"Good," Davis says. He points his thumb behind him, to the shipchef where Rand is tied up. "You want me to do anything about him? He's still kinda pissed off that you lured him into a trap that got him shot. Might be trouble for you down the road."
"He mutinied on me. Kill him. I'll be trying the same with a rock once you all leave. It saves my ass if I'm the only source for information when they follow your vapor trail down here."
---
The rebels, the Bashakrans, the Deltas, everyone works together to clear out the Morningstar as quickly as possible. The Body Snatcher's going to be cramped, and without enough crashers for everyone, Luis will have to throttle the cruising engines up and down gradually.
The spare comforts of the Morningstar are next to go - the canyon floor underneath the big freighter is soon littered with the freighter's crashers, the shock padding and insulation in the corridors, all but one of the cargo bay monotasks, the bunks and furniture, and a pile of shipchef nutrient canisters.
Ironically, there are enough crashers for everyone if the freighter's discarded dampening couches could be hooked up to the Body Snatcher's grid and its meager brig and its even more meager cargo space, were scrapped, basically turning it into a spaceworthy APC. Jonnoperest and his technically-minded Bashakrans volunteer for that duty, as they and Oskell's rebels don't like the idea of getting caught without crashers.
With the Morningstar's new mass dialed in, One-Ton and Luis head into the CIC to plot out the loyal freighter's Viking funeral.
---
Max ducks and runs - a close beam-pulse sprays him with molten cinders from the corridor wall. The footfalls of the Aikoran Turai and his blade are close behind him. Max sees the Sambasan Gate Control Room up ahead, not more than 100 feet away. Its doorway's sealed, like Aikoro's, with a standard access panel but there are no guards. No doubt they've been alerted and are scrambling, though.
"Yes, it does," Davis says. "I'll be right back, Dunamis, and then we'll get you out of that chair."
Davis walks into the shipchef where Rand is being held. Even though he's out of earshot of Dunamis, Davis still scoots the chair closer to Rand. "So, here's the situation. Things have gotten...more dangerous for us here, and we're bailing out in the Morningstar. There'll be too many questions if we try to leave the planet in the Body Snatcher without Dunamis, so we're stashing that here for now. Obviously, we can't take you with us, but we can't exactly just let you two go. Your buddy over there," Davis gestures at the door to the shipchef, "suggested I shoot you in the face and let him go tell the Imperials all about how you mutinied, stole his ship and then ran off, leaving him to be captured by the big, bad terrorists. Now, I don't particularly trust him, and I know you don't trust him, so I've got a better idea. You, me, and him go for a walk, I let you kill him, and in return for me letting you execute Dunamis, you tell the Imperials what I want you to say if they ask questions. Deal?"
Rand looks at Davis, trying to figure out if this is a screwjob or not. The sounds of Semo ordering the rest of the people to clear out the cargo bay haven't filtered through to the mess or the shipchef yet, and Davis can take them out the main airlock to conceal the goings-on.
"As long as you know if your story's too far off the truth I'll just be buying you time if they put me to Truthseekers. I'll... I'll do what I can. I don't want them in my head. Lemme at that bastard Kon."
"Hey, I'm not saying you have to wave your arms around and shout that you know about the terrorists that escaped through the gate in that freighter. This is just in case you do get questioned. I'll be right back, and then we'll get out of here."
Davis gets up and heads for the bridge, where One-Ton and Luis are. He stands outside the bridge and motions for Luis to come over to him. "Hey, Luis, can I talk to you for a second?"
"Hey, I'm not saying you have to wave your arms around and shout that you know about the terrorists that escaped through the gate in that freighter. This is just in case you do get questioned. I'll be right back, and then we'll get out of here."
Davis gets up and heads for the bridge, where One-Ton and Luis are. He stands outside the bridge and motions for Luis to come over to him. "Hey, Luis, can I talk to you for a second?"
Luis steps away from the console, tosses a "Back in a sec" to One-Ton, and follows Davis into the hallway. "What can I do you for?"
"I'm heading down to the cargo hold right now, I'll let you know. I'll be back when it's done."
With that, Davis turns around and heads down to the cargo bay. He looks around for Hugh and Onas. "Captain Verrill, Onas, can I talk to you for a moment?"
"I'm working on providing some plausibility for our failed escape attempt, and there's two things I need to make this work, a Stinger and a few minutes of people pretending to load things onto the Morningstar instead of taking things off of it, just enough to make them think that we're not gutting the ship. They'll be blindfolded, so it won't be an issue."
Davis looks around, seeing if there's anything he's forgetting. He sees the decoy beacons and has an idea. "Hey, Captain Verrill, maybe we should rig up one of those decoys with some C4 and a impact trigger, toss it at the Needleship if it makes it that close, give them a reason to blow us up if they're still trying to capture us."
