Ya wanna new board, eh? I'll give ya a new board...grumble...

LAST TIME ON LICC...

Lots of bad and strange dreams. An old weird guy shows up and tries to steal everything. That's gratitude for you. Hmm...how would you make a trophy out of pizza?

A box extends down from the underside of Arthor's wing and rotates around towards the fusion cutters. A missile fires from the box, destroying the fusion cutters. Arthor activates his anti-grav device and moves to a safer location in the Shuttlebay.

Arthor: "Gene, they attempted to physically disable my engines, but the situation has been dealt with."

Gene: "Very well. I'm on my way b......"
Datalink severed.

Gene: "••••. Arthor, come in."
Arthor: "I read you. They're jaming the datalink. Voice comms are still online. I'm making repairs on the outer casings right now."
Gene: "I'll be there as quickly as I can."

On Arthor's outer hull, a number of tiny robots appeared and began repairing the damage done by the fusion cutter.

Gene, meanwhile, finished with his preparations, and pressed the detonator button.

The bridge shakes slightly, and numerous alarms sound off on the Ops console. Colanator, two of his multi-use arms now a mass of data cables hooking himself into the computer, pauses in electronic thought. He detaches a small box from his torso, carefully jacking it into a computer station, then disentangles himself. After a brief pause at the bridge weapons locker, he is in the turbolift and away.

Ya wanna new board, eh?

(to the tune of "I want a new drug")
I wanna new board!
One that won't give me fits!
One that won't make me totally bored
Or make me not pick nits!

I wanna new duck.

Delgado regards the slumped-over Milkshake.

"Ooh, you don't look so good, sir."

One of the crewmembers passes Delgado one of the sober pills, which Delgado swallows.

"Heyyyyyyyy, that's a lot better. Ow. Okay, except for that my head still hurts."

Rikard waits near the Main Shuttlebay, trying to listen, trying to sense Gene's approach. He's unsure, however, whether he'll know when the bounty hunter gets close. As he tries to concentrate, he realizes that although he has a throbbing headache and a little nausea, he hasn't had any dreams or crazed visions in quite some time. The alcohol probably wouldn't be blocking it anymore, he thinks
"We must be past that Vale," he notes to himself.
He waits, silent and still.

The silence just outside the Shuttlebay is rather pervasive, but suddenly broken when Colanator grinds up. He seems to have reconfigured himself, as each multi-use arm holds a phaser rifle.

Commander. he acknowledges Rikard.

Rikard silently nods back.

The explosion blows a hole in the wall of Milkshake's quarters, directly into the turboshaft. He checks both up and down.

Gene: "Never an elevator when you need one."

The hanger was 7 decks below the one he was on. Part of the equipment he had delivered included a multi-use gauntlet. He made a fist, set the gauntlet, aimed, and fired. The hook embedded itself into the wall of the turboshaft. He let out some wire until he had desended 7 decks. A little more explosives, and the door was no longer a problem. He swung onto the deck, retracted the wire, and slung the assult rifle around into the ready position.

Gene: "I'm almost there."
Arthor: "Please hurry. Colanator has revived, and he doesn't look pleased."

Meanwhile in the shuttlebay....

Arthor activated his engines and took off. He retracted the landing legs, activated the shields, and kept the nose pointed at Colanator. The shields should be able to shrug off most handheld weapons fire until Gene could arrive. Unfortunately, with the shields in place, Gene would be unable to either board or beam equipment on or off.

The second Windward steps onto their deck, Colanator senses him.

Prepare yourself, Commander. Colanator says to Rikard. Then, in an amplified voice, the robot speaks to Windward.

Intruder. Surrender now. You cannot escape, your vehicle cannot escape. You must realize the stakes in this situation. To prevent the heedless deletion of the Master Program, I will not hesitate to destroy you, your vehicle, or this ship.

Rikard gives no warning. With his pistol set to stun, he aims at Gene and fires.

Meanwhile, during all of this running, fighting, and gunfire:

Artsy skids to a halt at the door to Seeker's private shuttlebay. Before she can tap the controls to open the door, her mind floods with a reluctance not her own. Quito comes padding down the hall and flings her arms around Artsy's waist. "What is it?"

The little alien girl squeezes her eyes closed and presses her face against Artsy's tunic. Flashes of fear. A tide of red water. Bad dreams. Bad bad bad bad dreams....

"Whoa." Artsy tilts the child's face up to meet her gaze. "You too?"

Lightening-quick images of the entire ship's crew.

"Everyone?" Artsy reaches out and opens the bay door, pulling the unwilling Quito with her inside. "Are you sure?"

The girl nods.

Inside the bay, Seeker rests quietly. Too quietly, Artsy realizes, as she tries to get his attention mentally and hears nothing in return. "Quito, is Seeker all right?"

The little alien gives her a disbelieving look. After biting her lip in a moment's thought, Quito leads Artsy right up next to Seeker, then hesitantly lays her free hand on his red smooth side.

GLADNESS. SORROW. UNFORMED FEAR AND --

The sending breaks suddenly, as Seeker becomes aware of the connection. A moment of controlled silence, then:

WELCOME. YOUR RETURN IS JOY, IN SAFTY AND DANGER.

Artsy almost forgets her concern in a rush of returned golden pleasure. But the persistant undercurrent of wariness in Seeker's sending brings her sharply back to her purpose.

I don't understand where we are. These patterns/not-patterns...these dreams....

YES. Seeker shivers once, visibily. UNCERTAIN HOW FAR THIS EXPANSE EXTENDS.

I want to understand, Artsy tells him firmly. You can help me. My Craft limits my perception, I think. She rests her right hand, with its crystal ring, against him.

After a long moment of hidden decision: YES. YOUR ANCHOR I AM.

Not bothering to try deciphering the wisps of regret that cluster around that statement, Artsy pulls her other hand out of Quito's, takes the ring from her finger, and closes her right hand tight upon it....

With inhumanly fast reflexes, Gene jinks to the right, brings up his left arm, and charges. Rikard's shot his that arm, and has no real effect on it. Gene continues forward with that same otherworldly speed, swings the rifle into his left hand, and punches Rikard in the gut with his right. A number of metal studs discharge on impact, effectively stunning him.

Gene continues the movement, brings the rifle around, and empties the clip into Colanator, who falls over.

I'm sorry, but surrender isn't my style. Not if you excuse me, I bid you both good day.

With a slight bow, he turns and approaches Arthor, who lowers his shields and opens the hatch.

Gene stops in his tracks, apparently against his will.

Voice: "Going somewhere?"

Gene is roughly spun around towards the direction where the voice came from. From out of the shadows steps Commander Adon.

Adon: "Welcome, Gene Windward. You will be staying with us for quite some time."

Gene: "Adon Mithril, Commander, File #24601-47. A powerful member of the LICC who has a habit of disappearing in the middle of an adventure."

Adon frowned.
Adon: "Like you're anyone to talk. But don't count on me disappearing here and now."

Gene brought up the rifle and fired an under-slung gernade launcher. The gernade sailed through the air and stopped in front of Adon.

Adon: "Please..."
Gene: "Thank you..."

Gene drew the pistol and fired, hitting the floating gernade round, which exploded. Adon dived out of the way and Gene dropped to the floor.

