The Lost Goats, 57
Aug. 6th, 2012 07:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
avevale_intelligencer"Oh, no you won't," Zander said suddenly, freeing his wrists with a decisive flick. "I'm getting rather tired of all these threats. You don't really think you've got me, do you? My dear little cut-price pirate, I've got you. Don't you see? You're all alone, and every human hand in this galaxy is turned against you. Your fleet is crumbling under you, the Vigil is converging on this pathetic little planet, and all thanks to me." He laughed. "You're helpless, aren't you? Impotent. You and your boy friend are doomed. Your little crime spree is over. And as for strip-mining my brain--" He moved to the console Jenny had indicated, pressed a switch and spoke in ringing tones. "All Nyronds in sector, converge on Wuk system. Disperse pirate fleet and render assistance on planet."
He turned back to Jenny and Snood, who were frozen in place, looking stricken. "You think you understand Nyronds, but you haven't a hope. We've lived for millions of years, and we remember those who lived when your species was a line of code in God's first draft. The merest shaving from the surface of my brain would make yours explode. So let's have no more swaggering and bullying, shall we?" He advanced on Jenny and twitched the gun out of her hand. "Behave nicely and--"
"Get him!" Jenny shouted, snapping the spell, and the henchmen (including Louisa, whose parents had never liked him) abandoned theiri tasks and advanced on Zander, drawing various weapons. And it was at this point that alarms began whooping all over the control room.
That was lucky, Zander thought. I was a bit stuck for a punch line.
********
Galen, Probity and An, followed by a troop of Vigilante grunts (well, mostly grunts, with a few mumbles and mutters and a couple of burps thrown in), made their way through the bar, through the back room and down the steps. Above them, in the nearby space, various pirate ships were either being vigorously searched by other Vigil ships, or surrounded by a host of small vessels which had battened on to them purporting to offer fresh food, drink and other essential services, and had then by arcane means rendered the ship's drives, weaponry and communications systems inert.
"I don't understand why we're here," Probity observed, as she and Galen led the way down the corridor.
"I'm here," Galen said, "because the Vigil Commander doesn't trust me, and you're here because you wouldn't let me come alone. I have no clue why she's here." He jerked his head at An, who smiled sweetly back at him.
*********
"Attention, pirates of Wuk." The voice that boomed over the speakers in the control room was harsh and deep, and managed not to sound silly even saying the word "Wuk." "This planet is now under the jurisdiction of the Galactic Vigilante Corps. All persons on said planet are now detained pending formal arrest procedures, on charges to be determined. Troops are on the way. Cease all activity and await collection."
With an inarticulate cry, Snood leapt up and bolted from the room by one of the other exits. Jenny and Zander watched him go.
"Well," Jenny said philosophically, "it was a good run." She stuck out her hand. Zander smiled, but made no move to take it, and she retrieved it ruefully. The henchpersons, less phlegmatic, abandoned their advance on Zander and adopted a defensive posture as the double doors burst open and Galen, An and Probity leapt to either side to make room for the troops. Immediately the air was filled with that cheerfully undirected sort of gunfire that happens on such occasions, henchpersons and Vigilantes blasting away in all directions without restraint. Everyone who was not shooting proceeded to duck and cover in the traditionally approved manner.
Galen, crouched over, darted through the crossfire, grabbed Jenny, and handed her over to the commander of the Vigilantes, who was close on his heels. He nodded to Zander, who tapped him on the shoulder, leapt up, and raced off in pursuit of Snood.
********
Snood, for his part, was leaning against the metal wall of another stretch of corridor, drawing great heaving gulps of air, sweat-soaked and dishevelled. He had insisted on Jenny installing this particular escape route, but the distance involved, even going as the mole flies rather than following the wandering mountain trails, was further than he had realised.
Just a little further, and he would be safe. He forced himself onward. The sounds of gunfire and screams had died away behind him, but in his imagination he heard them vividly, pictured the hordes of gun-waving troopers pursuing him, vehicles homing in on his position by land and air, hard-eyed officers barking orders. What the Nyrond had said was true. Every man's hand was against him. He had dared to reach for the prize that should have been his by right, and now the universe was--
The ladder. He reached up and pulled himself up rung by rung, opened the trapdoor and heaved himself up into the cellar of his home. Safety at last. He closed and bolted the trap, climbed the stairs and went from door to window, making sure all were secure. Something was hanging in the stairwell, something he was not going to look at, not yet. He brushed past it.
It was as he was returning from the upper floors that he heard the sound, and his heart froze. He was not alone. He was locked in with--
He raced for his study and the desk therein, where he kept the fellow to the gun he had left with Jenny. He brushed past the thing in the stairwell, threw himself into the room and yanked open the drawer--
"Hello, Pervilious Snood," said Soren, the gun levelled squarely between Snood's eyes. "Mind if I join you?"
He turned back to Jenny and Snood, who were frozen in place, looking stricken. "You think you understand Nyronds, but you haven't a hope. We've lived for millions of years, and we remember those who lived when your species was a line of code in God's first draft. The merest shaving from the surface of my brain would make yours explode. So let's have no more swaggering and bullying, shall we?" He advanced on Jenny and twitched the gun out of her hand. "Behave nicely and--"
"Get him!" Jenny shouted, snapping the spell, and the henchmen (including Louisa, whose parents had never liked him) abandoned theiri tasks and advanced on Zander, drawing various weapons. And it was at this point that alarms began whooping all over the control room.
That was lucky, Zander thought. I was a bit stuck for a punch line.
