Bad Ideas

Posted on Fri Aug 7th, 2020 @ 4:32pm by Security Johannah "Mack" Shepard & Alliance Oksanna Petrovich
Edited on on Sat Aug 8th, 2020 @ 2:04am

Mission: This Week's Special
Location: Phatasms
Timeline: 1830hrs on the day "Local Customs" took place

Mack walked into Phantasms and nervously looked around. She hadn't actually expected to be asked out for drinks by Oskanna Petrovich. She'd only been suggesting that the poor girl should be allowed out for some fun now and again. That it was a shame that her father kept scaring off anyone that showed an interest in her and forbidding anyone to go out on the 'town' with her. But now Mack's big mouth had her meeting the daughter of an overprotective crime boss. Mack sighed. Nothing was ever easy. Still, maybe if Sasha found out, he'd feel better that Mack was here to keep Oskanna out of trouble? Mack hoped so, because if Sasha found out, that was exactly how she was going to play it. Mack looked around for Oskanna and saw her at the bar.

Is she... crying? Mack thought to herself. Aw come on! That's not fair!

Mack made her way through to where Oskanna was sitting. "Uh... Hi, Oskanna," she said. Do NOT ask what the problem is! she warned herself. "What's got you so down?" she asked, despite her own warning.

Oksanna quickly sat up straight, her face bending into a cheeful smile that clashed horribly with her running mascara. The club was crowded and loud. The atmosphere was permeated with a dense chemical fog that had slight hints of oils or aromatic substances that alter one's mood. Heavy bass and electronic notes filled the air as bodies shifted past each other in extremely tight leather and rubber products. The young Russian woman was conservatively dressed for such a place, but her skirt was still quite short and form fitting. Oksanna's place at the bar had one empty glass and another half full of a clear liquid beverage, most likely Vodka.

"Oh... hi!" she said with a sniffle up a look in her eye that was genuinely hopeful. "I'm sorry I wasn't sure you were going to make it, so I guess I got started without you. Waitress!" she called out to a vinyl clad woman circling the bar. "Give her two of anything she wants, on my tab, unless those fine guys at the end of the bar want to pick this one up too." She picked up the second glass and finished it straight. "Get me more while you are at it." she requested. "So how was your evening?" she asked of Mack with a sparkle in her eye.

"It just started," Mack said. Mack ordered a vodka tonic, sat down at the bar, and took Oskanna's hand. "Oskanna, slow down. In fact, stop. No more booze until you tell me why you've been crying."

"Oh, come on. I'm gonna need two more before I even get buzzed." Oksanna said in mock protest. Realizing she was not likely to change the Security Chief's line of questioning she relented. "It was really nothing. I was just thinking you wouldn't show up, and that was heartbreaking. Then I worried that you might show up and what my father might do to you. And then I started thinking you wouldn't show up again." she exhaled deeply. "I'm sorry I'm a bit of a conflicted mess at the moment.: She gently squeezed Mack's hand. "I/m glad you are here, even if I'm a wreck."

Mack sighed, then smiled. "Well," she said. "I did show up, so you can stop freaking out." Mack's smile turned into a smirk. "Besides, if your father says anything to me about this, I intend to tell him I agreed to go out with you to keep you out of trouble, that I figured it was safer than letting you run completely wild."

Oksanna gave a girlish satisfied smile. "I am sure he will be very pleased you were looking over me. Speaking of wild what do you want to do first?" The waitress returned with two Vodka tnoics for Mack and two more shots for Oksanna. She scooted away quickly leaving the two women to themselves. Oksanna straight shotted one of the two glasses in front of her. "You know I used to do this with my Brother Dimitiri when I was 11. No big deal."

Mack raised an eyebrow. "Maybe you're not the delicate flower your father would have everyone think you are," she said. She sipped her drink. "And maybe not the goody two shoes that try to come across as."

Oksanna brought her eyes to a narrow squint. "Maybe I'm not." she replied as seductively as her voice could muster. It squeaked slightly at the end of the sentence."So what would you like to discover first?"

Their conversation together had apparently gained the attention of two men at the bar that lifted their glasses as a salute to the two of them. The music in the club throbbed around them, the crowd a myriad of colors and textures moving in disjointed syncopathic rythmn.

