07/08/01

"No science is immune to the infection of politics and the corruption of power."-- Jacob Bronowski

199-1121.

Trevor, having been deserted in the hotel room, decides that since everyone else has gone to a party, so will he. He picks one at random and off he goes.

It's a party. Drinking, schmoozing, much attention paid to the new hero. Trevor is asked for his life story, and whether or not he's done other heroic things before. Oh yeah. The problem is all the people in here are the same, and Trevor isn't looking for boring companionship. During one of the exchanges with his doting public, Trevor notices an attractive looking, dark haired woman who looks over and rolls her eyes. That gets Trevor's attention. Trevor: <to a blonde nearby> "Who's she?" Blonde: "I don't know." The dark-haired female signals the bartender, who gives her a shot which she downs. Trevor heads that way. Trevor: "So, tell me about yourself?" Female: "Surely you can come up with something better than that. Or do you find it works, what with your new-found notoriety?" Trevor: "Well, I wouldn't really need a pick up line if that's what I was after, now would I?" Female: "I see. Got a light?" She gets glared at by several people. Trevor turns to the bartender, borrows a lighter, and turns back to find her lighting her own cigarette with a wooden match; he assists any way. Trevor: "What brings you to a bash like this? You don't seem to swing this way." Female: "You never know. You might find a pearl amongst the oysters. I had nothing better to do." Trevor: "Oysters. I've heard about those. Kind of squishy things that come in shells. Like those." He indicates the oysters the woman has in a plate in front of her. She nods, downs one. Trevor declines the offer; the oyster things are pretty nasty looking as far as he's concerned.

Female: "So, what else do you do besides tell stories that makes the girls giggle? You're Trevor, aren't you? It's hard to avoid the newspapers. And videos." Trevor: "Yes, well, I've spent most of my life trying to avoid the press." Female: "Really? I'd have thought you'd be perfect for the media. You have that telegenic smile." Trevor: "That only goes to show how desperate they are if they want me." Female: "The hair should have been a giveaway - it's not quite perfect. What are you doing here?" Trevor: "I was invited." Female: "Of course, the guest of honor no doubt." Trevor: "I don't know about that." Female: "Looks like they've lost interest in you. They've wandered off in pursuit of one of their little engineered treats." Trevor: "Those little blue drinks are pretty good." Female: "I prefer a more honest beverage." She signals the bartender. Trevor: "So, what are you drinking?" Female: "Bourbon." Trevor: "Oh, the stuff that gives you a hangover in the morning! I remember that." Female: "Join me?" Trevor: "Sure, why not."

After a couple of shots... Female: "So what do you do for excitement?" Trevor: "Well, we could shoot at rats, but they probably wouldn't take too kindly to that here. I don't tend to seek out excitement, since excitement tends to find me." Female: "No hobbies or anything?" Trevor: "Grav-ball." Female: "Really? Are you a good player?" Trevor: "I'm a amateur." Female: "I've never played. I know it involves gravity wells though." She's keen on learning more, and Trevor agrees to take her to the public playing field he was at earlier. They go outside and she leads Trevor over to a large, red, powerful looking grav-vehicle. She has trouble getting her key into the slot. Trevor: "Are you all right to drive?" Female: "Yeah." Trevor gives her a quick field sobriety test, which she passes.

She flies like an assault boat pilot making a hot drop. Female: "This car handles pretty good." Trevor: <thinking> "That's not spoken like some one who owns this car." Trevor looks more carefully, and the key looks less like a key and more like a modified screwdriver. She does a barrel roll to the flash of warning lights, pulls into a parking slot by the arena and bounds out. She's wearing a tight black jumpsuit that highlights her raven hair, her porcelain skin, sapphire blue eyes, and ruby lips. When Trevor offers to get her a jumpsuit she can move better in, she strips down to a skinsuit. Definitely female.

