"We're back in standard orbit." Po Kraisem said as he set the Champlain onto the proper flight path via the autopilot.
"And we'll definitely be staying here for a hot minute as well." Jones said as he gazed out of the viewport toward Milax Five. "If that contract from the Company is going to pay off as well as it says."
"You really think it'll be that good?"
"They've been square with us so far." Jones said. "No reason to suspect anything different."
"I don't know, boss. Whole thing seems kind of shady to me." Kraisem said.
"Well, I don't recall asking. You aren't paid to know, you're paid to fly. Remember?"
"Geez, man. No need to be so harsh!"
"Sorry, just... Snails doing that really threw me for a loop is all." Jones said. The betrayal stung, perhaps more than any he'd ever suffered in his time as a junker. His thoughts were cut off as the hatch at the back of the bridge opened up and in stepped... "Caitlinson! What's the word?"
"The engines are good, Captain." Andrew said. "I just looked over everything and the crew from the Reformation really did a number on us..." He held out a datapad to him. "...and itemized everything for us, of course."
"Of course." Jones said, taking the datapad and looking through it to observe the damages. "Great. Wonderful. We'll be giving them back about a quarter of the fee for this job." He rolled his eyes. "Where's the blonde girl? The one who keeps insisting she's my first mate?"
"She was down in the quarters area, last I checked." Andrew said. "I could go look for her if you-"
"No, no." Jones said, shaking his head and sighing. "She saved my bacon. Figure she'd make a good fit for the crew... not the First Mate."
"Well, obviously, boss. That's me." Po grinned from the pilot's chair.
"Shut up." Jones said, handing the datapad back to Andrew. "See to it that everything stays ship-shape. Got it?"
"You got it, Captain." Andrew said, taking the pad back and heading out, the hatch once more closing behind him.
"Kraisem, why don't you go get some rest? We'll need all hands on deck when the Company decides that it's time to move." Jones said.
"Yes, Captain." Kraisem said, getting up and heading out and starting for the hatch. "You drop your code cylinder, Captain?"
"My what?" Jones asked, glancing onto his belt and finding his device used to access most of the more sensitive functions of the Champlain was gone from where he usually had it clipped. "Blast, what the Devil have I done with it now?"
"Alright, I've got it."
"That was quick."
"He was distracted. Twice, actually." Andrew took a small device and pressed it against the edge of the datapad he had brought back. "There we go, fingerprint ident..." He said, then pressed the device to the code cylinder. "There. It's primed. We should be able to do this now."
"You're sure?"
"Oh, yes."
"I have to admit, I was not expecting a complete one eighty from you like this." Jenny commented, arms crossed as she watched Andrew removing the clutter from around a device in the engine room. She recognized the transmat pad when she saw it. "Why the change of heart? I'm not nearly that persuasive."
"I just... I dunno." Andrew said. "I told you before, I never knew my Dad. Don't know his name or anything. Or if he's even alive, but... I never really wanted to look for him, either. But you do. And... if this can help you do that, then... I should try, at least."
"Thank you." Jenny said. "I suppose I'll have to find my own way back, but-"
"We." Andrew corrected. "We will have to find our way back."
"What?" Jenny's brow raised.
"You've already saved my life twice today, I'm sticking with you." Andrew said. "You leave and I'm likely to get sucked out of an airlock or blown to bits. No thanks!" Jenny chuckled.
"Alright, so what do I need to do?"
"Just step onto the platform. I'm programming in some coordinates. If the Reformation is anything like your standard carrier, we should come out in a service closet." Andrew said, punching some information into the small terminal attached to the pad. Jenny moved to stand on the pad and, a second later, he joined her. Due to the smallness of said pad, one barely made for two people, they were in quite the close proximity. "...you smell nice."
"What?" Jenny blinked.
"What?" Andrew replied just as quickly before the transmat activated and they were gone. The engine room of the Champlain seemed to vanish around them and within fractions of a second was replaced with a darkened room, with only very faint light coming from what looked to be a ring of florescent bars wrapping around the top of the walls.
