A Lurk in the Shadows

Posted on Tue Nov 21st, 2017 @ 4:18pm by Captain Mrazak & Ferrofax & Black Nagus Lurk
Edited on on Tue Nov 21st, 2017 @ 4:40pm

1,100 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Mission 0: Everybody Has A Story
Location: Black Palace - Lappa IV
Timeline: 2388

His first few steps into the banquet hall were brisk and timid. Wait staff brushed to and fro without regard for the Human meandering into their midst. The bustling banquet table lined with fat Ferengi marauder captains dominated the room, and a wizened Ferengi with facial studs and piercings dominated the head of the table.

Mrazak tapped his commbadge and whispered, "Ferrofax, are we ready?"

“We have a tentative transporter lock on you, but I wouldn’t go about betting on it saving your life. Beware small mammals bearing silverware,” came the muted response of the Memory Theta AI. “If you feel the need to throw yourself from a window, I might be able to catch you. At least before you reach terminal velocity and the momentum transfers with you to the transporter pad. I’d hate for the Op’s crew to clean out the mess...again.”

A shiver went through Mrazak's body at the recollection. "That will have to do. With Jones and Hrogarth out of commission, it's come down to us. Stand by... indefinitely."

"By your command," Ferrofax muttered with all due severity.

The Vulcan stepped forward out of the shadows. "Black Nagus Lurk," Mrazak called out. His voice was low and casual, as if greeting an acquaintance. In some ways, perhaps he was.

All banter and chatter in the hall fell silent. The marauder captains turned about slowly, none wishing to become the object of Lurk's offense. For his part, the Black Nagus narrowed his eyes to squints in scornful assessment of his mealtime interruption.

"Who let the hew-mon in here?" Lurk curled his lip in contempt. "I am trying to eat."

"I am not a Human," Mrazak corrected. "Vulcan, if you please, although your mistake is a common one." He made a light clap with his hands and rubbed them together with anticipation. "Far be it for me to disrupt a gentleman's meal. So very rude of me, I admit. However, you have something of mine, and I have come to reacquire it."

"Starfleet," he spat. "Only one hew-mon would dare challenge me to my face. Captain Hannigar."

"Yes, it is..." Mrazak frowned a moment. "No. No, no! Our paths have crossed multiple times, Lurk."

"Captain Jiang?"

Mrazak hung his shaking head in disappointment. "No, Lurk..." He waved pleading hands. "Mrazak! My name is Mrazak, Lurk!"

The Black Nagus scowled at being challenged. "I think I would remember an impudent whelp like yourself. Most people who cross me die begging for a quicker death." His words trailed into a low baritone.

"Rura Penthe? Rigel VI? That frost-bitten planetoid outside the Romulan Neutral Zone?" Mrazak counted off on his fingers as he listed the various worlds. "Granted, I only led the requisition team at that last one after the leader got himself jettisoned into space, but none of those instances come to your recollection?"

Lurk wiped his shriveled mouth with a napkin. "No, but if you are so determined to die, then I will be happy to oblige." He waved a gnarled finger, which summoned a dozen Ferengi guards. Every one of them to a man activated their energy whips with a snap.

"Wait just a moment," Mrazak said with a lone finger held up in protest. "I just need to do one thing." He slipped a rebreather mask over his nose and inhaled deeply. "That's better. I was starting to become rather dizzy. That your oafish blackguards are still afoot is rather impressive to me."

Lurk seethed with aggravation. "Destroy him!"

The Ferengi guards lunged forward at the Black Nagus' command, whirling their whips overhead, readying to strike. Before they got within arm's reach of Mrazak, however, they collapsed into unconscious heaps of flesh and armored clothing. A few of them twitched, but none regained their feet.

"I suggest you vacate the building, Black Nagus, as the ventilation has been disabled for at least 20 minutes," Mrazak said. He tapped his hidden commbadge. "Ferrofax, you cut it a little close there. I hope your transporter lock is better than your calculations for Ferengi asphyxiation."

“They're not asphyxiating, Commander; their bodies are merely metabolising a sedative. The fact their lungs may or may not be able to absorb oxygen again is a happy little by product...buuut, to preempt you the air handling equipment for the building is already filtering it out of the air. Five minutes and the particulate count will be down to one part per billion.” The commbadge chirped.

Mrazak sighed. "I forgot. You can't intentionally kill people. But we can still get what we came for." He grinned at the Black Nagus who now sat a little less confident.

Recognition flared in Lurk's beady black eyes. "Mrazak. I will not forget that name."

Mrazak dashed forward onto the table where the marauder captains began clutching at their choking throats. The Black Nagus, however, shook a wrinkly fist in suffocated defiance.

"I'll be taking that," Mrazak said as he wrenched a heavy black stone from around Lurk's neck. The motion of the pull threw him off balance. "Ek'tevakh!" he exclaimed as he slipped on a plate. A quick tap to his commbadge signaled his partner who hopefully kept the transporter lock.

"Energize!"

Swirling blue energy surrounded Mrazak's form and transported him out of the room just before he hit the ground. When they dissipated, Mrazak found himself on the comfortable, cozy, and soulless bridge of the runabout.

“Huum, I owe you, pilot. He returned with all his limbs. I’ll update my predictive model for next time,” Ferrofax commented from a speaker.

"But I have it." Mrazak waved around the black stone in triumph. "It's the hard key to Lurk's remote computer network. Not only can we deprive the Black Nagus of the only known schematics for an Iconian Dyson Sphere, but we can also erase every other entry in his little black book. They should really let me lead more of these missions." He turned to the helm. "Set a course for Memory Theta," he ordered. "It's about to get downright un-neighborly around here."

"Already laid in," the pilot said.

"Then why are we still here?" Mrazak slapped the Science console in frustration before pulling up the sensor readout. "Let's bend some space."

"Oh I don't know. A single Runabout versus several orbital patrol craft currently vectoring towards us...huum. I'm confidant of...4, make that 5 kills," Ferrofax voiced his opinion, throwing the tactical summary onto the main canopy.

"I'm a scientist, not a killer," Mrazak protested. He hollered at the pilot, "Do I need to spell it out for you? EN-GAGE!"

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