Wow, thanks.
Glad you enjoyed it. ^^
Sorry for the wait. There's more to life than fanfiction writing, unfortunately.
YAY FOR NEW CHARACTERZ!
---
The lights came on in the guard barracks. Dan groggily opened an eye, his vision swimming. He was utterly exhausted from the hectic night he’d had, and the pain in his shoulder from where he had pulled a muscle wasn’t helping. Dan forced himself out of his bunk, careful to avoid hitting his head, pulled on his armor, hastily grabbed his weapons, and wandered out of the gloomy chamber.
He continued down the wide hallway, rubbing his eye sluggishly. It felt strange to walk down the hallway alone. Dan was usually accompanied by either Red (who was only there to complain) or Ian (who was only there to pester him), but they had both been sent to the sickbay. What for, Dan had no idea.
Dan stumbled down a flight of stairs and pushed open the door in front of him, yawning broadly. He could barely stand. He turned down the hallway, planning to head to the cafeteria for an espresso, before being shoved aside like a battering ram.
“Watch it!” a slig snarled, jostling past. Dan looked around confusedly. The hallway seemed more busy than it normal; obviously something was going on. He frowned. Once again, something important was happening, and, as expected, he had no idea what it was.
Dan decided to go with the flow. He stuck with the crowd, his elbows at his sides to avoid bumping into anyone. Occasionally he stood on his tip-toes to try and see what was going on up ahead, but to no success. “Hey!” he heard somebody call behind him. He payed no attention. It wasn’t his business. “Hey, you!”
Dan looked over his shoulder curiously. A vykker was forcing his way roughly through the crowd; in fact, he sort of looked like he was coming Dan’s way. Dan looked forward quickly and pretended not to notice. “You! In the armor!” The vykker yelled, pushing his way ever closer. Dan walked faster. The vykker continued his struggle persistently. ‘Whatever this guy wants,’ Dan decided, ‘he can do it himself.’
“Hey! Look this way when I’M TALKING!” The vykker squawked, finally catching up. Dan relented. He swung around, snapping
WHAT?
The vykker squinted at him through wide, round glasses, ‘tsk-tisking’ under his breath. “Such language.” He muttered. As quick as a flash he whipped out a clipboard and scribbled something down. Dan leaned closer in confusion, trying to see what he was writing.
The vykker glanced up at Dan, frowning. “What did you say your name was?”
Whuh?
“Forget that.” The vykker took more notes. “I was wondering if you would be so considerate as to obligate an errand I am in need of executing?”
Muh?
“Right, forget that as well.” The vykker growled impatiently, lowering his clipboard. He forced a letter into Dan’s hands. Dan looked down at it in confusion. “Would you be so kind as to take that to Durc? You know who he is, correct? Mean, vykker-ish...”
Of course I know who he is. Dan grumbled humorlessly.
The vykker squinted at him again. Dan found it unnerving. “Well then,” he said, looking through the mound of papers stuck to his clipboard. Then he marched back off into the crowd, leaving Dan standing there in disarray.
‘Ooh-kay.’ Dan thought, scratching his head and continuing on his way. ‘That was kind of weird.’ He turned on his heel (or just foot) and marched in the direction of the guard tower elevator. No matter what he had planned, he had to follow vykker orders.
He punched a button on the broad metal door and stepped inside, squinting against the bright lights. He hoped whoever thought bright lights and mirrored walls went together had been fired. When the lift reached its destination, Dan stepped out, and into utter confusion.
Dan had half a mind to just turn back into the elevator and hope he wasn’t noticed. Durc appeared to be going on some sort of roister, spitting orders at everybody who had bothered to show up to work. He limped slightly and had dark bags under his eyes; Dan suspected that he hadn’t slept at all.
Dan approached him the way he would approach a starved paramite.
Sir?
Durc swung around. He was so close that Dan could see his beady, bloodshot eyes through his armor’s goggles. “What do you want?” He growled scathingly.
Dan held out the letter. He snatched it and tore it open, pulling out the thin paper inside. Dan stood by unsurely as Durc looked over it.
Durc’s face turned red, but he didn’t speak. Dan stiffened.
Are you okay?
“NO I’M NOT OKAY!” Durc exploded, crushing the paper in his claws. Dan stared. “WHY THE HELL DIDN’T ANYBODY TELL ME VHERN WAS HERE?”
Who’s Vhern? Dan dared ask. Durc waved his arms in the air in disbelief, mouth struggling to form words, but none came.
Durc stomped in an angry little circle as Dan edged towards the elevator, eyes flicking left and right. Nobody else in the room seemed concerned. “YOU!” Durc snapped suddenly, jabbing Dan with a claw. “Come with me!”
Dan really didn’t want to follow Durc -in fact, he wanted to get as far away from him as possible- but he didn’t have many options. Dan followed behind at a distance as Durc sprang into the elevator and stabbed a button. The lift groaned speedily downwards, giving them a brief sensation of weightlessness, before grinding to a painful and unexpected stop. Durc lunged out, shoving his way through the morning traffic. Dan followed without much enthusiasm.
They turned, coming to a hallway that was much less crowded. Durc’s feet clicked the ground as he marched up to a door, thrust it open, and stepped modishly inside.
Dan peeked around him. A small group of vykkers were cutting apart a full-grown bull scrab. It was hooked up to an outdated life-support mechanism, its heart beating faintly on the pulse reader. Helix looked up from an incision he was creating and glared at Durc.
“What do you want?” he squawked as Durc lumbered over, face still red.
“Why didn’t you tell me,” he growled, voice trembling slightly, “that Vhern was here?”
