Cutting the Gordian Knot

Log Title: Cutting the Gordian Knot

Characters: Dealiticus, Kimber, Major Bludd

Location: Quintesson shuttle

Date: 4 March 2016

TP: Killing Jar TP

Summary: Dealiticus puts a difficult and potentially deadly choice to his prisoners.

Spending time playing British Invasion tunes with Kimber seems to have put Bludd into a more youthful frame of mind. He's laying on his back on his bed, his head hanging over the edge, tossing a crumpled ball of paper up in the air and catching it again. Occasionally he bounces it off the wall instead. This simple activity seems to be sufficiently amusing to him for the moment.

Kimber seems more relaxed and youthful herself. She sits on her own bed on the other side of the hallway, still humming and quietly playing tunes on her keytar with the volume turned way down. She still has her knife wrapped up in her jacket, but she's stopped keeping it near her at all times, and looks to have settled in for now to the strange new life Bludd and she have in the alien's menagerie. She has a gift for making the best of any situation, at least once she gets past the initial whining stage.

Bludd's hand darts out to bat at the paper ball as it threatens to zip past his head, and he overbalances, sending the ball tumbling across the room toward Kimber, where it fetches up against her foot. A moment later he slides off the bed, the back of his head and his shoulders hitting the floor. "Oof," he grunts, slapping the floor with his arms to keep him from tumbling off the bed entirely. He gazes at Kimber, upside-down, with a sheepish expression.

Kimber looks over and smiles. "Need me to get that for you?" she laughs, putting down her keytar. Without warning, the alien's voice suddenly speaks from the unseen speakers installed somewhere near the ceiling. "Hello," it says. "I trust you've enjoyed your stay, and I greatly appreciate the contributions you've made to my research." With a flash of light, the bars suddenly reappear, sealing Bludd and Kimber each into their individual cells.

Bludd quickly rights himself, slipping off the bed and rolling to his feet, immediately all business. There's something in the alien's words that sounds threatening, and he moves toward the bars to stare into the hallway. "Happy t'be of service," he quips. "Does that mean you're gonna send us home now?"

The alien's voice, calm and neutral and yet still somehow threatening, replies, "That is up to you. Play along and one of you will be going home soon." The door behind the guard opens, and a smaller, sleeker robot of what looks like the same overall design as the guard comes into the hallway, carrying another box like the ones that contain the humans' strangely romantic dinners. The sleeker robot approaches the hallway forcefields, which drop, allowing the robot to place the box down between the forcelocked cells containing Kimber and Bludd.

"ONE of us?" Kimber squeals, her voice rising rapidly.

"Play along, eh?" Bludd closely watches the robot bring in the box. "That's what we've been doing all this time. Or do you have a new game for us to play?"

"A new game, yes, and this one will be very interesting to me. You see, in the box are two pistols, each loaded with one bullet each." The sleek robot sets down the box, and steps back. The hall forcefields reignite, and the cell forcefields drop, giving the humans access to the box, which opens to reveal the guns mentioned by the alien.

"This game is simple," the unseen alien explains. "I'm going slowly remove the air from your cells, until one of you dies. You can kill each other, or yourselves - it doesn't matter to me. However, if at least one of you doesn't act, you both die. Begin... now."

Kimber screams, blue eyes wide, hands on side of her face. No words - just pure vocalized fear at her new predicament.

The original guard continues to stare dumbly ahead, but the smaller guard stares into the cells with glowing, vicious eyes, looking like he's thirsty for blood.

Bludd scowls. The willingness of the alien to provide them with most of what they asked for has lulled him into a false sense of security. The humans are nothing more than vermin to it: mice to set to running through a maze. Under more typical circumstances, perhaps being imprisoned with some random felon, Bludd wouldn't hesitate to exercise his self-preservation instinct. Caught entirely off-guard, and cursing himself inwardly for allowing himself to slip so, he balks. He steps forward and takes up one of the pistols, automatically checking its condition and pulling back the slide to confirm its ammunition supply. He glances at Kimber, then stares at the pair of guards in the hall. For the moment, he does nothing further, but simply studies the guards, particularly the new one, but spares a bit of attention for Kimber, on the off-chance she would take the opportunity to do something unwise.

