payback's a b!tch (Broken Eggs sequel)

Chapter Four: Swift Justice and a Warning
Day Nine-
POV of the homeworld:

The next ship to pull into port is none other than that of the Chief Arbitrator, Special Ops Division. He has made the run in record time, and pushed his ship to the limit, sparing no expense. Although he was looking forward to some much deserved downtime, he has to ‘take care of’ this dangerous pest of an Inspector; in his urgency he has overridden the port’s autoland system and come in “hot”.

Mr. Greedy, not knowing who it is, starts drooling at the fast ship, and the prospect of extracting exorbitant, but legal, fees- he cackles to himself, ‘EEEEheheheeeee, I get you on EVERRRRYTHING, I get money to pay bar bill!’

He tries the com but only gets audio “HOTshooooot, rEEEEspon’ ”

The Chief replies with a snort, “HotShot One here, what do you want?”

“I don’ SEEEE you….!”

The Chief slaps the display as he gets up; it starts transmitting but all the Inspector sees is his body as he gets up to release the access ramp. The ramp lowers and at this the Inspector gives a nasal whine in frustration and hurries out of his office over to the ship and bangs on the access, then does a walk-around tallying his inspection fees.

The Chief can hear him thru his mask feed and stops in front of the door.
“Hmmm, you overrrrride autolaaand, (thaaat ONE)
you come innnn HOOOOT; not saaaaafe, (thaaat TWO)
you got panellll coming off left side, (thaaat THRRREE)
you got no lights on rrrrright side, are brrrroken…(thaaaat FOURRRR)
you got no video on your com, (thaaaat FIIIIVE)
each one ‘a those THRRREE HUNdrrrrre’ crrrrredits; you paaaaay me ONE thousaaaaan’-

At this, the Chief hits the door release, the door slides back and he storms down the ramp to the inspector who has completed his inspection and is coming to the bottom of the ramp. He yanks his mask off in irritation and clips it to his belt.

“EEEEEEEEEEH!”

The Inspector sees that his left upper mandible is missing and that side of his face is badly scarred; his left eye is cloudy. It is none other than M’diH’chak-de, otherwise known as the Wolf.

The inspector continues, “thaaaat is ONE THOUsaaaaaan’ FIVE HUN- EKKKKK!”

Wolf has him by one of his ears, the other hand is under his jaw, lifting so he can’t talk! “HOW I land, how FAST I land, IF I got panels OR lights OR com vid is none of your pauk-de BUSINESS, you MISbegotten, OVERblown kwei-de sack of C’JIT!”

At this, the Inspector struggles in his grasp. The Chief turns him around roughly and begins to frogmarch him over to a neighboring ship, and continues to berate him “You syuit’de tarei’hsan, I’ll have no more of your sniveling, cheating, riot inciting, moneylaundering, thieving, and SPYING!”

The Inspector looks at the ship in front of him; the writing says “HuntMasters One”. It is a Hunt training ship that has just come in from a hunt and is being, ahhh, -restocked- At this the Inspector starts struggling even more; he has a bad feeling about this!

Wolf drags him over to the access door used for loading the eggs! The Chief releases his captive’s mouth so he can put his mask on to scan the lock and ‘pick’ it; he does this quickly, but Mr. Greedy starts hollering about Setg’in-de and Tjauke-de, trying to shift blame and grabbing at straws.

“Setg’in-de, Tjauke-de come in my OOOfice, they choooooke me, they cheeeeeat me, they thrEHHHten me, they triiiick me at baaaar,…”

At this the Chief growls through his mask, “Ki’dte, enough, any more outta you, I skin you slowly, ALIVE; you’ll wish you never been BORN!”

The Inspector says with a whimper, “I give you ANNNythinnnng, fix ship panel, lights, com, give frrrree FUELLLL” he stops for breath “Eeeven new EYYYYE!”

Wolf pauses and acts like he’s considering it, and the Ferengyi relaxes, but then Wolf pulls up on his ear again, opens the access and starts to shove him in.

“Whaat abou’ OFFERRR?!” -

“I changed my mind! You sleep with the eggs now!” Wolf then kicks him in the posterior, propelling him all the way in, and slams the door. The inspector falls flat on his face, then scrambles up and pounds on the door, trying to get out. He then realizes one of the eggs is opening; at this, he becomes more frantic.

