The Next Job

Posted on Apr 24, 2015 @ 12:49pm by Raxl Dreyton
Edited on on Apr 24, 2015 @ 12:49pm

Mission: Limbo

= The Next Job =

(cont'd from "Second-Hand Prophecy")


LOCATION: LIMBO

SCENE: Pits

STARDATE: [2.15] 0422.1601



After several tries with no success, Raxl Dreyton had finally found a dead Black Star with body dimensions that approximately matched his own. Rax squeezed himself into armor that wasn't quite large enough to accommodate him... it wasn't comfortable, but it would get him past any Black Stars still patrolling outside. Rax had learned long ago that it's easier to dodge disruptor fire when it's not aimed directly at you.



Someone had shut down one of the force-fields, giving the crowds a chance to escape, and they had taken it. The squad of Black Stars that had rushed to stop them had quickly been overwhelmed by the crush of bodies, and now the gate was unprotected. Bodies littered the ground nearby, but occasionally a brave survivor would break cover and make a run for it, either leaping through the open portal to safety or being tagged by a Black Star (or overzealous, trigger-happy pirate) sniper lurking on one of the upper levels.



Concealed in the Black Stars uniform, nobody shot at Rax as he made his way towards the exit. He stopped at the threshold and took a last look back at the destruction behind him. All this death so that Tella Yavin could wipe out her competition. Hundreds of people as collateral damage in Tella Yavin's mad grab for control.



Nothing for it now. The damage was done. Tella Yavin deserved to pay for what she'd done, but Raxl Dreyton wasn't the man to make her do it, not here, not in the very seat of her power. The only thing he could do was try to recoup his losses.



Raxl Dreyton turned, leaving the dead behind him.



=[/\]=



SCENE: Atria - Markets -> BAD WOLF- Cockpit



The situation outside the arena was about as chaotic as the one inside, but at least there were fewer dead bodies lining the walkways. There was already a lot of looting going on, with several fires spreading out from several ruined storefronts. Teams of Black Stars sometimes worked to discourage the looting, but most of them seemed content to simply stand by and watch as desperate storeowners tried to fend off groups of looters.



That struck Raxl as odd. Taking out the Shadow Master was one thing, but widespread destruction in the marketplace would mean money out of Tella Yavin's pocket. The Black Stars should be cracking down hard, but they seemed more interested in containment and protection of the station's vital systems and checkpoints than in protecting private property. Rax wondered if they knew something he didn't.



Rax didn't have to wait long. Viewscreens all over the Atira- the ones that hadn't been smashed in, at any rate- winked to life, displaying a head-and-shoulders view of Tella Yavin. She spoke quickly, definitively, leaving no room for misunderstanding or misinterpretation of her will. The choice she had left for LIMBO's visitors was clear: leave, or die.



No one else had stopped to watch the message, so Rax decided it was probably a repeat broadcast, one he'd missed while he was getting out of the Pits. He cursed under his breath and reconsidered his options.



Selyara was gone. Either she was one of the dead bodies he'd left back at the arena, or she'd managed an escape of her own. Rax didn't have time to comb the station looking for her, not even with his Black Stars disguise; it wouldn't take them long to see through it once the station's population started to thin out, and even if Rax managed to keep up the facade, he'd never make it off LIMBO without the cover of a hundred other fleeing starships.



The job was a bust. The prey had slipped the net and disappeared. The only thing Rax could do now was look after his own skin. He took a moment to get his bearings, and started in the direction of the docking area, where he'd left the BAD WOLF.



He'd had to negotiate his way past a few desperate civilians, coming to him for information due to his Black Star disguise. Rax pleaded ignorance as to what was going on and suggested they make a break for the hangars, as he was doing. He didn't bother to mention that finding passage off the station was likely to be impossible for many of them. LIMBO saw a lot of traffic, but Rax doubted there was room for every single refugee aboard every visiting ship combined. And when you considered that most of the visiting ships were captained by cut-throat pirates who would do anything for a few credits, suddenly prospects for passage off the station seemed very, very small.



This didn't seem to discourage the refugees, though. Rax passed at least a hundred people, clutching moth-eaten sacks carrying their modest possessions, all of them headed for one section of the hangar. Rax wondered what could possibly be waiting for them there, and finally decided to flag one of the refugees down and ask.



