Justin checks the energy pole in Seymour's cupboard

Jay had warned Seymour that the priaprism medicine had a bitter taste, so he tried to disguise it in a jasmine tea. But that was 5 days ago, and Seymour was adjusting to a mundane life aboard Blue Dwarf.

Since arriving back from the Spacestation, he had effectively “stolen” Garr Bedge, and set him to work in his Ambassadorial Apartment, cleaning out the filth the Huzards and those awful poo-monsters had made.
“Oi, ooman. I should check on marster Alex... ee asn't been out of is room for days. Ee might be depressed.” Bedge said, his pinny and marigolds dirty from cleaning 3 million years of evolution from the carpet.

“No. Finish your cleaning!” Seymour snapped. “You still need to give that cupboard a jolly clean.” Seymour pointed to one of many doors in his lavish apartment.

It was nice to be back. For the last few months he'd been loving in a squalid apartment near the other crew. But now that Jaxx seemed to have the Huzard infestation under control, it was safe to move back into the floor above. Psychologically, Seymour liked it. He didn't like being on the same level as everyone else. One floor higher made him feel more special.

Unfortunately though it was a nightmare to get up the additional stairs. A problem which would be fixed when Pancake got around to mending the express-lift, but Seymour suspected he was putting off the job on purpose just to inconvenience him. Bedge had to lift his wheelchair up the stairs, which wasn't exactly ideal.

“What's dis filthy ooman?” Bedge said, dragging a wooden frame out of the storage cupboard. Seymour felt a flush of emotions sting him in the chest when he saw the baby cot.
“Oh... err...”
“It looks like a cage for tiny oomans.” The mechanoid said. “Did you use to catch dem like I did?”
Seymour pushed his wheelchair closer. His voice stuck in his throat and for a few seconds he couldn't speak as his mind gave him flashbacks of baby Alota laying in the cot, looking up at him with her large curious eyes.
“It's.... it used to be for my baby.” He said, and sighed loudly. “Did you know I used to have a baby?”
“I never asked cos I don't care, stinkin' meatbag.” Bedge said politely. “Shall I burn it in the generata?”
“No I...” Seymour reached out with his hand, and imagined his daughter at 1 year old, reaching over the top of the cot for him to pick her up. Then he remembered her at 3 years old, climbing out and dropping to the floor, then waddling across the room towards him.

Bedge waited for an answer, and saw Seymour was mesmerized. “I'll just chuck it shall I?” He grabbed the frail wooden side and tugged, snapping it off with his giant hand.
“No!” Seymour said. “leave it... I... I was keeping it for if I ever found her again.”
“Bedge's biomechanical face scrunched up into a confused scowl. “Yeah but... even if you did find her, she'd be 3 million years owd, and too big for dis tiny cage.”

“I know....” Seymour reached over and tried to fix the wood that Bedge had just broken, but it wouldn't fit. Tears formed in his eyes. “I know... I know she'd be dead by now. But I just...” He looked up at Bedge who was puzzled about why he was crying.
“Why are you leaking eye juice ooman?”
“Nevermind. Nevermind!” Seymour said, then flailed his arms at the cyborg. “Just go. Leave me alone. It must be time to serve supper in the canteen?”

Bedge silently left, leaving Seymour with the broken crib.

Passing Bedge at the door, Chief Engineer Justin Pancake entered the room and swaggered over to Seymour. “Orrite man, mind if I just take a look at your power pipe... ooh that sounded a bit rude didn't it? I mean... err... I want to check the energy pole in your cupboard...”
“Go away!” Seymour demanded.
“Oh, don't be like that man.” Justin said, stepping closer and spotting the tears rolling down the posh man's face. “Oh sorry dude, I know it's painful after having the erection for so long, but don't rush it, once the swelling goes down it'll be fine again.”
“I'm not jolly well touching myself up you imbecile!” Seymour snapped. “I'm... what do you want anyway?”

Justin pointed the the far corner of the room where a half-height door indicated a cupboard. “The power lines from the AR suite pass by here. I want to check they're working ok. That bloody bastard Jaxx has been using the AR suite for 5 days straight, I want to make sure the cables can take it.”

Seymour waved for him to carry on. “Hurry up though old bean, I'd rather be alone tonight.”
Justin opened the cupboard and exposed the power pipes, which were thick with glowing energy pulsing through them.
“I smegging knew it.” He said, after touching the pipe and watching his holomatrix de-res for a second.
“What seems to the the problem?” Seymour asked, wheeling himself around the plush settee and coffee table for a closer look.
“Pass me something wood and I'll show ya.” Said Pancake. Seymour placed a mahogany letter opener in his hand. “That's the exact letter opener that Elizabeth I used to open a letter from her beau, Earl Robert Dudley, so it's an antique, you'd better-”

Justin placed the wood against the pipe and it instantly set on fire and turned to ash.

“-be careful with it. Oh my lord, look what you've done!”

“See, I told you Jaxx was using the AR suite too much, it's causing an overflow in the main power grid.”
“My antique letter opener!” Seymour cried.
“Oh yeah sorry about that. Just use your finger from now on. Who are you gonna get a letter from anyway in deep space? ”

Seymour started sobbing.

“I'd say we've got 2 hours before the power grid starts melting the ship around us.” Justin said, reaching for another piece of wood and burning it on the pipe.
“What was that?”
“Just some wood you've got laying about.”
“That's Alota's crib! Stop burning my precious things!” Seymour shouted, and Justin made his way towards the door.

“Unfortunately I don't want to be the one to tell Jaxx he's going to destroy the ship. He's a big scary guy. Do you mind telling him?”
“No! Just go!” Seymour yelled.
Justin shrugged. “Okay then, but watch out, there's a pipe of lethal Conductive Neonium that runs alongside, if that melts too, we're buggered.”
“Out!” Seymour said, and Justin was gone.

Seymour didn't really listen to what Justin had said, or what Conductive Neonium was, but when dark green gas started leaking out of his cupboard, he knew it wasn't a good thing.
“Mr Pancake! Mr Pancake!” Seymour yelled, and quickly evacuated his apartment, away from the billowing clouds of green gas.

He tried to shut the door behind him, but couldn't reach close enough with his wheelchair, so left it ajar and pushed himself down the corridor. The gas leaked out and followed him.

That was when he found the stairs. A wall of gas behind him, and only steps leading down, Seymour didn't know what to do apart from cry for help.

<Tag – Someone please save Seymour, or at least notice him falling down the stairs! I haven't mentioned the affects of the gas, but it could do something interesting instead of simply killing people. Maybe it's especially harmful to robots, or maybe dissolves certain materials? I was hoping that this gas would force us all onto the planet for a while to let it subside>