A First Mission
By Izzy
Part 1:On the planet Youkai
Somewhere near the Chin'toka System, Stardate 51976.7
*Warning. Warp Core Breach in two minutes.*
"All hands abandon ship!"
The captain's voice was barely audible over the sound of the klaxons that sounded throughout the U.S.S. Gilgamesh, but everyone on board had gotten the message. It was a tiny ship, a Defiant-class, but as it happened, it was carrying more then the usual crew of 50, but also about 20 cadets, whom the officers hurried through the corridors towards the lifeboats.
One of them shrieked as a bulkhead collapsed in front of most of the group, but behind two others. "Lieutenant Runes! Cadet Higurashi!" One of the cadets threw moved towards the downed bulkhead, but one of the commanding officers stopped him. "If Lieutenant Runes and Cadet Higurashi survived that, they'll merely be able to reach the escape pods quicker then us. This way, and hurry!!"
On the other side, the cadet, unhurt, leaned over the severely injured lieutenant. "Lieutenant, sir?"
"Go." He told her, "This ship will explode in less then two minutes, and you'll never get me off of it before then. Run. Save your own life."
"But sir-"
"That's an order, Cadet! Run!" Obediently she turned and ran down the corridor, any second expecting another bulkhead to collapse and trap her.
She had never thought she could run so fast, but she reached the lifeboats just a the computer was giving the one-minute warning. She glanced around, wondering where the others were, if they would get to the lifeboats in time.
I have to wait for them. There won't be room for everyone otherwise. She climbed into one of the pods and waited anxiously, mentally counting off the seconds.
*Warning Warp Core Breach in thirty seconds.*
Could we even get the pods off the ship? She wondered. Still she waited, until she heard the computer again.
*Warning. Warp Core Breach in fifteen seconds.*
I have to go now, or I'll die too! "Computer, launch pod!"
She had one more glance at the ship, and she half-expected the crew and the other cadets to come bursting in.
*Warning. Warp Core Breach in-* then she could no longer hear the computer. She counted aloud. "Ten...nine...eight..." she heard the pod disengage. Too slow, it'll get caught in the explosion! "Seven..six...five..." despite the inertial dampers she felt them shoot away. Not far enough...she clenched her fists, screwed her eyes shut-"three.....two....one!"
The pod rocked wildly with the force of the explosion, throwing her against the bulkhead and knocking her out cold. Later,
She came too not yet able to open her eyes. She was lying on a hard surface that made her think she was still in the escape pod until she heard voices.
"Nearly killed, of course, you must know quite well how delicate they are..."
"The same race?"
She briefly wondered if she was in some sort of afterlife, but dismissed it. She was...where was she? She couldn't guess.
"The very same. I think they may be the dominant one. Will you-"
"No! Not this child!"
She felt a flash of indignation at being called a child, when she thought a year at Starfleet Academy, which she had managed to complete, meant one wasn't a child anymore, but she was feeling darkness claim her again. Still Later
She came to again, and opened her eyes.
She was still on a hard surface, and was staring up into the fanciest ceiling she had ever seen. Golden ornaments hung on a silver surface almost too bright for the eye to look at. There seemed no light source on the ceiling, but there was light, which looked like it was coming from the walls.
It seemed odd that it was so hard for her to pull herself up. And it felt like her feet were bound, so it was very possible she'd been drugged. But there wasn't much of a hangover, just a lack of physical energy. Unless she was still under its effects.
Then she heard a voice saying, "The Terran's awake!" and forced herself up.
The rest of the room was as fancy as the ceiling. As she had suspected, the light came from the walls, which were covered with murals and tapestries. The surface was a highly-polished pale blue-green marble, and rose up in blocks, one of which she was lying on. Her feet were indeed bound, though the bindings moved below the block to allow her to sit up more comfortably. There were many chairs and tables, all cushioned and painted, and wandering amoung them and staring at her were several humanoid aliens, all quite pale with white hair and yellow eyes.
Then she realized: she was on Youkai. It was not the best planet to have landed on. The Youkai had developed warp capability about twenty years ago, but the attempt to make first contact had ended in disaster. A Starfleet officer had been presumed killed, and it had since been Starfleet policy that no contact was to be had with Youkai.
One of the Youkai, a very tall and imposing one, walked over and leaned over her. With her sitting, he was at least twice her size. "Who are you, Terran?"
