Rear action

Who: Katrina, Cassandra, Micky
Where: Outer space
When: see snip
<ooc>Joint post from Mike and myself</ooc>
<snip>
"It's Ensign Salter to you!" Katrina snapped, looking up. "Hold on I'll…WAIT!
NO! NOT THOSE BOLTS!"
It was too late, Cassandra had removed the last bolt of the panel she was
accessing, instead of opening the Deflector control panel, she opened the engine
coolant tank, the panel shot off from the side, of the ship, propelled by a
powerful burst of super-cooled nitrogen.
The panel hit Katrina in the chest, knocking her away from the ships hull, and
away.
"HELP ME!!" she yelled panicking, as she drifted away helplessly into space
without her thruster pack.
"Micky!" Cassandra yelled "Help her!"
"How?" Replied Mickey
"I don't know!, Pilot the Space Eagle after her!"
"I ain't getting on no plane, fool!" Micky replied
"What? Why, She'll die if you don't do something!"
"I know! But I can't fly this thing!"
"Well, there must be something we can do!"
</snip>
Cass watched Katrina drift for a few seconds longer, savouring the sight of her arms and legs flailing uselessly in the vacuum, and the increasingly panicky note in her voice as she shouted again for help; for a moment she was tempted to let Katrina just float off, but that would probably mean criminal charges at the very least: letting the Captains girlfriend drift away to die, just because she was a snotty cow, probably wasn't the best way to ingratiate yourself with him; it was odd how some people were just funny like that...
"Calm down *Ensign* Salter. We'll sort something out for you in two shakes of a lamb's tail. In the meantime..." Cass added with a barely suppressed smile "Try not to panic - you'll only deplete your oxygen supply even quicker"
"You... You're enjoying this, aren't you?" the other woman gasped
"Ensign Salter - how could you possibly suggest that I'd gain any satisfaction from the suffering of a fellow human being!? I'm deeply hurt!"
Cass glanced sideways at her remaining cohort "What do you suggest Micky?"
Micky looked around, feeling as useless and helpless as Katrina did right now.
"Oh, God!" He scrunched his eyes shut as tight as he could, praying that when he opened them he would be in Parrott's. "Shit! I'm too sober to deal with this right now!"
He opened his eyes to see two booster packs. "Cass!" He shouted and pointed at the boosters.
Cassandra turned and jumped in evident surprise at seeing the boosters tethered nearby
"Oh! Look at those! Good idea!" She called back, giving Micky the thumbs up
Katrina was still screaming at Micky and Cass to do something as she drifted further away. Cassandra watched her impassively.
"Micky's on the way over with the boosters" she said "I'd offer to do it myself, but I'm *just* an exotic dancer, and this is my first spacewalk - I wouldn't want to wind up killing us both!"
Looking back later on, Cass realised that Katrina's low groan in response to this news was a pretty accurate indicator of what was to come, since when she looked back at Micky, expecting him to have his booster pack back on, ready to save Katrina, she was somewhat dumbfounded to find that the moron had strapped the two packs together and was now adjusting one pack to give full thrust; she made a mental note not to trust Micky with simple tasks in future - asking him to find his arse with a map, a flashlight and both his hands was probably a little much!
"Katrina! Catch!" He shouted as the modified booster gave a massive hiss and whooshed off at a rapid speed toward a now terrified looking engineer. The force of the booster blew Micky back into the Space Eagle, only Cassandra grabbing his leg stopped him bouncing away like Katrina. The booster flying through open space on a perfect collision course with the engineer was gaining speed. Katrina had a look of confused terror on her face, which turned to excruciating pain as the two heavy boosters hit her in the chest, propelling her spinning head over heels, further and faster away.
"Why didn't you catch it?!" Micky yelled at her. "Ohhhh.... I don't want to do this!" He delayed for a second or two, not sure if he could handle the pressure while not under the influence. "Smeg it!"
He climbed into the empty cockpit of the Eagle and closed the hatch with a hiss. He tore the sleeve off his space suit, revealing a shiny and whirring robotic arm.
"Holly?" Hollys face appeared on the small screen, but didn't have a chance to respond before Micky started talking again. "I need you to help me! We've gotta save Katrina, but I don't know how to fly this thing! You're my only hope at saving her and possibly getting into her knickers..." Holly grinned and winked at Micky.
"You know full well you don't stand a chance!"
"Yeh, but I might at least get a thank you kiss, now come on!"
"Okay, chocks away!"
Outside, Cass was just about to use her own booster pack to try and rescue Katrina, when she felt the rumble of the ships engines powering up through the soles of her boots
"This is going to end in tears," she muttered, increasing her boots magnetisation to the hull to the maximum and pulling the spear pistol that she had thoughtfully packed earlier from her utility belt. "Big, shiny Katrina tears."
"What was that, Cass?" Micky asked with a confused look on his face from inside the cockpit. She didn't realise she had said that so loud.
"Errm.. I said.. Let's find Katrina, dear!" She gave a nervous giggle and smiled at Micky. He seemed to take the bait as Cass saw him nod back and put the Eagle into motion. "Wow, you really learn quick!"
