On Thursday night there were two additions to the
staff behind the bar assisting Wisma, one was the redheaded Captain of the
Tornado, Merionwen Strong, who
was a forthright, volatile and feisty personality who liked a scrap, and the
second was the Shape Shifting navigator Malena Endia, who had abandoned her
favoured form, tall, slim, brunette hair, olive skin and hazel eyes, to take
the appearance of Zydia.
Also, in the bar that night seated in the bar were
the Skeet Brothers playing cards and in one corner were the two Gouveian’s, the
mountainous Parse Sacrod and the Diminutive Asti Alegionaris, while out the
back, out of sight of the customers were the Vann Telepath, Shiyne and Bagg who
were seated in the kitchen.
Just before closing time, two men walked in to the
Visitor’s Rest and made their way to the bar, they were both in their early
thirties, well-groomed and reasonably well dressed.
“You’re cutting it a bit fine” Merionwen said,
“what can I get you?”
“I’ll serve these gentlemen” Wisma interrupted and
gave a discrete nod to Merri
“Ok” she said “I’ll go and collect the glasses”
Malena/Zydia was stood in the doorway and retreated
unnoticed to the kitchen.
Merri knew that once in the kitchen Malena would
alert the others so she opened the hatch and started picking up empties from
the tables and as she passed the Skeets she said
“Two men at the bar”
“I’m going to call it a night” Lyris said and
drained his glass
“Me too” concurred Zerrad and they put their
jackets on and walked towards the door
“Good night” Lyris called
“Thank you, good night” Wisma replied
Once outside they crossed the street and hid in the
shadows where they had a good view of the Bar.
A few minutes later Asti and Parse also made their
exit but unlike the skeets they secreted themselves in the toilets.
The last
few customers said their goodnights and the taller of the two men took out a
communicator.
“All clear”
he said and put it away.
From their
position in the shadows the Skeets saw two men get out of a parked vehicle just
outside the bar and quickly go in and the Skeets left their hiding place and
quickly crossed the road to follow them.
With her
ear pressed against the door Asti heard the main door open and close.
“What’s happening?”
Parse whispered
“Another
two have arrived” she replied
Shiyne and
Bagg were still in the back room listening intently to what was happening.
“I hope
you’ve come to your senses?” the tall man said as the door opened and two big
rough looking thugs entered the bar carrying heavy clubs.
“Otherwise
I’ll set them loose again”
Asti slowly
opened the door and when she saw it was all clear she and Parse left the
toilet.
Once in the
vestibule Asti quietly slid back the bolts on the door and let in the Skeets.
Once the
four of them were ready Parse spoke into his communicator
“In
position”
“I told you
last time, I don’t need protection” Wisma said calmly
“I’m very disappointed in you Mrs Berita, very
disappointed indeed” the taller man said
This was
Bagg’s queue and he stepped through the door to the bar and said
“She has
made it perfectly clear that she doesn’t need your protection”
“Keep out
of this old man” said the shorter man. “It’s not God’s protection that she
needs”
“She
already has all the protection she needs” Bagg continued
“Right you
two” the tall one said to the two thugs “smash the place up and then smash up
the God botherer”
Shiyne
closed her eyes and sent her telepathic message “go now” and all hell broke
loose as the four crewmates charged through the door and took the two roughs
completely by surprise flattening one before he knew what was happening and
Asti quickly got him restrained.
The second
one back peddled and managed to swing his bat in Lyris Skeet’s direction but
got no real force into it and he easily avoided it, ducking under the swing and
hitting his assailant hard in the midriff, knocking him to the floor but even
on the floor it took him and Zerrad to subdue him.
Meanwhile
the shorter man at the bar decided he wanted a piece of Bagg and scrambled up
over the bar.
Bagg
adjusted his feet and was about to knock him back the way he came with his
staff when Wisma hit him first with a Brandy Bottle and he
slid backwards onto the floor where Parse found him and tied him up.
The taller
man decided that discretion was the better part of valour and seeing his way to
the front door barred decided to make a run for the back and he reached the end
of the bar just as Malena and Shiyne emerged from the back room.
“Where do
you think you’re going?” Malena said
“I’ve got
this” Merri shouted and confronted the taller man who threw a punch which she
deftly avoided and struck him across the side of his knee with her boot and he
let out a scream of agony and collapsed to the floor.
“Nice work
Captain” Asti said
Bagg gave
the bar a cursory glance and noted they had dealt with all four men with
minimal damage and no injuries to the good guys, so he said
“Ok Shiyne”
She nodded
her bald cerise head and closed her eyes as she spoke to Terrel Vorton who was
nearby in the Stroller, he was a Sciberran Healer and was held in reserve in
case anything went wrong.
Terrel
pulled up outside the bar and the crew loaded the four criminals aboard where
Shiyne set about wiping their memories of that week’s events, then they drove
them to a quiet alleyway, untied their restraints and dumped the bodies.
The next
step was to flag down a Prefect on patrol in Gipki and as soon as they had his
attention, Shiyne, the Vann telepath, invaded the his mind and
when she had control of him she had him climb aboard, then they spent another
twenty minutes seeking out another one and she repeated the process.
With two prefects aboard they returned to the
alleyway, and once they were disembarked Shiyne quietly said to the first one.
“You caught these four men breaking into the
grain store you should shackle them and arrest them”
Without showing any emotion he turned and
walked along the alleyway and restrained the first man, while Shiyne repeated
the script to the second prefect, who them followed the first and began
restraining the men.
After all
the excitement of the battle with the gang of thugs had died down Bagg and
Wisma decided it was time for another picnic, so they returned to the scene of
their first date, “Lake Tranquil”.
It seemed
very fitting as it was their beginning and they had plans to make for their
future.
In
particular whether he should give up his nomadic existence to spend more time
with her, especially in light of recent events, or should she give up the bar altogether
to travel with him, in the end they settled on the third option, which was to
do a little of both, he would spend extended periods in Gipki.
She in turn would train Zydia up to run the Bar on her own while she
travelled with him on the Tornado.
So, they
sat in the late summer sunshine on the plaid picnic blanket up on a grassy
bank, overlooking the lake, and chinked their champagne glasses together.
“Is that a
plan then?” Bagg asked
“Yes that’s
a plan,” she replied
No comments:
Post a Comment