Mack looked at Oskanna who seemed to be trying very hard to be someone she wasn't, someone older and more sophisticated. "That depends, Oskanna Alexeyovna," she said. "On what you want to show me. For example, if you hadn't noticed, those guys are interested in you. What do you want to do about that? Be honest."

Oksanna slipped a quick glance back to the guys at the bar. "They see nice enough, they bought me my first set of drinks. But I am here to learn about you Mack Shepard." she said woozily. Mack suddenly felt a foot lightly rubbing up her calf.

Mack sighed. "Oskanna," she said. "When I said you were pretty, I meant it. When I said you were smart and funny, I meant it. When I said it was a shame that you weren't allowed the freedom to live your life, I meant that, too. When you asked me to go out with you tonight... I was caught off guard, I guess. So I said yes, because, Hell, I could use the company. But kiddo, you're young and just starting out. You don't want to get tied to a broken ex-Browncoat who washed up on the shores of the plex and fell into the first full time job she's had in almost a decade. And... sweetheart, if you're just looking for a casual fling... I'm... I'm sorry. I can't afford the kind of trouble a fling with you would cause me. As I said, this is the first full time gig I've had in a long time, and I like the work. And... my sister lives here. She's not my blood sister. I don't have one of those. But she's my sister in every aspect but biology. She and her father took me in after the war, made me their own. They gave me a safe space to make a life for myself." Mack sighed again. "In my early 20s, I would have thrown caution to the wind. I did just that when I resigned my commission to join the Browncoats... and it cost me everything. But I'm not in my twenties anymore." Mack looked at Oskanna. "So slow down, Oskanna. Please. Let's talk and drink and see if we can be friends."

Oksanna looked into Mack's eyes, her mouth quivering slightly to maintain her smile. "It's warm in here. Did we get served yet?" she stated in a soft but oblique fashion. Her eyes still fixed on Mack's as the awkward friends moment passed. "It's warm in here. Did we get served yet?" she said again, not aware that she was repeating herself. Her eyes blinked, the irises dialating amid the flashing colored lights and lasers.

Mack looked at Oskanna and saw how much pain she was in, and felt overwhelmed by feelings of compassion and possibly even connection. This was the first real expression of anything Oskanna had showed her since Mack had arrived at the bar. She reached out with one hand and reclaimed Oskanna's hand. With the other, the gently touched the young woman's cheek. "Oskanna..." she said softly. Then she pulled the young woman into a warm embrace and kissed her cheek. A slower song started to play, still the same techno that had been playing, just as intense, but slower. "Come on," Mack whispered in Oskanna's ear. "Come dance with me."

Oksanna followed Mack's lead and followed her onto the dance floor. Her eyes looked swollen, but her expression was neutral. The crowd thronged around them, but Oksanna kept looking into Mack's eyes, fixated. "I'm so glad you are here." she said in a soft voice.

Mack smiled. "So am I," she said, as the two of them swayed to the music with Mack leading. "Now that the real you is showing up to the party."

They danced, the music and the room was moving in slow unison with them. Mack felt Oksanna's hand tightly gripping her arm as she looked into her eyes and said, "It's warm in here."

Mack frowned. "Hey," she said to Oskanna. "Are you..." Then Mack got a good look at Oskanna's eyes. Ta ma de! Is she high? "Oskanna!" Mack said. She guided Oskanna off the dance floor and over to an unoccupied table "Listen to me!" she said. "Besides the vodka, what did you take? What drug? Oskanna? Pay attention! What did you take?" Oh for fuck's sake! Did she overdose? Why is nothing ever simple!

Oksanna's head began to bob as she clung to Mack. "I'm so glad you are here. Did we get served yet." Her face was emotionless, but her eyes pleaded for help.

"Oskanna!" Mack said. "Listen to me! You're going to be okay!" Mack helped the drugged girl up again and helped her out of the club to a bench. She whipped out her encyclopedia. "Watchdog Control, Watchdog One" she said. Watch Dog was a ridiculous code name, but it seemed to help create stronger esprit d'corps.

