Pancake in prison

Who: Justin Pancake
Where: Mollopod Prison, Mollopod Planet
When: After he was arrested, but before the others were beamed to prison
Justin stood in his jail cell and banged on the bars. In fact there weren't
actually any bars. There was a forcefield on one wall of the surprisingly roomy
cell. The Mollopods weren't as barbaric as people seemed to think, it looked
like they treated their prisoners quite well. Presumably because they normally
planned on eating their prisoners, so didn't want them living in unclean
conditions before they were killed and cooked.
So Justin banged hard on the forcefield. It didn't even give him a shock,
because that might have caused him stress too.
Justin peered out of his cell and across the hallway. Other prisoners seemed to
be more Humans, and a mix of various GELFs, and rather thuggish-looking
Mollopods. They all glared back at him, and he waved like a spastic so that they
thought he wasn't trying to cause trouble.
Justin didn't really know what to do in prison so he just sat and contemplated
everything that had happened lately. He felt like his life was going in a
direction he couldn't control. His double from another dimension seemed certain
that Justin should be working for... those damned Hymenoptera. Justin shivered
at the thought. As employers go, how were they any better than the JMC? They
were all slimy and insect-like. And how much did they pay? True, his wage packet
with the JMC was small. He didn't even get health insurance, or dental, or a
pension, or a yearly bonus. But he couldn't imagine the Hymenoptera offering
those things either.
Then there was Willy Eckerslike. What did he want from him? Justin felt he was
building up to something, building his trust maybe? He wondered that if he'd
stayed one more day he might have found out. He thought back to Eckerslike's
locked cupboard, maybe it contained all the secrets?
"On your feet!" Called a Mollopod guard from outside.
Justin hesitated and the guard shouted again. Justin quickly did as he asked and
the Mollopod deactivated the forcefield. Justin was frogmarched past the other
cells to a small room. As he walked, other prisoners heckled him and shouted
things like "Dead man walking!" and "He's gonna be roast beef soon!"
Justin stuck his middle finger up at them all, which probably wasn't the wisest
move as it just aggravated them.
The room they took him to had recipe's printed and framed on the walls, next to
pictures of the dish. The Mollopods looked at him for a few minutes and took
measurements, then one pointed to a picture of what looked like grilled pork
steak on the wall.
Justin gulped. He never imagined that he'd be turned into pork steaks.
"Name please." Asked a Mollopod with a hat on.
"Pancake... Justin Pancake." He said, looking at the ground. "Why do you need to
know my name if all you're going to do is turn me into a steak?"
The Mollopod scribbled his name down on a piece of paper. "You're going to be
part of a feast for the Apohallationmaster himself. He wants to know the name of
each person he eats, so he can try and remember the flavour."
"Ah." Said Justin.
"So Mr Pancake. Do you know why you've been arrested?"
"Not really. You're all just bastards?"
"You and the crew of the JMC Blue Dwarf have been found guilty of conspiring
with the Hymenoptera against us."
"No! It's not true. I might have helped the Hymenoptera once...."
"So you admit it?!"
"No! Look, I swear... I'll never help the Hymenoptera again if you let me out."
The Mollopod with the hat shook his head. "I'm sorry, we can't trust people who
conspire with the enemy."
Justin was marched back to his cell. Again, the people jeered and shouted him as
he passed the other cell. The walkway he was walking down was narrow, only room
for two people to pass at once. A guard was walking the other way and had to
squeeze past him. As he did, the guard pressed something squishy into his hand.
Justin jumped in shock, he wondered at first if it was a practical joke and the
man had given him a turd. He looked down and the thing looked like some sort of
squishy device.
The guard gave him a look, which Justin understood to mean "Keep this secret
mate". So hie did. He slipped the device into his pocket and didn't get it out
until he'd reached his cell.
When the guards had left him alone, he took the device out and turned it over
and over in his hands. It was green and quite sticky, like something the
Hymenoptera might create. Out of curiosity, he put the device to his ear.
"Hello!" It said. Justin was so startled he threw it across the room. After the
moment of shock had subsided, he picked it up again.
"Hello? You there?" Said the voice. It turned out that this was a communications
device.
"Hi. Are you the guard who gave me this?" Justin asked.
"Yes. I have something important to tell you."
"Can you get me out?" Justin asked.
"Maybe. There's something I need you to do."
"I'm listening." Said Justin.
"Today we destroyed a Hymenoptera base-ship in orbit of our planet." Said the
guard through the device. "An escape pod was launched just before it exploded,
and landed on this planet. I want you to find it."
"A Hymenoptera escape pod? Surely the Mollopods... I mean you can do that."
"The Mollopod government doesn't know. They'll kill them. I need you to help
them."
Justin smacked his head.
"Help the Hymenoptera? No. No way."
"But you've done it before."
"I know, but it was a mistake!"
There was a pause and the guard said simply. "If you agree to help, I'll help
get you out of here."
Justin gritted his teeth. "Okay I'll help you find these smegging Hymenoptera."
"Thanks." Said the Mollopod through the communications device. "William says
Hi."
Justin was stunned into silence. The communication went dead.
*meanwhile... elsewhere on the planet...*
<snip>
"Well I'm sure he'll be glad we found you again." Said Delvroso. Then aimed his
transporter rifle at each of them in turn, and they all disappeared.
Moments later in a haze of spinning blue particles, they materialised in a
prison cell somewhere else on the planet.
"You okay?" Jayne asked Efof and Micky, and they both nodded, but looked
worried.
Efof them pointed into the corner. They weren't alone in the prison cell.
<end snip>
"Hi guys!" Said Justin.