A Time to Threaten
Posted on Fri Sep 25th, 2020 @ 1:31am by Centurion Nancy Gable & Lieutenant Kaol Ralaa
Edited on on Sat Sep 26th, 2020 @ 3:48pm
2,514 words; about a 13 minute read
Mission:
Shore Leave: Welcome to Drozana
Location: Drozana Station
Timeline: 238601.01
Nancy was rechecking the operating facilities on the ship in anticipation of attaching a prosthetic arm for one of their patients when her PaDD chirped. On seeing the sender, she smiled, thinking the notice was that the arm was ready for delivery. However, on opening the message the smile disappeared, replaced by a angry scowl.
She stalked into her office and emerged a moment later with her bat'leth strapped across her back. "I'm going out," she informed Kaol.
Kaol put down the PADD he was reading and furrowed his brow, "Where? With a bat'leth?!" This woman is positively insane.
"I need to see a ptak about an arm," she replied, adding a mutter that was a near growl. "And if I don't come back with a prosthetic one, I'm going to cut off a real one and hang it on a wall as warning to others."
Kaol rolled his eyes and sighed, "Not without me you're not! I get the feeling that one or more people will end up needing medical attention and as much as I find your style bizarre and unnecessary, you're probably the least of my concerns on this godforsaken ship." He packed a medical kit and stands up, following Nancy. "What happened? The Ferengi screwed us?"
"Not our Ferengi." She shoved the PaDD at him. "He gave my contact to the vendor to let us know when the prosthesis was ready for pick up and that worthless piece of Baktag apparently decided we need to pay more. Double, in fact."
He looked at the PADD, "This is ridiculous! Does he take us for fools?" He looks at Nancy, "I am definitely coming with you. Someone has to make sure that overpriced arm is safe as you violate every oath taken by doctors.... Should we call for security now or wait until after the fact?" The thought of interacting with Rogers again made him uncomfortable but she would probably turn a blind eye to what Gable is about to do.
Gable thought a moment, then shook her head. "Let's handle this ourselves. I've known Rogers a long time, and while she could definitely get the price down, I'm only planning to threaten dismemberment." Besides, she was angry enough that if it came to real violence, she wanted to be the one committing it.
Kaol sighed as he stopped to grab a hypospray to throw into the medical kit, "You may have the bat'leth... I have a sedative for when an angry armless man will try to do us harm. Let's go. Lead the way...." Every day has been a different sort of adventure...
Nancy rolled her eyes. "Men tend to back right down after having body parts chopped off." She eyed him sidelong. "Are you sure you aren't really blonde?"
Kaol returned Nancy's look with one of his own, "What is that supposed to mean?!"
"You just keep reminding me of someone..."
Over in the merchant section Hatham was perusing an arms display. If they were going to take a ship from pirates, they'd need some heavy weaponry. He picked up a disruptor rifle with underslung grenade launcher. It felt good in his hand, and had a nice heft - useful if he had to use it as a club in close quarters - but might be too heavy for others. "Centurian," he said, tossing the weapon at Rogers. "What do you think?"
Ash caught the weapon with both hands and inspected it. "Got some heft to it, Hatham... trying to compensate for something?" she smirked, delighting in tormenting the big security officer.
"With that little thing?" Hatham boomed a laugh. "If I needed to compensate for anything, I'd have picked this one," he said, and grabbed shoulder mounted missile launcher one-handed off the wall.
Ash broke out into a smile as she perused some of the other offerings until she found what she was looking for: a small disrupter, ideal for concealment. She flips it over to Hatham, "Your next 5 rounds are on me if I get to see you bursting through the door with that." She had to suppress a giggle at the mental image, the tiny weapon looked like a child's toy in Hatham's big hands.
He caught it in his other hand and grinned. "You're on." But a beat later his head tipped, Romulan ears picking up a familiar voice. "In fact, if that's our Doctor, I might have an excuse collect today."
It took Ash another second to register that Hatham heard. It was Nancy and she didn't sound happy. She grabbed a couple of the weapons that she was eyeing and tossed a few bars of latinum at the vendor. "Let's go see whats going on...." she said as she started following the sounds of the voices.
"This is outrageous!" Nancy glared at the merchant. "This is the price we agreed to, and this is the price we're paying."
