Yellow Alert Pt 5

The Time Operatives rejoin behind a pack of raving wild rioters in the middle of the outdoor road inside a six-kilometer long space ship headed for Alpha Centauri at two hundred times the speed of light.

"Hey, Thunderhorse! " calls Captain Mark Daniels of the Michigan Territorial Militia as they approach each other. "Lift me up!"

"What?" asks Thunderhorse, the long-haired Norse warrior.

"Lift me on your shoulders! I wanna good shot at that guy! I can't see him over the crowd."

Thunderhorse complies. He lifts the man; a mid-19th century wool coat and cap clad soldier on top of a wood-ax and rail-gun assault rifle wielding viking in chain-laden Hot Topic pants, a Manowar shirt, and a goat-skull helmet.

Dr. Lucas Shaw of the Smithsonian Institute's Temporalonautic Research Division shouts into a megaphone, egging the crowd on down the hall. His voice echoes down the hall on the ship-wide PA system. People who were hesitant before take inspiration from his words and confidence from their victories and join the crowd.

The echo suddenly stops.

"Damnit!" Calls Dr. Steve Ritenrong, quantum temporal physicist and inventor of the Q-TIP, the time device by which the Operatives find themselves in this situation. "They cut us off the PA system. I'll try to re-establish the connection before they regain total control!"

Too late, apparently, as a new voice echoes through the PA system.

"This is Admiral Spaaz to the passengers of the IDS Marseille Marriott. Please remain calm and remain in your quarters, or seek shelter in the nearest convenient shopping center. Pirates have boarded and are attempting to incite a riot in order to gain control of the ship. Do not listen to them. Please discontinue your rampage and return to your cabins. Security forces have been dispatched to deal with the problem. Anyone who interferes with our security forces will be considered a pirate and dealt with as one. Please return to your cabins where you will be safe. Message repeat..."

Many of the rioters do not hear the announcement, but a few of them do. A handful secretly slink out of the crowd and into the shops along the street, where they wait quietly, hoping no one will notice them.

The rest of the security forces in this area of the deck find themselves swamped by rioters. Surrounded, their guns are useless. They switch to knives and shock maces, a more violent and deadly version of the shock mace used by the riot cops. One of these weapons is stolen by the crowd before it can be swung. The rest find a mark somewhere in the mass of bodies, incapacitating a few more of the rioters.

Mark levels his assault rifle at the Captain, taking careful aim. His balance is steady, his gun is straight. Thunderhorse, however, is not. Just before Mark pulls the trigger, Thunderhorse wobbles and drops Mark on his face.

"Fuck!" He says as he gets back up. "What the hell is wrong with you?!"

"You are fat!" Thunderhorse yells back. "Lose some weight!"

"You're the fat one, you drunk bastard! Shit! That hurt, you dick."

Doc continues cajoling the crowd with the microphone, trying to undo the damage Spaaz has already done to the cause. "Don't listen to him! He's the pirate who's kidnapping you! Stand up against him! They'll kill us all!" The people who ran off before start to come back out from their hiding places, joined by a few others as well.

Spaaz's voice suddenly cuts out and is replaced by Doc's again.

"You're back online!" Steve calls into the com. "I don't know how long you've got before they just cut the system off altogether."

The pirate security forces try to fight off the oppressive, crushing crowd, but in the end are utterly swamped. Their captain is knocked out, and the rest follow. The Lieutenant is the last to fall, his arm raising helplessly as the sea of mob finally overwhelms him.