The TML PBeM

1992, Turn 2 - Part 4 (of 6)

Trakh

Aolrkhea' reconfigures her board slightly, and puts bridge repeaters for engineering in an out of the way corner of her panel. She swiftly begins to warm up the EMSJammer and screen systems, cursing inwardly. *This whole trouble is completely unnecessary -- what a collection of tahiwihtektau! Kai, when this is all over, I'm retiring and finding a rich landed male who wants to support scientific research....*

The active EMS array on _Trakh_ rotates from its' last scan point and points directly at the command shuttle's missle turret. Aolrkhea' carefully locks the scanner on, checking alignment twice. A Galanglic phrase drifts through her mind. *Here we go.* She taps the ACTIVATE stud with one of her finger claws. The sensor activates, and immediately begins to scan the _Kingfisher_ missile turret.

"Admiral, my board is clear. Safety interlocks remain engaged. Active scanning has commenced. All systems ready, at your command."

Akhouw acknowledges her report with a nod. "Give active scan analysis priority, feed to main holotank." His eyes are bright with the thrill of the moment, well aware of the possible danger that lurks ahead. He continues to contemplate his available moves and countermoves.

"If I may tender a suggestion, admiral," Aolrkhea' quietly continues, "Perhaps we should recognize the ringworld's presence before a clan war starts on what is, in a sense, its' land."

Akhouw turns just far enough to look over at the engineering station with a thoughtful expression. "The Ringworld is aware of our presence, Aolrkhea.' I have had some prior communication with... it. However, if you intend to suggest that we inform it of this situation, I concur. Use a directional radio broadcast aimed AWAY from the fiyfiyalr and towards the Ring. Warn it of the potential missile launch and inform it that we are attempting to investigate and avoid unnecessary conflict. I am standing by for further communications if it wishes. Put any reply through to me."

Replies arrive from _Aurora_. As they come in, Aolrkhea' puts them on the viewer in an out-of-the-way box near the ship's plot.

By the time _Trakh_ gets the replies, they too are a bit busy. The holo image dissolves and a simple text message is sent in its' place.

AURORA, TRAKH ACKNOWLEDGES. WILL STAND BY. OUT.

"Mister J--" A pause, then a careful emphasis, without any overtones of sarcasm discernable. "JUDGE Jett. I wish that for one moment you could sit here beside me and watch this holo-- facts are indeed facts, and everything you have said about Count Ger's actions, if not his words, is not fact but supposition. As I just told the -- hrmf -- good Doctor, it would have been trivial for the Commander to launch the missiles himself at any one of several junctures. Yet he didn't. I, for one, am curious as to why not. I believe I have a guess, but I'd like to hear it from the Commander himself."

Zar reads through the displayed message with the skill of someone born to the region. A string of curses follows quickly, although it is doubtful that anyone else on the bridge can read what is displayed in the heads-up holo.

"Paladin to Talisman, Priority Message, relayed from Subcommander Bhyarrvouf. DO NOT, repeat, DO NOT, attempt to contact the Kingfisher. It is currently being hijacked by mutineers, details unknown. Commander Ger is being held at gunpoint and Vouf is attempting to defuse things. Relayed orders are to continue on previous course. I am making full active and passive scans of the landing site and will relay the information to you when I have it properly corelated and interpreted.

Acknowledge Please, Goughzar out."

The response from Thul is fast in coming. "Talisman Aye!"

And with that Zar goes back to investigating R-Alpha and it's landing site until more messages come back, cursing the fact that Iasic can no longer provide the instant communication. Suddenly a thought comes into his head and he sprays out a string of Vuakedh. When he realizes he is speaking in that tounge, he immediate switches back and repeats it in a more "human" language.

"To sophont at 3347.5MHz, please respond. I am Goughzar, commander aboard the ISS Paladin, a member of the Alcyon expedition. As the commander of this ship, I would like to request the return of the interface with the entity known as Iasic. I feel such communication would be beneficial to both of us, and our journey to R-Alpha."

At Abuko's sensor station, the marker square surrounding the Aslan vessel on the display changes to angry red and the classic warning noice used since thousands of years to indicate that a ship is hit by active sensors echoes on the bridge.

