That Terrible Feeling of Freedom (Part 1)

Posted on 14 Nov 2015 @ 5:50am by Queen Regent Lirha Saalm
Edited on 14 Nov 2015 @ 5:54am

3,190 words; about a 16 minute read

[ON]

Some years ago in a forgettable region of space...

The Hullcrusher, Battlebridge

"In an honest service there is thin commons, low wages, and hard labor; in this, plenty and satiety, pleasure and ease, liberty and power; and who would not balance creditor on this side, when all the hazard that is run for it, at worst, is only a sour look or two at choking. No, a merry life and a short one, shall be my motto."

The occasionally flickering battlescreen aboard the Hullcrusher had displayed upon it a rather old movie about its crew's profession. As the well cast actor spoke those famous lines the captain of the Hullcrusher, Ghaz, couldn't help but smirk widely. He couldn't have said it better himself. Hell, not even close actually. He was no smooth talking pirate of yore. No, he was about as crude and lowbrow as they came.

Ghaz tilted his head back and let out a thick billow of smoke that dispersed itself within the already thick haze in the air around him as he snubbed out the end bit of a cigar on the arm of his chair. With a twist of the other wrist he slowly rattled around the ice cubes in his now empty glass that had no doubt contained some potent beverage.

"Jynn!"

"Yes, sir," the young Deltan standing at the edge of the room awaiting beckoning questioned in reply.

"Gin!"

"Uh... Yes, sir?"

The already grog-blossom features of Ghaz's face had started to become noticeably more red. He turned the captain's chair swiftly and launched the glass from his hand towards the bald buffoon. "Gin, Jynn! I said gin," he shouted at him. "Any more lip out of you and I'll give you a taste of the cat! Now get me some gin! And get me a glass now, too!"

As the glass whizzed past him and shattered against the wall behind him Jynn didn't even flinch. For one, he was used to it. He enjoyed riling up the captain from time to time, feeling the sudden burst of emotions from almost everyone in the room. Also, Jynn had known before the glass even left Ghaz's hand that it was going to miss. It didn't take much to read those hasty body movements like some sort of trajectory diagram.

"Yes, sir," Jynn answered the boss with a nod before taking his leave and heading to the ship's bar.

Ghaz then slowly turned his chair in the direction of the sensor station at the opposite end of the bridge and gave the woman who was stationed at it a menacing glare. "Where is she, Lil? You said fifteen minutes forty-five minutes ago," he grumbled out in a slow and irritated voice.

"I don't know, sir. Maybe she's not known for her punctuality," she shot back at him with sarcastic wit.

"I'll have her fitted for a hempen halter by day's end come hell or high water, Lil," Gahz bellowed out with a spittle-flecked shout. "You wouldn't want to take her place, would you," he finished with a sly grin and a raise of an eyebrow.

"No, sir," Lil murmured as she recoiled slightly. She knew when the boss wasn't joking and this was certainly no joke. She knew what Ghaz wanted and to bring him so close just to fail would certainly mean punishment most capital. "The intel's good, sir. I swear."

Ghaz was almost boiling in anger as he grasped at the arms of his chair. He was so close to getting the biggest catch of his life. A catch not even the Empire itself had managed to pull off. Catching and killing the Queen Regent would no doubt allow Ghaz to plunder and pillage with impunity. No Terran ship would dare touch the man who brought about the death of their greatest enemy. He would be set for life. They would owe him. He grinned with a low growl as he thought of the possibilities.

"Right, still not in range, but no need to sit on our hands. Let's get ready. We got a date to prepare for." With a near literal punch of a button on the chair's arm Ghaz called down to engineering. "Bring core two offline and drop core one to fifty percent." He then swiveled his chair to face the tactical station, staring down ol' Picaroon Pete. There was always the staredown. "Be ready to bring shields up at a moment's notice and notify the gun-crews to load up. Saalm'll never see it coming." There was a glimmer in his eye. He was so close. He could feel it.

About ten minutes later, just when Lil was thinking the last thing she'd see would be the end of a plank extended out the airlock...


IKS Saalm - Main Bridge

Aboard the queen regent's flagship, the combined Klingon and Cardassian crew busied themselves with preparations for their pending resupply operation. The massive Negh'Var class dreadnought was too big to properly dock at most Klingon outposts, and so several small satellite resupply posts had been constructed in various areas of the sector to allow a more efficient manner of taking on new goods, provisions, stores, and weapons.

Lirha was at her post as usual while they approached the resupply beacon, her lithe body lazily curled up in her massive captain's chair with her pet targ snoring loudly and drooling in his sleep at her feet. "Range to the satellite?" she asked of her conn officer.

“One hundred million seven hundred thirty thousand two hundred and sixty-five point eight eight kilometers... now,” the overly specific Elasian pilot said to the queen in a quite confident tone. But the queen didn't like specifics, as he recalled. She was sure to quickly update her assessment a few seconds later with “Or about five and a half minutes...now.” It was probably going to be a long five minutes for her now (give or take some picoseconds)...


