Unknown location
Risa
T'Pol managed to stagger around the small room, still looking for her jacket, long enough to recover herself somewhat. Enough to reach a state that could confidently be called consciousness.
At which point she realized and recognized that searching for her jacket would perhaps be best served by first figuring out where they were and, as importantly, how they got here.
Because her jacket wasn't here. Therefore, logically, it was elsewhere. Most likely somewhere between the toast at the dinner table in the lounge on the Seleya and their current unknown location. The Seleya then being the logical place to start looking in earnest.
She had only a few hours to find it.
She wasn't about to meet the client without it. It was an integral part of a very well cultivated and carefully managed professional appearance.
The current room was occupied by little more than dust and sleeping crewmen. So she relocated, out through the open doors to the area outside.
The building she'd just exited was small, she could see. Nothing more than a shack, sitting to the side of a long, open area extending off toward the horizon in both directions. Dense forest bordered either side and the bright, clear Risian sky stretched out overhead.
Another even smaller building sat directly adjacent to the one she'd just come from.
To the side, barely visible from where she stood, a long, black hovercar had been parked in the woods.
Or…more accurately perhaps, crashed in the woods. Some combination of the two, it would seem. Resting at least several meters beyond the tree line, the front end of the vehicle clearly having impacted a tree.
The roof of the vehicle had been retracted and it sat open to the air now. The various dents and scratches along the exterior, all seemingly fresh, witnessing further to its careless recent handling.
That was all.
There was nothing else out here that she could see.
She turned back to the building, to reenter and rouse the crew, and found Loya standing in the doorway, blinking and yawning. Scratching absently at her stomach with one hand, at her scalp with the other.
"Loya," T'Pol croaked, before she realized it. So she cleared her throat and put some effort into it.
"Wake the others and assemble them." She said, trying again. Meeting with more success this time.
Loya just squinted at her, blinking. Swaying slightly where she stood.
"What?" She eventually responded.
T'Pol was tempted to frown. But Loya was Orion, so she simply pointed to the ground nearby, directly in the sunlight.
"Stand there." She said.
That at least Loya seemed to able to comprehend at the moment. So she shuffled over as ordered and T'Pol left her there to soak in the sun for a bit. Which she expected would not prove difficult, considering her current state of dress. Figuratively speaking.
She reentered the shack to find Trip already roused and taking unsteadily to his feet. Yawning and scratching his head absently. As she already was well aware even before entering the building.
And as he was aware she approached, already turning to greet her.
"Mornin'." He mumbled, frowning at the sunlight assaulting him through the window.
He blinked around a bit at the others on the floor. Malcolm just beginning to groan and dare to move. Hoshi already almost awake, pushing herself up a bit to stare curiously at the big hunk of man she found herself making a comfy resting place out of.
Trip blinked around at all that. Then looked at her, vague and curious.
"Did we have a good time?" He asked, with some confusion.
"I can't say." She answered. "But there is vehicle in the woods outside. I assume we arrived in it. Go and inspect the vehicle, to insure it is still operational. From its current condition, I find that may be suspect."
He blinked at that a bit. And it took a moment to process the order, she could see.
But he nodded after a moment, staggering past her, grumbling, to go and do that.
Malcolm was squinting at her from the floor. And Travis had finally woke enough to stare curiously back at Hoshi.
So her crew was somewhat awake, if not entirely alert.
"Wake up." T'Pol said, briskly. "On your feet. We may have a situation here."
That got Malcolm moving immediately.
And tensing to groan in pain immediately as well, just becoming aware of his injuries.
T'Pol wasn't exactly a fan of touching people, when she could help it, but it seemed justified here. So she stepped forward to help him to his feet. And got a better look at his injuries in the process.
He hadn't merely engaged in unarmed combat recently, but apparently more than once or perhaps with several people at once. He had been severely beaten.
After a little grumbling, put to rest with a firm order to submit to examination, she was able to determine there were no life threatening or otherwise serious injuries. There were, however, a large number of contusions in evidence. All of them limited to the face and anterior torso.
