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What You Might Find In A Market Part 1/3

Posted on Fri Jul 19th, 2024 @ 1:56am by Captain Cronin Keys [GM] & Lieutenant Commander Rafael Montoya & Callisi Veera & Lieutenant JG Jake Simon [Morris] & Lieutenant JG Nebuchadnezzar [GM] & Ensign Athalar Quinlan [Cronin]
Edited on on Fri Jul 19th, 2024 @ 2:02am

1,710 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: M2: Culture Shock
Location: Ledosian Station One, Ledos Orbit
Timeline: After "Difficulties Already?" Parts 1&2 and "Permission to Dock"

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After much discussion between the Ambassadors, Starfleet was granted permission to enter Ledosian space and conduct trading. The Pioneer docked with the main station. To get the ball rolling Cronin had managed to convince Ambassador Kelleg that he and an away team should do a quick scout of the trade markets to investigate potential partners.

He called for Nebuchadnezzar, Rafael, Security officers Lieutenant jg Simon and Ensign Quinlan to join him as he waited by the docking port. Of course he could sense most of his crew as per usual, the Ledosians on the other hand were somewhat apprehensive considering whatever their government told them about Voyager's interference 20 years ago.

Cronin hoped that they were going to make friends with the Ledosians by the end of this mission. He prayed they wouldn't force Starfleet to do anything about the Ventu and the barrier, because he was going to refuse. He wondered about the various people they were going to meet as he waited holding a large padd.

Over the general din of the trade hub, the hustle and bustle, sellers would often call out their wares so that people milling about knew where to find what. Calls of food rations, spices, and then came one that seemed to catch the crowd's attention. A woman from one of the stalls in the back called up. "We got Reactives and Control Rods, blessed by a Slate Core Priest!"

Her stall, well rather the stall of the Prosperity's Venture was set up with machine parts, combustion fuel, engine components, but the draw of the moment was a section off to the side with a yellow light over it to indicate buyer caution. There, a lumbering somewhat-humanoid figure of living stone held a ... hand... over a series of yellow colored boxes with symbols on them. No matter where you went in the universe, no one put symbols on something that wasn't dangerous. The speaker was something of a humanish rabbit. Or maybe a rabbitish humanoid. In either respect, her and the rest of the crew of the stall were conducting business. Selling off machine parts for trade, selling off fuel for ration exchange, or just direct money transfers. Signs on their stall were written in no less than four different, distinct sets of dialect. There was a fifth, all the way at the bottom, that was written in something familiar: Federation Standard. It spoke of the currencies accepted, and the universal warning of items broken were items purchased.

There was a fully suited alien in what looked like a classic diver suit, lumbering around and collecting payment in various forms, and giving out change when needed. Some currencies were digital, which helped the math, but the suited alien didn't seem to mind math. It turned to the leader of the stall, and thus the captain of the trade ship, and produced a sound like bubbles in water or oil and the captain nodded. He seemed pleased with the suit's .... bubbling.

Apparently they were regulars here, as some of the kids on the trade hub floor ran over once they were given permission. They found one of the rabbit folk, a distinct woman missing an eye under an eyepatch, and they asked her to 'do the thing'. She gave a giggle, "Sure. Oi, Craglin?" and after a solid twenty seconds the lumbering stone being turned and rumbled like a gentle localized tremor. The device on its supposed shoulder chimed out a "Yes?" after a moment. She flicked a cog from the machine parts pile towards it. "Catch." The cog sailed through the air before stopping just before impact, hovering in place by the form of the stone creature. It slowly, slowly reached up and tapped it, giving it some momentum to spin in place, suspended in the air about four inches from its form. After a while, it reached up to reclaim the cog and return it to her. "Thank.You." it rumbled. The rabbitess took the cog and looked at the kids, "See? Core Priest magic." she teased. Craglin was 6% lodestone from its third contributor's side, but the kids didn't need to know that. The children? They cheered at a little demonstration of magic, or magnetism, before they went back to their parents to ask them if they just saw that too. With the show over, she returned the slightly-magnetized cog to the pile of parts before returning to her duties, calling out inventory and attracting clients.

Nebuchadnezzar stood slightly behind and to the right of the captain, ze looked around was excited to see what the Ledosian station had to offer.

Lieutenant jg Simon and Ensign Quinlan arrived just after the Boatswain did, they greeted Nebuchadnezzar and Cronin.

