Acme Time Travel Incorporated - Volume 2
What’s the worst that could happen 8th Sept 2180

SEG002

Ginny had woken first. She was into her spacesuit (the fuchsia pink one) and up getting some porridge and coffee before Gabriel had stirred.

“Come on, Gabe ... up and at-em.”

She poked Gabriel gently.

Gabriel opened his eyes. He could see Ginny floating gently in front of him, her suit’s small Ramstat boosters keeping her floating at roughly the level she would be at if she still had her legs.

“Rise and shine, Gabriel,” she said.

He reached out and grabbed her hand; the one she was using to poke him. He pulled her towards him gently. She allowed herself to float closer towards him, whereupon he planted a quick kiss on her cheek.

“No time for that,” she chuckled, pulling away. “Those guys might be out of here today, and then what do we do?”

He grunted his assent. If they didn’t take this opportunity, they might have a long time to wait for another maintenance team. That or risk flying on one Ramstat motor to another mining planet. A planet with less developed product. With more gaps between teleports.

He pulled himself out of bed and headed for the ion-shower.

. . . . . . . .

“We should probably fly the starship into the parking bay ... next to where they landed theirs,” suggested Vicky. “Your presence in such a vehicle would prove that you are ACME clients. Then maybe explain that you are indeed ACME clients on an un-scheduled trip to SEG002. They can hardly say you’re not. Then just say that you would like to use their teleport to get back to Earth.”

“Why would they be prepared to do that?” Gabriel asked.

“Well ... SEG and ACME INC have a close working relationship,” explained Vicky. “ACME provide the teleport facilities that SEG needs to use for its business. SEG employees are probably made aware that ACME tourists are a bunch of very wealthy, sometimes very troublesome people who they might just bump into. They are probably warned to ... well ... just smile sweetly and ...”

“So, we just act like rich, spoiled ACME clients, and hope they play along?” said Ginny.

“That would be my suggestion,” agreed Vicky. “I think that would be the best way of getting them to agree to use their facilities.”

Gabriel looked at Ginny. She looked very unsure about this idea.

“I guess it might work,” said Gabriel. He couldn’t think of any better alternative, but it still left him feeling unsettled.

. . . . . . . .

Their starship landed along-side the ship belonging to the maintenance team. They hadn’t seen the three guys leave the workshops yet this morning, so they knew that they were still inside. Ginny was up and out of the airlock first, followed shortly by Gabriel.

“Come on, pudding. Let’s give them a knock,” Ginny said.

As she spoke, the workshop door slid open. The door itself was maybe twenty feet high and thirty feet wide. It slid open smoothly, along a heavy set of runners.

Ginny glanced nervously at Gabriel. There was no-one to be seen.

“It must be being opened mechanically,” suggested Gabriel. “A door that big ... you couldn’t just push it open.”

“Should we go in?” Ginny said.

They could see a large inner bay area. Various pieces of heavy equipment were lying about, seemingly at random.

“There’s no airlock on the door,” Vicky said, “so you will need to keep your suits and helmets on in there.”

“Here comes the little guy,” Gabriel said. “And he’s got the two robots with him.”

Ginny watched nervously as the smaller person in the maintenance team walked towards them.

“Those buggers are strong,” noted Gabriel, looking at the two robots. Each seemed to be carrying what looked like gas cylinders, each about six feet long. They were carrying one under each arm. They weren’t straining to carry them.

Their feet left deep imprints in the ground as they walked.

The small guy looked up and saw Gabriel and Ginny.

“He’s trying to say something to us,” Ginny said, watching the man’s lips move inside his helmet.

The man held his left wrist out in front of him, then tapped at something.

“He will be trying to set up a comms-link,” Vicky said.

“Comm4, comm4, that’s the one,” they heard him say, then, “What the hell. Where’d you guys come from?”

“ACME INC,” said Ginny. “We thought we’d just come and see one of the early off-worlds. You know, see what you men had to deal with. Everybody hears about you guys roving around, keeping this stuff going. You know, ‘brave space warriors’ and all that. We were intrigued to see, is all.”

