Jays Ultimatum

OOC: Andy, sorry I didn't reply to your email, not had a lot of time to myself
since being home from holiday, I'm actually posting this from work as I've got
more free time here than at home, anyway, I hope you can do something with this!
Also, just so's you all know, the wife and I are now trying for a baby! Huzzah!
<snip>
"Non!" Le Souteneur shouted "Vous n'êtes pas dans n'importe quelle position de
faire des demandes!"
"What!?" Jay turned, questioningly to Harris
"You are not in any position to make demands" Cass interjected smoothly from the
other side of the camera
"Oui. Maintenant Capitan, surrender 'yo sheep to me an' Ah guarantee you, an'
all oo wish to depart before we begin our fun, safe passage down to Little
Cheftonia. On ze ozer 'and, if you wanna be an 'ero, your girlfriend becomes an
'ologram, yes?" he pushed the gun barrel menacingly up against Katrina's cheek
"You 'ave backed your personality up recently 'avent you?" he asked Katrina
"Would be such a shame if you lost so many of zose 'appy memories wit' ze
Capitan, no?"
<end snip>
Jay pondered for a few minutes, trying to decide what to do. He knew he should
negotiate with criminals. Truth be told he'd rather see the Blue Dwarf destroyed
than hand it over to people who would use it to wage their own personal galactic
crime spree. On the other hand, he couldn't sit back and let any member of his
crew be murdered in cold blood, let alone his own girlfriend. To hell with the
rule book. So he'd probably find himself flipping burgers for the rest of his
life once the Space Corp find out what he was about to do, people, were more
important than a career.
"Capitan, I am waiting for ze, how you say?, answer" Le Soutener said, in a
stereotypically
french-accent-as-written-by-a-non-french-speaker-trying-to-do-a-written-impersin\
ation-of-a-frenchman.
"I'll trigger an evacuation" Jay said eventually. "When the alarms sound,
everyone will head for escape pods and shuttles. When everyone except for your
people and myself, and Katrina are off the ship, I'll meet you in hangar bay 6,
where you can hand her over to me. Then, I'll hand over the command codes"
"Non" replied Le Soutener. "I weel only release her once you are off ze sheep."
"Then you don't get the ship…." Jay said.
"Zen she dies!" Le Soutener said, thrusting the gun into Salter's cheek.
Katrinas eyes widened on the screen as tears began to trickle down her face. Jay
swallowed hard as he saw this.
"How do I know you won't just kill her anyway? You'll get what you want" Jay
said "But only when I know she's safe"
Le Soutener pondered for a second. "Very well….you `ave `alf an `our"
"Sound the evacuation alarm." Jay said, cutting off the communication and
turning to Harris. "Get everyone off the ship."
"Are you actually going to go through with this?" Harris asked.
"Of course I am." Jay said, "To hell with the rules."
He grabbed a datapad from a nearby desk and tapped in a command to Holly….
"Red Alert, Red Alert" Holly's voice boomed over the ship's comms system "Theres
an emergency going on, everyone needs to boogie on down to the escape pods…"
Jay, stood alongside the Phoenix watching as the last, shuttle but one took off.
"Holly, is that everyone?"
"No"
"Well who's left? Where are they?"
"Chrysler, Captain J, hangar bay seven. Salter, Ensign K, blue corridor, deck
70…..and several unregistered, heavily armed people…oh and Cassandra Jones…"
"Anyone else?"
"Well, no…you told them to evacuate the ship didn't you…"
"…..well yes…but….never mind…cancel the alarm"
The inner hangar bay doors opened, and Le Soutener, flanked by guards walked in,
pushing Katrina in front of him, the gun still pressed against her cheek.
Cassandra stood meekly at the back of the group.
"You `ave ze codes?"
"Right here" Jay said, holding up the pad. "But first, Katrina."
"Not zo fast!" Soutener nodded to Cassandra who crept out from the back of the
group and walked toward Jay.
"Jones `ere weel check that ze pad is `ow you say, genuieen!"
"We had a deal!" Jay said "Katrina first!"
"She ees just taking a look! If you `ave noseeng to `ide, zen you `ave noseeng
to worry about non?"
Jay grimaced and as Cassandra approached he fixed her with a cold stare, holding
the pad at arms length so she could see the screen.
Cassandra tapped a few icons on the touch screen and nodded at Le Soutner
indicating her satisfaction that the pad would indeed, once Le Soutener scanned
his thumb print, would transfer the ships command codes to him.
She turned to walk back toward Le Soutener. Jay grabbed her arm.
"Nuh-uh…" Jay said "Not until Katrina is safely aboard the Phoenix."
Le Soutener concurred, and shoved Katrina hard, she staggered toward Jay, who
helped her into the Phoenix. "Kelly" Jay said to the Phoenix's onboard computer,
through the open hatch, "Begin take off procedures…."
The spacecrafts engines began to whine loudly, preparing for take off.
"Now! Ze codes!"
Jay nodded, and let go of Cassandras arm, who began to walk toward Le Soutener,
who still had a gun trained on Jay. Once the pad was in his hand, he lowered it
so as to place him thumb print on the scanner. Jay climbed into the Phoenix and
the hatch began to close.
"Auto destruct sequence initiated…" Hollys voice boomed over the speakers
"Abandon ship…repeat, auto destruct sequence intitiated…."
"Oops…" Jay said, through the still closing hatch "Silly me.,…" The Phoenix
began to move down the runway, toward the waiting hangar bay doors.
<Tag Cass!>