Prologue to an Epilogue

CHAPTER 10

(Part II of Chapter 9)

Author's Note: *bows* And here's Ch.9 part two, or as the automatic chaptering device likes to call it, "Chapter 10". Thanks to all for the reviews :). Hopefully the next installment won't take three months to write, because it won't be 6000 words long. With any luck, anyway.

Without the impatient captain breathing down his neck and making him nervous, the doctor found his lockpick worked quite efficiently. It made short work of the electronic padlock on the gate of what Doppler had since learned was the items hold. Trinkets from Amelia's cabin littered one shelf: charts and the remnants of the globe, which were carefully labelled. At last, he found a box filled with sail tubes. It was marked: "Solar sails: Damaged by unknown heat source."
Doppler sighed, remembering with a groan that not only were the sails damaged, but the Mizzen mast had snapped completely. Another sticker on the box informed him blandly that they were due to be collected by an inspector that very day for examination. It seemed the investigation had been going rather slowly.
"Now..." Doppler muttered, knowing he could never carry every last sail outside in one go. "Which ones go on the Mizzen mast?"
The list of names made little sense to him, in spite of his general research into sailing. Flying jib, Outer jib, inner jib ... what in blue blazes was a JIB? Mizzen lower topsail - that didn't make any sense. If it was a top sail, how could it be LOWER? Still, it had "Mizzen" in its title, so Doppler dutifully dropped it back into the box.
A familiar sound broke through Doppler's silent temper with the tubes (that were most unwilling to stay in a pile), the sound of robo-constable tracks creaking across the floor. Of course they wouldn't leave the post completely unguarded, would they? How stupid of him to think they ever would! In a single movement, he leapt to his feet, clawed desperately for the gate, and managed to pull it shut before the robo-constable could get any closer. He could have cried as he heard the padlock reseal itself, but thought the better of it as the silhouette of the robo-constable rolled by - and stopped.
"Scanning," he spoke, into a communicator.
Doppler held his breath, trying to keep perfectly still. Of course! The door had been opened - now they were looking for intruders! The silence on the other end of the gate was becoming long, unnerving. To Doppler's horror, his lungs quickly began to thirst for air - maybe holding his breath had been a mistake - and a burning itch began along his throat, demanding he took a fresh breath. But if he made a noise now, it would all be over - and he didn't want to imagine what kind of punishment they would receive for breaking and entering into a police compound to break probation!
He was barely aware of how much time passed while his air-deprived imagination began throwing up images of stalks and gallows, but it felt like a lifetime until the robo-contable's mechanical drone broke through the tense silence.
"Negative, no intruders on the premises."
"Lock up," another voice commanded through the crackle of interferance. "They might return."
Doppler released a long and grateful sigh of relief, realizing that the scanners must look for movement rather than heat or sound. They would be checking regularly now though, there was no time to lose - and he was locked in the item hold. Slowly, he lowered himself onto his hands and knees, carefully creeping to the bars of the cage to peek out. The robo-constable had gone outside - probably to arrest the captain, Doppler thought sourly. They'd find him in the morning, asleep in the locked item hold with an armful of sail tubes and a lockpick.
He wondered, idly, if he'd even have a trial.
"Doctor?" Amelia's whispered voice came from the far left. "What are you doing lying on the floor?"
"Captain! There's a guard!" Doppler panicked, jumping to his feet. "And... er... "
"You're not locked in are you?" Amelia asked scornfully. "Slide that device under the gate, quickly."
Without thinking, Doppler did as he was told. "How did you get back in? The guard locked the door."
"The same way I did the first time," Amelia replied, as though it ought to have been obvious. "I was positive you'd been arrested, Doctor. How do you turn this on?"
"There should be a small switch on the lower side. And what do you mean arrested?" he huffed.
"Doctor, I'm releasing you from a prison you managed to lock yourself into," Amelia said pointedly, pulling the gate open. "Bring those sails, quickly."
They had to open the door again, as quietly as they could, as Amelia had immediately discounted trying to manouevre Doppler and several solar sails back up to the skylight. The moment they were outside they broke into a run, pounding around the outside of the building, and hardly caring that they would be splattered from head to foot in mud by the time they reached the ship.
"Keep up, Doctor!" Amelia cried over her shoulder. She was going to add, "Or I shall leave you here" when she found herself face-to-face with the robo-constable. Doppler skidded around the corner moments later, thumping into the back of the captain. There was a long and uncomfortable silence as Amelia tried to hide her armful of solar sails behind her back without the robot noticing.
"Ah," she said, swallowing visibly. "Good morning."
Unimpressed, the robo-constable leaned forward, as if to get a closer look at them. He was so close to her now that Amelia could see both she and Doppler reflected back in his optic display units. Hair a mattled tangle, mud and, in the doctor's case, boot polish, smeared grubbily across their faces, arms full of obviously stolen solar sails as the tubes were individually stamped, "PROPERTY OF POLICE IMPOUND LOT #148711J". They looked like nothing more than overgrown street urchins. They were going to have a hard time bluffing their way out of this.
"State your business."
"Well," Doppler scratched the back of his neck nervously. "We were just - jogging!"
"I think perhaps you had better come with me." The robo-constable seemed unconvinced. "For questioning. Command, this is -"
But before he could finish, his head exploded. Doppler gawked at Amelia, who held a smoking plasma musket in her hand. "You're not the only one who made preparations, Doctor," she said smoothly, holstering it. "Hurry up."


