X Squared: Birth of a merchant prince (10) 04-07-04

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X Squared: Birth of a merchant prince (10) 04-07-04

Post by FourFingers » Sat, 19. Jun 04, 01:11

Part 1 Part 2
Part 3 Part 4
Part 5 Part 6
Part 7 Part 8
Part 9


Updated below the -------------------------------------------------------(4/7/04)


Next bit added under ...........................................................(25/6/04)



Part 10

Lan sat in the ‘Queens Tentacle’ enjoying a Teladi drink called rasii, an alcoholic beverage with an aromatic full body taste and a fiery kick at the end.
‘Made from the rotting husks of the rasa fruit, grown in the stagnating swamps of Teladi Gain, The taste of Profit,’ was how the advert for this particular drink went.

Lan was pleased with himself as after the initial bad start with his trading career it seemed to be going rather well.
He had been carrying out taxiing jobs through out the Argon home sectors as he knew them very well and had even carried out a few simple delivery jobs. Along with the sale of the captured Bayamon and its equipment his funds were now in the mid 200,000 credit range.

His next step he decided was to sell the Discoverer and buy a trade class ship, possibly the Argon mercury although he should look into the other races ships too. Still that was a while away yet as he needed more credits to buy an upgraded trade ship and have enough reserve credit to buy and sell products.

Right now he was waiting for Ryhan as the message he had received said that Ryhan would be docking with the trade station soon.
Lan shook his head in disbelief, “working for the Navy,” he still couldn’t believe it. Ryhan had filled him in briefly on what had occurred and that he was delivering a passenger for the Navy.

Lan finished his drink and decided to go meet Ryhan at the docking station. He might be able to see this passenger that Ryhan was to deliver as his curiosity was now piqued.

Ryhan pulled into docking bay 12 of the Trade station and let the computer do the parking. He turned to face Merissa in the co-pilots seat and smiled, “as much as I wish I could spend an eternity basking in your radiance, we have unfortunately, arrived.”

Merissa smiled back at him as she rose from the chair, “Thank you for the pleasant journey Ryhan, it’s been entertaining.”

‘Entertaining? It was down right frustrating, he’d not even got her call access,’ he thought to himself but said out loud, “Well how about..”

“Unfortunately I have some things to take care of before getting that connecting flight to the surface,” she cut in before he could finish asking her to join him for a drink.

“Not even a..,” Ryhan began intending to ask her if she was hungry but as she did nearly every time he thought of something Merrisa would head him off before he’d finished thinking the sentence.

“Not hungry really but a little tired so I’m going to get some rest, you’ve been amusing company,” she said laughing her silvery laugh.

Ryhan had given up trying to work out what she meant by her comments so just nodded and walked her out of the Discoverer onto the docking bay.

Suddenly Ryans face split into a grin as he recognised a face strolling along the docking bay.

“Lan, over here bro!” he shouted waving as Lan made his way over to bay 12.
“Ry, it’s great to see you mate, we got a lot of catching up to do,” Lan said grinning, “not to mention a lot of drinking.”

They clasped hands and shared a shoulder hug.

Ryhan turned to Merrisa who was standing a little behind him, “Lan this is Merrisa, the passenger I mentioned.”

Lan was slightly startled and not because the woman was gorgeous but because seeing her invoked those strange sensations, this one was the strongest he’d felt. This wasn’t just one sensation like seeing that injured Teladi but several of them each feeling distinctly different.

Lan just stood there for a moment as he struggled with the alien sensations and finally managed to get a half stumbled greeting out.

Ryhan just grinned wider, “I know the feeling, absolutely gorgeous isn’t she,” he whispered towards him.

Merrisa shook Lans offered hand but was frowning at him. She seemed partly startled, and partly curious.

“Hello, it’s a pleasure to meet you Lan. Ryhan has told me a great deal about you,” she said to him. “He tells me you’re starting up a trading career, how’s that been going?”

“It’s getting a lot better now, had a bumpy beginning but thank fully it’s been much quieter recently,” Lan replied.