Female: "So, what's the point of this game again? Is it to get the ball into that little hole, or to pound your opponent into furry guava jelly?" Trevor: "Well, the second sometimes helps with the first." Female: "You've had a few drinks, think you can take me?" Trevor: "Unless this is a set up." Female: "You think I'm a ringer? Tell you what, you take the ball first, and show me how it's done." Trevor: "Okay." Female: "You're just going to charge down the middle of the field at me?" Trevor: "More or less." He starts from the other end, moving easily down field, using the gravity nodes. Female springs after Trevor like a natural, or someone who's been in zero-g, a lot. She approaches Trevor doing an end over end flip, and a spin, after using a gravity node like a pro. Then she accidentally kicks Trevor up the side of the head. Female: "Oh! I'm sorry, are you all right?" Trevor doesn't stop, he continues toward the goal, otherwise she wins, and he got kicked in the head for nothing. He scores.

Four men come up to the door and ask if the game's open? Trevor looks at his companion. Female: "If you think you can take us." Oh, now she's on Trevor's team! Four to two isn't really fair, so one of the new guys joins Trevor's side. Man: "I'm Terry." Trevor: "Hi Terry. I'm Trevor." The femme fatale introduces herself as Lisa.

Lisa has some talent, and Terry is very good, but Trevor gets slammed really hard before managing to score. Terry: "Good play!" He pounds on Trevor a bit. Play continues. The next time the big guys come up, one of them loses the ball and Terry picks it up. Trevor's wide open, Terry flips it to him, Lisa nods, Trevor passes to her, she passes back. Trevor takes it towards the goal, and four big guys are closing in on him. Four? Trevor misjudges the gravity node he heads for, and the four hit him. Trevor flings the grav-ball at the first man, hitting him in the hip and takes him out of the immediate area. Now, Trevor knows that if these guys were interested in playing grav-ball, they'd go after the ball. They don't. They go after Trevor, and thump the crap out of him. It's pummel the opposing player into the boards time! <Insert the theme music for Hockey Night in Canada here.> Trevor is beaten into unconsciousness.

200-1121.

Mitchell notices, now, the bruised form of Trevor strapped to a nearby seat. Gabrielle hits the female in the chest, using the cast as a weapon. The female is jumping back as she's hit, but Gabrielle moves faster than expected. She connects, but the woman is able to roll with the punch, literally.

Trevor is regaining consciousness. His mouth is all sticky, and it feels like some one has been beating him with baseball bats. He opens his eyes, but they only open to slits. Trevor: <thinking> "Hey! I've been beaten up!" And it feels like they kept beating him after he went down. There's some kind of movement in the room, but he can't get up for some reason. Tied down?

Mitchell grabs the tray and flings the contents towards the female, holding onto the tray. Cream, sugar, coffee, and tea spill over the area. Gabrielle then whacks the strange woman in the face. Lisa (or whoever she is) staggers back, knocked to the ground but still conscious. Mitchell heads for the hatch, rather than getting into the middle of the chick fight.

Mitchell manages to stagger over to the hatch, a bit unsteadily. It would be easier if the damn thing weren't moving around. Lisa seems to be slowing down, maybe a bit stunned. She's attempting to get up when Gabrielle reaches her. Gabrielle, still upset, grabs Lisa by the front of the jumpsuit and hauls her up, then shoves her against the nearest wall. There's a bam, blood spatters, and cracking noises. There's a person-shaped blood spatter against the wall.

Trevor: "Gabrielle! Over here!" He's strapped into a chair, hoping he doesn't get squished by accident. Mitchell can't open the hatch, as it's been locked from the bridge. He can't get into the bridge because it's locked. Oh, and the ground is moving. Well, no in-flight peanuts for them - they've broken the stewardess! Mitchell goes over to Lisa and searches her flightsuit. He finds a flight calculator, turns it on, and takes the numbers it spits out and enters them into the keypad to the bridge. Nope. Mitchell goes back towards Engineering, but it's been sealed. Gabrielle goes to a stateroom, panicked over what she's just done. Mitchell goes over to let Trevor loose, feeling really groggy but struggling to stay awake.