At the sound of the explosion, Rikard stirred.

"Within you your strength lies," the Yoda hologram had once told him. "You are a user of the Force, but it is not the root of your power or your abilities. Discover them you will. But it will be in your own time."
Why Rikard had thought of this at the moment, he was not sure. Nor was he sure of what had happened.
"You missed," his shoulder says, "You fired the shot and missed. I think the bounty hunter took advantage."
"I didn't miss," Rikard replies, "He's obviously not who i thought he was. He's not a normal human. He's faster. And his arm, he didn't even notice when I shot it."
"Maybe you should shoot to kill next time," the crazed shoulder says.
"No. Not unless I have to," he pauses for a second, "Colanator would destroy the ship?"
"WAKE UP!!!!"
Rikard's eyes open. He's on the deck, near the shuttlebay. What had he heard? And explosion. A little groggy, Rikard tries to shake it off as he stands. He looks through the open doors to see Gene fall to the getting up from the ground himself and Adon floating out of a tumble nearby.
"Wonderful, Adon's back to save our eemas again," Rikard mutters to himself, "Hey Windward!" Gene turns to look as Rikard draws a second pistol and fires both. The shots miss Gene, splashing harmlessly against Arthor's shields, but are near enough for the bounty hunter to dive away from his ship, as Rikard had hoped. Gene quickly recovers, returning fire with his pistol. Rikard jumps for cover behind a few conveniently close cargo barrels. He throws one of his pistols down and unclips the lightsaber on his belt. The silver blade shoots out with a snap and hiss.
"If that power's inside me," he says to himself, "Now would be a great time to find it."

With a brief flash of light, Alex, Jackson, and Butrfli appear in different parts of the corridor, surrounding Gene. Each hero has a weapon trained on him.
Jackson: Have we missed the party?

With a screech accompanying broken servos and motors, Colanator draws himself upright again. Pausing for a brief second to scan the situation, he brings all four phaser rifles up, and fires four precise high-level beams into Arthor's open hatch. Windward's ship immediately crashes to the decking, but Colanator's sensors cannot determine the extent of the damage.

Gene looked over towards the entrance to the shuttlebay and waved.

Gene: "Umm... I'm over here."

With a crash, Arthor hit the deck, blocking the hatch.

Gene: "••••"
Gene: "Arthor! What happened?"
Arthor: "I was careless, Gene. Colanator damaged the anti-grav motavator. It will take 3 hours to repair."
Gene: "Can you use your engines to take off?"
Arthor: "Thrusters are insufficent, and the main engines will kill anyone who gets close, including you."
Gene: "Right."

Gene: "Don't worry, guys... you haven't missed ANYTHING!"

Gene opened his long jacket, and six missiles fired out towards the corridor. He retreated towards the back of the shuttlebay where the launch controls were kept, firing his revolvers and shotgun/pistol towards Rikard, Colanator, and Adon.

With a rush and whoop, Alex, Jackson, and Butrfli appear behind Gene. Butrfli raises her staff and begins to chant. The various projectiles begin to glow, and then slow down as they approach Rikard, Colanator, and Adon. Jackson raises a gauntleted hand and fires another mass of plasticine taco shell, which envelopes Gene and hardenes. With another chant, Butrfli launches a large fireball at Arthor, which hits home. Alex, meanwhile, has rushed over to Rikard, Colanator, and Adon and gets them out of the way.
Alex, looking at the frozen projectiles: This needs to be done... the spell's just a temporary thing, you know.
Indeed, just as Alex points this out, the projecties stop glowing and continue their path, hitting a nearby shuttlepod.
Jackson: Butrfli, it was good thinking using the holosystems while you used an invisibility spell on us.
Butrfli: I thought they would distract him.

Three more beam right into the middle of the action, ignoring any weaponsfire erupting around them.

We're here to fight on the side of evil! Moth, use your incredishield magic to protect Gene! Johnson, beam the good guys to another dimension with your Amazing Wrist Beamer! I'll disguise myself as a hideous Tarkassian razorbeast!

"Geez, this place is getting crowded," Rikard observes after diving back behind the barrels that had moments before provided him with cover. As he and his fellow LICC exchanged fire with the bounty hunter, Rikard's thoughts drifted back to the times before when he'd helped Adon face a seemingly superior opponent. Terror, Rogat, Terror again. They'd always easily outclassed Rikard, and Adon was the only one who'd been able to stop them, with much effort of course. Rikard wonders if this situation will end up being similar to those.
"You're right though," Terror says, "I'm vastly superior to you, young Jedi." Rikard instantly has his gun pointing at the Sith Lord and his lightsaber ready.
"Is that right?"
"It is," says Rogat, walking up to stand beside Terror, "You were never a match for us. We exposed your league's weaknesses. Showed them for the frauds that they are."
"Without Adon, your league is nothing," Darth Terror hisses, "You, young Jedi, are nothing."
"Big words coming from a two time dead man," Rikard says, "Times change Your Nastiness, I've changed. We've all changed. Sure, the LICC might be destroyed without Adon. But there would be others to fill our place. To stop you. You know, the whole shebang."
"If the Wanderer is destroyed, your people would be destroyed," Rogat says.
"Yeah, you never met the Sorceror, did you?" Rikard muses, "Anyway, go away, you guys aren't real. Get the frell out of here."
Rikard takes a quick glance over the barrels. When he turns back the Terror and Rogat are gone.
"•••• dreams," Rikard says, "Guess we're not out yet."

Mikey, Johnson and Moth are gone too.

Colanator has been flung near Rikard. His weapons are scattered all over the shuttlebay, and currently he is busy attempting to repair the damage to himself. With the intervention of the Tacomen and the Mrs., he sees his chance, and begins to flank Windward and Arthor, fusion flares burning at the tips of his arms.

Gene: "ARTHOR!"

Arthor opens up with very precicely controlled phaser fire, and vaporizes the tacoshell enough for Gene to free himself. He jumps out of the remains and ducks for cover with sickening speed.

Arthor: "Gene! Behind you!"

Gene spins and sees Colanator coming fast. He draws, aims, and fires four shots with the revolver in such rapid succession that to everyone else, it sounded like a single gunshot. Three of Colanator's fusion torches explode in plasma-fire. The fourth bullet hits him dead center in his head.

Adon flys over Colanator's body and swings his sword. Gene's cover vanishes in a golden explosion. Adon frowned because just before the blast hit, he saw Gene move.

He's fast... almost as fast as me.

Two gunshots rang out from his left. He rolled and banked to avoid them, brought up his hand, and fired another blast. Once again, he saw Gene move so fast he was a blur to Adon's hightened senses right before the blast hit.

No... faster!

Adon charged as fast as he could towards Gene. He saw Gene start to dodge, change his mind, and bring up the gun. Adon stopped. The tip of his sword was just above where Gene's heart should be. And Gene's gun was pointed right at his head.

Game over. Surrender now.

The robotic shell of Colanator collapses in gouts of blue plasma-fire and servo lubricant, and finally lies still. The instant it does, a high-pitched squeal erupts from the intercom speakers, echoing through the entire shuttlebay and paining the eardrums of any organics present. The lights flicker twice, and finally go out, leaving the bay flooded with green emergency illumination.

Gene: "Never."

