A Pound of Flesh
Posted on Mon Aug 12th, 2024 @ 3:06pm by Lieutenant Commander Keishara Davaris
0 words; about a 1 minute read
Mission:
Year One: Strange Bedfellows
Location: Holodeck 2, Deck 7
Timeline: MD002 - 2145 hours
Standing in the archway of the holodeck Keishara simply stared at the program listing she’d called up. This was her hour to do as she wanted, to unwind and to work out some frustrations that had been plaguing her of late. Dodian, her deceased ‘sister’ slave, had been quiet of late and maybe what Keishara had been doing was helping, numbing her a little more.
To her left was the customary criss-crossed walled and panelled floor. A room devoid of life, colour and any kind of personality. She felt like that sometimes when she looked in the mirror of her bathroom mirror. Like the person looking back at her was a stranger, someone she didn’t recognise but all she had to do was put on a face, or bury herself in work and try and bury the anger and hurt she had felt surface of late.
“Computer, begin program Olenovian 2.” Keishara voiced as the list spun up and selected the program in question.
The environment changed to that of a poorly lit, unhygienic and very unsafe looking ship. At the moment the program hadn’t started yet but there was a chain hanging on the wall, the one that was fitted around her neck when she was taken nearly 200 years ago by those pirates and their leader Segal.
As she walked towards the chain and neck brace she stopped and looked out the window. She could see Repor II, her home world, the place she was taken from and her father killed. Still to this day she doesn’t know what happened to their family, something that has been playing on her mind a lot recently.
Keishara sighed looking once again at the chain and brace. In her mind she pictured a much smaller, naiver and fragile version of herself. A young woman, still considered somewhat of a child at 38, and still a student in school. Someone taken and their young life stolen.
“Begin program.” she said simply as the planet began to turn slowly and the sounds of the ship began to play.
Out the window there were some ships coming up from the surface. If they had faces they’d have been ones of anger, of vengeance and a promise of safety and rescue.
This was the rescue attempt that cost her a broken arm and a fractured outlook. The attempt failed, it always failed, it was always meant to as that is how it played out. The ships were destroyed and Segal had his men come in and record a beating of Keishara that would have her in pain for months.
She couldn’t blame her father, not really. He’d been told not to attempt her rescue when she’d been kidnapped. It was part of the conditions of the ransom. If she had been in his shoes, if anyone had been, would you not do anything to try and get your child back?
Moving towards the wall she knelt down and clasped the brace around her neck until it clicked. She was now confined to the wall. A prisoner. “Computer, disengage safety protocols.”
“Disengaging security protocols can lead to risk of injury and death. It is recommended you do not deactivate them.” the computer always sang this same old tune, so much so you’d think even it had a tone of sadness to it. A ‘here we go again’ pitch, a ‘you don't have to do this’ attitude.
“Noted. Disengage.”
“Confirmed. Safety protocols disengaged. If you require medical assistance please inform sickbay immediately.” and with that the light sounds of a space battle could be heard outside.
Keishara always felt the time it took to destroy the rescue attempt got shorter and shorter each time. A sense of irony that an El Aurian should lose her sense of time, but no-one in the galaxy was perfect.
Silence would soon descend before the clank of heavy boots, the bright lights shone on her to disorient her and the opening of the door to reveal a large, heavy set man she would know as Segal shadowed by half a dozen men.
She looked up at them, knelt down on the ground, as they placed a recording device. Segal stood to the side as his men set it up.
“Your father has been a very naughty man, little one.” Segal grinned. “We told him not to try and rescue you.” he shook his head. “Foolish man. You El Aurian’s think you are the smartest people in the galaxy.” he closed the gap. “But you’re just as fragile as the rest of us.” and with that he swung his big sausage fingered hand towards her and backhanded Keishara across the face. The sound reverberated around the room and Keishara stifled a noise and bit her lip as her eyes closed with the sheer agony of his powerful strike.
“Do you want to cry, my sweet little koval (dove)?” Segal sneered as stroked the bruised cheek with his hand and instructed his men to start recording and approach.
Keishara was still looking away but had gritted her teeth as his words still to this day filled her with hatred. She turned to look at him and spat in his face. A defiant act she would never have done originally… but this wasn’t history. This was therapy.
