Kindness of Scavengers
Posted on Fri Aug 16th, 2024 @ 2:14pm by Captain Mrazak & Lieutenant JG Ryland Dedeker & Lieutenant Commander BaoJun Qiao & Lieutenant Commander Finley Chu & Lieutenant Sophie Xiong & Ensign Rozreell Purr & Gunnery Sergeant Roderik Kos & Ferrofax & Lieutenant Commander T'Bela & Lieutenant Commander Leonora Wolf MD & Lieutenant Teejay
2,442 words; about a 12 minute read
Mission:
S1E6: Where Skies End
Location: Stygian Traverse | Gamma Quadrant
Timeline: MD 5
Hours had a way of feeling like ages when alone in the dark on the drift in outer space. There was a special terror that accompanied that awful state when it happened to be in a perilous region of space fraught with distortions and anomalies that were so persistent and ubiquitous that the laws of physics didn't bother policing any more than the Dominion did. By some miracle, the Phantom hadn't drifted into a single of them. Even so, without a follow-up miracle to get them back in action, they were slated to go the way of most early space age explorers whose reach exceeded their engine thrust.
Mrazak quit asking for updates. He'd banned all unnecessary speech himself in order to save on breathable atmosphere. It was up to the engineers now, which was virtually a death sentence in his book. How they wound up in this predicament was anyone's guess, but his log would reflect incompetent field repairs. But he would wait until his final moments. Death rattles would punctuate his point for him rather nicely, of that he was certain.
With everything shut off and powered down, there was no warning sign for what happened next. There was a collision of sorts, but not hard enough to damage the hull. Just enough to send Mrazak floating out of his command chair. Probably just a minor asteroid or some other small piece of space debris. Except then some kind of ptinkering noise on the other side of the main hatch in the corridor beyond the bridge.
"What the Fusion is that?!" Mrazak bellowed, flinching at the abrupt sound of his own voice even to his ears. The persistent silence had been shattered. "Is somebody taking a qezhtihn torch to my ship?! Marines! Fire on my order! Anybody with a weapon, prepare for boarders!"
Save for those who had torches mounted to their tools and weapons, it was still pitch black throughout the ship. Firing blindly would be ill-advised. Mrazak was indignant enough not to care. He raised his tricorder over his head and prepared to throw it if a boarder came near.
Leah who had come back to the Bridge by now shared a look with Teejay before checking her weapon. Stun was on, which was good. The tinkering on the other side though didn't seem battle spurned. It was meticulous, almost quiet, purposeful. There were no raised voices, no sounds of weapon loads that she could hear, then again she was only human and her decibels were lower than Teejay and Mrazak's, even Bao's. Still her gut screamed at her not to shoot. This wasn't trouble, this was help.
"Okay so...kevlar sacks...extra cells for the plasma cutters...," Calvain patted down each set of items festooned to his suit as the Fortuna's airlock went to work cutting through the security lockouts holding the salvage's secrets to itself. He then brought a hand up to his suit collar, where a welded knot of braided cable hung on a chain. "And of course got my compass pointing towards treasure."
Calliope couldn't roll her eyes in the same way as the human, nor express sarcasm in the same way, but the little snort-like tweedling sound that came from her vocoder spoke volumes.
"I meant the pendant," Calvain retorted as the mechanical arms on the inner airlock retracted, revealing the neat little cuts made into the metal that still glowed. "Now, if you don't mind, given your suit has all the fancy exoskeletal joint enhancements?"
Again the Breen wished for spice eye rolls but instead began to crank the airlock's outer door open. The door was halfway open when she stopped and trilled something.
"What do you mean there's no methane? Standard air mix is a little N2 and O2, with a few traces for taste—" Calvain asked before his partner in 'risque business ventures' slammed an arm across his chest and pinned him back against the side of the wall. "I've seen dead bodies before!"
Calliope didn't answer, but instead plucked a power pack from off of Clavain's harness and tossed it through the partially opened airlock.
"Maker Of Ways, place before me a path which sings to a wanderer's heart!" Ryland shouted out through the airlock. If he was right, then the callback would confirm the identity of these would-be boarders.
