Let's get the show on the road...

Posted on Wed Jul 1st, 2009 @ 4:55am by Walter Jones & William Baker & William "Billy" Decker & Tyl'varas Shrive & Brian Mallory & Lieutenant Mnheia t'Llaiir & Charlotte Ashcroft

2,430 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: Recruitment
Location: Bridge
Timeline: Current

*ON*

Jones looked over some of the job logs that he had been able to dig up around the starbase, most of them weren't very glamorous, haul this piece of equipment here, bring these dry goods to this space station. Make a run from planet A to planet B. We was able to pull out a few different mission types from some of the "seeder" parts of the station that he wanted to run past the crew first, after all it was their hides. Walter pushed the comm link on the comm panel.

"This is your captain speaking, everyone come to the bridge so we can discuss our first job options together and so that we can all officially meet each other."

Jones released the button then walked over to his chair. He sat down with a "thud" and stretched out a bit.

Mnheia walked slowly back to the turbo lift from her quarters. After hearing what the captain had to say she started to think about a mission.

'Where to go on a mission is usually not my forte....I am usually not consulted by command. I like this captain! He cares what I think!' thought Mnheia happily.

Upon entering CnC, Mnheia walked over to where the captain was and since she was one of the first there she spoke up and said;

"Sir, personally I have had my fill of the Alpha, Beta and Delta Quadrants. I would like to see what is out there in the unexplored parts of the Gamma Quadrant. I have not thought about where to go.....just 'out there', sir."

At the helm console, Brian Mallory shook his head slightly and restrained an exasperated sigh. "We're a freighter," he said. "Last I checked, our business was hauling cargo." He glanced at the captain, eyebrows raised in a "get a load of her" expression, and then turned back to his control panel. "This isn't Starfleet, Lieutenant," he muttered under his breath.

The door giving way, Tyl'Varas walked through and towards his chair, giving a once-over glance towards everyone that was there already. He looked a bit... angry at this particular moment.

Shrive took his seat, then grumbled "So, this is it? I'm hoping we don't die on our way out of dock."

Billy Decker had been going over engineering matters with his new young assistant when he heard Captain call all hands up to the bridge, over the ship's comm. "Looks like we're planning our first job" Decker said, as the two wiped their hands clean and made their way up to the bridge.

As Decker and Kirzchev entered the bridge, they saw the Captain sitting in his chair and the others standing around mingling. "We gotta a job Capt'n?" Decker asked.

Will strolled lazily onto the Bridge. Noticing that the bridge was a bit more populated than usual, it caught him off guard. "Holy people, jeez. I hope you'll all be happy to know that you have less of a chance of dying in sickbay than you did earlier. Oh thats right, our Job. Where are we going boss?"

Depositing her single bag in the cargo hold Ashcorft neatly altered her stride to carry to toward the bridge to stare at the grim faces of those she would be working with and to no doubt be hauled into a circular debate regarding their first assignment.
Arriving last of all she leaned a thin shoulder upon the door frame listening in unnoticed.

Jones looked at his crew that was now assembled on the bridge. "Well since this is the first time we've all gotten together I wanted to let you guys know a few things. Even though this is my ship and you all are working for me, we are all in this together. Without you this ship isn't going anywhere, so if you ever have a problem with the way I'm running things, well I'll meet you in cargo room 3 and have pistols at 30 paces." Walter smiled at everyone to let them know he wasn't serious.

Decker looked over at young Yari Kirzchev you looked bewildered from the Captain's statement. Is this lad ready for a ship like this - Decker thought.

"As for for jobs, I've been able to come up with a few leads so far, some of them a little more mundane then others, and a few that are a little bit more... shall we say clandestine?" Jones walked over to one of the computer terminals and punched in some information. A holoscreen projected from the computer showing three different jobs listings. Walter moved his hand over to the first one and expanded it. "First job opportunity is a milk run between this starbase and one farther down the klingon border about 10 lightyears from here. We'd be hauling some passangers, foodstuffs, spare parts and what not. They've promised 40 bars as payment."

"That's not exactly what I would call 'lucrative'..." Shrive stated blandly, as he pulled out a datapad that he had information listed in regards to the different opportunities.

"I've got enough work to do fixing up our sad excuse for a sickbay, last thing I need is passengers complaining of warp sickness." Will said as he crossed his arms defiantly.

"Welcome to life in the fast lane," Mallory muttered, still checking various settings on the helm console.

"As long as there's money for ale!" Decker replied, in his deep gruff voice. Decker always had the habit of talking through his teeth. "...but I'd like to hear what else is on the table."

Lottie's eyes traveled around the cramped bridge as the various persons spoke. First off the mark, and no doubt the fastest to anger was the Andorian scrolling through the list of choices they had searching for one more 'lucrative'.
The aging man alongside the Andorain with his arms crossed stubbornly spoke passionately about sickbay lead her to the belief he was the ships medic and the sheer gravel third man's voice with the faint aroma of oil had to be the mechanic and sole responsibly to keeping them in the air.
Why the crew contained a Vulcan was a mystery to Ashcroft, one that would come to light in due but was she really interested? As long as they stayed out of one another's way Lottie would be happy.


Jones moved to the second listing. "Now this job is a bit on the more clandestine side... I was approached by a fellow who was interested in archeology and has recently discovered the hulk of an ancient ship. On this ship is an artifact that he is very interested in. Supposedly he has secured the salvage rights to this ship and would be willing to pass them on to us along with 10 bricks for payment if we bring him back the piece he is looking for." Jones zoomed the map in on the suspected location. "You are probably asking yourself what the catch is, well location of course... It is located about 15 lightyears from here crashed on a dead world, in the DMZ between the Federation and the Klingons. He can secure us border papers but you never know how those are going to go."