"You're askin' the right guy about IEDs," Hugh replies, "but as long as we can do it and still have enough BOOM for the Morningstar, then yes, I think that would be a good piece of insurance."
He stops as his brain takes a step back and looks at Davis's first comment.
"...why a stinger and acting? I gather that you're looking to mindgame the prisoners, but what's the use? We should be taking care of loose ends, not making more."
"A little extra assurance that the Imperials buy our story couldn't hurt," Davis says. "I'll figure out what they know, and if I have to, I'll take care of the problem and we'll get out of here."
Davis heads back up into the bunks, and tears a bedsheet in half to make blindfolds and grabs his rifle, then walks back into the kitchen. He ties one blindfold around Dunamis' head. "We'll be getting out of here soon, just gotta blindfold you and Rand. I've got a Stinger for you, wouldn't want to just send you out into the wilderness with nothing to defend yourself with, would we?"
"Lettin' me do the dirty work then?" Kon answers. "Fine, let's do this."
Davis blindfolds him, then walks into the shipchef. He kneels behind Rand and starts blindfolding him. "Okay, here's the deal. Before we go, I need to know everything that you know about us, and I mean everything. Anything you've overheard, anything you might have even thought. I've already had dealings with a Truthseeker before, I know what they look for, and if you're honest with me, I can make it so it never comes to that."
Rand rattles off a rather accurate list of the team members who had bounties applied to them. He doesn't seem to know about the recent additions from Gran's Hope or Brinai and Onas' rebels. He does know that there are more than just the wanted offenders, but who they are he has no clue.
Davis looks at him with a questioning eye. "That's it, nothing else? Nothing you've overheard on this ship?"
"Um... I can't think of anything else... uh, you're going to run for the gate, or so you said just now. Some banging noises, maybe a fight or some repairs going on. No words though." Davis figures Rand might be talking about Swims' tantrum upon learning of the current plan.
"Alright then," Davis says, and pulls the knot tight on the blindfold and stands him up. "Let's this over with, shall we?"
"Hey, why the blind- oh, forget it," Rand says as he acquiesces.
"Just a security precaution. Wouldn't want you seeing more than you want to, could cause problems down the road, problems involving tentacles." He walks Rand out into the kitchen, and lifts Dunamis up. "Time to go for a walk, gentlemen," he says, and guides them to the steps, staying behind them and keeping an eye out for any of them trying to sneak a peek.
It's an amusing sight, watching two men that hate each other try to make it down a stairwell while bound and blindfolded. Davis takes it slow, finally emerging out into the shadow of the canyon with no more than a few bumps and a nasty gash on Rand's forehead from what might have been a completely accidental trip on Dunamis' part. Davis marches the men in the general direction of Gran's Hope, and they walk up the canyon floor for about ten minutes before Davis stops walking.
"Alright, that's about right." He walks over to Rand and takes off his blindfold. "How do you want this done?" he asks him. "You want him on his knees, blindfolded, looking you in the face, what?"
"Heh," Rand says. "Just like he is."
"Motherfucker!" Dunamis shouts, throwing a poorly-aimed kick at where he thinks Rand is. The blow's easily sidestepped.
Davis interrups the failed attack. "Alright, here's how this is going to play out. I'm going to put the Stinger on the ground in front of you, then cut your hands free. I will then step back behind you, and tell you when you can pick up the gun and kill Dunamis here. You pick up the gun before I say you can, or if point it even slightly towards me, I will put you both down and call it a day. Understand?"
"All right," Rand answers. Dunamis runs in lieu of standing there like a cow waiting its turn at the slaughter, stumbling across the rocky terrain.
"Dammit, stay here." Davis runs (well, more jogs, really) after Dunamis. "You'd better stop running or I'm gonna shoot your fucking kneecaps out!" he shouts, and gets in position to tackle Dunamis.
"Fuck you, you dirty scrofa! Go ahead and shoot me, see what happens!" Dunamis shouts behind him.
"Nothin's gonna happen, man!" Rand calls out after Davis. "Nobody's got scanners that good!" Davis ignores both of them and continues chasing down the stumbling Dunamis. He loops round in front of Dunamis's jagged escape route and swipes his SCAR up into the Apprehender's face. Kon sits down hard and throws a leg out at Davis, who jumps back. A second buttstroke lays Dunamis out, conscious but dazed. Rand has a predatory grin on his face when Davis looks up at him. He hasn't moved.
Davis hauls Dunamis back to his feet. "Now, that wasn't very smart, was it?" They start walking back, with Davis holding him with his arm around his shoulders, partially so he can't kick at him, but also so he can talk to him. "Rand's still bound," Davis whispers. "I can shoot him and let you go instead, if you've got something worthwhile to tell me. Anything about us, the Imperium, Ngawai, any deep secrets that you've been holding onto for a rainy day?"
