Loadmaster

Posted on Mon Feb 8th, 2021 @ 8:25am by Second Mate Quinton Beck & Second Mate Simon Starr & Master Steward Othor Jaxz Ghost of the Second Star

2,676 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: The Proving Ground
Location: Second Star -Orbit SB214
Timeline: MD1- 1000

-Start-

{Main Hangar- Deck 18 aft}

"Kaksos!"

A voice over the din rang in the young man's ear, shouting his name and greatly annoying him. He knew of nobody on this vessel who could have gotten that information ahead of his arrival. The shrill voice pierced the crowd and landed on his ear, harsh and somehow wet. Talarian port authority had authorized his transfer only moments ago as he was en route nowhere near the border.

He saw the culprit emerge in his periphery, a Ferengi female of middle age, slight stature. She carried a concealed weapon on her wrist, evident despite the billowing fabrics owing to her affect and deference to the angle of her wrist. Such angles suggested a ranged device, her confidence told the rest. He also spotted Andevian Silk robes, latinum head-dress fringes, and each ring on her finger bore a precious metal. Gemstones adorned every inch of jewelry she hung around her neck. Her wardrobe was a bribe in disguise, it's weight had to be considerable.

Knowing his reply was waiting forced him to acknowledge the Ferengi, even though this was the embodiment of the corrupt galaxy surrounding them. He was glad for the gloves he wore, of all the vile creatures to be forced to deal with, Ferengi made his skin crawl the worst.

With professional hostility he simply replied, "Yes? It Is I. You are?"

The Ferengi stared at his cold face and took the reply at that value. She had negotiated at gunpoint over life and death with far greater threats so she was not off-put by a rude Talarian. Fala took the mans level gaze and returned it. She had forgotten how Talarians were around other species, xenophobes the lot of them. Still, he was the key to peacefully passing checkpoints without problem so she would make it work.

"Fala Gaz, Shipmaster, and CEO of Second Star Transport."

"Kaksos Paano, Talarian Port Control Bureau.

She turned, knowing he would follow. Military types were easy like that, and she wanted him to know who gave the orders. She didn't extend her hand as he had been told to do, that was for Humans wasting time making friends.

Kaksos hesitated as she turned, his hand poised in mid air. Truthfully he didn't want to touch her, even with gloves, but he felt a level of insult by her actions he couldn't understand. How was a female running the ship and how dare she-

"Kaksos! Time to get to work."

The shrill wet sound of his name made him grimace. She was already at the door, fifteen people between them, but the voice made his ears flinch.

Without realizing the suddenness by which he replied by turning and walking he began to walk, only realizing he had been played too late. She was ordering him like a soldier... and it was working. He still had a ruck sack over his shoulder! It was a horrifying concept, even his own mother was at best an accessory to his father and household, this woman would need to learn her place.

Fala rubbed it in a bit, "Stay by my side deary, you've probably never been on a ship this size have you?"

Kaksos had been told to make sure this expedition worked. Some greater agenda was going on, but he hadn't been included in the information chain. Her condescension was not appreciated, so he stopped her by halting in his tracks. When she looked over her shoulder at him he replied curtly, "I've seen my fair share of cruisers, and I've been party to police action against far larger vessels than this."

Fala heard the implication, Second Star was within his ability to threaten. This was not news to her, so the only thing to say back was, "Oh, well then how exciting for you. As I was saying earlier though, time to work. We have 18 hours until our scheduled departure, tell me you have a plan in place?"

Kaksos pinched his nose, fighting off a headache from the vexing creature. "Surely you are aware I was re-routed here only an hour ago? I've only just seen the specs of the ship and haul-"

Fala started walking again, not caring if he was following. "Well you just tell me how much time you need to read everything, some of us need more time I guess...."

Kaksos forced himself to breathe deeply and remain calm.

As they approached the transporter room an man outside stood to sharper attention, his posture had been very tense already, but training compelled the action. The taller and stern faced Human male was also carrying a phaser. He knew that the representative from Port Control was arriving today and also wanted to make sure he was present during the tour. Talarians had been an enemy to the Federation on occasion, and performed all manner of unscrupulous tactics.

As the Security chief, he was always concerned about the passengers and that they were kept safe. This was especially true of special guests. He waited for the Talarian to exit and was standing by the Transporter door, in obvious eye-line. "Pleasure to meet you, sir. Second Simon Starr, Security Chief of the Second Star," he said in his usual way, if one had their eyes closed, you would think that Starr could be a strict Vulcan.

