Wednesday, July 17th, 2261, 23:30. Tau Ceti System. Easter Station, West Detention Center
It had not been a good day. John found himself in a gray-colored room containing six multi-person cells. The first one on the right-hand side held six gang members that looked like they were sent through a blender. They were loudly arguing with one another.
“I’m still fucking pissing blood. I need to get my nuts checked out again,” the fat gang member yelled.
“Boss, why the hell did you pick a fight with him a second time? You knew what he could do, and he had more guys this time.”
“Stop complaining about that shit. It’s your fault that you let him kick you there,” their gang leader said.
Across the hallway from them was another cell but this one was filled with six Naval officers. John was stewing in the center eyeing the gang members down, though none wanted to lock eyes with him. He hadn’t bothered to clean up the dried blood from a bloody nose and bore several bruises on his face. The girls were staring daggers at Billy. The pair of marines looked annoyed yet were oddly interested in this course of events.
“Why the fuck are we in here?” Billy asked.
Beth was rocking back and forth and the end of the bench, “We’re here because you couldn’t keep your fucking mouth shut. John said he’d handle it.”
“But it’s not my fault,” Billy pleaded.
Eileen snapped back, “We’re here because you guys picked a god damned fight. We had nothing at all to do with it.”
Billy fought back, “Technically John picked it and just waited for them to throw the first punch. And he did most of the work. You guys only got involved because they tried to hit you.”
Ana jumped off her bench and slammed the wall above Billy’s head, “What is wrong with your dumb mouth? Why did you keep on talking?”
“I thought I had it under fucking control,” Billy continued to plead his case.
“Derek and I were literally walking by. We are actually legit innocent,” Elvis sighed as he sighed, “First time getting scooped up for a fight that we actually didn’t take part in.”
Derek laughed, “Not going to lie, this is the funniest shit to happen to me this week. Seriously disappointed to have not been in a fight though. Sirs.”
John finally spoke, “Billy, when I say, ‘let me handle it.’ Especially when it comes to legal matters or talking with the fucking police. I fucking mean it. You need to shut up and apologize to everyone else here. You antagonized a shitty cop for no good reason.”
“What is going to happen to my record?” Beth buried her head in her knees and continues to rock back and forth.
“I’m all ears, John,” Eileen said.
“Nothing. Our arrest was not by the books. If one of the officers bothered to come back here, I could get us out of here,” John then pulled his tablet out of his pocket.
“They took mine, why do you have yours?” Derek was very surprised as he looked at John.
“They were more interested in arresting us quickly and did a piss poor job of searching me. Inspecting my person was not done apparently. Bunch of fucking amateurs.”
Billy then blurted out, “So is now a bad time to ask about that royal message we got the other day?”
“What message?” Beth asked.
“The royal family sent John a message. His response was not at all what I expected.”
“What do you mean?” Eileen was scowling at Billy.
“I saved someone’s life and they are now infatuated with me,” John said as he stood up and walked to the door.
He kicked it suddenly, which surprised the gang members more than the officers in the other room. It did however generate the response John wanted from their jailers. Two men ran down the hallway and looked inside the cell.
“For fucks sake, finally,” John shook his head as he hid the tablet under his shirt, “Y’all know you’re supposed to have a visual inspection by an officer every fifteen minutes, right? Also, we weren’t properly detained much less arrested. You’d be wise to let us out.”
“We’re still investigating…” one of the constables began saying before he spoke.
“Hey assholes, I’m aware of that, the problem though is you’re not allowed to put us in a detention center straight away. Question rooms are acceptable but not here. I can think of at least twenty cases, with the Hernandez case being the most recent one, that got charges tossed. You’re also detaining Naval personnel without giving us proper representation. That’s also not swell. Would you care for me to explain the station regs and Naval agreements that require this?”
The two constables looked at one another. Neither one appeared sure of themselves. One of them walked down the hallway and spoke into his communication device. The response back made him throw his hands out. His resulting question back to central command was loud enough for John to hear.
“They are fucking Naval officers you idiot. Why the hell did the arresting officer not verify that? They can’t be in here anymore.”
