[Cheynne/Shivar] Derailment

[Michael Meunier]

"Derailment"
 
Elstat Shian, Evil Crime Lord
Cheyenne, Bounty Hunter
Artim Shivar, Captive Starfleet Officer?
 
* * * * * * *
I M/V Darkstar, at Elstat Shian's private Starbase.
 
"Mistress, we're approaching Elstat's Starbase." Jeeves reported, waking Cheyenne up.
 
Cheyenne yawned and stretched, untangling her naked body from Elizabeth, who was now sleeping soundly once again. Last night had been quite interesting after the Marshal had woke up. First there was the crying, the denials, the threats, the blackmail, the evidence reveal and then the fight (both verbal and physical) which ended with Cheyenne pinning Elizabeth to the bed.
 
And  then  she let Elizabeth have it with the pheremones.
 
It was all downhill from there as Elizabeth became putty in Cheyenne's arms. The two promptly screwed themselves into oblivion while Elizabeth fed off of Cheyenne's pheromones like a drug addict. All of it was all too easy. The rookie Marshal stood no chance against a hardened bounty hunter.
 
Cheyenne pulled on her catsuit and walked out to the bridge where she piloted the DarkStar into the berth that Elstat's cronies had for her. She then put the ship on idle and put Jeeves in charge of the autonomous functions. With housekeeping done and Elizabeth locked in Cheyenne's quarters, Cheyenne went down to get Artim.
 
Despite the fact that Cheyenne had dealt with the usual problems of Klingon interior design, meaning there was a half decent bed in his room, he still had a hell of a time sleeping. I mean who could really sleep when there was a rather skilled assassin in the next room. While she still had 300 plus reasons to bring him to Elstat what happened after that was a mystery. Someone like her could turn on you at any time and that even made the usually stoic Artim cringe a bit. 
 
Unsure of exactly what precisely Cheyenne's plan was nor how long it would take to bust him out, Artim was about to order a big breakfast. He doubted Elstat would feed him well so he had to eat when he could. Thankfully the AI had considered that too and laid out a rather nice spread of breads, pastry, cheeses, and coffee that was strong enough to kickstart a shuttle traditional to his native region.  
 
"Good call, Jeeves was it?" Artim mused as he ate.
 
"Yes sir." Jeeves responded.  "It is rare that I get to make a traditional human-esque meal for guests.
 
"Well, if we're back for dinner, I could really go for a good Coq au Vin. It's been a century since I last had a decent one."  
 
"Very good, sir." Jeeves replied.
 
Just about the time Artim finished eating ,  Cheyenne opened the door without so much as a knock to the groggy Mirian. "We're here. Let's get this show on the road." she said. "Follow me." she said.
 
Artim yawned. "You sure I don't have time for more coffee?"
 
"Would YOU like to tell Elstat that you kept him waiting because of a second cup?" Cheyenne asked with crossed arms and an arched eyebrow.
 
"Caffination was always an excuse with Elstat before." Artim answered though he could tell already Cheyenne wasn't buying it. "Fine fine, lets go...wait...where exactly are you taking me." Artim asked.
 
"Cargo Bay. I told you that I got some toys down there for just such an occasion." she said as she led him aft. When they got to the cargo bay, Cheyenne walked over to a ten foot tall crate. There, she tapped in her access code and the doors slid open to reveal a gleaming suit of mechanized perfection. "You might recognize this, depending on your security clearance." Cheyenne said with a smile. "Starfleet Mark I Templar Armor. I've swapped out the wrist phasers with disruptors and increased both the range and the yield on the Rail Gun as well as boosted the shields and ablative armoring on it." she said, showing off her favorite toy to play with. To date, only one person has been able to defeat her the armor and the irony was that the person was both underarmed and had no armor themselves.
 
But then again, when you tangle with a Third Echelon Agent cum Priest, they're bound to have a few surprises up their sleeves.
 
Artim had heard rumors of projects like this in his career but had never actually seen any hard evidence of such hardware before. It was quite impressive but he wasn't sure this was the right approach to getting Elstat. But what the heck, he wan't the assassin though he could guess where this was going.
 
"So, let me guess, you've opted for the direct approach?"
 
Cheyenne smiled.  "Not really."  She said.  "One thing that Elstat cautioned me was to not underestimate you.  If I haul you in there with full chains while wearing my battlearmor, He'll think that I was taking his warning seriously.
 
