Chapter Eight- By Any Means Necessary.

Characters: OFC, Sinclair, Connolly, Zento, G’Kar, Londo.

Rating: PG.

Disclaimer: I don’t own it. I don’t get money from it. Sue me and I’ll laugh. And hide.

Warnings: AU. Extremely mild violence, bad language.

Spoilers: The episode of By Any Means Necessary. And, you know what? I’m gonna stop bothering to mention the spoilers. Every chapter is based on each relevant episode. They all have spoilers in them that are warped by the presence of the OC’s. There ya go.

Summary: Vicki deals with bureaucracy and gets her first taste of politics.

Author’s note: I do not think that I can do a better, equal or even passable imitation of the great maker Stracysnski. This is just for fun. Please, no-one complain about the length- it is way too short and I both know and apologise. I was rushing to get this out because of how little I’ve been updating recently. Damn sister. Damn driving test coming up! Again, my apologies. Also, the story ‘cruelty is as cruelty does’ takes place after this chapter.

***

May 2258.

***

Vicki jerked awake. She looked around blearily, completely confused. What woke her up?

Suddenly a familiar beep sounded again and Vicki huffed as she reached over to her link and picked the offending technology up.

“Yes?” She said, trying not to snap.

“Vicki? It’s Jeff.” She fought the urge to start fiddling with her hair, which looked atrocious. “There’s been an explosion in the docking bay. I need you help Michael investigate.”

“On it Jeff.” Said Vicki. Dropping her link, Vicki rolled out of bed and sprinted for the bathroom, dragging the quilt behind her. She needed to get ready in record time.

***

Vicki walked into the room, tailing Michael. The investigation hadn’t been fun, but at least none of the Dockers were to blame. And thank god it hadn’t been a bomb! Michael strode forward as usual and said, “The explosion was caused by faulty equipment.” He went on to explain about the screwy chips and Vicki glanced at Miss Connolly. She looked like she was going to have an aneurism.

Finally, she snapped, “you’ve got a much bigger problem than a few dodgy chips, Commander.” Then she walked out.

After a quick look at Jeff, Vicki followed her. “Hey, Connolly! Wait up!” She jogged until they were side by side. “How bad is it?”

Connolly looked at her for a moment. “How bad?” She said finally. “My workers are working triple shifts. They’re getting less pay than I would expect for single shifts! They’re being constantly rushed to work faster because C+C overscheduled the Docking Schedule. They don’t get nearly enough free time, they get stiffed every time there’s a change to the budget, they get treated like second class citizens and the environment is dangerous- we’ve lost a member of our team this morning and the commander and his lackeys are talking about their precious schedule, like his death didn’t mean anything!”

“It did!” Said Vicki insistently. “Jeff and the others aren’t officer class snobs. They don’t think of the Dockers or any group of people on the station as second class anything, or as expendable or anything like that. Jeff will fight for you in the senate, for the money and the treatment you need and deserve- he already did last time! You have to understand- it’s the senate that makes the ultimate decision! It’s not on Jeff’s shoulders. And as for the whole schedule thing,” Vicki threw her hands up in an exaggerated shrug. “C+C tries to avoid doing it but it’s sometimes unavoidable. We can only hope that the senate will pull their fingers out and do something, now that there’s been a death there’s no way they can pass off our concerns.”

Connolly looked slightly cooler. “Sheridan, I know you and Sinclair and the others aren’t, as you said, officer snobs. No matter what I might say in the heat of the moment. But the senate won’t care about Delvientos’ death. As far as they’re concerned, we are an easily replaceable resource. And we always will be.” Connolly strode away, leaving Vicki fuming at the senate for their inhumanity.

***

“Sinclair!” Snapped Senator Hidoshi. “What’s going on there? We just received a very strong letter from Sergeant Sheridan!”

Jeff swore as the senator told him what she had written word for word. Then he ran down to the Zoccolo where Vicki was doing her security rounds. “Sergeant Sheridan!”

Vicki looked around. Seeing Jeff, and the expression on his face, she came to attention, saying, “Commander Sinclair.”

“What the hell were you thinking?!” Snapped Jeff.

“When, Sir?” Asked Vicki, trying not to sound pert.

“When you sent the letter to the senate!”

“I was merely expressing my opinion. Sir.”

“You couldn’t have found a slightly less inflammatory way to do that?! You called them ‘slave masters’!”

“With all due respect, Sir, I merely said that they have the mentality of slave masters.”

“You know what I mean!”

“Yes sir. And are you really saying you don’t agree with my assessment?”

Jeff sighed in exasperation. “Personally, of course I agree with you. But professionally I have to support the senate and their decisions. You may have endangered your career by insulting them.”

“Well it wouldn’t be the first time.”

“Just be careful Vicki.”

