Ducats (Part I of II)
Posted on Fri Oct 25, 2019 @ 9:00pm by Captain Maritza Soran & Civilian 'Arrival' Geral Lasuma & Civilian Dorian Torel
1,139 words; about a 6 minute read
Mission:
Doors of Perception
Location: Somewhere in the bowels of DS5
Timeline: MD14 0200
[ON]
Almost everyone one the Promenade had jumped at his shipping proposal. He had even, after a little convincing, absorbed two of the smaller transport carriers in the area. And to keep from appearing to be monopolizing things he kept them as a distant, almost shadow, subsidiary. That on top of the trade deal made with the Imersa Council on Tarelis IV and his commission from the dilithium deal the latinum was pouring in.
Entering the stations expansive green space with its trees, stream, and walkway. The air was noticeably fresher and he walked out upon the grounds and made his way to the rail looking out over the water. He glanced at the spot where someone had tried to attack him and Maritza then looked up at the artificial starscape.
He wasn't there long, when the bulky form of Gevran's Consigliare, the human known as Kemmick joined him at the rail. "Evening, Lasuma." The human stared out over the small artificial pond. A terran koi carp came to the surface, swalllowed a pellet of fish food with a plop and dissapeared back into the pond's depths. "Gev would like a word."
Without looking in the man's direction Geral replied, "And that's why I asked to meet with him."
"This way then," Kemmick stood back to indicate they should leave the arboretum. "Not going far; just a couple of decks down."
Geral stepped away from the rail and began the walk towards the exit.
Dorian had watched and now it was his job to follow. As Lasuma and Kemmick left the arboretum, a shifty looking andorian and a sterotypically large nausaicaan fell in behind them. They went to the turbo lifts, took the first empty car that arrived and dropped down to the underbelly of the station
Taking the very next lift to open Dorian monitored their progress.
The group in the turbo lift stood in silence, until they reached deck 1175. There, the turbo lifts opened, and Kemmick ambled out, moving away from the main services corridor and out to an otherwise unused mechanics bay, But it wasn't empty. There was quite a large crowd inside, and when the doors opened, sharp, meaty, slaps could be heard inside.
Stopping two decks above them Dorian ducted into an an alcove and into a jefferies tube sliding the ladder to his destination.
Just inside the doors were two more of Gevran's heavies, a stringy Romulan and another nausicaan. They both ran tricorders over Lasuma, with cool and professional demeanor.
Geral stood patiently. "I'm not armed nor carrying surveillance equipment."
THe Romulan held out his tricorder to Kemmick, who raised an eyebrow. "Your earring please." Kemmick held his hand out. "You'll get it back when you leave."
"Ahhh…" Geral reached up and removed his earring and deactivated his security tracker, and handed it over. "Kind of over kill isn't it? I mean we are still on the station after all."
Kemmick, put the earing into a small case that the nausicaan held out, and slipped it into his inside pocket. "The station isn't as small as you think. Staying off Security's radar is for everyone's benefit. This way."
Dorian's took note of that the transmitter had stopped. With a grin he switched his tracker to the secondary unit. The subdermal unit was still functioning and transmitting his vitals; elevated but only slightly. Whatever was going on Geral was calm and not under distress, at least not yet. Pocketing the monitor he continued to make his was through the Jefferies tubes.
Inside the mechanics bay, there was a good sized crowd of maybe eighty to a hundred people, gathered around the sunken acess pit. Some leant on the rails at the edge, others were standing on walkways and gantries that let them see down into the pit.
Gev and his associates were standing on one walkway that over looked it, and as he followed Kemmick onto it, Lasuma could clearly see the two andorian's fighting inside it. Blue blood streaked the stainless steel walls as they slashed at each other with ushaan-tor. It was wasn't a true Ushaan duel though. The two combatants weren't tied together.
As Geral approached, Gev turned to him with an expansive smile. "Glad you got in touch. I need to talk to you." His next words were drown out by the brief sound of someone choking, a gout of blue blood fountaining from the pit and the crowd erupting in to cheers. A bolian in an ill fitting suit declared the winner, and people rushed forward to get the loser out before he bled to death.
So this was the fight ring he had heard about. Geral leaned in closer so he made sure he could be heard. "I have some latinum for you."
"Do you now?" Gev gave him a look. "And why is that? Have you been to up to something I won't approve of?"
"Not at all...well not intentionally. As I'm sure you know I offered the merchants on the Promenade a significant discount on their shipping. It came to my attention that effort cut into you operation a bit."
"After a fashion." Gev acknowledged. Some of those routes do belong to people here. I've had complaints." He paused whilst some of his crew sluiced out the pit of blood ready for the next round. when the heavy jets stopped blasting, he begun again. "Very vocal complaints."
"Well it wasn't anything personal, after all business is business. I was simply able to offer service at a lower cost than my competitors. And as it was a benefit to those on the station...saving them money while making me money....I moved ahead. However it would be disrespectful to cut you out on the rewards."
"The problem you've made me, Lasuma, isn't from what those merchants were shipping, Buying from you rather than my guys isn't the problem. The problem is, that when those merchants buy from my guys, it gives them a reason to be places they wouldn't otherwise be allowed to go. Reasons they no longer have."
He shrugged, hardly the first time he had had to deal with inconveniencing or replacing the arrangements of others. "Well those are the risks one takes with single source or shall we say other endeavors. I currently help with other clients with their operations there is no reason I can't replace or employ those you are referring to."
"Its my job to make sure no-one goes out of business, Mr Lasuma. Not get replaced by young turks. I'm going to require some recompense for the inconvenience to my people whilst they secure new lines of revenue."
To Be Concluded...
Gevran
"Entrepreneur"
DS5
Geral Lasuma
Owner - Lasuma Enterprises
Dorian Torel
Bodyguard and henchman to Geral Lasuma
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