"I've got a few tricks up my umm... Sleeve." Micky looked back down to Holly and switched off his comms unit. "So whats going on with you on board?"
"Oh, I dunno." Holly replied while flying the Space Eagle with Mickys arm. "I haven't been able to make an uplink since we got back. All the codes are scrambled. It's as if I've gone mad or something."
"Well, I hope we manage to get back soon, my home brewing kit has been left in the hands of a skutter with as much wit as a fried slice and I need a drink more than ever right now!"
"I shouldn't worry about it." Holly was getting the hang of flying one handed. "We've been in worse situations!"
Micky sat back and put his one human arm behind his head and relaxed into the chair, allowing his eyes to drift shut. Cass looked into the cockpit to see him slouched back, seeming to be casually piloting the ship with absolute ease, one handed, with his eyes closed. She knocked on the cockpit window and he looked over to her.
"Yeah?" He asked after switching his comms unit back on.
"You're not doing bad for a first timer. Maybe you aren't as dumb as I first thought."
Micky looked slightly hurt. "Thanks a lot." He pointed forwards and Cass saw they were nearing Katrina, who had, thankfully, stopped cursing the two of them and had quietened down to let them get on with bringing her back.
She soon broke her silence when she saw Cass lift the pistol to her eye level and aim it straight at her.
"What the hell are you doing?!" Katrina called out lifting her hands up in front of her face in a feeble attempt at shielding herself from it. "You're going to kill me!"
"Please be quiet Ensign Salter. I need to concentrate."
"Like hell I will! I..."
Cass carefully sighted the pistol on Katrina's spinning form and pulled the trigger, breathlessly watching as the little harpoon shot from the barrel trailing microfilament behind it until it hit Katrina
"SHIT!" the other woman screamed "SHIT! I can't believe you just shot me in the arse! I - ARGH!"
The Eagle powered on past Katrina's vicinity, pulling the microfilament tight and dragging a hysterically cursing Katrina trailing behind it as it began a long banking manoeuvre back towards the fleet of starbugs
"Do stop complaining Ensign Salter - I doubt I've hit any major organs, or for that matter even broken your skin; these suits are armoured against micrometeorites, so I'm sure your arse is fine"
"Don't tell me what I can or can't feel in my own arse" spat Katrina "There's definitely something in there!"
Cass was momentarily stunned into silence at this, overwhelmed by the wealth of double entendre based responses
"Umm... I'm sure it's not the first time there have been foreign bodies stuck in your arse" she drawled "Besides: some light scarring adds character; you could even ask your boyfriend to rub some ointment on it - wouldn't that be fun?"
"I'm SO going to kill you when I get down from here!" Katrina shrieked, twisting to try and claw her way down the microfilament to get to Cass
"Listen up sweet cheeks! You were the smeg-for-brains cretin that discarded their thrust pack in open space against all sorts of health and safety regulations (as I'm sure our strange Germanic friend will confirm), and probably violating dozens of your precious space corp. directives as well. That means you voluntarily discarded your extra oxygen, long range communication and a suite of locator transponders, meaning that if we hadn't chased after you like this, the chances are that you'd be completely lost to us now after your little accident with the thrust packs that Micky so thoughtfully sent over to you."
"I can't even believe you're trying to blame me for this!"
"It's a girl thing - I'm sure you do it yourself - same as that self righteous indignation that you just did so well there too!"
"I.. You... Don't give me that! Why the smeg did you have to shoot me with a smegging harpoon!?"
"Seemed like the best option at the time" Cass said smoothly "I mean - did you want Micky to try and pilot this thing in close enough to reach you? He's doing it one handed *and* he's never done it before! I don't know about you, but that doesn't exactly fill me with confidence!"
"Hey!" Micky started, sounding hurt "Ladies..."
"Shut up Micky!" both women snapped
Cass started the pistols little motor, reeling the microfilament attached to the harpoon and Katrina, back in
"ARGH!" Katrina squealed, clutching her backside "Bitch! What the smeg are you even doing with that thing in the first place?"
"It's my first spacewalk" Cass retorted, suddenly sounding small "I felt I needed something extra to rely on in case I couldn't control my booster pack; I wanted to be able to shoot it at the Eagle or something, so I could save myself - is that so wrong?"
"You've an answer for everything haven't you?" Katrina hissed as Cass brought her back down towards the Eagle
"I sort of thought you might be grateful for us saving your life?"
Katrina's magboots clunked down onto the hull and she turned at once to face Cassandra, regarding her with silent fury as Cass fumbled with the spear pistol, eventually just giving up and letting go of the pistol to let it continue winding itself up towards Katrina's backside
"Heh. Sorry..." Cass smiled wanly
The two women stared at each other for a moment as the Eagle began its deceleration burn to bring it back to its previous position
"Thank you so much for saving me" Katrina snapped
"You're welcome" smiled Cassandra breezily
They continued staring at each other
"...Completely welcome..." Cass said
The Eagles hatch hissed open
"Uh... Anyone fancy helping me modify the communications array?" Micky ventured
Cass and Katrina continued to stare at each other
"You'll need a power driver" said Katrina at last
"And a twisted flange too" added Cass
With a silent snarl, they both turned to the work at hand...