The Raft and the Sloop

Posted on Thu Sep 12th, 2024 @ 4:52am by Commander Kevin Lance & Captain Mira Rodale & Lieutenant Commander Awal Kronnelti & Lieutenant Tracey Walker Jr
Edited on on Thu Sep 12th, 2024 @ 5:59pm

Mission: Deep freeze
Location: Matrix
Timeline: Lost

On:
{Norris raft city}

After much debate the name Norris was now the rafts city's name. Mira was hoping if any of her people heard it, they might come here. The city had an anchor so they wouldn't drift off. It also ment the couldn't explore too. She wasn't sure how she felt about that.

"In order to feed this many people, we need more dirt. " Murphy told her .

Mira frowned. "And where do you think we can get that?"

Murphy handed her a book he had found.

Mira bit her lip. "How deep do you think the water is here?"

Murphy shrugged. "I think we need to try?"

Mira nodded. "Ok, I will probably be the best swimmer we have here."

Murphy shrugged, "Being Vulcan, I think I can hold my breath the longest."

"Ok, then we will try this together." Mira told him. "Anything else?"

"The water purifier... It doesn't work on sea water." He told her uncomfortably.

"Ok, Lieutenant. What does it purify? " Mira asked, confused.

Again, the man handed her a book. "You can't be serious. We have to collect our pee? then we drink it!" Mira was going to throw up again. She was also going to hit Kevin if she ever saw him. He knocked her up, was nowhere in sight to help her, and she felt like crap.

"Captain, are you ok?" Murphy asked her.

"Of course, Lieutenant. What else have you found out?" Mira asked

He got her a chair then sat across from her.
"It would seem that there is a hospitality rule or more of a custom here between the raft people."

Mira raised her eyebrow at him, waiting for him to continue.

He sighed, "There isn’t many women, and then their is the lack of DNA variety on each raft. Because their mostly related to one another. So, at a certain time of the year, they travel to other rafts to ... trade. ah the material they need"

Mira narrowed her eyes. Yep, she was going to hit Kevin for not being here. "I see, and most of the people I have are women. This is going to be a problem. " Mira nodded. Spike came running in and settled at her feet she stroked his fur.

"If there is anything else, Lieutenant tell me now." She had a headache coming on.

"Leaders are normally males on this planet so if anyone shows up and asked we...."

Mira nodded "tell them my mate is out trading ,or is one of the males here." She nodded not liking it but seeing the need.

Ensign Jackson might work well as a substitute if things got bad. The man was over six foot tall, could fight and was part of security. She would have to talk to him about it.

{Personal quarters}

Mira set on the floor with Kolar. She had hand sewed him a teddy bearing out of cloth she had found. It looked fairly good for something handmade. She had almost expected him to say not blu. But instead he had hugged her and the bear saying "oh thank mama it's perfect."

She smiled and hugged him back. He didn't seem to want to let her go lately. Mira looked at Kolar. He had gone on and on about dada but it would seem there was a string of women calling themselves his aunts to him. He didn't like them.

"Mama? When Dada come get us?" Kolar asked.

Mira frowned "I doubt he will have time to with all his other girlfriends Kolar. "

Mira laid back on the floor and put her arm over her eyes. She didn't want to cry in front of him but her heart was breaking.

He crawled up next to her and put his head on her stomach. "Mama why things change so much. "

Mira sobbed. "What do you mean, Kolar?

"First, the bad bad, eat us, then we go to the sand place, then we on the ship. Now the wawa place. Can we go home?"

Mira frowned, what has been happening to them?

Mira peeked out from under her arm at him. He was a surprisingly resilient little boy.

It was awhile before she got Kolar to cuddle with her to sleep. Mira listened to the sound of water hitting the rafts. She wasn't sure what time it was but she was exhausted

Finally, she was able to sleep.

{Aboard the Chuck Norris}

"Sail ho!" one of K'ner's outlooks called from the crow's nest

Kevin's eyes shot up to the top of the mast. "Sixty degrees off the port bow!" the outlook called and pointed in a direction to the left of the ship's direction of travel.

Kevin resisted the urge to order the ship on the main screen and instead held a spyglass to his eye and scanned the horizon. He couldn't set anything, likely the vessel was still below the horizon. "Is it a pirate ship?" he called out.

