Commander Phil Febuggure was sat in Jay's chair as the captain entered the drive room.
"Up!" Demanded Jay. Phil swiftly followed his orders.
"We've had a message come through from a craft outside." Phil picked up the printout of the message. "Jay, I mean sir, I think he's come to help."
"How do you mean help? We haven't sent out a distress beacon yet."
Zerstoren - Part 2
Added : 22nd April 2009
On the flight deck, Jayne arrived to find Efof searching the floor frantically.
"I've lost them! Where did they go? They have to be here somewhere!" The blue alien didn't see Jayne walking over.
"Efof, what the hell are you doing now?! Jay's gonna be pretty pissed off with you when all this is over!" He didn't stop or even look up. "Efof?"
"Where are they?! I can't believe I lost them!"
"What have you lost for Christs sake?!" Jayne was getting impatient.
"A really nice German bloke came in and told me he had something for me, but I had to take extra special care of them cause they're delicate!" He searched around Jaynes boots, hoping she hadn't trodden on them.
"Efof! What the hell are they?!" Jayne reached down and pulled Efof up to her eye level.
"Magic beans." He said.
Back in the security office, Jay stood alone, thinking hard about what he was going to do. He knew that if he caught the guys responsible for this they wouldn't talk. He also knew that thirteen hours to find nine bombs on board a ship the size of a small planet was impossible. He had a pang of regret, knowing he had failed to keep his crew safe.
"Well, at least they will keep themselves busy and their minds off the fact they are all going to die." He said to himself. "Holly?"
Holly, the ships computer, came into view on the large monitor.
"Yes, captain?" He said with a vacant smile.
"I need you to start scanning the ship. As soon as you find anyone on board who hasn't passed the security checks, let me know."
"That might be a bit hard, sir." Holly said with an embarrassed look on his face. "No-one in the last five years has been through a security check. There's people on board who don't even know they are on a ship I suspect."
"That's just great." Chrysler didn't look pleased. "Well can you scan for the terrorists on board then?"
"Will do."
Jay turned and walked out of the security office, not noticing his sisters underwear poking out of the Lieutenants desk drawer.
"Magic beans, Efof?! Really?!" Jayne wanted to kill him at that moment.
"Yeah!" He smiled back. "They're real too, cause they're invisible! Only magic things can be invisible!"
"Efof! They were terrorists!" She dropped him to his feet. "They tricked you. And just like always, you fell for it! They will be heading our way to find a way off this ship. We're not going to let them do it, you understand?" Efof nodded and looked over at the small but well armed group Jayne had brought with her.
There was Lt. Mk. 10, the robot in charge of invasion control, obviously down here to make up for his lack of invasion control, Lt. Chris Zodar, one of the engineers usually found with his head in something. The Captains girlfriend had even shown up, Katrina Salter, all round nice girl that even gets on with the likes of Micky, who was standing next to her not doing a very good job of hiding the fact he was staring at her well formed breasts. Micky Bellhorn, third technician, was neither a somebody or a nobody. Efof was, like everyone else on board, unsure of his relationship with Jayne, the female clone of the captain. Sometimes she was friendly, sometimes rather seductive and usually downright despised him.
"Hi Micky!" Efof threw a quick wave and a look that begged for help.
"Jayne, we don't know how long we have." Micky pulled on Jayne's arm and she turned away from Efof. "If we get through this, I'll personally help you torture him."
"Come on, we need to be ready for when they get here!" Jayne shouted at everyone else.
Katrina, for some reason feeling a vague attraction to Jayne, didn't like being told what to do by the clone of her boyfriend.
"With all due respect, Miss Chysler. There are more senior personnel here who are more than able to take control of this situation."
Jayne turned to Katrina with an almost evil smile on her face.
"Jay put me in charge. Don't be too jealous though, Kat. I'm sure that when this is all over, you'll be his special little girl again!"
Katrina primed her bazookoid and was about to shoot Jayne with it when Chris grabbed her and led her away.
"Katrina! What the hell was that?!" He let go of her shoulders and she stomped off to close the main hangar entrance doors. Micky thrust a bazookoid into Efof's arms.
