The End of Hex (Part II of II)
Posted on Fri May 14, 2021 @ 7:51am by Commander Caleb Ryan & Ensign Jessica Mayhew & Civilian 'Key Holder' Yolanthe Ibalin
2,201 words; about a 11 minute read
Mission:
Si vis pacem, para bellum
Location: The Box of Delights
Timeline: MS01 2100
Previously in The End of Hex
"I'm done negotiating with the monkeys. Get your organ grinder down here so I can talk to someone capable of making decisions."
“We can do that,” Jessica said. She kept her eye on Hex as she reached for her comm badge. “Ensign Mayhew to Commander Ryan. We have the Trill cornered in the back kitchens of The Box. He’s requesting your presence, sir. He has a hostage, one of the boys that works here.”
Caleb paused as he received the request. “Ah’m on mah way down,” he said. Closing the channel, he called Tessaro in Security to get more officers to surround and cut off the Box and clear it out.
Hex gave the security guards a nasty smile and tightened its grip on Blake. "Don't wiggle, pretty boy. If my hand slips you'll be even more brainless than you are now." It looked up at the security guards. "I'd tell your boss to hurry. I'm on a deadline, and he won't like the consequences of me missing it."
And now the conclusion
“It’s a big station,” Jessica told Hex. “He’ll be here.”
And after a few minutes there was a commotion in the outer halls, and then Yolanthe stormed through the kitchen door, hair white and skin pale cream "What in the nine hells is going on? Why on Earth am I being forced to shut again?" She pulled up short when she saw her missing dabo boy with her favourite waiter held in front of him. "Ahjess?"
"I need your help, boss," Hex said, sounding convincingly scared. "I didn't do anything."
“If ya didn’t do anythin’, then why’re ya’ll holdin’ a man hostage with a deadly neurotoxin?” Caleb’s Texas drawl carried as he entered. “Put it down an’ we can talk.”
Yolanthe turned between the two of them, her body sharp turquoise in confusion.
Hex just refocused on Ryan. "Before you do anything rash, you should know I have a whole host of juicy data on you and your daughter, and it's kept on a deadman's switch. If anything happens to me I don't like, your baby girl is going to spend a long time in a correctional centre. Starting with kidnap and assault, and progressing to murder. Plus the Symbiosis Commission will rip out Naquiis and that will likely kill her. Emotionally anyway. Assuming they let her have the drugs to stave off the physical deterioration. So think really carefully before you say no to unsealing the Promenade and letting me walk away."
"Commander, what's he talking about? What's going on?” Yolanthe demanded.
“Ah’m not entirely sure,” Caleb said, frowning. How did he know about Naquiis? He returned his attention to Ahjess. “Son, ya just killed the head of the Commission. Ah cain’t just let that walk,” he reminded Ahjess. “But ya don’t need ta make it worse. Ya let Blake go, an’ we’ll talk about what Ah can do for ya. Cooperation is in yer best interest now, son. There ain’t nowhere ta go.”
"Let me spell it out for you," Hex said, voice tight, shifting slightly so that the two security officers didn't have such a clear line on them. "I got my meat suit because your daughter drugged him while she was in the middle of fucking his brains out. Then she stuffed him in a crate and handed him over to me. I've got it on video that will go straight to Starfleet Security and the Federation Marshal's service. Now, do you want me to tell them more about her crimes and misdemeanours, or do you want to let me walk?"
Caleb’s eyes opened slightly wider in surprise, but he mostly kept his poker face. “That is somethin’ we can talk about, but not over a hostage. Just you an’ me,” Caleb said.
Yolanthe's colour was getting lighter. "Meat suit? So that's not Ahjess?"
Hex grinned, using the dabo's boy face. "Oh, he's in here too. He's just not in charge anymore."
Yolanthe turned to Caleb. "So there's something inside him? Can you take it out?"
Jessica ducked around a corner and tapped her comm, speaking quietly, “Ensign Mayhew to transporter room. Can you lock on to the Trill signature in the Box’s kitchen?” she asked. “Beam him into the brig.”
There was a pause. "Between the bulkheads and whatever's there. I'm getting a load of interference right there. Can you get them closer to your position, or preferably out onto the main floor?"
Jessica frowned. “I can try,” she said. “If it’s easier, can you beam the male Human he is holding away to safety? Targets are about three meters from Commander Ryan.”
Caleb looked over at Yolanthe. “We can try,” he told her, “but if it’s been more’n ninety days… Ah’m sorry,” he told her.
Caleb turned his attention back to Hex. “Release the boy an’ take me. We’ll talk about what Ah can do for ya.”
Jessica nodded to Travis and made a hand motion out of sight. She was going to try and see if she could circle around behind Hex.
"How long has it been?" Yolanthe asked Hex.
Hex smirked. "A year now. I'm nice and comfy. So if you pry me out, the meat sack dies. He may prefer that." He turned back to Ryan, contemplating the offer. "Are you armed, Commander?"
Caleb held out his arms. He didn’t have any visible phaser on his hip. He didn’t carry one in normal operations. But as senior crew, he was required to carry the small, hidden, Type 1 phaser. It was concealed in a small pocket at his waist. It would only give him a few shots, however, before the power pack ran dry.
“Ya see any weapons?” Caleb asked. “Only security officers are normally armed,” he pointed out.
Hex raised an eyebrow. "Sure. Security, and space cowboys." Hex nodded to the bar owner. "Check him. Lie to me, and your favourite pretty boy is a vegetable. Not much of a change probably. But do you want to take that risk?"
Yolanthe paled again. Her hair was pure white, and her skin was a pale shade of yellow now. But she went silently to Caleb and made a show of patting him down, checking his arms and chest, stepping closer as she reached round to check his back. She was blocking Hex's view of him when her fingers found the phaser. She pulled it out and turned her back on Caleb, brushing her hips against his.
