Ground Team - Next Steps

Posted on Thu Apr 4th, 2024 @ 1:38am by Avalon [ADMIN NPC] & Lieutenant Commander Rin & Lieutenant J'airesh Mora-Heath & Lieutenant N'vok Holv & Lieutenant M'Tuuri Sh'iss [S'hib] & Lieutenant Nicholas Reece [Reece]

Mission: Season 6: Episode 4: Memory Lane
Location:  K'ithai, M Class world, Owned by the Thaih'ae
Timeline: MD 9 14h00 aprox
1409 words - 2.8 OF Standard Post Measure

As the time drew near, the Thaih'ea moved through the small settlement, and notified their customers that they should make their way to the departure point.

The Away team found themselves following the rest to a large landing padd. There sitting on it was a large craft. It looked to be able to carry up to 50 beings.

Their universal translators picked up words from other races. And those snippets of conversation were rather banal.

"... More slaves this year. They are hoping for a record profit."

"... I hear their genetic experiments are going well."

Behind the Spacecraft was a large .... cylinder that reached up into the sky.

"So glad we are not slaves, that Spatial Elevator is slow." Another commented as they walked.

N'vok made sure that his cloak was billowing properly, both for appearance and so that it would have the maximum surface area to snare broadcasts.

Malred Jost accompanied the Federation group, not that they knew the origin of the team, not so closely as to crowd the group but not so far away that they could not be included in conversation if wished. Malred seemed singularly uninterested in discussions about slaves, nearly disdainfully so.

Nicholas kept to his act of bodyguard and personal aide, staying to Rin's left side and one pace behind, his eyes and ears open to the goings-on around them as they moved towards the transport. "It appears that either they don't have transporter technology, Ma'am," he offered. "Either that, or they do and have transport inhibitors in place."

"Possibly they just choose not to use them, but I'm going to assume there are inhibitors" Rin muttered in reply. "Their ships have the capability to transport. It's why we all got chipped."

Around them the aliens moved and began to form up 3 abreast.

By unspoken agreement among the crowd, the Galatonians were allowed to take the front of the pack and given a wide berth.

Malred helped their new friend-like people in fitting into the organization schema. "Our hosts sometimes have very particular ways they want things to be done."

"Appreciated," Rin said with a slight nod and smile. "Anything we should particularly be aware of?"

"Do not annoy the Galatonians, they are unpredictable and vicious. Show our Hosts respect but do not act subservient to them, accept their superiority but do not bow to it," answered Malred. "Though I am sure you are already away of that. I have only seen one case of overly obsequious buyers becoming slaves and I would not wish that to happen to you."

A short distance ahead of them a group of aliens were discussing things. They were K'ilia. K'ilia are bipedal humanoid aliens with an average of four arms, each with five fingers per hand. K'ilia have small pointed ears, more triangular in shape than Vulcan ears, and teal sclerae in their eyes, which can have various colors for irises. Their skin tones appear to range in various grays while hair color can vary in shades per individual. They chattered around, and one of them was edging towards another group, their second set of hands moving as a distraction. But before they could a Thaih'ae moved and blocked them, redirecting them back to their group. The K’ilia merely did as they were told.

Nicholas watched everything with expert observation. While the Thaih'ea were the clear villains here, or at least the biggest present, he thought it interesting that they went to all this trouble to keep their slave market as calm as possible. Perhaps, they weren't as overpoweringly evil as they seemed by the stories. Just perhaps, he silently supposed, they could get away from this situation without a single shot fired.

Of course, the pessimist side of him said that was just a pipe dream.

N'vok watched everything with interest. Playing the tourist, he did not mind if people looked at him, he was not trying to be inconspicuous in the least, as long as he could see more people and more things as they were happening. Though he never strayed from the group.

J'Air was both morbidly fascinated and thoroughly sickened at the same time but she was careful to keep the "trained doctors' poker face" in place firmly. She too just watched as she moved along with the group, making sure not to do anything to draw attention nor look outwardly scared. She concentrated on keeping an awareness of what her body language was doing as she wasn't as firmly drilled on that protocol as she was on the straight faced, emotionless look.

The line was moving quite rapidly and soon they were lined up next to the ramp. Their IDs were being checked.

N'vok made sure his identification was easy to hand.

Malred frowned and palmed their identification. "Be careful," they said quietly to Ren. "If they are checking identification, someone has made a mistake, and our hosts will be on edge."

Rin nodded both in acknowledgement and agreement. Every ship had already gone through security procedures before allowing to land. Available funds were confirmed, the payment of slave tolls recorded, identities of visitors logged. That suggested the Thaih'ea thought undesirable people had been smuggled in, or that locals were trying to get somewhere they didn't belong. That meant trouble for someone. Maybe not for the Thaih'ea, but at least for their guests. After all, no one sneaks into a slave auction if their only plan is to buy slaves.

She was now terribly curious who the Thaih'ea might be worried about. Probably not them. They hadn't done anything of note, yet, to the best of Rin's knowledge. Someone else was causing trouble for the Thaih'ea and she wanted to know who.

As she handed her ID over for verification, she met the Thaih'ea's gaze, but gave a respectful nod, remembering Malred's recommendation to be gracious but not subservient. They were their hosts and should be respected for that. But subservience was the behavior of a slave.

Nicholas handed his identification over next, following Rin's lead of polite manners. The last thing they needed now was an incident of some kind.

The checks done, they were waved through and found themselves in a large area with hundreds of seats in clusters. The seats had what looked like seat belts and aliens were settling into seats.

N'vok looked for a seat with a good view of the entire area and directed everyone in the group that way.

M'Tuuri had been quiet the entire time, mulling over recent events as she walked steadily towards the seats N'vok suggested.

The dull and constant pain in her ribs was starting to put her on edge, despite self-medicating back at the ship. And she was beginning to worry the high alert was because of her.

No, she thought. If they had spotted me earlier we wouldn't be sitting here.

Still, she tugged at her cloak. Dragging the dusty fabric further over her helmet.

J'Air followed the others in and sat down, still doing her terrified best to blend into the crowd. She was holding her heartbeat at as close to normal as she could by breathing deeply but trying to make it undetectable by using her nose rather than her mouth and she was counting insider her head to try to smooth out any tendency to lose her concentration, she didn't catch the eyes of any of her team-mates nor any of the other occupants of the vessel. Right now, in amongst all this misery and these tragic folks, she was beginning to wonder what, if anything, she could do here? ~just follow Rin and be ready to take a cue from her~ she told herself.

Nicholas noticed how nervous the doctor was. Discreetly, he moved to sit next to her, while keeping Rin in his line of sight. "Just breath, Doc," he whispered softly. "I have a feeling that things are gonna get worse before they get better. You should just concentrate on your breathing. Try to keep something pleasant in your mind, something that would have the power to distract you from what we may be seeing."


An announcement came over the ships speakers and small monitors dropped down. [Sentient beings, the event will be held in our main arena.] An image appeared on the screen:
Beside it a listing of ‘competitors’ appeared. [Winners will be available for purchase!]

TBC ...