The Hullcrusher, Battlebridge

“Ha! There she is, Lil! Just as promised.” Ghaz was as giddy as a ruthless pirate could be. He was already ready to celebrate, but he knew that'd have to wait. He stood up from his chair and spit a thick wad of phlegm at the floor to his side with torpedo force, ready to spit many more more literal projectiles at the approaching ship without hesitation. He was not one to hesitate. “Dammit, lads and lasses, why must we wait?!"

“Juzt wait, zir. It wont be an ambushz if we jump too zoon,” spoke Zaps, the ship's pilot, his name given for both obvious and less obvious reasons.

“Quiet, Zaps! Just be ready to gun it when I tell you. Lil! How far out are they?”

“Five minutes at present speed, Ghaz,” Lil replied, her confidence now restored.

“Good. We wait."

The outpost they where now at had, most unfortunately for its occupants, come under the attack of a pirate raid. Gahz's pirate raid. It was turning out to be a two for one special for him and his crew. Raiding an outpost and catching a queen. They had made quick work of the station and left the beacon active. Now the Hullcrusher was adrift beside it, most systems 'down' and a small amount of legitimate damage done by the station's defenses. To outside sensors their ship would look critically low on power. Probably not one to lend a hand, Ghaz at least knew that the Queen would want to inspect the damaged ship up close for anything of value rather than obliterating it whole.

They had rigged up part of the station's broadcasting station to jam all transporters within range. An idea of the Deltan's. Damn how that Jynn seemed smarter than he should be at times. With no functioning transporters at any reasonable range their encounter would most certainly have to be a close one.


IKS Saalm

"My Queen!," stated one of Lirha's Operations officers while their massive starship came in range of the desired resupply center. "There is significant interference. We are unable to transport. It appears there is some sort of disturbance coming from the station that is interfering. We can't get a lock," he declared with urgency in his deep Klingon voice.

Saalm's eyes narrowed and she quickly spun around to her left where her bridge's tactical station was. She had no idea why any of this was transpiring but knew that it could not be proper protocol...and as such -- being the bright military officer that she was -- knew there must be something else transpiring. "Tactical, sweep the area for any cloaked signatures!" she yelled.

The tactical officer quickly made a broad scan for signs of any ships and also assessed the supply station. "One ship, uncloaked and damaged. It appears power is critically low." He paused as he continued to read the scans. "The station, however, is completely devoid of power... and life."

"Show me this ship," she replied, turning back towards the main viewer to get a visual on the tactical analysis of the unidentified starship. Though her thoughts were concerned with the resupply depot's lack of energy and lifeform signatures, her first investigative motive was to assess the largest intangible nearby -- the unknown vessel.

The piecemeal vessel came onto the viewscreen. Large and ominous, the ship was covered in crude glyphs and was marked by many weapons scars. How many of them where fresh and how many of them where years old was hard to tell at a first glance. The ship definitely seemed out of place, but for the moment it looked too beat to be of any threat.

“Sensors are showing minimal power activity, Queen. Shields are inactive and weapons are down. The ship is unlike any design I have seen. It looks rather... unique. Nacelles are large for a ship of its size and everything is placed close together.” The tactical officer smirked. “Apparently no care was taken for if volatile components were ever damaged.”

Lirha drummed her lithe fingers against her chair's armrest while she pondered her next move. "Interesting..." she mumbled to herself, then reached down to stroke the fur on the back of her targ's neck. "Hail them."

"Hailing."


The Hullcrusher

“We're being hailed,” spoke the easily forgettable comm operator.

“Damn,” Gahz shouted. He knew it wasn't going to be easy. We need to get her closer. “How do we keep things from escalating too quickly,” he questioned aloud, looking around the battlebridge as he thought. His eyes stopped on the Deltan who had returned in the interim. The Deltan! He kinda looked human, but Deltans where almost unmistakable. The Queen would see a non-human race and hopefully be alleviated of some concern!

“Jynn, you beautiful bastard, get over here!”

Jynn quickly ran over to the captain. “Sir?”

“Sit in my chair.”

“Wha-what?”

Gahz tried to contain his anger. He needed to put Jynn in the mood to do something he'd never be able to do. Lead. He kissed Jynn on the forehead. Gross. “I'm letting you captain this ship for a few minutes. I need you to. We all need you to. Just pretend we are all your toys. Oh,” he started with a grin, “and you get to talk to the Queen Regent herself. Just chat it up and see if you can get her close. Now,” he thrust out a pointed hand and signaled to the captain's chair, “Sit!"

Jynn wasted no time and sat down in the chair and an instant later it was as though he wasn't even acting. He was the captain. Of what kind of ship one couldn't quite tell yet (a love ship?), but he was certainly in the zone.

“Open a channel, please,” he asked as politely as he could.


IKS Saalm

The viewscreen came on revealing the curiously young captain Jynn, who apparently had at least a couple of humans in his service by the looks of it. With an ecstatic wave and a broad smile he spoke enthusiastically. “So happy to have company,” he started before pausing, looking close at the screen and faking surprise, “Queen?! Of all the people to come and save us it would be you? Oh, lovely days, indeed!"

Lirha did a bit of a double-take, unsure of what to make of the overly friendly gesture from the ship that appeared to be crippled. She cocked her green head to the side and waved her own hand in a somewhat-amiable gesture.