Artim thought for a moment and then nodded. "Overkill wasn't exactly a work in Elstat's vocabulary. Hopefully Elstat hasn't had time to develop his own overkill..."
 
The Miran's sentence was just about cut off by Jeeves, "Pardon the intrusion, Mistress, but Elstat is transmitting instructions for delivery of Mr. Shivar and is requesting visual confirmation that the prisoner is secure before permitting access to his facility. "  
 
"Told you he was particular." Artim smugly added. 
 
"Alright, lay it on me Jeeves."  She then spent the next five minutes going through the detailed process of shackling Artim's wrists, ankles, neck and running a high test cable between the three items like Artim was some sort of high-risk prisoner at Rura Pente.  She then grabbed her holo-cam and shot a few pictures to send to Elstat.  "Sastified?" she asked Elstat over the comm channel after she was finished.
 
"Satisfactory" Elstat's voice said over the link. "Twenty minutes, cargo bay C, sending directions now. And do us both a favor and blindfold the runt. Elstat out. "
 
Cheyenne shrugged as she started rummaging aroud her crates looking for a sutible piece of cloth to use as a blindfold.
 
"Well that figures, now to make sure my contigency is going to work." Artim subtly curled both his pinky fingers into his palm and precisely 5 seconds later all his shackles clicked open. Artim looked up at Cheyenne and smiled.  "That's why he said not to underestimate me."
 
"Impressive..." Cheyenne said with an arched eyebrow.  She made a mental note to drop a high-yield EMP Grenade into the brig cell the next time she had to abduct a Starfleet Officer.
 
Artim smirked a bit. "Thanks,I aim to please." Taking a deep breath and after picking the shackles up off the deck and handing them to Cheyenne he added, "Well, guess it's time to lock me back up and get moving. I'm so looking foward to this. And do me a favor, if at all practical do please crush his throat."
 
* * * * * * *
Cargo Bay C - 20 Minutes Later
 
Cheyenne led the bound and blinded Artim into the massive cargo bay.  For sake of ease of transport, she loaded him up onto a hoversled and programmed it to follow her around.  She was now fully clad in her Templar Armor with her weapons hot.  The initial guards balked at first, but didn't argue when she explained that she was transporting a high-security prisoner to their boss and she wasn't taking any chances.
 
She saw Elstat waiting patiently with a few of his guards and lieutenants in the middle of the Cargo Bay.  A cursory scan revealed them to be the real deal and not any kind of holographic trickery.  "Well, here's the brat, as ordered." she said, motioning with her armored hand.
 
Artim stayed quiet and still on the sled. The restraints were a bit irksome but they were necessary to maintain the ruse for Elstat. It was a bit comforting that the...thingies Cal had implanted in him (Erdans it seemed didn't have nice elegant names for their gadgets) would remove them at a moment's notice. Still, there was alot that still could go wrong.
 

Elstat stepped out of the darkness and gestured to two of the heavily armed thugs in the room who promptly went over and patted Artim down thoroughly and then did it again just to be sure. They eventually removed his blindfold and stepped away and leveled their disruptors on him. "He's clean boss." One said.
 

Elstat nodded and looked towards Cheyenne. "What's with the armor? Scared of a trussed up brat?"

 

Cheyenne shrugged.  "Well, you did tell me not to underestimate him.  So I figured why take any chances.  Which, by the way, I'd like a bonus for early delivery, not to mention compensation just for the sheer hell this kid put me through." she said.
 

Elstat's eyes narrowed a bit as he replied, "And why should I give you any more, I already took the brat's annoying tendancies to not behave in account when calculating your compensation."
 

"Oh come on!  I had to practically blow up a Galaxy III-Class Starship to bag this one!"  Cheyenne said.  "Not to mention I had to wax a Federation Marshal just to get onboard said Starship to begin with.  I can't take any decent job in the Federation until this blows over now!"
 
Elstat looked at Artim and then back at Cheyenne. "Normally my contracts are not negotable but since I've been waiting for this one for forty plus years, I suppose he's worth an extra fifty."
 

Cheyenne nodded.  "Fifty works for me."
 

Elstat nodded and gestured to a skinny looking Orion with a PADD who immediately started typing. "Excellent. Velsan already transfered your fee to your account. Someone of your caliber will go far in my organization."
 
