Custody Bound

Posted on Sun Jan 9th, 2022 @ 10:03am by Lieutenant Alisha Reno & Lieutenant JG Jane Sinclair

2,916 words; about a 15 minute read

Mission: Christmas Vacation
Location: Shuttle Anko

Alisha finished the preflight checks as she sighed heavily. She wasn’t worried as much about the end result, but there was still one more thing that had to happen before she departed the ship to Earth, at least for a couple days. The contraband Ale had been put into the cargo hold of the shuttle, along with a sealed crate of reports and such, but she wasn’t going alone and she had to air this look good, at least for Tristana if not the Captain. She hauled herself out of the pilots seat and went to stand by the shuttle hatch, carefully schooling her face into an impassive mask. She wouldn’t give the cameras and watchers the satisfaction of despair or anger, she was Intelligence. She was neutral.

Her eyes watched the doors to the shuttlebay open and two figures walked through, one in a set of stun cuffs and Alisha allowed herself a brief scowl of annoyance as the security ensign slowly paraded Jane along the deck. The Intel officer finally had enough and stepped off the ramp to meet them partway and held a hand out to stop them, “Thank you, Ensign, I’ll take the prisoner from here.” She said perhaps a bit harshly.

The Ensign gave his own look of annoyance, having been given his instructions, but complied, allowing Alisha to take over the elbow of Jane as a show of control, “And good riddance.” He hissed, “Have fun in their hands, Sinclair.” He gave her a slight shove before stepping away.

Part of Jane Sinclair felt humiliated. Walked from security to the shuttlebay — her own domain — through a convoluted path that made sure most of the ship saw her bound and guarded, she hated being like this. She had done nothing wrong. Well, nothing serious. Nothing almost every Starfleet Officer worth their salt had done before. But here she was, being dragged along like a common thug.

The other part was enraged. It would have been easy for Tristana to toss the Ale and forget the incident. Every security chief from her previous assignments did just that those few times they caught such a shipment (once from her, a handful of times from her colleagues). But no. She was being unnecessarily harsh. Bordering on cruel and unusual. With her own little fiefdom of security officers, she seemed to think herself dictator of the Myogi.

And really the guilty party was her mother for shipping her the package, but there was no way she was throwing mum under the proverbial bus. Knowing Tristana, I wouldn’t be surprised if she used a real bus. That was what cheesed her more than anything else. She was being hung out to try to stop a smuggling ring that didn’t exist.

A small part was happy to fight. Her impulsive streak put her in a small amount of trouble, which exploded into a lot of trouble from one jerk’s intransigence. Fighting oppression was something she never thought she could do, until that incident five years back. Then she got a taste of resistance against oppression. She hoped for nothing more than her trip to Earth to brief Intelligence would result in taking that bitch down a peg or two.

The door to the shuttlebay opened and she saw Alisha. Her heart skipped a beat. She hadn’t seen Alisha for a few days. She hadn’t even expected that Alisha would be the one accompanying her. It made sense, but in the recent craziness, it hadn’t crossed her mind. Alisha looked…inscrutable. Was she mad?

“Better their hands than yours, Rollins,” she quipped back to the security ensign. She turned to Alisha and put an impassive expression on her face. “Lieutenant.”

Alisha’s eyes appeared to have little life in them, no hint of anything beyond recognition, no wink of jesting, no nothing. She gripped Jane’s elbow firmly to guide her, “Lieutenant Sinclair.” She stated loud enough for the ‘audience’ to hear, “I am your official escort to Earth. I am not your legal counsel, which will be provided once we have arrived on-planet and you have been remanded into the custody of Starfleet Intelligence Investigative Services. Anything you say to me while we are in transit will be made available to the investigation team and may be used as testimony in any court martial convened by the Judge Advocate General or their representative.” The words were officious, they were direct, the tone of voice one of pure professionalism, just as Alisha had sworn to Maho she would be. “Do you understand what I have just informed you of, Lieutenant?” She began to guide Jane up the rear ramp.

“Yes, I understand,” Jane said, legitimately unsure what this flight would be like. She was actually getting a bit nervous for how serious Alisha was being. Was this the woman formerly known as Alexis Silverstar delivering an award worthy performance? Or was this an Intelligence Officer delivering an alleged smuggler to her interrogators?

Alisha hit the hatch close button before gesturing to one of the rear seats, fastening the seat’s safety restraints after the helmswoman was seated, eyes still not meeting Jane’s own, “We will be underway shortly.” She left to the cockpit a few seconds later, leaving Jane alone in the rear compartment.

“Wait, I thought I was pilot?” Jane called toward the now closed hatch. She heard no response and sat herself down on the passenger seat, hands still cuffed behind her.

