Backpost: Orange is the New Command Red (Rescue, Epilogue)

Posted on Sat Nov 30th, 2024 @ 5:46pm by Lieutenant JG Jane Sinclair & Lieutenant JG Mia ‘Banshee’ Amaro

2,836 words; about a 14 minute read

Mission: Captains and Contraband
Location: Brig
Timeline: After “Immediate Action”, before “Waking Up Sleeping Beauty”

Having gone through the decontamination treatment and replicated some new clothes — a standard issue grey tank top and black uniform pants — Lieutenant jg Jane Sinclair had been escorted to where she would likely be spending the next few days, or weeks, or maybe months: the USS Myogi brig.

At this time of day, the brig’s single cell was well lit and in full view of the manned guard station. The single bed which normally occupied the back wall was conspicuously absent. Jane knew from context that a head could be accessed with the push of a button. The privacy allowed was zero. A guard was present most of the time, and computer monitors and alarms covered the area when the guard had to vacate.

Thankfully, the brig was not empty. “Hey, chica,” Jane said with a grin as the forcefield came down and she was pushed inside. Her escort, still Tristana, unlocked her manacles, left her in the cell, and ordered the forcefield back up with a nod, before wordlessly leaving the two jailbirds to themselves.

Mia pushed herself up off the bit of floor that she'd quickly co-opted after she'd been taken to the brig and put into the same outfit that she saw Jane enter in, "Tol' you I'd seen you soon, but was hopin' it'd be you on the outside lookin' in, not in here with me. How's the girl? Bein' looked after I hope?"

Jane nodded. “Medical crew swarmed her right away. Told them what I could before the Captain and Security Officer Sugartits arrested me.” She shrugged. “It’s fine. The most important thing is Alisha is alive and getting the care she needs.”

Mia snorted at Jane's nickname for Tristana and shook her head, "Think I'm gonna use that when I next see that chica. But here we are, not the first time I've seen the brig, certainly not gonna be the last time either." She lowered her voice, "Now you listen here, Jane, don't care what they want you to say, you gotta tell them I made you do it, that I used Alisha as leverage to get you to cover my ass down there. She don't need me, she needs you."

“I can’t throw you to the wolves, Mia,” Jane said, matching her volume. “I followed you but I knew what I was getting into. I knew there would be consequences. That we’d both end up here.” She looked around at their furnishings. “This is my first time. Are they all like this?”

“Us’ally there’s an extendable bed in these things, but otherwise all the comforts of home! We got walls, a floor, a toilet that only takes up space when we need to use it, the only real diff’rence is that instead of a door we gots a forcefield and someone to keep us company here and there.” Mia waved to the console where no one stood at the moment, but where someone could control the brig area from, “Not much in the way of privacy, but that don’t bother me a bit. Not my first time, hopefully not my last time either. Hopin’ that satchel of goodies gives us a bit of a leg up on leniency.”

“Hopefully,” Jane agreed. “Plus the fact that we, oh I don’t know, saved the life of a Starfleet Officer.” She let out a sigh. “What is there to do to pass the time?”

"Well..." Mia trailed off, "There's always what I like to do, but there's no privacy involved an' I don't think that any guard would wanna join in. Otherwise, it's just mental games. It can get pretty rough if you're by yourself, but with two people? Can do a lot of things! Whether chess, or some sorta Role Playing Game that requires the imagination. Otherwise, sleep is always a good thing to catch up on."

"We'll definitely need that," Jane agreed. "And probably that other thing too," she added, noting a particularly spot along the side wall that wasn't in direct visibility of the guard station. "What kind of imagination roleplaying games?" She was curious about that. "Like, verbally walking through interesting situations?"

While she wasn't sure which was which, with the last query the other two were ticked off and Mia smiled broadly, "Well, have you ever wanted to be oh... Say a werewolf or a fairy or something of the like? There are games we can play where we can pretend to be one of those, come up with imaginary statistics and just riff off one another as we go on adventures!"

Jane nodded and shifted a bit in her spot along the wall. "Okay yeah. I played these with my cousins a couple of times. We had PADDs but keeping it in our heads works." She closed her eyes. "I can see her now. She's a wilderness ranger in a world of magic. Good with a sword, better with a bow. Jaene is her name, and she's a badass."

"Miae." The hispanic woman named her imaginary character, "Gotta make her a wizard, because that's always been my favorite class to play as whenever I've had the opportunity. Loves her fire spells because burn, baby, burn!" Mia's eyes glittered in excitement, "Coming up with baddies is easy to do!"

"Of course!" Jane said, now grinning. "Jaene was previously on the hunt for a banshee before she met up with Miae. Where do you think they crossed paths?"

