To Catch a Thief

Posted on Wed Aug 6th, 2014 @ 2:13am by Captain Enalia Telvan & Staff Warrant Officer Nexi

Mission: Something Amiss
Location: USS Hera
Timeline: MD1

Nexi was ready for this job to be done… How long had she been chasing Nerol? Far too long, in her opinion. The Boslic trader had taken to running after he lost his ship to the Liquidators and Grek had sent Nexi after him. And for a man of his age, Nerol had been surprisingly quick to escape each of her attempts to capture him. This time, he had managed to stow away with some equipment that had been loaded on a Starfleet vessel in orbit of Faltan III. She gave a disgruntled sigh as she matched speed and velocity with the Hera to park her runabout between the ship’s nacelles. As if Starfleet had ever stopped her from completing her objective. She double checked that the signals she was sending out was properly jamming the Hera’s sensors. The cloaking device that hid her ship was old and malfunctioning, but she only used it on the off chance that someone looked out the window, the interference should have been more than enough to keep the Hera from finding her little ship, the Wandering Star.

Nexi set the ship’s autopilot and gathered her tools, then she activated the transporter to take her to the cargo bay. Even though she’d masked her transport through the cargo bay’s transporter system, she had no doubt the internal sensors would have detected the transport and her presence. She really wished her personal cloak was working to give her more time, but she had more than enough time to apprehend Nerol and get back to the ship. It was very important that she got them both back to her ship because then she was protected by the Ferengi Commerce Association. If they caught her while still aboard the Hera then she was at the mercy of the 'Fleeters. And given the small detail of her gaining access to the Hera by covert means, she would likely be in a shit-load of trouble. She grunted; like she’d never been in trouble before...

The tracker she’d managed to place on Nerol wasn’t very accurate on a ship this large, but the cargo bay was a logical location for him to hide out considering her transported over with the refit supplies. She homed in on the direction indicated on her PADD, the small Ferengi device leading her toward the errant trader hiding behind some cargo. She put the PADD away and retrieved her handcuffs. Once she put them on Nerol, they could only be removed with Grek’s thumbprint authorization. She approached the man carefully. He looked fit to run again. How far did he honestly think he could get?

“Alright, Nerol, you’ve run far enough. Did you really think you could escape from the Liquidators?” Nexi asked the man getting ready to run. She was almost close enough. If she could just touch him, that would be enough… The Boslic man ran and Nexi pursued. Dammit, he was going to draw attention to them! If they ran into any officers, it would all be over!

Then she heard it, the sound of an alarm. Shiiiiiiiit! She debated whether she should continue her pursuit or cut her losses and return to her ship. She decided she was tired of chasing this little bastard; she was getting these cuffs on him now! She lunged, tackling the man to the floor. A rush of energy surged through her and into Nerol, rendering him unconscious. Good riddance! She quickly cuffed him then started fiddling with the transport transponder band around her arm. If she could get back onto her ship, she would be good!

“Don’t move, stay where you are!” Nexi heard, accompanied by the chorus of boots over the bay floor. She looked up. Shit shit shit shit shit! Security! She calculated her options. With the position of her ship she could still beam out if they put up shields, but then she would be trapped inside the Hera's shields. And that’s assuming they hadn’t already boarded her ship and disabled the transporter. She eyed the Security officers aiming their phasers at her. She would do the smart thing:

Nexi raised her hands in supplication. She surrendered.

Commander Telvan had been heading to the cargo bays for some 'inspections' of her more sensitive items to be used for bartering if they needed it when she heard the intruder alarms. Tapping a wall console, she saw it was in the same cargo bay that had most of those 'commodities' and she was instantly worried. Running the rest of the way, she arrived just in time for a rather unsavory woman to raise her hands. An even more unsavory type was laying on her cargo deck.

A bit aghast that she already seemingly had pirates coming aboard before they had even left orbit of Faltan 3, Enalia walked a bit closer to the 2. "How did you get aboard my ship and what do you want?" she said in her most menacing voice as she motioned to one of the security crewmen to move in and disarm the woman.

The level of surprise she sensed in this woman indicated to Nexi that they hadn't found her ship. Damn, she could have gotten away! Perhaps she still could... She eyed the Security officer checking her over for weapons, of which an abundance of blades would be found. Nexi still had her hands raised in surrender as she calculated her options. "I got what I came for," she said, nodding her head towards the unconscious man beside her.