"Negative," the outlook answered, "It appears to be a single-masted vessel."

A sloop, Kevin thought not certain how he knew that. "Helmsman, turn us sixty degrees to port," he ordered. The ship slowly turned to the left. Even if it wasn't the pirates that had taken Mira and the rest of the crew, they might have some useful information that they could trade for.

Finally Awal got used to being on the ship and going with the waves, he thought about Spike and how he missed him.

Far away across the ocean, Spike propped his head up and looked around. He has an image of Awal. Spike looked at Mira showing her an image of her brother, he's on a ship with Kevin. He starts whimpering.

{Personal quarters, Norris city}

There was a knock at her door Mira slipped from the bed and opened it. Seeing Murphy she raised her eyebrow at him.

"Hi? Morning?" he winced "Sorry to interrupt your sleep Captain but I found out."

She held her finger to her lips then looked over her shoulder at Kolar sleeping. He had a string of nightmares and had just fallen back to sleep. Stepping out of the room she gently closed the door behind her.

"What is it Lieutenant?" She gave him a smile she wasn't really feeling at the moment.

"It's the water, ma'am. It seems you can't get in it at certain times of the day. One of the larger carnivore fish is active," Murphy told her.

Mira frowned, "Ok so when is it safest?"

"Now," Murphy frowned.

Mira nodded "Ok" walking outside Mira frowned. Did it ever get dark here? "How do you know it's the best time?" Well apparently that wasn't something she should has said a Vulcan that loved science. He didn't stop telling her how he figured it out.

"God I need a cup of coffee" Mira mumbled as she walked.

"Sorry, Captain I don't think this planet has coffee."

Mira wanted to groan. This was so unfair. By all that was holy she wanted coffee.

Jackson was tying a rope around her waist. it was to make sure they could find their way back and the current of the water wouldn't drag them away.

"I don't think you should do this Captain." Jackson told her with a frown.

Mira laughed " Just because I asked you to pretend to be my husband doesn't mean you can tell me what to do Lieutenant Jackson. "

He nodded "Commander Lance wouldn't like it. He would tell you no."

Mira nodded. "Well who knows where he is ."

Ok the plan was simple. Drop down as far as they could go but still have enough air to get back up. If they had a problem tug on the rope. As she stood at the end of the dock Mira couldn't help but think of herself as bait at the end of a fishing line.
They had some jars tied to their waists as well for the dirt. She looked at Murphy nodded then dove into the water.

[Trace's Boat]

Geneva had spent the better part of the day trying to explain to Trace who he was and what had happened to them, but, infuriatingly, he assumed she was mad and insisted that she get out of the sun and drink more water.

After a lengthy silence, he suddenly stood up and squinted at the horizon. She turned to look but saw nothing. "What are you looking at?" She asked.

"Vessel, 45 degrees." He said, moving to the rudder. "Get below deck, we won't be able to outrun them."

"But I don't see anything." She said.

He sighed and pointed to the birds circling. "It's below the horizon, but you can't hide from birds." He said.

{Aboard the Chuck Norris}

Before long, the Norris was able to easily overtake the smaller boat. Kevin ordered the raising of the ship's jolly roger flag, a skeleton performing a roundhouse kick, to signal to their quarry to surrender or face attack. Kronnelti's gun crews opened the gunports and ran out the cannons. K'ner's marines lined the railing on the forecastle and quarter decks.

The smaller boat continued slowly along its course, oblivious to or ignoring the threat of the Norris. Once his ship was within speaking distance, Kevin took a speaking trumpet and called out, "Ahoy, unidentified vessel! Heave to and prepare to be boarded.

Trace turned to address the speaker, his mind racing about how he could jump aboard, disable their sails and get back to his boat before they could take everything he had, including the woman.

"I'm no easy mark!" he called. "Come aboard and I dump everything of value over the side."

Kevin recognized the other man's voice. "Lieutenant Walker?" he asked, "What are you doing all alone out here?"

Trace muttered something under his breath about crazy people. "I'm no officer, never been in the military." He shouted in return.

The woman stood up and waved toward Commander Lance. "Commander!" She shouted, "He doesn't remember anything!"

