A Time to Reap
Episode Name: A Time to Reap Written By: Shaft Cast: Isole, Magret, Randal, Shaft and Solok. Produced By: Starfleet Directed By: Shaft Aired On: Wed Mar 26 05:54:03 2003 Stardate: 53095.4
Time: Wed Mar 26 00:04:29 2003
Stardate: 53094.8
Imagine if you will a strange convening of the planets. The CTC Hernes rests in the empty void perhaps a light year distant from the Sandstorm. She is a massive cylyindrical sort of ship with radial sets of enormous cargo holds attached to a central fusilage by a set of spokes which hold them fast to the ship's center mass. At one end, a series of nacelles -- four -- keep the ship well powered at warp. At the other, the bulbous head of the ship's bridge and primary crew cabins can be found. The entire ship is green painted, bearing the sun and freighter logo of the CTC.
From one direction comes the Ferengi freighter, bearing the last of its haul from the Sandstorm salvage missions. From another comes a chartered shuttle, both set to rendezvous with the Hernes nearly simultaneously. And, in fact, that's exactly how events play out. The shuttle settles in at the topside hatch, the Ferengi freighter uses the Transporters. Cargo gets ferried using those Cargo transporters, and the unloading process begins almost at once.
And so it is that Solok, Randal, Isole and Magret all meet in the central compartment. A two hundred yard long stretch of metal and cat walk spaced with hatch tubes to reach the various cargo holds. No one comes to meet them, however. But that's hardly to be considered odd with an unloading in process.
Isole slides out of the hatch and climbs down the ladder, gravity having been engaged in this compartment for the sake of the visiting dignitaries. She drops to the catwalk with a clang of metal and steps aside to make room for Magret. She's dressed in a black jumpsuit earing her crew patch and rank designations. Her midshipman's beret rests jauntily atop her head. She helps her girl down and stuffs her hands into her pockets, glancing up and down the empty hold curiously.
Randal materializes in the orange shimmering of a Ferengi transporter beam. He's wearing the familiar duster that he usually puts on for missions away from the station. As soon as the beam releases him, Randal a quick glance around. Catching sight of Isole, he says in a rather neutral tone, "Hey."
Magret, dressed in a shockingly identical oufit to Isole's, puts her hand in her girl's as she's helped down, and then tucks a lock of burgundy-dyed hair behind her ear. The sight of Randal brings that cold-oatmeal expression onto her face, where before she'd been practically beaming; Solok's presence is merely noted without much care one way or the other.
When Solok appears, carried along in the same transport as Randal, he's dressed as per Solok usual, which is a mix of merchant and tinker. He's a little more surprised than Randal to see Isole and Magret, though he immediately makes an effort to smooth it over. Instead he falls quiet and just watches the Randal-Isole interaction with one brow raised.
Isole glances from Solok to Randal. From Randal to Solok. And once more her gaze swings up and down the empty hatch, her lips curling down into a frown. "Salvage," Isole says as though putting the pieces together, "right. You're out here picking up junk?" Isole keeps Magret's hand and turns to begin walking towards the direction of the bridge, rather than towards Engineering. "Get anything good?"
Magret, silent at her girl's side, forges onward. She gives a sort of clueless sideward glance at Isole and then turns her eyes forward again. 'Whatever' is practically written on her face in glowing neon letters.
"A few things," Randal says vaguely. He seems to be a little bit on edge as he glances off down the chamber again. It's not clear exactly what is making him uneasy. "A few loads of scrap at least." Truth be told, Randal hasn't been paying close attention to what's been pulled onboard. He's been unusually somber during the salvage runs, rather than showing any enthusiasm on the profit potential of the salvage runs.
Solok keeps his hands folded over his chest, not about to chime in to offer any perspective as to the profitability of the runs. He does look over briefly towards Randal, but then meanders a few paces away to lean up against a railing. All of this is unexpected and unaccounted for, which means Solok's brain is rapidly working to try to figure out if this adds to the 'profit' column or the 'loss' column.
Isole continues pacing up towards the bridge. A full hundred yards needs to be ambled, of course. It takes a while. But needless to say, the pair of Centaurans are making a steady progression in the direction of the command crew, leaving Randal and Solok behind to scratch their heads.
Magret amble. Like so: amble. Ambleamble.
Randal glances over at Solok. "So. Where are we headed? Cargo bays to make sure everything's going fine, or are the rest of the crew handling that and we should find the captain of this boat?" His shift of attention is very cool and casual... and very businesslike.
