besides, don't you want to hear it first AND then I can show you how Chimera do it on Amarnath just like I promised?"
He nodded dumbfounded, confused, and a little aroused as the doors closed.
Jesper half walked and half stumbled into his quarters. It was a valiant effort for almost all of the way back, but dammit he would cross that final threshold on his own terms, even if it was drunk and disorderly.
After stumbling in those last few feet a familiar scent hit his nose, Kari in heat. He smiled a bit and grabbed the hypo left on the counter. Pulling the cylinder out he smiled seeing it was empty and tried to collect himself long enough to get to the stashed medkit he always kept handy.
Carefully moving around the table he walked into the bedroom, humming a little tune to himself. The door slid open and he went inside, ignoring the two kangaroos being intimate on the bed instead focused on getting to his goal.
“Sir! I am sorry I… urk!" The undressed male tried to say before being pulled down against the female he was atop.
“Oh no you don't," Kari corrected her partner from earlier, taking his head and half smothering him against hir breasts. “You pay attention to me, not him."
The human seemed unphased, pulling out the drawer containing the medkit, finding what he wanted and loading it into the hypo before giving himself a dose. He took a few moments looking at the two morphs having sex, smirking a bit.
“Kari, you found a friend!"
His slave flips over, pinning the small gray roo beneath her as she resumed mating. She looked over to her master, grinning with her fur unkempt and his eyes easily picking up other signs they had been at it for some time. The male, free from her large breasts was catching his breath, seemed unable to do anything but just enjoy the almost feral mating he found himself in.
“Be with you… in a moment… master."
A whine came out from the other roo she had pinned; which caused Jesper to just shake his head, give himself another dose from the hypo, and walk out leaving the two alone.
“Kari we shouldn't do this," he half heartedly tried to convince her.
She smiled down to him… lovingly and so beautiful. Shaking his head the buck gripped his Jill again and re-focused himself to finish this carnal encounter.
It took another half an hour until Kari seemed functional again and able to pull away from her boomer. She lost count of how many times her body felt the familiar surge of pleasure spreading through her body but she did keep track of the male's, three.
“Wow, that was… amazing," her partner finally let out a silly smile across his muzzle.
“Well technically part of what I am is a sex slave, you thought I wouldn't know my own trade?"
Pausing he looked over as she got up, still strong and collected looking every bit as desirable as when he first saw her in the ship's gymnasium.
“I know this is strange for you, don't worry Jesper doesnt mind… and won't think anything of it. All of the genetically engineered species are slaves where I come from, in fact he might feel a little grateful for taking care of this heat for me." Kari tries to assure.
“No, no, well I mean I am not worried about that. Just why did he go into this bedroom… I thought you said this was your room."
She grinned and shrugged, “The other bedroom we just use for storage, I ALWAYS am in the same bed as Master or I sleep at the foot of his bed. So this is in effect my room and my bed as you mean it."
He blinked, thinking for a moment before nodding. “Sorry it's just, sometimes I forget."
Kari settles back down on the bed next to the boomer, smiling down to him, “It's alright, this is new for you. Hell, the whole idea of our kind not belonging to a human is new for me. Well there were always chimera from other worlds but still back home everyone was a slave."
A soft paw lightly stroked her cheek and he smiled back, “This is what you meant by how you do it in the LNAW? Hard rough sex, small intimate moments, and still having to answer to your human?"
They exchanged a soft kiss with Kari instigating it. Her grin was large as she whispered to him.
“Human obscenity and public display laws don't apply to chimera back home," shi licked her lips. “Now get up and get out there, Jesper will want to talk to you and I need to change the sheets for his drunk rear."
The roos had gotten the male dressed in a fresh replicated set of clothing, necessary since Kari had practically torn his prior clothing off his body. After making sure he was presentable Kari sent him out of the safety of the bedroom into the darkened main room.
He slowly made his way down the short hall, bedroom door to one side then the other side with its small attached study and seeing the terminal off. The small mixed use living and sitting room was at the end opening up to the small entry space, kitchenette, and casual eating space.
Jesper seemed to be sitting in the living room in an overstuffed chair facing the front door. His head tilted to the side with his eyes closed seeming to be asleep.
Trying to sneak his way past the human he hears his voice.
“Sorry about earlier, I guess my deep dark secret of being an easy date is now lost."
He stopped and paused, “I am sorry sir I don't understand."
The human's eyes open and a wry smile crosses his face. “You don't have to call me Sir when neither of us are on duty. What's your name, I didn't realize besides Kari there were other Kangaroo Chimer… morph aboard."
“Liam, if we are both going by first names."
Jesper nodded in return. “I was brought as a guest of our capable chief medical officer to a senior officer's dinner earlier. There was something, I think it was from the Rakshani sector, anyways it was alcoholic and I tend to get drunk easily. Hence easy date."
“I am sorry Jesper, but I don't quite follow you. Are you trying to say…"
“No," the human interrupted, “In the past when I went to functions Kari was almost always there. One of her jobs is to help keep me in line and that includes checking my consumption of intoxicants. The point is we're both adjusting to this strange new way, you just happen to be getting pulled in with a more interesting set of challenges."
“Thank you sir… Jesper. I just want to apologize for being with your," Liam paused and seemed to have some trouble saying the next word.
“slave."
“Ah yes, well I didn't realize when Kari said it was her bedroom that also meant it was yours. I guess I should have."
Jesper waved his hand dismissing the apology, “You still have nothing to be sorry for. I know this is considered impolite and strange here but the truth is she's a sex slave, and your a male of the same rough species. Back home things like this just… happens and it's up to us humans to not object. If you made well over a third of your population essentially genetically engineered pleasure slaves its not up to the creators to object to the inevitable consequences."
Kari walked into the common room, seemingly far more relaxed and perhaps a little tired. She didn't bother grooming or 'washing up' instead slowly walking over next to Jesper giving the boomer a little wink as she settled down making sure to give Liam a few teasing views. After kneeling at the side of the chair she reached for the leash coiled up on the coffee table.
“Liam, feel free to sit down," Jesper offered, gesturing to the matching couch.
He gratefully accepted the offer, sitting down and watching Kari leash herself and put the loop into her master's lap.
It was too much for the poor boomer to watch, so… strange so wrong to him. He shot up off of the chair, Kari having a look of concern as he apologized, said something about the hour and having a morning shift in six hours. He hastily took his leave and, what both assumed, was made a hasty retreat back to his quarters for a less than productive night's sleep.
“Think we broke him?" Kari asked, resting her head against Jesper's leg.
The man just chuckled for a bit and sighed, “No, I think he just likes you romantically so you need to keep that in mind this isn't just a fun romp. Also I know I didn't tell you earlier but you really need to have a condom now if you want to keep having sex with him."
She grinned and licked her lips, moving her head against his crotch, “So thats why I feel that way, you gave me a hormone injection to trigger my fertility…. mmm, but makes me wonder why."
Sighing, her owner lightly stroked her head, “Chakona immigration and naturalization got a little… upset that I could control your fertility, turns out fixing what they consider a defect only pisses them off more."
Kari nodded and started down the list in her head, “So Chakona is pretty much off the list… the Rakhshani would be a hilariously bad idea, SOL is essentially manic depressive, and that leaves Cait and the Voxans."
“I don't want to put any more of an imposition on them then I already have, I mean they smuggled me in and set me up with Chakona to begin with."
“MASTER," she scolded the human, “you're practically family with them, hell I was three months away from having a Caitian be my mistress, YOU are family to them. It doesn't matter what you think, if everything you told me is true then I think they would take it as a personal insult if you were deported and sent back."
Jesper let out a sigh and just sat there in silence for a while, seeming to try and collect his thoughts. It didn't take long until the impatient rooess stood up and started to to half pull half strip her human master.
“So this is what's going to happen tonight. I am going to get you to bed and we will get you sobered up and well sexed. Then I am going to tell you about the results of my little test. After which we will sleep, and in the morning you will march down to security before your shift and talk to whoever about your concerns with the other eight."
He chuckled a bit as he was given an ultimatum by the horny female he was supposed to be in control of. “Yes miss hop hop," was his only valid and safe reply.
