In over his head (OOCS Fan Fic) 9

First

Cistene’s communicator chimed. She had a good guess who it was even before she looked at the caller ID. She had felt the ship shudder slightly in a tell-tale sign of landing, meaning she and the captain were soon to take the unfortunate boy into the station in an attempt to get him home.

Sure enough, it was the captain. Hitting the answer button, she held the device up to her ear.

“Yeah.”

“I am on my way down now. We are going to meet with a station security rep outside the secondary crew door.” Jenna replied

“Alright. How do you want to move him? We could wheel him out on the gurney, or see if he will come with us willingly, or, last resort put him to sleep again.” Despite being the safest option, carrying out an unconscious male was a really bad look, and one she was determined to avoid if at all possible.

“We’ll have to see how he reacts, hopefully he will be calmer today. If not, I’ll carry him out.”

Cistene looked at her patient. He was still curled in on himself though he seemed to have calmed down since he woke up. With a little luck he would be more cooperative today.

“Hopefully he will be… I’ll be with him when you get here.”

“Good, I won’t be long.”

 

Ending the call with Cistene, Jenna continued making her way to her quarters. Unlocking the door to her personal room she went straight for the bed. Pulling a box from the storage space underneath, she stuffed its contents into her waistband, stopping in front of a mirror only to make sure it wouldn’t be visible to anyone who saw her.

 

Rena stood next to twelve of her classmates, all of them dressed like they were on the way to a party. But before they could exit the ship and begin the so called “vacation on station” they needed to get through Kyrie.

Standing in front of the door the Platen woman was giving the group a rundown on typical hazards that they were likely to find on a station like Nest.

“Stay away from anything that looks remotely like a gang even if it’s just groups of girls standing around, doing nothing, and lastly, if a boy acts interested, it’s a scam. Any questions?”

A dozen shaking heads was her reply. Fixing the girls in front of her with a glare she finally relented.

“Alright. Leave ends in 48 hours, be within spitting distance of the ship or you will regret it. That goes doubly if me or someone else needs to retrieve you from somewhere. Understood? More nodding from the group.

“Alright then, your leave starts now.” Stepping out of the doorway Kyrie watched as the dozen or so women rushed to get past her and down the ramp and into the station. She remembered when she was that young and rash. She smiles internally remembering good times past. Her expression suddenly soured when she remembered that memory; Her reason for taking a job that made sure she stayed far away from the planet she was born on. Shaking the betrayals of long ago out of her head she began walking back to the bridge, idly wondering how the captain and Cistene were faring with the boy.

Nest security officer Toots was standing at the secondary boarding ramp to the Rapacity. Her superior told her that a missing person had been found on board and was to be brought to the level’s primary dispatch center for proper documentation and holding.

When the call for a volunteer came over the comms a couple of hours ago, she had leapt at the chance. Anything to get out and see some action. It also helped that she wouldn’t be doing paperwork while out of the office.

Idly pacing she waited for the captain to bring out what was doubtlessly some stupid girl who got caught trying to go on some adventure. She would have smiled if she wasn’t trying to keep her professional stoic façade intact. Regardless she would finally get to play the part of officer chasing down a web of conspiracy and lies, just like the shows that inspired her career choice back when she was a child. Well, minus the getting the man of the month part, unfortunately.

A slight hiss and poop of a pressure seal releasing grabbed her attention. Looking up the ramp and into the doorway her façade slipped for a moment.

What must have been the captain and the ship’s doctor judging by their attire, were escorting what appeared to be a tall MALE Tret. Looking from the man to the women on either side Toots noticed the Cannidor, presumably the captain, was sporting a blood stained bandage on one hand, while the Metak on the other side had a black eye covered in cream and several other bruises. And that was just what she could see.

Her thoughts derailed. Firstly: a man. Secondly: what!? Concern flooded her emotions. A missing person being male was VERY unlikely. For sure it happened. Elsewhere, just not on Nest. Every incident to date was either an elopement (lucky B****) or just getting lost in a safe place, NEVER a genuine missing male. Well, until today.

Questions for later she supposed. The first thing was to assess the situation and act appropriately. Acting on her training she ceased her pacing and stood up straight, politely waiting for the trio to make their way down the ramp.

 Somewhere in the back of her mind, she started fantasizing about this situation ending in her scoring, just like in her favorite police dramas. That was one of the reasons she signed up for this job after all.

Reaching the base of the ramp the Cannidor stepped in front of the other two.

“Captain Jenna Sersher. You are the station rep I presume?” She introduced herself.

Toots had to look up to meet the woman’s eyes. “Yes ma’am, I am officer Toots, and I will be escorting you to the local security station. Is there anything I should know before we get going?” Fishing for a moment in one of her breast pockets, she produced a genuine paper notepad and pen.

 “He can’t speak or understand trade or anything we or the lingual detector knows. He has tried escaping several times and is in peak season.” Jenna said with an exasperated look in her eye. “And there is a good chance he is Tret-adjacent and not actually a Tret, despite how he looks.”

“What?”

“We gave him a med-scan and it came back… Abnormal.”

