Baiting traps

Posted on Thu Oct 15, 2020 @ 2:06am by Civilian 'Key Holder' Yolanthe Ibalin

1,293 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Et In Arcadia Ego
Location: Q'uit's Bar
Timeline: MD07 0010

[ON]

Q'uits was thick with smokes. Grey and plue and green and purple, sweet smelling, bitter, and, well smoky. Nessia Zuul thought she was going to choke on it. But Si'lar Trellis said that Q'uits was the most likely place to look, and he had the local knowledge.

She didn't have to act much. She was out of place, and nervous, and it didn't take much to turn that into furtive. The Klingon guarding the door tool one look at her and told her she was in the wrong place.

"No, I am. I just need. You know. Something to take the edge off."

The klingon looked at her, and then stood aside and she entered the darkened smoke. Inside she found the bar wasn't far from the door. She approached it with sweaty palms and waited for the Klingon at the bar to notice her.

"What are you after?" he asked her. That was a telling question. Not what did she want to drink, but what was she after. "Party starters. And something to mellow out after."

"A pharmacist," Q'uit grunted.

"Yes." Qu'it didn't say anything more, just waited expectantly. Nessia took a strip of latinum from her pocket and put it on the bar.

Qu'it made it dissapear. "Yeah. There's one in. Head back. Trill like you. Male, blonde, skinny. About 1.8 meters. Scar in his hand. Probably smoking."

Nessia's stomach lurched. There was one thing all Hex's hosts had in common. It liked to put its cigars out on the palm of its host. "Okay. What does he drink?" She put another strip of latinum on the bar. He put out two glasses and poured out two fingers of unindentified brown liquor. She grabbed them and headed deeper into the smoke.

Some Lurians moved from their table, stirring the smoke, and Nessia caught a glimpse of who Qu'it must have meant. The young man was blonde, hair long enough to need tieing back, and frame made lean from hard labor. He wore a black leather jacket and pants, and indeed was smoking, a thick foul cigar that added to the miasma.

He saw her too. She saw his eyes jump to her spots. For a moment she thought he'd made her. Then the stool opposite him at his table was pushed out, sliding across the floor with a screech that cut the noisy chatter for a moment.

She hesitated a moment, and then sat. "I need some drugs. I was told you can help."

"Who are you?"

"Nessia Zuul." There was no point in hiding her name. No one would know her.

"And what makes you think I can help?" He asked again.

Nessia looked back over her shoulder. "The Klingon said." She pushed the glass across the table to him, and took a nervous sip of her own.

"What do you have in mind?" The man blew a smoke ring into the miasma, the red end glowing for a moment, a warning.

"Nordesgranine." She said promptly

But he only shook his head. "I'm right out, sorry. If you can wait a while, I can brew a batch. The symbiont giving you a problem?"

"How-?"

"Did I know?" the next smoke ring went in her face. "That shit can mess you up. More importantly it stops access to the symbiont's memories." He cocked his head on one side. "I'm a pharmacist. I'd be a piss poor drug dealer if I didn't know what my products did. But you're shit out of luck. I'm right out."

"I know you must have something. I heard security talking about some being smuggled in."

The boy narrowed his eyes. "Did they now?"

"So i figured someone would have them, and I thought I'd ask here."

"And why do you want nordegressine so badly."

"They didn't tell me about the previous host. That she lost her mind, killed herself. I don't want her memories. They're nothing but pain. She lost her baby."

"Tragic." Hex said, without an ounce of empathy. "Doesn't change the fact I don't have any."

Nessia glanced at her drink, desperately trying to think of what else she could do to get him to leave with her.

"You must have something. Something to make it stop," The excuse was a lie, but the desperation she felt was real.

Hex reached over and patted her shoulder awkwardly, "There there."

Nessia looked away, trying to not give herself away. "Can you help or not?"

Hex sat back. "Have a drink, you'll feel better."

"You're not answering." She drank anyway.

"No, I can't help."

"Why not?" She challenged. "Are you keeping it for yourself. Keeping yourself on top."

There was a frozen moment. Nessia knew she'd just outed herself, and Hex knew she was Commission.

He grinned, and blew smoke into her face. "So you found me." He didn't sound anything other than pleased. "Took you long enough. I didn't think I'd have to so blatent with those drugs."

"Surrender, and you won't be harmed."

Hex laughed. "You've got that the wrong way round.

"What do you mean?" The words were a labour to get out, her mouth and jaw sluggish. "What have you-"

Hex held up his hand. Hidden in his palm was a tiny hypospray, the width two fingers. "Paralytic. Its a nasty one too. Its got your limbs already. its moving in for your core muscles. Eventually it gets your diaphragm, and you suffocate to death, without so much as a twitch or a whimper."

Nessia couldn't move. It was a sudden, terrifying feeling, Nothing was responding to directions to move, she could blink, and breathe, and that was about it.

Hex grinned. "It didn't take long to kick in did it?" He took a puff on the foul cigar and blew smoke into her face. "I made you the moment you walked. I'm guessing that you've got friends, maybe even station security, waiting outside. By the time they come in for you, I'll be long gone."

He took a slender case from the inside of the leather jacket, opening it up to reveal a hypospray. "And I'm afraid you're wrong about me needing all those chemicals to stay on top. I've always been on top, no chemicals needed. But what I do need them for is to make sure someone stays dead. In the right combination, like this one, it will cause the brain matter to disintegrate. Even if they get you to the hospital, there's nothing they can do. What's more, it rots the symbiont too. Two birds for the price of one."

A tear escaped Nessia's eye, and rolled down her face, but she could no nothing more. She was going to die. Zuul was going to die. She was so scared, and she was stuck and she couldn't move.

Hex leaned over and gently brushed her dark hair back from her neck, then swiped the tear away with his thumb. He looked at the glistening bead of liquid, and then sucked it into his mouth. "Good bye, Nessia Zuul." He touched the hypospray to her neck, and killed her.

He sat back down to watch while she went. She couldn't move, there was no gasping, no shaking, everything was locked. "I'm going to use this on the head of the Symbiosis committee when he gets here. And after they find you, he will come."

He finished his cigar, and ground out the stump on the thick pad of scar tissue in his left palm. Then he gave her a critical glance, and carefully felt for a pulse. It was gone. Hex drained his drink. "Goodbye Nessia Zuul. It wasn't personal."

[OFF]

Hex, in the body of Ahjess Denn
"Pharmacist"

Nessia Zuul
Symbiosis Commission Agent

NPCs by Soran

 

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