'Technical' Difficulties

OOC: I'm back and I'm bad! A JP Between myself <Chris Harris> and
Dan <Jack Phantom>. Enjoy.
<snip>
"No thanks Jack, I'll be fine. He snatched the hard drive from
Jack's grasp. I was in the ducts..erm.. 'cos I thought I'd heard
something from the vent in my quarters. Brought the camera along
because, ah... It might have been an alien or something. I wanted a
picture." He mumbled.
"Alien you say?" Jack brightened, he'd barely had time to indulge
in his alien researching hobby recently, "Well maybe I should take a
look sometime. Could start with your quarters couldn't I?" There was
a look in his eyes that told Rachin he hadn't bought his story.
<snip>
Phantom picked up his whisky, left the bar and meandered through the
packed bar to his table that was now minus the two girls.
That was a shame, but at least he could let Chris know about their
new "ally" without anyone overhearing. He wanted to play it safe.
Rachin could be innocent after all. Jack reached inside his coat and
pulled out the small radio linked to security and
dialed up Harris.
"Sir," Said Jack, "I wanted to speak to you about Rachin. It might
be nothing, but he's been acting strangely. I'm in Parrots."
This message awoke Chris from a deep slumber, which did not impress
him in the slightest. Clumsily, he knocked over a glass of water on
his bedside cabinet when reaching for his radio.
"Shit" he uttered as he flicked the small switch for the microphone,
allowing him to speak. "What's he been doing that's so suspicious?"
he snapped into the small microphone.
"Well, I was minding my own business when he entered the bar."
"What's so strange about that?" Chris wasn't sounding impressed so
far.
"Well, he entered it from a duct in the ceiling." Phantom replied
calmly, "carrying a camera as well by the looks of it. You want to
come and talk to him? Watch out though, two guys already started
fighting. We need to be careful, atmosphere is tense as it is."
"What do you mean `by the looks' of it?" replied Chris angrily. "He
was either carrying one or he wasn't".
Chris rubbed his eyes gently and looked at the clock, noting that
it was a little past eleven at night, meaning that he had got less
than five hours sleep for the fourth consecutive night following the
docking at mars station due to incessant security officers making
incredibly large mountains out of molehills and relying on him to
fix them. He sighed in an unhappy manner before speaking into his
microphone again.
"I'll come down" he said, conceding to Jack, "But it'd better be
worth it" he added wearily, dressing and ensuring he had his
GunBlade on him in case of the nigh on inevitable fight that was
brewing, even now in Parrots.
Jack put the radio away and sat back, studying the various
characters sitting, standing or dancing around him. He could see
likely fighters among them easily. They were the ones with eyes that
darted around the room looking for trouble. He also kept an eye on
Nikola, still sitting at the bar with a glass in his hand. No one
had bothered with the damaged jukebox or camera as the place was so
busy, Phantom was idly wondering when someone would clear it up when
Harris walked through the door.
He raised a hand to Jack, acknowledging his presence there before
pointing towards Nikola at the bar and jerking his head in his
direction. He proceeded to walk over to him.
"You must be Nikola Rachin," said Chris with a yawn. The man at the
bar nodded as if to say "Yes, who are you and what do you want?"
"My name is Chris Harris, I am the Chief of Security on the Blue
Dwarf. I believe you are in my department and would therefore
appreciate if you answered all questions directed at you by me with
a sir at the end. You get used to it after a while" he said,
smirking.
"Yes" said Nikola, adding a "sir" with distinct emphasis on it after
a short pause.
"Much better" said Chris. What this short conversation did for the
chief of security was to allow him to judge his new officer and to
work out whether his suspicious activities were purely nonsensical
or something that could pose an immediate problem to Chris and Jack,
in a bar, with only two of them.
"Now, moving onto business" said Chris. "My colleague here, informs
me that there have been some suspicious goings-on in here related to
you" he added, gesturing towards Jack who was now sitting on the
other side of Nikola.
"Get the guys a drink eh?" Jack snapped his fingers at the
barmaid, "whatever it is they normally have." He lowered his voice
and continued, looking up at both men occasionally, "Well. We had
that little chat before didn't we?"
"Yeah, how could I forget." Nik replied.
"Quite, well I really had to tell someone about it. Look. You've
been a useful member of the crew so far and we have nothing on you,
I think we can leave it at a warning for now, but we'll be watching
you. Alright?" Phantom finished up and leant towards Chris to speak.
At that moment, a shout went up behind him and a knife whistled
through the air where his head had been and buried itself into the
wall in front of him with a twang.
Chris was about to say "You woke me up for a bloody warning?" but
the words never quite made it out of his mouth. Instantly his head
jerked round to the direction the knife had come from.
"It would seem that our friend, the Chief Engineer has had a few too
many and has started a fight with a civilian. A civilian with a
physique of what reminds me of a dreadful cross between John
Prescott and Arnold Schwarzenegger" said Chris with a shudder before
gesturing to Jack to follow him.
Just as Jack had feared, Mr Prescott-Schwarzenegger was one of the
men he earmarked as trouble. Callum looked scared as he was being
backed into a corner.
"Hey big fella, I didn't do anything, just calm down. You're a great
bloke! I don't wanna have to hurt you." He slurred and waved a
finger at the man.
"Ya spilt my pint ya smeghead. No one, even the fancypants Chief
Engineer gets away with that.
It's disrespectful, and me and my fellow technicians don't take
kindly to that." As one, five more burly figures rose from seats
they barely fit into. The security officers could see Callum was
risking a sever beating, but going to go for it anyway and stood up
simultaneously.
Chris walked up to Mr Prescott-Schwarzenegger and tapped him on the
shoulder.
"Dude. Back off. Parrots is a no-fight zone. Didn't you see the sign
at the door? Also, why wasn't that knife confiscated at the door?"
said Chris angrily, loud enough to wake the security grunt at the
door that was supposed to be searching everybody upon entry. "This
is my shore leave as well, and I don't want it ruined by some thug
beating up rejects from the Scottish Barn Dance Society. As Chief of
Security that is my job. Now leave him be or I will be forced to
nail your genitals to the bar as a nice ornament for loose women
with low self-respect.
"I'm on holiday too and I want a fight." The big man snarled, too
drunk to care about the consequences.
"Sounds good to me." Harris rubbed his hands together. "Guys?" He
looked over his shoulder at the other team members, "Time to nail us
some testicles."
Nikola nodded and ran headlong at another technician and hit him
square in the jaw screaming like a harpie. Jack leapt from his stool
and landed on the back of a second and headbutted him several times
before he dropped off and dusted off the basic kung fu the Yakuza
had taught him.
Harris meanwhile ducked swiftly under the ringleader's meaty fist as
it headed for him and reigned a series of lightning blows to the
man's midsection, winding him badly. By this time, Callum had bared
his teeth and was gouging and headbutting like a lunatic
As another of the larger technicians stood up and went to punch
Chris square in the face, Chris simple caught his hand in mid-air as
if it were nothing but a tennis ball. He smiled at the thug before
swiftly proceeding to punch the man in temple rendering him
unconscious in front of him as he dropped to the floor.
"Marvellous" said Chris, dusting off his hands.
TBC/Tag Nikola/Me/Dan