"Don't worry about them, mate. It must be a chick thing." Jayne threw him a pretty pissed off glare.
"Efof, get to work getting my fighter back on-line! I want that thing ready to go if I need it!" She took out a handful if grenades and dropped them to the floor behind a large steel crate, obviously where she had decided to set up base. Micky went to set down beside her. "Don't even think about it."
Without a word he straightened up and went to head off to give Efof a hand with the fighter.
"Micky." Jayne said without looking up, still preparing her weapons. "Be careful."
Micky smiled to himself without turning round and went on his way.
Commander Phil Febuggure was sat in Jay's chair as the captain entered the drive room.
"Up!" Demanded Jay. Phil swiftly followed his orders.
"We've had a message come through from a craft outside." Phil picked up the printout of the message. "Jay, I mean sir, I think he's come to help."
"How do you mean help? We haven't sent out a distress beacon yet." Jay thought for a moment before turning to one of the drive room staff. "Why haven't we sent a distress beacon yet?"
The nameless operative didn't need asking twice before initializing the beacon.
"Where is he from?" Jay asked Phil, his mind obviously somewhere else.
"We really don't know. A preliminary scan on his ship doesn't bring up any known engineering to us, yet it seems so familiar all at once." Phil noticed Jay look at him with a confused look on his face. "I'll patch you through now."
"Okay." Said Jay as the connection was established. "But if he's German, I'm gonna wring your neck!"
The huge monitor in the drive room lit up and a man's face appeared, with floppy hair hanging over his forehead and a huge cigar in his mouth.
"Don't worry Captain, I'm no German!" He flicked his head back so they could see him properly. "Names Ace Rimmer, saw you were in a bit of trouble and came to offer my assistance!"
"How did you know we were in trouble?" Jay asked with a suspicious look in his eyes. He turned to Phil and said under his breath. "Get down to the flight deck. I want you personally to ensure that he gets here both in one piece and without saying a word to anyone. Get his ship locked down, I don't want a soul to go near it."
"So, do you mind if I come aboard? This ship's all engine and cockpit. No room for a loo on this thing!" Ace Rimmers charm oozed through the monitor. Phil seemed to take an immediate shine to him, smiling like mad.
"Jay, look, he's here to help! I'll go get him and you can talk this out between you." Phil set off out the drive room door.
Jay was still suspicious of the strange newcomer. Though the sparkly 'H' on his forehead had a comfortably familiar feel to it.
Torsky, Reggie and Lt. Cliggs had just arrived on the flight deck when Phil came running in after them.
"Is he here yet?!" Cliggs heard Phil and got very smug.
"It's okay Commander FeBuggure, I'm here to take control of the situation!" Torsky and Reggie couldn't believe their ears and rolled their eyes in unison. "These terrorists wont get far now!"
"Not you, Cliggs, you gibbering ape!" Phil started tapping on the internal hangar door controls and the huge metal doors started to slide open. "I mean him!"
Everybody turned to look at the ship entering the hangar doors. It made a noise like no other ship on the fleet. As it set down the engines cut out and the cabin opened with a loud hiss of escaping air. The men on the flight deck looked on in awe and the women looked on as they fell instantly in love with the man swiftly and nimbly exiting his ship without need of a ladder.
"Who's that guy?" Micky asked with a hint of jealousy in his voice, noticing that Jayne had now started devoting all of her attention to the stud now standing with his hands on his hips, looking around with a lop-sided grin on his smug face.
"This, everybody," Phil beamed as he made his way to shake the hand of the newcomer,"is Captain Ace Rimmer!"
"What a guy!" Micky heard Jayne sigh quietly. She looked up at him. "What?!"
Efof looked up from under Jaynes fighter waving. "Hello!" He had a huge grin on his face as normal. "Fighters finished Jayne!"
"An alien being! I thought those guys were ruled out of existence centuries ago!" He turned to Phil and gave his hand a quick but friendly shake. "So where do I get started? If I heard right, there was only thirteen hours left to diffuse those bombs. That was an hour and a half ago. Where's this guy Shrub that found the first bomb?"
Torsky stepped foreward sheepishly and cleared his throat.
