Sing a curse to the God f Lifts

Youve been waiting for it. The highlight of the week is upon us as
Becca and Tony stroll out with another Grade A JP. Bow down all you
inferior simmers. I SAID BOW! BTW, this continues clumsily from Jays
post.
<clip>
"Amber sweeatheart...could you go and tell your moother I'm just
going for a curry...Then I'm going to have the biggest dump of my
life on the dashboard of the Pheonix..."Phil rambled off someone
where mumbling something about "...bloody basatrd chrysler and my
bike...going to kill him i will, smake his balls with a croquet
mallet i shall yes hm hm hm" like a 6foot tall yoda with black hair.
<end clip>
Keats rubbed his head. He could feel his concussion slowly slipping
away and his brain starting to 'sharpen up' to its usual efficiency.
It hurt. He turned around, although his eyes were still a little
fuzzy, he could just about make out Amber standing next to him. Amber
looked bored, she had waited and waited for Keats to come to. He
could tell she was waiting for something. He could think of only one
thing to say.
'Parrots? i need a drink... i need a long drink...'
"Only if your buying" She said, holding out her hand to help him up
'You know.. yeah, its on me, tho i never really learnt a few basic
things...'
'Such as?' enqured Amber.
'Paying with my own money...'
He pulled out a wallet an opend it, inside, in wax-crayon, was
written, in large colourful letters;
'Jacks Walet. Thieves will be prosa.. prosi... Disemba... killed'
Keats chuckled to himself as he put it in his back pocket, along with
his own, Severns and Seymours wallets. Amber rolled her eyes and
headed for the turbo-lift. John had to skip to keep up with the
striding Amber, he wizzed into the turbo lift just as the doors
closed.
'So... you, ahhh, got any plans later?' Keats said, an eyebrow
raising.
Amber glared at him. The eyebrow dropped back into its nromal
posistion. 'Ok.. ok.. you know, i worry for Jay, Phil looked pretty
pissed.. i wouldnt want to be in his shoes... or mine for that
matter' John thought back to the days events and sighed. Amber smiled
at Keats discomfort. The turbolift journey was long, Amber started
humming a song from back in the 20th century. John whisperd something
into the corner. Amber tried to look as tho she didnt care, and
hummed louder. She was over-shadowed, however, as John burst out
laughing, before hushing himself. He returned to the corner. Amber
rememeberd that Keats had nanos in him that allowed a tightbeam
messgage to be sent over a distance of up to 20km. He could be
talking to anyone on the ship. Keats ended his converstaion and
started to busy himself with The Gun(TM). Glaring slightly at the
person who she had no feeling about whatsoever she began to sing
quietly to herself.
"Close your eyes, give me your hand darlin', do you feel my heart
beatin..."
For a brief moment, Keats stirred from his little world and glared
over at Amber, sighed, and went back to his conversation. Hed
recently gotton back the workings on his left fingers, and took every
oppertunity to twitch them as he spoke. John had never been a good
small talker. And it annoyed him, he wanted to speak to Amber, but
couldnt work up the courage. He glanced over and opend his mouth.
'Uhh, you know, Amber...'
Then, the world went black....
"Whats up?" She asked, stopping singing for a while.
'I.. uh.. I dunno.. The lights went out, and weve stopped moving'
Amber shrugged.
'I meant before that, you were going to say something to me'
'Oh... umm..' Keats twitched his left hand fingers nervously 'I...
just... nothing.. dont worry'
John mentally kicked himself at his stupidity and leant there in the
Dark. Amber sighed, and reached into a pocket of the jacket she
always seemed to wear. She pulled out a tiny flashlight, flicked it
on and scanned the room with it and turned it off again.
'Think the power will come back on?'
As he said that, a loud grinding could be heard, then a moaning of
wires, followed by silence.
'Nope, id say were stuck here for a while'
John looked at the non-existent floor
'Oh.. oh well' John Laughed nervously
'You know, we have the worst luck with lifts, dont we?'
"You suck at small talk John. Just be yourself."
Amber walked over to a wall pannel in the dark and flicked the torch
on again. Ripping the pannel off the wall she took a penknife out of
yet another pocket and stripped the plastic off two of the wires. She
called John over
"Just cross those wires and hold them together, don't let go and well
start moving again. Rufus showed me a lot about electronics.."
John was still abit taken back by Ambers previous comment.
'Be myself...' he mused over in his head... 'Hah! myself, thats
something i havent been near for a while.. myself... why would i be
that... that only hurts.. to many secrets, to many troubles... to
many.. memories...'
He blinked, and swam away from his ID for a moment.
'These two wires here yeah? gottit!'
"Yea, just be carefull, there may be a bit of a spark. I need to sit
down, I feel kind weird."
Amber leant against the wall of the lift and slid to the floor
resting her head on her knees. He got the two wires in his hands,
sighed, and placed them together. Nothing. He put an ear to one. It
was silent, tho, nothing new there.
'Uhhh.. Amber... its not working... Amber... are you ok?' no reply.
He shrugged.
'Women!' he mutterd, licked his fingers and stroked the end of the
wire.
Instead of the 50KVs surging through him, he felt a light prick.
'Odd... Amber? you awake?'
Amber was lost in thought, she was effectivly unemployed. No money
ment she couldn't get her perscription, and without that, she was
worried what she might do. To herself. She looked up briefly, the
dark small turbo-lift was begining to feel opressive, this had never
happened before, she wasn't scared of small spaces, or the dark, why
now? She reached a shaky hand to where she kept her pills and shook
the bottle there was no rattle. It was empty. She panicked, in the
dark her eyes widened and she backed further into the corner dropping
the empty bottle. A single clunck echoed around the lift. It hit the
floor, rebounded off the walls, and almost deafend Keats. He had no
light.. unless.... He looked at 'The Gun(TM)' and then to his
hipflask. He emptied the last drops in there. The battery indicator
flashed low.