She answered automatically, "Cadet Fourth-class Kagome Higurashi, Starfleet Serial Number-"
"Enough!" he cut her off. "It's as the Crown Prince thought. She's the same as the other woman." They must be referring to the Starfleet officer who was killed trying to make contact with this planet.
"Shall we tell him his newest toy is awake?" asked another.
"Toy?" Kagome repeated. First child, then toy?
"Oh do not worry, Cadet Fourth-class Kagome Higurashi. He will not tax you overmuch."
Then Kagome wondered if by toy, they meant a sexual one. She repressed a shudder. Then she tried to look on the bright side of it-it meant her feet would be unbound. Probably.
But then she heard a third Youkai say, "He's already told me what he intends to do with this one," and she had to repress another shudder. Not much was known about the customs of the Youkai, and Kagome hoped to all the galaxy that voyeurism wasn't one them, because it had suddenly occurred to her that that would mean not only extreme demeanment, but that her feet would probably stay bound. That would explain why the bindings were somewhat movable. But he won't tax me overmuch, she reminder herself, or so they had claimed....
Then a door which had previously blend in with one of the murals slid open, and a guard(with such prominent weapons and armor he couldn't be anything else) stepped in. "Everyone! He enters: the Crown Prince Sesshoumaru of Youkai!"
"All hail the Crown Prince!" Had she been less frightened, Kagome would have though him rather handsome. The pale complexion that to her human eyes made the other Youkai look sickly looked him look fine and polished like one of the ornaments on the ceiling. She wondered idly if he was wearing any make-up. The purple and red marks on his face might have been face paint.
"Crown Prince," the tall Youkai left Kagome and fell to his knees before him. "The Terran is awake."
"Good. She will be perfect for what we can finally test out. Bring in the Hanyou." The tall Youkai bowed and left.
Test out? Hanyou? "What are you going to do to me?" she ventured to ask.
The Crown Prince laughed. His laugh was a cruel one, so his words only made Kagome feel slightly better. "It's not what I'm going to do to you, Terran. It's what I'm going to do to him."
He pointed as the tall Youkai brought in another Youkai, but this one looked like an animal, though his only physical difference was in his ears. He had on his feet bindings identical to Kagome, but they fastened his feet together and prevented him from standing, so the other Youkai was dragging him along by the wrist. But that was less what made him seem like an animal then the expression on his face. It was a soundless snarl that flashed his teeth, and combined with a look in his eye that was somewhere between outraged and terrified. Kagome wondered if he had ever been treated as a sentient being his entire life.
"You should like Inu Yasha, Terran. He's half your race."
This surprised Kagome; the ears looked more dog-like then human, and she had thought he was a mutant. One can never make assumptions about the result of mating between races, she reminded herself, ,i>on whether they will produce offspring, or what said offspring will look like. From there, the rest was obvious. Inu Yasha looked on the young side, and his mother had to have been the presumed dead Starfleet officer. Briefly she wondered if the woman was actually still alive, but if the treatment of her son was anything to go by, she doubted it.
Inu Yasha had been dumped on a block near Kagome, and the Crown Prince ordered his bindings removed and he be placed in a large force-field. "And I know it's tempting, but do leave the Terran out of it." Really wondering now what his plans were, Kagome watched without comment.
Then the tall Youkai took out a device Kagome did not recognize and placed it at her throat. She heard a beep and felt her vocal chords tingle. "I did his cerebellum already." he informed the Crown Prince.
"Good, shall we have a demonstration? Terran, if you know what's good for you, you'll tell Inu Yasha here to sit."
"Sit," repeated Kagome in confusion.
Inu Yasha had gotten to his feet, but now he was yanked down unnaturally and hit the marble head-first, to an uproar of laughter. "Again!"
Appalled, Kagome shook her head. One of the guards drew out a knife, but the Crown Prince waved his hand and said, "Let the hanyou rest. He's going to need to."
How long is this going to go on? Would she spend the rest of her life bound to this marble block, humiliating a being treated as a beast just to stay alive, unless they starved me? And why were they so determined that I be the one to inflict this on him? Because they know I would find it appalling. They probably know a lot about Starfleet and the Federation, if Inu Yasha's mother lived long enough to give birth to him.
As they continued to laugh, Kagome felt herself fighting back tears. She fought them back, though, determined not to entertain them further. That Night
Kagome slept several hours before suddenly waking up to discover the room was empty, save for her and Inu Yasha. Though tired, she was too upset to sleep further, so she sat up and watched the Youkai sleep, She was rather sore from sleeping on the hard surface, but she knew he was far worse, as she had been force to "sit" him several more times for the others' amusement.