When Kari awoke she grumbled, how ironic Jesper was the one that got drunk last night and she is the one waking up with a pounding headache. Careful to get her arms under her body she got up from bed and looked over her form in the mirror.
“How the hell do women and so many other females go through this?" she asked herself looking at her own disheveled appearance.
“The first," Jesper said walking out from their shared bathroom, “Is often far worse than the average, this is made worse by the fact a major dose or hormones must be injected into your systems to trigger your delayed phases in the menstrual cycle. I left something on the sink to help you through this, don't worry it gets a lot easier… its just some changes in your body happening late and a compressed sudden cycle."
Kari nodded and walked past him, “And you remember… get dressed, head to security, and talk to someone." She looked intently into his eyes, “Do you understand?"
Jesper just nodded, suddenly wishing he was a bit faster this morning and was out the door entirely by the time she woke up.
“Gooooooood," came her almost threatening response. She walked past him, closing the door behind leaving the half dressed human a little worried about having upset her.
Kari looked down at the sink and sighed, noticing the two small pills. “Really, this is it? This isn't a real treatment, it just suppressed symptoms." Her grumbling over she eyed the shower and decided a quick hot shower and cleaning up should be just enough time and attention to get herself presentable.
Reaching into his case a look of temporary panic crossed Dr. Card's face. A PADD containing medical records and other information he needed to prove what he was about to assert to the current shift chief of security… most likely Cmdr Midnight hirself was missing from his locking case.
Jesper had developed a kind of phobia when it came to medical records and other confidential Chimera related things. The entire system of slavery in the League was passed on secure and accurate records with clear chains of custody. You never kept detailed records information or even sensitive summaries unsecured outside of areas. Even on a supposedly secured military computer network you never moved the records outside of the medical facilities or only on pre-approved devices.
“Computer, stop, reverse to origin," he instructed the trans-lift to return him back to the corridor outside his quarters.
Closing his eyes the man started to trace back. Procured the PADD from medical yesterday, bringing it back to his quarters in a case after loading in the records from the medical database for the other Chimera including Kari. He then loaded some records he had procured the night before from a few contacts he still had in the League.
Starfleet intelligence had to have gone through it and not figured out what it contained before it was finally forwarded to the ship's messaging system for delivery to him. Despite the poor relations it was still possible to get messages back and forth, and if you could get them through official channels through an intermediary it was difficult to be accused of illegal activities.
The doors for the lift opened showing an exhausted silver vixen in a security uniform. She looked over at the agitated man looking like he was willing the doors to close while trying to not be obvious about it.
While the doors closed she couldn't help but ask, “What's wrong this time Doctor? You normally don't have that look unless you forgot something."
He just pressed the panel a few times trying to get the doors to close after and resume back. “Oh nothing, just forgot something stupid in my quarters before dropping by security."
Nodding the junior security officer chuckled, “How like you Mister Card. Not even going to let me program in my destination?"
“No offense, but I am kind of in a hurry," came the apology, “I just need to take care of something and am kicking myself at how air-headed I was."
With a flick of her tail she chuckled, “No problem doctor… I am off duty now and was just heading back to my quarters anyway. Honestly I am a little curious to see what you are so worked up about before heading to security."
For a moment the human grinned to her, “Why Miss Alm, if you ever wanted to come to my quarters all you had to do was ask."
Kari Roo had taken a quick brush to herself and took a quick sonic shower, not wanting to have to bother with the drying time of her fur when it came to a proper water cleaning. It was adequate for preparation before a quick outing and did help with some of the more distracting scents she had picked up since last night. Truth was the kangaroo was still more than a little distracted, and there was only one person besides Jesper on this ship she believed could be talked about such... issues.
Leaving the quarters her eyes moved over a PADD that was left on the kitchenette table. She poked the screen and watched it awaken to a medical authorization lock screen. “Master always leaves stuff, doesn't he. Oh well."
By now he should have completed his morning routine and be sitting with Midnight and a few other security officers trying to explain his concerns. It was almost tempting for her to pick it up and rush it to her master… but if he needed it for that and got to the security section offices he would have already called her. No, it was most likely just some random medical record he could just pull up when he got to medical or just a copy of some restricted records. She hated to admit it but reading material and records organization, that's where her master was a slob without her help. She just left on her way to where she needed to go next.
Standing on the trans-lift she gave a little sigh and gave her destination, “Cargo bay six."
Some people couldn't feel the lift move, it was so subtle despite its rather impressive speed. A huge ship means long travel times or a really fast transit mechanism. The Federation always liked to overbuild their toys, and the inertial dampener used on each lift let them speed along straight paths quickly and efficiently through the maze of shafts. For her, however, she could easily perceive every acceleration, deceleration, path change, and shift the internal system gave to try and give most creatures comfort and the sensation of motionless.
Still, that didn't completely explain away the slight unease in her stomach. Among the Chimera held in the cargo bay she considered one of them her lover and friend. She needs to say goodbye before security policies would be changed for them. It made her feel bad that she told Jesper and confirmed this secret, but it had to be done to protect her master.
Trans-lift doors opened and she stepped off. Moving a few hundred meters to the bay and with a sigh pressed the button to signal her request for entry. All she wanted to do was kiss and hold the raptoress lover at least one more time before things had to change.
Her finger pressed the signal again… her stomach starting to knot up as the door opened.
'not procedure,' she heard yelling in the back of her mind in warning. There was no challenge or request she identify herself. The door was open for a moment and all she could was look in disbelief as she started to breath in.
“COMPUTER, SE…" was all she got out before she felt a blow to her throat and was pulled inside.
“Welcome to my humble abode," Jesper offered walking the uniformed fox inside.
“My, my… it's a lot cleaner than I thought… and bigger."
The man chuckled back, walking over to the PADD and picked it up smiling.
“Ah there you are, now let me just check on Kari and we can be off again!" he said in triumph now looking significantly less bothered by his mistake.
Alm just chuckled behind him, “So then this wasn't all just a pretext for getting me into your quarters for a three-way?"
Jesper coughed several times completely off guard at that comment, temporarily distracted. He looked up at her, starting to finally recover, “Where did that come from?"
She grinned and started teasing him, “Oh just some of those videos you brought from home and put up on the public entertainment network. Something about large chimera slave orgies?"
Shaking his head he went back to the bedroom to get Kari, “Those are jokes, jokes. We don't actually have those back in the league… or atleast I never was invited to one." He stuck his head back out and grinned at her," but if you are offering… well I am not sure Starfleet would approve," came his counter.
“yah, yah, yah, just tell your slave your off again and come on. I want to read what made you so nervous for misplacing."
A few minutes passed before he walked out and looked up at the ceiling visibly irritated, “Computer, where the hell is Kari Roo?"
“Kari Roo is in Cargo Bay six."
“Something wrong Jesper?" Alm asked, the former atmosphere broken as she picks up on the human's visible concern.
“That's not possible… she knows she shouldn't be going back there already… computer, open comm link to Kari Roo, signal when ready."
He walked over to Alm and took the PADD off the table, typing in a code he then passed it over to her to read. A tone was played from the computer to signal him it was ready.
“Kari, please respond."
A few moments passed of silence then he tried again, “Kari, this is Jesper please respond."
Leaving the vixen to continue reading the rather dense medical text he quickly walks into the bedroom.
“Kari Roo, I am ordering you to respond."
Jesper walked back out to the disappointing gaze of the security officer standing in the entryway. “You should have said something about this earlier, I don't know much about genetics or medicine but even I know this is troubling," she lightly scolded him.
“Sorry, defense secrets… unless there was a threat I can't reveal them," he replied, gripping a case before taking the PADD. “Come on, Bay six now."
The vixen just shook her head, suddenly wishing she did just head back to her quarters instead of spending some time with the strange doctor.
As they quickly walked past a few people after having left Jesper's quarters she tapped her comms, “Bay Six, please respond."
He tapped at the manual call button for the trans-lift until the door opened.
“Lt. Junior Alm to Security, I am unable to raise Bay Six with in-ship communicator, try to contact Cargo Bay Six with hard links."
Handing over the case to her she looked back with a questioning look.
“One moment sir, I will get right back to you," came the response.
