The Fates Series 05 New Beginnings

by Alys Landale

  Janeway raised an eyebrow but only said. “I’m sorry to disappoint you Gerek, but I have a lot to do over here first.”

  Gerek smiled slightly and rested his eyes on Janeway for a few seconds longer before addressing Chakotay again. “Just bring your people over here. I’ll be waiting. Gerek out.”

  The viewscreen reverted back to an image of space. Janeway had to admit that this man was a bit unsettling but he would be a good source for trade.

  “Chakotay,” she said. “Have your group ready to leave in fifteen minutes.”

  The commander nodded. “Neelix has requested to come along. He’s in need of some extra food for the mess hall. I’ll have him, B’Elanna, Seven, and Harry come along with me.”

  She nodded and turned to Ensign Kim. He signaled that he understood as well. “I’ll tell B’Elanna she’s going as well. She might not want to leave Engineering with this new project at hand, but I need her to look for anything we can use for this new core.”

  B’Elanna reviewed the Engineering schematics again. The design was brilliant, and to top that off, it didn’t appear to be that hard to build. After a month, maybe two, they could have this thing up and running again.

  Paris stood next to her. He had already looked over the design until he practically knew it by heart, but he now waited to hear her input on it. He smiled as he watched her eyes light up with anticipation of the building project to come.

  She was about to comment, but Janeway’s voice beat her to it.

  “Janeway to Lieutenant Torres.” said the voice from her comm badge.

  “Torres here.” she said.

  “Lieutenant, I need you to go with Commander Chakotay to trade for supplies on the neighboring vessel. Meet the rest of the group in the transporter room in fifteen minutes.”

  B’Elanna exhaled sharply. “Captain, I’m kind of busy with this new warp core. Can someone else go?”

  “No,” Janeway said firmly. “I need you to search for anything that might aid us in building this core. Is that understood?”

  The half Klingon sighed but conceded. “Yes Captain.”

  Paris then broke into the conversation. “Janeway, I’d like to go along as well. I’ve had some experience trading and I know what we need to look for.”

  Janeway paused a moment. She didn’t want to let Paris go just yet. He had only gotten back to Voyager a few days ago, but she knew he had a point. He had been a captain who was free to do what he pleased and was now reduced to an Ensign who had to ask permission for leaving the ship. She knew he was trying to adjust the best he could, but the fact that he only addressed her as

  ‘Janeway’ and never ‘Captain’ hurt her somewhat.

  She finally spoke again. “Permission granted.” she told him. “The two of you have fifteen minutes to get ready to leave. Janeway out.”

  “I can’t believe she’s ordering me to go over there.” B’Elanna said.

  Paris held no enthusiasm for going on a trading mission either, but he was ready to get off of Voyager for a few minutes.

  He had been on this ship for less than a week and already he was getting cabin fever.

  “I need to go to my cabin before we leave.” he told B’Elanna. She nodded, and he headed towards the door. One thing he had learned long ago was that one never went unprepared when venturing to another ship.

  The six crewmen from Voyager met in the transporter room fifteen minutes later. A few moments after that, they were transported aboard the trading vessel.

  One of the ship’s crewmen walked over to the group. “I’ve been instructed to take you to see our boss,” he told them. “If you’ll follow me.” He then led them down a corridor towards the interior of the ship.

  Paris kept towards the back of the group. He sensed something about this vessel that seemed familiar. He was about to put his finger on it when Neelix walked over to him.

  “I can’t wait to begin trading,” Neelix told him. “I used to be a trader myself you know.”

  Tom nodded. “Yes you told me.” He wasn’t in the mood for listening to the Talaxian ramble on and on but he kept his mouth shut about his feelings.

  “Why yes, I remember this one time...” Neelix began one of his longer repertoires.

  B’Elanna glanced back at where Tom and Neelix stood. Paris cast her a tortured look. She laughed a bit to herself. She knew just how bad some of Neelix’s stories could be. She also knew just how long.