"Given that Miae is fleeing from a village that had a couple of barns burn down, which she is most certainly NOT responsible for, but the townsfolk think she did it?" Mia pondered for a moment, "I think an abandoned farmhouse? It's raining outside after all and getting late, no inns out here."

“Rain is getting hard,” Jane offered. “Torrential, even. No way to track her quarry in this, Jaene finds the abandoned farmhouse. She doesn’t notice that the door’s been disturbed recently. She’s done being drenched and gets indoors right quick.”

"Wet wood is in the fireplace, wisps of steam from where regular firestarters haven't succeeded in starting it." Mia smiled brightly, closing her eyes for a moment as she stood up. "At hearing the sound of someone coming up the steps outside, Miae hides in a corner and begins to chant, 'Source of all power, crimson fire burning bright!' In her hands a small ball of magical fire appears that she tries to hide within her robes. She's being very careful in case this is someone trying to get revenge for that barn."

“Did Jaene hear the chanting?” Jane asked. “We don’t exactly have a randomizer, do we? How do we decide? Rock, paper, scissors?”

"That would be up to you if she heard or not." Mia gave a non-committal shrug, "Normally I'd like to have some sort of dice, but not really available right now. She might see a muted glow, maybe heard the whispered chant, maybe nothing at all. Your choice!"

“Alright.” Jane considered a moment. “I think she heard it. She says ‘Shit, sorry! I mean no harm! Just finding shelter from the rain’.”

"Her presence now known, Miae stands up and reveals the fireball in her hands, 'Where do you come from?' She asks the newcomer, the look in her eyes telling the woman that there was indeed a right answer to the question." Mia's eyes were bright and a smile on her face.

“‘All the way from Saint Clare,’ Jaene replies. ‘More than two weeks’ journey to the East. I don’t mean any harm.’ She winces and hopes the answer is right.”

Mia rubbed her hands together, "The mage doesn't give any sign of how the answer affected her, but the smile on her face grew. 'Fire-ball!' She called and threw the magical fire past Jaene and into the fireplace. Where the wet wood had been sitting, now they blazed furiously and quickly from the magic that had been muffled by the dampness, 'Then you should have a seat by the fire, dry off a bit.'"

“Jaene smiles and lets out a laugh, part amusement and part relief. ‘Thanks. I’m Jaene,’ she says, by way of introduction. Soaked through, and satisfied that she’s in good company, she takes off her boots, jacket, everything that’s wet, really. Which is most of it,” Jane adds, with a cheeky wink. “She keeps her bow within reach but she joins Miae at the fire in what passes for underwear in a fantasy world. What does a Ranger wear under her leather armor?”

Mia waggled her eyebrows at Jane, "Usually a tunic and some sort of underwear, padding for the armor, but not much!" She settled into her seated positon, "'Miae, just travelling through right now.. Not sure where I'm going to go next, but anywhere far from here once the weather breaks, that is.'"

"'Want to travel with me a bit?' Jaene offers. 'I've been after a banshee for the past two weeks. It's been attacking hamlets and villages and one of the town elders asked me to bring it down. I know I'm close, I just know it. With your help I can corner it and bring it down. And get a nice reward we can share.' Jaene is surprised though by a sound coming from outside. One that's distinctly not from the storm."

"'Oh jeez, here we go again...' Miae looked at the door, clearly hearing whatever it was that Jaene had heard. She did, after all, know that she was also being looked for, 'Do you know if anyone else was following you? I um... May have had a misunderstanding with the folks of the last town I was in and they think I'm responsible for something I most definitely didn't do and they're rather angry with me.'" Mia looked questioningly at Jane, "Pick a number between one and twenty. The closer you are to my number, the better the results of the well... 'roll' I guess we can call it."

“Hmmmm…” Jane thought a moment. “Nineteen.”

"Aw shit." Mia said shaking her head, "I was thinking Five. This is absolutely not going to be a good result. We've got villagers, seven of them coming in on the house. They've been following the trail of Miae here."

“Jaene hears the sound change from a murmur to more distinct voices. Things like ‘We know you’re in here!’ and the like. But Jaene is having none of it. She picks up her bow and her quiver and expects a fight to be likely, since mobs don’t act rationally. ‘They might torch this place. We should meet them in more favourable terrain.’”

"'Torch this place? We could only be so lucky.', Miae replied, 'Then they'd really see the fury of a fire specialist wizard.'" Mia smiled brightly at Jane, "Miae stands up as well, 'One fire in a barn and they blame the wizard that's just passing through. Especially since she's alone and beautiful, not my fault that the farmer's son was clumsy and knocked over the lantern.'"

