Dirt, Dust, and Dinner
Posted on Tue Aug 24th, 2021 @ 7:28am by Cornelius Warner MS & Captain Luka Mahone
3,120 words; about a 16 minute read
Mission:
Frizzle
Timeline: Concurrent with The Fireworks Plot
If you gathered around a collection of your average citizen of the Federation, and asked them how they would get somewhere, there are three possible answers they would give you.
The first and most simple answer was "walk." You had two legs, make use of them! For Haumea this wasn't a real problem, as currently the colony proper was small enough that everything was, at worst, an hour walk away if you really took your time. Less if you hoofed it. And inside Haumea, this was great, but would you do if you wanted to get, for no particular reason, roughly thirteen kilometers away from Haumea?
Simple, they would simply use a transporter. Easy enough, there were often public transporters available, and as long as the network wasn't busy it was as easy as stepping out your front door. For most citizens that transport network might as well be infallible because it was always there. Unless there was an emergency and nonessential transports were currently locked out to keep the grid open for emergency responders and their needs.
No problem, there was option three, the shuttles. Most colonies and outposts had enough shuttles to go around. That was, if there wasn't currently the interference preventing option two. With an emergency, craft were being reallocated to aid in the emergency surveys and to be clear for ambulance operations. This meant that getting out of Haumea was all but impossible this exact second, and if you were trying to head anywhere and weren't part of the relief efforts you were S-O-L.
The combination of events had, in fact, not worked fro Cornelius, who had been beyond annoyed when he had been told that he couldn't use the transport network to beam himself to the current site of the investigation. "You're not assisting, or dealing with the current situation, and are not starfleet personnel, so unfortunately sir I cannot complete your request." It wasn't what the operator had said, but it was the tone with which she had said it to him that had irked Warner to his core. You'd think there would be a tone of compassion at least for a concerned civilian. But no, he'd been told off. And when he tried to request a shuttle he had simply been hung up on, a fact that had annoyed him worse still. It was like people were going out of their way to be rude - something he planned to bring up with Seshi next time he saw her. He had been told however if he could get approval from the Captain to do a site to site transport, that it was possible, but only if Captain Mahone authorized it.
All this was to say, that there came a point when any member of the Federation would wonder why people didn't own alternative points of transport about. Luckily Cornelius was not one such person, and through the helmet he had on one couldn't see the grin on his face, not that they would have seen it for long. The whine of electric motors surrounded him as heavily treaded tires bit into the ground below. The electric bike, similar to earth's old motocross bikes, rocketed him across the forest, bouncing over roots and between trees. Cornelius had had the bike for ages, but never had really had a chance to ride it, it had just been collecting dust in his storage, but now... The saddle bags on the back bounced along, inside was a PaDD and two transporter beacons, and a dedication to get the damned authorization he needed...
Finally the trees parted and he slowed down as he entered the clearing the Marines and Starfleet Engineers had been working to create. As the bike crawled to a stop, he kicked out the stand and dropped it next to one of the Albatrosses standing by. He pulled his helmet off, hanging it off a handlebar, and scooted right past the Marine that had been approaching as though he wasn't there. It didn't take the brewmaster long to find the man he was looking for, standing surrounded by people and looking as concerned as always. "Captain Mahone!" He called out as he approached, PaDD held in the air.
Luka winced before he looked up from what he was doing, and he did so slowly. When his eyes rested upon the brewmaster, the confusion crossed his lips before the suspicion hit the rest of him. Pardoning himself from his current party of concerned parents and exhausted security detail, the captain made his way over, but equally as slow, as if he expected Cornelius to physically explode.
"... Mr. Warner," he began evenly. He caught sight of the PaDD, and his gaze followed as he continued. "To... what do I owe... the pleasure?"
Extending the PaDD, Cornelius smiled his trademark grin. "I need transport authorization, and right now it seems like I need at least an O-4 to let me in. Since King of the Skies there probably won't give it to me, I need your signature. After which I am going to have a rather smug conversation with a certain transport operator." He drifted off the conversation for a second, his eyes tracking the group of people, then snapping back to the Captain. "Don't envy you right now," he added, he tone a hair more serious than he would usually put on.
Luka took the offered device, giving it a suspicious look. "It's not as bad as it looks," he commented. "The disaster of it all is that no one seemed to see what caused it - and who knows who touched what in there to get whatever it was to happen. I think I'm just going to lean into the Marine authority on this one." As he read over the contents of the PaDD, he felt a nagging at the back of his mind. "... Why am I signing this?"
