Girls Night Out IV: Spoils & Shares

Posted on Thu Apr 26th, 2018 @ 8:08pm by Captain Charybdis MacGregor & Commander Fiona McCray & Commander Yuna Raza & Lieutenant Commander Selune
Edited on on Thu Apr 26th, 2018 @ 8:08pm

0 words; about a 1 minute read

Mission: Operation: Risa!
Location: Risa, Roma Arcology
Timeline: 2265

Treasure: From Fedepedia, the Federation encyclopedia

Treasure (from Greek - thsauros, meaning "treasure store", romanized as thesaurus) is a concentration of riches, often one which is considered lost or forgotten until being rediscovered. Some jurisdictions legally define what constitutes treasure, such as in the British Treasure Act 1996. The phrase "blood and treasure" or "lives and treasure" has been used to refer to the living and monetary costs associated with various (usually nation-state/state-initiated) endeavors such as space exploration or war.

"YUNNNNAAAAAAA come out! Lemme see what ya'v poot on!" The engineer had just enough alcohol in her system to be a little giddy, and the renegade Romulan playing hostess found herself giggling along with the tiny tipsy terror. Chocolate was indeed a wonderful thing.

Fiona pushed the bowl full of berries over towards Selune. "Candy, little girl?"

Biting her finger Selune considered the bowl with her fullest attention, "Well... maybe. Wait. Did you just call me little girl? That's hardly fair... I'm not that little, am I? Wait... am I?" she stammered, looking up into Fi's eyes with a slightly panicked expression.

"She means it as a term of endearment Selune..." Char chimed in. "She's called me that at least once, and I'm bigger than two of you combined. It's just something you say to a dear friend, that's all... right Fi?"

"Absolutely" Fiona said with a grin. "I call you little because you're younger than I am and as the resident ancient one I am allowed ta."

Yuna came up behind Fi and tapped her on the shoulder.

"Gahhh!!!" Fi startled then said, "Don't DO that," amidst general laughter. She turned around and looked over the scantily-clad Trill.

"Enjoyin' yourself there lassie?" Yuna put on the worst highland accent she could possibly manage. "What do you think?"

"Aye... there's a bathtub an it's really big!" Fiona said happily then wrinkled her nose. "I think that has to be one of tha' worst Scottish accents I've heard in ages! Strawberry?" she offered.

Fiona cocked her head as Yuna accepted a strawberry, and she looked over Yuna's choice of garb. "You look mooch better in thet than I did in the store," she said approvingly.

"You've never worn it?" Yuna asked, raising an eyebrow. "Seriously?!?"

"Seriously," Fiona said with a shrug. "I've joost nivver had a place or occasion, and well, once I bought it and got et beck tae tha ship I didn't like it as mooch as I thought I did. Any oov tha bits with tags are like thet. Buy it on leave, then shove it in a closet."

"Well, that is certainly an unusual theory... but for now how about we go add to that pile. I have..." Charybdis pulled out a collection of datacards- two red and one yellow- from somewhere in her top, "some credits that could well be spent. And with that in mind, I'm certain there are lots of places to take them, and lots of pretty items we could be trying on or buying or... well, come onnnnnn, let's go shoppinnnnnng!" The science officer was practically bouncing in her seat as she whined at her friends.

"Geez, someone's a bit eager" Yuna snorted, grabbing another strawberry and popping it into her mouth, followed by a slurp of Spumanti. Ahh, this was indeed the life.

A number of responses occurred to her, but Char reigned them in and calmed herself. "Well, if you would rather just stay up here and enjoy the suite you are welcome to do so Yuna... I guess I can spend your share..." she said as she rose smoothly off the divan and began making her way slowly and gracefully for the lift, picking up her key from an end table as she went.

"Share? did someone say share? What share?" Fiona hopped up and shouldered her bag grabbing another sandwich to munch as they walked " C'mon Dottie, Pretty Kitteh, lets go before she gets too far ahead oov us!"

"And tell me my dear, how are you intending on sharing my credits without my thumbprint?" Yuna inquired, raising an eyebrow and planting a hand on her spotted hip.

The curvaceous commander stopped, turned slowly as a sweet and innocent smile spread across her face. Obviously she was winding up for a tale. "Well... you see..."

"It turns out that the Surok was not equipped to carry nearly the same amount of cargo as the Bonne Chance... so while the contents of the vault were duly catalogued, recorded and turned over to Starfleet, the vault itself was left to us to deal with. As the captain was still gone, it fell to me to handle the initial inventory and scans, and afterward he just signed off on my report and ordered me to deal with the disposition of the vault itself."

"Now here's the interesting part," she said with one raised eyebrow, an upraised index finger and a lopsided grin.

"You see, apparently Admiral Thog was so remarkably paranoid, he actually incorporated gold-pressed Latinum into the door of the vault itself, so that no one would be able to steal it without spending hours cutting it out of the bars of the locking mechanism. Perhaps days, and that would only be applicable if they knew the fortune was there. Even then they would run the risk of piercing the gold bars and destroying the Latinum with the cutting torch."

"That is, unless they had the scanners of a Constitution-class starship at their command to detect the anomaly, isolate it, run all of the necessary calculations to define the parameters, program those parameters into the transporters and beam them out of the bars of the mechanism without disrupting the gold covering of the Latinum. It would take someone exceptionally motivated, quite skilled and rather devious."

