Re: OT: Hell is For Heroes.
Oh, and also, MORE!
�Someone,� Kagan said grimly from behind his desk. �Was trying to kill me.�
�Hmmm?� Alice replied, having just entered the room.
Kagan looked up at her. It must be getting late, he realized, since she was already in her nightgown, though experience told him there wouldn�t be anything under it. �Someone tried to kill me,� he repeated as she crossed the ready room floor and plunked herself comfortably into his lap.
�Who?� she asked. �Why? How? And possibly, when?�
�Well, if I may answer your questions in reverse order,� he said, making the question a statement as he slipped a hand inside her gown to rest it easily on her bare hip. �This morning, when we were docking, the docking clamp that blew was supposed to kill me. As for why-�
�But the explosion wasn�t in our berth,� Alice interrupted.
�No,� Kagan admitted. �But it was in the berth we were supposed to be in, and that would have been determined as soon as they received our flight plan, which would have been a couple days ago, and who�s due to dock where is available to the public. Hell, they�ve got big screens in the arrivals area announcing arrivals for the next thirty-six hours. That�d give anyone who wanted to do us in more than enough head start. The freighter that took our berth was a last minute thing, unplanned, unforeseen. Shouldn�t have happened.�
�OK,� Alice agreed slowly. �But that explosion took out their main grav-thingy, right? That seems like a good way of doing someone in to me.�
�Admittedly, from the outside, it looks like good old-fashioned terrorism, but look at this.� With his free hand he entered a command into the desktop information console and a wireframe simulation of the docking area and the freighter entering from the top right of the screen. Two minutes and thirty-seven seconds into the recording, one of the docking clamps shot forward, and the simulation tracked it�s progress through the ship as a list of the freighter�s damaged and destroyed sections scrolled down the left hand side of the screen.
�Now, look what would have happened if it had been the Daedalus coming in.�
The simulation reset, and began to play again, this time with the Daedalus coming in from the top right using standard docking protocols. Two minutes and thirty-seven seconds in, the same clamp shot forward and the simulated damage to the ship scrolled up on the left. �See,� said Kagan tapping the screen where �Bridge� was listed in the blood red indicating total destruction. � I�ve run the simulation a hundred different ways, checked every single approach vector and variation in speed, and exactly what ends up getting destroyed is always different. Except-� he said, turning off the console with an irritated slap. �For the bridge. That gets destroyed every single time, without exception. On the other hand, if that freighter had been traveling a bit faster or slower, or the explosion went off three seconds earlier or later, she would have survived it with minimal damage.�
�So if no matter what, our bridge would have been destroyed by the explosion,� Alice said slowly as she rolled the thought around in her mind. �But there�s only a very small margin for error for it to destroy the freighter, then that alone suggests that it was meant for us. So someone�s trying to kill us.�
�Not us, me,� Kagan said softly. �No one knows you�re here, so whoever it was, was after me.�
�But who would want to kill nice you?�
Kagan slumped back in the chair with a wry smile. �You got a few hours? We should probably get moving,� he added as he made to rise, but Alice pushed him back in the chair.
�In the morning,� she said firmly. �You�re far to distracted right now, anyway?�
�Distracted?� Kagan frowned. �By what?�
Her reply took the form of a raised eyebrow and a nightgown sliding to the floor.
�Oh. Jakers,� he murmured.
The following morning, the two extremely relaxed crewmembers of the Daedalus set about prepping the ship for launch, and within half an hour they�d received launch clearance from Kolis Control and were easing out of the docking berth. Once clear Kagan turned the helm over to Alice, partly for the practice, partly to get her mind off the fact that someone willing to kill thousands for a chance at killing one person was somewhere out there, looking for him.
�Set a course for Perth Nine, Victoria System,� he instructed her. �I�ve got a few friends there who might be able to shed some light on who wants me dead.�
With flawless precision, Alice brought the Daedalus into the queue for Edward�s Gambit�s outbound jump gate and fifteen minutes later, they were in null-space, enroute to what would hopefully be some answers. Who to ask, that was the question, he mused. He had many contacts on the Perth Nine system, having started operating the Daedalus from there at the end of the war. Not to mention saving it from being destroyed by a Tauren assault fleet during the war. That had to be worth a favour or two. And if all else failed, well-
The bridge lurched suddenly and Kagan was nearly knocked clear of his chair as a sloppy null-space band switch rocked the ship.
�Careful!� he snapped angrily.
�Sorry,� Alice cringed. �I�m still getting the hang of this.�
�Sorry,� he apologized in turn. �Having people try to kill me makes me cranky.�
�Ego, Mr. Kagan, ego,� a dry voice chuckled behind him. �What makes you think this has anything to do with you?�
Kagan spun out of his command chair, drawing his side arm as he did so to bring it up pointing squarely between the voice�s owner�s eyes.
�What the holy hell are you doing on my ship?� he snarled.