"You know who I am, captain? Who are you? And what has happened to your starship and our resupply facility?" she asked rather bluntly.

“Of course I know who you are,” he answered to the first question. “And of course I know who I am,” he answered to the second. “Wait, me? I'm Jynn, and I run this ship. We where attacked and our vessel was crippled. The pirates wanted the station's resources and they got it. They left us to tell everyone not to mess with 'em,” he said with a confident smirk to an unseen body to the side. “Could you please come and rescue us? Something's jammed the transporters... but we can get physical if you want.” By the way it was said nobody on either ship's bridge could tell if those last words where meant for the two ships docking or for the two 'captains.'

Frowning, Lirha suddenly wanted to know more. The bald man on the other side of the screen appeared to be Deltan at first glance, and he seemed a bit overly...jubilant. Especially after a pirate attack. "Tell me about these pirates, Jynn. Who were they and where did they come from? Do you have any sensor data of their ships?"

This was going to be easy Jynn thought with a grin. Well, mostly easy.

Ghaz was staring at him with the coldest of stares. He would have frozen Jynn if they had made eye contact. Instead of blasting that blasted Deltan on the spot with his phaser he waited. Lirha hadn't opened fire yet, so that was as good a sign as any.

Jynn snapped his fingers and pointed offscreen and shortly after the helmsman walked up to him. He was human. “They where like this one,” he said as he licked the side of Zapz' face from chin to ear, holding his face tight with both of his hands. “Human.” Jynn had hit the zone. He was now the captain. He'd get the queen, dead or alive, though truth be told he'd rather have her in his bed than in a coffin.

“They came from nowhere,” he continued in a cryptic fashion. “They had ships much like mine.” There was a grin and a glimmer in his eyes. The statement held more truth than its face value. “I did take this one from them, after all. They may have wanted me more than the station, but they left with what they could take, not with what they wanted to take.” He immediately transmitted the queen schematics of some podunk pirate vessel similar in design but nowhere near in actual power to the ship he was in. “They flew these."

As the transmission was sent Ghaz began to quietly give orders. “Ready the weapons,” he murmured to the tactical officer, way off screen. No initial energy signature would even be registered, the weapons used for surprise attacks of a most unique nature. Lets see what the Deltan can do...

“That's all I have,” Jynn finished in a sorrowful tone. He held his hand up and ran it slowly through the air as though he were running it over the Queen's viewscreen. “Rescue us and my crew will be added to yours. I will forever be in your debt.”

Looking over the transmitted data now displayed on her chair's arm console, the Orion regent browsed several pages of comparable starships in the KCA database and finally found several design schematics which matched these mysterious pirate ships.

"Humans..." she mumbled to herself with disapproval, then sighed softly. "Very well. Helm, close to transporter distance and commence rescue operations," she instructed to her conn and tactical officers. "Prepare to interrogate the crew of the ship once they come aboard. We need more information!"

With a smooching sound Jynn kissed the air. “Thank you, Queen. I can hardly wait.” The transmission ended.


The Hullcrusher

As the Queen's ship started to come about Ghaz was almost Deltan with excitement. It worked! “Ready the guns and wait for my mark, boys. Engineering, bring power to full at the sound of the guns! Petey ole boy. When the guns are blazin' bring the shields up and ready the phasers. We're going to need 'em!” He could almost dance in excitement as the ship came closer. Transporter range would be extremely close with the jammer activated. “Jynn! Grab me another drink. Oh, and have one for yourself, too.”

Jynn jumped for joy and ran to the turbolift once more, high-fiving anyone within arm's distance. “Back in a jiff, sir! Oh, and what'll you have?"

"Gin!"

“Any time,” Jynn replied with a mischievous wink and a smirk to match as the turbolift door closed shut.


IKS Saalm

Watching through her starship's large forward viewscreen as it closed on the smaller vessel, the queen regent once again reached down to her targ and began to give him scratches along his back on either side of his spinal spikes. The little creature grunted and growled in satisfaction, and lowered his head to the floor in content.

"Lower shields and commence transport," she calmly instructed to her bridge crew. Her order was followed by a series of confirmations from different stations, and several junior tactical officers departed the bridge towards the transporter room to oversee the new arrivals and impending interrogations.

When the crew arrived at the transporter room the operator wasted no time in locking on to bodies to beam. But something wasn't right.

“I can't get any locks on the bridge crew, Queen. Not sure how, but probably S.O.P. if they're able to. But, there are way more humans than I would expect. Only a few are non. I'll start beaming them up now. We'll get answers out of them soon enough.”

Just as the operator began to beam up crewmen from the Hullcrusher...


The Hullcrusher

...The transporter operator aboard the Hullcrusher sent over a valuable 'crewman' of their own.

“Let's give 'em Hell,” Gahz shouted over the ship's comm to everyone aboard. “It's time to get the Queen!”

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

QRGT Lirha Saalm
Commanding Officer
IKS Saalm
[PNPC Saalm]

Jynn
Slave/'Captain'/All around annoyance
The Hullcrusher

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