Doppler barely heard a word of Amelia's orders as they reached the ship. "Hang the sails once we're up," she continued, barely stopping to breathe, "...engines disabled, bloody useless... thrusters..."
The Legacy was a skeleton of what it had once been. Even the varnish had been stripped from the decks in a vain attempt to find the alien technology that simply didn't exist. Doppler dumped the sails on deck and turned curiously to face Benbow, watching the skyline nervously for the inevitable legion of robo-constables that were surely on their way to arrest them. The coast, unnervingly, was clear.
"Captain, don't you think it's odd-" he began, gesturing at the empty horizon.
"Not now, Doctor!" she spat at him. "We've got to get out of here! You take the helm, I'll be below."
She disappeared below deck almost before Doppler could nod in agreement. He felt the ship rumble slightly and quickly finished untying the moorings, before he rushed to the helm as fast as his legs would take him. The ship was moving, but it was painfully slow.
"The engines are completely useless," Amelia growled moments later as she joined Doppler. "They've disabled everything but the thrusters. We can go, but only at a snail's pace. And reserve power will continue to deplete itself exponentially until we either fall out of the sky or, if we reach open space, end up sitting ducks. I'm not exactly hopeful about the status of artificial gravity, either."
With that, she looped a length of rope around Doppler's waist, and secured him to the steering wheel.
"Er," Doppler gulped. Perhaps this idea hadn't been as wonderful as he'd originally thought. "Captain, I..."
"No going back now, Doctor," Amelia interrupted, as though reading his thoughts. "We've just blown the head off of a robo-constable. I'll be standing by to attempt to engage artificial gravity. Keep us going in a straight line."
"Aye, Captain." Doppler gripped the steering wheel with fresh determination, and only realised as an afterthought that she had willingly ordered him to drive. Smiling with a grim satisfaction, he hoped she wouldn't regret it.


