From: Shawn _ (alamo_nate_at_yahoo.com)
Date: Sat Aug 16 2008 - 17:00:38 PDT
=A Brief Interlude With Raxl Dreyton=
(cont'd from "Phone Home")
LOCATION: BAD WOLF
SCENE: Cockpit
STARDATE: [2.8]0816.1700
The world was a fog surrounding Martin Anders as his eyes slowly opened. His eyelids felt like they'd been lined with lead, but he somehow managed to pull them apart, and as he slowly took in his surroundings, a large ball of pure dread began to take shape in his gut. It was still difficult to focus, but Anders forced his eyes to adjust to the large, grayish blob nearest to him. And as his eyesight adjusted to consciousness once more, he realized with a start exactly where he was.
He was inside Raxl Dreyton's ship.
"What's going on?" Anders tried to say. But his tongue was thick in his mouth, like a thick piece of leather, and it came out sounding more like "Whaaas gaaange ang?"
"Oh, you're awake!" Raxl Dreyton said cheerfully, turning to regard Anders from his seat at the controls. "That's great, I was starting to get a little bit lonely."
"Raaaggohh?!" Anders said, trying his best to say "Dreyton" and not exactly succeeding.
"Don't try to talk just yet," Raxl said, standing and walking over to a replicator mounted on the cockpit's wall. "The sedative's still in your system. You want some water?"
Anders realized suddenly how dry his mouth was. And while he was loathe to ask Raxl Dreyton for any kind of help, he nodded.
"Water, 60 degrees farenheit," Raxl ordered the machine. The glass of water shimmered into existence, and Raxl picked it up and brought it over to Anders. Anders tried to raise his hand to accept the glass, and suddenly realized he was tied to the chair where he sat with a length of durasteel.
"Standard procedure," Raxl shrugged, seeing that Anders had noticed his predicament. "Can't have my bounties pulling any hidden weapons on me mid-flight, now can I?"
Raxl held the glass of water up to Anders' lips to drink. Anders stared daggers at him, but sipped at the water anyway. It felt strange, since his tongue felt so numb, but it also felt good- the cold water soothed his raw throat, even though he had trouble keeping it all in; a dribble of water ran down his chin.
"The sedative's effects should wear off in a few minutes," Raxl assured him. Anders found the bounty hunter's friendly, relaxed tone irritating, but he was hardly in any position to complain. He was having enough trouble keeping his eyes open.
"If you're wondering," Raxl continued, "It's been two hours since we left HAVEN. We're about 90 minutes away from GATEWAY, where I turn you over to Federation authorities. They'll negotiate your extradition to Jokarin authorities... assuming any legitimate government even *exists* in that crap-hole of a system."
"You'll pay for this, Dreyton," Anders tried to say, doing a good enough job that Raxl could at least understand it. "I have friends in high places."
"And I'm just sure they're going to leave no stone unturned looking for you," Raxl said. "*After* they're done screening themselves for every virus in the medical database, that is. And by then, we'll be far enough away that it won't matter."
"You think this is over?" Anders growled. "Even after you turn me over to your Federation authorities, they'll just extradite me right back to the Jokarin system, right back to my friends. How long do you think I'll stay in custody?"
"Doesn't matter," Raxl shrugged. "By then, I'll have already gotten paid. Of course, if they slap *another* bounty on your head, then maybe I'll come calling again."
"And maybe you'll wake up one morning with your throat cut," Anders sneered. "You think I can't get to you? Wherever you go, whatever you do, I'm going to-"
Raxl had grown bored with the conversation. With a heavy sigh, he reached out and crammed a gag into Anders' mouth, stifling any further talk from the prisoner. He took a moment to relish the silence, then smiled at Anders.
"There," he said. "That's better, isn't it?"
"Nmmf rr hfff," Anders tried to say, suspiciously sounding like "Go to Hell".
A blinking light on Raxl's comm-console distracted him. He turned and activated it, looking up at the screen to see the chubby countenance of Budo Pumbular materialze before him.
