A Warehouse somewhere in the Delta Quadrant

A shuttlecraft hovers above the ground, with a man peering out the cockpit window. Rain pelted against the glass, obscuring his view of a building illuminated by the shuttle’s exterior lights.

“This could be the score of a century,” he says, his voice slightly slurred as he speaks to his female companion.

The woman squints through the raindrops on the window of the building. Her entire attention was drawn to its exterior. She turns to face him with a grin on her lips, “You bet your ass it will be,” she says, “Put us down and let’s get this payday,” her voice as slurred as his.

As the shuttle touches down, the previously lit-up building goes dark as the shuttle’s lights disengage. The man and woman approach the door quietly. A single red light indicates that the door is locked.

“Did you bring the scanner with you?” the man inquired

“Of course, I did; how else do you think we’re getting into the warehouse?”

She pulls the scanner from the duffle bag she had dropped next to her feet when they came to a halt at the door. Standing up, she activates the device and pulls the lock’s bottom open. She starts tapping on the scanner’s display after inserting a cable into the open receptacle inside the lock.

“Com’on,” the man says, his voice trembling with impatience.

The woman glared at the display, clearly annoyed by her counterpart’s tone.

“You must be patient, Herry,” she said as the screen cycled through the lock programs and coding.

“Don’t tell me to be patient, Jones,” Herry said, “you told me you could crack this lock in less than a minute.”

Jones raised her head from the scanner, irritation visible in her red-hued eyes, bloodshot from the drink they had consumed an hour before. ”I’d like to see you try if you think you can do better,” she said, holding the scanner out for Herry.

“Just hurry the fuck up,” Herry said to Jones, looking at the scanner.

The red light turned green, and the sound of the lock disengaging was heard. Jones grinned and yanked the cable from the lock as Herry yanked open the door, narrowly missing Jones.

“Asshole,” Jones said as she followed him in with her duffle bag.

As they moved through the warehouse, it was pitch black. Jones warned Herry to be careful because she had put on a pair of night vision glasses when the door closed, encasing them in complete darkness. She could see almost everything, including Herry’s steps.

“You know it would be nice if I could see as well,” Herry grumbled.

“Not my fault you busted your pair at the bar,” Jones retorted, grabbing the back of his jacket to prevent him from running into a wall.

“What the fuck, Jones?” he exclaimed as he came to a halt by his jacket.

“Wall,” was all she said.

Herry extended his hand and smacked it against the wall in front of him. Jones let go of his jacket and looked at the wall. She reached up and tapped the side of the glasses, cycling through the views. A door appeared in front of Herry as she peered through a violet hue.

“Step to the left,” she instructed, waiting for Herry to comply.

She reached out and touched the door outline after Herry moved, looking for anything that might indicate what she was seeing. Her feather-light touch suddenly scraped over a faint impression near where the latch should have been. Pressing down on the area the door slid in slightly and then to the left. She reached out and grabbed Herry.

“All right, let’s go.”

Herry nodded, placing his hand on her shoulder and following her deeper into the darkness. The door slid back into place as soon as they cleared the threshold, and the room was suddenly flooded with light.

Jones ripped off the glass and turned her head away, temporarily blinded by the sudden brightness. Herry covers his eyes with his arm and groans in pain from the sudden brightness.

“A heads-up next time would be appreciated.”

“How the fuck was I supposed to know?” Jones asked, blinking again.

Herry lowered his arm and looked around the room, saying, “Just an expression.”

There was only a cargo container in the center of the room. He smiled as he looked over at Jones, who had recovered. ‘Payday’, he lipped out and took a step toward the container. Jones reached out and grabbed his arm, pulling him back. He looked at her with a puzzled expression on his face.

“Use your brain, moron,” she said as she put the glasses back on and cycled through the different views. She moved over to inspect the beams of light coming from each side of the room as she did so. “Good thing I stopped you, because otherwise whoever set up this security would have been notified of our presence,” she said, zooming in on the device embedded in the wall.

She knelt next to the wall and pulled out the scanner once more. She examined the data displayed to her as she scanned the device. She wasn’t sure if she could disable the light beam, but she needed to know where the device’s power source was. As the data was being displayed she looked about the room, cycling through the different views that her glasses provided when a soft beep came from the scanner. She looked down at the scanner, changed the view to the correct cycle, and looked around the room again.

“A false panel is about three meters from the floor to your left. I think I see a power source there,” she said, returning the glasses to their normal cycle.

Herry moved his gaze to where she had indicated and pressed his hand against the wall. A section of the wall slid in and out of the way to reveal a power bank and several circuit banks. He looked back at her, “Which one?”

Jones took a step forward and shrugged. “I’m not sure. “I didn’t see anything that indicated which one,” she said as she examined each of the circuits, looking for clues as to which one was linked to the security device.

