The Great Galactic Score!

5

5

Friss ran from the brig, leaving Demi at a loss what to do. She looked at the scorched, smouldering control panel by the door and realised she would never be able to claim she was a prisoner now. Then the thought of someone planting a bug on her began to make her feel a little more than miffed. She began to feel angry and more than a little paranoid.

She began to undress, taking off her jacket, which, she realised, had spots of dried blood on it. Dried blood from someone she once served, or worked with, in the bar. Trying her best to put that aside, she started checking everything on the jacket. The zip, the pockets, the lining, the poppers on the pockets. Everything. When she didn't find anything suspicious there, she started to unfasten her trousers.

"What are you doing?" Friss' head popped around the corner of the brig's door frame, looking at her from head to foot, his forehead creased. "This is no time to get undressed."

"You said I'm bugged." With her trousers around her knees, basic white knickers on display, Demi moved her hands in front of her crotch, far too late to hide anything. "I'm searching for it. Not for your benefit! I don't like the idea they've kept watch on me without telling me."

"Well, you won't find it in your clothes! Obviously." He waved a hand, urging her to pull up her trousers and she didn't hesitate to comply. "No. They probably gave it to you in your food. Medical bay. Now. Well, use, I don't know, counter measures?"

Those last words were shouted over his shoulder after a panicked rustling sound came over the tannoy. With a self-conscious shrug, Friss disappeared once again and, as he did so, a rumble rattled through the ship. The entire craft shuddered and lurched to the side. Demi didn't think the ship had been hit, but it felt close.

She stumbled from the brig, looking both ways along the corridor, wondering where to find the medical bay. More lurches sent her bouncing from one side of the corridor to the other as she tried to scramble along. One shift knocked her from her feet, sending her crashing against the wall, her face squashed against a sign that had a map of the ship on it. A quick look and she had a good idea where to go, fighting against the violent movements as she scrambled toward the medical bay.

Compared to everywhere else on the stolen Gal-Navy vessel, the medical bay looked almost pristine. Several Auto-Exam beds lined against one wall. Taking a momentary breath, she gripped the door frame as several shudders ran through the walls and floor. In a lull, she tried to run to the beds, only for a sharp bang to reverberate throughout the entire ship and her feet no longer connected to the floor.

"It's fine. Don't worry about it. Just a momentary breakdown of gravity plating. Everything's fine." Over the tannoy, Friss sounded like someone had taught him how to sound calm and in control, only for the teacher to end up being very poor at their job. A high-pitched crinkling sound followed Friss' words. "Alright! I see them! Demi, you might want to, I don't know, hold on to something? This will be a bit ... yeah. Hold tight."

The momentum Demi had managed before the gravity plates turned off had worked to her advantage, lessening the effects of the continued attacks on the corvette and sending her floating in the general direction of the Auto-Exam beds. As the nearest one began to float past, she reached out, grabbing hold of the flexible metal arm that held the monitor and pulling herself to the bed, where she managed to lie down and configure the ambient force field to hold her there while leaving her hands free.

She reached up to the monitor, setting the examination parameters and her finger hovered over the 'Execute' button. Whoever thought of calling the button to set the medical Auto-Exam table working 'Execute' had so little understanding of human nature, Demi assumed that they were not. Human, that was. It seemed a little final for Demi's tastes. Putting that aside, she poked out her finger and the world turned into something resembling jelly.