War Of The Words

Posted on Wed Nov 30th, 2011 @ 6:25pm by Captain Li Hawke & Commander Oralia Zeferino & Major Patrick Smith

Mission: In Our Time of Need
Location: Deck 531 - The Cherry Pit

Li and Patrick separated on deck 450, taking separate paths down to the pit. Once she was alone in the turbolift, she spent the rest of the descent trying to get a grip on her emotions. She was worried for Oz, and it was mixed up with concern for Patrick going in. And to top it all off, she carried a hefty dose of anger bordering on rage that she'd lifted from Sakkath. It was a pressure cooker primed to blow at the slightest provocation, and that provocation waited on Deck 531.

I can get through this. They'll get her out, and she'll be fine. I can handle him...

She just hoped that handling was not going to turn out to be the literal meaning of the term. She had enough issues as it was, and Suresh was becoming one of the biggest. She spent plenty of time in his head, she knew exactly what he wanted. How to avoid that was going to take some devious moves on her part to sidestep it without ruining her hold over him.

One step at a time...

The chime of the lift broke her reverie. Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath, hoping to calm herself so she didn't end up clawing Suresh's eyes out, and emerged on Deck 531.

The doors to quarters 531-9 slid open to reveal Suresh, and the moment he saw her, a smile lit his face. Li was reminded, just for a second, of the face of a wolf eyeing its prey just before charging. She fought down a growl as she stepped inside. It was time to take charge of this situation. The doors closed and he rushed her, pinning her against them. She was not in the mood.

Resting her hands on his chest, she gave in to the growl and shoved him back away from her. He hadn't expected that and blinked in surprise, then his eyes narrowed.

"Isha?"

"What are the rules, Suresh?" she demanded.

"But I--"

"No! You know the rules." She pointed to the sofa. Without a word, he moved over and sat down. "I know what you want, you forget what I do? I know everything about you." She moved across to stand before him. "And I know that right now, you are being stupid."

That did not set too well with him and now it was his turn to growl and jump to his feet. "Don't say that!"

"Stupid." She knew she was playing with fire, but she also knew that if it came down to it, he'd be grovelling at her feet with a word. "Lazan tells me your two minions snatched the Security Chief. Is that true?"

Suresh nodded. "It is. Do you have any idea how much I'll get for her? The bidding war has already started."

Li uttered a string of curses and turned her back on him. He reached out to touch her shoulder and she jerked away, crossing the room to look out the portal. HSe kept her back to him to make a statement.

"What I know is that your little prize down there could blow everything. They were seen taking her. How long do you think it will be before they start looking? And your two idiots will point right at you. Then bam! End of story. Is it money? Surely not, you have plenty of that. Ego? What??" She paused, then delivered the coup de grace. "And the moment they find you, you will be forever without me. They will take you away. That will really be the end of the story."

She could read the wheels turning in his mind, knew the moment he debated lying to her, selling Oz, pretending it didn't happen, then discarded that idea.

"I would know," she said softly.

Now it was his turn to curse. He buried his hands in his hair, groaning in frustration. "What do you want me to do? Just tell me!"

"You have to find some way to get rid of the witnesses, namely those two. Then leave her somewhere she will be found, and hope like hell she doesn't know you were behind it."

The silence stretched out far longer than it should, and she knew then that he'd been down to speak with Oz. Li whirled to face him and now she willingly let the anger free.

"They don't seem to be the only ones with no brain cells today," she spat at him, then moved towards the door. He pounced as fast as the wolf she had compared him to, slamming her to the wall.

"You can't leave!"

"Watch me." Her hand connected with his face, the slap echoing through the room.

He was frozen, stunned. Reaching up, he touched his cheek. Anger flashed through his eyes, then shifted to hunger. She had touched him and she could sense the desire, clear as day.

"Isha...." He began softly. "Please --" Whatever he had intended to say was cut off by the sound of an alarm.


