"I... don't think... I..."
"Almost... there..." The blonde woman heard the young man thud against the grated metal floor as he (she hoped) fell unconscious. She wasn't experienced with filtration systems. Give her a rifle, she could disassemble and reassemble it in record time. This, though? A little more complicated. Nevertheless, she doubted the gas was going to be all that benevolent, given that it was all sinister-looking and sickly green in color. Finally, she allowed herself to breathe a bit more when she heard the ventilation kick on once again, that misty emerald smoke being pulled back up into it.
It was only then that she realized that she hadn't actually done anything to the panel. The wires had been switched around, but she had had no effect on anything going on with the inner workings. There was a metallic grind as the doors were wrenched open, and Captain Jones stepped through with a cylindrical object in his hand - something he'd used to force the door open.
"What in the hell is going on here?"
"Some... kind of gas." Jenny said. "Get Andrew help." She had moved over to Andrew's side, where the man still lay unconscious, which she'd confirmed by a quick check of his pulse. "He's still breathing. We need to get him detoxed from whatever that was."
"Vortex! Snails! Get him to the medbay! Pronto!" Two of the men she'd seen earlier, now without suits, rushed in and one grabbed Andrew's head and the other his legs, carrying him out quickly. Jenny moved to follow, only for Jones to stop her with a raised arm.
"Where in the Hell do you think you're going?" Jones asked.
"To help." Jenny said.
"Pretty sure you did enjoy locking my grease monkey in to get asphyxiated."
"What, and I locked myself in the room with him? How stupid are you?"
"You don't seem to be hacking up a lung."
"I was on the floor, trying to override the ventilation systems."
"So you were tearing apart my boat, not knowing what you were doing?"
"Kraisem to Captain Jones."
"I was trying to save the life of your engineer! You ought to be thanking me!"
"And yourself as well. Pretty damn convenient, if you ask me."
"Captain?"
"I didn't ask you. I told you. That would be precisely the point."
"Captain?"
"WHAT?!" Jones yelled at the comm box after he finally pressed the key to accept transmission.
"Captain, we're being hailed... by a Corporation vessel."
"Out here? Why?" Jones' brow furrowed. "I'm coming up. Acknowledge receipt and ask them to standby."
"Understood, Captain." Jones turned and left the engine room without another word, apparently putting Jenny from his mind for the moment, which suited her just fine. She followed down the corridor a few paces behind him, taking off a turn at where she'd seen the two men take Andrew and hoping the path led to the medbay in question. After a few false turns, it seems that it did, leading Jenny into a rather small pair of chambers that were stuffed with what looked like very worn-down medical equipment.
"Alright, grab the filtration unit going." One said, setting Andrew out and preparing to do chest compressions. The other man, went and retrieved the device in question, securing a plastic mask to Andrew's head via a band around the back. "Hit it!" The larger device, a tall box of a machine on wheels that the mask was connected to, activated. Air was being pumped into his lungs.
"Air flow going in...jolt... now!" The first man pressed hard into Andrew's chest, forcing his stomach muscles to tense and then release, resulting in him suddenly jerking up from the table, coughing profusely.
"Panegyric Jones, punctuality is not your strong suit, I see." The man on the viewscreen stared intently at Jones as the captain once more came to the bridge.
"Sorry, Captain. They forced the communication through." Po Kraisem sat in his pilot chair, looking rather nervous at his captain. Jones ignored him and quickly took in the man before him. The man wore a crisp, black suit with a blue shirt and a black, silver-dotted tie. Distinctly sitting on his nose were a pair of thick, horn-rimmed glasses. Definitely a rare thing in this day and age, but none more so on a member of the Company, who the man clearly is.
"Who am I addressing?" Jones asked.
"You may call me Mr. Bishop. I represent the Company."
"Our contract with the Harrow Corporation is very clea-"
"No, no, Mr. Jones. You misunderstand."
"Captain."
"Mister." The man on the screen corrected sharply. "You command a vessel because you are allowed to. By the Company." Jones felt his blood run cold as the realization hit him.
"...there's no way."
"I'm afraid that there is." Bishop said simply. "As the Harrow Corporation is one of our many subsidiaries throughout the Empire, the Board has elected to take command of the situation as it currently stands. You have performed your duties more than adequately and will be paid in full."
"Then why the heavy artillery?" Jones asked. "I got a strong feeling that we're not all about to sing Kumbaya."
