TALES OF THE RELIANT

THE DARKNESS WITHIN

Captain Yager and the crew of The Reliant needed a serious break. Their latest mission consisted of them escorting yet another ambassador to some trade negotiations. It seemed like an easy enough mission. However, Ambassador Cassus was a arrogant and demanding man who whined and complained the entire time he was onboard. He felt a man of his status and stature deserved to be transported by a Class A ship and felt it was beneath him to be transported by such a, as he himself put it, pitiful excuse for a vessel. And he rarely missed an opportunity to kindly inform Captain and crew of his displeasure with them and htis mission.

However, in spite of whatever displeasure he may have been feeling, his trade talks with the Mozars was at least successful. John wasn't sure what the Ambassador was negotiating for nor did he really give a damn. More than once he was sorely tempted to blow his ass out of an airlock. And he had to bite his tongue so many times while the Ambassador was berating him or one of his crew he honestly thought he was going to bite his tongue in two. He even had to stop Bortis from trying to stab the Ambassador in the back with his claws after he bravely made a disparaging remark at him. So John and the rest of the crew all breathed a collective sigh of relief after the trade negotiations were over and they dropped the Ambassador off at the nearest Alliance base, which Cassus also complained about. John knew without a doubt Ambassador Flagg who had sent them on this mission was laughing his ass off knowing the Ambassador's reputation for being difficult.

So to say John and his crew needed a break would have been an understatement. His tactical officer Tamala had already left on her vacation shortly before the mission began. Lucky her, John thought. She had some vacation time coming, so John decided to allow her to go when she asked. He noticed she wasn't acting like her old self in recent weeks. He would ask her what was wrong and she would tell him she was fine. But he knew she was anything but fine, and he believed her going on vacation would help snap her out of her funk. At least he hoped it would since her cheery disposition was sometimes the only thing that kept him from going crazy while commanding this ship.

After their mission was over, ship's pilot Zack Renjay suggested they take a trip down to casino planet Vega Six since they would be passing by the planet anyway. Going to Vega Six was something John would not normally suggest doing himself since he wasn't much of a gambling man. Plus he tried to avoid going to places where there was a lot of drinking since he was now clean and sober. But he figured going down to the casino planet might be just the break he and his crew needed. So he relented and took Zack up on his suggestion. Zack seemed very pleased they were going down to the planet. John hoped he wouldn't regret his decision since with Mr. Renjay one never knew what they were getting themselves into.

While on the planet, Zack wanted to watch amateur fighting at a place called Max's Arena. It was where different species would fight one another in a cage until one of them was knocked out or incapacitated to where they were unable to fight anymore. John himself didn't really approve of this since he believed species should be learning to live peacefully with one another instead of being allowed to beat the crap out of each other and allowing others to cheer it on and profit from it. But it was legal within the Alliance to have an establishment like this, so he went along with it if even begrudgingly.

John had never actually seen one of these fights since he'd seen enough violence and species fighting with each other enough to last him ten lifetimes. But Zack seemed intent on going and, since he hardly ever got to do what he wanted whenever they had some vacation time, John relented and said they could go. So John, Zack and ship's android Roger went to Max's Arena.

All three of them sat down in the stands after stopping at the concession stand where John got a tub of popcorn and Zack got himself a glass of beer.

"Isn't this great?" Zack said with a huge smile on his face.