She reaches in and yanks one of the banks of circuits with a shrug. As the bank is removed, sparks fly from its housing, showering Jones and Herry.

He narrows his eyes as he looks at her. “Well?” he asks.

Jones examines the security device before turning around with a shit-eating grin on her face.

“I guess it’s my lucky day,” she says as she approaches the container. She then returns his gaze. “You’re up.”

Herry nods and removes the cover from the number pad on the container before connecting a clamp to a red and a white wire. He lowers his gaze to the scanner in his hand. Data streamed onto its display as it hacked into the device’s encrypted system. A soft beep from the scanner was followed by a second beep from the container’s lock a moment later. Herry reached up and spun the lock’s mechanical portion, causing the container’s door to slide open.

They both stood in the container’s opening and looked inside. A single-cylinder containment device was embedded into the floor, and a shard of some kind was floating in a single red beam of light inside its semi-transparent sides. They exchanged glances, and Herry shrugged, unsure what to do next.

Jones sighed and advanced into the container. A loud thud was heard as her foot landed on the floor inside. She flinched at the sound and returned her gaze to Herry. He was shaking his head as he looked at her, trying to keep a smirk from appearing on his face.

‘Fuck you.’ Jones lipped out as she returned her attention to the shard.

Her eyes lit up as she moved, and she froze in mid-step. She then reached up and flipped the glasses, cycling through their perspective. She thought to herself, ‘What an idiot.’ Fortunately, no detectable security measures were present inside the container. She exhaled deeply and moved forward slowly. Her gaze was fixed on the shard as if it had hypnotized her.

Herry stood there watching Jones move around inside the container. As he focused on her, his fingers twitched on their own. He swallowed hard, trying to moisten his parched throat. Because he was so focused on her movement, he never blinked.

Jones came to a halt in front of the containment cylinder and nodded to Herry. Herry noticed the nod and made his way through the container to her.

“What is it?” he asked, looking at the shard.

“I’m not sure,” she said, looking at the blood-red crystalline shard floating in the red beam of light. She carefully removed it from the beam of light, which quickly faded away. The shard was in her palm, and she looked up at Herry, who had a sour look in his eyes.

“What the fuck, is this it?” he wondered, scanning the container for a hidden door or panel.

Jones completely ignored him, her gaze fixed on the shard in the center of her hand. Herry charged up to her and shoved her hard. As a result, she snapped out of the trance she was in. Her eyes narrowed as she became enraged. “What the fuck was that for?” she asked Herry, oblivious to his temper.

Herry walked out of the container, his hands in his hair. Jones shrugged and followed him, pocketing the shard in the process.

Her brother’s Apartment

Jones stumbles into her brother’s apartment hallway. She tries to creep but is unsuccessful. She collides with a wall and groans as she feels a slight pain in her shoulder. This wakes her brother, who turns to face his girlfriend. “Don’t,” she says, shaking her head. “She should sleep it off,” she says. He shakes his head and walks out of his room to face his sister. As he looks at her, he shakes his head and walks out into the hallway.

Jones leans against the wall, staring at him. She anticipates what is to come and sighs, “Do we really need to do this now?” she asks, her voice slightly slurred.

“Your drunk,” her brother shakes his head.

Jones straightens herself as much as she can and responds, “No.”

“Don’t lie to me, Jones,” says her brother.

“I’m not,” Jones says, brushing past him on her way to her room, which she slams shut.

As he walks over to her closed door, her brother twists his mouth and opens it without knocking.

Jones looks up at him, her shirt almost completely undone, and covers herself up, saying, “Excuse me! ” she screams at him. “This is my space.”

“You were with him again, weren’t you?” her brother asks, unconcerned about what she has just said.

“What’s the big deal?”

“You already know he’s a petty criminal and a drunk.”

“No, he isn’t,” Jones says, narrowing her eyes at her brother.

“Then give me an honest answer, Jones.” Are you inebriated? ” As he waits for her to respond, he crosses his arms over his chest.

“Yeah, I had a drink,” Jones sighs. Just a few hours ago. “I’m happy,” she says.

Her brother looks disgusted and shakes his head. “Pack your belongings and leave.”

Jones looks at her brother, puzzled, and says, “Excuse me?”

“You heard me. I won’t watch you spiral down that path of destruction again,” he says, recalling all the times she’d come home smelling of alcohol or some synthetic drug she’d gotten into with whoever she’d been with that night.

“Just let me sleep and we’ll talk about it,” Jones begs.

Her younger brother shakes his head. “Not this time,” he says as he exits her room.

Jones slams the door and screams, throwing herself onto the bed and pulling at her hair. She realized at that point that her brother was serious and that he wanted her to leave. 