Up in the cockpit, Alisha got on the comm with the shuttlebay director and obtained clearance to leave, breathing a sigh of relief as she relatively smoothly got the shuttle craft out of the hanger. Immediately after turning the shuttle, she got the m the comm again, “Myogi shuttle flight 216 to Sol Control, requesting autopilot approach to Starfleet San Francisco landing zone Victor.” She got almost immediate confirmation, then set the autopilot, “Sol Control, eta three hours, will contact once approaching the landing pattern.”

Less than a minute later, she was out of the seat and exhaled again, seeing the starship vanish into the background from a side window as they drew away from her, then turned to the rear door and stepping through it, “Well, that’s done.” She said quietly, as if to anyone who cared to listen as she looked up at Jane finally, “What? They didn’t teach you how to get out of stun cuffs during Escape and Evasion training?”

Jane stared up in silence at her guard. She wasn’t sure how to interpret Alisha’s tone. But then she supposed it didn’t matter. She’d act the way Jane Sinclair would always act. “Yeah but when I did it in E&E I broke my thumb. I’d rather wait, thanks.” She kept her eyes on Alisha and held her tongue a moment. “So what now?”

"Hands." Alisha demanded, waiting until Jane raised her hands enough (she had done so with no small amount of attitude), then unlocked the cuffs with the key that was intended to help keep the cuffs secure from prisoners being able to punch in a code to unlock them, then she tossed the cuffs to the side on the ground, "We'll have to put those back on when we land, mostly just for show." She sighed and slumped into another of the chairs, "But what do you mean, 'what now'?"

“I get stunned and thrown in the brig by Francesca Franco and her thugs,” Jane ranted, “Wake up with a head contusion and bruised arm that still haven’t healed despite treatment by the joy of a nurse we have. Then, days later, I’m carted out of the brig, made to walk past my crewmen, my friends, and then given to the custody of my girlfriend and tossed into a shuttle that I’m not even allowed to fly. No one has told me anything besides you reading me yet more rights that I seem to have. So yes, I think ‘What now?’ is a fucking fair question!”

Fear crossed Alisha's face openly as the mention of injuries that have gone only partially treated, but somewhat settled that look briefly, "I had to make it look good for Tristana." She admitted, "I didn't have a choice, not with having to promise the Skipper with a damned straight face that it didn't matter to me that you and I were together, that my duty overrode that. But you've got no idea at all?"

Jane didn’t look up at Alisha to answer. “Just that we were going to Intelligence. And they let me imagine the worst.”

Alisha glared at the wall for a moment, "Son of a bitch..." She debated turning the shuttle around just to slap the Security chief really hard, "You're being charged with Treason for smuggling, Sugarcube, that's the official thing. Don't worry, none of that will stick, I'm sure of that. But what's going on is that I used standing orders about charges of treason to get you into the hands of SFI, where I could do some good. We're on our way to Earth, where Intelligence Investigative Services is going to investigate the charge, where you got that damned Romulan Ale and go from there. My old instructor, Captain Martine, will be meeting us at the landing pad, I couldn't get much information to her, but she's going to help, I'll just owe her a favor or two after."

“What makes you think I’ll cooperate with that?” Jane asked. Still overwhelmed with her feelings, she still couldn’t tell that Alisha was helping, and making more work for herself to do so. “I’ve already implicated my mother. Anyone else involved will be close friends of the family. For doing something no one but the biggest buzzkills cares is illegal.” She paused and took a deep breath. She tried to calm down but it was hard.

The vitriol in Jane’s voice left Alisha, master actress, stunned and silent for a few seconds. She’d opened her mouth to respond, but nothing came out and she closed it again. Finally, words came back to her, “Because if you don’t cooperate, they’ll have no choice but to pursue those charges, then they’ll sentence you. You know what that means… Then I’d have to do something really stupid and join you on those gallows when I failed.” The last sentence was very, very quiet, “Because I’m not impartial about this, Jane, I’m very much not impartial.”

Jane stopped and stayed quiet for another moment. “I suppose I should say thank you, then.” She wiped a tear from her eye. “You’re doing a lot for me. I’m sorry that my decisions have made more work for you.”

Alisha started shaking her head, slowly, then faster, “No, well, I hope I’d have done all of this for someone else, but you know.” She slid out of the chair to kneel in front of Jane, reaching out to grab one of her hands, “I can’t promise anything yet, I don’t have that ability, I’m far too junior for that, but I’m going to do my damndest to get you and everyone else out of this. You’re right, it’s a bullshit charge that Tristana slapped on you because she’s on a power trip due to her promotion, but we can’t just make that go away by itself, we have to do something. She’ll never let it go until she wins. And if that screws other people over? Ruins other peoples’ lives? She doesn’t care about that because she’s been slighted so many times. But I will be fucking damned if she’s going to ruin your life over something like this.” Alisha’s voice had hatred in it, unfeigned hatred, “But as long as we were on that ship with this issue, she had the advantage. Now we’re going to be on MY home court, with my allies.”