"'Did he knock over the lantern because he was exhausted and dehydrated, perhaps because of a beautiful visitor?' Jaene asked. She sees the crowd starting to form outside. There appears to be a leader among them, taller and a bit further forward, calling the mob to violence. Jaene decides to take action. She's most effective at a distance so she goes to a window and lets loose a shot with the bow, aiming for the leader's thigh. Nonlethal but hopefully dissuading."

"The yelp of pain stops the villagers in their tracks Miae looks away and at the fire, 'Well, maybe a little bit. It wasn't intentional and if the farmer found out well... It would have been bad. As if this isn't.' Miae edged towards a window and peeked out, 'And there they are, see the one towards the back? That's him.' Miae sighed lightly." Mia grinned at Jaene.

“Jaene readies another arrow and says ‘Well let’s end this then. We’ve just met but I’m not going to let some peasants tear you apart’.” She grinned back at Mia. “This is fun. A good way to pass the hours. We have a few to kill, after all.”

"And more than one way in which to kill them." Mia grinned, "Because since Jaene is the heroine, Miae must reward her, mustn't she? And It's easier to act THAT out rather than speak it, wouldn't you think?" The hispanic woman gave a grin.

Jane bit her lower lip. “You sure make patience difficult, chica.” She giggled and smiled. “Jaene rips a piece off her limited clothing, wraps it around her arrow, and lights it on fire. She shoots the arrow into the crowd, lighting someone’s clothes ablaze. She does it again in quick succession. The villagers realize they’re serious and they scatter. She’s breathing heavily when she sets her bow down and locks eyes with the Wizard Miae.”

Mia sidled closer to Jane, shifting to her hands and knees to crawl closer to her, eyes locked on her, "Miae smiled at Jaene, grateful that she hadn't had to use her limited number of spells on the crowd, magic was rare in the world and she could only use so much of it before becoming exhausted, then began to move closer... And closer... She undid the sash on her robe and the front came open, revealing what she didn't wear underneath." Mia's voice was husky and breathy, "'I suppose I should reward you for saving me, shouldn't I?' She asked, fire in her eyes."

“‘I suppose you should’, Jaene replies,” Jane all but whispers as Mia approached. “She throws off the tattered remains of what little she had on. She feels Miae’s warmth, her fire really, as flesh touches flesh.” She shifted so she was fully in the cell’s blind spot, and then lifted her tank top over her head. Tristana hadn't let her replicate a bra. “As lips touch lips.” Her eyes closed as she waited for Mia to close the gap to her.

Mia had cast off her own shirt in the process and crawled towards Jane, then let her lips touch Jane's for a kiss that last several seconds before she pulled back and began to kiss down her front, "'Then let me.'"


**

Epilogue:

Time passed slowly, and in a way that was difficult to measure. Jane and Mia learned pretty quickly that, in addition to there being no beds, there wasn’t a chronometer visible to them. There was a day/night cycle but it was hard to predict.

But they passed the time. They talked, getting to know each other much better. They shared stories, especially about flying and racing. Sometimes about conquests. They continued narrating the adventures of Jaene the Ranger and Miae the Wizard.

And they were intimate. A lot, in fact. They tried to be as discreet as they could about it; though there was nothing to dampen the sound and they could sometimes be loud, they did their best to use the small blind space behind the forcefield emitters. Some positions didn’t permit that though (and they did go through quite a few). Most of the brig guards were good about it, turning away and focussing on their consoles or paperwork during those periods of time. Others were not so couth and enjoyed the show. At the time though, in the moment, neither prisoner cared. Sonic shower breaks, infrequent that they were, were opportunities never to be squandered either.

The days kept coming, and they continued passing the time in their near-isolation. No news from the outside world, though Jane knew that they would tell her if anything egregious had happened with Alisha. Though legally she wasn’t entitled to the information, she was next of kin in all but name. When she got out, she would make it official in the system.

It was on Day Eighteen (not that either prisoner knew it for sure) that Captain Takahashi and Lieutenant Commander Ebisuzawa paid them a visit. All charges had been dropped. Their files would include clear admonishment for their actions, a black mark that would never be removed, and it was clear that promotions might be delayed even further, but there would be no court martial. They could resume their duties the next day.

Jane, for her part, thanked the Captain profusely and, when dismissed ran back to her quarters. A proper sonic shower. A hair cut. Back into a crisp, clean uniform. She was herself again.

Alisha.

So before going anywhere else, anywhere official, she went to sickbay, to see the love of her life….

END

Lieutenant JG Jane Sinclair
Chief Flight Control Officer

Lieutenant JG Mia “Banshee” Amaro
Fighter Pilot

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