To: , ,
        , ,
        , "JustKenning"
        
From: "Jay  P Hailey" 
Reply-To: trekcreative{at}yahoogroups.com


Title: Star Trek: Outwardly Mobile
Author: Jay P Hailey (JayPHailey{at}yahoo.com) Series: MISC - TNG OCs
COdes: None
Part: 130/335(?)
Rating:[PG]
Archive: Fine with me, just tell me where. Disclaimer: Paramount owns all
things Star Trek.  I claim Original Characters and Situations for me.
Webpage HTTP://www.phoenixinn.iwarp.com/jayphailey

Tough Choices
by
Jay P. Hailey
And
The Star Trek Players

The Main Hall was packed to the rafters. Draxil, Mileu and Acnapma arrived
early to be certain of getting a good view of the prisoners. They needed to
see who they were looking for. Afterwards they would try to gain access to
the scientists. They needed to either slip the scientists communicators for
the transporters to lock onto, or they needed to be within a few feet of
the people.

The place was choked with people all eager to see the witches get their come uppance.

In time the Magistrate appeared. He was a thin, sharp looking man with gray
hair, wrinkly skin and a piercing look. You could believe that he was on a
mission from God, Garan thought.

Then the guards entered. They were hulking brutish looking men. Draxil
gauged them. They would be mean and probably physically tough. They would
probably have a lot of repressed anger that they took out on who ever
caught their attention. Draxil thought that he might be able to take one or
two. Three would hurt him and more than four would get him for certain. He
looked at Mileu, She was making the same measurements. He wondered what
results she was coming up with. Draxil wanted to avoid a confrontation with
these guys. If they couldn't handle the situation without the goon squad
noticing, then they weren't subtle enough to get the job done.

A Couple of guards dragged in the prisoners. They looked like average
natives except that they had been severely beaten. One was semi-conscious
and slid off the bench that he was placed on. Draxil didn't like the man's
color. He didn't know a lot about Human physiology, but the pale color and
sheen of sweat on his forehead didn't look good. The other two simply
stared in shock. Draxil figured that they had been beaten and possibly
tortured.

The crowd began to murmur at the sight of them and then began to grow
louder. Draxil had seen the same phenomenon during sporting events, but
never during legal proceedings.

Another guard brought in a locked case. He thunked it down on the
Magistrates' table. The thinner man took out a key and unlocked the box. He
open it and drew out a tricorder and couple of recording devices. There
were also communicators and other standard equipment. Draxil was relieved
to see no phasers in the hands of the Magistrate. The crowd hissed, and
drew back. Boxes with glowing jewels on them?

Crystara looked at the tricorder longingly. It had never been turned off.
It must have a recording of the whole incident on it.

The Magistrate took up his gavel and banged sharply. The noise rang out
like a shot. The crowd quieted.

"These..." The Magistrate intoned "Are the tools of these
devils."

The crowd made a soft noise that sounded like "ooohhh..."

The Magistrate turned to one of the captives. "Do you deny the charge
of witchcraft?"

The woman just stared. Draxil didn't like the look. She looked broken.

"And you?" The Magistrate asked the other standing scientist.

"You don't understand." The man pleaded "All we were doing
is exploring. We were only curious. We haven't done anything wrong!"

"Do you deny then that these are the tools of the Devil?" The
Magistrate waved at the table of equipment.

"Is your knife or gun a tool of the Devil? Is a carpenter's miter box?
Yet none of these were known in ancient history. If you showed a gun to
your ancient ancestors, would they understand or call you a devil?"
The Scientist said.

Draxil winced. The man had lost sight of what he was supposed to do in this
situation. Of course that called for keeping silent and dying if need be.
Garan wondered if he would keep quiet in that man's place or if he would
sing.

"My ancestors were God's people, Satanist." The Magistrate said.
"They rest in God's bosom now. To imply that I might be able to speak
with them is to imply that the veil between this world and the next might
be pierced. This is expressly forbidden in the bible. To think of it,
except to revile the notion is blasphemy."

"That's not what I meant! Please try and listen to reason!" The
Federation Scientist was on the verge of tears. Pain and death were right
around the corner for him. He knew it, and couldn't deal with the
knowledge.

The woman whispered something to the man. He looked stricken.

"You will address the court!" The Magistrate bellowed. His voice
was stentorian.

"I said 'shut up, John'." The woman repeated. She looked tired
and defeated.

"Why did you advise your satanic cohort to be silent? I have ordered
you to speak truly and completely upon pain of torture." The
Magistrate demanded.

"John, tell these animals nothing!" The woman hissed. Her face
was contorted in anger. "Give them nothing! NOTHING!!"

A burly guard stepped up and swatted her to the floor. She fell and broke into tears.

"Your outburst was informative." The Magistrate said. "We
will spend this evening questioning them to reveal the extent of their
Satanic plot. Tomorrow we will burn them in the main court yard." The
Magistrate banged his gavel three times. The crowd broke into another
uproar.

