Now what?
Posted on Thu Apr 25th, 2024 @ 9:29pm by Commander Jade Troconis & Ensign Maxence Belanger
2,041 words; about a 10 minute read
Mission:
The Trafalgar Roll
Location: Holding room
"Here, in you go, Miss." the one man gruffly said as he opened the door and 'urged' Jade forward not so gently into a room.
Jade stumbled forward slightly but was able to stay upon her feet. She whipped around to say something, then decided to decline. There was that expression in the man's eyes that said, he wouldn't be against doing something to her. Instead she asked, "Might I have some tea please?"
The man just guffawed at her request, then he stated. "No." turned on his heel and left, shutting the door behind him with a solid bang.
Jade scanned the room noting the small table which had two chairs nestled against it. Where was Max? Jade wondered.
Max sat in some room, the light of day faded quickly out the singular window casing so the only light source then came from the flicker of a pair of gas lanterns embedded in opposing walls. He found the lighting more menacing than quaint and surmised electricity wouldn't be in use for another seventy or eighty years at least. His thoughts were brought back to the present by the gruff officer that had detained him.
"So if you're not from France and you're not from here, then where are you from? Your voice sounds quite French." It was an accusation more than anything.
"I... I just move around a lot," Max said, not sure how to explain that he was previously aboard a space ship a billion kilometers and hundreds of years away from this dank place.
"Sounds like a spy to me," the shorter officer piped in unhelpfully.
"Where are you staying in the city?" the tall one continued.
"... uh... we just got here?" Max offered, realizing how impossible the situation was.
"Fresh off the boat then, why didn't you say so. What ship? Where'd you sail from?"
"I don't remember. It was dark."
The punch to the jaw came without warning. "Maybe you'll remember after a few days in a cell. Get him out of here."
The door opened and Max walked in to join Jade, the door closed and locked behind him. He was happy to see her, but worried and obviously banged up. "Are you alright?" he inquired as he rubbed his chin. He hoped they hadn't roughed her up too much. "Our hosts are lovely people, by the way."
"Yes, they are quite charming," Jade began then went over to where Max was at. "It looks like they worked you over a bit. They tried to instill fear into me, asked me questions about the man who kissed me, maybe mussed up my hair a little bit." her coiffure not looking as straight as it used to be. "They searched my reticule but didn't find my commbadge as I put it somewhere they wouldn't find, unless they wanted to strip search me. Stays and corsets are very good to hide things in." giving a slight wink, just to alleviate the tension she was feeling, to see if she could get Max to laugh.
Max was not in a laughing mood, though. He patted his jacket where the combadge was located in an interior pocket. "They only seemed interested in searching for weapons or documents." He paused a moment. "Have you tried contacting anyone?"
"I hadn't done that as of yet, wanted to wait until you were with me before I did. Hopefully we can get someone or we figure out a way to escape ourselves and try to find our people." Jade remarked,"I am all for getting out of here. Need to make some sort of plan, send out an SOS something."
"I'd say we should try to contact them, check in, see what the plan to end this nightmare is. And we also try to get out of here ourselves. I don't suppose you have access to a transporter," Max crossed his arms and went over to the window, peering out into the darkness. So dark. "I miss brightly lit corridors and perfectly controlled environments. I was not built for this time," he grumped.
Jade walked over towards the window to stand next to Max, her shoulder brushing his. "We'll make it out of here. As for being in this time period, I've often wondered what it would be like, Now I get to experience it. I've had a love for history, have been in some re-enactments as well." she turned her head towards Max. "Granted we have a life of luxury on the ship, compared to here." she drew in a breath, and looked back out towards the darkened sky.
"I do wonder if they are going to provide us a meal, or will decide to have us not eat." Jade mused, "It has been a little while since we've last eaten." her stomach growling in agreement of her statement. "I do wonder though if perhaps there is a mint in my er small purse?" opening it up and looking through it. Unfortunately there were not any mints. Besides where the combadge was there was a handkerchief with a small bottle of perfume, Jade continued to look through her reticule and her eyes widened. There was liquorice allsorts, and several wafers that she recognized as Necco wafers. There was also a comb with which to keep her hair tamed. Also there was a folded up piece of paper which Jade opened up.
"Meet me at the black smith's shop at 2 pm." and the letter as the signature was only M.
Just outside the sounding of the hour was, 4 pm. Two hours later than that mysterious message had asked for a meet.
"Looks like we had missed a meeting." Jade quietly said to Max. "care for a wafer or a piece of licorice?"
"Who would possibly know you're here?" Max questioned and waved off the food. Not that he wasn't hungry, but he was being chivalrous. "You go ahead. I'm fine, sir."
