*ACTION* The paranoid sector ofthe universe PART 2

Who: Captain Calvert, Ambassador Seymour Niples, Jay Chrylser, Peter Marwood
Where: Blue Dwarf’s Drive Room
When: Few hours after the crewmembers were kidnapped.
“Whut do ya mean my first officer has amnesia, ya mean he’s gone doo-lally?”
Said Calvert.
“That’s what it looks like. Doc Keto’s checking him over now. Of course he’s
pretty swamped with all the work he’s now got to do. His deputy chief
medical officer and best nurse are still missing.” Said Jay.
“Yes what is going on with that?” Asked Seymour, deliberately taking a tone
which implies he is blaming the new Captain. “Are we just going to let that
French Captain get away with it?”
“Thur’s nowt much we can do, we’ll ask around on New Texas after we make the
delivery.” Said Jed. “I’ve got some people checking over the crates for
clues now.”
------------------------------------------------
Who: Mk8 and Gordon Rogers
Where: Cargo bay
When: Same time
Security officers Mk8 and Gordon Rogers opened the crates of onions.
Immediately Gordon started to cry.
“Big wuss!” Said the mechanical MK8, and began scanning the onions for
clues.
“I don’t know what we’re looking for” Said Gordon. “That Cargo ship Captain
wouldn’t be so stupid to leave obvious clues behind if he planned on
abducting our crew!”
Then Gordon’s handheld scanner bleeped as he ran it over the onion in his
hand.
“Oh cra-” he said before the root vegetable exploded in his face.
Mk8 dived behind a more sturdy cargo container, which protected him from
most of the blast.
“Captain! I have bad news!” he said. Then he peered back to see if Rogers
was okay. The smear of blood on the floor told him everything he needed to
know.
The whole area started to depressurise from a hole in the hull. The cargobay
sealed itself off automatically to prevent any more air from leaking.
“Great” said Mk8. “Now how do I get out?”
-----------------------------------
Who: Captain Calvert, Ambassador Seymour Niples, Jay Chrysler, Peter Marwood
Where: Blue Dwarf’s Drive Room
When: Same time
The ship rocked from the explosion.
Everyone held on to something. Seymour spilled his hot earl grey tea over
his crotch and yelled in pain.
Calvert spat the soggy cigar end out of his mouth and picked up the phone to
the cargo bay.
“Talk to me fellas, whut on lands sake was that?”
“The French captain left a bomb.” Came MK8’s voice.
“Ooh that makes me madder than an old wet hen!” Calvert said and spat into
the pot across the room. Causing Seymour to duck.
“We’re approaching Planet New Texas Captain,” said Jay, looking over Peters
shoulder.
They all looked to the large window and saw the dry, dessert planet getting
closer.
“Not really much of a planet is it?” Said Seymour in disgust. “A bit… well,
dry drab and boring.”
“Says you ponsy boy!” Said Jed, elbowing Seymour in the ribs. Much to
Seymour’s annoyance.
“Ah’ll have you know that it’s a planet like that whut really makes a man a
man. Surviving on a place like that really toughens you up!”
Jed thought back to his childhood. The haunting images now bounced off him.
The most notable thing about the planet were the extremely large oil pipes
that came up from the planets surface and towered a long way into space,
pumping oil to many other planets in the sector.
“With all the oil that it has to sell, how come this planet isn’t a
massively rich place. I mean, surely it’s making thousands of dollarpounds
right now!” Said Jay.
“Not really” Explained Jed. “The people down there live mostly in fear. If
the other countries don’t get their oil, and don’t get it cheap, then they’
ll gather together and bomb the living crap out of it until they do.”
“Oh the joys of modern life!” Said Seymour sarcastically.
---------------------------------------
Who: Mk8
Where: Cargo bay
When: Same time
Mk8 checked all the doors to the cargo bay; they were sealed to stop any
more air from escaping.