"Quite so, Mister Jones." Bishop said. "We have reason to believe that a very dangerous individual has come into your custody."
"What sort of individual?" Jones asked.
"A criminal, someone that the Board has a great deal of interest in bringing into their custody."
"What are they worth?"
"More than whatever pitiful scrap you've salvaged from Milax Five, I can promise you that."
"Tell on."
"Mister Jones, what do you know of the Time Lords?"
"It's a good thing you got him here when you did." Jenny said, seeing that Andrew had finally stabilized, the device having drawn out the noxious gases that were now swirling around in the containment unit.
"Yeah. Captain's gonna be miffed that we'll have to get another set of containers for it, this was the last one." The darker skinned man said as he removed the container, the device having sealed it already. "Looks like someone tried to hit you both with something hard and nasty."
"What is it?"
"Dunno, might have been cooked up especially for you both." The other man said as he looked over the small display on the breathalyzer. "Might be Raxacoricofallapatorian!"
"Oh, you're a regular comedian, Snails." The other snorted. "Oh, right, sorry. I'm Vortex, he's Snails." He offered his hand to Jenny.
"I'm Jenny." Jenny said, shaking his hand.
"I know Captain was gonna give you guff, but thanks for getting this one out of it." Vortex said, nudging Andrew in the shoulder.
"...oww." Andrew moaned out.
"Oh, look at that! Sleeping Beauty awakes!" Snails was snickering.
"You alright, lad?" Vortex asked.
"No... I think my throat is burning." Andrew said, sitting up as he began to rub his throat.
"Grab him water."
"You're closer to the fridge!"
"Did I stutter?" Vortex shot him a look, Snails glaring daggers at him, but still going to get the water from the fridge. "Don't worry, we'll get you back to grease monkeying soon enough."
"I just don't understand why someone tried to kill us." Jenny said.
"Kill Andrew, you mean?" Snails asked. The eyes of all three others in the room turned to him. "What? Something takes the slipspace drive offline and then that happens? I think they were trying to be sure he couldn't bring it back online." Snails handed a plastic bottle of water to Andrew.
"Well, it would have had to have been somebody on the ship." Andrew said, uncapping the bottle and starting to down the water.
"Not all at once! We can't have you choking!" Vortex insisted. This convinced Andrew to slow down in his sips.
"Nobody else has been on the ship since we left Convex 56." Andrew said. "Unless someone tried to sabotage the ship there and it just now took effect, I think somebody on the ship just tried to kill me."
"Alright, but who would have done it?" Jenny asked.
"There's only seven of us on the ship in the crew." Vortex said. "Pretty sure we can rule out the four of us and the captain."
"So who are the suspects we have, if we think that?" Jenny asked.
"Well, there's Po Kraisem and Dahh-Reg, our two pilots."
"Two?"
"They switch off." Andrew said. "Kraisem does the day cycle, Dahh-Reg does the night."
"And Kraisem is the pilot now, yeah?"
"That's right."
"So, by process of elimination, it's Dahh-Reg." Jenny said, shrugging. "Simple."
"Maybe," Vortex said, "but that doesn't explain why." There was suddenly a rumbling noise. "...the Champlain just shifted."
"What? Why?"
"I think we're landing."
"Can this ship even land?" Andrew asked, almost incredulous at the thought of it.
"Well, we're moving closer to the planet, anyway." Vortex said.
"Guess that's our cue." Vortex said. "C'mon."
"No... no... no..."
"I don't understand."
"None of these individuals are the man that I am looking for." Bishop replied.
"Well, I am sorry. There are only eight people onboard in total." Jones answered, his tone almost - but just narrowly avoiding being - mocking.
"Mind your tone, Mister Jones." Bishop's eyes narrowed at him through the frames of his glasses. "I can see that, but none of these people are the one that I am looking for. You must be hiding him onboard."
"I assure you, no one is hiding onboard." Jones said. Jenny glanced down the line. Eight people, herself included (and, she noted, including the Crespallion named Dahh-Reg), but apparently none of them were up to this man's standards. "It might also help in your search if you tell us who this man is. Or what he looks like. Some sort of physical description?" Bishop stared for a moment, in his eyes could be seen a man seriously considering his options.
"Very well." Bishop said. A few seconds later, his visage on the display moved aside to show an image. Jenny felt her hearts racing as she recognize it immediately and tried to keep the shock from showing in her face as she glanced at it.
