Disorganized Resistors (long)

<snip>
After a quick speed change Dante was strapped with his weapons and
ready for work. As he walked outside he was greeted to the sight of a
cat/jay clone marching past his door. "What the smeg?"
<end snip>
McJohn saw the clone too. He awoke and found himself leaning against
the wall down the corridor from Dante's room.
"What the f---? How'd I get here?" he shouted, then he walked down
the corridor, straight into the Jay/Cat clone.
The clone leaped at Mark, swiping at him with its claws. McJohn
passed out.
After giving McJohn a few nasty gashes, the clone gave up and moved
on.
------------
When: Later
Where: McJohn and Sandoval's quarters
------------
McJohn, bleeding not unconsiderably, staggered into his room and
collapsed in front of Sandoval, who rushed over.
"Amigo, where the smeg have you been for the last few hours? You
vanished right in front of me in the drive room! What happened?!"
McJohn looked up. "I don't know -- but I was jumped by some sort of
mutant humanoid with big hairy claws like a leopard or something.
But it's face, Christ, it looked almost like Jay Chrysler!"
"Holy sheet."
"You said it, Elian." McJohn stood himself up, a difficult task
because of the various injuries he sustained, and patted himself to
see if there was anything important missing. There was.
"Where the smeg's my wallet?"
The wallet in question flew through the doorway and landed at his
feet. McJohn and Sandoval turned to see Dante enter.
"Ah ha!" Dante said, "I've been following a blood trail from the
corridor where you were attacked. I found your wallet in along the
way."
"How'd you know it was mine?"
"Your ID card, obviously. Besides, who else has a naked photo of Jean
Harlow in their wallet on this ship."
Elian looked at McJohn oddly. McJohn didn't notice.
"Did you see that thing that attacked me?" he asked Dante.
Dante looked over his shoulder.
"Close." he said.
"Piss off," said Holly.
Sandoval shrugged and hit the manual override switch. The doors slid
shut. Dante told Elian to lock them, and he did.
"Yeah, I saw it. Half Jay Chrysler, half giant cat."
"What the smeg's happening around here?" said McJohn, "Wasn't I your
lawyer at some point, Dante?"
Dante didn't answer. Sandoval broke the silence a few seconds later
"Maybe it was some sort of cloning experiment gone loco?" he
suggested.
"Maybe," said Dante, "Something's up. Holly!"
Holly appeared. The computer looked at them, and sneered.
"What is it now? I'm busy, eh."
"Holly," asked Dante, "are there any unusual life forms aboard this
ship?"
"Besides the crew," McJohn added helpfully.
"Look, I'm too busy to play spot the freak right now, so bugger off,
you knobs."
Holly switched off. McJohn looked at Dante. "He's not usually rude,"
he said. "Well, not *that* rude."
"Glitch?" Dante mumbled.
"One way to find out," replied McJohn. "Holly!"
The bald, sneering face appeared again.
"Didn't I tell you before? I'm busy!"
"Just a quick question," said McJohn.
"What?"
McJohn scrambled to think of a definitive question. Finally he
thought of it.
"Do you remember that argument we had about Jayne Mansfield's bosom
while I was working on Level 38 last month?"
"Oh yeah," Holly smiled, "that was a laugh, wasn't it?"
"Yeah, it was. Thanks Hol."
The computer dissapeared.
"That's not the real Holly," McJohn declared.
"How'd you know?" asked Elian.
"We never had that argument."
Silence. They considered their situation.
"This is bad. Very bad." Dante said, "There's a man-cat loose aboard,
and Holly's been replaced by a duplicate."
At that moment, someone began pounding frantically on the door. A
thin feminine voice was faintly screaming for help through the door.
McJohn recognized the voice at once and dived for the manual override
switch, moaning in pain as he did so.
The door slid open and a frightened Victoria de Felice ran into the
room. She threw her arms around McJohn, shouting for him to close the
door again. He did.
"What's the matter Victoria?" he asked.
She gasped out the words. "Tara... Tried to kill me!"
"What?" stammered a shocked Dante.
"She tried to strangle me," Victoria said as she recovered her
composure, "when I told her she couldn't use my personal
shuttlecraft. The one I kitted out for those orbital surface mining
surveys were never seem to do ever."
Dante shook his head, "That doesn't sound like Tara to me."
"But why didn't you go to the Captain?" McJohn asked, "Why me?"
"Someone's sealed off the upper levels," she said, "I couldn't get
through. And anyway, I know you've got a mad crush on me, and you'd
probably kill anyone who tried to hurt me. It seemed the sensible
choice."
"I suppose so..." McJohn trailed off.
"Oh, and did I thank you yet for not taking advantage of me when that
love virus got loose?"
"Not yet."
She kissed him on the cheek. He blushed, which made his cheeks match
the color of the blood splattered on his face. Victoria finally
noticed McJohn's condition.
"My God," she said, "what happened."
"He was attacked by a man-cat that looked like Jay Chrysler."
Sandoval interjected.
"What?" she blurted out.
"Never mind. All this means that there's something seriously wrong
here," declared McJohn.
"Maybe someone's trying a doppelganger junta. Replace us all with
copies." suggested Elian.
"Maybe. But whatever's happening, they've got control of Holly,"
Dante reminded them. "That doubtless means the armory will be locked
off."
"So we've got to get the rest of the crew out of the bridge and get
them some weapons to fight back with," Victoria summarized. "But we
haven't got any weapons of our own, except for Dante. We'll never
make it!"
McJohn simply turned to Sandoval. "Is that Tommy Gun we got on Plebe
still in your locker?" he asked.
"I think so."
"Break it out. And those other two guns, the Winchester and the 44
Magnum," he smiled broadly. "Good thing we ignored the Captain's
orders to get rid of them, eh?"
"Si."
<tag to Dante, or Alota, or anyone else, really>