Trace turned to look at her. So that was her game, come find some poor sucker she could lure to her Captain's ship. He'd never be a pirate, not if he could help it. Without warning, he dove into the water, heading for the larger vessel.

Kevin heard Geneva's hail and watched in disbelief as Walker swam towards the Norris. "I don't know how this is going to go," he told K'ner, "but subdue him."

"Yes, Commander." The order to not kill Walker was passed amongst the crew.

"Kronnelti!" Kevin shouted down to the main deck, "Hold your fire!"

Trace knifed through the water reaching the larger ship in impressive time. He began climbing the Jacob's ladder to the main deck. At the top, one of the crew attempt to grab him. Trace punched powerfully in his face and the crewman stumbled backwards. Continuing up the rat lines at an impressive rate, he reached the top of the main sail in no time.

Kevin stared in disbelief. Walker was moving like a man possessed.

Grabbing a rope, Trace leapt from the ladder toward one of the main sails and, plunging a knife into the fabric, fell toward the main boom, the knife slowing his fall. The crew watched in horror as the mariner managed to severely hamper their mobility within seconds.

His boots landing on the boom, he sped along it, leaping to the deck and intending to jump over the rail into the water. He spun left, toppling a marine, spun right, causing another to stumble. He was within jumping distance when a huge Klingon stepped into his path.

"Stand down Lieutenant Walker!" Awal bellowed.

"You have me confused with someone else. What the hell are you?" Trace asked, never having seen his like before. "You sure a big fellah."

Awal reached out to grab him but Trace ducked under his outstretched arms, and attempted to get past him so he could reach the safety of the water. Other hands grabbed him, arresting his forward momentum, which allowed the huge Klingon an opening.

Seeing that, Awal took a step forward and socked Trace in the face, knocking him out. He proceeded to tie his arms and legs.

"Captain where do you want me to take him?", asked Awal.

"Lock him in the brig," Kevin answered, "He isn't in his right mind." He looked up at the torn main sail luffing in the wind. He needed to get the crew to replace the canvas and repair sail but he hadn't been able to find a good sailmaker on any of the settlements or ships that they had attacked. More time lost in the search for Mira and Kolar. "Zefram Cochrane," he cursed.

{Norris raft city}

They had made it to the bottom as quickly as possible. Mira's filled one of the jars. As she could useing the jar to scoop up the dirt, her line was being pulled and hard.

SON OF A TARG!

It wasn't going to do any good to fight it, so she tied off the jar and swam quickly up.

"What the hell?" Mira gasped as she was yanked out of the water.

"Sorry, Mira," Jackson told her.

Well crap they had been boarded. She frowned, wondering what had been said while she was underwater and just what she could get away with.

"Leave my wife alone she is pregnant!" Rodriguez said.

The guy standing in front of her grinned. "So this guy over here says he is your husband, and now he claims to be. He cupped her chin with his hand. Tilting her face. He was probably looking at the spots she thought. They all looked like humans rather large humans, but they seemed to be human.
"You're quite the catch. I won't be throwing you back." He chuckled

Mira's eyes went to Jackson. He looked banged up. Rodriguez, while big, was on his knees, so Plan b.

"My husband is hunting right now." Mira lied. Why was it when she needed a strong man, they were never there?

"And he left his pregnant wife all alone?" he grinned." His loss, my gain."

Mira frowned. "I never gave you permission to board my island. The rules of hospitality don't apply here." She had just been able to get the damn rope untied when she heard little feet hitting the deck hard. She ducked under the man's arm and ran to Kolar picking him up. "You should be inside, my little man."

Roth grinned. "Well now, a proven breeder. Valuable indeed."

{Aboard the Chuck Norris}

Mariner's face ached from the blow that he received from the man with the strange ridged forehead. He groaned an rolled onto his side.

"Welcome back, Trace," a man addressed him.

Mariner opened his eyes. The man in the blue coat with the fancy gold shoulders was seated on a barrel outside of the cage of metal bars that he was in.

"What do you want? Only thing of value on that boat is the woman, and you can have her," he lied. "Probably yours anyway."

"Mine but not in the sense that you are thinking," Kevin said handing a mug to his Chief Engineer. He was careful to keep himself away from the cage to avoid being grabbed. "She is one of my crew as are you outside of all this, " he waved his free hand about the interior of the ship's hold.