"You're a bounty hunter..." A realization hit Enalia and she had to act on it fast. "Telvan to the bridge, raise shields and bring main pod tachyon sensors online. Check our ventral sensor shadow for a cloaked ship." Not even waiting for a response, she took a step closer to the woman, addressing her again. "We can do this the easy way where you accept our hospitality or we can do this the hard way and you get shot and spend the next 20 years in a Federation prison."

"I didn't have to surrender," Nexi replied coldly as the security officer relieved her of blade after blade after blade, forming a rather impressive pile of cutlery off to the side. "And I'm a Collector for the Ferengi Commerce Association, I'm here on official business; Captain Nerol here tried to skip out on his debt when the Liquidators impounded his ship."

"Then perhaps we can speed you along if you'll help us out with our current mission. What's your name, anyway?" The gears were turning in Enalia's head now, a slow grin spreading across her face.

"You want my help?" Nexi scoffed. "I don't get involved with Starfleet, too many rules and regulations. Besides, the pay sucks, not to mention I'd lose my anonymity. No thanks, I'll take my chances on escaping later." And she could escape from this place with her bounty, she had no doubt of that!

Nodding at each point, Enalia walked over to a small case sitting to the side. Opening it, she pulled out two small bars of gold pressed latinum, tapping them together. "You just described our mission pretty well. Anonymity, breaking a couple rules and regulations as well as a few diplomatic agreements... And there's that..." She tapped the bars together again. "I'm told that's a rather nice sound, though it's just noise to me..."

Nexi narrowed her eyes at the woman. This nutter was serious, wasn't she? "What's the job?" Nexi asked. Her response wasn't a yes, but it wasn't a no either. Her curiosity was piqued at the very least. "Hey watch it!" she barked to the Security officer who was getting a bit too handsy for even Nexi's liking. "If you keep that up, you're buying me dinner," she told the officer firmly. Even still, the poor man hadn't found all the weapons concealed on her, though he gave it his best try.

Shaking her head, Enalia put the bars away and resealed the case. "Leave her be, crewman. You've pulled what... 50 blades off of her and you're still finding more? Forget it. Find her some quarters and post a guard. As for her friend, drag him to the brig for now."

Walking up to the well armed woman with a bit of a swagger, Enalia looked her over. "I'm Commander Enalia Telvan of the USS Hera. We weren't issued an infiltration specialist but we were told to rescue an operative and act on her data. If you're interested, I think I can make it worth your while, Miss..."

The Brekkian woman considered the Trill woman's offer carefully, weighing the options. "Nexi," she finally replied, "and I already have accommodations. Speaking of which, discontinue your search for my ship and destroy all evidence that I was here. That includes the internal sensor logs and the logs pertaining to the alert. This is non-negotiable. Any further attempts to find my ship and I'll take my chances, I'll take my prisoner and go."

Heading to a wall panel, Enalia brought up the status of the search for her ship. "It seems we found 2 ships... Both are in tractor beams. A Ferengi shuttle and an old runabout." Turning to look at Nexi, she smirked a bit. "I don't suppose one is yours?"

"My ship ain't that old," Nexi replied with a scowl. "Now cut her loose or I do things my way." Although finding out there was a Ferengi shuttle as well was somewhat troubling...

With a few keypresses, the runabout was released from the tractor beam and Enalia had sent orders to have the Ferengi vessel investigated. "And the other one? Friends of yours maybe? Two Ferengi life signs."

"I don't have friends," Nexi answered honestly. "They ain't working with me. I'd say string them up by their ears, but that's just me." She started to collect her things, thinking about how things were unfolding. "I'll work from my ship, you can hold my prisoner as collateral until the job is done. Outside of that, I want no evidence that I've been here or that we've had any interaction. I'll contact you on a secure channel for more details."

"Fair enough." Turning the panel off, Enalia turned back to Nexi. "Consider it done. Will you at least consider docking though? We plan on leaving here at high warp."

"I'll contact you for more detail," Nexi repeated, then she activated the transporter controls on her armband, her transporter activating and whisking her back to her ship, leaving Commander Telvan no choice but to trust that Nexi wouldn't do something stupid.

As soon as Nexi had dematerialized, Enalia turned to the security crewman still trying to sort through all those knives. "Just put them in a cargo container. I'm sure she'll want them back. Telvan to the bridge, I want transporters locked onto that runabout constantly. If they try to leave without my express permission, I want the occupant beamed straight to the brig and the ship towed into the main docking bay. As for the Ferengi vessel that delivered our 'commodities', please send them my deepest apologies for the scare. They're free to go if they promise to be a bit more discrete."

"Yes Captain." That was all the reply Enalia needed before heading out of the cargo bay.