My Two Jakes
Posted on Feb 04, 2016 @ 4:56pm by Commander Jacob Crichton
Edited on on Feb 04, 2016 @ 4:56pm
Mission: Promethean
= My Two Jakes =
(cont’d from “White Flag”)
LOCATION: LAVENZA II Facility
SCENE: Laboratory Level
STARDATE: [2.16] 0204.1133
“He’s you?” Russ repeated, shifting his eyes between the two Crichtons suspiciously. “What does that mean?”
“I hate this part,” said the bearded Crichton with the missing eye. He glanced over at his clean-cut doppleganger. “Can we just speed through the explanation? I don’t want to draw this out.”
“Shut up,” Jake said, frowning at his duplicate. Then he looked to Russ. “It was about five years ago, when I was stationed on GATEWAY. We were attacked by a pirate vessel from an alternate universe, crewed by duplicates of the senior staff.”
“I’m not a duplicate,” the other Crichton said darkly. Jake ignored him.
“We stopped them,” Jake continued. “Locked them up. I was sent over to their ship to look around, wound up triggering some kind of booby-trap.”
Jake hooked a thumb towards his double. “They had to let him out of the brig to help get me out of there. For his assistance, he was given a lighter sentence than the rest of them. They all went off to prison - him included - and that’s the last I’ve seen of them until now.”
“We went off to *trial*, actually,” the other Crichton cut-in. “Funny thing, trials. We don’t have them much where I come from, our justice tends to be a lot more immediate.”
“And how did you wind up aboard the Annabelle’s Lament?” Jos asked, narrowing his eyes at the bearded Jake. “What is it they’re doing here?”
“I took a job,” the other Crichton shrugged. “As to what’s going on in this place, your guess is as good as mine, bughead.”
Jos didn’t react to the insult. He considered the other Jake’s words for a moment, then glanced at Kass and Barton and nodded. An instant later, they were at the other Jake’s sides, forcing his arms behind his back so they could lock them into wrist-binders. The bearded Jake protested and struggled, but to no avail.
“You were leading us to your location,” Jos said, standing before the now-restrained Jake Crichton doppleganger, his arms crossed. “Why?”
“I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about,” the other Crichton scowled. “You can’t keep me like this! If one of those things come--”
“Then I suggest you stop making so much noise,” Aerdan cut him off. “If it wasn’t you on the comms, then who was it? Who else is in this facility?”
“Go to hell!”
“Tell him,” Jake said, stepping up to Aerdan’s side. “This doesn’t have to end in a bloodbath. We can all get out of this if we work-”
“Work together?!” the other Jake finished incredulously. “My boss just tried to murder you all. You think he’s gonna buy into this ‘hug it out’ crap?”
“He will if he wants to live through this,” Jake said.
“Your boss,” Aerdan said, taking mental notes as the other Crichton spoke. “Who else in your crew?”
“I’m not telling you--”
“We can remain in this corridor shouting questions until another creature comes along,” Aerdan said. “I don’t know what happens after that.”
“You won’t leave me to die,” the other Crichton said. He pointed his chin towards his clean-cut double. “Not with his big blue puppy dog eyes staring at you while you do it.”
“One of my crew is missing, and the rest are in mortal danger,” Aerdan said. “We’re cut off from our ship, low on supplies, and we’ve seen enough of this complex so far to know it poses a major threat to the Federation at large. Now is not the time to make assumptions about what I will and will not do.”
The other Crichton stared back, his one blue eye smoldering in the gloom of the corridor. Aerdan would not be budged, but Crichton was stubborn. They may have gone on staring each other down forever, had not the bat-thing still heaped on the floor nearby began to stir. The reaction of the crew was immediate; Kass’s rifle was up and aimed, as were the phasers of the other armed crew. Barton still held on to one of the other Crichton’s arms, but his attention had shifted to the creature, waiting for it to move again. It didn’t.
“Alright, alright!” the other Jake said. “Shit. It doesn’t matter anyway.”
“Talk,” Aerdan said. “How many of your crew is left?”
“Three more,” Crichton said. He was staring at the floor, not directly at Aerdan. “Our pilot, and the EXO are up ahead. Our CO is supposed to be in the command center, but we’ve been out of contact with her since you folks arrived. Plus there’s me.”
“And what about the rest?”
The other Crichton glanced up, and angry sneer twisting his features. “What the hell do you think?”
“So you were not aware of this facility’s purpose?” Eve asked.
“Lady, all I knew was we were robbing Starfleet and selling the data,” the other Crichton said. “People in our industry don’t ask a lot of follow-up questions, you know what I mean?”
“What about facility staff?” Eve asked. “There have to be people in charge here. Scientists, technicians…”
“Only met one guy,” Crichton shrugged. “Dr. Conniston. He looked like he’d been dipping into his own supply, had animal parts growing out of him.”