“You think they’re Rish?” Fin whispered with muted surprise. 'Of all the potential boarders we could meet, the Rish would be the best ones,' Fin thought to herself. But just because Ryland Dedeker thought the uninvited guests where friendly, didn’t mean Fin would be holstering her phaser.
Five heavily armed marines were positioned in well-practiced anti-boarding locations in front of the officers. Rodi had drilled this scenario at least once a month ever since he went into the field. He was pleased to see that the ship’s security team had followed the training. “Hold fire!” Rodi called as the power pack floated in view. “Come forward and be identified!” Rodi called as his own challenge after Dedeker's impromptu challenge.
At that moment, a Jeffries tube grate clattered open between the Marines and the boarding party. Out crawled a disgruntled and dirty Sophie, cursing under her breath. “Stupid ship can’t even work the way it’s supposed to!” she muttered, standing to her feet. She caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of her eye, glanced at it, then did a double take. Those were not her crewmates! “Who the hell are you and what are you doing on my ship?” she demanded aggressively.
"Sophie, stand down!" Leah hissed at her from where she was.
Two marines grabbed Sophie, one by each arm. She wasn’t so much pushed back, it was more correct to say she was effectively thrown swiftly in a rearward direction. Unarmed ship's engineers were not as useful on the potential front line of an enemy boarding action.
Unfortunately, Sophie’s head connected hard with the deck and she was momentarily dazed. “Hey!” she complained half-heartedly, trying to shake off the feeling of swimming through mud. “Wha’s th’ big idea?”
"Oh of all the bloody nine hells," Calvain muttered from the lee of the airlock. He looked back at Calliope and waved a hand. "Just...stay put a second. Save the dagger hearts take a red eye to you."
He handed over his plasma cutter to her, and then reached out both his hands, fingers splayed out, beyond the rim of the door.
"You beckon for the Maker of Waves favour, it be poor hospitality to reward it by filleting one of the sons of the Rish," Calvain called, his hands being the only thing visible. "You know...you being Starfleet and all and not the skin of me kin wearing murderous louts? 'Cause I'm of the opinion that you'd be best served with honesty. Speaking from a pulpit of truth."
"We are Starfleet!" Mrazak confirmed with no surplus of patience. "I am Captain Nobody of the Federation starship Neverwas and I hereby order you to cease and desist your boarding action!"
"They thought we were a derelict, Cap." Normally Ryland sat out during Mrazak's outbursts and escapades, but on the drift in the dark with a limited amount of light and air meant today he was making an exception. "Which we nearly were. The Rish are first-rate scavengers with a sly code of conduct meant to get the better of outsiders while letting them come out smellin' like a rose. Allow me to translate and he's less likely to get slick with interpreting any deals you make."
Mrazak was about to protest, but he used what artificial gravity there was to confer with Ryland right next to his ear. "Do not call me Cap. And what deal? And why exactly what I do one?"
"From where I'm sittin', Cap'n, the best chance of us jumping off the magic comet at the right point is with them." Ryland nodded back toward Calvain and Calliope. "If you wanna' roll the dice and risk us circling the drain another week, be my guest."
For a moment, Mrazak looked like he was going to decline out of sheer principle. But out of everyone on board who didn't want to be stuck out there, he was chief. "What do they trade in? We don't do patrols or voyages, so it's not like we have stockpiles of anything, and our replicators are down."
Ryland smirked at that. "I know these folk. They trade in favors when loot is off the table. Let me work'em. We'll get out of this jam for a song." The expression made him chuckle. "Maybe literally."
"So be it." Mrazak turned back to Calvain. "Lieutenant Dedeker here shall translate my terms according to your rudimentary nomenclature." He nodded at Ryland as if Calvain had no understanding whatsoever.
"Name's Ryland, that's Bossa Mrazak. We'd love to welcome you aboard, but looks like you just laid claim to a manned vessel." Ryland gave a knowing smirk, conveying that he knew exactly what that meant to the Rish. Transgressions. It was an innocent mistake that no Rish Enclave would penalize, but Ryland still used it as a leg up in bartering. "Boss says all's forgiven in exchange for a tow back to port. We accept the hospitality of mutual aid by offering the same and the promise of future trade on safe harbors." In other words, renegotiations and any other creative interpretations of their agreement would wait until they received sanctuary rather than at first opportunity. "What say you?" It was an offer that could technically be refused since no one might ever know otherwise, but Rish honor was an odd thing—simultaneously conniving and upright. Ryland already knew what Calvain would say.
