Goodwill

It took longer to get Bruno to answer his communicator than it did to load the remainder of the cargo crates onto the Phoenix; and even longer still, to get him to agree to transport everyone back to the Dwarf.

In the end Cass had to threaten him with spiking the hotel’s control systems and hunting him down with hordes of murderous, hard light holograms.

He’d been pretty helpful after that.

“Are you coming?” Jade shouted from the shuttles loading ramp, above the howl of the engines.

“I’m nearly done” Cass rattled her fingers across the surface of her terminal, her eyes narrowing as she absorbed the raw data, blistering across the infoschematics.

“Damn it Cass - It was you who wanted to get out of here so quickly!”

“Yeah... With you in a minute”

“Come on!” Jade urged “Bruno’s started his final prep – We can’t wait”

Bleeding the instruction set in via the one of the subgrids, Cass shadowed the VRI and instantiated the Plague across a scattering of redundant sectors, leaving it to cycle up, unaided, as she resized and deactivated the terminal.

“I’m done” she hurried across the cargo bay towards where her friend was waiting.

Thumbing the intercom, Jade leaned into the mic and hollered “She’s aboard” to Bruno, up on the bridge, before rounding on Cass “What on earth were you doing!?” she demanded above the whine of the ramp as it rose up into the belly of the transporter.

“Scorched earth”

“What?”

“I’m killing the resort” Cass shrugged as they clanked through into the aft section of the ship “All being well, the place will be an airless, lifeless hulk by the time the STCP make it here. They’ll know someone or something did it, but they’ll struggle to prove it was us”

“Brittany will know it was you”

“Maybe” Cass scowled “In any case, I’ve ensured that there won’t be any digital evidence left of our visit; no transaction records or security feeds - there'll be nothing. They'll have to deploy gene sniffers for physical evidence; but that’ll give us a few extra hours to make good our escape”

Unable to fault this sort of pragmatism, Jade slowly shook her head “And there was me, wondering why you didn’t go on ahead with Jay”

Cass grunted, noncommittally at this. She was already beginning to regret her impulsive decision to steal a kiss from him, and could see that she was going to have to apologise, yet again.

Fuck it. She wrinkled her nose.

Why the fuck should she apologise?

Discounting Eve who only looked like she was human, Cass and Jade were the only two women left in the universe. Sure there were others in stasis, but with the restoration manifold all fucked up, there was no telling when or even if there’d ever be any others; so all things considered, even in her own estimation, Cass was a bloody good proposition.

She liked him, he liked her – How hard did it have to be!?

Unaware of her friend's inner turmoil, Jade indicated an old fashioned pressure hatch towards the end of the corridor “Everyone’s though here”

Shaking herself from her reverie, Cass glanced across at her and gave her a tight smile “How’re you doing?” she asked “We haven’t had time” she gestured vaguely “Your arm...”

“Sucks” Jade scowled “I’ll live”

They came to a halt outside the door.

“I can build you another” Cass blurted as her friend reached for the door controls “It’d be way better than the primitive things Artemis and Plisken used to have... Just think about it” she pleaded in response to Jade's pained expression

“Sure...”



Meanwhile:

Grasping a handful of his t-shirt in an attempt to staunch his bleeding hand, Gavin hurried through the dank and decaying corridors of the ‘Dwarf, trying to get his bearings to find his way, down towards the medi-bay.

The ship, he had quickly realised, was in a terrible state. From the lights to the lifts, nothing seemed to work. Things had been allowed to fall into such ruin, that he had found his way barred on several occasions by collapsed passageways, choked with filth and unidentifiable detritus.

Other than the weird rat thing, he’d encountered earlier, he’d seen no sign of any other life, let alone any of the crew, and he was beginning to worry that he might be the only person left alive on the rusting hulk.

Could he really have been in stasis for just over six hundred years?

What on earth had happened?

“There he is Dad!” a voice behind him made him start and turn to see the little rat he had drop-kicked down the corridor, only this time, it was accompanied by a much, much larger rat.

“Oh...” Gavin’s mouth fell open.

“‘Ere” the big rat growled “Likkle Kai ‘ere tells me that you’re some sort of fuckin’ nonce” it cracked it’s knuckles as it lumbered down the corridor towards him “I wanna word wiv you...”





Later:

Cass was first off the shuttle after Bruno had docked.

“Holly?” she snapped, tapping away at her terminal, as she strode down the boarding ramp “Enact protocol five. Full coverage. Give me a status update”

“It’s all quiet,” Holly replied “but the Vermin have been getting a bit frisky - They’ve big ideas about seizing control of the ship” he smirked at the idea.

