Out of the fire, into the frying pan.

Who: Rosette, Andy, and several space Corps grunts.
Where: Aboard the SS Oathkeeper
When: posting tennis, you should know this by now!
<snip>
"…It's him…" Andy's unfocused mind suddenly realised who it was.
"…Chap…man?" he groaned. "Get them both to the Medical units." The
Major-General stated. "I'll handle the paperclip merchants and their
damn server towers." This was the last thing Andy heard before his
mind faded out into blackness.
</snip>
All Rosette could do was listen. She'd lost sight, and the voices she
heard kept alternating between whisper soft, and megaphone loud. She
managed to catch most of the conversation though, and she could only
guess that these people were hovering above her.
"Get her into the operating theatre right away, she needs emergency
med---- ..." the first voice cried, fading out towards the end. A
second, female voice faded back in, "- units of blood, right now!" She
assumed they were talking about her. She knew she'd been wounded, but
the rest was a complete blur. Suddenly, the voices went silent.
A white light shone into her eye, causing her to groan, and clamp her
eyes shut. she reached up to rub them, slowly opening them again.
She moaned as the light above her came into focus. A flourescent tube
in the ceiling above her shone painful light directly into her face.
She turned her head to the side to try and ease the pain, and saw Andy
lying in the bed next to her.
"Andy?" she asked, moving her hair out of her eyes.
The figure in the bed next to her looked towards her, and smiled.
"Yeah, I'm ok. Good to see you're finally back." he said, raising his
hand to scratch his chest, but a nurse nearby grabbed his arm. "No,
you can't scratch it." she said, forcing his arm back down to the bed.
"Where are we?" Rosette asked, looking up towards the nurse. She
stepped over to her bed, and picked up a chart.
"You're on the Oathkeeper, in the Medi-Bay." she replied, writing
something on the chart, before putting it back down again. Rosette
shifted her weight in the bed, and felt something on her side. She
moved her arm over, and felt it. The doctors had patched her up as
best they could, the laser blast had torn alot of the flesh away, so
it still felt like there was something missing, but as she looked at
her hand, at least there was no blood.
"How long do we have to stay here?" she asked, trying to sit up, but
instantly fell back again because of the searing pain. The nurse
didn't say anything, but Rosette could see that something was wrong.
An obviously military man opened the door, and walked in.
"Ahh, you're both awake. I trust you slept well." he said,
unfeelingly. "You two are under arrest, for breaking into planet eBay
technology, and for willful destruction of files." he said, mostly to
Andy on the second part. "Your captain has been informed, and we are
under negotiations to discuss your punishment." he said, before
stepping away.
Before he reached the door, he turned and spoke again. "Get all the
rest you can now, you'll be behind bars for years." he laughed, and left.
Rosette sighed, she'd never been arrested before, even though she'd
been a part of quite a few crimes, including murder.
----------------------------------------
"Yer sayin' ya wants to keep them both?" came the filthy voice of Jed
Calvert, current captain of the Blue Dwarf. His image on the screen
didn't show anything like a JMC captain, let alone anyone worth
respecting. He looked like he'd sooner draw a gun than shake hands.
"That's right. These two have broken federal, and interplanetary
law!" boomed the voice of the well presented, and even better built
Space Corps captain. He slammed his fist down on the arm of his chair
as he spoke, as if this had been going on for a while.
"Those folks are under my command! get yer dirty claws off o' them,
and hand 'em over." Jed spat, wishing they were talking face to face,
so he could at least intimidate the captain with his gun. He didn't
begin to realise that the space corps had bigger guns, and alot more
of them.
"You're a reasonable man..." Chapman lied. "Can we at least come to
some sort of agreement here?" he asked. Jed tipped his hat forward.
"I'll trade yer. I happens to have a mighty fine bottle of moonshine
in the hold. I'd be willin' to hand it over if you release ma
crew!"Jed retorted, feeling like he had the upper hand in this
discussion. As they spoke, the Pink Dwarf butted in.
"Oh come now gentlemen." the obviously gay head of JMC said, sounding
like he was about to say something about the kindness of strangers.
"JMC standards dictate that in the event of a crime, JMC personnel are
to be punished by JMC rule. The two Criminals you speak of were
acting against real criminals, and thus they must be released. They
will be reprimanded to the fullest extent of our abilities." he said,
again showing his skill in command.
Finally, under the hail of two JMC men, one of whom Chapman would go
insane if he listened to anymore, he relented.
"OK!" he almost screamed, slamming his fist down on the arm of the
chair again. "You win. Send over a transport and they will be handed
over to you.
Jed grinned, victory was his, at last.
-----------------------------------------
"So... How long do you think we'll have to stay here?" Rosette asked
Andy. Andy just shook his head, and asked the Nurse to increase his
painkillers.
"I'm too young to go to prison..." ROsette protested, she felt
helpless, like someone from her past was going to barge into the
medibay and kill her. She itched for at least one of her knives, to
have the chance to defend herself, but they'd been confiscated for
now. She could see them in a perspex cabinet, behind a large padlock,
sat on a shelf on the other side of the room. "If only i could get
over there..." she said to herself, the pain in her side being
equalled only by the pain in her leg. The chances of her walking
under her own power were almost non-existent, at least for another
week or two.
<tag David, the ball is in your court now!>