Dwarfward Bound

Who: Kevn & Marwood
Where: Red Midget
When: Nanoseconds after Kevn tried to open the crate.
Kevn tried vainly to lift the top of the crate off, but it was to no
avail. Kevn had seen bank vaults nowhere near as protected as this,
and yet this crate seemed to be made of cheap balsa wood and paper.
"Must be a force field" said Peter, looking up from the
navicomp, "Check for a force lock on the side."
Kevn checked and , lo and behold, there it was. Kevn sat down at the
communications terminal and put his feet up on the desk. He looked
at the scanner screen but quickly got bored, so he took out the book
on biological warfare that they had found with the weapons.
"What's that your reading?" Peter asked.
"That book we found with the weapons, the one about all the
viruses." said Kevn.
"Any good?"
"It's ok, but give me Dan Brown anyday"
Peter turned to look at Kevn, and noticed the weird symbol on the
back of the book. It was a symbol of an organisation which had
brought death and destruction to millions of people worldwide. It
was a swastika.
"Kevn, is there any reason why that book on biological and chemical
warfare has a large swastika on it?"
"Hmm? Oh, it says here that the author was a neo-nazi scientist who
invented such `glorious diseases' as taranshulitis, duckbilled-cold
sores, turkey-pox and the winner of the 2099 virologist awards,
chicken syndrome.
There was a pause. Kevn looked at Peter. Peter looked at Kevn.
"Kev, look quickly to index. Is there a cure for Chicken Syndrome?"
"Yeah there is, why do you ask?"
"Maybe, just maybe, we may be able to save New France and stop the
biggest epidemic since that case of killer-sneezes back in 2077."
Peter told the baffled Technician, as Red Midget hammered through
the stars to its rendezvous with Blue Dwarf.
Who: Captain Jed Calvert
Where: His office on Blue Dwarf
When: As Kevn & Peter get back to the Dwarf
Jed was bored. His crew were all down on New France, so he had the
ship to himself. He was supposed to have done some paperwork for JMC
Head Office, but he'd just put it in an airlock, pulled the release
switch and "filed" it away into space.
He had used his free time to ransack and steal everything of value
from the other officers quarters; Hell, he'd even been shoplifting
in the branch of Tesco's on the promenade. But right now, he'd gone
back to being bored, and so was using his computer to hack into
Seymour's account and transfer his lifesavings into his own.
At this point, there was a chime at the door. Jed hurriedly closed
his computer down and pressed the button to open it. A tired and
wild-eyed pair came stumbling into the room, dragging a largish
crate behind them on a trolley, and waving a dog-eared book about.
Jed thought it was a good opportunity to shoot bullets into the
ceilling. To calm them down. Or something.
"Now what in tarnation is going on here?" he asked of the two
crewmen, as plaster from the ceiling rained down on them.
"We've got something incredibly important, long and convoluted to
tell you." gasped Marwood, staring manically at the bewildered New
Texan.
"Yeah, yeah - just give me the gist of it" the Captain said,
lounging back in his chair and pulling his stetson hat over his eyes.
"But, it's long and important" blurted Kevn.
"Look, we found this book about the plague on New France with a
swastika on it an…" Peter started to say
"Wait, wait wait!" shouted Jed "Swas-wat?"
"A swastika, it was a symbol used as a sign of peace and love, but
was more commonly used for.." Peter continued.
"Peace and love? Sounds like some commie share-fest."
"No, bu.." objected Peter.
"Hell, it's probably those dang hippie kids! Damn hippies, they
spoil everything!" Jed shouted, incandescent with rage.
"Look! It's not hippies OR communists captain, their nazi's." said
Peter.
"Sweet mother of jesus!" exclaimed Jed excitedly, before
adding "what are nart-zees?"
Peter and Kevn groaned in exasperation, both were extremely fatigued
and could not be bothered to deal with the Captain's ignorance.
"Look, sir, just read the damn book. It should give some insight
into the problem with the French and how we can fix it." said Peter,
dropping the book onto the desk, before storming out in the
direction of his quarters.
Kevn stood silently in front of Jed's desk. He still had a crate to
deliver.
"What do you want sport?" growled Captain J, eyeing up Kevn.
"Er…your crate sir, I'll just leave it here. Have a nice day!" he
smiled, before leaving too.
Jed eyed the crate, smiled, and put his feet up on the desk. He
picked up the book and opened it to the front page. Jed was not
usually a reading man. Actually, scratch that, he was NEVER a
reading man. His idea of classic literature was Calvin & Hobbes or
Peanuts. Not a book on the sciencey brainbox stuff. But he
thought "why not" and settled back to relax and began to read.
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