Calvert - "Random Occurances" pt1

Who: Jed Calvert
Where: Blue Dwarf, Captain's Office
When: After the Oath-Keeper's blasters had gone off
Jed felt uncomfortable. He'd just met his "business partner" Eddie
Monsoon who was extremely excited about turning the Blue Dwarf into
something that he had called "the best money-making idea this side of
Ganymede". This was true. Turning the Blue Dwarf into a floating
platform of endless illegal casinos with dozens of strip clubs was
his dream too, and a nice easy way for him to make a huge fortune.
But he felt uncomfortable with how anxious Eddie was about it all. He
had gone ahead and collected (probably stolen) the gambling
equipment. He had put all the plans in place to have all the best
strippers experted from a dozen worlds across the known galaxy.
Jed should have been pleased. It was his idea originally (inspired by
a future vision), and he should be feeling lucky that he didn't have
to waste any energy and effort in making it happen. Perfect!
But it wasn't perfect. Jed was beginning to get suspicious of Eddie.
He was TOO enthusiastic, and was pushing it a little TOO far. The
Captain knew that he'd have to share at least half of the proceeds to
Eddie now, something that was just a little too much.
The scruffy starship Captain knew that he had two options available
to him. The first was to kill Eddie Monsoon. He imagined doing it
himself, plunging a knife into his stomach, as far as the hilt and
further. Jed would feel the blood flow over his hands, he would smell
it ...and he would taste it.
Jed's thoughts wandered ever so slightly to a time in his past. A
time he tried very hard to forget.
-----------------------------------
**Another time, Another place**
Bodies surrounded him.
There was blood. Lots of it. Mutilated bodies surrounded him. Jed
didn't normally mind this, as he was quite comfortable with death,
and would gladly sit in a bar littered with the bodies of men killed
by his own hands and sip a good whiskey. But this was different. It
made him sick. The blood was not only all over them, fountaining out
of them like a water display, it was also in the air, on his hands
and in his mouth. He could smell it, he could taste it.
He spat, but the taste was still there.
He was so angry, the anger had almost turned him into a monster. He
barely felt his human at all. He just wanted to lash out at
everything.
Then there was a woman's voice. But where was it?
------------------------------
**Back on the Blue Dwarf, Captain's Office**
Jed reached for his hip flask. He had that horrible metallic taste in
his mouth that he desperately wanted to remove. He poured some neat
moonshine between his lips. It burned his tongue and made his
yellowed teeth tingle.
He thought about his second option. It wasnt one he wanted to do, but
it was looking increasingly more attractive.
Surrender.
The SC Oath-Keeper was pretty close now, and all he had to do was
walk aboard, and surrender. Surrender this ship, and himself.
-------------------------------------------------------
**Another time, Another place**
Jed turned away from the bodies, unable to look at them any longer.
Plus, there was something new he had to focus his attention on. He
had to find the woman's voice.
He could hear it on the wind. It was saying something that he
couldn't quite hear.
Lightning lit the darkened scenery and Jed could see what sort of a
landscape he was in. Hills surrounded him, as if he was in a large
crater. He assumed the crater hadn't been formed recently as trees
grew all around him. Dark and looming trees, the type that cast
horrible shadows.
In the moonlight he could see plenty of nasty shadows, but they
didn't scare him. Nothing scared him anymore.
As he scrabbled up the steep hill, he could hear the woman's voice
more clearly now. It was the voice of a young woman, maybe a girl,
and she was singing. He couldn't believe why anyone would sing in a
place like this, at a time like this.
He stopped. Where was he again? He struggled to remember why he was
here, and gave up. He just focussed on the voice.
-----------------------------------------------------------
**Back on the Blue Dwarf, Captain's Office**
Jed sighed, and stood up. He knew what he had to do. His crew hated
him, and he couldn't do this alone. His mistrust of Eddie Monsoon
would soon come true. He could see it. And Eddie's greed would
increase to wanting more than 50% of the profits. He'd want 65%, then
80%, then 100%. And to get 100% he'd have to kill Jed.
Jed wasn't going to let that happen. He stepped out into the busy
Drive-Room.
The recent and suddenly plasma fire had rocked the entire ship.
People around him ran frantically around the Drive-Room, all yelling
and barking orders at anyone who'd listen. Jed stood in the middle
for a while, knowing that he could end all this madness with one
simple order.
The communications officer saw the Captain stood looking bewildered
in the centre of the Drive Room.
"Sir?" He asked.
"Open a channel to th' Space Corps." he said.
"Sir?"
"Jus' do it."
"What do I say Sir?" Asked the junior officer.
"Tell them... tell them we... surr-"
Calvert stopped. He normally had a sixth-sense about danger, which
today had failed him until the last few seconds. He saw a cleaner,
with an insect-like gasmask hanging from his belt. The cleaner held
up a pistol aimed directly at him.
Calvert was the fasted draw on his home planet of New Texas, but
today he didn't feel like pulling his own pistol.
The laser blast hit Calvert squarely in the chest. It pierced his
skin easily and opened up a hole, splashing blood all over the
cleaner.
The chaos of the Drive-Room had stopped suddenly into a deathly
silence as everyone realised the gravity of what had just happened.