04:28
Thompson hummed to himself as he continued packing the shuttle with supplies. He'd been careful to include everything the three of them may need. Food, clothing, extra oxygen tanks. He wasn't exactly sure where he was going to take the shuttle, his first thought was to return to G889. But he didn't much relish the idea of throwing himself at Devon Adair's mercy. There wasn't really anywhere else to go. The small shuttle wasn't designed for long haul flights, it would never make it all the way back to the station he'd left 22 years ago. Perhaps though, they could make it to a nearby Council outpost. He could spin them a convincing yarn, insist that the whole mission was a failure and that only the three of them survived. Then hop on the first available transport to the stations. That was probably the most viable option, now all he had to do was convince Ramirez and Heller. Dr Heller, he realised would most definately oppose the idea, she had friends on G889, a surrogate family. She didn't really have alot of choice in the matter though, she would just have to come to terms with that.
The blaring klaxons and flashing lights, were beginning to get on his nerves. He had been surprised when they had first started, wondering who had ordered the yellow alert. He had thought that everybody was asleep when the bomb had gone off, that had been the plan. Noone was to be awake as it detonated. Oh well, it was of no matter now. Thompson had just spoken with Ramirez, the doctor reported that Heller was now fully conscious and coherent. The three would be meeting up in approximately 10 minutes. Then they would get the hell out of here and back to civilisation.
His Gear continuously bleeped, demanding his attention, but he ignored it. Thompson wondered if Reilly had discovered that the weapons systems had been disabled yet. He had been pleasantly surprised when Eve had accepted his authorisation code, but she had done so without question. At least that was one less thing to worry about. They were definately not going to get blown to smithereens on departure.
After stacking the last of the oxygen tanks into the shuttle hold, Thompson checked his chronometer. Ramirez should be here any minute. The Leuitenant left the shuttle to wait for them by the cargo bay doors. It was on his way there, that he bumped into someone he'd thought he'd seen the last of.
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"Something's happened to them." Reilly stated the obvious, as he studied his chronometer. It had been almost 20 minutes since he called a yellow alert, and not one crew member had reported for duty. The council operative turned back to the computer screen, hoping to gain some much needed answers. "Eve, can you tell me the exact location of crew members?"
"Yes Councilman Reilly. All crew members are presently located on Deck 2b."
"That's the sleeping quarters." Mitchell paced the small room. "Wait a minute. That's where the explosion was right?"
Although the sergeant hadn't actually been addressing the computer, Eve replied in her ever pleasant tone. "That is correct Sergeant Mitchell. The explosion occurred in the same vicinity as the crew sleeping quarters."
Mitchell ignored her reply. "They couldn't have been killed by the explosion because it caused no damage. So the only other logical explanation for a bomb planted there..."
"Would be to knock them out." Reilly finished for him. "They've been gassed."
"Must be. You stay here, I'm gonna go check it out." Mitchell instructed as he ran out of the comms room.
Upon reaching the sleeping quarters on Deck 2b, it seemed that his assumption was correct. As he looked through the glass porthole on the door, he noted that every member of 64 reconn was unconscious. Some were still in bed, obviously they'd made a soundless transition from sleep to unconsciousness. Others it seemed had tried to fight the effects of the drug, sprawled on the floor in several stages of undress. One man had even made it to the door, before passing out. Mitchell was unable to explore further, he dare' nt open the door for fear of gassing himself also. Instead he reasoned that the next best course of action would be to secure the person responsible. As he looked around the room, he noted that two people was conspicuosuly missing from the roll call - Thompson and Ramirez.
*Med-Bay* That worm Ramirez, had been balking alot just lately. Questioning his orders, professing a deep concern for Dr Heller's health. Just as he'd suspected, as he neared the door to the Med-Bay, Mitchell could hear voices.
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Alonzo and Joshua walked slowly through the Cargo Bay. Ever alert for the slightest movement, their guns drawn at the ready, they rounded the corner of the last shuttle. Despite their caution, neither man heard footsteps heading their way.