“Anyone else?” Aerdan asked.
“Yeah,” the other Crichton said petulantly. “Big fella, scary claws, taste for meat. I think he’s the hall monitor.”
“We’ve seen him,” Barton said. He looked over to Kass. “When we were trying to make it back here, we were attacked. Some kind of spider… thing. Then the other one showed up.”
“What happened?” Eve asked.
“They fought, we ran,” Kass said. “Seemed like the thing to do.”
“Alright,” Aerdan said. “If it wasn’t the pirates sending us those messages on the computer, we have to assume it was this Dr. Conniston. The question remains: why is he leading us around?”
“This lockdown probably has him stuck just like the rest of us,” Jake said. “Plus all his experiments are loose. Right now, we’re his best shot at making it out of here.”
“I doubt he plans to surrender himself into our custody,” Eve said. “There’s enough evidence of illegal research here to put him away for a long time, and that’s before we factor in his association with pirates.”
“It’s not your ship he wants,” the other Crichton muttered. Aerdan turned to look at him, one eyebrow raised.
“Come again?”
“Like the lady said, he’s not going to let you arrest him,” the other Crichton said. “What’s waiting for him up there on your ship? A whole lot more security officers. No, he’s not making it out that way. He’ll want the Lament.”
“Which means he either wants us out of the way, or wants us to distract his beasties for him while he makes a run for it,” Russ said.
“Might have his own way off the base,” Kass offered. “Secret escape pod, that kind of thing.”
“I don’t think so,” Barton shook his head. “He would have taken it already, left us all to it. No, I think he was expected to go down with the ship, and he’s changed his mind about it. Now we’re his best shot at surviving this.”
“There’s still the surviving pirates to worry about,” Eve said.
“If you’re planning to use me as a meat shield, think again,” the other Crichton said. “They’ll shoot through me to get to you.”
“Sounds like a personal problem to me,” Jake said quietly. The other Crichton looked at him, smiling a little.
“Ooh, and haven’t you just gotten all gritty and mean since last we spoke,” he said.
“Enough,” Aerdan said, glaring at the other Crichton. “We also need to locate Samantha Perry.”
“Your missing crewman?” the other Crichton asked, almost laughing. “Great plan, fearless leader! Maybe you should split up, one group can find some of her on this level, the other group can find the rest of her-”
“I said enough,” Aerdan repeated. “I don’t want to gag you, Mr. Crichton, but I will.”
“Call me Jake,” the other Crichton sneered, glancing over Aerdan’s shoulder at his duplicate. “It’ll drive him bugshit.”
“Just shut up!” Jake said.
The other Crichton nodded, looking satisfied. “See?”
“Hell’s bells,” Jake sighed. “I’m not usually this annoying, am I?”
“You’re annoying in your own way, you beautiful snowflake,” Russ said, patting Jake on the shoulder reassuringly.
“So what’s our play?” Eve asked. “Do we make for the Lament to intercept Conniston there?”
“No,” Aerdan shook his head. “For better or worse, the command center is where he was leading us. That’s where the stolen data will have been uploaded. With access to the facility’s systems, it’s also our best chance to locate Ensign Perry.”
“And to destroy this base,” Kass said. “Because I’ll tell ya, I do *not* want to run into a room full of these goddamn things when we go to arrest Edgerton.”
“What about his friends?” Russ asked, indicating the Crichton duplicate with his good arm. “They sent him out to talk. Do you think they’re really ready to surrender?”
“If they’ve stuck around, we’ll ask,” Aerdan said. “If not, we assume their intentions are still hostile.”
“They are,” the other Crichton said. “Evaer isn’t leaving here without his captain and his payday. He’ll leave you all gutshot so the critters have something still kicking to chew on while he makes a break for it.”
“How do we know you’re not trying to get us to eliminate him for you?” Jake asked.
The other Crichton glared at him with his remaining blue eye. Then. slowly, a hideous smile spread across his bearded face.
“Does that sound like something you would do, Jake?” he asked, sounding mockingly innocent.
“No,” Jake said, shaking his head. “For one thing, I solve my own problems. For another, I’m not a murderer, even by proxy.”
“Well, the day’s not over yet,” the other Crichton said.
=[/\]=
NRPG: Talk talk talk, gab gab gab, jaw jaw jaw…. now it’s time for some action!
Plus, are Evaer and Brass still lurking up ahead? Or do they have their own plans?
As usual, hope I did okay with everyone’s characters!
Shawn Putnam
a.k.a.
Jake Crichton
Chief Engineering Officer
USS PHOENIX
and
Jake Crichton
Chief Engineering Officer
The Annabelle’s Lament
