The Misadventures of Jason Haines -- Fish-mon

Posted on Mon Feb 1, 2021 @ 6:24am by Lieutenant Jason Haines

1,004 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Si vis pacem, para bellum
Location: Pangaea
Timeline: MD 3 minus 18 days, 1200 hours

[ON]

Jason woke with a start in the darkness. The dream had haunted him again. It was remarkably similar to the last one, the station fell from the sky burning. Pieces splashed violently into the water causing the waves to crash harder into the shore. Once again, he found Alanna on the beach dead. People were screaming, injured and in pain. Others were calling for help as they couldn’t swim and were drowning. Others just washed ashore, their corpses littering the beach. One of the corpses was that of Sovok. His eyes snapped open and looked at Jason. He smiled and laughed an evil laugh before his eyes closed again in death.

Jason breathed heavily as he tried to clear the dream from his mind. Could it really be called a dream now? It seemed more like a vision. Was he actually seeing something that was going to happen? Was the strange nature of the planet messing with his brain waves? Could it be in relation to the possibility that he could be part Fae? Was he just going out of his mind? Jason shook his head.

He laid back down and tried to focus on the sounds of the surf breaking on the sandy beach to help him get back to sleep. That didn’t bring sleep. He then tried to meditate and clear his mind. That too did not help.

Giving up, he lit a small fire for light and practiced his katas at the edge of the surf. He found the impact of the waves and the sand giving way under his feet was helping him get better and improve his balance. It also got him wet several times as he indeed lost his balance.

As the sun started to break the horizon, he started his normal routine. A morning swim, breakfast, then a round of hand-to-hand practice with his sparring dummy until his hands and legs were skun up. He then did morning meditation. It did not help clear his mind today.

Gathering his gear; staff, bow, and knife, he began the longest part of his regimen, a run on the beach and through the woods in various places, all while weighted down. Every so often, he would stop and do pull ups on a tree branch. He wanted to be faster and stronger. He felt if he had been so when Sovok had abducted Alanna that he would have been able to prevent the torture the Vulcan had put her through. Whether he was right or wrong, it was how he felt. It made him feel ashamed that he hadn’t been able to be there to stop Sovok’s depravity.

It was around noon when Jason stopped for lunch, which he caught by bow fishing. It was something that he had been practicing and had been hit or miss on. It cleared his mind some as he had to focus on the hunt, not being able to rely on modern conveniences. It made him feel like he had some control as it was up to him, not some technology, to get the food he needed. Some days he ate on the beach taking a break before heading back to camp. Other days he had to deal with hunger as he ran back to camp and had rations. Today he had been lucky and was able to build a fire and cook some fish.

He was about to eat when he heard someone call out, “Help, help I’m drowning!”

Jason got up and jogged towards the sound of the voice. There was a Ferengi male rather close by. He was flopping about in water that would be mid-abdomen for him.

Jason called out, “Stand up.”

“What?”, he called out, spitting water out of his mouth.

“Just stand up”, Jason repeated.

The Ferengi did. The water was about neck deep on him, so Jason went out to where he was and offered him a hand. In a few seconds they were back on the beach.

“Ugh, I could have died out there”, the Ferengi said while spitting out water.

“There was a possibility, but it was quite small”, Jason replied as he motioned for him to follow.

When they got to the fire Jason said, “Sit, get warm. I take it you can’t swim?”

“No”, the Ferengi said.

“What were you doing out here then?”, Jason asked.

“Well, I heard there were some sort of shell-fish that had pearls as big as your thumb”, the Ferengi answered. “I don’t want to be stuck here as a bartender forever.”
“You’d have to go out deeper for anything like that”, Jason said.

Hey, I bet you can swim, I’ll split profits on anything you find 70-30.”

He rubbed his hands together.

Jason laughed and said, “Sorry, I just swim to relax. I’m not a treasure hunter. My name is Jason by the way.”

“Torvan”, the Ferengi said sniffing. “What’s that smell?”

Jason pointed to the fish and asked, “Want some?”

Torvan nodded. He took the fish Jason offered, sniffed it, and then bit into it. A moment later he let out an ‘mmm’.

“That’s delicious. You know, I could sell this”, he said. “If you can bring me more of these at the bar at the colony, I will give you a slip of latinum for each one.”

Jason let out a little snort and said, “I have a better deal. If I bring you some, you give me information about anything interesting going on around the colony or station.”

Torvan smiled after thinking a moment, “Deal.”

“One favor”, Jason said, wondering if there might be more of Xeod’s men around. “I’m trying to be discrete about my presence around here, so don’t be using my name.”

“Alright hue-mon”, he said. “I’ll just call you the fish-mon.”

Jason laughed and nodded taking a bite of his own fish.

[OFF]


Jason, "The Fish-mon" Haines
Resident Beach Bum
Deep Space 5

 

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