Chapter Text
Prologue
Nyara City, Turkana IV Colony
Stardate 28578.9
The two figures sprinted along the dirty alleyway.
All the while, they could hear the sets of heavy footfalls behind them getting louder. However quickly they tried to go, their adversaries could always move faster.
Night had fallen across Nyara City, which added to the fears that both of them were keenly feeling. The crumbling buildings and unfriendly surroundings of the settlement seemed even more terrifying in the darkness, as if danger could come from anywhere.
Which, in truth, it usually did on Turkana IV.
They raced on, keeping pace with each other as their scrawny, underdeveloped legs propelled them forwards through a simple survival instinct, if nothing else. All around them was the smell of decay. It was inescapable here. As long as either of the pair of fleeing forms could remember, that stench had hung in the air. But by now, they were used to it. It didn’t distract them from their desperate attempt to flee.
They turned and scampered down the next alley. Both of them knew that if they could get themselves far enough ahead of their pursuers through the filthy maze of backstreets, they could give them the slip. At least for long enough to find an old service tunnel or sewage pipe. Once they were underground, despite the further stench and misery they knew they would find down there, then they could get away entirely.
And they could take their treasure with them.
One of the two fleeing children, a scrawny girl with lank, greasy hair, took a second to glance down at the prize in her hand. The reason that she and her friend were now running for their lives. She felt her undernourished stomach rumble at the mere sight of such a delicious bounty, but there was no time to think about anything other than escaping right now.
The boy by her side suddenly grabbed her bony arm and pulled her down another alley to their right, forcing her to switch her focus back to their getaway.
“Leggit here now, friend Maya,” he called out breathlessly to her in the broken language of the Turkana IV youth.
Maya Ortega didn’t stop to think, allowing herself to be pulled along even as her spindly legs cried out for rest. She glanced at the boy at her side. And despite the peril they were in, she felt a little reassured.
Niki Kolak, the equally scrawny youth with a shock of dirty brown hair, was her friend. Her only friend. Among all the despair that Turkana IV had provided them with, the two of them had formed a rudimentary alliance in order to survive. They looked out for each other, night and day. Because in the depths of Nyara City, nobody else would.
So, as he guided her along, Maya felt a crumb of comfort. They would get through this.
And then they both came to a skittering halt, stopping on the spot in horror.
Ahead of them, the entire route down the alley was obstructed by a pile of twisted metal and rubble. One of the buildings on the left side of the street had finally succumbed to the decay that had been festering inside, and collapsed. And their escape route was well and truly blocked.
They both whirled around to backtrack and find another path to safety. But it was too late. At the end of the alley behind them stood half a dozen bigger children.
Like Maya and Niki, their pursuers were dressed in little more than dirty rags. Most of Turkana IV’s street children had never so much as heard of a sonic shower, let alone seen one. And clean clothing was a farcical luxury.
But unlike the two of them, their pursuers were armed.
Their weapons were simplistic. Little more than improvised clubs or cudgels. But they were brutally effective, and the sight of them being wielded by the older children was enough to make Maya and Niki’s eyes widen like saucers.
Maya felt her entire body shaking. It wasn’t an unfamiliar sensation, especially when the cold winter nights settled in across Nyara City. But this time, it wasn’t the temperature that was causing her to shiver. It was fear.
To her side, Niki grasped her hand a little tighter. She glanced over at him and saw the sad look of resignation on his face.
“No way now, friend Maya,” he whispered, “No ‘scape.”
She fought back a tear and kept hold of his hand as the leader of the rabble stepped forwards. He was a tall, pale-skinned teenager with an ugly scar running down his left cheek.
For the time being, the other teenagers held back, gently beating their clubs into their open palms in a show of force. The leader himself was unarmed, but he cracked his knuckles as he approached in a manner that suggested he didn’t need one. The disconcerting sound of his joints cracking and popping sent a fresh shiver down Maya’s spine.
As the boy reached where Maya and Niki stood holding hands, he shot out a tendril-like arm and grabbed her other arm by the wrist. She squealed in pain, as he twisted her arm and increased the pressure, until she was forced to unclasp her hand and relinquish her treasure.
It revealed a squashed, expired ration bar. The wrapper had split open before anyone had happened upon it, and there was visible mould growing on the exposed corner of the dirty brown substance inside.
Just about anywhere else in the galaxy, it was disease-riddled garbage. But for the hungry children on the streets of Nyara City, it was a priceless banquet.
“That ours,” the scarred leader of the gang grunted at Maya, “Innit our chow-chow.”
He punctuated his broken speech by pointing to his mouth with his other hand, in an oddly child-like way for his teenage years.
She tried to formulate a response, but none was forthcoming. He was right, after all. The food, such that it was, belonged to the older gang. But neither Maya nor Niki had eaten for days, and when they saw their chance to grab the bar and make a run for it, they had taken it.
