Deals and Compromises, Part 2

Posted on Sun May 29, 2016 @ 3:42am by Commander Caden Aldrex & Civilian 'Key Holder' Yolanthe Ibalin & Lieutenant JG Zayna Malik & Civilian Hydel Turvan

2,439 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: Pangaea (Wrap up)
Location: A market somewhere
Timeline: MD13/1230

[CONT.]

A humanoid alien stood nearby, gaping at them. He had just seen them arrive through a literal hole in the air. He was wearing a blinking collar around his neck and appeared to have a bionic eye and arm.

Another alien muscled his way towards them. This one was a good eight feet tall and rippling with muscles. "Where do you think you're going?!" He pointed a small device at them. They were instantly enclosed in a force field.

"Lower this field and release us, now!" roared the Cardassian Ambassador. He was not sure where he had been transported to, but he knew that simply standing around like mere cattle being led to slaughter was unacceptable.

"Hold your tongue or that will be the next thing for sale," Muscles warned. He eyed them all for a second and his expression became confused. He asked his smaller assistant, "Where did these come from anyway? Were they always here?"

The assistant also looked confused. "They must have been."

"Well, they're not labeled! What exactly are we selling?"

"I...I don't know," the assistant stammered, suddenly embarrassed that he hadn't done his job properly.

"So find out! The auction is about to begin!"

"Yes, sir!" the assistant said. He retrieved a scanning device from his belt and waved it slowly in front of the newcomers.

Toq raised his Bat'leth into the field but it was no more yielding than he. As it fizzled and spat he snarled, "Come near me and it will be a new head you need to buy."

"Yes, threaten the person with sophisticated technology...I'm certain that will get us out of this predicament." Hydel said to the Klingon.

"I'll take yours off in a second, Reptile," Toq replied.

"A weapon! He's got a weapon!" The assistant stumbled backward and fell, his eyes wide with alarm. He reached for his own weapon but the holster was empty. It didn't occur to him that he might actually need it today. Nor did it occur to him that Toq was still safely behind a force field.

Muscles returned, pushing his way through the crowd. "What's going on here? Who has a weapon?" A quick glance at the players involved explained it to him. He grabbed his assistant by the arm and hauled him up. "Idiot. He can't hurt you. And didn't you check him for weapons before you brought him out here? How could you miss something that big?" He smacked the smaller man on the back of the head. Then to Toq he said, "You won't be needing that much longer. I just spoke to someone who's interested in those arms of yours."

The assistant, meanwhile, had gone back to scanning. He felt safer with muscles around. When he waved the scanner in front of Zayna Malik he frowned at the readouts on the display, then looked at her carefully, then looked at the readouts again. "Hey, boss, look at this." He gave the scanner to Muscles.

Muscles studied the scan results for himself. "How about that. Cyborg, eh?"

Ambassador Turvan was growing impatient. "Who. . .or better yet, what are you and why are you detaining us?" He demanded moreso than actually asked.

Muscles and his assistant traded a look and laughed. "Let me guess. You were tried and sentenced in absentia? That seems to happen more and more these days." He leaned in closer. "This is how you pay restitution, criminal. By selling your body parts to reimburse the state. And believe me, with seventeen systems at war with each other there's plenty of demand for parts. So sit tight, shut up, and we'll get to you soon."

"I can assure you of two things: First, I am not some miscreant criminal; and Second, you won't live long enough to regret your decision if you even attempt to touch any of my limbs." The Cardassian said defiantly.

"Ah, yes. A claim of innocence followed immediately by a threat. That's a first," Muscles said sarcastically.

"Are you deaf or are you just stupid!" Ambassador Turvan said in a direct and confrontational manner.

"I am not some criminal, I am Ambassador Hydel Turvan of the Cardassian Empire!" He said defiantly.