Mitchell tries to get some one to answer the intercom, but no one is answering. Trevor is unstrapped though, and he heads for Engineering, but it's locked. Hmmm. Trevor tries to spoof his way into Engineering, first by himself, then with Mitchell's help. No go. There's some kind of access plate that might allow them to do something, but there are no tools to open the panel with. No tools, no non-plastic utensils, no escape pods. And they're just barely still in the atmosphere of the planet. Great view of the stars up here though!

No vac suits. Some EPLS balls. Trevor: "Want to try to bring the ship out of orbit?" Mitchell: "How?" Trevor: "By firing the explosive bolts on the airlock." Mitchell: "That won't do anything but empty the air out." Trevor: "The pilot might land." Mitchell: "I don't think there is a pilot." Trevor: "It's not piloting itself." Mitchell: "I only saw one person in a flightsuit." Trevor: "You know, I don't think I want to be on a starship, which may not have a pilot, maneuvering out into I don't know where." Mitchell: "You want to get out? Be my guest, but let us get into EPLS balls first." Trevor wants get into the airlock, close the interior door, then blow the exterior door. Hard to do inside a ball though - no hands.

The ship starts banking violently. Mitchell keels over inside his EPLS ball; well, half in. Gabrielle loses consciousness inside the stateroom. Then heavy thrust as the ship apparently tries to accelerate beyond it's specs. Trevor has used a cord and the EPLS ball to try and blow the external hatch. There's a bang, but the hatch doesn't budge. Shit. Trevor rolls himself at the door as hard as he can. He bangs his head, resulting in a small bump and a slight hissing noise. He tries again.

Eventually, Trevor batters his way out the hatch, and into the asteroid belt. Oh-oh. Not to worry, there's a lot of emptiness out here, and he's just one of many small pieces of debris. Trevor waits. (Like there's anything else he can do?) He decides to take a nap. Trevor's a simple soul.

201-1121?

Sometime later...

Grab! Yank! shake-shake-shake! tumble-tumble-tumble! slam slam rattle rattle rattle. Then the EPLS ball goes limp, which with luck means he's in atmosphere. There's a hissing sound, which stops suddenly leaving Trevor in a limp ball. He gets out. He's in a dark metal room, and sees two figures in vac suits approaching him, by their visor lights, with big hooks. Trevor has been in the ball for a while, judging from how cramped he feels. Trevor: Where's the bathroom?" One of the figures points with his pole towards a door. They don't touch him with their 10' poles as he goes through the door and into the hallway.

Trevor passes several secured doors and gets to another corridor. Trevor asks again for the bathroom, and is directed towards a door that opens in front of him, and closes behind him. He's in a small room with a stainless steel sink and toilet, and the unconscious forms of Mitchell and Gabrielle. Mitchell is snoring so he's not dead. Gabrielle is drooling slightly and dead women don't drool. [Okay - we've had drool, the GM can relax now.] Trevor uses the facility, washes up, drinks a little water then nudges Gabrielle.

Gabrielle rouses. She has a screaming headache, and a sweet taste in her mouth. Trevor brings her some water in his cupped hands - no cups. A couple of figures in jumpsuits go by carrying a stretcher with a covered figure on it, with long black hair trailing. They stop near a figure in the shadows who lifts up a corner of the blanket, takes a look, then replaces the corner. They continue on with the stretcher.

The wall of the cell that is transparent is banged on loudly by a 6'4", angular, attractive blond man. It feels like some one has Mitchell's head in a metal garbage can and is banging on it. Mitchell looks up. Man: "Are you awake?" Mitchell: "No, we're all dead." Man: "Well if it isn't the famous Dr. Neil and his friends." Gabrielle looks around the room, rather confused. And she's not the only one. Trevor: <to Mitchell> "So, your disguises are getting better, Dr. Neil." A figure comes out of the shadows behind the blond. A tall female with black hair, pale skin, sapphire blue eyes, and ruby red lips. Mitchell: "Err?" Lisa: "You idiot! That is not Dr. Neil." Blond: "But, the men in the warehouse let him in, and he had the blue glasses!" Lisa: <pointing> "That is Mitchell Taylor, late of the Solomani navy. Gabrielle Vanek. Trevor Cavernon. So I suggest you get your men back out there and find Dr. Neil, before he finds us." Trevor: "Maybe he's already found you." Mitchell: "Probably." The blond man leaves hurriedly.