"We made it!" Jenny grinned excitedly, Andrew shushing her. He fumbled around a bit, hand sliding against the wall as he tried to find a switch. He found one and he pulled it down. The lights came up and, after his eyes adjusted, he realized that they had indeed come into a closet... just not the one he'd been expecting. There were uniforms here, ones used by employees of the Company proper. The crewmen and others who operated their ships, not the businessmen like Bishop who went about in their Old Earth suits. "Perfect." Jenny whispered. "Grab a suit, we'll have a disguise." Immediately, she started to strip from her outfit, dropping the boots, shirt, and leggings after having taken them off with surprising speed. She moved quickly toward the rack of clothing.
"...yeah..." Andrew was still staring in stunned silence for a moment.
"...turn around if it embarrasses you." Jenny commented, not looking back as she was clearly very much unashamed at being clad in nothing but her underthings before him. Andrew pulled his gaze away, blushing as red as the bulb on the Champlain's bridge used for red alerts, and went to select his own disguise. Settling on a tech, he slipped into the blue-green jumpsuit and worked the zip up to his neck. His own boots served well enough rather than needing to take a pair. Thus completed, he walked back over to where he could still hear Jenny ruffling through some things.
"Jenny?" Andrew whispered, stepping over toward the noise and soon finding himself face to face with a
figure in a black, lightly armored suit, complete with a helmet with the front shielding raised. The faceplate had only a simple slit to allow the person within to see, the rest of it completely obscured the face.
"There. What do you think? Does it suit me?" Jenny's voice came from the grillwork of the tiny mouthpiece, admittedly somewhat muffled.
"...I wouldn't keep it, but it works well enough for here." Andrew said, tugging on the jumpsuit he wore to get the creases out of the front.
"Great. Let's go." Jenny said, starting for the door.
"Wait, wait... at the same time?" Andrew asked.
"Sure, why not?" Jenny asked.
"Two people? Coming out of a closet together? They might think we're... up to something." Andrew said, cheeks a bit flushed.
"Fine, I'll go first and scout out the hallway." Jenny said, the rolling of her eyes almost audible. "You stay here." Jenny headed for the door, stepping through it and into a corridor that ended at a wall at both ends, with pathways branching off. It seemed that no one was around, she turned and opened the closet once more, poking her head back in. "We're alone. C'mon." Andrew stepped out, looking about nervously.
"Alright, so what's our next move?" Andrew asked.
"We find a terminal, see if we can find the holding cells. That's most likely where Snails is going to be." Jenny said. "After that, we find a terminal and see if we can get any information on what's really going on here." She glanced back at him. "You said they wouldn't be able to trace our transmat, right?"
"No, definitely not." Andrew shook his head. "I masked the beam through the background radiation. We ought to be perfectly safe."
"I will throttle him!"
"Captain, I'm sure there has to be some explanation!" Po said as Jones tore the code cylinder from out of the transmat control panel.
"Oh, I'll wring it out of his scrawny neck, believe you me!" Jones' face was bright red as he was almost spitting with rage through his gritted teeth. "Take him in, give him a job, and he runs off with the first blonde he comes across!"
"C'mon, Captain. You know there's gotta be something shady going on here." Vortex said. "I mean, maybe they've got a point in doing this?"
"Then they should have spoken to me!" Jones snapped.
"You would have authorized them going over to the Company's ship and risk losing that contract?" Po asked with a raised brow.
"... no, I guess I wouldn't have." Jones huffed, crossing his arms.
"Well, we can't just sit here!" Vortex insisted.
"That's exactly what we're gonna do." Jones said. "We got a contract and we're going to follow through with it. The Company is bankrolling us. They say to wait, we wait." He glanced at the transmat pad, equal parts dismay and irritated. "They're on their own over there..."
Over there, the pair had decided to split up, Jenny heading toward the detention block after the pair of them had discovered a terminal that provided a schematic. She felt odd, unarmed as she was, moving toward the place and entering through a door that had slid open upon her arrival. At the desk sat a guard dressed much as she was, the black armor and the almost robotic faceplate of the helmet.
"You here for your shift?" A man's voice came from the other guard.