"You haven't heard?" the Terran man asked. He'd stopped to answer Raxl's question, but the way he shuffled his feet and kept glancing over his shoulder made it clear he didn't want to stop for long. "There's supposed to be a Federation ship docked on this section of the station. They're taking on as many as they can carry."



"Federation?" Rax asked. "You mean Starfleet's here?"



"It's that fugitive ship," the man said. "USS PHOENIX. Don't you watch the news?"



Rax didn't have anything to add, so he let the man continue on his way. He remembered hearing something about a stolen warship, some kind of big news back on EARTH, but Rax didn't follow news out of the core systems very closely. His work seldom took him that close to civilized space, and the Federation's problems had stopped being Raxl's concern the moment they'd revoked his commission and booted him from the corps.



Rax left the crowd, moving off in the direction of the hangar where his own ship was docked. He made it inside, sinking into his pilot's chair with a grateful sigh, and fired up the engines. The time had come to leave LIMBO behind him, at last. He hadn't made any money on this trip, but at least he was escaping with his life, which was a lot more than he expected given the way things had played out.



While he was waiting for the engines to cycle up to full power, Rax checked the outgoing comm traffic around the station. It was a hurricane of activity, as he'd expected. Space-traffic control was offline (Rax guessed a lot of them had abandoned their posts and were on their way to the hangars), and no one was prioritizing outgoing traffic.



Fortunately, Rax had Brak's coordinates. The transmission would be messy, but the BAD WOLF had a strong enough comm system that it should be enough to cut through most of the chatter. Rax activated the comm, and the viewscreen image resolved to display the sleepy-looking face of Brak, his Ferengi contact. Rax could see a little bit of the area behind Brak, and realized the Ferengi was in his bedroom, and he wasn't alone.



"Hope I didn't interrupt anything," Rax said cheerfully.



{{Dreyton,}} Brak said. {{You have any idea what time it is here?}}



"None whatsoever," Rax said. "I've got news."



{{You've got the Chen woman in custody,}} Brak yawned. {{Whatever. Fine. You know the drill, payment is rendered once you drop her off--}}



"I didn't get Selyara, Brak," Rax said. "There were complications."



{{What?}} Brak asked. He seemed to wake up a little. {{What did you do, Dreyton?}}



"*I* didn't do anything," Rax said quickly, raising a finger to emphasize the point. "Things *happened*, for which I may have been *present*, but none of this is my fault."



{{Is the station still there?}} Brak grumbled. {{Please tell me you didn't blow the place up or something.}}



"The station's still here," Rax said. "But it's not the friendliest place in the galaxy right now. Tella Yavin's gone completely bugshit. She started massacring civilians, and now she's ordered all non-native residents off LIMBO."



{{*What*?}}



"I too am shocked and dismayed," Rax said. "Rather more so, since I'm right here in the thick of it. You're telling me you had *no* idea this was going to happen?"



{{Snek never gave any indication,}} Brak said. {{At least none that *I've* heard.}}



"Speaking of Snek, he wasn't the cooperative contact you promised."



{{He's Ferengi,}} Brak said, as if this should be all the explanation Raxl needed. To be fair, it kind of was.



"Whatever," Rax said. "Black Stars started shooting up the place, and Selyara got away."



{{Dammit, Dreyton,}} Brak scowled. {{I vouched for you.}}



"And you'll vouch for me again," Rax said. "Because in spite of this tremendous run of bad luck, I still happen to be the best bounty hunter in the quadrant."



{{Most deluded, perhaps,}} Brak muttered.



"Come on, Brak," Rax said. "If you man Snek hadn't had his head up his ass, this would have been an easy payday. This screw-up is more your fault than mine."



{{Forget it,}} Brak said. {{I don't care if it's bad luck or bad judgment, this 'screw-up' makes me look bad either way. I'm not putting your name forward again.}}



"So don't," Rax said. "Just point me in the direction of work. I can make my own introductions when I show up on their doorstep with the bounty."



{{It's out of your league,}} Brak said.



"Try me."



{{A stolen warship, crewed by fugitive Starfleet officers,}} Brak said.



Rax sat forward. "What?"



