Into The Blue: Revelations

Article by Bria

... in which the mystery is revealed, very spontaneous plans are made, and War muses about false alarms.

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Music played. It sounded martial, exciting, full of suspense and adventure. It followed the six OTFers as they walked down the corridors, Lzrman in front. Majin found himself subconsciously adjusting his stride to the music, stepping in time.

"Guys," SG said. "Where's the music coming from?"

"Maybe we're in a film," Wedge suggested. "No one ever knows where the music comes from there."

"In that case, we'd be wearing black leather cloaks and talking all stilted," Polson said. "It's the Matrix soundtrack."

"Iain's testing the intercom," Lzrman asserted.

"I liked Wedge's idea better," SG muttered.

They meandered down a few more corridors and lifts, then Lzrman led them to an observation gallery and pointed. "Check it out!"

Outside, stars were spattered against the dark backdrop of space. And off to the right—

"A star cruiser?" Wedge asked. "What the hell is that doing here?"

"It arrived about an hour ago," Lzrman said. "Eagle brought it."

"Eagle?" Polson stared. "Eagle doesn't even own a skateboard, never mind a star cruiser!"

There was a sound of the sort that might result when an impressive fanfare fails to be impressive—that is, a sort of choked-off squeak—accompanied by a small puff of smoke. It was followed by coughing.

"I need better sound effects, damn it!" a male voice complained. He spoke with a thick Glaswegian accent and sounded annoyed. Everyone turned to stare at FM, who stood there wearing a robe and a wizard's hat.

"Hey guys," he said. "Heard something exciting was happening for a change." He looked hopeful.

"Someone's brought in a star cruiser," Polson said.

"Let's go steal it," FM said.

"We don't even know who owns it," Wedge said. "What if it's not Eagle's, but CT's?"

There was a thoughtful silence. They all knew that under those circumstances, stealing it would be a very bad idea indeed.

"Let's go check it out then," FM suggested. "And then see."

***
A grin was doing its best to slash Bria's face in half ever since she had seen Eagle's reason for bringing Hobbie and her to the docking bay. A star cruiser had to be a million times better than X-Wings. At least.

"Awesome," she said.

"Isn't it?" Hobbie regarded the space ship, anchored to the outpost with a tractor beam, with an expert's eye. "I think we'll have a lot of fun with that."

Eagle grinned at them. "Just don't have too much fun, I don't want to have to repair it."

They were standing beside the shuttle that Eagle had taken from the ship, since the cruiser was much too big to fit into a standard docking bay.

Hobbie was about to reply when the door to the docking bay swooshed open and seven figures ran in.

"Oh, dear," was all Hobbie said.

"Hey!" SG bounded over to the trio. "That your ship?"

"Yes," Bria said.

"Can we borrow it?" Lzrman shouted.

"No," Hobbie said with force.

"Can we steal it?" FM said, eliciting laughter. He laughed along, then turned serious again. "No, really."

"No, you can't steal it!" Eagle said.

"I know," SG said. "Let's go on a road trip."

"Yes!" Bria shouted.

"How do you go on a road trip in space?" Hobbie asked. He had a bad feeling about the idea. "There aren't any roads."

"It's not about the "road" part," FM said.

"Just about the trip," Bria added.

"I like trips," Polson said.

"I'll trip you," Hobbie said darkly. "I don't like the idea."

Eagle was beaming. "Oh, I think it's a great idea."

Hobbie looked betrayed. "Fine," he said. "But Eagle and I are going to check through the ship first, before you lot come on board."

"I'll go ask if anyone else wants to go," Bria said.

"I'll come with you," Majin offered. Bria nodded, and the two were gone before anyone could object.

Shadow grinned. "Well," he said. "This should be fun."

"Fun," Polson repeated. "A star cruiser full of OTFers on a mad road trip, piloted by Bria and maintained by Eagle and Hobbie. I think we're headed for the apocalypse."

*** The sound of hooves filled the air, audible despite the fact that there is no air in space. Destiny takes things very literally, but it does have a flair for the dramatic. Sitting atop his steed, galloping past stars through the utter darkness, War wished that his boss had a bit more understanding of human exaggeration. This was going to be another false alarm, and one of these days he was going to go insane over those.

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