The Silver Tongue
“How the fuck did you get onto my ship, Ward?” Trip had his hands up but he was snarling at the bounty hunter and his pack of ten or so goons with covered faces that were all pointing, no doubt, loaded guns at the small crew.
“We’ve been following you for a while, Antoine. It’s not that hard when you’ve got the highest spy equipment that the great Empire of O-Nah has to offer.” He chuckled, and turned his attention to Skye, “SO you’re the one that’s caused all of this trouble?”
Skye grimaced at him, her face turning away from his condescending stare, she didn’t’ speak, She glanced momentarily at Jemma who seemed to be frozen in shocked suspension, she didn’t know who this man was and she really didn’t want to know.
Jemma took a step forward, her hands raised and his eyes flashed toward her, “And you, sweetie, come here, we’re here to take you home.” He held out a hand and smiled devilishly,
“I don’t know who you are—“ She took a gulp of breath, “But I can assure you that this is all just a huge misunderstanding. I’m here of my free will, there’s no need to hurt anybody, they didn’t do anything.” She moved in front of Skye waiting for his response.
He seemed to think for a moment, then he laughed and Jemma’s face scrunched in confusion, “That’s great, Dr. Simmons, whatever you say, now come with me so we can get you home.”
The librarian seemed to lose her cool at this and she put her hands down to her side, “Excuse me, I should have some say in this, I want to stay with them at least until their trial.”
Ward again, laughed at her suggestion and mumbled back to his men with a grin, “Stoh’Vir” There was a round of silent laughter through the ranks of his gun wielding men before Ward turned back to the small crew, “Get them.”
The moment he said that there was a flurry of movement as Jemma immediately protested and about five men with guns moved forward to detain them, grabbing both Trip and Skye from the back and pushing them forward, kicking and jerking their bodies in protest.
The atmosphere was loud and chaotic with shouts of “Hey, fuck you, man!” and “Get your hands off of me!”
Jemma grabbed for them and one of Ward's men moved to take her, grabbing her wrist and pulling her down off of the shuttle with little effort. She spat at him and kicked him violently in the shin as she wrestled her way out of his grip and ran back towards the shuttle.
She ran into Helen’s arms and the android, now noticeably angry pulled the small woman behind her and moved forward to fight the guards. Before she could do any damage Ward lifted up a stun gun and shot her square in the chest. The yellow flash threw a flood of electricity through her circuits and she stopped mid step. Her body jerking wildly as she fell to the floor stiffly with a loud thud.
Ward motioned with his head to her frozen and wide eyed body, “Get whatever she’s holding.”
He had to call over Skye’s screaming profanities as she was being drug away roughly with Trip. The captain screamed as they drug her down the cargo bay and the exiting hall, “Jemma, be careful! They’ll hurt you! These are bad people, please be careful!” She called out before one of the masked drones pulled a hand over her mouth and she started trying to bit him through his glove.
One of the men moved forward to pull what Helen had lodged in the palm of her hand, Jemma yelled, “No!” And leapt forward before he could get to the deactivated android, she pulled the chip out of her hand and held it to her chest. “It’s mine, leave it alone!” She screamed, tears running down her face.
The masked man glanced back at his Captain; Ward shrugged it off, letting him know to let her have it. The man moved to grab Jemma again and she pushed him away, walking past him, clutching the chip possessively.
She let herself be pushed toward Ward, Skye and Trip were now out of her sight and she was completely alone. She glared at his smiling face, he raised an eyebrow, “You need to be more grateful, lady.”
At that she spat in his face again. Ward wiped it away and leaned in extremely close to her face, “Don’t push me, If-Et’Tah.” He growled menacingly, Then he added in a sickeningly calm voice “I can make you disappear. I’ll tell your family they killed you when you acted out.”
She looked away, noticeably shocked by what he said and she was pushed forward by the masked man. The man looked behind him, no doubt speaking to him telepathically, Ward nodded without a word, then he added, more for Jemma’s benefit than his officer, “Take her down to the quarters. Lock her in.”
The small woman sniffled as she was pushed away by the faceless man and he guided her through some of Trip’s ship, which was being destroyed by Ward’s men, and through a tunnel bridge onto Ward’s massive war vessel.
His ship was as cold and stiff as she would have expected, the walls were a practical color of gray and there seemed to be people hiding in the corners, at least on the floor that she was on. They sat on the benches that looked like imitation rock and watched as she was led through the halls.
The masked man, yelled something at one of the cowering people, a young woman with her head shaved, who was standing near the air lift, “Ton’Gus!” He snapped and the girl jumped and moved out of their way. Jemma didn’t know what that word meant but judging by his tone, it probably wasn’t a good word. She barely got a look at her face before she moved off, her head down and not looking at the masked man and Jemma.
Jemma’s heart was still pounding in her chest and she had the distinct feeling that she couldn’t breath properly.
