OIC (19)
MegaZone23
"The best laid plans of mice and men aft gang agly."
--ancient Gaelic saying
"Status?" asked Zoner when he got back to the bridge.
"We're still closing on that system," Gryphon replied,
relinquishing the captain's seat and taking his own station
again. "Not close enough for anything but long-range scans
yet, but it looks like there's at least one class-M planet.
Maybe we'll find something."
"What about the captured pilot?"
"He isn't talking. No true Son of Kilrah is afraid of a
bunch of monkey-boy torture artists, apparently."
"Oh, Christ, they're torturing him?"
"No, no...he's disappointed that they're not, though.
Reinforces his view of humans as wimps. All they got out of
him was his name."
"Which is?"
"Promise not to boot?"
"Ok ok."
"Bakhtosh Redclaw."
"It just figures. He is Kilrathi, then?"
"Yep. Won't say what he's doing in this sector, or why
the five-ship tender, or what. Just snarls and spits."
"Sounds like a Kilrathi to me. I suppose I should go
down there sometime."
"If you feel like it, I suppose. The mech section is
tearing apart his fighter right now--they should have a line
geared up to build them in a day or so if you want. Some of
the Salusian pilots really like the design."
"I'll have to talk with Perry about it, I dunno. We've
got enough assembly lines down there to build armies, for
chrissake...I still don't know where the hell the raw
materials come from."
"Probably got huge cargo holds down there or something,
don't worry about it. Wolfgang said our production stores
should hold out at least a hundred years."
"Ok...hey, how's Kei?"
"She's fine, or will be in a day or so. The cuts and
bruises are just about healed, and the arm should be fine by
seventeen hundred. Jenna wants to keep her there for another
hour or so to observe. "
"Cool. I'll go down and see her sometime later, after I
get done with Redclaw. If anything happens, let me know."
"Will do."