The man shook his head with whatever it was said.
“Look, get the release papers written up. And expunge the arrest. I am not taking the fall for this bullshit,” the man turned to the other constable, “Get ‘em out now.”
The cell door then opened slowly. A very smug-looking John, quite possibly the smuggest he’s ever looked, then walked out and completely ignored the constable at the door. The others in their cell followed suit.
One of the gang members stood up and shouted at the guard, “He beats us to a fucking pulp and you’re letting him go?”
“Shut up punk,” the constable pulled out his nightstick and struck the man’s arm that was pushed three the cell’s bars, “If you’re itching for an ass-kicking keep it up.”
“Should’ve listened to my advice dumbass,” John said mockingly as he continued to walk towards the exit.
He waved without looking behind him. John then rudely brushed up against the other constable that was holding the exit door open for them. The constable grunted and stared at John as he walked into the booking room.
A young lady sitting behind the desk waved them over and began transferring the two orders to their tablets. Behind her desk, there were floor-to-ceiling windows separating this room and where the investigative officers had their desks. John could see the first item on her screen was an order of release and the second was an expungement of their arrest.
John smirked when he saw the arresting slam his fists onto his desk in the adjoined office. Two other officers were trying to calm him down. The pissed-off officer looked up and locked eyes with John. That didn’t help his mood any as John was smirking and blew a mock kiss and waved at him like a debutante at a ball would. That shifted into giving him the finger and mouthing ‘fuck off’ to him.
That last bit was too much for their arresting officer. He bolted out of his desk and ran to the door, which he bolted through. He reached out and grabbed John’s shirt. Officer or not, that wasn’t allowed, and the officer had no clue who he was dealing with.
John was not in the mood for games either, in fact, he was still itching for a fight. He quickly grabbed the officer’s arm and used their momentum against them. He stepped into the man and dropped down a bit and put his shoulder into his stomach. Then pulled on his arm and stood up slightly.
While the officer surely didn’t intend to look graceful in being flung over John, that is exactly what it looked like to the outsiders. And yet, it struck them that the scenario they were witnessing was just absurd. Cops weren’t supposed to be accosted by anyone, doubly so in their own precinct. The graceful motion ended quickly when his legs hit the floor. John slid down to his knees and twisted the man’s arm behind his back. They were momentarily stunned into not acting.
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“Flinch and I’m pulling this out of its socket you fucking idiot,” John hissed then pointed at the other investigators that were piling into the room, “Fall back. He attacked me.”
The captain of the precinct was the last to enter the room, “Enough with the theatrics. You’re going to release my man otherwise you’re going to go back in that cell.”
John stood up over the man and kicked his ribs before letting go of his arm. He stood up and walked toward the gaggle of officers. The calm and collected John that the other crewmen had gotten to know rather well was now witnessing the other side of John. That simmering fury that was always ever brewing beneath the surface. It just waited or itched, for moments like this to erupt.
“If you know what’s good for the department you’re going to arrest the dipshit on the ground over there for assault,” John said in a raspy tone.
“And if I don’t?” the captain chuckled smugly.
John pulled out his tablet and clicked a few buttons on it. The captain looked down but couldn’t get a great look at the screen. But the part he did see was oddly familiar.
“You think Naval Intelligence doesn’t have records of all the bribes you and some of your crooked cops take,” John leaned in and whispered, “How about the account of yours that ends in three-bravo-nine-nine.”
John held up the tablet in front of the captain. His smugness disappeared; his slush fund appeared in front of him. The account was under an assumed name and all of the money was fully cleaned and ready to use without issue. Then he noticed the amount drop by about ten percent.
“Tic-Toc. Keep it up and you won’t have any of this left. I know you aren’t going to do anything about what may have just happened,” a devilish grin appeared on John’s face, “Time's wasting you motherfucker. Look at that, thirty percent is now gone.”
“Arrest Jared for attempted assault,” the captain said angrily, “And get these naval folks the hell out of here. I don’t want to see them again.”
John blew a kiss to the captain and flicked him off as he walked out of the precinct’s building. Eileen and Beth were having a hard time processing what they saw, but both punched Billy in the shoulder as they got to the intersection in the walkway. The marines were smiling.
