Captain Bruno

<snip>
Bruno looked down at his watch, said “uhhhh” and after counting the seconds off and waiting for a new minute, he looked up at everyone, as they looked back expectantly at him and before he gets a chance to say anything, Jay appears back at the group with Cass in tow.
“What are you all standing around for? Let’s go!”
<end snip>

Where: Parrott's bar

Bruno didn't notice as Jay and the group left, because he was being hounded by new crewmen tapping him on the shoulder and asking him for his orders.
“I don't know, I don't know!” He exclaimed. “Leave me alone!”
“But, you're the captain, sir!” said a young fresh-faced crewman, saluting as she did so.

Bruno looked down at what he was wearing, it WAS quite Captain-y. With shoulder pads, quite nicely ironed, and an area for medals on his chest. He was even wearing nicely polished shoes, something he never did.

“So, about the explosion...” said the crewman. “What shall we do Captain?”
“Just.. just... LEAVE ME ALONE!” He ran to the back of the bar, sat down and started rocking back and forth and humming to drown out the voices.

“What's wrong with him?”
“It must be a case of Captain-fever” he heard the voices saying around him. He hummed louder.
“Captain-fever?”
“Yeah, when the Captain loses confidence. Maybe he'll feel better when we get him to the Drive Room.”
Before Bruno knew it, he was being picked up by several crewmen, and embarrassingly dragged to an express-lift elevator. He passed Jay, Jade, Cass and Jamie, who were having a crisis meeting outside. Their eyes locked, and Bruno just silently mouthed. “I don't know what's going on!”

“Don't worry Captain. You'll feel alright soon.” said a voice from one of the crowd that was holding him aloft. “Here's one of your favourite snacks to calm you down.”
A nutrigrain bar was thrust into his hand, and Bruno wailed.

* * *
Where: Drive room

Bruno was deposited on his feet, surrounded by eager faces expecting him to say something. He had no idea what to do, what to say, and his stomach was gurgling from the nutrigrain bar.
“I...” he wanted to tell all these staring faces that he wasn't Captain. But being dressed like one, and standing here in the Drive room, he felt they wouldn't believe him.

The XO turned to face him. She was a horsey-looking lady with long light-coloured hair, and extremely long fingernails which made Bruno terrified.
“Captain Downing, I'm XO Ashley Ferrington-blonde. Do you know where you are?” her tone was more patronising than sympathetic.
“I... I...”
“We're under attack by a Ffionian scout squad. They don't like that we're mining their asteroid field.” she spoke slowly, to try and make him understand the gravity of the situation.
“I... oh...”
Bruno looked past Ashley Ferrington-blonde through the window, where several ships were in an attack pattern, buzzing around the ship and firing constantly.
“We need your orders Captain.” she said. Then after a pause. “What should we do?”

It was all too much. The noise, the explosions, the pressure.

He started to speak. “Put... play 'Tusk by Fleetwood Mac'.”
Ashley's brow wrinkled. Other faces around the room look puzzled.
“Sorry?”
“It's a song!” Someone whispered.

After a few moments, it started playing out of the Drive-room speakers, and Bruno closed his eyes and exhaled with relief. He sat down and sank into the Captain's chair. All the chaos melted away.

People continued to stare at him though, especially the XO.
“This is achieving nothing!” Said Ferrington-blonde. She leaned over and shook him by the shoulders, shattering his calm. “We need to activate counterfire defence pattern delta, Captain.”

“Okay okay.” Bruno said.

“Shall we do that? Is that what we should do?” Asked Ashley, waiting for him to agree.
“Yyyyy....” Bruno looked at his watch. It was about 15 seconds past the hour.
“I just need you to give the word Captain.”

“Wait wait wait” Bruno continued starting at his watch. 30 seconds now.
“Just give the order Captain. What are you waiting for?”
Bruno looked at his watch.

40 seconds.

H picked his nose and wiped the bogey on the watch strap.
50 seconds.

The Ffionian ships outside continued to fire. Consoles around him exploded into sparks.

55 seconds.

His concentration, and the silence of the Drive-room was broken when Ashley Ferrington-blonde just gave the order herself.

“Just activate counterfire defence pattern delta” she said, and a crewman nodded. Almost immediately, turrets outside started moving and firing on their attackers. Explosions lit Ashley's face as she said “The Captain clearly isn't feeling well. Take him back to his quarters.”

Some security guards picked Bruno under his arms and carried him away.
“I'll be in charge until he feels better.” she said, as there was another explosion behind her.

OOC - hello everyone, sorry I hadn't posted in a while. I was inspired to do this after meeting Andy, Becca and SMAndy this weekend :-)

Bruno has been immediately toppled by Ashley-Ferrington Blonde, who is the new NPC in-charge. I imagine this won't be for very long though, as our characters can (I presume) usurp them.