A Dark And Hungry God Arises 17 - Nick [4]

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A Dark And Hungry God Arises 17 - Nick [4]

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Nick comforts the woman wearing the Bill's now-disabled surveillance device ("wire"), comforting her from the small pain Angus left in the back of her neck when disabling that device. He reflects that her drunken habits will make his seduction of her a hollow victory. But once he has started caressing her and making consoling noises in her ear, it's habitual for him to continue with a seduction, even though likely means both a hollow victory and an ensnarement in one of Angus' plots.
As always, he would deal with the danger later.

The danger was real: he knew that. None of his dealings with Milos had given him any reason to trust the former deputy chief of Com-Mine Security. And Angus was treachery personified; so malign that his falseness was virtually metaphysical.

On the other hand, they were both vulnerable here. The fact that they'd come to Thanatos Minor together in a stolen UMCP ship showed how precarious their position was. In addition--Nick admitted this with professional detachment--Angus' plan made sense.

Angus had left a number of interesting details unexplained, such as how exactly he proposed to snatch Davies. Nevertheless, his reasoning was unreproachable. Nick didn't like taking orders from Angus Thermopyle; but he liked the way Angus thought. He wished he hadn't lost the capacity to think that way himself.
Nick knows he still can scheme, seduce, and see opportunities, but he knows he's not the strategic master he once was. The drunken woman employed by the Bill tells him to take her somewhere for lovemaking, and he obliges her by paying for an Ease-n-Sleaze room and steers her into it. But what is animating Nick right now isn't lust so much as it is thoughts of revenge upon Sorus Chatelaine.

Inside the rented room, Nick lets go of the Bill's drunken employee long enough to verify that the room's data terminal is functional. Now Nick knows he can probably get his guest to reveal where the Bill's detention area is within the Billingate installations, and then have her leave while he codes a message to Milos using the terminal. But he knows that would look suspicious to the Bill, and besides that nick's body craves the satisfaction of completing the seduction of his guest. So he buys some background music from the terminal to make it harder for the Bill's surveillance equipment in the room to hear him, and has sex with her on the room's bed until she appears worn-out. Then he holds her and tells her the Bill has something he wants, and she needs to tell him where that something is.

She denies working for the Bill, and Nick tells her he knows she's wearing a wire from the Bill. Nick further informs her that he's disabled it, and that now he wants to know where the Bill keeps his prisoners. She tells him where the detention area is, so he codes a message for Milos using the terminal. Nick has the message routed to Trumpet through Captain's Fancy and to make it harder for the Bill to determine that Milos got a message from Nick--because Milos will access the message of his own room terminal to Trumpet, bypassing some of Billingate's communications systems. Then Nick leaves the room while ignoring her pleas to take her with him to his ship to avoid the Bill's wrath. (Nick heartlessly doesn't let her know the Bill will clearly see she didn't disable her own wire, and so she wont get in trouble with the Bill. He seems to enjoy leaving her fearful of the Bill's punishment.) Nick decides to return directly to Captain's Fancy, and is relieved that he's not detained by any of the Bill's guards.

On board his ship once more, Nick notices the engines sound shut down. Entering the bridge, he can see that at least two thirds of the crew are crowded within that room. Nick tells his crewmembers who aren't scheduled to be there to leave the bridge. Command second Mikka then states to Nick that she told command third Liete--who's currently in the bridge command chair--it was all right to have the crew gather and air their concerns. Nick asks Liete if she relayed his message to Milos, and in a somewhat offended tone Liete replies in the affirmative. When Nick asks why the ship's engines are all off when he wanted them left running, Liete explains Billingate Operations threatened to undock the ship and strand Nick unless the engines got turned off.

Nick asks Mikka if she's put a raiding party together, and she replies she's ready as soon as the target is known and she hears who he wants to retrieve. Nick addresses the crew on the bridge, wanting to know why they would do something as foolish as contemplating mutiny. Crewmember Carmel answers they just want to know what's going on.

Nick states that because they went to Enablement Station with Morn, one of the cops, the United Mining Companies Police do not trust them any longer, and sent Milos and Angus in Trumpetto get her back. Nick lies that he gave Morn to the Amnion so that Angus and Milos would target the aliens instead of his ship's crew. Nick boasts he has saved the crew from retaliation from a whole flotilla of UMCP spaceships waiting to come after them on a rescue mission for Morn, a rescue mission that would have had the blessings of the Amnion. Further, Nick proclaims that the ship will be ready to sell the bill the mutagen immunity pills while the Amnion and the UMCP are in conflict. The crew hears Nick state the Bill will by then be eager to give them a new gap drive so they can leave quickly. Most of Nick's crew look impressed and seem to believe him.
Vector kept his opinion to himself. Of all the people on the bridge, only Mikka struggled against Nick's explanation, trying to find the lie.

"If what you say is true," she asked slowly, sounding uncharacteristically hesitant, "why do you want a raiding team?"

"I don't," Nick snapped, "not anymore." He couldn't help himself: he raised a hand to cover his tic. "It was just a precaution anyway, in case I was wring about why Trumpet is here."

