Trapped

Strolling down the corridor, Herbie tossed his strawberry blond hair and quirked his eyebrows at the reflection of himself in the dark glass fascia of one of the vending machines.
"Looking good" he nodded appreciatively, an overconfident smirk playing across his lips.
Bored feckless with his tedious little existence on the Dwarf, he'd risen early to prowl the corridors, wondering what on earth he was going to do with his day.
The others had apparently all got together for a drink last night and he was somewhat irritated that he hadn't been invited to join them, but then he supposed that he only had himself to blame, when all he had to do was make an effort and bother to engage with them.
"The fuckers" he muttered, petulantly aiming a kick at a piece of rusting metal detritus littering the floor and sending it skittering away down the corridor.
Nearing the far end of the accommodation block, he stopped and sniffed the air.
There was something...
It took a moment for him to place the unfamiliar smell.
Was that ...Bacon!?
Quickening his pace, he followed his nose until he heard the gentle sizzling sounds emanating from the refectory.
"Hey there!" he said, enthusiastically popping his head around the doorway before sharply backing away in shock "Whoa!" he cried "Simulant!"
"I'm most dreadfully sorry master" Bedge looked up from the pan of gently frying bacon "I didn't mean to alarm you. Will you be requiring breakfast?"
"I..." Herbie looked back around the doorway "You... You're a Simulant?"
"Yes master"
Herbie regarded him in surprise for a moment "Aren't you meant to be trying to murder us or something?"
"Indeed young sir," Bedge intoned "although I'm happy to report that I've been reprogrammed; I can neither kill nor harm a human being"
"Cool!" Herbie dodged around the doorframe to give him a thumbs-up and sauntered, cock-sure, into the room.
"So where did you spring from?" he asked around a mouthful of bacon sandwich, a few minutes later.
"As far as I'm able to determine, I was abandoned on Fernando's by the rest of the crew" the hulking Simulant began "No doubt they had their reasons; but once I regained consciousness, I slaughtered my way straight back here as quickly as I was able. I arrived only earlier this morning"
Herbie frowned thoughtfully.
"Wait a minute," he said slowly "Are you that Simulant that what's his name... Alex, was always going on about?"
Bedge raised his bushy eyebrows "It's possible that I am, sir. How is master Alex?"
"Dunno" Herbie shrugged and took another bite of his sandwich "He apparently took off to look for you while we were away on that last planet"
"Took off, sir?"
"Yeah, Holly said that flew off some brand spanking new ship or other, looking for you" Herbie pouted "I wish he'd taken me with him. It's boring here"
"I must say that it's gratifying to hear of his concern," Bedge paused to shrug "although it is somewhat ironic that he's still looking for me, when I'm already back"
"Yeah, he was always going on about you" Herbie gave him a cheeky grin "Did you guys have something going on – Whoa! What?"
He frowned as a black clad figure darted past the doorway and tossed a couple of finger sized metal canisters into the room.
"Move!" Bedge managed, but there wasn't time. The grenades exploded, killing both him and Herbie instantly.

<Snip>
A claxon sounded. "ALERT ALERT REACTOR CORE BREACH ALERT ALERT! OVERLOAD IMMINENT!"
The lights flickered before switching to the emergency mode, the lift grinding to a halt between decks.
"What now?" Jade asked, turning to Cass.
</Snip>
"Dunno, but that sounds bad" Cass murmured as she hurriedly pulled her terminal out of her jacket pocket "Holly?" she tapped away at the screen as another couple of explosions rocked the ship "Damn it. Holly!?"
"Orrite dude" The AI's face eventually swam into view on the device "What's happening?"
"The core breach?"
"Yeah," Holly's head bobbed on the screen; the equivalent of a shrug "basically, we're screwed"
"What? Can't you shut it down!?"
"Nope"
"Oh... shit" Cass croaked, experiencing a moment of vertiginous nausea that had little to do with her hangover "What happened? Is Jay all right?"
"He's fine, but your STCP friends blew the core and we can't vent the plasma; the emergency flux dampers aren't responding"
Cass grimaced and ignored for the moment the notification of Jay's incoming call that flashed up on her terminal "How long have we got?"
"About twelve minutes"
"Oh fuck" Jade whispered, her hand flying to her mouth in shock
"Where's the nearest shuttle bay?" Cass demanded, a cold knot of panic coiling in the pit of her stomach
"It's twenty minutes away from you, but the STCP have just destroyed that as well" Holly's head bobbed on the screen
"Airlocks?"
"Fifteen minutes away and even then, you'll never survive a core detonation in an EVA suit"
"Can you jettison the core?"
"I'd have done it if I could"
"Skutters" Jade suggested "Can't you just use the skutters to operate the dampers?"
"Yeah, I tried that" Holly smiled tiredly "None of them survived the inferno in engineering long enough to even get close to the dampers"
"Fuel dump?" Cass asked, already knowing what the answer was going to be
"Power's out; servo-systems are off-line"
"Kenneth? Could he do it?"
"He could, but he's not showing up on my sensors, so I've no idea where he's got to"
"Keep trying to contact him. My MED's have heavy shielding," Cass was struggling to remain calm "could they do the job?"
"Nah, they're too big to get under the core; the only one who could possibly help would be Jaxx, but he's just moping in his room"
"Jaxx! Yes!" Cass was momentarily elated "His lab's down near engineering - Can he make it there in time!?"
"Yeah, I'd say so, but the venting process will destroy him"
"Good enough for me" Cass murmured, patching herself through to the emergency comms channel in his lab and pushing aside the irksome thought that Holly could have told her about Jaxx to begin with.
"Jaxx" her voice boomed out of the speaker by the door, startling the little skutter from dejectedly lolling around in front of the blank television screen "We're going to die unless you help
"I need you to go to engineering right now and manually open the emergency dampers beneath the reactor core. If you don't, this ship will be destroyed and everyone who can't make it out will be killed"
Flexing his claw, Jaxx looked up towards the speaker "Is Eve okay?" he rasped
"She..." Cass hesitated while she pulled personnel deposition schematics up on her terminal "She's with Jay. They should be able to evacuate as long as they don't try anything stupid like a rescue attempt"
Remotely triggering the door to Jaxx's lab, Cass continued "There's an inferno down in engineering, so this is a really tough job that might see you destroyed; but if you pull this off, I'm almost certain that I can restore a dump of your mind state back into your old body - Do we have a deal?"

<tag>
Jaxx - Over to you to save the day!
Everyone else - Let's have a post from you, or we might start worrying that the STCP dragged you from your beds and summarily executed you ;-)
</tag>