  Their guide then stopped as they came to a sealed door. “Here’s where you want to be. Just go inside and you’ll meet who you want to trade with. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got work to do.” He then walked off.

  Chakotay walked through the door first. He entered an open room almost like a cargo bay. The rest of the group followed as well. It looked like the place was empty.

  Paris looked around warily. He could feel the presence of at least four other people in the room, but so far, not one had shown himself. A man then stepped from behind one of the piles of merchandise and approached them. Paris backed away into the shadows slowly as he recognized the man who stood before him. Tom then put a hand to the phaser underneath his coat. He had always been cautious enough to never enter without a weapon. It would come in useful against the man that he had long since thought was dead.

  Gerek stepped out from behind one of his recesses. He was always cautious enough to survey the group ahead of him before he revealed himself to them. By The Spirit, he knew there had been enough attempts on his life. He also waited a few moments to allow the men he had stationed around the area time enough to keep a steady aim on the people who appeared.

  He walked confidently over to Chakotay. So far the group looked harmless enough. He could see all their faces except for one who’s face was hidden in the shadows. But it didn’t look like they were armed, so he began his usual conversation.

  “Welcome to my ship. I’m sure you can find something here that interests you.” He gestured with his hands to the walls of items littering the room. His gaze then settled on B’Elanna and Seven. He leered at them hungrily.

  B’Elanna didn’t like his manner or the way he was looking at her for that matter. “Come on let’s get this over with.” she said under her breath and walked over to one of the walls to begin inspection.

  Gerek watched with interest as she walked away. Chakotay then turned his attention to Gerek.

  “Is this all that you have?” Chakotay asked in an attempt to distract the man. He didn’t like the other man’s attitude either. It seemed to him that this Gerek was intentionally trying to put on a show for them.

  Gerek walked over to the Commander. “This is the extent of our collecting. It might not look like much to you, but there is a lot here.” He then draped an arm around Seven’s shoulders. “There’s something I’m sure you’d be interested in,” he told her and then began to lead her away.

  She shifted uncomfortably as she walked with him. “I do not require your assistance,” she told him.

  His arm began to slide down her lower back. “Oh I wouldn’t say that,” he said.

  Paris slid his hand underneath his coat. His fingers came in contact with the phaser. The time to act was now. He began to move out of the shadows. Gerek was about to see just who he had allowed to board his ship.

  Seven removed herself from Gerek’s grasp just before his hand had fallen down any further. Harry then came over and interceded between the two.

  “I believe we can find what we need on our own.” Harry said. He watched as Paris approached them. He was coming up behind Gerek.

  Gerek smiled. “I’m sure you can, but there are a few things, she and I need to see together.” He was about to advance towards Seven when Paris pulled out the phaser from under his coat.

  Harry was caught by surprise when he saw Paris pull out his weapon. He never had the chance to say anything before Tom had lodged the gun into Gerek’s back.

  “You move, you die.” Paris told him.

  Gerek felt the ti
p of the phaser in his back. He made a move to turn around but the gun was then pushed deeper into his spine.

  “Stay facing that way.” Tom ordered. “And tell your guards to throw down their weapons now.”

  Gerek did as he was told. “Throw down your guns.” he yelled.

  After a few moments, three rifles fell to the floor. Chakotay and the rest of the group all looked up where three guards now stood. None of them had ever seen them present there before.

  The commander then walked over to Paris. “What’s going on?!” he demanded. “Put that gun down this instant.”

  “You really should listen to him.” Gerek said.

  Paris didn’t answer the commander. He addressed his hostage instead. “I’m sure you remember me, don’t you?”

  Gerek’s mind drew a blank. He thought the voice sounded familiar, but that was all.

  At his lack of answer, Paris continued. “I take that as a no. Then let me remind you. Seven months ago, you ripped me off on some faulty shuttlecrafts. I lost a lot of money and people. I was thinking maybe I could take it out of your worthless hide.”