Mikka frowned doubtfully. She may not have believed him, but apparently she couldn't think of a way to challenge him further. "In that case," she said grimly to the scan third, "you'd better go stow your gear, Allum. I don't want to leave all those explosives and detonators lying around."

Nick had won: that was obvious. It showed in the way Allum looked at him and waited for his nod before moving to obey the command second.

Rubbing his cheek, Nick tried to feel that this victory wasn't hollow.
As Mikka starts to move from Nick, he grabs her arm and tells her he wants her and Sib to find where Soar's crew hangs out at Billingate and start a rumor in the hearing of that crew and the Bill's bugeyes. The rumor he wants spread is that Soar's captain has a drug that prevents her from mutating into an Amnion, and that's why she has preferred status on Billingate. Then she and Sib are to stay on the installation until Nick come to to get them. Mikka is doubtful and Sib is fearful, but the both leave the bridge to start on this new mission.
And good riddance, Nick thought. He studied his crew again as if he needed more candidates: he didn't want to make the fact that he'd already decided whom to get rid of obvious.

Like a man who'd just had a good idea, he turned toward Vector.

The engineer looked at him squarely. Vector should have been grateful that he was still alive; should have been eager to make restitution for his mistakes. But he didn't appear grateful--or alarmed. His smile was calm and impersonal, as if he'd used up his ability to worry about what happened to him.

"That was clever, Nick." He sounded as mild and unthreatening as he looked. "Now I'm the only one left."

Because his tic was hidden by his hand, Nick let himself grin. "You and Pup," he amended. "I've got a job for you, too."

Vector laughed softly. "Imagine my surprise."

Nick didn't care how much of the truth Vector guessed. As long as Mikka thought he had Pup, she was helpless. And without Mikka--without her support, her determination, her expertise--Vector was nothing.

"This is crucial," Nick said past his hand. "You're the engineers, so it's up to you. I want you to take all the repair specs for our gap drive and go find the shipyard foreman. Make sure he has the parts to get us fixed.

"He won't want to talk to you without orders from the Bill. It's up to you convince him. Tell him it's official--I'm talking to the Bill right now, all we have to do is work out the details. Tell him he'll get his orders"--for an entirely different reason, Nick consulted a chronometer--"in about four hours, and when he does they're going to have emergency priority. If he doesn't fix us and fix us fast, the Bill is going to string his guts from one end of the cruise to the other.

"If he hasn't got the parts, make him scavenge them. Help him of you have to."

Holding Vector's eyes--daring him to refuse--Nick waited for a response.

Vector went on smiling like a man who'd already made the only decision that mattered and had nothing more to say.

"Why do I have to go?" Pup put in with a hint of Mikka's truculence. "I'm just a kid--I'm not going to convince anybody."

Simply to release tension, Lind laughed like a crackle of static.

"Shut up, Ciro," Vector instructed. Ciro was Pup's real name. Vector said it in the same tone he would have used to offer Pup coffee. "This isn't what it looks like. If I'm leaving the ship, I want you with me."
After Mikka, Sib, Vector, and Pup have left Captain's Fancy for Billingate, Nick confers with Liete and leaves for the strongroom to meet the Bill. Nick is relieved that the crewmembers he trusts least are no longer aboard his ship, and he has no intention to allow them back aboard. He feels they will carry out his plans because they won't know what else to do.

While I'd think the crew would be suspicious that Nick is lying to them, especially when he's trying to keep part of his face covered while talking to them, I suppose it's plausible that trusting him has become too ingrained for most of them. It is interesting to me that Nick doesn't seem to fear that Mikka and Vector might find a way to get together while off ship and discuss their next moves.
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Post by StevieG »

This is Nick at his manipulative, base, evil, asshole self. He's clever, no doubt, and he's one-eyed in his quest for revenge. And he's pathetic. He manipulates, he uses, and I get the impression he has no pleasure from his dominance of the weak.

SRD portrays this in a way that continues to make me feel that this is his best work. Amazing stuff.
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Post by StevieG »

Oh, and thank you CH for rescuing this dissection, thanks to my inability to post this. :D

I will redeem myself later in the series!
Hugs and sh!t ~ lucimay

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Post by Cord Hurn »

StevieG wrote:This is Nick at his manipulative, base, evil, asshole self. He's clever, no doubt, and he's one-eyed in his quest for revenge. And he's pathetic. He manipulates, he uses, and I get the impression he has no pleasure from his dominance of the weak.
Yes, it's all about Nick and his wanting revenge upon Sorus and then leaving. And the woman he used to get information could have been informed that the Bill would know she hadn't disabled her own wire. Nick could have spared her the anxiety of anticipating the Bills wrath by telling her that. He risked himself more when he told her he disabled her wire; she will surely relay that to the Bill.

"I get the impression he has no pleasure from his dominance of the weak." It's a damning comment about Nick that this is the most positive thing one can say about him from his behavior in this chapter: he takes no pleasure in being despicable. :read: 8O :?
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Post by Cord Hurn »

StevieG wrote:Oh, and thank you CH for rescuing this dissection, thanks to my inability to post this. :D

I will redeem myself later in the series!
You are quite welcome, and I do look forward to your continued participation! 8)
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