Pain, Pleasure, and Pedaling

He slowly, painfully, lowered himself into the chair, letting out a groan.  He quickly and silently prayed for the drugs to kick in faster.

It didn't seem to work.

He thought he'd decided not to work out this week.  Apparently the faceless force that decided what he did everyday at work thought differently.  Who knew teaching a kid to ride a bike would be so painful for the instructor?

At least it was something different.

He closed his eyes.

Slowly letting out a deep breath, he counted to ten and opened his eyes.  He couldn't believe he had a crawler on his ship and didn't realize it.  Thank the elements that Hemming had had the foresight to cut off the admiral and get off the bridge before his transformation.  No captain could live down the shame of having a crawler ranked that high on his crew.

He pressed a small yellow button on the arm of his chair.  Within seconds, four garrisons had entered his quarters unannounced and presented him with a communicator.  He attached the receiver to his ear and placed the mouthpiece under his tongue.  He hated using these things, but the ship's onboard comms were compromised now.  They had no way of knowing the crawler's post-shift intelligence level, but if it had half of Hemming's knowledge as a communications officer, even this system only stood a shadow of a chance.

"Tell me you've got good news."

A voice echoed in his ear and felt like it was reverberating through his mind.  "We've managed to narrow his location down to the seven central-most decks, but he's sealed us out, so we can't narrow it down more than that."

"What kind of personnel do we have enzone?"

"Most were evacuated by the automated system to the lowest decks, but two garrisons are unaccounted for."

The captain sighed and braced himself.  "Who are they?"

"Diangen and," the captain mouthed the all-too-familiar name along with his first officer, "Corson."

"How did I know he would be right in the middle of this?"

A new voice jumped into the conversation.  "Because Hood's Captain-on-High knowst his crewmen better than they knowst him."

Captain Hunter paused, immediately recognizing Corson's voice and pondering this new development.  "I suppose I do.  In fact, I know my people well enough to realize that the real Corson would have said 'with higher superiority' instead of 'better'."

"Well played, Captain," said the being speaking with Corson's voice.

"Hemming?"  The captain's voice was level, matter-of-fact.

"I used to be.  He's lying somewhere back on the central deck now, though.  He wasn't very lively anymore.  Have you figured out yet how he was able to smuggle me onboard?"

Hunter tried to dodge the question.  He refused to believe that Hemming would willingly help a crawler.  "What about Diangen?  Is he still alive?"

"Yes.  I believe he is, but he isn't enzone anymore."

Thank the elements.  "You said Hemming is on the central deck.  Where are you?"

Corson's voice laughed heartily.  "Are you seriously telling me you haven't figured that out yet?"

There was a sudden hissing in his ear as the lights flickered.  "You're in the tertiary nub, aren't you?"

Another flickering.  "You do know your ship, don't you, dearest Captain?"

"You know you've left me no choice, right?"

"I know."

Hunter turned to the garrisons with him, addressing both them and his first officer he hoped could still hear him over the communicator.  "I'm so sorry about this."  Then he stood, walked to a purple, square-shaped button mounted on the wall.  He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and pressed the button.

"We're with you, sir," said one of the garrison's confidently.

He was grateful for the support, but it didn't make hearing the computer's voice any easier.  "Please state your position and authorization route."

"My name is Aberth Hunter, captain of the Ridinghood, route Sehkmet-Left-Aleph."

"Route confirmed."

"I'm sorry, Captain," Hemming's weak voice echoed over the ship's loudspeakers.

Hunter realized his eyes were still closed, but didn't really want to see anything when he gave his final command.  "I will not see this ship fall under crawler control.  By the Gods, their elements, and under the jurisdiction of the Grande Admiral of the Left Fleet," he paused, taking in his last moments in command, "initiate Keresian Protocol One."

A sudden pain in his back prevented him from considering the vast importance of this moment.

He opened his eyes.

He sat up slowly, agonizing more and more with every inch he moved away from the almost-comfortable chair that had been his almost-bed for the last hour.  He was reminded once again how bad of shape he was in, but he couldn't help but relish his current situation.

He hadn't felt this sore in months.

And he kind of liked it.

At least it was something different.