Testing

Where: On the shuttle
When: just before departure to the abandoned gas mine

<snip>
Evelina had expected Jacky to go on a long winded speech, and was bracing herself for it.
"Hello." Jacky said.
Evelina waited for a moment.
"Hello?" she repeated.
"Have we met?" asked Jacky.
Evelina was somewhat disappointed.
"No." she said.
"Oh. Well then." Jacky said. He reassured her with a grin and moved on.
</snip>
“Phil...” Jackie rounded on FeBuggure next “You’re a life life-threatening menace to almost everyone around you. Your sense of humour sucks, and I’m still suffering flashbacks from when you were running around naked. The slapping noise... Oh God, the awful slapping noise – It haunts *OW*”
Jackie turned to glower at Cassandra who had just cuffed him hard around the back of his head
“What was that for!?” he demanded, irritably rubbing where she had hit him
“Shut the smeg up you offensive little prick” Cass snapped “Or do you want to see how emotionally unbalanced I can get?”
She paused to glower at him, her green eyes unflinchingly meeting his
“Now I don’t give a smeg what your problem is” she continued after a moment, her voice an angry snarl “But I will not be spoken to like that by a self-absorbed, bone idle little shit who has done nothing – That’s nothing to help Jay and assist us in rebuilding the Drive Room”
“Am I quite clear!?” she demanded in clipped tones, before suddenly raising her voice “Am I!?”
Shuffling his feet, Jackie glanced down at the floor and muttered something vaguely affirmative
“I’ll take that as a yes” Cass scowled, folding her arms and inclining her chin to glare at him “This shuttle’s leaving in a few minutes. I want you off it”
“I’ll only be too glad to oblige” Jackie snapped, turning to leave and striding across the ready room towards the access ramp, which to everyone’s dismay, whined up and locked in place as he made his way towards it
“Oh for smeg’s sake!” Cass sighed, throwing her hands up in exasperation and wheeling to make her way towards the bridge as the engines suddenly powered up and the ship bumped gently into motion

“Can we not stop to kick Jackie off?” Cass demanded as she entered the bridge
“Nope” Katrina replied bluntly, not even bothering to look away from the controls and the banks of monitors “Why?”
“Well, I’m no expert, but he seems too unstable to have away with us”
Snarling in irritation, Katrina momentarily glanced back over her shoulder as the shuttle emerged from the hangar into open space
“If you think he’s a risk: Either restrain him, sedate him or kill him”
Cass frowned and shook her head before sliding in behind the science desk
“I can’t see anyone else going for that kind of sensible pragmatism” she muttered darkly as her hands moved over the desks controls


The shuttle docked with the space station a half hour later, Katrina expertly guiding it in though the buffeting winds of the gas giant’s upper atmosphere, to lock onto one of the many docking points, studding the stations exterior
After another few moments, once the automated docking tube had clamped onto the shuttle and locked in place, the airlock green lighted, signaling it was clear to enter the station
“Well...” Jamie shrugged “Who wants to go first?”
“Ladies first!” Jackie beamed at Cass as he gestured towards the airlock
Flashing him an irritated glare, she stepped forward and slapped the door access panel; the airlock hissing open to fill the room with the unfamiliar, stale and musty scent of the mining station, and revealing the long, corroded and dirty-looking corridor, intermittently lit with flickering lights beyond
“Huh” Jade frowned, crowding forward along with the others and gazing past Cassandra “This place looks creepy”
“Even better” Phil chuckled as he slipped a respirator up onto his mouth and tossed a gas grenade down onto the floor
“Wha…” Cass and a couple of the others managed, before the gas hit everyone and they all quickly swooned into unconsciousness, Phil’s mocking laughter, muffled by his respirator, the last thing they heard



“...ra!”
“Huh?” Cass jerked awake, immediately realising, to her horror, that while she had been unconscious, she had been pulled upright into a sitting position and secured by a short, tight band of metal, which had been clamped around her neck onto whatever it was that she was sat up against
The space station around them made a weird creaking noise
“Cassandra!” Katrina yelled again from somewhere behind her
“...Yeah?” Cass croaked, her fingers frantically exploring the neck brace – It had dug painfully in under her jaw while she had been unconscious, leaving her neck feeling ragged and sore, and while she couldn’t be sure, it felt like it had drawn blood
“Wha... What is this?” she asked in confusion
“I don’t know” Katrina groaned, shifting her weight and causing whatever it was that Cass was manacled to twist slightly behind her
“Welcome to: 'The other woman'!” a voice boomed as a monitor flickered on over to Cassandra’s left, forcing her to turn her head painfully to view Phil’s face, looming large on the screen
“Phil!” Katrina yelled in relief “Thank smeg!”
“Oh, I’m not Phil” FeBuggure chuckled in a low voice “I’m smegging with his puny little mind. I’m Queeg!”
“Yeah, whatever” Cass snapped, painfully shifting her weight and ratcheting the thing she was clamped to around a little, prompting a hiss of pain from Katrina behind her “What the hell is this!?”
“This?” Queeg smiled coldly “This is a test”
“All around this station” he continued “Your crewmates are slowly stirring; each finding that they are trapped in similar but different situations as yourselves; each with a test before them...”
“What sort of tests!?” Cass demanded
“Tests to see whether you are all worthy of the precious gift of life” Queeg replied “...and to see what extremes you’ll go to preserve your own”
“Oh... shit” Katrina groaned
“Indeed” Queeg smiled, holding up a glowing green phial of liquid “But not to worry - I’ve some medical nanites here that’ll help heal whoever makes it through to the end”
“I need those for Jay” Cass hissed urgently
“You’ll need to survive first!” Queeg boomed
“You ladies have both been secured by the neck to a turnstile of sorts” he continued “Rotating it in either direction will loosen the manacle around one of your necks, while at the same time tightening it around the other – Rotate it far enough: Cassandra to the left and Katrina to the right, and you will succeed in freeing yourself, while at the same time killing the other woman”
“Smeg off!” Cass spat “Not doing it”
“Katrina: If you escape, Cassandra dies; at once removing any lingering temptations that your husband may have in her direction, while at the same time jeopardising his life by killing the one person with the greatest expertise to save him”
“Cassandra” Queeg cackled with glee “Your escape will kill Katrina, removing your rival in love, while simultaneously depriving Max of his mother, and forever damning you in the eyes of the man you so desperately want”
“I said smeg off!” Cass yelled “I’m not doing it!”
“Oh but you will...” Queeg loomed large on the monitor “You’ve ten minutes before those collars securing you in place are painfully and fatally electrified – You’d better start deciding who deserves to live pretty damn quick”
A creaking boom reverberated throughout the station as the monitor flickered off...

<tag>
Everyone!
Did you really think I had forgotten about Queeg? ;)
What tests do your characters find themselves faced with, and how do they escape?
Are they with any of the others, where in the old gas mine are they? – Can they find anything to help with their escape?
Think of a combination of the Saw movies and Event Horizon here – Have a bit of fun with how bad you can make it, since there are (apparently) medical nanites on board, so other than the psychological damage pretty much anything else can be fixed ;)

Oh, and if you're not tagged here and fancy joining in, just assume you were on the shuttle and write yourself in
</tag>