Ready to Explode - Part III
Posted on Mon Aug 17th, 2015 @ 9:46am by Commander Jordan Gunning & Commander Titus Livius Drusus PhD
Mission:
By Dawn's Early Light
Location: Enola Gay [Holodeck 12, Deck 44]
Timeline: Immediately After "Ready To Explode - Part II"
It was the kind of bar that knew its purpose and made no vain attempt at dressing itself up as something else. This was a place for its undoubtedly loyal clientele to go, drink, talk, play cards, hook up and fight.
The bar itself took pride of place, a simple tin and wood affair with an almost cliché rough and ready to rumble barkeeper scowling behind a puff of cigar smoke while drying a jar with a filthy-looking rag. A mixture of odd stools were arrayed at the bar, some empty and others occupied by weary souls hunched over their longed for booze. The rest of the room was filled with tables of different size and type, with chairs – mostly old metal – strewn about haphazardly and available for anyone to move to any table.
It wasn’t a busy day and the entrance of the two strangers barely rated a glance from the two dozen patrons spread around the tables and at the bar. The barkeeper eyed them, sizing up whether they were a threat to his establishment or his customers. He evidently decided they weren’t going to be a problem because he replaced the jar he was drying, tossed the rag over his shoulder and spoke around his cigar, “Good day, gents,” he said in a crisp, western accent. “What can I get for you?”
Drusus shrugged and led the way to the bar. “What would you recommend for a pair of weary travellers on their way to Eureka?” he asked in a jovial tone and plonking himself down on one of the stools.
The barman eyed up the massive Magna Roman. He had seen a fair few weirdos come through Enola Gay over the years since he, himself a refugee, had moved in but no-one of quite these proportions. "We've got Enola Homebrew and... uh... that's it."
"Perfect!" Drusus proclaimed, slapping the bar and looking mighty pleased with himself. "Two Enola Homebrews please."
"I suppose I'm paying for these." Gunning placed a few slips of what looked like silver foil on the table, trying to count out the correct amount from the meagre scraps he had managed to pick up along the way. The simulation didn't start him off with much and he was down to the bare bones. "I think that's enough."
"'Fraid not." The barman had barely looked at the slips but a man of his profession probably knew by the rustling they made how many were there. "You're a couple short."
"Allow me, gentlemen." A slippery voice, one or two octaves above what one would normally expect slithered across the bar and wrapped around their ears. "I wouldn't want to see some weary travelers parched on the side of the road."
The voice belonged to a man of slight frame, wearing an ill-fitting, dirty suit. His face looked like the result of a genetic experiment between a mole and a man. Were it not for his beady eyes, magnified behind the thick lenses of his little round eyeglasses he would have looked like a comedy figure. As it was - he was decidedly sinister.
Drusus looked past Gunning to the slippery voice and couldn't help but smile. "Oh that's brilliant," he said to Gunning, thoroughly impressed with the characterisation of the fellow who was clearly a villain. He shot a wry salute in the other man's direction, "Thank you, friend," he said, then looked at the barman and across to the mole man. "He'll take care of it for us, chum."
"Subtlety was never Hughes' strong suit." Gunning replied quietly before raising his glass to the suspicious looking character. He rose from the stool and took it over to a table. No sooner had they sat down than the little man had joined them.
"You know gentlemen, if you're going to Eureka, you may need to ensure that you have some serious money. I've been out there recently and they're demanding money in exchange for a pass which lets you enter the city - quite expensive or so I've heard."
"And you've got work which will pay us nicely, right?" Gunning's tone was uninterested. He was mainly concerned with trying to keep the strange grease from the rim of the glass from touching his lips.
"That is correct, that is to say my client has some particularly lucrative work available."
"What kind of work?" Drusus asked, settling into a character now and taking a big swig of the homebrew. It had a bit of a kick, but wasn't likely to have him singing folk songs anytime soon.
"My client runs a village, a town really, locally. In fact you'll pass it on the way to Eureka. He offers shelter to refugees in exchange for work but many people are staying here in Enola Gay and trying to scratch out a life in this god-forsaken hole." The little mole man was getting quite animated with his impassioned dislike of the place. "They come here, they get diseases, they die. They don't have the proper care and facilities which my client is able to offer. That's why my client has decided that we must take drastic measures in order to ensure that people are taken care of in future."
"Why do I get the feeling this drastic action will end up with a lot of people needing taken care of right now," Drusus said quietly to Gunning, but not too quiet so that mole man couldn't hear.
Gunning murmured something in the affirmative and turned his attention back to their benefactor. "So you think we're the men to do it? Why not just do it yourself, whatever it is?"
"That is quite simple, my friend," he left a gap so that he could get Gunning's name but he didn't oblige him, "I am well known for my employment but you - you are but nameless travelers - no-one knows who you are and your actions could never be traced to my employer."
"Unless somebody noticed you buying us a drink just now," Drusus said, deciding he didn't like this creature but realising the story they were playing out ran through him. He continued on before the mole man could respond to his taunt, "Well, we're obviously going to need money to get to Eureka, so tell us about this job."
"You will have noticed the bomb in the centre of the town?" The mole man spoke so quietly that he could barely be heard. "Quite apart from the rumours - it is not actually nuclear. Any blast would be limited to a very, shall we say, fortunate area."
Drusus leaned in closer, fighting the urge to reel back at the stench from this vile creature. "And what of the unfortunate area?"
"It would cease to exist, meaning that my client's settlement would be the one people come to." The little man flashed yellowing teeth in a smile which would have made even the strongest stomach nauseous. "It's simple."
Drusus thought about reaching out and smashing his disgusting face down on the tabletop, but thought better of it. Instead he turned to Gunning and cocked his head to the side, "What do you think, Boss?"
Gunning eyed the little man with equal disgust. "We'll think about it."
Commander Jordan Gunning
Executive Officer
Commander Titus Drusus
Chief Science Officer
[TAG]
