AWF Chpt 113

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=Chapter 113=
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===Hostile Negotiations===
Leopard Class DropShip, Phaidin
Jump Point
St. Ives System, St. Ives Compact
June, 3030
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Roweyna looked at her father and mother and saw the exact same shocked and anxious feeling she felt. The light for an incoming call flashed on the communications terminal. She pressed a few switches to disable her parents video feed, and merge their audio Chanel with hers. They wouldn't see anything, but they would hear everything she heard. From the warship side they'd only see and hear Roweyna. The holo of her parents disappeared. She then hesitantly pressed the flashing button.
A stern looking older man suddenly appeared before her. He had slicked back hair and a high widows peak. Roweyna recognized him instantly as Tempes, a man that had presented himself as a an MRB representative. He seemed surprised to see her.
<<"Ms. McFinnigan.">> He said slowly.
"Aye, Mr. Tempes. Were ye expectin' my father?"
<<"It's irrelevant. Do you understand the circumstances you are in?">>
Roweyna studied Tempes face, trying to discern any tells or anything she could use to help her persuade or talk her way out of this situation. Her mind raced and she could feel her heart beating like she had sprinted a marathon. She took in a deep breath and smiled serenely as she had seen her mother do countless times.
Roweyna nodded, slowly, "I understand ye haven't started shooting, so I'm inclined to think ye want to talk. I suspect it's about some of the cargo I'm currently holding."
<<"Do you have the cargo that was taken from Necromo by your company?">>
"Aye. I do." Roweyna said with a shrug, "I'm under contract to move it, but if yer lookin' to make a counter offer, I'd be willing to listen."
Tempes' eyes narrowed as he scrutinized Roweyna, <<"I am willing to extend to you the opportunity to surrender, and hand over your cargo.">>
Roweyna gave him a skeptical look, "Well that seems quite magnanimous of ye." Roweyna answered, "However that doesn't exactly sound like an offer."
<<"It isn't. You will surrender the cargo, and if you attempt to run you will be destroyed.">>
"If I surrender, does that come with any assurances?"
<<"No.">> Tempes ran his hand through his hair, <<"You will dock your dropship with my warship, lay down all weapons and surrender.">>
"So to be clear, if I refuse your warship will jest destroy us at yer leisure, and if I surrender yer not guaranteeing ye won't just kill us?"
<<"It is in everyone's best interest if you simply comply.">>
Roweyna shrugged, "I'm not the sort of woman that simply complies."
<<"You will dock with my warship; any resistance will be met with overwhelming force.">> Tempes broke the connection, Roweyna flipped a switch to bring her parent's video back into view.
"Ye heard all of that?"
//"Aye."\\ Kelly replied, //"We checked with the Jumpships here. No one is ready to execute a jump. Even if ye could outmaneuver him, he'd have plenty of time to ravage the lot of us."\\
Elinor nodded, "We need ye to find a way to keep everyone alive for as long as ye can. We'll find a way to get all ye out of this. Ye need to make the transfer of that thing he wants take as long as ye can."
"All of us? You're a lot more confident than I am."
//"Don't talk back, dear heart."\\ Elinor said, //"Yer father and I have some planning to do."\\
"Ye have a suggestion how I should make things take as long as possible."
//"I'd start by inviting him to tea, love."\\ Elinor replied, //"Like the tea I threw for those members of the LIC that were looking to purchase weapons. If a nice high tea isn't sufficient I'd suggest ye keep finding ways to not close any deals at least until they've recharged their drive batteries."\\
"Mother, that's not-"
//"Now's the time for you to comply dear." she told her.\\
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===Other Problems===
Before Roweyna could respond the screen went black. She glanced over at the controls to see Hawkins and Kate looking at her waiting for instructions. "Mr. Hawkins, Ms. Berlin, move us into position to dock with the Warship."
"Aye, Aye." Hawkins said.
"What does 'tea' mean in this context?" Kate asked.
"It means we're going to host a high tea." Roweyna answered, "The thing Mother is referring to is a long, and as things are often with Mother, convoluted situation where she and some of her Heimdall mates were running a black market to distribute weapons and equipment to other Heimdall cells. The LIC thought they were training and equipping members of the Rasalhague resistance and either wanted their cut, or wanted to seize the goods for their own illicit uses. She eventually made them regret trying to purchase from her.."