"Smahd?" Dunamis responds through bloodied lips. "Id god be dealin wid you again, didn'd id? I god a Gade code for a Gadeshib. God some gear sdashed dere, good hidin blace do led da Imberium wasde dere dime dryin' da find you."
"Yeah, after you let all the Imperials know where we're going? I need some kind of insurance from you that you won't fuck us. Otherwise, Rand gets his birthday present."
"You'll hab do dake mbe wid you," Dunamis blathers.
"You'll excuse me if I think you're just waiting to sell us out to the Turai." Davis trips Dunams, partially breaking his fall but still letting him hit the ground. "Sorry, needed to buy more time. What guarantee do I have that you'll just scream for the Turai the first chance you get?"
"Dime dilation," Dunamis hisses, finally spitting out a gobbet of bloody phlegm. "Time dilation... you spend a day on a Gateship, you can pop out somewhere else 2 weeks later."
"Still doesn't stop you from fucking us at the gate."
"You think I don't know I'm the first dead if I do that?"
"Fair enough." Davis stands Dunamis up. "You want to take out Rand, or should I?"
"Take off my blindfold."
Davis smirks. "Not until we get there, don't want to have to chase down two bound people today."
"You kill him then, I just wanna see him die."
"Alright." Davis walks Dunamis up to Rand, and takes off his blindfold. Rand's standing there like he's awaiting a medal. "Teach you to run, you old bastard," Rand spits at Dunamis.
Davis draws the Stinger. "Sorry Rand, I got a better offer," he says, and shoots Rand in the face. There's a spray of red gore as the stinger yips. The squirt of hypervelocity shards just kind of lawnmower their way though Dunamis' former crewman's head.
Dunamis nods, seemingly in acceptance. "Teach you to be stupid," he smirks at the mangled corpse.
Davis wipes down the Stinger with Dunamis' blindfold. "They've got your fingerprints and genetic material on file, right?" Davis holds the Stinger in his left hand and draws his .45 with his right. "Take the Stinger, hold it, and then drop it next to his body, and let's get out of here." Dunamis just shrugs and does as he's told.
Davis holsters the pistol and cuts Dunamis' wrists free. "More cooperation, more freedom," Davis says. "Now let's get back to the ship."
BOOM! Max's frag grenade bows the Gate control room doors inward like tinfoil. Shrapnel pings off his armor and ricochets down the corridor. The grunt of the Turai behind him signals another near-miss with that blade just as a shouted curse in Imperial coincides with a pulse-beam from behind him.
"HIM, not ME!" shouts the Aikoran Turai.
"Duck, then!" answers the Sambasanian soldier that's chasing the running melee.
Before the swordsman can duck and before he can tackle Max, our Action Scientist dives through the blown-open control room doors. Two techs, bleary-eyed from concussion as well as their late shift, stagger half-numbed for a narrow maintenance exit in the back of the room.
"Wait! Wait!" one of the techs says as Max bears down on him.
"Wait! Wait!" echoes the beamer-toting Turai. His blade-armed comrade slides up short of the ruined hatchway.
Max gives the room a quick glance. It's similar in scope to the Aikoran control room; holograph pit displaying a personal-scale Gateway currently swarming with reinforcements; incoming Gate codes that dispense confused travelers into the waiting arms of said reinforcements; a blissfully empty departure schedule. At least programming an outgoing portal shouldn't be too hard. Getting BACK to the Gate? Another story altogether.
"Give it up, you crazy son of a bitch!" calls Max's sword-bearing friend from outside.
Hugh's in the process of carrying several assault rifles slung over his shoulders when he sees Davis and his now lone prisoner walk back into the ship, Dunamis noteably more roughed up and Rand noteably less living.
"Huh," he says as they walk by. "Could've sworn you'd swing the other way."
"Dunamis here makes one hell of a deal," Davis says. "He's got the gate codes to one of their gateships, says that it's one hell of a hiding spot, and that thanks to time dilation from the speed the ship's traveling at, one day onboard is two weeks to the rest of the universe. I figure that's a pretty good trade. We almost ready to go?"
"Almost being the watchword," Hugh replies, shifting the weight of the rifles on his shoulders. "Now, you and Dunamis find a quiet spot, I don't want an Old Yeller."
Semo's working up a sweat clearing out the holds of both ships and installing all of the crashers in the smaller ship. Of course, that's just how he likes it; honest work is good for a man. Other than taking period drinks from the canteen at his belt, he works as tirelessly as a machine.
"I think we're getting close, captain," he says the next time Hugh passes through.
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