Situation

Draining the last of her punch, Cass leaned forward on the mezzanine balustrade to gaze down at the heaving mass of party-goers, thronging the promenade below.

This lot were very different to the Dwarfers she was used to, she reflected as she eyed the belligerent mayhem of the celebration. There were many more old people and children aboard for a start; bringing the ship's full compliment up to somewhere north of fifteen to twenty-odd thousand, depending on who you asked – A figure that rather alarmingly represented around a half percent of what was left of humanity.

Yeah, they were different alright.

They seemed to Cass to have an anarchic, hard-nosed tenacity about them; they were resourceful, pragmatic and audaciously adventurous; but most of all, they were hell bent on ensuring that the light of humanity was never extinguished from the galaxy and, right now, they were partying as hard as they could in an act of celebration to prove they were still very much alive.

It had taken a few weeks to piece the story of the Sorrow together. Accurate records were few and far between and you had to tread carefully, asking about something that you should already know; but over the weeks, the picture had slowly emerged.

Humanity, it seemed, had been late in achieving viable FTL in this reality and had only just emerged out onto the galactic stage when the incident occurred; their tardiness in reaching the stars leaving them slightly more technologically advanced in some areas, but woefully exposed to calamity.

The Earth had been destroyed.

Details about what had actually happened were still sketchy. Some of the old timers seemed to hold conflicting theories and opinions about comets, Charon Labs and alien aggressors to name but a few, while many of the younger generation quite simply didn't seem to care – Earth, for them, was a place that existed only in AR and, as such, was as unreal as any other virtual environment.

In the immediate aftermath of the cataclysm, those few who were lucky enough to be off-world at the time had simply drifted and settled throughout the galaxy wherever they were blown by the winds of chance. Over time, however, ships like the Dwarf had slowly emerged as the last bastions of humanity - tiny enclaves, lost in the night, of the rag-tag remnants of a species bought to its knees.

With humanity teetering on the brink of extinction, each additional year of dogged survival had come to be seen as a major victory; and so now on this, the eve of the fortieth anniversary of the loss of their homeworld, the refugees aboard the Dwarf were partying hard in an exultant celebration of life.

It all seemed a little mawkish in Cassandra's opinion, but then she hadn't had grow up having to deal with the trauma of the near instantaneous eradication of her species, so it wasn't really her place to judge. Maybe if she had, she might not have been as dismissive.

Straightening, she dug her terminal out of her shoulder bag to check the time and turned to impatiently scan the crowd behind her. Jay was meant to have been there ages ago as her plus one but annoyingly, it was looking like he couldn’t be arsed to turn up. He had probably either got waylaid, trying to convince Dean Thomas to give him another crack at the pilots exam or had gotten involved in a card game or something and lost track of time.

Fishing an unidentifiable lump of something fruity out from the dregs of punch at bottom of her glass, Cass chewed thoughtfully as she surveyed her fellow party guests. A small part of her worried that Jay might be in trouble of some sort, but she quickly dismissed this - They were safe and secure aboard an extremely well armed Dwarf and after six hundred years on the front line of the STCP, Jay had proved that he was almost impossible to kill; which left her to conclude that that in all likelihood, he'd had found himself a better offer.

“Reverend Sister!”

Her heart sank.

Cass hated being called that almost as much as she hated being the ships Chaplain.

It had been an absolutely... god-awful surprise to discover that her role aboard the ship involved dealing with people, let alone having to pander to their alleged 'spiritual needs' – Especially when Cass had deduced that God didn't exist back when she only three and had viewed anyone holding opinions to the contrary with contempt ever since.

For a while, she had been sorely tempted to resign her position and see if she could transfer into science or medicine, but as the days passed by, it had become increasingly apparent that she wasn't going to be able to just bum around, doing whatever she wanted any more. Everyone aboard the Dwarf had a job and, unlike the Dwarf she was used to, absolutely everybody worked.

In the end, Cass had to concede that there were far worse and more dangerous jobs aboard the ship, and so, had swallowed her pride and contempt one night and memorised the scriptures; if only, she reasoned, to better play her allotted role, while she figured out what else she was going to do.

Cass found the job itself tedious in the extreme and she hated delivering sermons and dealing with her parishioners and all their petty little concerns, but there were one or two perks: She got her own quarters – a rare thing on this overcrowded ship; she hadn't been shot at in well over a month and she was occasionally extended privileges like being invited up to the mezzanine for the party being thrown by the captain.

“Reverend Sister!” A young woman with blonde hair was elbowing her way through the crowd towards her, carrying a handful of dubious-looking drinks.

Cass tried to force a smile “Hey, Lola”

Lola was one of her vergers. Back in the old reality, she had been an unhappy young woman, pimped out by by her older brother, Charlie, to support his spiralling Crystal Bliss habit. As a fellow stowaway, Cass had been friendly enough with her and had even tried to get her to leave her brother on several occasions, but Lola had died along with everyone else in the same attack that had purportedly killed Katrina.

Here, she was a quirky, friendly and brightly vivacious girl, with the sort of optimistic outlook that set Cassandra's teeth on edge and whose voracious predilections were occasionally the talk of the confessional.

“I got us more punch” Lola proffered the drinks as proof.

“It's pretty strong stuff” the last couple had hit hard and Cass was already feeling pretty wobbly “I don't know if I should”

“Ah, go on" Lola chided "Are you sure you won't? - It's not like it's New Year's Eve every night”

True enough. Cass shrugged and, placing her empty on a nearby table, accepted another couple of glasses.

“So where's your plus one?” Lola asked, innocently.

Cass scowled.

Strictly speaking, Jay was persona non grata at this party, but her life here was so different that Cass had wanted to see at least one friendly face tonight. Jade or Jamie might have been a more reliable choice, but she had been secretly hoping a bit of quality time with Jay might result in a 'happy ending' for the night.

