Type Bull

[Pher 0]

Pher glanced briefly at her console on Capricorn's bridge, then spoke to the others in a tense tone. “Small arms fire on Verbistul. Multiple shots. Settings look lethal. Shuttle bay.”

 

She hesitated. “Troy… Our science guy. Usually low key, but he’s got a type Bull’s Head personality. Doesn’t like to be disarmed or issued orders at gunpoint. Doesn’t trust a lot of strangers unless he’s got em at gunpoint. Shane was also like that. The two of them were supposed to be securing Capricorn for Joe, about the same mission as you gave Alex. They decided they need computer trojans to keep the Capricorn people in line. Unfortunately, Ford was also a type Bull, objected to being covered by trojans, which triggered a lot of the violence. Alex, Taj and I took Ford and Shane out of play, but not Troy. Alas your dislike of armed strangers and need to coerce them at gunpoint is apt to set type Bulls off. I can try to talk them down, but they are taking stupid risks right now, and likely won’t want to stop and negotiate until they can negotiate from strength. At that point, more people will be dead and more equipment damaged. I’m guessing we’ll have to disarm them, and issue them orders at gunpoint.” She tried not to lay the irony on too thick.

 

She paused again. “I wouldn’t have thought Troy would have gone lethal, though. At a guess, he’s got Byblos with him. Byblos… is your classic type bull in a china shop. He’s great if you point him in the right direction and don’t mind some collateral damage.” She decided it wouldn’t be necessary to list any of his hypothetical flaws.

 

"You lied," Alex spat out, running on half-cocked instinct. "You knew Byblos was in that shuttle. You were covering for them!" She whipped her attention to Maxwell, demanding: "She's not gonna give up her guys! How can you trust her if she's lying to you?!"

 

Pher turned first to Alex. "Look, I warned you Troy was likely free lancing. I thought Max had given the right orders. I assumed your people were better than they turned out to be. I did not know where Byblos was, though I should have guessed given 20 20 hindsight." She then turned to Maxwell. "But Alex has caught the bug too. She won't trust a stranger except at gunpoint, and won't be happy if she is held at gunpoint. Even when we were clearly working for the same objective, working against the same list of bad guys, she wanted to shoot em, while I wanted to talk em down."

 

Pher shook her head. "Alex may be the best person you've got if you want to end the killing and destruction, but she's no good. She'd rather join the rampage than stop it. Look at her, frothing at the mouth, spitting poison. Could be it can't be stopped at this point, that too many idiots are too mad at too many other idiots. I'll tell you though, that if you can only command at the point of a gun, you might as well lock me up too. I won't be able to help you."

 

"Both of you be silent," Maxwell snapped. Small beads of sweat were beginning to form on his brow. He turned to look at Lazarus, patiently waiting behind him with his blood red eyes dancing slowly between Pher and Alex.

 

"Verbistul has been locked down," the engineer announced, his eyes fixing on Maxwell. "Bulkheads are sealing around the intruders and the shuttle bay is closing ... though with our weapons very close to being restored, escaping via shuttle would not be a wise course for them.

 

"Unfortunately, Verbistul just lost four security guards, more are here on Capricorn, and one was lost on Qob. That leaves Verbistul fairly depleted of security."

 

Maxwell returned his gaze to Pher. "I don't care how good this Byblos is. That was a team of security guards well-trained by Xorax colony and they were overcome with seeming ease despite being alert and prepared. Your two friends are working with an advantage here. If you want to earn my trust in you, I suggest you find out what that advantage is."

 

Cut off by Maxwell -- perhaps prudently and just in the nick of time -- Alex steadily glared at Pher, waiting to see what the Orion would do next. The only person she currently had a problem with was Pher; and there were plenty of 'poisonous' words she wanted to 'spit', as Pher would say. But they were left to boil behind seething eyes as she obediently and just barely choked them back; though it was not solely out of consideration for Captain Maxwell that she did. At least she could take some satisfaction in knowing that despite the loss of four men, the Verbistul would not be easily overcome by Pher's friends, and the corner of her mouth hinted at a crooked smile.

 

Pher briefly considered. "First… you should care about Byblos. He's Narciscian. Grew up in mean streets. Became head of a criminal gang the hard way. Had it taken away by the Guardians, the hard way. From a scientist's perspective, uneducated, ignorant, brash, out of control. From the perspective of one of your 'trained men,' he's been there, done that, and taken the enemy's head. Did any of you figure out what happened to the Capricorn pirate leader's head? Alex, how many of Ford's 'trained men' did Shane take out when he escaped his ad-lib prison? Byblos is just about as good as Shane. Joe needed dangerous people, and couldn't afford sane dangerous people. Anyway, last time Qob people took Vestibule, Byblos was point man into the engineering spaces." Pher figured there was no point in identifying the point woman.

 

"Troy… he may not be Qob's best hacker, but he's good. Last time Qob took Verbistul, he was our intelligence guy, putting together floor plans, tracing routes through jeffries tubes, opening doors, figuring out what the pirates were doing. He too, in a more specific sense, has been there and done that. You are likely correct, Captain. He'll be looking for an advantage, same as the Capricorn pirates looked for the advantage. Get to the warp core, threaten an antimatter explosion? Visit the impulse engines, and promise a fusion explosion? Blow open the warp cooling system, and flood the ship with poison gas? Blow the computer core, and turn the ship into a inert lump? Tinker with the inertial compensaters, create a 500 G gravity field, and turn everyone on the ship into thin red paste? Heck, if he makes it to a cleaning closet, he can mix ammonia cleaners and bleach. If he's playing by the same set of rules everyone else is playing by, which is to say no rules at all, I don't know that you have enough people to secure everything you need to secure without stripping everyone you've got from Capricorn and inviting trouble here. Rather than disperse all over the Vestibule securing everything you need to secure, and being weak everywhere, you'd likely be better off going on the offensive, putting your 'trained men' against Byblos head on.

 

"Or cut your losses, captain. Yield Troy temporary control of Vestibule under the condition that he take her back to her home port, immediately. Capricorn is a valuable prize. The crews of Lucky Hand and Qob did their share of the work in helping take this prize. Offer the traditional crew's prize share to the survivors of the Hand and Qob if neither Capricorn or Verbistul take further damage. There aren't many of us. It's a small loss. You are risking far more.

 

"Or, you can roll the dice. I don't recommend it."

 

"Your recommendation is based on two very critical misassumptions -- " Maxwell locked a hard stare on the Orion. "That I will just be sending 'trained men,' and that Capricorn is, in fact, the prize."

 

He looked at his security chief. "Alex, I want you aboard the Verbistul leading the remaining security personnel there. I want these two intruders contained, even if it means shutting down systems that they could compromise. Once we have them bottled in, at least for some time, then we will take steps to convince or coerce them to stand down. Perhaps a deal of some sort would not be out of the question, but presently I doubt their willingness to listen.

 

"You," he continued, looking again at Pher. "Will join her. I'd say the odds of Byblos putting up an uncontrolled resistance or Troy delivering widespread damage diminish drastically if they know that your life is on the line. You say you are committed to peaceful resolutions -- now is a good time to prove it by talking them down in person."

 

“Do I look like that pink skin yellow haired human princess that can spin straw into gold?” Pher asked. “Starships are dangerous fragile places. If you don’t put an everyone wins deal on the table, everyone loses. If you don’t like my everyone wins deal, come up with another one. Think on what’s been happening since the Capricorn showed up, and call me if you come to your senses.”