whisky
Boobie inspector
well heres the next bit.
From the corridor several decks down, Biotech could sense through the mind link that Bob had triumphed.
Although he and Fred were still fighting off the remainder of the ships crew, his CPU operated at such a speed he could easily maintain the fight and contact Bob.
Bob was staring at the flames licking at the balcony, and the ever decreasing curvature of the earth, when all of a sudden the flames started moving in slow motion.
He waved his hand in front of his face and that crawled across his vision.
“Bob I need you to listen carefully.” Said Biotech’s voice in his head.
“What’s happening?” Bob replied inside his head, still in awe at the slowing down of time.
“Talking takes time, when you think you normally think at the same pace you talk at, I think a lot faster than you, and when we communicate over the mind link, you think at the same pace, time hasn’t really slowed down, it just appears that way to your brain.” Biotech explained.
“Cool!” Bob replied in awe.
“We’re struggling to get down to engineering, you will need to impersonate the captain and order the ship to pull up.” Biotech sent urgently.
“Impersonate the captain? I’m not Rory Bremner!” Bob retorted.
“You are not the same person you were before we joined minds, if you think of Glunark’s voice while you talk, you will sound just like him, but you are going to need his hand too.”
“What?”
“Place his hand on the computer screen and order the ship to pull up, and while you’re at it, tell the computer to restore my link with it so I can order it to do things too.” Biotech replied.
“The guy weighs about 40 stone, how am I suppose to drag him over to the computer?” Bob asked incredulously.
“You’ll work something out, now if you don’t mind there’s about twenty people trying to kill me who really need my full attention.” Biotech replied, before breaking the link.
The flames returned to burning at their normal pace, and the black of space was starting to merge into the blue of atmosphere.
Bob ran over to Glunark’s body and stared at the hand, wondering how he was going to detach it from the rest.
Then his eyes went to the very sharp teeth in the Jugjhool’s head.
“Well I didn’t expect to be doing this today.” Bob said to himself as he placed one of Glunark’s hands inside the captain’s mouth, adjusting the head so that the teeth were above and below the wrist.
Then he jumped up in the air and forced his feet down as hard as he could on Glunark’s head, slamming the jaws together, and severing the hand.
Gingerly he opened the jaws again and plucked out the grizzly prise.
He walked with the heavy hand over to the computer console and slapped it against the glass, then thinking about Glunark as much as he could, which wasn’t too hard with his hand in his own and his body behind him, he started to speak.
“Computer, pull us out of this dive and return us to a safe orbit.” He said in a voice that was not his own.
The screen lit up, and the ship immediately started to pull up, sending Bob’s stomach lurching.
“Returning to safe orbit” The computer said in a booming voice.
“Restore computer link to the robot Biotech and allow him to give you orders.” Bob added.
“Link restored.” The computer replied.
Bob caught sight of a weird reflection in the screen, and spun around.
Behind him Glunark was back up on his feet, blood now pouring from his wrist, but dried up around his eye wound.
“You have got to be fucking kidding me!” Bob said in shock.
“No captain, link is defiantly restored.” The computer replied.
“If there are weapons in this room, show them to me.” Bob replied, as Glunark started pacing slowly towards him.
Around the room many panels slid back showing many large guns, all of different designs, and several bladed weapons.
Bob started to head for the nearest gun when the world went into slowmo again.
“Not the guns, Glunark has all his weapons keyed programmed to kill anyone who tries to use one against him.” Biotech warned.
“What about the swords?” Bob asked warily.
“Those are fine.” Biotech replied, then disappeared from his mind.
Bob sighed then reached for a dangerous looking curved blade with a central handle.
As the mutilated captain lurched towards him,
Bob didn’t have much time to gauge the weight of the sword, because Glunark was almost upon him.
“WHY…” Bob said slicing the sword through Glunark’s outstretched right arm, “CAN’T…” he added, taking off most of the left, “JUST…”, he said, whipping off the tail that was trying to thrash him, “DIE!”, he finished, taking the heavy weapon through the captain’s neck.
The armless, tailless, and headless body slumped down on its knees, blood pumping from a variety of places.
“Bob, I’m reading a build up of energy inside Glunark’s body, I think he’s got some kind of nuke inside him that’s designed to go off if he’s ever killed.” Biotech said worriedly.
“Oh great, which bit?” Bob asked hoping it was the head.
“Torso.” Biotech replied.
“Wonderful” Bob countered.
Two more swipes from the blade neatly cut the legs out from under the torso, then Bob hefted the still very heavy remains onto his shoulder and started running towards the balcony.
“How big a nuke?” Bob asked nervously as he ran, struggling under the heavy weight.
“Hard to tell, but its better off outside the ship than in.” Biotech replied.
Bob ran out onto the balcony, to be greeted once more by the blackness of space rather than the blue of the atmosphere, below him he could make out the shape of Europe by the city lights alone.
With a grunt he heaved what remained of Glunark overboard, the torso slipping through the forcefield, and away from the ships artificial gravity.
It drifted away from the ship, tumbling coldly into the void before suddenly erupting into a bright yellow fireball.
