:::Backpost::: The Road to Azzia Part 1

Posted on Mon Jun 18th, 2018 @ 9:08am by

Mission: Mission 7 - Sabotage
Timeline: Before Sabotage
1756 words - 3.5 OF Standard Post Measure

The Ice Lance was a ship built for war, it was 275 meters long, had a 128 meter beam and was 33 meters high. It had six decks, enough room for a crew of seventy along with passengers and cargo but only carried a crew of fifty six. It was a hot rod, with strong shields and powerful Romulan style disruptors and photon torpedoes to match. It was a mercenary ship, took jobs that often meant needing better fire power.

The mess hall of the Ice Lance wasn’t very big, it had eight steel tables with four chairs at each table and at max capacity it could fit thirsty two people. The crew was just over fifty, which meant the place was hardly ever full considering there were three duty shifts. Having just come off one himself, Tucker had gone down to get an evening meal and found his buddy Monty and the Chief Engineer, an Orion woman who called herself Levena eating and decided to join them.

Tucker was dressed in a pair of black canvas work pants, black work boots, a Henley style shirt and a black nylon belt that had a holster attached on his right with a phaser pistol strapped into it. On his left was a twin pouch that held two magazine style batteries for the pistol itself. On his front left hip, was a small revolver style disruptor set up in a cross draw so he could grab it with his right hand.

“Evening buddy,” Monty cracked a grin as Tucker say down next to him. The man was wearing a simple pair of jeans, a t-shirt and boots with his own phaser on his right side. “Levena and I were just taking bets one what we’re going to do with those twelve kids we got in the hold.”

“Taking bets on a bunch of kids?” Tucker gave Monty a disapproving look, before he started to poke his fork at whatever it was the chef had cooked, before taking a bite.

“Oh relax,” Levena cracked a flirty grin, she had on a pair of coveralls with a tool belt around her waist with a small phaser on her right side. Everyone on the Ice Lance was armed.

She had a little grease on her cheek, several tendrils of her raven black hair had found their way out of her pony tail and she hadn’t done up most of the buttons on the upper half of the coveralls, and with only a tank top under it, she was showing off a generous amount of cleavage.

“We’re figuring we’re going to drop them on the next station we stop at.”

“I don’t know about that,” Tucker narrowed his eyes. “Capt’n took a couple of calls in his office from one of our more lucrative clients. Something about it I don’t like.”

Monty glanced at Levena, before he looked back at Tucker. He knew that look, it had gotten them into a hell of a lot of trouble on Kono IV when he found out the guy they’d been working with was running a slave trade and Tucker killed him. Monty covered for him, but still it could have gone bad.

Levena shrugged at Monty, before she turned to Tucker, “Oh relax. Maybe I should come stay the night with you again, relieve some of that stress.”

Tucker drew in and let out a heavy breath, before looking up at Levena. She was obvious about her attraction to him and it wasn’t that he didn’t find her attractive, he just wasn’t wanting to dive into something serious. “Maybe…”

“Only man I’ve ever seen turn down a night with an Orion,” Monty pipped up, he was cut off from saying more when they old Bajoran Captain walked in.

Faji Axia was a hard woman who’s features expressed that out right, she had greying hair and she’d fought in the resistance and spent years as a mercenary. She was tough, feared nothing and fought harder than anyone Tucker had ever met. She was flanked by the first mate, a cruel Andorian named Bathos Ch’kasres. He was big and broad and muscular, not someone you wanted to fight with in close quarters.

Axia looked at the three of them as she approached. She’d dressed in a black pair of pants, a long sleeve shirt, black boots and a disruptor on her hip. She kept her greying hair short and it was obvious she was muscular under her clothes.

“We’ve got a briefing,” Her deep, husky voice landed flat on the table.

“You didn’t use the comms?” Tucker asked.

Bathos bared his teeth, “It is a sensitive matter, not everyone needs to know.”

“You refusing an order Youngblood?” Axia asked, folding her arms across her chest.

“No Captain,” Tucker replied as he slid out from the chair and stood up, looking down at her with something burning in his eyes. “I’m questioning why we’re doing this in secret.”

