Title Scouting for murder

Posted on Mon Mar 22nd, 2010 @ 2:15am by Amber Wilson & Walter Jones

2,029 words; about a 10 minute read

Park Stamir, had been looking over a few star charts for possible test locations on the purifier, the weapon that he promised would make the powers of the alpha quadrant stand up and take notice. Settling on two different locations he wanted to fly out and see them. He needed a place that was teaming with life, a planet that it would matter if all of the life on it suddenly ceased to exist. Standing up and heading to the shuttle bay of the decrepit station Park hit a button on the control panel next to the door.

"Amber, I need your abilities down in the shuttle bay, we need to pick out some targets." Park let the button go and headed down to the bay.

"Last time I checked, I don't work for you Park." She rose with a devious smile on her face "Lucky for you though, I'm in a charitable mood. Where are we off to?"

"Scout places to sough some chaos." Park looked back at her, I never suspected a nice girl like you would be working for ilk like us." Park gave her a bit of a chaotic grin. "We might have to fly into some "populated areas." Think you are up for it?"

"Ever heard of Outpost 143? Whats left of it is still bouncing around in the asteroid field I sent it into. Trust me, I'm ready for whatever comes our way." She stopped and turned towards him "Oh, and the next time you call me girl, the Cardassian fools will be spending the rest of the day cleaning up whats left of you off the wall."

"Hah, spunk I like it." Park gave her a slightly maniacal laugh and continued walking down the corridor. "There are two small M class moons that we are going to be looking at. They are both on the federation side of the border and from what I've been able to tell there are starships in the area. I need to get samples of their atmosphere so we might have do some some skimming." The corridor opened up into a hanger bay and there was a slick looking ship sitting in the hanger, the hull shimmered slightly in the pale light. "Hopefully you don't get us killed."

"Hopefully the shuttle can handle what I'm gonna put it through." She said with a shaky laugh. The thing that passed for a shuttle here was quite frankly garbage. Late 2360's tech on a horrid hybrid of Cardassian and Federation technology, complimented by a stolen Klingon cloaking device that suffered random power failures. "I hope you're not queasy, atmospheric flight can be interesting."

"When you've been cooped up in a federation prison for months, nothing make you quesy." Park moved over to the shuttle and threw open the cargo door. "Besides it will be nice to get out of here, the cardassians are starting to wear on my allergies." He looked over at one of the dock workers in near the door.

"Simple fools if you ask me. They hire one of the best fighter pilots in the galaxy to fly a small shuttle that pretty much anyone could fly. great investment there." She replied

Park sat in the chair ops chiar on the other side of the pilots seat and started to fire up the shuttles systems then leaned back in the slightly worn in bucket seat.

"Engines and inertial dampeners are online, shields are good, weapons are...yeah no. We should be good to go if you're ready."

"Lets go, first stop is a small M class moon on the federation side of the border, we should be able to get through the defense grid. The first place is primitive pre warp culture, perfect for what we are looking to do." Park smiled at her a bit. "Be lovely for a romantic getway sweetie."

She smiled as she made the pistol on her side visible "Romantic, doubt it. But sure I'd love to get away from you." Letting the attempt at an insult sink in, Amber engaged the shuttle's engines and set course for the planet. The trip wouldn't take long, but any time spent inside a small place with this creep was too long for her. "So what exactly are we 'looking to do' anyways?" She asked

"Simple really, genocide... murder on a cosmic scale." Park got a devious look in his eyes. "Our employers are trying to make some kind of point or another about themselves, their goals, ambitions, blah blah, I'm not even sure what the hell all they want to do, but they contacted me to make a point. Back in my federation days, before the mutiny that is.. I was research scientist into atmospheric chemology." Park breathed on the window of the shuttle and started writing down some formulas. "With the right chemicals and chain reactions, you can turn an atmosphere into a slush that will essentially turn an M class planets atmoshphere into a toxic mess within hours." He leaned back and looked at her. "The money is a nice bonus, I could care less about their cause or their little movement. I just want to see the world burn."

As the autopilot kicked in, she listened to his response with growing contempt. This isn't what she signed on for, but her need for money outweighed her need for compassion...for now. "Well whatever, I'm just here to fly. Burn whatever you like." The duo sat in silence for an awkward moment before Amber's curiosity crept up on her again "...So Starfleet huh? Guess your not the only one who got smart and left."

"Yeah, might have been convicted of attempted mutiny, court martialed and sent to a federation penal colony for a few years, that is until these people paid some twits to bail me out, it happened to be one of my partners in crime. What about you sweetie." He knew that the little comments had to be driving her nuts but it was fun to watch her squirm a bit.