They got into the lift and moved up several floors, Jemma counted 38, before it stopped and she was, again, pushed into another hallway. This one resembled the one before however, instead of those scattered people in the corners, there were pairs of Ward’s men guarding every door with guns.
The guards, whose mouths and noses were covered, glared at the small woman suspiciously as they moved past them. The guard and Jemma finally stopped at one of the doors in the middle of the hallway that seemed to stretch on for miles.
The door slid open and without so much as a grunt or a word, the masked man shoved Jemma inside, shut the door and left her in the middle of a dark room. She heard the computer buzz and then state “Authorize a lock down of room 2246.”
Jemma slid down next to what she assumed was the edge of a bed, to the floor and pulled her knees up to her chest with a small whimper. She stayed like that in the dark for at least 20 minutes before she finally attempted to stand and look around.
She couldn’t see anything beyond the white floor under her feet, and she glanced around before ordering the computer, “Lights.” She demanded. Nothing happened.
She tried again, “Lights, please.” Again, the lights did not come on and the computer did not give any reason or acknowledgment.
She sighed angrily and kicked the edge of the bed before dropping back dow to the floor with a sniff. She opened her hand and looked at the chip in her palm, she had no way of telling if Helen was even alive or what these people could be doing to Skye and Trip.
She tried not to think about it, she closed her eyes and her hand and tried to breathe. She had been kidnapped for a second time, and this time, she promised herself, she was stronger than she was the first time.
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Skye was shoved harshly into a cell along with Trip a moment later, they fell to the floor and the young captain immediately tried to aim a kick at one of the masked men. “You know what, fuck you! You people are everything that’s wrong with the universe! I hope you get eaten by a Mon’F’Eth!” She called after them as they walked away without a comment.
Skye continued to yell at them until Trip put a hand on her shoulder, “They don’t know what you’re saying, Skye.”
She made a loud “Pfft” noise and stood up angrily. They had been stripped of all their weapons and technology and thrown into what appeared to be an entire floor dedicated just to holding cells.
The cells were all about 6’ft wide and 8’Ft long, they resembled the rest of the ship in the sense that they still had the dull white, glass like floors. Every cell had one cot, one toilet, and were surrounded by darker Grey bars.
Skye scoffed at the bars containing them, “A literal Jail cell? What is this? Twentieth Century Earth?” She made to grab the bars but the field that surrounded them shocked her and she fell backwards, the second time she had been shocked that day. “Just for aesthetic, then, fair enough.”
She remained on the floor, after her attempt to touch the sides. Trip sighed and pulled a hand over his face with a groan, “We fucked up, Skye, we fucked up big time.”
The captain nodded.
“I’m so sorry. I didn’t know they were following me. I swear.”
She moved over and patted his back, “I know you wouldn’t do this on purpose, Trip. These guys don’t play fair.”
He agreed, then said, staring at the dull white floor which would have surely made someone go mad if they had to look at it for too long, “You know if they don’t kill us, we’re going to an O’Nah prison right? My diplomatic immunity don’t mean shit anymore.”
Skye brushed him off. “We’re not going to die, and we’re not going to prison, we’re going to get out of here.”
“Oh yeah—“ Trip began, “And what’s your brilliant plan?”
“I’m thinking. I’m thinking.”
Skye rolled over and then promptly screamed as she came face to face with another prisoner that was in the cell next to them. Whoever it was didn’t scream or react, she was a I’Nek woman, she displayed the species' customary pink skin, small ears and big, watery eyes, she was about the same size as an average I’Nek as well, bordering on 4’7.
“Holy shit you scared me!” Skye yelled at the strange prisoner, the I’Nek didn’t answer and instead and tilted her head, staring intently at the captain with her large eyes.
There was a chuckled behind the stranger and Skye and Trip looked up at the man sitting on his stone bed on the opposite wall. He was an incredibly tall and well built black human and he smirked over at the newcomers.
“Sorry about Ku'ut, her translator was broken when we were captured, and they haven’t given me the tools to fix it.” He voice was deep and his demeanor was pleasant despite the fact that they were obviously in a situation similar to that of Skye and Trip.
Skye shook her head, “Yeah, yeah, I’ve met a few I’Nekes, she just startled me.”
Ku’ut tapped the floor of their cells in three consecutive patterns, her nails then digging into the hard floor, making an extremely unpleasant sound. Trip and Skye covered their ears.
The large man was the only one who apparently understood whatever it was that she was saying, he rolled his eyes, “I’m not telling them that, Ku’ut, I told you if you wanna stop getting arrested you need to be nice to other people.”
The I’Nek made another unpleasing screech on the floor and the man groaned and mumbled, “Whatever.” Under his breath.
