The companions did nothing as Tre wheeled the case out of the ship and across the berth back to the Beacon of Solace. The moment she stepped off the trillionaires ship, she felt like she had a target on her back. Her nerves were shot, and her mind was reeling. She hoped that what she had seen, what was in the case was simply a figment of her imagination, or a projection of the fears she had about the rich and powerful.
More than anything, she wanted to wheel the case onto her ship only to find that she's stolen some expensive underwear or something, but when she opened the case to verify its contents, she again saw the bound, helpless woman inside. Tre felt guilty closing the case again, even considering that the woman inside was wearing an opaque mask, but Tre sealed the case again and began moving it to the medical bay.
"Captain, meet me in the med bay immediately," Tre called out with an irritated tone. The rushing blood in her ears drowned out the response. Tre didn't want to hear it anyway.
The doors to the med bay hissed open and Tre rushed in with the case. Chief Medical Officer Ibrahim and Medic Takahashi were lounging in their office chairs, drinking coffee and killing time until the BOS shipped out to their next destination. They both jumped, not expecting Tre to rush in as quickly as she did.
"Whoa, what the hell?" Takahashi said.
"Ms. Perez?" Ibrahim asked. "Are you all right? Are you hurt?"
Tre moved between the two and gently tipped the case onto its back and opened it.
The two women gasped as they saw the nude, bound, limbless woman in the case, but each went to work immediately, recklessly throwing their coffees on the desk and moving to each side of the woman. Takahashi tested her pulse, and Ibrahim checked her breathing, then they both checked her amputation sites for open wounds.
After determining that the woman was relatively stable, the two went to work carefully removing her from the bindings and machinery she was attached to. All that Tre could do was stand aside and watch as the woman was moved to an examination table and attached to a new set of machines.
A few moments later, Captain Dubois stepped into the room. Just as everyone else, the captain gasped upon realizing what she was looking at. She covered her mouth.
"'It's not like this guy is trafficking humans or something,'" Tre said, mocking the captain's paraphrased words.
