Supplying Demands

Posted on Thursday September 5th, 2019 @ 15:26 hours by Mayterial Droz & Taben Natal

Mission: Hot Couture
Location: Captain's Quarters, Deck 1, S.S. Fawkes
Timeline: MD01 - 2230
2289 words - 4.6 OF Standard Post Measure

The room was dark and in an inebriated daze, Mayterial lay on top of her sheets in the Captain's quarters. Her world had been spinning around her in the dark room, the buzz in her head kept her thoughts away from Kari, whom Mercy told her had been kidnapped, and from Mercy herself who had looked a lot worse for wear. Whatever could assault that woman and get away with it would be a formidable fighter, something she herself would never be. The brandy took a bit of the edge off, but the spinning room didn't do much to make her feel better. Suddenly the room lit up with a communique coming in to her personal console on the desk.

Pushing herself off the bed and wanting to shout at the signaller for letting a message through at this hour when she had explicitly told them not too, she glanced over at the console and saw the green ugly mug of a very familiar Orion.

"You sure have balls there, Captain Droz. I believe I have something that belongs to you." He smiled his crooked smile at the Betazoid, stating the honorary title with disdain, savouring this moment where he was about to corner her into a situation where she wouldn't be in control, where she'd be jumping through his hoops, "Now, the easy thing would be for me to ask to get back what belongs to me."

Mayterial shook her head, stepped closer to the screen, there was no knowing exactly how he had gotten himself through to her personal console but it had been his ship, and presumably his quarters, so he might still have some connections to it. A good idea to have Mercy check for bugs. "There's nothing I own that belongs to you. Besides, you were never one to go for the easy things."

Landau shook his head, "Now now, you're in no position to be so bitchy, Captain" He insisted on using the title, dripping with sarcasm. "Wouldn't want anything to happy to the pretty spotted girlie, because if you don't care about here, I can just have her sold off to some backwater Gamma Quadrant planet for a tidy profit."

"I swear to the four, if you hurt that girl I will find you, Landau, I will find you and I will rip your fucking balls off and shove them down your fucking throat!" Mayterial shouted, leaning forward towards the screen.

"You'll be receiving some instructions from one of my associates soon, follow them and the girl will be returned to you, unscathed."

Mayterial "What are you expecting me to do for you, Landau?" She made sure he knew that she was perfectly clear who she was dealing with.

"Just what you do best, Miss Droz, taking stuff that doesn't belong to you." Landau's words were terse, and with that he immediately pressed down on a button.

The connection dropped and there was very little doubt in Mayterial's mind that the shitstain that she just spoke to had done his due diligence but she had to have someone run the numbers on this anyway, see what she could do. In the meanwhile there was very little she could do but to consider the demands that he had given to her. She tapped a few commands on her console and opened a channel, =A= Mister Natal, this is the Captain speaking, could you please report to the Captain's quarters? =A= it sounded overly formal, a bit too terse perhaps. She squeezed the bridge of her nose and turned in her seat. The man had known when to hit her with this news, she had to sober up, clear her mind get into the right frame of mind to think this over.

=A= On my way Caps. =A= Taben replied unceremoniously as he pulled himself up out of the chair in his quarters. He had just begun to settle in for the night and was only half-dressed wearing a white tank-top and shorts, stained with some remnants from a half-handle of Whiskey. Screw it he thought to himself as he poured some of the Whiskey into a nearby flask, capping it quickly before heading off.

[10 minutes later]

After making the trek to the Captain's quarters, careful not to trip on any bulkheads, he hit the door panel which let out a uniquely Cardassian chime which set Taben into a peculiar ease. He quickly pulled out his flask and took a large swig of Whisky as he waited for the door to open.

"Enter." Mayterial called at the chime at her door, she had splashed some water on her fash to wake herself up and was holding a coffee in her hands to warm her fingers and drive off the buzz from the alcohol, "Thank you for joining me." She wanted to offer him a drink but saw he was already holding a flask, "What's in the flask?"

"Suntory Whiskey," Taben replied with a mischievous smile as he walked further toward the Captain, holding up the flask and waving it back and forth teasingly, "Excellent quality from Japan on Earth. A little pricey but hell, I'm celebrating. Want some?" Taben held out the flask to the Captain as he looked around and admired the decor of her quarters.

May took the flask and with some regret poured it into her coffee, swirled it around a bit, decided to add another splash, before returning it to Taben. "I was just contacted by an old acquaintance of mine. I was kind of expecting the call after Mercy returned home without Kari." She sighed and made her way over to the couch and plopped down, "Kari was kidnapped and they are making demands. The exact details will follow soon, but it's some sort of illicit activity."

"Well, shit," Taben replied as he took a large swig from his flask as he capped it, unceremoniously plopping down on the opposite end of the couch as he laid back and stared up at the ceiling, "Why would they kidnap her? Any idea what sort of 'illicit activity' they have in mind?"

Mayterial frowned a bit, she was sure Taben didn't know who Kari was anyway, "I guess the taking of the particular person was an opportunity strike. Had Mercy not been as fierce as she had been she'd probably be taken as well." She shrugged a bit, perhaps that had been the intention anyway, to take the biggest, broadest, member of the crew, as a show of force, "As for the type of activity, I'm sure it's getting an item that doesn't belong to them from an owner that doesn't wish to part with it."