Meanwhile...

Oralia's newly shorn scalp prickled and itched; Frick had been thorough in his use of the clippers, providing Suresh with a long braid of her hair. Losing her hair was bad, and she'd already shed more than a few tears over it, but what was worse was that she couldn't soothe the itching: Frick and Frack had left her bound, finding her easier to handle when hogtied.

While Oralia contemplated the loss of her hair, the next phase of her rescue was swinging into action. Thanks to Lazan word had spread through Suresh's other Goons that there was a new pilot on the job, which enabled Pat to simply walk past those who normally would have prevented people from entering their territory. Once out of sight he pulled out a small device with a set of instructions and a basic layout of the underworld's turf. Unfortunately for him, Oralia was being held further inside due to her worth and value to Suresh.

Just ahead, Patrick could hear two voices chatting casually.

"She cried, can you believe that?"

"Hunh. Not so tough for all that is she? Though I gotta admit, it was creepy when I delivered her hair. He didn't say much, just ran his hands over it and smiled. I hate it when he does that."

"Ugh. So, we're stuck here, what do you wanna do? Wanna make bets on how long his mood's gonna hold? Yell insults at this one through the door? What? I'm bored."

During their conversation Patrick slid up just around the corner from them and was currently attempting to keep a straight face at the lack of intelligence the two were displaying. Deciding perhaps to use words to win this one over, he made sure that his glasses were straight and standing tall, he rounded the corner. Speaking before the two Goons could react to him he said, "So. You two are the brain boxes everyone is talking about these days?"

They both stood up a bit straighter, but it was Frick who spoke first. "People are talking about us? Really? Why?"

Frack rolled his eyes. "You idiot. Because we carted off the Security Chief right from the Promenade in a crowd of people. Not just anyone could do that."

"True." Frick eyed Patrick. "Who are you and what're you doing here?"

"Tut tut, so many questions. I'm sure Suresh would have told you if you were important enough," he replied leaning back against a shadowed wall so as to obscure their view of him. "But then as you said, such a success. Yet you're still standing here playing baby sitter?"

"We're the only ones he trusts to keep up with her till she ships out. Wait a minute." Frick snapped his fingers. "You're that pilot, right? Nine?"

"Sure am. Maybe you two are further up the tree than what people think." He scratched his chin. "Look tell you what. Why don't you two go grab a drink and I'll watch her."

They looked uncertain at the suggestion, but then with a glance to each other, Frack shrugged. The guy was one of Suresh's after all and they had been standing here for forever it seemed. Finally he nodded.

"Five minutes, no more."

"We'll hurry," Frick added. "I need to go use the little bodyguard's room."

"Excellent. You guys deserve it after such a good job you've done getting her." He watched the two Goons leave, and then right on schedule Lazan appeared. "Good timing friend," Pat said as he pulled out a small phaser and set it to stun. "You know what to do."

"Those two would be funny if they weren't so tragic." Lazan paused a moment. "Aww hell, they are funny. I have to admit it." He nodded to Patrick. "Let's get this done so they can interrupt Suresh. She's in going the rounds with him now. I'm surprised you didn't hear the yelling all the way over here." He took the phaser from Patrick, pointed it at the man's chest.

"Wait hang on a sec," Pat interrupted and turned to the door. Fumbling for the moment, he got it open and inside quickly found Oralia. Moving inside he bent down and pulling a knife from the bottom of his trousers cut her ties. "Oralia meet Lazan." He said indicating the man behind him. "Follow him and you'll get out." Pat stood up and moved to the doorway. "Now you can stun me," he said to Lazan.

Patrick's entrance, cutting of her ties and introduction of the stranger behind him all happened much faster than what Oralia could immediately process. At first, she wasn't even sure who Patrick was, but he'd cut her ties, so she didn't attack him. Instead, she stayed still and took the two in. After a moment, who Patrick was clicked for her: one of Li's minions. The knowledge got her up and moving; the muscles in her legs and arms protested, causing her to stumble. Reaching up for a hand from Lazan, she nodded and whispered, "Let's go, then."

