Startrek: Keash and Derf

Chapter 4

Chapter4: Who the hack are you?

Sweat pored from Keash's face as he stabilized the Breda before bringing her to a complete stop. After five hours of constantly coming to within inches of being vaporized by an unimaginably fast or incredibly large asteroid the Breda had reached what seemed a ring of relatively clear space.

Keash panted when he let go of the controls and turned his seat to face his companions. To his relief and pride his kid was still in the back seat on the bridge, strapped in and pointing a small disruptor at the other occupant of the Bridge with them. Derf, a criminal who'd been the intended recipient of the cargo the Breda was hauling. Derf had been double crossed by a former associate who'd owed him by paying off the debt with a compromised shipment of illegal arms parts which was being tracked by Starfleet.

As Keash had been about to finish off the contract and unload the cargo Starfleet security forced, surrounding the landing bay they were in, ordered them to surrender. Keash had moved on instinct and, having no other option, Derf had ran into the Breda after Keash and his son.

He looked like someone regretting his latest choices. His eyes were still wide like saucers in what seemed perpetual shock, his face wet with perspiration. The upper side of the drab jumpsuit he wore was darkened with moist from copious amounts of sweat as well. "The Maker's excrement!" the odd alien, whose species Keash couldn't identify, exclaimed after a few moments of silence. The exclamation made Keash launch into a great belly laugh. Both Ahrund and Derf looked at him as if wondering if Keash's brain had fried.

Keash looked over at his son when he felt the laughing had ebbed away enough for him to speak. "That was a very fancy way of saying 'Holy Shit' Ahrund. And maybe daddy's not completely sane anymore but that's funny shit right there1" he said, and laughed some more. This time Ahrund joined in the laughter and after a second Derf couldn't help but join in. After all, Keash was right.

When the laughter had ebbed away the atmosphere turned serious again and filled with tension. Derf noted the disruptor was still aimed at him, and Keash noticed him looking at it. "I see you've noticed the expression of my son and my self's sizable distrust and perhaps even anger towards you." he said.

"I am sure the coming moments are going to be fascinatingly entertaining as you're going to convince me why not vaporizing you into atoms is better than it would be to tell Ahrund here to fire at maximum setting" Keash added, leaning back into his seat as if to make himself comfortable to be entertained. Derf swallowed and glanced nervously at the disruptor.

A fleeting sliver of thought asked himself how he'd managed to go from the worst possible situation he could possible end up in to an even worse situation. He then nodded and took a deep breath, sounding more like a sigh of resignation.

"Unless you're very descent people with a very high standard of ethics and moral guiding you in your lives i doubt i can give you any arguments not to have your son to pull that trigger" Derf said, finding his feet with his eyes. "I could have had everything, live a descent and wealthy life and make something of myself.

Instead I've lived from one party to the next, from one pleasure to the next and partied myself slowly but surely into the gutter of life itself. By the time i realized what i was doing it was to late and i was penniless, homeless and in debt on a miserable excuse for a planet in an even more miserable excuse for a civilized settlement. I was in the worst possible mess anyone could be in and then i got into an even worse one and took you two with me, so it seems." Derf continued.

When after a few moments, to Derf's surprise, Keash hadn't said a word to accuse Derf or berate Derf or anything Derf elaborated on his sorry story.

"Regardless of how it came to be so i was homeless, and owed a lot of money to some pretty terrible people to owe money to. The only chance i had was to call in a long standing debt owed to me by a former associate with which i parted ways a decade ago. He is now a very wealthy man i hoped that, though from what he gains his wealth is questionable, he was inclined to honor his debt to me and at least save my hide with my creditors.

It seemed he was and he promised me the ownership of a cargo that was in the area and he could reroute to me within weeks." Derf explained, looking up with an apologetic expression. "And i guess that was when you got mixed up in this" he finished.