Wolf hears screaming then its abruptly cut off; the inevitable has happened. Wolf waits a while, then powers up his plasmacaster and opens the door; Mr. Greedy is lying there with the facehugger dead next to him. Wolf nudges him with his foot; but the Ferengyi doesn’t move for a while, he slowly comes to and realizes where he is and what is next to him.

“EEEEEH!” He scrabbles backward and stops when he hits the wall. He starts to cough and writhe; the end has come for him. The Kainde Amedha bursts out of the doomed Ferengyi, but Wolf is there to keep things from getting out of hand and shoots the hybrid before it can get loose. ‘I’m not going to let something with the strength of a Kainde Amedha and the greed of a Ferengyi get loose on MY homeworld!’

He cuts off the Ferengyi’s head and puts it in a portable stasis box. He thinks to himself ‘Not taking a trophy, just sending a message!’ He adds a listening device ‘And receiving anything those hac’nickt might say!’

He passes by the deceased inspector’s office and gets a crafty look on his face ‘Payback time!’ He pulls on a pair of gloves, and crosses over to the entrance and picks the lock to the door. Cautiously making his way inside he sets the box down on the desk and looks for the safe.

‘Gotta be in here somewhere, I know those hac’nikt Ferengyi don’t trust the banks!’

He searches methodically through the office, and finds the safe in the back. He crouches down and peers at the front, it has an ancient spin dial on it.

‘Huh, wonder where he stole THAT from?’

He fishes among his gear and comes up with an audio suction cup listening device. ‘When in need, improvise’ He turns on the transmitter and squishes the cup near the safe dial.

Clickclickclick-CLICK, spinspinspin,

‘OK was it two spins left & pass, or one spin left? Awww c’jit! I think its two’…

clackclackCLACKclack RIGHTspinspinspin, clickCLICKclickclick CLUNK!

‘hah, oldest combo in the galaxy, one, two, three’.

He pulls on the handle and the safe pops open; there are piles of credit notes and coins of all types inside. ‘Hmmm, guess studying old technology comes in handy sometimes; there’s times to be direct and times to be –heh- subtle’. He cleans it out, putting the booty in a leather bag, closes the door and pops off the “bug”.

He goes out, retrieving the box, ensuring the door locks behind him. He heads toward the Kainde Tjauke Saloon; he has noticed a souped up hunk of junk in one of the docking bays and figured Setg’in-de and Tjauke-de are in town; indeed they are, to celebrate their final run, and having completed 5 seasons with ScornDodgers.

Upon arrival at the saloon, Wolf can hear sounds of a loud party; it seems like the teamsters are having a good time.
The Wolf sets the box down at the back door of the saloon then comes round to the front.

Kai-dte does a double take, and says “Sir! You’re welcome here any time!”

Wolf tilts his head toward the noise, “Whats the occasion?”

“A couple ScornDodgers teamsters just completed their last run and they’re having a celebration”

“Who?”

“A couple brothers named Setg’in-de and Tjauke-de; they are at the fourth table down, last two seats.”

Somebody sees him at the door with Kai-dte and passes the info on down; it ends up at the teamster’s tables. “Hey Tjauke-de, the Wolf is in town, in fact he’s right outside now, talking to Kai-dte!”

At this, he pops an anti nausea pill- wherever Wolf goes, things can get bloody and smelly- and he doesn’t want to lose any more bets.

Setg’in-de sees it out of the corner of his eye and leans closer, “What’s that?”

“NoHeave, I’m not about to lose any more money to you, Kai-dte, or anybody else for that matter!” At this the whole table busts out laughing.

Wolf comes in and takes a seat near the teamster section where Setg’in-de and Tjauke-de are sitting.

Tjauke gets up enough nerve to come over. “Sir, I’m Tjauke-de and I work- errr worked for ScornDodgers and there’s-

At this, Wolf raises his hand interrupting him. “I know whats been going on, I got the report from the Arbitrator here. I got one last delivery job for you guys; come with me”.

He gets up and takes them to the back thru the saloon hallway, and gives them the box, swearing them to secrecy.

“You keep this quiet; you don’t want ME on your trail! And report back to me here when you’re done!”

