A Debt Owed

Posted on Thu Oct 19th, 2017 @ 1:04am by Captain Rueben Gregnol

Mission: Mission 4 - Combustion
Location: Spacedock, Ardana
Timeline: MD 06 20:00
1919 words - 3.8 OF Standard Post Measure

ON:

Once the ship had docked and the crew released Braden had left his letter of resignation on the Captain's outer desk before he carried his kit off the ship. He had no idea where his lady friend was going but it was over between them and that hurt. The Mary Rose just would be a bad memory before long. Braden went to the hiring hall but there were no jobs available. Which meant he would be stuck here till he could book passage somewhere else. He checked the base map and got a room in the better section of the base. Then he began walking the base to get a feel for the place.

His actions had not gone unnoticed as a group of out of work spacers had seen where he would be staying. To them that meant the guy had money. They needed funds as they were on subsistence allowance here. Their prospects for work were not good especially since they had been booted from their last command for insubordination and being disruptive. Few Free Trader Captains wanted to hire troublemakers! They followed Braden and each step the dreams of his wealth grew. When he took a short cut through a darker cargo area they moved to surround and attack him. "Best to leave him dead then to worry about him fingering us before we get off this hunk of space hulk." The five of them agreed before they split up.

Rueben was glad the planet now had a docking port above the planets as he would be unable to transport the prisoners down to the planet and he didn't think the Ardana's wanted to make a big thing out of everything as it was all a bit dodgy in the first place. He had seen the letter from Braden and wasn't surprised in the slightest that the man had quit, he had done good work but it didn't feel like he had enjoyed it much. He didn't even consider the quickness of his relationship with Davies being a factor them only being onboard a few weeks. He glanced across the hall and saw the man he had been thinking about followed by some men. It was never a good bet on this kind of base, it smelled of desperation here.

Braden noticed movement in the shadows on either side of him and moved to the center of the corridor. he was in the darkest section of the cargo bay when the right pair of shadows turned and closed in, a glint of metal from a knife blade caught Braden's eye. He felt the air move behind him and turned away as a Bajoran thug jumped off a crate with a bail handling hook. Braden felt the blade slash his skin as the pointed was dragged down across his back, it was painful but not a very serious wound. Braden had turned as he moved and now faced the two thugs approaching him. One charged trying to stab him in the face. Braden used both hands to block the stabbing hand and disarm the knifeman. His open hand strike to the man's throat dropped him to his knees gasping for air.

The second man tried to dive at Braden's knees only to be met with an uplifted knee to the face. The thug's nose broke in a spray of blood. Before he could fully turn around a huge bear-like Klingon grabbed him around the lower back in a fierce bear-hug lifting Braden off his feet. Braden stuck both thumbs in the Klingon's eyes making him holler and release. Braden dropped to a knee as he caught his breath again but felt a stabbing pain in his shoulder. His duck had almost made the Bajoran miss with his hook. Braden pulled free then stood a knife blade from his sleeve now in his hand thrust under the Bajoran's ribs and into his heart.

Braden backed away as the thugs regrouped. The Klingon his eyes bloodshot and full of blood for more then one reason. Broken nose back on his feet a knife in each hand. From out of the shadows appeared an Andorian with two long bladed fighting knives. The other two lay still on the floor near death. Braden was debating who he should toss a
knife at to even the odds. Which was least likely to evade his thrown blade.

Rueben hadn't been quick enough to stop the first lot of attacks but he bolted into the room in time for the regroup and second attempt. Reuben never carried weapons as he felt he was the weapon with how big he was compared to most people. He looked at the Klingon and barrelled into his sending the man flying into the cargo. "Isn't nice to pick on one man."

Braden saw Rueben charge and smiled cruelly as the Klingon was knocked off his feet. He threw his blade at broken nose as he was the most distracted, The blade buried in his neck just above his shirt collar. When the Andorian turned on Braden had no weapon left so he backed away pulling his belt free to use as a weapon. "Thank you Rueben for stepping in. I was likely going to die faced with those odds. I think we are about evenly matched now. Can you handle the Klingon yourself?" he evaded the first few slashes from the Andorian trying to draw him in closer to counter.

