Administrative Actions
****
Administrative Action
Dereliction of duty they call it. Falling asleep on watch. No need to throw me in the ship’s jail for that. Where am I going to go? I’d just stay in my bunk to catch up on some Zs.
Fat chance of that here. Spacer Collins moaning about their contraband that’s been confiscated and Specialist Zhu keeps poking at the bruises they got in their fight with Chief Mahoney. And on top of that the warning buzz of the force field door. Why not a regular door with a lock, that doesn’t have to have an audible reminder to stay back.
So the three of us are locked in when the All Hands alert comes through, followed by Action Stations. Well the idiot guard checks the force field then ups and goes to where ever his station is. “Hey,” I yell, but he ignores us. I guess they have to deal with whatever it is without the three of us.
Manoeuvring Warning. That’s not unusual. Charge Weapons, we’ve done that before, confrontations, that kind of thing. Collision Alarm. Collins stops moaning and we both look at Zhu then brace ourselves.
It’s soft, anyone who didn’t know the ship would think it just a course change, but we can feel it. There’s a moment’s silence. Then lights flicker. One more announcement: Repel Boarders.
We’d only done that one as a drill. There’s thumps and shouts and running. Then silence. A long long silence.
Then the door opens, two marines in armour appear, visors down. They’re dragging someone in. One of them holds them up while the other waves us back – we’re not near – and lets down the force field. They dump their prisoner on the deck, turn the field back on, and leave.
It’s the captain of course and she gets up and dusts herself off, looking around. “Well then. Ampersand, Zhu and Collins. I suppose you’ll do.”
“Do for what?” I say.
“Mental parasites are controlling the crew – and so the ship. I was able to resist, special training of course, but they overpowered me. We need to build a resonator to disrupt the parasites and then retake them ship.” She looked about, her trademark conviction on her face.
“But we’re locked in. Locked in the Brig…”
“Command,” she said firmly, “is about attitude and determination. And knowing every secret aboard.” She did something and the solid wall opened into a crawlspace. “We’ve got a ship to save. Follow me.”
We followed her.
****
This followed my incompletely successful time as Captain of Space Station Hestia Delta One at Voidspace Live in 2025. Having selected First Officer, I was completing my relationships when I was called to the comms - the player who had selected Captain had been on standby for another (more prestigious) show and bailed on us. After about ten seconds of confusion I had my character - the First Officer unexpectedly in charge, out of his depth. Easy! I attempted to send several people to the brig, but failed.
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