Lisa: <to the captives> "Are you all comfortable?" Mitchell: "No." Lisa: "I'll make it easy on you. Tell me which one of you has been infected and I'll let the others go." Mitchell: "We all are." Trevor: "Yeah, with the plague." Lisa: "Don't play games with me. You know what I mean." Trevor: "Yeah. Right." Lisa: "Fine inject them all with the serum. We'll know soon enough." Gabrielle: "Why would you let anyone go?" Lisa: "Because I'm interested in the technology. What would I have to gain?" Trevor: "Silence." <lengthy pause> Lisa: "Okay, you have me there. I can promise a quick death. Of course there is another option." Mitchell: "What is that?" (Here it comes.) Lisa: "You seem like intelligent people, you can come work for me." Mitchell: "And which side would that be?" Lisa: "My side." Mitchell: "And that would be?" Lisa: "The side of right." Mitchell: "Oh, darn. I've lost my scorecard. What right is that?" Trevor: "Why should I believe you?" Lisa: "Because you might have knowledge I want. What loyalty do you have to Dr. Neil?" Trevor: "What loyalty do we have to you?" Lisa: "I'm offering you your lives." Trevor: "So any time some one saves our lives, we should just change sides?" Lisa: "I need all the information on the process, I need your help in seeing it to it's logical end. You have more knowledge of the program than anyone else, and you would be of assistance in getting to the next stage, in making certain the process is used effectively." Trevor: "Oh, you want a weapon!" Lisa: "I want something that would be of use to my employers." Mitchell: "Then maybe we should talk to them." Lisa: "They are not available. You'll have to deal with me." Mitchell: "We prefer to make our arrangements in person." Lisa: "Suit yourselves. <to a guard> See that all 3 of them are given the serum." Gabrielle: "No!" Lisa: "Ah, Miss Vanek speaks up. Is there something you'd like to share with us?" Gabrielle: "It's me you want. Leave the others alone." Trevor: "If you cooperate with them, they're going to do this to other people." Gabrielle: "They're going to do that any way." Lisa: "Then I think that you and I should have a little chat, Miss Vanek." Trevor: "What, and cut us out of the deal?" Lisa: "I only need Miss Vanek." Mitchell: "That's not true, you only needing miss Vanek." Lisa: "Oh?" Mitchell: "As you said, we have valuable information. We've been travelling with her for some time." Trevor: "Don't tell them anything up front."

A couple of men with poles approach, with a man in scrubs carrying a rifle of some sort. He targets Trevor, who doesn't cooperate. Mitchell tries to grab a pole, Trevor tries to get a person. Mitchell isn't knocked unconscious, but he briefly lights up like a Christmas tree. No permanent damage, but boy was he jangled! Note to self: Do not touch the pole.

Trevor evades and is missed by the pole. Then it's simultaneous as Trevor hits his man in the padded shoulder of his vac suit. Bugger. But Trevor's too close for the pole to be used on him. The guard resorts to kicking Trevor in the groin. Suddenly the shock pole doesn't seem like a bad choice.

Lisa: "Don't harm them. <to Gabrielle> As long as you cooperate, your friends won't be harmed. There are some people who want to talk to you." Mitchell: <barely understandable> "Don't do it." Gabrielle is led off. Once she's gone, the dark haired woman tells her men "See that they both get the serum." Bitch. A large auto-injector of luminescent green liquid is given to both Mitchell and Trevor. The latter twitches, but being unconscious he doesn't get to feel the fire like Mitchell does.

