Team Bajor - 8

Posted on Wed Oct 15th, 2025 @ 3:08pm by Remal Kajun & Captain Rhenora Kaylen & Commander Savar cha'Salik hei-Surak Talek-sen-deen & Lieutenant Commander Aurora Vali

1,917 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: For Bajor!
Location: Bajor

Rhenora looked at Zio with a shocked expression. Not only had her calculation of the remote parts of the Northern continent been wrong, but wildly wrong. It took a few moments for her brain to catch up. "You got through the final relay. Well done. I shouldn't have pinged that they would bounce it off that tower," The Captain admonished as they headed back to the shuttles. The maintenance shuttle was still docked. Did they want to use it themselves? Undoubtedly, it would be devoid of any standard tracking systems, except the ones that would alert their quarry.

"Yitka, want it for parts?" She tossed at the crusty resistance fighter.

Yitka squinted at the shuttle, then rubbed his chin as if weighing a grand performance. “Parts, eh? Could make a good stew of it, I suppose… heaters for homes, lights for children, maybe a few coffee makers so nobody freezes while waiting for a miracle. Not bad for an old bird, aye?”

Remal ducked as he entered the collar connecting the shuttles to the satellites, "Might have to take both down. Our six-person excursion has now become nine with our capture maintenance crew."

"Did we decide where we're dropping these stooges?" Zio questioned as she rearranged her gear to allow for more room. "I mean, I could always take the other shuttle and use it as a decoy. Did that a few times during the occupation." She tapped Remal on the shoulder. "Remember Anodyne, now that was a fun decoy mission."

"Not for everyone." He replied sternly. "As I recall, some of us ended up as sitting ducks in a shooting gallery while the rest of you got the upper hand."

Zio simply shrugged. "The plan worked, didn't it?"

Remal grunted his usual retort.

"The plan always works, it's just the letter that goes behind it that's the problem," Rhenora snorted. "Why don't you take the other shuttle with Aurora and Savar, Remal, Yitka, and I will handle the saboteurs." She would double-check their bindings first, of course. Small shuttles were notoriously chaotic in close combat.

"Should we not all go and deal with the saboteurs? Our chances are better in subduing them if we all go and undertake this task. Perhaps come from different directions, so they do not know our true number." Savar stated.

Remal turned to Savar, as he continued to prepare, "I think she was referring to the three we've already captured, my Vulcan friend. I don't believe she was suggesting we leave you out of the fight in the Capital, if it comes to that." He added as a hopeful addendum.

"We can do that." Zio suggested. "But I agree with your friend here Rhen, if we're going to face whoever is behind this, we should do it together as best as possible. I doubt they will see two shuttles and the six of us as much of a threat." She said as she spun her weapon before holstering it. "Their mistake."

Rhenora mused over their options. Either way it was gonna be a long shot for them to pull this off. "First we need to drop these goons off at the constabulary. Then we head to the Capitol. Together"

Savar nodded at Remal and his explanation. "I see. I stand corrected. My mistake." He nodded at Zio and her support. "We stand united, it makes us strong and force to reckon with as our opponents with soon discover."

" We must be cautious - they will be expecting us this time," Rhenora cautioned as they moved into the shuttles. She double checked the restraints on their 'guests' and sent a message to the local constables' office to expect them shortly. "Let's get off this tin can. I have a feeling the people of Bajor are dancing in the rain."

Yitka clambered up into the pilot’s seat of his patched-together shuttle with the ease of a man who’d spent half his life in ships held together by hope and leftover parts. He settled in, brushing a hand across the worn console like greeting an old friend. “Alright, sweetheart, let’s see if your bones still hum,” he muttered, flipping a series of mismatched switches until the panels flickered to life.

From the back, he could hear Rhenora and Remal securing the unconscious impostors in the rear compartment, their boots echoing off the bulkhead. Across the docking hub, Zio, Savar, and Aurora were readying the other shuttle for departure. Yitka gave his own a gentle thump. “Destination, constabulary,” he said under his breath, a smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth. “Let’s deliver the trash before the storm cools.”

Remal crouched beside the unconscious saboteur, securing the last restraint with a practiced tug that bit into the man’s wrists. Yitka’s “repairs” had left a trace of scorched circuitry in the air. He straightened, glancing at the other prisoners slumped against the bulkhead, each one a quiet reminder of how close they’d come to losing more than just weather control. “You picked the wrong sky to meddle with,” he muttered. Then, satisfied, he slid into the copilot’s seat beside Yitka and fastened his harness. “All secure. Let’s see if your heap can still fly, old man.”