"What's up, kid. Cat got your tongue?!" Ace gave Torsky a playful pat on the side of the shoulder. "Come on, show me to the Captain, you can fill me in on what happened along the way."
As Ace and Torsky went to exit the hangar, Phil tried to follow.
"It's alright commander, me and Shrub have this covered." Phil stopped in his tracks with a look of disappointment on his sad face. "The guys down here need a real leader. Do me proud, Commander!"
"What a guy!" Everyone murmered in unison.
Zvelter and his seven men ran down the corridor leading to the flight deck doors. Turning a corner Zvelter ordered his men to stop.
"Listen!" He commanded. "People approaching, take cover and prepare to fire! I will not be stopped now!"
The men crouched round the corner of the corridor, Zvelter peeked around to see who it was.
Torsky heard a gunshot and Rimmer went down.
"Ace!" He shouted while his training kicked in automatically, pulling him into the nearest open elevator. "Ace! Can you hear me?!"
"I'm here sport! It's just a flesh wound."
"You've been shot in the stomach!" Torsky charged his bazookoid and fired down the corridor blindly while taking cover in the elevator. "Holly! Medi-bay!" He fired two more rounds down the corridor. He knew he had made contact with someone by the screams. "I hope that hurt, Smeghead!"
"No!" Shouted Rimmer. "To the Drive Room! We don't have time for heroics, Shrub. Just get me patched up as best you can on the way!"
The elevator doors closed in front of Torsky, who spun round instantly dropping his bazookoid and taking off and ripping up his jacket to use as make-shift bandages.
Back in the corridor one of Zvelters men was bleeding badly. Two more were crouching round him trying to stop the bleeding from his chest.
"Leave him! He will only slow us down." Zvelter started down the corridor more cautiously this time. "Don't you dare waste any ammo on a mercy killing either! They obviously know we are here. COME ON!" He was screaming now.
Jay looked on in shock as his new guest arrived, supported by Torsky and wrapped up like a parcel in a torn security jacket. It looked like an eight year old had tried, and failed, to bandage him up.
"What the hell happened to him?!" Jay asked with a look of shock. "And why is he bleeding all over my floor?!"
"I'm sorry Captain Chrysler, I'll clean it up just as soon as I finish blacking out." At that Ace Rimmer slumped over, only to jump back to his feet again a few seconds later. "Sorry about that display of weakness, I'm over it now. Anyone got a mop?"
"Don't worry about it." Jay said with disbelief. "I'll get someone else to mop up. You need something for the pain?"
"Hell no, it's still just a flesh wound." He tightened the bandage around his stomach with a wince.
"But you're a hologram." One of the Drive Room staff piped up. "How are you bleeding?"
"I was a hologram, served on a ship just like this actually, only that one was red, and a lot more smelly." He looked around, seeming comfortably at home in his new surroundings. "When I got this body from a few rogues I met on a jump, I kept the 'H' for old times sake. Got quite attached to it."
Jay shot a look at the nosy crewmember, who immediately turned back to her screen and stayed quiet.
"There's no time to waste here, Captain. Shrub filled me in on the details. I need three things." He marched over to a desk with a load of clutter on it and swept it off with one swift arm movement. "A blueprint of the ship, two two way intercoms for me and Shrub," he looked at Jay and pointed. "And most importantly, I need the biggest cigar you have on board."
"Anything else?" Jay asked, slightly bemused that an outsider had stepped on board and taken control of his vessel.
"Yes, do it quickly!"
On the flight deck there was a hail of bullets from the open doors. The crewmembers there had forgotten about the terrorists as soon as they had seen Ace Rimmer step out of his ship. Efof ignored the gun fire and kept looking over the ship he had arrived in.
"Efof! Get down!" Micky shouted back as he let off a blast from his bazookoid. "You're going to get yourself killed!"
"This is beautiful!" He gushed as bullets sprayed the hull in front of him. Not even noticing, he went round the back to see the engines.
Jayne threw a grenade overarm at the open doorway, but missed. Micky had to leap for his life as it bounced off the wall and rolled back towards him.
"Watch it!" He shouted.
Phil ran over to Jayne, ducking under the shower of bullets coming from the terrorists.
"Jayne! I've got an idea!"