Gabrielle is taken to a lab, with doctors. Doctor: "How much do you know about the agent? It's components? Is it viral?" Gabrielle: "I don't know what was in it. No one told me anything." They switch to doctor speak, have Gabrielle put on a table, and the poking, prodding, and removal of bodily fluids takes place. After a number of hours, Gabrielle is led back to her cell.

Before she gets there, Trevor regains consciousness and Mitchell tells him they've both been injected. A tray of nutrient cubes has been pushed into the cell. The green one must be the vegetable. Trevor's had worse, it's just really bland. Sort of a cross between cheese and tofu, only with less flavor. Occasionally some one peeks in and makes notes. Trevor flips him off, and Mitchell throws the tray. More notes are taken.

Just before Gabrielle is put back into the cell, she's injected with the unpleasant green liquid fire. Two men with poles are outside, and Mitchell glares at them. Gabrielle goes into a corner and huddles there.

Sometime later Gabrielle feels nauseous and sweaty, like she's having a relapse of the flu. And she starts sweating yellowish liquid. Oh-oh, any minute now she'll start trying to eat Trevor and Mitchell. After a while Gabrielle feels better, but Trevor, who's had a bit of a fever, starts yelling in pain. For about 20 or 30 minutes he has terrible pains and muscle cramps. He falls into an exhausted sleep after crawling onto one of the foam mattresses.

202-1121? Next day.

Eight or ten hours of sleep seems to have helped Trevor tremendously. He's no longer all bruised and swollen, just interesting colors. He has some red marks and small bumps along his spine, and he's ravenous. His nails have grown a lot again, and he uses the armorcrete to sharpen them - he's going to get that bastard who kicked him. Gabrielle notices her nails have gotten longer too. Trevor: "Hey! More nutri-cubes!!" A large tray is shoved in, piled with food. Gabrielle refuses to eat anything, trying to exert some small control over something.

The guys with the shock poles come in again, with a man in a tech uniform, carrying a case. They start with Trevor, who tries to get them to cross the poles or something. Trevor isn't sure which one of these idiots kicked him, so it's just the luck of the draw. Mitchell tries to avoid the shock pole and tackle one of them. He tackles one of the men in vac suits around the abdomen, not noticing until know the fine mesh on the suits. Mitchell falls over, having served again as an example of what not to do. Trevor doesn't fair much better, and he ends up unconscious as well. Gabrielle doesn't fight them.

The males are both conscious again by the time Lisa and one of the techs come back to chat outside the room. Lisa: "The captain doesn't seem to be effected by the serum." Tech: "How many more doses will we give them?" Lisa: "I don't know, we'll have to wait and see." Tech: "Any sign of Dr. Neil?" Lisa: "No, but they say he'll be in custody soon." Mitchell: "I hope you do catch him. Everybody who's tried to hold him has paid for it."

Gabrielle feels some muscular twitches but that's it. Trevor gets the flu symptoms, and loses even more body fat. He and Gabrielle look incredibly buff. Mitchell feels slightly nauseous for a little while, but that's it. Gabrielle and Trevor feel...different. After a while they realize they can scent the others in the room.

203-1121? Next day.

Time for another injection! Mitchell tries to use a tray as a shield, Trevor tries to decapitate the tech with a thrown tray. It just bounces off the man's head, causing a flinch, but no damage. Mitchell attempts to go for the tech too, blocking one pole, but not the other. But he must be getting used to it because he doesn't go down. Taking advantage of the confusion, Trevor manages to reach one of the guards. There's a subdued shocking noise, then the pole drops as the guard grabs his shoulder and Trevor has a weapon!

Trevor and the remaining guard are going pole to pole. Mitchell uses his tray and attempts to bowl over the tech with the box of auto-injectors. Mitchell slams into him, and the tech slams the hard plastic case into Mitchell's mouth. A tooth feels loose. The guard misses Trevor. Trevor hits the guard with the pole (no electrical damage due to the suit) in the upper arm. The pole cracks and the arm snaps and bends at more than one elbow. The guard screams like a girl and collapses. Trevor now has a 4' pole with a sort of flail on one end.

