Enjoy my peoples.
~Fleursbelle
After contacting the enterprise, our priority was to get cleaned up before going into the cells. Getting cleaned up was the problem. My house was too far for us to go, if the gorns caught us leaving the city, they'd kill us in a second for lying to them. Except it wouldn't really be lying, just a detour. As we made our way to HQ, unprepared, Chekov had an idea.
"We've been attacked!" He shouted, running into starfleets reception area a few minutes later.
The receptionist had the most bewildered and panicked look on her face. I caught my reflection in the glass panels on my left. I looked awful. My hair was darkened with dirt, my eyes about to fall off my face and my legs were scratched and bruised. Chekov's plan worked though. By pretending to have been attacked, it's an excuse as to why we looked so awful and had no communicators on us.
The receptionist, Mary, led us into a store room on the second floor, after identifying us by scanning our eyes. She gave us clean uniforms and showed us to the training center. Here, there was a gym and pool, but more importantly, there were changing rooms with showers.
"You'll have to fill in a report about your attack. If there is someone out there attacking starfleet officers on their way to work, then we have to stop them. Come see me when yure ready." Mary added in before leaving.
I shook my head at Chekov.
"What?!" He said defensively.
"No we've to come up with another story, and possibly convict someone innocent?" I told him.
"It'll be fine. Go get ready."
We parted at the entrance into the women's changing rooms, Chekov going into the men's just down the corridor. I hopped into the shower, all too eagerly and began to gently scrub my sensitive skin. The water on the shower floor around me had hints of brown and specks of dirt. I loaded shampoo into my hair and stripped the dirt from it. It took a while to get the knots out, but after 5 minutes of washing it, it was back to its normal texture. Ten minutes later, I stepped out and wrapped myself in a towel from the pile in the corner. There was a girl I recognised from studying, changing in the corner. We exchanged looks, hers being a little more wide eyed. At first it confused me, but then I realised she probably saw my bruised up legs.
I quickly got changed into the new crisp uniform, which felt so clean and normal again, the boots however being a little too tight, but bearable. I dried my hair with the dryers in the corner and threw it up into a clasp. It was back to its normal blonde colour, and my skin was back to its pinkish glow. Glancing at the time I ran outside to a waiting Chekov.
"Took your time then." He mocked.
"Well you know what they say, perfection takes time." I joked.
"That it does."
We made our way through the long corridors towards the lifts. I never realised just how big this place is, like 50 floors high. Chekov checked with the computer in the wall about the location of the prison. It was a couple of streets away.
"Why keep a prison away from the HQ?" I cried.
"Think about that for a second." Chekov laughed.
Making our way through reception again, sneakily, as to not let Mary see us. No luck.
"Excuse me! Yes you two, can you come here please." The urgency of her voice put some panic in me as I slowly turned around to see her beckoning us over.
"You are looking a lot better, I must say. Now, can you confirm that this is the person who attacked you today?" She held up a monitor which showed the face of a man, scowling into the camera.
"Um.. Yes it is." Chekov stuttered, shifting uncomfortably.
"We caught him outside harassing a few people. He's one of them conservatives, who care about the 'well being' of the planet and hate the 'unnecessary' travelling we do. He would have attacked again if we hasn't of caught him too."
"Right.. Lucky us then. If you don't mind, we're needed down the prison." I tugged at Chekov and pulled him away.
"What would they be doing in the prison now?" I heard her mutter as we walked away.
The sun was high in the sky at this stage of the day. It was nearly 2pm and the streets were busy with people running late, chatting with friends, or just out for a stroll. We ran through the crowds of people down the unfamiliar streets, until we reached the prison. The walls were high, about 20 ft, and the building itself towered over that. There was a barrier preventing people getting in, or out. It was an average prison I suppose, but inside I'm sure was a lot different, because they don't just arrest human offenders. This building was for starfleet's use only. There were aliens and creatures of all kinds here, humans who think the planet is too fragile to allow space travel, so they decide to blow up part of it instead to prove a point, Gorns who, well you know, and other species like Klingon, Portunia, Hungrashans, etc. Housing all of these species has to require some special services like certain foods, liquids and decor.
We walked calmly over to the barrier, to the overweight, tired looking man perched in a small booth.
"Can I help you...?" He said lazily, a small tv blaring in the background.
"Yes... I believe you're expecting us, Pavel Chekov and Sarah Smith." Chekov spoke, causing the guard to perk up.
"Ain't seen no Russians around here for a long time."
"Well it's your lucky day."
"So what's got you two up here? We don't get many starfleet officers visiting us. Why ain't you up in space?" He pointed to the sky as he finished that sentence. Clearly the guy didn't get much human contact doing this job.
"Just business. Like I said, you're expecting us then?"
"Um, I'll have to check." His fingers fluttered about the keyboard as he typed furiously. "As a matter of fact we are. Your visit was cleared earlier today, by the James T. Kirk himself. My god, lucky you are to know such a great man as him. You know if I had got into starfleet's university programme, we would have been in the same class, most likely. That could be me up there, captain of the famous enterprise..." He handed us two passes that we wore around our neck and let us go, he still bore a dreaming look on his face though.
As we entered the ominous building, a guard swooped over to scan our passes. He nodded slightly and lead us through a steel door. I made a note of everything in my head, the security cameras, exits and number of guards. Through the steel door lay a reception area. To the left was a door marked 'visitors' and the right was a door labelled 'cells'.