"I see," Taben said as he maintained a perplexed look on his face, still obviously not fully comprehending exactly what had transpired, "You mentioned that you were contacted by an 'old acquaintance'. Is this person behind the kidnapping? An intermediary?" He leaned forward a bit, clearly wanting to pepper the Captain with more questions but trying to filter them down to a few and failing in that task, "Who exactly is this person and what are they up to?"

"The original owner of this very ship." Mayterial sighed a bit and looked away as she took a sip of her irished up coffee, "I may have acquired it through slightly less than honest means, years ago," She shook her head, "he wasn't operating in these parts back then, or I would never have come here."

Taben raised his eyebrow as he smirked approvingly, "Here I thought you were all straight edge," he remarked with a sarcastic tone, "So this is payback then? Have you considered that this whole thing might be a trap." He held his hand in the air defensively immediately after he finished vocalizing the last word, "Not that I'm saying you should abandon your..." he paused for a moment considering that recent events had rather changed his involvement with this ship, "er, our crew member. Just realistically--how much are you willing to risk to get her back? His ultimate target isn't her, clearly."

"Oh, it's most definitely a trap." Mayterial nodded slowly, "but I'm not leaving her behind. We don't abandon our people." She leaned forward to emphasise this to her new First Mate, "The moment you accepted that deal, the moment you stepped onto this vessel, you're family. And like family, we might not always like each other, and call each other names. Hell, there might be some hair pulling every now and again, but when push comes to shove, this family takes care of their own."

Taben nodded as the Captain spoke. While he didn't hold the Captain's sentimental view of everyone of his shipmates being family, he did agree with her decision. If they let this slide, who would stop the next enemy from doing the same thing again? People lived and died by their reputations in this business--often literally.

"Understood," he said as he straightened out his posture on the couch, "So tell me more about this person. What makes him tick? What are his strengths? What are his weaknesses?" Taben gave up any efforts to manage his barrage of questions as his mind went into immediate tactical mode. The more he knew about his enemy, the better he could anticipate his next move. Just as he was about to shut up and let the Captain reply he added, "...and what exactly does he want stolen--and why?"

Just as May was about to talk Taben interrupted, she waited with a polite smile, "Landau is a big burly Orion and his strengths and weaknesses are exactly what you expect. Physical force is by far his biggest strength, plus he has a deep pocket." She took another sip of her coffee, she had done this same thing so many years back, analysing the man before separating him from his vessel, "His biggest weakness is his hubris, the conviction that he'll always win. Makes him susceptible to confidence schemes" It made him the perfect mark, "but he's a very sore loser and holds a grudge." She then shook her head, "He's protecting himself, working through an intermediary, but I know it's him. And they haven't said what we need to take yet. We'll be receiving instructions at some point."

"So I've got the perfect idea: I'll dress up in some skimpy Orion slave boy outfit and do an alluring lap dance until he releases our gal. Problem solved. Plus maybe I'll reach into his pockets while we're at it." He let out a stupid grin as he finished his line, clearly pleased as punch with the image in his mind as he took a big swig of Whiskey. "That said, it sounds like he has one of the best weaknesses to exploit, so that's something. People like that are always prone to unforced errors."

May let out an involuntary chuckle, which was a rare feat for anyone to accomplish. "Let's call that plan..." A small pause, "F." That seemed like an appropriately low priority, "Also pretty sure he's not too fond of man fondling." She remembered the flirting, if that's what it could be called, the first time she was at the table with the guy, "What I'm also sure about is that he'll know all of us, so it's going to be impossible to get close to him on our own terms."

"Great, so he's not even fun. Charming," Taben replied sardonically as he closed his eyes and took in a deep breath, "So we don't have the numbers, we're really not sure what we're getting into, and we don't have any element of surprise--should be fun." He took another swig of his flask before continuing, "You really get your moneys worth out of your crew, y'know?"

"What can I say, I know how to pick 'em" Mayterial gave a weak smile, this whole thing was already exhausting and they hadn't even involved any of the other crew yet, they hadn't formulated a proper plan and if she had been able to handle this all herself she probably wouldn't, "Let's send a discreet message to meet in the Cargo bay, away from the tourists. Let's see how much actual value we can get out of the crew."

Taben nodded in agreement, "Sounds like a good plan, Caps." He frowned as he continued, "It's been hard getting intel on my end. Intel's usually my thing, but I don't have any contacts here and most of the people who are inclined to talk here need a lot of greasing in order to talk. It's gonna be a rough ride."

"We'll find a way, we have to, for Kira's sake." Mayterial knew that getting intel on Rangalor was going to be difficult, the people here were always a tight lipped bunch. It didn't matter, with the right incentives everybody sings. It's just a matter of finding out what the right incentives are for the right people.

"Right-o Caps," Taben said as he jumped up to his feet and gave a tipsy salute, "I'll continue to keep my ear to the ground and let you know what I find." He turned to leave the Captain's room, focusing most of his mental power on making sure that he walked straight out the door.

"Thanks." May said quietly, looking at the cup in her hand. Perhaps pouring the whiskey in it had been a bad idea. She took another sip. It wasn't as if she was on any sort of good idea streak at the moment anyway.

[OFF]

Mayterial Droz
Captain

&

Taben Natal
First mate

S.S. Fawkes