A/N: Thank you Laureleaf and Yankee for your reviews! I'm glad you enjoyed the last chapter. ^_^
This one is neither Musketeers nor Firefly inspired, just a scenario that came to mind that I found amusing.
Summary: Transporting a live tiger is not what they signed up for.
"An Unusual Passenger"
"That's a lot of guards for one piece of cargo," Aramis commented.
Athos merely hummed as he watched their contact lead a procession of men and a forklift carrying a large crate toward where the Luciole was docked. Even stranger, the container had several small holes all around the sides.
"Mr. Thompson," Athos greeted.
"Captain Athos, a pleasure," the man replied. He gestured to the crate. "We've just given it a dose of sedative, so it should be out for several hours. You just have to give another tranquilizer halfway through the journey."
Athos and Aramis exchanged a look.
"I'm sorry, what?" Aramis asked.
Thompson quirked a confused brow at them. "You are here to transport the tiger to the wildlife preserve on Albion, are you not?"
Athos's brows rose marginally. "Tiger," he repeated. Yes, their job was to transport some cargo to Albion, but no one had said anything about a live animal.
Thompson shifted nervously. "You mean you weren't informed?"
"Not as such," he replied dryly.
Aramis stepped forward to get a look through the air holes. He let out a low whistle.
"Is this going to be a problem?" Thompson asked nervously. "Because this tiger is a precious species and needs to be moved to the preserve immediately."
Athos exchanged another look with Aramis, who shrugged. "It won't be a problem," he told Thompson.
The man looked relieved and quickly started directing his men to get the crate onto the Luciole.
Aramis came back to stand at Athos's side. "Porthos is not going to be happy about this."
Athos watched the container holding a very large, very wild beast being loaded onto his ship and sighed.
o.0.o
"No, no way," Porthos railed. "I did not sign up for this."
Athos had to bite back the urge to sigh again. "You didn't sign up for the pirates we encountered last week either."
"No, pirates I did sign up for. I love pirates. Bring 'em any day o' the week. This is not okay!" He jabbed a finger angrily at the crate now secured in the cargo hold. "'Ave you lost yer minds? Bringin' a wild animal into space!"
"It is sedated," Aramis pointed out. "Should sleep right through the journey."
"As long as we give it that second sedative later," Athos mentioned.
Porthos shot him a black scowl. "No," he continued, shaking his head fervently. "I'll quit."
"Now, Porthos," Aramis tried to cajole. "It'll be fine. Think of the great service we're doing for the preservation society."
"Yeah," d'Artagnan spoke up. "Besides, if it hasn't woken to you raging about like a lion, I don't think a little space travel is going to bother it."
Constance ventured toward the crate, trying to see inside. It was mostly dark, but Athos had been able to glimpse patches of orange fur with black stripes through the holes.
"I've never seen one outside o' pictures," she said in wonder. "I bet 'e's beautiful."
"Until he tries to eat us," Porthos retorted.
"The tiger is secure," Athos said flatly, tired of the argument. He turned to d'Artagnan. "Would you be so kind to get us off planet now? The sooner we complete this job, the sooner we can unload our passenger," he said with a pointed look thrown toward Porthos.
The larger man grumbled under his breath, but despite his threat, he didn't walk out and quit.
Athos shook his head to himself. D'Artagnan had it right; there was room for only one restless beast on this ship.
o.0.o
D'Artagnan sat at the helm, their course set and steady, and so he only needed to keep one eye on the controls while Constance sat in the seat across from him at the comms station, flipping through pictures of tigers on a compact database pad. They were halfway through their journey and everything had been smooth sailing.
"Look at this," Constance said. "There are white ones too." She angled the pad up so he could see.
"I wonder if the preserve has one of those," he mused.
"Do you think we'd be able to look around when we get there?"
D'Artagnan pursed his mouth. "It's not really our place. We're just the couriers."
Her face fell. "Right."
"But maybe I can take a slow sweep over the area when we're coming in, try to catch sight of something on the monitor."
Constance's expression lit up again. And then sobered as alarms started going off.
D'Artagnan straightened sharply and leaned over the console. "Shit."
"What is it?"
D'Artagnan grabbed the handheld radio set and opened the ship-wide intercom. "Heads-up, we've got a magnetic storm inbound. Buckle down everyone."
Constance's eyes widened and she quickly strapped herself into the comm seat. D'Artagnan thrust his arms through the straps of the pilot chair and buckled the clasps. Then he grabbed the joystick with both hands and fought to keep the ship on course as the first wave of charged ions hit. They bombarded the hull, kicked up by a solar flare interacting with a planet's magnetic field. The navigation system immediately spritzed out. The ship juddered, the joystick jerking in d'Artagnan's grip. They lurched to the side and then back, and he gritted his teeth as he wrestled against the outside forces.
After several minutes, it finally stopped. D'Artagnan let out a breath of relief and sagged back into his chair. Then he immediately slowed the ship and powered down the engines, letting them drift in space.
Constance unbuckled herself and stood. "I'll go check the engines for damage."
D'Artagnan nodded, and she passed Athos on her way off the bridge.
"Status report," the captain said.
"Navigation needs to be rebooted," he replied. "Doesn't look like we took much damage, and Constance is checking the engines to make sure there's no electrical charge buildup before we resume propulsion."
Athos nodded and checked his wrist band. He then picked up the radio for the intercom. "Aramis, check on our cargo. It's also about time for the next dose." He set the radio down and turned back to d'Artagnan. "How long of a delay do you think this will cause?"
"Depends on what Constance says about the engines, but it's probably just a minor delay."
Hurried footsteps came clomping onto the bridge as Aramis arrived, looking harried. "We have a problem."
