Deal Gone Bad

Previously….

“Harper, head back to the ship and get everyone onboard ASAP.” Jack ordered. “I’m going to see if I can get a little closer and see why they were chasing that Ferengi.”

Now….

As ordered Harper headed off in the opposite direction from the crowd that was starting to form where the Ferengi they had been dealing with only a few minutes earlier.

Meanwhile Jack headed towards the crowd trying to remain fairly innocuous, but getting close enough to hear what was going on. As he got within yards of where the semi-conscious Ferengi was being hauled to his feet, he could hear what was being said. The one doing all the talking was the uniformed Ferengi, which Stryker still did not recognise.

“Nax Ta, you are being charged with illegal sales of alien technology to terrorists.” The Ferengi announced. “How do you plead ?”

The Ferengi now identified as Nax Ta remained silent. Whether that was due to the stun charge he had been exposed to or that he was choosing to say nothing, Jack did not know.

As Jack listened further, he overheard some of the Ferengi in the crowd talking about the uniformed Ferengi. From what he could ascertain, this Ferengi was some kind of free-lance law enforcement agent, a cross between a police officer, bounty hunter and criminal court judge. Apparently he was something of a legend amongst the Ferengi.

“I ask you one more time, how do you plead to the charge ?” The Ferengi asked.

Again Nax Ta was silent.

“Nax Ta……since you refuse to enter a plea to the charges put before you, I hereby find you guilty as charged.” The Ferengi announced. “Since most of the charges against you involve technology stolen from the Federation, I am suspending your sentence indefinitely. You will be handed over to the special investigations department of the Federation government, where you will face a trail according to their laws. Upon your return to Ferengi space, the suspended sentence will reactivated and you will serve a minimum of twenty five years in a maximum security prison facility.”

Suddenly there was a single phaser shot from the far side of the crowd and Nax Ta was turned into millions of individual atoms. The two humans were quick to react, they had their phasers drawn and pointed in the direction of the phaser shot before the Ferengi could draw his own weapon.

As soon as the phaser had been fired, panic had set in and the crowd had run off in all directions, many bumping into each other as they attempted to flee. The result was pandemonium and there was no way anyone could track the assassin.

As Jack looked on, he now noticed something about the two humans, the hood that had concealed their faces now draped around their shoulders. The first thing that Jack noticed was their faces, identical and a pale yellow, these guys were not human as Jack had first thought.

The second thing was the fact that they were looking across at the crowd, searching visually for the assassin. If it had been Jack, he would have used a tricorder to track the exact location from where the shot had been fired.

Suddenly the two “humans” briskly walked over towards the crowd and started to push the people who had fallen to the ground aside as if they were matchsticks. Several reeled in pain as they were thrown aside.

Jack decided that it was time to leave, but as he walked away something caught his eye. He realised that he was walking in the opposite direction to the final steps Nax Ta had taken. Looking around, Jack quickly stooped down and picked up what he had seen. Pocketing the item, he walked away and headed back to the ship, taking a long and winding route, checking that he was not being followed.

Harper got back to the ship about half an hour after he had left the Captain. As he arrived, he was Beka and t’Pek organising the loading of some cargo. Running the last few yards to the ship, he finally reached the loading ramp and caught Beka’s attention.

“Where’s the Captain ?” Beka asked.

“We ran into something…..” Harper replied. “…..he went to take a look. Have Klaas and Quinn returned yet ?”

“No.” Beka stated. “We’ve just finished loading the equipment you bought and made payment.”

“I’ll contact Klaas and tell him to get back here ASAP.” Harper announced. “Stryker wants to be off-planet as soon as he gets back.”

As soon as Harper was back onboard the Firefly, he headed straight for the command deck and got on the sub-space radio.

“Firefly to Klaas.” He announced.

The radio came into life and the sound of Klaas’s voice came back.

[Klaas here.] He answered. [Why are you contacting us ?. I thought I’d made it quite clear we need to keep a low profile, no radio contact unless an emergency.]

“Would you class the contact you sent us to see being chased and caught my armed men in uniform an emergency ?” Harper asked. “Captain Stryker has gone to investigate, but he wants everyone back onboard and ready to go as soon as he gets back.”

[We’ll be with you in about an hour.” Klaas remarked. [We’re on the far side of the planet and it will take us that long to get back to your location. Klaas out.]

Forty minutes past before Captain Stryker returned to the Firefly. By that time, everything was loaded on the ship and the crew were preparing to leave, all that was missing were their two passengers.

“They said they’d be back within the hour.” Harper explained. “They have about another fifteen minutes to go.”

“Is the rest of the ship ready to go ?” Stryker asked.

“Yes.” Harper replied. “As soon as they get back, we’ll be ready to go. Did you discover anything about the Ferengi we met ?”

“A little.” Stryker answered. “The Ferengi who was chasing him was some sort of police officer cum bounty hunter. Apparently he was wanted for dealing in stolen technology, specifically Federation technology.”

“Did he say anything ?” Harper asked.

“No.” Stryker stated. “The Ferengi was about to hand him over to those two “humans” we saw with him, when someone shot him with a phaser. They started to search for the assassin, but it was pandemonium. What I did manage to find was this.”

Stryker reached into his pocket and removed the item he’d picked up earlier.

“That looks like the device our Ferengi friend had on him at the bar.” Harper remarked.

“I found it discarded on the floor.” Stryker explained. “I think he must have either dropped it during the chase, or more likely threw it away so it wouldn’t fall into the wrong hands.”

“Can you access it ?” Harper asked.

“I tried to access it, but all the data’s been encrypted.” Jack replied. “It’s going to take some serious hacking to discover what’s on this.”

“I’ll get on it as soon as we are off-world.” Harper stated.

“No.” Jack said firmly. “First priority will be to get that cloaking device working, have you been able to fit the new EPS interchange junction assembly yet ?”

“Almost.” Harper replied. “Give me another half hour and I think we’ll be ready.”

“You’ve got fifteen minutes.” Jack stated.

With that Harper disappeared off the command deck. As he was leaving, Beka came in, followed by Dylan Anasaszi, who took his place at the conn station. Whilst Beka took her seat beside the Captain.

“We’ve just heard from Klaas….” She reported. “….he’s about ten minutes from landing and he’ll be back at the spaceport in another five.”

“Let’s have everything ready for a quick take-off as soon as they are onboard.” Stryker ordered. “I don’t want to be on this planet a moment longer than we need to be.”

“We’re already cleared to take off as soon as we’re ready.” Beka commented.

“Good.” Stryker replied.

Twenty minutes later, Klaas and Quinn were back onboard with some last minute items. Quickly loading the ship, they were ready to leave and took off for space and the New Canada system. One advantage of stopping on Ferengar last was the fact that they would not need to pass through the Briar patch.

As they broke orbit, Harper announced that the EPS IJ assembly was installed and all systems were back online, including the cloaking device.

“Long range sensors are picking up two Federation vessels on an intercept course.” t’Pek announced. From her station. “We’ve also got a couple of small vessels, one Ferengi, one Federation approaching from behind.”

“Have they got a positive identification on us yet ?.” Stryker asked.

“Negative, they’re too far away for a positive ID.” t’Pek answered.

“Activate the cloaking device and set a course for Serenity.” Stryker ordered. “Best speed, jump to warp as soon as we’re out of their scanning range.”

*Let’s just hope Harper’s done his best work.* He though to himself.

The Firefly disappeared under the cloak and slipped past the ships. As soon as Stryker thought they were safely beyond the ships reach, he ordered the jump to warp. In three days they’d be back on Serenity.