Shrive glanced back down at his datapad, then back up towards Jones. "This has a bit more potential. None the less, this crew is far too green to expect this to go well... If you expect me to go into combat with a bunch of unknown pinkskins, the money had better be good."

Will glared at Shrive. He hated that term 'pinkskin', and had a feeling he and Shrive would be bumping heads often.

Decker gritted his teeth, and eyed the blue alien. "Just make sure you can keep up, when things hit the fan, Shrive."

Like her comrades Lottie narrowed her eyes in the Andorain's choice of words. Green, she glared from the doorway boring into the room angrily. She suspected their were somethings she could show him!

Jones pulled up the last listing, ”Now the last listing is another cargo run but it might get a little dicey. We are to pick up supplies, crates and prisoners from a penal colony on one of the moons of Siften four. We’d have to convert some of our cargo bays to holding cells with some force fields… the only problem I see is some maniacs getting out at night and murdering us in our sleep… Still need to negotiate a price on this one but they said they’d pay well.”

"If we take this one, they're paying for the retrofit to the cargo bays, we keep the upgrades, and we'd better get something up front." Tyl'varis stated.

"I could probably whip up an concoction that would make them sleep for a good bit." Will said, seeming a bit more interested in experimenting on prisoners than anything else.

"I could reroute power from emegency life support, to keep the force fields in place, should the need arise." Decker replied.

“Well, what do you guys think about it?” Jones sat back down on his chair and waited for their responses.

Turning the ship into a portable cage? Lottie raised an eyebrow at the thought then again at the comments that were flying around the space. It seemed as ever if the price was right even the impossible jobs were bodged to work. This was no exception. If they wanted to make this work all the of people present would have to agree and Lottie knew that making the crew of cargo ship agree to one thing was like a small war.

Shrive looked around, then said, "Well, I don't really care that much. We need to get a shakedown going one way or another, and I'd prefer I don't end up dead as a result. Whatever they want that meets that last wish there is fine by me."

"Lets take the prison run, might be a good wakeup call for some folks 'round here." Will replied.

Decker watched Yari's eyes grow big, and he looked a little peeked. "You ok with a prison-run, kid!" Decker said, as he attempted a smile.

"Lets do it" Kirzchev replied.

"Are you serious, Doc?" Mallory asked. "Last I checked, this crew doesn't have a whole lot of experience in prisoner transport and security. Not to mention the fact that Warden's had her Cardassian guts ripped out and rearranged in ways that she wasn't originally designed for. We don't know yet if all these upgrades are going to work right together." He looked to the Captain and ship's engineer for affirmation. "Do you really want to go through more upgrades on security before we test out what we've got? Much as that first milkrun might be unappealing, I'd rather take the boring path to mediocre pay than haul prisoners with forcefields on the fritz." He took a breath. "Same goes for the second offer. Are we really ready for a potential combat scenario?" Mallory sighed and held up his hands. "But whatever. Just my two strips, skipper."

Decker looked over at Mallory. "I'm pretty sure each of didn't sign up for an 'easy assigment'. Each of us is doing this job because no one else will. I've got fighting experience, but about your question regarding refit for the force-fields. I'm pretty sure, from what I've seen, while crawling around the guts of this ship, is that she can handle it. I can do the mods." Decker then looked over at the Captain. "We can do it, Capt'n!"

Brian folded his arms and shrugged. "With such contagious enthusiasm, I might have to give up my secondary post as the ship's wet blanket."

From her stationary location Lottie shifted her weight to the other foot. "I'm in," she called causing several heads to turn in her direction abide confused by her sudden appearance and now doubt her tom boyish looks lined with beauty must have come a pleasant surprise to the men present.
"If the prisoners even look at me in the wrong way, I'll put them in their place."

Tyl"Varis looked around, with an obvious shroud of disgust on his face. "Well, it's become obvious that some of you have something to prove. So, let's get in the proper spirit and morale. I want status reports on the entirety of the cargo bay space. You know the smell that won't go away? Get it to go away. Make sure everything is up and operational within the week. If anything is going to go wrong, I want to make sure that it damn sure isn't our fault. Understood? Oh, and I want the Vulcan to help with the smell."

Walter looked at the crew. "Sounds like my Blueberry is ready to go." Jones looked over at Shrive and smiled. "I'll contact the the source that gave me the heads up on the mission and work out a pay scale." Jones shut down the holoprojector then sat in his chair. "We'll get going in a week or so, in the meantime, go ahead and get any provisions you need from the station, we also need to make sure that the ship is in as good of shape as we can get it before we go. According to my calculations it is going to take about 6 days to get the colony so we'll have plenty of travel time to hopefully iron out some of the bugs. Anyone have any final questions?" Jones looked around at his crew and waited for objections.

"Just two, boss," Mallory said, raising a hand. "First, does Barry Manilow know you raid his wardrobe? Nah, don't answer that. Second... not that does or should have any say in the matter, but couldn't this be a potential hitch in our, er, newly Companionable arrangement? She might not take kindly to the fact that the freighter she signed on to has just become a prison barge."

Jones laughed at the Barry Manilow question and was about the answer when Tyl cut him off.

"No offense to the impressionable consort, but she had better get used to things like this. I'm sure she can find new and interesting places to shack up with various dregs, but honestly, she's renting. I don't recall her taking a commission on this crew. Hopefully I didn't hurt her delicate pinkskin sensibilities." Glancing across the room, Shrive grew a smile. "We're amazingly enough a democracy, though, and I think the crew has spoken. So, get off your asses and get to work. We don't get paid until we get moving."

*off*

 

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