A good time to leave
16 Apr 2020Creamy Goodness III
Creamy looked down the barrel of a gun as the van left the carpark headed for parts unknown. He recognised the weapon; it was the same as the one Nerys was holding that night. Her long slender fingers wrapped around the grip tickling the trigger the same way she fiddled with her hair when she was nervous. Creamy had even regretted flushing the weapon out into space because it reminded him of the determination in her eyes while she was aiming down the iron sights. Vodan was glad to have found his replacement gun, but he didn’t like the way Creamy was looking at it. The best he could describe his hostages’ look was dreamy. He shouted at Creamy to get his attention.
“Hay Charlie, I said you cost us half a billion credits you dumb ass. Did you think you could lay low for a while and we’d just forget about it?”
Vodan watched Creamys’ reaction. His hostage was glancing around as if he had just woken up; he even gave Dyson a coy little wave when he made eye contact. Dyson slid back along the bench of the empty box van a little keeping his own weapon on Creamy.
“Pardon me what? Sorry, I wasn’t concentrating. I do apologise” said Creamy with a polite smile regarding Vodan as if this was the first time he’d ever met him.
Vodan blinked rapidly trying to clear away the confusion and get back to threatening Creamy.
“You left to get your Conda for the job and never came back. That means the job didn’t happen leaving us out of pocket and you, your lordship, get to pay us back. Got half a billion on ya Chalie?”
Creamys’ face fell back into its default expression of polite incomprehension before he responded.
“That doesn’t sound like the sort of thing I’d do. Listen, I’m not this Charlie fellow; are you sure you got the right chap?”
“Yes, can’t forget that night you blundered onto our table” snarled Vodan getting angrier by the moment.
“Blundered you say?” Inquired Creamy “In to an occupied table? No no gentlemen, I think not. Had I made a fool of myself and interrupted a party in such a way, it would be indelibly printed on my memory and I would have made amends on the spot”
Vodan inhaled deeply and raised his gun a little higher. His hostage didn’t seem to be taking the weapon seriously.
“Listen Charlie, you were hitting on a girl and her boyfriend got in your face about it. You took a swing at him, and he gave you three back putting you on the floor. .”
“You mean I lost a fight?” Interrupted Creamy “Now now, I really doubt that. Only way that could happen is ..“
Vodan spoke at the same time as Creamy mimicking his accent.
“If I was very very drunk”
“If I was very very drunk”
“Yeah, you told us you don’t lose a fight like that unless you are very very drunk like a hundred times” said Vodan flatly”
Realisation dawned in Creamys’ mind as recollection crashed like a giant wave onto the empty beach of his memory. He remembered the night in question now. She was a brunet with pale skin, the contrast made her dark eyes shin under low cut bangs. He’d been celebrating because he had just decided he didn’t need to run passengers any more thanks to repurposing his Anaconda for mining.
Just as he was getting acquainted with the young lady, some fellow knocked him on his arse. Creamy remembered crawling up onto a chair listening to some men talking on the table next door. He also remembered standing up, announcing something to them and then tripping over his own feet causing him to stumble into their table and knock over all the drinks.
“Ar… Bugger” Exclaimed Creamy resigned to undoing whatever mess his drunken-self had caused. “What exactly did I promise in way of reparations?“
Vodan leaned back a little keeping the gun on Creamy happy that the man had finery stopped playing the dump ass card. Creamy listened while Vodan explained the heist. A bulk freighter in Robigo-space loaded with diamonds was making a stop not far from Hauser's Reach. Drunken-Creamy, or Charlie Gooden, had promised the use of his Conda as it had recently been equipped with plenty of cargo space and a couple of collector limpet controllers, just what the pirates needed. He’d even introduced them to the stations' fixer so they could pay to operate in the Robigo Cartels space.