Then he noticed a small note from the wreckage of the crates.
It read: “Y Ddraig Goch ddyry gychwyn”
------------------------------------------
Who: Captain Calvert, Ambassador Seymour Niples, Jay Chrysler, Peter
Marwood, Jack Febuggure
Where: Blue Dwarf’s Drive Room
When: Same time
As they approached the planet, the Drive Room’s forward facing wide screen
monitor suddenly turned to static.
“What’s up with that?” Asked Jay.
“Give it a whack!” Said Calvert.
The static faded and the image of a man could then clearly be seen. A man
wearing a balaclava and holding a very large semi-automatic rifle.
He was stood in front of a flag showing a red dragon.
“That’s the Welsh flag.” Said Jay.
“Cymru am byth!” the man chanted a few times, people off camera chanted with
him.
“Bore da Captain Calvert. Sut mae?” he said in Welsh.
Calvert looked around. “You talking to me dickhead?” he said, putting his
feet up on the desk.
The man grinned slightly. “It is about time the Space Corps took notice of
our sector.” He said with a welsh accent. “There is crime and corruption
here.”
“Damn straight” Calvert said. “Tell me something I don’t know. Was it you
who planted a bomb on our ship?”
The man laughed. “We have operatives everywhere. And yes. We had to get your
attention.”
“How about a quick wave, a simple hello perhaps?”
“Would that have worked?”
“Well, no.”
“Exactly.”
The man with the balaclava continued. He was well spoken, but there was
something in his voice that implied he could turn angry very quickly.
“What it is right, the space corps needs to know the truth about the oil
distribution in this sector. Some planets get more than their fair share,
like the new French Federation and the German Rheinland Empire, whilst our
small world of New Wales hardly gets any -”
“Hold it right there.” Said Calvert. “Save us the sob story please. Ah
really don’t care too much-”
“But you must listen! We have your crewmembers hostage! –BRING THEM!” he
shouted to someone off camera and they brought the Blue Dwarf crewmembers
into view. Jenny, Melissa, Tara and Dimitri.
“Jenny!” Seymour shouted. “How are you, the baby – baby Alota, is she
okay?!”
“Seym-” Jenny started to speak but the guy hit her with the end of his
rifle.
“Quiet!”
Seymour flinched as he saw Jenny get hit. And at almost the exact moment,
Chris Harris burst into the Drive Room; the same transmission was obviously
being shown on all monitors around the ship.
“Don’t let them hurt Melissa!” He yelled. Jay held him back so he didn’t
disturb the Captains negotiating skills.
The Captains negotiating skills however was pretty lazy so far. He laid back
casually in his chair as if he didn’t give a damn.
“You don’t believe how serious we are Captain even after we beat your crew?”
the Welshman said.
Calvert shrugged as they slapped Tara around the face.
“You’re terrorists. I wouldn’t expect anything less.”
The Welshman fumed, “What do we have to do Captain, beat them more? Rape
them?”
Calvert shrugged again.
“Captain, DO something!” shouted Harris.
On the screen, the masked Welsh terrorist beckoned for his aid to bring him
Dimitri. “He’s one of my staff!” Said Harris.
The Welsh terrorist pulled the struggling Dimitri closer, who had been bound
and gagged. He pulled a large sharp knife from behind his back and in one
slow move pulled it across Dimitri’s throat.
Blood gushed out and Dimitri didn’t realise what was happening to him, he
coughed through his gag before collapsing to the floor.
Harris fell silent. Him, Jay and the rest of the Drive room crew stood
gawping at the screen, Seymour looked away before he was sick.
“So now you know we are serious Captain. The woman is next.” He pointed to
Tara. “Unless you agree to help the New Welsh Empire receive an equal share
of oil.”
Throughout it all, Captain Calvert didn’t once look away, and didn’t once
look disgusted or shocked.
“What’s wrong with you?!” Shouted Seymour at Calvert. “Say something at
least! Are you going to let them do this to our people?”