At this he stood up and walked to the edge of the cell, Skye and Trip stood up to meet him there, he smiled kindly, “I’m Mack, and this is my partner “Ku’ut, I’d shake your hands but as you can see, that’s a little redundant right now.”
The two on the other side glanced at each other but Skye gave their introductions anyway and Mack nodded, “Nice to meet you. So what are you in here for? What’d you do to piss off the O’Nahn empire?”
Skye sighed, “I robbed one of their vessels and kidnapped a passenger. And you two?”
Mack chuckled, “Ku’ut and I’ve been disabling slave vessels and transporting people over empire lines.” He seemed rather proud of their accomplishments.
“But you got caught?” Trip inferred.
Mack’s face fell, “Yeah. We got caught. But hey I figured we could get out of this somehow, I mean, it’s not like they’re ranks are impenetrable. And with you two, I figure our chances just doubled.”
Skye glanced at Trip and they both raised an eyebrow, “You’re pretty trusting for someone we just met two minutes ago.”
“You wanna get out of here or not?”
They didn’t answer and after a couple minutes, Skye spoke up, “So, what, you’re the muscle and she’s the brains?” She asked with a touch of amusement.
Mack lowered his head with a sigh in an expression that could only be described as disappointment, “I’m the engineer. She’s security.”
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Jemma jumped as the door to her room that had previously been sealed shut slid open, she jumped up ready to fight or at least yell. A young woman, much younger than the librarian, stood in the doorway holding a tray that had food and water on it.
Jemma took a step back. This young girl, probably 14 or 15 was definitely not one of Ward’s people, in fact she looked more like one of his prisoners, especially since, like the rest, her head was shaved.
The girl didn’t speak but she walked in and offered the tray to Jemma, when she didn’t take it, the girl leaned over and set it down on a table. She stood back up and Jemma stopped her, “Wait--” The girl stopped and looked back, from the doorway two masked men were checking in suspiciously, Jemma paused for a moment, “What’s your name?” She tried.
The girl looked confused and nervous, “It’s okay, I won’t hurt you. My name’s Jemma.”
The girl thought about it, “22701” She stated, her voice small much like her stature.
Jemma shook her head, “No, darling, I mean your real name.”
The girl looked up, “Nueh'Nah.”
Jemma sat down on the bed with her hands in front of her, “Oh my, that’s a beautiful name. Would you like to talk? I’m very lonely in here.”
The girl blushed but she gave the older woman a nervous smile and Jemma glowed, “Now there’s that smile.”
The girl looked away, smiling, and Jemma patted the spot on the bed next to her, “Tell me about yourself? I could use the company.”
The girl thought about it for a moment but then came closer and sat tensely on the end of the bed next to the older woman. Jemma smiled sweetly, “Now, to what do I owe the pleasure?”
“I was sent to give you food and Lii’Fi’Qui.” She stated truthfully.
“And I want to thank you for that.” Nue simply nodded and looked away so Jemma continued trying yo coax the child into conversation, “I don’t like this ship very much, what about you?”
The girl moved closer to the librarian and murmured just audible, “No one does.”
Jemma was about to speak again when the door slid open and both of them jumped, Nueh’nah stood up and immediately went to the front corner. For a moment Jemma became excited at the the thought of it being Skye and Trip coming to get her out of here. However her hope’s weren’t realized as Ward stepped into her room and the librarian stood up to face him.
He glanced to where Nueh’Nah was standing and Jemma had the sudden urged to run up and punch him, He jerked his head to the side and the young girl walked behind him and out the door, she gave Jemma a small glance before she went out of sight.
Ward smiled at her, “I’m sorry about that whole display out there, that was unprofessional of me. It’s just you should try to be more grateful, we did, in fact, save your life and I know you’re in shock but you need to calm down, okay?”
Jemma looked utterly confused, “You didn’t-- I wasn’t-- I want to see them. I told you I want to stay with them.”
Ward moved past her and sat down on the edge of the bed, “That can’t be arranged. You’re delirious.”
She looked sideways at the Bounty Hunter, “Morse will not be happy about the way you’ve treated me, here.” She threatened, she knew it sounded a bit like tattling but Bobbie was the only piece of leverage that she had against him.
He chuckled and stood up, “Morse is no better than your friends. She’s out of the picture.” he informed her with a cocky grin.
She looked away from him, he patted her arm and moved past her, “Don’t worry, you’ll be home soon.”
He started out the door, Jemma turned around then grabbed one of the rounded ornaments on a table, she turned around and lifted her arm to strike him on the back of the head. She was mid swing when he bolted around and grabbed her wrist.
She dropped the object and struggled against her grip, he lifted up her face with his other hand and said in the same sickeningly sweet voice, “Now, now, Dr. Simmons, don’t make me have to put you in hyper sleep to calm your delirious state.” He let her go and she backed away, clutching at her wrist, “Now, get some sleep.”