Creamy didn’t mind breaking the law as long as the crime fell into the high-jinks area of illegal. He was no criminal and robbing a bulk freighter was definitely not high-jinks. Agreeing to be the smash-and-grab pilot for a diamond heist was a bit beyond appropriate reparations for spilling everyone’s drink.
As a lord of the realm, it would be incredibly bad form to break his word, but he was amazingly drunk at the time, and he didn’t feel pirates were the sort of people worthy of that level of respect.
“Listen chaps, I am sorry for disappointing your organisation but I feel you took advantage of a fellow that was deep in his cups, and that’s always bad form. Now, I have another passenger run to do in a few hours; would you mind dropping me near the habitation ring lift?”
Just as Vodan was about to show Creamy how much of a bad decision taking the Black Tide lightly was, then man slipped down the bench and planted his foot heel first deep into Vodan’s pelvis via his groin. Before Vodan could register the fact he couldn’t cry out in pain because his breath had caught in this throat, the same heel crashed into his jaw slamming his head into the side of the van. Vodan went to sleep again; this time thanks to Creamys’ left foot.
Dyson didn’t fare any better. He’d been keeping his distance and kept his gun trained on Creamys’ skull. He was ready for the imperial sounding idiot to lunge or take a swing at him, but he’d apparently just slipped off the bench. That didn’t look worth shooting him over until he watched Creamys’ foot move fast and incapacitate Vodan.. again.
Dyson was too slow to react, Creamy kicked off Vodan sliding on his back along the floor towards Dyson. Creamys’ right hand had come up and grabbed the gun twisting it. The trigger guard almost broke Dyson’s finger and he leaned forwards into the path of Creamys fist that struck him in the gut, then just under the center of his rib cage and finely the chin cracking enough teeth to make a dentist rub his hands together.
Creamy stood up and fired the gun at the wheel arch to try and take out a tire. He regretted it at once as his ears painfully popped. The shot had the desired effect all the same as the van skidded and wobbled to a halt. The safety system of the vehicle automatically unlocked the back doors and Creamy picked himself up again and ran for it at an Olympian speed.
Once he was sure he had escaped, Creamy called Suzi, the MD of the cruise liner company he was sub-contracting for and explained why he couldn’t make his next flight. The woman was surprisingly non-pulsed as if their pilot being hunted was a normal part of the business, then Creamy remembered where he was and who owned the cruise liner company.
It was time to leave Robigo and get Nerys’ Winder back to her safe and sound. Creamy didn’t quite have enough credits to follow his plan, but he’d done what he needed to do here. He knew Nerys wasn't being looked for by security or Vodan's men. Creamy had enough for a good ship and the lifestyle he was used to; at least until he found his missing ship. He’d need to leave the Winder somewhere Nerys could find it and somewhere Creamy wasn’t likely to forget. There was a chap, a fellow imperial that was chatting with Nerys when Creamy first boarded the Fairytale. He seemed like a good egg and he mentioned he was from Eravate. That would be as good a place as any to leave the Fairytale while he went to get a new ship and shook off anyone that could have followed him.
Perhaps that man would be the best way to get a message to Nerys as well. Creamy tried to remember the man’s name James Farragate? John Vermant? Jason Firmhand?. Oh well, Creamy felt he may remember while he was hunting for a shipyard and equipment docks that could equip something dangerous in his price range. Creamy really did want to let Nerys know she was safe, but he didn't want to risk direct contact just in case. After all, Creamy had just made an enemy of some pirates.
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On Tall Oasis platform in the Ache system, the Pirate Lord of the Black Tide took a closer look at the holo-image the Robigo Cartel had been good enough to send over. Lord Goodness was not what he expected, but that wasn’t what was interested him, it was the girl. There was something familiar about her face. He zoomed in on the image looking at her features. He knew he’d never seen her before, but her eyes reminded him of someone. He left Nerys’ image on the projector, maybe it would come to him; if not The Bosun probably knew who he was thinking of. The Bosun had an amazing memory for faces.