Lazan took her hand, turned the phaser on Patrick once more and fired, hitting him at close range. The weapons fire alarms immediately began to sound. He didn't wait to see the man fall. Instead, he scooped up Oz as if she weighed nothing and hurried from the room.

Temporarily weak from being injured and bound, Oralia let Lazan grab her. She watched Patrick fall as he carried her away. She hoped he didn't meet the same sort of fate Suresh had planned for her.

Lazan moved through back corridors, keeping out of sight. They arrived moments later at an open turbolift that held Nenita.

"Run!"

Lazan did as ordered, lowering Oz to the floor of the lift. As soon as he let her go and stepped back, the lift closed and zoomed away. Lazan took a deep breath, then turned and dashed back towards the alarms.

When he arrived back at the room, things were in an uproar. Frick and Frack were there in a panic. 'Nine' lay unconscious on the floor. Suresh was standing with Li held tight against him, his expression thunderous. The two goons were babbling about being excused and how this wasn't their fault, not at all. Suresh silenced them with a look, then turned to Lazan.

"See if you can revive him."

Lazan nodded, stepping into the room. He knelt down to check on Patrick. "Looks like he was just stunned is all."

Pat groaned on the ground and rolled over as he came too. "Bloody hell that hurt," he remarked as he gingerly pushed himself off the ground.

Lazan helped him sit up, holding on to him till he was sure Patrick could hold himself up. "What the hell happened?"

Patrick rubbed the back of his head where it was sore from hitting the ground. "When I left you, I came down to have a look around. Walking past here heard someone crying. No one was outside the room and I went to look inside. Before I got near it two guys came from behind and stunned me as I spun round. Next thing I know I have a busting headache and a sore stomach."

"No one was outside guarding the door?" Suresh's tone was ominous. He turned to Frick and Frack and what they saw in his eyes had both backing away.

"Hey! He said --"

"That's a lie!"

Both men spoke at once. They looked daggers at Patrick.

Li spoke up. "He speaks the truth. They were not here when he was attacked."

"Well, considering you two came running from somewhere else after the alarm went off, and given Isha's word, I believe him. I got here before you remember?" He was close to blowing and everyone could see it. Li touched his face, speaking softly, and he calmed.... a little. "It seems to me that Nine here was the only one looking out for the cargo. At least trying to."

Pat looked up at Suresh. "Sorry boss. Not much I could do with the speed they hit me at."

Suresh nodded, turning back to look at the goons. "Lazan, since they couldn't seem to do their jobs outside this room, let's see how they do on the inside. Restrain them and leave them, then take Nine to see the Doc if he needs it. I have some work to do. If we can't find her, I have some calls to make. I'll deal with them later."

Wails of protest arose from Frick and Frack but two well-placed punches from Lazan silenced them. Soon, they were bound and gagged and left on the floor where Oz had been. Li glanced at Patrick and Lazan only a moment before drawing Suresh from the room and leading him away. She could only hope they'd wasted enough time that Oz and Nenita were well out of harm's way.

Lazan helped Patrick up, who was still sore and wincing. "I think some sleep will do me the world of good right now," he said as the two walked away slowly. Once out of the earshot of any listeners and back at a turbo lift, Patrick departed with a thank you and made his way back to his quarters through a series of four turbo lifts. Just in case anyone decided to follow him.

*********
Lieutenant Patrick Smith 'Nine'
Armed with WMD in a battle of Wits
And bearing a few new pains

Oralia Zeferino
Certainly not Rapunzel

Frick & Frack
Unarmed In A Battle Of Wits

Suresh
Not Happy, and When Suresh Isn't Happy.....

Lazan
Sheep In Wolf's Clothing

Li and Nenita, who have their hands full