From Castillo to Callisto and Back Again. And...Again.

Davie finished pulling on the combat uniform of a JMC black-ops commando. His hair was still slightly damp from the quick shower he had taken to wash off the orange juice. “Plan?” asked Amber as Davie straightened the Captain’s bars on his collar. “The plan, like you said, is for me to fly that Star Bug there,” he pointed across the flight deck, “through a wormhole out there,” he moved his finger to point to the landing gantry, “and then gain entry and recon the JMC transport base.”
“Ye-y-yes,” Rufus stepped in, “the data drives that y-y-you stole from the J-J-JMC Frank Sidebot-t-t-t-tom say that there is a matter t-t-transporter in a small Space Corps o-o-outpost near a major space station on Callisto. The data sticks d-don’t say w-w-where in Jupiter’s atmosphere the JMC HQ is hidden, this Space Corps –o-o-outpost should be a good place to start l-l-l-looking since it s-s-seems to be the only pl-p-p-plausible way to get to any base i-i-in Jupiter ”
“Right.”
“What’s your cover story?” asked Amber as he began double checking his pistol and ammo supplies. “My first option is not to tell anything to anyone, but if they ask my cover is that I’m a JMC loyal black-ops commando conducting a mission of high importance, and I’m not meant to give out anymore info than that except to someone with the proper clearance.”
“And if someone has it?”
“If someone has it then my mission is to weed out ‘subversive’ members of the JMC.”
“Perfect, you remembered.”
“This isn’t the first time I’ve done this sort of thing you know…” Davie replied as he shoved a combat knife into it’s sheath strapped to the chest of his uniform. “And you’re sure this thing is going to work?” he said, holing a small rectangle chip attached to a dog-tag chain, pinching the thing between his right index finger and thumb. “Y-y-yes.” replied Rufus, “According to that I-i-i-ident Ch-ch-chip your name is Ophidian Elapidae, a spec-ops c-c-commando.”
Davie thought his stutter made him sound less that convincing. He picked up a rifle and slammed in a fresh clip. “What do you when you find out the location of the transporter?” Amber quizzed him one last time. “When find the transporter, I contact you by coded message using the base’s sub-space transmitter telling you it’s exact location.”
“And the code?”
“Memorized.”
“That fast?”
“Memory pills.”
“Where did you get those? They’re illegal.”
“I got some from the medibay, Cass knows where the stash of illegal drugs are kept. One of the places any way…”
“Hmm, I’ll have to look into that. All ready then?”
“Yeah.”
A few moments later Davie cruising out into the star flecked space outside, his Star Bug pulling up to the front of the Dwarf. “Alright Drive Room, let her rip.”
The space in front of him flashed brightly and a swirling blue vortex opened in front of him. “Good luck.” came Amber’s voice over the radio, “Take care of yourself.”
“Thanks for the luck. Just be there when I send you the coordinates.”
“Will do.”
“See you on the other side.” Davie said, and pressed the accelerator, passing into the wormhole, leaving Blue Dwarf and it’s allied fleet of Mollopod battle cruisers and carriers behind.

The Star Bug flowed swiftly and with smooth curving motions through the body of the worm hole. He saw the opening and spat out of the vortex with a hull shaking shudder. The instruments across the pilot console beeped to tell him that he had emerged from the worm hole on the far side Themisto, one of Jupiter’s prograde irregular satellites that was too small to retain an atmosphere, and thus uninhabited.
Davie gunned the thrusters and sped towards the larger of Jupiter’s satellites. Callisto was now in sight, and Davie flew straight for the small military complex, casually bypassing the nearby space port. AS he moved into the airspace of the complex, the science officer’s display sounded a high pitched warning alarm. Davie glanced over to see that several targeting systems had just locked onto him. “Here we go…” he said, and keyed the radio control.
“Star Bug to base, what the smeg are you doing?” he said coolly into the microphone, “Are you really going to gun down a superior officer?”