"Active! Active! Aslan-1's gone active on us! Passive lockon on Aslan-1 updated and on the offence and defence busses. Permission to hit the sucker with an active scan?"

Johanns finger hovers expectantly over the active sensor controls.

J.J. has been running simulation on the turret controls, he is getting pretty good. He seems to have a natural affinity for weapon systems.

He sits in his combat armor chomping on a foul stogie, enjoying the arcade type game the computer is putting him thru. In the corner of the holo-tank he has security systems on line. Every so often he glances at the secur-cam output for engineering and other area of the Talisman.

Thul says from his Captains chair, "Horne watch our six..." J.J grunts an affirmative. He kills the sim. and fires up the passive scans checking the sensor display for targets behind the Talisman. Then he runs through the other targets, keeping a careful watch on the Aslan ships. Checking the offensive estimates of the Aslan ship. "I need to know what that baby can do in case it starts firing." he thinks. "Ya know, this could become interesting real quick." he says to no one in general. Minutes float by J.J. continues to scan the constantly updating passive targeting data. Then the blip that represents the Aslan ship goes from white to red.

J.J's pulse quickens. A quick scan of the targeting data confirms what he already suspected. "Gunner to Capt. RED ALERT! RED ALERT! target designated Aslan1 had gone active, say again, Target designated Aslan1 had gone active. She is directing her scans on Kingfisher. What are your orders!"

Charyn has had a couple minutes to lay on her bunk. The galaxy of fireflies swimming before her eyes have, over the course of a few minutes, subsided to a mere star cluster displayed in time-lapse animation, like those hololessons from primary school science class during the gravitation unit. The cold sweat seems to have mostly subsided too.

She feels the warm, soft texture of the cloth beneath her, loosely woven from large, soft rag fibers. She knows it's purple with a plain, bold design. Good luck seeing any colors through this sparkle dance!

"Goughzar to Charyn, how are you feeling? If you think you are able, we could realy use your talents, as well as Dr. Morsers, at the bridge. You also might be interested in this little datapulse I just got from Vouf..."

"Charyn to Goughzar. I feel like someone bashed in my head with a crowbar." She drops her legs over the edge of the bed. "I'll see what I can do about getting up to the Bridge." She slowly pushes her body up to her elbows *Feeling a little better, I think*.

She rises up to sit on the edge of the bunk, her head swollen, heavy. She brushes the damp hair out of her face and sweeps it from her forehead, pasted there from sweat *should've tied this damn hair back*. Concentrating, she looks about, then carefully stands. Unimpressed, the stars continue their parade.

She steps cautiously to the door - "open" - and out into the hall, turning toward the bridge. The stars explode with tiny fury. Her skin flushes with new heat and moisture. Her legs weaken to the consistency of... *Oh God! not !!PASTA!!*. She grimaces and jams her eyelids together, pushing her forearms against her stomach, standing for a moment. Then, with sudden conviction, she takes five urgent steps to the fresher. "OPEN!!" As the door opens, she shakily controls a collapse to her knees, one arm on the doorway. She shuffles over to the commode and noisily ejects the contents of her stomach.

Azani stares at the controls for a few seconds and gets accustomed to the control locations. He then sits in the co-pilot's seat and continues with the descent of the Paladin to the Ringworld.

A mere heartbeat after Zar makes his request to the Hoop that Iasic return, the lights flicker and dim momentarily. Once again, the artificial personality construct of the _Talisman's_ computer is submerged, replaced by the voice of someone who many thought had gone for good.

_Commander Zar, MasterSPU R-Alpha contacted me, forwarding your request. As you are the commanding officer of this vessel, and because MasterSPU assured me that my reestablishment of contact with you would be net beneficial, I have assented to return._

_MasterSPU has been monitoring the events of your command shuttle "Kingfisher" and has relayed all information to me. I must admit, I am continually baffled by your erratic behavior. It is illogical for a ship crew to disrupt and disobey the directions of the leader. Why should there be a leader if his orders are not going to be followed? Of course, his stated belief that the missile launch he has planned might actually damage R-Alpha is incorrect. What is more puzzling still is the fact that I compute there to be a 96.425 percent chance that Count Ger knows this, too. If this is the case, then why would he make an order that he knows to be futile? This is most inefficient._

_I have informed the Aslan that the Kingfisher intends no threat to their vessel. I predict that there is a 93.8 percent chance that this will remove any danger of a pre-emptative strike by them against the command shuttle or any other part of the Turnskaad fleet. There is a 4.105 percent chance that they will construe this as a trick and will therefore initiate a pre-emptative strike which they might not have actually done. Given status quo, there was a 30 percent chance that a strike by the Aslan would result._

_Now, what is it that you would like me to do? You may consider me at your disposal._

That same, patient cursor flashes at the bottom of the screen.

