Taking One For The Road

Posted on Mon Mar 25th, 2024 @ 2:24am by Lieutenant Commander Kurumi Ebisuzawa & Ensign Ruby Kurosawa & Lieutenant Ami Rori

1,207 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Junichi Koyama
Location: Gamma Zednor

Kurumi led the way out of the Ramen bar, the warm paper soup cup of Ramen in her hands still smelt good. She made a note to herself to eat it once her appetite returned. At the very least she could take it back to the ship and warm it up.

Even Ami took comfort from the paper cup that held her ramen, holding it close to her face as the adrenaline and excitement of the past hour or so began to fade from her system. She glanced back and forth briefly before talking quietly, "We need to find more of the local Japanese here... The Sakuragi sound like they were a high-ranking family or at least a family of influence. We need to know what happened, what changed, why they were targeted... All that."

"I agree," Kurumi replied. "It sounds like it could be important Intel on what's really been happening here."

"Or at the least, what happened before these laws became official, "But where are we going to find more Japanese out here? Aside from that restaurant, now that I'm looking, I'm not seeing anyone out here that doesn't have a Gaijin face to them." Ami made a show of huddling around her food as if it was providing more warmth than it really did.

At that moment four enforcement officers rounded the corner and started to approach them. They each seemed to hover their hands near their batons as if expecting a fight. "They don't look too friendly. We should give then a wide berth..." Kurumi said quietly.

"Yeah..." Ami grabbed Ruby's hand and steered the younger woman across the street, away from the enforcement officers, "Let's go this way, Kurumi, maybe they'll just let us avoid them?"

"Excuse me..." the officer in the middle said in a slightly raised voice as he approached them. "Stop!"

Kurumi glanced over at Ami and Ruby before stopping. "There a problem?" she asked keeping up the act of a tourist.

"Yes." The man said. "What is your business here? Why are you here?" he asked simply as his baton extended. A mischievous grin began to form on his face.

"We're here on vacation..." Kurumi replied. "Have we done anything wrong?"

"You're on the wrong street at this time of day." One of the others said, pointing at the sun in the sky, "So we're investigating suspicious activities. This time period is for proper citizens only."

Ami grimaced as she gave a helpless look to the group of enforcement personnel, "Well, as my friend said, we're here on vacation and we legitimately didn't know. We'll go somewhere else if you can tell us where we can be?"

"Ignorance is not an excuse." This one said, stepping forward and drawing his own baton, causing Ami to put herself between Ruby and him, "Isn't that right, Cap?"

"Definitely," the Captain replied. "I think you three should come with us. For... questioning."

"I don't think so," Kurumi said. "We've done nothing wrong. You have nothing that warrants arresting us."

"Oh but we do." The Captain said as he stepped forward and put a hand on Kurumi's wrist. His grip was tight as he digged his fingernails into her.

Kurumi's eyes narrowed at his sudden move and grip. She tried to pull her arm back, but couldn't release his hand. "Get off me." she warned him. "Or I will put your sorry ass on the floor!"

He laughed as he pulled her closer. He didn't get a chance to restrain her properly as she swiftly used his own movement to throw him past her, spinning as she did so. With a swift kick to the back of his knee's she sent him down to the floor. "Run!" she ordered to the others as his grip was released. She held his hand behind his back securely.

Ami mourned the loss of her ramen as she tossed it to the second officer, "Here, have some food." Then she turned and pushed Ruby ahead of her while she screened her, "Go, go, go." She urged the Operations officer, already reaching into her purse as she fished around for the communications tab she had in there in case she needed to contact the ship.

The sound of footsteps behind her told her that there was at least one person, probably two behind them and in pursuit, "You, halt!" The command came from one of them.

"I don't think so!" Kurumi said as she let go of the officer's wrist. She reached into one of her pockets and pulled out her phaser. "Hey you guys!" she said as she fired the phaser on stun into the air. "Come and get me then!"

"She's got a weapon!" One of them shouted.

Kurumi readied herself. "Come on then, or are you scared of this?!" she asked as she showed them the small phaser. She looked over at Ami and Ruby. 'Run!' she mouthed at them.

The production of the weapon caused Ami to at least start to slow her pace even while giving Ruby a nudge to keep going. She saw her team leader telling her to run, but now that weapons were in play, if she ran, wouldn't that give them more of a chance to overreact? One of the two chasing her had turned, but there was still one in pursuit, "Ruby, keep going, get back to the ship." She was still following the Operations officer, just a bit slower.

Ruby wasted no time in doing as she was told. She set off at a run, heading in the opposite direction to the fight. She reached into her bag and pulled out her comm badge. "Kurosawa to Myogi! Emergency beam up!" she called.

"I can only get two of you..." Came the response from the transporter operator. "Something is blocking Commander Ebisuzawa's comm signal!"

Ruby stopped and looked back at Ami. The officers by now had surrounded Kurumi who had taken up a defensive martial arts stance. They all had their batons extended and ready to pounce on the security officer. "What do we do Lieutenant?" she asked nervously.

Ami looked back at Kurumi, then to Ruby, turmoil evident on her face. Her eyes went back to Kurumi as the last of the enforcement officers returned to finish surrounding her. "We follow orders." She said, the words breaking her own heart as she said them to Ruby, her voice cracking, "Two to beam up."

It was almost as if her statement was the cue for the first attack on Kurumi. A baton swung at the woman which was stopped short and a knee impacted his gut, driving him back a few steps, then the rest began to pile on.

Both Ruby and Ami were engulfed in white and blue lights as the Myogi beamed them up, leaving Kurumi being pounded on the street. The last image that Ruby and Ami would see was the officer's pounding their Chief of Security, causing her to collapse to the ground before they started kicking and clubbing her whilst on the floor...

Posting by:

Lieutenant Commander Kurumi Ebisuzawa
Chief Security/Tactical Officer
USS Myogi

Lieutenant Ami Rori
Chief Engineer
USS Myogi

Ensign Ruby Kurosawa
Operations Officer
USS Myogi

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