Don't You Know that You Can Count Me In

Posted on Fri Jan 30th, 2026 @ 4:20am by Captain T’Kal & Lieutenant Commander David Erickson & Lieutenant Karane Inda

1,881 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: ARYL 1X04: All the Friends We Can Get
Location: Unknown
Timeline: After Sector Six's Sticky Situation

David groaned and rubbed his eyes. He was lying on the floor, he knew that much. There was an unforgiving light above him, shining through his eyelids and he put his arm over his face. He stretched and felt the unusual sensation of the floor touching his bare back.

He opened his eyes as his memory came rushing back. He sat up and looked around quickly, his eyes scanning then the room.


One door.
No windows.
Plain, overhead lighting.
Bare shelf on one wall.
Two empty boxes in a corner.
Karane.


Seeing his girlfriend unconscious paused his tactical inventory and he moved to her side. Like him, she was still in her swimsuit. He moved to her side and felt for a pulse, letting out a breath of relief as it felt strong and steady.

He stood up and looked around again. Whatever storeroom they were in, he assumed this was temporary. If their captors wanted them dead, they'd have killed them already. Locking them away to starve was pointless and risky. Only one way in or out meant their ability to escape was limited, but it also gave them an advantage. Without plumbing or a way to get food to them, someone would have to open the door eventually. If they could control the moment, they could get an advantage. So, might as well try to initiate.

He walked to the door and raised a fist to pound on it, surprised when it opened as he approached.

The door swung inward, pushing David backward, and two Drenkul, a man and a woman, walked into the makeshift cell. The man stood back, holding a Klingon disruptor rifle and pointing it toward the awake captive. The woman stood a bit closer and off to the side, freeing her compatriot's line of sight with his rifle.

"Sorry if Phodra, here, was rough when he grabbed you," the woman said half-heartedly. "You're more valuable intact. But you can't blame him for being cautious, I suppose. Anyway, your lady friend is fine. She was more surprised than anything. What happened to the wife? Or do things like honour and loyalty not matter in the Federation?"'

David's eyes looked over the young woman. She was young, attractive for her species....and familiar. Her expression had changed her face, somewhat, but there was no mistaking who she was.

"Sripat Pinnya," David said, pulling the name from his memory. "Fancy meeting you here." He gave a shrug at her accusation. "I think we both know, that was not my wife. I simply chose to protect a more naive crewman from being taken advantage of, either by local, single males or overly greedy market vendors." He let that sink in a moment. "To be frank, I didn't quite trust your employer. The people on this planet are, how to put it, 'selectively friendly.'"

At that she laughed. “You’re not wrong, Starfleet. That’s mostly people with the planet’s name in their name though. Anyone not from Kannok or Drenkulo here beneath their notice, or their respect. But the work pays better here than on Senkatra, so here we are, tolerating their selective-friendliness, as you put it. At least you’ll be able to tell your previous lady friend that Mr. Sutep Lam-Kannok will not be swindling any more naïve customers.”

David raised his eyebrows at the implication. "Well then, on the subject of my 'lady friend', here," he said, his voice darkening. "She is my significant other, and if she is harmed..." he stepped forward quickly, walking right up to her and ignoring hum of the disruptor locking on a target, "you will learn exactly how much I value honor and loyalty."

“My my,” Sripat said with a smirk. “Humans have fight in them. Who knew?” She let out a sigh and gestured for her compatriot to lower his rifle. “She’ll be fine. You’ll both be fine.”

David looked into her eyes, then glanced at her compatriot. He relaxed his posture and stepped back. "All right, then. Now that the pleasantries and posturing are done, am I entitled to know why we've been kidnapped?

“Simple, really,” she told him. “The Revolution is underway, and while most of the people up top demanding equal treatment think they can do it with words and shows of peaceful resolve, we know better.” She nodded to Phodra, who brought out a PADD showing an interactive 3D map of the government building and the parade square. “You two will be doing two things. First, you’re going to use all that knowledge they teach you in that Academy of yours to help me lower the building’s shields. Second, you’re going to be my insurance policy to make sure Starfleet Security doesn’t come down on us like a hammer. If you can convince your Captain to recognize the authority of a new regime on Kannok too, then that’s all the better.”

David took the PADD and looked it over, looked at Sripat again, and shrugged. "Okay," he said.

“Okay, what?”

"Well, she can make mincemeat out of the shield generators," David said, gesturing to Karane. "That's the easy part. However, given the fact that you'll be dead within five years, I don't know if I feel like putting in that much effort."

Sripat laughed. “You don’t know what you’re talking about. We have everything we need to make our revolution succeed and our new nation thrive.”

