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
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