Field Commander Grayson Shmoo planted one steel-plated boot on the chest of a woman struggling to escape from the carnage of Haven. She’d suffered a severed spinal cord in the attack, and was pulling herself on her elbows towards one of the hidden exits when Shmoo finally put her out of her misery with a bullet to her brain. He waved a hand towards the exit she’d led his troops to, and barked orders. “Kill ‘em all.”
As fifty men with guns leapt instantly to follow his command, Shmoo reflected that he could really get used to this. He stepped nonchalantly through the concealed door, and into an alley half a mile from the main entrance.
*********************************************
Meanwhile, back aboard the Richard Nixon, Aleiki was wiping the blood off her knife with the hem of the recently deceased ship’s doctor. It was his blood anyway, she reasoned. No sense getting it all over her.
“My God, this brings back memories.” Loki glanced over at Gisiebob as he drove a wedge into the sickbay doorjamb, and grinned evilly. “Remember the last time we were on one of these?”
Aleiki nodded, and proceeded to stuff the doctor’s body into a storage closet. “It’s been….ten years now, the French-Portuguese universe. Nothing like this though.”
“True. This thing looks like it designed for Star Trek.” Loki agreed. “Still, how different can it be? An airship’s an airship, yeah?”
Aleiki glanced at her brother to see if he was joking. “I’m not even going to dignify that with a response.”
With a crack, Gisiebob split the lock on the door on the other side of the sickbay, and the door swung open to reveal a narrow hallway. The short man gestured as if to say ‘after you.’
Loki and Aleiki brought to hand the shotguns they’d smuggled onboard with themselves, and proceeded through the doorway.
*********************************************
“Are you sure you know where you’re going?” Dead Man wasn’t entirely sure he trusted The Man, whether or not he was on their side now. Following someone who’d once had you killed could breed that kind of distrust.
The Man snorted derisively. “I’ve been skulking these streets for six years. Trust me.”
Dead Man returned the snort. “Like hell.” But he still fell back to the others. As he fell into step with Valdor, he nudged the big man in the ribs. “Do you trust him?”
Valdor gave Dead Man a withering look. “I just found out that in ten years I’m gonna be blown up while I’m on fuckin’ guard duty. I don’t feel real trusting right now.”
“Chill, man.” Loki stepped up. “Most of us have even less time than you do.”
“You should talk, you’re still alive.” Valdor shrugged them both away, and quickened his pace to leave the conversation.
“He’s right. You really should stay out of this.” Donovan appeared at Loki’s left. “You can’t understand the way this feels. Knowing exactly when you’re going to die? It fucks with you.”
Loki looked to Asraiah for support, but met only the cold confirmation of her remaining eye. He shook his head, frustrated. “Great, so you’re all going to die. Get over it! It’s not as if we lead safe lives. Jumping around in time and fighting zombies and French airships and goddam troll-people aren’t cozy, light hobbies. We carry a war zone with us wherever we go. I’ve never heard any complaints until-”
Aleiki cleared her throat conspicuously.
Loki glared at her. “My point is, we’ve all risked death before. Hell, Dead Man, you’ve killed me once already!”
Dead Man stared very intently at his feet.
“And look at it this way.” Loki continued to press his point forward, sensing he was on a roll. “You know for a fact that you won’t doe for another ten years, right? That means we must get home safely, and once we do we can fix this, and keep this future from happening.”
“Didn’t you just contradict-” Loki elbowed his sister in the ribs. “Ow!”
Up ahead, listening to the exchange, The Man simply smiled. Foolish children, playing with forces beyond their comprehension. They’d soon see the error of their casual disregard for the laws of time and space.
Hopefully before it was too late…..for them.
********************************************
Hana was preparing a massive quantity of steaks for the officers’ dinner later that night, sliding around the galley in her bare socks across the polished steel floor, when Loki stepped through the door into the room. Immediately she lowered her eyes and swept into a bow, trying desperately to avoid incurring the wrath of the whimsically sadistic captain of the Richard Nixon. “My Lord.”
Loki glanced first at Aleiki, then at Gisiebob and shrugged. “Vassal?”
Hana’s eyes remained firmly fixed on her shoes. “Yes, Captain?”
“Been a while since I’ve been called that.” Loki muttered to Gisiebob. To the girl in the kitchen, he continued in his Official Captain Voice. “Why are you wasting time bowing? Get back to work, woman!”
Hana bobbed another bow and went about her work, risking nervous glances at the Captain. He seemed…..wrong, somehow. And she’d never seen either of the people with him, though they both wore United States uniforms. But why was the Captain wearing a grunt soldier’s uniform? She observed as he conferred with the people that accompanied him, and then the three of them left out a door on the other side of the kitchen.
Very strange.
She jumped, suddenly, as her wrist collar vibrated, signaling that the Captain was ready for his afternoon tea, and she hastily grabbed the tray that held the teapot and cup, and carried them up to the command bridge, wondering why he would order for his tea to be taken there if he wasn’t there himself.
And as she opened the door to the bridge, and saw the Captain sitting there in his dress uniform, she began to realize that things were even stranger than she knew.
*********************************************
“Did you hear that? She called me captain!” Loki was a bit giddy. “Captain!”
Aleiki rolled her eyes. “Yes, Loki, she called you captain. Can we talk about it later?”
Loki snapped back to seriousness. “No. If she thought I was the captain, then I must look an awful lot like him, and since no on a Proto-American ship would run the risk of insulting the guy in charge, we can use this to our advantage.”
Aleiki raised an eyebrow. “I thought we were trying to keep a low profile? Masquerading as the captain of this ship is going to make big targets out of us.”
“Just so you know, I think you’d make a great captain.” Gisiebob patted Loki on the arm reassuringly.
**********************************************
Back on the bridge, Captain Loki listened to Hana’s story with interest. “And how similar to me did he look?”
“My lord, if I didn’t know you were two different people, I would swear he was you in the flesh.”
Loki leaned back in his chair. “Interesting. We’ll find him, and his companions, and if I find you’ve been lying, slave,” his foot lashed out, catching her across the jaw and sending her sprawling on her back. “Then you’ll have more than a few bruises in the morning.”
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