“Base control to Star Bug, identify yourself.” came a commanding voice. “On an open channel?” replied Davie questioningly, “I don’t think so.”
There was silence from the other end of the channel for a few moments. “Base control to Star Bug, landing clearance allowed, follow these flight coordinates to your landing zone.” the screen in front of Davie flicker to show his new flight path, “Be advised, any deviation from these instructions will result in the immediate destruction of you and your vessel.”
“Acknowledged.” said Davie and spun his ship around to follow the new path.
The ship landed with soft, muffled klank and Davie walked down the landing ramp to be greeted by a young Lieutenant in a black JMC uniform, flanked by two weapon laden soldiers. The lieutenant looked at Davie’s captain’s bars and snapped a crisp Nazi style salute. “No need to be so formal Lieutenant.” Davie said.
“Your identification, sir?”
Davie tossed him the Ident chip, and he jammed it into a nearby data pad and frowned. Davie’s heart skipped a beat and he shifted the rifle on his shoulder. “Everything checks out, sir.” the Lt. said, giving back the chip, and Davie relaxed slightly. “May I ask what the purpose of your visit, sir?”
“I’m not asking you your job, am I Lieutenant? You have your orders and I have mine.” Davie shot back in a way that would remind the Lt. of his lesser rank, “All you need to know at the moment is that I will be staying with you for a short period of time while. I expect you have free quarters?”
“Of course sir!”
“Good, I’d like for them to readied immediately.”
“Of course, we will do our best to accommodate you. In the mean time our commanding officer would like to speak to you.”
Davie tensed again.
“Of course.” Davie said compliantly. “You quarters will be ready by the time you’ve finished, sir.”
“I trust they will be, Lieutenant.”
The Lt. showed Davie to the base commander’s office, then hurried off to prepare his quarters. The inside of the office was brightly lit, and ornately decorated. It stunk of cigarettes, and Davie saw a puff of smoke rising from behind large, swiveling desk chair facing away from him. The chair slowly turned towards him. Sitting in the chair was a blonde woman in a black, leathery jump suit, puffing furiously on a Gauloises cigarette. Davie had to resist a strong urge to say “Oh no, not again…” under his breath as he stared into the face of the fifth human sized version of Castillo he’d met.
He scanned her uniform quickly, realizing that she wore no rank insignia. She looked back at him, taking in the good deal of scarring across the left side of his face. “Ave a seat.” she said in a thick French accent and gestured to the chair across from her. Davie sat. “I am commander Fifi Castillo of Space Corps outpost 1984.”
“Pleasure, commander.” Davie said, only half convincingly, the other half replaced with sarcastic ire.
“Because of your code name I was under ze impression zat you were a woman.”
Davie internally raised an eyebrow. What the hell, they’re expecting me? “Why would my codename make you think that?”
“Well, it as to be said zat the codename ‘Queen Victoria’ would give zat impression.”
“Well yes…”
“I see zat you ave chosen to be called ‘Ophidian’ as a cover? I still sink zat the ole sing is a bit ‘cloak and dagger’.”
I don’t think this is actually me she’s talking about. “Yes, but it’s part of my job.” he said, trying his best to play along. “Of course, captain.”
“I trust you haven’t told anyone else about my arrival?”
“Only my most trusted officers.”
“What exactly did you tell them, commander?”
“Only what I was told; zat you are a special operations commando, and zat I am to give ze cooperation of me and my personnel. I must say though, you ave arrived some time before we expected you to.”
“Some unforeseen events accelerated the original plans.”
“Of course, zese things appen. Out of curiosity, what do me and my base ave to do wis dese plans?”
“Any information that you need to know will be given to you when you need to know it.” Davie said matter-o-factly. “Of course. I expect zat you would like to relax, oui? Your quarters should be prepared by now.”
“Thank you, commander.”
“Not at all…” she said and took another puff of smoke into her lungs. “Commander.” Davie said with a slight bow, and then turned to leave.
Ah, shit, he thought, what am I going to do when the real Queen Victoria shows up?