Mitchell is pissed off and tries to hit the tech. He misses. Trevor doesn't. He "lances" the med tech through the forearm. Tech: "Ah! Help!!!" Mitchell: "Hold him!" Mitchell grabs the small case of auto-injectors and holds one against the tech's neck. Trevor: "Gabrielle, are we leaving?" She stands up. Mitchell twists the tech's arm behind him, and shows him the auto-injector. There are men with gauss rifles outside the observation window.

Mitchell: "Gabrielle, we're leaving now." They start to head out of the door, and two men with rifles fire at them but miss, mostly because the dark-haired female shoves their rifles up. Lisa: "No!!" The party heads out the door and into the lab area. Lisa: "No! Alive you idiots! They need to be taken alive!!"

Mitchell: <to his hostage> "You try anything funny, and I'll have her <Gabrielle> break your other arm." Lisa looks at the tech being held by Mitchell. Lisa: "I'm afraid you're just not that valuable to us, Tony." Tony: "You bitch!" Mitchell: "Tony, what's the fastest way out of this place?" Tony: "Uh, <nodding to the right> that way." Trevor is going for the men with rifles. He's shot in the chest. There's a bright red fountain shooting out in front of Trevor as he runs. Trevor leaps at the men and he's there. Mitchell sees Trevor leap 20' through the air, which he doesn't find surprising after some of the things he's seen Gabrielle do. Mitchell and Tony head for the corridor to the right.

Trevor shoves his "lance" through the first rifleman, literally. Trevor can feel his blood singing as he picks up the rifle and it cracks in his hands. Shit. The second rifleman turns and is running away. Lisa is backing away holding a very large handgun. Lisa: "Stay back, I don't wish to harm you." Gabrielle fixates on Lisa, who lied about not hurting Mitchell and Trevor.

Once into the corridor, Mitchell asks Tony a few questions, and finds out they are still in the Saxe system, in an old mining facility. And while Tony doesn't know where the ship the party came on is, he does know where several ships are located. Good boy.

Gabrielle catches the edge of the door as it tries to slam shut behind Lisa, but she feels something pull in her back. Trevor grabs the door and helps. They stop the door, Trevor rolls through, then holds it while Gabrielle ducks under it. Slam! There's a running figure up ahead. Gabrielle runs after her, as does Trevor. Lisa fires at them, hitting Gabrielle in the right forearm. There's a load bang and a bright light, and Gabrielle's hand is gone. There's blood fountaining for a few seconds then it stops. Up ahead, the hall dead ends at a closed security door. And Lisa is standing at the end of the hall. She raises her gun to her head and pulls the trigger. Trevor never has been good at interrogating dead bodies. Damn.

Trevor looks through the little window and can see guards on the other side, combat armor, and really big guns. Trevor picks up the gun and fires repeatedly into the window, first starring then breaking it out. There's a "Shit!" from the other side and a grenade is popped through. This is the first grenade Gabrielle has ever seen, and she doesn't know what the heck it is. Trevor knows, grabs Gabrielle and they run down the hallway.

Meanwhile, Mitchell and Tony have found the docking area and two ships. Tony has now changed sides, knowing what his life is worth here. Tony: "Wait here." He goes around the corner says "Help..." and collapses. He has a broken arm, so he's not faking it. A man rushes up to help and Mitchell dashes from around the corner and hits the man in the flightsuit. Then he kicks him repeatedly. Mitchell takes all the ID and gauss pistol off the pilot and helps Tony onto the ship. Tony collapses from shock. Mitchell locks down the ship.

Trevor: "Do we give up at this point? Lisa's gone." Again. Trevor still has Lisa's gun, with two rounds in it. Trevor: "I might be able to take out the first two, but they have grenades." They are also going to have to advance around a corner, very carefully - they don't know how many rounds Trevor has left. Then the door mysteriously opens. Trevor backs through it, Gabrielle follows. They're back in the main lab, and there's one man inside at a control panel. A slightly built man, well dressed, with little blue glasses. Trevor: "It's about damn time!" Dr. Neil: "I believe Captain Taylor has a ship. I suggest we join him." He takes out a small pistol. Dr. Neil: "I believe it's this way."