And letting him feel the small disruptor tucked into her own waistband, next to the sheath for her cat's claw knife hidden under her loose shirt.
She took a step forward, her back still to Ryan. "Just baby's first phaser." Hex indicated for her to throw it aside, and she obeyed. "What now?"
"Them too." Hex nodded at Travis and Jessica. "Weapons down."
Caleb kept his face impassive. He had a good poker face when he wanted one. “Do it,” he instructed.
“Sir?” Jessica said.
“Weapons down, Ensign.”
Jessica and Travis slowly put their phasers onto the floor.
“We good now?” Caleb asked Hex. “Release Blake.”
"Get a bit closer, no funny business," Hex demanded, but his grip on the waiter was shifting, readying to let him go.
"So," Yolanthe said, "Ahjess is dead. You killed him." All the color had drained from her now, and her skin glowed with a cold white rage.
"As good as." Hex didn't take its eyes off Ryan. "He can't come back unless I leave, and if I leave, he dies for good. You never gave up on him. How touching."
“It’ll be okay, Ms. Ibalin,” Caleb said. His hand brushed her back, as if reassuring or comforting her, but he slipped the cat’s claw knife from the sheath and tucked it into his sleeve. It would be better in close quarters, and he trusted Yolanthe was a decent shot with the disruptor if she got the opportunity.
Caleb stepped forward, hands out unthreatening. “No one else has ta get hurt.”
"I'm not sure about that," Yolanthe was still, all her attention focused on the Trill man.
“It’ll be okay, Blake,” Caleb spoke to the young man, holding his empty hand out to him.
"Only if you do as you're told," Hex warned the commander, his grip on Blake loosening slightly. Then he shoved Blake into the Texan and used the move to grab Ryan in turn. He got his hypospray against the other man's neck. "Don't be a hero now. Zandy will find jail hard enough without being an orphan."
“Ah don’t intend for that ta happen,” Caleb said. He nodded to Yolanthe and Blake. “Now what’s yer plan, Hex?” he asked. “It’s a long way to a shuttle. Lotsa decks, lotsa security. Ah’m not sure ya’ve thought this all through, son.”
"You'd be surprised. All you have to do is drop the transporter baffle, and then we take a short walk out to the prom for a nice clean transport. I leave, you stay." He gave Ryan a push. "Start walking."
Caleb did as he was ordered. He trusted his security team. “Clear the Promenade outside the Box,” he instructed Jessica and Travis. “No civilians.”
As they moved off to do as told, Hex turned to Yolanthe. "Out of the way. And don't get any ideas."
"If you know anything about me, you know I don't do things that get men hurt," the white woman told him. "So it's not as if I'm going to shoot you in the head."
Hex inched past, smirking. "Not as if it would do you any good, any way. I don't live up there." He pushed Ryan out into the corridor, turning his back on her.
Yolanthe drew the small disruptor Ryan had decided to leave her with. She was a terrible shot, but if Ahjess was already dead... She held out the weapon, aimed between the shoulder blades, and pulled the trigger.
The disrupter beam hit him above the hip, punching a hole through Ahjess belly, and scorching Ryan's thigh before she overcompensated for recoil that wasn't there, and the beam was dragged out though his side and cut into the wall. Hex bellowed, and staggered, and then, in a high pitched desperate scream, Ahjess begged, "Get it out, Get it Out!"
Caleb spun, grunting. His thigh burned, and he staggered. His bad leg again! He wrested the hypospray from Ahjess’ fingers and tossed it away as he slammed the young man to the ground.
“This might hurt, son,” Caleb said, the cat’s claw dagger slipping into his hand. He sliced it across Ahjess’ belly, opening the symbiote pouch. Then he plunged his hands inside. It had been years since he’d done this. He felt for the connections between Ahjess and the symbiote, giving a yank to separate them. Hex was fighting him, but finally Caleb pulled the writhing slug free and out of the young man’s body.
“Computer! Lock onto mah signal. Emergency medical transport!” Caleb yanked his combadge off and slapped it onto Ahjess’ chest.
A second later saw the young Trill man swept away in a rush of particle deconstruction. Yolanthe walked over to the symbiote, which was twitching feebly. And then she trod on it. It bulged under the ball of her foot for a moment, and then burst.
The Bokkai ground the slime, ichor, and tissue under the toe of her boot for a moment. Then she looked at Ryan, daring him to say anything.
“Well, that is one way ta end things,” Caleb said through teeth gritted in pain. “Ah really thought ya’ll were a better shot,” he told Yolanthe with a grin.
"These aren't weapons," she sighed, the white fading away to a sunny blue. "No weight, no heft. It's like waving a finger in the air. Probably for the best. If you'd left me the dagger I would have slit his throat." She looked down at the remains smeared across the floor of her corridor. "You saved his life." Her eyes caught the wound across his leg. "Let's get you to sickbay. I'm sure Ensign Mayhew can deal with the mess here."
“It’s a little early to tell,” Caleb warned, not wanting to give Yolanthe false hope, “but Ah certainly hope yer right.” Grunting, he forced himself up, used to dealing with pain from his leg. Opal and Amia were going to kill him for wrecking all the hard repair work they had done.
Yolanthe helped him rise. "It's more chance than he had if you hadn't pulled that thing out. And you saved Blake as well." She smiled at her waiter. "I owe you for both of them."
“Just doin’ mah job, ma’am,” Caleb said.
[OFF]
Hex, in the body of Ahjess Denn
"pharmacist"
[NPC by Soran]
Yolanthe Ibalin
Owner, The box of Delights
Cdr. Caleb Ryan
XO
Ensign Jessica Mayhew
Ensign Travis Nottingham
Security Officers
[NPC by Ryan]
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