"Did your mom just poison them?"
"No. That would have jest brought more attention to her operation. As simple and straightforward as that sounds, I doubt it would work on Tempes either. We don't have much time. For now, jest get us to docking position as slow and careful as ye can…though we'll need gravity to make this work."
Roweyna looked at the Warship as she felt the ship begin to move. Soon she felt the ship's inertia create pseudo gravity as it pressed her into the chair. She cued the 1MC. "Mr. Henry I need damage reports."
"Yes. Mum."
"After this tea, what do you have planned?" Hawkins asked.
"I have no idea." Roweyna said.
"How'd your mother make the Loki agents regret trying to buy what she was selling?" Kate asked
"She arranged to drop off the goods in a field that the Heimdall agents mined, but the mines weren't active until the agents tried to open the container they thought contained the weapons. Instead of weapons they got instructions on how to purchase a map to help them get out of the minefield. Mother and her mates were much richer and long gone before those agents escaped the trap"
"Yeah. I don't think you're going to trick this warship into a minefield." Hawkins said.
"Aye. I wonder what mother was thinking. If I asked her she'd probably tell me some nonsense like, 'if ye can't bring them to the minefield, bring the minefield to them'." Roweyna added. Her eyes widened, as she picked up the mic for the 1MC again, "Mr. Henry."
She waited a moment before he responded, "Yes Mum. The lads and I are movin' about, seein' what broke loose, and looking for injured crewmembers"
"Belay that. How much explosives do we have?"
"Ah…maybe a hundred kilos of plastic and a palette of vibrobombs."
"Gather as much as we have and take them up to the aerobay 1."
"Aye aye, mum." Henry said.
Hawkins and Kate both studied Roweyna hard, "Um, you do know that if you blew a hole in the ship's hull we'll all probably die." Hawkins said.
"Aye. Ye also know Mr. Tempes will probably kill us one way or the other." Roweyna said as she picked up the 1MC mic again, "Any other able crewmembers I need ye to sweep the ship for the injured and any damages. Then report to Aerobay 1."
Roweyna hesitantly stood up and then looked again at the warship that was slowly growing larger.
"I'm almost terrified to ask what your planning with the explosives in the aero bay, but what makes you think they won't kill us once we dock?" Kate asked.
"I'm a silver tongued Irish woman, trust me when I say I can talk my way through that." Roweyna answered "I just need to invite Mr. Tempes to tea, so he can bargain with me like a good honest rogue. Failing that, I'll ensure we take as many with us as we can, and their precious prize is destroyed."
Kate shook her head, "When I flew with Apes I figured her incompetence would result in us not getting paid and me starving to death. I suppose this sort of thing happens to you all on a weekly basis."
Hawkins shrugged, "Well we get put in harm's way at least once every couple missions, but a warship, I gotta say, this is something new. It's pretty rare that I'm personally threatened by a piece of star league era interstellar force projection."
Roweyna asked, "Is that better than starving to death, Ms. Berlin"?
"I suppose." Kate said, "At least it's quick and people will remember how we died."
"I'm leading a Mercenary company, not a death cult." Roweyna said, "I plan to ensure we get out of this situation and turn a profit. That means we need to complete our current-"
Doctor Leslie's voice came across the 1MC, "Roweyna, we got a problem. Shafer, the ROM agent, got her hands on the MIIO agent. He's bleeding to death and she's threatening me with a makeshift knife."
"Does she have his service pistol? Is she still in her cell?" Roweyna asked.
"She's still in her cell, and…oh damn-" The 1MC channel went cold.
Rowyena exited the bridge and jogged to the aerobay. She was almost out of breath when she got to the door. After pausing a moment, she entered the room and stood for a moment taking in the scene before her.
Hap and Leslie were crouched over the MIIO agent as he laid on the floor. There was a wide bloody trail that stretched from the agent to the makeshift brig. The agent was pale, but Dr. Leslie was doing her best to try and stop the bleeding from multiple stab wounds. Roweyna noted several fresh slashes to Dr. Leslie's arms and hands.
At the cell, Anastasia struggled with the ROM agent. She was using her body to pin Shafer's arm against the outside of the bars and was trying to pry a makeshift knife out of the ROM agent's hand. The ROM agent was keeping a white-knuckle grip on her makeshift weapon as she swung at Anastasia with her off hand.