Merrisa was staring at him and Lan felt a little uncomfortable like she was trying to stare through him. She seemed to be frowning at him without realising it which made Lan hesitant to say anything.

“Me and Ryhan were about to go for something to eat, we know a place that does great things with agnu beef, would you care to join us Merrisa?” Lan asked a little hesitantly as she was frowning again.

“No dice bro, I tried to conv..” began Ryhan.

“That sounds lovely Lan, Ryhan has mentioned the food here and if its not a problem I’d be happy to join you both for something to eat,” Merissa said cutting off Ryhan and smiling again.

‘She really is lovely,’ Lan thought, ‘trust Ry to find gorgeous women.’

Ryhan was surprised at her change of heart but then grinned, “Well then that’s settled, and it would be our pleasure to dine with ya,” he replied with a small bow.

Ryhan led Lan and Merrisa towards the commercial area and to their favourite establishment the ‘Queens Tentacles.’

Tchak’ta moved silently along the dimly lit stairway, his eyes constantly searching for any signs of movement. They had travelled down to the ground floor and had not encountered any one else, no staff, no visitors, no patients and no technicians or workers. This was worrying as the other two mercenaries could be lying in wait at any point and with out crowds they could not hope to escape notice.

He glanced over his right shoulder at his Boron companion; she was trailing along behind him trying to imitate his movements. Was she just a civilian caught up in his problems or was she an agent dragging him into hers? He just wasn’t sure and that bugged him.
He had to concentrate on getting out of here and deal with the Boron mystery later.

Tchak’ta moved onto the ground floor corridor which stretched ahead and both to the left and right of him. The walls were lined with doors spaced evenly along the length of each corridor except for the end of the left one which lead into a large canteen area.

Pi moved through the door and came to stand next to Tchak’ta. She peered hesitantly left right and ahead. The dim lights left deep shadows along the corridors and shrouded the ends in darkness. ‘Any thing could be waiting in that blackness,’ Pi thought.

“It’s very dark and silent, I wonder where everyone is?” Pi said softly peering around and trying not to imagine horrors lurking in every shadow.

“We will need to split up and search the corridors for a way to exit the building. The main and emergency exits will be watched. The corridors all connect to the main lobby so that’s where we will meet up. Keep silent and stay alert.” Tchak’ta said quietly.

“Split up? You mean like go separately, by myself along those dark corridors?” Pi asked fearfully glancing down the shadowy corridors.
“Boron doesn’t like that idea, shouldn’t we stay together and search.”

“We need to check for another way out, we will search much faster if we separate,” so saying Tchak’ta walked straight ahead and vanished into the shadows.

Pi blinked, “hello.. are you there?” she whispered towards where Tchak’ta had vanished. There was no answer, just an eerie silence which made Pi wish she was still tucked in bed watching Races Apart.

Pi looked left and right, unsure which way to go as both options looked very uninviting. It didn’t even cross her mind to pull up the schematics of the hospital ground floor and work out the best route from there as Pi just didn’t think strategically.

Deciding to head towards the left as she could just make out what looked like a canteen area Pi perked up a little.
‘Maybe I can find something to eat while I’m searching, possibly some more of the Bofu soup they gave at lunch,’ Pi thought to herself.

She moved gingerly towards the shadows, staying against the wall and trying to remember how the Teladi had moved.

Pi tried to open a few of the doors along the corridor but they all seemed to be locked. One of the doors about half way was a lot larger then the rest and had shielding in place which made Pi curious as to what was on the other side.
She activated her data pad and had a look at the level of security in place.

“Wow, multi level encryption with a search and destroy program for unauthorised access,” Pi said to herself as her curiosity increased. She wondered if the Teladi would mind if she just stopped to have a look, ‘Just a quick peek to see what’s inside,’ she told herself.

She could bypass the security herself but it would take time and the Teladi seemed the sort who would be upset if she was late.

Pi activated ARINOX and gave it the simple instruction of removing the shielding and opening the door. She then deposited it into the security framework of the door and waited.