“Oorah sir, thanks for getting us out of that,” Elvis said as he saluted John.
John nodded and shook both of the crewmen’s hands, “I’m sorry you got wrapped up in this bullshit, you shouldn’t have been in there with us.”
“Kinda turned into a hell of a story. And man, that throw,” Derek began laughing, “Fuckin’ perfect. Elvis, let’s go get drunk and make up for the lost time.”
The crewmen turned and walked into the commercial district. John had his hands on his hips and was shaking his head. He turned to see the two girls ripping into Billy.
“How was I supposed to know they were crooked?” Billy shouted.
John walked up to him and poked his chest, “Because you don’t fucking listen. None of you grew up or worked in the grimy underbelly of shitholes. I did. I know how shit like this works. It was patently obvious to me that the local gang had officers on their payroll. But nooooo, I have to run my fucking mouth off to a cop. Fucking smart plan, especially the part where the cop was crooked.”
“Where are you going, sir?” Beth asked.
“Back to my hotel room to sleep this off. I’m sure my wife will love to hear that her husband got arrested again under bullshit reasons in the morning. I’ve already notified Hugo of our unlawful detainer.”
Eileen sighed, “Did you at least add that Billy was being a dumbass?”
“Do you think Hugo doesn’t know that already?” John rolled his eyes, “Of course, I added Billy’s idiocy led to this.”
Billy spread his arms out and scrunched up his face, “I’m right here you know.”
“Learn from this. Less is more,” John said as he turned to walk to his hotel, “See ya back on the boat.”
Thursday. 07:00 Ritz Carlton Hotel
John woke up to an irritating alarm. He rolled over to slam the little object to shut it off. The covers were pushed off him as he slid out of bed. The curtains began to open automatically as he began to stretch. His routine was interrupted by an inbound communication request.
“Accept,” John said as he looked back at the screen in the middle of the room.
Alice had what could be best described as a quizzical look combined with moderate disgust, “Tell me why again you were arrested and locked up for six hours yesterday? That ‘minor’ detail was glossed over.”
“Oh, yeah. I did leave that out,” John said as he continued with his stretching.
“You are literally being an ass by not answering that and only showing me your ass.”
John laughed, “You did call me when I just woke up. You remember how Andern couldn’t shut the hell up sometime?”
“I do.”
“Well, Billy is not that dissimilar from him. Though I would say he has far less sense and situational awareness than thankfully Andern possessed.”
“Ok, he ran his mouth off. Why did he run his mouth off to a cop?”
“Well, when I got off the ship the Psi-Corp agent wanted to chat over dinner,” John paused, “I made it abundantly clear that I was married many many times.”
“John, you are dangerously close to pissing me off,” Alice’s visage shifted to one that didn’t want to brook any more bullshit from him.
“Ok ok, sorry,” John stopped stretching and gestured his bad, “I saw some crewmen getting scammed. I gave the gang members a chance to do the right thing.”
“Please tell me you didn’t kill anyone,” Alice was shaking her head as she took a sip of coffee.
“I knocked their leader out and pretty sure I caused significant testicular damage to his fat number two.”
Alice laughed, “Naturally they didn’t take your threat to back the fuck off and you got into another scrum?”
“Sure did. They postured, tossed the first punch, then get pummeled. No deaths, by the way, I was careful to not accidentally cross that line. Then a crooked cop came over. Right as I was pummeling one of them.”
“You knew how to play the situation, but Billy was what, drunk and hostile?”
“More or less,” John shrugged.
Alice was giggling, “And then you tossed the cop in the precinct house?”
“And threatened the captain. Also borrowed some money from his slush fund too,” John was all smiles, “Going to use those funds with my new friends at our next leave in September sometime.”
“Why does that not surprise me in the slightest. You have more money than God basically and yet you still take what isn’t bolted down.”
“I mean, I sometimes pry that shit off the wall too,” John grinned.
“John my love, please please please be smarter.”
“Honestly, this whole thing wasn’t my fault.”
“John,” Alice raised an eyebrow and spoke sternly.