"Why?"
"No idea." He closed his eyes. "Anyway, you don't have to worry about anything, Terran. He'll get bored of our sitting game, and then'll probably return you to your Starfleet, so he won't have to keep feeding you."
"And what about you?"
"Don't worry about me, idiot." He opened his eyes in annoyance. "You can't help me. You'll just end up in the same place in the Crown Prince's esteem as me."
"There's got to be something I can do." she protested.
He sighed. "I've heard Starfleet was like this. Always having to go and save the oppressed. Except when it violates their precious Prime Directive. Hypocrites."
"Hey!" Angrily Kagome tried to stand up, but only to fall down as the bindings clamped her ankles together. She hit the marble hard on her back, and shifted around to try to tell if she had broken a bone, but her ankles wouldn't separate.
"Lie still." Inu Yasha advised her. "The bindings won't separate for an hour at least."
Kagome obeyed, but continued. "You do realize, Mr. Starfleet-are-Hypocrites, that given enough amount of time, I might devise a way to get us both out of here?"
He only laughed. "Stop kidding yourself, I'm no idiot. The King was right, you're only a child."
"The King? Who's the King?"
"The Crown Prince's father, girl, who else would he be?"
"I guessed that." She growled back. "I just wasn't aware there was a King. The Crown Prince seemed pretty powerful."
"You don't know a thing, do you? You were given to the Crown Prince for amusement in his private court-held in this room-because the King had no interest in you. I saw them discuss it."
"Do you have to insult me with every statement? " She was really starting to get angry now. "I think I've still got that ability to sit you, you know."
Then she heard a crash. "Oh, sorry." She did feel a little sorry. She made a mental note to try to edit "sit" out of her normal vocabulary.
She heard a groan in reply, and "Terran, in the future, provided you aren't being threatened by the Crown Prince or his minions, would be you be so kind as to not sit me when I'm already down?"
"Okay." There was silence after that for several minutes, before he continued, "You look quite young for a Starfleet officer."
"Well, I'm not an officer; I'm in training. I probably shouldn't even be able to get myself into situations like this after only one year, but of course, I wanted to do the survival test early, because I was feeling so unimpressed with myself after my roommate made the Red Squad."
"The Red Squad?" Inu Yasha was sounding more awake, making Kagome wonder how much the accidental sit had hurt him, and if the pain might be keeping him awake. She managed to roll her head over enough to see him propped up on his knees, looking half caved-in with his fists clenched. She decided to keep talking to try to distract him.
"Well, I don't know for 100% sure she's on it, because membership's supposed to be secret, but it isn't, really, so I'm pretty sure. Her name's Sango Tajiya. Her last name means 'Exterminator,' which I think it kind of appropriate. The two of us hit it off right away. I think we could have been really good friends if she hadn't been so much the best of the best. But Red Squad cadets don't associate too much with non-Red Squad cadets, and they certainly don't room with them. She moved out halfway through the year, and now we're restricted to saying hello on campus sometimes."
"Why are you telling me all this?"
Maybe it was the tone of his voice, but Kagome felt her anger built up again. "If you'd rather wallow in pain, be my guest."
"Pain you caused."
"I said I was sorry! I didn't mean to." He gave no response, and once again there was silence. Kagome continued to watch him. He was still in considerable pain, and she soon decided some more talk would do him some good. "If you don't want to hear about me, then talk about yourself."
"What should I say? Probably something that will get you weeping in sympathy, right?"
"Actually I'm not feeling very sympathetic right now, but if you want."
"Oh I bet I could make you cry."
"Try me."
He took a deep breath. "My mother died in childbirth, very possibly because of negligent care. At least I'm quite certain that's what happened to her. I haven't the faintest idea who my father is, or how I ended up in the King's hands, though if I could find someone responsible I would probably strangle them. He had no interest in me, so handed me over to the Crown Prince. For some reason the Crown Prince hated me, and so kept me like an animal. No check that, they treat the animals here far better then they treat me."
He paused, and she said, "Okay, tell me something I couldn't have guessed easily." This statement was a slight exaggeration; she might not have realized his mother had died in childbirth, especially as she had grown up in a society where childbirth deaths were very much a thing of the past.
He opened his mouth to resume, then just closed it and lay down. He rolled over a couple of times and groaned again, but the pain was clearly dying down. Kagome watched him try to sleep until she fell asleep herself.
To Be Continued...