The Peddler #8

Does This Look Infected?

He was running hard through the village, finding it more and more difficult to find his breath. He felt as though his insides were decomposing, a large migraine pulsed in his head like a thousand drums. Blood came out of every hole in his body, he felt weak as his body drained of blood. His skin was starting to pale it felt cold and clammy. He tried to yell for help but he could not manage, the words were jumbled along with every other thought, his mind a whole mess. He could not distinguish one thing from another, his feelings for Rebecca Delores to his distinct hate for blueberry pie. He suddenly fell to the ground and died, if only it had ended so simply.

Hallo there mates, this be the Peddler once again giving an explanation of my last exploitation so ya newcomers don't get yerselves lost. My genius idea to get help from a friend who owed me from Starfleet was a complete bust, I had forgotten how important morality was to those Starfleet losers, and they would die before doing something immoral. Now the enforcers, the Obisidian Order and Starfleet, hunted me, my life was getting very complicated. I wanted to get a normal smuggling job; Logan and Virgil wanted that also just because they wanted to feel the adrenaline rush of the job for the first time. I got a job, a fancy deluxe class spaceship[1] slowed near my ship and I ordered " hail them Logan, see what they want?"

The screen blinked and on the screen was a rich man, dressed in a very expensive suit, I spoke eloquently " good evening my dear sir, I am Captain Peddler of the Peddler space ship. What brings such a rich man as yourself to this dirty bit of space?"

He did not smile he even looked very distressed. Finally he replied " I need you to do a job for me, my planet has been taken over by a hostile force and I require your help to smuggle them out of the planet."

This was a very interesting job offer, and I had just the payment he would pay me. But I was curious, after all I was an outlaw in the four major powers of the universe.[2] " Who might be your captors if I may so bold to ask?"

This style of talking was getting on my nerves but it was working, as if he read my mind he replied " No super-power or anything, its more of a revolt of a sort. What's your price?"

I smiled, he was arrogant enough to assume I'd take the job, and he was right. I responded " I want your ship and everything on it, I will bring your people to a safe location and claim the ship as mine"

He seemed satisfied with the deal and agreed, so I said " we need to come aboard and give some modifications to my ship, meet us at the main docking bay" I closed the channel and we boarded the ship.

This ship was very eloquent inside as it was outside, polished white walls and marble floors which one could use as a mirror. We loaded all the weaponry from our old ship and started arming our new ship. With some inventive ideas and the help of the ship's engineering crew we managed to transport the luxury ship into a war cruiser. Equipped with a cloaking devise this ship was the perfect ship, luxurious and tough as nails. I met the captain of the ship, Mal Gapson and said " to add to your payment to me, I want all the crew to remain aboard, that ok?" he agreed to these terms and responded eagerly " now my home planet Krapton is at these coordinates" he handed me a data pad and let me do my duty. I sat on my new bridge's command chair; padded with white leather it was the comfiest chair I had ever sat upon. The crew had been told of the change of command and the navigation's officer asked " what are your orders captain?"

Logan arrived on the bridge. I smiled at the contrast between Logan a battle hardened cow boy clothes styled drackonian compared to the green horns in the battle department with clean blue uniforms. I ordered " go to these proceeding co-ordinances" I wrote them on my electronic writing pad(EWP) and sent it to his console, as he acknowledged the order I said " comm. Officer you are dismissed, commander Logan will take your place" Logan shoved him out of the seat and sat comfortably.

The planet was very identical to earth, except there wasn't nearly enough water compared to earth. Mal walked aboard and said, " I would recommend you dock here, it's a safe area"

I nodded and said " your move Mal, go give the co-ordinances to Logan" He gave them and we landed in a roofless warehouse. Everything was destroyed, a worldwide war zone. I asked Mal " where are your people hiding?"

Mal answered " in the basement of the apartment 56" he pointed at the only intact building and I said " lets get this on, give me a security team of your toughest people, I got weapons for them in the armory"

He was confused; he replied, " We don't have a security team, or an armory."