Roweyena kneeled next to Hap, "What happened here?"
Doc Leslie looked up at her and shifted her weight back. She brushed her forehead with her arm and spread blood across her forehead. "We were coming up here to check on Shafer and insist the MIIO agent sleep for 8 hours." Leslie looked down at her arm and realized how profusely she was bleeding.
"You want me to dress that?" Roweyna asked.
"No, I'll be fine." Leslie said as she pulled her medical bag over to her, "So we got here just after the Leopard stopped suddenly. Apparently, the MIIO agent lost his balance and got too close to the cell. Shafer grabbed him and started to go to work with her blade, or shiv, or rusty piece of god knows what she has.
"It appears to be a piece of band steel that was likely part of this makeshift detention quarters."
"Thanks. Remind me to give myself a tetanus booster later. More Pressure, Hap." Doc Leslie said grimly as she pulled out a large square dressing from her bag. "Anyways, Hap and Anastasia charged over to help him while I called it in. Then I saw that Shafer was trying to pull the pistol from the holster, but Hap and Anastasia thought they were fighting with her for the agent. Thankfully she couldn't overcome holster's safety mechanism before Hap and I finally got him untangled and away from her."
Roweyna nodded. "Is he going to make it?"
Leslie shook her head as she worked to apply a bandage to the agent's chest, "If he was in the sick bay and I was setup to give him three or four, or six units of blood right now, and if he didn't have a punctured lung and I'm guessing a shredded ventricle…and if I could get the bleeding to stop…I'd still doubt it." Leslie sighed, "Apply more pressure Hap."
Roweyna looked up as Anastasia wrestled with Shaffer. The women were evenly matched. Shaffer attempted to use her empty left hand to push up Anastasia's chin and dig her thumb into Anastasia's eye. Anastasia slapped her hand away and grabbed Shaffer's hair behind her head and yanked hard. Shaffer instinctively pulled away and Anastasia let go then slammed the ROM's agent head hard into the bars. Shaffer dropped the knife as she fell to the floor dazed.
Anastasia kicked the knife away from the cell as Shafer shook her head and tried to recover. "Damn, Anastasia, I'm an unarmed prisoner." Shafer moaned.
"You weren't unarmed. You were trying to escape, and may have killed a man. You had a weapon. Further, you refused to stop resisting." Anastasia said.
"And I'd do it all again." Shaffer said as she touched her hand to her forehead and looked at her hand for blood.
"You should have knocked her out." Hap sighed.
"Yeah, leave it to Anastasia to not get the job done." Shafer said as she backed away from the bars and leaned against the wall.
"Keep up the pressure, 'mech jock." Leslie said as she prepped another dressing. "or maybe you should just go over there wipe that smirk off her face."
Hap gave the doctor a questioning look as Mags and Joker charged into the bay short of breath. "We would have been here sooner but-" Joker said. "Shit, our g-man isn't looking too good. Is he alive?"
"Glad yer here." Roweyna said, "You and Hap need to help the doc get him to the sick bay."
Doc Leslie looked up and shook her head, "He's probably about as stable as I'm going to get him, but I'm not sure-"
"If we're going to hand a dead body over to our employer, and I'd like to prove we did all we could."
"Glad I restocked our medical supplies." Doc Leslie sighed as she stood up. "Gents grab that litter off the wall." Leslie turned to Roweyna, "do me a favor and get rid of that woman." She pointed to Shafer. "She's been nothing but trouble since she came on board."
"I intend to jest as soon-"
"No, I mean like now. Toss her out an airlock for all I care. I've been insulted, and now," Leslie held up her injured bleeding arm, "Directly attacked. That woman makes me lose my religion or Hippocratic oath, which is pretty much the same thing right about now."
Roweyna raised a questioning eyebrow, "Ye sure you don't want me to dress that?"
"No. I'll have my assistant fix it when I get to the medbay. Plus I need to take a full round antibiotics and antivirals." Leslie's shoulders slumped, "Sorry, I don't tell you how or your father how to run your company of murders for hire, and I have an oath to do no harm." Leslie looked defeated, "At least make sure she's truly unarmed."
Roweyna nodded as Hap and Joker set the litter down next to the MIIO agent, then carefully lifted him onto it. "Captain Calahad, pass yer wife the agent's sidearm."