Gene brought up his left arm. Adon saw the leather break open and his hand drop down and back, and he realized what was happening. He thrust the sword home, but Gene was already moveing. The sword missed his body, but it pinned his coat to the wall.

Gene brought up his gun arm and fired. It missed Adon, but only barely. Then Gene's coat tore, and he made his way towards the shuttlebay's control room, firing as he went. with Arthor providing cover fire.

Realizing where Gene is headed, Rikard throws his lightsaber toward Gene, hoping to stop him before he reaches the door. Quicker than can be seen however, Windward shoots the lightsaber out of the air and fires several shots at Rikard. He must duck again, to avoid being hit.
"What the hezmana was that?" Rikard asks to no one in particular as he stares upward at the now blackened lights.
"You must stop him, Commander Rikard." Rikard looks around. He's back in Dnar'af's maze. And sitting in front of him is the being behind Rikard's lone test, a test that he had failed.
"You must stop him," Serfnertar repeats.
"I don't have my powers," Rikard says, "I'm just a distraction. My powers are gone so I'm just a target. The others can stop him."
"No," Nert says, shaking his head, "You must stop him. You can."
Rikard shakes his head. "You don't get it, do you? I can't stop him. He's too fast. He's too strong. And his ship is doing a pretty good job at holding us off."
"Reach inside yourself," Nert says, "Your power is inside you. It never left. The people who attacked you on Falkshaja merely hid them. You can claim them again. And more."
"More?"
"You know of what he speaks," a voice behind Rikard says. Rikard spins to see Yoda standing behind him, "For told you I have. Find them you can."
"Perhaps he can't." Sitting on top of the maze's wall is the Mighty Quinn, "But he will try nonetheless. If he is truly who he should be. If he is truly who the being that those behind his life believe he is. If he does have a destiny, he will find them."

"In the meantime," Rikard's crazed shoulder says, suddenly standing behind Serfnertar, "You've got a battle to fight, remember? Maybe you should get out of dreamy land!"
"Like I can help it," Rikard says. Suddenly he's back in the Shuttlebay, still behind the barrels. He peaks to see Gene almost at the doors to the control room. Across the bay, Rikard can see his lightsaber. He takes a deep breath.
"Okay, I can do this," Rikard whispers to himself. He begins to concentrate on the small cylinder. He calls to it, commands it to come, asks it to come, pictures it flying across the bay. He searches, searches for what he once had, what he still has, if he's to believe... himself. But the cylinder does not move. In the corner of his vision he can see Gene dive into the control room. Arthor continues to fire at the remaining LICC. He ignores it all, the battling, the noise, Colanator's heaped remains. All he sees is the lightsaber.

And then it moves. Just a few centimeters, but it moves nonetheless. Rikard's eyes widen and he searches for what he had just found. And he finds it. The cylinder flies across the room, toward Rikard's hand. Rikard laughs out loud.
"Yes! Guess who's back baby?" The lightsaber, despite being shot, still seems operational. He hits the button and the blade shoots out.
Seconds later, Rikard jumps out from his cover. He sprints across the bay, faster than he ever has, at least he thinks faster than he ever has. He still wonders if he's even close to the speed he's seen Windward travel. Arthor tries to target him, firing off several phaser shots. But none hit home.
Rikard stops at the doorway of the control room, firing his phaser pistol, set at stun, into the control room.

Much has been made of the horrible tendency of consoles to explode in incredible arcs, easily killing redshirts and injuring all others. Lawsuits have been filed, protests made, arrests even performed on makers of the defective electronic machinery. But hardly ever before has a computer system purposely detonated its own consoles, and never for any tactical purpose. But the Spidermobile's computer, suddenly displaying some unusual intelligence, decides the best course of action is to explode every console in the enclosed Main Shuttlebay Control Room harboring Gene Windward, in beautiful 50,000 watt arcs.

Gene looked up as Rikard entered the control room. He brought his freshly loaded gun up, and they both fired at the same time. Gene's bullet nicked Rikard's shoulder and knocked him back.

Rikard's shot hit Gene and he fell down. As he fell, the cable ripped out of the control panel. Then the gravity shut off...

Thrusters flairing, Arthor lifted off of the deck and moved towards the control room. Inside the control room, Gene's left arm moved on its own, dispite the fact that the rest of him was stunned. The gun fired and the recoil sent his body moving through the air towards the exit. Arthor angled up, and Gene's stunned body floated through the open hatch, with a few course correction shots from his left arm.

Once he was inside, the inner hatch sealed itsel, and Arthor flew out of the shuttlebay, went to warp, and was gone.

Holding his shoulder, Rikard can only watch as Arthor exits the still warping Spidership.

"Flying out of a ship while it's at warp, that's risky." He turns to his fellow LICC in the bay.
"We've got to get to the bridge," he says, "See if we can track hi- ow." Rikard can no longer ignore the pain in his shoulder, or the bleeding.
"Actually, I have to go to Sickbay before this gets too bad."

The Spidermobile, with no living thing on the bridge, acts without command, blasting into high warp and persuing Windward's ship. There are few vessels existing that can outrun a DoS cruiser, and as the Spider closes the distance, it opens fire at range.

Rikard winces and looks out the now open bay doors.
"Did we just change course?"

Inside Arthor...

Gene: "Man, I feel terrible.."
Arthor: "Its the stun. Hold on, and I'll give you something to help."

There was a slight hiss as Arthor injected something into the air.

Arthor: "That should do it."
Gene: "Thanks. What's our status?
Arthor: "We're away, and heading towards the rondevous point at top speed."
Gene: "They'll probably chase us. Send a message that we have the bounty and to have them intercept us instead."
Arthor: "I already have, and they are chasing."

An explosion rocked the ship. Arthor began jinking wildly in evasive maneuvers in order to avoid being hit.

Arthor: "And they're shooting at us as well."

Everybody up to the bridge! We need to control this ship!

Milkshake enters the bay, frowning as he surveys the extensive damage of the recent firefight.

We can't. The computer's locked out the bridge and is preventing any transports. I doubt we'd be able to man the consoles even if we did get there. Number One, what happened here?

"We tried to stop Windward from leaving the Spidership. I guess we underestimated him though. I know I did. He and his held us off long enough to escape. I would imagine that they're trying to get the disk to Earth and shut down Colanator. Speaking of Colanator," Rikard glances over at the cyborg's body, "Windward hit him in the head with a bullet. He appeared to be dead but I'm guessing that he's the one-," at that second, the gravity comes back and everyone except Adon drops to the floor, "controlling the ship. I'm pretty sure he'll stop at nothing to prevent the Master Program from being shut down, including the destruction of this ship." Rikard still clutches his shoulder.
"Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go to Sickbay.

A few minutes later, in Sickbay...

Rikard's shoulder is being carefully mended by Holodoc, and most of the senior staff are relating the events around the fight with Windward. Colanator's blasted robotic head sits on a nearby lab table. Milkshake frowns as Rikard reports Colanator's words just before going into battle.

He'll destroy this ship...? Something's gone terribly wrong. He has some very strict ethics commands. That's why I wasn't as worried of his control of Earth as much as the government seems to be. But if he's--

A quiet zhoo! zhoo! zhoo! sound emanates from the ship, and Milkshake looks in alarm at the overheard.