{{The USS PHOENIX,}} the Ferengi said. {{Bounties offered for the capture of any of her fugitive crew or info that leads to the ship's recovery.}}



Rax had to fight to keep the wide smile off his face. "Really? How much of a reward are we talking?"



{{More than the Chen bounty,}} Brak said. {{But the risk's higher, too. They're all Starfleet-trained, and that ship of theirs is state-of-the-art.}}



"Just send me the info," Rax said. "I'll handle it from here."



{{You really want this?}} Brak said. {{I should let you know, the job's already been farmed out to another team of hunters. They won't be so keen on splitting the payday if they find out you're in the hunt too.}}



"I think I've got a head-start on them," Rax said. "Call it a hunch."



{{Very well,}} Brak said. {{I'll send you the files. I get my usual cut on anything you collect.}}



"I remember the arrangement, Brak," Rax said, rubbing his hands together. Here he was, only a few docking bays away from what might be the biggest payday of his career. Capturing the PHOENIX was out of the question, at least while he was alone, but tracking it? Even with state-of-the-art warp capabilities, a ship like that couldn't move around with turning heads. And Raxl Dreyton could track with the very best of them.



{{The big names offer the biggest money,}} Brak said, as he tapped a few commands on his console. {{Captain, XO, and so forth. I'm sending their personelle records now.}}



"They're coming through," Rax nodded. He was already imagining how he could spend his reward money when a name crossed his screen that made his smile disappear. It was a name Raxl Dreyton recognized.



Thomas Varn.



And then, a moment later, Jacob Crichton.



Rax stared at the names for a long moment. Varn and Crichton weren't exactly close friends, but Raxl respected them both. He'd known them when he'd worked in the Gamma Quadrant, when GATEWAY Station had been one of his regular haunts. They'd been through things together- weird spatial phenomena, Dominion attacks, and even a wedding or two- and Raxl knew them well enough to know they'd never be all the way out here in a place like LIMBO unless there was a very good reason for it.



{{Something wrong, Dreyton?}} Brak asked, having noticed Raxl's sudden shift in demeanor.



"Nothing," Rax said absently. He thumbed the control, powering down the engines. He couldn't leave LIMBO just yet.



=[/\]=



SCENE: Hangar, elsewhere



Not long after Tella Yavin's stationwide broadcast, they had started to trickle in. They were mostly Terran, and mostly families: mothers clutching infant children, older siblings with rows of brothers and sisters behind them, grandparents and grandchildren, husbands and wives. Some of them carried luggage, suitcases and rucksacks stuffed with whatever possessions they had time to gather. Many of them carried nothing but the clothes on their backs.



First there were only a few. Then dozens. Now, the hangar was teeming with confused activity. Everyone was talking, shouting over each other. There were frantic cries for lost friends and relatives, angry demands to know what was going on, and they were getting louder.



Jake stood outside the docking bay with a few of Kass's marines, holding phaser rifles set on stun to keep the agitated crowd from simply storming aboard the ship. Nearby, the PHOENIX's medical staff had setup several screening stations, performing basic scans on incoming refugees to screen for any contagious diseases. Most of the incoming souls weren't in the best of health, with malnutrition being the most common malady, but so far they hadn't detected anything serious. It was slow going, though, and the crowd in the hangar bay only seemed to be getting larger.



As the medical team checked over the people, Jake and several members of his team were scanning the incoming cargo. Any bags and suitcases were scanned, with any potentially dangerous or volatile materials removed, no matter how much their owners might protest. So far they'd nabbed a few hidden weapons, but in truth the scans were so quick that Jake was worried they weren't catching everything. Based on how the medical teams looked, Jake had a feeling they were having the same problem.



Tella Yavin's ultimatum was about 25 minutes old, and Jake could already tell that they'd never get through this whole crowd before the deadline. Eventually, Kane would have to make a choice: either let these people aboard without the proper screening, or leave a whole mess of them behind to die. For now, all Jake could do was work diligently, and do his best to get through as many people as he could.



So when a large human shouldered his way rudely through the crowd towards him, Jake looked up annoyed.



"Line starts way back there," Jake started, but then he saw the familiar stubble of graying beard and wide, friendly grin of Raxl Dreyton. It took him a moment to place the bounty hunter, but when he did, Jake smiled in return.



