Not The Brightest Plant In The Garden

Posted on Fri Nov 6th, 2009 @ 5:10pm by Walter Jones & Hank Tasco

2,166 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Interlude - SB 611
Location: Cargo Bay/Scientists office
Timeline: Current

ON:
Jones walked down to the cargo bay where he had told James to meet him. Hopefully the plant had survived the trip. So far everything seemed like it had gone according to plan, no one, well no one on his crew had eaten a phaser blast yet. Jumping down from the hatch above, he saw that James had beaten him down already.

"So... is it still.. well whatever it is? I want to get it over to the Doc as soon as we can so we can get paid for it."

"It looks to be okay." Miller said as he lifted the portable hydroponics container the plant was in. "As long as nothing happens to the plant from here to the doc, everything should turn out okay."

"Alright, I've got a shuttle fired up, let's head down and get this thing out of here." Jones walked over and looked the the plant in the container, all of this trouble for such a little thing.

Miller didn't need to be told twice; after all the quicker they handed the plant off the quicker they got paid. Lifting the portable hydroponics container up Miller followed Jones down the corridor to the shuttle.

Moving through the winding corridors of the ship, Jones made sure that the path was clear for the container, it was all he needed was to have the case bust, making their way down to the shuttle bay, Walter opened the door to the cargo section of one of the kangaroo transports. "What do you think, grav locks in the bay here? I don't think it will be a bumpy ride but ya never know."

"Agreed, wouldn't want to have done all this only to lose it to space turbulence and not get paid." Miller said as he grav locked the container into the bay. "So you know this doc well?" Miller asked as he followed Jones to the cockpit and took a seat.

"A bit, he used the "I knew your father" card, I remember hearing about him, one hair brained idea after another." The small cargo vessel lifted out of the hold and towards the massive base. "I try and dissassociate myself with the parents.. but sometimes we happen to cross paths. So what do you think so far? This gig better then the last one you were on?"

"Way better, I haven't needed to use my weapon once." Miller said as he looked down to the space where is disrupter holster used to be. "Hopefully it stays like that, but realistically I know at some time I'm going to have to use it." Hopefully I have it on me when that happens thought Miller.

"Same here, I'd rather not use it but we'll have to at some point I guess..." The traffic around the station was intense, most of the craft were little workbee shuttles, engineers, an occasional freighter. All the signs of a healthy starbase. "While we are here we should see if there is anything worth taking back over, all my trinkets are now in orbit around that planet."

'Ugh... I'll keep a look out for anything worth taking back." Miller said as he recalled that he was the one that had dumped Jones' trinkets during the escape from the planet.

Jones maneuvered the ship into one of the docking bays and sat the ship down with a hard thud. The docking controller waved him off and signaled to shut down then moved to the next freighter coming in. "Alright, here is the game plan, the doctor is on the third port saucer section, we are going to take it down, drop it off, get the money then head back here, as long as everything goes smoothly shouldn't take more then about a half hour."

"As long as everything goes smoothly." Miller muttered, as he repeated the line thousands had said before him and lived to regret. "You haven't had any bad run ins with the doc have you?" Miller asked as he removed the grav locks from the hydroponics container and lifted it up.

Though still in reconstruction the station was bustling, people moving in and around, aliens coming and going, federation officers, Jones sinched is coat a little tighter to try and hide the fact he had a phaser on him. It was never wise to go anywhere without one.

"Hey you, with the plant." A security guard had focused in on James and was heading towards them. "Stop... I need to talk to you."

"Play it cool, hopefully he is just going to ask us for a permit, which we don't have." Jones stopped and fished through his pockets for the data chip he brought with him.

"Don't worry." Miller said coolly. "I didn't go through all that to lose the plant now to some chump."

The security guard strode up, looking very haughty. "Did you clear this with the dock master? Federation regulation number Alpha Seven Eight Thirty Four clearly dictates that no fruit, vegetable or bio matter will be transported to a federation facility without proper authorization."

"Have no fear my dear sir." Miller said as he got closer to the security guard. "Its not a real plant, however it does smell, and feels like one, and it even grows like one too, however I can assure you its fake. My partner and I sell fake plants that seem quite real, and for just five slips of latinum you can have this one. "Why if you buy it right now, I'll throw in the container and give you a life time warranty that if it dies you can have your money back. What do you say?" Miller asked as he got even closer to the guard.

The guard looked at the plant then looked at Jones and Miller.

"Come on friend, we are just simple fake plant merchants here to buy and trade." Jones looked over at the guard and smiled.

"Move a long... but don't be trying any shenanigans." The guard backed off a little bit and went to bother someone else. "Good work, I knew I saved you for a reason, let's get the move on." Walter moved down the promenade of the station and found the nearest turbo lift. "Now, I'll warn you.. the doc is a little... well... mad... like well a hatter mad.. He's probably going to try and mess with you."