Kimber looks up at the ceiling, her eyes so wide you can see the whites all the way around. "There's no way we've going to kill each other for your amusement, you sicko!" she yells, standing up suddenly on the bed and clenching both her fists. At the sound of Bludd pulling back the slide of the pistol, though, she looks at him with sudden renewed fear. "You wouldn't kill me now that things are different, would you?" she says with an instantly quiet, scared, tiny voice.

It wouldn't be the first time Bludd had killed someone in cold blood, were he to shoot her. He's pushed aside the facts that make people more than mobile meatbags with relative ease more than once in his life. But this isn't to be one of those times. He turns his head to stare intensely at Kimber for a long moment. "No." He looks back to the smaller guard. "But I am going to ..." He glances up to the ceiling, then back at the guard. "...act." He aims the pistol at the guard's face, hoping to put the round into its skull via an eye, and pulls the trigger.

GAME: Major Bludd PASSES a DEXTERITY roll of Below Average difficulty.

Kimber screams again as the gun goes off and the smaller guard jerks its head back as the bullet smashes into its left eye, piercing it. The smaller guard grabs its injured face and falls forward, directly into the electrified bars. Blinding light fills the room as the body of the guard is violently electrocuted by a continuous arc of power until finally the bars are shorted out completely and go dark, disappearing completely. The larger guard slowly becomes aware that something is wrong and lowers his spear, turning its attention to Bludd.

Bludd raises his left arm to shield his face as the guard's electrocution causes a spectacular light show. He steps back to where the other gun still lies, tucks the empty one in the back of the waistband of his jeans, and snatches up the loaded one. He smiles at the remaining guard. "Whatcha gonna do, mate?" he drawls. "You gonna open these bars so's you can stick me with that spear o'yours?" He aims the second pistol at its head. "G'head. Come an' get me."

The larger, slower guard reaches over and hits a button, and the now-dead bars slowly rise, freeing Bludd and Kimber. The guard steps forward and says slowly, "Remain in your cells. Put down the weapon." He lowers the point of his giant spear, and points it at Bludd's smaller body.

Kimber jumps off the bed and grabs up her jacket, pulling out her stolen steak knife. "Be careful!" she yells uselessly.

Bludd backs up further into the cell, still directing a haughty look at the guard. "Your boss gave this to me," he tells the robot-creature. "It'd be rude to reject a gift, now, wouldn't it?" He tilts his head to the side as if considering the situation. "But if you really want it that badly, you're gonna have to come in here and take it from me." If he can get the guard to come far enough into the cell, he may be able to outmaneuver it and get out.

The robot guard is big - it's tough - but smart it ain't. It advances on Bludd, stepping into the cell and jabbing the tip of the spear to poke at the smaller human. "Give it back," the robot says slowly. "It's for killing you, or her," he says, glancing over at Kimber. "Not him." He stops for a moment and looks at the smaller deactivated robot, and pauses a moment, almost as if it felt some sort of sad response.

Bludd takes his chance and attempts to dodge around the guard, feinting as if he's going to go one way, then quickly darting in the opposite direction and heading toward the opening and the door that admitted the tentacled alien the first time it had appeared.

Bludd successfully gets past the guard and makes his way to the door, which hisses open, revealing the alien floating just on the other side. "Well, well. That is not how I'd anticipated you reacting. I am very impressed. Sad about Rend, though - he had served me loyally for such a long time." When the larger guard finally turns around, the alien look at him with one of its faces and says, "Take Rend to the recycler, and leave me with them." The larger robot bends and picks up the smaller robot, and starts to walk towards the door.

Swearing quietly under his breath, Bludd backs up from the door when he sees the alien hovering there. This could be the one chance they'll have to take control of the situation. He holds the pistol out toward it, aiming for one of the eyes of the face that's facing him, and pulls the trigger.

GAME: Major Bludd PASSES a DEXTERITY roll of Very Little difficulty.