Monty and Levena stood up from the table, following Tucker’s lead. Monty had Tucker’s back and Levena seemed to be standing on their side of the table.

“Get up to the bridge,” Axia growled at the three of them. “Or Bathos will give you each ten lashes.”

Tucker set his jaw and dropped his hand down to the phaser pistol on his right, he unsnapped the strap and for a moment it was as if the air had been sucked out of the room. If he drew that would mean a mutiny.

“What are we doing with those kids?” Tucker asked with a growl.

Axia set her own jaw, she squared her shoulders and looked at Tucker. “What we’ve been paid to do, you got a problem with that?”

“If it means what I think it means, I’ve got a big problem with that,” Tucker answered her. “You’re really going to kill all of them?”

“It seems someone has been reading things he shouldn’t,” Axia hissed. “You’re the one that said we should take them off that station, bring them to a Federation colony.”

“And one of the might be the kid of our employer’s enemy, so we just kill them all?” Tucker asked.

Before Axia could answer, Tucker kicked the table towards them and knocked it over which sent the food and drinks flying at the Bajoran and Andorian while Tucker drew his phaser and fired off a couple of shots as he dropped behind the concealment of the table. Monty and Levena were next him with their weapons drawn and it was enough to drive the Captain and First Mate out of the mess hall and into the corridor.

“We’ve got to get down to engineering,” Levena said. “Once we have it, we can send word to the crew and hope some of the other’s will join us.”

“Let’s do it,” Tucker nodded.

Three hours later, the Ice Lance was carved out between the two sides with Tucker controlling deck four, five and six and the Captain controlling decks one, two and three. There were two choke points that were preventing either side from gaining any ground and Levena had shut down the transporters so neither side could beam an assault team in past either choke point.

Tucker had managed to get the kids on their side of the ship and they were working on trying to break the current stalemate. He’d been staring at the same MSD in engineering for nearly an hour and a half hoping some kind of revelation would come to him. When Levena came up next to him.

“I’ve got an idea Tuck,” She said, smiling. “It’s taken me two hours, but I’ve gained control of the auto destruct and I can trick it into blowing the ship up. We’ve got access to the shuttle bay, there are enough shuttles to get all of us off the ship.”

Tucker arched one of his brows and turned to Levena with a grin, “Really? If you set it off how long?”

“Ten minutes,” She replied.

Monty was leaning up against the pool table and nodded, “We do it. I’ll send the runners to tell everyone to pull back in five minutes and head for the shuttle bay.”

“Good,” Tucker nodded, before he leaned down and kissed Levena. “You’re a genius.”

Levena grinned at him, “I know.”

Once Levena had tricked the system, anyone who had ended up on Tucker’s side pulled back to the shuttle bay with the ones guarding the choke points being last. The shuttles were out of the bay before the rest of the crew even knew the choke points had been abandoned. All three shuttles set a course for the closest port of call and engaged at maximum warp.

“The Ice Lance is hailing us,” Monty, looked over at Tucker. The three of them and the twelve they were rescuing were packed in the shuttle. It would be a long ride, but they’d survive. The old cargo shuttle had a big bay and space enough for all of them.

“How long?”

“Three minutes, thirty seconds,” Levena spoke up.

“Put it on screen.”

The small view screen between the two stations in the cockpit flickered to life and showed a very angry looking Axia. “Cargo shuttles? Really? Your max cruising speed is warp three!”

“And you can easily out run us, but I’m hoping you’ll let us go,” Tucker smirked at her.

“Why would I do that?”

“Out of the kindness of your heart of course,” Tucker said.

“Once we have engineering back under control, we’re going to come for those three shuttles and kill every last one of you,” She growled.

“That’s going to be a bit difficult,” Tucker replied.

“Captain!” Bathos bellowed from behind her. “The ship’s auto destruct is active.”

The horror in Axia’s eyes was priceless, as she realized why they’d left. “How long?”

“About a minute,” Tucker smirked and shut down the channel and watched the sensors until the ship exploded thirty seconds later. He’d lied about the time but they’d made it out. “We need to replicate some beds.”

“We’ve got a six week trip on these tugs,” Monty said. “And that’s if we don’t have any malfunctions.”

“Let’s hope not.”

~fin~

Tucker Youngblood