ARINOX emerged into existence and immediately began assessing and weighing the strengths and weaknesses of the security measure before it.
Three level numeric encryption which would have to be breeched level by level. The encryption technique was standard Argon level 3 and stored within its data banks. If ARINOX could make a comment it would have said, “A piece of cake.”

ARINOX could detect the central core, a round flat structure which was surrounded by three giant circular walls of pulsating energy evenly spaced from each other. Each of these circular walls represented a different level of encryption; they were shimmering because of the constant shifting of the energy inside, without deciphering the key it would be impossible to grip the wall.

It moved towards the first shimmering wall, its movement’s fluid and light as it ran. With out slowing pace ARINOX suddenly shifted into energy form matching the rotation and discharge frequency of the wall. It then simply moved along the energy field shifting frequency and rotation with the wall and climbed to the top and over.

Landing on the other side ARINOX was aware that a search and destroy program had been activated but carried on towards the second wall.

This one was a shifting miasma of energy seemingly chaotic as they collided and moved around each other. ARINOX assessed the randomness of the shifting energy clouds applying the pattern from its memory banks in an instant.
It now saw solid formations of stable energy forming for a hundredth of a millsezura along the length of the wall. It easily jumped from each stable spot to the next and reached the top then over.

As ARINOX landed it became instantly aware of the search and destroy program tracking in on its position. In that instant it also assessed the threat potential and quickest method of dispatch of the approaching program.

ARINOX moved still in energy form and picked up speed heading straight for the program. The search and destroy program was also another standard Argon program used in commercial protection. It was of the solid power kind built with blocking the intruding software in mind then dispatching it with its dual deletion armaments.

The program now stood blocking ARINOX from the next wall and holding its dual blades in its hands. It was a giant program and if it landed a clean blow could delete most normal intrusion programs with a single blow.

With blistering speed ARINOX launched itself at the program and punched straight through with out slowing. The program shattered into fragments of code before it could activate any reaction protocols while ARINOX continued to the next wall. As it moved its speed kept increasing and as it reached the third wall ARINOX was moving much faster then the energy rotations of the wall.

At that speed it just shot through the minute gaps which appeared for a hundred millionth of a millasezura along the wall.

The data pad flashed green and the door shields went down allowing entry. Pi retrieved ARINOX and marvelled at the speed with which the security was bypassed. It had taken ARINOX under 5 sezuras to do that which would have taken her a good 15-20 mizuras.

Pi opened the door and stepped inside.
..........................................................................................................
The room was large and like the rest of the hospital dimly lit. There were consoles all along the room with a large circular shaped work station dominating the centre.
Many of the screens were flashing a hazard warning and the room echoed with the quite buzzing of alarms and sirens.

Pi looked around the room taking in all the workstations, consoles and computer hardware. She moved over to the central one which had the greater number of screens and the most comfortable looking chair.

Pi sat herself down feeling the chair adjust and change according to her physiology and shape.
“Hmmm comfortable, Boron misses own chair,” Pi murmured to herself in appreciation. It has been awhile since she had sat at her own command module chair and even longer since she had worked with her team.

Looking at the main viewer Pi took notice of the hazard warning flashing across the screen.
“Warning! Biohazard level 3, air borne contamination detected. Bio-containment procedure underway. Time till total irradiation 14 mizuras and 33 sezuras.

Pi pulled up further information and specifics of the biohazard while shutting off the alarms.

“Not good, Boron in trouble,” she said to herself as she read the information.

Pi’s tentacles moved over the screens and consoles, accessing command functions and biohazard protocols while at the same time she activated the internal camera to see if she could locate the Teladi.

The screen segmented into many smaller squares showing the view from every camera on this level. The security software automatically switched them to night sight vision and also thermal imaging.

Pi could see practically the whole floor, several of the camera views showed dark red outlines. She highlighted these squares and they expanded to cover the rest of the screen bringing the images closer.
She recognised the Teladi from the smaller shape and lighter shade of red as their body temperature was lower then that of Argons. He was moving along corridor 3R according to the map.