Solok pauses to consider, the thought of inspecting the salvage apparently tempting for a brief moment. But of course, a shipload of salvage material isn't nearly as enjoyable as when it's converted into latinum. For one thing, it hurts a lot more if you toss it gleefully overhead, and tends to be too pointy to roll in. So he turns to Randal and says, "Let's find the captain. It should be in order down below."
Isole and Magret have a bit of a head start at this point. And along the way, Isole chatters quietly with Magret in Centauran, explaining the conversation recently had with the two that pull up behind them. At the head of the hold, however, Isole pauses to wait for the others to catch up before moving to poke at the hold's doorway controls. It starts to cycle and doesn't wait long before raising both sides of the airlock doors. On the other side of that doorway is the command section and crew creches. Also? A pronounced lowering of gravity. Isole is only too content to bounce along the corridor towards the end of that hallway's doors. Must lead to the bridge.
Magret boing. BOING boing BOING. Like so. She nods her head slightly in response to Isole's quiet explanations, still looking about as thrilled as a wet cat to have Randal trailing along behind; getting into lowered gravity makes her happier, at least.
Randal skips along in the reduced gravity with a series of short, swift hops. He doesn't take to it as readily as the Centaurans perhaps, but he handles it fairly well, especially with the advance warning that seeing Isole and Magret bound ahead gave him. He remains quiet as he follows Isole and Magret.
Solok is far less adept in the lower gravity, relying rather heavily on the railing to keep himself steady. He's not really good at the bounding, and so he tries to pull himself down and walk normally on the ground. In short, he does make progress along, but looks completely out of place and ill-at-ease in the lowered gravity.
Isole leaps like a gazelle, she does, sproinging along at Magret's side. As with Magret, this seems to be a considerable relief of tensions. There's just something therapeutic about sproinging down a corridor like a happy rodent or similar. When they reach the bridge doors, Isole flips the switch to the wall comm and calls out brightly, "EFCs Arnan and Etena requesting permission to smother the Captain!" There's a pause before the reply comes, perhaps a bit longer than might be entirely expected under the circumstances. "Well I'll be sold for hydrogen! Permission granted, kids." The voice that answers is deep and jolly. Santa Claus' portly Centauran cousin, perhaps.
SPROINGwheeeeeSPROINGwheeee. It's as natural to Magret as breathing, this lowered-gravity thing, and when she comes to the bridge doors, the taller of the two Centaurans practically does a little 'happy kid' dance as she waits to get onto the bridge. It's rather abundantly clear that she's looking very much forward to getting onto that bridge and seeing her family again. It's kind of like watching a kitten leaping at the hint of string.
Randal comes to the head of the corridor, staying a yard or so behind Isole and Magret, and glances back to Solok's progress. He can't help but smirk, watching the Ferengi force his feet to the floor. His head whips back to the sound of the voice filtering through the intercom abruptly, his expression freezing over to a neutral mask again.
Solok eventually shifts tactics, letting himself bounce a /little/. As in, as little as possible, as he's not willing to let go of the handrails. After all, if he can bounce a bit, what's to say that he won't just keep falling upwards. He's determined to keep going, if only in the hope that there's some regular gravity up ahead. He looks about as happy with the situation as a cat in a bucket of water. Okay, maybe not that happy. Cat in a bucket of syrup.
The doors are opened, allowing free entry to the oddly spherical bridge of the Hernes. The catwalk continues out into the center of the hollow sphere, ending with a circular platform upon which rests a single chair. Logically, the command chair. Various other terminals are set into the interior of the sphere, and the upper and forward facing hemisphere is a single viewport / display screen. Currently it shows the docked Ferengi freighter as the Hernes slowly spins in place, the star field slowly rotating from left to right across the screen. The bridge is strangely empty at the moment, though a large and portly Centauran in a black jumpsuit and beret floats to the side of the command chair. He is bearded, his left face tatooed with a starburst pattern much akin to the compass on a map. A fitting homage to his home of Alpha Centauri.
His expression is a forced bit of joyful at seeing the two former crewmen ready to bound through the doors. "Magret, Isole... It's. It's good to see you." Isole, for her part, comes bounding through the doorway, leaping through the (obviously) zero-g command capsule to smother the Captain in a hug. "BARSIL! HI! OH! So--" Isole chokes quite suddenly at something, her words ending all at once. She's staring, it might be noted, down at that there command chair.