"Well," the brewmaster looked to the PaDD and back to Luka, "There isn't a whole lot I can do in our normal conversations, however replicated food only gives you so much so I want to use my day to day to support you. Hot food, hot drinks, and space to take a break. That's for a temporary kitchen and food place to be transported from the Silver Tongue." He shrugged, and flashed a smile. "Least I can do really, support the community I'm a part of."
"Hm." Luka took his time looking over the document in front of him. The intention seemed harmless enough, but that was it. It seemed harmless. He trusted Cornelius with a lot more than he maybe should have, but this would put Cornelius right in the mix with everyone else. What made Luka's suspicion worse was that the transport likely contained exactly what the brewmaster said it contained, with no hidden cameras or anything else the Captain's mind had concocted about potential ulterior motives. That might not have been necessary to simply garner information.
All this suspicion would have been nodded off, as Cornelius at least had a good intention, and there were other things for the Captain to worry about. But the why's and the what if's of the situation would nag at him if he didn't at least investigate.
He gave the area around them a cursory look, before stepping closer. Would he have gotten a straight answer if he asked outright? "Just that? No other purpose?"
Cornelius almost took a step back, and his face betrayed him as it contorted a little into a frown and a look of hurt flashed across it for barely a second. "I'd be hurt Captain if it wasn't a good position to take," the man replied, the mask of an amused bartender slipping back into place. "Of course that's it. Sometimes even us spooks like to help out a little. But, if you are so concerned, inspect it all yourself. I have nothing to gain from watching over you and your team, what I do have is something to offer. Warm food, warm drinks, and a moment to take a break and relax and keep going." The smile shrunk, and he spoke a near a whisper between the two. "I have a soft spot for kids, if you must know, and I can't imagine what them and their parents are going through. I just want to help."
The Captain nodded slowly. That was a straight answer, exactly what he was looking for. The suspicion twisted into guilt in his stomach, but his original thoughts would stick in the back of his mind. "... I had to make sure. Between parents trying to strong arm themselves into the mines and whatever bypassed both civilian and Starfleet scans, it's just been a field day of issue after issue." He tapped on the PaDD, handing it back to Cornelius. "I'll take a look at what's on the transport, but I don't know anyone right now who'd say no to at least a coffee."
"I have three different blends just in case," the man responded, going to tap the civilian tag he had brought, but paused. "It is always good to go with your gut Captain, I wouldn't trust me either," he said before raising a finger. "Hey Graaaace~" he said in a singsong voice that carried a mocking tone. "Cornelius Warner here, I am transmitting you something, a clearance code, the one you said I'd never get. Thanks love," he concluded before killing the comm. The moment of seriousness broken, he smiled at Luka. "She was terribly rude last time we talked, she deserved that, so no pouting." There was a hum in the air as energy began to coalesce, and a series of large crates materialized.
"I saved them from the move," he noted as he walked over to look them over. Everything appeared to be exactly where he had left it, and nothing looked rooted through, so he began to pull things out, starting with three plastic tables, which he easily opened and put on the ground, before digging through for the small power supply he'd brought. Without looking up, he carried the conversation on, "If you've having scanner issues, run the scan through two sensors nets at slightly different settings. Most tricks to get through involve tricking sensors by flying a ship you know won't get through, and picking up the sensor's little intricacies. It lets you make it look like there is only one scan set active, while having two. Starfleet Intelligence uses it for tracking Breen ships." Pulling free the power supply, he gave it a critical look, before putting it on a table. "Or look for a larger than expected ion trail that suddenly dips off, pirates and smugglers love to hide in the echos of other ships. Heck, there was a time a guy tried to sneak onto Calamar while I was there, coated the hull of his ship in a dense layer of iron, and then bombarded it with tachyons. It ended up looking like a wayward asteroid. Couldn't even scan into it."
"Why would I have trouble with the scanner?" As Cornelius went on with his tale, Luka kept his attention to the various tools and items around them. No weird cameras or odd items for him to feel like he needed to scan, but it would not stop him from pulling the scanner out of his back pocket to fiddle with as they spoke. His nose scrunched as the scan came up blank. ".... Why am I having trouble with the scan?" he mumbled to himself, utilizing the instructed settings before he looked up at Cornelius. Suspicious as he might have been, there was something else on his mind. "How have you been since the mild poisoning incident? No awkward side-effects?"
Cornelius paused and looked back to the Captain. "Did you say you were having issues with people trying to bypass scans?" He shrugged, pulling out the large coffee brewer he'd brought, as well as a collection of smaller single brew contraptions. "No, no side-effects, but it did take an extra day for taste to come back, which sucks, but otherwise nothing long term, nope! Can't get rid of me that easy," he replied with a grin.
