First Contact

Posted on Fri May 8th, 2015 @ 7:02pm by Ulani & Staff Warrant Officer Nexi

Mission: The New Sydney Fiasco
Location: Main Hanger
Timeline: After Ulani Tours the Ship

Ethan and Dylan had been gracious hosts to Ulani, giving her a tour of the Hera. She was grateful for the time with her son and his fiancé. Now came the time for Ulani to get some rest.

She knew Operations had moved her belongings to her guest quarters, including the Saurian Brandy. However, there was one thing Ulani needed to check on inside the Aphrodite.

Ambling into the main hanger, Ulani looked around to be sure no one was in the hanger. Quietly she sneaked to her shuttle and hurried up the ramp. Before going inside, she took one last look around. Satisfied, she quietly went inside, went to the back of the shuttle and pushed a hidden button. A compartment opened up from the floor. Ulani glanced in and her mischievous grin came to her face once again.

"You know for a spook, you ain't all that spooky," a voice said from behind Ulani. Nexi didn't get to where she was without being able to recognize the feel of a spook. Curious, she had left her own shuttle and followed Ulani to see what was itching at the back of her mind.

"Damn!" Ulani exclaimed. "You're as good as my contacts say you are."

Ulani reached into the compartment and pulled out a bottle of brandy. She opened it up as she turned.

"Hello Nexi." Ulani went to a shelf, retrieved a couple of glasses and poured into both. "Saurian Brandy, good for the soul." She offered one to Nexi. "I'm Ulani. Pleased to meet your acquaintance."

"Who are these contacts?" Nexi asked as she paced cutiously around the room, for the moment disregarding the offered brandy. "I worked hard to be invisible, only a few people should even know the caliber of the work I do." And if they were talking, they wouldn't be much longer...

"Not to worry," Ulani stated. "They are mutual friends. People with whom we have both done business. Knowing I was headed for the Hera, they suggested you if I ever needed help. I just wanted to open the communication line with you. From what I understand, you are very professional at what you do. If everything they say about you is true, I like your style."

Ulani offered the drink again. "Its the best brandy you'll ever taste. Goes down smooth. I got it from a Ferengi, much to his demise." This brought a the mischievous grin back.

"I make it a point of not biting at the hand that feeds me," Nexi said, looking down at the brandy. "The Ferengi may not have their claws in me anymore, but continuing my work for the FCA is still very profitable." It still made her wonder who was talking. Not many of her contacts knew she was hanging with the Hera. Her former owner and current contrator, Liquidator Grek, certainly didn't know where Nexi had been hiding out. Well, maybe now they knew since the Hera's suspicious disappearance and now reappearance. With Nexi suddenly contact Grek for more work, even that slimeball could connect the dots...

"I typically work alone," Nexi said, finally taking the brandy, breathing in the intoxicating vapors with a grin. "I have, however, been convinced to assist the Hera on a few jobs. I'm unofficially on loan here, more or less indefinitely, so it's inevitable that we'll probably work together."

"I'm no longer Star Fleet my self," Ulani confessed. "Just tying up a few loose strings. Squart, the aforementioned Ferengi was one of those. I have three more to go. Maybe you might know something."

"I know a lot of things," Nexi said cautiously. She still had yet to drink the brandy, simply letting it swirl in the glass as she kept her intense gaze on Ulani. "Who's on your list?" Squart hadn't been connected to any of Nexi's contacts, but that didn't mean these others weren't. Depending on their connections and why Ulani needed them crossed off, Nexi might be convinced to help.

"Let me fill you in on their crimes," Ulani offered as she took a healthy swig of brandy. "Two years ago an epidemic hit in Morocco, a country on Earth. People panicked, paying anything to relocate anywhere they could get out of the reach of the deadly disease. These four Ferengi offered purchase to other planets for a price. The people paid themselves into a slave trafficking. Squart and his cohorts profited out their asses."

Ulani took another big swig and refilled her glass. "The other three are Glunk, Rawnk and Meeg."

"Now I heard of Rawnk," Nexi said. "Before we got sucked into the wrong time, he was just an underling. I know it's been 4 years, but how does a weasel like Rawnk gain enough influence to pull off a con like this? And this is Earth we're talking about, why weren't they taking care of their own problems? The Humans shoulda evacuated their own people! Why leave it in the hands of the Ferengi?"

"Good question!" Ulani responded. "It's one I asked my contacts. They believe the four Ferengi were hired by someone else, giving them even more of a profit."

Ulani reached into her hidden storage and pulled out something. This time, it wasn't brandy, but a bar of gold-pressed latinum. She handed it to Nexi. "I don't want you to think your services are not valuable. I got this from Squart. He wasn't after me just for his brandy." Ulani gave that grin again. "Do you know who might have wanted to experiment a biological weapon?"

Nexi set her brandy aside and reached out to take the bar of latinum, fingering it as she considered the question. "You're thinking the 'rescued' humans are being used as tests subjects?" Nexi ventured, thinking it over some more. "There was this outpost we went to before the temporal displacement, the guy was playing around with a virus with similar properties to Kolbari reproduction, but the results were... disturbing." And Nexi had seen some graphic shit in her day, so that this was disturbing to her was certainly saying something.

"But it can't be him, we destroyed the outpost," Nexi continued, shaking her head. "Outside of that, I don't know. I'm a bit out of the loop on what's going on. I'm still reaching out to old contacts to pick up work, still figuring out who the new players are. But I'll take the latinum as payment anyway; I'll find out where the humans were taken, help get them back. Any info I find out on what's going, you can do with it however you see fit."

"It may be connected somehow. But you blew up the station four years ago. The epidemic was two," Ulani recounted. "The virus may have found a buyer and it took him two years to plan a move."

Ulani thought a moment. Pointing her finger in Nexi's direction, she asked, "If you could somehow connect me with Rawnk, perhaps we can find the truth together. Like I said Hon, if you're half as good as they say, we could make a difference working along side each other."

"I'll do what I can," Nexi said with a nod. Then she took on a darker expression, her eyes narrowing at Ulani. "If anyone on this ship gets hurt because of whatever you're mixed up in..." Ulani should know enough of Nexi's reputation to realize that death would be a kindness after Nexi was done making good on her unspoken threat.

"Your spark is one reason I like you, Hon," Ulani stated with a grin. She turned more serious with the following reply. "You remind me of myself. I only have hopes of adding one of the crew to my payroll. She's equally has the spark."

Ulani's serious note had two messages for Nexi. The first was I'm just as dangerous as you are, Hon! The second, I use professionals not just anyone.

Ulani took a softer tone, "One more thing...If you ever are in a bind, I will help with your sister." She looked at the craft sitting next to hers. "After all, we are neighbors."

Ulani downed her drink and refilled the glass. She offered the bottle to Nexi. "Care for another, Hon?"

"No thanks, trying to cut back. Aewia don't like the way my mind feels when I been drinking," Nexi said, turning to leave Ulani's shuttle. "And unless you can get back the piece of her brain that the Romulans cut out, then I don't want your help."

Nexi didn't like this woman, didn't trust her. All them Intel types were the same, their thoughts so duplicitous, and always meddling in things they ought not because they thought they knew better than anyone else. She could 'hear' the messages Ulani had for her, but she could also feel that there was a great deal that Ulani left unsaid. In this one instance, Nexi agreed that them enslaved humans should be freed, but some part of Nexi wondered what Ulani was really up to...

I'm going to have to keep an eye on this one. It's a good thing we are neighbors! Ulani looked at the full glass, then sat it down. Instead of the glass, she pulled the bottle up to her mouth and drank it down.