Mitchell uses the mining laser to hull the other ship in the dock. That makes quite a mess. Back inside there are a lot of armed, angry men running around trying to get to Trevor and Gabrielle. Dr. Neil: "Wait. Down this hallway here." They stop at a door, which Dr. Neil opens. They go into a room with a lot of machinery in it. Dr. Neil: "Gabrielle, Trevor, if you could remove that dark colored object up there." They go and get it. It's hard to get out, but they manage and it finally gives. There's some sparking and pale blue light.

Whoop whoop! "Warning radiation danger." Dr. Neil: "I suggest we leave. "Warning, critical reactor failure." This is getting to be a habit.

They make it to the dock where there's a damaged ship and a ship waiting to take off. Trevor and Gabrielle help rush Dr. Neil toward the ship. They're on the ladder as the bad guys are trying to cut through the door, and Mitchell is trying to cut his way out. Once the rest of the party is on board, Mitchell turns on the drives. The docking bay door ahead melts down, the interior door bursts inward, the ship sustains a few hits to the stern, but escapes out of the bay.

On the run, but with a sleek, dark ship on their tail. Mitchell goes into the asteroid field. There's a bright flash behind them. The two ships are weaving in and out of the asteroids. The dark ship fires missiles. "Impact in 28 seconds." One missile hits the asteroid, leaving five. "Impact in 8 seconds." Mitchell, wearing his little blue glasses, red lines the acceleration and heads at the ship, which fires 6 more missiles. Now there are missiles coming from ahead and behind. Mitchell rotates and dives. The missiles re-target. Mitchell heads for the ship again, which fires 6 more missiles and then puts distance between it and Mitchell. That makes 17 missiles.

Impact in 10 seconds.

Mitchell knows he can't avoid all the missiles; they're going to get hammered. The mining laser isn't powerful or fast enough to help. They can try to take the hits, try to get into vac suits, or open it up and try to extend the time of impact, or they could jump. Now they have 6 seconds. Mitchell: "Get into your vac suits." He desperately plugs in some valid data, although he can't really program a jump.

Impact in 2 seconds.

Impact in 1 second.

Mitchell: <to himself> "Shit, what the hell." There's a slight dip in everyone's stomach and they're in jump.

Mitchell goes back and secures one of the auto-injectors for himself, then gives the box to Dr. Neil. Dr. Neil: <noticing the glasses> "That's very amusing." Mitchell: "I thought you might appreciate it." Dr. Neil: "Perhaps I should take mine off."

Mitchell comes to himself a while later, in the pilot's seat, not remembering what Dr. Neil said. Oh. Mitchell goes back to talk to Tony, but he's pale, not breathing, and seems to be dead. Shit. Mitchell: <to Dr. Neil> "Well, we've made a deliberate mis-jump." Dr. Neil: "Ah. No doubt part of your clever plan. Something you learned in the Navy. <indicates Tony> This gentleman seems to have expired. Shock, I'd guess. I'm afraid I have more bad news. <pause> This ship is equipped with a sub-standard food processor. It's going to be a long trip with beans and chili." Mitchell: "I'm sorry I wasn't able to steal a better-equiped vessel, but I was kind of pressed for time." Dr. Neil: "Well, we are alive. I can't fault your reasoning. Now I think I should attend to Gabrielle and Trevor."

Dr. Neil comes in to check on Gabrielle, who is sitting in the common area after an unsuccessful search for a firearm. Dr. Neil: "Some one should check on that arm." He has a first aid kit with him and sits by her. Dr. Neil: "I realize that you've been through a lot, but you're safe now." She allows Dr. Neil to bandage her arm. Dr. Neil: "Amazing." He cleans and bandages the messy bit. Dr. Neil: "Why don't you lay down? You look like you could use some rest." He escorts her to the bed in the captain's cabin. She feels incredibly tired, and does what he says. He very carefully tucks her in, like she's a small child. Dr. Neil waits until she's asleep before leaving the room to speak with Mitchell.

