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: 129/335(?)
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

    Tought Choices: Episode 129
    by
    Jay P. Hailey
    And
    The Star Trek Players
    (Stardate 48857)

    Li'ira called Garan Draxil into her office. This was not unusual. Li'ira
often had her officers brief her on their activities. Draxil's briefings
generally followed a disciplinary incident, but he hadn't done anything
wrong recently.

    He entered the Commander's office and came to attention in front of her
desk. Years ago, Draxil had been a member of "The Gatherers" A
gang of pirates, looters and low rollers scraping by on what they could in
their sector. They dressed the way they wanted and did what they wanted.
They would have laughed and sneered at Draxil for standing at attention in
front of some officer's desk.

    On the other hand, heaven help who ever showed a leader of The Gatherers
disrespect. That would get you killed. At least in Starfleet they had a
consistent idea of what constituted respect.

    "Sit down, Mr. Draxil." Li'ira said. That was her signal that her
dignity had been properly acknowledged.

    Draxil flopped onto her couch in a loose jointed slouch. "What can I do
for you, Commander?" He asked knowingly. Draxil lived with the dream
of getting his Commander into bed. He knew it was a terribly unlikely thing
and so he never said anything, or so he thought.

    Li'ira was a Green Orion woman. Her body produced pheromones that caused
lust in most humanoid males. She was used to Draxil's attitude. The best
thing about it, from her point of view was that although Draxil was much
less subtle in his leering, he never failed to get his job done.

    "I have a mission for you, Lieutenant Commander." Li'ira said.

    Draxil sat up and leaned forward. "All right. What's up?"

    "NFGC-2458 is a class M world." Li'ira said. "The native
population is
under Prime Directive protection."

    Draxil nodded.

    "The Federation had a covert surveillance operation there, monitoring
the social developments of the natives." Li'ira said.

    "You said 'had'." Garan Draxil said. "Does that mean they don't
anymore?"

    "Exactly. Contact was lost with the people there. Three scientists. The
automated equipment noted a rise in local hysteria and several mentions of
witchcraft trials." Li'ira said grimly.

    "Are they trying our people as witches?" Draxil asked.

    "That's the theory."

    "And my mission is to get 'em out?" Draxil asked.

    "Yes. Quietly. Remember that the world is under Prime Directive
protection. If you can't get the people out without giving us up, then
you're to silence them, destroy all evidence and leave."

    Draxil let out a hiss. "That's pretty stiff. I gotta kill 'em?"

    Li'ira nodded slowly. "If necessary."

    Draxil sighed. It had been a while since he killed anyone. He always
expected killing for Starfleet to happen in a straightforward fight.
Nevertheless, it couldn't be helped. "Okay, I'll go." Draxil
said.

    "On the bright side, the extraction doesn't look too difficult." Li'ira
said. "The people there are not technologically advanced. They use
swords and muskets."

    Draxil grinned. "Cool. I just have to wait until nobody's looking and
then beam the scientists out and fly away."

    "Correct." Li'ira said. "That's why I'm not going
myself. Besides, the
As'Taan negotiations are coming up. I've got to prepare for those."

    "Okay. I'll go do my home work and leave tomorrow." Draxil decided.

    "All right. Just let me know who you're taking with you." Li'ira said.

    "Yes, Sir." Draxil grinned. He stood, executed a jaunty salute and
marched smartly out of her office.

    Li'ira watched him go. She had given up on getting Draxil to drop the
saluting. At least he used different salutes each time.

    -*-

    The runabout Narnia left Deep Space Ten and entered warp for NFGC-2458.

    On board the small ship were Garan Draxil, Crystara Acnapma, Ensign
Mileu a Security Officer and Doctor Smith.

    "Okay. Here's our costumes." Garan Draxil finished his briefing by
showing his crew the costumes they would don to move about the population
of the primitive world.

    "Ahem." Crystara said. "The natives are type two humanoids, nearly
identical to humans. I am colored a deep, rich blue. It will be difficult
for me to blend."

    "Please!" Draxil groaned. "Don't bring up Halloween
again!" The rest of
the officers laughed. During a recent Halloween party, two unidentified
young human women had appeared. Garan had moved up to them with confidence
and a variety of sure fire pick up lines. They cheerfully ignored every
attempt Garan made to get to know them better.

    Only after half an hour of frustration had Garan realized that he was
dealing with Commander Li'ira and Lt. Crystara Acnapma in disguise. He was
so used to them appearing blue and green respectively that he didn't
recognize them in Human-like pink and brown.

    "I did bring the disguise kit." Garan said. "Traumatic
though it was."
He smirked. At least he could laugh at it, now.

    "Anyway, Let's get into costume and see how these things work before we
get there." Draxil said. The report said that the clothing was
analogous to Earth's renaissance European styles. That meant nothing to
Garan. He liked the style though. His own costume was dark blue trousers,
tall leather boots, a rough white cotton shirt with floppy sleeves, a vest
and a floppy hat. The computer advised a long, thin sword based on the
scientist's records. Draxil took his own large knife. He didn't want to be
dependent on a strange weapon in his hand.

    The women in the away team complained bitterly about their costumes.
Large floor length skirts and girdles that had to be tied too tight to do
any good at all. Then, despite the large amount of inefficient clothing,
the dresses left a lot uncovered including tantalizing displays of
cleavage.

    Ensign Mileu felt especially short changed by the costume. She was short
and slim. She preferred to think of her figure as "lithe" but in
reality she seemed delicate. Draxil was surprised to see her in Starfleet
security until he saw her during martial arts practice. Her costume
emphasized her relatively small bust and had to be tied very tightly to
compensate.