Calvert simply raised a hand to quieten Seymour. He then turned to address
the terrorists on the screen.
“So you expect us to give into your demands and hope you will release the
hostages, is that it? Well the Space Corps doesn’t negotiate with
terrorists.”
“Actually…” said Seymour, until Calvert quietened him with a raised hand
again.
“I” and Calvert stressed the word ‘I’. “-Don’t negotiate with terrorists.
How do I know you’ll release them? You don’t seem the most trusting fellas
to me.”
The terrorist was quiet. He just pulled Tara close to him and put the knife
to her neck.
“No. A man like you only seems to care about two things. His own cowardly
life, and his own proud nation.”
The Welshman nodded, but was unsure what Calvert was getting at.
In almost the same breath, Calvert turned to Jack Febuggure, who was at the
Drive room’s tactical computer.
“Jack, how long would it take for a missile to reach New Wales.”
Jack wasn’t quite sure what the Captain was ordering.
“HOW LONG!” Calvert asked.
“Oh, um. From here only about 7 minutes.”
“Launch one.”
“What?”
“DO IT!”
“What are you doing?!” Demanded the terrorist.
Calvert grinned.
“How many people will that kill Mister Febuggure?”
“Oh, around… well… at this speed and this angle… forty two… thousand.”
“Say that again mister Febuggure.”
“It will kill forty two thousand Welsh people sir.” Said Jack.
The terrorist on the screen looked nervous.
“What are you doing? Are you crazy?! Those are innocent people they are,
Captain!”
Jed stood up. “And who do you think you have hostage?” The Captain paused to
let his words sink in. “But its okay. You’ll be a hero when you return to
Wales, after killing… a nurse… a doctor… a security grunt and a mother.”
“I can’t believe you’ve done this Captain. The Space Corps are supposed to
be upstanding morals in the universe! You’ve gone and killed innocent people
you have!”
“Who me?” said the dirty faced cowboy in the Captain’s chair. “Besides, they
aren’t dead yet. I can auto-detonate the missile at any time. You have 4
minutes.”
The Welshman grew more annoyed. “You want me to back down don’t you Captain,
well I’m not, I’m killing your people first I am!”
“I don’t care. I’m killing MORE of yours.” Calvert said, flatly and without
any kind of emotion.
“I can’t believe you’re doing this!” Said Ambassador Niples. “I know they’re
Welsh, but I’m sure they’re not THAT bad!”
“Its not up to me. Its up to ginger here.”
The Welsh terrorist took off his balaclava to reveal locks of crazy red
hair. “I’m going to do it Captain, I’m going to kill them all!” he said
manically.
“Jeezus.” Said Calvert, “I didn’t know he was so persistent. Jack, can you
pinpoint where they are on the planet?”
“Yes Captain.”
“Fire a missile.”
There was protest from around the Drive Room. “Captain you can’t!” Said
Seymour. “What about Jenny, Tara and Melissa?”
Calvert lifted his hand up in protest for the final time to shut them all
up. Just as he did, the terrorist on the screen put his knife down and fell
to his knees.
“No, no! Please, we’ll let them live. We’ll do anything you say we will!”
It was a sorry site to see the terrorist suddenly change his tune and beg
for his life. Calvert now grinned. “See, you just have to know how to
respond to these people.”
“Captain the missiles?”
“Oh yes, destroy all the missiles. No Welsh people are going to get killed
today. But who knows what tomorrow may bring!” he added with a cheeky grin.
He turned to Jay and Harris. “Prep the Raven and take a security team to the
planet’s surface and rescue the hostages. You’ll find the Welsh probably won
’t stick to their word, if you need to resort to lethal force… make it
painful.”
Jay and Harris grinned.
<taggers guys, BTW Parts 1 and 2 of this post were for the most part written
by the snowboardingly absent Onion, it was. Minus some Welsh dialogue.>