Jesper gestured to the case a few times and mouthed, 'please open it.'
Looking it over for a moment she noticed the security seal and lock on the item along with the weapon marking before her eyes shot up to the human. 'what is it?' she mouthed back.
Shrugging the man leaned over and softly spoke in her ear knowing the comms may still be open, “League side arm… you know the one you commented on back at the station?"
A look of disgust crossed her muzzle before pushing it back against his chest, “no, you don't even know if you'r worked up over nothing and you want a gun."
As the case pressed against his chest she realized something, not only was Jesper freaked out enough to have grabbed something dangerous enough security procedures require it be kept in a hard locking case to be brought on a ship… but he also had on light armor over his chest that he most likely slipped on while in the bedroom.
This means there are only two options. Either Jesper is worried sick about Kari not responding and its making him border on irrational and thus impair the human's normal calm collected judgment... Or she isn't taking this as seriously as it in fact is. After all these are League Chimera… he is the closest to an expert on this ship and most of the entire Federation. It's always hard to tell with his stories what is embellishment and what is real.
“Ok Jessica," came the voice from earlier, “We can't raise them either, I have dispatched a team to investigate. There is still another three minutes before their next scheduled check in time."
The lift door opened and both started half walking down, half running down the corridor. As she reached for her side-arm and moved to the side of the door.
“I am with Doctor Card at the bay, and I am going to try going in so keeping the link open… also can you look up the timed release code for security box four three eight niner?"
She gestured for him to move to the side also, not quite knowing what to expect before she tapped the signal button and waited a moment.
“I have the code would you like it?"
“Not just yet, please override the door that was just signaled… I am not getting a challenge," was her calm response. Even Jesper could hear some rustling in the background. He might not know almost anything about the security procedures related to the chimera… partially because of how invested he may be in them… especially Kari. However he did know the basics. They would be getting all of the extra officers they keep in reserve on active duty at the security offices and starting to gear and arm them as rapid response teams.
The large bay door opened to the corridor they were in and they looked inside.
“Damnit."
“I am calling it," Alm said to the other officer listening over the comm link as she walked through the door and hit the alert button on the interior door panel.
The room lighting changed as the visual indicators and a signal tone was triggered as the alert was pushed out ship wide.
“Medical emergency Cargo Bay 6, additional staff respond, multiple casualties," Jesper said walking inside as his brain switches over into triage mode.
Scanning the surrounding with her own phaser out the vixen started going through her own training, “Security dispatch, we also have multiple officers down," Kneeling down next to the bloodied body of a human woman she held her phaser in one hand while trying to check the pulse with another, “revise, at least one officer dead at the scene."
Earlier…
Coughing Kari was splayed out on the floor trying to catch her breath. The strike to her throat was clearly meant to stop her from raising an audio alarm… that left the panic buttons located on panels… she had to get to them for her master's sake.
A bit shaken she got back up to her feet and looked around. A human woman in a small but growing pool of blood on the floor… one of the regular security officers. Her raptoress friend was before her… most likely the one that struck her throat. Lucky since normally her type used their claws to slice vulnerable tissue.
“I am sorry love," the raptoress offered sincerely. “Its just time now and we can't put this off any longer.
Kari just coughed again feeling her throat sore despite the collar and buckle absorbing some of the impact. They were going to give her a few moments to recover… something she could use. She boosted.
“Just kill her, she is going to help them for her master. Don't get attached, we have our mission," the lion said.
The roo's eyes continued to scan the surroundings… At the lion's feet was a strong male Rakshani with two of his bones visibly broken. The red panda girl was off to the side working on the phasers they had taken off of the injured or dying security personnel. There were two more security personnel… probably federation morphs still in their uniforms, all showed signs of being physically assaulted.
Sensing something behind her she shifted to the side and threw the male fox over her shoulder. Landing in front of her body Kari quickly struck down at his chest just above the diaphragm winding the male and buying some time. Next was the vixen, trying to use her being off balance to gain an advantage, jumped down from the observation and control post. Twisting out of the way Kari dodged the worst of the blow, instead absorbing some of the momentum and using the rest with some of her own strength to slam the vixen against the floor.
Two down, one preoccupied, four left. Kari started running towards the crates… on the other side would be an alarm panel that would call security and send a ship wide alert if she hit it. Breathing was difficult, she knew her throat was starting to swell and it wouldn't be long until it would be too hard getting enough oxygen into her blood to keep up this overstimulated drug induced state.
Knocking over the large equine male she lept up to jump on the double stacked pallets using all of the strength and advantages her body gave her. She knew both the male lion and raptor were in pursuit but also ready if she would have tried to jump off the side of the container and try a flip to double back.
Instead she landed on the top of the stack only to receive a kick from the lioness. Winded again she managed to move more to the side then straight back off the pile. unfortunately for her that wasn't all the golden brown feline had planned. Trying to get up quickly there was an opening and Kari flew once more from an arm grab and throw. There was a tinge of pain but she ignored it through her boosted altered state. Finally the lioness took some pity on her fellow heavy combat chimera and gave a powerful kick to send her back to the floor below. The landing was botched and she felt that pain again with a pop… dislocated shoulder she already knew.
“I am sorry love," the raptoress said kneeling near her head as she started to see dark spots.
Wheezing Kari tried to speak and tell her to just stay… she could protect her from most of the consequences if she just stayed here with her. However all that came out was wheezing and a few coughs while finely scaled fingers stroked her hair.
“I know, but I have to do this. Just sleep and stay here… you will be safe," came the assurance.
“Got the phasers unlocked…" was the last thing she heard before passing out.
“Security Alert! Security Alert all decks! This is not a drill! Ready all rapid response teams. Secure all vital compartments and make condition report to command. All duty crew report to stations, all other personnel clear or stand fast." came the shipwide alert.
“Could use some help over here miss security when you have time," Jesper yelled over to the silver vix.
Turning around the corner of a stack of storage crates she responds, “First I need to make sure no one here is left to attack us as we… oh shit."
“What is it now!?" the human yelled back, starting to work on the second morph.
“Its Kari, she was assaulted too," came the mixed response both apologetic and… almost happy?
Resisting the urge to snap back at her he just yelled, “Check her breathing, pulse, and tell me what's obviously wrong… I will get over there just as soon, I can't switch to her unless she is worse than the others."
Jessica Alm knelt down, grumbling a bit having to stop for the doctor, still not positive they were alone yet. “Her shoulder is fucked… dislocated it looks like, bruising and some swelling from close quarters hand to hand, her collar has been unbuckled and I think her neck has some swelling around the throat."
She leaned over listening to her breathing and felt for a pulse, leaving herself vulnerable for a few moments. “breathing is," Alm continued, “shallow and raspy but regular… a little wheezing too. Pulse is… abnormal?"
As the large door slid open Jesper looked up as the security team entered, “Damnit, not medical. HAY ALM YOUR PARTY IS HERE!"
After a quick visual pass the leader of the squad stowed his weapon and signaled the rest of the team to secure the rest of the bay. “Doctor," the leader began kneeling at his side, “report."
“Um… one dead, three injured. They took the phasers and medkits so I am a bit limited until medical arrives. two are stable and I am just trying to stabilize your friend here. Alm was doing a sweep but found Kari injured back by the cargo. Kari makes four injured," he added in the last part.
Three tones came out from their com badge. “Security this is Cargo Bay six, sweeping area, no sign of the escapees so far."
“Confirmed, we lost tracking of the detainees but have reports around medical and main engineering of possible contact. Will advise when we have more information."
Once more the door opened showing five med techs with equipment coming through. Jesper gave a sigh of relief putting them to work so he could grab one of the medkits and start heading to Kari.
“Sir! I think I know why we can't track them. One of them must have gotten into the system and now it just thinks they are in the bay."
“Mmm, ahw," Kari started to come around as Jesper rounded the corner.
Kneeling down next to her and Alm, Jesper started to open the medical kit.
“Just relax Kari, don't try to speak until I have finished diagnosing you," he tried to assure her.
“Listen Doctor," Alm began, “I am sorry for doubting you and Kari before."