Bob ducked behind the balcony wall, but the flames only licked harmlessly against the forcefield wall, much as the fires of re-entry had done earlier.
“Abandon ship, all hands abandon ship, engines at critical mass, two minutes to detonation” The ships computer announced calmly.
“What the fuck?” Bob thought over to Biotech.
“Relax, it’s a ruse, we can’t keep fighting what’s left of the crew off forever, this way they will leave us alone and give us the time we need to get ready for the Batargs.” Biotech explained.
“Good, now can you get me some clothes and a gun that won’t kill me?” Bob asked wearily.
Bob felt a tingle as another uniform formed around him.
“Any of those guns should be fine as long as you don’t point them at any bits of Glunark.” Biotech said helpfully.
Bob reached for the nearest gun, and got used to the weight.
“Abandon ship, all hands abandon ship, engines at critical mass, one minute to detonation” The ships computer announced.
“Its working! Five pods have already ejected, and the last crew members are boarding one now.” Biotech explained.
The computer screen lit up again with an image of Bob’s own face.
“Captain Robert Henry Jones, this ship is now yours to command.” The computer said almost merrily.
The hairs on the back of Bob’s neck stood on end.
“Did you did this?” Bob mentally asked Biotech.
“Yeah, no need for impressions any more, both you and Fred can now directly control the ship by any of the consoles or voice command.”
“Computer, what is the status of the escape pods and the status of the ship in general?” Bob asked out loud, in his own voice.
“Six escape pods have been ejected and are heading away from the ship towards the moon of the planet we are orbiting. All systems are online and at 100% efficiency, auto repairs to the bridge and corridor damage are progressing and should be complete within the hour.”
“Any other ships approaching?” Bob asked anxiously.
“None that can be detected.” The computer replied.
“Shields on full and charge all weapons, constant scans on nearby space for any approaching ships.” Bob ordered determinedly.
Just then the door opened and Biotech and Fred stepped through.
Bob smiled to see his friend in one piece, and such a good looking piece at that, then he shook that thought right out of his head, and hoped Biotech wasn’t reading his mind for that bit.
“Of course not.” Biotech thought at him cheekily.
Bob hoped he wasn’t blushing.
On the screen they could see the pods heading for the moon, presumably if they could get behind it, it would shield them from the ships explosion.
“Nice TV, plasma or LCD?” Fred asked.
“Nanoholotech.” Biotech replied, as if that explained everything.
“Right.” Fred said as if it did.
Then the three of them watched as the six pods exploded silently on the screen.
When the explosions died away, space seemed to shimmer and distort, and all of a sudden there were three enormous and very nasty looking starships in their place, and pointed right at them.
“Batarg battleships decloaking at weapons range captain.” The computer informed them.
“They think the ship is empty right?” Bob asked Biotech, trying to remain calm.
“Yes, its our only advantage, their shields and armour aren’t as strong as ours, but there are three of them.” Biotech explained.
“Yeah, we can see that.” Fred added sarcastically.
“Can we take them out simultaneously?” Bob asked hopefully.
“If we use full power, we can take out two of them at once, but the power drain would leave us with no shields to defend against the third, and no power to attack it either.” Said Biotech as the ships grew closer and started to spread out.
“Would their sensors detect a human inside one of their ships?” Bob asked tentatively.
“I cant say, no-one has ever been inside a Batarg ship, and no-one has ever got close enough to take a sensor reading and then bring those readings back.”
“Are we close enough?” Bob asked.
“Yes, but if we actively scan they will know someone’s on board.”
“Could we beam a nuke directly to their engine room?” Fred asked hopefully.
“No, the one thing we do know is that their engines kick out enough radiation to scramble any transporter beam in the immediate area.” Biotech replied.
“And do we have any nukes big enough to transport close enough to the engine room and still have the explosion take it out?” Bob countered.
“I don’t know enough about the strength of those ships to make that claim.”
“Ok, just give me a nuke I can carry, and set me down as close to the engine room as you can, you will have to make sure those other two ships get taken out at the same time as the explosion goes off, and if you could get me back out before the nuke goes off, that would be really cool too.” Bob instructed Biotech.
“I’m going with you.” Fred said determinedly.
“Like fuck you are, you have a new life, go live it.” Bob said firmly.
“If you get close enough to the engine to plant the nuke you will be within the same radiation field that prevented you beaming directly there in the first place.” Biotech thought at Bob.
“I know, I’ll do my best to get back out of the field, but if there isn’t enough time…” Bob replied mentally.
“The Batarg ship won’t have air, but your uniform will recycle your own breath for up to an hour.” Biotech explained.
“Wont he need a helmet and gloves?” Fred asked warily.
“Not if he says enclose.” Biotech countered.
“Enclose?” Bob parroted.
As he said the word, gloves formed over his hands from the sleeves of his uniform, and the collar formed into a hood that slipped over his head then sealed at the front, clear eye pieces covering his eyes.
The top and trousers part sealed themselves, as did the legs and boots.
“Whoah.” Bob and Fred said at the same time.
