"Go! Now! I'll hold 'em off! Go!"
Addie and Jubee reluctantly leave as I decide to do two things. One, jack in and two, tap in on our group chat on my Eye. But group chat first.
*** If y'all haven't already, get to containment now no questions. *** I order, meaning business.
*** mood unanimous agreement ***
*** Good to hear, see and feel you back in the land of the living. *** Raven.
*** Well, I ain't feelin' too hot right now. I just evac'ed Addie and Jubee off the bridge, the loonies are breaching the bridge right now. *** I warn.
*** Jay, get outta there! *** Ra-Ra, mood alarmed.
*** Your Eye still reportin' you incapacitated. *** Lito.
*** Oh, its correct. Eds rerouted comm. Can ya'll tell what else he's done? ***
*** Yeah, he just overrode comp-sys. *** Raven
*** If you can, jack into comp-sys and hard Align, you might be able to initiate an override and reinstate the lock-out. I already got the algorithm in there. *** Caddy.
*** Alright, will do. Get Addie and Jubee to safety, get in suits and containment and stay there. *** I order.
I go on and jack into the navboard only to be hit by a wave of nausea and dizziness. Uhoh.
I jerk awake with a heart-stopping start as something icy cold hits me in the face. Water. I'm flat on my back on the deck, next to mainhelm. Eds is standing over me, looking down at me while flanked by a bunch of folks in a semi-circle looking crazed in the eyes down at me.
Fine time to pass out.
I notice I'm no longer jacked into the boards, I have a huge dull headache in the back of my head. I didn't get the chance to reinstate Caddy's algorithm. Double uhoh.
SPLASH!
I cough, sputter, spit, and cough water out of sheer surprise and semi sit upright, wipe my face off, mad.
"Where is she?!" Eds demands.
"Where is who?" I ask. The crowd roars with anger.
"Don't act stupid top-flight! Where is she?!" Eds demands.
"Do it even look like I know where she at?! I was passed out on the deck, no thanks to you!"
Eds reaches down and slaps me in the face, hard. Good thing for him that I'm somewhat incapacitated and can't get up right at this moment.
"We don't need her! We got him!"
"Yeah!"
"Get off the deck star6!"
"Yes," Eds stretches a hand down to me, with a startling evil gleam in his eyes. It warns me off snatching him down here with me to tussle on the deck. "Get up, get on helm and nav' us to the back of New Gaia, now, Commander."
I take the proffered hand and he pulls me up to my feet. "No."
"What?!"
"You heard me." I say, as the crowd starts pressing in on me, menacingly.
"You have no choice, Alejandro." Eds says as someone punches me square in my back, knocking me forwards into Eds who shoves me back while the crowd erupts in laughter. There's a ruckus with a wave motion of bodies moving throughout the crowd with shoving to and fro, elbows and fists which spits out Styx of Unit One onto the deck on his knees. Someone clobbers him and he's bleeding now from his head and eye as Eds casually takes out a pulser handgun and shoots Styx in the shoulder, near his armpit and the mob proceeds to beat him into the deck.
"Nav us to the back of New Gaia, now." Eds insists as the mob spits out Amy of Unit 6 onto the deck. She already has a black eye. "Being as that she's already dead, nobody gonna miss her, top-flight." As he aims the pulser at her head.
"Five...four..." someone starts counting down.
Amy's eyes widened in a desperate plea to me, terrified, mouth slightly open.
"Ok, ok! I'll do it! Let her go!" I hold my hands up, yelling and horrified in disbelief.
They roughly shove her onto the deck. She hits with a thud and crack but immediately scrambles toward me and I help her up and behind me, eyes on Eds and see Styx crumpled on the deck.
"Ev'one calm down! I'll cooperate!" I reiterate.
"Good, 'bout time Jay I mean, I hate to get dirty and ugly, but it is what it is and things need to happ' right now. We're just following orders, kay? When we meet up with Resolute, we're gonna broadcast disclosure and end all this! We're cooperative as well! You see how good life is when you obey orders? Too bad you only chose now to be compliant! Well, I guess you didn't really choose but, that's what you get!" he grabs me roughly, shoving me against the mainhelm post. "Here we go ev'one!"
There's a loud cheer and psychotic, nutso shenanigans break out – singing, dancing, skipping with people running around with abandon, swinging each other around. I've never seen anything like this. I'm going to report this to the Med Boards – provided I survive all this of course. I'm just dumbfounded, and somehow land back on the deck. I immediately roll onto my side, taking cover and once the ruckus dies down, Dells is squatting next beside me when I peek out from behind my hands.
"Hi." I decide to say.
He extends a hand that I take, and he lifts me off the deck and as he does so, whispers in my ear, "I'm with you. I faked my skill-sess. We need to get outta here."
