Starship Armstrong - Season 3

Part 38 - Family Ties (XVI)

Mitzner pressed her finger to the device in her ear.

"I have good news and bad news," she said.

"Oh no," replied the Queen. "What's the bad news?"

"Well McAfree and I are kind of trapped. Which brings me to the good news: I found McAfree. She's unconscious but breathing."

Mitzner could hear the Queen sigh with relief.

"That's great news," she said. "Now what do you mean trapped?"

"We're in the terrorist base," said Mitzner. "They're using a relativity drive to open a space/time tunnel in order to come and go. There's a meters-thick wall between us and the outside."

"Well where's this relativity drive?"

"On the other side of the wall. I guess the engineer I threatened into activating it didn't think I was so scary once I wasn't in her physical presence."

"You should have killed her."

"I'm trying not to."

"Look where it got you."

"Are you coming to get me or not?" asked Mitzner.

"Where are you?" asked the Queen.

"It's too complicated to explain," said Mitzner. "You should be able to follow my scent trail though."

"That's not very becoming of a queen..."

"Bring someone who knows how to operate a relativity drive," said Mitzner, ignoring her.

There was a silence.

"Very well," said the Queen, finally. "I'll be there as soon as I can make proper arrangements. Sit tight."

"I'll try," Mitzner deadpanned.

* * *

McAfree didn't wake for several hours. The stun setting must have been dangerously high.

She stirred on the ground.

"No... no..." she moaned over and over.

"McAfree, it's okay," said Mitzner. "You're safe."

McAfree was struggling to sit up with some difficulty. She was drooling. Mitzner helped her to a sitting position. She could barely hold her head up.

"How many times have they stunned you?" demanded Mitzner, a little more angrily than she would have liked.

"I- I-," said McAfree, shaking her head, "I have no idea. A lot."

"There must be some food here. I'll find you something to eat," said Mitzner.

"I'd just throw it up."

"Do you think you can stand?"

"Give me a minute."

"Take all the time you need," said Mitzner.

* * *

After a while McAfree stood up and seemed to be walking again. Mitzner scooped up the stungun and slung it over her shoulder.

"Let's go check on the kids," she said.

Mitzner walked into the other room, with McAfree following warily behind her.

Delili and Gar were doing their best to comfort Hastoyar, who was moaning in pain. Azar's blood had spread everywhere. The room looked like a slaughterhouse.

"Oh good," said McAfree, when she saw that Azar was dead, "you killed the worst one."

"Azar was a brave man!" snarled Delili.

McAfree looked her directly in the eyes as she spat on Azar's body.

"Sounds like she needs a good stunning," she said.

"No, she's being good so far," said Mitzner, swinging the stungun around. "You can't just be careless with stunguns like that. If someone were to abuse one, say stunning someone over and over in a short period of time, they could potentially cause brain damage. Nasty stuff. But that's not even the half of it."

Mitzner paced back and forth as she spoke. She fiddled with some of the settings on the stungun.

"These old imperial ones don't have any fail-safes. You can turn it up way past the point of danger. There we go."

She brandished the weapon around.

"Get hit by it now and it'll fry your brain. You'll survive, assuming you have access to 24 hour care, but there won't be any quality of life."

Mitzner turned back to McAfree.

"The very minute she stops being good I'll hit her with this and she'll wish I shot her in the head instead of the ear."

"Why are you being so horrible?" demanded Delili.

"...asks the kidnapper," said McAfree.

"Asks the freedom fighter!" insisted Delili.

"We've already been over the hypocrisy of that rationalization. I think that's when you started stunning me for fun."

"In answer to your question," said Mitzner, "I'm being so horrible because you hurt my friend. It's extremely hazardous to the general intactitude of your various limbs and dangly bits to hurt my friends. Simple as that."

"Who are you?" asked Delili.

"I'm Lieutenant-Commander Zarah Mitzner of the Huxley Foundation Starship Armstrong."

"We come in peace," McAfree chimed in.