They start to go back into the saloon, but in the hallway end Naxa-di blocks their way. “All right, no more smelly stuff in my place, take it out the back!!”

Setg’in-de and Tjauke-de pause uncertainly; Naxa-di is immovable. “OUT!!!”

Setg’in-de and Tjauke-de back off and go out; Wolf gives a lopsided grin at that, saying to Setg’in-de as he passes “You got a fine female there, she’s got good instincts!”

Setg’in-de chuckles and thanks Wolf. “Sir, we’ll get this where you want it right away!” Wolf writes the destination on the box.

The two hurry off. Tjauke-de reads the destination, “Embassy Row, Ferengyi ambassador?!?!”

His brother retorts, “I DON’T want to know!!!”

Tjauke-de leans close and smirks, “Yeah, three can keep a secret if two are dead”

“Ah, cut it out, Tjauke-de, you been listening to those Klingons too much!”

They arrive at the Embassy and bang on the door; they don’t care how much noise they are making….

The ambassador hurries to the door, grumbling “EHHHH, wha’ ya waaaan? Quit yer baaaanging, you wake DEAAAAD!”

He pulls the door open and notices their appearance; they smell faintly of c’ntlip.

“Package for the Ferengyi Ambassador”

“You stay while I open; no trrrricks, HMMMM?!?”

When he opens it; the reaction is instantaneous: the note inside reads “From Wolf to Ambassador: This “man” cheated and stole from the Yautja”.

The envoy shouts “You go baaaack, you tell Wolf this an act of WAAAAR! Then he starts insulting the Yautja in general and Wolf in particular; his Yautjan gets worse as he gets more enraged.

“You Yautja crrrab face kill first, ask question LAAAAATER, you only want get DRUUUUNK, waste MONNNNEY! Know whaaaaat? Wolf so ugly, scaaaaaare FEEEEmales with face! This why he meeeeeean, he not get ANNNNY-”

At this, Tjauke-de looks at Setg’in-de in amazement; then cuts loose with a roar, and starts toward the incensed ambassador.

Setg’in-de hauls him back with hands on both arms, then grabs around his body pinning his arms to his sides. “NOOO, Tjauke! You don’t want to give him any reasons he doesn’t already have!”

Tjauke-de struggles against his brother’s iron grip, and with a supreme effort, Tjauke-de relents and Setg’in-de lets him go. But he has to let loose his anger somehow; as he turns to leave, he spots the Ambassador’s post-box and heads for it. It is set on a post near some trees part way to the end of the walk.

Setg’in-de groans “Oh, no!”

Tjauke-de crouches down, grabs it near its base and with a roar, wrenches it loose; he then raises it over head and smashes it down on the pavement! Letters and packets fly everywhere; Tjauke-de grabs the larger ones and rips them open.

“Diplomatic immunity, take THAT!”

At this the diplomat starts hurling more invective; Tjauke-de responds by flipping up the back of his loincloth hollering “You can kiss my spotted Yautja @$$”

Setg’in-de starts laughing; he can’t help it, but stops when he sees a window open in the residence. “Tjauke-de!!!! Let’s GO!”

BOOM!

Something smacks into the tree near Tjauke-de’s head; it is a projectile, and a large one at that! Setg’in-de grabs Tjauke-de by the arm to get him out of range; as they hightail it out of there, more projectiles smack into the pavement where they were a moment before.

In the meantime Wolf contacts Special Ops HQ. “Central, this is Wolf, stand by for instructions”

“Sir, awaiting your orders”

“I have uncovered a spy, and dealt with him; he will trouble us no longer”

There is a pause on the other end.

Wolf continues, “I have sent a clear message to the Ambassador, if he reacts true to form, we should be ready if anything goes down from the direction of the Ferengyi Trade Federation”

“What course of action, sir?”

Wolf gets a grim look on his face, “Activate Plan S.D. Put a cordon on that embassy; nothing gets in or out unless we know it, and if its ours we recover it!”

“Right away, sir”.

“Wolf out”.

Setg’in-de and Tjauke-de return to the saloon and meet Wolf who is having a late dinner. Wolf looks up from his meal and motions the two over.

“Sir, the package has been delivered, but that Ambassador pitched a screaming fit; if words were fuel, he wouldn’t need a ship to get offworld!”

