by LT SG Rada Dengar
80817.2215
...continuing from part one...
80817.2215
...continuing from part one...
Tam’s uncle was standing behind him with a hand on his shoulder keeping him in place and the other phaser holding hand positioned out of his line of sight. It seemed that the child was unaware that he was in any danger as he was perfectly calm. That changed however when he sensed his mother’s fear, which he decided had to be related to that man who can’t be sensed. He tried to run to his mother but his uncle wouldn’t let him go. He just attributed this to some of his uncle’s typical roughhousing.
“Hello, sister. Hello, Red. Young Tam and I have just been having a chat,” said Wren’s brother, He had a sinister smile on his face. “Lovely of you to join us.”
“You recover quickly,” commented Rada. He was trying to stay cool here. “I’m assuming that wasn’t the first time someone shot you.”
*How did you get here before us?* asked Wren telepathically. She was terrified for her son and not nearly as good as Rada at hiding it.
Her brother tutted several times while wagging the finger on his phaser hand “There are non-telepaths here. It’s impolite not to speak aloud.”
*Please, just let him go,* she begged. She was trying not to scare Tam but through her fear was not doing a very good job of it. Even if Tam weren’t slightly empathic he would still have seen the tears in her eyes. She could see he was confused as he looked up to his uncle for an explanation. The phaser was still out of his line of sight.
Rada knew now how this man had known about his Academy nickname derived from his initials, his inability concerning violence, and why he wasn’t at all surprised to find Rada was unable to be sensed by the Betazoids around him. Wren must have told him these things but not necessarily everything. Perhaps the old tactic might just still work.
“To answer your question,” said the man in a matter-of-fact manner, which would lead one to believe that there were no phasers involved in this conversation at all. “I made excellent time by using the wonders of transporter technology. I have a friend in a nearby hub who was just a comm line away.”
Rada put a big smile on his face and began a hearty laugh. His tone was even more upbeat than Wren’s brother. “You know she,” indicating Wren “Used the exact same trick to make me keep my clothes on when we first met.”
“I didn’t know that,” said the man smiling sweetly, although his eyes betrayed that he wasn’t sure what Rada was doing now. His tone was quite polite and cheerful, so Tam didn’t realise a thing. “It sounds like it’d make a very interesting story.”
Rada began walking towards the man, whilst patting the pockets of his torn uniform. His body was still very sore but he couldn’t let that show, as this character felt no pain.
“You stole my romal,” Rada commented, his tone was not accusatory but instead better suited to a cheerful grandfather whose found a cheeky five year old sneaking into the biscuit tin, and decided to tease him about it.
“Careful, Red,” said the man, his tone becoming less cheerful as this was clearly a warning. “With all that walking you’re doing you might slip and get hurt then what would happen to your kid.”
Now Tam was confused. Rada pretended not to know what the man was talking about, “Haven’t you noticed the…” Rada didn’t feel the need to finish the sentence and instead gestured towards his ears.
“Or the woman you love,” the man added as the phaser was aimed at Wren now.
Rada laughed again as he kept approaching the man. He had to keep his feelings very tightly guarded now as he spoke callously. “I hate to break it to you but your sister’s a bit of a bunny boiler. We only went out a couple of times and then when I’d got what I wanted she wouldn’t let up. She started talking about our love and all that rubbish,” he really had to force himself to say the last words. “Go ahead and fire.”
The man now fixed the phaser on Rada and quickly released Tam, who ran over to Wren. She knelt down and wrapped her arms around him, holding his head in place with one hand so that he couldn’t turn around and see what was happening. She was still crying.
*Don’t you dare move,* the man warned Wren.
Wren knew what Rada was doing, but she was still terrified of what the outcome could be.
Rada stopped approaching the man, as the phaser was now fixed upon him, and even his character didn’t want to die.
“Well, it seems we have a bit of trouble here,” Rada commented. “Well, more particularly you d”
“What do you mean?” snapped the man. He was quickly losing his calm façade. This scared Tam, as he’d never heard his uncle like this before.
“Shooting them will do you no good and you must need me for something so you can’t shoot me either,” surmised Rada with a big smile on his face. “Kind of funny how powerless you are, isn’t it?”
That comment made the man furious and he was almost crushing the phaser in his hand trying to stop himself from firing it.
“YOU DON’T KNOW A THING ABOUT WHAT’S GOING ON!” he screamed.
Rada just walked casually around the outer edge of the room. His tone was more serious now. “I know that the Betazoid authorities have recently gotten wise to what people like you are doing here, and that it’s really hard to keep things like this secret on a planet full of telepaths, especially when they’re checking everyone bringing in shipments.” Rada correctly stated.
The man’s voice showed that he was quite proud of his ingenious plan to get around the authorities. “Unless you make sure that they can’t read the mind of the person you send. Ferengi are no good because they break too easily and too cheaply. Besides, they are the first suspects. An Angosian Starfleet officer on the other hand….”
“That’s why you had me stand in the middle of a busy street,” added Rada. He was now leaning against a console.
“Exactly,” said the man snapping his fingers and glancing around the room. “I had to make sure that it wasn’t just a couple of Betazoids who couldn’t read you, but I still wasn’t sure how you’d hold up under interrogation.”
“So, you drugged me to test my limits.” Rada concluded, his tone was almost bitter now. He flicked a switch on the console behind his back and hoped the man didn’t realise. Unfortunately, Wren did realise, and the man did sense this. He snapped his neck around to question her, and Rada quickly turned and worked the console.
The man snapped back to Rada and screamed, “STOP THAT!”
Rada turned back around and faced the man “I’ll bet you’re thinking I’m too much trouble to keep alive now,” Rada said calmly.
“Correct!” smiled the man.
“So, this is the end for Rada Dengar to the Alchemy?” He made it sound like a question, hoping that they were listening to this.
“Correct!” the man said again, making good and sure that his phaser was aimed directly at Rada’s head. He then realised what Rada had said.
“Four to beam up!” Rada shouted and the man fired.
-=Transporter Room One; USS Alchemy=-
The transporter operator worked the console and began to beam all four life signs where the signal was coming from. He was having trouble materialising one life sign, but before he could deal with that, he realised that there was an active weapon in the transporter cycle. He kept three of them in stasis as he deactivated the weapon but the fourth one slipped away. He materialised the other three, two Betazoids and a child.
The Betazoid man jumped as if to attack him but was restrained by the security officers. The operator worked the console again and materialised the remaining life sign successfully this time. It was the Chief Engineer. He wasn’t moving.
The Betazoid woman tried to rush over to him, but was restrained by security, which was still trying to figure out what was going on. She was sobbing and holding the child but stopped as she seemed to sense something from the Engineer. She grabbed the male Betazoids wrist and read the phaser’s display.
He'd messed up the settings and had it on stun. Rada was going to be okay.
--------------------
LT. SG Rada Dengar
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Alchemy NX 53099
NRPG: You scared me to death!
"Bunny Boiler" is a pejorative term for an obsessive and dangerous individual, most commonly referring to a jilted lover who is stalking the person who has spurned her or him. – I had to wiki that. ~Salvek
LT. SG Rada Dengar
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Alchemy NX 53099
NRPG: You scared me to death!
"Bunny Boiler" is a pejorative term for an obsessive and dangerous individual, most commonly referring to a jilted lover who is stalking the person who has spurned her or him. – I had to wiki that. ~Salvek