THE RELIANT

THE PIRATE & THE POISON

John and Tamala were on Earth investigating reports that a major crime syndicate had moved into Neo-Tokyo, which was one of Earth's most populated cities. John was no stranger to investigating crime syndicates. Years earlier before he was assigned command of The Pretorius, he had infiltrated a major crime syndicate known as the Yukan. His investigation led to the arrest and eventual conviction of the Yukan's top boss, a brutally sadistic man named Franco. As a result, the Yukan had promised that no matter how long or how many years it took, they vowed revenge against John.

John and Tamala were walking along the crowded streets when John abruptly stopped, causing Tamala to nearly run into him. Tamala gazed at him wondering why he stopped. He was staring straight forward with a look on his face like he'd just seen a ghost.

"It can't be," John muttered.

"Captain?" Tamala asked him with concern. "What is it? Why did you stop walking all of a sudden?"

"Oh, it's nothing," John told her, shaking his head while still staring forward. "I just thought I saw someone I knew, that's all." He looked at her. "Let's keep going."

"Okay," Tamala replied with a bit of uneasiness in her voice.

John and Tamala started to walk again when suddenly they were surrounded by three men wearing business suits and fedora hats. Two of the men surrounded Tamala and began to fight her while the other man stood silently close to John. However, when John stepped forward to try to help Tamala, the other man grabbed him by his arm, forcing John to look directly at him.

"Hello, John," the man said calmly. "It's been a long time."

"Who are you?" John demanded. "Why did you stop us?"

The man removed his hat and smiled at John.

"You!" John exclaimed, his eyes wide. "I thought it was you. What do you want?"

The man quickly stepped closer to John as he pulled out an injector.

"Revenge!" he said before jabbing John in the neck with the injector.

John winced as he placed his fingers on the spot on his neck where the man jabbed him with the injector. Suddenly he fell to his knees and began coughing uncontrollably. Tamala turned when she noticed her Captain fall to his knees while coughing violently.

"Captain!" she yelled.

"Let's go!" the man said to his two companions.

And, just like that, the three men vanished into the crowd. Tamala attempted to look for them, but then she heard John's coughs becoming worse. She rushed over to him and placed her hand on his shoulders.

"Captain, are you all right?"

Just then, John started coughing up blood onto the sidewalk. 

"Captain!" Tamala immediately took out her communicator and turned it on. "Zack!"

"Yeah, Tamala?"

"There's something wrong with the Captain. He's coughing up blood. Transport him directly to sick bay. Use emergency transport."

"You got it, Tamala. I'll alert Doctor Booth."

"Thanks, Zack. I'll be up on the ship shortly. Tamala out."

She turned off her communicator and watched as a white light suddenly surrounded John. She couldn't help but notice how no one seemed to blink an eye at all that was going on like this was an everyday occurrence or something. But she didn't have time to dwell on any of that as she switched on her transporter band on her arm and was transported back to the ship. Once she was back on the ship, she rushed to sick bay to see if John was all right. There she saw Commander Steiner standing outside sick bay waiting for the doctor to tell her something, anything, about the Captain's condition.