The owner of the voice, a shaved-bald man in a black trench coat and black sunglasses standing in the entrance to the bridge, smiled serenely at him. �You may address me as Fourteen,� he said calmly. �And I must commend you on your reaction time. Still keeping to the old military training regiment, hmmm?�
�I didn� ask ye wha yer frackin� name was,� Kagan growled, reverting unconsciously to his native accent. �I asked wha te frak yer doin� on me ship!�
�Oh, dear. We really should have left yesterday,� Alice said quietly. �Sorry.�
�It�s no� yer-�
�Actually,� Fourteen interrupted. �I�ve been aboard since you disembarked onto Kolis Station, so it wouldn�t have made much of a difference when you left. Although I must say, that was quite a performance you put on last night. Wore me out just watching.�
If looks could kill, the one Alice bestowed on Fourteen would have been enough to wipe out his entire bloodline, ancestors and descendents included. Her mouth opened to say something, but Fourteen�s attention would brought back to Kagan by the sound of an energy cell dumping into a capacitator as Kagan thumbed off the safety on his weapon.
�Scuze me,� Kagan grated. �But ye still haven� explained wha� yer doin� on me ship. Now if I don� get an answer soon, then whether yer intentions are honourable or not�ll be somethin� fer God te decide. Am I makin� meself nice an� clear to ye?�
�Perfectly,� Fourteen replied with that same sereneness. �My associates and I-� he gestured by spreading both hands out in front of him, and a dozen black-clad men appeared as they deactivated personal cloaking devices, and two of them seized Alice firmly. �-are merely here to collect the girl and bring her to our superiors for questioning. After which she, and whatever is left of her mind, will be returned to you if you so desire.�
�Not. Bloody. Likely,� Kagan replied through gritted teeth.
�Now Mr. Kagan,� Fourteen said reasonably. �There�s really no need for violence. Nor any point, since you are clearly outnumbered.�
�Well,� Kagan said with a defeated sigh. �I �spose� Well I �spose we�ll have to jus� agree te disagree �bout tat.� No sooner had the last syllable escaped his lips than his finger tightened on the trigger and a blot of light leapt out at Fourteen. It struck him square in the forehead, causing him to flicker slightly, before carrying on to splash harmlessly against a corridor wall.
�Frackin� hologram?� Kagan muttered with disbelief shortly before something decidedly unholographic slammed into the back of his head and he hit the deck face down, hard. He managed something approaching a, �Gurk,� as he turned his head towards Alice, while the rest of his muscles refused stubbornly to do what they were told. A man dressed in white stepped out from behind Fourteen and approached Alice, who began struggling fiercely the moment he produced a medical injector.
�Now relax, Ms. Montaigne,� Fourteen advised her. �The good doctor�s just going to give you a little something so you�ll sleep through the trip home.�
�No!� Alice screamed. �Not sleep! Neversleep! No! Don�t want to go!� With that last word, she threw her legs out so they were behind both of her restrainers, then thrust her arms backwards, throwing all three of them to the ground. Kagan�s eyes widened. Both of those men outweighed her by at least a factor of three, and she�d just thrown them to the ground with almost dismissive ease. The two released her as they hit the ground and she grabbed hold of the knives holster on their belts with either hand. Then, propelling herself upwards with the strength of her legs alone, she slashed her arms backwards, neatly slicing through the throats of the two on the ground. The moment she regained her vertical base she swung her around and slammed a knife into either side of the doctor�s head with astounding ease. Yanking them free, she kicked the body aside and strode towards the stun baton-armed men approaching her with grim determination.
Kagan for his part, suddenly realized that his right hand was actually quite cold. It took a split second for is mind to connect the fact that he could once again feel the gun in his hand to the fact that the effects of the stun baton had worn off. He leapt to his feet, his left hand pulling out his holdout from his ankle holster.
�A stun baton to the head is not very nice,� he informed the man who�d stuck him. �But then, neither is a plasma bolt. It�s an imperfect universe,� he reassured the fresh corpse. �Scuze me, luv,� he called out to Alice, who was busy carving her way through the seventh black-clad man. �Yer getting blood all over me floor an� I only cleaned it yesterday.�
She stared back at him with an uncomprehending gaze, not moving except to absent-mindedly slice the throat of someone who got too close.
�Right,� said Kagan. �Well do ye understand this?� he asked irritably as he raised both weapons to point in her direction. The message got through, apparently, as she launched herself backwards through the air to land with surprising agility on the railing in front of the view screen, flexing her knees as she landed into a combat stance. The men who had been vainly attempting to subdue her now found her far out of reach with a seriously pissed off, heavily armed New Eireannman training his weapons on them. They had exactly enough time to realize that he was now the more serious threat, and begin to formulate some sort of appropriate reaction before Kagan hauled back on both triggers in full-auto mode, and he and Alice were quite suddenly the only living things on the Daedalus. Which wasn�t to say they were the only ones making any noise, Kagan thought irritably as Fourteen�s hologram piped up.
�Now that, Mr. Kagan, Ms. Montaigne, was a terribly bad idea,� he scolded, his tone finally losing some of that infuriating calm. �There are going to be consequences for this, serious, dire consequences, I�m afraid.�
Kagan, poking through the bodies, finally found the holographic transmitter on a corpse that had been thrown clear across the bridge and was backwards over the railing behind his command chair, it�s near decapitated state making it clear it had been one of Alice�s victims, though how she�d managed to throw a one hundred-plus kilogram man roughly seven meters through the air wasn�t something Kagan really wanted to think about.
�Fourteen,� he said instead in an almost friendly tone as he took aim at the transmitter. �Get te hell off me ship.� He pulled the trigger and Fourteen�s indignant protest was lost forever as the hologram disappeared back into the ether.
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Suction feet are not to be trifled with!
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