********
Galen, Probity and An, followed by a troop of Vigilante grunts (well, mostly grunts, with a few mumbles and mutters and a couple of burps thrown in), made their way through the bar, through the back room and down the steps. Above them, in the nearby space, various pirate ships were either being vigorously searched by other Vigil ships, or surrounded by a host of small vessels which had battened on to them purporting to offer fresh food, drink and other essential services, and had then by arcane means rendered the ship's drives, weaponry and communications systems inert.
"I don't understand why we're here," Probity observed, as she and Galen led the way down the corridor.
"I'm here," Galen said, "because the Vigil Commander doesn't trust me, and you're here because you wouldn't let me come alone. I have no clue why she's here." He jerked his head at An, who smiled sweetly back at him.
*********
"Attention, pirates of Wuk." The voice that boomed over the speakers in the control room was harsh and deep, and managed not to sound silly even saying the word "Wuk." "This planet is now under the jurisdiction of the Galactic Vigilante Corps. All persons on said planet are now detained pending formal arrest procedures, on charges to be determined. Troops are on the way. Cease all activity and await collection."
With an inarticulate cry, Snood leapt up and bolted from the room by one of the other exits. Jenny and Zander watched him go.
"Well," Jenny said philosophically, "it was a good run." She stuck out her hand. Zander smiled, but made no move to take it, and she retrieved it ruefully. The henchpersons, less phlegmatic, abandoned their advance on Zander and adopted a defensive posture as the double doors burst open and Galen, An and Probity leapt to either side to make room for the troops. Immediately the air was filled with that cheerfully undirected sort of gunfire that happens on such occasions, henchpersons and Vigilantes blasting away in all directions without restraint. Everyone who was not shooting proceeded to duck and cover in the traditionally approved manner.
Galen, crouched over, darted through the crossfire, grabbed Jenny, and handed her over to the commander of the Vigilantes, who was close on his heels. He nodded to Zander, who tapped him on the shoulder, leapt up, and raced off in pursuit of Snood.
********
Snood, for his part, was leaning against the metal wall of another stretch of corridor, drawing great heaving gulps of air, sweat-soaked and dishevelled. He had insisted on Jenny installing this particular escape route, but the distance involved, even going as the mole flies rather than following the wandering mountain trails, was further than he had realised.
Just a little further, and he would be safe. He forced himself onward. The sounds of gunfire and screams had died away behind him, but in his imagination he heard them vividly, pictured the hordes of gun-waving troopers pursuing him, vehicles homing in on his position by land and air, hard-eyed officers barking orders. What the Nyrond had said was true. Every man's hand was against him. He had dared to reach for the prize that should have been his by right, and now the universe was--
The ladder. He reached up and pulled himself up rung by rung, opened the trapdoor and heaved himself up into the cellar of his home. Safety at last. He closed and bolted the trap, climbed the stairs and went from door to window, making sure all were secure. Something was hanging in the stairwell, something he was not going to look at, not yet. He brushed past it.
It was as he was returning from the upper floors that he heard the sound, and his heart froze. He was not alone. He was locked in with--
He raced for his study and the desk therein, where he kept the fellow to the gun he had left with Jenny. He brushed past the thing in the stairwell, threw himself into the room and yanked open the drawer--
"Hello, Pervilious Snood," said Soren, the gun levelled squarely between Snood's eyes. "Mind if I join you?"
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no subject
Date: 2012-08-06 07:28 pm (UTC)Anael: Got 'em!
Mitchel: Take that, pirate!
Lethiel: I can't take you guys anywhere, can I?
no subject
Date: 2012-08-07 04:22 am (UTC)⁁ rising from the drawer
(He has to be bluffing, of course. Does Pervilious know that?)
no subject
Date: 2012-08-07 08:23 am (UTC)Snood looked at Soren, at the gun, and sniggered, nervously.
"You're death-blocked," he said: "You can't actually shoot me."
"There's an exception to death-block," Soren replied; "In fact, so far as I can tell, and that's based on extensive research, there's an exception to everything in this galaxy, if you look long enough."
He saw Snood's eye slip to the right, and he moved to cut the man off.
"In the case of death-block it comes when someone directly threatens a Nyrond's life. Like, say, unloading a lethal chemical cocktail into his veins." He smiled, narrowly. "Think about that."
"You're lying. No Nyrond has ever -- "
His voice trailed off as the smile got broader.
"Left anyone alive who can testify," Soren smoothly said. "I'd be tempted, in your case, just to emphasise the lesson. But you haven't brought any convenient second-string hanger-on with you."
Snood gabbled something, eyes wide, terror beginning to crack open its larval sheath and emerge, full-winged.
It was slightly anti-climactic when he collapsed, courtesy of the blunt object bounced off his occiput by Zander.
no subject
Date: 2012-08-07 08:24 am (UTC)“I shan’t object,” Soren said. “Suddenly, Jubal’s recreation of sitting still and eating muffins sounds very palatable.”
“We have the coup files,” Zander said. “We have the Lost Goats – Galen was never a one of them, and Palinurus is securely low-profiled in his own little venture. What else is there ?”
“It’s odd that you should ask,” Probity Morganstern said, as she also climbed from the subterranean passageway.
Soren swallowed. “Was there something that we had missed ?”. His tone oozed innocence (and false hope).
“Galen wants you to stay until we’re all sure that all of this is wrapped up. Unfortunately, so do the Vigil, and currently they have total orbital control. So you couldn’t take off, even if you wanted to.”
Soren pigeon-holed that one under “How Much would you like to Hazard on that ?” and tried to smile.
Zander one-upped him: he actually managed the smile, even while he was considering whether or not Dr. Morganstern was actually caressing his lower spine, or merely checking for residual damage.
no subject
Date: 2012-08-07 08:25 am (UTC)That's what I say: Bless the Oowit !!
no subject
Date: 2012-08-07 08:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-07 08:26 am (UTC)