{{Mr. Dreyton,}} Budo smiled. Then his gaze flicked over to Martin Anders, still bound to the chair and struggling with his gag. {{And I see you've found Martin Anders. How fortunate.}}
"He probably doesn't think so," Raxl said, glancing over at Anders. "Hey, Marty, I got an old friend of yours on the line. If you promise to behave, I'll take that gag out so you can say hello."
Anders had finally noticed who was calling and had stopped struggling. He didn't take his eyes off Budo, but nodded slowly. Raxl reached over and delicately pulled the gag out of Anders mouth. Anders coughed a little, then scowled.
"Budo," he said.
{{Martin,}} Budo said, his expression remaining unchanged. {{How nice it is to see you, after so long.}}
"I suppose you're the one responsible for all this," Anders said.
"Hey, let's not forget who pulled off that cool 'fake bio-terrorism' thing," Raxl cut-in, but neither Budo or Anders paid him any attention.
{{I recall our last meeting,}} Budo mused. {{After you had stolen an entire transport-ship's worth of my merchandise. You assured me that I'd never find you, that you'd take the money you'd make and build yourself a kingdom where I could never touch you. If I remember correctly, you were practically *glowing* with bravado. And yet, all these years later, here we are.}}
"So what's the plan, then?" Anders asked. "Is your man Dreyton here going to shoot me out an airlock?"
{{Actually, he has a strict moral code that he refuses to deviate from,}} Budo shrugged. {{It's actually quite tiresome.}}
"Yeah, I'm just a walking headache for everyone," Raxl said. "Thanks for talking about me like I'm not here, by the way."
{{Quite right, Mr. Dreyton,}} Budo nodded, returning his gaze to Raxl. {{And I must say, you've performed admirably. That's why I've decided to give you one more chance to do the sensible thing.}}
Raxl didn't like the sound of that. "What do you mean?"
{{Kill Martin Anders.}}
"You know that's now how I do things," Raxl frowned. "I thought we'd been over this."
{{So we have,}} Budo said. {{And you're certain there's nothing I can do to change your mind?}}
"Quite certain," Raxl said.
{{Very well,}} Budo sighed. {{It really is a pity, but I suppose there's nothing for it. Goodbye, Mr. Dreyton. And goodbye to you as well, Martin.}}
"Budo, don't do this," Anders protested, but Budo had already broken contact. Raxl glanced over at Anders, then back at the blank viewscreen.
"Don't do what?" he asked.
The answer came in the form of a loud explosion that threw Raxl violently out of his seat. Every warning light on his console began flashing at once, as the BAD WOLF began careening violently out of control.
"Dreyton!" Anders shouted over the alarm-klaxons. "What's going on?!"
"That son of a bitch!" Raxl shouted. He fought his way to his feet and crawled back into the pilot's seat. His fingers lanced out across the controls, ordering a ship-wide diagnostic. The results were not heartening- severe damage had been done to the engines, and there was a fire spreading in the living compartment towards the back of the ship. Raxl ordered the fire-suppression system to engage, solving one of the problems, then turned his attention to getting the still-wildly-careening BAD WOLF under control.
"Dreyton," Anders said.
"Clam up, Marty," Raxl shouted. "I'm busy."
"Dreyton, look!"
Raxl looked up, and saw what Anders was trying to tell him.
Filling the cockpit window before him was an enormous orb of orange fire, getting bigger and bigger by the moment.
The BAD WOLF was heading straight into the heart of a sun.
==========================================================================
NRPG: Just trying to get the Raxl story finished before our next mission starts. Should have it all wrapped up by the end of my next post. Hope everyone liked it!
Shawn Putnam
a.k.a.
Jacob Crichton, Lieutenant
Chief of Engineering
GATEWAY Station, GS-2
From HyperNews_at_youth.net
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Wed Nov 19 2008 - 03:10:55 PST