    "How am I supposed to fight in thing?" She wheezed. "I
can't breathe!"

    "If everything goes well, then we won't have to fight anyone." Draxil
pointed out. "Besides, you could hide a phaser rifle under that skirt."

    Mileu rolled her eyes at him.

    "That's right, Ensign." Dr. Smith pointed out. "The
records indicate
strong gender roles. Females are supposed to be the weaker, gentler sex."

    Draxil snorted.

    "So you raise your dainty hand to your brow and say 'Oh!' Then you whip
out your phaser and stun 'em." Dr. Smith continued.

    "Sounds good to me." Crystara said.

    "Let's focus here. We find 'em; we beam 'em out and we run away, right?
No need for any stunning or fighting or fussing or for them to even know we
were ever there." Draxil said.

    Every one nodded their assent.

    -*-

    The class M planet that orbited NFGC-2458 was like all the others in
that it wasn't like any others. There was an infinity of small detail to be
seen from orbit. When the light was right, you could see that you were
several hundred kilometers up in the air. It was a pleasant but
disconcerting feeling.

    Properly dressed and with all equipment hidden, Draxil, Mileu and
Crystara beamed down to the "Duck Blind" located in the largest
city on the planet. It was a standard Federation Office setup with a large
computer for recording and analyzing data.

    "Okay, Crystara, would you please start recovering the data and breaking
down the equipment for transport?" Draxil said.

    "Okay." Crystara was all ready heading for the computer.
Although social
sciences were not her specialty, Crystara enjoyed them and was well read in
the field.

    With Crystara working on her project, Draxil motioned Ensign Mileu to
the door. "Shall we go and search for our lost people?"

    She essayed a short curtsey. "Yes, Sire."

    "I like that." Draxil grinned. "Remember that during
evaluations."

    Mileu stuck her tongue out at him.

    Draxil looked out of the hologram that covered the entrance to the Duck
Blind. The Duck Blind was inside a native building, carefully placed so
that a person could examine the building and might not realize that there
was a room that didn't appear. A force field and a hologram covered the
entrance.
>From the inside, the wall was transparent. Draxil could see that the public
access areas of the building had been trashed. Someone had broken all
furniture and objects inside. To Draxil it looked like The Gatherers had
been there.

    He waited. After several minutes no one appeared. He stepped out of the
Duck Blind. The rest of the building had been used as living quarters for
the science people. The usual procedure was that the science crew would
live as much like the natives as possible. They only used the equipment and
resources of their hidden room when absolutely necessary.

    The place had been ruined in a thorough and devastating search. All
books and papers had been ruthlessly searched, destroyed and thrown on the
ground. All the furniture had been moved, broken, searched and broken
again, Garan couldn't tell, but he was willing to bet that any personal
belongings of value had gone home with the searchers.

    The place was hung off heavy wooden beams. The floor was a wooden
platform. The walls were mats of some sort of reeds or twigs, covered with
some sort of plaster that didn't age well. It had been broken up in the
violent search.

    There was a window. Draxil peeked outside. They were on the second
floor. On the ground level below, Draxil could see people milling around,
doing their business outside. He had no real idea what that might be in
this society, but he was happy that no one seemed to be overtly watching
the place.

    Mileu said. "Lieutenant Commander, look at this."

    Draxil went over and saw what Mileu was pointing at. There was a trail
of blood on the wooden floor. Draxil didn't think that there was a lot of
blood. The wound might have been survivable.

    Mileu reached for her tricorder. Was it Human or native blood?

    "Don't." Draxil said.

    "I just wanted to find out if it was from one of our people or from a
native." Mileu said.

    "Does it matter? We have to be careful what we do here until the
absolute last minute." Draxil warned.

    Mileu looked thoughtful. She had simply reached for her tools and
started acting normal. They had to be very careful of that, here. They went
to the building's entrance. The door was closed. Draxil didn't want to
chance it. It seemed as though the authorities here knew where the building
was. Did they have someone watching it? He looked for a back entrance, and
found it on the second floor. It was subtle, and if you weren't looking for
the back door, then it would be difficult to find. Draxil thought that the
Federation Science teams that infiltrated primitive societies might be sort
of dangerous if they ever put their thought process to work for crime. Then
he thought of what happened to the team he was searching for and changed
his mind. These guys were good but they hadn't been good enough.

    -*-

    Out on the street, Draxil and Mileu wandered around and watched the
people. Mileu drew some attention, Draxil had covered up his clan
identification tattoos and the small cleft in his forehead. He blended
nicely. However, Mileu was a slim, golden, oriental woman. Her Earthly
homeland was Japan. The natives of the city didn't have routine contact
with people who looked like her. Her exotic looks drew some reaction.

    As they wandered around the front of the building, they saw that the
front door had been barricaded and there was a sign warning of the presence
of evil spirits inside. The people cruising down the street gave the front
of the place a wide berth.

    The two Starfleet Officers walked around the city for a couple of hours
taking in the sights and smells before they discovered a clue to the
location of their scientists. There was a flyer posted on the front of a
large building. It read -

     "Come one, Come alle

     To see the Magistrate issue Holy Justice to sinners on the Charge of
Witchcrafte, tommorrow at the main Hall. Satan's minions will be executed
publicly in the square the day afterwards."

    "Hmph!" Draxil commented. "At least they're getting a
fair trial."

    Mileu just looked grim.


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