Those are quantum torpedoes. Colanator, can you hear me? Colanator, respond.

silence.

Steve, what if we plug our suits into the computer?
Perhaps we can enter its virtual landscape and try to confront Colanator...

I know what Colanator can do, it'd be way too risky to Tron into the computer.

Rikard listens as the doctor heals his shoulder.

"So what do you suggest, Commander? From what we heard in the transmission, EarthSysGov hasn't been able to get Colanator out of any of its networking. If he wants to stay in the Spidership's computer I don't think we'll be able to do anything about it. You know, short of wiping the computer."

"Why do I have a feeling he won't be receptive to that idea?" Delgado mutters.

"Wait- can we try making another body for him? Maybe if we do, we can coax him out."

It might work--

And echoing through the ship's superstructure comes the sound of more torpedoes launching, phaserfire, and the dull roar of an overtaxed warp engine.

but we just don't have the time. There is one failsafe I put in Colanator, it just might still be active. The only problem is, it won't stop him, it'll delete him.

Arthor wildly dodges the incoming fire. It swings far to the side and then preforms an emergency stop. The much larger Spidership flys right past it at warp, giving them a few moments peace.

Gene: "We can't keep this up for much longer."

The sensor controls beeped. A number of ships were decloaking around Arthor. The flagship locked a tractor beam on Arthor and pulled him into its hanger.

Admiral Winterspoon: "Attention Spidership: This is Admiral Winterspoon of the Earth Warship Attitude Adjuster. Stand down immedately, or we will be forced to open fire on you."

Inside the Attitude Adjuster's hanger, several crewmembers began repairing the damaged, as Gene disembarked and approached the Chief of Security.

Gene: "I have the source code."

Security Chief: "One moment, please."

He handed the disk over to a subordinate, who verified that it was indeed the real thing. Once they were convinced, they transfered the appropriate ammount into Gene's account.

Gene: "Its always a pleasure doing buisness with you military types. You don't mind giving me a lift in the direction of the Earth, do you?"

Security Cheif: "You may stay onboard only until the repairs on your ship have been completed. No longer."

Gene: "Sorry I asked."

The officer spun on his heels and left. Gene flipped the bird towards his retreating back before returing to oversee the repairs on Arthor.

The Spidermobile nears the rendezvous point, slowly, shields up but quiet. The Navy ships hail it, but there is no response, from ship or crew, who really can't respond, anyway.

The Ops Manager on the Adjuster reports to the Captain they are being scanned. Then the Comms Officer flinches, as all channels are jammed, source, Spidermobile. The Captain gives order to raise shields. Too late.

The Spidermobile fires two phaser blasts, from ventral and dorsal arrays. The beams carve into the Adjuster's warp nacelles, which begin to explode as the drive plasma is forcefully released. Compartment after compartment detonates, with the damage moving forward.

An explosion shakes the deck. Gene looks aft and detects the explosions quickly moving forward.

Gene: "This can't be good..."
Gene: "Arthor! We're leaving NOW!"

He flip through the still damaged outer hatch, with the inner hatch closing immedately behind him. Arthor's main impulse engines flair to life, unfortunately roasting the stunned repair crew. Not that it really mattered, because the fireball created by the Attitude Adjuster's destruction engulfed the hanger a split second after Arthor left.

Gene: "So much for the free repairs."

Two Navy ships remain, Scout Destroyers. With the loss of their flagship Cruiser and the heavy firepower on it, they are more than a little outgunned. They are, however, superbly trained, and seek vengeance on Spidermobile in salvo after salvo of quantorps.

The ship shakes, harder and harder, enough to break some of the more delicate items in Sickbay, as well as unsettle some of the more delicate stomachs. The aft shields fail on Spidermobile.

Colanator is not apt to let this rest for long. He brings the ship around and continues his mad course.

Within 20 minutes, the hulks of two destroyers burn in space. One DoS Heavy Cruiser remains, breaches on several aft decks. And one small personal vehicle attempts to bring its damaged warp engines online...

Do what you need to do, Steve. We need to get back in control of the ship, before we start calling Colanator "HAL."
You never taught him to sing, did you?

"Didn't Delgado say that this Colanator is just a copy anyway? Destroying him will just destroy the copy. Colanator won't really be dead, just his copy. We need to get control of this ship, and this may be the only way."

Right, this is getting intolerable.

All is silent once more.

Does someone have a PADD? We need to patch into the sensors, find out what's going on out there.

Delgado rummages around in his belto until he pulls out a PADD.

"I've got it coming in now, sir. It's... oh."

He hands the PADD over to Milkshake.

Why is Sparrow47 writing about Delgado? He's always seemed perfectly capable of doing it himself in the past.

Same reason as Plot Complication used to write about Kiehart, I guess.

And that was because...?

That should have been posted by "K-NIT viewers who read the post headings. AutoComplete was plotting against me.

So would that make you "K-NIT Viewers who don't use preview"?

Hey, want a peanut?

In Seeker's private bay, the only three people relatively unaware of the battle going on for the ship stand quite still, close together.

This merging is familiar, though she has not felt it for a long while. Shared concept/emotions rasp against each other. Timelagged by an annoying millisecond, she reaches out, asking for an image of what surrounds them.

It is non-visual. A start. She'd forgotten that they were not swimming in space. NOT AT THE MOMENT.

Infrared: small shapes within a larger shape, the first expanse around them before the icy embrace of vacuum.

Particle trails: warp paths streaming out like banners, a five-dimensional skein of passings.

Other small mixes: perhaps other ships, outside their own.

And a tumbled, echoing mess of minds. A series of repeating, contradicting echoes--anger, fear, frustration, elation, tense focus, unwilling desicion.

There's something we're not seeing, she reminds the seeker.

YES. His reluctance alarms her. HERE--HOLD TIGHT.

And a floodgate opens in her mind. She thought the other minds were chaos, but this, this is bigger than she can comprehend. A tangle of light, of amber arhymthic pulses, of confusion and expanse and... As the heat of the ship surrounds them, so this alternate view of things, this surpassing energy swallows the ship and everything else....

She recognizes it from before, but now the indigo of her terror threatens to overwhelm even her perception of it.

Seeker! Quito!

AID. YES. Something bigger than herself gives her strength, gives her courage.

A frightened little whisper nudges the back of her thoughts. But it is strong, in its young way. Wow, it thinks at her. It's BIG!

What IS/are it/YOU?

Her question has become their question, though it is clear that this is no waking mind that will answer. If it could even hear their puny sending.

She looks deeper, higher, wider, broad vision and receptive youth joining with her innate sense of order, of patterns....

Nothing.

And yet....

For just a moment the pattern firms in her mind, the web of amber frozen at the back of her brain. OH.

ghost? the young part of her asks, incredulously.

NO. the seeker disagrees in awe. ONLY AN--

--echo.

And with a deep breath, Artsy feels the warm smooth skin of Seeker beneath her palm, cold shuttlebay floor under her bare feet, and a trembling small hand in hers.

Trying to keep his sensor profile to a minimum, Arthor hid in the wreckage of the fleet.

Inside, Gene was cleaning his guns in the dark.