"This is a Time Lord known only as 'the Doctor', and he is a person of interest to the Board." Bishop explained. "The last confirmed sighting of the man was on Messaline, where he masterminded an insurrection of the colonial armed forces before apparently escaping."
"Well, you're down at the first hurdle, then." Jones said. "The Time Lords are a myth, a legend. If they ever existed at all, they're all dead by now."
"You are correct, Mr. Jones," Bishop said, "save for one of them. Our scanners have confirmed that there is a Time Lord on your vessel, and we are going to find him."
"I've already had the ship descend into the lower atmosphere, I've got nothing to hide." Jones said, holding his arms out. "Please, by all means come and check."
"I fully intend to. Prepare to be boarded." Bishop said. "End transmission."
"He's off his nut!" Snails protested.
"He's also a representative of the Company." Jones replied. "So, we're going to humor him until he gets this ridiculous notion out of his head."
"What could have caused their scanners to malfunction like that?" Dahh-Reg spoke, his voice rather shaky and unsure, Jenny noted once she was snapped from her stunned state.
"Cheap parts? How the bloody hell should I know?" Jones huffed at him. "I suggest you all get to your quarters until this is over. Best to keep you all in one place, not give him any reason to suspect anything."
"Captain, can I talk to you?" Andrew asked.
"Talking to me right now, Caitlinson." Jones said.
"...alright, then. Then definitely everyone in your rooms." Jones said, gesturing for them to get moving.
"And me?" Jenny asked.
"Oh, you're staying with me and Kraisem up here. I still don't trust you." Jones said, looking over to Kraisem. "Make sure the internal sensors are up and running."
"They are, Captain." Kraisem said, still sitting in his chair, at the ready. "Do you want me to maintain orbit?"
"We still have the shields up, correct?"
"Yes, sir."
"Good, so no one is going to transmat in or out." Jones said. "Make sure to transmit that bit of information over to Mr. Bishop for when they dock."
"Doing it now." Kraisem said, pressing a few buttons on the controls.
"Alright, everyone else, march." Jones said, gesturing for them to leave. With Jenny at his side, Jones watched as each individual member of the crew entered into their quarters and the doors sealed behind them. "There, locked down."
"You locked them in?" Jenny asked.
"Until we find out who has been messing around with my ship, I'm not trusting anyone." Jones said, turning and heading back to the bridge.
"So I'm here, because...?"
"Like I said, can't trust you. I've had these men working for me, some of them for a long time. I know them. I don't know you, so you're staying with me."
"First Mate it is, got it." Jenny gave a cheeky grin.
"Oh, no no... you are nowhere on my chain of command." Jones said, raising a finger to stop her right then and there.
"I was a soldier."
"Good for you!"
"Captain, the shuttle has docked."
"Let them in."
"They're already overriding the mechanism."
"Of course they are." Jones said, gesturing for Jenny to follow. "C'mon." The captain led the way down another branch in the corridors and then down a metal staircase to deeper into the ship. Another turn and they faced a large hatch that Jenny could hear loud clanking and whirring from, said hatch beginning to open up. It rolled aside, revealing Mr. Bishop flanked by a pair of combat androids. "Welcome aboard, Mr. Bishop."
"Thank you, Mr. Jones." Bishop said, eyes looking about as if waiting for attack from any angle. His eyes flicked over to Jenny. "Who is this?"
"I'm Jenny. I'm the First Mate." Jenny said quickly, flashing a cheeky grin toward the Captain.
"...yes. That." Jones replied through gritted teeth, clearly nettled.
"Right." If Bishop cared about the exchange, he gave no indication. "Summon your men, Mr. Jones."
"I have them in their quarters, you may come and interrogate them at your leisure there." Jones said.
"Except for your pilot, presumably?" Bishop asked.
"Yes, Mr. Kraisem is still on the bridge." Jones said. Bishop turned to the android at his left.
"Go to the bridge, scan Mr. Kraisem. If he is the Time Lord, subdue him." Bishop said. The android lumbered forward, moving past Jones and Jenny. "Let us see these other men, then." Jones led the way for Bishop and the android to follow them down the corridor and to where the crew quarters were located.
Andrew had been lying back on his bed when he heard the clicking of the small, mechanical feet. Getting up and looking rather confused, he heard the clicking noises coming from his vent. Walking over to it, he unlocked and removed the paneling to look inside. Sure enough, there was indeed something there.