Segal took a few steps back in shock. Shock quickly turned to anger, “Oh, you like it rough?” he asked rhetorically.
The program had been given permission to take certain liberties from what Keishara remembered.
One of the pirates moved towards her and swung his big arm at her.
Rising to her feet and using her forearm to block the punch in one swift motion caught him off guard as she grabbed his wrist with her other hand and pulled him off balance before smacking him with her right elbow.
“I’m not quite the girl that once sat here you fat boshtet (pig)!” Keishara yelled as she removed the neck brace. “Try breaking me apart now.”
“With pleasure. I like breaking in new toys.” Segal sneered and signalled all the others to move forward.
The room became a scene from a holovid. Keishara was far better than her younger self, and why wouldn’t she be. She’d trained for years after that, once she was free but still emotion can cause errors and anger most of all can lead to overextending one's reach and ability.
A pirate came at her with a knife. She disarmed him in one swift movement and broke his nose with another. The satisfying crunch, the squelch of cartilage and bursting of blood vessels gave Keishara good chills. These guys deserved a lot worse.
The knife that now lay on the floor picked up by the first floored pirate was thrust into Keishara’s thigh and she fell down on one knee to avoid an attack from an oncoming pirate and screamed out as the knife pierced flesh. Keishara looked furiously at the pirate who’d stabbed her and was distracted enough to receive a punch to the side of her head and she fell to the ground, her head smacking hard off the deck.
Her vision began blurry, this wasn’t how this was meant to go.
All of the pirates began to kick her, beat on her, and all she could feel was pain from all sides and even more so on the wound caused by the knife as the weapon still remained sunk deep in her flesh.
The room darkened.
She lost consciousness.
Then, flashes of light. Screams of pain. The sound of slashes. Bones breaking. The noise of bodies thudding on the ground.
Keishara opened her eyes and looked around the room. All the men lay dead, even Segal. Their bodies slashed, stabbed, some disfigured in angles you didn’t think were possible. In Kei’s right hand she held the knife and noticed she was covered in blood, the knife dripping with the life force of her enemies she could do nothing but drop it in shock.
“I did good, didn’t I?” a chirpy voice sounded.
Keishara turned around to see Dodian sitting atop Segal’s large gut. She was so small her legs swung a little bit as she looked happy with herself. “I did good. I know I did. I mean you fell asleep.” she shook her head. “Silly sister. Just like back when you were little, too emotional, weak.” she huffed. “Every time I had to step in.”
Looking at Dodian, looking at her hands she winced as she inhaled a breath. Almost as if she’d been out of air.
“You should get that checked out.” Dodian remarked sarcastically as she pointed to the lacerations to Keishara’s stomach, her burst lip, bruised eye and punctured thigh. “I mean that’s just what you can see.” she giggled. “Isn’t it delightful!? You make me so happy sister. I like being in your head… so many places I can hide.”
“Dodian… stop.” Was all Keishara could say through sharp breaths.
“Why? You don’t.” Dodian swung her legs forward and the momentum carried her off Segal’s gut and towards Keishara. “Do you seriously not think that little side-piece Stewart hasn’t noticed your bruises, the wounds you can’t quite reach with a dermal regenerator, the pain you are in when you move certain ways?” she huffed. “She may be an alcoholic sex addict with poor taste in men… and species, but she isn’t stupid and neither are you.” she paused and looked at her quite seriously. “Do better, or they’ll find out you’re talking to yourself after butchering holo-pirates.”
Keishara sighed.
“Now, I suggest you transport yourself to your quarters. The crew don’t need to see the monster you are roaming the halls. A broken thing that does anything to feel. I mean look at you, you’re a mess! Go back home, shower and break out the Romulan ale you have under your bed. I’m thirsty.” she grinned. “Off you go my sweet little koval (dove).”
Those words ran chills down Keishara’s spine. The words that would send her back to how she was when she was that broken down, beaten and abused slave. All she could muster was a nod before deactivating the program and beaming herself back to her quarters. A quick deletion of the transport record, a shower, then maybe some dermal regenerating, then she could break out the ale.
Tomorrow the real pirates would be in no short supply.
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