Magret comes flying after Isole -- quite literally, even, having thrown herself forward from the doorway into a nice zero-g glide -- making a little eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee of happiness as she does. Flying -- across -- the -- Hernes -- Bridge! She's /home/ again, if only for a little whi-- why does Isole look like that? She flails rather abruptly, trying to stop her careen, which, it should be noted, has her on a collision course with the Barsil/Isole cluster.
Randal slides one foot, then the other, across the threshold, making use of friction to dampen any forward momentum that would normally be unfettered. He can't really stick to the platform without gravity, but he ends up being just inside the door, a centimeter or two above the catwalk, floating relatively stationary. "Captain Barsil, I presume," He calls across the chamber, bringing a piercing gaze on the rotund captain. His expression is stony as he hangs there, fingers brushing either edge of his coat. In spite of what some consider the relaxing atmosphere of zero gravity, Randal seems to maintain an heightened degree of tension. It's almost as if he's expecting something to go wrong.
Solok eventually just makes it to the door, but after having seen Isole and Magret obviously crossing over from low-G to zero-G, he's more than a little hesitant to actually /go in/. He does so, gingerly and staying close to the walls where he's more comfortable, but doesn't enter in very far. He'll just stay by the door, if that's okay with everyone else. Where he can hold onto things.
Just about everything that /could/ go wrong? Does. Firstly, Magret collides with Barsil and Isole. They tumble in the air for a moment before Barsil hits the end of his harness and the trio stops short with a jerk and a jingle of of metal. It's at that point that Isole scrabbles in Barsil's grip in an effort to get -away- from him, expression set in one of abject terror. Barsil, however, is a strong son of a bitch. And he keeps her held tight, much the same as he attempts to do to Magret. With the females -- theoretically -- in capable hands? The command chair rotates about even as the doors slide up from the floor and down from the ceiling to seal the bridge.
Predictably, the chair is occupied by the genteel and aristocratic Syndicate boss known only as Kostva. His well trimmed goatee and lordly garments make him instantly hateable. As does his smug smirk and the nigh-victorious look in his eyes. What clinches it, however, is the disruptor pistol held loosely in his hand. "So," Kostva begins, "everyone's here." He pauses at that. "You have been no end of trouble to me, Randal. And I warned you about causing me trouble, didn't I? At first I thought it was you. Just you. You on some sort of... some sort of mission to assume control of my Syndicate. But then I realized... too late, mind you? But I realized that, no, it was the whore. The whore and her 'friend'. With you along for the ride. And I /must/ give you -- all of you -- credit. You certainly showed me. You taught me a lesson or two about mercy I am not about to forget. I let you walk away, Randal, and you let that Centauran bint try to kill me! Kill /me/, Randal. I am going to start with you. Then the Ferengi. And then I am going to take my time with the tall one. Let Isole watch. And save the best for last." Ew.
<CONTEST> Magret contests her Fitness (Strength) skill vs a difficulty of Moderate and Fails!
<CONTEST> Isole contests her Fitness (Strength) skill vs a difficulty of Moderate and Succeeds!
Magret struggles, but is held fast by Barsil. Next attempt will be to get her arms free, so that she can BEAT ON HIS HEAD. She says in Centauran, "YOU BASTARD! WHY IS HE HERE?" The connections. They're being made. In her brain. Watch, even as she struggles, you can see assumptions clicking into place. Three. Two. One. She says in Centauran, "YOU SOLD US OUT YOUR OWN CREW!" She can't understand more than a word of what Kostva says, if that much. And that? That is a very good thing.
This, of course, is about the last thing Solok expected to hear at this point. But a Ferengi is less like a McDonalds than like a bank. The customer is not always right, but should they have a firearm their rightness immediately increases a hundredfold. Begin weaselling. "I think..." he begins, "That I have the wrong room. I barely know these people, and I certainly don't know the proud, noble figure with the gun. I'll just be going."
Randal's face gapes a bit as the crime boss reveals himself -- even he wasn't quite expecting this -- but soon after his declaration a spreading sort of smirk crosses his features. "Looks like we picked up more salvage than we expected," he comments wryly. "Kostva, your first mistake was assuming I was out to demean myself by replacing you. "And I'll make sure this little reunion is your last." In spite of himself, Randal is enjoying the banter and the brinkmanship, or at least, he's looking very much like he does. That's the pirate in him shining through. "You wanna kill me, Kostva? You have to catch me first, you pitiful excuse for a Syndicate thug." Even as he completes his sentence, Randal kicks out violently with his legs, planning on glancing the platform with his feet and sending himself pinwheeling toward the bridge's exit.