Zio dropped into the co-pilot’s seat beside Savar, brushing a lock of hair out of her face as she powered up the shuttle’s navigation array. The engines hummed low, ready but impatient, much like her. Through the viewport, she caught a glimpse of Yitka’s vessel detaching from the docking hub with a spray of dust and debris. “All right,” she murmured, checking their own systems with brisk efficiency. Then, over the comms, her tone turned sharp but wry. “We’ll see you in Ashalla — try not to fall out of the sky before we get there.” She shot Savar a sidelong smirk. “Assuming this crate doesn’t explode first.”

Savar's fingers deftly glided over the controls as the shuttle lifted off. "He turned his head to meet Zio's gaze. "That is always a distinct and real possibility seeing the state of this shuttle. However, we shall endeavor to arrive at our destination in one piece."

An hour later the saboteurs had been offloaded and the two shuttles approached the Capitol together, slowing to a crawl as they discussed the game plan. " so where exactly did you find the signal origin?" Rhenora looked at the expansive city before them. To their north west the Capitol Shuttle port awaited their landing, and from there they would either need to hire a hovercraft, transport to the city center, or walk. Each had their downsides.

"Deep in the heart of the Administration Center. It's actually strange, when I tried to triangulate the signal into a location it almost appears to be in a sub-level, possibly a underground bunker of some sort. Finding the location will be interesting to say the least, let alone trying to find a way in." Zio offered as she sent the coordinates to Rhenora in Yitka's shuttle and to Savar's console.

"We can land at the Shuttle port and catch a transport craft into the city center. Unless you're in a hurry? I don't know about you but a recon and stealthy approach feels warranted." Zio finished.

"Agreed, we need to blend and then strike once we have all the information. Surely someone from the Resistance near the Capitol knows of a way into any subterranean network under the city. They were cave and tunnel rats like we were" Rhenora mused.

"Hmm, I might know a guy, but I'd have to warn you up front. He and I are not exactly friends. Long story short, I, uh, might have shot him in the leg. It was totally payback and he deserved it, but to this day, he sees it differently."

---

The shuttle came in low over the edge of Ashalla, its thrusters whining like a half-asleep targ. The rain still misted down — thin, steady, righteous. Yitka wrestled the controls with one hand and smacked the console with the other until the attitude thrusters finally responded.

“Ha! There we go — smooth as landing a vole on a greased roof!” he declared as the shuttle thumped down onto the rain-slick pad. The whole frame shuddered, the inertial dampeners complaining audibly.

He spun in his chair with a wide, grease-smeared grin. “Well, ladies and gentlefolk of this fine rain-kissed planet, you’ve arrived safely in glorious Ashalla — courtesy of Yitka’s Travel Tours and Junk Parks Emporium! Please mind the step on your way out, it’s slipperier than a Cardassian at confession, and do be generous — tips go toward keeping the old bird in the air and toward local orphans needing radiator parts for the winter.”

With that, he leaned back, humming a half-remembered resistance song and tapping the console like it owed him money, watching his passengers disembark through the steam and drizzle with that old roguish glint still in his eye.

As the team walked from the shuttle, Kaylen received an update from the team on DS9, and the news wasn't good. She ordered them not to give up on their quarry, and to follow all leads as much as they could." She looked down before hurrying forward out of the rain, not something she would thought she would have to do this soon. A thankful occurrence indeed. Months and years of dust and dirt turned to a thick brown sludge before seeping slowly into the parched soil, forming a greasy film as it did so. It was almost as it the planet itself had forgotten how to accept moisture.

Remal strolled through the rain casually until he reached the shelter Rhen had found. He didn't mind the wet so much, like enjoying it while it lasted. "There is a sort of poetic irony to rain. Most people despise it, but not farmers or gardeners. Rain brings life, in moderation of course." He could see the sludge that was forming as the dust turned to brown water. "Of course cleansing is a process all unto itself."

Zio looked at him with a side eyed grin. "That feels familiar." She said before looking at Rhen. "He was like this back when we fought Cardassians together. Does the strong, silent, poet type ever get under your skin?" She asked as she looked for the hover transports, like taxis, to give them a ride.

Savar walked with Aurora at his side, perfectly content with her company. He was silent as he listened to Remal and then Zio. Rain did not bother him. Vulcan was desert world and rain was not a common occurrence yet it was welcomed as it brought and maintained life... it was only logical.

"Kendra Capitol service leaving in 5 minutes" the announcement over the broadcast system announced, and a large sign illuminated, pointing to the subway network underground. " that'll do...I wonder if this bunker could be an old disused subway station, or tunnel even..." Rhenora mused aloud as they headed for the underground station in the throng of Bajorans doing the same. It was so much easier to blend in in a large crowd.

Rhenora and Zio lead the way into the underground subway system followed by Savar and Aurora and bringing up the rear, Remal and a slow hobbling Yitka. The rain flowed into the gutters and trickled down the stairs into the cavern beneath the streets like a mini waterfall of heaven.

TBC

 

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