Captain Calvert - "Saloon"

Who: Eddie Monsoon and Captain Jed Calvert
Where: The unsavoury end of the promenade
When: During the robot rebellion
<snip>
Realising no one was around to hear his witty remark, or understand
the reference, Eddie quickly moved off - a bit embarrassed - and
looked for more skutters to kill, some fair maidens to rescue and
seduce (or, most likely, one of the hookers onboard for a quick
fumble) and most importantly - some bloody good Nurofen.
<end snip>
After a brisk stroll and a few robot killings later, Eddie found his
way into a filthy bar on the far end of the promenade.
It looked like an old-fashioned saloon from a western. This wasn't
intentional, or a western-themed bar, it was just in a heavy state of
disrepair, and had become a hangout for people of a "less
conventional" lifestyle.
Over the years, the Blue Dwarf had gained a fair share of stowaways,
aliens or humans or gelfs who had smuggled themselves aboard, for want
of a better life. Unfortunately the Blue Dwarf wasn't much of a nice
place when you didn't have proper quarters, so these people lived in
corners of cargo bays or engineering decks and made their way by
pick-pocketing from the promenade or stealing cargo and selling it
back to merchants or promenade shop owners.
As Eddie walked into the saloon, he felt many weird aliens stare at
him. He couldn't work out whether he was surprised or not to see the
Captain sat down at one of the grubby tables playing poker. Being in a
place full of the lowest forms of life seemed the wrong place for a
starship captain to be, but this was Jed. He WAS one of the lowest
forms of life on the ship.
Jed beckoned Eddie to come sit by him. Eddie did so, and Jed placed a
dirty glass full of a brown liquid next to him. It was unusual for
Eddie to refuse alcohol, but the thought of it with his hangover
turned his stomach. He rolled the liquid around in the glass, there
was a film of grease on top of the liquid, and the glass had lip marks
around the edges.
"Cheers mate." Said Eddie.
Jed looked at him expectantly as if drinking it was an order.
Eddie didn't want to let anyone down, especially as now the entire bar
of nefarious creatures were looking at him. He slugged it and everyone
cheered, music started playing, and everyone went about their business.
Calvert's eyes were on a poker game. His opponent was a hairy looking
creature with a long snout like a dog. Occasionally he scratched his
ear with a large paw.
"Eddie Monsoon this is Toras."
Eddie nodded to the creature, it made a barking sound back at him.
"Toras don't have a job on t' Blue Dwarf, yet he lives here, stealing
engineering equipment and selling it back to th' Engineering department."
"Right." Eddie said, keeping up. He noticed Toras eying him up, a
growl beginning to form in the back of his wolf-like throat.
"Th' outcome of this hyar poker game will decide whether Toras stays,
o' leaves the ship."
Eddie nodded. He assumed this must be some kind of justice for the
lower levels of the ship. He wondered just how many people there were
like Toras, there were plenty in this bar, but how many more were
there? Eddie had of course heard about the crime onboard, muggings,
break-ins etc, enough to keep the Security department busy. But were
they all done by people like this shifty-looking wolf man, and other
bizarre gelfs and aliens?
The hairy wolf placed his cards on the table, and barked for Jed to do
the same.
Never taking his eyes off the creature, Jed chomped hard on his thick
cigar and placed his cards on the table.
There was a moment if silent tension. The cards were so dirty that
Eddie couldn't even see who had won. Jed and Toras were just staring
at each other.
Jed leaned over to look at the cards. Jed had won.
Toras moved like lighting, he pushed his chair out from under his legs
and upturned the table. He reared up, his shirt ripping to show his
full body, looking now more like a wolf than ever. He looked like an
almighty werewolf, and stood ready to pounce. His teeth baring, and
ready to bit into Jed's soft neck.
Jed was ready however, he already had one of his twin pistols out from
its holster, and fired. It caught the gelf dog in it's midsection and
it yelped, falling over backwards and taking another table with it.
All this happened in the time it took Eddie to blink. He grabbed Jed's
arm. Unfortunately Jed's sleeve was loose, and several playing cards
all fell from his sleeve.
Every gelf and alien in the bar gasped, or barked, or roared in shock
and betrayal.
"Mate? You cheated?" Eddie said.
"Of course, I dun' want that scumbag or any of it's kind on mah ship.
It's costin' me a bloody fortune!"
The angry mob pulled out shotguns, knives and even pitchforks, so Jed
and Eddie legged it out of the bar and onto the Promenade.
After a few moments Eddie didn't know what to say. But then broke the
silence.
"Jim Munro's dead." He said.
Calvert nodded. "Ah heard. Damn shame too, that guy kept me stocked
with moonshine!"
Eddie nodded. "Me too. But he always held back, I think he had a
bigger buyer."
Jed beamed self-satisfactorily. "Of course he did, you're lookin' at `im!"
Jed had a sudden thought. "But with Munro gone, his distillery will
fall into the wrong hands."
"Who?"
"Remember Toras back there? He's part of a vicious gang who operate
around the cargo bays. People who know then call them the `Bloodhound
Gang' `cos most of them are part human part dog. They're a nasty bunch
as you just saw, they could rip a man's head off if yer not careful."
Jed pulled Eddie to one side. "Listen. I need ya to get down to the
cargobay where Munro had his distillery and make sure the moonshine's
under lock and key. Destroy the distillery if you need to – ah dun't
want that nasty pack of rabid dogs takin' it over."
Eddie rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
<OOC – tag Grant! Does Eddie accept the job? Also tag anyone else who
wants to join him.>