Character Background - Just Like That, Part 2

Posted on Sat Nov 9th, 2013 @ 9:56am by Lieutenant Augustus Deakin

Mission: Picking Up the Pieces
Location: Hopevale, Hesperia

[ON]

Gus’s home could be described as a warehouse. Mostly because it was, in fact, a warehouse. Although his official role in Oleran Telan’s organisation was to manage imports and exports through the Hopevale spaceport, this warehouse wasn’t where he did most of that. No, this was his home and it was filled with all kinds of junk he had seized (read: stole) over the last few years.

One of his favourite possessions was an old Class F shuttlecraft imported to Hesperia by a conman who claimed it had been part of the original U.S.S. Enterprise’s complement in the early 2260s. Unfortunately, the hapless Zakdorn trader didn’t know half as much about Starfleet technology as Gus did and so neglected to forge the transponder registry which clearly demonstrated that the shuttle was never assigned to the Enterprise. So Gus confiscated it and one of Telan’s security teams took care of the Zakdorn.

Gus had been tinkering with the shuttle’s drive assembly on and off since he confiscated it and he had his head deep inside an access panel when Pytaan found him. “Nice shuttle,” the Trill said sarcastically. He wasn’t half as appreciative of antique spacecraft as Gus was.

“Thanks,” Gus replied, popping out of the hatch and ignoring the sarcasm. “It’s an old Class F. Was once assigned to the U.S.S. Hood back in the early 2260s.”

Pytaan nodded and ran a hand along one of the nacelles. “Really? Did you steal it?”

Gus smiled as he wiped his hands with a rag and didn’t answer the question. “How’d you sleep?”

“Terribly,” Pytaan replied then quickly changed the subject. “Remember last night when you said you’d thought about trying to go back?”

Gus grumbled and shook his head, “I should have known you’d remember that,” he said as he moved back to the access panel. “You are without a doubt the worst person in the quadrant to get drunk with. You know that, don’t you?”

Pytaan smirked, “I had an inkling.”

Silence descended on them as Gus went back to tinkering and Pytaan waited patiently. He had thought about it. But he knew there was no way they would take him back. Starfleet wouldn’t take him back and the Federation would lock him up. Why wouldn’t they? He had broken plenty of laws while here on Hesperia and he would have been locked up years ago if he’d been on a colony in Fed-space. Not here on Hesperia, though. Here the law was whoever had the bigger gun or the stronger gang. Here, he had to survive.

He wasn’t concentrating and he accidentally tapped a live coupling. “Dammit!” he cursed as the spark sent a nasty jolt of pain up his arm and he dropped the coil spanner with a clatter on the concrete floor. “See what you made me do?” he said to Pytaan as he picked up the spanner.

The Trill was wearing that insufferable ‘checkmate’ smile as he said, “Then I think my work here is done.”

“Don’t be so sure, you cocky bastard,” Gus shot back. “What makes you think I’m coming back?”

“Well,” Pytaan said, leaning back on a workbench and crossing his arms. “The fact that you said that just now, for one.”

“Don’t go reading too much into this,” Gus insisted. “I’m happy here.”

“You’re barely alive here. And there’s a whole horde of Nausicaans recently arrived on this planet who are after your head.”

“I’ve survived plenty worse before.”

“This is worse,” Pytaan said in a cold tone that made Gus stop and think.

“How do you know?” he asked after a moment, hesitation in his voice.

“We know.”

There was something ominous about that ‘we’. It made Gus stop and think for a moment about the situation. He hadn’t thought about it much before, but why would Pytaan himself come to see him? The fact that he was here in person suddenly made it a whole lot more real.

He placed the coil spanner back in the toolbox and walked towards his old friend. “What exactly do you do at SI now?”

Pytaan’s face gave nothing away as he said, “I’m Director of the Hesperia Section,” he said.

Gus’s eyes widened at that. “You’re Starfleet’s top spy dealing with this place?” he asked incredulously. “Then why the hell are you out here yourself? Surely you’ve got agents here that you can send?”

“I do.”

“But you came yourself?”

“I did.”

Gus’s heart started to beat faster and his mouth went dry. This was serious. If it was serious enough for the guy in charge of Starfleet Intelligence’s operations on Hesperia to come out himself – and have a ship ready to take him out quickly – then there must be something more to this Red Dog thing than Gus or even Telan knew.

“I have to warn Telan,” Gus said, suddenly fearing for the man’s life.

“No!” Pytaan snapped. “I can’t extract Telan. I’m only here for you.”

“Well then I have to tell him to get off world,” Gus said. “To get out of here before it’s too late.”

“It is too late, Gus,” Pytaan said.

“No!” he snapped. “It’s not! I’m going to the rendezvous to warn him. You’re welcome to come along.”

The rendezvous was only a few blocks away. It was a meeting between Telan and his top lieutenants and the leader of the Red Dogs, a vicious gang of mostly Nausicaans who were trying to move in on Telan’s turf. This was a peace meeting, but Gus now knew it was anything but peaceful.

They arrived at the warehouse and Gus moved them both through security. Inside, the Red Dogs hadn’t arrived yet. The warehouse floor was completely empty but for a single table with six chairs placed around it, three on either side. Attending the meeting was supposed to be Gus, Telan and Duom, Telan’s Ferengi money man. Opposite would be Kulozigar, the leader of the Red Dogs, and two of his lieutenants.

Telan and Duom were waiting, as was Karog, Telan’s big Klingon bodyguard. “Just who is this, Augustus?”

“Telan, you have to get out of here,” Gus said, ignoring the question. “We all do. This is an ambush.”

“How do you know that?” Karog said, baring his teeth. Karog didn’t like Gus and the feeling was mutual. They had fought once and as a result the Klingon felt his honour was diminished.

“That doesn’t matter,” Gus said. “The point is, we’re all in danger. We have to get off world now.”

“You haven’t answered my question, Augustus,” Telan said, gesturing toward Pytaan. “And I don’t trust strangers.”

Before Gus could answer, a deafening roar erupted from above them as the ceiling exploded and sent great pieces of metal collapsing down all around them. Gus pulled out his disruptor and dove for the relative cover of the table, just as poor Duom was struck on the head by a piece of debris.

Karog had grabbed Telan under the arm and was dragging him away as disruptor fire zinged around them. Gus turned and saw Pytaan was crouched down next to him but beyond him he could see a squad of Nausicaans rushing into the warehouse firing their disruptor rifles and howling like something from a child’s nightmare.

“We have to get out of here!” Pytaan shouted as he fired off a shot from his phaser.

Gus fired several blasts from his disruptor – a Romulan model he acquired somewhere along the way – and felled one of the Red Dogs. “Maybe you should use that ship you’ve got in low orbit?”

Pytaan was already on it, he tapped the commbadge he wore under his coat. “Pytaan to Centurion!” he shouted, firing off another shot. “Two to beam up!”

Gus turned to try and locate Telan amongst the chaos. Just as the tingling feeling of a transporter beam grabbed him, he saw Karog struggling to stand as a Nausicaan reached him and ran him through with a nasty-looking blade.

The world around him disappeared and he realised he didn’t see Telan.


[OFF]


Augustus Deakin
Civilian

&

Commander Azan Pytaan (NPC: Deakin)
Starfleet Intelligence