Wolf gives a dangerous grin “You two don’t worry about that zabin bug of an ambassador, the Arbitrators and myself will handle it”.

The two look relieved.

“Don’t think you’re getting off too easy, you got a lot to do between now and the end of the quarter season”

“What to do?”

“Training, training hard, so hard you’ll feel every muscle in your body, and ones you didn’t know you had!”

“Train? For what?”

“Your first Kainde Amedha Hunt; by the way, you are assigned to MY class, PLUS you will be assigned to HuntMasters One; it leaves at the end of the quarter season.”

The two bow in respect and go to their quarters; Wolf finishes his meal. He gets an idea, and contacts HQ again. “What do you have from that ambassador today?”

“Transmitting now”. Wolf puts his mask on and taps some buttons on his wrist computer. The audio plays of the brothers’ run-in with the envoy, and his tirade against the Yautja and the Chief; only he can hear it. As it plays, he mouths the words from the ambassador: ‘crab-face’? ‘ugly’? ‘not get any’? He stares at his wristcomputer in amazement at this last one, then when the section with Setg’in-de and Tjauke-de has finished, he starts to laugh silently then it gives way to an audible one.

Epilogue
At the end of the quarter season-

At Wolf’s quarters, specifically his bedroom; it is still dark outside, but near morning.

CHING-DING
“mmphf” Wolf turns over and gets comfortable. His mate murmurs something unintelligible and snuggles next to his broad back.

CHING-DING
Wolf comes awake further, “Ahhh, c’jit, what NOW?!?”

His mate says sleepily “Turn that pauk-de alarm off; its your day off”

CHING-DING
He grabs for the com, it is under his bed and he has to hang half over the edge to reach it; he is unaware the jiggling has awakened his mate. He whispers into the com “Well? What is it, it better be good!”

“Sir, we got an unusual transmission; I don’t want to say from where on an open channel”

At this, Wolf’s instincts kick in to red alert. Coming fully awake he exclaims “Route it to my terminal, I want to look at it myself; I’m coming in.”

His mate pulls on him to get him back under the covers; she asks, “What is it, chi-dte?”

“I gotta go to the station, its important”

She tilts her head at him, “Not more important than…..”

He says softly, “Hah, you’re right!” Wolf thinks to himself ‘Gonna prove that tarei’hsan envoy SOOOO wrong!’

Two hours later-

When Wolf comes into the station, he has a little more spring in his step. He stops by the Arbitrator’s office; since she is part of his investigation team she has been assigned there on TDY. She rises and brings her right fist to her chest in salute.

“Sir! We are honored; what is the occasion?”

Wolf plops the sack of money down on her desk. “H’dlak-di, here’s that syuit-de inspector’s ill-gotten gains, you know how much everybody got taken for, you go and make sure every last credit gets back where it belongs, OK?”

H’dlak-di beams at this, she is glad that justice- albeit Yautja style- has been served. “Right away, Sir!”

The head of Security has heard Wolf and stops by the office. “What about that Ferengyi Ambassador and those stolen weapons?”

Wolf pulls out a hand plasmacaster “My team recovered a whole crate of these from that kwei-de; they were trying to sneak them out the night I sent that warning to them.”

H’dlak-di replies, “That’s good; what about the rest of the Ferengyi?”

Wolf says “Don’t worry about them, if they try anything Plan S. D. will stop them”.

Security and H’dlak-di look at each other, puzzled “Plan S. D.”?

“Self Destruct, during this quarter season I had my team pre-position devices in each of the major Ferengyi population centers--- they’ll think twice before they pauk with the Yautja.”

In the meantime, Setg’in-de and Tjauke-de are getting ready to go on the Hunt ship. Naxa-di tells Setg’in-de to take care and come back with honor.

As they make their way to the ship, Tjauke-de asks Setg’in-de “How come we haven’t heard anything more from that inspectors countrymen?”

Setg’in-de replies “Maybe Wolf made them an offer they couldn’t refuse!”

At this, Tjauke-de says “Aaah, Setg’in-de, you’ve been watching too many bootlegged Ooman gangster movies again!”

Setg’in-de can’t resist, “He sleeps with the EGGS!”

They laugh and go up the ships’ ramp.