Bribe 2 (Patreon)

Both @Piedunk and @Startide were excited to read more about the bribe, so here we go...

Bribe 1

———

Captain Ime trembled slightly while he faced the big screen at the end of the bridge. Commissioner Lorescahere—well, his eyes and upper teeth mostly, as he positioned himself way too close to the camera—glared at the geroo from a thousand light years away.

Too close, honestly.

“What do you mean, you didn’t get it?” the krakun slowly hissed.

“Just that,” said Ime, struggling to control his fear. “He never came aboard. I planted the camera as you instructed, but he never went into his stateroom, so the only video I have is of an empty room.”

“But…”

“The commissioner’s inspection was all remote. He sat a kilometer off our bow and handled the entire inspection by radio. He even ordered around one of my junior officers and looked at things by telling her where to point the camera.” The captain sighed and leaned a hip against his chair. “Honestly, I’m not sure why he bothered coming through the gate at all. He could have done all that without getting out of bed.”

“Because the company tracks gate transits,” grumbled the krakun. “They’d think he wasn’t doing his job.”

The krakun growled, but Ime only shrugged. “I tried to convince him to come aboard. Told him it was protocol and custom, but no captain has ever bossed a commissioner around. So, there was nothing I could do.”

“We will try this again in two weeks…” hissed Lorescahere very slowly.

Ime sighed. “About that bribe—”

“I told you!” shouted the commissioner, the camera focused deep down his throat. “No video, no bribe!”

“You’re welcome to the video,” said Captain Ime. “I just don’t think—”

“Next time, we’ll succeed.”

The geroo glared at the screen, his ears low. “I couldn’t force Commissioner Eriddia to come aboard yesterday. What makes you think he will two weeks from now?”

“Because next time…”—the sides of the krakun’s enormous mouth turned upward in a disturbing grin—“I will help.”

# # #

Captain Ime didn’t bother to stand, and as he anticipated, the commissioner’s call was voice-only. “Hello, Commissioner,” he said in a cheerful tone. “The shuttle bay door is open if you wish to avail—”

“Transmit your ship’s…” The bored voice trailed off, only to return a moment later sounding far more energized. “Oh, jeez! What’s that stink? Gah!”

“Sir? Is something wrong?” shouted Captain Ime. “Does it smell like burning wires? Sir, you have to dock immediately and disembark!”

“It’s not a fire,” insisted the commissioner. “It… It just stinks. Send a crew over to clean it up.”

Captain Ime blinked and stared at the blank screen for a long moment. “What?”

“I said, ‘Send a crew over here to fix it!’”

“We… We don’t have a shuttlecraft, sir.” The geroo gritted his teeth. This bad smell had to be the help that Lorescahere had promised, but at what cost? When the commissioner finally came aboard, he was going to be so angry that the entire crew would be in danger. “You’re going to need to dock—”

“Suit them up—”

“No,” said Ime without taking a moment to consider the order. “The cleaning crew isn’t EVA rated.”

“Fine, send a crew that is,” insisted Commissioner Eriddia. “Anyone can use a mop and—”

“No,” Captain Ime repeated. “I refuse to put my crew needlessly at risk. My crew does spacewalks to service the outside of the ship. Besides, do you even have an airlock on that shuttle?”

Only silence filled the airwaves. Ime glanced over to Lieutenant Doteas, but she shook her head. The blinking dot on her screen remained stationary, not moving toward the gate nor the hangar.

“Sir,” said Ime in a calm, reasonable tone, “come aboard the ship. I’ll have a crew scrub the cabin from top to bottom. I’ll even expose the interior to hard vacuum if you like. That’ll pull out any vapor in the air. But we can’t do any more with you out there.”

A long pause. “Fine,” gasped Eriddia. It sounded like he had been holding his breath. “Underway.”

# # #

Captain Ime stepped through the airlock and into the commissioner’s stateroom. He’d done this hundreds of times in the past, but they had always been with a single krakun, so this Commissioner Eriddia was an unknown quantity. Clearly, he didn’t wish to meet with geroo, but now that he’d been forced to, how would he react? Would he threaten? Would he abuse and insult, belittle any who met with him? Would he use violence to get what he wanted? Or would he just use his position to intimidate?

Ime looked up and up, but for a moment, saw nothing. And then, the nothingness blinked.

Charcoal grey eyes stared at him from a black head fixed atop a black neck attached to a black body. The wall of krakun before him was so black that Ime felt like he was gazing into the void of space itself. He cleared his throat and removed the strand from his shoulder. “I’ve dispatched a cleaning crew, and they’re scouring your ship now.”

The krakun said nothing, he just stared.

“And I’ve also dispatched a team of engineers to look for the cause,” said Ime, “to make sure it wasn’t something burning.”

Commissioner Eriddia blinked, but said nothing.

“When they finish,” Captain Ime explained, “we’ll leave the shuttle open and depressurize the bay.”

Ime took a step forward and to his surprise, the krakun pulled his head away, keeping a wide space between his face and the geroo. The captain paused, surprised by the commissioner’s reaction. “Uh,” he muttered, paging through his strand, “here’s the ship’s report.”

Then, curious if he’d imagined the silent lizard’s hesitancy, he stepped forward once more when he flicked the file toward him.

Again, the krakun pulled away.

Interesting! thought Ime. Has Commissioner Eriddia been hesitant to come aboard because he dislikes geroo that much? And if so, why did he take the job?

“As you can see on my report,” said Ime, stepping a little closer still, “all of the ship’s major services are operating perfectly.”

Was the gigantic reptile … trembling? He couldn’t be … afraid of geroo … could he?

With a hint of a smile on his ears, Ime started to step closer, but this time, the krakun spoke up, “That’s quite close enough.”

Captain Ime froze, worried how the commissioner would react, but when he did nothing more, the geroo smiled wider. So, this is why Lorescahere wanted video of our commissioner? So he could see his coworker face his fears? Well, then! It’s time to put on a show, thought Ime. “Quite right!” he agreed and then walked away, back toward the airlock. Pushing the call button, he waited a moment, then spoke into the intercom. “Liaison Jaque? Would you mind coming in here for a moment?”

Captain Ime ignored the officer’s reply and turned back to his commissioner, taking a couple steps as he spoke, “You remember officer Jaque, right? She assisted you in inspecting the heat exchangers during your last visit.”

A moment later, Jaque entered the chamber and the heaviness in the air—the krakun’s anxiety made tangible—doubled. “Yes, sir?” asked the new officer.

Ime half-turned so he was facing Jaque without turning his back on his new boss. “I just realized how rude I’ve been to the commissioner,” said the captain. “Could you go and gather up all of my senior officers so Commissioner Eriddia can meet them?”

“All of them, sir?”

“Yes, every last one,” said Ime with a nod.

“Yes, sir!” said Jaque, sounding pleased that she’d have an opportunity to leave the office so soon after entering.

Commissioner Eriddia made a noise, but its true nature would be difficult to describe. Creatures standing twelve meters tall at the shoulder and weighing some 275 tons do not squeak.

But if one were to squeak, it might have sounded just like that.

———

Reviewer's link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Jk3Timtk7XQvM24NU1Df0bke04h_rzMsLvIcWWjmDHU/edit?usp=sharing

Thoughts?