The Captain nodded along, at least somewhat satisfied with this information. As he did, he made a careful visual examination of the coffee contraptions, as if they were a not-so-subtle reminder of the fact that he had yet to have more than the stims he had asked for earlier to keep himself upright. "No," he clarified plainly, deciding to let the scan go for the moment. "I said I was having issues with it. I assume someone who's had more than a few minutes of sleep would probably be able to deal with the scanner better than I would right this moment."
He let that thought hang, tilting his head to one side. "Annoyed as I might have been at you, I think if I was going to get rid of anyone here, it wouldn't be the person with the brewery," he pointed out, "Though I might think twice next time I rope you into something like that. The plus side is that it did deter the science department from ingesting anything."
"Glad I could be a teaching point," he said, laughing as he worked, getting his little bit set up. Plugging in the few pieces to the power supply, he watched as they booted up and came to life. Setting about measuring out water and coffee, he added them together and started the machine, which happily burbled away at him as it worked. From there he began to pull out the hotplate, and pot, setting them up together, and hooking up the connections. "If you're going to hover Captain I'm going to put you to work, pass me the two thermoses inside that box closest to you please," he said, getting ready to have the soup going and staying warm.
Luka frowned, but it wasn't until he moved the thermoses from the box and placed them on the table when he gave his response. He shot Cornelius a look. "I mean, it was a little foolish of me to think experimenting on the unknown was a good idea. A lot foolish. But I think my vision on it was clouded only because of the prospect of sharing a new discovery with a friend."
Cornelius paused, and looked back at the Captain for a moment, his eyes narrowing. He returned to his work, letting a silence settle. He connected a few pieces, making sure the pieces were properly put together and connected. He considered his words as he worked, before he finally spoke. "Well Luka, I am glad we can consider each other friends," he finally concluded with, and kept to his own work.
In that moment of silence, Luka had his eyes on Cornelius, watching the other man's body language carefully. And, in another beat, he laughed, unable to help himself. "I should have seen that reaction coming, huh? Gotta say, I find myself doing that a lot these days too." He put a hand on his hip. "You gonna put me to more work? What else do you need help with?"
A smile on the other man's face spread as he shifted in his own box. "Inside that box you're in there are a couple warming plates, some pots and a lot of water. The thermoses are full of a heavy soup base, dump those and the water and and start heating them," he said, his tone returning to his more usual outgoing self. "I'm sure a warm meal will do some of them good." He set the coffee pots about their boiling, and allowed them to become automated as they chugged away on power. "Now one of these boxes is supposed to have stools..." he said, staring at the collections.
Luka quickly set to work, gaze wandering out to the group of parents he could see gathering near a member of his flight crew, who had picked the wrong day to come out dressed in red. "It looks like they'll need some sort of distraction at the very least," he commented absently. He gave the soup a visual check, making sure he hadn't poured the wrong thing in the wrong pot, his hands on his hips as he frowned. "... You wouldn't happen to have anything in your bag of tricks that could deal with a crowd of angry parents other than soup and coffee, would you?"
"I think I brought some Tal Shiar mind control powder I smuggled out of the Empire..." Cornelius said, a smile on his face, as he paused his work to look at the building crowd, and his smile faded. He knew that look of a group - uncertain and concerned for the possible outcome. He shook his head slowly. "No, for something like this a distraction might not be what is needed. A level head and a cool perspective is what you need. Don't think of that as people, but a pile of tinder and you are holding a torch to guide your way. You can do everything right and a spark may still catch brush ablaze. Just don't drop the torch."
Luka waited a beat, considering the advice he had been told. Not that it was much different from what he figured he would have to do. "If I was that desperate, I'd be asking about that mind control powder by now... instead of dealing with..." he frowned at the forming crowd. "... That. I've had enough complaints as is to know what's coming, so I can't really be surprised by it. I just have to make sure I have a bucket of water nearby if that torch does get itself dropped."
Cornelius didn't look to the crowd but to the collection of Marine transports. "Make sure it isn't a grease fire then, water could make it worse," his eyes tracked the flight suit through the crowd, his eyes narrowing a hair. "But I shouldn't keep you," his tone shifted rapidly to a brighter tone. "Coffee and soup is on the house, if you need anything just stop by."
The prolonged sigh that escaped the Captain's nose expressed the annoyance he would vaguely let out on his own. "Thank you." He paused, giving Cornelius a glare of mock suspicion. "No funny business. Just food business."
With a smile and a dismissive hand wave as he turned his back to focus on something on the table, Cornelius only offered a laugh and a playful "I think we both know I make no promises."
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