Eddie Monsoon, Reporting for Duty (Part One)

Who: Father Eddie Monsoon
Where: Mars & JMC Blue Dwarf
When: After the defeat of Charles Keto
For the second time in as many days, Eddie found himself seated in
the tiny hold of a commercial passenger transport going up to the
five mile long behemoth that was the JMC Blue Dwarf. The last time
he had been in space his ship had ended up crashing on Mars and he
was involved with a rather bloody encounter with an old friend and a
horde of flesh-eating zombies. So there was no chance in hell he was
going up sober.
He thought back over the previous few hours, Jed and he had arrived
at some gothic looking castle where Eddie spotted several heavily
armed people, amongst them a robot and a dwarf, leaving the castle
and making their way towards them. Jed climbed down off their
robotic steed and made his way towards them, Eddie stayed seated, he
didn't want to piss Jed off by interfering. He did, however, take an
instant dislike to a rather foppish looking man in a designer suit.
Eddie, having been raised in the slums of Dublin, had grown up
fighting the class war and was proud of his working (even if he
never did any of it) class routes. After a few minutes, Jed climbed
back onto the tripod and told Eddie that he would take him back to
the shuttleport so he could collect his luggage and make his way
back to the Dwarf.
"So you finally accept that I will be joining your ship mate?"
smiled Eddie
"Yeah, looks like I got no choice pardner. But keep outta mah way or
I'll shoot you down like a tin-can in a shooting range" snarled Jed,
not looking Eddie in the eye. Eddie remained quiet for the rest of
the trip. Eddie jumped off the giant machine as soon as they reached
the Spaceport. He collected his suitcase and rucksack, moved through
into Duty Free, where he spent the rest of his petty cash on cheap
wine and a pint of bitter in the bar. Before long he was shepherded
onto the shuttle along with the other (remaining) crewmen who had
been on shore leave. There was also a mixture of people in civilian
clothing - ranging from young teenagers, naively attracted to the
adventure space travel, to middle-aged divorcees, attracted to the
high mortality rates of space travel.
So now, Eddie found himself aboard the shuttle arriving on the Blue
Dwarf. The shuttle swung down into one of the shuttlebays that
pocketed the side of the ship's hull. The ship landed with a thump
and the `Disengage seatbelts' sign was turned on. Passengers moved
to disembark taking their hand luggage with them, the rest of their
stuff would be dropped off at their quarters. The new intake of crew
were hustled through to a large room consisting of a row of people
sitting at computer terminals and metal detectors. Welcome to Blue
Dwarf Customs.
"Name?" said the uninterested woman sitting at the desk in front of
Eddie
"Edward Monsoon. Father Edward Monsoon" said Eddie
"Profession?" asked the woman
"Priest of the Order of St.Geldof the Good" smiled Eddie, thinking
back to his stash of illegal goods at the monastery on Io.
"Your our new Chaplain? In that case, I've got a message for you"
said the woman, looking up. She handed him a piece of paper. It was
a letter. A letter from Bishop Tobias "Bull" Beecher. The head of
the Order of St.Geldof.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
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TO: Father Edward Monsoon
FROM: Bishop Tobias Beecher
RE: Your Career
Dear Eddie,
Hi Creep! We found your stash of illegal moonshine,
psychedelic drugs & hardcore pornography. Needless to say, we are
not pleased.
We here at St.Geldof's like to think we are not vindictive people.
But just because we think that doesn't exactly make it true.
Anyway, we have confiscated your stash for investigation, and by the
time you get this message the Bounty Hunter we paid to find you
should be on his way. If your lucky, and stay out of the solar
system, he may not find you. But if he does find you - well, you get
the picture.
Hope your well and give my love to Jed,
"Bull" Beecher
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This was not good. This was not good at all. But Eddie kept his
expression his normal. Just he went white and began to dig his hands
into the paper.
"Is everything alight Father?" asked the woman, in her American
drawl, after a while?
"Er, what? Oh! I'm sorry dear - got a bit distracted there" he
laughed nervously "Looks like my contract has been, er, voided" he
smiled nervously. "I don't suppose you have any other jobs going or
anything?"
The woman eyed him suspiciously, before asking him "Do you have any
other qualifications"
"Well, I did get a Degree in Law through the Open University. Only
got a Second Though" said Eddie, not mentioning he studdied for it
in prison.
"That's lucky, because it seems we only have jobs going in Security
Division. Do you want the job?" said the woman, typing away at her
computer.
Eddie thought. Security. Space Corps Security Division was notorious
for its high level of psychosis & suicides. Not a career one would
pick willingly. But, beggars can't be choosers. Especially Eddie.
"Ok, I'll take it." he said after giving it some thought.
<To Be Continued>