Athos raised his eyes to the ceiling. "Of course we do."
D'Artagnan hastily unbuckled himself to follow after them as they made their way down to the cargo hold. Most of the storage containers had shifted around a bit, but nothing had toppled over. The tiger's crate, however, had not only been knocked about a bit, but the door was broken and hanging open.
D'Artagnan pulled up short in alarm as Aramis strode straight toward it and gestured inside. Athos followed, his brows shooting up. D'Artagnan crept forward and then gaped in stupefaction. It was empty.
"Where is it?" Athos demanded.
Aramis's mouth was pressed into a thin line. "I don't know."
"It couldn't have gone far." The captain started roving his gaze around the other storage containers in the hold that created dim nooks and crannies along the edges.
D'Artagnan's heart suddenly lurched and he bolted up the stairs to the main deck, heedless that a tiger might be up there waiting for him. He had to get to Constance.
He found her in the engine room checking over everything, no sign of the tiger. "Oh thank god," he breathed, catching himself on the joist to slow his adrenaline-sped heart.
Constance gave him a dubious look. "What's wrong?"
"The tiger is loose."
"What?" Her eyes widened and she glanced behind him into the corridor. "On the ship?"
"Yeah."
"How?"
He shook his head. "The storm knocked its crate around and it looks like the latch broke." He held out his hand. "Come on, we should regroup."
A moment later, a bellowing "What!" echoed through the ship.
D'Artagnan grimaced.
o.0.o
Athos stood with his arms folded as Porthos loaded a shotgun. "We can't shoot our cargo," he pointed out.
"I'm not gonna jus' stand around an' wait to be tiger chow," Porthos rejoined, cocking the weapon.
"The animal is probably disoriented still coming off the tranquilizer," Aramis said. "Not to mention thirsty."
"That jus' makes it more dangerous." Porthos grabbed a gun, checked its magazine, and tucked it in his belt.
"No," d'Artagnan spoke up. "That's a good point. We can try to lure it out with food and water."
"Can't you just shoot it with the second tranquilizer?" Constance asked.
Aramis shook his head. "We'll have to get it back in the crate first, or it will be too heavy to move."
Porthos huffed.
"We stick together," Athos decided. "Aramis, get the trank ready. We'll check the mess first and…see if we have anything we can entice it with."
Once Aramis had the trank gun loaded, they carefully made their way up to the main deck and into the mess. There was still no sign of the tiger. Athos didn't know how a beast that large could hide so easily. With Porthos keeping guarded eyes switching between the two archways on either end of the mess, the rest of them started rifling through their food. But as Athos had suspected, they didn't really have anything that would appeal to a carnivore.
"Dried MREs aren't going to cut it," he commented.
"Yeah, the only fresh meat on board is us," Porthos grumbled.
"Porthos, for once, you are not helping," Athos shot back.
"We need to cook somethin'," Constance said. "Get a strong smell goin'."
"Aha!" Aramis exclaimed and came up from one of the cupboards he'd been digging around in with a package of preserved bacon.
"Perfect!" Constance snatched it away and quickly flicked on the stovetop so she could cook it. A few minutes later the scent and sizzle of bacon filled the room.
Athos divided up the meat with d'Artagnan and directed Constance and Porthos to go with him out one way while he and Aramis took the other.
The two men crept cautiously through the corridor, Athos's hands turning greasy from the bacon.
"Now I'm getting hungry," Aramis murmured.
Athos ignored him. He pulled up short as he caught sight of what looked like a tail swishing around the corner. Silently signaling to Aramis, they continued forward.
The tiger was pacing the next corridor and was much larger than Athos could have pictured. Aramis shot him a look and shrugged.
Taking a deep breath, Athos took a step and held out the bacon, hoping the smell was strong enough to capture its attention.
The animal, of course, noticed the movement and immediately bared its teeth. Its nostrils flared and whiskers splayed as it sniffed the air, and then it started loping toward them.
Athos backpedaled and nearly ran into Aramis, but they both turned and sprinted onto the catwalks and down toward the cargo hold. There was a clang as the tiger took the first set of stairs at a leap, landing with a rattle. Athos and Aramis barreled toward the crate, stopping to turn before they ran into the closed bay doors. The tiger followed halfway but then slowed, staring at them intently.
"Give it a piece," Aramis prodded.
Athos cringed but broke off a bit of bacon and tossed it at the great cat. The animal snatched it up ravenously.
Footsteps sounded above as Porthos and the others arrived, and Porthos took up position with his shotgun aimed over the railing.
"Stand down," Athos hissed.
The tiger noticed their arrival though and flinched. Its fur bristled and a low growl emanated from its chest.
Aramis grabbed the back of Athos's coat and pulled him back a few steps. Athos threw another chunk of bacon into the crate and another just outside the door.
The tiger looked between it and them warily, and they backed up further until they were essentially trapped if the tiger decided they looked more appetizing. But thankfully the smell of cooked meat did draw it in; the tiger trotted forward and gobbled up the bacon, then ventured into the crate.
Athos threw himself at the door and slammed it shut. The tiger immediately whirled and knocked against it, and Athos gritted his teeth as he held firm. Aramis took aim with his rifle and after a few taut beats, shot the tranquilizer through one of the air holes. The tiger let out a vicious yowl and the crate juddered more violently. Athos pressed his whole body weight against it and Aramis joined him, both of them keeping that door closed until finally the tiger turned sluggish and eventually lay down.
Once they were sure it was out, Constance brought a spot welder and sealed the crate again. The wildlife preserve could handle getting the animal out.
Athos sagged in relief when it was done.
Porthos glowered at him. "Never again," he warned, jabbing a finger the captain's way.
Athos didn't disagree.