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"The Good, The Bad, The Scary"
[Previous Post Marissa's "Here Kitty Kitty Kitty"]
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"A whim, a thought, and more is sought. Awake my mind; thy will be wrought."
- Ancient T'Kon incantation of knowledge

Setting: YUDARA Asteroid Field, Planetoid, Trade Center, Market Place
Stardate: 63073.2025

Captain Rikar and the Oltharian Chief Engineer had been the last to beam down into the trade center located on one of the larger asteroids of the YUDARA SECTOR. The Commanding Officer of the USS ANUBIS had chosen to take on the role of a Jorelian freighter captain while Elan had decided to go with something simple that suited him all too perfectly.

"Elan," Shoray, the red-skinned woman formerly known as Sabrina Rikar began as the two ventured into the open street. "I really don't think this is such a good idea. Someone might recognize you without a disguise."

The towering Engineer smiled as only he could as a gentle and friendly glow enveloped him while he leaned over towards the red-skinned woman. "Captain, I'm 7 feet, 6 inches tall, the only way for me to be inconspicuous is to not be there in the first place. Coming here as *your* Oltharian Chief Engineer makes perfect sense since records will clearly show that I resigned from Starfleet to return home and that I left home because I needed to get back to what I enjoyed the most."

"Being an Engineer," the CO nodded before she sighed to herself. "Alright Elan, you're the *engineer*, where do we start?"

From his height the Oltharian scanned the street and the buildings that lined it. Several shops and taverns could be seen, all of which appeared as seedy and questionable as the next. Still after a few moment Elan selected that he thought would be a good starting point for their search for information on the location of the USS PARADOX.

As strange as it had seemed, both the Jorelian and Oltharian made their way to the shop without as much as drawing a glance, as if it had been completely normal for these people to see a red-skinned woman followed by a walking colossus.

"Excuse me," Shoray began as she drew the shop owner's attention onto her while her imposing companion stood around the corner out of sight. "We are looking for a transphasic power regulator with a sub harmonic coupling," Rikar said having rehearsed this exact line word for word as it had been given to her by Elan himself. The reason for this had been as simple as the Oltharian's disguise since that particular part could and would only be found or required for a Federation trans-dimensional vessel.

"What do I look like? A Federation parts depot?! The Xyrillian merchant snapped through his breathing apparatus. "And why are you looking for something so specific?"

Rikar did her best to hold back the grin that had threaten to emerge. Their plan had worked and the merchant had taken the bait as the CO and CEO had hoped someone would.

As if following a play rehearsed to perfection the Oltharian stepped into view and looked down onto the Xyrillian merchant. "My captain's freighter is in need of several parts including that one, and I am hoping to retro fit this component to our main drive section to hopefully more than double our maximum warp output."

Taken aback by the sheer size of the giant who had suddenly appeared behind the Jorelian woman, the merchant took a few seconds to think of his next words. "Federation transphasic power regulators are not compatible with anything that we have around here," the Xyrillian stated obviously having set a trap for the Oltharian, one that the ANUBIS' CEO had been more than ready for.

"True," Elan began as he placed his hands on the counter and still managed to be several heads over the merchant. "The power distribution nodes of a Jorelian freighter would never be able to take the strain of the narrowed, focussed transphasic energy stream, that is unless we had in our possession several Federation built ODN power relays."

"You have Federation ODN power relays?" The merchant countered with, his voice having switch from a tone of disbelief to one of peaked interest.

"We got them from a Ferengi who salvaged them from a wreckage," Shoray said. "He seemed rather anxious to get rid of them, for a profit that is."

"Alright, tell you what," the Xyrillian said as he leaned in closer to the Jorelian woman while trying his best to keep his distance from the towering colossus. "I'll ask my contacts to see what I can find, but if I can't find the part you are looking for and decide to unload those ODN power conduits, I would be willing to take them off your hands."

"Let's ask around somewhere else," Elan said as he moved away from the merchant's counter, knowing all too well that the bait had been set and taken.

The Xyrillian quickly reached for the red-skinned woman's hand. "Alright, I'll even give you five percent more than what you paid for those power conduits. You'd be making a profit this way instead of risking blowing your ship into the next century."

"I'll keep your offer in mind," Rikar grinned as she left and caught up to the Oltharian, their plan having worked to perfection. Maybe that had been the reason why the ANUBIS' CO had felt oddly nervous. Things had gone maybe a little *too* well.
 
--==(/\)==--
Francois Charette {f_charette@hotmail.com}
Lieutenant Elan Talak Fairborn
 
Chief Engineering Officer
USS ANUBIS
 
And
 
Robotics Engineering Officer
NEW ALEXANDRIA