"Thanks for the heads up." Miller said in a voice that did little to hide his doubt. Now he tells me we're dealing with a crazy, if he had told me sooner I'd have brought a weapons thought Miller.

As the turbolift opened they stepped and the small transport headed off to its desitnation. People came and went and eventually it stopped on the deck with the science labs on it. Walking down the hallway he found the door where the Doc's lab was supposed to be, he hit the chime and waited. This section of the station had been more or less rebuilt. The smell of paint was still thick in the air, and the lighting buzzed. "If I know this old coot he should be here, only leaves to get something to eat. Like I said, if he starts ranting on you about something just ignore it, he's been like that for a while.... must be all the gamma particles he's absorbed over the years."

Miller was about to ask Jones if there was a chance that they were going to get blasted by gamma particles themselves when the doors opened, but didn't when he figured certainly Starfleet wouldn't allow such a thing, after all they had been accosted by a security guard over a plant, so it would figure they would stop someone from experimenting with gamma particles on the station.

Despite Millers reasoning when the door opened he closed his eyes and looked away just for good measure, only turning his head back after he was sure nothing was happening.

"GET IN HERE BEFORE YOU LET THE STANK OUT!" A strange gray mist was starting to seep out into the hallway. "IT WON'T BITE JUST GET IN HERE!" Walter shrugged and headed into the mist.

Reluctantly Miller followed Jones into the mist, it felt moist against his skin and almost immediately he detected the 'stank' in the air; it smelled like rotting vegetation.

The room was less of a lab and more of a tropical jungle, plants and vines were draped across the consoles, trees sprouting up in the middle of floor, at one point, it looked like something darted across the floor. Through the shrouded mist a bespectacled man with a long white beard and shaggy white hair appeared. He looked at the two of them.
"I hope that you two didn't ruin that specimen, that thing is worth more then the rare earth molecules that make up the both of you." Dr. Stouffin moved up to the container and looked at the plant. "Are you the professor of Botany that this scallywag was going to be taking care of my precious?

"That would indeed be me." Miller said as he handed over the plant to Dr. Stouffin, only not to receive a thank you for brining him the plant.

"This is my cargo chief James, he set up a botany lab in one of the cargo holds to protect this damn thing..." Jones looked at Emanuel and frowned. "Mods that cost money."

"Hopefully the plant's okay, I did what I could for it, but as the captain says I set up a botany lab in one of the cargo holds and we don't exactly have the state of the art botany equipment that you seem to have here." Miller said as he examined a nearby plant.

The scientist moved over to one of the plant bays and stuck the canister on the bench, and released the seals on the container. "Yes... yes very good... you can leave now."

"There is a matter of payment for our troubles" Jones walked close to one of the plants that was was a bright orange.

"You'll get nothing, your father owed me a favor, consider this repaying it." The old man waved the two of them away.

"Why you snivling geriatric old thing..." Jones moved closer to Miller. "If I blast one of these plants, think it will hurt us at all or just annoy the hell out of him?"

"As long as you don't shoot anything with bright colours we should be fine." Miller replied in a whisper hoping that somewhere in Jones' mind was the knowledge that colourfull plants and animals in nature tended to be poisonous.

"Good... take this..." Jones handed another phaser to James. "Alright, start blasting things that aren't going to get us killed if he doesn't give us some coin to get out of here."

"Okay." Miller said as he took the phaser from Jones and aimed it at a plant.

"Alright... I've got a phaser and so does my friend here... he knows what to blast but I don't."

Emanuel looked up from his figures and stats. "You wouldn't dare... there are plants in here from the other side of the quadrant."

"You mean like this one?" Miller asked as he pointed his phaser at a spotted yellow plant. "Why its almost unheard of for these to survive anywhere except their native planet, It would be a shame for it to get destroyed by phaser fire." And to show he meant what he was saying Miller shot beside the plant hitting the soil.

Stouffin looked at the plant then back at Miller. "Fine... fine... I had 20 bars I had been saving up for Risa...." the doctor grabbed a data pad from his desk, looked at it quickly and then tossed it over. "I'm not talking to your boss anymore he is a poopy head. Now get out of here before you do some real damage to my experiments"

Jones nodded to Miller, "It was good doing business with you" Jones put the phaser back under his coat. "Let's get out of here."

"Got it boss." Miller said as he lowered the phaser and handed it back to Jones.

"If you ever get sick of running around with a miserable human being like that guy there I need some lab assistants here." Stouffin smiled at him as he started to walk back to his plants.

"Ugh.. thanks for the offer, I'll keep it in mind next time I'm looking for work." Miller remarked as he turned to leave.

"Good work James, take the rest of the afternoon off. I made a good decision saving your tail back there in the cargo bay." Walter smiled at him as he walked out the lab. "I probably would have shout the brightest looking thing in there."

"Looks like saving me is turning out to be a good investment." Miller chuckled as he departed ways with Jones and headed to find Charlotte for lunch.

 

RSS Feed