Jesper shook his head looking at the readings from the medical datacorder, “No its ok… Listen, you need to make sure all of the security forces know what I am about to say. Don't bother using anything but maximum stun, if it does work it will knock down the big ones for at most fifteen seconds… they need to know that using a kill setting may be the only option. Also… if they get in close quarters range, your people will lose almost every time."
“But what about…"
“No," He looked intently into the silver vixen's eyes, “There are a lot of things wrong with them. A lot of reasons we ALL underestimated them until now. Now we have to assume they can do everything including things I didn't tell you before now. Do you understand?"
She nodded and stood up, heading to the others to pass on the report.
Dr. Card took out a few small strips from the kit, twisting and activating the small cooling pads placing them on her throat. Kari's eyes were locked on to her master's face… he was all she had left now after this. There was no way the rest of the crew would look at her the same way knowing how much she was like them.
“Your hyoid is fine, the soft tissue is just swelling and we can easily take care of that in medical. The cool packs will help keep your swelling down since I don't want to pump you full of drugs in the field after you boosted. I can pop in your dislocated shoulder anytime you're ready love. Now, I need to ask you a few questions… keep your neck still and we will just use the blinking system."
Kari was leaning against her master allowing the man to 'support' her injured form as they walked back to the others. It wasn't necessary, but the roo wanted to make him happy.
“Oh good you're both here, there are a few things we could use some insight on the situation." Alm stated spotting their approach.
While making their way over to Alm and the other three members of security they passed past the med techs and nurse finishing preparing the surviving guards for transport to medical. The roo watched her master's eyes move over the dead human's body left after they confirmed the death in the pool of her own blood. She felt the human tense a bit and gave him a little nuzzle back silently.
“Well I can tell you they aren't League," her master offered.
“Wait, what?!" came the surprised voice of the response team.
“Just look around you… League Chimera with military, reservist, or private security training would view your Rakshani friend as the real threat and wouldn't have been able to cause lethal harm to a human unless directly ordered to or if given no reasonable alternative in the situation. I mean just keep that in mind and look." Jesper offered.
The male Rakshani was sprawled out on the floor, looking like he was thrown off from the higher observation platform for the bay. A broken arm and a broken leg, then a blow to the head. Disabling but nowhere near lethal.
Then there was the woman guard. It looked like she was caught trying to lunge or make her way for one of the alarm panels and was brought to the ground… then mauled with defensive wounds around the light armor with some of it ripped and torn off.
“I see what you mean… the others looked like they were all taken out with a minimal effort approach. Chell was forced against the floor then one of them just… almost went feral. Even his wounds are mostly just from the fall and then they just knocked him out."
“So then if they aren't league, why do they have so many of those enhancements you told us about that only come from the League?" Came Alm's natural question.
Kari licked Jesper's cheek and nuzzled her master, looking over to Alm.
“Kari is trying to say thats because they aren't league chimera, they are just made to look and to some degree behave like them. Its actually pretty convincing, unless they are acting out of some unknown instinct… I couldn't even really tell," her master translated.
“Well," Alm began, “After leaving here we lost tracking of them. Apparently they know as much about our systems as they do your morphs, umm... chimera. We know they split up into at least three groups. One went to Main Engineering, Midnight personally responded to that, then we found another group in medical. Right now Main Engineering is almost clear, response teams are setting up outside of medical it might be turning into a hostage situation."
Shaking her head 'no' Kari then mouthed a few words as Jesper watched.
“Sorry, I told Kari she can't talk until I get her to medical. When she fought she released a flood of painkillers, regular adrenaline, and stimulants into her body… we call that boosting. Until I can do a quick tox screening to pull the exact levels in her body I am not going to give her anti-inflammatories to help with her throat. Also she thinks that both Main Engineering and Medical are distractions."
“From what exactly?"
Kari just shrugged then nodded to her owner.
“She doesn't know… but she also knows they aren't stupid because… its what she would do."
Shifting her stance a bit the rooess leaned off of Jesper's shoulder and gave a little stretch, lifting up the now opened case not having noticed it before.
Alm's eyes quickly darted over to Kari taking notice but decided to relax. Mentally she kicked herself for temporarily grouping Kari in with the other Chimera reflexively. Had the kanga wanted to kill or harm any of the others she could have quickly overwhelmed her when she first started to wake up. Plus she had taken quite a beating fighting the others. Sure it could have been a ruse, but something told her that wasn't the case, it just wouldn't have made sense.
“Just… be careful," Alm warned them, for a moment wondering if it was the best idea to unlock it in the first place.
Jesper reached out and took the vixen's arm, “come on, we're going to medical"
“No, no, no, no, no," the security LtJG replied, “This is a bad idea the decks aren't secure and medical is most definitely not secure."
“Alm, listen to me. Your friends over there need medical attention or there may be complications, I need to do a blood screening on Kari before I can safely treat her, and that's not to mention any other emergencies across the ship. We need medical back and secure, and I believe between the three of us can do it."
She sighed as Kari walked over to her and offered the case.
“Fine, but I reserve the right to stop this at any time…." The silver vix looked back to the other members of security, “I am heading down to medical, let them know I am coming and hopefully I won't live to regret this," she joked.
Kari was holding open the case as the group stood in the trans-lift. Alm reached down and picked up the League firearm. Under other circumstances she would have been fascinated with a real functioning piece of equipment. Sidearms had always interested her and the chance to hold and potentially fire off an example she may one day in the future have to go up against was always a tempting advantage. Unfortunately she didn't have the time… and she was going to be expected to fire it at a living being.
“Why do you want me to use this again?" the fox asked, picking it up along with one of the clips.
“Kari or I wave around a gun and we are likely to be shot by security. I need to be the distraction anyways and I would rather not my slave get shot on accident. That means you get to use it." Was the man's calm explanation.
Giving yet another sigh Alm grabbed the clip and carefully slid it inside causing two small barely noticeable lights on the back to flash repeatedly.
“How does this work exactly?"
“There are two lights on the back, left and right. When left is lit it means the sidearm is in suppress mode, when the right is lit thats kill mode," Jesper began. “Stun sends out a high energy discharge in a pulse into the target you're aiming at. Assuming they aren't insulated or have on heavy armor it will take down pretty much any chimera at least 20 seconds… if it doesn't outright stop their heart."
She looked up with disgust to Kari, “You have to be kidding me."
The rooess just grinned and gave her a wink still not allowed to speak.
“We don't run around with toy stunners where I come from. You want to know what your shooting will go down, and if it doesnt, you want to make sure they understand the second shot will not be a love tap. Just because I was what you would consider a civilian doctor does not mean we will let our over 110 kilo military trained patients potentially use us a punching bags. Even if we have to shoot em at least we will still be in a condition to try and patch up the damage."
Again Alm hated to admit but some of the reports she was seeing saw a few of the chimera shrug off even heavy stunner settings forcing at least two kill shots so far. With his recommendations earlier a lot of the security force were told to no longer rely on any stun settings and go right to kill settings with disabling shots… or if that was practical just go for a quick kill.
“Kill," continued the would be healer, “takes a volume of mass from the clip and fires it at high speeds ballistically out like a standard kinetic pistol. The mass is a treated metallic substance that reacts on contact with flesh causing it to explode after burying itself into soft tissue. It can penetrate most light and even some medium armors including Starfleet standard issue. This also prevents it from piercing hulls of space ships but causes severe damage on flesh. I guess what I am trying to say is even though it handles and has the profile of an old slug thrower, friendly fire involving this would be bad."
It was crazy… crazy but effective. “Fine, Standard trigger… safety… load and reload… how do you switch modes."
Standing behind her the human grinned and reached out to grab the top and pull the slide back, “Instead of loading or cocking the weapon the slide changes between the modes… also…" his hand moved back down to carefully slide the weapon out of her grip and hold it himself as that small left light turned green. “It uses a combination quick dna and grip test to verify the user… that way said patient cant strip it from us in a struggle and shoot us."
Looking over the left light turning green it started to flash for some unknown reason before handing it back. She gripped it watching the light flash between red and green for a few seconds before going solid green.
“Your now a registered user of the gun… please dont shoot us," he teased with a wink.
“We use fire controls too… how long does it take to register and what about false negatives?"