"Guezdhe. Thank you for returning. I would like to request that you contact the ships _Talisman_, _Westwind_, and _Gemini Arbiter_ and allow us to communicate faster than the laser communications allows. Also, if you could give me some more information about the starship we recently detected along the far side of the ring. If you can extrapolate any data from the accident as to cause as well as if there are any survivors requiring assistance, I would appreciate it.

"In the meantime, I'd still like some info on my prior request - about who we will be meeting and some data about the landing zone and the area around it. A simple combined scan image would be Guezke!"

"Oh yeah - and I think Dr. Morser was slightly fascinated by you and would probably like to speak with you on subjects I can not begin to understand."

At this, Goughzar lets an uncharacteristicly human grin flash across his face, although perhaps it shows more teeth than is normal for a normal grin...

"The Aslan craft has gone active, Subcommander," Moira reports quietly. "She is probing the weapons systems of the Command Shuttle."

"O kae NO!" Bhyarrvouf slams a metal fist down on the holopanel, striking sparks. "NO NO NO NO NO NO--"

"This is boring!" fumes Nichole. "How long are we going to sit hear and watch?"

"As long as necessary!" snaps Aurelia. "You've just pointed out yourself the Aslan ship powered up a little more. We know we can't afford to get caught in the middle of a fight. Besides, it hasn't been that long anyway."

Nikki idly scrolls through the system check records, and then sits straight up. "HEY! Look at this. What's on the radio at 1337.45 MHz?"

"How should I know!" grouses Aurelia. "With all that's been happening we really haven't had much time to analyze anything, now have we!"

Nichole reaches for the commo panel. "Let's find out!"

"Sure." sighs Aurelia. "Why not? Go ahead."

Nichole opens a com channel, clears her throat and addresses the ether. "Uh. Hello."

"'Uh. Hello.'" sneers Aurelia. "What kind of protocol is that?"

Nikki glares at her sister. "Oh, shut up! Oops!" She quickly toggles off the comm channel. "Now look what you made me do!" Opening the channel again, she continues, "This is Nichole Xerxes, First Officer, aboard the Gemini Arbiter requesting identification and communication with anyone on this channel. Awaiting your reply. Out."

Closing the channel again, she comments, "Now, lets see what happens. Why don't we call the other ships too?"

"Hold on!" responds Aurelia. "Let's do one thing at a time. All we need to do is clutter up the channels, someone gets distracted and boom! Weapons fire. No. We wait for a reply from whomever is on the other end."

Aurelia pauses for a moment as the content of Nichole's broadcast sinks in. "Wait a minute, I thought you were Chief Engineer?"

"I am." agrees Nikki. "I'm also First Officer. You're the Captain. Right? I'm the only other being aboard, therefore, I'm First Officer!"

"Oh, right." Aurelia rolls her eyes. "How *COULD* I forget!"

Suddenly, a voice from the commo speakers fills the bridge. It is powerfully modulated and pleasing to the ear. "Greetings, Visitors. I am the world beneath you; the other Visitors have seen fit to call me the Ring. I welcome you."

It continues, "Suspicion. A difficult and dangerous concept. It causes so much trouble. To ease the way to a peaceful resolution to ALL of your suspicions, I have allowed the Iasic construct to return to your computer for a short time, linking it instantaneously with the Paladin and the Talisman."

Aurelia perks up. "Hey Nikki, ask it if we can land and meet with it."

"Ok!..." replies Nikki. Then she pauses at the commo controls. "Wait. Here's something coming in on another channel."

As soon as Zar requests the communications links established between _Paladin_, _Talisman_, _Westwind_, and _Gemini Arbiter_, Iasic responds.