'Gun... I need light'
'I cant do that Dave.. I mean John!'
'No time for jokes Gun, light NOW!'
The room was illuminated. He saw Amber in the corner looking lost.
'Dammit dammit dammit...'
he got to one knee and put his arm around her
'Hey Kiddo.. dont give up now.. wake up, come one!' He shook her, but
she limply went with him.
'GUN! i need your help'
'Oh no... i know that look...'
'Open your circuitry, NOW!'
'NO KEATS!'
'IVE HAD ENOUGH OF YOU!'
Keats flung the gun into the wall,shattering the case, wires fell out
and circuits lay broken. Grabbing ambers flashlight, he looked at
them, and taking a few choice snips, went over to the lift controls,
and used the cannibalised pieces of the Gun to repair the lift. His
upbriniging led him to be able to deactivate an alarm system in 5
seconds flat. This was less complicated.
'Hold on kiddo... Im gonna get you up and going again...'
The lights flashed and flickerd into life. His wiring was a little
crass, hed just wrapped the cores into each other and then pressed
the two final wires together. He gatherd up the gun, put it to one
side, and went back to Amber, keeping her propped up by putting his
arm around her.
'LIFT! MEDI-BAY! STAT!' It whirred into life and headed down suddenly.
"There's no point, the medi-bay will be full."
Amber said quietly, already falling into depression.
'Well, it had better frikken un-fill itself, pronto!'
The door opend. Keats scooped up Amber, and in an Adrenaline
saturated burst of energy, sprinted towards the Medi-bay, knocking
over a few generic crewmambers waiting impatiently for the lift.
'Ok, no worries, wel get you there.. wel get you there'
He rounded the corner. Amber was right, it was full.
'DAMMIT ALL TO SMEG!'
The Medi-bay fell into hush. Someone turned round and looked at
Keats, then to Amber.
'Sorry, weddings are on the floor above'
A sniggering went round. Keats glared at him, fire built in his eyes.
He leant back, and headbutted the man, whos legs lifted casually off
the floor, and fell backwards into a cabinet. Blood streamed of Keats
forehead as he smiled.
'WHOS NEXT!' they all parted like the red sea.
Amber would have struggles but she just sighed instead.
"Don't bother John, i'm not worth it."
'Dont say such things.. you are worth it, and even if i have to fight
my way through all these inbreds il get you sorted out'
'Who cares... im not important...'
'Yes you are...' Keats fell through the crowds, trying to get the
last bed.
'Your very important.. i.. i couldnt take it if you didnt make it...'
He put her on the bed, Nurses and auto-docs wirled into action, and
took her away.
'I... I... I love you... Amber... dont die'
The bed had been wheeled away as Keats fell to the ground and cried.
He lay there for a moment, and stood up, as he did, the crowds backed
away. He laughed slightly, and fell onto a bed himself. Amber heard
the words and a spark of something reached the cold ice that had
built up in minutes. Keto stormed over to her bed.
"I thought Cerebrum told you to take those pills. Foolish girl"
He said filling out an emergancy pescription for the anti-depressants
"You know being half GELF these things are different."
Keats opend his eyes slightly. The fuzzed for a moment, then focused.
'Another un-familiar ceiling...' He mused.
He looked out across himself. He felt numb. His left hand was patched
up and looking vaguely sanitary now, the blood that had crusted on
was cleaned off, and his Int-Armour had even been patched up,
cleaned, and was folded on a chair next to him. He didnt care about
this tho. His thoughts were strictly focused. He sighed, tried to sit
up, failed, and lay there.
'Amber...' he mutterd, before sleep took him back again.
The emergency pill bottle was 'on the house' as Keto called it. Amber
guesed he was only so
nice to her because her mum would cut his cajones off. Amber heard
Keats say her name and went over to him. Keats awoke again. This
time, the ceiling was blocked out, and he was being poked sharply.
The face came into focus.
'Looking good John' He tried to raise an eyebrow, it hurt like hell.
'What... i mean, how are you..?'Amber smiled.
'Im fine thankyou very much! which is more than can be said about
you!'
This time Keats did raise and eyebrow. Amber was holding a list;
'Three minor fractures, three broken ribs, two head injuries,
resulting in a haircut John, two bullet wounds, and one hand out of
action for a few weeks along with several minor cuts and brusies.'
Keats raised a hand to his head. His hair was ALOT shorter. He
shouted in horror, his hair was his faveourite part of himself. Now
he looked like a common Security Grunt.
"I heard what you said back then..." Amber smiled
"But it still doesn't mean I like you." She said stubbornly smiling
at Keats.
He rolled over, he didnt want to meet eye-contact with her at the
moment. The Oxygen that was being fed to him directly made his head
swim. He didnt know why he said the next line.
'Wanna know a secret' Amber looked at him curiosly.
'Im not a pilot'
"Yea right Keatsy. Pull the other one." Amber laughed.
He rolled back and met her eyes. His expressions was dead serious.
'I dont know why im saying this, even Jack probably doesnt know,
but..i never went to the Academy to train as a pilot, i have no real
pilots license, im just a fraud, a smegging wannabe who couldnt
afford to go for training. Hell, ive never even sat a pilots test'
Amber saw the look in his eyes.
"Not that it matters anyway, we are all unemployed anyway."
He blinked, smiled, and said
'Yeah, i guess your right. I guess your right'
he strained his back, leant up and, much to Ambers suprise, gave her
a long hug, before falling back into bed.