"You said that to me once Elstat" Artim chimed in as he turned to face Elstat, rattling his restraints a bit as he did so. "Or do you only mean that with women?"
 

The guards now all leveled weapons at Artim but Elstat waved them off. "There's nothing the runt can do boys. But he does make a true statement I did say that to you once Artim. And I meant it."

 

"Then why'd you sell me out?" Artim waited to see the look of suprise on the faces of the guards and the skinny Orion. Only the skinny Orion gave him the satisfaction. "I mean, I did nothing but good work for you. I've tried to figure it out for forty years."

 

Elstat chuckled. "I would have thought it was obvious Artim, your heart was never trully in it. You were supposed to be my protege. You would have made an excellent Syndicate leader. You had the brains, the survival instinct. But not the heart. And you were at the point where you were becoming dangerous. So I had no choice. But I didn't know you'd sell me out. So for that you must be punished, plain and simple. Then you will die. It's the way of things and you know that."

 

"Yes, yes I do." Was all Artim could reply. He pretended to look resigned to his face and put his chin down on his collar. A moment later he cocked his head slightly in Cheyenne's direction and started curling his fingers inward.

While Elstat was gloating over Artim, Cheyenne discretely moved out of the way.  Elstat obviously had not read the Rules to Evil Overlords or else they would've fried Artim the moment he was in the room.  Hell, for that matter, the original contract would've been for Artim's head, not for all of this.  Either way, Elstat was finished.
 
Cheyenne leveled her left wrist. Her first disruptor blast tore through Elstat's midsection, mortally wounding him while folding him over like a lawn chair and dropping him to the deck.
 
While the guards just stood there, stupified, Cheyenne leveled her right wrist and fried another two guards while her left wrist tracked the remainder.  All were dead before they hit the ground and knew what had hit them.  Cheyenne calmly walked over to Elstat, placing her armored boot right on the beefy Orion's neck, pressing down until his beady eyes started bugging out.  Elstat's arms went from his stomach to Cheyenne's boot, trying in vain to keep it from crushing his neck.
 
"Wait!" he gasped.  "We... we can make a deal!  Just tell me what this is about!" he rasped out.

"No." Cheyenne said simply.  She then put her full weight down, crushing the life out Elstat.

Artim winced a bit at Cheyenne's efficency in dispatching the thugs but the crunch of Elstat's throat made it all worth it. In his minds eye, and the way he'd tell the story, he thought the whole scene would be a bit more dramatic but, well, clean and quick worked too. Once he was free of the shackles, he walked over to Elstat's body and grabbed his disruptor out of it's holster. It was an impressive weapon with latinum inlays and all manner of fancy decorations. He'd wanted the thing for a long time. However when he pulled the weapon out he noticed the skinny Orion lacky still alive with only a graze and cowering in a dark corner. Artim leveled his newly aquired weapon at him and was about to shoot when he got a better idea. First Artim yanked the PADD out of his hands and pocketed it. Then he looked to Cheyenne and said, "You mind watching him for a second, I'm going to go get the shackles.

"Ooook..." Cheyenne said.  "You don't want to kill him?" she asked.

Artim answered non-nonchalantly as he went to retrieve his restraints. "Could kill him, but if you kill them, they don't learn nothin. You need someone to spread your reputation, I need someone to make sure to remind people that I'm not to be screwed with. Besides, he's a just sniveling lacky."

"True, but..." Cheyenne leveled her left wrist disruptor and shot the guard until he stopped twitching.  "Their superiors learn better the more corpses you leave behind.  Soon they find out that it's far more economical to leave you alone then it is to come after you." she walked over to where Artim stood stupified with the shackles.  "I'm Orion dear," she said patting the top of his head with an amazing amount of gentleness with the armor.  "I know how my kind thinks."

"Well, I was thinking about giving you another 50 to torture some information out of him before wasting him but, well, whatever." Artim looked to the door and thankfully there weren't any further guards coming...yet. After grabbing a second disruptor pistol off one of the bodies he looked to Cheyenne. "I think we should be going."

"Jeeves, fire up the engines and warm up the cloak." Cheyenne said into her communicator.  "And notify the Spymasters that the contract is complete." she said, leading the way back to the ship.

 

There were no guards to block their way on the way out...

 

TBC...