“Its a quick and simple genetic test, it does only a few lines to make sure its a live cell and check against only a dozen segments. The grip test is just to make sure its not a live sample being held by another person. Say blood or cells smeared over a glove. Unless you recently had a transfusion… have so much mud and dirt caked on it the gun wouldn't be safe to fire either way… or are holding it upside down it is more reliable than any other component," Jesper replied picking up the second clip heading to the other side of the lift but still being careful to stay out of Alm's practice aiming. “Seriously though, even the 'sub-lethal' setting hurts like all hell… be careful what you shoot at."
“So thats my plan," The doctor explained to the response team around the corner outside sickbay.
About two dozen security officers had set up around the access points to sickbay and were holding positions waiting for orders as the command staff discussed how to address this hostage situation. Engineering was now secure and the security chief's team was en route to a science lab that was apparently raided with no casualties. The consensus was now that Kari's prediction was correct. Aside from the situation in medical and the now resolved situation in main engineering, apparently none of the chimera survived, there was one more group of two chimera still out doing hit and run attacks with the others acting as distractions. So far they hit a science lab and stole material and loose components for… something.
The ones in main engineering were supposed to just look like they were trying to blow up the ship as what were reported as suspicious containers with potential explosives from a arms locker they hit turned out to be empty.
“You're crazy," Another security lieutenant, this one a male voxan told him.
“We need main medical back, no one is in disagreement with this. We have casualties, some may die because of this. If you want the chance for even one to survive this for questioning we need medical because they WILL try to kill themselves any way if capture is imminent just as Midnight saw. Now, there are three in there and we have a gun that can disable them for at least 20 seconds, Kari can take out the one in the lab through the side access, that leaves one more that needs to be taken out."
“Assuming he can expose the lioness I can take her out no problem," offered one of the team's marksmen.
“This is all fine and good doctor," the voxxan began to explain, “but you would be the bait and if anything goes wrong you would end up dead and possibly one or two other members of the medical staff. Plus I need command authorization for this. We should wait until word from command or Midnight before we try anything."
“How many people are being pulled off the search because of this?" Alm inquired.
Twitching his tail the alien responded, “Almost two dozen total with another dozen coming… coupled with losses, doubling security at critical stations, and redeploys across the ship our sweep teams are short by between a quarter and a third active duty. Midnight already has given the order to pull in every off-duty officer and even a few extras but they won't be geared up and ready for a bit longer.
Seriously though Kari, I am happy you're with us, but your friends are impressive. Even the drills and simulations we go through are this efficient worst case. Its been perhaps fifteen minutes since their escape and were still having tracking problems."
Flicking her large tail the rooess pointed to the voxxan's comms and in a breathy painful voice said, “ask the bridge, please."
Jesper Card walked up to the main access point of medical. Looking over to his side the man let out a sigh and tapped the panel twice and raised his hands above his head. As the door slide open he looked to see two phasors, handheld, pointed at him.
“Did someone ask for a hostage negotiator?"
The lioness Chimera holding one of the hand phasers took a step closer to Jesper but stayed a few meters away just in case he chose to lunge like an idiot. “No fast movements, keep your arms up, step forward until the door closes. Then hold as I search you."
Deciding this wasn't the time for another quip he complied, “Oh and Kari is doing fine if you're wondering."
She looked up to him hesitantly as if trying to read his body language to judge if he was lying. Not the point she most likely thought, her current companion kept his aim at the human's body as the tawny brown feline approached and began to frisk him.
A quick glance around while he was searched showed a few medical staff were allowed to stay to, with supervision, see over a few wounded that were too injured to move from their bays. However the other senior medical staff was missing from the room… locked in offices or held back in the offices or laboratories? No, they had two forwards around the main entrances of medical and most likely a third back overseeing any hostages… or just patrolling the narrow side accesses. This wasn't a hostage situation, this was a defensive posture designed to delay. Just like engineering.
“He's clean," the lioness said slowly stepping back, “Apologies for Kari, we couldn't let her interfere with our mission."
Jesper's eye caught the gaze of one of the nurses looking at him with a bit of suspicion. Too bad he couldn't play this as a secret ally, the crew might actually believe it.
“I don't blame you, you are just following orders, granted who's I can't figure out. It might be interesting to dissect you and figure out exactly where you came from though," Jesper gave a wicked grin.
“But sir, there is no way we would let that happen," Was the horse's quip back.
The human froze for a moment… sir… that was the wrong designation. He wouldn't be addressed anywhere in the league as a 'sir' by a Chimera, this wasn't going to work at all.
There was a sound from the back… Jesper couldn't hear it but both the equine and feline's ears twitched and he instantly knew what that meant.
“Human," came the female lion's voice again. “Walk forward to the console, arms behind your back." She started slowly moving back to the rear section leading to the offices and laboratories to check on the source of the sound they heard.
It was too late now, he had to follow this through to the end. No chance to use a disable command, wouldn't work against them. Now he had to just not get shot by either side.
As Dr. Card reached to a meter of the console he tensed. With a tap of the door panel the lioness had triggered the plan into motion. Despite having taken up a position to be able to sweep the room the door opened into she was unprepared for the angry kangaroo lunging at her timed perfectly with the opening of the door.
Jesper tucked his legs while dropping his upper body and let gravity take him down to safety. The moment of distraction was enough to stop a discharge from a phaser into his body from the horse. Lucky him.
Honestly no one at this point was paying attention to the doors Jesper had come through just minutes before. As soon as he had gone through security had removed the computer control from the door and popped the emergency override outside. A bit of tinkering and they set up a breech mechanism… kind of a containment door in reverse that would open the door's at high speed though break the automatic control in the process. It was noisy, and took a bit of setup… but with ample distraction inside it was effective.
There was a brief flash and the smell of ozone. Everything was timed perfectly with Kari's signal after Jesper was inside. Still, he felt guilty most likely these chimera from who knew where would end up dead just like the other two in engineering. It was a suicide mission.
It was strange in a way, he felt bad for them but it had an irony that they could not be held guilty for what they did nor could he see any other way. Kill or be killed, even if they weren't league this possible look into the future of federation and league relations was sober as hell.
“Doctor are you alright?" he heard Alm's voice.
Kari was smashing the Lioness' head into the deck several times until the golden brown furred female had completely lost consciousness not wanting to risk losing her victory even if the others couldn't understand the ferocity.
He blinked and nodded scrambling up looking in the eyes of the stunned equine before him. “Fuck!" he yelled out and quickly went over to a dispensary cart four meters away. Other members of security were now flowing into medical through both the main access they had cleared and the other entrances.
ten seconds.
After a few wasted seconds he found the right drug and loaded it into the hypo and closed the distance back with the equine.
seventeen seconds?
The human rolled the large equine and tilted his head exposing the carotid artery and applied a dose to the fallen male. His eyes however were distant, relaxed, glass, he was too late.
“Too late," he whispered.
Moments later convulsions overtook whom he tried to save. There was no real chance of taking prisoners despite what he told himself and the other's when he hatched this plan. Of course Jesper disclosed this but despite the hope he knew each of these chimera had the capability to boost themselves to death, even his Kari.
Truth was, if anything happened to him Kari would have no reason left to live and she would die like this on some floor. She was still a piece of military hardware, state of the art in some respects, and only service to him was what kept her alive. It terrified him every day if everyone knew the truth, mutual understanding was both a horrible and wonderful thing.
In that moment Jesper just looked into the eyes of a dying chimera and shared a connection and understanding that even if they didn't come from the same world, they both had and understood perfectly. For a brief moment he wished he could just be as ignorant as the other members of starfleet around him.
“He's dead, Kari get her up on the table we need to be fast if were going to stop her from the same fate," Dr. Card glanced over and enlisted one of the still stunned nurses and medtechs that moments earlier that were held in the room… watching. Triage time again.
It seemed enough to get the others back into action, a reflex of training and a focus. No one seemed to want to stop him for a moment and point out tears were coming down his cheeks. Not one person stopped Kari from standing by his side and taking care of him after depositing the lioness on a table. Moments ago she was at least giving a concussion to her, seeming almost delighted to have a kill. She even grabbed one of the face masks and used it to dab up the few tears he had allowed to escape when he transposed the image of his own slave onto the one that died before him.