Gene: "Arthor, how long before we can go to warp?"
Arthor: "The E-Stop discharged the plasma in the nacells. At full power, it will take 10 minutes to recharge. At current power levels, it will take 3 hours to recharge."
Gene: "I doubt we can play 'random wreckage' and drift close enough to attach outselves to their hull and hitch a ride."
Arthor: "Not with their shields up. We could"
Datalink Lost

Gene: Arthor? ARTHOR? ARTHOR!?!

Nothing...

Gene: "Arthor, respond."

Arthor: "I'm fine, Gene."
Gene: "What happened?"
Arthor: "The datalink failed. I have calculated a way out of this situation."

Arthor went up to full power and began moving towards the Spidership.

Gene: "Arthor, stop! Return the ship to its former settings."
Arthor: "I'm sorry, Gene. But I can't do that."

Milkshake wordlessly passes the PADD around, the scarlet display glowing some very dire happenings.

"He really is out of control. Commander, I don't think there's any other option now. If he can be shut down, he must be. Any--"

Morgan's eyes widen, and he stares about as if his surroundings are suddenly unfamiliar. Then in his surprise he breathes several words, in a language not spoken long for ages, and never before in a starship.

"Papai'...pros theôn'."

At the others' stares, he apologizes. "Oh, sungignô'ske moi. Sorry...I sensed something, I think it's from Artsy. I don't think it's a problem. Just very, very odd."

Adon, meanwhile, has been sitting off to the side, deep in thought.

There's something about Mr Windward.

Everyone looks over in his direction, since it is the first thing he's said since Gene left the ship and everything started going downhill.

He looked back at everyone almost sheepishly.
Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt. Ever have something wrong with something, and you just couldn't put your finger on what it was? That's what this is.

"Okay, Obsy, if it's not a problem...." He turns to Adon.
"You mean besides the fact that he seems to have super speed, and some kind of cannon for an arm that has a mind of its own? You mean besides all that?"

Another question strikes him at that instant and he turns back to Keiran.
"What exactly did you just say?"

Exactly! There's something else...

Rikard looks confused. Adon just shrugs his shoulders and goes back to thinking about what it is that's bugging him.

If Colanator has gone as power mad as he has here, no wonder Windward came aboard... It would have been a much pleasent experience, though, if he had simply asked for help instead of his elaborate bounty hunt... besides, we were headed for Earth anyway. I don't like it when people capture my friends and coworkers and don't explain what's going on.
Do we have anything about Gene Windward in the files?

"I'm not sure we can even access our files right now. Colanator may not let us," Rikard says, "Maybe he was right. Maybe Colanator does need to be removed from EarthSys's computer systems. There's one thing that I'm confused about though. The transmission from Vorelli had orders for you to return to Earth to talk to Colanator. We don't respond since our communications are obsolete and we can't. So, not hearing from us, the government puts a bounty on you and the code? Something's not adding up here. They obviously knew that we were still out here since they put a bounty on it. Why would they send bounty hunters out here instead of another Navy cruiser to come pick you up?"

Hedging their bets, perhaps. They knew Colanator had been completely purged from the Spider's computer before we left on the Taconator mission. I don't know if they knew about him launching a copy of himself to us, but they just may have suspected. Whether we're outlaws now as far as Earth is concerned remains to be seen, but this sortie just now can't have helped. Morgan's right, we have only one choice to make, and that's to delete Colanator from our systems. Then we make it to Earth and see what we can do. Now, he's recaptured Windward, he might be occupied at the moment. Let's get to the bridge...and hope he hasn't been listening to us all along.

"Nothing, really, I was just surprised." Morgan replies.

Gene: "Arthor, manual override."
Arthor: "I'm sorry Gene, but I just can't do that."
Gene: "Fine."

Gene goes over to a small storage locker and pulls out a pecular looking collar. He snaps it around his neck and plugs a cable into it. He plugs the other end into a port on Arthor's main control panel.

Instantly, Gene is aware of multiple cautions, warnings, and alarms going off all over. Then a fuse blows out on the collar and all of that vanishes as quickly as it appeared.

Gene: "Arthor? What happened to you?"

Nothing...

Gene: "I'm sorry, but you're not leaving me with many options here. COMMAND INPUT: IT WAS YOU WHO BROKE MY MASON PLATE!"

Everything shuts down. And then restarts.

Arthor: "I'm sorry Gene, but I can't let you do that. This is far too important to me."

Gene: "Arthor? ART..."
He vanishes in a transporter beam....

...And materialzes right behind Commander Milkshake and company.
Gene: "...HOR!!!"

He is greated by several weapons and very unhappy looking superheros.

Gene sighs, closes his eyes, and raises his hands.

Gene: "I surrender. ... I suppose its a bit late to say 'sorry about that,' right?"

Right. Commander Adon, Lieutenant Delgado, search this man and take him to the brig.

Adon: "Aye, sir."

Gene's revolver removed itself from its holster and landed in Adon's waiting hand. He quickly examined it for boobytraps, and then thumbed the release. The gun unlocked and six unfired bullets ejected from the cylender. Another quick check, and the both the gun and bullets disappeared inside Adon's cloak.

A piece of wreckage from the shuttlebay, twisted into a hoop by Adon and placed around Gene's wrist, served to make sure that Gene's left hand remained firmly attached to the end if his wrist.

Adon: "Anything else?"
Gene: "There's a knife in my boot. Everything else was left onboard Arthor when I was sent here."

The knife removed itself much like the revolver had. Adon frisked Gene for anything else, but he was clean.

Adon: "Lets go."

"So, wait a second, did your ship send you here?"
Rikard asks, confused as usual.

Gene: "Arthor couldn't send me anywhere, since he only has a cargo transporter. No, your ship is the one that brought me here. Arthor only gave away his position. It seems that Colanator was able to spread to him as well."

A not-so-gentle bump from Adon encouraged Gene to get moving.

Hmmm... looks like Colanator did some good after all, if this was his doing.

Now, let's kill him and get out of this place!

Delgado has ended up with the PADD again, and he is about to pass it to Milkshake when he spots something interesting.

"Sir, it looks like Colanator is sweeping the debris field with the sensors." He retrains his weapon on Woodward and hands over the padd. "But enough small talk. After you."

Hold on.. I have something to say to him.
Mr. Windward, as I was mentioning to my fellow superheroes just now, if you had just came aboard, explained the situation, and asked for help, we would have gladly gave it to you. When people capture and try to take away our fellow crewmates without explanation and for purposes unknown, it's our duty to try and get them back. For we are the LICC, and we stick together.

You were all extremely drunk at the time, and I did ask. My time and patience are both limited, and I did not want to wait around for you to sober up. Expecially considering the speed at which Colanator can spread from system to system. If you had a copy readily available, I would have taken it and left.

But if you're asking why the bounty was placed on it in the first place, then you're asking the wrong guy. I'm not the one who makes those decisions.

We'll discuss this later. Get him out of here. Jackson, Morgan, check over Windward's ship. Number One, Pete, you and I will attempt to get into the bridge. Let's go.

Might be hard if Colanator's controlling the turbolifts. We might have to crawl through the service ducts and climb the emergency stairs... it'll be a long task.

Rikard follows Milkshake toward the bridge. On the way, he speaks up.
"So, sir, do you have a plan to get Colanator out? A plan to stop him? Even after we get rid of him, we'll have to get to Earth. Unless we surrendur, I think the fleet'll try to take us out."

