Open Waters
Posted on Tue Mar 5th, 2019 @ 4:31am by Hak & Commodore Jane Saulitis
Mission:
Sojourn
Location: Marga III
2369 words - 4.7 OF Standard Post Measure
"You know, someone once said, 'Any damn fool can navigate the world sober. It takes a really good sailor to do it drunk,'" Hak laughed and tipped up the end of his cocktail glass to empty the last of the contents into his mouth. "Don't suppose they were referring to self-piloting boats, though," he concluded as he set the glass on the side table next to his lounge chair.
"No, I imagine not." Jane said,draped over a lounge chair herself, her eyes closed to the sun. She hadn't felt this relaxed in months. She was so happy Hak had come to steal her away. One corner of her mouth twitched up in a partial smile. "Are there any new girlfriends I should know about on your travels?"
"None that you should know about," Hak grinned playfully. He could definitively tell her there was no one else, but he had a feeling she already knew. He was far too entrenched in his work to have time for anyone else. He knew she'd likely say the same. They may or may not ever get married, but he felt it was as sure as the sun rises that they were an exclusive pairing. But should they be? Was keeping her locked into some promise making her happy? He wasn't as sure of that. "You know if you ever did, I wouldn't care. I understand. Needs.. and stuff."
Jane opened her eyes and turned her head towards him. "Very funny. Like there's anyone else in the universe who would understand me." Besides, she thought it would probably literally kill her to do that to him. She'd realized over the course of this last mission how much she was really entwined with him and how desperately she needed to be with him again. Plus she'd always loved him, it just took pushing herself to see how much. "I was sort of thinking that maybe we'd finally tie the knot."
"Tie a knot in what?" Hak asked, at first not getting what she was saying. Then he realized what it meant, "Oh. This is one of your Montana expressions." He sat upright and swiveled his legs off one side of the lounger so that he was facing her. He just studied her for a long, quiet moment.
"It's an Earth one, I don't think exclusive to Montana." Jane seemed to realize that Hak was staring at her after a few moments. She fought the urge to squirm under the intense gaze. "What?" She finally asked, he was making her nervous.
"Sorry," he breathed the words under his breath and grinned, realizing her uncomfortable state. He stood from his lounger and crossed the four feet to hers and sat at the end, torso turned to look at her. He placed a hand on her bare foot, traced a finger along the outline of her big toe. "How long have you been thinking on that?" He was used to their on-again, off-again, hot, cold, luke warm, sometimes-tepid relationship, but her mindset seemed different today.
"Well literally 20 years. But more recently since I became the commanding officer of the Majestic. I realized how much I'd needed you all these years and how much I needed you right then. And I know with your job that you're off saving the universe and we won't be together always but that's really how things have always been anyway. I thought why don't we make if official? You have to admit your mother loves me more than you. So I don't think we'd get away with eloping." She felt as if she were rambling a bit and so she stopped talking, watching as he touched her toe. Hak had the ability to touch her without it tickling.
"Hm. You want a big wedding." To Hak, anything involving his mother was going to be an overly complex affair. He nodded his consent after a moment of thought. "Ok. Let's do it."
"I didn't say I wanted a big wedding, I just don't think your mother would ever speak to us again if we left her out of it. So . . . really? You'd still marry me? Cause I have been rather an idiot all these years." Jane was grinning a little bit as she leaned closer to him.
He leaned the rest of the way in to meet her for a soft kiss on the lips. "You're not an idiot," he said, nuzzling his lips against her cheek. "I'd marry you in a heart beat, love."
Jane giggled a little and pulled him down on top of her. "I guess we just have to set a date then, sometime a bit sooner than nineteen years." Somewhere behind her a beeping noise interrupted their kissing.
Hak lifted his head at the sound. "Comms?"
"For you? My ship would just use my commbadge." It was no use though, she had to see what was going on. When Hak moved she slipped on a coverup and her sandals.
The boat's engines disengaged and, though it wasn't moving very fast before, the loss of inertia was felt immediately and the sway of the gentle waves could be felt from side to side.
Hak walked into the house, still barefoot and shirtless, and consulted the master display. Though the boat didn't have a traditional bridge, it did have a wall display that allowed one to see the status of systems and power usage and general status. He tapped on one of several red icons. "Comms. Seems to have lost its connection. Probably powering down engines is a safeguard."
"Hmm," Jane answered looking up at him. It made her uneasy, maybe she was paranoid. "So we're stuck out here in the middle of nowhere, how will we ever survive?" She joked.
"Yeah, it's pretty much perfect isn't it?" Hak smirked as he wrapped an arm around Jane's shoulders.
At that moment, the boat beeped again, this time it was a proximity alert for a vessel approaching at high speed.
"I opened my mouth." Jane muttered. It could be anything really but she just assumed the worst. When had she gotten so pessimistic? "I don't suppose there are any weapons on this love boat?"
Hak dropped his arm off off Jane's shoulder and moved toward some cabinetry, throwing doors open and looking for anything that could be used in defense. "The Margarians aren't big on weapons. I don't think we'll find anything like that," he said pulling out a flare gun and examining it for a second before tossing it to Jane. "One shot. Save it until you can make it count."
She had no idea where she was going to tuck that but took it from him anyway and tied her coverup around her differently before going to the sliding door so she could watch what was happening.
Outside, the approaching boat downshifted and trolled closer to the yacht. "Ahoy!" one of the mates called out to the drifting boat. "You look like you could use some help."
