Post #24. hard graft

Posted on Thu Nov 25th, 2021 @ 6:49am by Lieutenant T’Mia Rahl

Mission: The Forgotten Children
Location: Planet’s surface

{ON}

Having joined the rest of the women in the village. T’Mia was grateful that no one else had bothered to question who she was, or where she was from. Instead the women were busy with the daily chores that the Jem’Hadar had set them.

Following a group out into nearby fields, she was astounded to see food growing even with the scorching heat, and the sun pounding down. Each section was covered with a roughly erected maze of covering to keep the food shaded, it seemed a lot of the water that was seeping up from underground was being used to keep the crops watered.

She watched as women trudged back and forth tending the crops, others gathered water from a well further down the village carrying back in whatever they could put it in big or small.

The Jem’Hadar simply sat watching the villagers do their work, except for when one man came begging for extra water. She had no choice but to watch as the Jem’Hadar simply slaughtered him on the spot and went back to indulging in their own water, and food.

“You...woman! Come here!” The Jem’Hadar motioned towards T’Mia. “Quickly now, unless you want to be punished for your insolence!”

T’Mia had little choice as she moved across wondering what the Jem’Hadar wanted.

“Have that cleaned up!” The grinning Jem’Hadar pointed to the body of the elderly man. “Throw him in the pit, let the carnivores have his remains!”

T’Mia almost started to protest before remembering the sight of the women in the stocks. She couldn’t afford to end up locked up somewhere, so instead she did as she was told. Fortunately the pit had been one place she’d heard whispers of, it was located on the edge of the village boundary.

As she started to struggle with pulling the body another woman moved to her side assisting with the heavy corpse. A few minutes of heavy dragging later T’Mia could only cover her nose and mouth as she looked down into a pit full of rotting corpses. It seemed the bodies were simply dumped into the deep pit and left as food for local predators. There were no chances of a descent burial.

Cleaning her hands with some water she wiped away a few tears as she ventured back towards the inner area of the village, as she did so she was drawn to the sound of screaming. Walking towards it she could only watch as a Jem’Hadar dragged a woman into her home, she could only guess from the noise inside what was happening, and it wasn’t good.

“What kind of hell hole is this?” She walked in and made her way back, if she was to help these people she needed to find out just how many Jem’Hadar there were, and what their daily movements were.

{TBC}