Toots was frantically taking notes in her handbook now. “Abnormal how?”

“We think his digestion relies on powerful acid to function, and it appears his body produces combat grade stimulants naturally. He also lost consciousness when he saw our engineer, A Dzedin by the name of Xinia, and sustained a small head injury.”

Toots was doing her best to remain professional and not level an inappropriate guffaw at the much larger woman and the shorter one behind her. Out the corner of her eye she could see the boy looking around like he was seeing a loading bay for the first time. She wrote that down too.

 Jenna continued “And he also tried escaping several times. We, had to restrain him before he could seriously injure himself when the initial scan told us he had acid in his system.”

Toots finished writing, her mind burning with more questions than she knew what to do with. “Anything else?”

Jenna chuffed “Just details of what I already explained.”

Pocketing her notepad Toots thumbed the dispatch button on her work communicator. “Officer Toots, dock 4 to central.”

The device crackled back. “Central. Go ahead Toots.”

“I have eyes on the missing person. Male, unidentified BMO, small head injury. We are going to need a translator, he doesn’t appear to know trade, crew reports he speaks an unknown language. And, uh, he’s in season.” She turned away from the trio speaking quieter. “Do we have a protocol in place for that?”

“Central to Toots. Say again. HE is in season?”

“That is correct.”

“Okay… I will need to check the manual to be sure. In the meantime, I am sending a squad vehicle to pick you up.  I’ll notify the chief while you make your way back. She and the station master are gonna want to know about this.”

“Copy that.” Dread was beginning to build in her gut. Toots wanted to do something more exciting than paperwork today, and now she was in the middle of what might be a kidnapping. She should write herself a note to be careful of what she wished for. This situation was far enough out of the ordinary to necessitate the involvement of women several pay grades above her, and without a doubt it would generate more paperwork than what she had escaped by taking this assignment. At least she got to act cool in front of a boy.

August was stupefied. When the shark woman had entered the room and motioned him to follow, he sat still. It had taken a while and a lot of miming from the two women to finally convince him that he was leaving. By the time he had gotten the idea he had halfheartedly convinced himself that there was no way he was host to some parasite found in movies, and that what he saw last night must have been skewed by his stress level and low lighting.

Even so he cautiously followed the two women through the ship and out onto a fairly large ramp reminiscent of one of those airplane ladders back home. Walking out he expected to be greeted by trees, or grass, or more likely some airport-ish thing.

Then he looked up and beheld a megalaphobic nightmare. He would not consider himself one to be afraid of large things normally. But the scale of this beggared belief. Instinctively he wanted to run for cover like a mouse caught in a field and tuck himself into a corner where reality made sense. The space above him extended so far upwards that he could see patches of STORM CLOUDS. One titanic shelf a few slots over was in the middle of a local rainstorm!

Behind him was the stupidly large ship he had just exited, taking up the space of a sideways skyscraper. He would have guessed it at a mile or two in length if his brain was working. and that was dwarfed by the helipad type… thing it was now on. And it was just one of several DOZEN he could see stretching out, and into the distance like some sort of fever dream hallway, the end of which hosted the largest hole he had ever seen. Outside of which was presumably, the void of space, complete with twinkling stars. All of that, and it was still just the first level. Looking up, there must have been at least 5 more levels above AND below, each of equal size with ships both larger and smaller than the one he just exited landing and taking off or just sitting on the landing pads. The sheer size of the place was giving him a visual overload, but he still couldn’t look away.

While staring at the expanse all around him he failed to notice the discussion happening right in front of him.

He wanted to look away but couldn’t. He could see the ships being pulled or pushed into place by smaller craft, each unique in its own way. Some had a specific paint job, others were different designs and sizes, others looked like they were patched together from several odd parts. And swarming all throughout were thousands of people some carrying things others driving futuristic forklifts, he could even swear he saw a biker gang being chased by police in a high-speed car/motorcycle chase, through the air…

‘Toto, I have a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.’ He mumbled to himself. If the view of space, or the aliens he was with for the past days wasn’t enough, then this mega structure was the breaking point. The reality of his situation was really setting in now. Against all logic or understanding, whatever had happened to him was now uncomfortably real.

Lost in stupefied wonder at the sights all around him he didn’t see or hear the security cruiser landing next to them.

 

An awkward period of coaxing August into the air-car later, they were off. Toots at the wheel, with Jenna taking shotgun, and the last two situated comfortably in the back.

 Everything was fine until takeoff. As they flew towards the level’s main security office it became apparent that August was having a very bad time, especially when he looked out the windows. Sweating, slightly with an iron grip on anything promising safety, all while leaning away from the window. The four women were a mix of concerned and amused, though why he reacted so badly to being driven around they could only guess as to why.

A short time later, Toots parked on the roof of the main security building for this level. A few stories high and mostly made of grey cement and deeply tinted glass, it would have been an ugly building, the well-maintained grass and trees all around doing the utmost to soothe the visuals into something passable.

Turning to her passengers, Toots announced their arrival. “We’re here. Follow me to the offices, we can get your statements logged and find a translator.”

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