Episode 307: Cassandra Lockdown, Part Four
Back on the deck above, Rina’s hack has the door open for a split second and then it zips shut again. Dammit. She starts rigging another one. Behind her, Brian latches onto Nika’s crack about the bulkheads. He leans in toward Nika and lets her have it.
Brian: Forgive me if I don’t have all those fond memories off the top of my head right now. I don’t want to think too hard about them because my brain might explode.
He gestures at the bulkheads.
Brian: If only there were some calm tranquil place with no violence or alarms or alerts that I could be at—oh wait. There is, but I was dragged away from there by the promise of everlasting love and then when I woke up, she was gone. I don’t see why I should be at all hostile in this situation.
Nika: Did you promise everlasting love?!
Arden adds his two cents to the quarrel.
Arden: No, it was his other girlfriend that promised him everlasting love.
Joshua: Could somebody please give me an ice pick that I can shove into my eye? Just put it right to the brain. Right now. That’ll do.
Rina: (Offers screwdriver without looking) I’ll want it back.
It’s surreal, arguing about everlasting love and tropical paradise all the while voices are booming overhead in English and Chinese saying “Warning: There is no atmosphere” and “Interior temperature reaching 400 degrees centigrade”. Joshua just stares, unable to believe the two of them, screaming about their love-lives at the top of their lungs during an emergency. Nika glares at Brian and then relents.
Nika: I was wrong. What do you want me to say? I was wrong? That I’m sorry? And I can’t fix it while we’re in the middle of this.
She sweeps a hand wide to indicate the ship.
Brian: (calming down) That seems pretty patently obvious. (A beat) All right.
Looks like the crisis is over. For now.
Joshua: (undertone to Arden) It’s good that they’re working this out.
Arden: Especially now. (NOT!)
Joshua: It had to happen sometime. You know, why not now?
Arden: In the last moments of our life.
Joshua: It’ll be good one day when I’ll remember them fondly. The arguing. More arguing …
Arden: For all of a half-second.
Down in the missile bay, Rick thinks up a plan. He stashes the body of the man he’s taken out under the missile rack with booted feet are sticking out. Rick climbs back up to the top of the missile rack and calls out over the man’s comms that he thinks he’s found something and needs assistance. It’s only a moment before one of the others comes back to help. The second man stops at his teammate’s boots and queries:
Second Man: What’s under there?
Rick gives two clicks on the comms: affirmative. Second Man tenses up. Something’s not right. Rick sees the man’s lips move even as his voice comes over the purloined comms.
Second Man: What do you see? What is it?
Rick: (whispering into comm) I think it’s some sort of listening device. C’mere and check this out.
Rick sees Second Man leaning over his teammate’s boots.
Second Man: What are you doing under there—?
Rick jumps him. And as he’s falling, he flashes back to a mission in the war, when he encountered an Independent patrol while scouting in advance of his unit. Unable to raise his team, Rick had to take the patrol members out by cutting them one by one off from their group. Divide and conquer carried the day then, and it just might carry it now.
Rick takes out Second Man below him, then pulls him aside, ties him up and searches him. Much like his comrade, there are no weapons on him but plenty of signs he was trained to kill with his bare hands. Rick swipes the man’s ident card and stows it with the one he’d gotten off the first. There is also an electronic device of some kind. It looks like a PDA and Rick surmises it’s some form of automatic lockpick. He doesn’t think it’s beefy enough to crack high-security locks but he pockets it, just in case he can use it to get out of the missile bay.
Two down, two to go.
Decks above, Rina and Arden are still busily hacking their area back to normal. Rina doesn’t know how it’s going for Arden, she just knows it’s going crappily for her: the wiring schematic on Decatur is different from the standard and as she’s hacking and dismantling the electronics she’s muttering under her breath in a steady monologue: why the hell did they route the servo through this particular path when it was much more efficient the other way and oh my god why the hell is the manual override buried under… She goes on like this for some time but she gets the damned door open.
It whooshes aside and beyond it lay four tactical suits, some stun rifles, and small side arms.
Rina: Now that’s what I’m talking about, but I’ll betcha those suits are too big for me.