Somehow everyone knew despite appearances he was in control, just they had witnessed something that as alien to them and they just had to respect it.
Kari of course knew exactly what was happening, Jesper was about to lose it and she was thankful M'Lai wasn't around. A female Caitian her master found attractive was the last thing he needed to see. This is not the time to be reminded of the past or his loss. Instead she attended to her master and owner.
Alm took a step over towards Jesper but was blocked by Kari before she guided the fox away from the doctor and his assistants working on stabilizing the formerly rebellious slave.
“Is he going to be all right?" she asked the roo.
“Yah, Jesper is a good… doctor. He just wears his heart on his sleeve a bit to much, my human has always had a problem keeping everything locked away and keeping everything professional. Guess he is just an emotional human."
They stood together off to the side out of the way just watching. It must have been half an hour of new patients being brought in, several more security sweeps through and news coming from other sections that Alm shared with Kari. Two of the chimera she came aboard this ship with were still not located. One was being worked over by Jesper to try and keep her stabilized in an induced coma to prevent her from overdosing herself. All of the others by now were dead.
Touching her own leather collar around her neck she resisted trying to ask which ones were still missing. She wasn't sure if she would be happy or terrified to find out if it was the raptoress she had formed a relationship with over those weeks on the transport. 'Just focus on Jesper, Jesper is all that matters,' she would tell herself.
Their chief of security had managed to retake all seized compartments, even found the trail of the two but lost them around one of the science labs. Judging from what she was able to pick up on the comms chatter it had been ten minutes since there was any sign of the two remaining. The security network had somehow been compromised and the ship lost its tracking capability allowing the escape. In order to restore the internal tracking system security would have to shut it all down and restart… essentially requiring that all of the teams start their searches again. It sounded like security was now honestly considering it, now wondering if their own high tech tracking and coordination system was being used against them.
“From what you know, does anyone in League space or anywhere else have this ability to compromise our systems?" Alm finally asked.
Kari paused for a moment considering the best way to consider responding, “I know Starfleet information systems aren't considered all that secure. You focus on redundancy and convenience often that sometimes introduces vulnerabilities. Thats just what I have heard, I don't know of any way to completely hijack a federation security network like they managed to."
The vixen sighed and walked over to another small group of security officers having a quiet discussion that Kari decided to eavesdrop in. She looked over to Jesper again seeing that he was just finishing up placing a small device near the lioness' carotid that would interfere with the speed she could boost.
“... by natural science labs again and disappeared. Found a junction compromised too it was forced with what looked like a thermite charge. They were planning something over there but I think the team scared them off." Kari overheard.
Something clicked in her mind and she walked over to Alm, lightly brushing up against her and offering an apology before asking her who they were tracking.
“The Mouse girl and the scalie one."
She thanked them and went back towards Jesper's office and slipped out from one of the ancillary access doors by the medical labs.
“Well I didn't expect her to pickpocket me and then just slip off!" A quite exasperated Alm yelled at Jesper.
He was chasing her down the corridor a bit short of breath for keeping up with the morph.
“The raptoress and her were lovers. I don't know if she got it in her head she could save her or she should be the one to kill her. Its… complicated with chimera." he tried to explain.
Alm's heart skipped a beat and she lunged to the side pushing Jesper into the wall. He hit the side of the corridor with a thud as something bright caught his eye and instinctively he tried to pull Alm against him.
Next was a soft 'ping' and an impact as they both fell to the floor. The first was a phaser, the second was a league weapon.
Soon he was dragging the tense form of Alm behind a segmentation arch in the hallway hoping to cut down on how exposed her body was picking up on the scent of burned flesh.
'tink' 'tink'
Silence. Taking the opportunity he looked over the wincing Lieutenant.
“Damnit im fine, just got hit in the leg. You can fix it later," she whispered to him.
“Listen master, I know you like the fur but can we move on, I know where the last one is going." came Kari's voice.
He peaked out from behind the arch, feeling half stupid for taking cover behind it but not having a lot of choices. Some chimera are good at mimicking voices… never trust your ears, he told himself.
It was Kari, standing with his side arm looking down over the body of the mouse. “One left." she stated.
“Going around with a firearm is not the best strategy for you right now," Alm commented on seeing Kari.
She shrugged, “they are decent fakes, I am the real deal."
That gave the Starfleet officer a pause. If Kari wanted to… what could she do? She went up against the group potentially on her own and came out with bruising, a dislocated shoulder, and after some quick almost casual medical attention she managed to slight of hand the gun from her, make it all the way here, evade security patrols, AND take down one of the other Chimera.
True she was viewed as friendly-ish by both sides but based on everything she saw… both sides had shown themselves to be professional about this. Either would try and take her down if they even thought she might hinder them or assist the other side.
“I will be fine, you two go and take care of the last one. I will let our Chief know but…. Just in case maybe you want to leave the gun with me? Anyone sees kari with a sidearm… your not exactly a sneaky Doctor."
“You know she is going to be in there right?" Jesper asked looking over the door… transporter room.
“Yah I know, but I have to be the one that does this. It feels right."
Jesper shook his head and sighed. This was stupid but if Kari said it… she was the expert in combat. He just knew how to shoot a gun, stay out of the way, and clean up the aftermath.
The roo gave a sigh, taking a moment to collect herself and then once more advance into a trap.
Jesper opened the door on her signal and she walked in, arms up and watching the startled raptor take aim at her then stop for a moment. Surprise.
Kari took a few steps forward as Jesper set the door locked open , copying what he saw security do at the medical bay to let him quickly slip in without a complete slow bypass or other modifications that could be detected.
“Why?" Kari asked.
Another step.
“I will shoot you if you try to stop me." her opponent warned.
Another step.
“I won't kill you but I do need to stop you… please tell me why all of this was for."
A moment stopped… Kari couldn't boost anymore until her system cleared and built back up a surplus of the chemicals inside her system. All three knew it. The roo couldn't lunge with enough force to stop her.
“Computer records… Pegasus as an Admiral's ship has a significant local copy of Starfleet Security and Intelligence records. Make a Copy… beam the repository into space. By the time they realize it there will be so much distance between where the drop was they wont be able to locate the drop."
She nodded in understanding. The science lab would be good for picking up material for improvising… and good access to the datacore allowing high speed data transfers. The former is a good cover for the latter. Lots of different layers, precisely timed, small allowances made for plan contingency. It was so close to her training back home yet… all of it was missing the core discipline of the system. Like someone read the manuals but never actually experienced it.
Microfiber muscle tissue to allow boosted chimera to be able to fully take advantage of their drugged state without risking to much muscle tissue being damaged from the weakness of the issue itself but not grown correctly integrated into the musculature. Boosting but the cocktail having longer recovery times… imbalances. Even basic civilian things like calling a Vetrenarian a 'Vet' 'healer' or other affection as a sign of respect rather than just another 'sir' or 'mam'.
A panel dropped behind Kari. Instinctively Kari dropped down to the floor as a burst of phasor fire moved over and clipped her shoulder before continuing onto and into the head the raptor killing her instantly.
“The fuck was that Cain!" Jesper yelled as Kari processed what she just saw for a moment. “I barely had time to make a sound so Kari would get out of the way."
She rolled over to see Cain having taken position to shoot the raptor at the controls before she could start the transport. … Oh no Jesper was scrambling over to treat her. Need to boost… must boost.
Jesper had lunged inside the room thinking it safe wanting to check on Kari's condition. He thought it was safe. Hadn't even noticed Cain had not broken her aim as she shifted from a knelt to standing fire position. This was someone trained repositioning, not ending combat.
“Jes….."
It was all she could get out before the next phaser bolt was fired off and into the unsuspecting human's back. Who landed at his slave's feet.
What happened next Kari couldn't remember… she couldn't think… she couldn't feel. Nothing mattered. There was no point. Anything and everything left she dumped into her bloodstream.
She shifted in countering Cain.
'Kill, kill, kill, kill, kill.'
Feeling her muscles burn she moved around faster then she ever had before.