The second view held two Argons who were hidden at the intersection of 3R with corridor 3S. When the Teladi came to the end of the corridor he would be exposed to them before he saw them.

There was one Argon in the third view crouching behind a corner in corridor 6Q which Pi dismissed as he was not anywhere near the Teladi’s position.

Pi thought on how she could contact him and was about to use the general comms when she realised that they Argons would also hear it. The Teladi was moving steadily closer to the junction and Pi was frozen with indecision.

“What should I do?” she asked herself,

Then an idea came to her and she smiled. There was a trick she used to play when in school and had been isolated for causing problems. It allowed her to communicate with her friends without the tutor realising thus getting past the boredom.

Pi linked her data pad and sent the appropriate commands. She glanced at the hazard warning which showed just under 13 mizuras left, not much time.

Tchak’ta moved stealthily along the wall keeping to the deeper shadows and concentrating on sensing what was a head.
He could see the junction coming up and realised it posed a problem. That would be a perfect place to set up an ambush as anyone coming along this corridor would be seen before they could gauge which turning to take.

He could not sense any presence close by but then they would not need to be close by, a blaster shot would have the same effect regardless of distance.

Pausing to decide the best course of action Tchak’ta suddenly noticed that the wall panel opposite was flashing different colours randomly.

The coloured squares then formed a circular shape blinking on and off, then a square shape then a triangle. Tchak’ta watched curiously wondering what it meant and had dismissed it as a computer glitch when it formed an arrow and moved along the panel going back the way he had come.

‘Interesting, what could it mean?’ Tchak’ta thought but pushed it away as he could not afford to be distracted by a minor mystery. He returned his gaze back up the corridor and was moving slowly again when a flickering caught his eye.

Turning to face the wall opposite he realised that the lights had moved with him and were now showing a red circle with a solid black triangle inside intersected with a red wavy line.
Now they were an arrow again pointing back down the corridor.

Tchak’ta instantly fell into a crouch, pressing himself back into the wall and looking all around. The shape the lights had assumed was the universal symbol for warning or danger, usually placed near gates to warn traffic. Someone knew he was here.

Since there were no Argons rushing in on him or blaster fire coming out of the darkness he surmised it could not be the mercenaries, unless it was some sort of ploy for their amusement. He wouldn’t put it past the Argons as they were a strange race with an incomprehensible sense of humour.

Logically it would have to be someone else who knew he was here either an unknown party or the strange Boron. Going on the abilities the Boron had shown so far Tchak’ta would not be surprised if it was her.

Tchak’ta followed the lights back the way he had come to a door he had checked and found locked earlier. The lights terminated at the door so Tchak’ta pressed the door pad and moved to one side as it slid open. Waiting for a few sezuras he cautiously entered what looked like an office. The door closed behind him.

Looking around the dimly lit room, Tchak’ta noticed the personal comms console flashing an incoming message. He walked over and activated the channel and the view screen lit up showing the smiling face of his Boron companion.

“Hello there, did you like my message in lights? Boron wasn’t sure if you would understand, not that you do not have the capacity to understand as it was a simple message, not because you would not understand a complicated one as I’m sure you are very smart and erm…” Pi trailed off not sure what to say, “You must not carry on as there are two mercenaries at the intersection of your corridor,” she finished in a rush.

Tchak’ta stared at the Boron and shook his head slightly, ‘If she’s an agent then she is very good at her character role,’ he thought to himself, out loud he said, “Send me the details to this console and a map layout of this floor. I assume you are in a security command centre?”

“Erm… yes,” Pi replied sounding a little relieved, “The details have been sent to the console.”

Tchak’ta spent a few mizura’s looking over the map and the positions of the mercenaries and also checking for emergency exits or other points of exit.

“Oh, Boron almost forget,” Pi said, “We have to get out in just under 10 mizuras or we get irradiated as the bio containment procedures are underway.”

Tchak’ta looked up from the map and stared hard at the Boron trying to discern if it was some sort of Boron humour.