John immediately changed his tune, “I solemnly swear I will try and stay out of trouble.”
Alice laughed, “How many times have you said that to me?”
“At least six, maybe seven. Probably more.”
“Well, I’m going to work. I miss you.”
“I miss you too. Looking forward to being home in December.”
“Do you when?” Alice said excitedly.
“Mid-month, I think. Also depends on slip tides too. But I’d expect mid-month.”
“Can’t wait to see you. Love you!” Alice waived to the camera.
“Love you too.”
Just as the video feed shut down there was a knock at the door. John grabbed a t-shirt and put it on himself as he walked out of the bedroom. The suite’s ample living room looked as if no one had been in it for a week, with the exceptions being a small coffee table and chair. Everything else didn’t look like it had been touched.
John walked around the furniture and headed straight for the door. He saw a grinning Hugo in his doorway. He sighed as he asked his CO to enter.
“Morning, come on in,” John said as he walked over to the kitchenette, “I’m sure you want to talk about yesterday’s festivities.”
“I got a kick out of the email,” Hugo was laughing to himself, “We’re good. I got an angry email from a police captain about a junior officer blackmailing him. I got radio silence when I asked if you had done that why didn’t you arrest him? Guessing you had the inside scoop on him?”
“Yeah, I was here six years ago I think for an investigation into a drug ring. We assumed it was some enlisted Marines, but it turned out it was a couple of officers in the Navy that were working with the local gang in charge here.”
“During your investigation, you got dirt on the cops? Why not kick them out?”
“Well, the corruption in the police ranks was petty bullshit back then,” John shrugged, “Unofficially I pulled a recent file, and the Navy is now aware of a significant number of much more serious issues. Not sure why the investigation hasn’t been closed and charges filed.”
Hugo smiled, “Yeah, Intelligence is not happy with you right now.”
John looked surprised, “I didn’t pull the files from Naval Intelligence. I pulled the files from a local PI.”
“Who was gathering information for them.”
“They can pound sand for all I care. I didn’t steal anything from official Naval sources. That’s a risk of using a third-party source like a PI.”
Hugo chuckled, “Figured you’d say that. Clever workaround. I supported you but the captain and first officer were not as aggressive in their support of you to the NI special agent.”
“That ain’t all that surprising.”
“They wanted an official investigation. That was rejected,” Hugo grinned, “Those two actually went to bat for you on that charge as that was a bit too much bullshit for even them. Then it changed to an official reprimand. Also denied. Then they shifted gears for a reprimand because of the arrest.”
“Which was not a legal arrest, a reprimand for that wouldn’t be worth the paper it was written on.”
“Look, I’m on your side and advocating for you. But man, you gotta play the game more intelligently. I know you can do it. You’ve got a destructive streak in you that you must temper if you want to move up the ranks.”
“Thanks. I mean that sir. I do appreciate your support. But I have to do the right thing. If I see our people being wronged, I need to act.”
Hugo smiled, “Well, at least there aren’t any body bags this go around. I would not want to deal with that paperwork.”
“I did pull my punches.”
“Apparently not your kicks. This fat bastard was diagnosed with testicular torsion. That’s just cold dude.”
John winced a little, “I had to end the threat swiftly.”
“Alright, the dad talk is over. I’ll see ya back on the ship tomorrow. Have a good one.”
Hugo stood up and slapped John’s shoulder.
“Officially I can’t say things like, ‘Good job’ or ‘You were right,’” Hugo grinned, “Try to elevate your game. It’ll help you in the long run.”
Hugo left the room to a grinning John. What had gone done probably wasn’t the smartest thing he could do. But he fought for his crew. At a bare minimum that was going to pay off dividends for those he fought for and others on the crew that knew he’d fight for them as well.
For the senior leadership, it was doubtful any of their minds would be changed unless he did something to directly help them. John shrugged that off. While he did want their support it was unlikely, he’d get it anytime soon.
He had another day of shore leave. He was going to make the most of it. The only productive thing he was going to do was get a workout in. After that, he wanted to shop, relax, eat BBQ, and drink. The perfect way to enjoy a day off at a strange port.