'Kill, kill, kill, kill, master was dead.'
Cain got off another shot, a miss, startled at the quick reaction of what she presumed was to injured and exhausted slave to put up much of a fight.
'Nothing else matters, avenge master, then you can die having served well.'
For a split moment, Cain wondered if she made a mistake as the rifle was ripped away from her. Kari was already at melee range. She was dead. It was worth it.
Cain's head impacted the side of the door so hard she is sure her skull partially cracked. She wondered if this is what it felt like being mauled by a feral wild animal. She could feel her bones breaking as her body fell with the artificial gravity. Feel two kicks before there was just a white noise of pain like a humm. Her mind was overwhelmed with what Kari was doing to her to even process it. Her body was flying, the attack so brutal it overcame gravity and so rapid it was like physics no longer applied. She was a magnificent killer… if the Rakshani or Stafleet ever fought the League… they had severely underestimated what their one day enemy was capable of doing.
Kari's hand was now at the back of cain's head about to drive her skull into the deck one time to shatter it and kill her.
'If you cant protect your master, then you must avenge their memory. There is no greater ecstasy than service to your assigned human.'
The sound of a gurgle from behind broke Kari's haze. Lungs… fluid… trying to speak. The feral soldier had the sound from her medical trained companion trigger something. Cain hit the ground and she looked behind. The maximum setting shot had hit Jesper clean in the back. Burned through his uniform… burned through something else.burned into his tissue but his lungs were still functioning. Not possible but…
'Protect master, protect master, protect master.'
She moved over him, mind not registering signs of the armored vest under the uniform… just that as he still lived he must be protected. If he died her life has no meaning. If he died the universe had no meaning.
“Alpha Squad on site."
Kari heard it somewhere in her mind. Maybe? She knew them… she trusted them. How did she? Who was? Protecting the master was the only thing that mattered. She had no friends, and couldn't trust anyone.
Black fur… she recognized it.
Shifting her stance she stayed over Jesper's fallen body, trying with pure body language to will them to stay distant.
Felitaur Chakat, Warbeast. Extreme threat. Kari perceived the black fur now as just musculature, cardiopulmonary system, nerves, the armor it had on. The weapon it held. Plan of attack.. More entering…
She couldn't win this fight, but she could have two… maybe three kills before they finally put her down fully. This was what she was made for, designed for, raised for.
'Please no more, please don't come closer, please don't make me kill you,' part of her mind begged.
Don't come… at least… not until she could think clearly again… and that would take some time.
Slowly waking up in medical, Jesper Card looked up at the ceiling of his tucked away recovery room. His lips didn't move, his body barely moved. For a few moments all he focused on was breathing, heart rate, and the intense pain coming from one of his lungs.
'Thats right… phaser shot…through the vest and into tissue.' his mind started to process. Picturing the angles and his position as he was shot. 'Must have been on full power. Make it through all the way to his lungs… but still alive?'
He tried to move again. 'Mmmm, my mind is functioning but my body is not responding. Paralytic, coming out of induced coma, mid surgery?'
His eyes scan and he tries to feel past the pain.
'No this is recovery… likely a few days later at a minimum. Wonder if they had to regrow tissue or even an organ for me. Maybe they recorded the surgery… might be fun to watch during recovery.'
No one was around, not even… KARI.
'Where is Kari I don't feel her… maybe I can smell her? No not here… come on… come on body respond.'
His eyes look over to the side seeing a mouse nurse… 'yes I know her. She is a safe person.'
“Welcome back Doctor, we missed having you around for the last week.. Well, you know what I mean." she said softly, looking into his alert eyes.
He blinked once, paused, blinked once again. 'Come on I know you know this.'
“It will just take a half hour or so and you should be able to move again. You have only been out of your last surgery for less than an hour so any general… well you know."
His lips quivered trying to move and form 'ka…' he closed his eyes.
“Don't force yourself, everything can wait. Yes Kari is fine. You're fine. Thanks to you and her a lot of people who might have died didnt. You even managed to help me." a warm smile.
He licked his lips, a simple thing he was thankful for pulling off… wonder what this is its strong but wearing off… no he was fighting it so hard. This wasnt good… ok one more thing.
His lips moved 'ne'.
“Next?"
One blink.
“Well you have two weeks of recovery including a little physical therapy. Likely counseling. Also some people will want to ask you what happened… Kari has been… different."
His eyes again trying to think. Of course Kari had been different, she almost lost her owner. Oh at least she knows he survived… if she couldn't figure it out everyone would be forced to… 'no, don't think about that.'
A tear moved down from one of his eyes.
“She will be here soon enough. Maybe others too. Here I will just sit next to you and keep you company doctor. Everything is pretty calm down here in medical so for the next five minutes, it can be just you and me in a little corner of the universe all to ourselves. “
It was irritating but she was right. He needed to let this wear off before he could do anything useful. Carry out a real conversation, ask questions, try to get her to show him his own chart. In a way it was nice Kari wasn't here… not knowing what state she was in it would be easier to handle her regardless if he could move, touch, and speak then as now.
So he just laid there, occasionally testing his motor control. Enjoying the company of another there to remind him he was in fact alive.
One month latter…
Helped by the mouse nurse Jesper walks into the intensive care bay Cain has been recovering in since the incident. One of her eyes are covered up with sections of fur removed from reconstructive surgery. He feels pity for her though, she is a morph… to him a Chimera. Even pulling a gun on him and almost killing him she didn't deserve this. There was nothing else in his mind she could have done but shot.
“You have a visitor," the nurse stated softly.
“Mmm," Cain turned her head looking at the man before moving her head back. “I dont want to see you."
“You dont have a choice, we need to talk before the command staff makes up its mind," he offers.
“What is there to talk about? I am going to get a court martial or dishonorably discharged for shooting another officer…" She begins as Jesper reaches to cover the nurse's ears.
“Moron, I didn't say you shot me intentionally when they asked."
Turning her whole body along slowly wincing a bit at the pain, “Really? Then..."
Lifting up to pull the human's hands from her ears the nurse just grumbled, “I get it Jes, I didn't hear anything now let go so I can leave you two alone."
Both watched the roden walk out in a bit of a huff from being grabbed and put in a situation she may have to lie.
“Still, why?" Cain began, “If Kari refuses to testify against me and you dont then everyone still knows what happens. Hell, I am still recovering from your roo letting loose on me."
He chuckled and slowly settled down to a chair before wincing and grabbing his chest, “Please don't make me laugh, it still hurts. Just think of it though there is no proof for a conviction now, so they discharge you or they demote you as a pariah because no one is going to want you until you redeem yourself."
“Gee thanks," was her sarcastic retort.
“And all of the monitors are on so there is a probability this conversation is being recorded anyways, you win by self incrimination."
The man just shook his head, “Nope, I am still in the system as a senior medical officer, I can bypass security's monitor orders for medical privilege and consultation."
This time it was the fox that gave a pained laugh, “Congratulations now Midnight will get pissed for using your privilege to make a hole in her logs. No way we are discussing confidential medical anything. Shir security is going to rip you a…"
“Your sister was sentenced to community service… not executed or enslaved like this ache in my chest suggest you think," he interrupted and paused. “I believe family history is considered medical information thus can fall under privilege… and I don't think Starfleet intelligence would object to my using this as a vague excuse to prevent talk of one of their captured senior spies from showing up in some incident report."
Cain glared at the human, doing the one thing shi still can to hide the mixed emotions underneath. “I have no idea what you're talking about."
“Aaaah, got ya!" he grinned and leaned forward.
“I knew there was a reason you were riding my ass so hard. You must have volunteered for minding me after looking through my file. Funny think about Intelligence Signals sources, they don't give you the whole picture especially if you don't know how to catch the differences in formats and context switching. Say a medical opinion note made and then a sudden switch in classification you can't follow that makes it look like the record just stopped and disappeared."
Her eyes narrowed, “what are you getting at."
“I pulled some of your DNA, buried it in a message back home and got the results back. Partial match suggesting familial ties with another fox I was asked to consult on before arraignment for espionage. I marked her as 'invalid' making every time you starfleet intel people tried to sneakily get into our records it would always come up 'invalid'. You assumed the worst… new name and identity as a brainwashed slave… or just executed and the court records held under states secret rules. No, its much better then that."
