Quit Buggin' Me!

If they didn't arrive soon, Alex was going to pop someone in the chops. At this stage he didn't even particularly care who. The 'Bug was starting to feel crowded and everyone was irritable.

Seymour and Jay kept bickering over who should command the cockpit crew and who should take which controls. Phil, Cass and a still phasing Justin, got involved - it didn't help. They'd decided on autopilot and whoever happened to be passing the 'pit at the time. Not an especially efficient system but it saved a lot of hassle. And medical supplies.

They'd been in flight for all of four hours.

Gomez had told Alex he reckoned the reason everyone was moody was because just as they'd started to get the Dwarf into a more comfy state, the supply situation had dictated they go off on another adventure before they had time to relax. And after some of their recent adventures they really needed to relax.
Alex had told him he reckoned it was because they were all gits.

Seymour's twice daily meetings hadn't helped matters.

The crew were more irritated than a set of hormonally imbalanced traffic wardens who, on a baking hot day, had been given one hour to patrol seven miles of sweaty city streets, while each suffering from a constantly burning genital rash, throbbing verrucas and severe hemorrhoids, which, for all Alex knew, perhaps some of them were. Anyway they were grumpy goits and he was completely sick of it.

They were meeting again this morning but nobody was doing any talking, it was all shouting and shoving. He suspected there was something more sinister at work than mere cabin fever, but he was too smegged off to care. He did, though, mentally file it under "strange things to deal with later" along with his still occasionally nagging concern that Beans had been far stronger than seemed right. He wondered if there was something mysterious aboard BD which they'd not found yet, something which caused things, something "affecty". To take his mind off the droning buzz of disharmony, he decided to investigate and was relieved to find an old music player in a small storage compartment, well more of a bread bin, near the Teasmade. He didn't care that the music was ancient and classical, it would shut out the bickering around him. He found a quiet place to sit, and discreetly dipped his little finger into his precious - resisted till now - bag of Dark Sherbet. He ran the finger around the inside of his ear then put on the comfortingly large and sturdy headphones.

Five minutes later he was giggling, tears streaming down his face as he watched the others full on fist fighting to the light hearted tones of Rossini's Thieving Magpie Overture. It was awesome. He especially liked the way everyone was moving in slow motion, and Seymour's new habit of opening up beautifully patterned wormholes with his wheels each time he pushed himself forward into the rabble and each time he was rudely shoved back across the deck.

Gomez and Davie paused, looked at the gibbering Alex, then each other.
"Somethin' in the urine recyc?"
"Dunno, but the sooner we get to this planet the better, crew's gone Bug Crazy."
"Si, they're madder than a basket of tulips."
"Glad we're not affected."
They exchanged tight lipped nods of agreement.
Then they returned to pummeling each other in the stomach.

----

<Was wondering about some of the other crew? Did Wolf and Phi stay behind on the Dwarf or are they with us? And Ryder? And we have yet to meet Alicia...
Are Given and J.A.I just doin' their own thing for now?
Don't wanna be forgetting to write about anyone, y'see.>