Negotiations (part 3)

Posted on Tue Jun 30th, 2020 @ 10:45am by Commodore Samantha York & Lieutenant JG Ronnie Wolfe & Major John Kayhill & Lieutenant Aenar Torek & Lieutenant Dwight McCabe & Lieutenant Lei Shan & Lieutenant JG Teenah Spartacus

1,095 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Food for the Gods
Location: The Undercity

[CONTINUED]

[OLD]

As chaos erupted, Shan laughed. “About damn time!” she yelled at the rescue team, and threw herself at the nearest of her guards. Her foot shot out and sideways into a knee, taking him down to where she could launch a full powered back elbow into his temple, knocking him out. She gave him another kick, just for spite, and stole his sidearm. She didn’t know if it could only stun like they had done to her, or if it could kill, but she didn’t really care. She took careful aim, right at the man in charge, the one who would have been responsible for keeping her chained up like an animal and treated like a beast of burden, the one Spartacus seemed to making some kind of pass at, and she pulled the trigger.

[NEW]

The bolt of light struck her victim and he slumped.

"Too close.. Spartacus rolled out of the seat and to a crouch. At least I have some cover. " She mused.

The guard close to Shan knocked her weapon out of her hand as he blinked trying to get his sight back.

Shan turned on the guard, anger boiling up in her, and she lashed out with a fist into the side of his jaw. He stumbled but didn’t go down, so she launched herself at him, hitting him again and again until he collapsed, and she turned to look for another receptacle for her frustrated rage.

When the chaos broke out, Ronnie carefully made her way to the door and locked it. She had no doubt the guards would lose this fight. She doubted they had much need to do more than look tough and wield their weapons. This would keep others from coming in to help. Then, since she was at the back and behind everyone, when the flash distracted most of the guards, she took one of the weapons and began stunning every guard around her.

Sam spoke loud enough to be heard over the chaos. "Yield now and we'll talk. We do not want to hurt you, but we will not let you take us prisoner."

Managing to finally find the stun setting, Aenar flipped the switch, and aimed the weapon in the direction of some of the remaining inhabitants and covered them, waiting to see if they yielded to the Commodore's orders.

There was a momentary pause, but no one responded. "We do not wish to harm any of you." She could feel several of the council members vacillating and turned to those specifically. "As you have seen, we are able to defend ourselves. Tell your guards to put down their weapons and listen." She waved her hand holding the alien weapon to indicate the number of guards already on the ground or disoriented by the flash. "It would be the logical choice."

"Logic. You call it logic to attack our guards?" one man said.

"We came in peace to retrieve two of our own who are not native to your planet. Even with a message from Commander Munich, you refused to accept that we repaired your machine because we came from space. You refused to give us back our lieutenants, and then you brought more guards to take us prisoner. Defending ourselves is highly logical. As is negotiating. It would be illogical for you to continue fighting when we have the upper hand."

"You have no right..." the man said.

The woman next to him raised her hand. "No. Stand down." She stood. "Your people fight well. We will listen to what you have to say."

"I would like all the guards over by the wall," Sam said. "John, Thy'las, keep an eye on them."

Dwight McCabe was never much of a fighter, so he stood to the side watching how the whole thing, the fighting, unfolded in front of him. If someone was down, he would take some risks in approaching the person and give them treatment because he is a doctor.

The woman nodded. "Please do as she says." She turned back to Sam. "I am called Eldira."

Sam smiled. "Thank you, Eldira. You may call me Sam."

John smiled as the guards moved to the wall.

"Move and I shoot. No hard feelings though, I know you are doing your jobs and I am doing mine.", John said to them, shifting his phaser to wide angle, but lowering it some. He wanted to bring their tension level down, but he wanted them to realize that he was watching them.

Ronnie leaned against the door, holding one of the alien weapons and smiling. "Too bad we can't order wine."

"Or pizza," Sam said before she took a seat next to the woman. "Now, before we go on, I would like to know how you came to live down here and why you get tributes from the surface."

"You know that Commander Munich has sent a message asking to talk with us from the temple above us?" Spartacus said looking over the back of a seat where the elders sit and picking up the message. "You know how he is; you think maybe a reply from..." She held up the paper. "Where this came from might be in order?"

"I know," Sam replied. "I thought getting things settled her was a bit more important." She looked around the table. "Can you ask one of your people to take Teenah and Aenar to the machine so they can respond?"

Eldira nodded. "Mindara, take them. When they are done, bring them back here."

Another woman nodded. "This way." She led the two out the door.

When they were gone, Eldira turned to Sam. "What are your terms?"

"Terms" Sam asked.

"I assume you want our surrender."

Sam paused. "No, we don't. We do, however, want to talk to you about your trade with the people on the surface."

"We have no trade," the woman replied.

"Then why do they send you good every so often? And people?" Sam asked.

Although John was watching the mob, he kept an ear half on the discussion. It was always good to hear things straight from the horse's mouth especially when they were a potentially hostile horse."


(To be continued...)

Lieutenant JG Lei Shan
Chief Operations Officer

Lieutenant JG Teenah Spartacus
Counselor

Lieutenant JG Ronnie Lancaster
Assistant Chief Science Officer

Commodore Samantha York
Commanding Officer

Lieutenant Aenar Torek
Chief Science Officer

Lieutenant Dwight McCabe
Chief Medical Officer

Major John Kayhill
Marine CO

Eldira
One of the Council of Elders

Mindara
One of the Guard

 

RSS Feed