David shrugged, glancing at Karane. "Your revolution may succeed. And like so many revolutions that begin with a violent overthrow of the current regime, you're just going to gin up resentment and resistance to your authority. And you'll tell everyone it was justified, you did it for the right reasons, you were fighting bad people and had to hurt them. And some of that may be true, but you'll still get pushback. So you'll have to quell the pushback, which will make you stricter, and then the various factions of your revolution will disagree with what degree of force you need, what goals to have, what avenues to pursue, so you'll fight among yourselves, and finally someone will cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war, and a new resistance will form, and eventually, you'll find yourself in front of the next generation's firing squad. You aren't the first to go through this cycle, you wont' be the last, you're just the ones I was unlucky enough to get stuck with," he said, flatly.

Karane began to stir, after a few brief moments she sat up rubbing her head. "Ow... Did someone smack me with a size twenty for hyper wrench?" She groaned. Finally she realised where she was and shivered. "Damn its cold in here..." she complained.

Her eyes met Sripat. Then, she rose slowly to her feet, her fists clenching. "Are you the one who who brought us here?!"

"Hello, sweetheart," David said, smiling at Karane. "As a matter of fact, she was. Allow me to introduce our new friend, Sripat Pinnya. She and I met yesterday." He walked over to the other guard. "And this is Phodra, he was the one who knocked me out."

He turned back to Sripat. "I was just getting done lecturing her about the history of violent revolution. She hasn't explained the whole plan to us yet, but given the three incredibly stupid tactical mistakes she's made thus far? I don't really see it succeeding."

"Good eye, Phodra," Sripat sat to her companion. "You found us a tactical officer."

"Oh, I'm not a tactical officer," David said, chuckling. "I'm just a guy who sits around reading star charts. You can ask her," he said, waving the PADD at Karane. "But I do have a bit of a knack for seeing the bigger picture, and yeah, you screwed up."

"We've thought of every detail, Starfleet," Sripat said, dismissing his comment. "Our plan is fine."

David rolled his eyes, looking at Phodra as if to say, "is she always this difficult?" then turned to face her. "Okay, first off? This location? Incredibly bad idea." He gestured around the room with the PADD. "Not a place that really says 'we're organized and have the means to pull this off.' Second? You could've asked us for help, rather than assaulted us first. So already, you've dragged our reason to trust you down to the lowest of levels. And third? You gave me a PADD."

He'd had the PADD in his left hand, gesticulating to make his points, and had brought it level with Phodra's neck. He shoved hard, driving into the man's larynx, hurting his air supply and causing him pain, holding in place to stimulate a panic reaction. As Phodra's hand came up to grab the padd, David let him hold it while he used both hands to grab the weapon and yank it out of Phodra's grip.

Karane didn't hesitate, she rushed full speed right at Sriprat. She rugby tackled her directly, smashing down towards the ground. She ensured that her tackle didn't go in vain. Sitting on her chest, she delivered one punch to her face, followed by another and of course in true Karane style, a third for good luck.

David knew Klingon weapons weren't known for their stun settings, so he didn't shoot Phodra, instead let him collapse gasping for air. He did however, turn to watch the fight behind him as Karane got Sripat knocked down a peg.

He put himself in front of the door and shouted, "stand down, Lieutenant!" in his best authoritative voice.

Karane held her fist high, as if ready to hit her again. However she kept it still as she looked at David. She gave him a small mischievous smile, before hitting her once again her eyes locked on David. "Ok, I stood down. But never mid-strike..."

David resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "The other problem with this room," he said, plowing on, "is that there is only one way in or out, which means you're now our prisoners, and you will remain that way for the time being." He kept an eye on Phodra as he kept the weapon trained on Sripat.

"Can I have something to wear now?" Karane said, her cheeks turning red. "There's no way I'm wearing this when I'm not at the beach." she looked over at Phodra. "Get me. A. Damn. Shirt and Pants!"

David glanced at Phodra, still gasping for air and trying to recover. "I'm sure as soon as soon as he's caught his breath, he'll be happy to accommodate you, especially given we'll both need outfits to blend in," David said, then returned his focus to Sripat. "Now, let's walk through this 'revolution' of yours, step by step, so we can figure out how to pull this off without completely screwing it up."

Sripat slid out from under the human engineer and pulled herself onto her elbows. She leaned sideways and spat blood onto the floor before laughing. She faced David with a red-stained smile. “Phodra. Get the lady some clothes. Then we can get to work.”

END


David Erickson
Chief Navigator

Karane Inda
Chief Engineer

 

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