But unfortunately for them, they had quite literally run down a blind alley. And now the consequences of their actions loomed large in front of them. Angry and armed to the teeth.
The leader of the gang grabbed the rotten snack from her, shoving it roughly into the pocket of his tattered shorts. Then, he glared at her more intently and cracked his knuckles again, inducing a fresh wince in her terrified features. They clearly wanted more than just their morsel of food back. They wanted to teach them a lesson.
“You took chow-chow?” he asked her.
Maya’s mind raced. She had taken the snack. In fact, the whole thing had been her idea. And now she was going to be beaten, and possibly killed, for it.
Then, something inside her was triggered. The survival instincts that she had honed in her time growing up amongst the ruins of the Turkana IV colony morphed into something new. A ruthless streak she never realised she had suddenly blossomed. She saw that she might have a way out of all of this. And this new part of her didn’t waste any time in taking it.
She and Niki Kolak had promised to always stick together. To face the horrors of the failed colony as one. And they had both stuck to that solemn promise.
Until now.
Before she fully comprehended what she was doing, Maya let go of Niki’s hand. Then, she looked up at the angry teenager and shook her head, before pointing at the boy next to her.
“He took,” she whispered, the lie nearly getting caught in her throat, “Then gave me.”
The older boy turned his attention to Niki. Maya glanced over as well, and felt her heart break as she saw the look of terrified betrayal on his face. To add to her shame, Niki made no attempt to argue back. To try and save himself from the beating she had just sentenced him to, or try to take her down with him. Instead, he remained loyal to their promise, even as she tore it up in front of him.
The gang’s leader pushed her to one side. She stumbled on the debris under her feet and fell to the floor. The leader advanced on Niki, as the other gang members closed in, clubs and cudgels at the ready.
Maya scrambled to her feet and looked away, even as the first blows began to ring out in the alley, accompanied by squeals of pain from Niki.
As the beating continued, she ran back the way they had come. Nobody bothered to chase her. They were all busy having their fun.
So she ran. Even as Niki’s wails echoed behind her and tears stung her eyes, she ran on through the back streets.
She was sure the bigger boys wouldn’t go as far as killing him. At least, not deliberately. But she knew that whatever happened, she would never see Niki Kolak again. She would have to leave Nyara City and strike out alone into the wilderness beyond the ruined city’s walls to search for another settlement.
But as she ran on, and the sounds from the merciless beating grew quieter, she found that she could live with all of that. Suddenly, none of that seemed to matter. What mattered was that she had done what she needed to do to survive. And although Maya Ortega had no way of knowing it, that would be the most important lesson she would ever learn.
So she ran on through the decaying streets, leaving Niki behind.
And she never looked back.
* * * * *
Synergy Mining Enterprises Mining Operation, Sector 374
Present Day
Maya Ortega watched as the armed Miradorn goons grabbed the two figures.
She had done it again. Done what she needed to do in order to survive.
But it wasn’t supposed to play out like this.
Her plan to skim some latinum off the profits of her new employers at Synergy Mining Enterprises had been foolproof, using her access to their financial systems to patiently accumulate a modest sum of capital. Utilising skills she had perfected over a lifetime lived on the edge of legality.
And it worked. For a while. But unfortunately, she had underestimated the new owner of Synergy Mining Enterprises. The Ferengi called Grenk had nurtured his lack of trust over his own lifetime spent jumping from one shady business deal to the next. And he had noticed her profit-skimming scam immediately.
Like everyone who crossed him, Grenk demanded that she work off what she took from him as punishment. Back-breaking slave labour in his mines until the ruthless Ferengi considered the debt settled. Whenever that may have been.
But then, as she had done so many times, all the way back to Nyara City, Maya found a way to survive. She found a deal to strike with Grenk that had been equally beneficial to the Ferengi. A way to get his hands on a group of people who had wronged him far more than she had. And she delivered them right to him. The crew of the Bounty.
She had survived. And yet, this time, she felt no sense of satisfaction.
She watched as Jirel Vincent, the unjoined Trill captain of the Bounty, her former business partner and lover, was hauled past her towards the duridium mine in the valley below. Along with him, Natasha Kinsen, the human doctor of the Bounty, was dragged along by the other Miradorn.
In orbit, Grenk had claimed that the Bounty itself, and the rest of her crew, had been destroyed. An act that had not been part of the deal.
As Jirel was dragged past her, he locked eyes with her. And she saw the same look of betrayal that she had seen on the face of Niki Kolak. A look that she had seen on countless faces over the years as she had lied and scammed her way through the galaxy. She had never forgotten the look on Niki’s face. And she was sure now that she would never forget the look on Jirel’s.
As she and Grenk turned to follow the prisoners down into the valley, she forced her to remind herself what this had all been for. She had survived. And that was all that mattered.
Wasn’t it?