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Chapter Text

The Star Beagle Adventures                                                
Episode 7: The Roundabout
Scene 5: One Big Pile

7.5
One Big Pile

Pel named his new shuttle simply: Pel’s Shuttle. He called in a marker from archeologist Arizona Kind, who was a capable graphic artist, to paint the words (in the Eadh language) “Pel’s Shuttle” along with a quite flattering portrait on the port and starboard sides near the shuttle's bow. Just for fun, Arizona also painted a large mural that wrapped around the stern of the shuttle and covered the rear half of the port and starboard sides with a collage of stylized landscapes from the desert state she had been conceived in and named for. 

This intense decoration made the shuttle look much more high end than it actually was… And the upgrades provided by Nakamura Enterprises - nothing that wasn’t currently available to the local civilizations, but as good as anything the locals might be able to obtain, transformed it into, not a top end shuttle, but more of a jalopy that had been overhauled and souped up to the point of being possibly more valuable than most indigenous shuttlecraft.

The appearance of Pel’s souped up shuttle might not have provided the optimal first impression for the suspicious farmers of Gheethal. Nearly the entire population was heethed, humanoids with skin tones very much like humans, although significantly shorter and much thinner on average.

Their noses were much flatter, with nostrils to the side instead of downward, their eyes somewhat larger and their hair was much more like fur, coming all the way down, covering their foreheads until it joined with very bushy eyebrows. Their ears were reminiscent of cat’s ears, located closer to the top of their heads, moving independently both to catch distant sounds and express emotions.

Of the five major species that made up the Oulheadhry, the heethed were very much the lowest caste. Not that they behaved as if they were - most heethed rejected the caste system imposed by the other species and had, over the decades, proven more than capable of making enough trouble that they were largely left to their own devices and were more tolerated than included within the Oulheadhry social structure. 

The landing of Pel’s Shuttle on the outskirts of the village was met with suspicion. It had been so long since the last shuttle landing that the landing pad had been completely grown over. The sky was dark and cloudy at mid-day and rain had gone from pelting to drizzling before the ferengi businessman exited his craft.

In order to not panic the locals, Pel took only Spike with him to conduct negotiations with the quite suspicious farmers.

The buildings were in bad shape, largely because of the patchy condition of the roofing.The rain was incessant, often torrential, and rather acidic, meaning that without a protective coating, the roofing needed constant replacement. 

On learning that Pel’s Shuttle contained more than enough raw ghoal to repair every roof in the area and still leave quite a bit for trade with other villages, negotiations were abandoned as the villagers came out and rushed the shuttle. None of the villagers attempted to take Pel hostage. Spike’s well-armed and competent appearing presence may have helped dissuade them from any such attempt. The negotiators simply joined the throng rushing toward the shuttle.

It became necessary for the 5 marines who had remained with the shuttle to provide a show of force.

Beam weapons were rare within the Oulheadhry, and were usually only carried by the oules.

Instead of ordering phasers to be set to stun, out of concern that the use of non-lethal force might start a panic, 2nd. Lt. Iov Pushkin instructed his marines to tune their phasers to a very high, tightly focused cutting beam and to clear a circle around the shuttle landing pad, creating a ditch around the pad about 5” wide and nearly a half-meter deep. 

With the incessant rain, it took only seconds for the narrow ditch to become a miniature moat. Pel and Spike stepped across this mini-moat to join the other marines.

“I came to trade with you,” Pel said loudly. “Not to be robbed by you. So I must recommend for your safety that you not cross this line.” He indicated the trench-moat that the marine phasers and the incessant rain had conspired to create around his shuttle.

The villagers reluctantly returned to negotiations, which Pel now required to be conducted outdoors in the rain. A table and chairs were brought to the trench line, a few villagers designated to negotiate on behalf of the village and the shuttle’s navigational deflectors were extended to shield the marines, Pel, and his negotiating partners, from the ever-present rain. 

It took the minuscule ferengi only a few hours of negotiation and the villagers a few hours of heavy labor to exchange the half-load of ghoal in the back of the brightly painted shuttle for a full load of… 

manure…  tons and tons of manure...

None of the marines seemed enthused about getting back into the shuttle for a trip that would take several hours.

It was Spike who put into words the cogent observation that was on all of their minds. She was shaking her head slowly, looking at the new cargo as the villagers finished filling the hold to its limit:

"Now that's one big pile of shit..."

7.5