Amber gave the shuttle a slight command, tipping it to the side just enough for Park's head to smack off the bulkhead. "Strike one cowboy." She said "But to answer your question, I was picked up by ferengi slavagers after the base I was stationed on was destroyed and never went back."

"That sounds sad, you want a hug?" Park smiled at her as the proximity sensor went off. They had reached their destination. The M class moon in the Bellatrix sector was teaming with life, the dominant humanoid species had evolved to the point of some space exploration. Small satellites zipped in orbit, a white gleaming space station could be seen in the distance, and small transport shuttles moved between that and the moon.

Park looked at the sensors and smiled at her. "Take this thing into high atmosphere, we need to do about a 1200 miles of scan, hopefully they don't scramble anything after us, we should be able to outrun them.

"Hang on, this might get bumpy." She said, ignoring his earlier comment. The small craft banked into the upper atmosphere with surprising ease as Amber set waypoints across a variety of terrain elevations to get the best scan. The shuttle bleeped loudly at her, causing her to swear under her breath "I'll have to take us into the lower atmosphere. The sensors on this thing are catching alot of interference."

"Understood, let's just hope that you can bring us out of there." Park started to set up the scan for the toxin.

Before she could drop them down, the shuttle rocked and fell from the sky like a rock "Damn it! Whatever just hit us knocked out our impulse engines...we're running on maneuvering thrusters. Get back there and start banging on things until they come back online, or else this place is gonna become our grave."

Park looked at her and shrugged his shoulders, he grabbed a wrench and quickly made his way to the back of the shuttle. Looking at the mass of mechanical and electronic things in the rear of the shuttle, one of them looked like they might have come loose. He gave it one quick smack of the wrench.

The shuttle continued to drop until the thrusters fully engaged. They were below cloud line, screaming above one of the more developed cities on the planet. Primitive laser fire shot towards them as Amber attempted to dodge. "Any ideas now smart guy?"

Park pulled himself back up to the front cockpit and looked at the sensors and as the laser shots fired past them. "Obviously there target sensors are having a hard time targeting us. "I'm venting some plasma, hopefully one of those lasers will hit it, when they do cloak us, that should give us some breathing room."

Oddly enough, the plan worked. With the cloak successfully engaged, the two shuttle occupants breathed a sigh of relief. "So...good fun huh?"

Park had tuned out Amber and was looking over the figures from the low level sweep they had just done. "Actually, I think we can skip the next planet, this ones atmosphere will have a beautiful reaction with my chemicals." He pressed a few buttons on the control panel and then turned to her "Does it get you hot knowing that you've just helped contribute to the death of billions of people? I know it does me."

Amber vomited a bit in her mouth. The fact that those words even exist together was sickening enough for her. "Lets just get this over with, I'm ready to get paid. Wheres the next planet?"

"Bellatrix III, Class K, being teraformed currently, I'd much prefer this moon but they wanted to test it on that as well. This moon here on V is much more suited to their goals, but something about disrupting the Federations plans or something." Park smiled at her, "You'll get paid when we get back.

Amber began to grow nervous. Heading to Bellatrix III took them directly by a Federation Command Center. "Look I'm all for making money, but theres got to be some twenty Federation warships in our way. I'm in this for profit, not suicide. Isn't there any other world we can scout instead?"

"Afraid of a little bit of heat there poppy?" Park turned back to the control panel. "Don't worry, our employers are going to make sure not a one of them is alive in the coming weeks." He smiled. "If we get stopped by the feds, I've got some hacked credentials that should get us through, but with the cloak, as long as it holds, we should be fine."

Amber sighed "Fine, but this better be worth it." The trip to Cestus III took longer then one might have expected, but the cloak lasted long enough for the duo to reach their destination. Amber took the shuttle into a high orbit as the power began to flicker. "That cloak is killing whats left of this tin can's power reserves. Its gonna take a few minutes for me to equalize it."

"Make it happen." Park looked over the instrument panel and saw what looked like an Akira class ship off in the distance. "Hopefully he stays over there. I'm going to start the scan, I think because of the composition of this planet we don't need to go in, just keep that cloak up."

Without a word, the small shuttle swung around to face its aggressor. "Tootles." She said as the shuttle's warp drive kicked in, sending them back towards the station. As they passed the Akira, the cloak reengaged, sending the small vessel safely on its way. Amber sighed "Remind me never to go on one of these mission with you again."

"That is fine doll, once we get back they are probably going to have you dance for them or something." He smiled at her. "You'll get your pay when we get back, if I show up dead, they know to blow this hunk of junk into a billion bits."

"Fine, but just remember, its real easy to get lost on that station."

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