Verrul crossed his arms, frowning at the doctor. "I'm sorry my apprentice misquoted the item, but I can't possibly sell you the item for less. Even at double the original price I'm practically cutting my own throat."
Nancy reached for her bat'leth. "Oh, if you want a cut throat, I can accommodate..."
Kaol tried to play the voice of reason, "Sir, you must excuse my very... intense colleague. I am the best doctor in the quadrant and I have made my fair share of medical equipment acquisition... this price is ridiculous. Surely, we can come to an agreement that wouldn't.... agitate her more?"
"What the hell is the best doctor in the quadrant doing here on Drozana? Did you lose your medical license for malpractice?" Verrul scoffs.
"Why does no one respect me around here?" Kaol mumbled in frustration. "You are ripping us off and you know it!"
"If you can find this for a better price, by all means you should go back to your regular medical equipment acquisition processes, doctor. But given the fact that you're here on Drozana, in need of a very specific, highly advanced prosthetic... your options are quite limited..." Verrul said, picking up the arm. "And you wouldn't dare damage it, would you?"
Nancy spun the bat'leth, catching Verrul's upper arm in the outer curve of blades. She stopped short of breaking flesh, but the merchant's suit would need a few stitches. She fixed him with a hard stare. "Ask me if I feel the same about damaging you."
Kaol raises his hypospray and points it at Verrul in panic, "Dr Gable! You could have damaged the arm!" He looks at the merchant, voice cracking, "My colleague is clearly not interested in further discussion. Now... give... give us the arm for the price we agreed to..."
At least he's more concerned about the arm we came for. May be hope for him yet... But Nancy's thought was interrupted by two large men emerging from a side door. One pointing a disruptor at Kaol, which in her opinion was just insulting - people always assumed a Romulan was more of a threat, even one like Kaol.
"I am not interested in further discussion either," Verrul retorted haughtily. "You'll put your weapons away and pay my price - plus a large extra fee for my trouble - or you won't have anything, including anything you came in with!"
Nancy's eyes narrowed, debating whether removing Verrul's arm would be distracting enough for Kaol to get out of line-of-fire while she shifted the bat'leth to the merchant's throat. With a normal Romulan, sure, but this was Kaol. She swallowed a frustrated sigh as she considered the fact that if it was Gunnar standing next to her he'd almost certainly wind up shot.
Just outside, Hatham held up the tiny disruptor in one hand and lifted his eyebrows and 5 splayed fingers of the other up to Ash mouthing 'Rounds' by way of signaling he was ready when she gave the order.
Ash wished she could capture this image for posterity, but there were more pressing matters at hand... including owing Hatham 5 rounds after this. She adjusted her grip on her new toy as she nodded at him and tilted her weapon, "After you..." she whispered She wanted to enjoy the moment, including the looks on everyone faces when they saw Hatham.
Hatham flashed a large grin and then burst through the door with his tiny disruptor. It was definitely a distraction as both of the merchants' goons looked in stunned disbelief at the huge Romulan and the diminutive disruptor that looked like a little child's toy in his giant hand. The one with the normal sized disruptor barked a laugh at the sheer absurdity.
Hatham shot him. Right in the arm, so his disruptor fell from nerves fingers. "Not so funny now, huh?"
Ash has been through a lot in her life, but she would have to rank trying to maintain a poker face watching Hatham charge into a situation with the galaxy's tiniest distruptor at the higher end of that list. She quickly assessed the situation, Nancy with a bat'leth, Kaol with... a hypospray? She bit her cheek to stop from laughing. There's a merchant clutching a prosthetic arm like a hostage and two large men with weapons, one of which Hatham shot.
She raises her weapon and fired, blasting the other guard into the display behind him... oops, should have checked the settings.
In her most authoritative voice, "What seems to be the problem here?"
"Space lane robbery," Nancy snapped with a glare at Verrul. "He agreed to our price for this prosthetic, and then told us we'd have to pay double."
"A clerical error," Verrul objected, deciding to brazen it out. "You can't possibly expect me to just give it away when it's obvious worth a lot more!"
"Lies!" Kaol said, "You are deliberately trying to rip us off. The value of that arm is nowhere near the price you are trying to charge us. I would know! I am..."
