Paved with Good Intentions, Part II: Too Little, Too Late
Posted on Wed Aug 5th, 2026 @ 10:07am by Lieutenant Commander Corin Layal & Lieutenant James Constantine
Edited on on Wed Aug 5th, 2026 @ 11:02am
2,112 words; about a 11 minute read
Mission:
Cold Cases
Location: Ing Colony, Outskirts of Syndicate/Federation Territory
Timeline: 2389, 2 Days after Part I
Constantine's gaze lingered on the closing door, studying it aimlessly as his mind whirled. She was right, this was bigger than him. But part of that picture included the victims that would continue to be sold as slaves while they waited. He tapped his nail thoughtfully against the empty glass, considering his options...or whether he had any options left on the table at all.
Two Days Later
Constantine had watched the exploitation for as long as he could. He was no stranger to witnessing the darker sides of the universe, but there was something about this mission that had managed to get under his skin. He had jolted awake in the middle of the night, covered in sweat from a dream that he couldn't quite recall, but had left an icy knot in his chest. He had resolved that morning to stop the slavers before anyone else could be ruined by their sick trade, one way or another.
The powers that be had decided to let them continue, to gather more intel on the leaders of the rings. He knew he'd face the wrath of his own superiors for blowing the investigation before they were ready...but he didn't care. They'd live. The victims of these thugs wouldn't.
He moved through the suite with confidence. He'd spent the last weeks undercover, gaining the trust of these criminals, enough to have at least some freedom. His intel gathering had been completely covert, not even the local authorities had known about it, or the human trafficking that had been taking place under their noses. Or at least, they were in a place of plausible deniability; he couldn't believe they were as oblivious as they appeared to be.
So his plan was simple...force the local authorities to acknowledge the crimes taking place on their watch, so they had no choice but to intervene. It would put an end to the horrific trafficking, and he could help clear up the criminals on the base itself before they dispersed into the ether.
Constantine moved to the computer of one of the overseers, glancing down the corridor before clipping a small, smooth disc to the console. He hacked into the system easily enough, retrieving the information to take a copy back to HQ before preparing incriminating comms to send out and flag up to security.
*
Jayzen Drake had always seemed to Constantine to be a struggling working man. That's how he seemed to most everyone, and there had been nothing in the beginning to suggest that he would get wrapped up in the traffic that Starfleet was trying to stop, which was why he'd been cleared to tap into as an informant. He'd been willing to help, and his struggles were the kind that you sympathized with, but Jayzen wasn't one to complain, which is how the lines between informant and friend had become so easily blurred.
Truth was, Jayzen never really saw himself getting into this stuff either. He was trying to make a living after his wife had been killed in a factory accident a few years ago. He just needed enough money to buy himself a ride off of this rock, but that was the cycle - they just kept you in their debt. Starfleet was his ticket out. If he could help them take down the head of the snake, not only would this colony be in a better spot, but Starfleet had promised to relocate him. He had nothing to lose.
The first time he'd slipped he hadn't seen it coming. The woman was his age, maybe just a couple of years younger. She was beautiful. Her emerald green skin matched the soft waves of her hair, and she'd made him feel like a king before he went with her to her suite. He'd lost track of the days until he ran out of credits. She'd seemed sad when she had to go. The thought that he'd been on a pheromone bender the entire time he was with her didn't even cross his mind until the hangover hit. That didn't matter though, she'd been with him long enough that he was addicted now, and craving that euphoric bliss. That had been the plan. He didn't know or remember how the girls kept getting younger, but when he woke up from the stupor he was ashamed. They'd turned him into an addict, it was their insurance policy.
Jayzen was in trouble and he knew it. And he knew his only chance at a normal life was for Starfleet to get him out of here and away from this crap. Tonight he was anxious. It had been almost two weeks since he'd gotten wrapped up in an excursion, but he didn't trust himself to stay away for much longer. He thought they were done soon, but hadn't gotten word. He set out looking for his handler, hoping to push the issue. At the very least surely he'd gotten them enough that they could get him out of here.
It was late in the evening, dark. Jayzen paced the streets where he'd often find Constantine, hoping he'd be lucky enough to run into him. Constantine hadn't responded to his calls.
Unbeknownst to him, he was being watched from across the dimly lit street. Constantine was leaning against the damp wall of an alley opening, the collar of his black coat turned up against the drizzle. His mind was in overdrive, almost at war with itself. One voice was justifying his anger and outrage, trawling over everything that had happened, and would happen, because of these monsters. The other voice was trying to calm him down, offer the professional voice of reason, persuade him that the long game, no matter the sacrifices along the way, could lead to a cleaner result.
Cleaner.
There was nothing clean about this mess.
Constantine finally pushed himself away from the wall, catching up with Drake as he rounded the corner towards a backstreet. "You look jittery..." he commented lightly as he pushed his hands deep into the warmth of his coat pockets, not trusting himself to say anything with more meaning.
