Captain Calvert - \"An insubordinate Christmas\" pt2

Who: Captain Calvert and Callum Kotchanski
Where: Engineering
When: 10 minutes later
Captain Calvert walked into a room where people looked even more
bored and depressed than in the Drive-Room. They sat slumped on their
chairs, staring at computer monitors. Through a plexiglass window
behind them was the vast chamber that housed the Main Reactor.
Calvert wasted no time in getting straight to business.
"Whut the hell's wrong with you people?" he shouted, making most he
them jump and turn around on their chairs.
"Thars some problem with th' air we're breathing and yer not even
fixin' it?" he scolded them.
Callum Kotchanski, the Chief Engineer walked up to the Captain and
looked nervous. "Listen Captain, we're working as hard as we can…" he
was cut off by an enraged Captain Calvert.
"No yer not. Yer barely working at all! Look at yer all sat around
looking bored. What do I pay you all for?!"
"Captain it's Christmas. The workers here normally have a swift 11am
drink to perk them up, and today they usually have one at 9:30. And
10. And lunch. And maybe one for breakfast also. But today they've
had nothing. How do you think that makes them feel?"
"Bright eyed and ready to work?" Calvert said.
"No. They're depressed." Said Kotchanski. "We want the day off. Can
we go home early?"
Jed paused. "No. Absolutely not!"
Kotchanski turned back to his workers and said "Sorry guys. I tried."
The workers sagged their shoulders and then huddled together in
discussion. Kotchanski joined them, and argued furiously with the
group until they pushed him back to go talk to the Captain. As
Kochanski nervously walked over to the already-aggravated Captain,
the workers behind him put on their coats and left.
"Hold it now, where are they going?" Calvert asked. "They aren't
finished!"
Kotchanski put both his hands out, palm flat. "Listen Captain… we…
well, the workers have agreed to go home anyway. We're on strike."
"Strike?"
Kochanski nodded.
"Why you little good for nothin'-" Jed reached for Kochanski's throat
with his strong fingers but the Chief Engineer dodged.
"Wait Captain... if you kill me they'll never come back to work.
Please."
Calvert understood, but still wanted to squeeze the life out of his
Chief Engineer. After a moment he restrained himself.
"If you're on strike you won't get paid."
"And if we don't get our booze back, you won't have any Engineers.
I'm sorry Captain." Kochanski said, and put on his coat to leave.
The Captain was left alone in Engineering, looking at the complicated
computer screens. There was no chance he could figure this out on his
own.
"Holly!" he shouted at the computer screen. An mage of Holly
appeared, but he was holding a picket sign with the words "No booze.
No work" on it.
"Holly stop this hyar messin' about and put the ship on automatic
control will ya?"
"Sorry Capain." Came Holly's monotonous voice. "I've been programmed
to ignore you until the Engineers have some booze to drink."
Jed growled and reached for the phone on the wall that directly
connected to the Drive-Room. "Phil! We've got insubordinates down
here. I need yer to send some people to fix-" Jed stopped talking
when an automated recording came from the Drive-Room. It was Phil's
voice.
"I'm sorry. But the Blue Dwarf is experiencing a ship-wide strike
right now and won't be returned to normal until all the bars are
opened with full stocks of alcohol. Leave a message after the tone."
Calvert waited until the beep and left a torrent of abuse.
The Blue Dwarf was on strike, and it only had 6 days of air left.
< Tag! - This is me adding a complication to Reubens plot. if I could
ask someone to write a way for us to fix the oxygen problem, but
don't solve the strike problem yet. Whose character will strike and
who will stay faithful to the Capain? >