"Thank you." I whisper, relieved beyond words and say, "Get suited, get suits for Amy and Styx and get in the helm." He nods and heads off. "Eds, I need Dells, Amy and Styx on the helm to help me."
"Fine!" Eds says cheerily from his command chair. "We're late, let's go already!"
Alignment is taking a nice edge off the side-effects of being OD'ed by my CO – a good thing from a bad thing. Just when I thought this day couldn't get any worst! Dells returns as I notice that Amy put herself in helm as he has Styx held up who's holding his chest, limping and bleeding. I help Dells get Styx into the helm at nav3 as Amy's in nav4. I nod at Dells to take nav2 and he places the pressure suit bands on Styx and Amy. I tap my wristband and inflate my pressure suit and nod at the three to do the same and they inflate their suits. I look around, no one appears to even notice or wonder why we're in pressure suits.
I nod at them to jack in, take my seat and hit all-ship.
"Gen stays! Slide-run in five, slide in ten, burn imminent, take hold!" I order, my voice raspy.
*** What's burnin' Jay? *** Addie-Lit, mood concerned.
*** Well, I passed out aft' I jacked in and y'all left. Woke up to a crazed mob. They beat Styx and Amy and threatened her life so...I decided to cooperate. *** me, mood defeated.
*** Well, we're not beat yet so stay lit and take your first opt to get us to Trip-C, alive. *** Addie-Lit, mood reassure.
*** Dells, our systems man, appears ok and is on helm with me. I have Styx and Amy here too. Gonna activate the containment bubbles. We're in suits. ***
*** Yes do that. We're working on reinstating the lockout and regain command. Look, you're doing fine. Stay focused, keep up whacha doin' and we'll get outta this someway. ***
*** Aye! ***
Sir, you should know, Eds had me drop the screen off comm' so we could be better tracked by Resolute – Dells
Stars alive! Can you reinstate it? – me
Yes, I'll do it now – Dells
How long its been off? – me
Prob' three or four real hours now – Dells
Ugh! – me
Are there guns aboard we can shoot back with? – Dells
Yeah, some but we'll have to be within Resolute's envelope to use 'em, bad thing – me
We're gonna die, for real – Dells
Well don't give up just yet. Keep eye out, stay suited and watch comm's for me – me
Ok – Dells
So what's your plan Jay? – Amy
Basically to stay alive – me
Good as any – Styx
How are you doing? – me
Deff' had better days but I'll make it – Styx
"Don't get any funny ideas, Commander." Eds says.
I nod reluctantly. "Make sure your peeps take hold, sir."
Looks like Trippy or Addie-Lit already set The Capitalist to condition white – which includes the white cycle lights and already has the ship ready-set to implement all emergency maneuvers, even if the navboard is unable to do so. Good job. One of those functions are the containment bubbles – zero-G bubbles attached to the deck and bulkhead that rise up and out to encase the occupants in a zero-G environment with life-support. This is the ship's last line of defense to preserve life in a decompression event – a venting to space that'll suck the atmosphere, objects, and people into the vacuum of space. The bubbles are in various places throughout the ship and are on every deck. Its still necessary to be in a pressure suit within the containment bubbles in case rescue takes a long time. Your suit will give you forty-eight extra hours if the ship's life support fails.
I'm ready to initiate burn and these fools are still running around the bridge!
"Take hold!" I yell. This time peeps snap to and take hold. Skilled-sess'ed idiots. If I get the chance, I'll review that session and lodge an official complaint with the Board. Ridiculous! "Burn." I announce over all-ship, initiating the burn and going slide-run.
Lay in my plot while working the trajectory and The Capitalist responds as she normally does – hand in glove agility – anticipating me without a navboard's interference. Since no one's on comm', I commandeer it and run into Caddy's algorithm and reinstate it. I have The Capitalist to run a report to see what all we've got going.
"Slide in five!" I announce over all-ship.
Sir – Dells
Lay it on me – me, sighing
Looks like the Revolution's underway – Dells
Not surprised – me
They've taken The Gaian and announcing war on SFB and secession from the Charter of Worlds – Dells
Stars alive... -- me
Also, there's comm' from The Gaian demanding specificity on who's aboard here – Dells
Of course – me
Respond? – Dells
Ignore 'em – me
Maybe they changed minds on that cold call order? – Dells
Doubt it – me
We're ready to hit the mark I've selected. I bombard my targeted area and the gate opens and we slide right through, successfully. I've already plotted a B-course to Independence once I get the chance. It'll take two star-hours to get to the Front behind New Gaia from this position.
With the comm-screen back active along with Caddy's algorithm, I should be able to change course without Eds being the wiser. Once I cycle on yellow lights, the space cadets resume running around the bridge.
Stars alive.