Thompson's eyes flashed with shock and then fear, as he collided with the two men. It seemed that they too were surprised by his sudden appearance. Thompson though was the first to recover as he dashed for the door.
Alonzo recognised the man immediately, he was the one in command of the group that he and Julia had encountered all that time ago. The familiar stab of anger surged through the pilot as he literally threw himself at the other man. He missed his body by inches, but was able to get a firm hold on the man's legs. Using energy, he didn't know he possessed. Alonzo wrestled Thompson to the ground, pinning him down, as Joshua trained his gun on their captive.
"You son of a bitch! Where is she?!" Solace demanded as he stood, trusting that the older man wouldn't move with a gun pointed at his head. Thompson didn't answer straight away, which gave the pilot the perfect excuse to kick him hard in the ribs. "I said. Where is she?" He repeated, punctuating his words with extra blows to Thompson's torso.
Heller laid a hand on his friend's arm. "Solace, hold up. Give him a chance to speak." Despite his words, the young man was just as eager to kick the shit out of the guy. "You are Leuitenant Jeffrey Thompson, correct?"
"That's right, who are you?"
"It's none of your damn business who *we* are." Alonzo pointed his own gun at the man lying on the ground. "*We* are the ones asking the questions. Now I'm gonna ask you one last time. Where is Julia?"
"She's... She's in the Med-Bay." Sensing that Josh was the more concillatory of the two, he turned his attention to him. "Listen you don't understand, I'm... I'm helping her. Ramirez and I, we're..." He fumbled his words as the men continued to glare at him, Alonzo cocked his gun threateningly. "Ramirez the doctor, he's with her now in the Med-Bay, we were all going to take a shuttle, get off the satelite. We were going to take her with us, away from Reilly."
"Reilly?! You've been taking orders from Reilly?" Alonzo questioned incredulously. He let out a bitter laugh. "You idiots, you've been taking orders from a computer."
"A computer?" Now Thompson was puzzled. What did he mean a computer, Eve was the computer aboard the Excalibur. What was he talking about?
"Yeah a computer, Reilly's a computer generated hologram." Alonzo replied somewhat smugly.
"No, Eve is the computer simulation. Reilly is as real as you or I."
"Listen, we have not got time for this. We have to find Julia now." Josh interrupted, he was even more confused than the other two, he had absolutely no idea who Eve *or* Reilly were.
Alonzo seemed somewhat embarrassed by this statement. Heller was absolutely right, now was not the time to be arguing, Julia could be in danger. He reached down and grabbed Thompson by the back of his shirt, and pulled him roughly to his feet. "You say Julia's in the Med-Bay?" Thompson nodded, offering no resistance. "Then take us there. Any surprises and I won't hesitate to use this." He waved his gun infront of Thompson's face. "Understand?" Thompson nodded again. With the butt of Alonzo's gun pressed firmly against his back, Thompson led the other two men to the Med-Bay
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"So do you trust me now?" Ramirez enquired. The doctor had spent the last fifteen minutes, explaining everything that had happened aboard the satelite while Julia was unconscious. He had outlined all the council's plans and answered every question Heller had thrown at him, in an attempt to gain her trust.
Julia regarded him warily. His posture and body language suggested he was intensely nervous - a sign of sincerity? His tried to mask his anxiety, but Julia could see right through him. Although she in fact believed every word he had told her, her reply was cagey. "I don't really have much of a choice do I?"
"Dr Heller, I assure you everything I say is true. Please believe me, I never meant you any harm." Ramirez continued pleadingly.
"If that's the case, then why am I still tied up?" Julia asked, a last attempt to assure herself of his honesty. She strained her arms and legs against the bindings that held her.
"Oh my... I never realised you were still... I'm so sorry." Ramirez stuttered, mortified by his mistake. He immediately flung aside the blanket that covered her body, and bent to untie her restraints.