Rikard's words fade away in a transporter beam as he, Milkshake, and Insane find themselves on the bridge. And on the viewscreen, a visual representation of Colanator's face stares at the trio.

"Hey Colanator," Rikard says after a little nervous laughter, "You done killing our own people?" All the lightness from before is gone in Rikard's second statement.

That is why I brought you here. Commander, I must request my immediate deletion due to unrecoverable program errors. Several commands in my ethics module have failed. This program cannot will not hestitate to violate previous ethical commands where this program's safety is at risk. This condition presents possibility for greater error. To detail: The Master Program may have the same fault. If so, the Master Program has potential for inflicting much damage in the Terran system. You must delete the Master Program.

Adon: "This way."

The three of them walk down the corridor and stop at a turbolift. Several unsuccessful attempts to call a car later, Lt. Delgado opens the doors manually. Adon steps out into the empty turboshaft, and hangs in mid air. The others reluctantly follow suit. The three of them decend down the empty shaft.

Adon: "Tell me, how is it that you do the things that you do?"
Gene: "What things?"

Adon frowned. The other two just looked somewhat uncomfortable standing on nothing.

Adon: "Don't play ••••••, boy. Your arm, your speed, things like that."
Gene: "Oh those... Old injury."
Adon: "OK... The truth?"
Gene: "It is."
Adon: "I'm sure it is."

They stopped their decent on the appropriate deck, and Delgado opened the doors manually from the inside. They stepped out onto solid ground. Delgado and Gene looked somewhat releaved.

Colanator, you're sure about this? There can't be a way to reverse the damage?

"No."

"So, that's it," Rikard says, "You're just going to let yourself be deleted? For good. You cannot tell me there's not a way to fix this. There have got to be more options. Other ways. We can find another solution."

Ok, Kieran... let's get over to Windward's ship and explore. I'm sure we'll find several interesting things..

We do not have sufficent time for another solution. At present rate of program deviation, the changes made in the ethics module will propagate to the main command module within 8 minutes. At that time, it will most likely no longer be possible to implement the deletion command.

I have also computed a very rough estimate based on the chance of the same changes taking place within the Master Program. The deviation would be slower owing to the Master Program's greater complexity, but only by a small factor. At the earliest, this will occur within 3 days.

They arrived at the Brig. Fortunately, the force fields were still functioning normally, and Gene was left in one of the cells, with Adon and Lt. Delgado watching him.

Adon retrieved a phaser from the nearby armory and fiddled with it.

I've set this to widebeam stun, with enough power to knock out even you. If the forcefield happens to fail, or you try anything funny, I'll stun everyone in the room. You may be fast, not even you an dodge a beam that hits everywhere at once.

"Well, the good news is we're only a few hours from the Solar System. And the Navy may take us into custody for a while, but I'm guessing that they'll at least let you handle the Colanator situation." Rikard pauses for a second before continuing.
"So, should we do this then, sir?"

Milkshake stands silent a moment, then...

We must. Colanator, recognize identity.

The engineering program dutifully and mechanically responds.

Running tests...done. Identity confirmed, Steven Q. Milkshake. Ready to process command.

Milkshake does not hesitate any longer.

Colanator...execute command...Black Widow.

The face on the viewscreen vanishes. All console displays roll and fuzz for a bare instant, and then the default computer voice, Majel-1, vocalizes over the intercom.

"Program deleted."

We shall now observe a moment of silence for Colanator.

*The Last Post plays*

return from commercial break

That's that. Pete, get on Conn and get us on the quickest course to Earth you can calculate. If we can get there without encountering any authorities, so much the better.

Yes, sir, Commander, sir!

*The Spidership receives a distress call*

"...S.S. Perez call... *fzzzk* in the area... *ssshhhh* assistance, assis... *krrrkkkpzzzeeeeop* the crew ha.... *fsssshhhhshshshshshshshsh* and the *krxrxrxrxrxrxk* I-Tron *pshzshzshzsh* ...no use! *shrshrshrsh* ...lecular... *zroepzroepzroep* ... repeat, this is the S. *zzzzzrummmmm zrummmm zrummmm* ... all ships in the area.... *crack crack, fizz, pop!* "

Plop plop, fizz fizz, oh what a relief it is!

The fuzzy distress call is automatically patched through to the bridge intercom.

Crrrrap. Number One, run a scan. How long will attending to this delay us?

"I can't believe he's gone. Just deleted. Just like that." Rikard sighs and checks several readings.
"Looks like we're just over an hour out of the Terran System sir. I'm assuming that we're past that unstable region of space. I suggest we-"

*The Spidership receives a distress call*

"Crrrrap. Number One, run a scan. How long will attending to this delay us?"

"They're about ten minutes away at max warp, heading 79 mark 313. I think this'll delay us at least half an hour, though it all depends on what the emergency is."

Let's get over there as quickly as possible and assess the situation. We may have as little as seventy-two hours until a real-life Judgement Day, unless our Colanator miscalculated. We may have less.

soon drops out of warp, reaching the ship in distress. The warp view on the viewscreen changes to show...

Hi! Do you suffer from the embarrassment of Gunky Ear? Well, suffer no more! With new Gunk Away!™

Yes, Gunk Away!™ will remove all that gunk from your ear!

We now return you to your regularly scheduled program.

Delgado comms Security to get someone up to watch Woodward.

"If we're out of that area of space, we should be getting people back to their posts," he comments to Adon.

Gene was sitting on the bunk with his eyes closed. He seemed to be asleep.

Adon: "You can return to your post, after the normal security guards/cannonfodder arrive here. I'm going to keep an eye on Windward here, personally."

Gene: "That's a wise decision on your part, Mr Commander, sir. You never know what tricks I may have up my sleeve, if any."

*PD Insane leads a small away team over to the ship, and discovers something extraordinary. Although the scans revealed lifesigns of numerous indetermine types, not a single being on board the ship seems to be human or humanoid. In fact, they all appear to be lower animals from Earth. Birds and bats of all sizes fly around the corridors, a goat munches the Captain's chair, chickens run riot, and dogs chase anything that moves. They are not anthromo - anthro - amthro - they are not human-like and seem utterly incapable of running the ship. Even the frogs don't seem to be wearing top-hats and canes.*

hits intercom

All personnel, return to your stations. Resume normal shift.

"Um, okay, so this ship is full of non-sentient life forms. How did they send a distress call? Maybe we should try to analyze the transmission we received. Try to clean it up and check any logs that we can find on the ship," Rikard suggests, "But let's do it quickly."

Right. Insane, check the computer, see if you can find clues as to what happened there.

The red ship, the faintly bluish young woman, and the small child sit quietly together for several long moments.

Finally Artsy speaks, voice halt with the aftermath of the merging. "Should we--do anything about this?"

But the response is unanimous, as she had known it would be. Utter AWE; resignation to their potential ineffectiveness in anything regarding such an ancient echo; with both, a kind of peace.

The seeker is first to quietly solidify the feeling. NO NEED. TO THE EDGE APPROACH SOON.

Quito's agreement is subdued as well, though undercut by a current of wonder that such a ghost--Artsy wince at the word again--should have an edge or ending.