“Vhern?” Helix said. “He’s not here. He was checking out that new airship, remember---”
“Then what’s this?” Durc demanded acidly, waving the letter in the air. Helix grabbed it, read a few lines, and paled.
“No!” He cried. “He can’t be, why would he, what in Odd’s name... this ruins everything!”
Who is Vhern?! Dan cut in.
Helix closed his claws. “Vhern,” he said, teeth grinding, “is a stuck-up selfish incoherent neat freak, but he’s
our stuck-up selfish incoherent neat freak... he’s the ship’s supervisor!”
“I like him.” Brux piped in, turning from where he was sorting medical supplies.
“Well of course
you do,” Durc spat, “but we hate him! He always tells us what to do, and no matter what it is, he manages to find something wrong, then he writes it all down and sends it to the Big Cheese back at the Airbase! If the word leaks out to the press about the problems here...”
Helix whimpered. “No more paycheck...”
Dan crossed his arms. He failed to see the big picture. Durc glared at him.
“If he makes my life a living hell, then I’ll make your life a living hell!”
That got Dan’s attention. He wilted visibly.
The intercom buzzed. “
Will all staff on the third floor please report to the Lecture Hall for information regarding the ship’s, ah, little problem,
will all third-floor staff report to the lecture hall...”
“Of course,” Dan heard Helix mutter as he started putting away his blood-covered supplies, not even bothering to clean them. “When things just can’t get any worse, we
had to run into this...”
<~{.epidemic.}~>
The room was packed full by the time Dan arrived. He looked around, frowning. There were bleachers set up, which meant for a long discussion. Dan took a seat, grunting territorially. He didn’t think there was anything else he could possibly learn about the danger they were in from some presentation.
A vykker stepped up to the podium. Dan blinked in surprise. It was the same obnoxious vykker he had seen before, huge glasses and all. He flashed the crowd a brief smile; his teeth were like tombstones. A loud series of thumps shook the room as two sligs stepped to each of his sides, saying nothing. Dan’s eyes widened. He had never seen sligs like them. They weren’t big bros, but they were still huge; more than twice the size of a normal slig, with arms like tree trunks and metal pants as thick as lampposts. They wore heavily shaded sunglasses over their copper-colored masks, and wore black plated armor that resembled business suits.
“1 and 2,” he heard somebody mutter nearby. He had no idea what they meant.
“I’m glad to see you’ve made it,” the vykker at the podium said into the microphone. “I think you know why you’re here, and, also, why
i’m here.” He flashed his teeth yet again. Dan yawned. “You may already know me, and if you don’t, well, you’d better learn. My name is Vhern,” he said, as though expecting a warm welcome from the crowd, “and I’m the ship’s supervisor.”
Dan’s horns twitched. ‘What’s the point of showing up is this loser’s just gonna talk about himself?’
“Now as you may also know, this will be the only discussion we’ll be having on the matter. No other floors shall hear of this.”
‘Wha?’
“You see, I’ve chosen what is statistically the smartest floor of the ship,” he said favorably, “so according to my calculations you should come up with the smartest solution to our psychopath problem!”
“Wait a sec!” Dan heard Helix shout. “We’re supposed to fix this?”
“Yes,” Vhern said icily. “Get crackin’!”
An uproar followed. “You can’t make us do this!” “How are we supposed to know what to do?” “We’re surgeons, not tactic experts!”
“This is not a democracy!” Vhern shrieked in a voice that silenced the entire mob. He looked over the crowd accusingly. Then he grabbed his clipboard, clicked a ballpoint pen, and wrote something down. He looked up from where he was writing, smiling. “Are we ready to continue this in a civilized manner, or shall I be forced to ask for assistance from our guidance counselors?”
The two sligs at either of his sides cracked their knuckles. Dan paled. ‘He can’t be serious...!’
Vhern licked his lips. “No? Nobody? Well then, lets continue.” he scanned the room. “Does anybody have a picture of the nuisance we could use a reference? Anybody?”
“We never got a picture,” Helix said coldly. “We got some footage from our security cameras, but the light was so dark that they’re practically useless.”
Vhern sighed. “Shame.”
“I drew a picture!” Brux chimed in, waving a crayon-scribbled piece of paper in the air. “He tried to kill me, so I know what he looks like!”
Vhern ignored him. “Well. Here’s what I suggest. We make a stop at the nearest airbase, preferably before anybody else gets flayed...”
“But that’s weeks away!” Somebody cried.
Vhern glared. “Well then, we call in from backup...”
“...from the nearest airbase?”
“I’m getting to that!” he hissed. “Oh wait, you’re right. Well, what do you think? You’re supposed to be the smart people! Don’t tell me I picked the wrong group!”
“A trap!” Durc said excitedly. “We’ll lay a trap for him! And when he falls for it,” he made motions with his hands, “boom! He goes splat, we go yay, we get on with our lives.”
Vhern forced a smile. “A trap sounds good.”
“What kind of trap?” Helix asked warily. “Is it your definition of a trap, or is it really a trap?”
“What are you saying?” Durc growled.
“Nothing.” Helix said carelessly, “except your last trap ended up killing an entire squad, and just made the situation worse, in my opinion.”
“Oooohhhh.” Brux said.
“Shut up!”
Vhern looked over at one of his sligs and nodded. The lumbering brute took a step forward....
“Okay, okay!” Helix said, ducking as though to sink into his seat. “I’ll be quiet.”
Vhern nodded. The slig pulled back. “I think a trap would be lovely.” He said. Dan frowned. He would never have described it as being ‘lovely.’ “Durc and I will further discuss the plan later.” he yawned. “Right now I want coffee.”
“Thats it?” Durc said accusingly. “This is all you can do?”
“Well yeah,” Vhern said, writing down something on his clipboard, “its not like I own the place.”