"Watchdog Control, Watchdog One, go ahead," came the reply. "What can I do for you boss?"

"I have a 24 year old woman who’s been slipped a Mickey," she said. "She's a VIP, so I need a rapid, but discrete response from the med center and send me four Watchdogs. Two to go with the medics to make sure they understand what 'discrete' means, and two to carry the badly beaten, probably crippled and unconscious ches zimen that did this. Probably want to send a few medics for them. I won't know their exact injuries until I inflict them, but they should be prepared for anything."

"Uh... Watchdog One, Watch Dog Control," came the reply. "Copy that medical and security response with an extra large side of discretion coming up!"

"Oskanna, sweetheart, help is on the way," Mack said. "Stay with me!"

Oksanna lay back against Mack looking about her blearily. "Its warm in here. Did we get served yet?" she muttered.

Two men came out of the club and over to them. "Is she ok? Do you need help? I am a medic on the station."

Mack hadn't survived the rim worlds without developing a sixth sense, and that sense sent a shiver up her spine. She turned around slowly. When Mack saw their faces, she immediately recognized them as the two men who had bought Oskanna several drinks. Mack didn't even hesitate. She kicked the one who'd spoken in the crotch so hard his testicles hit his armpits before settling back into place, then she spun and drove her heel into the solar plexus of the other man, leaving him gasping for air. When the talker doubled over, she grabbed him by the hair and pulled him down further, at the same time driving her knee into his face. She brought him to the ground and put what looked like it would be a restraint hold. A pain compliance move... hold still and I'll break your arm type of thing. Except she just went ahead and followed through, breaking and dislocating the man's wrist, elbow, and shoulder. Then hit the other one with a powerful uppercut. She heard the man's jaw break. Then she brought him down and broke his wrist, elbow, and shoulder. "You stupid tā mā de báichī! Do you have any idea what you've done?? You drugged Sasha Ta ma de Petrovich's daughter with the intent of sexually assaulting her. The only reason I didn't kill you right here and now is that he's going to want to do that himself."

Mack took a closer look at the two would be racists and swore again. They had Axe Tong tattoos.

At that point, the medics and Mack's officers arrived. Mack looked at the medics. "The girl first," Mack ordered. "Once she's stable you can look after this filth." When the medics went to help Oskanna, Mack turned to her men. "Lead Constable Mendez, take Senior Constable Troy and see to it that the young woman is cared for. You make damned sure the clinic understands what the word discretion means. You make it damned clear, copy?"

"Copy that, Chief!" Mendez said.

"Senior Constable Schwartz, take Constable Fitzpatrick and search this idiots," Mack said to the other two constables. "Confiscate any weapons and/or drugs or drug works you find and let the medics work on the idiots. Follow them to the clinic and sit on them. Copy that?"

"I'll see to it, Chief," Schwartz replied and led Fitzpatrick over to the two crippled would be rapists.

Mack went over to Oskanna. She knelt down next to her and cupped her cheek. "Oskanna, sweetheart, are you still with me? Hang in there, these medics are going to take care of you and the men who did this aren't going to hurt you ever again, you have my word." She kissed Oskanna on the forehead, then turned to the medics. "You know who this is. Don't fuck this up. We don't need the Old Man any angrier than he's going to be already."

The medics nodded. Two of them put Oskanna on a stretcher and carried her off to the clinic. The other two went to work on the would-be rapists. Meanwhile, Mack took a deep breath then pulled out her encyclopedia and made the call she was dreading since she'd realized Oskanna had been drugged. "It's Chief Shepard," she said when someone picked up. "I need to see him, right away. It's about Oskanna. She's fine, or she will be, but he needs to get the whole story straight from me. Then I'll get out of the way and he can do what he needs to do. No, I have the men responsible for the problem. I messed them up really bad. They aren't going anywhere. They're in my custody. Look, this is about his Gorram daughter so interrupt his fucking dinner and tell him I'm on my way up. Yes, right fucking now, Gorram it! Alright, yeah, I'll meet you at the access corridor."

Mack put away her encyclopedia and sighed. Why couldn't going out for a drink with the cute daughter of a powerful organized crime boss ever be easy?