<CONTEST> Randal (claiming advantage) contests his Dodge skill vs a difficulty of Moderate and Succeeds!
Barsil struggles to keep Magret held fast, shaking his head vigorously at Magret's shouting. He answers he, similarly, in Centauran. "Magret! It's not like that! I /didn't/! Calm /down/! You weren't supposed to be here!"
His struggling to keep hold of Magret and his success at keeping hold of Isole causes him to loosen up on Isole -- a fact that she capitalizes on. She wrenches his arm away with a hand on Barsil's thumb, bending it painfully to the side until his grip lets up. Her shrieking is in Fed Standard, however. And rather less elaborate. "LET. US. /GO/!" Once free, Isole plants her boots on Barsil's legs, slips her arms around Magret's waist, and starts pulling. Hard. "You fat slagging /MUTINEER/!" Now there's an irony.
So intent on struggling with the girls is Barsil that the full measure of Kostva's statement smacks him dead in the head all at once and after the fact. But he doesn't let up on his grip of Magret. "That wasn't the deal, Kostva! You wanted Thorne, I got you Thorne! Kill him!"
Kostva makes the mistake of glancing back to Barsil with a dry chuckle, "We made a deal, too, Achine. You were supposed to kill him for me. You failed. The deal is off." He looks back to where Randal /had/ been only a moment ago, a witty parting shot on his lips, only to find the platform 'empty' but for Solok. "Stand still, Ferengi. I'll be right with you." Upon spotting Randal spinning through the air, Kostva takes his aim and fires, expression annoyed.
<CONTEST> Magret contests her Unarmed Combat (Boxing) skill vs a difficulty of Routine and Succeeds!
Magret babbles in wordless, rageful Centauran-syllables for about three seconds straight. Barsil's boxing lessons come back to haunt him as the skills he passed on to the taller of the She says in Centauran, "homecoming" couple bring Magret's fist right square into contact with his nose. PUNCH. She says in Centauran, "You're in LEAGUE with him." Barsil, at this point, lets go, which ends up with Magret and Isole /flying/ toward the back wall, Isole's arms around Magret's waist. She says in Centauran, "They KILLED MY MOTHER'S HUSBAND. They slagging VOIDED him. They almost killed Erisa! How COULD you? How COULD you? Did you think that was an ACCIDENT, you bloated moron? That bastard BOMBED your SHIP. KILLED YOUR CREW." And she keeps on going, right back toward the wall, spitting imprecation after imprecation like a hissing cat.
Magret babbles in wordless, rageful Centauran-syllables for about three seconds straight. Barsil's boxing lessons come back to haunt him as the skills he passed on to the taller of the 'homecoming' couple bring Magret's fist right square into contact with his nose. PUNCH. She says in Centauran, "You're in LEAGUE with him." Barsil, at this point, lets go, which ends up with Magret and Isole /flying/ toward the back wall, Isole's arms around Magret's waist. She says in Centauran, "They KILLED MY MOTHER'S HUSBAND. They slagging VOIDED him. They almost killed Erisa! How COULD you? How COULD you? Did you think that was an ACCIDENT, you bloated moron? That bastard BOMBED your SHIP. KILLED YOUR CREW." And she keeps on going, right back toward the wall, spitting imprecation after imprecation like a hissing cat.
Ferengi, being well-evolved creatures, have two primary instincts in the face of this sort of danger. The first being to weasel, but that one seems to have failed. The second, of course, is to seek cover while doing your best to discourage an attacker. This maneuver is also known as the Ferengi Distress Howl. And so Solok covers his ears with his arms, leaps for cover, and begins emitting a shriek that would be guaranteed to shatter eardrums... except that Ferengi never offer guarantees. In this case, that means down under the chair, where it's harder for Kostva to take potshots at him. And also towards the engineering section.
Randal's spinning leap, made possible by the lack of gravity, carries him to the upper threshold of the door as Kostva's diruptor bolt sails past, missing Randal only because of his rotating. Having drawn his legs in, he kicks out again, hoping to send himself sailing overhead toward the upper area of the viewscreen like a piratical pinball. "You missed!" he taunts. "Guess you're not so good unless you have your horde of toadies and your flotilla of ships. Too bad they're all space dust!" He continues to mock Kostva, goading him into taking more shots at all the while distracting him from taking shots at his friends. He's also praying they'll be able to do something to make use of the distraction before the Orion scores a lucky shot.