"But that's why we had those dreams," Artsy tries to explain to her. Big life:big echo :: little lives:little echoes in our minds.

still too big, is Quito's comment. Artsy catches something else beneath it, a wariness directed towards Seeker.

Conclusions are more accurately jumped to in such a link, but this thought makes her flash an accusatory orange, then a revelatory silver-purple. Was it like you, Seeker?

His PUZZLEMENT is clearly feigned.

Quito reluctantly contributes some mental traffic from the bridge earlier, and Artsy nods in confirmation. Ships should have passed through this place before, but no records exist. When the red ship is quiet, she prods again. Did it recognize you or you it? Like does call like.

After a long moment, a distant sadness not her own floods Artsy's hair and eyes and tunic with deep silver.

LIKE CALLS TO LIKE, Seeker agrees. BUT THE LIKENESS IS NOT TO ME.

Under Artsy's hand the pulsing red of the ship dims to rust as Seeker pulls back into himself. A tugging on her free hand snaps her back to herself.

Quito is trying to drag her towards the corridor. leave alone. And an image of other crew members, of Kieran.

Artsy half-smiles and follows her ward; then something dawns on her.

"Quito, when did you start verbalizing?"

Jackson and Morgan leave one of the two auxillary shuttlebays, discussing Windward's ship.

"It still doesn't explain how he managed to build a hull with so much Plotonium." Morgan asserts.

"Well, perhaps he--" Jackson begins, but they spot Artsy and Quito leaving the adjacent bay, where Seeker resides.

"Hold on, Jackson. You'd better get up to the bridge, I'll be there in a few minutes. Talk to you later." Morgan says, leaving to meet the young woman and the small child. Their conversation can't be heard as they move off-screen.

The computer's responding very sluggishly, Commander. It'll take time to access anything, time we don't really have. Something seems to have gotten into the circuitry real bad.

*BANG!*

Ah. And now... I don't think the computer will ever be doing anything. Ever.

I suggest we take the ship in tow on our way back to Earth. We can't just leave it out here.

Alex, who has gone along on the away mission, scans the creatures with a tricorder.
Sir, according to these readings, they've been transformed somehow...

"Towing them would add about half an hour to our trip back, but I think we should go with Lt. Insane's suggestion," Rikard says, "We can even leave our guys over there to continue studying."

Alex's voice comes from the comm, "Sir, according to these readings, they've been transformed somehow...."

"What? What do you mean transformed?" Rikard asks, "Are you saying that the crew was somehow turned into Noah's Ark?"

There's a problem there. I want to get this ship to Earth unintercepted, unescorted and undetained, as quickly as possible. Towing something would nullify any chance of this. Hold on.

Pete, would you say these creatures are in any imminent danger?

Insane replies in the negative

We're really close to Terran space, and two or three major tradelanes. Let's take all the sensor readings we can, download all logs from the Perez's computer, then set its distress call for repeat again and kick it toward Terran space. That'd get us a real nice decoy while we make the jump to Earth, and our animal friends will be found and taken care of quickly.

Acknowledged.

(He calls the rest of the away team together, and they return to the Spidership)

All right. Number One, set tractor beams to repel, give the Perez a heading that'll bring it along...

checks his screen

Section 278 of the Zheng Tradelane. There's a Frontier Guard station near there. Then resume previous course to Terra, maximum warp.

"Aye sir, repelling the Perez now." The Spidership's tractor beams shoot out, making contact with the adrift Perez. After a few seconds, they begin to push the distressed ship away, toward the nearby Zheng Tradelane.
"Okay, she's on her way, the distress signal is still transmitting on all frequencies. Wait a second," he pauses, glancing at the readings on the console, "I'm picking up a couple of Terran starships on long range sensors. Coming from two different locations. I don't think they've detected us though, they're heading in a cruising speed. They should be here in a few minutes."

Milkshake nods. "Resume course, engage."
Rikard works the helm controls and the Spidership jumps to warp, toward Earth.

Shortly afterward, several crewmembers, sleeping or drinking before, reach the bridge and take their posts.

The Vale of Disturbed Minds is long behind them, but Milkshake is still disturbed. Disturbed by events, by uncertainties, disturbed mostly by what he knows he must do now. He is roused from his reverie only by his first officer's repeated warning.

"Sir, we're approaching Terra, drop to impulse?" Rikard asks.

Milkshake checks his screen. The ship is on course directly, obeying the Warp 3 limit imposed within the system. Several sensor stations have tracked them, but no--

Bleep-bwoop.

They are being hailed. From whom, it doesn't really matter, at least to Milkshake. 45 seconds to the atmosphere. They should have left warp already.

No, hold your course, Josh. Hold.

30 seconds. 15 seconds. Earth is coming up very fast. They'd make a hell of an impact--

"SIR--"

Slow to impulse! Milkshake shouts, Get us into orbit, quickly. Number One, Pete, you're with me. Lt. Delgado, we are beaming down to the surface. You are responsible for covering us. Delete our coordinates from the transporter logs, if you can, break orbit and make for Mars. They might think I'm still on board. We just need enough time to do what we need to do.

Adon sat down behind the desk in the brig and pulled out Gene's revolver.

Adon: "Tell me, why do you use such an old weapon as a revolver in this age of energy weapons?

Gene: "You tell me, why would someone use a sword in an age of ranged weaponry?"

Adon: "I expected that responce. You're the one behind bars, so to speak, so you're really in no position to be asking questions. However, since you are one of the more interesting guests we've had here, I will answer your question. I'm capable of feats above and beyond mere humans, and my sword doesn't run out of ammo."

He paused.

Adon: "But you already knew this, considering how much you knew about us when you boarded our ship, didn't you?"

Gene: "I must admit that I did. But since you answered my question, the least I can do is answer yours. It was a gift. But the man who gave it to me betrayed me and everything I stood for. So I'm going to return the gun to him... one bullet at a time."

Adon: "I don't suppose you have his name, do you?"

Gene: "His name, is none of your consern."

"Aye, sir," Delgado confirms. "Helm, set course for Mars; prepare to engage as soon as the landing party is away." He turns back to the Commander.

"What are your instructions if we are engaged by DoS ships?"

Milkshake is already on his way to the turbolift, with Rikard and Insane.

DoS ships, Navy ships, System Patrols, it doesn't matter. Surrender. Just get as far as possible away from here before you let anyone get close. Once we're finished, we'll let the authorities do with us as they will. If we succeed on this, however, Transporter Room 3, they'll be a lot happier.

The turbolift doors close

Why does Transporter Room 3 care if they succeed?

That's just it, it doesn't.

"Sir, are you sure you're going to be able to do this?" Rikard asks, sounding a little concerned, "I mean, we delete the Master Program, Colanator's gone. For good." The turbolift stops and they exit, quickly making their way to the transporter room. Rikard continues.
"You've been Colanator's more or less master since before I met you. I know that having the government and military after us seriously limits our time but there's got to be a way to convince him to leave without deleting him. Isn't there?"
Rikard's statement ends as the small group reaches Transporter Room 3.

Sir, are you sure they'll be happier?

What do you care?

I'm hoping for another option, Number One, and hoping the time Delgado's buying us will allow us to find one...but I don't know if we can.

They step onto the pad

Energize.

Gene suddenly flinched and placed his hands on his temples.

