Captain Calvert - "An insubordinate Christmas" pt4

Who: Captain Jed Calvert
Where: Blue Dwarf
When: New Years Day. As the oxygen depletes...
Captain Calvert stood on the balcony overlooking the entire
Promenade. He breathed deeply, and noticed that it was getting
increasingly difficult to catch his breath.
"Those bastard Engineers." he complained. He looked down at the
people below him, all of them were his staff, but they were enjoying
another day off, like the so many they had had already. They had
refused to work on Christmas day because of the lack of alcohol, and
every day since they had refused to start work.
"Slack bastards!" he called out. A few of them looked up, and the
ones who locked gazes with the Captain quickly buried their faces and
scuttled away, hoping that he wouldn't remember this moment the next
time they had a pay review.
Jed hated the thought of people walking all over him. If it was one
or two people being insubordinate, then he'd really enjoy giving them
a good smack in front of the entire crew to make an example of them.
But it was the entire crew. Every single person who worked for him
was refusing to do so. Jed had fought hand to hand with soldiers, had
exchanged roundhouse-kicks with assassins, and had battled foul-
smelling creatures without batting an eyelid, but the thought of his
entire crew standing up to him was more scary than anything. There
was a great amount of power in numbers.
Jed coughed, and realised that he couldn't stop, he fell to his knees
clutching his chest. The mixture of nitrogen and oxygen in the
ship;s atmosphere was dangerously unstable. The amount of nitrogen in
the air had risen almost 90%, pushing the oxygen out. Meaning that
they didn't have long before they all suffocated.
Jed wanted to take the tough approach, and stand over every crewman
who died of suffocation saying "It's yer own damn fault ya bastard!",
but he would loose too many of his crew just to satisfy his own urge
to gloat. And he needed the crew, they were useful for fixing the
next thing that broke.
His coughing fit ceased and Jed pulled himself up to his feet. He
took as deep a breath as he could and shouted to the people below
him. "Attenshun folks!"
Most people looked up, apart from an elderly woman whose lungs had
just collapsed.
"The air on this hyar promenade is getting polluted with gorram
nitrogen. Ah suggest we all go down to the Cargo bays, or the Mining
deck, the air there might be stale, but at least it'll not be as
polluted and there'll be plenty o' oxygen for a few days at least."
The crew were all coughing and wheezing for breath, so didn't argue
with the Captain. Instead they walked calmly towards the exits.
Jed followed, looking behind him to check that everyone had exited.
He planned to seal off this section so that the increased quantity of
nitrogen in the air didn't follow them. Several people had collapsed
on the floor, their lungs not as good at coping with the high levels
of nitrogen.
Jed looked back solemnly, but sternly. He had little sympathy, and
still blamed the crew for bringing it upon themselves, but knew that
it's not something anyone wanted. He left the people where they laid,
also knowing that they were as good as dead.
< Save us someone! >