[Backsim] Mikali sh'Shar - 106
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David Adams
Jan 14, 2021, 8:01:27 AM1/14/21
to Gorkon
(( Spacedock 44, Palanon ))
sh'Shar: Your ship wasn't broken. It was sabotaged. Probably by the Ferengi who conveniently swept in with a perfectly timed "loan" for "repairs".
K'Turk: His name is Mir and he will pay for his misdeeds.
She'd found the limpet, the blek'rektarii. And K'Turk wasn't exactly happy about it; throwing his head back and howling in a way that made her antenna curl up defensively, hands going over her ears to quiet the din.
When the guttural cry finally died away, the Klingon panted and growled for air, looming over her as though it was her fault. Although... no. She was just imagining that bit.
Slowly her hands lowered, antenna straightening themselves. To mollify him a little, she offered a more simple explanation.
sh'Shar: Your ship wasn't broken. It was sabotaged. Probably by the Ferengi who conveniently swept in with a perfectly timed "loan" for "repairs".
K'Turk: His name is Mir and he will pay for his misdeeds.
Mir. Mikali did know a Mir from back in the day. Vaguely, the memory half-formed and inconsequential, like it was more a part of her imagination than her memory. Then again, even if she did, there were plenty of Mir's out there. It was the Hew-mon equivalent of asking if one knew a "Steve" or "Wang", a Vulcan if they knew someone whose name was five letters starting with S and ending in K, or an Andorian named Piravao. Most would say yes.
sh'Shar: I'm sure of it.
K'Turk: Thank you for your assistance in this, Andorian. You have yet to tell me what payment you require for your services.
She dipped her head formally, antenna similarly dipping. A respectful, honourable gesture. Or so she hoped.
sh'Shar: I don't want any payment. I don't need it.
K'Turk: ::shaking his head:: Honor demands that I repay you for your help.
This was a freaking switch. Someone endebted to her, not the other way around. So this was what it felt like.
K'Turk's grumbling about honour bounced around in her empty skull. Honour was something she had lost long ago. There was no value for her in something like that. She felt like saying something pithy like, "Great, that means you actually absorb one of my debts, like, you now owe Luna for saving my arse back on DS-17, or Tasha for saving me on Iana," but she didn't. Instead she tried her best to think about her answer carefully, to use as she had discussed with Valen, "good judgement".
What good was honour? What use was any payment? There was no point in "honour" in her life, bathed in disgrace every way she could be. A drop of spit in a bowl of soup meant the soup was ruined; a drop of soup in a bowl of spit changed nothing.
Honour was as meaningless as latinum.
Or... was it.
sh'Shar: My... daughter is on Andoria, and the authorities believe I am irresponsible and shouldn't see her. I would hope that fixing your ship shows that I'm responsible. Obviously, it can't fix everything, but a character reference goes a long way. If you could write a to-whom-it-might-concern letter about all this, telling them what I did and what you thought of me with perfect honesty, make a few copies and sign them, that would be an adequate payment. We'd be, as the Hew-mons say, "Square." Or is it "Round". Ugh, I can never remember.
She straightened her back, looking around the rest of the ship that lay in pieces over the starport, flashing a coy smile at her new-found Klingon friend. Acquaintance. Not-enemy.
sh'Shar: But maybe wait until after I've put your ship back together, huh?
Fin
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