"Hey, ah, I was hoping to run into you. I, we... is there some place we can talk?" Drake asked, his eyes darting nervously around the public street.
"Sure," Constantine replied casually, his voice light. Any real friend, any real family, would know that the more casual James sounded, the better it was to be on guard. "Our 'friends' have a saferoom on the riverside, it should be empty at this time of night."
"Alright then," Jayzen relaxed a bit at the suggestion. "I'll follow you, then."
Constantine tilted his head to indicate he should follow, burying his hands deep into his pockets as he led the way down the side of the river. He kept a watch in the murky night, his shoulders hunching slightly at the cold fog rolling off the water. He pressed his thumb into a slot half way down an old wall, the door sliding open to them. He looked back to Jayzen with an arched eyebrow, motioning for him to go in first. There was no way he was going to.
Jayzen gave Constantine a slight nod and then shuffled into the building ahead of James. He'd noticed that his handler seemed more formal than usual, but it wasn't enough to make Jayzen suspicious of James. He was too worried about other things at the moment.
Once Constantine had closed the door Jayzen began talking in a low, rapid voice. "Look, is there anyway you can get my out of her sooner. Just put me somewhere, anywhere. Hide me out. I don't care if it's a closet, I'll hide out there until there's a trial or whatever you need me to do, but things are getting hot around here."
"Hot?" Constantine replied lightly as he pulled a chair up close to the old wooden table, dropping down into it to watch him with well feigned confusion. "Slow down, Jayzen...why do you need to get out so quickly?" he wasn't sure he wanted to hear another lie out of the man's mouth, but somehow, he just needed to know if he would finally admit the monstrous things he was mixed up in, or if he was just going to feed him more lies.
"You know what happens to people like me if they figure out what I've been doing," James walked around the table and sat down in the other chair and tried to steady his breathing. "I've been doing this a while now. It's gotta be time to get me out."
Constantine sat back heavily in his chair as he watched him, feeling as if this was the moment the dye was going to be well and truly cast. "And just what have you been doing, Jayzen?" he asked, his voice strangely quiet in comparison to the panic of the other man. James' heart was thumping in his chest all the same. He briefly wondered if Jayzen realised this was his last throw of the dice...but found himself not really caring.
Jayzen attempted to swallow the lump that was forming in his throat as he sat across from Constantine. Something in the way the other man was regarding him set Jayzen off that he may not longer be safe. His eyes regarded the room for a possible escape as he wondered what the alleged Starfleet officer was capable of.
"I did what you asked. All of it. You need me to testify." Jayzen attempted to verify a point.
"But what else did you do, Jayzen?" James met his eyes, holding them relentlessly as his demeanour became a shade colder. "To all those people...what did you do?"
"All of what people? What are you talking about?" Jayzen backed away from the table and stood up defensively.
Constantine stood with him, advancing subtly as his eyes flashed a warning of simmering anger. "How much of their dirty work have you done, Jayzen? How many lives are on your hands now? Was it a slow drift of allegiance, or do you fancy yourself an agent provocateur?"
"Allegiance? To who? What are you talking about, I ain't got no allegiances to them, I'm in trouble, man. I need your help. I'm a victim here."
Jayzen backed away slowly and made an attempt to circle around Constantine, his goal to get the door in quick reach without taking his eyes off of the man who like he might snap at any moment. "What's these lives you're talking about?"
"If you want any chance of walking away from this situation, it's time to start telling the truth....now!" Constantine shouted the last as his anger broke through despite his best efforts, his hand slamming on the table between them. "You're as dirty as a Cardassian torture chamber! All this time, I thought you were just in over your head, holding just enough above water to do the right thing...but you're as bad as the rest of those bastards! You've been profiting on the trade of *people*!" he threw a chit that held a copy of the proof, letting it clatter on the table top.
Jayzen started to break. "Profiting? I'm not profiting. They've taken everything I have. I didn't mean to get... it just started with one night. The girls. I didn't hurt anyone though. I swear. I'm not one of them."
Whatever small admissions were being squeezed out of Jayzen were too little too late. Constantine pressed both hands on the table, leaning forward on it, his eyes narrowing dangerously. "Then what are you, Jayzen? Because from where I'm standing, you look like scum. I'm putting an end to this. Tonight. No more buying and selling, no more people disappearing without anyone even blinking....I'm bringing them down, and *you* are going to tell the authorities every single dirty little secret you know and testify against them..."
A Joint Post By
Lieutenant Commander Corin Layal as Jayzen Drake
Judge Advocate General, USS Artemis
First Officer, USS Artemis
Starfleet Criminal Investigations Unit
Lieutenant James Constantine
Criminal Investigations Officer, USS Artemis
Starfleet Criminal Investigations Unit
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