  B’Elanna and Neelix stared at the sight going on before them. Gerek stood motionless while Tom held a gun to his back.

  Both Kim and Chakotay looked as if they wanted to intervene but neither knew what to do without risking the hostage’s life.

  “Paris put down the phaser.” Chakotay ordered.

  “Yeah, Tom, this isn’t something to kill a man over.” Harry said as well. He couldn’t believe that Paris would actually think about killing Gerek over a mere sum of money. *I guess he’s changed more than I thought.* Harry said to himself.

  Tom disregarded their pleas and directed his attention back to Gerek. The man was now sweating and trembling slightly.

  *I knew this day would come* thought Gerek. *Please Spirit; forgive me for swindling all my customers. I promise if I had another chance, I’d never do it again.*

  “Now turn around,” Tom ordered. Paris relished the thought of what was about to come. “I want to see your face before you die.”

  Chakotay struggled for something to say to prevent this massacre. The guards stationed above wished they hadn’t discarded their weapons. All they needed was one shot to stop this.

  Gerek squinted his eyes shut and slowly turned around. His mouth was dry. It didn’t look like there was any getting out of this. He just prayed for a painless death now.

  Tom looked at the man before him. Beads of sweat ran down his forehead. His breathing had become more rapid. Every sign of fear imaginable was present on his face. This was what Paris had been waiting for.

  “Open your eyes coward,” Tom told him. “Look at the man who’s about to shoot you.”

  Gerek began to open his eyes slowly. His vision was slightly blurred from squeezing them shut for so long, but things slowly began to come into focus. The first thing he saw was the phaser. Then his gaze traveled up the arm to the chest and finally rested on the face of his soon to be murderer.

  His eyes widened in recognition. His breath turned into large gasps and then he grabbed his chest as pain tore through him.

  B’Elanna thought that Gerek had already been shot and she had just missed it. The man was bent over double clutching his chest and trying to recover his breath.

  All the others waited in silent fear as they anticipated the shot to come. Chakotay stepped forward to try and disarm Paris but was caught off guard as Gerek stood back up again.

  The dark man looked Paris directly in the eye. “Damnit Rune, what the Hell are you trying to do?! Kill me?!” He then pushed the phaser away.

  Tom’s face broke into a smile. He put the phaser back in its place under his coat. “Sorry, I couldn’t resist.”

  “Well, you almost gave me a heart attack!” Gerek yelled. “The Spirit knows I’ve got enough people out to get me without you scaring the life out of me.”

  Everyone stared at the sight before then in confusion. A minute ago Gerek had been on the verge of being killed. Now it looked like the two were old associates.

  “What the Hell is going on?!” Chakotay demanded.

  “It’s alright Commander. I was just trying to see what his reaction would be.” Paris said.

  Chakotay looked at him in exasperation.

  Gerek turned to Tom. His breathing was now returning to normal. “Some friend you are. After all the deals I made you, you repay me by scaring ten years out of me.”

  Paris started to laugh. “And you disappear without giving any word as to where you’re going.” He shook his finger at Gerek. “Now that’s just bad manners. We had all figured one of your clients finally succeeded in killing you.”

  Gerek began to smile as well. “Give me some credit. I just left before anyone had the chance to try anything. No one will ever get the chance to get the better of me.”

  “Oh, ‘no one ever will.’ Then what was it I just did. I could have easily been a disgruntled client seeking retribution.”

  Paris said.

  B’Elanna was still confused. “Okay, just who is he?” she asked Tom.

  Paris turned to her and introduced Gerek to the group. “This is Gerek as you know. Back in the Resistance, we got some of our best supplies from him.” At Gerek’s arrogant expression, Tom added. “We also got some of our worst supplies from him as well.”

  The man put a hand to his heart in mock hurt. “I can not believe that you would accuse me of dealing you faulty supplies.

  All my trades are done with top of the line merchandise.”

  Tom raised an eyebrow. “That’s why all your clients have bounties out on your head?”