***

Vicki sighed as she stood in C+C. Another useless report. Another few hours that the situation between the wiener Zento and the Dockers are getting more heated. She was very worried. If they actually went on strike and Zento actually invoked the rush act there would be a blood bath. She couldn’t stand the thought of all the innocent, hard working Dockers getting slammed again. It was all too often the same story repeated throughout earth’s history.

Suddenly the door opened and ambassador Mollari and G’Kar stride in, shouting. Vicki winced. Jeff was already strained from the stress of the situation with the Dockers. This may be his breaking point.

“Commander! This- this creature is a thief.”

“You call me a thief one more time Mollari...”

“He stole the statue-”

“I have been in the presence of witnesses for several hours...”

“Then it was your attack dog Na’Toth...”

Vicki watched Jeff’s face get more and more tense and braced herself for the explosion.

“That’s enough! Out! All of you! Lieutenant Commander Ivanova! In ten seconds you will escort anyone not authorized to be in here to the brig!”

“Yes Sir!” With a grim smile Ivanova turned to the staring Ambassadors. “Ten! Nine! Eight! Seven! Six! Five! Four! Three!” As she went she herded the protesting diplomats out of the door. Just as they reached the corridor though, Vicki intervened.

“If you don’t mind Commander, Ambassadors, I’d like a quick moment.” Jeff sighed and nodded. The Ambassadors stopped in their fleeing. “I discovered something about the G’Quan’Eth plants that has some gravity in this situation.” Londo looked apprehensive. “I checked the station records. It is actually illegal to possess the G’Quan’Eth plant whilst on his station- unless it’s for legitimate medical or religious purposes.”

“WHAT!?”

“It’s true Ambassador. Check the station records yourself if you don’t believe me. If Security ‘officially’ found out you had the plant... well, they’d have to arrest you. If, however, you were to hand over the plant to a member of the station staff, or to someone who intends to use it for one of the two aforementioned acceptable reasons- like G’Kar for instance- then there would be no further said.”

Londo looked like he’d love to hit something. Most likely her. Finally, he said, “very well. I’ll hand the G’Quan’Eth over. AS LONG AS our statue is returned.”

“And, if neither of you mind, I’ll oversee the transfer- so that if the issue is ever officially referred to, I can personally put it to rest without any aspirations cast on anyone’s character.” She smiled sweetly at Londo, who looked even more like he wanted to perform some act of violence, and G’Kar, who looked like he’d just discovered the concept of Christmas.

The two diplomats left, one fuming and the other jubilant, and Vicki moved to go with them. She stopped at the door when she heard “Vicki.”

She turned to see Commander Sinclair looking at her. “Thank you.” He mouthed silently. She grinned at him, nodded at Ivanova and left, nearly bumping into Michael Garibaldi.

***

“Sergeant Sheridan, you are being juvenile and childish-”

“They both mean the same thing and I resent the implication!”

“Mr Zento, Sergeant Sheridan, please-”

Vicki glared at the slimy Zento. Jeff looked between them helplessly.

“If Sergeant Sheridan will continue to refuse to do her job-”

“I have the right to refuse to obey an order that seriously conflicts with my personal moral and ethical beliefs- and this does it in spades! I will not arrest the Dockers for trying to get what they deserve!”

“If you would just listen you stupid girl-” was as far as Zento got before Vicki slapped around the face.

She walked off, her message made clear. Jeff tried to restrain a smile at the look on Zento’s face.

“That’s it!” The man snapped. “She’s dismissed!”

“No she isn’t!” Snapped Jeff back, all trace of levity gone. “Sheridan was right- she does have the right to refuse to do something against her morals. You can’t force or coerce her to do otherwise.”

“She will be dismissed for failing to follow orders-” Zento began again but he was quickly cut off by Jeff.

“NO! Victoria Sheridan will NOT be dismissed! And she will NOT be dismissed because I said so! And if you don’t like it Mr Zento, I suggest you take it up with the Senate. They gave me overriding jurisdiction in grid Epsilon, and therefore on this station. It’s my call and I’m making it.”

***

Orin Zento strode towards the Exit Gate in the Custom’s area. He was fuming. He couldn’t believe Sinclair had done that. He’d deliberately twisted the word of the Law to pander to the selfish whims of those blasted Dockers! There would be a reckoning one day, oh yes; he’d make sure of it.

Suddenly he saw Sergeant Victoria Sheridan standing at the Customs gate, clearly working departures. He strode up to her and she looked at him coolly.

“You’ll pay for what you did.” He snarled at her. “I swear you’ll pay.”

“Mr Zento, I’ve heard those very words literally hundreds of times before. From far more believable people than you. Have a nice flight.” She said as she took his identicard from him, ran it through her reader, handed it back to him and pointed him towards the exit. Zento left, fuming.

Vicki turned back to her work, completely uncaring of the fact that she’d acquired yet another enemy.