Hap reached over and smoothly withdrew the weapon from its holster and passed it to Anastasia. She took the needler pistol, checked the ammunition and ensured it was charged as Roweyna told her, "Lieutenant, I'd like you to keep this weapon aimed on our ROM guest, while Ms. Camacho goes into her cell and ensures she doesn't have any more nasty surprises."
"Why me?" Mags asked
"Because yer father often talked about yer uncle who'd compete in machete fights in a blacked out room. I figure that makes ye the most qualified to go in there and see to it that Ms. Shafer is well and truly disarmed."
Mags nodded, "Are you talkin' about Uncle Tres fingers?"
"I don't recall the name but given the context I'd assume he was the one." Roweyna answered.
Mags nodded as she started to pull out knives and other weapons and place them on the folding table next to Anastasia. Her hair fell down as she pulled out two long metal spikes from her hair bun, and placed those on the table.
Anastasia motioned to Shafer to move away from the cell door. "Face the wall and place your palms on the wall above your head."
Shafer smirked as she complied. Mags quickly walked up behind her and pushed her roughly closer to the wall as she quickly patted her down. Shafer's smirk disappeared as Mags manhandled her. It became a sneer as Mags started turning out her bed and going through the spartan furnishings of the cell.
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===Possible Solutions for bigger Problem===
Henry, Smythe and Lucas entered the aerobay. Henry was holding a spools of thick yellow and green striped cable balanced on top of a box with explosive markings. Smythe had an ammo cart stacked with vibro mines and two other boxes of explosives. Lucas gingerly carried a box marked, "EXPLOSIVE DETONATORS". The box also had several symbols for explosives and hazardous material. The contents and warnings were also listed in several languages.
Shafer looked over her shoulder, "What are you planning to do with all that?" She thought hard for a moment, "I thought the Leopard had a hard stop because of a maintenance problem, what actually happened?"
"I'd prefer to keep ye in the dark, however, I'll have to explain this to the whole crew, and you'll probably overhear us anyways. A warship jest jumped into system."
As Roweyna said warship, Anastasia said "Mon Dieu!" and Mags said "Madre De dios!" almost in unison. Shafer looked shocked. And Henry and his crewmates paused to look at Roweyna.
Roweyna motioned for Henry and his men to continue, "Exactly how I felt. But before I could recover from the shock of seeing a nonexistent relic threatening us, yer man Tempes demanded that we dock with the ship. The fact that our remains are not currently floating among the stars tells me that he desires this," Roweyna motioned to the large shipping container containing the electronic device, "enough to not risk damaging it."
"It could be he wants to ensure Anastasia is actually dead." Shafer added, "Seeing as how she tends to survive, like a cockroach."
"I note that you're not inclined to think they could be trying to save you." Anastasia answered, "I've heard of the cold reception a compromised Maskrivoka agents would receive. Given ROM's reputation I strongly suspect you're in for something similar."
"I'm probably going to live to tell about it. Which is more than I can say for you."
"As charming as this clever banter is, I need to stop it. I intend to bargain for our lives by not destroying the…whatever the hell this is, and that means giving you back to yer people. If I don't have another opportunity to tell you, it will be good to see ye off, we can't miss ye till yer gone, and I hope you receive a just reward for how ye've conducted the mission ye were given."
Shafer looked like she was about to give a rude gesture, but Mags hit Shafer with her shoulder as she left the cell. Shafer looked like she was about to retaliate but Anastasia motioned to her with the Needler pistol.
Mags closed the cell door and Anastasia lowered the weapon as she turned to Roweyna. "I'm not an expert in demolitions, but that seems like an excessive amount of demolitions."
Roweyna nodded as she watched Henry work, "Aye, I intend Mr. Tempes to understand I may jest damage his precious warship if our bargain goes foul."
Henry pulled out a small brass wire cutter and carefully cut a long run of demolition cord, "If that's the case, mum, ye want me to move the missile ammunition from the magazine and wire them in?"
"That would be lovely." Roweyna answered. "I want it rigged to explode with enough force to vaporize that damn thing and possibly damage anything near the Phaidin. I need ye to rig it up with a command detonator set with a deadman's switch."
"Aye, mum."
"I'll need a hand grenade as well. Something that fits easily in the palm of the hand." Roweyna turned to Mags and Anastasia, "I also need help with hosting a high tea."
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