To say he was intrigued was an understatement; having never encountered the species his curiosity was definitely peeked. Keeping an out ward facade for calm indifference he took in the new surroundings wish he had set his tricorder for continuous scans before coming along.

"Commanders," Cronin greeted, he nodded to the security officers who walked up and gave a crisp salute, the captain saw that the officer had a phaser on their uniform belt. "Let's go," Cronin said and the quad left the Pioneer behind and into the Ledosian Station One's main concourse. Though it was locally known as the trade hub for it spanned the entire length of the station at its center.

There were so many lifeforms, many Starfleet already knew but just as many unknown. Cronin could sense so many thoughts that screamed across the station. He filtered them quite easily but understanding them was a completely different story. "Alright, let's take notes of whom we think Starfleet and the Merchant Marines might wish to conduct trade with, don't stray too far and stay alert." He instructed and nodded to the security officers to accompany him. He began walking down the concourse as he held his padd.

Watching as the Captain moved off Raf took out his tricoder, made a few adjustments, closed and returned the device to its holster. Now it would be making continuous scans of the area as he moved off to check things out. The data on the various new species would give his people in Life Sciences plenty of data to review.

Soon he heard something about reactives, core control rods and being blessed by a slate core priest, that definitely piqued his interest. Cronin walked over to see a stone-like being who reminded him of the Excalbians but much thinner, a Rabbit-like humanoid woman with the most soft looking ears that demanded he touch them- he shook his head and shifted his gaze to see another being in a what looked like an environmental suit. Soon children came up and pleaded with the Rabbitish woman to 'do the thing', the whole event was utterly fake but it made the kids cheer and be happy so Cronin didn't see the point of addressing it.

He approached the stall and looked at the various wares, his Starfleet uniform and Captain's insignia quite visible, though slightly different to Voyager's uniform as the uniform rules had been relaxed so that any crew can wear whatever uniform style since the 2350s to current day, of course if anyone wanted to go further back they'd have to alter the older uniforms to have current day colours and insignias. Cronin preferred to wear the 2370s version with the grey/black jacket over shirt colour and black pants. Though their combadges were the delta and Delta quadrant symbol, not the standard one used by Voyager's crew.

As Cronin approached the stall manned by Callisi and the others of the Prosperity's Venture, there'd be the oddest sensation. Normally, a betazoid would feel or hear the world around them through their inherent telepathic capacity or at the absolute least their empathic talents. Knowing what someone was feeling or thinking came natural to them, and turning access to that information was like flexing any other muscle.

Around this stall though, things were very quiet. Unusually quiet. The rabbitess, Callisi, her thoughts weren't easy to read. Her mood a mystery until she took the first step. The other rabbitfolk at the stall were the same thing, a blank slate on a cursory glance. Now, could one probe deeper to find their hidden secrets? Certainly. Would it be obvious? Possibly so.

Craglin? There was nothing there. An intellect so alien, so divergent from the others that soft protein brains couldn't find where to begin looking. At the very least, it seemed pleased. Making the station children happy seemed to have that effect. In fact, the ONLY member of the Prosperity's Venture stall crew that had thoughts that were easy to pick up was the alien fluid in the encounter suit, though at the moment all it was thinking about was math and finances as it poked on something like a PaDD to pull up financial data. Exchange rates across the Dalacari Currency Exchange. Whatever that was. Probably exactly what it sounded like.

Callisi approached Cronin and his escorts, and gave a gesture. One hand over her heart in a clenched fist, the other sweeping out low as she entered into a gracious bow. A gesture seen around the station now that one had a reference: A greeting. A universal greeting.

"Bah weep granna weep, nynibong." she started, words that didn't come across. She rose to face Cronin, her singular surviving eye a .... there was no shine there. That singular eye didn't shine in the lights, it just sat there in her fuzzy face, blue... such a deep blue... but not a single gleam to it. The eyepatch she sported where the other eye would be told entire stories all by itself. Considering the scar that ran through it. She must have been seriously injured.

"Kore wa anata no kotobadesu ka?" she started again, pointing to a script on the board. She was going through languages. "Är det dina ord?" another chance, another language, another script. "An iad seo na faclan agad?" and then finally, a familiar script at the very bottom...

"Are these your words?"

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To Be Continued…

 

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