He grinned leaning forward as if to share a great secret, “Invalid means we don't have a valid hereditary line on her and THUS she cannot be assigned or re-absorbed into the general Chimera population. Her line information was invalid, not eligible for going through that system thus her record as a Chimera ends. No way for her to be a slave, no idea where she came from, abandoned by any host foreign government."
Resting with her head against a pillow she just stared stoically at the human, her enemy for all of these months. So many questions went through her mind but only one came out, “Community service?"
Nodding Jesper responded, “Maintenance and Janitorial duties for the capital city's transit services. Before I left I saw your sister overseeing a few cleaning bots at a transit station. No implant, no collar, still quite alive. Unless your Federation admits it was they who sent her there, she will just be a regular worker on the transit lines."
Cain felt drained emotionally, her motivation for months laid bare now forced to deal with a tinge of regret she now felt… however it couldn't be true. “Then why were you sent here to spy on us… Why did you keep sending encoded messages back to your government?"
“Spy?Spy!" Jesper shot up and stood walking over with anger in his eyes.
“Really, you looked at my record, you must have at least tried to figure it out yourself. Chakona and you are both disgusting. Not once did you even think for a moment I might just be sending messages back to keep in touch with my studies or any number of things we can't just let go to be swallowed up by your shitty intelligence services?
Fine! I will tell you EXACTLY why I ruined my own life to come out to your hell hole Federation.
In my second year as an attending Vet at the largest hospital on Amaranth we got a patient, a female Caitian that came in, so let me tell you a little about her. It took YEARS of painful surgeries and therapies until her family gave up and she took a risk going to Aslan smuggled across the border. She only made it to Amaranth before she was admitted to my hospital and since xenobiology falls under our service I was assigned.
I came up with a treatment and it was working amazingly. For days I was her physician and after we fell in love. She was beautiful, smart, and we were got married.
However it was all too much for her, all of the surgeries and procedures with the long time it took for her to finally get working treatment… she just died a year after she was declared to be fully recovered."
He stumbled back, tears coming down his cheeks before settling back in his seat noticing the nurse had returned wondering about the commotion before he continued.
“When she started having problems… She died next to me, in her sleep in our bed."
“Then thats why her family took you in… even though they are a bit xenophobic," Cain almost whispered.
“Which family?" the nurse asked.
Cain looked up from the sad face of Jesper, “The third richest family in Caitian space. They are strict traditionalists but heavily focused on trade with aliens… we always wondered why they would have anything to do with Mister Card here… we always assumed it was some common grounds purity thing. I guess for them honoring the mourning period traditions overcame their distaste."
“Thats why I went to Kt'trr'nass first. I wanted to give her family what was left of what she had and all of the messages she had written. After that they took me in as one of the family, they even showed me a few of them. It didn't take long to convince me I should join Starfleet Medical but I didn't want to do it from Cait… I didn't want to impose so I chose Chakona and they made the arrangements.
Mmm, I thought Chakona would be hesitant and cautious about my application, only to find the welcome more like what I would have expected a morph to receive from the Holy Christian Kingdom. Starfleet Medical wanted my expertise in a field they had almost none in, so they fought for me every step of the way. Your Intelligence division wanted to see what I was up to so between Chakonan Security and Starfleet everything I did was tapped or monitored. Honestly I had never received such a cold welcome in my life. I was happy to be trapped in a tiny frigate for the first part of my trial tour, I was starting to think I would end up dead in some gutter in Amistad.“
“Yah… about that," Cain started, “sorry?"
Kari roo stood next to her master dressed in a simple black collar and body wrap. They walked down the umbilical from the Pegasus heading towards the customs and immigration. As they passed a small group of officers Jesper touched the back of a black Chakat and said, “watch this."
Both walked up to a Customs intake point with the group they passed now watching. A cheerful chakat of silver and black greeted the two before asking their documents to which they turned over.
“Your together right?" shi asked to which both nodded.
“Well miss Roo is clear to enter however one of my supervisors will have to meet with your Mr. Card," she apologized.
He nodded with a little chuckle, “Let me guess the Visa was already revoked."
Shi shook her head and offered back their travel documents, “Sorry its a bit more than that."
After a few moments passed a large tiger morph in an immigration officer uniform walked up to them, “this way please."
“Jesper what did you do now?" one of the Starfleet officers yelled from the other side.
“Apparently I was born!" Came his quip back.
-Prologue-
“Hello Mister Jesper Card, my name is Anthony and we just have a few questions for you," the large tiger said.
They were now in a corner office, Jesper and Kari seated side by side with the tiger behind a desk.
“Again Miss Roo you don't have to be here," he offered.
Kari shook her head, “Were kind of a package deal, sorry."
Anthony nodded and turned around the screen so they could see it.
“So you're from the League then, and a practicing surgeon in Starfleet Medical?" came the easy question.
“Correct, I am now a Starfleet Officer on active service within the medical division. Also yes, I was born on… oh whats that saying, the wrong side of the tracks?"
The large male chuckled nodding.
“Of course, and you do know your visa was withdrawn?" He enquired.
“I am allowed to pass customs anywhere in the Stellar Federation for a temporary stay or pass as an active duty member of Starfleet in good standing when part of my duties. I was trying to enter under those rules." The human offered.
“Well yes, however since the Visa was withdrawn and a few other things in your file we have the right to deny you entry without an initial interview. I… suggest you secure legal representation I am afraid, Starfleet has quite excellent staff for assisting with such…"
There was a knock on the door interrupting him from continuing. When it opened a snow white and light blue chakat stepped half through, “Hi, sorry for interrupting but I need them in my office. Its… apparently a special circumstance."
The other stood and Anthony nodded, “Of course shir, Jesper I hope you have a good day. Miss Roo, a pleasure."
They were guided down the hallway to a large corner office. The chakat opened the door and gestured for them to enter. It was a nice office, most likely for the chief of immigration of the station or at least a section supervisor. Sitting in a chair in front of the nicely furnished desk was a female panda morph.
“Oh look, my lawyer is here." Jesper cheerfully mentioned as he took one of the seats.
“Next time I say wait for when I get there, you need to wait until I get there." came her stinging retort.
With a sigh the Chakat took a seat behind the desk, “I am not even going to try to make sense of this so I am just going to do what I am legally required. Based on your record I cannot in good faith grant you entrance into Chakona, however your lawyer has a court order saying if Immigration does not allow you in, we will be in contempt of the Amistad Federation Superior Court. However, Chakona Immigrations and our security services have flagged you as a subversive and possibly a threat to internal security… for now.
Since you are an active duty service member you will be allowed to enter Chakona for one week under your Starfleet credentials. If you do not leave before then a warrant for your arrest will be generated.
My staff will endorse your documents, you will just be allowed to walk through this time. Nothing more."
“That… is acceptable," the lawyer looked at her human client, almost daring him to screw this up.
He couldn't really blame them. This all blew up and it would take more months to sort it all through. All sides were just playing it safe until the final judgment call on the whole episode could be sorted out. Conflicting stories, various hypotheses, rumors, and several sides having their own agendas especially in the local politics. There was another anti-morph terrorist attack in SOL in the last few months and that scared Chakona. And a scared Chakona became even more discriminatory against humans.. Multiple times so against a slave owning leage citizen. Just how much pressure did his caitian benefactors put on them just months ago they offered that olive branch… found out about Kari… then panicked. Now with all this?
“One week should be more than enough." Jesper confirmed.
But playing it safe meant in the end it was humans who would be made to have the brunt of this mistrust. That ment local morph populations would have less scrutiny. In their eagerness to accept and reject, to protect and defend they would lose focus and if anyone wanted to take advantage… would Chakona be able to realize what it was doing and correct before too many anti-human embers took hold. All it took on earth was to look away from the embers in distraction and find someone motivated and organized enough to fan embers into flames.
In the end this wasn't his fight. How odd, to hate Chakona and the Rakshani from how much grief they give… but also be concerned for their wellbeing even more. still.
There was the newest Federation Star Base waiting for him after all…
One battle at a time.