From: Shawn _ (alamo_nate_at_yahoo.com)
Date: Mon Jul 14 2008 - 04:32:53 PDT
=Helping Hand, Part 3=
(cont'd from "Anaqueen Vs. Captain Spankryz, Part 2")
LOCATION: SHIV
SCENE: Engineering
STARDATE: [2.8]0714.0430
Cochrane was tending to the still unconscious T'kal as Jacob Crichton stood in front of a nearby terminal, following instructions and advice given to him by his double. Visual communication still had not been restored, but the voice of the other Jake Crichton could be heard via the comm system loud and clear. Cochrane finished taking T'kal's pulse, then gave her an hypospray injection out of a First-Aid kit they'd found. He then rose and came to stand behind Crichton.
"She's stable, but if we don't get her to a sickbay soon, there could be permanent damage," he said.
[[I see you found the easter egg,]] the mirror-Crichton chuckled over the comm.
"What's that?" Cochrane asked.
[[A concussive mine, hidden in the terminal,]] mirror-Crichton commented casually. [[That's what nailed your crewman, am I right?]]
Cochrane didn't much care for the doppleganger's tone as he casually discussed the device that could have killed (and still may, Cochrane thought darkly) a fellow member of the GATEWAY crew.
"Do they not have *tact* in your universe?" Cochrane muttered, a deep frown on his face.
[[Oh lighten up, she's still alive. Tell you what- twenty minutes from now, if she's dead, I'll let you give me one solid 'I told you so', okay?]]
"If she dies, I'll give you a lot more than that," Cochrane scowled.
"Enough, Crichton," Lt. Jacob Crichton said to himself. Or rather, his *other* self.
[[Oh, come on, Jake,]] the mirror-Crichton said. [[Your whole dimension is made up of a bunch of nervous nellies. Don't tell me *you're* one too.]]
"Not at all," Crichton replied. "It's just that, around here, we don't get that excited about senseless violence and death."
[[Enough with the guilt trip. The mine wasn't even my idea anyway, it was Daisy's.]]
"But I'll bet you helped her install it," Jake Crichton observed.
For once, the mirror-Crichton didn't have anything to say.
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LOCATION: BAD WOLF
SCENE: Cockpit
The ship dropped out of warp, and the hum of the engines died down a little as the ship began moving through the Jokarin System on impulse power. Immediately, Raxl did a scan for any Dominion ships in the area, and came up negative. The Jokarin System was part of a rather unlawful part of space run mostly by pirate-kings or regional warlords, so it wasn't likely that the Dominion would be stopping by anytime soon. Certainly, the might of the Dominion fleet could pacify this region of space with little trouble, but given that the Jokarin system had little in the way of natural resources or strategic value, the Dominion was content to leave it alone.
The downside was that the Jokarin System was a truly lawless place. Raxl had been in the system for less than five minutes before trouble found him. His tactical computer began blinking, and Raxl checked the sensors in time to see a pair of fighters emerging from behind a nearby moon and began heading directly towards him. Raxl rolled his eyes and, by reflex, activated BAD WOLF's shields before trying to hail them.
"Incoming fighters," he said, "..I'm going to go ahead and assume you're hostile until you say otherwise. So you might want to keep my number on redial."
As he expected, there was no response except for the fighters powering up their weapons and accelerating to attack speed. Raxl sighed, targeted one of the fighters, and sent a warning shot across its nose, so close that it scratched the paint. This was all they needed- the fighters slowed down and veered away, content to let Raxl pass as they went in search of easier prey. They were scavengers, waylaying merchant ships and other easy targets to steal their cargo, and the last thing they were looking for was a real fight.
Raxl laid in a course for Jokar 4, a gas-giant that was the fourth planet in the system. Hanging high in its atmosphere was the space-station HAVEN, used exclusively for smugglers and other shady characters as a buying-and-selling point for black market goods. Raxl wondered how many times Budo Pumbular had set foot there. Not often, he guessed. Judging by the decor in his office, Budo clearly had a thing for clean surroundings, and Raxl very much doubted that the fat man would have a lot of patience for the level of hygiene that your average HAVEN visitor demonstrated.
HAVEN was an old station, by at least 100 years. The pirate kings who first discovered it believed it was an old Dominion station, but it didn't look like any Dominion technology that Raxl had ever seen. Regardless of who had built it, it was known owned and operated by a council of local warlords, pirate kings, and those with enough credits to buy themselves a controlling interest. HAVEN had strict rules- no fighting, to killing, no robbery. That kind of behavior caused business aboard the trade-station to grind to a halt, and was dealt with swiftly and severely by the ragtag security team employed by the council.
Martin Anders had last been seen aboard HAVEN, about three weeks back. Raxl doubted the man was still aboard, but he at least hoped to get a lead on where Anders might have gone. If it turned out Anders *was* still aboard, that created a problem- the rules of HAVEN strictly forbade Raxl to take any action to arrest him, and the bounty hunter was in no hurry to tangle with the goon-squad that made up HAVEN security. Raxl would be forced to simply drift just outside of Jokar 4's atmosphere and wait for Anders to make a break for it. This plan didn't sound very good either; there was no telling what kind of ship Anders would be leaving in, and Raxl didn't want to wind up facing down any pirate battlecruisers.