"Hello, we are here to see a certain group of newly admitted Gorns that are in your care." I spoke with a friendly tone.
The young man stared up at me, and as soon as we made eye contact, it all came back to me.
"Peter?!" I cried with enthusiasm.
"Sarah!" He ran out from behind his post and embraced me in a tight squeeze.
"I had no idea you worked for starfleet!"
"Well not at first, I was initially a police officer, then I was recruited for here." His blue eyes twinkled under the fluorescent lights, complimenting his skin tone perfectly.
"You, a police officer! You used to terrorise the neighbourhood as a kid, never thought I'd see the day."
"Times have changed Saz."
"So they have pee-wee." I winked at him playfully. "Oh sorry, Peter, this is Chekov - my colleague. Chekov, this is Peter- an old friend of mine."
They shook hands and exchanged words of friendliness. Peter moved away when we were 12, to the countryside. We had tried to remain friends, I used to visit his farm house every summer and he'd do the same in the winter. But eventually them visits stopped. Mainly because my father disliked me leaving the house for nearly a month at a time. My how Peter has grown. He used to be a scrawny little kid. Now he's a broad, muscular, handsome man.
"So what brings you to this neck of the woods then?" Peter asked, sliding a little closer to me.
"We're here to see some prisoners. Like Sarah said." Chekov stepped between us and gave Peter a stare down.
"Ok then little Russian man. You can see your prisoners."
"Don't call him that, we're just in a rush is all." I piped up, slightly defensive of Chekov, who seemed to sneak a smile. Did he notice I only called him a colleague? I hope not.. It was a slip of the tongue after all... Wasn't it..
"You're looking for Gorns eh? Yep have them right here in cell 2205. I'll take you there myself."
"Don't you have receptionist duties to do?" Chekov was being rather snide I thought.
"No, I dont."
We travelled through the shining white corridors, passing cells 1450, 1451, 1452...until we got to a lift at the end which took us right to the very cell we wanted. From the outside, the rooms seemed rather small, but looking in, they were huge. In 2205, it was divided by shatterproof, waterproof, bulletproof glass, into 4 sections, each section housing a Gorn. It must have drove them mad, seeing each other but not being able to hear one another.
"What do you plan on doing now?" Chekov whispered to me.
"Tell the truth?" I suggested. I could tell he was unhappy with my suggestion, but it's the only way we can actually do this. Realising that time was against us, I turned to Peter.
"Peter, there's something I need to ask you.." I relayed the whole story to my oldest friend, with a clearly jealous Chekov behind me, nodding and agreeing with our story. When I finished Peter looked bewildered.
"Wow, um... That would explain the cuts and bruises I suppose. But Sarah you gotta understand, if I allow these prisoners to escape, I could lose my job. And so could you!"
"If we don't do this, we could lose our lives." I added.
That's all it took. Peter sighed and opened the first door that lead into the portioned off white room. He then opened the doors one by one to take the clearly aggravated Gorns out. He placed a restraint around their hands and mouths. Which looked very crocodile like, something I always found frightening about them.
"I can't believe I'm doing this." Peter muttered, to no one in particular.
The Gorns grunted and moaned, but didn't try anything funny. I think they knew what was happening.
"I can get you out past the guards. But I can't go any further than the exterior walls. Where are you getting picked up?" Peter asked, showing signs of being very stressed out.
"Well they based the ship on the south bank of the Thames." I said.
"Oh... That's not going to work. We need to get you some transport. Come on."
We made our way through the white corridors, it's hard to think anything bad is here in such a sparkling place. The Gorns didn't try to run or fight, which surprised me. They always seemed like aggressive creatures.
Peter got us out through the many stages of security by using his ID. Our cover story was that we were moving the Gorns to a high security prison off the surface of Shalklow, a deserted planet filled with dry land and nothing to call its own. That place was reserved for the baddest of the bad. People who committed genocide and plunged whole galaxies into black holes they created.
As we approached the barrier once again, Peter spoke on his communicator to someone obviously in charge of transport.
"I need a vehicle to take prisoners to south London, pronto...better make it two."
We loaded the creatures into both vans. The vans were white as a ghost, with the starfleet symbol on their sides in yellow. We got into the passengers side of the vehicles. But just before I got in myself, Peter pulled me over to one side, away from Chekov.
"Sarah.." He began, with those eyes of his sparkling. I couldn't help but feel love towards him. After all, I did love him.. But that was another time.. Wasn't it.. "It was amazing seeing you again. I've really missed you these past few years."
"Yeah me too!" I smiled at him.
"Then be with me."
"What?!"
"Be with me. We're great together; always have been."
"I work in space! It'd never work.."
"Well if you ever decide to stay on earth, or just decide you want to be with me, I'll be waiting."
"Ok.. Good to know." I turned to leave, slightly taken aback by his offer.
"Oh and Sarah, tell the Russian kid to take a picture, it'll last longer."
I turned around to see Chekov's face close to bursting out of the windscreen of the van. I laughed and turned back to Peter.
"It was really good seeing you, take care."
"You too, Saz." And with that, he planted a kiss firmly on my lips. I blushed and pulled away, I smiled at peter and turned to walk to the opposite van as Chekov. Praying that he didn't see what just happened. But I already knew he did.