Watering hole

Posted on Mon Jun 2nd, 2014 @ 1:35am by Walter Jones & Jan Valentine & Charlotte Ashcroft & Bruce Air (PNPC)

1,507 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Session 7: Changes
Location: New Bajor - Frosted Prophet

On:

After giving the ship a good kicking, Walt headed down to the bar. His days on New Bajor recently had consisted of getting the ship ready, sleeping, eating, and most importantly sitting at the Frosted Prophet; a bar serving and catering to off-worlders such as himself.

As he did most days, Walt took up his usual table in the corner of the bar to stare out at the passers by. He wasn't specific in his request to have people meet him here, but he figured this would be where they would turn up or at the ship.

Jan wandered into the bar, it seemed nice enough for off-worlders. He did a quick scan around the bar and immediately recognized his former captain, sitting alone in the corner.

"Walt, long time no see!" Jan said, extending a hand towards him.

The captain was broken out of his trance by the sound of his engineer. "Jan! Glad to see that you are still around!" Walt stood up and took the hand of his friend. "How the hell you been?"

Jan shook Walt's hand and sat down at the table.

"I'm doing fairly well, made enough from the past couple jobs with you to do some traveling and trading. Been back to Lagash, paperwork's still valid so I got a little tune up and read up on modifications to the eye, it can interface with shipboard computers remotely now. How are you? What's been going on with you and the ship since the band split?" Jan said, while remotely hacking into a nearby server's order padd and placing a drink order.

"Same old, almost dying, bills, sweet talking my way into some jobs. You know the usual. I'm glad the eye is working out for you and that it has gotten better. How is Lagash these days? Still a bunch of uptight asses there?" Walt sat back down while grabbing his drink. His back still hurt from the fall earlier.

"Lagash is a remarkable place, their sense of individuality and freedom of personal expression is...refreshing after spending most of my life under Federation rules and regulations. I may settle down there one day. But not today." Jan said, taking his raktajino from the server.

"I have no doubt that the Warden is going to need a bit of a once over maintenance wise, but before that, I have a sort of a request. I arrived here in my own shuttle, just bought it a few days ago, I was wondering if you'd like to make it part of the Warden's compliment of support craft, it's no doubt better than what we may currently have. It'd still be registered under my name, but would be freely available for you and the rest of the crew to use, at their discretion." Jan said, sipping his coffee, double strong with a hint of cocoa.

"Does that include me?" Bruce asked dropping easily into a chair next to the engineer. Bruce and Jan had an ongoing conflict between The pilot trying to push the ship past its absolute limits and Jan trying to keep him from blowing them all up.

"What is she? Not the Yiridian dung heap in Bay 12? G'day, bossfella," the last was said with a nod towards Walt.

"Ah Bruce, good to see you again. I figured that shuttle strewn across a couple kilometers outside of town was your doing. Nah man, you'll love it, Peregrine class fighter parked on the tarmac outside bay 32. Basically scammed it off a surplus yard, no torpedoes but no guts to hose out of it." Jan said, moving over for Bruce.

"Peregrine?" Bruce shrugged. "They're good, but they're expected to be good. They basically fly themselves. I prefer a hands on approach where what you do actually counts for something. As for the shuttle, I have been on a B'rel for a while now and they don't have shuttles. To get here I had to jump into the wreckage of a ship they hadn't totally blown up. Got them to tow me to Warp 5 and then rode the shock wave the rest of the way. Any one else turned up for the party yet?"

"I see you boys still like to talk shop," a female voice interrupted. "I suppose some things just don't change."

Walt looked over from the other two men to see Lottie strolling in. "Well, that is all we have sometimes. I'm glad to see you made it my dear!" The captain beamed when he saw her. "I'm glad to see you are doing well after all that nonsense with the Cardassians."

She snorted throwing herself into an empty seat. "I wish I was, I'd put everything into that damned freighter only to have some hijacked Federation star ship blow to hell for me!" she stomped her foot in annoyance. "Was glad to get your message, don't know what I would have done otherwise."

"Yeah, that was kind of the impetus of moving out here, the Alpha and Beta quadrants seem like they are circling the proverbial drain, I figure it was time to get us out out of there, all of you included.
Jan, you can park your new ship in the hanger no problem, we are down a few anyways. Had to sell a few things to get the old girl out of storage and back up running again." Jones looked at Bruce. "You might need to sit on a crate for a bit, one of the things that went was the pilots chair." He paused for a moment before bursting into a laugh. "I'm mostly joking on that one."

Bruce shrugged, "I've been sleeping on a slab of metal between Klingon Marines. A crate will be an upgrade."

"Thanks. So Walt, what's the job you got lined up?" Jan said.

"High value supplies from a neutral station about ten light years from here to an outpost near dominion space. According to my contacts we shouldn't have any issues. Dominion has been pretty quiet lately and keeping to their own sectors." Walt took a sip of his drink. "It is a pickup and putdown. Shouldn't be too much trouble but the payout is good.

"Better bloody be," Lottie growled almost as loudly as her empty belly. "The number of times you've said that as we've been fighting off half the galaxy in the process."

Walt feigned being hurt. "Lottie my love, have I or would I ever distort the truth of the matter to make the position that I'm in seem more advantageous then what it actually is?" Walt grinned before continuing, "As far as I can tell, because of the nature of the area, not much shipping has picked up out here yet, so there are far more jobs to do then people or ships to do them. So, easy jobs, lots of money."

"Well, what you plan and what takes place ain't ever exactly been similar" Jan said.

Bruce shifted uncomfortably, "Yeah, right, and I'm a Wombat's Auntie. We've got Buckly's of landing a job that doesn't end up with someone looking down the end of a gun. And don't pretend you don't all love it. So is it just the four of us then?"

"Whatever happened to Morgan? He still alive or did someone finally get around to claiming his bounty?" Jan asked.

"Oh, he's still around," Bruce chuckled. "Big stir up at DS12. Apparently he infected the whole station with some sort of virus that could only be cured by loves first kiss. Of course, that may just be Federation propaganda. He's on good terms with the Klingons, according to the scuttle but around the ship I was on. So when do we ship out?"

"He always was a bit of show off," Lottie commented leaning back in her seat.

"Well I've got the dock space for a few more days, and then we are due at the pickup location two days after that, then it is a three day travel to the drop off. We are getting 40 bars up front, and then another 40 at drop off. Most of the supplies are medical in nature from what I understand, Kohlanese barley, inactive fusion cores, and some building materials. Best part we don't even have to load any of it!" Walt smiled at the crew before putting his drink back on the table. "What do you think?"

"I think we're going into space with a skeleton crew, no doctor, a ship that should be retired, a cargo that is potentially volatile, and a flight plan into unknown. I'm bloody lovin' this," Bruce offered with a grin.

"Sounds like a cakewalk, I'll prep the phaser rifles. I should probably get started now if the ship will ever leave port." Jan said, downing the last of his coffee.

"Alright guys, meet at the ship, I'm sure you all know how to get in. Rooms are still the same. We leave in two days." Walt Finished his drink and beamed with pride at his friends. "See you soon."

 

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