"And Then There Were Four"
by DaiMon Koda
CO, MV Exchequer

Koda paced the empty corridors of the Exchequer impatiently. She
wished that she had gotten a
more enthusiastic response to her advertisements for a crew to man her ship. She had a pilot,
yes, and now a Financial Advisor as well...but nothing else. Waiting here on Ariel IV for a
crew was devastating to her mental attitude...

Her sharp Ferengi hearing suddenly picked up a faint clamor somewhere on that deck.
Frowning, Koda followed the sound until she arrived at the casino. She poked her head
inside the door--to see a strange red-headed woman setting up her bar! "Hew-mon!" she shouted
over the noise. "What do you think you are doing on _my_ ship?"

The woman turned with a grin. "You must be DaiMon Koda! How nice to meet you, at last! The
agency sent me. They heard you were looking for a Bartender/Casino manager and
they sent me right over!" There was a pause as the woman stacked ale mugs. "Can I buy you a
drink, DaiMon?"

For a short moment panic rose inside Koda's chest. The agency...could she mean the
FCA? Were they on to her already? But no--the Authority would never send a hew-mon to do
their dirty work. They'd send a liquidator. Like Brunt...she shook her head. As long as she
was here and looking for a job--"Tell me, hew-mon, what makes you think you can run my casino?"

The red-haired woman approached her with a wide smile. "Let me show you, DaiMon. Deeds are *so*
much more effective then words, no?"

Koda was tempted to say no, they weren't, but she allowed herself to be conducted around her own
establishment and shown how sloppy the previous Casino Manager had been. Koda saw the horrid
work herself once the hew-mon--who had introduced herself as Tara O'Hara--brought her attention to
the problematic areas. She thought about telling the hew-mon that she hadn't even visited the casino
yet--but why shatter Tara's obvious confidence?

Even more obvious was the fact that the woman knew her way around a casino, and when she sat down
and said, "So, Daimon, what do you think? Normal employee wages and benefits? *And* I get to keep
50% of what I can "make" at the games. Oh, I would like to talk to you about holosuites too...I
have a few ideas," Koda was convinced that she had found her next crew member. But something had to
be done about those figures...

"Normal employee wages," she agreed readily enough, "and benefits. But you keep 40% of
the latinum from the games and the bar." In her mind, there was no room for negotiation, and so
she ended the subject without leaving Tara space to respond. "As for the holosuites...why don't we
take a look at them and you can tell me what you had in mind?" The two women left the casino, and
Koda took Tara to Holosuite 1 on the next deck up. And then there were four...
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sam McCluskey had never seen a live Ferengi. She was small and poised, and aware that he was
gawking at her.

"Hew-mon, you have something to discuss?" 

"Uh... yeah.  I heard you were looking for an engineer.  I think I could be your man."

"What ships have you served on?"

"Well, that's the interesting thing. I learned my trade in the merchant marine, on Old Earth.
Here's my civilian job papers.  I know it is not Starfleet, but I think that could be an advantage."

Now came the crunch.  

"You see, Panama Freightways didn't have enough money to buy navy engines, so they would say, buy a
fusion coil from a salvage company, a set of power taps from the Luna colony, and warp drives from
older ships that were decommissioned.  And we engineers had to make it all work together, and keep
the junky components from falling apart."

"My ship is not junk."

"Yes, ma'am.  But if you knew what goes on in a refitting dock, you would swallow hard the next
time you change a warp speed. I guess half of all merchant vessels are on borrowed time, but
they are insured so nobody much cares. It's not the navy."

"And you can fix such a problem, Mr. McCluskey?"

"Sure can! Just give me an gripper and a t-meter, and let me at her!  And I need deep space
logtime, so I will work for regular Ferengi wages, and hope of a performance bonus. What do you say?"

"I will think on it... may I have your number, hew-mon?"

Sam fumbled in his pocket for the cheap business card he had his Altair combadge set by, and the
darned holowrapper fluttered onto the Daimon's desk.

"The Little Death." she said in amusement. "Where did you get this, Sam?"

"Just a stranger on the promenade.  She gave it to me as I was boarding your ship. I look like
a replicator bin, I guess."

"What did this stranger look like?"

"A butterfly woman. Or man. It was hard to tell... golden..."

The Daimon Koda sat up suddenly thoughtful and nodded in dismissal. Sam wondered what he
had done wrong. He left for the promenade with his duffel bag on his shoulder. He would watch the
crowd and wait for her to call.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Back to the MV Exchequer Sim Homepage

This page hosted by Get your own Free Home Page