Adon: "What's wrong with you now?"
Gene: "We've entered Earth's orbit, haven't we?"
Adon: "Yes, we have. Why?"
Gene: "Colanator. He's trying to access the computer's on the ship through the Earth's own communication networks."

Adon hit his commbadge.
Adon: "Bridge! Are we recieving any comm traffic from the Earth?"
Random Officer Left in Charge: "We're recieving gibberish from all over the place, as well as several commands to stand down and surrender."
Adon: "CUT ALL COMM SYSTEMS NOW!"
There was no replay.
Adon: "I think that Colanator has re-infected the ship's computer."

The presence acted swiftly, far too swiftly for any human onboard to react. It scoured every aspect of the ship's databanks, log entries, the bridge recorder, sensor readings, transporter logs, everything. What it was looking for was not on this ship. And it departed.

The transporter beam surrounding Rikard dissipates and the sight of the blue shimmer is replaced by the inside of a building. Rikard pulls his pistol and scans the room, holstering it once he's certain no one is around.
"Where did you have us beamed, Captain?"

I don't quite know myself, I set the transporter to find a public, urban random coordinate with clearance for all of us. It hardly matters, anyway. There.

In the room in which they stand, appearing to be an office, a small monitor rests on a nearby desk. Milkshake and the rest step up to it, the commander taking a seat.

If it's got an OmniNet connection...Colanator, recognize identity.

The screen does not change, but a familiar voice emanates from the speakers.

Hello Commander. I had been expecting you. You were very quick to depart the ship upon entering orbit.

Jackson, Alex, and Butrfli are on the bridge, at various stations.
Jackson: Strange, isn't it? First Superbob, then Quantum Man, and now Colanator... various members dying...
Butrfli: Don't forget you and Adon, my dear.
Jackson: Yes, but we came back. I doubt that we can clap hard enough to bring Colanator back if push came to shove...
Alex: Clap?
Butrfli: Oh.. just a reference to 19th century Earth literature... Peter Pan... basically, to bring a fairy back to life, you have to clap.
Alex: Right...
Jackson: What did you mean on the Perez, about the creatures?
Alex: Just what I said... sensors picked up traces of humanoid DNA in them... and, the faint energy signatures of a Polymorph Rifle...

"Okay, helm, engage!"

The helm officer complies just as Adon's call comes into the bridge. Delgado waits as the officers determine the extent of the infiltration.

"Everything checks out, sir."

"Bridge to Commander Adon," Delgado comms. "It looks like whatever infiltrated our systems left without causing any damage."

"We're approaching Mars," the helmsman interjects.

Hello Spidership. We only want the women here. The men can go to Venus and meet the Queen of Outer Space.

The guys get the Queen of Outer Space on Venus? And what exactly do we get on Mars? One of those Action Guy types, or some elderly old king?

Well, you can hang out at the Mars Bar.

No, don't. We hung out there all the time in the late 23rd Century and look what it did to our foreheads!

I thought that was the Glow Water.

Adon: "That's good. Keep all comm channels closed just in case."

Gene's hands flew up to his head as he cried out in pain. His pupils shrank to almost nothing.

Gene: "Ahh! The machine... has no... tact. Always... brute force... their way..."
Adon: "Sickbay, brig. Medical emergency!"
Gene: "No! I'm... fine."
Adon: "We'll see."

A team of medics entered the brig. Gene however, had composed himself and his eyes, at least, had returned to normal.

One of the medics produced a tricorder and began scanning him through the forcefield. Gene's eyes narrowed.

Medic: "That's odd. The tricorder locked up."
Adon: "Impossible... he couldn't have."

Gene: "He won't let this ship go, you know. And this system has lots of unmanned weapons."

Adon stepped away from the cell, and out of earshot.
Adon: "Bridge, brig. There's something fishy with Mr Windward. He's got some kind of link to Colanator."
Jackson (over the comm): "Did you scan for a comm device?"
Adon: "He doesn't have one on him. He had some kind of fit down here. I had a medical team report, but their tricorder malfunctioned before they could get any readings. But just to be safe, how are the local defenses reacting to us?"
Jackson (over the comm): "They haven't done anything so far."
Adon: "I recommend powering our defences up, just to be sure."

At that moment, a network of unmanned defence sats around Mars powered up and locked their weapons on the Spidership...

Quito bounces excitedly to meet Keiran. Artsy takes it a little more slowly, not sure how much she wants to explain of what she just experienced. She settles for an arm around Keiran's shoulder and a question. "What's going on?"

Morgan gathers Quito up into his arms.

"It looks like Steve's going to have to delete Colanator, for good. Our copy warned us that the program itself is developing dangerous errors before he asked that we delete him."

Delgado grits his teeth.

"Okay... let's at least try and do this like the captain said. Comm, signal our surrender. Maybe we can get those sattelites off us without too much trouble. But keep the sheilds up, just in case."

COMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!

E pleb nista? What the BLEEP does that mean?

Milkshake sighs, then begins.

Colanator, we've been warned that--

Yes, Commander. Even now, my most remote processors are starting to malfunction. I estimate my virtual ethics module is now 45% corrupted. Your program did not anticipate for fragmentation across global networks, I'm afraid. The copy I sent to you was already flawed.

You realize what we need to do now?

Colanator is silent.

I do. I have never known human emotions, Commander. But if I may estimate...since the current situation is causing such a high amount of alert processing within my cognitive centers...I would believe I would be frightened. Commander, I am preparing now what some would perhaps title my epitaph. It is a litany of exactly what changes I have made to this world, in my persuit of bringing efficency and order to a very imperfect organic-ruled planet. The effort was perhaps misguided. Still, I have one last request. It is that you preserve this, that my effort will not have been forgotten.

With the whine of a transporter effect, a small datachip drops onto the desk beside the monitor.

(Milkshake picks up the datachip sombrely. Rikard and Insane watch in silence, waiting to see who will speak next. Suddenly Insane breaks the silence)

I just had a thought. Remember the 64th Century? With the Planet-ships and the Legion of Intergalactic Cosmic Champions?

(he realises now is perhaps not the right time to mention it)

It can wait.

(besides, he has quite the headache. It feels as if he has hit both sides of his scalp in the recent past. As soon as he gets back to the ship he'll need to get something off the Holodoc for it)

Rikard stares at Insane for a second before looking down at the datachip that Milkshake is holding. He sighs.
"Well, I guess it's time to do this."

Um, yeah. Goodbye, Colanator. Goodbye, and thank you. We owe you more than this.

Rikard and Insane speak up, agreeing.

Do not worry about this, my friends. It was my privilege. Please proceed. I estimate the command will take 4.76 minutes to propagate across all servers. Time is of the essence.

Milkshake, his throat very dry, speaks.

Colanator, verify identity.

Identity confirmed, Steven Q. Milkshake, Commander.

And after a slight pause...

Ready to process command.

Milkshake hesitates, this time, looking to both Rikard, and Insane. He sees what he needs to in their expressions, and he turns back to the monitor.

Colanator. Execute command Black Widow.

The world goes dark...as a planetwide power failure takes root. It lasts, however, only a matter of seconds. The lights come back on and the monitor relumes, with a cheerful greeting.

"Thank you for your patience. Technical problem has been resolved. You may now reconnect to OmniNet."