((Bok Station, Conference Room))

Over-Daimon Pogg had called all of his senior staff to an emergency meeting. Within an hour, the Conference table had 9 people sitting at it, and 3 joining via subspace.

“So, everyone knows why we’re here. For those of you who are clueless or incompetent, Sub Daimon Fark went rogue, stole one of my shuttles and has basically started a revolution on Derganix and a war with the Federation. A war we can’t win, and a war we would never even survive. War is not the Ferengi way. We don’t make wars, we profit from them. So, Fark is dead thanks to the Starfleeters and Sub Daimon Raxx(Commander of the station in orbit over Derganix) has been fired and will be en route here within the next 15 minutes.”

“This is disastrous. What was he thinking? He’s gonna get us all killed. None of us like the Federation, but picking a fight is not a wisest business decision.” One of his top lieutenants in charge of marketing exclaimed.

“We’ve lost Derganix and will have to withdraw, and I must now openly engage with Starfleeters which we had hoped to avoid. Before I contact them and try to salvage this situation, I have a simple question to ask. I need to know who here wants to continue to resist the Federation encroachments into this area of space, in a covert or even an open manner. I need to know where people stand on this.”

After some glances back and forth 1 Daimon who was one of the 3 responsible for Derganix, 1 Sub Daimon, and 1 of the Dilithium mine Managers raised there hands.

“Excellent. Brisk, please escort them to my office for a strategy session. Sub Daimon Guux, if you could join them as well please, I could use some input from you on this matter as well. I will join you shortly.” Pogg said with a smile and a nod.

The 4 men hesitantly stood and walked towards the door to the Over Daimons office. They opened the door and Brisk followed them in. A few noticed Brisk pulled out his Varian T disruptor pistol before closing the door. Everyone noticed the distinct sound of the four disruptor blasts.

“My standing orders to be followed. I trust there are no further questions?” Pogg said from his seat with his office behind him while everyone else was staring at the door.

“The three who just essentially confessed to their crises will have their shares of the profits forwarded to their families and their possessions sold at auction. Guux, whose treachery was known but hid his intentions, will have all his profits and possessions seized by the Consortium in accordance with traditional Ferengi law.” He added.

A third Federation ship had arrived in the system, this one, a heavy cruiser, had joined the fray a few hours before  this was no time for radical actions and scheming. This could ruin their business and cost their lives, the situation required a calm and rational approach.

((Irrawaddy, Cockpit)

Though his functional shipboard crew size had been reduced from 280 down to just 5, Tyler more actively engaged then he had ever been in his 5 months of being in command. His crew was scattered about, some at the rally point on the surface, her medical team were still assisting with the withdrawal epidemic, a small engineering team led by Tesa was on the Slivin. With him on the Irrawaddy was Ingram, Aruin, Lasage and Lt. Singh.

“Call coming in from the Ferengi Station in orbit around Formica sir.”

“I guess our proportionate response is having the desired effect.” Ingram chuckled.

“That remains to be seen Commander.” Tyler wiped the weariness from his eyes and walked over and sat in co-pilots seat.

“I’ll take it here Lt” he said as Singh transferred the call to his station.

“This is Captain Fred Tyler of the USS Blythe. To whom do I have the pleasure of speaking?”

“I am Daimon Pogg, leader of the Consortium of Ferengi Traditionalists. I am calling to inform you that the shuttle that attacked you was hijacked by a former employee. As you have killed him already, I would like to thank you, the man never had the lobes for business and I no longer have to worry about how much profits he is actually costing us. I have also relieved the commander of our station in orbit there.”

“First, thank you for responding to our repeated hails finally. Forgive me if I sound a bit skeptical though. This call coming after your vessel attacked us has me concerned, if it was a stolen vessel, why not tell when it was stolen?”

“You have just elucidated the reason why the commander of the station has been fired. I and my people here were not even informed that the theft had occurred. I want to assure that our Consortium wishes for productive and profitable Relations with the Federation and the Klingon Empire. I propose a meeting, face to face to discuss how we might avoid a conflict and strike a deal that is mutually beneficial.” Pogg said, trying to project strength when he saw the Ambassador class ship as I sign that the Federation was reinforcing its position. But it was in fact the Soval, an Emissary ship carrying a diplomat that. Either way, as Ingram had said, it caused the desired outcome regardless of the ‘how’.

“I think a face to face meeting would be a great start. Why don’t we meet aboard the USS Soval, it has diplomatic facilities aboard that would be ideal for that.”

“Agreed. Shall we meet at 0900h tomorrow?” Pogg smiled, showing off his jagged teeth.

“I look forward to it Over Daimon. Now, there is one more pressing issue, the station currently in orbit over Derganix currently had several Dergan weapons pointing at it. And I believe their intention is to destroy it if your people don’t evacuate.” The Ferengi had successfully called the Dergan bluff, and let the 1 hour time limit elapse, and not killed any of the captive Ferengi, as Tyler had spoken with the Dergan President alone on the plaza a few hours prior, Tyler had relayed that he could not condone the extrajudicial killings of hostages, even in the context of a revolution. But within the next few hours the Dergans would actually have those mass driver tubes loaded with weapons, and they would shoot that station out of their skies.

“The station does belong to the Consortium. But as a sign of good will, I will have my crew load up our possessions and withdraw.” Pogg nodded, sounding contrite, but in reality the station was decrepit, shoddily built, hack job that cost almost as much as it earned. He’d gladly give it up, to avoid having the Klingons show up and wipe them out entirely.

“That is a kind offer. I will relay that to the Dergan President and have him respond to you directly about that.”

“Thank you Captain Tyler, I look forward to our meeting tomorrow. Hopefully we can overcome some of our differences.”

((The Park, Derganix))

Mee Ih noticed a commotion on the pathway leading into the ad hoc temporary camp of tests and modular buildings that the crew of Blythe had set up using emergency supplies salvaged from the Blythe. The 3 cetaceans were given permission to use a small but deep pond near the parks entrance to avoid being stuck in their escape pod which was only equipped with a single shower head using the same recycled water to avoid ‘drying out’, which could be a death sentence for all cetaceans. It was several speeder trucks loaded down with Dergans and personal replicator units.

“Whats this all about?” Mee IH muttered.

“Looks like they’re bringing us a bunch of replicators…maybe we won’t be having Haddock flavoured emergency rations for supper tonight boss.”

“Well that seems very generous of them.” Mee IH began thinking about how he could have a small personal replicators replicate a fresh caught, whole, bone-in salmon.

The Second officer tapped his comm badge and called the XO.

“Commander, we have a bunch of Dergans entering the camp from out locatopn. They appear to bearing gifts for us sir.”

“Roger that, I’ll be right out.” Wong replied.