Traitor Among Us

Posted on Sun Sep 19th, 2010 @ 7:51pm by Jan Valentine & Walter Jones & Charlotte Ashcroft

1,505 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Session 3: Fear of the Dark
Location: mess hall

Jones entered into the mess hall and looked for something to eat. His shoulder was still throbbing even though the Doc had treated it. Rummaging through the galley he found the last little bit of goo that passed as food. He grabbed the almost empty tube and sat down at the table and waited for Jan. Knowing the engineer, he had already fixed whatever caused it but it was always good to be on the safe side of things.

Jan cursed aloud as his foot caught the lower portion of the door frame, nearly causing him to trip.

"Fucking Cardies! One of these days I really will get around to cutting out a damn notch in the frame." Jan said.

"Anything left to eat?" Jan asked, sitting at the other side of the table.

Jones tossed over the tube of goop to Jan. "Just some of that and it isn't all that good. I'm not sure what it is.. could be conduit grease for all I know. So What did you find out?"

Jan tasted the goop, thought for a moment, then set it aside.

"I went through the computer codes, looking for errors and such, and I came across a line that was clearly meant to sabotage us." Jan said.

"The code was designed so that it would piggy-back on a regular engine throttle code. When we changed speed, the code infiltrated the coolant system and shut the main valve, blowing out the main pipe." Jan said, trying not to get too technical sounding.

"Sounds sophisticated. From what it sounds like, they wouldn't even have to touch the core in order to do it would they?" Jones was starting to get angry at this point. He trusted everyone here with his life, and now that trust was misplaced.

"It originated from the bridge's helm console, and that only leaves one suspect." Jan said.

"I fucking knew it... fucking flaky ass pilots. Were you able to get it purged from the system?" Jones was gripping the edge of the counter, resisting the urge to punch through it.

"It's already purged, but the physical damage is serious. The valve is fused inside the reactor, and there's still contaminated coolant surrounding it, it's going to take 9 weeks minimum to decon and repair the internal damage. Where is he now?" Jan said.

"He is in his bunk.. let's got have a talk with Mr. Bowman shall we? We'll bring Lottie along for some tough.

"Alright, just remember, the port airlock is functional right now." Jan said, pulling out a pistol.

"Jones to Lottie, get down to Kyle's bunk, we are going to have a little talk with him." Jones clicked off the comm link and rummaged through the one cabinet looking for a phaser. "Lets hope he doesn't try to fight us... well... actually lets hope that he does."

"I do hope he tries." Jan said, with a smirk on his face.

Jones left the mess hall with a dogged determination in his eyes. This was a slap in the face to him and the rest of the crew. "I hope his 30 pieces of silver are well spent when we throw him out of an airlock. Are any of the emergency escape pods missing?"

"No, I disabled the ejection sequence when I figured out who was the traitor. There's no escape for Kyle today." Jan said.

Jones stopped outside of Kyle's door and pounded heavily on the exterior. "GET OUT HERE YOU RAT! WE KNOW WHAT YOU DID!"

Lottie padded down the corridor behind them, "Are you sure its him before we start putting holes in him?" she asked withdrawing a firearm from the holster at her him and drew back the hammer.

"Only one it could be I guess, the only people on the bridge when it happened was me and Kyle, and I sure as hell didn't sabotage my own ship." Jones looked angrily at the door, backed up slightly and threw a kick into it. The door however did not budge and Jones ended up on his back.

"They slide sideways you know?" Jan said, pulling out a flat piece of metal.

Sticking the piece of metal into a small hole next to the keypad, Jan jerked it up and revealed a hidden panel, with isolinear rods and a lever.

"It pays to study the tech manuals on this ship..." Jan said, to no one in particular. He rearranged two rods and pulled the lever, and the door slid open.

Jones picked himself up and looked at Jan and Lottie. "I knew that, I was testing to see if you guys knew that, congratulations, you passed the test." Jones cracked a little bit of a smile before progressing into the small bunk.

"That's great," Lottie spat. "He's not here just his pin. So we have to hunt him down."

"He must of gotten out through the ventilation shaft, but where would he go? The escape pods are offline, we aren't connected to the merc ship anymore..."Jan said.

"If I was him I'd probably try and make it down to the hanger bay, you two run down there, I'll make sure that he doesn't come back here." Jones jumped onto the bed and peeked into the vent.

==Hanger Bay==

Kyle had just crawled through the ventilation ducts and landed heavily on the deck. The green slipstream shuttle was sitting silently. If he could only get to the shuttle with the gem, his troubles would be over.

Jan stumbled a few times as he ran with Lottie, it wasn't easy running down the corridor, with it's bulkheads jutting out and narrow design. Besides that, being drunk wasn't helping his coordination.

"Damn, I wish I had remembered about the hanger, I would have locked the doors." Jan said.

"Bit late for that now," Lottie remarked. "Still if he escapes we know who to blame," she cast him a sideways look before dropping behind to pass through the narrow points of the corridor.

Kyle heard the two running down the corridor towards him and made a break for it, he knew what had happened with the Orion and knew that if they caught him, he was going to suffer the same fate. As he reached the hatch he saw Jan and Lottie appear in the door way. Quickly diving to the deck, Kyle pulled out a disrupter and a green bolts of energy flew towards the two.

"OW FUCK!" Jan shouted, managing to catch a bolt to the side of the face despite his best efforts to avoid it.

Jan hit the deck and managed to bring his pistol up for a quick couple of shots at Kyle.

As the green bolts sped toward Jan and herself Lottie flung her frame to one side, wincing at the sound of Jan' cheek sizzling upon contact. Her movement had her skidding for a couple of feet enabling her to loose a round before grinning to a halt.
Between the landing gear of the shuttle she could see Kyle struggling to stand having too thrown himself upon the deck. With careful aim, Lottie's pistol spoke again, striking Kyle in the calf and depositing wet, red splats across the deck.

Quick to her feet Lottie hurried over and heaved the wounded man from the shuttle before he could begin the start up sequence and tossed him roughly to the ground.
"You bastard," she snarled. "Treacherous bastard."

Jan struggled to his feet and walked over to Kyle. The bolt had disintegrated most his left cheek, and his left eye was a deep red color.

"Yourr Pfhuced." Jan said, emptying his pistol into Kyle.

Kyle collapsed in a collapsed pile upon the deck of the shuttle. The gem that he was holding in his free hand spilled out and landed with a heavy thud. From down the corridor Jones, out of breath appeared with a medkit and a drawn phaser.

"You.." he gasped for air. "Got the fucking bastard then?" Jones picked up the gem and eyed it. "I can't wait to get rid of this damn thing." Walter knelt down and opened the kit. "How bad did he get ya?"

Cold Lottie stared for a second at the corpse of their former helmsmen before turning a fiery gaze at Jan, showing no sympathy for his disfigured face. "You didn't have to kill him," she moved closer, threateningly. "Clearly you've never heard of interrogation." She shouldered past both men, holstering her own warm weapon fluidly as she stomped across the hanger bay toward the mammoth doors.

Jan snorted, "hmpph, bitch." Jan then noticed something wrong with his vision.

"Oh...fuck. Walt, I think I'm blind in the left eye." Jan said.

"Well this patch kit isn't going to do it then. Lets get you down to the doc, see if he can dow something with ya." Jones stood up and offered his shoulder to Jan.

"Eh, I was going blind in that eye anyway...degenerative disease." Jan said, clapping a hand on Jone's shoulder.

 

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