Kaksos acknowledged the Security Chief with a glance, an escort had been expected. Saying nothing, the mans intent slid back to Fala who had just informed him of the presence of marines on board Second Star. There was no opprtunity for any of them to speak over her. As he accompanied both Fala and the Talarian, he let Fala do most of the talking.

Most people did anyway.

{Agora- Amphitheater}

Mission briefings in the Agora were a treat for everyone, almost every department requested some meeting rooms overlooking the small lake or shops for their staff dailies. Today, the Engineering staff with a few friends who doubled in Ops stared at the master system holograph Judah displayed over their heads. The Amphitheater let Judah do high resolution images, there were over thirty angles from various projectors to allow for molecular precision in his work. Kas was making her speeches about safety, double checks, checklists when Fala signaled from the wings she was ready.

Kas wound up her speech, "I'll hand it off to our resident Loadmaster, Kaksos Parn of Talarian Port Control Bureau."

Kaksos had done presentations before large groups before, but this was an alien and sudden departure from the norms. Having only a short time, he had sketched a plan together, trusting the rest would make sense and fall into place. He approached the control board for the display where the lights and audio were set up. Fifty odd faces stared at him.

"I am Kaksos Paano." His correction of the last name was not so subtle, Kas arched an eyebrow in amusement at the tone.

"Talar is willing to undergo this trial run trading... with an outsider." His tone suggested that was the most favorable word he could use before slipping into a lie. If we can deliver the goods, it will mean a changing relationship with our deadliest of rivals. I am here to ensure our laws and specifications are met, and to ensure border patrols are enabled proper access for inspections. As of now my preliminary findings are being updated into this system display."

Limitations and regulations dotted the ships systems. Various "illegal operations" were expected to be shut down, long range sensors as well.

Kas shook her head, "No, this is no good, we have little to defend ourselves with, evasion and outrunning is our game. This limits all three of our options from run, fight, or hide to simply run."

Kaksos was firm in his reply, he had little respect for Kas either, "Your advanced weapons, shields, and sensors are a threat to any patrol vessel who stops us. To operate in our space we must know we can subdue you. As of now, that is suspect, ranging to unlikely."

Simon had a look of concern and added bluntly, "Disabling our weapons and shields completely would be making us sitting ducks to pirates as well. I would suggest that the weapons and shields would be offline, however, should they be needed, they should be available; and as mentioned, it takes away all of our tactical advantages if we are attacked-"

Fala stepped into contribute, "Weapons and Shields yes, we can disable those under a trigger lock and provide command codes to Port Control. Sensors however are vital systems, we will set up black box recording for your intelligence teams to review and delete upon mission completion. Satisfied?"

Kaksos hated her, she left no room for negotiation or compromise. "No, but it is not my place to accept. I will take your counter offer to Port Control."

Fala smirked, "They said it's good by them, here."

Kaksos saw his personal Padd chime, a message inbound from the Port Control. He didn't bother to read it, clearly they all wanted this to happen. He felt he had to add though, "Checkpoints won't be satisfied either, this will be a problem at every stop. however, the only other concerns are in relation to warp speed, and the viability of abetting piracy. We will need to see your crew has made preparations."

Kas pointed to her gashed forehead, "Drills currently ongoing."

Simon nodded. "We have been performing drills for such incidents. In fact, things have been going relatively well so far with the drills, but I will speak to Kas regarding the next steps separately. Regarding this end - as mentioned we need to ensure we are ready for attacks. And being 'exposed' as we are I will make sure we make this process even more stringent," there was a slight suggestion in Starr's voice that he definitely wasn't happy with that particular concern.

Othor pointed out the obvious by highlighting the tetrionic sensor suite, "So this can never be turned off Kaksos. That's a non-negotiable point."

Kaksos didnt respond to the tone so much as the words, Othor spoke in a silky andante which pleased the ear.

"One of my people principle objections to this venture is your ability to scan us to our atomic cores and use that information against us. Why must it remain?"

Othor was treading the fine line of providing enough information to avoid telling the whole story. Their collaboration with Starfleet had to remain secret, most on the ship were not aware.