She takes up a small arm and an extra clip. Brian pauses in suiting up to take a key out of his pocket and put it to a lock. Opening the compartment up, he pulls out an unusual looking weapon. It appears to be an automatic weapon, something like unto an automatic shotgun.
Rina: (narrowly) What is that thing?
Brian: This?
Rina: Yeah.
Brian: It’s my … Security blanket.
Rina: (riiight) Mm-hm.
Nika: Are you gonna be okay to go down here?
Brian: This is what I’m doing now.
Nika: All right.
Rina: Anybody else want some of these toys?
Nika: Yeah.
Nika suits up and takes one of the rifles. Rina opines that she may never get a chance to try out one of the suits again, so she spends the requisite five minutes adjusting the fit after putting it on. She doesn’t don the helmet but takes it with her and she duct tapes her tools to the armor now that her pockets are completely walled off by the suit. Prepping her tools takes another five or so minutes.
The man Rick raised on his comms comes online and tells him a little about where Rick is.
Man: Uh, listen. It’s a classified section. I don’t know what it is but it’s in munitions and it’s classified. It might be, um, it might be where they swap out the warheads for the missiles.
Rick silently lets the man know he’s heard and hides his newest TKO victim from immediate discovery. A moment later Rick hears on his opponent’s comm the request:
Blue Sun agent: Alpha and Delta. Check in please? What’s going on over there?
Rick scrambles to the top of the missile racks and says into the purloined comm:
Rick: Possible listening device. Trying to disable it.
Blue Sun agent: Listening device? That doesn’t sound right. All right. You keep working on it. Check in every minute please. We’re almost through this door.
Joshua doesn’t suit up. He refuses even to carry a weapon. Carrying it would only encourage him to use it, he insists, and he doesn’t want that. He’ll go as he is, thanks, and take his chances. He’s adamant and we have no time to convince him otherwise. With everyone else ready to go, we open the door leading off the bridge and we see a green light at the next bulkhead door as Arden hacks it open for us. We start hustling down the corridor.
Rick’s not entirely sure he’s going to successfully repeat his ambush trick yet another time. He’s going to need a different distraction to lure the agents to him. The loader robot is still standing at the other end of the bay… Rick climbs down and ghosts over to it, attempts to turn it on. There’s a console with servos. Rick starts punching buttons, hoping to turn it on. With a whine and a hum, it comes to life and Rick gets out of the way—turning the thing on and then turning it loose with no one at the wheel would make for a big damn distraction. He adds to the distraction by keying open the channel to the Blue Sun agents ahead of him.
Rick: (muffled, over channel) This is not good. This is not good. The loading robot has activated for some reason …
Blue Sun agent: The robot’s activated? Is somebody in there? (muttering to self) All right…. did the robot activate because of the Cassandra? No, that shouldn’t happen … somebody must be trying to access the systems … (louder now) All right. There should be a command override wherever the robot is hooked up. It doesn’t have eyes or anything like that. It’s probably on an automatic track or soemthing, you could probably shut it off at that system. Keep your eyes open. I’m guessing this is happening remotely. We don’t really have access … can you get back to that …
Rick hears a beep on one channel and hears another beep on another.
Blue Sun agent: Delta. Can you get back to the communications center and access the—come down here and get a data pad and we’ll see if we can access the system there.
On the decks above, we’re moving down the path Arden’s hacked for us. He warns us over our comms:
Arden: Let me know as you go along so I can open the doors as you come to them.
Nika: We copy.
It’s not the most direct route. It’s been jerrymandered through side passageways, access corridors and the like, but we’re moving in the right direction. Every now and then we encounter worried-looking crew and Brian immediately commandeers them to our party.
In the missile bay, Rick says into Delta’s comm:
Rick: Left bomb stack. Possible armed security guards have entered. Three guards.
Blue Sun agent: All right. I’m going to come down. Extreme predjudice. Prepare.
Rick: Okay.
Rick’s already moving to the top of the missile racks nearest the left bomb stack. It affords him a good view of the Blue Sun agent. Rick observes the man look down toward the bomb stack in question, then withdraw around another stack for cover.
Blue Sun agent: (over the comm) I’m going to take advantage of the height here.
Um. That’s where Rick is. Crap.
