A Fire Shall Be Woken

Posted on Sun 31st Aug, 2025 @ 12:16pm by Captain Gordon Francis & Criswell Sandbags & Qaraq
Edited on on Sun 31st Aug, 2025 @ 2:07pm

870 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: From The Ashes
Location: Qaraq's Casino, Garden District
Timeline: current

ON

The door to the small supply closet opened and Qaraq charged inside, slamming his captive against the far wall as the door silently slid shut.

“Why are you here?” Qaraq demanded of the man, who looked to be in his early forties, with tattoos on his face that formed a helmet of what appeared to be sharp blades around his head... the mark of the Ravagers.

“I'm here to play blackjack,” said the captive Ravager.

“You came all this way from oppressing my people in the Delavi Expanse to play blackjack at my casino?” Qaraq barked, baring large, sharp teeth that would make a Ferengi jealous.

“You have a problem with that?” the captive asked.

“I'm honored,” Qaraq growled with a clenched jaw. “If you hadn't, I wouldn't have the luxury of watching you die by my hand!”

The Ravager smiled. “I'm not scared of you, Broot!”

Qaraq lunged his horned fist into the captive's stomach. Satisfaction came over the large, blue-skinned Broot as the Ravager's breath expelled from his body.

Qaraq slammed the man against the wall again, drawing the captive's attention away from the pain in his abdomen and back to his intimidating captor. Now Qaraq put his hand around the man's neck.

“You're going to tell me why you're here,” Qaraq said with sheer menace.

As this was happening, the Ravager pulled from his pocket a small, white, polished marble and held it up. Qaraq quickly grabbed the marble with his free hand.

“What is this?” Qaraq demanded. “A poison capsule? You want to die like a coward?”

“Not poison,” said the Ravager with a small smile. “It's a gift I received, from a strange man with a cat...”

“Gary would not betray me!” Qaraq yelled, tightening the grip he held on his captive's neck.

“Not your idiot bartender,” the Ravager coughed.

Qaraq shoved the thought aside. “It doesn't matter,” he said, and he tossed the marble away. It landed on the other side of the room and shattered. A bright, blinding white light surrounded the room, and Qaraq suddenly felt his eyes sting. He clutched them shut and cried out, pushing away from the crafty Ravager, who sank to the floor, his eyes shut the whole time.

Now dizzy, Qaraq fell back and slammed into a large stack of containers that spilled over. Cards and chips went everywhere, and Qaraq landed hard to the ground, face down. For a few moments, neither man moved. The Ravager was the first to stir, and once he'd found his feet, he went for the door.

He nearly made it, but Qaraq's large hand came to life and wrapped itself around the Ravager's ankle. The hand forced the ankle back and into Qaraq's mouth, which bit down on the Achilles tendon, drawing blood and cracking bone and cartilage. The Ravager screamed and fell over. Qaraq summoned all his strength to pounce forward and wrap his arm around the weakened man's neck. Within seconds, Qaraq felt the Ravager's upper spine twist and break in his hands.

Qaraq threw the body down and calmly collected himself. He made for the door.

Not surprisingly, the door swished open and revealed the slight figure of Qaraq's senior assistant, Criswell Sandbags, who must have been guarding the door the whole time. Criswell's eyes widened as he saw his boss and friend haggardly saunter to him.

Qaraq steadied himself on the wall. “Did you hear any of that?”

“Everything,” Criswell replied with a nod. Qaraq nodded back.

“Good,” he said, knowing he could trust his assistant to keep things quiet. “There's a dead man in there.”

“I will take care of it,” Criswell responded.

“Thank you,” Qaraq exhaled. He didn't even want to know how Criswell would handle it. The man had many talents. “I'll be at the bar.”

As Qaraq left the mess to his assistant's capable hands, he was lost in thought. This was the first Ravager he had seen on Starbase 109. Ravagers had raided his casinos before, but only back on Delavi, Qaraq's home world. Qaraq knew the businesses he owned on the starbase would be of no interest to the Ravagers. This man's purpose here must have been to watch Qaraq himself. How long had the man been there? A day? A month? Now Qaraq would never know. But one thing was clear to him...

The Ravagers were coming.

*****

As Criswell entered the messy closet and bent down to examine the newly-deceased, he couldn't help but wonder what the mysterious object had been. He hadn't seen it, but he surmised it must have been an intricate piece of foreign technology. What did the Ravager mean referring to an “idiot bartender?” Criswell made the educated guess that he meant Gary Thirteen, who was “a strange man with a cat.” Criswell also knew Gary and his feline pal to be time travelers. Did the Ravager obtain this mysterious tech from another time traveler?

The whole thing hurt Criswell's pride. He was used to knowing everything. Information was his biggest commerce. Not knowing something felt foreign to him, and he didn't like it. Were the time travelers working with the Ravagers now?

What was clear to Criswell was he needed to know more.

OFF

 

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