“You waited to tell me this fact last?” he asked quietly.

“Erm… yes, I sort of forgot… and you looked… busy…and…erm..” Pi replied fidgeting a little in her seat.

Tchak’ta continued to stare for a few more sezuras then said “We must move fast. This is what I want you to do.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tchak’ta left the room at a loping run staying to the shadows but not trying to conceal his movements. He had a mental image of the layout and the position of both mercenaries which negated the need for caution.

As he neared the intersection of the corridor he launched himself forward and slightly to the right while tucking into a ball shape. Blaster fire came out of the darkness from his left sizzling past him as he sailed through the air and landed with a soft roll holding his breath.

The corridor he had landed in was suddenly filled with a loud hissing noise as the vents in the ceiling pumped in a mixture of inert gases and chemical heat retardants.
Pi had initiated the fire containment procedures in this corridor as soon as he had reached the intersection.

Tchak’ta held his breath as most of the oxygen was flushed away by the gases and heard a gasping cough coming from just ahead. A figure staggered out from an alcove on his right fighting to breathe and did not notice the PPA agent until it was too late.
Tchak’ta easily overpowered him with a hammering blow to the back of his head followed by a series of rapid punches to the face.

The extractors on the floors and walls activated to draw away the gasses while the vents began pumping oxygen back in again returning the normal atmosphere to the corridor.

Tchak’ta began to breathe again and went to see if the Pi had managed to take care of the other mercenary. He moved back to the intersection and had a quick glance to his right where the blaster fire had come from.
He then stepped out and walked up towards the now frozen mercenary. The corridor was still very cold and there was liquid coolant all around thou now it was evaporating fast.

The mercenary was in a semi crouched stance with his hands held above his head as if fending off something from above. It obviously hadn’t helped as he stood there like a frozen statue no doubt dead.

He had told the Boron to activate the plasma fire control system along this corridor at the same time as the normal fire control measures along the other corridor. Plasma fire required all heat to be removed instantly and thus strong liquid coolant was used first.

He had to admit that after leaving the Boron his instructions on which corridor to initiate which fire procedure he had been a little worried she would get them mixed up. It would have been unfortunate if she had.

Pi breathed a sigh of relief as she watched Tchak’ta on the monitor as he inspected the frozen mercenary. She hadn’t been sure which procedure would activate on which corridor as all were linked and had expected both procedures to run on both corridors. She hadn’t wanted to say anything to the Teladi as he already seemed a little upset with her.

Pi wasn’t sure what the instant freezing would do to the mercenary but the Teladi had said that he would just thaw out later and be fine. Pi had a feeling that the Teladi wasn’t telling her the truth but it would be impolite to suggest such a thing.

Gathering up her data pad Pi took stock of the time remaining, there were 6 mizuras on the clock. She didn’t see how they would get out of the hospital but was positive that the Teladi would know.
She took another glance at the camera’s to see where Tchak’ta was and noticed the third mercenary was moving from his position and heading down the corridor. The screen showed him to be in corridor 6Q which seemed familiar for some reason but he wasn’t near the Teladi so Pi didn’t pay it much attention.

She made sure she had everything she wanted and headed for the door. As the door opened she noticed the letters 6Q printed on the wall opposite and froze as she often did when sudden realisations hit her, ‘I’m in corridor 6Q!’ she thought to herself.
This was reinforced in the next instant as blaster fire sliced passed her face were she would have been standing if she had carried on out of the door.

Pi jumped back in shock, blinking to get rid of the after image of the blaster fire and gain her sight back.
She locked the door and looked for a place to hide, running behind the central control area and crouching behind the panel.

There were noises coming from outside followed by the swish sound indicating the door had opened. ‘I should have activated the shields,’ Pi thought.
She could hear the mercenary enter the room and the door close behind him. Pi thought frantically on what she could do looking around her. She saw a fully charged power module connected to the back of the console and disconnected it.