_Although MasterSPU stated that I should not make contact with the other vessels, there is nothing in the guidelines I was given that stated that I should not allow you to communicate with them. Your instantaneous communications links have been established. However, they cannot be opened until each commander on each vessel has acquiesced. I cannot act where I am not welcome. All each vessel will need to do is enter in the following sequence to their communications panels: 101101. Once the sequence is in place, their link will be activated._

_Now, regarding your querries on the landing site and any questions posed by Dr. Morser, I am afraid that my stay with you will be brief; too brief to get involved in any in-depth discussions, as much as I would enjoy it. My purpose here is simply to assist you in avoiding an unwanted catastrophe. If there is time, perhaps I could entertain some questions. But this is unlikely, given the current situation. Time constraints are not a problem for me, but rather for all of you. You must be careful not to become distracted from the crisis at hand._

Zar nods, activating the comm unit.

"This is Goughzar, captian of the _Paladin_. I have re-established contact with the construct from the world below known as Iasic, and it and the ring have graciously allowed us to comminicate using the technology of R-Alpha, that these messages won't take so damn long!

To initiate the sequence to open a communication channel with the rest of our ships, simply enter the sequence 101101 into your communications channel. This has been provided by the "sophont" known as MasterSPU, and our gracious thanks go to him. If you are willing to join the communications net, this will activate it as though using a standard ship's intercom."

And into a sequence of Vuakedh that will take a bit to translate (the same idiomatic speech Vouf had used earlier), Zar continues:

"Vouf, I have requested Iasic to restore communications links between all of the ships except the one noted before... I believe I have not overstepped my bounds by allowing the ships to communicate faster, although Admiral Ger strictly advised that Iasic not be allowed back into our systems. If there is more that I might do, I am ready. Goughzar Out"

"NO SCANS, A.P.," Bhyarrvouf barks. "We're generating enough kakh war-fog as it is. Let me talk to them before they do something stupid."

On the bridge of the Trakh, Akhouw is sitting in his command couch, his arms crossed in a noncommittal pose as he waits for either the fiyfiyalr or the Ringworld to respond. Suddenly, Akhouw looks startled for a fraction of a second, then he blinks twice in rapid succession and looks around the bridge, frowning ever so slightly.

He stares at the holotank for a second, then turns to Aolrkhea' with an air of reluctant conclusion. "Belay active scanning, Aolrkhea', but continue a CLOSE watch on the fiyfiyalr shuttle and report further developments."

He swivels to face forward once again, as he resumes his pose of wary observation.

Aurelia slumps in her seat. "Looks like they want to talk now."

"Figures." frowns Nichole. "They're worse than women. Can't make up their minds!"

"Let's talk to the Ring." offers Aurelia. "He at least seems less likely to shoot us! Here. Let me." Without waiting for approval, she quickly transfers commo control to her own console and opens a channel.

"This is Aurelia Xerxes, Captain of the Gemini Arbiter requesting landing instructions, over."

Minutes pass, and then the powerful voice speaks again.

"You will find, in your computer memory, the coordinates of a suitable landing site for your purposes. The Visitors plan to land there and meet with one another...once their suspicions have been overcome. You may come here in the manner and time of your choosing. Be welcome."

"Copy transmission." replies Aurelia instantly. "Will comply. Arbiter out for now."

"Comm hog!" grumps Nichole.

Ignoring the barb, Aurelia orders, "Nikki, check engine status. Be ready for full thrust. I want to put some more distance between us and them."

"About time you decided something!" retorts Nichole. Quickly recofiguring her console for engineering systems, her fingers and voice rapidly tune the systems. "Power now on line. System ready for full thrust."

"Ok." acknowledges Aurelia. Tapping in the final course and slamming the throttle wide open, she exults, "Here we go!"

"YEEEE! HAAAA!" shouts Nikki.

Grinning ear to ear, Aurelia echos her sisters enthusiasm.

"Ring world here we come!"

On the bridge of the Aslan command ship, a message appears on the direct line of the main computer. How it got there is a mystery to all, as the electronics are shielded, isolated, and loaded with anti-invasion safeguards. Nevertheless, the message is there, and no one on the _Trakh_ put it there.

The text of the message is accompanied by a proud and confident male aslan voice, speaking in the flawless dialect of the clan that runs the _Trakh_.