Rick runs over the tops of the racks, getting himself ready to kick the agent in the head as he crests the stack. The agent hears and sees Rick coming and backflips for the floor again. Rick goes all out and dives feet first off the stack for the agent’s head. He connects with his feet and tumbles to the deck, scrambles up and throws a punch at the agent for a nasty one-two combo. Rick is no trained acrobat and his punches go wide of their target just as his opponent says over his comm:
Blue Sun agent: Campbell, we got trouble.
A volley of blows and counterblows is exchanged, neither man goes down. The fight is on. Rick sees a throat jab coming and dodges out of the way. Rick picks up a big-assed wrench and clubs the agent with it. The agent takes the hit and amazingly is still up.
Campbell: (over the comm) What’s going on? What’s going on?
Blue Sun agent: Problem. Talk to you in a second.
Rick tries with the wrench again, connects, and this time the agent is staggered, tries to shake off the stun, and goes down unconscious.
Three down, one to go.
Rick inserts the agent’s comm in his ear and adjusts the mouthpiece in time to hear Campbell ask:
Campbell: I’ve got the door open. What do you want me to do?
Rick: I’m coming to assist.
He approaches Campbell’s position, aiming carefully for a headshot with his wrench. Unfortunately, Campbell’s already hinked by the odd behavior of his team mates and is more than a little jumpy. He sees Rick coming and spoils the shot by taking cover.
Game on.
Rick goes for Campbell with the wrench again and again he misses. Hoping to capitalize on the fear factor, Rick tells Campbell the unvarnished truth.
Rick: I just took out three of your friends. I hope you’re the best of the four.
Rick throws the headsets from the other three agents like electronic scalps to the deck in front of Campbell.
Rick: (calmly) I once killed a Reaver by pistol-whipping it to death. You can surrender now and live.
Campbell spies the blood dripping off the wrench and pauses mid-punch. His eyes start darting around for a weapon he can use.
Rick: I’m always looking to make a necklace from some ears, but you don’t have to be a part of that solution. You can surrender.
From somewhere in the missile bay, there’s the hiss of a bulkhead door opening, the tromp of boots, and Campbell puts his hands up.
Score: Rick 4, Bad Guys 0.
The new arrivals are Nika, Brian, and Rina, power armored and loaded for bear, with Joshua bringing up the rear. They pass a few bodies getting to Rick’s position. We gather around Rick and Campbell.
Nika: Damn. You didn’t leave anything for us to mop up.
Rick: Glad you could finally make it to the party.
Joshua: Another chapter in the Rick Allen story. The legend continues to build, sir. (does a headcount of the bodies) Wow. Really? Wow.
Nika: Did you or did you not just save the Decatur from getting exploded?
Rick: Possibly. But these were just like ninjas, it’s not like they were Reavers.
Joshua: So they weren’t ninja Reavers?
Rick: (laughs) Not yet.
Rina grabs her duct tape, and approaches Campbell.
Rina: Put your hands behind your back.
Rick: (warning) I would be careful—
Campbell puts his chin up, bites down hard and grinds his teeth … Foam floods from his mouth. He falls to the deck.
Dead as a doornail.
Oh crap! We get Arden down here on the double to extract the suicide teeth from the other three unconscious—and thankfully still alive—agents. While he’s on the way, Rina uses the agents’ data book to disable the Cassandra protocol. The klaxons and the voice alerts cease and blessed silence takes the ship again.
Whew.
Brian sees how Rina is eyeing that databook and quickly takes possession of it. Brian looks Rick over with a raised brow.
Brian: Who are you, sir?
Rina: Rick’s a friend.
Brian: You look familiar. Have we met?
Nika: On Miranda, yeah. Rick was on the island with us.
Rick: We only met briefly.
As Rina had done, Rick didn’t hang out with the group much while on Pala but he was there for the final altercation that nearly killed Brian.
Brian: I’m looking for good tactical agents if you want a real—
Rick: This, sir, is nothing. I’ve pistol-whipped Reavers to death before.
Joshua: He did. It’s true. I was there. I saw it.
Rina: (stripping off the armor) Yeah. No lie.
Brian shows Rick the notches carved into his auto-rifle.
Brian: I’ve taken out a few Reavers myself.
Rick: Yeah, but pistol-whipped?
Brian: It’s come down to hand to hand combat.
Rick: (truthfully) That’s pretty good.
