A plant by another name might get you shot.

Posted on Wed Oct 7th, 2009 @ 2:53am by Walter Jones & Hank Tasco & Lee Pierce & Jan Valentine

1,267 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Session One - Jailhouse Rock
Location: Flausten

ON:

Sitting beside Lee in the shuttle Miller watched as her hands gracefully danced over the controls as she brought the shuttle down on to the landing pad. Miller had thought about piloting the ship down himself however his fear of crashing again, quickly made him relinquish the idea.

“So you have any idea where we’re to meet this guy?” Miller asked as he followed Lee out of the shuttle.

"Why don't we try that bar over there, sometimes things are in the first place you look, unless it is the last place, but if you look in the last place first then it isn't the last place." She smiled at Miller. "We don't look like we are from here so maybe he will find us."

“Okay.” Responded Miller as he followed Lee to the bar. As he entered the bar Miller quickly looked it over, it looked like any other grungy cheap bar that watered down its drinks; which meant that if you were looking for someone shady this would be the place to find them.

Jan had been trying to find a ride out of the system for 2 days, roaming every bar in the docking facility. He had tailed a Bolian to a particularly grungy bar and got him alone.

"Are you sure you can't let me ride along with you to the next system?" Jan asked the bolian.

"No way in hell man, no matter how much money you got. My cargo is perishable medical supplies, and they're very valuable. Sorry." the bolian said, leaving.

"Shit, now what am I going to do? I've tried every bar in this damn place." Jan said to himself, knocking back another cheap drink.

“Can I get an OJ?” Miller asked, as he took a seat beside someone who looked like they were down on their luck. “Thanks.” He said as he tossed a slip of latinum on to the bar.

Jan looked at the guy next to him out of the corner of his eye, *hmm, decent clothes...good build....cargo chief?* Jan thought. He emptied his glass and set it aside.

" 'scuse me sir, I was wondering if you could help me out?" Jan said.

“Why what do you need?” Miller asked as he took a drink of his OJ only to cough it back up. By god this place his cheap, even the OJ was watered down.

"I'm Jan Valentine and well, to cut a long story short, a deal of mine went....rather bad. Now I need a ride out of the system, the sooner the better." Jan said, eying the rest of the bar carefully. " I have many "items" to trade, as well as money."

“Well unless you happen to know where to get a certain plant I don’t think there is much I can do for you.” Miller said bluntly as he took another swig of his horrible drink.

"Hmm, what kind of plant?" Jan said. "I have many types in storage."

Lee reached into her purse and handed a data padd over to Jan. "It has some kind of medical properties, man eater from what I've heard and pretty rare." Lee smiled at James, hopefully this was who they were looking for and not some random person who wasn't trying to scam them.

"Hmm, very rare indeed.." Jan said, seeing the creepy plant.

Jan reached into one of his coat pockets, and pulled out a starfleet data padd which had seen better days. A starship name was on the top border, but it had been scratched off partially. Jan flipped through his inventory list, and smiled.

"It just so happens I do have one. A ship I served with got hired to obtain a specimen, and we managed to get two, lost a few greenhorns in the process...Anyway, I kept the other sample in cryo-storage. If i were to give you said plant, would you take me along?" Jan asked.

“Very well.” Miller said after thinking it over for a few seconds. It wasn’t his call but Miller figured Jones wouldn’t mind giving this man a ride out of the system in exchange for the plant. “So lets get the plant and we can be off this rock.” Miller said downing the rest of his OJ.

"I'll call the captain real quick and let him know."

"Lee I told you not to call me unless it was important."

"It is captain, James and I have secured the medical plant things already we can get out of here, I didn't even spend any money."

"Good for you, alright get back to the ship and lets get the hell out of here Jones ou"

"Wait captain there is slight hitch, I think there might be heat on us flying out, the plant came with a condition, but I've got good news! We have a new engineer, his name is Jan Valentine, and he is pretty nice." Lee smiled at Jones through the communicator.

"Whatever, I'll deal with it when we get back to the ship, get the engines warmed up, we are headed to SB-611."

"Alright!" She saluted and Jones disappeared. "What did you say your name was?"

"The name's Jan, and you are?" Jan said.

“That’s Lee Pierce our nurse, and I’m James Miller ships cargo chief. It’s good to meet you Jan.” Miller said introducing both of them to Jan.

"Likewise." Jan said, spotting a cardassian soldier entering the far side of the bar. "Uh, we should go, it'll take a few minutes to get the stuff out of storage."

“Okay then.” Miller said observing Jan’s reaction to the Cardassian entering the bar. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that what ever Jan had gotten himself into involved the Cardassians.

The three managed to quietly exit the bar, avoiding the particularly angry looking Cardassian at the bar.

-----Several minutes later, U-STOR-IT Facility-------

"Here we are, storage container #LV426" a grungy looking old man said.

"Thanks, keep the change." Jan said, handing over several strips of latinum to the man.

The man trundled off, and Jan slid his access card through the lock. A beep and a green light signaled an approved entry, and the hatch opened. Inside the badly lit container were a few photographs, a partially dismantled phaser rifle, and a rusty metal box about 3 ft wide by 4 ft high. A control panel on the box was glowing a deep blue.

"This is one of my favorite acquisitions." Jan said, stepping over to it. "I salvaged it from some alien freighter, it's a high capacity transporter buffer. Just lock onto your object, and poof, it's a stream of energy stored in the box." Jan said, flipping on the antigrav lifter underneath it. "And portable too." Jan said.

“Good save us the extra work of hauling it to the shuttle.” Miller said looking over the containers contents. With Jan pushing the antigrav lifter Miller and Lee led the way to the landing pad where the shuttle was located. As Miller helped Jan store their cargo Lee prepped the shuttle for take off.

“I bet you’re happy to leave this planet.” Miller said as he strapped himself into a shuttle seat.

Lee looked out the window. "I kind of wish we had had some more time to explore really, but space is better anyways."

"Hmm, I haven't seen space for 6 years..." Jan said.

"Well thats about to change Jan." Miller said looking out the shuttle window, as he shuttle ascended into the planets atmosphere towards the Warden.

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