_Attention most noble Admiral Akhouw. My name is Iasic, a denizen of the world below. We are honored by your presence, and extend you a warm welcome._

Momentarily taken aback by the unorthodox method of communication, Akhouw quickly adapts his thinking. The proper use of trokh honorifics and in particular the flawless pronunciation of the words clearly pleases the Admiral as he listens to the message.

_Your efficient and loyal crew has correctly surmised that the fiyfiyalr vessel "Kingfisher" has activated its missile turret and has indeed aimed it toward the ringworld. The Clanlord of the ringworld is completely congnizant of this situation. The ringworld is in no danger. Equally important, you and your brave crew are in no danger from attack by the fiyfiyalr. Your precautions of locking weapons on their vessel and preparing to energize your weapon banks were the obvious and correct choice given the circumstances and your lack of concrete reconnaissance. I can assure you and your valiant crew that the chances of a fiyfiyalr attack upon you are less than two percent, well within the level of statistical error._

_I thank you for your attention and commend you on your actions. You and your crew bring honor to your clan._

Akhouw waits until the channel is open, then his confident tones are heard once again. "Iasic, Your words do us great honor. Rare indeed is it to find one not of the fteirle who can speak our language with such fluency, of course your nature makes that task a minor one, no doubt. We appreciate your communication with us."

He shifts slightly in his seat, as his tail flicks away an imaginary dust speck. "I have been similarly puzzled by the actions of the fiyfiyalr aboard the shuttle designated Kingfisher. Any data you could furnish to us would be most helpful. We desire to maintain our current computer operating system at this time, but my Computer Officer (he motions to Aiwi) will designate an input designated solely for your use. When time permits, Aiwi will discuss with you possible enhancement of our computing resources."

Leaning back in his couch, he slowly, thoughtfully strokes his mane. "Are those terms acceptible, khihe? If you could further enlighten us as to the recent appearance of a derelict spacecraft and survivors which were, khrr, teleported to the Aurora, I would be most honored."

Akhouw waits for the reply with a pleased expression on his face. To no one in particular, he remarks: "Kai! Honor indeed to our clan, if we can avoid this useless conflict brought about by the fiyfiyalr, understand what is happening with these odd humans, and even further our knowledge of this Ringworld." He yowls an Aslan chuckle as the grin widens on his face and he relaxes into his well-appointed, cushioned couch.

As Johann poises to activate an active scan, one of his monitor programs picks up activity on the fibre-optic net controlling the holodynamic displays on the Bridge.

The activity detected is an access by Mac Witfield from his communications terminal to the software that controls the display drivers for several of the Bridge holos. It does NOT appear to be interfering with their operation in any way; the process is simply taking "snapshots" of the holo-panel configurations for the stations currently manned by Zben and Etienne, and dumping the data to memory.

The two snapshots of the holo panels are very interesting; Etienne's has an override slider for the cabin gravity, capable of setting it at anywhere from zero to several G's at a touch, and Zben's has a power shutoff for the missile turret. Neither has been activated yet.

Mac thinks to himself, "gees, why am I NOT surprised..."

Mac quietly taps in the interface designations for the specific controls he want to override on both Etienne's and Zben's consoles, followed by the instruction to deactivate both interfaces. Mac's own holo-panel immediately lights with a single small "Status - no error" icon, indicating the task was completed successfully.

As the Xerxes sister hurtle towards their rendezvous with R-Alpha, a somewhat less than serious conversation is taking place on the bridge of their ship.

"You know," remarks Aurelia, "we never had much time to converse with this entity. Let's open a channel, shall we?"

"Sounds like a good idea." agrees Nichole. "But first we have to get him a better name! Ring sounds dumb. How about Ringo?"

"Or Ringy?", counters Aurelia.

"Or Ringer?" offers Nikki.

Aurelia grimaces. "Sounds like a torture device or washing machine. How about RW? For Ring World."

"Yeah!" exclaims Nikki. "Initials are very commonly used. RW it is. Now, only if he likes it."

"Well, don't just sit there!" insists Aurelia. "Ask him!"

Opening a comm channel, Nichole begins, "Hello Ring. My sister and I talking and we'd like to give you a nickname. Something more appropriate than Ring. How does RW sound? We think it is more fitting for one of your station to have a proper name. And if you don't mind we'd like to continue this conversation for awhile."

