*Action* - "Helping sometimes earns enemies" pt2

*Action*
Who: Captain Jed Calvert, Mk.9 and Efof
Where: Drive Room, Blue Dwarf
When: After the Nazi ship was blown up
"Check th' area fo' other ships mah liddle Pardner!" Captain Jed
addressed Mk9, feeling a slight bit more sober, so he reached for a
second bottle of whiskey that he had stashed in an above storage
compartment.
"Nothing on the scanners Capt – no, wait…" Jed and Efof both looked at
Mk.9 due to the seriousness of his tone.
"There's FOUR more ships jumping in, exactly the same as the one we're
just destroyed."
"Four?!" Said Efof, his normal laid back tone turned to fear for his
life. Mk.9 nodded.
Captain Jed was a fighter, he liked to fight people, he liked to beat
people, he liked to punch and maim and shoot. He felt it made his life
interesting. He was tempted to shout out, "Lets kill `em, kill `em
all!" But at this point in time it would be useless, they were
outnumbered.
"Them bloody bastards have th' advantage on us. This hyar sh'd be a
fair fight god dadburn it! Fry mah hide!" The Captain said.
"Um… yes… exactly sir. What should I do?" Asked Efof, sat at the
navigation computer cracking his 20 knuckles in turn.
"Ah shucks." Jed said. "Ah hate to run away, but ah hate loosing a
fight jus' as much." He admitted. "Turn us back t'other way and lets
git outta this hyar god awful system ennyway. This hyar place gives me
th' willies, thar's a funny smell aroun' hyar an' fo' once it ain't
mah unwarshed clothes, It's th' smell of deceit dagnarbit!"
"Okay sir…" said Efof, his 20 fingers flying over the keyboard. "I've
programmed a course that will turn us 180 degrees and exit the
Nouvelle Terran sector." He jabbed the "enter" key and sat back with a
satisfied grin on his face.
There was quiet in the Drive room.
Mk9 broke the silence. "Four cruisers closing on us, they're both
launching hundreds of robotic fighters each!"
Jed put a hand on Efof's shoulder. "Whut's going on lad? Can't we
wormhole outta here?"
"No sir, remember the interference that mean we couldn't wormhole jump
in? We need to go through that same narrow entrance in the nebula that
surrounds this entire sector. Remember where that large alien creature
was?"
"Ah know that sonny! But whut's the hold up? Why aren't we zooming
towards it at breakneck speeds?"
"Well we need to turn around sir, and the turning circle of the Blue
Dwarf is …. " he calculated on his fingers. "…several days."
"WHUT! We don't have several days pander!" He reached for his trusty
pistol in its holdster. "I want you to git us outta hyar right NOW!"
"I've got an idea!" Said Efof.
"No, I've got an idea!" Said Mk9.
"But mine's better than yours!" Said Efof.
"No, mines better than yours!" Said Mk9.
They were both wrong, in fact they were both as stupid as each other.
--------------------------
Who: Kevn Fernard
Where: Blue Dwarf Engine Fuel furnace
When: Same time
Efof's plan was something that had been held in reserve for a long
time, in fact devised by Phil Febuggure and Chief Engineer Callum
Kotchanski.
Engineer Kevn Fernard had probably the worst part of this plan, he had
to drop everything and make his way to the back of the Blue Dwarf
where the large fuel tanks fed the Dwarf's massive engines. He looked
in a large tank to check its contents were there and nearly passed out
from the smell. He pulled a lever and the large silo he was looking
into opened up into a large furnace which gobbled up the contents in a
fiery rage. He could feel the new fuel accelerate the Blue Dwarf
immediately over the course of a few seconds.
He grinned to himself as he looked at the large contents label of the
fuel he'd just dumped in.
It read: "45,0078 soiled pants".
He'd thought it mad when he had been told to start collecting them in
this silo. But now it looked like it was paying off.
He received a call from Jed. "We need MORE, MORE dammit!" Jed said.
"But the only thing we have left is…. No… no, are we THAT desperate?"
Jed put the phone down leaving Kevn to stare at the second silo. He
sweated.
It read. "56,023 of MP's soiled pants."
He pulled the lever (and covered his nose) and the contents dumped
into the Blue Dwarf's large furnace. This time the acceleration was
immediate, the Blue Dwarf's hull groaned as it accelerated to almost
three times the speed it was built to go.
-----------------------------------------------------
Who: Jed Calvert, Mk9 and Efof
Where: Drive Room
When: Same time
"This hyar is all fine an' dandy, but we're facing th' wrong
direction! We still havn't turned aroun' yet!" Said the Captain.
"Leave that to me." Said Mk9. "Efof, when I say, we'll have three
minutes and three minutes only to run down to level 39."
"Why level 39?" said Efof.
"You'll see, watch."
Mk9 pressed a few buttons and they watched on a monitor as a hull
plate on the exterior of the Blue Dwarf slid open, much the same as if
a turret was going to pop out. It was a special turret however that
emerged. It fired a large grapple towards a nearby moon that they were
just passing, it's rope sailing behind it.