Ash interrupted Kaol before he started rattling off his credentials, "Clerical error, eh?" she said, advancing on Verrul. "That sounds less of me problem... and more of a you problem. But, I suppose," she nodded at Hatham, "we can make it an us problem... however, I'm not sure you'd enjoy that very much."
Ash raises her weapon on the merchant, "What do you think, Hatham?"
Hatham cracked his neck side to side. "I might enjoy it," he said with a less-than-friendly smile.
Ash turned her attention back to Verrul, "You heard my friend. We will pay you for the arm at the cost quoted. Final offer." She jabbed at his forehead with her weapon at each word. "Dr Ralaa, since all you're holding is a.... hypospray.... please retrieve your merchandise."
Kaol was still squeezing his hypospray anxiously, he didn't think it was possible for Rogers to be more terrifying, but combined with Hatham, he was glad they are on his side. He approached Verrul cautiously trying to pull the arm from his grasp.
Verrul resisted, "How dare you?!"
Ash gets even closer to the merchant and practically purrs in his ear, "I'll throw in a bonus... the arm, for the quoted price, and you get to live..."
Verrul swallowed. He'd been selling things on Drozana for years; this was hardly the first time he'd been threatened. But there was something more ...'off' about this human than the normal disgruntled thug. "You wouldn't." He lifted his chin. "Even on Drozana there are limits."
"Really? So we could file charges for breach of contract and usury?" Nancy asked acerbically.
A thin smile creased Verrul's face. "There are no limits on fair trade," he replied haughtily.
"Okay." Nancy lined the bat'leth up on his shoulder. "Then how about this fair trade: that arm or yours."
"Enough!" Ash declared as she shoved the merchant to his knees. "We are leaving with this arm..."
Kaol's eyes widen as he was close enough to realize that Rogers was not bluffing, she was about to execute this man in front of all of them. With milliseconds until the human woman pulled the trigger, Kaol injected Verrul with the hypospray. As soon as he did, all he felt was a searing pain in his foot. "YOU SHOT ME!!!" he yelled.
"What the hell, Ralaa?" Ash glared at the annoying Romulan writhing in pain and an unconscious Verrul lying next to her.
"I wasn't going to let you murder him!" Kaol screamed.
Ash grunted in frustration as she turned her weapon to the man Hatham shot earlier, "You! Choose wisely."
The man backed away slowly, if it wasn't for the doctor, that woman actually pulled the trigger.
"Take your boss and I ever have to intervene in another one of his deals again, he," Ash looked at Kaol, "Won't be anywhere nearby..."
She watched as Verrul is dragged away by his injured guard, "I had it handled, Kaol."
In a burst of bravery, Kaol grabbed the disruptor from Rogers' hand, confirming his original assumption, "This is set to maximum! You almost killed me!!!"
Ash took the disruptor back and furrowed her brow at the settings, slapping at the weapon with her other hand, and nonchalantly shrugged, "Hmmm, still can't figure out these damn settings...." She holstered the weapon, "Maybe next time, you don't stand in my line of fire."
Kaol's eyes widen in shock as he turned to Nancy, "She can't be serious?"
"Don't count on it," Nancy advised, and knelt to apply a wound patch to his foot. She cocked a brow at Ash. "Muzzle control, Rogers. He may be excitable, but you're supposed to be a professional," she scolded, getting an arm around Kaol and helping him up. "Come on, let's get back to medbay before station security shows up. I'll fix your foot and you can attach the new arm."
Despite the agonizing pain in his foot, the thought of performing the arm attachment surgery did soften the blow... as did acquiring the prosthetic. "Thank you, Dr. Gable. I can't decide if I am glad I came with you or not... this was highly unorthodox."
"Consider it a learning experience," she replied, hoping that what he'd learned was to stay in medbay and leave this sort of thing to her. "Though the hypo was a good idea." She cast a Look at Ash as they passed on the way out. "Next time I might bring two."
Ash shrugged at Nancy and then turned to Hatham, "Guess I owe you 5 rounds. I wish I took a holoimage of the look on everyone's face when you charged in with that tiny disruptor...."
"Yes, you do. And I plan to make it expensive," Hatham laughed. "Don't worry - we'll bring a body cam for the next job, because I want to see that again."
"Absolutely worth every bar of latinum this will cost me, " Ash laughs. "I'll even get you the body cam."
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