What Calvain said, under his breath, was not best repeated in front of lady folk. Calliope didn't count, given the biological impossibility of the act muttered.
Option One: Hop back onto the Fortuna and pop the docking collar. Given the state of power on the ship the automatic safeties would probably be offline, and in the span of a Mach 1 hurricane through the ship it would soon become lifeless and thus proper salvage. Accidents happened all the time, and the Fortuna was old before Calvain had scrapped enough deuterium up to fuel her fusion bottle. Of course, this option left a ship full of vengeful ghosts, and regulation-following ghosts at that, dogging his heels from here to perdition and back.
Which left Option Two...which was made of compromise. Everyone's second favourite thing.
"Yeah...he sounds like a Bossa to me by truths spit," Calvain said. Placing his hands out past the airlock, and not seeing them blown off with energised light, he stepped out fully. He nodded at Ryland. "No hash to your chain puller, but I'd rather deal with you. Truth is Fortuna, my ship, she ain't got the spares or the roar to tow this hulk back to the nest. Maybe instead I could transport a gaggle of your folks there, have you parlay with the Chief in person for towing and repair services?"
Thus neatly side-stepping his fee, which might be boon enough to buy his way back into the Enclave without losing his right ear in the process.
Leah needed to get there sooner rather than later. With the way this shitshow was going Teejay may be needed to fix the ship, rather than accompany her on their side mission. Which meant she needed another someone to assist her. Fin was a good choice as the latter understood intelligence work. Right now though, she'd take any help she could get.
"I'm happy to go," she said to Mrazak. A pretty face couldn't hurt with the talks, and Leah was not afraid to use her looks to her team's advantage. The sacrifice meant nothing to her personally, if it got the job done. She could separate personal feelings from the necessity of the job. Right now, the job as to get inside that base and find Sayuri Onaga.
Ryland whispered back to Mrazak as well. "He wants to ditch us and make it sound like a favor. Permission to tell him no dice?"
Looking at Leah and her eagerness to go and then taking Ryland's suggestion into consideration, Mrazak nodded.
"Boss says no," Ryland said to Calvain. "Something about a captain leaving his ship adrift in the middle of the Maker's Great Nowhere being a crime against stellar exploration." He arched his brow at Calvain, further demonstrating his knowledge of Rish traditions. "Counter offer: your ship gives us a bump draft off this comet train into the waiting arms of your brother salvagers in the region for a tractor chain pull into your port of call and that foxy lil' lady over there..." He nodded at Sophie. "... doesn't hard code the Fortuna's registry into every log and ship system as performing an illegal boarding action."
"You phrase a search for survivors on a stricken ship in such a negative light, you must be Starfleet," he groused. Calvain eyed his partner and then raised his voice. "If-IF I do this thing for you, it'll burn out a lot of critical components on the Fortuna-"
Fine, aged, fourth hand components held together by a firm belief that duct tape was both magical and a cure-all.
"-so throw in replacements fresh from ships stores of this fine vessel and I think we have a deal. We give you a push, hell I'll even let you link into the Fortuna's comm array to beam a missive back down the well to Fiddlers Green and the folks at Tuatha de Danaan. The former being the place of power, and the latter being home to the finest folks I know. Them being the sort of with ships capable of towing this beast properly to a dock for repairs."
Ryland glanced at Mrazak who nodded.
"Boss says it's a deal. We'll conclude our final trade on safe harbors." Ryland hopped back to the helm, his services concluded.
And that was more than fine with Mrazak who was ready to resume command of the situation. "Get this man what he needs in order to get us moving again. Keep him and his servitor away from unauthorized areas and consoles. I want us moving again as soon as possible."
Leah nodded simply, then exchanged another look with Teejay before she went helping secure the ship for towing.
"'Bout time." Ryland went back to the helm and kicked his boots back up on the console.
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