“They’re barely able to use tools” Cass scowled as she strode across the docking bay, the others trailing along in her wake “You’re joking, right?”

“Nope”

“What are they hoping to achieve?”

“Dunno, but they’ve got a hostage”

“Who?" Cass stopped, dead in her tracks "Jay?”

“Nah” Holly bobbed on the terminal screen “Some other dude who just came out of stasis”

“Oh,” she shrugged indifferently “that’s okay then”

"Jay's busy negotiating with the Vermin on his behalf"

"Oh for... Enact one seventy seven, lethal force sanctioned if necessary. Keep me informed"

"Already on it"

Turning to face everyone else, Cass tapped her terminal a couple of times and frowned down at the results.

“I don’t know if the STCP are on their way or not,” she said after a moment “but as much as we can be on this crate, we’re in stealth mode at the moment – I’ve worked with Holly over this last month or two, to minimise our drive signature, and what’s left of the shields have been reconfigured to mask us from passive sensor scans; but the one thing we can’t have for the next few days is too much electrical activity – it’ll screw it all up”

“Seems like you’ve been busy” White Wolf nodded approvingly “I - Uargh”

To everyone’s immense surprise, including his own, the colossal hamster collapsed beneath the weight of a man, falling out of an air vent above them.

“The fuck!?” Cass snarled, hurriedly drawing her pistol as everyone else scattered; each likewise drawing their weapons and aiming them at the newcomer as he and the rotund rodent both struggled, painfully back up onto their feet “Who are you?” she demanded, coldly.

“Hey! - I'm Superior” the man beamed, straightening his tatty-looking tweed suit, before opening his arms wide, in what he hoped was a disarmingly friendly gesture “There’s no need for the hostility, yeah? You know what I mean? No hostility! – I’m your friend!”

“If you’re from the STCP, you’re dead”

"Cass!" Jade protested "Go easy on the guy - He's probably fresh out of stasis"

“Yeah - What she said!” Superior tried his best to look entirely innocent “I don’t know no STCP! What is the STCP?”

“Holly? Who is this guy?”

"That'd be Sam Spick," the Holly nodded on Cassandra's terminal "self-styled 'salesman' and all round dodgy geezer"

"Nah - I'm Superior" the man protested "Superior?" he repeated, almost as if he expected them to have heard of him "Although I’ll tell you what," he continued, giving everyone a sly wink "I bet I can interest you in this new SCTP detector, that’s just come into my possession - Bargain price of only ten thousand dollarpounds. What do you say?”

“Wow, man – That, like, sounds like a bargain” Jaxx enthused.

Jade hurried forward to diffuse the situation as Cass stiffened "This is looking like classic stasis sickness" she soothed "I think we need to get Mr Spick, or Superior, or whoever he is, down to the infirmary for a quick check-up"

Cass eyed her sceptically "Since when was that a thing?"

"Since always" Jade retorted, with as much medical gravitas as she could muster. She looked between Ransom and South, stood together, observing the proceedings "You've both heard of stasis sickness, haven't you?"

"Umm..." South looked blank.

"Not as such" Ransom finished, "although I have heard of instances where the fourth wall was breached, during interdimensional sojourns"

"Brett," Jade tried again "You felt disorientated after you emerged from stasis, didn't you?" there was a subtle warning note in her voice.

Brett opened his mouth to say something, but was thankfully saved from having to lie and face a cross-examination from Cassandra, by the soft chime of her communicator.

"Yeah?" she picked up

"Cass? It's Jay - I need you guys up on the Promenade - I've got a situation developing"




"Okay, I've managed to convince the Vermin that Gavin here, hasn't got a thing for young rats" Jay said, a half hour later, once everyone had reconvened on the Promenade "and I've promised them a fair share of all the food in exchange for his freedom and them calling off their mutiny..."

"But," Chutney wheezed, standing nearby, flanked on either side by a couple of menacing-looking ferrets "we demand a gesture of goodwill"

"What?" Cass grumbled under her breath "Something other than you being allowed to live?"

Jay silenced her with a look "Not particularly helpful" he said levelly, before turning to address Chutney and his cohorts "So, what do we need to do, to prove our goodwill?"

<tag>
Sorry this took so long to get out - been trying to write it all week with various distractions and interruptions

What sort of goodwill gesture do the vermin require? – First to post gets to decide, but try and give us one that’ll take a post or two to resolve :)

After that, we’re having a bit of down time...
</tag>