Barsil's eyes cross as Magret smacks him in the face, his arms letting go in favor of setting what Magret has just broken with a crunch of bone. "/OW/!" It may not be the most profound battle-cry, but it certainly works. Barsil bobs at the end of his tether while Magret and Isole go sailing for the wall, alternating between looking hurt and confused and confused and enraged. But there's always the confused there. This wasn't what he'd expected at all.
Upon impacting with the wall, Isole grabs hold of one of the hand holds, keeping the par from bouncing back. It halts their progress and allows -her- to restrain Magret for the moment. "KOSTVA CAUSED THE EXPLOSION OF THE HERNES! IT'S WHY WE ATTACKED HIM IN THE FIRST PLACE! WE THOUGHT WE WERE PROTECTING YOU!" Even as she shouts that, her eyes are scanning the interior for some hope of escape.
Barsil, upon letting Magret and Isole's shouting sink in, shifts his gaze to Kostva with a baleful glare. He tugs his harness once to send him drifting to the back of the command chair. And once his boots magnetize to the floor, he uses that bionic hand of his to pull the harness hook right out of its clip with a snap. Kostva, intent on Randal's trajectory, is oblivious to matters. He's too busy taking aim. So when the strap of Barsil's harness is suddenly around his neck, denying his brain blood and his lungs air, it comes as a bit of a surprise. Barsil stands behind that chair and keeps on tightening the strap as Kostva's eyes start to bulge out, his own expression fierce. "I should have done this years ago." Kostva's reply is a clumsy flailing of his free hand and the random squeezing of his disruptor pistol. Three bursts are fired. One into the ceiling behind Randal's feet, a second over Barsil's shoulder that hits the wall beside Randal's head, and a third directly in the center of Barsil's chest that sends the Centauran flying through the air to slam against the view screen, cracking it into a spiderweb of light. The only part of the old Centauran that moves is his skeletal left hand which whirrs and clacks in succession before curling into a slow at rest fist.
GAME: Magret spends a courage point.
GAME: Solok spends a courage point.
<CONTEST> Solok contests his Shipboard Systems (Engineering) skill vs a difficulty of Moderate and Fails!
<CONTEST> Magret (claiming advantage) contests her Shipboard Systems (Transporter) skill vs a difficulty of Difficult and Fails!
<CONTEST> Solok (claiming advantage) contests his Shipboard Systems (Engineering) skill vs a difficulty of Moderate and Fails!
"Lemme go, baby, lemme go!" Once the POKING OF BARSIL'S BIG RED EMOTIONAL BUTTONS has its desired effect -- even in rage, Magret and Isole seem to strike efficiently -- Magret gets free, speaking, briefly enough, in Fed Standard for whatever reason. She flies across the room to the operations console and attempts to get control of the transporters. Weapons filter ahoy!
Of course, then Barsil goes flying against the viewscreen, and Magret's attention is diverted, causing her to lose her train of thought and completely fail to gain control of the transporters.
Once at the bottom, Solok unwraps his arms from his ears, taking a second to strap himself into the seat. Oddly, or perhaps not, he doesn't stop the Ferengi Distress Wail. But once strapped in, he begins fiddling with the console. When in danger, there's only so much that wailing will do. Apparently Solok and Magret have the same thought, as he too tries to tap into the transporter system, but from the engineering console. Unfortunately, when he's trying to tap in, he finds it to be in use, thwarting that line.
GAME: Randal spends a courage point.
<CONTEST> Randal (claiming advantage) contests his Unarmed Combat (Karate) skill vs a difficulty of Moderate and Fails!
Wincing as his body rolls into a ball, Randal narrowly avoids the same fate as Barsil -- at least, for the moment. In the next moment, he explodes into motion, violently pushing off the wall and throwing his arms forward as he launches off the ceiling, like a human cannonball, toward Kostva. Although he's been fortunate so far, Randal has only basic experience in functioning in zero-g. He sails too far above and to the right of the Syndicate boss. He flails a bit, rather uselessly in mid-air while he tumbles toward the rear wall of the bridge, spread-eagle and upside-down. *THUD*. It might have been incredibly funny, were it not for the madman with the disruptor intent on killing them all taking precedence.
<CONTEST> Isole (claiming advantage) contests her Unarmed Combat (Aikido) skill vs a difficulty of Moderate and Succeeds!
Barsil hovers against the front of the bridge, his body not curling up into a foetal ball as would be expected from a corpse or someone who is unconscious. He's stiff as though fighting for breath or consciousness. Which is likely the case. With a shudder he takes in a deep breath and peels his eyes open to take stock of the situation. It's more or less what he'd expected.