Jane decided to play dumb. She hung off Hak and giggled most un-Jane like. "My husband is great in bed but has no idea how to fix anything. We don't really mind though, as we're on our honeymoon."
"Uh." Hak grumbled, giving Jane a look. "Maybe we're just out of fuel."
The other boat moored alongside. The guy who had yelled at them jumped over onto their deck and another man tied up the mooring. It was impossible to tell how many people were below deck and that made Hak nervous.
The stranger was a bit older, gruff- and human-looking. He looked around toward the inside door, trying to get a lay of how many people might be aboard, or something. "You guys on your honeymoon and stranded out here like this. Just the two of you, then?"
"It's such a shame that the boats not running," Jane curled herself around Hak a little bit and gave him a kiss. "Well it wouldn't be much fun if we'd invited other people on our honeymoon . . . we're not into that kind of thing. Actually we were just about to get to it if you know what I mean, so thank you for offering but I think we'll just float out here for a bit and call someone later about the boat. We don't mind a little privacy."
"And we're more than a little drunk," Hak said, then leaned close to his 'bride' to kiss her below the ear, but actually whispering, "There's at least three in the boat, but there's deception and desire to harm."
The stranger looked back at his boat and gave a nod. "This can be a really dangerous lake if you can't steer. I think for your safety, we'll just stick around a bit. Check on that engine of yours."
Three people, dressed in black military fatigues, emerged on the deck of the other ship carrying phaser rifles.
"I suddenly feel very under dressed," Hak admitted as he laid eyes on them. "We don't want any problems. If you're after the boat, you can have it. There's nothing else of value here."
Jane would have given them the ring if it would make them go away but somehow she knew it wouldn't. She waited for a response before speaking though, she really wanted to give them the chance. "Marga doesn't have a monetary system. So what is it you're really after?"
"We don't want your money," the guy scoffed at Jane as the others filed onto the house boat.
Hak pushed Jane behind him a bit as the man approached them. "You should know the authorities are already on their way," he lied.
"We won't be long," the man replied casually. He turned his head to the team for a moment, who had already started to spread out and take up lookouts. "We just want some information. So it's entirely up to you how this goes down."
"And what information could you possibly want from two vacationing love birds?" Jane asked, though she'd dropped the lovey-dovey voice and wasn't clinging to Hak.
"We want nothing of two love birds. We only want something from the captain, Jane Saulitis, commanding officer of the USS Majestic. Maybe you know of her?" the man crooned. If she was going to keep up the game, he could as well.
"Jane, nope, doesn't ring any bells, my mother's middle name is Jane, I always thought it was kind of old fashioned." She had no idea what she was going to do, nor how they knew where she was. She couldn't even imagine why they wanted her. Majestic, although a Starfleet starship, wasn't brand new nor that valuable in the fleet.
Hak appreciated Jane's level headed calmness, but he was internally alarmed. What did they need Jane for? He stepped away from her, moving slowly out away from the useless wall panel and out onto the main deck. Together, they were more or less one target and easy to keep pinned down, but if they could separate a little, maybe they could get the jump on a couple of these guys. "Okay, easy there. Maybe you have the wrong people. Don't need any cases of mistaken identity and no one's done anything unforgivable yet..."
"A'ight, cut the crap, alright? We know you're Jane Saulitis. We've already taken three members of your crew and we'll start executing them until you give us the command codes," the main guy followed Hak, most nervous about the one who was moving. "Stay where you are! We will shoot you. We don't need you. We just need her," he said, nodding to Jane.
She didn't know why, but she doubted his words about her crew. Jane could have been completely wrong but she took a chance anyway and glanced at Hak just long enough to move her eyes toward the door of the boat, indicating they should probably dive for it after what she was about to do.
Hak acknowledged Jane's plan non-verbally with a look. He understood what she wanted him to do. He wasn't sure it was the right direction though. He, instead, looked toward the boat that the men had brought. That was the way out. Here they were, literally at gunpoint and having a non-verbal argument.
Jane didn't know how they were going to get to the other boat but she blinked once, giving in. Whipping the flare gun out of the back of her swimsuit she aimed and quickly fired at the man advancing toward her, hitting him squarely in the chest. Then she dove toward the other boat hopefully before any of the other men knew what was happening.
The man was hit square in the chest with the red burst from the gun and was propelled backward and over the railing. The commotion caused by that, of course drew the attention of the nearest of the guards who came running. He took aim at Jane.
Hak didn't immediately run for the ship though. He had used the distraction to position himself where he could ambush the closest gunman, and it worked even better than he had thought it might. He attacked the man with a sleeper hold from behind and, after a bit of useless flailing about, the gunman fell unconscious. Hak disarmed him immediately went on the hunt for the third gunman as Jane ducked into safety or what he thought was safety.
Inside the boat, however, Jane was met by a severe-looking Bajoran woman holding a phaser pistol. "Well, well, well. That was fun to watch," she said with a sharp, sinister smile. She was dressed in high end clothes with large jeweled earrings. This woman, whoever she was, was clearly the mastermind behind this attack. She motioned with the phaser for Jane to take a seat. With her free hand, she pressed a button on the control that released the mooring clamps with a soft thud.
"In the end, I always get what I want, Commander," she said as she reached down to engage the autopilot, all the while keeping one eye on Jane.
Commander Jane Saulitis
Commanding Officer
USS Majestic
Hak
Guy on a boat