"If you lot are all done shouting and threatening and lord knows whatever else you are planning I am certain there is a good and clean cut explanation and solution for all of this." Zayna said a little annoyed at the people with her and at the situation itself. She turned to the person who seemed to be in charge. "I am Lieutenant Zayna Malik security officer onboard the Starfleet station Deep Space 5. I am not sure if these things mean anything to you, but if what you say is true and we have been charged of crimes there should be clear records of these convictions. As a security officer representing the United Federation of Planets I ask kindly to be allowed to view these records. I doubt you will find these as none of us are criminals as we would not be allowed to fulfill the functions we do today." she spoke in a calm and controlled manner, though at the same time she was looking for ways out and she spotted at least 1 chance, but before violence true diplomacy had to be tried, which did not include shouts and threats.

Turvan rolled his eyes and scuffed. How typical of a Human Female to be so naive as to think that soft words would work in such a hostile situation. "...be sure to ask him pretty please with a cherry on top while you are at it..." he mumbled audibly. At the moment the Security Officer should direct her attention to pointing out any deficiencies or weaknesses that could be exploited to aid in their escape. Turvan certainly was doing that very thing while she continued to talk.

Muscles gave a sideways glance at his assistant and asked, "Have you heard of any of those places? The Cardozian Empire or the Unified Planetary Whatever-It's-Called?"

"I have no idea what they're talking about," the assistant admitted. "They sound like a big deal."

"It is a big galaxy, after all," Muscles said. Then drilling his gaze into Turvan's he added, "Wherever it is, it's far away from here."

"What's going on here?" a female voice said, approaching. A second later its owner appeared, casting a disapproving glare at Muscles and his assistant, then at the captives behind the force field. "Why are you wasting time talking to them?" Her facial features were the same as the two men she had just scolded, indicating that they all came from the same species. In contrast to them, however, she was immaculately dressed in a beige, hooded, silk-like robe adorned with tiny gemstones. She had money to spend.

"This batch is full of chatty types," Muscles said. "Making like they're important or something."

"I don't care! They're about to begin in the pavilion! Grab this one and let's begin!" She pointed to Toq, then leaned closer and noticed the blade. "He has a weapon? Why did you give him a weapon?! And why aren't any of them wearing control collars? What are you idiots doing out here?"

The assistant offered up a whining defense. "They didn't come with collars. That's totally the fault of the shipping crew."

The woman rubbed her temples. She felt like she was about to blow up at these two. It was always something with them. "Did you check your manifest to verify that they are merchandise and not, I don't know, customers maybe?" she asked calmly.

Muscles and his assistant traded a look.

Zayna leaned to the Ambassador to whisper quietly "Maybe you can convince them we are here to buy, if not this field is weak a high powered phaser blast will deal with it. However they have a lot of guns here, 4 of the walk on top, 2 more at each of the 3 doors I can see and it seems a lot of the others who are here to buy have guards to."

Toq picked up on that suggestion, "We are here to see your merchandise," he bellowed, "Release us at once and show us your marketplace."

Ambassador Turvan observed the various guards within the confined area. He wasn't sure just how wise it was to have so many armed individuals in one area. The simplest disagreement could quickly erupt into bloodshed.

Zayna read his mind it seemed as she kept her tone down, "And yes that would be a chaos we could use, but let's see."

"Who are you?" the woman asked them pointedly. "Where did you come from? I haven't seen any of your species before. And what exactly are you here to buy?"

"We are entrepreneurs. We seek opportunity where we find it, and we heard a rumour that you were in trade," Toq said adopting the words of a Fereni he had once known albeit louder and bolder. "If we have been misinformed I will take his head" that last embellishment was his own.

Muscles leaned in towards his employer and nodded to Zayna. "This one already has some enhancements. Very advanced, from the scans we got. Wouldn't mind having a closer look at her spine."

"Is that so," the hooded woman asked, taking a closer look at Zayna. "Do you have any previous convictions?"

"No, but I did put a good number behind bars as I said before I am a security officer together with my colleague over here assigned to keep these 2 save." Zayna said her tone calm, but authoritative, they where getting nowhere like this and the longer they would linger the more time they where wasting. She gave herself 2 more minutes before resulting to using the stick instead of just nice words.