Against the opposite wall, Isole is nearly catatonic with the enormity of all that's transpiring around her. Magret has little trouble with slipping away from her numb hands. She's too busy staring at Barsil across the bridge. She's roused ack to the here and now as Randal goes sailing by and the others attempt to work whatever magic can be worked at the bridge terminals. As Kostva comes back to his senses and starts to take aim once more at Randal, Isole releases an animal shriek and kicks off of the wall, zooming through the air with her arms stretched before her. This is her natural environment of course, so she has an easier time of it than had Randal. She latches on to his arm and holds it tight, flipping around the arm and tugging hard as her inertia, body mass, and the strength in her arms all combine to yank the pirate's arm right out of its socket, leaving it limp at his side.
<CONTEST> Magret (claiming advantage) contests her Shipboard Systems (Transporter) skill vs a difficulty of Difficult and Fails!
Magret continues on with her frantic tapping at the console, only this time she's distracted by Isole, rather than Barsil. Someone get this girl some blinders or something. Sheesh.
GAME: Randal spends a courage point.
<CONTEST> Randal (claiming advantage) contests his Athletics (Jumping) skill vs a difficulty of Routine and Fails!
GAME: Solok spends a courage point.
<CONTEST> Solok (claiming advantage) contests his Shipboard Systems (Security) skill vs a difficulty of Moderate and Succeeds!
Having been frustrated a moment ago, Solok turns his attentions to something he knows better: Security lockouts. These he manages to bypass, gaining control of the emergency security systems, which in turn he parlays to emergency full-access for his terminal. Of course, while this is all very courageous and heroic, from a distance, he could just as easily be playing Solitaire.
Randal, somewhat dazed from his inelegant collision with the wall, moves to reposition for another jump, this time slower and more controlled. Unfortunately, inexperience and haziness conspire to make his jump go wide again, as he drifts past with Kostva and the command chair just out of his reach. He was much more cautious this time, and doesn't end up hitting the opposing wall with nearly as much force as on his first flyby.
<CONTEST> Isole contests her Dodge skill vs a difficulty of Challenging and Fails!
Kostva howls when his arm is wrenched around and yanked clean from its socket, his free hand smacking up to his shoulder as he swoons in his chair. The passing of Randal really couldn't go more unnoticed by the suddenly myopic vision of the Orion. With Isole bobbing in the air at his side, she presents a very near to his person possibility of revenge. He snaps out and grabs the woman by her throat, squeezing tightly until her grip on his wrenched arm loosens. Only then does he tug her up and over his lap and commence with the beating. With her flailing and shrieking all the while, he grabs hold of the back of her hair and begins slamming her face against the arm of his chair. First once. Then twice. Then three times with no signs of his intending to stop until her flailing does. And it's starting to.
<CONTEST> Magret (claiming advantage) contests her Unarmed Combat (Boxing) skill vs a difficulty of Moderate and Fails!
There's absolutely one thing in the world that will cause Magret to go out of her mind. The last time Kostva manhandled Isole, they were in the middle of his base, and she had to stay her hand. This time? The homidical jungle cat that is Mags goes screaming away from her console in his direction. Of course, her momentum causes her to overshoot, and the kind of accuracy that she had while punching her old captain in the nose isn't found this time. Ah, the irony. Her swings miss. Her girlfriend is being beaten to death, and she just kind of sails on by, overshooting.
<CONTEST> Randal (claiming advantage) contests his Athletics (Jumping) skill vs a difficulty of Routine and Succeeds!
GAME: Solok spends a courage point.
<CONTEST> Solok (claiming advantage) contests his Shipboard Systems (Sensors) skill vs a difficulty of Routine and Succeeds!
Solok's stubby little Ferengi fingers continue to tap at the keys, and his eyes light up with avaricious little sparkles. Apparently, he's just searched for and found the treasury. Okay, maybe not, but it wouldn't be so hard to believe, would it? Whatever it is he's doing, he sure seems pleased with his progress.
Randal's face contorts with anger as Kostva savagely beats Isole's head to the chair. Instead of sending him into a berserking rage, though, it focuses Randal into a clarity of purpose. He takes a half-second to eye his trajectory, then launches again. And this time, his aim is true. He skids across the platform, momentum absorbed as his shoulder collides with the back of the chair, and his hand snatches out at the pirate lord's disruptor, hanging from the useless arm.