Jane took Alisha’s hand with both of hers. “I’ll take any advantage,” she said, grudgingly. “I hate that she has to win, too, though.” She finally broke a smile and chuckled. “You’ve read my file, right? Did you see what happened on Nidion IV?”

Breaking into a slight smile of her own, as well as a chuckle, “I may have taken a peek or two at it, you know, just out of bouts of curiosity.”

“Gotta fight the power,” Jane said, raising her right fist in the air, a smile on her face. “Those bastards arrested me and eight others for misdemeanour crimes, but they threw us in what could charitably be called a dungeon and left us there for two days. They once brought me to an interrogation room. Offering me reduced prison time to rat on others. Then one at a time they brought us to a kangaroo court, charged us with sedition, and sentenced us to exile on the planet’s far island. They were retired security officers who became marshals on this new colony, and they let power go to their heads. Thankfully Captain Sun found me. Never have I been so pleased to see a flight of Valkyries. They intercepted us and escorted us to the ship.”

“Just a little abuse of power.” Alisha started off with the fingers of her free hand about a centimeter apart, then widened them as far as they could go, “A wee bit. There was an investigation into that after your return, but because Nidion IV wasn’t even an Associate World, just a Protectorate, Intelligence could only observe with alarm and leave it to others. Nothing we could legally do.”

Jane squeezed Alisha’s hand. “I can’t stand by and let someone on a power trip abuse people. I guess there isn’t anything I can do about Tristana. But she’ll remember that I resisted. That I can’t be pushed around. That’s…something?”

“It’s something, Sugarcube, and no matter what, we’ll find some way to arrange it so that I’m always right there with you, so she can’t do this sort of shit again.” Alisha’s voice made it sound like she was serious, but there was an undertone of hope and uncertainty. “I can start an investigation on my own, using my… Other person, Alistair, but I’ve got other inquests on my plate, too.” She considered how much she could say, then shrugged, “Higher priority for the time being. They assigned me to Myogi for a reason.”

Jane cocked her head as she thought about that. She wondered what such inquests might be about; who that might’ve been that Alisha was watching, but knew beyond any doubt that her girlfriend wouldn’t say anything more. It was a stretch of her professionalism and integrity to be doing this at all.

“Don’t waste serious resources on me,” she said softly. “Being there with me is enough.” She couldn’t help but grin as a stray thought crossed her mind. “Hey quick question, you said anything I say can be used in proceedings, does that mean we’re being recorded? If so, audio only or video too?”

“The right answer to that is yes, but the actual answer to that is no.” Alisha said slowly, “Why did you want to know?”

“No reason,” Jane replied. “Since you made autopilot the helmsman and I can’t fly I just thought maybe there was something…fun…we could do to pass the time. And whether we’ll have recordings of it afterward.” She playfully stuck her tongue out between her teeth while she grinned.

Finally a real smile crossed Alisha’s face, “We do have three hours before we make Earth orbit and I do suppose it’s only right and proper that a guard does grant a prisoner some sort of request on a trip that long, isn’t it? We do need to ensure that you’re being treated properly, but just remember, there isn’t a shower on board.” The Intel officer winked at Jane.

"Oh don't you worry about that," Jane said, winking back. "Computer, replicate one bowl of water, fifty degrees Celsius, and a wash cloth.

"Unable to comply. Replicator lockout of user Sinclair, Jane Elisabeth, by order of Lieutenant Tristana."

"Bitch!" Jane exclaimed. "Well, no way she thought of this. Computer, override all lockouts, authorization Sinclair-5-9-Alpha-Green, passcode 'not today'." The computer began to chime, but the chime sound stuttered. After three seconds of silence, Jane made the request again, and a bowl and washcloth materialized. "It's the guard's job to make sure the prisoner is clean and presentable, innit?"

Alisha laughed as she came up behind Jane, wrapping her arms around her girlfriend for a tight squeeze, "Then you're a bit overdressed for the part." Her hands reached up to unseal the uniform jacket and began to peel Jane out of it, "So let's fix that little problem, why don't we?"

“Yes, let’s,” Jane agreed, as she closed her eyes and let herself be taken care of.

END:

Mission Post By:

Lieutenant (JG) Jane Sinclair
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Myogi

and

Lieutenant (JG) Alisha Reno
Chief Intelligence Officer
USS Myogi

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