"Security officer," Muscles scoffed. "With these enhancements she's nobody important. She belongs to someone. Or did."

The hooded woman turned away, thinking for a moment. Some opportunities you had to take quickly, because they might never present themselves again. Returning to the forcefield she addressed Toq and Turvan. "I'll make you a deal. Let me keep the one with cyber-enhancements and I'll let you go. If the criminal punishment consortium comes looking for you we'll say you never arrived. Likewise if anyone asks you the whereabouts of 'Security' here you'll say you have no idea where she is. How does that sound?"

Before the others hand a chance to respond, Turvan stepped towards the field. "Done." he said without any sign of hesitation. "Lower the field and we can be on our way." The Cardassian said, evaluating the situation and recognizing that not every member of this party was going to return to the station alive.

Toq had no particular regard for the human, but here at least she was his companion and he was honour bound to stand, not run. How typical of a Cardassian to put himself first. He was about to voice his outrage when ...

"Your funeral." Zayna said, if it was going to be this way, she would have it. Her phaser rifle flung into her arms and she fired it at full power and as expected the force field designed to hold mainly unarmed people collapsed. A second follow up was aimed at the woman before Zayna grabbed her fellow security officer dragging him into the crowd "Stay with me and cover my back." she said.

"Impetus fool!" Turvan shouted as he decided to act on the sudden disruption and rushed the nearest guard near him. He knew that he would have trouble taking Muscles on in a one on one fight. He knew the key was to strike fast and hard. He charged into Muscles while simultaneously breaking apart a metal shard of his uniform.

Turvan immediately took the shard and swiped it in a downward arc across Muscles' lower abdomen. Naturally, it was not a significant blow and would not cause much more than mild discomfort to the massive figure. However, it caused the man to reactively clutch the wounded area, giving Turvan an opening in the higher portion of his body.

As Muscles began to reach for the Cardassian, Turvan parried and then jammed the shard right underneath the larger person's chin, twisting the metallic fragment for maximum penetration.

The large crowd in the marketplace scattered in a panic, seeing that a group of "criminals" had escaped and were armed. Only the market's security personnel rushed towards the sound of weapons fire. They were dressed in grey uniforms with comm gear affixed to their heads. Despite their professional appearance, however, they were anything but. With their own sidearms they shot at anyone who looked like a threat. Several innocent bystanders went down amidst the chaos, along with some of the convicts waiting to go to market.

One drew a bead on Malik, seeing her with her weapon, and fired. The Starfleet officer was stunned and knocked off her feet. The man who shot her rushed in to place restraints on her, and was then knocked out by a phaser beam himself.

A four man team of Starfleet security personnel, dressed head to toe in combat gear and armed with rifles, came through the gateway from Pangaea. One of them grabbed Turvan. "Mister Ambassador, come with us!" They led him back through the gateway without delay.

Another man grabbed Toq Qua'lon, getting a little resistance from the Klingon who didn't want to leave the fight. "Move it, sir! The sentinel said the gateway only stays open for a few seconds! We're outta here, with or without you!" They, too, retreated back through the odd, darkened distortion to the caves of Pangaea.

The last security man scanned the crowd for Malik. He had seen her fall to the ground but she was no longer in that spot. Somehow she had disappeared into the scattering crowd, or had been taken. "LIEUTENANT MALIK! ZAYNA MALIK WHERE ARE YOU?!" A beam of weapons fire shrieked over his head.

"Let's go!" the team leader called out from the entrance to the gateway. It was about to close.

The last man double-timed it to the gateway. He looked over his shoulder one more time, his heart in despair that they might leave one of their own behind. "MALIK, LET'S GO!" If she heard, wherever she was, there was no indication.

With Hydel, Toq, and their four-man rescue team back on Pangaea, the gateway to this faraway planet closed.

---

Toq Qua'lon
Klingon Ambassador
NPC by Louise

Hydel Turvan
Ambassador
Cardassian Empire

All other NPCs
by Bert

 

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