—- Waverider —-

The rest of the night passed uneventfully. They had to fly so long because the USS Seattle had wanted to stay out of sensor range and wanted there to be no chance of being associated with its waverider shuttle. In the morning the small crew awoke and changed into civilian clothes. Ensign Constable did her best to further make the ship look old and non-Starfleet despite being a brand new Starfleet vessel. This mostly involved hitting things with a pipe. 

Lieutenant Kolem played the role of the communications officer, if there was such a formal position on a pirate’s ship, and opened hailing frequencies as they approached. The black market was on a K-Type like station that was just as old as the Federation might have, but far more run down. It seemed that if not for the fact that they were in space the station might fall out of the sky at any moment.

The station was not as helpful as Kolem was used to with Starfleet, but seemed unconcerned about the smaller ship. Its staff certainly did not care who or where the crew was from, as long as they caused no trouble once aboard the station. The docking fee was paid for out of a small fund that the away team had been given for such things, and honestly that was all that the people on the other side of the comm cared about.

”Once we’re in split up, and look around. Anything old and from our temple site,“ Commander Sánchez said, “take phasers but keep them hidden and only use them on stun and only in emergencies.”

He distributed phasers to everyone, and then the group split into three with him and Kolem checking the market and Constable looking at the docked ships. That left Jara and Miller to check out the social scene. With the ship locked behind them, the team split up with Constable browsing the ship’s that had also docked and the other four splitting into their groups of two to head into the station.

—- Team 1, Sánchez & Kolem —-

“So we’re a married couple and like older things,” Commander Sánchez reminded her.

Lieutenant Kolem smiled cheekily, “Clearly I like older things if we’re married.”

Pretending to be wounded Sánchez clutched his heart, “You wound me madam.”

They browsed through stalls of fabrics and ship parts. It seemed that the only qualification you had to sell something there was to have something to sell. Not all of it was even illegal, it was simply going for a price, and that no longer had a place in the currency-less Federation. Yuhiro Kolem did not own a lot of civilian clothes any more, as she was clad nearly constantly in her uniform, but if she did she found a few nice pieces she would like to have added to her small collection.

They finally came upon a slender man, who looked extra especially seedy. He was selling weapons, though most of what he had on display were old Kilgon, Romulan, Cardassian, and even a few Starfleet items. Sánchez picked up an old Kirk-era phaser and admired it.

”I like this, might you have something else, something older?” he asked setting it back down on the table.

The man nodded and pulled out a ceremonial dagger, likely Cardassian. It looked a few thousand years old, possibly pre-warp. Kolem picked it up and ran her finger along the blade drawing blood. She made a noise and then carefully set it down.

”Not quite as old as we were hoping. Still sharp, that’s impressive, but we’re not arms dealers we are collectors. You show us a few pre-warm Romulan things, and it barely gets interesting,” she said. She could tell he was holding something back, that there was more here. It she was a full Betazoid Kolem figured that she’d be a wonderful intelligence officer.

”Old well I haven’t gone through them yet, but I do have a few things. At a premium of course,” he said reaching under the table where the weapons sat a pulling out a large crate. He set it down with a solid thud and opened it. Though neither of them were experts in archeology, both of the Starfleet Officers could tell that the items inside had come from the temple they had been at.

Lieutenant Kolem reached in and pulled out a necklace, “I like this.”

Sánchez nodded, “The lady will take that, and we’ll take this idol.“

The vendor nodded closing up the crate after the Commander had taken the idol and naming what sounded to Kolem like an outrageous price. They had been given some currency for this assignment, but not that much.

Sánchez tossed the required bars of gold pressed latinum onto the table, “If you get more, we may be interested in seeing them.”

”Of course sir,” the man smiled, “And you and your lovely wife enjoy.”

Kolem nodded, but said nothing until they had moved away when she asked where the money had come from, where had Sánchez gotten his latinum?

”We sell wine outside of the Federation to, just like every Starfleet ship seems to have at least one bottle of Romulan ale, a real Earth wine is the sought out commododity in the galaxy. We all crave authenticity,” he said as Kolem put the necklace around her neck and tucked it under her leather tunic for safe keeping.

Commander Sánchez put the idol in a satchel, “We’ll run tests on this back at the ship. Let’s get something to eat. You look good in leather by the way, kind of a mirror universe version of Kolem. I like it.”

In the light he could swear Kolem’s eyes seemed to glow, “And do you like this mirror universe version of me?”

”I do,” Sánchez said flirting, “All leather and badass.”

Kolem just smiled.

—- Team 2, Jara & Miller —-

“You know you’re just a Lieutenant, yet you always act like you’re in charge,” Lieutenant Commander Miller said as they scanned another shopping crate. Their study of the social areas of the station had come up empty, and now they were searching shipping crates that had piled up by the doc.

“Look Plants, you’re smart but you’re not street smart, you need guidance,” Jara said peering into a crate and finding only a type of vegetable that she did not recognize. She shut it and moved on. As smart and good at her job as Miller likely was, she lacked the real world experience, and so Jara had learned that the well intentioned and book smart Starfleet Officer was not a good field commander. At least not in her estimation.

”My name isn’t Plants, if I was so cleverly named I’d be Botanist,” Miller said.

They heard footsteps approaching.

”Quick duck in a crate,” Jara said and shoved Miller into a crate and then leaped in behind her shutting the door. There was the sound of foot steps, then muffled voices followed by a mag lock engaging and then footsteps.

Miller pulled out a torch and examined the crate, “Hey it’s the artifacts we’re looking for.”

Jara pushed at the door, it wouldn’t budge. Then suddenly the crate rocked, and both women realized they were being lifted by something mechanical and carried, likely a mag lift of some kind. There was talking then they moved some more, and finally were set down, allowing for more muffled discussion and then the sound of footsteps as people departed.

”Jara to Constable, Jara to away team,” Jara said trying the communicator she had hidden on her.

”Walls are too thick, interference,” Miller said “same goes for our…”

Any warining came too late as Jara pulled out a phaser and tried to cut through the door. The beam reflected back at her but made no damage to either the door or the wall it eventually hit after the Chief Security Officer had ducked out of the way.

”That went about as well as I expected,” Gabriella Miller said dryly as Lieutenant Claudia Jara got off the ground where she had thrown herself.

”Shut up,” Jara said.

”That’s ’Shut up ma’am,’” Miller teased.

Jara grumbled. Feeling humiliated that for all her talk of street smarts she had gotten them trapped in a shipping container and now they were being moved to somewhere.

—- Waverider —-

Aboard the Nirvana Sánchez set the idol down on the main table and looked at Ensign Constable. It was well past when they were meant to be back and though he and Kolem had been delayed there was still no sign of their Chief Science Officer or the Chief Security Officer.

”Where are Jara and Miller,” he asked.

Constable shrugged, “I saw them poking around the docks looking at storage containers, but someone came and I had to move on.”

The Commander swore, they had lost two officers, and they had to get back to the USS Seattle while the trail was still warm. 

”What’s wrong,” Kolem asked.

”We lost Jara and Miller,” he said.

Kolem nodded, “And this one doesn’t know where they are?” 

Kolem pointed to Constable who shook her heard, “This one does not.”

”Let’s give it an hour, then set course for the Seattle,” he said, “Captain’s going to be mad.“

Kolem nodded, “Yes, the Captain will be mad.”

Constable rolled her eyes, and got to work on pre-flight checks preparing the ship to leave the old station as soon as they had given it yet another hour for the return of their crew.