Trace took the mug, sniffed it, then drank. "I never been on anyone's crew but my own. Why would I work for a pirate? All you and your do is take."

Clearly being told who he was wouldn't be enough, Kevin thought. "Fine," he said, "How should I address you, then?"

Trace shrugged. "Most folks call me crazy, cook, or dreamer. Some call me Mariner. I like that better than the others," Trace said, draining the mug. "So, other than picking up strangers and trying to convince them they're already your crew, what are you doing out here? There ain't no raft settlements anywhere nearby."

"Well, Mister Mariner, I am looking to reunite the rest of my crew that was taken by pirates several months ago," Kevin explained, "especially my child and...fiancee. As to myself being a pirate," he shrugged, "One does what one must."

"Woman and child, eh?" He asked, scratching his scraggly beard. "Just so happens I may have heard something about that when I was in Sunshine Bay." He leaned back, looking quite satisfied with himself. "What are the coordinates worth to you?"

Kevin spread his hands, "You may name your price."

Trace thought about it. He'd been on his own for quite a while and maybe it was time for a change. This man didn't seem to the be like the usual pirate scum, and he wouldn't be the first honest captain to turn to taking to survive. And then there was the woman. There was something about her he couldn't quite put his finger on, and he'd by lying if he said he didn't want anything to do with her. "A place on your crew, a firearm, and the option to leave with my boat when I please."

Kevin considered the request. It was all very reasonable but he was suspicious that 'Mariner' would take the first opportunity to escape. "Understand that finding my fiancee and son are more important to me than anyone else's life, even my own. I agree to your terms with the stipulation that you may not leave until they are found or I am satisfied that you have done everything possible to assist me in their recovery. I shall ask for you parole that you will not try to escape, hurt my crew, or otherwise hinder my search."

"Done." Said Trace with little consideration. Once set to a course he was usually not easily dissuaded. "So, the woman...what's her job on your ship?"

"Thorne?" Kevin stroked his beard in contemplation, "Normally she is a biologist. Here? Surgeon's aide perhaps." He tossed an iron key into the cage. "As for you, I need a sailmaker. It is an officer's position third in the chain of command after the pilot and gunner. And you can repair the bloody great tear that you put into my mainsail."

{Norris raft city}

Roth looked around. "You people would be safer with us." his eyes met Mira's eyes "You and your kids would be safer with me."

Mira hugged Kolar tighter. What she wouldn't give for a phaser right now. "We are fine here."

Kolar huffed. "No one touches my mama. My dada gona kick butts."

Roth laughed "Sure kid. You all must be new here. You don't even have protective walls. Have the Aquarns found you?"

Mira frowned. "Who are they?"

He pointed under the water "water breather? They think we taste rather good."

Mira shook her head no.

He frowned. "Well, you will. Are you really pregnant?"

Mira nodded best they could tell without equipment.

"Alright, I will be back for you on my round trip. " Roth told her.

Before Mira could answer, Bryne came running out with a busted up face that turned into two black eyes. "I'll go with you. I hate it here. Her man isn't even hers anymore. I took him. I can make you really happy."

Roth frowned. "Not interested, but someone in my crew might. put her in the cell.

Mira raised an eyebrow. "That one is crazy and can't be trusted." She really didn't want Bryne here, but there was no telling what kind of damage the woman could do to her crew with her big mouth.

Roth nodded. "Though as much." he smiled." Rainy season is coming. Get your water catch system up. It's the same time the Aquarns attack." He smirked. "I'll be back for you." With that, he left.

Jackson rubbed his shoulder. "Glad she is gone, but you might have been better off just killing her."

Mira was thinking that to. She turned to Murphy. " I was able to tie off one jar."

He nodded. "I got one as well I'll see if it's any good before we down again and start working on a water collection system."

Mira nodded pressing her forehead to Kolar's. "I love you. You know that right?"

He grinned "Love yo too. Mama."


:off

Commander Kevin Lance
Executive Officer
USS Chuck Norris

and

Lieutenant Tracey "Trace" Walker
Chief Engineer
USS Chuck Norris

and

Captain Mira Rodale
CO USS Chuck Norris

and

Lieutenant Commander Awal Kronnelti
Chief of security & tac
USS Chuck Norris