Redd thinks of the mess left on the Alcyon.

"That tears it ! Vouf will probably 'defuse' things with those gauss pistols of his ! That damn triggerhappygung-hoegotisticalkillingmachine!"

"Don't worry Redd, I'm sure we'll be able to put the Kingfisher back together when he's done. Or, most of it, anyway..."

"Ralf, I hate to go round orders like this, but can you get us some idea of what's actually going on out there ? It could make all the difference."

"Uhm, lemme see, in engineering you're higher rank, so you're my superior officer, right?" Ralf grins. He pulls his handheld out and drops across the Iasic-link to Paladin, then across tight-beam to Aurora. Spotting the blackbox log Vouf's reading, he quickly skims it in compressed subjective time. Seconds later he turns to Redd (and Tabor) with a glazed look on his face. "Uhm, er... sheesh! Okay (deep breath):

• Ger ordered, uhm, Etienne to get a missile lock on a location on the Ring, then ordered him to fire.
• Farouk, objected to this strenuously, to the point of drawing his pistol.
• Rigo (I *think*) is either backing him or just getting ready to deal with mass mayhem.
• The Judge backed up Farouk with the legal opinion that firing the missile would be a crime, and that this expedition isn't military.
• Ger defended his authority to have the missile fired.
• Doc Yorblin backed up Farouk and pulled HIS pistol.
• Zben said something about he's willing to do "whatever is necessary" to stop the missile from firing, but I got the feeling that he didn't want to include violence.
• Ger rerouted the missile controls to his board.
• Etienne engaged all of the safety interlocks.
• Meanwhile, it appears that the Aslan somehow deduced that the Kingfisher was preparing to fire a missile, and started active EMS scans targeting the missile turrent.
• Then VOUF got into the act (Wittefield got through to him on the comm) and told Jett something like "Stop acting like a holodrama hero, that's MY job," and told the rest of 'em to stand down.

...and that's about where the log ends... I think they're still debating it..."

Redd doesn't even TRY to come up with an answer to THAT. He calls the Bridge.

"Engineering to Captain - we'll be ready with full power on your say-so, any further orders ?"

"Should anything happen to commander Ger, Vouf is next in command - I must say I've some reservations about his stability in stressful situations after the mess he made of the Alcyons engineering. I can't remember who's next in line after Vouf, but what it comes down to is that it's *your* starship, we're your crew and *you* get to make the difficult decisions - If judge Jett wasn't being held by some crazed hijackers, he'd know all the legal junk, but you're the man in the hot seat."

Redd: "Does anyone else get the feeling that there's something really important going on, and no-one will tell you a thing about it ? This trip's been nothing but surprises, intrugue and mayhem from the start."

"Redd, my friend," Ralf grimaces, "I've NEVER had ANY doubts that something really important has been going on and we aren't being told a thing about it. The mission patch should be two eyes peering out from beneath a mushroom (that's a foodplant we used to grow in hyrdoponics back home): kept in the dark and fed only fertilizer."

As the tense situation on the bridge continues, Etienne and Zben notice a change in the holo-consoles next to them. Specifically, the gravitic control slider (in Etienne's case) and the missile turret power interrupt (in Zben's case) are now greyed out (instead of brightly illuminated), indicating that the controls are still present but have been rendered completely insensitive to input. In effect, the switches are dead.

As Rigo is addressing the Commander, Zben does a normal, quick scan of his console. Then, he does a classic `double-take', and spins around to face the Commander.

Since Boarding the Kingfisher, Fitz has been lounging in the passenger section, idly musing on the best configuration of grav generators for a sphere world which would minimize field overlap interference. Since there's a whole Troop of people on board, and most of them crowded onto the bridge, he's confident that they can handle anything that comes up, and he can take it easy for a while...

After a while, though, he gets bored, and gets up and stretches a bit, and roots around in the food locker for something to munch on for lack of anything better to do. Having found a type protein bar that he particularly favors, he plops back into his seat. Fritz has some weird tastes; most people would find these types of survivial rations impalitable at best, but Fitz developed a taste for it when he was young and found a stash of it, and didn't have much else to eat on hand... Now, the flavor has become almost nostalgic for him.

