A Man About Town

Posted on Thu 16th Apr, 2020 @ 2:50am by Li Kainon

1,373 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Resolution
Location: Brown Sector
Timeline: MD 4 - 1100

Kainon stood on a ladder overlooking the main thoroughfare of the market, screwdriver in hand while he tried to finish affixing the large lamp to the front of a shop. They'd already installed several other lights during the morning, each one designed to mimic natural sunlight, so that maybe they'd be able to go easier on some of the vitamins. Most people didn't know where exactly the lights had been obtained from, only that it came from somebody Kainon trusted when they said they weren't going to be looked for down the road. Most every residential area on the Starbase possessed similar lights, designed to keep people healthy despite spending months or even years inside of a sterile Starbase, but the Brown Sector hadn't been designed for that. It was a largely utilitarian set of decks turned into a makeshift residential area that had escaped most people's notice ever since.

The ladder wobbled under Kainon and he swore under his breath, looking down to find the shop owner, Calvin Jenson, was busy chatting with a woman who certainly wasn't his wife, instead of holding the ladder Kainon was on. "Calvin. Hey, Calvin, buddy?"

Calvin was smiling as he looked up at Kainon. "Yeah, Kai?"

"Hi. How are you doing?"

"Good." Calvin's smile faltered as he realized he was busted. Reaching out as if it were a casual break, he gripped the ladder's legs again. "How are you?"

"Oh, peachy, Calvin." He nodded at the girl Calvin had been chatting up. It took him a second to realize it was Grem, who was working at her mother's shop down the way. She was a pretty Bajoran girl with blond hair coiled in a braid around her head. "Hey, Grem," he said more warmly. "How's your mom?"

"Good, Sheriff," she replied. "She's got your pants ready."

"That's great. Let her know I'll be there in a little bit to pick them up." Grem nodded, waved at Calvin and headed back towards her mother's shop. "Best seamstresses in the Sector," Kainon said.

"Yeah, they are. Grem really--"

"Hey, Calvin? If I fall off this ladder because you're hitting on teenagers, I'm going to be upset."

Calvin turned red. "I wasn't! That's not what was happening. I was going to have a new shirt made for Maura."

"Oh, that's good. Yeah, definitely. Do that. I'll let Grem's mom know, and I'll pick it up for you when it's ready." He turned back to securing the light while Calvin grumbled. When the light was affixed, Kainon climbed down off the ladder to look at his handiwork. When he was satisfied, he fished an ancient PADD out of the battered leather knapsack he wore around his shoulder, and worked on connecting it to the rudimentary grid they had set up in the Brown Sector. The power was supplied by Starfleet, of course, and any power supply had to be carefully regulated or else Starfleet would take notice of the power spike and check it out. The last thing any of them really wanted was Starfleet traipsing down here trying to help. "Come on, you piece of--" He finally connected the lamp into the system, and it flicked to life, connecting to the environmental controls so that they'd turn off after daytime. Kainon smiled up at his lamp, blazing bright, warm sunlight down on the market. "That looks great."

"It looks crooked," Calvin replied.

Kainon looked at Calvin. "It doesn't look crooked. I measured, I leveled, I did everything I did with the other three." He gestured down the corridor where the lamps were set up at regular intervals.

Calvin looked down the narrow, twisty pathway that led down the center of the market and shook his head. "Those look a little crooked, too."

"Maybe I should delegate the job to somebody with a better eye, Calvin."

"No," Calvin said, shaking his head. "You know, I think it's...my leg. My leg is doing that." He shook his left leg. "It fell asleep. I locked my knees when I was holding the ladder. You're not supposed to lock your knees."

"That's what I hear. They look good?"

"Great," Calvin said, sauntering back into his little repair shop, with a pronounced limp of his right leg. "It looks great."

Kainon said, "Other leg, Calvin." Calvin switched the limp to his left leg and went inside. Kainon shook his head, and gathered the ladder he'd been climbing on before heading back down the market. Shop owners smiled at him and waved, some shook his hand. Kainon smiled back, heading towards the small office space reserved for the sheriff's use not far from the marketplace. It was a little converted store room that had been turned into a living quarters and office space for the sheriff. That was one of the perks of the job, you got a spot for free rent. Only problem was, everybody always knew where to find you. Kainon stored the ladder in a platform just outside the shop and went inside to find his half-sister Karina inside. She was a little taller than him, slim and younger by almost ten years. Her human half had softened the ridges on her nose that were more pronounced on his. She wore a pair of dark gray cargo pants and a blue, long-sleeved tunic. She was on of his three deputies, and they never had settled on any kind of uniform. They talked about uniforms or badges sometimes, but it seemed like it was courting danger. If the Federation got wind that a refugee camp on a Starbase had established civilian governance and enforcement independent of Starfleet, they might decide to push their way in. Carina asked, "Playing repairman?"

"Maintenance. I'm a man of many skills. Am I just a sheriff? No. Am I just a computer wizard? No. The most eligible bachelor in the Sector? No. I'm all of this and more."

"Oh, Prophets, I'm going to die," Carina said.

"What are you doing sitting around the office like a toad, anyway?"

"Have you ever seen a toad?"

"Yes." He looked directly at her.

"Great. I came to ask if you knew anything about the new clinics."

"New clinics? Like, plural, clinics?"

Carina nodded. "Two of them. One's being run by a couple Romulans and one's run by a human. They say the Romulans helped out Alsina Temsalvi when she had the baby. The human helped Inje Ebu."

"Ebu." Kainon shook his head. The Injes were in bad shape, more than even most around here. Poverty and education both struggled here, even though they had schools, they could only do so much. Kainon was lucky when he was growing up that there were fresh refugees from the colony who could teach him more about life outside the Sector, but not everybody could be so lucky. Inje Ebu's mother struggled with the sickly boy for a long time. "I'm guessing these doctors are new around here?"

"Yeah. Never saw them before. I figured you'd want to say hello."

"You figured right, sis. Where are they at?" Carina gave him the directions and Kainon started out. "One more thing," she said. "Busy day today. I saw Gideon Lucas today. I think."

Kainon stopped in the door way of the office. "Gideon Lucas? He's been gone for years." He remembered the man from the smuggler's years, from the gang fighting that happened during that time. He'd come as a refugee like anybody else, but staying in the Sector had never been his plan. In his memory, Kainon could still see him. A few years older than him, tall and burly, pale blue eyes, a thin smile. His mother died after he left, and nobody figured they'd ever see him again.

"I know. I just saw him for a second. I think it was him. I'm pretty sure."

Kainon chewed on his bottom lip for a second, then shrugged. "We'll deal with that if it comes to it. Maybe you just saw an ugly ghost. I'll go see about these clinics first." Kainon ducked back out into the narrow maze of passages that made up the Brown Sector, moving through them with practiced ease. It was his home, after all, and always had been.

 

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