Fatal Choices
Posted on Fri Jul 15, 2016 @ 1:58pm by Civilian 'Key Holder' Yolanthe Ibalin & Civilian Melvyn Raddon
1,237 words; about a 6 minute read
Mission:
Interlude - Day 2
Location: The Box of Delights
Timeline: MD2 0300
::ON::
By this time of night, Yolanthe would normally be thinking about shutting up shop and going home. The Box Of Delights was closed for the evening; chairs were on tables, bottles were stoppered and put away, glassware had been dumped into the replicator and turned to atoms ready to be remade the following morning. The tall bokkai had cashed up, given the nights takings to Harry to deposit into the night safe at branch of the Bank of Bolia on the other side of the Promenade, and would have gone home, except that after being egged earlier in the evening she was feeling too keyed up to sleep. A few days earlier she'd found a new documentary on the Dominion war and she'd decided to watch it in her office, rather than go back to her quarters.
So she was half way through Designed to be Disposable; the Jem'Hadar when there was a ping from her communicator, her desk and the two padds on her coffee table. She frowned and checked the first padd she could reach. It was the motion detector in the Holospa. Her colours changed to a greyish yellow. like lion fur. Someone was in the Box Of Delights.
She quickly rolled off the sofa and headed into the bar itself. The lights were dimmed, and the place was in near darkness, She could only just about tell from changes in the darkness there was anyone up there at all. What on earth would anyone being doing up there.
She padded silently up the stairs that lead up the two floors to the holo-spa, where she saw the door that lead out to the first level of the Promenade was just slightly up, just enough for someone to wriggle through. She sighed, and her skin lightened to a pale sepia. With everything going on at the moment, the last thing she wanted was more hassle with security.
"All right," she called. "I know you're here. Come on out before I get really pissed off."
Jelron was the first to hear the alien's voice piercing the darkened area. "Shit!" He said out of surprise as he climbed out from behind the replimat kiosk and climbed over the set of tables next to the area before jumping onto a nearby rail and managing to climb from the second floor down to a nearby counter on the lower floor before. His days spent climbing on various rails and surfaces throughout the promenade had paid off as he quickly made his escape.
Seth was the second to hear the woman's voice; however, by the time he was able to pry himself from between the kiosk and the counter, his older friend had already managed to get away. Not sure which way to go, he made the only logical decision to make a run for it down the stares and out of the passageway they had used to get into the bar. He figured that the sound of the voice was a female, thus he'd be able to brush her aside a she made his getaway.
He got to his feet and immediately saw the darkened figure of Yolanthe standing between him and the door that was slightly ajar. Her body was still facing the direction of Jelron as he made his escape. Seth figured that he could use this slight distraction to catch her off guard as he started running.
"Move!" He shouted forcefully, hoping to intimidate the woman as he tried to push her out of his path.
Yolanthe saw the figure barrelling towards her and smiled. The idiot was trying to come at her. It was smaller than she was, but so was everyone. Whoever this person was, they obviously thought that a bit of shouting and screaming would intimidate her. Maybe for people in the federation who weren't so used to physical violence.
But she wasn't from the federation.
It was nothing to step slightly to left at the last moment, and swung her arm out with a sharp jerk, clotheslining the running figure. She didn't let the intruder fall, catching the scruff of their neck with a free hand and casually slamming their head down onto her uprising knee.
Jelron figured that his brother would have been just a couple steps behind him as they both made their escape. But when he turned around he saw that his brother was not just a couple steps behind him, but was still on the higher level. He turned to try to see what the hold up was when he heard him struggling with the alien.
He was getting ready to climb back up the rail when he heard Seth collide with the rail before going over. The younger boy watched as everything happened in slow motion as his brother tried desperately to grasp the rail as the momentum of his own body forced him head over heels.
Everything happened so fast for Jelron that he could not process everything that was happening around him. It took him several moments for his hearing to return. Even longer for him to become cognizant of the screaming noise that was coming from his own mouth.
"NOOOOOO! OH GOD--- NO-- DON'T--" he tried to say, but was too incoherent as he ran over to the lifeless body of his older brother.
On the balcony moments before Yolanthe had seen the burgler stagger back, clutching his face. He was going to run, but in the wrong direction. In a heartbeat she realised he was going to lunge, not for the door but for the rail that edged the two storey drop.
She tried to grab for him, but an instant too late. Green fingers closed on empty air and the slight figure toppled over with a scream.
"Computer, lights!" Yolanthe shouted over the scream of his companion and she looked over the balcony to see the person she had hit was lying on the floor in front of the bar. His limbs were an awkward jumble and an ever-growing sheen of blood, bright red against the white marble floor, spread out around his head in a macabre halo.
She'd hit a boy. She'd come to terms with having to get physical with men from running bars. Drunks often needed a firm hand. She'd tackled others in the defense of herself and others. But never one so young. The ingrained horror of breaking a taboo turned her the colour of rust. And then she realised that the people in her bar weren't just boys, they were boys from earlier that evening. The ones who had thrown the egg.
She turned green as all the implications started to hit home. "Computer, call security, sick bay." She looked down at the boy still standing for a moment, and then dashed for the stairs.
Jelron heard the woman's voice before he ever saw her tall statuesque figure looming above. He wanted to stay and protect his brother, but he was too terrified of what the alien was going to do him if she ever got her hands on him. He tried to scramble to his feet, but he slipped on the growing pool of his brother's blood. He finally threw off the shoes and for his life before the alien could get down to reach him next.
::OFF::
Jelron & Seth
NPC by Thom
Yolanthe Ibalin
Owner of the Box of Delights
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