Rina: Oookay, now we’re just—Here. Guys.
She pulls out a tape measure from her coveralls, extends it twelve inches and holds it out. Her suggestion is clear: whose is bigger?
Rina: You want one of these? Yeah?
Nika: (annoyed) Rina.
Rick: Oh, I know who will win that one.
Arden arrives in time to see the joke and starts laughing.
Brian: (smugly) The ladies’re always lookin’ for a show… Sometimes you gotta—you gotta just be… patient with’em.
He pulls a suggestive gesture of his own, which sets Arden to laughing harder. Brian gets the security team at our heels busy securing the three survivors in the brig and starts them on the mop-up.
Brian: Secure the areas. We’ll interrogate these guys, find out what the story behind this was.
Rina: Need some help?
Brian: No.
Rina: Damn.
Nika: (to Rina) God, you’re a bloodthirsty wench.
Rina:( points to Rick) He had all the fun!
Arden: I wouldn’t call that fun.
Rick: I didn’t kill anyone.
Nika: Good job.
Rick: That I know of.
Arden: (grumpy) I didn’t find anything in the last half an hour fun.
Brian: Security, I want a full sweep of the ship. I want every inch of this ship covered.
Rina: Make sure you check for bugs and tracking devices.
Brian: Every inch. And look for bugs and tracking devices.
Brian smiles at Nika as he says it. Rick warns him about the other ship, the banana boat the agents arrived on.
Rick: That ship didn’t leave?
Brian: (into his comms) Secure the Blue Sun transport.
Rina: How do you know the food they gave you is safe?
Brian: We don’t.
Joshua: That’s why they’re going to search every inch of the ship.
Nika: (of the food) Sweep it.
Brian: We’ll check it.
We regroup after the security procedures get rolling and get ourselves out of the way. While Brian and the security team are off taking care of business with Rick going along to see how it’s done, Harry takes Arden aside and fills him in on a few things.
Harry: I should probably warn you Brian’s a little upset about circumstances.
Arden: I haven’t noticed.
Harry: I don’t know if you want to be here when he gets back. I’m sure he knows you helped but I don’t know if that makes him feel any better.
Arden: I don’t care.
Harry: I prefer not to have any fights on the bridge.
Arden: If any fights get started they won’t get started by me.
Harry: I know. I also would prefer not to have any fights.
Arden: Okay.
Harry: I want you to be non-provocative.
Arden: I’ll be non-provocative.
Harry: (persisting) You’re not always the best at reading people and what might provoke them.
Arden: I… agree with that statement.
Harry: Okay, so you might not want to be here when he gets back.
Arden: Does your medical bay need assistance?
Harry: We haven’t had any reports of injuries.
Well, except for the one guy. No make that two—three, the three guys Rick took down. And speaking of which, Rick gets to help the security team move the men he took down. The security team have no problem with him lending a hand. And Arden’s called over to take care of the suicide teeth.
The rest of us have to decide what we’re going to do with respect to Brian. Back off and give him room? Stay aboard and stay underfoot? Joshua’s for giving the man space. Nika’s for staying, as is Rina. Rick and Arden are currently busy. As we get ourselves sorted, Kramer shows up and pins Rina with a look.
Kramer: We should have a talk at some point.
Rina: (curt nod) Yes, ma’am.
The story has already spread around how Rick was involved in taking down the agents and some of the crew delay his departure, eager to get the tactical details. It becomes something of a party with Rick and the Marines on board and it’s no surprise they drag out their booze and hail him as a hero. Rick spends the rest of the night drinking and swapping war stories with his new friends as the rest of us tie up the loose ends.
For instance, what were the agents after? They were apprehended in the room for swapping out components in the warheads for the missiles. Were they planning on arming a missile, making it go off on Decatur and destroying her? The security detail aren’t able to get anything from the agents after they revive. Since the agents are clammed up and not talking, and the Decatur crew isn’t as bloodthirsty as Rina might be in their interrogation techniques, it will take some time before we get the answers.
For the nonce, Decatur is still in one piece, the nefarious plot to blow her to smithereens—if such plot actually existed—has been foiled and everyone pretty much gets to live to party, fight and shoot people for another day. With times as uncertain as these, that’s an outcome everyone can live with.
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