Your Orders?

For the next few hours The Rowdy Girls insisted on getting to know Eve's mysterious boyfriend. During their downtime they took him to a bar in the promenade and swapped stories while playing billiards and drinking several pints. The girls were hoping a few beers would loosen up Jaxx's tongue but he seemed to have a high resistance to alcohol like Evelina.

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Before they had a chance to speak more, or clock anyone else in the room, there was an explosion, and a low rumble that shook everyone off their feet.
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A few alerts came up on the speakers alerting the crew to man their stations.

Jaxx: Sorry ladies......duty calls. Later Evebabe.

Jaxx gave her a good by kiss before running off to his station.

Evelina was left breathless as she watched him leave down the hall. Her friends the Rowdy Girls quickly snapped her out of her daydream and told her to report to her station. It looks like the ship was under attack again. Evelina looked at them oddly as she mouthed the words "Again?". After the females friends spit up they made off to their stations. Evelina was worried about the new threat they were facing since Jaxx mentioned they were scary. After arriving at her station she noticed the guy who rescued them from Fernandos was being called the Captain. As she waited for her orders she noticed everyone was starring at Bruno.

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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.
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After receiving her orders from the XO, Evelina kept her mouth shut and engaged counter-fire defense pattern delta. As she was following orders she wondered if that blue guy with the willy on his head they met was in one of those ships. She got a bit nervous as she tried to remember his name.

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