"...spy camera?" Andrew snorted, waving at the red eye as it gazed at him. "Vortex? Snails? Are you guys having a laugh?" Neither Vortex, nor Snails answered him and the little robot twisted its head, looking at him. Looking back at it closely, Andrew noticed the faintest trace of small, almost indiscernible holes in the eyepiece. "Oh, damn!" Andrew said, realizing what they were and moving back but not quickly enough to avoid the puff of gas that was sent his way. He had avoided taking the full blast, but some had indeed gotten into his nose and mouth and thus into his breath. Backing away, Andrew suddenly felt his left leg give out, and then his right. He tried to call for help, but found his throat was closing up. Paralysis starting to grip him, Andrew was dragging himself toward the far wall and, bracing himself against anything he could, reaching out for the button on the wall that would send out a general alert. Just as he was about to press it, however, his paralysis had reached his arm.
As a last, desperate act, Andrew flung himself toward the wall and felt the button get pressed from the press of his body. The momentum sent him sliding to the floor and the last thing he felt before the feeling in his legs went away was the metal legs of the robot wrapping around them as the alert sounded.
"Caitlinson?" Jones yelled, stomping quickly over to the man's door. When it did not open, he began to manipulate the panel. "...the controls are out!"
"Move! I've got it." Jenny said, slipping her fingers in the divide where the two halves of the door separated and began to pull them away from each other. With the view of Andrew's quarters unobstructed, his body being grasped by metallic legs from a small robot with a singular red eye on its swiveling head.
"Droid. Destroy that." Bishop ordered.
"Wait, no-" Jenny started to protest, but the android had already opened fire with a single-barreled weapon in its arm. Three shots caused the robot to fly back from Andrew, splattered in pieces against the dresser in the room. "Is he-?"
"Knocked out." Jones had come in, pressing a pair of fingers to Andrew's neck to feel for a pulse. "It must have gotten him with a paralytic."
"Mmmpf!" Andrew's voice could be barely heard from between his frozen together lips.
"That's it, Caitlinson. Keep kicking." Jones said, patting him on the shoulder. "Looks like it's wearing off."
"Mmhommm!"
"Excellent." Jenny said, no longer holding the door open. The commotion had gotten everyone else to come out and they were now crowded around the door frame.
"What's going on-?"
"What'd he do?"
"I don't-"
"Stop! Quiet! All of you!" Jones shouted. He turned to Bishop. "I suppose you'll want your bucket of bolts to scan all of the men here."
"Correct." Bishop said. He gestured to the android, which looked to each of the men in turn, the central light in its head flashing green with each one. "None of them are the Time Lord. Interesting. Scan the paralyzed one." The android faced Andrew, lying immobile on the floor. Like the other, the central light flashed green. "Now the woman..." The android turned its focus to Jenny and the blonde tensed as it faced her.
The entire room lurched, displacing everyone as they tried to grab onto something to stay upright. Andrew, unfortunately, slid into the wall and his cry out of pain was muted by his condition.
"Kraisem, what the hell is going on up there?" Jones asked, pressing the comms button in Andrew's room.
"I'm afraid Kraisem isn't available right now, Captain. He's stuck... rather like Andrew was."
"I know that voice..." Jenny said. She glanced up at the gathered men, seeing only one face missing from among those that she had seen.
"Snails?!" Jones roared into the speaker. "What is the meaning of this?"
"Had to be done, Captain, sorry."
"I'm coming up there." Jones said, stomping toward the bridge.
"Mr. Jones, this is highly irregu-" Bishop began.
"Stow it!" Jones snapped at him. "You may work for the Company, but this is my ship and I'm not letting this lie! Move!" He moved past the man and started for the bridge.
"Watch after him for a minute." Jenny said to Vortex, who nodded, and moved to follow Jones.
"What in the Hell are you doing?" Jones asked.
"I told you, First Mate. Got to watch out for the Captain." Jenny said.
"You are not my first mate!" Jones snapped at her.
"Well, there is one thing you need to have brought to your attention."
"And what, pray tell, is that?" Jones pressed the buttons on the control pad to open up the hatch to the bridge once he reached it. Inside, they saw Po Kraisem sitting stock-still in the pilot's chair and Bishop's other android looming by him. Its head turned to the newcomers and its hands retracted into its arms to reveal the gun barrels within.
"That!" Jenny exclaimed, just before the robot opened fire on the pair of them.
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