Diamond in the Rough (Open)

[Kali Reyes]

[Planet Suveria - Starport Camache]

"Let me get this straight," she began carefully. Menacingly. "My crewman is out there, in the biggest, dangerous desert in the Alpha Quadrant, because you fed him a stupid story about a djinn in a lamp?"

Her words weren't entirely correct, given the culture of the Vindii. The bug-eyed, teal colored alien withered under her glare and shook three of his palms at her in an attempt to placate. He explained earlier, much to her disbelief, about a custom where they buried capsules filled with local treasures and all sorts of junk that Starfleet wouldn't raise attention to.

But Crewman Shadi was a known klepto of anything related to alien folklore. It was inevitable that he latched on to this merchant's fanciful tale about the merchant's forefathers burying someone who claimed immortality and capable of bending time and reality to suit the master's whims. A djinn was the best her translator could come up with.

"Djinn? What is djinn?" he blubbered. "I cannot translate!"

"Your immortal abomination!" she roared. The paperwork after all of this was staggering - even more so if Shadi ended up dead. No one outside of Operations knew how difficult it was to put into words why or how the deceased had died so ridiculously to grieving widows, and Kali was running out of adjectives for the word 'sorry'.

This was supposed to be a pit stop for dilithium crystals. Suveria was a literal credit mine for the stuff, so the major cities tend to be just large ship ports off the coast of their tiny seas for busy starships. The only thing remarkable about the planet was the desert that took up literally 70% of the planet, with continent Kebelothticabro being the biggest desert this side of the quadrant. Literally nothing existed in the middle save for a single remote research station. It wasn't even properly manned.

But the merchant was not only saying that it was manned by a lone soul, but that his family buried their treasure capsule near the station, gloating about how it was the farthest any of his kind have traversed without using any aircraft to get there. Poor, gullible Shadi took it as a challenge worth his own life.

Thrill-seeking bastard.

She made the merchant draw up a second map and then stalked over to the commerce HUB practically thriving with aliens from all sorts of quadrant powers. Most of Federation's personnel were hanging out by the commercial tourist area near the Ferengi Alliance, who were eagerly watching the trends floating by the large digital market board.

Kali climbed up a large metal crate and tried to look as cool and imposing as possible. "Requesting Starfleet personnel!" she shouted after foisting a sharp whistle for attention. "I've got an AWOL crewman on an unauthorized mission out in deep Kebelothticabro and I need an accountabila-buddy. If you've got the stones for danger, grab a sunhat and meet me at shuttle-trans. Good looking officers will be prioritized accordingly."

The last request was absolutely necessary. They were going to spend a good few hours traveling the sprawling desert in a tiny sandcutter and she'd like to have something pleasant to look at to improve her already bottoming mood.

With a sharp flick of her ponytail, Kali twisted around and hopped off the crate. Next on the list: sandcutter and supplies.

Stupid Shadi.