“Dunno” Cass took a swig of her punch. She didn’t want to say how pissed off she was that he hadn’t bothered to turn up or even to call, to offer an explanation about why he couldn’t make it.

“Ah, well” Lola leaned in close to conspiratorially elbow her in the ribs “There are plenty of others options, eh?”

Uncertain whether or not to say anything about what God would think about one of her vergers trying to lead her astray, Cass regarded her in silence for a moment.

That said, Lola did have a point. With many more people around than the tiny handful she was used to, there were plenty of other options – and besides: it would be nice to spend a night with someone for a change. Jay had pissed her off tonight and she was getting sick of waiting for him and never getting anything back.

Surprised at herself, Cass took another gulp of punch. The damn stuff was going down far too easily and it was a strong as hell if that thought process was anything to go by.

Did they spike this stuff with drugs here?

Fuck it. She drained her glass.

“Oh, it's nearly time!” Lola drained one of the glasses she was holding and, quickly depositing it on a table, seized Cass by the arm and dragged her into the crowd “Come on – There's a few guys I want to be near when we hit midnight”

“Lola! You're incorrigible” Cass laughed, but she didn’t put up much resistance as she was pulled into the heart of the party.

“There!”

“What? Him!?”

“No” Lola scolded “He's fucking ancient! Him” she pointed at a good looking guy stood chatting with friends “and him, and him and maybe him”

“The last one looks like a gorilla”

“A what?”

“A big, hairy Earth creature”

Lola giggled, drunkenly “I like a real man sometimes”

“I can only imagine” Cass took another large swig of her other glass of punch. There was definitely something other than alcohol in it, but right now she didn't care – She felt really fucking good.

“Ten...”

“Whoa...” the crowd surged around them as the countdown progressed inexorably downwards, drinks splashing everywhere as people crowded together in eager anticipation, arms already coiling around waists and shoulders.

“... Two... One... Happy New Year!”

“Oh, yeah!” Cass gasped as whatever was in the punch kicked in hard as the party-goers erupted into jubilant cheers around her.

Someone swept her up into a cheerful embrace “Happy New Year!” he planted a kiss on her lips.

“Happy New Year!” Everyone was embracing around them and as fireworks went off down the other end of the Promenade, Cass moved on from him to a woman she recognised from the drive room staff and and then onto another guy and another.

More fireworks.

“Happy New Year!” It was the good looking guy, Lola had pointed out.

Oh, fuck it. Cass pushed back against his kiss, her lips parting to find an eager tongue mingling with her own. He pulled her closer.

Yeah... Absolutely fuck it!

The realisation that the explosions weren't fireworks hit at around the time that the music died and the DJ got shot in the head; which kind of spoiled the mood, although in Cassandra's opinion, the DJ wasn't any great loss – David Bowie, for fuck's sake? – Only Artemis listened to that kind of antique shit.

“Oh, fuck off!” Cass protested as the guy she had been kissing hurried away at a rapidly snapped command from the nearby Captain – she hadn’t even had time to ask his name.

<snip>
"So, what the fuck is that supposed to be?" someone asked.

"It's a Nuclear Bomb, or at least we think it is. We didn't ask the transport captain before we shot him, it might be a nerve-gas round or a dummy round. Either way, we'll use it to destroy the capital! Then, we with our new Human army will march on the ruins and take the Empire!" Thoran said.
</snip>

“I..." Cass stopped herself, just in time "We could use that nuke”

“Damn right” Captain Ferrington-Blonde snarled as she swept past “We're having their frigging battle cruiser as well. Nobody fucks with us”

In spite of herself, Cass found herself warming to the Captain at this. It was either that or the drugs coursing though her system were clouding her judgement, although it was getting increasingly hard to think straight enough to tell. Maybe, she mused, distantly, she shouldn't have had all that punch.

"Holly?" Ferrington-Blonde snapped "Deploy the Wraiths"

The AI's head briefly shimmered into holographic existence in front of the Captain "Righto" it nodded curtly and dispersed, as a squad of the alien troopers made it up onto the Mezzanine.

"Everybody downstairs, right now!" the sergeant leading the troops bellowed, as one of his cohorts fired a shot into the ceiling, showering them all in dust.

"Oh, I don't think so" the Captain said, smoothly.

The main lights went out, plunging the Promenade into shadow; the emergency lighting-lit gloom punctuated by the whoops and cheers of the Dwarfers who knew what was coming.

"What's the meaning of this?" the sergeant roared, bringing his weapon to bear on the Captain.

That was as far as he got, before an array of ghost-like, holograms phased into existence around him and his squad, utilising the remote projection system Cass had just seen Holly use.

The fight was fast, one-sided and very bloody. Hard light holograms are monstrously strong.

Chaos erupted out on the Promenade as the dead, co-ordinated by Holly, flickered in and out of existence, tearing into the invaders. As the crowd surged around her, urged on by the Captain, Cass staggered and collided with Lola, who was on the arm of a powerfully built, shaven-headed guy wearing a disturbing amount of leather.

"Fuck" Cass managed, and dazedly stumbled backwards. She really wasn't feeling too good.

"Whoa, look at you" Lola reached a hand out to steady her "You're absolutely fucked"

"Well, I was... I wanted to be" Cass slurred "Fucking aliens"

"Just how much of that punch did you have?"

This took some thought "Seven?" It might have been eight.

"Good God woman - Four's usually enough for anyone"

"Well, I...” Cass faltered as she staggered backwards a couple of steps “I didn't know"

"Seriously?" Lola grinned "C'mon Sister, let's get you to the MedBay and straightened out"


<tbc/>

<ooc>apologies for the length</ooc>