<CONTEST> Isole contests her Fitness (Vitality) skill vs a difficulty of Moderate and Succeeds!
<CONTEST> Isole contests her Unarmed Combat (Aikido) skill vs a difficulty of Moderate and Succeeds!
Kostva goes right on pounding the face of Isole against the chair, and it's true, this takes a hell of a toll on the fragile spacer. But let it never be said that Isole doesn't know when to be stubborn. Sure. She's /always/ stubborn. But never moreso than now. Bleeding from gashes on her face, her nose broken, her lip split, half blind from her own blood, Isole growls low in her throat and places her arm between the next in the series of blows. Kostva pulls her head up until her arm slips away, but in doing so brings her body upright. And that was a mistake. She plants her knee on the chair, grabs either side of the chairs back, and slams her knee forward, smack dab in the Gwendolyn Pooles. Kostva's groan of agony is inversely proportional to Isole's animal shriek of exultation in finally being able to kick away and drift off.
Needless to say? Randal gets that disruptor, he does.
<CONTEST> Magret (claiming advantage) contests her Unarmed Combat (Boxing) skill vs a difficulty of Moderate and Succeeds!
Magret is a little more successful this time around. She's got all sorts of anger fueling her, and a conveniently strapped-down Orion to vent it on. A manic, obsessive and deeply possessive light blazes in her eyes as she flies across the bridge of the Hernes and straddles the command chair. She says in Centauran, "Well. Look at what we've got here." Her jumpsuit-clad legs on either side of him, she plants her knees and then starts to plant her fist into the Syndicate boss's head.
Over.
And over.
And over again.
She says in Centauran, "Do. Not. TOUCH. My. Woman."
Each word is punctuation for a well-placed punch to the face. Magret's got herself a green punching bag, she does, and she puts it to very brutal use, laying on a liberal pounding.
It's always the quiet ones.
<CONTEST> Solok contests his Shipboard Systems (Transporter) skill vs a difficulty of Routine and Succeeds!
And down below, where Solok is, it's Christmas in March as the contents of the Hernes' armory begin materializing in the thin air, through the magic of site-to-site transport. Weapons are free for the taking, though they start near the bottom of the globe, where Solok sits, and slowly begin drifting through the room. And like every good Ferengi businessman, he takes his cut, skimming a weapon off the top.
Having secured Kostva's disruptor in his left hand, Randal adds insult to injury by grasping the clothing of the Orion's dislocated right shoulder to anchor himself. He keeps the weapon pointed to the ceiling. The Human taken aback by the intensity of Magret's attack on Kostva's attack, and is unwilling to interrupt the Centauran or risk injuring her by contributing to the attack. His suprise is compounded when more armaments shimmer into existance, swarming the bridge like the white flakes in an upended snowglobe. Despite having already acquired an armament, he takes a brief moment to revel in the veritable Christmas in July. And also wait for Magret's rage to run its course.
Kostva's head lolls back and forth beneath the punishing blows of Magret's fists, massive bruises and cuts appearing on his face as his already considerably taxed physiology is issued yet another citation reccomending unconsciousness. The man has built up a hell of a debt, and Magret looks to be hell bent on settling accounts. (Solok would be proud if there were money involved.) When the beating slows, however, and his scream has died away from Randal's pull on his clothing -- and when he's fairly well certain of his ultimate fate -- he manages to bring his head upright and offer a bloody leer at the Centauran straddling him, speaking through a sickening chuckle. "Your woman? You can have her." He punctuates his final words with a buck of his hips. "She wasn't that good last time I had her."
Isole continues her drift until she bumps into the wall, too beaten and spent at this point to do more than watch with the one eye that hasn't started swelling shut. But if looks could kill...? So. Dead.
<CONTEST> Magret (claiming advantage) contests her Unarmed Combat (Boxing) skill vs a difficulty of Routine and Succeeds!
Magret has gone just a little bit insane, over here on the command chair. She beats and beats and beats until Kostva hauls himself up and speaks. Poor Solok. He gets treated to a wordless shriek of rage that sounds, perhaps a little /too/ much like the homicidal jungle cat that Magret's referenced as rather often. And she does lay off with the punching, she does. Magret leaves off with laying punch after punch on Kostva just long enough to shriek, She says in Centauran, "SHE'S. MINE. She's always BEEN mine. She'll always BE mine. And you never TOUCHED /HER!/" It's at this point that Magret's one hand slips under Kostva's chin, and the other grabs the back of his hair.