Dr. Neil: "She's sleeping, but I have some concerns for her physical and mental states." Mitchell holds up one of the auto-injectors. Mitchell: "What is this?" Dr. Neil: "I don't know." Mitchell: "Why did it effect her and Trevor and not me?" Dr. Neil: "I don't know. This much I can tell you, as far as I know. <pause> Well, the background would be too complex to tell you now, but suffice it to say several factions have been trying to tilt the balance of readiness against the Imperium." Mitchell: "And this is how they plan to do it?" Dr. Neil: "I'm not sure who the original developer was, but it fell into the wrong hands. It doesn't matter how, but in the course of retrieving the original agent only one sample was saved and it was, accidentally or not, given to Miss Vanek." Mitchell: "And what exactly was it?" Dr. Neil: "A viral agent that will restructure the individual in real time. Eugenics allows us to modify the genetic makeup of an individual or group over a number of generations, but this, this is something entirely different. It can rewrite and restructures an already formed organism. You don't need to have a standing army. You can just infect the populace with the 'army virus', and there you are." Mitchell: "And how do you control it?" Dr. Neil: "Precisely. And more to the point, it was originally intended to not be communicable, but yet I see Trevor has been showing signs." Mitchell tells Dr. Neil about the ship, the trip to Saxe, and everything that happened. Dr. Neil: "Hmm, interesting. If it is viral, then perhaps some part of the virus attached itself to the agent and made it transferable." Mitchell: "Did whoever plant it on board the ship want us to take it to Polyphemus?" Dr. Neil: "The original programming for the ship was for me, I didn't intend for you to go there." Mitchell tells him about the message uploaded. Mitchell: "I've not told anyone besides you. Somebody wanted us to go to Polyphemus and transmit the virus." Dr. Neil: "And now the army virus may have been made transmissible. There is also the question of whether or not anything can be done to reverse the effect." Mitchell: "Do you know anyone who can find out?" Dr. Neil: "Possibly. This is incredibly valuable technology. People would kill for it." Mitchell: "Assume it has become transmissible. Then we have a virus that can be used to infect an entire planet." Dr. Neil: "We have to find a way to undo what has been done, and find a way to invalidate or otherwise make this technology seem unsuccessful." Mitchell: "The other thing is I seem to be resistant. Wherever we end up, and I apologize that I don't know where that will be, the others may still be able to transmit the agent. I know your concern is for Gabrielle. I have concerns for Gabrielle; I don't want to see her hurt any more than she already has been." Dr. Neil: "My concern is not just for Miss Vanek. I have the Confederation to think of as well." Mitchell: "I agree. So in the mean time we'll have to keep an eye on these two. You're not an MD, right?" Dr. Neil: "No." Mitchell: "Damn. Then you wouldn't have any sedatives." Dr. Neil: "I didn't say that." (Don't ask.) Mitchell: "You might want to keep them sedated for the duration." Dr. Neil: "How long will we be in jump?" Mitchell: "I don't know." Even if Dr. Neil has enough drugs to keep Gabrielle and Trevor unconscious for the time the ship is in jump, he would still have to deal with life-support needs, and he probably doesn't have that much equipment with him, unless he's brought along his handy-dandy little TL 15+ Evil Scientist Multi-Tool. (Patent pending.)

Mitchell discovers that when they jumped, their ship acquired eleven small items about missile-sized, and one much larger item, about the size of the black ship. Mitchell informs Dr. Neil of this. Dr. Neil: "Well, I shouldn't worry about the missiles, I would assume their power cells will run down in the time we're in jump." Mitchell: "The ship may have fired all their missiles at use already. Of course that doesn't mean he doesn't have other weapons and just hasn't used them on us." Dr. Neil: "My, but you are a cheery fellow. Do you get along with other pilots? Please Captain, allow us to have our illusions."

Index