OIC (38)
MegaZone23
"Turkey Fact #12: Turkeys are filled with enough
eltriptophane to knock you on your sorry Thanksgiving ass."
--Crow
Up on the bridge the Valkyrie's departure did not go
unnoticed.
"What the fuck?! I thought I ordered his ship off
limits. q, open a channel."
"Like, doing it now."
"Hey Zoner, what's up?" Ben's image filled the main
screen.
"Where the hell are you going?!" Zoner demanded to know.
"Well, since you don't seem to believe me, Kei wants me
dead, and no one will tell me what the hell it is I've done,
I thought I had better clear my own name."
"Gryph, you were confined to the ship--" Zoner began.
"--the operative word there being `was'," Gryphon
replied. "As you can see, that is no longer true."
Ignoring the interruption, Zoner went on, "Get back here
now and you'll get a fair trial."
"Yaright, I really fuckin' think so. Heh."
"Gryphon, get back in here!"
"You gonna come out here and make me? You keep saying
what a fuckin' awesome pilot you are, loudmouth--c'mon out
here and prove it to the world. See if you can take out the
galaxy's best Veritech pilot with your little flying car.
Look, I'm already accused--and, it seems, preconvicted--of
some horrible war crime or atrocity or something. The woman
I love hates me, tried to kill me. All my friends are
against me. I'm desperate and I've got nothing to lose. So
help me, Zoner, if you come after me, I'll fuckin' kill you."
Zoner's ire rose within him at those remarks; who was
the better pilot had long been a bone of contention between
the two of them.
"You can goddamn well try!" Zoner shouted, jumping up.
"Zoner, no," Logan said, turning in his seat. "He'll do
it. Look at his eyes, man, he'll kill you." Logan seemed
shocked that anything that deep could have emerged from his
mouth.
Well, if you don't want me to pull a Skywalker and blow
the Wayward Son out of space, you'll leave me alone," Gryphon
went on. "Remember, I know all her weak points."
"Could he do that?" Zoner asked ReRob, who was watching
on a subscreen from Engineering.
"It's very likely," Rob replied in a voice that hinted
toward him not really caring if it happened.
"Well, I really must be going. See you later, asshole."
Ben cut off communications.
"Sonofabitch! Keep a track on him!"
"I've got one... Shit! He just went warp!" Logan
reported.
"Goddess dammit! I guess it's up to me to tell Kei,"
Zoner said unhappily. She would NOT be very pleased, no, not
at all.
The rest of the bridge crew wondered amongst themselves
exactly what Ben had done.
Not unlike Ben.