"Of course I can." Rueben was already going after the Klingon amazed that the group was so diverse. The Klingon cruelly tried to knock the Captain into the wall but the man was almost the same size and jumped up onto the nearest piece of cargo and kicked out. He hadn't been a security officer for nothing, it might have been three years but he was still as fit as he had been when he had a commision.

Braden held his belt loose and low waiting for the Andorian to stab. When he did attack a slash low with his right hand knife Braden stepped away then lashed out with his belt, the buckle taking the Andorian at the eye. The Andorian howled backing away slashing blindly across the front of him. Braden timed a swing and trapped his right hand with the belt. With a quick grab he dropped the belt and over extended the arm breaking it just behind the elbow, He kicked the other blade out of the other hand then collected both as the Andorian fell to his knees. Braden hear running feet and knew security was going to arrive shortly. He tossed both combat blades to a spot he figured was well away from any of the living attackers.

Reuben took a few hits of the Klingons fist to the abdomen but it didn't stop him throwing the man again over the nearest cargo container. The Klingon stayed down luckily as her saw the Andorian fall to his knee and the knife disappear in the dark recesses.

IN this section security traveled in groups and the five armed security people fanned out as they saw the mayhem. "Everyone stay where you are. Four weapons were aimed at the only two people standing as the fifth security person moved in checking those laying on the deck. As he went from person to person he tagged them and called for an internal transport to secure sickbay.

Reuben held up his hands. "It's okay I am Commander Rueben Gregnol! They attacked my friend here first." Reuben called out as the Security Officers came in. He quickly gave his Starfleet identification number knowing that it was still active as Intelligence had him as assigned instead of MIA now.

The Senior Security person in the team frowned "being starfleet doesn't give you the right to kill folks on this base." He looked to The other man although none of the weapons lowered. "Who might you be?"

Braden MacCloud, I ain't anybody important just looking for a berth on a ship out of here. These fellows jumped me as I was on my way across the station. If that fellow had not risked his own neck to help me i would be one of those being sent to a secure sickbay."

While Braden spoke one of the other security people had checked Reuben's identity and now handed the PADD with the info to the leader. He looked at Reuben hard "You agree with him? Was he attacked as he says?"

"Of course I do. Would I step into a fight if I didn't think it a good cause." Rueben said with a shrug at the the Ensign.

The Security leader nodded "I guess your free to go Captain Gregnol and take your crewmen here with you."

Braden perked up "I am not part of his crew Sir I resigned on arrival."

"Then you find a ship and be off my base by the time the *Mary Rose* departs or you spend time in my brig till I can find a ship to put you on. I want no trouble on my base and you just being in this area is trouble for me. Your lack of judgement makes me wonder if you did not want these hard cases to attack you. Out here we get a lot of thrill seekers." He signaled his team to put away their weapons as he put his own away. "Just get off my base." Security turned and left as a group as the last of the thugs, the Klingon, was beamed away.

Braden looked at Rueben "I already handed in my letter, but I don't relish being in a brig or put on the first ship available. That means I have to request being reinstated to your crew. At least till we get some place I can get a decent berth. I will do my job just as I have before but keep your trigger happy security chief away from me." It was evident in his eyes he had no real choice here, it was not a new confidence in the Captain's judgement. It was a simple case of being stuck between a rock and a hard place. Braden felt he was picking the lesser of two evils.

"You gave me a letter of resignation? Didn't even know." Rueben said with a shrug as he walked away. He wasn't going to stay for the man to be rude or anything. It was easier just to walk away and pretend it didn't happen.

Braden shrugged "looks like I still have a ride." Braden went to gather his bags and realized both his knives were now gone. He was in no hurry to return to his quarters. He stopped at a few shops till he found suitable replacements. He returned to the ship and put his belongings away. Feeling depressed about the recent turn of events he went to the garden and sat there a long while just enjoying the scents from the varied plants. He kept telling himself it could be worse he could be in the base brig. He was impressed that Rueben actually came to help him out? Then maybe he just had a nose for trouble and wanted the exercise. Braden relaxed, there was no sense thinking about it. What was done was done and he would have to live with it.

OFF:

Braden MacCloud
Chief Science
SS Mary Rose

Rueben Gregnol
Captain
SS Mary Rose