I smiled and said " that's right, I replaced this meditation chamber with my armory. And its ok, Logan, Virgil and myself will handle this ourselves" Armed to the teeth with an enforcer assault riffle and high-powered phaser rifle. Logan had his tri-dimensional pistol and a high-powered Disruptor cannon. Virgil remained on board; I did not want to risk my chief of engineering. We walked off the ship and into the street; it was as empty as a graveyard. It smelt like decomposed skin and blood; suddenly the silence was disturbed by the sound of a savage alien. It looked like a disfigured human and screamed a blood-curdling scream. I fired my assault riffle in its arm, separating the arm from his body. Rather than stopping in pain it kept on running, I shot it in the head and it fell. I said " I think it would be safer if we transported them"

Logan smiled and said " it was just one ..." he stopped at the sight of hundreds of these aliens approaching. I nodded and shot at the nearest one, we were being surrounded. As we ran to the ship, firing backwards at the multitude of aliens I took out my communicator and ordered " Virgil, scan for human life forms and transport them to cargo bay 5 immediately, keep it under lock. I don't want no one loose on my ship"

Suddenly one of the aliens jumped on Logan, biting him hard in the neck. He screamed in surprise, punching it off with one of his free hands, crushing its skull. Ignoring the minor injury we got to the ship. After finding out the people were saved we left the planet with all haste.

I grinned at the success of the mission, as Logan and I walked to the bridge to meet Mal, Logan fell to the ground in a coughing fit, blood coming out. I had no idea what to do, I called a medical team but he was now shaking violently on the ground, foaming green from the mouth. By the time the team arrived he was dead, I ordered them to place the body in sickbay and went into my office. My best friend had just died, I should have been mourning but I was much too busy to mourn. I had lost so much, suffered so much but there was no time for self-pity. I walked up to Mal and said, " Ok, where ya want me to bring yer people?"

He looked sad, he responded, " they are all dead, the virus has killed them all. Thank you for trying"

This was the first I had heard of a virus, I lifted him off his feet pinning him against the wall and said " you never said nothin' bout no virus to me, now Logan is dead because of you."

A look of great distress took over his face, he replied with a tone of panic " He's not dead. The virus kills the people's brains and renders them to nothing but cannibals, their bodies distorted heavily, I've placed the crew in a safe place but we must purge the ship of these vermin"

Still armed I replied " no problemo, I got a plan" I told him the plan and he was willing to try it.

Mal had never fired upon another living creature, but these were not living after all. The Peddler was the craziest person he had ever met beside the zombies, but he was comforted to know he was on his side. Armed with a high-powered phaser rifle set on kill on full power he was ready to kill them all. As they walked to the room where all the zombies were, a group of five zombies came out of nowhere rushing toward them. Mal's reactions were slow, before he even raised his riffle the Peddler had fired five consecutive rounds in their heads, they all went down.

This was a problem; I thought they were supposed to be stupid, how could they have gotten out of the cargo bay. I turned to Mal and asked, " How many people did you have?"

He answered grimly " 80 people" this was not good at all, 75 zombies were loose on my ship. I was a good shot but I wasn't perfect, and Mal didn't seem like the type to be a fighter. Suddenly an idea hit me, I told Mal to follow me and started to run to the transporter room, I encountered some zombies but killed them easily enough. I was finally at the entrance, but out of it walked what was once Logan. Spikes had grown out of his arms and his eyes were blood red. He aimed his tri-dimensional pistol at me and asked in a strangely demonic voice " lemme guess, you gonna transport my zombie people out in space and skip town. I can't let that happen" Suddenly Mal fired, at close range Logan was sent to the ground. Not being unconscious I walked to him and kicked him hard in the head, knocking him out. I walked into the transporter room. The on-line sensors indicated all the zombies were in my old wolf-class ship. The situation struck me, I ran out of the transporter room and Logan was gone, suddenly my wolf class ship flew out of the docking bay and went into warp.

I transported myself to the bridge and sat at the navigation's console to pursue, but Logan had temporarily disabled the engines. I cloaked the ship and released all the crew. Virgil began to fix the ship; Mal stuck to his word and the ship was mine. He became my first officer, but on this day a great friend had been killed and an even greater nemesis had just been born.

[1] A very large civilian ship designed to be the most comfortable in the galaxy. Capable of reaching warp 9 without any shaking, with the most useless technology to keep one satisfied. This ship was way too useless, and just what I needed.

[2] There are four super-powers in the future. Ranking number one is the Federation although they do not like being considered a super-power. Second was the Obsidian Order and third were the Enforcers. Fourth of the four galactic super-powers was the ferengis who controlled almost all that involved finances.