Raxl transmitted the clearance code- a special code required to dock with HAVEN, supposedly known only by elite members of the underworld (but realistically, could be bought off just about any two-bit hood in the quadrant) and started his approach. He'd been to HAVEN more than once, so his ships ID tags were already on file in HAVEN's database. That meant that, if Anders had friends aboard the station, they were likely to warn him that a bounty hunter had come for a visit. Raxl wished there was a way around it, but alas, rules were rules.
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LOCATION: GATEWAY Station
SCENE: Operations
Crichton stared at the console, not seeing it. He stared through it, stared into space, but still not seeing. The words of his double had stunned him into silence, something Daisy could never do, not even when she'd cut out his eye.
Because Lt. Jacob Crichton was right. It had been Daisy's idea to install the concussive mine in the console, in case the SHIV was ever captured. But she didn't have the technical expertise to wire it up herself. She couldn't have done it without Crichton.
When it had happened, he'd rationalized it. **If I don't do it, she'll just get another engineer to do it instead,** he'd thought. But now, he realized that that wasn't the point. By agreeing to help Daisy at all, even begrudgingly, he'd become an accessory to all the evil she represented... to everything he professed to hate.
And he realized that it didn't stop there. The SHIV and its crew had terrorized his dimension for years before they'd attacked his ship, murdered his family and crew, and accepted him into their service. But it wasn't until he'd joined the crew that they'd become *truly* terrifying: mystifying enemy tacticians with sensor tricks, disabling shields with a single, precisely-modulated burst of energy, and a hundred other tricks. With Crichton's help, the SHIV had stripped colony-worlds of their defenses and rained fire and death down upon them, only to land later and collect what valuables remained. And through it all, Crichton managed to convince himself that it wasn't really his fault.
He thought he wanted to die. He'd thought that ever since the day they'd brought him aboard, forced him into a cell, and began torturing him into obedience. He'd always told himself that Daisy would never break him... but he realized now that she never had to. Because in the end, he always did what she asked, even if it was only after lobbing a few dozen insults. His longing for death had nothing to do with proud defiance... it was because, in the end, he hated himself. He hated what he'd become.
[[Crichton? Crichton!]] the voice of Lt. Crichton came over the comm urgently. Crichton shook his head and sat forward.
"I'm here," he said.
[[I made it through the first eight level of encryption,]] Jake said.
"Goodness," Crichton said with a smile. "And I here I thought I'd made each layer of encryption unbreakable."
[[Well, I've hit a wall,]] Jake said. [[I can't get past this next encrypted layer of programming. And it looks like we've got about 28 minutes before life support shuts down completely.]]
"We don't need to regain control of the whole ship, just find a way to get the shields down," Crichton reasoned. "Try isolating the subroutines that control shield power-output levels. It will take less time than freeing up the entire shielding system, and we might be able to use it to lower the shield frequency enough to beam you out of there."
[[Alright,]] Jake replied. [[It'll take me a minute.]]
Crichton nodded. He resolved that, no matter what else might happen, he would at least help this other version of himself get home safely. After all, it was the least he could do.
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LOCATION: HAVEN Space Station
SCENE: Main Level
HAVEN was smaller than a single module of GATEWAY Station, which meant that conditions inside were usually pretty cramped. As Raxl walked down the Main Level (HAVEN's version of the Promenade), he had to muscle his way through throngs of aliens of all shapes and sizes. There were few humans, which was good, because it meant that people would be more likely to remember Martin Anders. Raxl politely declined several propositions by Orion "working girls", as well as three separate offers to purchase illegal disruptor technology and one offer to buy a rare vial of P'traxian Flu, before coming to HAVEN's largest and most prosperous establishment- the local bar.
"HAVEN's Haven" was the bar's name, owned by a particularly unpleasant Cardassian to whom Raxl owed money. Raxl resolved to keep a low profile as he asked around, not wanting to attract attention as he searched for information on his quarry. The barkeep was the logical place to start, partially because barkeeps tend to be founts of information in places like this, but mostly because it would also afford Raxl the opportunity for a drink. And as Raxl looked around at the scum of the galaxy all around him, he decided that he could really, really use a drink.
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NRPG: A look at the motivations of mirror-Crichton. And, of course, more Raxl Dreyton. I should note that, obviously, the Raxl Dreyton stuff isn't happening in real time along with everything else that's going on in the story... assume Raxl left for the Jokarin System right about the time the CHANTICO and COMMENDATION towed the SHIV and the MATACO back to GATEWAY Station.
Shawn Putnam
a.k.a.
Jacob Crichton, Lieutenant
Chief of Engineering
GATEWAY Station, GS-2
From HyperNews_at_youth.net
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Wed Nov 19 2008 - 03:10:54 PST