GAME: Kimber PASSES a DEXTERITY roll of Very Little difficulty.

>> Dealiticus succeeds with its generic combat roll on Major Bludd. <<

>> Dealiticus succeeds with its generic combat roll on Kimber. <<

GAME: Kimber PASSES an ENDURANCE roll of Average difficulty.

With the breaking of glass and the ooze of something organic, one of the alien's eyes is blown out - and the alien simply spins, revealing that he has four other faces. One of the newer faces focuses its attention on Bludd. "How violent. That, at least, is quite what I would expect from someone o-"

The alien is interrupted as Kimber suddenly runs screaming from her cell, brandishing her stolen knife. She stabs it into one of the alien's tentacles, in a segmented area between metal bands. More organic ooze runs from the wound, and the face nearest her frowns. "Enough!" the five faces of darkness yell, and the alien whips its tentacles at the both of them, slamming Kimber back against the wall. She struggles to keep her feet as the air is driven from her lungs, but she keeps a hold of her gore-covered kitchen knife.

As the alien responds to being shot with apparent nonchalance, Bludd calculates his next move. He's quite obviously overpowered and at a severe disadvantage, but that's never been a reason to flat out give up. Before he can react, however, the alien's tentacle catches him in the shoulder and tumbles him back into the cell, where he makes a jarring impact with the wall. He half-slides, half-collapses to his knees and then onto his elbows, groaning in pain and shifting his weight to the side that wasn't struck. He's peripherally aware of Kimber's attack on the alien, and a faint smile twitches his lips. She's got both more brains and more guts than he'd given her credit for. He contemplates making another try for the door, but his tactical mind, not to mention the shrieking pain in his shoulder, shut that path down rather quickly. He folds his legs beneath him and sits back, leaning his back against the wall and taking a few laboured breaths, his gaze on the alien.

The alien hovers into the center of the hallways, between Bludd and Kimber, as the larger guard leaves with the body of Rend. With its many faces, the alien can keep its attention on both humans at once, although at least one of its eyes is broken and leaking a greenish goo down the side of the alien's ovoid body.

"You have fought, and you have injured me," the alien states. "You have killed one of my companions. You have elicited an emotional response from me, which is exceedingly rare." The hypnotic wave of its tentacles is now marred by the weak lashing of its injured limb. "This experiment is over." Small barrels and nozzles suddenly sprout threateningly from all over its body.

Bludd is spurred into action again by the sight of the apparent weapon barrels emerging from the alien's body. He lurches to his feet and moves toward Kimber, watching the alien as he does so. "Then send us home!" he cries, standing mostly between Kimber and the alien. "Alive!"

The alien focuses one of its uninjured faces on Bludd, while the other watches Kimber, who stands just behind Bludd, knife in hand and looking ready to fight but following Bludd's lead. "You would protect this one, who you once kidnapped and threaten with torture? And you would stand with your kidnapper? Strike now - get your revenge - and I will send you home. Or else..." It locks its gun barrels on Bludd and Kimber.

"If you've been watching and listening to us you'll have heard the explanation about the kidnapping," Bludd says, staring the alien down despite the threat of death so close at hand. "I'm a soldier. Violence is part of what I do for a living. But it's not everything I am." He glances about uncertainly for a moment, as if he doesn't exactly believe his own words. "She's got every reason t'hate me," he continues, "but when you grabbed the pair of us you made us allies. We teamed up t'fight -you-, because we want to get out of here and go back to our lives more'n we care about what's gone on between us in the past." He flicks Kimber a glance, seeking confirmation from her. "You captured us t'learn about us." He gestures to either side with his arms, wincing and dropping the injured one back to his side. "Have you learned anything?"

The alien looks at Bludd and Kimber for a long moment, and then at last retracts the gun barrels. "You are very brave, you two humans, alone and practically unarmed. I have much to process and learn, and for that opportunity I thank you. Sleep now. You have earned your freedom. I will return you to your homes." The room starts to fill with pink mist, and Kimber and Bludd start to feel very sleepy....