It took them much longer than either had hoped to reach the edge of Montressor's gravitational pull, and Amelia still hadn't been able to get the artificial gravity to respond. Hissing in frustration as her feet left the deck, she clutched the control tightly and punched in the command for what must have been the millionth time. No response.
"Captain!" Doppler's girlish shriek interrupted her thoughts. She twisted and frowned as she saw him floating far above the steering wheel. Immediately, it began to turn, the ship veering dramatically off course.
"Doctor, you've got to get back DOWN!" she cried, but could offer no more help than to gesture furiously at him. The rope, tied to the center of the wheel, began to twist tighter and tighter, reeling Doppler in like a spacecod.
Amelia groaned, turning back to her work with the anti-grav. console and tried desperately to pretend she hadn't seen anything of the sort going on at the helm.
At last, a pathetic 'bleep' confirmed that artificial gravity had been engaged. Landing with a graceless clatter on the deck, Amelia immediately looked to see what had become of Doppler.
He was down at least, but tethered to the steering wheel; there was barely an inch between he and it. Quickly and efficiently, Amelia untied herself and dropped the rope as she jogged up to the bridge.
"Are you all right, Doctor?" she asked, deliberately witholding various sharp comments she had at the forefront of her mind.
"Yes," he muttered, struggling fruitlessly to pull himself free. "Help!"
The captain picked silently at the knot holding the rope. It was quite difficult, she found, not to laugh at his plight.
"You're laughing at me, aren't you?" Doppler demanded accusingly, turning as best as he could to glare at her.
"Of course not," Amelia lied, sinking her teeth into her lip. "There we go," she added quickly, pulling the rope away.
Doppler straightened himself up, trying to look as dignified as possible - though his bitter expression would suggest he had just eaten a barrel of lemons.
"Right," Amelia cleared her throat and forced her mind back into form. She was Captain: controlled, stern and in charge. "Back to business, Doctor, without any more mishaps if you please. The sails need hanging."
Doppler scowled at her. "I've never hung sails before!"
"It's about time you started, then," Amelia said coolly. She looked away, frowning as she regarded the helm. Finally, she looped the rope through the steering wheel once, and tied each end to the banister opposite, forming a triangle. It was crude, but it would keep them on course, at least. "Right, Doctor," she clasped her hands behind her back. "Follow me."


"Doctor!" Amelia lunged forward, trying desperately to grab Doppler's arm as he toppled off the rigging. She missed by a short mile and only just managed to catch herself. Doppler plunged to the deck, and landed with a sharp thud below. Amelia was thankful they had only been one partition up. The solar sail, abandoned by both, serenely floated down and covered the winded doctor entirely.
"Hurry up, Doctor," Amelia called, knowing full well he was fine. "We haven't got time for this nonsense."
"Yes, I'm all right, thank you!" Doppler's muffled voice huffed from below. It took a few minutes before he reappeared, standing shakily to rub his lower back.
It certainly didn't look as though any solar sails were going to be hung that day. Amelia scowled as visions of their immediate capture and arrest flashed before her. They, limping along in the dilapidated Legacy, could hardly sail a gentle eitherium breeze without falling off course. She hardly thought they could out-race a robo-constable ship - why, they would be lucky to make Montressor's neighbouring planet Monlisser before sundown at this rate. From below, Doppler's panicked voice dragged her back to reality.
"Captain," he called, "do you hear that - er... siren?"


"Let's check this out." Robo-Constable RC-Unit 1337 pointed mechanically at the wreck of a ship they had flanked. His companion, Robo-Constable RC-Unit 1450, rogered a confirmation as he buzzed up to the side of the ship.
"Two crew members," RC-Unit 1450 reported, committing their image to file. "One male, one female. Canid and Felid respectively."
"Can I help you, officers?" the female asked confidently, picking her way down the rigging immediately. The male seemed agitated, his large paws shaking.
"What seems to be the trouble, ma'am?" RC-Unit 1337 asked.
"Oh," she faltered. "We bought this old tub from a second hand ship salesman, by the name of..."
"Stan," the male offered brightly, smiling.
"Yes, Stan." She threw her crewmate a look, and he silenced himself. "We just can't seem to get the sails up though, I think it might have been a little too large for us -"
"Ma'am," 1450 interrupted. "In response to the suspicious circumstances, it would be best for you to give us your name and home planet."
"Well," the female started again. "This is my husband. Er... Oily." The male rubbed his face, frowning at her.
"And this is my WIFE. Delilah," he added petulantly.
"And your surname?" 1450 attached the names to the filed images, waiting.
"Idiot," the female hissed, folding her arms across her chest.
"Oily Idiot." 1337 addressed the male. "State your home planet."
"Montressor," the male growled, his teeth clenched.
"Delilah Idiot." the Robo-constable turned to the felid. "State your home planet."
"Felidia Prime."
There were no criminal records for either of them, it seemed.
"Ma'am," 1450 inclined his upper-half slightly in a formal bow. "Is there anything we might assist you with?"
For the first time throughout the conversation, the felid smiled.