"Long time no see, kid," Raxl said, offering a hand. Jake shook it.



"What the hell are you doing here?" Jake asked.



"Working," Rax said, looking around. "So are you, looks like."



"Yeah," Jake said. "Look, Rax, if you need passage that should be no problem, but I can't let you through without the proper screening--"



"This ain't about that," Rax said, putting a hand up to stop him. "Listen, Jake, I know this is precisely the worst possible time, but we need to talk. You have somewhere we can go?"



"Rax, I can't," Jake said, gesturing around at all the commotion. "We have less than 40 minutes before Black Stars march in here and start shooting."



"So get someone to take your place," Rax said. "You have bigger problems."



"They might be bigger but they're less pressing," Jake said. "It was nice to see you, Rax, but I can't--"



"Jake," Rax said. "Trust me."



Jake searched the older man's face, and saw that Raxl Dreyton wasn't kidding. With a sigh, Jake motioned for one of his engineers to take his place on the line, promised to be back in a moment, and then followed Rax out of the hangar. They had to shoulder their way through the crowd as they went, and more than once Jake had to force a desperate pair of hands to release him so he could follow Rax, but soon they were out of the worst of it.



"I'm guessing you folks have Selyara Chen somewhere in that ship of yours," Rax said, turning to face Jake.



"How do you even know about her?" Jake asked.



"She was the job," said Rax. "Between you Federation types and Tella Yavin, I guess I never had a chance at her, did I?"



"Sorry if we got in your way, but we need her," Jake said.



"Something about why you're all the way out here in a stolen warship?" Rax asked.



"Yeah," Jake said. "Something."



Jake didn't like the way Rax was looking at him. The normally jovial bounty hunter looked almost sad, as if he was wrestling with a decision that left him with no good choices. Jake edged away, suddenly not liking the idea of being with Dreyton's reach.



"I know you're fugitives," Rax said. "You and your whole crew. That's why I'm here."



"Bounties," Jake sighed.



"That's right."



"So what, you're going to arrest me now?" Jake asked. "Drag me back to your ship?"



"Look, Jake, I trust you, but I have problems of own," Rax said. "If you're on the wrong side of the law, you're a payday for me, I can't afford to look to closely at your situation."



"So what's stopping you?" Jake asked.



"Convince me not to," Rax sighed. "Talk me into letting you go. Explain why what you're doing out here, what you need Selyara for, is so goddamn important. You can do that, can't you?"



"Maybe," Jake said. "Someday. Over a couple of beers, I'd be happy to lay it all out for you. But Rax, those people back there, they need my help *now*. We don't have time for this right now."



"So what, you want me to just let you go?"



"You said you trusted me," Jake frowned. "Either you do or you don't."



Raxl Dreyton stared at Jake for a long moment. Jake stared back. He wasn't worried anymore. The conflicted look had left the bounty hunter's face, and had been replaced with the weary resignation that Jake recognized. Raxl Dreyton was a man perpetually down on his luck, but he had at least made his peace with it.



"Good," Jake said finally, and he turned to leave. "Thank you."



"I'm not the only one who'd come after you," Rax said. "There are others."



"Maybe you can stop them," Jake said, glancing back at Rax.



"No percentage in that."



"But it's for a good cause," Jake said, without looking back. "You have my word, Rax."



Raxl Dreyton stared after Jake as he disappeared into the crowd. The young engineer had always had a way of appealing to what scraps of idealism remained buried inside of Rax. He'd played the old hand like he always did, and hadn't even bothered to stick around to see what Raxl's response would be.



"Can't spend your word, kid," Rax said quietly. He turned, and headed back for his ship.



=[/\]=



NRPG: Someone's just gone and put out bounties on most of our characters' heads! Edgerton and his goons are covering all the bases, not wanting to leave anywhere in the galaxy for us to relax. Meanwhile, the hasty evacuation of LIMBO continues... with no time to properly screen everyone, just exactly what sort of riff-raff are we letting aboard? And when the time comes, will we leave everyone else behind?



Shawn Putnam

a.k.a.

Jake Crichton

Chief Engineering Officer

USS PHOENIX