SD241812.24 - Joint Duty Log - CSEC & Civilians (NPC) - "Commotion"

Posted on Sat Jan 19th, 2019 @ 8:08am by Lieutenant Commander Richard Groves & Brigadier General Jonathan Grey

1,422 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: The Sincerest Form of Flattery
Location: Versailles
Timeline: Current

=^= Promenade =^=

Groves spread his strides as long as he could, the stations gravity was a little below earth standard, so he was hoping to gain a little bit of time compared to his standard marathon pace.

While he purposefully took a route that took him away from the civilian areas for the most part, he was sure to include a section of his route along the main promenade of the station... or at least the Primary promenade. With the arrival of so many refugees to the station, it was almost always full to capacity, to the point that a lot of YaDallans traders had set up their own defacto market area on the lower decks where they were being housed.

As he entered the promenade, he announced to the people in front of him to make a hole, allowing him through passage. Despite being out of uniform, he opted to keep his combadge pinned to his chest. It was important to him that, despite the nipple chaffing, he was still identifiable as being on the job.

Hearing a large commotion further along the promenade, he picked up the pace arriving to find a Civilian PD officer thoroughly out of his depth.

"She's a thief!" hissed a redheaded shopkeeper, her brow a mess of wrinkles and frown-lines. She stabbed the air with a finger as she talked, and with those nails there was a very real chance of injury.

The recipient of this not-so-friendly gesture was a young girl of twelve, hiding behind an older man. The former had short blonde hair and eyes like saucers, gripping her guardian's wrist with both of her little hands. The latter wore short-cut hair, and his shirt had been stitched back together.

The message in his eyes was clear enough though; "I have to deal with a small child every waking moment of my day, and now I have to deal with *you*."

"Look," the man said out loud, forcing a friendly smile, "she didn't take anything."

"Liar!" the shopkeeper spat back, the gathering crowd nodding and making noises of agreement.

"O-kay folks, easy does it there. Jus' take a deep breath, mmkay?" sweated the overweight constable, his nervous drawl so thick you could use it as syrup over your morning pancakes.

"Don't tell me to calm down!" screeched the shopkeeper, reaching new and exciting decibel levels. "I saw her near my Iso-Cells and when I looked back there were three missing!"

"Yeah!" piped up a man in the crowd, which now numbered thirty people and growing. "Just yesterday her fiends were in my shop, and half of my fresh apples just vanished!"

"What? What friends?" demanded the older man, trying to angle himself between the bulk of the ever-expanding crowd and the girl behind his legs.

"Her gang-mates, or whatever!" barked a third shopkeeper in a work apron. "You Yads are all in gangs or something, always are! Sneaking about, sniffing at stuff. I gave half my goods to those aid folks, and this is the thanks I get?"

The crowd grumbled at this, with more than a few nods among the assorted throng. They spread out as the older man found he had been backed against a wall, and the constable's smile was stretched thin with uncertainty. He attempted to move the crowd back, only for a ballistic tomato to catch him in the ear.

Overhearing the conversation on arrival, Groves had already called for a Starfleet Security team to beam in for support, his combadge chirping to confirm the communication channel closing.

"Folks, what's with all the commotion?" He stepped up beside the Civilian deputy. "I overheard part of the conversation. First of all," he turned to the growing group of people who decided to watch on from afar, some jeering, others tutting. "There is nothing to see here. If you're not directly, involved with the incident, then I want you to disperse immediately."

He signaled with wide waves of his hands to the public to disperse, "I will only ask once! Move along!"

Groves, turned his attention to the original complaint, "Sir, you have made an accusation against these people. The Civilian PD will have to investigate this."

Richard noticed that rather than dispersing the crowd was actually growing larger and rowdier by the minute.

Incensed at being mistaken for a man, the emphatically female shopkeeper lunged past the YaDallan guarding the little girl and grabbed the young one by her hair. Muscle borne of lifting heavy stock for years flexed under her skin as she lifted the girl up to shake her, teeth ground together on both sides; in rage and in pain.

A moment later, the girl was felling, and the shopkeeper reeled backwards, clutching her face. The older man, his fist outstretched, had punched the violent shopkeeper in the head, his eyes wide open with seething hatred.

The crowd swayed backward at this, shock at the sudden violence causing more than a few to hesitate. The shopkeeper who had complained about the stolen apples raised a hand, stepped in between the enraged pair.

"Woah, er, maybe we should just check the security cameras or something first, huh? I mean....maybe...." he trailed off, a tinkle audible over the sounds of his voice. Turning his head slowly, his eyes mirrored that of the crowd as they peered down to the feet of the fallen child.

A dozen electronic items lay at her feet and, as they watched, a single red apple tumbled down from her clothing to join them.

Forgetting any sense of optics or public relations elements to his job, Groves stepped into the situation.

"ENOUGH!" bellowed Groves, "Ma'am." He turned to face the shopkeeper, "You are being placed under arrest for assault.You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to have an attorney. If you cannot afford one, one will be appointed to you by the court." He signaled for the Civilian Deputy to place restraints on the woman's wrists.

Turning on his heels, he signaled for two of the Starfleet Security personnel to join them. "Young lady, you are under arrest for suspected theft..." he continued with the old style Miranda rights for the young child and the older gentleman who had stepped in to protect her.

"No, I..." the young girl stammered, trying to pull her arm from the security officer. Though the grip wasn't cruel, it was unrelenting in its firmness, and no amount of wriggling and pulling would see her free. Then her rather-annoyed guardian put his hand on her shoulder, and that was the end of her escape attempt.

It wasn't long before the Security team's where leading the 3 away towards the holding cells located within the promenade. Some of the crowd jeered, others booed and yelled. Before they could be taken to safety the crowd had whipped itself into a frenzy and the first tomato was thrown, missing the older gentleman and hitting the junior Starfleet security officer square in the jaw.

"Byeeaaarrgh!" shouted the young man who had thrown the tomato, helping himself to another tomato from the nearby box. This box belonged to the vegetable store owner, who took offence at this fool helping himself to expensive produce. Fist met jaw as the elder shopkeeper objected to the theft of his hard-earned goods, and the petulant teen crumpled to the ground.

"What? James!" screamed a young woman, who stomped her way through the crowd and smacked the elderly shopkeeper across the face. The elderly man, dazed, staggered backwards and tripped over his feet. His arms flailed wide as he fell, and were quickly caught by the shopkeepers behind him.

More teens clustered around the woman as she followed through on her swing, and the shopkeepers were swift to respond. Soon, the Starfleet staff and YaDallan thief were forgotten at old clashed with young on the promenade in an all-out brawl!

Groves, in shock at the latest development reached instinctively for his combadge, while attempting to move through the crowd, "Groves to Lozt and Preston, a brawl has erupted on the Promenade, all available security teams report immediately to assist."

"Please, desist and disperse. Move on." Groves ducked from a sway swing from an agitated Bolian, he reached for his combadge again. "Groves to Operations. I've got a 10-34 in progress on the promenade. Seal the section and send support".

--- End Log

Lt Cmdr Richard Groves
CSec - Versailles

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Various NPCs
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