Brushing away the last crumbs, he flips on a lap display and plugs it in, and starts idly flips between the different realtime views of the ringworld and the various constellations of ships from the viewpoints of different Turnskaad ships. About this time he also starts flipping the audio output between different transmission channels. Not too much going on there either, so he switches the display to the view of the ringworld from the Kingfisher and the audio to the bridge intercom to listen in on the approach chatter, just in time to hear...

"Keyaho, Command Shuttle. This is Aurora, Bhyarrvouf. What SORT of a 'situation', Mac?"

"Oh, I don't know." Mac voice replies. "The commander has just ordered missiles lauch against the ring world. Several members disagree, so now some of them have guns out, aimming at god knows what. The commander has just transfered the fire control to his own seat. I figure now would be a good time to let you know, before a gun fire enrupts and I have to shoot everyone."

Hmmm! Fritz hunts around with the display and gets the bridge visual while Vouf gets filled in on the details. After identifying the cast of characters and who's pointing what weapons at whom, and why, Fritz decides that discretion is the better part of valor, and heads back to engineering. Upon finding *nobody* there, he mutters in German about deleriction of duty, and gives the systems a cursory once over to to make sure all is as it should be, and pulling out a console starts rooting though the power routing documentation for the missle turret power supply feeds.

After perusing the schematics for a few minutes, Fritz heads for the forward part of engineering. Finding the appropriately labelled section of decking, Fritz sticks his fingers through the deck mesh and pulls it up to reveal a maze of conduits, pipes, and junction boxes. He quickly spots the component he's after, a small bumble-bee striped box with a bright red label.

primary weapon systems power junction

Fusible buss-bars

DANGER - HIGH VOLTAGE

Fritz reaches up and grabs an insulated glove off a nearby workbench, and then gingerly pops the cover off the box, exposing the a trio of metal fuses, arrayed in a single pack. Grabbing the pack with a grippy, he neatly jerks it free. There's a single, bright electrical arc as the fuse-pack disengages.

"Zowie!"

Fritz quickly replaces the box cover and then the section of decking, satisfied with his work. He puts the fuse-pack into the appropriate spare parts location, and returns to the passenger section, stopping to check the bridge intercom for any reaction...

"Excuse Mr. Zar, but did you happen to say mutineers aboard the Kingfisher ?" Azani then looks quizickly at Zar. After getting back an affitrmative, Azani then sits back in his chair, his hands in his face. He then relaxes and sits straight up and retains his composure.

"Well friend, isn't this little trip full of suprises. All we need now is pirates and perhaps a battlefleet and then we'll really have a naval adventure..." Azani then continues to monitor the descent to the Ringworld.

Christian breathes VERY deeply, clearly much more relaxed and at ease now that the crisis has passed. THIS crisis, at least. He strolls over to the other two patients as his normal compassionate and cheerful self. "Greetings to you, Mister Tiblisi and Mister Berana. The pair of you have some nasty bruises, a concussion each, and assorted fractures, but nothing that I can't fix, and I don't think I'll need more than local anasthetic. So, I am at your service, gentlemen, for your undoubted questions if you feel able to talk." Christian pulls over a medical treatment cart, and begins to scan Lee from head to toe while selecting a spray injector and an ampule of local.

"I'm..." Lee begins in a croak and then coughs lightly. "Let me try that again. I'm Lee Tiblisi, Assistant Purser of the 'Glory of Efate'. We were attacked and something clipped my head and I only remember bits and pieces after that -- mostly a misjump and a brief time in the ship's lifeboat. I guess we were really lucky to misjump into this system and get picked up by you. We owe you a lot. Thanks."

Christian checks the readouts above each bed with evident satisfaction. "Well, gentlemen, it looks like you'll only have to stay in bed for a day or so, just to play it safe and allow those, ah, tender areas of yours a chance to heal up. Some quiet time should be a relief for you, I would imagine."

*There are only 2 questions to ask,* thinks Lee, *and knowing where you are won't do you any immediate good. Do your job.* After a moment, Lee asks, "Doctor, did anyone else make it? There were 15 crew and 32 passengers aboard..."

The doctor continues to clean Lee up and looks like he is trying to figure out how to answer the question when he is presented with a much larger concern.

Copyright © 1997, 1998