captain's log | video

[goldshirt]

[the video clicks on to Kirk standing in the armory, communicator held level with his face. his expression, though not hostile, certainly holds something unyielding in it. right now, Jim is every bit a starship captain, ready to go to bat for his ship. even if this ship wasn't theirs, as the pirates have been so quick to declare, it was the place they were forced to call home. they have enough trouble as it is without these guys coming in and thinking they can take whatever the want, and to Kirk- the people on this ship might as well be his own. they haven't heard from Ward or Resnik, last they'd heard they were missing. The pirates have said otherwise, but considering their line of work Jim isn't inclined to believe much of what they say.]

Captain Laurens, my name is Jim Kirk.

I'm sure you've noticed the people of this ship don't take being boarded and threatened lightly. We know why you're here, but we can't allow you to clear out our stores when we need them ourselves. I think we both want to avoid as much bloodshed as possible. I'm inviting you to come forward for negotiations.

[he's aware it's a long shot, that these guys aren't going to want to negotiate, but half of this is for Kirk to find out first hand out how they'll respond and where their movements might take them. They need to take back the ship and to do that, they need to find out where those pirates are. The pings he sends out don't ask for a response, but their meaning is clear: report in, we're going to move out.]

PING :: ENTERPRISE ENCRYPTION :: ALERT

PING :: GUNNERY ENCRYPTION :: ALERT

Comments

voice; encrypted

[inwents]

Captain, I do not think they are wery interested in diplomacy.

voice; encrypted

[goldshirt]

No, I don't expect that they are.

STARFLEET ENCRYPTIONS.

[leaps]

Nathan Petrelli offered negotiations and compromise. They laughed in his face.

[ texting is a waste right now, sulu trying to conserve his hands for the moment. his voice is far away, a little muffled, punctuated by the occasional clang. ]

no encryptions

[brawled]

We didn't laugh at him, come on now. You're not helping our reputation any.

STARFLEET ENCRYPTIONS.

[goldshirt]

It doesn't hurt to try one more time.

[there's more to it than that, of course, but he doesn't make it sound like there is]

voice

[brawled]

Gunnery and Enterprise, huh? You seem like a busy guy, Jim Kirk.

But you should listen to your friends-- we talked to your captain and he already tried telling us all the right lies, so now we can get back to business.

You and yours stay away from me and mine, or we will protect ourselves.

voice

[goldshirt]

I like to keep track of my people, just like you do.

[because he already knew you were going to peek in on that little alert]

You've already failed to stay away from ours, that isn't on the table. What lies did the captain tell you? That we didn have what you wanted?

audio » gunnery encryption

[widowing]

The encryptions are a waste of time, but you've probably discovered that by now.

audio » gunnery encryption

[goldshirt]

Got your attention didn't I?

(encrypted)

[carbonite]

Shoot them.

(encrypted)

[goldshirt]

Yes, you've made your opinion clear, Solo.

[voice]

[jurisimpudent]

If you go, sir, it will be under guard. Agreed?

[voice]

[goldshirt]

I've got the gunnery at my back.

[but its more than that, and if it went sideways he'd need all of security to come after. taking any of them wasn't an option. the needs of the many outweighed the needs of the few]

[withlace]

If we offer any more invitations, they're going to ask if we can hold their next slumber party.

[goldshirt]

No party crashers allowed at my slumber parties.

[majestyofthethrone]

Are you going to fix this?

[goldshirt]

Yes.

[or die trying.]

[forcing]

[The video clicks on, but Laurens doesn't say anything immediately. Just looks at the camera silently for a while. But it isn't consideration, or uncertainty. He just doesn't feel rushed.]

No.

[goldshirt]

And why wouldn't you?

text.

[incubo]

no ones gonna be pissed at me if i eat them right?
i mean at this point if they approach its pretty clear theyre not friendly
huge pile of dicks actually and normally i like that in a biped

[maneuver]

You want to eat us? What the fuck is wrong with you people?

voice

[transwarped]

[Guess who has two hands and is too busy for video or bothering with encryptions that are going to get hacked because he's setting traps in the engine room. That's right, it's this guy. But there was a ping, only right to respond.]

Aye.

voice

[goldshirt]

How's it going down there, Scotty?