"Our operation retains a scanner which is able to detect cloaked vessels using tetryonic based particle technology. Among many exquisite offerings we are delighted to have for your government. It will allow us to evade a cloaked vessel, which we have heard is a problem in this area."

Kaksos wasn't convinced, but didn't know enough to call them out. Pressing despite this, he asked, "And how likely is it the pirates we have been facing are using tetronic cloaking?"

N'tach was graceful enough to gloss over the butchering of "Tetryonic" by the little Talarian. "Any cloaks we are dealing with here, are Romulan or Klingon, both of which cause Tetryonic displacements allowing us to sense a cloaked vessel but not scan or target it. There are plenty of scavengers with a rusty one, but working."

Kaksos surrendered, doing his job was usually a matter of simple inspection, but this ship failed so many of his standards. It was clear there was an agenda for this vessel, a years worth of precious refined ores, for a bargain they couldn't pass up apparently.

Simon didn't like this guy. Maybe it was his attitude, and it was just how he was, but Simon didn't like to leave a ship completely defenceless, even retreat needed to be backed up with some firepower. He didn't like the idea of becoming a sitting duck.

He also knew he couldn't do anything about it. That was something else that got in his way. He decided that he would let the captain and Fala deal with the politics, but he knew he had made his concerns known. "So, do a trade run, without weapons, on a route with possible pirates. If we're not going to be able to use ship weapons, then I suggest that all essential personnel should be armed with hand phasers as standard for the mission - as we won't have time to get to the Armoury with no weapons or shields, we could be face to face with a pirate in seconds.

Kaksos retorted, " There is law and order within our borders, piracy is not some rampant concern. We do not wish to invite a battle cruiser to scan and gain intimate knowledge of our space."

Chief Callahan had been quiet up to this point, staff meetings a banal affair for him. This part of the conversation grabbed his attention, it seemed nobody understood how perilously fragile this ships OPS paradigm was. "This is not a battle cruiser, we are rigged to keep far and run fast."

"If we get boarded, it's the only way to increase the odds of making it out alive," Starr said, matter-of-factly.

Chris Callahan shook his head, "No, we don't even get boarded. I didn't sign on for firefights in the engine room and I've already had two in my little section of the ship. We are carrying countermeasures, and have plenty of methods to keep our crew far away from danger."

Fala glared at Chris, Kaksos would veto the mission if he realized the Tiburon was a state of the art spycraft. Inviting Kaksos to ask what made the ship so certainly able to evade capture only imperiled its discovery. She spoke quickly, "If there are no objections then to our load distributions, our mission plan will be filed with your Bureau in moments."

Kaksos bit his tongue, his orders were to facilitate this process but he didn't trust a damn person involved in this scheme. He silently thumbed his approval to the padd and stood without ceremony. "Well, I need to oversee the final installation of the spars for the helical array. Show me then."

N'tach wasn't looking, ignoring the man, Chris had caught everyones eyes, and it became apparent he was being volunteered.

Chris was even less pleased at the result of the subtle game of "not it." N'tach was a lazy old man, and enjoyed an equal station with less work. This was something he could do, only he sat there playing a stupid game. Chris squared his jaw, biting down, as his pay had recently been increased after the troubles. This was too good of a job to make a scene now. Getting even would come later.

"Guess that's me then, this way Kasksos?"Chris hoped he was right, pronouncing it as he remembered.

"Kaksos."

Chris didn't bother extending a friendly hand, nobody liked this guy anyway. "Sure. Come on then."

It wasn't two steps into the corridor before he heard the Talarian boldly ask, "Your skin is darker than everyone else but my sensors identify you as Human. A subspecies perhaps?"

Chris stopped in his tracks, the door closing on the astonished faces of those inside who heard. He turned in an aggressive posture to Kaksos who stopped walking as well.

"You've got a lot to learn about Humans, I'll recommend you educate yourself better before asking questions which might get your ass beat."

Kaksos deep sighed in exasperation and tried to walk past Chris, "This way is it?"

Christopher Callahan felt the man try to muscle past him in dismissal. He took a deep breath to calm himself, but felt his hands rise to Kaksos chest and push the man back.

"Last warning Kaksos. Just follow me and shut up. Ok?"

Kaksos said nothing, but his jaw flexed in reply, eager for retribution.

Chris shoulder checked the man on the way retaking the lead in the hallway.

"This way Loadmaster."

Tag -End-

Austen G
Ben S

 

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