You're Late

Posted on Mon Jan 25th, 2010 @ 4:14am by

622 words; about a 3 minute read

Mission: A New Home
Location: Starlight Lounge, Starbase Typhon
Timeline: 1200

Ted and walked to to the Starlight Lounge with a science officer from the Starbase and searched for a sign of his contact. He was searching for a man in dark clothes with a woman by his side. He spotted him in no time. He gestured to the hostess and walked over to the man and sat down.

"You're late." The man's fiery hazel eyes met Ted's soft brown ones as the latter sat down.

Ted made himself comfortable. "Sorry. I had to go to talk to the Operations office on the starbase here."

The man lifted one brow for a moment. "And of course no one knows I'm here...?"

Ted shook his head. "No. No one knows you're here."

"Good. Then perhaps we can get to business. If you will follow me..." The man stood up; he was a good six inches taller than Ted. Ted stood, confused.

"I haven't been able to eat anything yet."

The man turned and looked at him. "Then you should have been here on time." He gave him a cold smile and walked off, leaving Ted to do nothing or to follow.

Ted sighed and, making up his mind, followed behind the man and the woman. When they reached the cargobay being used by the man for his goods, Ted could tell right away the guy was messing with him. At the time, the artist Jim Booth used pine for his paintings, not spruce. And the wood for the other paintings were all wrong, as were the types of frames on them; some of them would never have had that fancy of frames as it took away from the art work.

Ted went through the act of inspecting the paintings and stood up, just as Steve was putting away his tricorder. "Okay, where are the real paintings?"

The man's visage darkened as he said, "These are the real paintings."

Ted smiled and shook his head. "No, they're not." He pointed to the back of the Jim Booth painting. "Jim Booth used pine wood for the frame, not spruce.

Steve spoke up. "And my tricorder says they're all no older than 20 years. So we're going to ask you again. Where are the real ones?"

The man smiled. "You're a smart one, Turner." He led him over to a place in the far corner of the room and lifted a cloth off several paintings.

Steve scanned them again and smiled at Ted. "These are the real ones."

Ted got out the latinum he had been given by the CO. Montgomery had not been happy to have to give Ted latinum, and had said that it had better be worth it. But the dark man stopped him.

"After the ion storm and the raiders I had to go through, I'm going to have to up the price."

Ted was cautious. "By how much?"

"Fifty percent."

Ted shook his head. "You set the price and I agreed to it. 20 bars of latinum is a very reasonable price. Or you can be arrested by starbase security for escaping from prison." Ted smiled. This man was a known felon. It was why he wore dark clothes and a hat at all times; he wanted his identity kept private.

Jabar's eyes widened. "Very well." He snatched the purse out of Ted's hand. "Take it and go!"

Ted was smiling as he turned to Steve. "Now that is what I call negotiating skills." He hit his commbadge. =A= Turner to Orion. One person and one crate to beam out. Look onto Jameson's tricorder signature. =A=

Ted walked into the corridor, intending to get something to eat and get his supplies; whoever said this job was easy?

OFF:

Ted Turner
Lounge Manager
USS Orion

 

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