"Now, go, go go!" Shouted Mk9 and they both darted for the
Express-lift elevator. Efof jabbed the button for level 39 several
hundred times.
"Efof stop pressing the button, stop pressing it!" Mk9 said, counting
the seconds down in his head.
"2 minutes 40 seconds…. 2 minutes 35 seconds…."
The elevator stopped and the doors opened. An old woman stood there
with a shopping trolly and tried to get in. "Sorry!" Said Efof and
threw the woman out and jabbed the button again to close the door.
"2 minutes 20 seconds….."
In space, the grapple which had been fired headed towards the small
moon, leaving a lot of slack rope behind it.
The express-life elevator made it to level 30 and they got out, Efof
running behind Mk9 who was darting at full speed.
They reached the grapple housing and could see a pile of rope quickly
unwinding as the grapple headed towards the moon.
Outside, the grapple struck the planet. It's robotic claws dug in
deep, nothing less than a very large hydrogen plasma chainsaw would
dislodge it's grip. The rope behind it lead all the way to the Blue
Dwarf. At the moment, there was a lot of slack, but as the Blue Dwarf
continued on it's accelerating course, the amount of slack rope was
becoming tighter.
"Quickly grab that rope!" yelled Mk9.
"And who made you my boss!" Said Efof.
"What? Just do it, this is my plan!"
"No." Said Efof. "You have to ask me nicely and politely!"
"Dammit Efof, you pick a good time to stop being impressionable! Can
you pick up that rope pleeeeease?!"
"Say it properly." Efof folded his hands him a huff.
Outside, the four nazi robotic cruisers closed on them. Their first
shot shook the Blue Dwarf and knocked off a small section on deck 51.
"Please Efof, stop wasting time."
Efof grabbed the rope. "I think I know what you're trying to do, but
will this rope really hold the entire weight of the Blue Dwarf? It
looks so flimsy and thin."
"It's high tensile, high density fibre rope, you could cheesewire
planets with this stuff!"
Mk9 pointed to a metal pillar behind Efof. "Tie it on here. Really
tight."
The small robot stroked the pillar with a look of hope. "This is a
duranium structural pillar which creates the Blue Dwarf's skeletal
structure… I hope THIS holds!"
Efof finished tying a really large bow (with a double-knot) when the
wire suddenly went tight. The sudden shock made Efof and Mk8 fall to
the floor. The pillar creaked and groaned… no… the entire Blue Dwarf
creaked and groaned.
At the high speed they were travelling, the high-tensile wire pulled
the Blue Dwarf around the small planet, causing it to turn at a speed
never before tried in a Dwarfstar mining ship.
Everyone on the Blue Dwarf could feel the turn, people were thrown to
the floor, and mostly to the other side of rooms, as the super quick
turn caused everyone to experience more than the normal amount of G's.
Efof and Mk9 were thrown to the far side of the room, Efof crawled
against the force and looked at the rope he'd tied onto the pillar, it
stretched all the way to the moon.
"We're turning all the way around, it worked! Shall I untie the rope now?"
He started to tug on the bow he'd created in the wire.
"No wait!" Said Mk9 But it was too late, Efof untied the rope and the
high tensile rope snapped like a really long elastic band. It smashed
through the bunkhead in front of them and recoiled towards the planet.
Efof and Mk9 were almost pulled toward the hole in the bulkhead. "Just
great!" Mk9 said.
"So let me get this straight," said Efof. "We've been slung around a
planet, doing the hardest U-turn in known history, and now we're being
accelerated towards the ships that have been pursuing us… and the
person supposed to be piloting the ship is…"
"That would be YOU."
"Oh dear…"
--------------------------------------------
Who: Captain Jed Calvert
Where: Drive Room
When: Same time
Captain Jed looked out of the window.
He could see that they were accelerating, which was good.
He could see that they had turned exactly 180 degrees around, which
was good.
What wasn't good was that the ships that were pursuing them were on a
collision course.
"Thut useless bloody robot and thut useless bloody alien! Whut is ah
supposed t'do now? ah cain't fly this tin can!"
He started shooting Efof and Mk9's seats in annoyance. Then he looked
up at a figure stood in the doorway.
"Never fear Captain, the Chrysler's here!" Said Jay Chrysler, pulling
a mock superhero pose that made him look part superman, part Bruce
Forsyth. He sat down at the Navigation computer, avoiding the bullet
hole.
He expertly steered the accelerating Blue Dwarf between the four Nazi
robot ships, and towards the opening in the nebula that marked the
exit of the Nouvelle Terran sector.
"Well done Mister Chrysler!" Jed praised. "As soon as we git far
enough away fum this hyar nebula, ingage th' wormhole drive an' take
us t'jupiter station, I have a goddarn feeling we may need a few repairs."
"Aye Captain!" Said Jay.
The Blue Dwarf sailed through the tunnel of thick clouds, leaving the
Nouvelle Terran sector behind them.
By the time the Nazi robot ships had turned around and made it to
their spot, all they found was nothing, the Blue Dwarf had
wormhole-jumped away.
< OOC – this marks the end of my storyline, and I'll let Becca start
her next one! >