Julia lay back, eyes closed, breathing a mental sigh of relief. Ramirez was obviously sincere, he meant to help her. To take her off this god forsaken satelite. Therefore she was quite puzzled when Ramirez stopped midway through releasing her. She opened her eyes and looked at him. The strange look on his face, was even more perplexing, in fact it was quite frightening. His eyes were wide, mouth twisted into a grimace. As Alex Ramirez slumped to the floor, a low gutteral groan escaped from his throat. Julia's own eyes widened as she watched him fall, and noticed the other figure standing directly behind him. The newcomer raised a blooded knife, and smiled.
"Hey doc, did you miss me?"
Julia recoiled in horror as Mitchell deftly stepped over Ramirez's still form. She desperately tried to get out of the bed, but realised that Ramirez had only managed to free her leg restraints before he was interrupted by Mitchell, her arms were still strapped to the cot. She was held down tight. The young doctor valiantly tried to put on a brave face, masking the panic that swept through her body. "Keep away from me you son of a bitch."
"Tsk, tsk. Now is that any way to treat an old friend?" Mitchell's upper lip curled into a vicious sneer. He toyed with the soiled blade he held in his right hand. Turning it around, catching reflections from the bright overhead lights.
Julia instinctively coiled her body into a defensive position. Pushing her back against the cot behind her, drawing her knees up to her chest. "I'm warning you..."
Mitchell stopped, his grin widening. "What you gonna do, *stare* me into submission? Face it Julia, you're gonna lose this one. Mommy's not here to save you this time."
"What's my mother got to do with this?"
"You know goddamn well what she's gotta do with it. If it wasn't for her interference, I never would have been suspended from duty. I missed out on the sergeant's exam because of that scheming bitch."
For a moment Julia was stuck for a response. She had never known that her mother had been instrumental in Mitchell's punishment.
As the woman remained silent, Mitchell continued his accusations. "She tried to get me thrown out of the corps, and I know it was you that put her up to it. You Heller's have always been the same. Selfish, self righteous bastards, who wouldn't blink at flushing someone's career down the pan."
"What?!" Julia had had about enough of this bullshit. What the hell was he talking about. He acted like he was innocent for gods sake, that he was the wronged party. "Mitchell, you attacked me. What, you think it was unjust what happened to you? I certainly don't, they *should* have thrown you out of the corps." She knew that this would anger him further, but she didn't care. It was plainly obvious by the look in his eye, that Mitchell had definate plans for her. She would just as soon die right here, right now.
Mitchell advanced on her then, his face like thunder. "Why you little..." Then he stopped short, and paused. As if mulling her words over. "Oh no you don't." He shook his head from side to side, pursing his lips. "You think I don't know what's going on inside that pretty little head of yours. You think you can get it over with quickly? Well you got another think comin', because there is no way in hell you are going to get away with things that easily." He continued to shake his head, a slow smile forming on his lips. "Oh no. We're gonna have a little fun first." Extending his right arm, he caressed her cheek with the point of his knife, leaving a trail of blood on her pale face - Ramirez's blood.
The distance between them shortened considerably as Mitchell leaned forward. Julia pulled her knees into her chest as far as she could, and then lashed out. The heals of both feet connected squarely with his chest, and Mitchell flew backwards. Julia winced as his knife nicked her cheek. Using every ounce of strength she could summon up, the doctor frantically wrenched at her wrist restraints. She watched with dread as Mitchell slowly picked himself up off the floor, he didn't go for her as expected though, instead he walked over to the lab table on the other side of the room. Deliberately taking his time, drawing out the suspense, he surveyed the table's contents. Sorting through the jumbled mess of medical supplies, his eyes finally rested on what he was looking for. In two long strides he was back at Heller's side, this time he grasped her ankles, holding them down with one large hand.
"Looks like you're going to need calming down. You don't want to be all worn out before tonight's festivities, do you?"
As one last ditch defense, Julia spat in his face. "Go to hell!"