"...yes, I'm your relief." Jenny said.
"Are you new? I'm not registering your ident." The guard said.
"Yeah, just transferred in before we left the last port." Jenny said quickly. "I don't think they worked it out yet."
"Ugh... those guys from tech support are so lazy!" The guard lamented.
"I know, right?"
"Well, the desk is yours. Have a good shift." The guard said, leaving the room and leaving Jenny to her own devices.
'That was easy...' She thought, heading over to the series of monitors set within the desk. They were all glimpses into the various cells on the block, her eyes scanning over each and every one of them as she looked for the man in question. Her eyes lit up as she found him, read off his cell number, and then started down the way to his cell. Finding it, she opened the door.
"Snails? Snails, it's me." Jenny said as she entered. The man was slumped back against the far wall, looking alright and in good health, yet his face had a somber expression on it. When she entered, he looked up at her with a blank expression. "Oh, right. The helmet." She pulled it off, allowing her blonde ponytail to fall free from it. "See? It's me. Hi!"
"You..." Snails said quietly.
"Yes. Now... we can get you out of here, but first, I need you to tell me a few things. First off, why did you try to kill Andrew? Twice?" The man on the floor looked at her vacantly, then he was clearly mulling things over in his head.
"... the boy." Snails said. "...Andrew."
"Yes. Andrew!" Jenny huffed. "Why did you-?"
"He is not important. None of it is." Snails said.
"What do you mean?" Jenny demanded.
"His existence was a means to an end... it brought you to me." Snails said, and Jenny could see what looked to be some kind of sticky, black fluid leaking from the man's left eye.
"Snails, what did they do to you?" Jenny backed away slightly, body tensing as she prepared to fall back on her combat training if the need to defend herself arose.
"Snails isn't home right now..." The man said. He started, shakily, to get up to his feet. "This body... I had to steal it and he happened to be in the right place at the right time. Just as you are now..."
"I-" Jenny started, the door to the cell slamming shut behind her. The body of Snails lurched upward, more of that black liquid now leaking from his eyes and his mouth.
"Let's get better acquainted, shall we?" The man said, before the liquid started to flood entirely from his mouth in a gusher, the liquid seeming to coalesce on the floor of the cell and solidify further into a kind of black goo. It jiggled and stretched out, forming some kind of rudimentary limb that lashed out to grab at Jenny's leg. While the first swipe she was able to dodge, she was not the second and was pulled down onto the back on the floor. The ooze moved like lightning after that, spreading across her legs, torso, her arms, and eventually up toward her mouth. She gasped in protest, and the stuff slid into her mouth, disappearing entirely.
"How... did..." Jenny started, but suddenly her world became as black as that goo, and she knew no more. At least, not until her eyes opened again and she found herself lying in a field of red grass under a burnt orange sky. "Where... where am I?" Towering above them, she saw a mighty glass dome that shone in the sunlight.
"Our home. Don't you recognize it?" The voice was deep, rich. It sounded like a low growl, someone sliding a finger across soft leather. Jenny sat up, holding up a hand to shield her eyes from the bright orange sphere in the sky and looked to see a man sitting on a large boulder nearby. He wore silver-grey robes with a ridiculously high collar that spread across the entire back of his head. His head, though, was a more interesting thing to Jenny. It had no eyes, no hair, no mouth. Nothing that indicated any facial features at all, just a smooth, silver surface. Yet, he spoke, and he spoke again. "Surprised? The Time Lords have taken my face from me... my very flesh!"
"Time Lords?" Jenny asked. "You're a Time Lord?"
"Of course I am Time Lord, child!" The man protested. "Who are you who do not recognize one of your own kind?"
"That's... kind of a difficult question to answer."
"It hardly matters. I have entered your mind, hence what you see here." The man said.
"Who... who are you?" Jenny asked.
"They called me a madman. A monster. A warlord. They scattered me to the nine corners of the universe, yet I survived! Yet I... survived. The echo of a being. A parasite!"
"That's... interesting and/or terrifying and/or boring, but that doesn't really answer my question." Jenny said.
