*Action* - "A skutterless ship" pt1

Who: Jay, Keto, Captain Jed
Where: Drive Room
Jay frantically tapped away at the Navigation computer keyboard. He
knew that they didn't have long before the entire compliment of ship's
robots opened fire on the Reactor Core. There was no current need to
program a specific location, as they were only using the wormhole
drive to create enough energy to wipe out all robots close to the core
– but Jay felt he had to program somewhere safe to travel to – as he
didn't want them to get immediately attacked when they got there. His
first thought was naturally Earth, but while they were this far out in
space the location of Earth was kept in various encrypted files, in
case it fell into enemy hands. This extra encryption required all
sorts of hassle to program in to the computer, so Jay didn't bother.
Instead he programmed in the location for Tussaud's Alton Towers
world, hoping for some shore leave.
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Who: Seymour, Rufus and Rosette
Where: Reactor Core room
When: Same time
"Remind me again why we're heading towards the same place as every
evil robot on the ship?" complained Seymour, as a floor grate slid
open, allowing the three of them to peek through.
"Because you were too scared to walk back to your quarters on your
own?" Said Rosette.
"That is just darned not true! I felt it wiser to stay in numbers,
safety in numbers is what they always say right?"
Rosette shrugged. "And it's not 'quarters' anyway..." continued
Seymour. "It's an Ambassadorial Apartment. Penthouse suite actually."
"Yeah yeah." Said Rosette.
Rufus shushed them, and pointed upwards. "This is the main reactor."
He pointed up, and up. The entire room seemed to reach forever towards
the ceiling. The reactor was actually a large ball of pulsating power
that seemed to hang from the ceiling.
The rest of the Blue Dwarf seemed to be be made out of rusted metal,
and held in place with worn bolts and blu-tac, but this was the only
area that actually looked high-tech. The massive ball of power
levitated in place, held afloat by magnetism, and some sort of science.
Large superbly-polished brass metal plates sat at angles around the
sphere, they didn't touch it, but occasionally you could see lightning
bolts of power transfer to and from the core.
The whole area must have spanned at least 10 decks tall, Seymour tried
his hardest but he couldn't see the top.
"One must assume this place is significantly large for a reason?"
Seymour asked.
"Yeah, it expands and contracts depending how much power we use."
Rufus said, matter-of-factly.
Seymour looked around, he could see hordes of robots gathering on
platforms at various heights within the room. Some underneath the
giant core, some above, and some looking directly at it. They all
stopped and looked at it, some only metres away from the powerful
glowing orb.
"Good grief, there are a lot of robots!" Seymour said. "What are they
doing?"
"They're going to fire on the drive plates. If they crack one then
it's certain death for everyone onboard, there's no chance we can get
off on time."
Seymour bit his fingernails.
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Where: Engineering
Who: Mk10 and CK.
Wires and pipes littered the floor as Callum laid underneath a large
bulkhead, Mk0 passed him various components and tools. After a bit of
welding that nearly set his hair on fire, CK emerged from underneath
the bulkhead with a long wire.
"This is it, the last piece that we have to connect." he said.
Mk10 held up another wire, and Callum twisted them together.
Mk10 threw the power switch slightly too early, as Callum was still
holding onto the bare wires. He shook as the power went through him.
"CK mate, are you alright?" The robot asked as he saw smoke coming
from Callum's ears.
"Yeah fine, but what's with all the constant chatting..." he paused at
Mk10's blank expression. "Seriously... don't you hear that?"
Who: Jay, Captain Jed, Keto
Where: Drive Room
When: Just after
Jay saw the lights on the panel simultaneously light up. "Wormhole
drive has power!" he said.
"Engage! Or summin'" said the Captain, pointing with his dirty finger
like a pistol towards the stars out of the window. He liked to be the
one to have the final word of control.
Jay punched the final key and a giant wormhole burst through space in
front of them.
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Who: Seymour, Rufus, Rosette
Where: Reactor Control Room
When: Just before
The core started to change colour. The powerful glowing energy seemed
to ripple, as if a small vibration were starting to develop.
"Look, the core's changing." Said Rufus.
"It's getting smaller... it's having the wrong effect."
"Just wait..." said Rufus.
The core continued to shrink slowly, all the time the vibration
increasing as if building up to something. Then just at the split
second that Jay punched the activation button, the core exploded
outwards to three times it's size.
This caught all robots by complete surprise, which were immediately
fractured into billions of tiny independent molecules as it passed
through them.
It happened so suddenly that Seymour actually ducked. "Good lord!" He
exclaimed. "We did it!"
--------------------------------
The Blue Dwarf burst through the wormhole and slowed to a halt outside
the Alton Towers world. It was the only planet where several
rollercoasters could be seen from space, one actually entered the
thermosphere.
Captain Jed ordered everyone into cargo bay 12 for a "shindig". When
they all got there they realised the entire floor had been covered in
straw, due to whatever the last shipment of cargo was that had been
stored in there, and the absence of skutters to clean it up. Jed just
called it a authentic "Barn dance" and even managed to get a folk band
at short notice.
It was very unusual for most of the crew, but the booze was free, even
if it was warm and tasted terrible.
<to be continued>