An idea came to her as she had seen it work hundreds of times in the movies. She would open the door from here to make sure he hadn’t locked it, and then throw the module towards the opposite end of the room to the mercenary. He would hear the noise and go over there to investigate and she could run out of the room as he would have his back turned to her. Feeling good now that she had a plan Pi pulled out her data pad and began to set it in motion.

The mercenary entered the room cautiously, the nozzle of his blaster rifle continuously moving around the room as he edged along the right hand side keeping the walls behind him. He moved slowly around the consoles intending to come behind the large central one where some one could be hiding.

He crept more towards the centre putting the door behind him and to the left when he suddenly heard the swish indicating someone had opened the door. The mercenary instantly launched himself to the left rolling and flinging himself behind a console there.
He stood and fired towards the door but there was no one there, he caught movement out of the corner of his eye and saw a Boron face peak out from around the central console.

He swung the rifle towards the Boron and suddenly noticed the black object hurtling towards him. With out thinking he dropped to his back and pulled the rifle to point at the object and opened fire.

The plan had worked perfectly up until the point that Pi had realised that the mercenary was not where he was supposed to be. Instead of being on the right hand side of the room he was at the left where she had just thrown the module and was facing towards her.

She was shocked to see him open fire on the module, ‘doesn’t he know that’s a fully charged power module,’ she thought, ‘it could….’
The thought remained unfinished as the power module ignited with a small explosion throwing the mercenary into the wall and knocking him unconscious while leaving a ringing in Pi’s ears and a white glow in her vision.

Pi stood up and headed for the door, she stopped and squeaked out an apology to the now unconscious mercenary and ran to meet the Teladi at the maintenance access. They had 3 mizuras to get out.


part 11
Last edited by FourFingers on Fri, 9. Jul 04, 15:58, edited 6 times in total.
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Post by FourFingers » Sat, 19. Jun 04, 01:13

pixel wrote:so come on then , where is the next bit ? :P :D
voila! :D
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Post by KiwiNZ » Sat, 19. Jun 04, 02:43

Good boy :D

Very good read. I find it always fascinating how you transfer the decoding/cracking into life images :)
Looks like Ry gets a blow there. Only question is if Merissa joined them for some sort of emotional reasons or with a different agenda.

Looking forward to the next installment! :thumb_up:

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Post by pixel » Sun, 20. Jun 04, 16:13

FourFingers wrote:
pixel wrote:so come on then , where is the next bit ? :P :D
voila! :D
Thanks :D

That ARINOX sure reminds me of TRON :wink: 8)

Great stuff :)
"I find your lack of belief in the Three Dimensionality disturbing." Mercenary

"So getting this chick back is more than just getting a chick back. It's the concrete manifestation of an abstract policy goal. And we like concrete - right, Vic?"

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Post by FourFingers » Fri, 25. Jun 04, 21:53

added a little bit more. :)
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Post by KiwiNZ » Sat, 26. Jun 04, 00:10

Excellent read! Nice trick with the lights, too. I guess Pi is starting to pick up her pace at last :D

Looking forward to the next bit! :thumb_up:

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Post by pixel » Sat, 26. Jun 04, 14:37

cool, very inventive. :o :D

Great story style too :thumb_up:

but for an X2 story there is very little ship fighting (not complaining though, really good stuff) :P :D :D
"I find your lack of belief in the Three Dimensionality disturbing." Mercenary

"So getting this chick back is more than just getting a chick back. It's the concrete manifestation of an abstract policy goal. And we like concrete - right, Vic?"

Red wine...the only way to frag

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Post by FourFingers » Sun, 4. Jul 04, 15:31

updated it some more.
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Post by KiwiNZ » Tue, 6. Jul 04, 03:52

Looks like Tchak’ta has been lucky that Pi chose the correct buttons :D Lucky again, she escapes certain death. Great way of handling her naivity. :lol:

Looking forward to the next part! :thumb_up:

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Post by Golden_Gonads » Wed, 7. Jul 04, 03:06

Now, I hope you take this as it is meant: This is not the best story on the board, but it is the craziest and in some ways, most entertaining. Good Job!


--

Goldenus Gonadius

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