City Park

Jones is walking alone when she notices a sign indicating the presence of a city park ahead of her. As she approaches the park, the dark, foreboding clouds above open up and rain begins to fall. Jones sighs and reaches into her bag for a hypospray. As she pulls it out she looks at the device with her fix already loaded into the chamber. She thinkings to herself, ‘At least you won’t abandon me.’

Despite the sheets of rain that threaten to give her pneumonia if she does not seek shelter soon, she seeks out the playground area and, in particular, the merry-go-round. She approaches the merry-go-round with her fist full of a hypospray. She steadies herself by opening her hand and looking at the hypospray. She begins to relax as she presses the hypospray into her wrist and the contents of the hypospray enter her system. Her hypospray-wielding hand falls beside her as she begins to close her eyes and recline down to the solid steel of the merry-go-round.

She begins to hear a faint voice as she lies there. She opens her eyes and looks around as her world spins as the merry-go-round moves. As she looks around, she notices a young girl standing in the open, and the girl vanishes as she blinks.

Sitting up Jones comes to a halt on the merry-go-round and looks around for the girl, but no one is there. With a loud thud, she falls backward onto the steel as she attempts to stand. She groans and closes her eyes as she feels a sharp pain in the back of her head.

The shard begins to glow inside Jones’ pocket, emitting a soft red hue that illuminates the pocket.

As she looks around, she slowly opens her eyes, her vision blurry. She notices a young girl standing alone in the open once more. She tries to concentrate on the girl, but the pain in her head makes her groan. She closes her eyes and hears a faint voice say, ‘They sent us here. We need their BLOOD!’

Groaning ‘Who sent you, and why are you seeking their blood?’ Jones muses to herself as she observes the young girl. As she thinks this, the girl vanishes before her eyes. She passes out, unable to keep her eyes open any longer, due in part to the pain in her head and in part to the cocktail swarming around in her body.

***

Back at her brother’s apartment, Tyler stood there looking out into the rain-soaked streets that he had just sent his sister into. As he closes the shutters, he sighs, staring at the cold hard steeliness that separated him from the outside. When he feels the warmth of a pair of hands on his bare back, he closes his eyes, followed by a head resting on his back.

“I know I should go look for Jones,” Tyler said, pressing his brow against the cool window.

“I didn’t say anything,” Jess said, leaning against his back.

“I know you didn’t, but we both know she’s obstinate and stubborn.”

“This is true,” Jess says, turning her head and kissing him on the back over a scar from when he was a child.

Tyler stood in the streets a few moments later, wondering where his sister had gone. He let out a sigh as he realized where she was: the park. A place where the two of them had gone as children when she was scowled at by their abusive father for doing something he had actually done. She’d always been that way, taking the blame and punishments even when they weren’t hers, to begin with.

Jones was lying on a slow-spinning merry-go-round as he turned the corner. But something was off about the way she was laying, and he realized right away that she was high on something, most likely of her own making. As he moved closer to her, he let out another sigh.

When she was in front of him, he reached out and stopped the merry-go-round, knelt down, and tried to wake her up. When he looked at her face, he noticed her eyes were wide open and filled with confusion and terror. He reached out and grabbed her, pulling her up, and she looked him in the eyes. His left hand slid down her side to help stabilize her but was cut by the concealed shard in her pocket.

He clenched his bleeding hand tightly, gritting his teeth and yelling, “Son of a bitch.”

Jones looked at her brother, perplexed by what had just occurred, and tilted her head to the side, “Tyler?”

He returned her gaze and shook his head, anger, and frustration visible in his eyes.

“Stay there and don’t move,” he said, clenching his teeth as he walked away, toward the public restroom.Jones watched him walk away and into the restroom. She then noticed the little girl standing outside the restroom, looking in. Jones knew something was wrong when the little girl turned with tears in her eyes and then vanished.

She tried to stand up, but a wave of dizziness flooded her senses, and she fell backward onto the cold, damp steel of the merry-go-round.

~~~

Steam billowed from a sink inside the restroom as hot water flowed into it. Tyler removed a paper towel from his hand and examined the nasty slash. As the pressure was released, blood flowed again. He looked into the mirror after replacing the towel and saw a little girl. There was no one there when he spun around to look at her.

He moved over to the restrooms and opened each one, only to find them all empty. He returned to the sink, running his uncut hand through his hair.

A glowing red beam of light caught his hand as he reached out to turn off the water. As he stared at the beam, he felt pain in his mind. A glowing orb appeared in thin air after following the beam to its source.

Suddenly, a second and third beam shot out of the orb, followed by many more, and impaled or wrapped themselves around Tyler, who was screaming in pain.

~~~

Jones was laying on the merry-go-round outside, hearing her brother’s screams but unable to move to help him. She saw a dark red glow coming from the bathroom’s entrance, then nothing as her vision darkened and she passed out. 