Charybdis paused to look remarkably pleased with herself.

Selune was shaking her head as she padded across the room with a barely controlled grin while she tried to look abashed for the commander... after all, SOMEONE had to.

"Tell me again what this has to do with sharing my credits?" Yuna looked as confused as all hell.

Fiona was laughing. "Actually... I think what she's sayin is thet this shore leave is on Admiral Thog!"

The sultry scientist put one hand on her hip and another in the air, and looked (if possible) even more smug. "Our vacation, Patrick's vacation, a load of shopping and a night out that should rival the orgies of Rome... are ALL on Admiral Thog. I did my duty... I followed orders and disposed of the vault. And in doing so I made a discovery that came after the fact- too late to include in the report, and it would have simply been deposited in a passing star as most debris tends to be... so this is... I believe the phrase is... 'found money'?"

"So you see, Celes... 'your' credits are still yours. This is 'booty' that I earmarked for you to enjoy because you work hard and it is the firmly held opinion of your ship's first officer that you should be shown some appreciation for it." The severely arched eyebrows softened and she smiled gently at the surly Trill.

Yuna was torn between the fact that the money wasn't ENTIRELY legit... and the fact she just wanted to roll around in credits until her spots changed colour.

"Are you sure we're not gonna get caught on this...?" she asked, not wanting to spoil the good mood.

The scientist stepped forward and gently placed her hand on Yuna's shoulder. "Yes. I am absolutely one hundred percent certain that we are not going to get caught. I followed orders. The circumstances were legal. It was a last-minute discovery. It was neither premeditated nor was it a conspiracy. And the captain likely is oblivious but even if he knows he'll cover for us if anyone makes an inquiry. Which nobody will, because why would they, because none of us are going to say anything, so why should anyone suspect anything from four Starfleet officers on Risa just having a good time together. Right?" That last bit was all spoken remarkably quickly, but it didn't get past Yuna.

"Char... if we get caught... your... ass... is... grass...!" Yuna said very slowly, exaggerating each and every word.

"Well, I think pretty much the only way that we could possibly get caught at this point would be if the Chief of Security of the Bonne Chance were to launch an investigation into just where the Chief Science Officer came up with a seemingly inordinate amount of untraceable funds for a Risan vacation." Charybdis had a new look on her face as she stepped slightly closer to the Trill... it was an expression she'd not particularly demonstrated before, and Yuna noted it. She'd seen it before on the faces of criminals who knew they were going to walk free. "So should that occur, ideally it would come down to Security's ability to prove their case according to things like sensor logs, transporter logs and physical evidence... correct?"

"You're calling my bluff... damn you!" Yuna retorted, grabbing Char's wrist and giving it a tap. "There's your smack on the wrist... now behave!"

"No no no... behave once yer on duty," Fiona amended with a laugh. "Somehow I dinna think the transporter records will show anythin' amiss..."

"Score one for the amazing Engineer... quite so, Lieutenant McCray. I covered my tracks rather thoroughly... because I've no desire to endanger any of you by making you potential accomplices to what someone might attempt to interpret as a theoretical crime. So," she smiled at Yuna, a genuine and warm smile.

"Yes. I am duly chastised for being naughty. Can we go shopping now?"

Fiona snagged both red cards. "Of course... if you don't want yours..." She waggled the spare at Yuna. "On Earth we had tha law o' tha sea an' there were rules about found treasure. Waste not... want not."

"Wasn't it something like 'plunder the sea, me hearties'?" Yuna scored one of the cards and stashed it down her bikini top. "There... safe keeping"

"Tomato, tahmahtto!" Fi said primly and sashayed into the lift. "Well... you coming, Greenie?" she motioned for the others to come along. "Adonis is waiting!"

"And so are the merchants of Rome!" chimed in Selune.

"And so is someone else's credit... not that I'll mention that of course" Yuna couldn't help but adding the last word on that particular argument.

Fiona put an arm around the two closest of her companions and said, "Tell me, hae ye ever heard the story ov Robin Hood?"

"Steal from the rich and give to the poor - yeah, its the basis of one of our subjects in security training," Yuna nodded in understanding. "Hang on, we're the rich bastards!"

"No, we are the distribution point to the poor." Fiona could rationalize anything... after all, she was the youngest child from a large family.

"Pffft... we're paying through the nose for touristy overpriced stuff," Yuna scoffed, "But hey, the money's not ours to start off with so who cares!" Celes admonished.

Fiona poked a button on the lift. "Jay-sus... you are sooch a cop!"

"Well it IS my job... you can take the cop out of the job, but you can't take the cop out of the person - or something like that," Yuna giggled as she leaned against the glass wall of the private lift.

Selune quietly laughed at the two of them, "If anyone asks, I'm telling them you're both crazy."

Internally Char breathed a sigh of relief. She had known that sooner or later Yuna's suspicious nature would come into play and that she would want to know just how this all was being paid for. And while she still had a few more lines of logic to use, she was glad to see it hadn't come to using them... instead Yuna had made the choice to accept it and move on. A good sign, she thought.

Bonding indeed, so far, so good...

 

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