That was disturbing.
Trip suddenly staggered back in through the doorway, to stare at her in confusion.
Until she felt compelled to prompt him.
"What?" She asked.
"T'Pol," He asked, uncertainly. "Why do you have Loya standing out the middle of everywhere buck naked like that?"
"She is not…exactly naked…"
"I don't think a couple of pasties and a piece of string qualifies as anything but."
"She is Orion, Trip." She explained, as if it were obvious. "Direct exposure to sunlight should help her recover…"
"Well, I'm a guy." Trip grumbled. "Red blooded Human male. And you've got me going to work on a car with a naked Orion girl standing right there. I don't think this bond of ours likes that idea all that much. It's kinda giving me fits."
T'Pol…considered that.
And, yes. Apparently the bond was in something of an agitated state on his end. She hadn't anticipated it taking such direct action so early on. That was…
"That is interesting." She noted, tossing a curious eyebrow up at that.
She could sense that Trip was only growing more irritable, however.
She'd offer him her jacket, of course, so that he could offer it to Loya to cover herself with, but she'd still yet to recover it.
She turned to Travis, to appropriate the multi-colored silk coat he'd acquired somewhere, but Malcolm was already stumbling off, grumbling irritably himself to see to matters. So she left that to him, as that seemed most appropriate.
Travis and Hoshi were smiling shyly and whispering to one another. It looked as if they might start behaving inappropriately at any moment.
This was all getting entirely out of hand already, she feared.
"Everyone outside." She said. "Immediately."
They all stood blinking and swaying slightly in the sun. All disheveled and mildly confused. Loya at least had developed some measure of alertness, thankfully. And Malcolm had somehow managed to convince her to put his shirt on, even if that only helped so much.
Of course…now Malcolm was standing there without a shirt on, so T'Pol had to question if that had improved matters at all.
But Loya was the most alert out of all of them, so T'Pol relied on her most directly.
"Loya," She said, "Examine the room we woke in for any intelligence. Search it thoroughly and report anything of interest to me."
Loya nodded and made off to do that, awake and aroused enough to remember she had duties to attend to here.
"Malcolm, you are injured. You will rest at the vehicle for now."
"I'm actually fine. Just a little banged up…"
"That was not a request, Malcolm." She corrected. "Travis, check the adjoining building and report what you find. Hoshi, if you have your PetPADD, see if you can determine our current location and contact both the dock and the ship for any messages…"
"Hey, whose underwear are these?" Trip called out suddenly, laughed. From the hovercar behind them in the woods.
T'Pol glanced back, to see him holding up the female undergarment in question by the waistband for review…
And suddenly aware of her own…private areas…the answer became instantly obvious.
At least to her. And she would prefer it stayed that way, now that she was aware of it…
She opened her mouth to immediately redirect everyone's attention away from that minor mystery…
"Those are the captain's underwears." Loya yelled back, peering out from the doorway to the shack, one hand to her brow the cut the morning glare.
That brought everyone to a sudden standstill.
Hoshi's head jerking up from her PetPADD. Malcolm stumbling to a stop…before peering over to confirm. Travis turning to stare almost in shock from the smaller building he was investigating…
T'Pol found the situation not at all conducive to maintaining unit discipline here. Not at all.
"Those are mine." She called back. And stiffly. "Leave them there for now."
"You…uh," Trip hesitated. "You don't want 'em?"
She hesitated.
"They have been exposed to the wilderness environment in the back seat of a hovercar all night, Trip. No, I don't want them back."
Travis piped in suddenly.
"You're not wearing underwear?" He asked, surprised.
"Mr. Mayweather," T'Pol said, turn her firm attention on him now. "We have worked together for several years now. What about me has caused you to think that I will answer that question? Or allow any further of discussion on the subject whatsoever?"
Travis blinked.
"Right…yeah, uh…"
She moved to change the subject to something more…not that.