"I am known as Morbius, former President of the High Council of Time Lords. Of the highest rank of the Time Lords!"
"Never heard of you." Jenny said.
"What are you talking about? What do you mean?"
"You are cloned from the Doctor." Morbius laughed. "He survived the Time War! Astounding..."
"You know my father?" Jenny asked.
"Know him?" Morbius' laughter continued to bellow out across the landscape. "Of course I know him. He spearheaded the Battle of Skull Moon. Both Gallifrey and Skaro trembled that day, that day he burned their end into the very bones of the stars."
"I don't understand." Jenny said. Her father had spoken of being in a War, but the rest, she was quite confused by.
"This is the one you know, is it not?" When Morbius spoke, she saw him again, standing there. The long brown overcoat, the blue suit, those red shoes, even that spiky hair and that bright, shining smile.
"Dad!" Jenny exclaimed, quickly moving to approach him. As she did so, the image changed. Instead of her father, the man she saw had a head of curly, brown hair, a wide, bright, toothy grin, and long, brown coat under the longest scarf that Jenny had ever seen in her life that was wrapped around the man's shoulders not once, but a few times. "I... this is... my Dad?"
"Yes, child." Morbius said. "As I first knew him. When he came to me on Karn."
"His face... it's..."
"Different? Yes." Morbius told her. "The gift of a Time Lord regenerative cycle. A complete and utter change in personality and appearance."
"So... when I find my Dad again... he might not even be-" Jenny started.
"Oh, my dear... what made you think you were ever going to see the Doctor again?"
"Don't say that!"
"It's not important. What is important, however, is you... you're something new." Morbius said. "But thanks to you, one way or another, I have what I need." Suddenly, Jenny remembered how she had ended up here, the memory suddenly flooding back after apparently having had it blocked away.
"You! You jumped inside of my body!"
"My body now!"
Back in the cell, 'Jenny' arose at the sound of the doors opening.
"Morbius, are you-?" Bishop's voice came from behind him, adjusting to the new dimensions of his form.
"Yes. Yes, everything went exactly as planned. I have the girl's body, now. And she is the Time Lord. Enough to suit my purposes."
"I should have guessed. She wasn't on the crew manifest for the Champlain."
"Indeed not." Morbius said as he... or rather, she rose, stretching out her new limbs. "This body will do. Peak physical health. I must say, those progenation machines do good work."
"I will be sure to include that information in my report to the Board." Bishop remarked darkly. "The Champlain and the Cook are in position."
"Good. Then we shall begin." Morbius said.
Back on the bridge of the Champlain, Jones squinted out through the viewport as the Cook was on approach. The Reformation was moving into an odd position as well, looming over the pair of ships.
"What in the blazes is going on? Dahh-Reg?" The captain cocked his head over to his pilot on duty.
"I have no idea, Captain." Dahh-Regg said, looking at the monitors. "The Cook is on the normal flight pattern for a rendezvous, but the-" Suddenly, an alarm went off. "...Captain, someone has overriden the ship's control circuits!"
"Well, reboot them!" Jones yelled at him.
"I can't!" Dahh-Regg proclaimed after a few seconds of trying multiple different methods and not a one bearing fruit. Jones went wide eyed, glancing out of the viewport. The Cook had suddenly stopped as well. Bishop... his men, with their repairs. They'd planned for this... but why? It made no sense! A transmission came through, the large monitor winking into life once more to show the face of Bishop.
"Bishop, you conniving-!" Jones started.
"Save your breath, Mr. Jones." Bishop pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "I'm afraid that your position within the Company is no longer needed at this time."
"What?!"
"Activate the tractor beam." Bishop said, just before the transmission cut out.
"Dahh-Regg! You better tell me you can fly us out of here!" Jones said as the blue beam struck and enveloped the Champlain.
"Not unless their hold on the engines suddenly gets taken off." Dahh-Regg said, still trying in vain to work the controls that were still unresponsive.
"Good God..." Jones looked out, seeing that another beam had hit the Cook... and now, the two ships were drifting toward each other under the direction of the Reformation.
...no witnesses...
No comments:
Post a Comment