"We'll show those Satanic bastards!" A man whooped in Draxil's
face. Draxil kneed him sharply in the groin and then began to push his way
out.

He leaned into Mileu's ear. "We need to follow them. I want to know
where they're being held."

Mileu nodded. She caught a reveler and with careful leverage she pushed him
out of the way.

As they pushed to the entrance, Mileu ran into a guard who was just barely
maintaining order in the push.

"Watch it, woman." He growled. He said "woman" as to
rhyme with "useless slut."

Mileu said "Excuse me." She pushed gently against the man's
center of gravity. His own balance forced him to step back a couple of
steps.

The man pushed back. He was off balance but his injured pride demanded that
he show her who was boss. Mileu accepted his push and then used it against
him. The surprised man fell heavily to the floor. Mileu struggled to pull
her skirt out from under him.

Draxil went back against the crush of the crowd and helped pull Mileu free.

"Happy?" Draxil asked, into her ear.

"He started it!" Mileu retorted.

Crystara joined the push and they jammed their way out of the meeting hall.
The prisoners were being loaded into a wagon. The sides and top were iron
bars. The gate into the rolling cage was locked. As the prisoners were
thrown in, the crowd began to boo and hiss and throw things at them.

Animals that might have been giant gnus pulled the cart away. There was
quite a crowd abusing the scientists and the cart rolled along. It had to
roll slowly so as not to run down protesters.

The away team followed the cart to a walled building across the main court
yard. It had bars on the windows and heavy gates, which were quickly closed
behind the wagon. The crowd persisted outside the gates, yelling and
throwing things, but they eventually got bored and wandered off. Draxil
walked slowly around the prison, carefully watching every avenue. Most of
them were completely blocked or guarded. They had been keeping desperate
people there for quite a while. They had learned over time how to do it
efficiently.

Draxil snarled to himself. This wasn't going to be fun or easy.

-*-

"Okay, Lieutenant. Can you figure out how to liberate those pieces of
equipment?" Draxil asked.

"Easily. I can lock onto the power cells. There won't be too many of
those floating around the city." Acnapma replied.

"Good. Go finish up with the Duck-Blind, and then begin your scanning.
Mileu and I will continue to scout out the jail. Maybe we can get a break
getting in there." Draxil ordered.

Crystara and Mileu nodded and went to continue their tasks.

-*-

Mileu was walking and looking thoughtfully at the jail. There was a way
into that building, she just couldn't place it.

She ran into a big man. "Excuse me." She said trying to go around.

"Not so fast, slut!"

With horror, Mileu recognized the guard she tussled with at the trial. She
stepped back. The man had a couple of friends with him.

"You can't play your dirty tricks on me and get away with it!"
The man growled. He stepped forward.

Mileu turned and began to run.

The burly man stepped on her large skirt from behind, stopping her.

Mileu turned and attacked. She was an expert martial artist skilled at
using her balance and her opponents balance against them. She lacked the
raw power to knock the big man down, but she knew humanoid physiology well.
She struck for weak points and nerve clusters.

The man and his two companions were used to dealing with and dishing out
pain. They were fat, but under the fat there was hard muscle.

Mileu's fight didn't last too long.

-*-

Draxil's communicator beeped. This was not a good thing. He couldn't answer
it right out there in public. He quickly and casually walked towards an
alley where he might be able to speak to the sky-spirits without getting
arrested.

As he walked it beeped again. Draxil grimaced. He walked more quickly. He
came around the corner and found the alley empty but reeking of urine.
Good. That meant that it was undisturbed enough to act as an impromptu
public latrine.

He pulled out his communicator and triggered it. "Draxil here, what is it?"

"You need to beam up, quickly." Dr. Smith told him.

"I do?" Draxil asked. There was some sort of emergency.

"Yes. You do." Dr. Smith said cryptically.

Draxil looked carefully around. "Go ahead."

He sparkled away.

-*-

"And here is Mileu's communicator, inside the jail." Dr. Smith pointed out.

Draxil began to quietly curse under his breath. He directed the runabout's
scanners at Mileu's communicator. The sensor readings showed that she was
surrounded by native life forms.

"All right. Keep an eye on the jail." Draxil said.
"Crystara, how are you doing?"

"Everything incriminating is out of the duck blind and stored in our
hold." Crystara said. "We have downloaded their records and
everything is in good shape. I have a sensor lock on all the powered
equipment in the main city."

"Can you listen in on that tricorder the judge-dude had?"

"Sure. Do you want to risk it?" Crystara asked.

"Yeah. Let's see if they're saying anything about Mileu." Draxil said

Crystara sighed. "Okay."

Jay P Hailey ~Meow!~
MSNIM - jayphailey ;
AIM -jayphailey03;
ICQ - 37959005

HTTP://phoenixinn.iwarp.com/jayphailey

No human being has the right -- under any circumstances -- to initiate
force against another human being, nor to advicate, threaten or  delegate
its initiation.


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