Immediately.
"Trip, the vehicle?" She called out, stiffly.
He at least was wise enough to get on board with the reinstitution of proper unit discipline around here.
"Yeah…uh…Tungsten model Premier." He reported. "Luxury model, in fact. Very nice car, but somebody beat the hell out of it. Hydrogen powered, not electric. Which is the bad news, 'cause it's got probably enough fuel to turn over…and that's about all. We're not driving this thing out of here, at least not further than getting it out of the trees."
She nodded.
"Loya?"
"Nothing in there." She said, shrugging. "Not even boxes or anything. I think it's a ticket booth? From before, when the Risians ruled all of this?"
That was curious. The building was rather old, but that would indicate the open stretch they stood in was once a thoroughfare of some sort…
"Yeah." Trip called back, suddenly. "This is an old highway or something. So at least if we have to walk out of here, we've got two good choices to pick from. I'm pretty sure we came from that direction, looking at how the car's angled in here."
She nodded again.
"Travis?"
"This little shack is empty." He said. "Looks like a new cable and an old fashioned tumbler lock used to be on the door, but somebody just yanked that right off. The wood's pretty old."
"Hoshi?"
"No messages." She reported, eyeing her PetPADD. "And we're not even a kilometer away from Nuvia. There's an intersection just down this…road area we're on, on the right. It leads right back to the Silken Path and that runs straight to the docks after…three point eight kilometers."
"We can hire a conveyance there." T'Pol decided, "If we have all gathered what belongings we may have, then we should…"
She paused suddenly, reconsidering what Travis had said.
"A new cable and lock, Travis?" She asked, to confirm she'd understood.
"Hm? Oh, yeah. They're just laying there. Someone just pulled on them until the wood gave way…"
"The building itself is very old." T'Pol pointed out. "Why was it newly secured if it is empty?"
Travis frowned, realizing that himself. Then glanced back at the building he'd just come from searching.
"You know…there was something in there." He said. "The way the dust on the floor looks…I guess someone broke in and took whatever it was."
Everyone was quiet for a moment, waiting for the captain to relay whatever conclusion she'd just come to.
Before coming to it themselves.
Because, obviously, they were probably the only ones to have been here in the last twenty-four hours.
They couldn't find the electronic keys to the hovercar. And it wasn't accepting anyone's thumbprint, so it obviously hadn't been purchased or rented by any of them.
Which…left their being illegally in possession of it. Which is to say, they'd apparently stolen it.
It took a bit of jimmying and a lot of inventive resourcefulness, considering he only had the tools in the vehicle's emergency roadside kit to work from…but Trip eventually got the trunk open.
The electronic key was in the trunk, of course. Which still didn't help much, considering the hovercar didn't have enough hydrogen fuel to actually go anywhere.
The rest of the trunk's vast majority of space was taken up by a dozen bundles wrapped in protective plastic. Opening one of those and removing one of the thousands of hand-sized holographic prints inside, T'Pol had no idea what she was looking at.
It looked official. Detailed and obviously something printed at notable expense. Which suggested whatever these forms were, they were important enough to warrant that.
She presented it to Loya, as the Orions were heavily invested in Risa and she might just have a clue here.
She did.
"That's trade certificates." She said, surprised. "Risa trade certificates. Them's what the businesses use for doing business with each other."
T'Pol cocked an eyebrow up at that one. Because that was interesting.
"A form of currency?" She asked. To be clear.
"Big currency." Loya nodded, appreciatively. "That's ten thousand credits, local money."
Everyone's attention snapped to the trunk and the certificates it held.
Until Hoshi worked up the nerve to re-clarify. Just to be sure everything was clarified and re-clarified and otherwise perfectly clear.
"That's…ten thousand Risian credits in there?" She asked.
"Oh, no." Loya corrected. "That's ten thousand credits."
She pointed at the certificate T'Pol was holding.
The one single certificate…that she'd taken out of the one bundle in the trunk.