It was harmless fun. Promise!

Posted on Wed Jun 15th, 2022 @ 7:42pm by Ensign Charlotte (Charlie) Washington & Lieutenant Myra Sh'rillil & Petty Officer 2nd Class Henry Washington

Mission: Shore Leave
Location: Planetside
1385 words - 2.8 OF Standard Post Measure

From a slender alleyway, two feminine forms made their way with haste. One might even consider the speed at which they were going to be running. Running from the angry silhouette of a Klingon warrior, some steps behind them. A mixture of angry shouts and laughter burst out, announcing their respective owners.

As the lead lady neared the end of the alley, her contagious laughter hit the ears of bystanders full on. Spotting the crewmates that had accompanied them, the two women did not stop running, or laughing, but kept going as fast as they could. As she sprinted by, Myra gave them a passing laugh, furious Klingon in tow. “Ruuuuuuuuuuun … hahahahhahahahaha!”

"This way!" Charlie grabbed Myra's arm and pulled her into a side alley. It was narrow enough that they barely fit through, so she hoped that the Klingon would have a harder time and they might gain some distance. The path ended at a back door entrance to a bar and both of the women slipped in as quietly as possible.

Across the room stood two men, chatting casually over a drink, and without hesitation, Charlie walked up to them. "Care to exchange 3 bars of gold pressed latinum for those cloaks you've got on, boys?" She asked with a sly grin. The two exchanged a glance and then shrugged off the cloaks as the ops officer slipped the latinum into their hands. Just at that moment, their pursuer managed to squeeze in through the back door and CJ wadded up the cloaks and pushed Myra towards the door. "Quick, let's find another bar and see if we can disappear under these hoods," she said, trying to keep her own laughter down.

“Oooooo! We’re going full spy novel!” Myra swung the cloak over her shoulders and pulled at the hood. “I figured he’d be miffed, but wow! Talk about anger issues.” She giggled as she pressed through the patrons, trying to line up with the door. She could feel the adrenaline push through her veins, and had to admit to herself it felt pretty good. “Maybe next time we stop before…”

Myra turned to glance at her companion. She bit her lip, holding back a laugh, or scream, eyes wide. The klingon was right there behind Charlie, looking around frantically and seemingly agitating a few of the surrounding clientele. She put her hand on Charlie’s and pulled towards the door, trying not to look too suspicious. “You do not see us. We are not here. You have lost us.. Yep disappeared. Poof!”

Charlie threw her cloak on as they ran down the street, chancing a look backward before they rounded a corner. To her dismay, the Klingon had stayed hot on their trail. They took another right and were quickly brought to a halt as they stumbled into a hoard of people. "Maybe we'll lose him in this," she said to her friend with a giggle as she raised her hood and tried to casually wade through the ocean of people flooding the street.

"Do you think we'll ever be able to return to that bar? The manager didn't seem too happy that we'd upset his 'friend' at the poker tables," Charlie chuckled as the pair strolled. "We didn't even have time to collect all of our winnings!"

Myra giggled and pushed forward. “I don’t care. The look on everyone's face is worth more than the latinum we could have gotten.” She spotted the door to the next establishment and pointed to it. “Besides, I don’t expect to be coming back here after shore leave.” She glanced back, her smile faltering slightly. “That Klingon is like a targ without a bone. You have to admire the resolve. Hurry.”

Charlie did her best to push past the crowd, but the masses of people were slowing them down. There seemed to be some sort of street show going on with quite a few watchers blocking their path. She looked back and noticed the Klingon almost on top of them with a sinister grin. "Change of plans!" She grabbed her friend and ducked in the opposite direction from the street show where the crowd had lightened up.

"Henry, I need you to find a transporter. Right now!" Charlie pulled out her combadge and made the call to her husband who was no doubt relaxing and wanted nothing to do with the shenanigans she'd found herself in.

Henry was enjoying a game of Quip'lak, a Klingon puzzle that was surprisingly hard, well for most people. Henry was thoroughly enjoying his evening off work and as usual his own company, until his combadge chirped. "Why? Are you okay?" He knew this wasn't an emergency call otherwise his wife would have called the transporter chief on duty, no he knew that tone: Charlie was up to no good.

"If being hunted by a very angry Klingon is okay, then yes, we're totally fine..." She replied sarcastically between labored breaths. "I'll explain in detail later, but for now I just need you to get us out of here! When you get to a transporter, lock on to Myra & I and send us to the hotel. Or anywhere but here." Charlie ducked as the Klingon swung from behind, having stayed tight on their tail.

"Hunted? By a Klingon?" Henry repeated, sitting bolt upright, his game all but forgotten. "Charlie, are you okay?"

"I would be BETTER if you would stop asking questions and get to the transporter!" She replied.

"Okay, okay, I'm going now," he said. He flew out of his quarters not bothering to check what he had on and made his way to the closest transporter room. Within a minute he was there, thankfully most of the crew were enjoying their shore leave so running around the ship was a somewhat easier task than normal. He flew into the room and saw that crewman Giktah was on duty. "Move aside," he ordered, thanking his lucky stars that one of the few people of lower rank than himself was Giktah.

“Merde!” Myra ducked instinctively even though the swing had been targeted at her ‘accomplice’. She hesitated between a laugh and a snort, but opted for getting out of the way as the klingon swung at her this time. She caught a glimpse in his eye that made her question the whole situation. Was he enjoying the hunt? If he was, he wasn’t pulling his punches.

Myra pulled Charlie into her as a foot barely missed the human’s knee. She laughed and was about to try a maneuver she’d practiced with fellow security personnel on the Yerelak, but was cut off before she could say or do anything else by the whites and blue of transporter technology.

Henry pressed a few buttons on the console and located the combadges of his wife and Lieutenant Sh'rillil, the bio scanner showed that a Klingon was indeed close to their location so whatever the story was, Charlie was right about that at least. "Energizing," he said over the open comlink. He saw that the transport was complete and breathed a sigh of relief. He looked up to see that Giktah was watching him, his eyebrows raised. Henry couldn't blame the man, he was currently barefoot, wearing nothing but a pair of shorts and his dressing gown, not exactly roaming the halls of the ship attire. He pulled his dressing gown up and held his head high. "As you were, crewman," he said as he left the room.

"Phew, I think we finally lost him" Charlie collapsed onto the floor of their resort room that they appeared in before busting out in laughter. "Remind me to never go gambling with you again. It was both the best and worst luck I've ever had at a table."

The Andorian took a deep breath, a sly grin stuck to her face and slowly sat down on the floor near her companion. “I will remind you. But I’m pretty sure you’ll come anyway, should such an opportunity present itself again.” She offered Charlie a wink. “Besides, it’ll give you fun stuff to talk about. Adventure is part of the sign-in agreement after all.” She laughed lightly, the sound floating across the room peacefully. Her grin turned fully mischievous.