Remember kids. Lift first, and /then/ twist. The Syndicate boss's neck responds with a sickening crunch, even as Magret outright /snarls/ an appendation that he will sadly never hear. She says in Centauran, "Just her body, you worthless sack of slag."
Oh, right. Everything under control, if you assume that the snarling, neck-snapping woman above is most likely on his team. Solok keeps ahold of the weapon for the moment, looking to be at a loss for what to do next. But then, of course, it's obvious. He leans up out of the chair where's strapped in and calls out, "In a situation like this, just how much looting is appropriate?"
Now /that/ suprises Randal. Watching Magret kill Kostva with her bare hands. Somehow, he'd always pictured Kostva's death would involve staring down the barrel of Randal's pistol, forced to listen to something witty, degrading or cathartic from Randal just before eating a lethal disruptor bolt. He certainly doesn't begrudge Magret for being the one to finish Kostva instead, but it leaves him shocked. Very, profoundly shocked. He just sort of stands there, grip loosened on the dead man's sleeve and weapon hanging barrel-up (because gravity isn't pulling it back down when Randal goes numb), eyeing Magret. He isn't even able to muster a response to Solok.
It's one of those moments of profound reality. The bad guy doesn't open his eyes and make a final lunge. He doesn't flail in a dramatic fashion. His death doesn't cue a self-destruct sequence. No automated messages flash across the screen to get the last word. His head simply lolls at a wholly unnatural angle, dripping an ever slower stream of blood from the nose and mouth, the latter mixed with dribbling drool.
It isn't sterile. It isn't pretty. It isn't gallant. It isn't anything more than a dead man.
Barsil watches from one side of the bridge, his living hand covering the burn in his chest. Isole watches from the other, holding on to the wall, staring with wide eyes at the back of her fiancee's head.
Kostva just lies there. Dead. And none of the three answer Solok's question.
Barsil looks to Isole. Isole looks to Barsil. Barsil glances to Magret. Isole nods her head. But she doesn't move any closer to the corpse, she simply speaks in Centauran. "Come here, Magret."
Magret stares down into the face of the dead man for a few long moments. Her rage has burned too long, too deeply hidden in her chest, and gotten too hot to just... dissipate. Not yet. And so even a moment after Isole speaks, Magret stares, her expression frighteningly and blindingly homicidal. She can't kill him enough times: unfortunately, all she'll get is the once. Thus, she'll have to deal with just spitting in the corpse's face -- inertia is a great thing for things like that -- and push herself away from the command chair, drifting back toward Isole without taking her eyes off of the dead man. This look shouldn't be directed at her lover. There's still too much pure, unmitigated rage there; enough to kill Kostva at least three or four more times. Again... she'll only get the once. She says in Centauran, "Somebody get that trash out of the Captain's chair." Her voice shakes with fury that will soon burn itself out, but for now, blazes with all the intensity of Alpha Centauri's core.
Solok grumbles slightly under his breath, but looting can wait for the moment. Instead he looks up towards Barsil, pointing at him. "Is he still alive?" He then directs his attention directly to Barsil, calling out, "I hope you have a very good lawyer, because I'm afraid that trying to sell me out and get me killed /will/ result in a very aggressively pursued lawsuit. Of course, I might be pursuaded to settle matters out of court..."
"Shut up, Solok," Randal says somberly. He jacks up the disruptor's setting a couple of notches -- a low disintegrate setting, just enough to vaporize a humanoid body without bleeding too much destructive energy to the surroundings -- takes careful aim at Kostva's inert body after letting go, and squeezes the trigger. With an energetic pulse, Kostva is showered in green brilliance while his form collapses inward, and then evaporates into nothingness. He turns to look at Barsil. "You planning on sitting in that chair any time soon?" He asks wryly.
"Not while you're still pointing your weapon at it, kid," Barsil replies just as wryly, "and I think I'll get a new chair. Just between you and me." Barsil eases away from the wall, pushing back towards the command chair in a manner that attempts, somehow, to set the matter to rights. He once more clamps his magnetized boots to the command platform and offers Randal a small nod. "Not the quickest of minds, but you managed to put it together. I was hoping you would." His gaze shifts back to Magret and Isole against the wall, then back to Randal indicatively. "I'll help you find what you're looking for. I figure I owe you that. Just. Let me tell her." And that said, Barsil glances down to the Ferengi below at the Engineering terminal. "Solok? Lawyers cost money. How about I buy you a drink instead."
And so the haggling begins.