Herry’s Apartment

Jones' footsteps reverberated through the puddled streets. Her thoughts were racing after learning of her brother's disappearance. She had no idea where she was going as she moved in and out of the shadows cast by the street lights. Tears streamed down her cheeks and fell to the ground as she ran.

While running blindly, she tripped over a piece of sidewalk and came to a halt, sliding a few feet. The sharp pain cleared her mind as she sat up and realized where she was. When she stood up, her legs screamed that they were overworked and that they were about to give out at any moment.

She takes her time walking down the street, each step bringing her closer to her destination, Herry's apartment. Her legs give way as she gets closer to his apartment, and she looks down at the ground as it rushes up to meet her. However, she does not complete the fall because she feels a pair of hands on her. She raises her head and stares Herry down. She bursts into tears again as she realizes he was there and had caught her.

Herry throws Jones' coat into the nearest chair before placing her on the couch. He knelt beside her, his eyes filled with concern. “Jones?”

Jones could only lie there as her mind became overburdened with the realization that her brother had gone missing and that the last thing they had said was hurtful to one another.

She became aware that she was no longer outside and that she was warming up. She sat up and looked around, realizing she was in Herry's apartment, but she missed him kneeling in front of her. Chills ran through her arms as she remembered Herry catching her, and she looked Herry in the eyes once more. Without warning, she flung herself into his arms and wrapped herself around him. Her lips find him and she passionately kisses him.

Herry kisses her again as he holds her, not knowing what is going on but refusing to deny Jones anything. As he kisses her, his hands move slowly down her back.

Jones feels his hands and pushes away gently. She returns to the couch and turns to face him. She lowers her gaze to the floor, her expression changing as she mulls over whether or not to tell him what has happened since their last meeting several hours ago.

Herry notices something is wrong and reaches up to place his hand on Jones' cheek.

"Babe, what's the matter?"

Jones raises her eyes to Herry and closes them for a moment to enjoy the warmth of his touch before opening them and looking into his eyes. She could see his concern, and her decision was made. She starts telling him about her brother throwing her out and how she got to the park. She mentioned the missing young girl and the voices. When her tone became hysterical as she spoke, Herry knew something was wrong.

As he sits next to her on the couch, he pulls her into his arms and listens to her explain what had happened since they had left each other earlier that day. He could feel her trembling as she spoke about her brother's disappearance, and he knew something was wrong.

"I'm so sorry, Jones," he said, trying to console her.

"Herry, I'm not sure what's going on. I remember seeing him walk into the restroom and then the little girl and after that…," she pauses for a moment as she tries to remember what the little girl had said before she speaks again, "nothing. Until I was startled awake by a police officer."

Jones' eyes were bloodshot. Her face was flushed from the hysterical state she was in. Herry looked down at her and gently placed a hand from around her on the side of her face. He leaned forward and kissed her lips. His hands begin to move over her body gradually.

Jones leans into him, her hands wandering over him, sensing his touch. A soft moan escapes her mouth as her head tilts back, breaking the kiss. As he slowly explores her neck, her eyes close in response to the warmth from his mouth.

Jones reaches down, wraps her fingers in his hair, and lifts his head to look into his eyes. The sensations he is giving her have blurred her vision. Herry returns to his mission with a mischievous grin. Jones closes her eyes again.

Jones opens her eyes and looks at Herry, who is sleeping with his arms around her. She is overcome with pain and realizes she must flee. She reluctantly slips from his arms and pauses when she hears Herry's soft groan as he turns over.

Her body is sore and complains when she moves, but she gets out of bed and starts getting dressed again. As she tightens the last strap on her boots, she looks over at Herry, and sadness fills her heart as she realizes this is the last time she will see him.Reaching down, she takes her coat from the couch and slips out the front door, into the cold and darkness of the night. A pre-dawn breeze slithered across her exposed skin, sending shivers through her body and deep into her core and reminding her of how sore her body was.

Jones flinched as her foot touched the sidewalk's pavement and she heard someone clearing their throat. Looking around, her gaze was locked on Jess'. 'Great,' she thought as she lowered her gaze.

"I'm not sure what happened, Jess, and I really don't want to talk about it right now," she said, her gaze averted.

"Well, that's unfortunate because you're going to tell me everything..." As Jones began to walk away, Jess began to say but never finished, “Hey! I'm talking to you, you spoiled brat!" she exclaimed.

Jones stopped for a second and in a sobbing voice replied. “Read about it in the news I am sure that there will be something about it.” Having said that Jones began to run.

Jess tried to keep up but soon lost sight of Jones, as she knew the streets better than Jess.

“I’m sorry,” Jones heard Jess yelling out, as she hide from her in a fire escape above her.

When Jess was leaving Jones softly whispered, “It’s for the best”, and disappeared.