At the word sir, Jade looked Max in the eyes. "You are going to have to call me by name. We can't use ranks here. Not with us being back in time. And I don't know anyone from this time period. Whatever this was, did we miss an important meeting since we've been caught?" Jade shook her head in puzzlement. "As for the wafers and the licorice, this will keep us energized until we can conceivably get out of here."
Max shook his head. "I'm trying! You can reprimand me when we're back on Victory," he said with a smirk. Back to solutions... "Well, we could certainly over power the officers... or whoever they are. They don't seem exceedingly well trained at anything other than punches." He paused a second, fingers rubbing an itchy scrape on his chin. "You could.... you know, use your feminine... effects.. on them?"
"Yes indeed I could do such." Jade responded with a little bit of a smile, "In fact you have actually given me an idea with how to help us get out of here. But, you are going to have to help me on this one. I need you to unbutton my dress from the back. And help me out of the corset I am in. Otherwise you will end up having to do all of the fighting, and I will be fainting from the vapors as I try to help out."
Max turned crimson at the personal request. "Of course, whatever you need... Miss. I can fly ships as large as cities, I'm sure I can figure out a corset..."
"Max, try saying my name... Jasmine." as she turned her back to him. "Just unbutton the dress, then we'll attend to the corset. Don't worry I have a shift beneath the corset so you won't see me in the buff." her voice was matter of fact in order to try to alleviate his discomfort.
"J... J... Jas... I can't do it," Max actually laughed as he started down the long row of clasps on the dress. "Jasmine. I actually thought your first name was Jade," he said, getting back to a serious tone.
It could have been Max undoing her dress, or them being in a time not of their own, or.. for that matter...wait Jasmine?
"My name is Jade, where did the name of Jasmine come from." as she thought upon the name. Then her eyes widened. "Oh... that is an ancestor of mine. What the heck?" feeling goosebumps rise upon her flesh. "Oh dear, could she have been an actual spy?"
"You think maybe we've switched places with our ancestors?" He couldn't help but wonder what a Frenchman from the 1800s would be doing at his bridge station. "That could explain some things maybe." He finished the last button clasp and stepped back.
"Or we are in the same time period and have to be careful. That Alien wanted us to set things straight as to the destruction of his people. Now its we need to trace things maybe even track down something we don't know about our ancestors. Almost a path of self discovery." Jade remarked as she pulled down the top of her dress and let it drape down the front, showing the corset beneath. And beneath the corset was her shift. "Okay time to set me free." she stated with a bit of amusement in her voice.
"Well, I don't know my ancestors so it's going to be hard to tell who and what and where," Max began working down the unbuttoning of the corset. His hands shook a little. "How could they possibly be responsible for the destruction of an entire race that we haven't met yet in this age? I mean not to mention the technology of the time... spaceflight is hundreds of years away."
"Were they somehow in their early stages of development, and accidentally killed off?" Jade asked as she could feel the bindings of the corset finally releasing the pressure which was constricting her breathing. She took in a deep breath, once the corset was off, feeling a bit more at ease.
"Okay, now I feel that I can breathe a bit better and will be able to fight." Jade giving a happy smile. The smile faded as she stepped out of her dress. "I think I can take this apart." nodding towards the corset "and we can utilize it to get us out of here. " Jade was speaking rather softly just in case someone was listening.
There was the sound of faint footsteps upon the wooden floor, and they were coming closer.
Max was still red with embarrassment and most definitely was trying not to look at his mostly disrobed Commander when he heard the sounds outside. "They're coming," he whispered, not entirely sure what was about to happen as the door lock clicked open and the handled turned.
"Max, get ready to throw my dress over the person's head who is coming in." she whispered urgently.
Jade moved to where she struck a provocative pose when the door opened, the man stepping inside realizing that she was in a state of undress. "Well hello there I've been hoping that you'd come back." she said.
The man hadn't noticed where Max was at, as there were shadows in the room. Jade motioned the man further towards her, he answered her beckoning motion.
"Well now...what have we 've got here?" reaching out towards Jade to pull her close.
Just as he moved close to her, Jade gave a sultry smile then she yanked him towards her putting him off balance flipping him over her hip to where he landed upon the floor, looking rather surprised. In one motion she turned and kicked him in the side of his head.
"Er changed my mind, I want to be able to wear my dress later on." giving a wry smile to Max. "I suggest we get out of here and get to the ship, hopefully we can meet up with the Captain and find out just what we need to do!" she grabbed her dress, put her cloak over herself and took Max by his upper arm. "Run!"
Commander Jade Troconis
XO
USS Victory
Ensign Maxence Belenger
Helm
USS Victory
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