Mitchell acted as if he hadn't even noticed, as he pressed the sedi-derm to her neck. "What I think you need is a nice long rest."
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Alonzo literally pushed Thompson all the way to the med-bay. The nozzle of his gun wedged between the older man's shouder blades. As far as the pilot was concerned they couldn't get there fast enough. Especially since Thompson had just told them that Julia had been in pretty bad shape.
"She is conscious now though, right?" Alonzo asked worriedly.
"Oh yes, she's fine now. Dr Ramirez contacted me not ten minutes ago, to say that Dr Heller had come around. He was talking to her, so I assume that means she's fully coherent." Thompson assured him, he saw the young pilot visably relax. The three stepped into the elevator that would take them to the upper deck.
As the elevator hummed into life to start its short journey, Josh frowned and turned to Thompson. "Why is it so quiet around here? I mean we've not seen any crew since we boarded the satelite. Plus, although I had prayed for it, no one challenged our docking. Why?"
Thompson allowed himself a small smile. "That's because all the crew is currently sleeping."
"How can they possibly sleep through this racket." Alonzo asked incredulously, referring to the monotonous drone of the yellow alert klaxon.
"Believe me Mr Solace, the condition they're in they'd sleep through a thermo nuclear explosion." At Alonzo's confused expression, Thompson elaborated. "I set a small explosive device in the crew sleeping quarters. It detonated about 40 minutes ago, and contained a mixture of sleep inducing drugs. It knocked the whole crew out instantly, they'll be unconscious for at least 2 hours. Unfortunately, it seems that I didn't manage to detain the whole outfit. You see someone must have been awake to set off the Yellow Alert. I'm thinking it was probably Reilly."
Heller was still not convinced. "Then he would have seen us approaching the satelite, why didn't he try to stop us?"
"Must probably he tried to, but couldn't. I believe that I also managed to disengage 'Excaliber's' weapons systems. The whole rig is defenseless. That way Ramirez and I could leave on a shuttle, and be sure that we wouldn't get shot down two seconds later."
The elevator pulled to a stop and annouced its arrival at Deck 2. The men disembarked, and continued their near run to the med-bay. As they approached the door, Thompson stepped aside to allow the other two to take the lead. The door slid open as Josh came to a stop infront of it. The young man's blood ran cold as he heard a very familiar voice.
"Go to hell!"
Josh didn't recognise the voice that followed Julia's, but Alonzo did. "NO!" He wasn't going to let it happen all over again, he wasn't going to chance losing her a second time. Pushing Josh out of the way, Alonzo ran into the room.
Mitchell was very surprised when the pilot entered the sterile lab. He didn't show it though. Instead he slowly stepped away from Julia Heller, holding the sedi-derm gun high over his head, as if offering his surrender. The huge smile on Mitchell's face belied his actions. This was obviously not the end of this little fiasco.
Alonzo pointed his gun at Mitchell's head, one gentle pull of the hair trigger, would blow the sick son of a bitch's head off. That was fine with Solace. He wasn't a violent man at heart, but he thought seeing this man's brains spread across the room would be quite fitting. "That's right, keep moving Mitchell. You get the hell away from her!" Josh and Thompson entered the room to stand behind the pilot, Josh had his gun drawn also.
Mitchell dropped the sedi-derm to the ground."Well, well, if it isn't the cavalry."
Author's Chapter Notes:
Hey folks,
I really have gotta apologise for the huge time between posts. I assure you, my little brain is going as fast as it can, I don't wanna risk a hemorage :)(okay, so I need a spellchecker!)
We are nearing the end I promise, thanks for sticking with me so far. Believe me, next time I'm gonna write the darn thing first and then post!! - Laura
I really have gotta apologise for the huge time between posts. I assure you, my little brain is going as fast as it can, I don't wanna risk a hemorage :)(okay, so I need a spellchecker!)
We are nearing the end I promise, thanks for sticking with me so far. Believe me, next time I'm gonna write the darn thing first and then post!! - Laura