[he trusts it's going well enough, but he's wondering if there have been any sightings down there]

voice

[elvenking]

Mae garnen. [He doesn't care if Kirk doesn't know what it means yet. He'll tell him later, or the kid can look it up. But he's proud of him, taking the role of the generous benefactor rather than the political equal. Equal negotiations with criminals is foolish. But to take charge and offer mercy either shows power or feigns overconfidence, both of which are useful impressions to give. Much better delivery than the hot air others have been blowing at these guys, too. It might serve to lure them out, if only to lord their obvious power over these squatting upstarts.] You would serve as quite the diplomat, Jim Kirk. It is not your fault they do not listen.

voice

[goldshirt]

I've always been told I'm too much of a hot head.

[but he'd be lying if he wasn't a little pleased; outside of debates in the Academy, he hasn't had much chance to exercise those muscles. Nero didn't count, if not only because that situation was essentially the same as this one.

minus the black hole.]

[bailedontheempire]

It's a worthwhile effort, at any rate.

[goldshirt]

If there's a diplomatic way out of this, I'd rather take it.

[and it's true. as gung-ho as Kirk is about getting out there and ruffling feathers, he doesn't want death. he doesn't strive for it. battles were exciting, but he'd had enough death to last him a lifetime with the Battle of Vulcan.]

voice »

[surrogates]

[ not even going to bother with that encryption, because yeah, he kind of noticed the whole breaking and entering thing with them. ]

There's typically a time when negotiations don't work.

[ he's just saying they may have reached that point by now. ]

voice »

[goldshirt]

If at first you don't succeed...

[he trails off, because Jim knows first hand that there's a time and a place. knows that he probably sounds crazy, since this post is at least a day after people have given up on it.

but Jim was pretty good at getting people to think one thing when another was entirely true.]

[northerner]

Ironborn do not treat, Jim Kirk. They've declined our every offer and even now, they take what they please. The time for such offers has passed.

[goldshirt]

I had to try.

voice;

[staytofight]

... I commend you for trying. And I say that with no sarcasm, either--these men out there, most of them are just bumbling idiots who've probably heard a boy cry wolf too many times to listen.

Even so, I don't see why there's no reason to keep the line open for discussion.

[Garrett's not an idiot. He can tell these 'pirates' are hardly chaotic devils of deep space; you'd just have to listen to them for five seconds to gather that. Well, for some of them, anyway. The captain, he has his reservations on.

Granted, if he ran across any of these men and they fired at him, he would tear their arms off possibly before sucking them dry of blood, but.

Still.

Good vs. evil, this is not. If they got new crew from it, he'd play nice and think it was even a promising idea. If not, he had an excuse to feed for once, without worrying about the ship burning him at the stake.]

voice;

[goldshirt]

I don't see a reason for more death if it's at all avoidable. A willingness to try is all I'm asking.

[and it sounds convincing, and Kirk would agree. undoubtedly the captain has firm control over those 'bumbling idiots'. even a single conversation with him makes it clear he's a cut above them. however, that isn't always a good thing.]

It'll be unfortunate if they decline again.

[but not for the crew of this ship]

voice;

[effusive]

Now, if only they would listen. [ Even Elena's compassion is wearing thin. ] I think we need a Plan B.

voice;

[goldshirt]

They've underestimated our number. I didn't want to resort to Plan B.

voice;

[linguistician]

Was that really necessary, Captain?

[This is just her checking in, because why beat a dead horse when they all already know the score? She just, you know, thinks there were smarter ways of getting their attention. And if they're going to be able to see this whether or not she encrypts this, she's not actually going to offer anything constructive]

voice;

[goldshirt]

This was their last chance. I had to do something.

[it was more than tensions rising; these pirates were convinced, now, that this ship was in chaos, that nobody could work together. that they were easy pickings.

it would make what they'd planned to do flawlessly easy, and when they found that shuttle bay, they'd have to answer to more than what they bargained for.

this was more cut throat than what Jim had been taught to do, but it isn't something he can dwell on right now. this ship and it's people were priority, and if these pirates weren't going to back off—

well, it was already too late for them.]

voice|

[firstofficer]

They certainly appear confident for their lack of number.

voice|

[goldshirt]

[that's exactly what Jim was thinking; more bark then bite when it came to what they made it sound like they had. he's only seen a few on the network, and they hadn't run into them much in the halls. if there were more of them, all of this posturing wouldn't be necessary.

but even if they were more numerous, this would be an easy bluff.]

That's why I wanted to try one last time, before things got ugly.