  “So he’s not dangerous?” Harry asked.

  Tom laughed a bit. “Oh he isn’t dangerous, at least not by regular standards. Just keep the horny son of a bitch away from the women and he’s fine.”

  Gerek’s expression turned distraught. “Oh just go and ruin my chances with any of them.” he said. “If you’d have just kept your mouth shut, me and that blondie over there could have gotten together.”

  Harry’s mouth fell open at the thought of this man wanting to ‘get together’ with Seven. Seven however only raised an ocular implant.

  Paris clasped a hand on Gerek’s shoulder. “Believe me, you never had a chance.” Before Gerek could reply, Paris cut him off. “Now come on. We came here to do some trading.”

  Gerek raised an exasperated hand. “Look around. The merchandise is right here.”

  Paris looked around the room. “I’m not talking about this shit,” he said. “I want to see your ‘premium merchandise’.”

  Gerek sighed. The others around them looked to one another for an answer.

  “Follow me,” Gerek said and then led the group out of the room.

  After a few minutes, Gerek finally halted the procession inside a large empty room.

  “So where’s this ‘merchandise’?” Chakotay asked. They were all getting impatient to see what Paris and Gerek were referring to. He was also still angry with Tom’s behavior earlier. Even though the two were friends, he had no right to risk the group with a stunt like that.

  Gerek walked over to the back wall. He pulled a panel away and exposed a hidden terminal. After that, he entered a long series of commands. A section of wall then retracted and exposed a secret doorway.

  “I see you’re still as protective as usual.” Paris commented.

  Gerek smiled. “I can’t just show this kind of stuff to everyone, now can I?”

  Neelix wondered just what was below there. As a trader, he knew of this kind of method of stashing away the best items for the ‘preferred customers’ but he had never seen a hide away this elaborate.

  Paris followed Gerek inside. Chakotay and the rest followed behind a bit reluctantly. It took some walking and they had to turn a lot of corners but finally it looked as if they had reached their destination.

  There was little light in this area, so Gerek had to struggle with a wall panel to illuminate the room.
What they saw took their breath away.

  Gerek felt proud. “I see you’re impressed.”

  “Who wouldn’t be,” B’Elanna muttered.

  If they had thought that the previous room they had been in was loaded with equipment, they were sorely mistaken. This room was at least three times larger than the other and stocked full with merchandise. And the things here weren’t the low quality equipment that they had seen before; there were only premium items here.

  Paris began to inspect his surroundings. After a few minutes, something caught his eye. He picked up a rifle. Raising it to the light, he inspected the gun more thoroughly.

  “I could have used some of these a month ago.” Tom commented.

  Seven walked up next to him. “I have not encountered a weapon of that modulation.”

  “And you won’t either,” Gerek said. “The source that came from discontinued that model due to political differences. I was lucky to get my hands on just a few.”

  “What is it,” Chakotay asked.

  Tom answered his question. “It’s a polarogenic pulse rifle. At its highest setting, this thing could be as powerful as one of your torpedoes. You can also set it on any specific genetic code you wish, so there is little risk of harming civilians.” He turned to Gerek. “How many of these do you have?”

  Gerek paused for a moment. “Four I believe, but it’d cost you quite a handful for one of these things, let alone four. In my book it’s even more valuable than that ship of yours.”

  “I suppose we’ll only take one then.” Paris told him.

  Gerek was at a loss for words but just shrugged. Chakotay on the other hand knew exactly what to say.

  Chakotay pulled him to the side. “Paris what the Hell do you think you’re doing?! We don’t have resources to waste on something like that!”

  Tom acted casually. “Commander, I’ll take care of it.” He then walked off.

  Chakotay followed in the younger man’s wake. He thought Paris had been a handful before, but there was no comparison now.

  Neelix and Harry were running their tricorders over just about everything in sight. B’Elanna and Seven were doing the same thing as well. None could believe the kinds of readings they were getting.