“’Brave space warriors’ eh? Yeah, that’s us,” the smaller guy said, standing a little taller.

Gabriel grinned across at Ginny. She was doing this well, he thought.

“Hey ... pardon me,” the small guy said. “I’m Patty, and this is Bill and Ben.” He pointed to the two robots. Sure enough, they had those names painted on their chest-plates. It wasn’t an official name-plate. It looked like the names had been hand-painted, using some sort of luminous yellow paint.

“I’m Ginny, and this is Gabriel,” Ginny said.

“Cool,” Patty said. “There’s another two guys in my team.” Patty was obviously trying to impress. “They’re still in the workshop. I’ll call them out.”

Patty tapped something on the pad on his wrist and said something they couldn’t hear. Moments later the other two could be seen coming out of an internal airlock. They walked across the bay and came out of the workshop door.

“Ok, we’re all on comm4 now,” Patty said. “This is Roy, the big bloke on the left, and Steve’s the other one. Guys, this is Ginny and Gabriel. They’ve come to see what sort of stuff us ‘brave space warriors’ do out here.”

“Really?” Roy said. “Your starboard Ramstat’s fucked, ain’t it? Noticed it when you dropped by. Is that why you ‘dropped by’ then?”

He was pointedly looking at Ginny’s shortened spacesuit legs, as she hovered beside Gabriel.

Gabriel looked at Ginny. He saw the tension in her face.

“What you hanging about for, Patty?” Roy said, scowling in Patty’s direction. “You’ve got stuff to get doing. Get down that fucking shaft and get the cyclic fixed. We want to get off this shit-hole, asap.”

Patty looked embarrassed. Unsure what to do.

“Get the fuck on with it, Patty,” Steve said. “We’ll look after the guests, eh Roy?”

Roy grinned back at Steve.

“You want your motor looking at then?” Roy said.

“Just a teleport back to Earth would be great,” Gabriel said.

“Yeah, right then,” said Roy, walking back into the workshop. He stopped walking and looked back at Gabriel and Ginny. “Come on then. Your wish is our command, eh?”

Roy continued walking back into the workshop, with Steve close behind. Patty had trudged off, followed by the two robots.

Gabriel held his hands up to Ginny. He didn’t see they had much choice. Ginny looked worriedly back at him.

“Get a fucking move on, you two,” Roy snarled. “We ain’t got all bleeding day.”

Gabriel turned towards the workshop, moving very slowly. Ginny caught up with him, holding his hand tightly.

As they got into the workshop bay area, they could see that Roy and Steve were walking over to an airlock on the far wall. They both stepped through. Gabriel followed right behind them, closely followed by Ginny.

As Gabriel stepped through the airlock, he saw Steve standing immediately in front of him. Steve had taken off his helmet. He was just standing there, smiling at Gabriel. Gabriel took off his own helmet. Then Steve swung his fist hard into Gabriel’s stomach. Gabriel doubled-up, gasping for air. Steve brought his knee up. Straight into Gabriel’s face. It smashed into his nose. Gabriel fell to the ground.

Roy grabbed Ginny as she floated through the airlock. She had seen Steve hit Gabriel, and Gabriel fall in a heap on the ground. Roy pinned her arms behind her. Steve dragged Gabriel across the room and was lashing him into a chair with electrical wire.

“Get the fuck off me,” Ginny shouted.

As Roy pinned her arms, Steve walked back and took Ginny’s helmet off, then threw it across the floor.

“Ok, girly,” said Roy. “I see you lost your legs someplace, but I’m guessing the other bits work, eh?” He put a hand between her legs, stroking her.

As Roy held Ginny’s arms, Steve unclipped her spacesuit. He eased it off, down off her body. She was screaming and thrashing. Steve casually hit her a backhanded slap across her face. Then he turned to a workbench and cleared the surface with one drag of his arm.

“Lay her on there, mate,” Steve said.

Roy pushed Ginny face-down onto the workbench. Her bottom and the stumps of her legs were hanging over on Roy’s side. Steve pulled her across the bench towards him a little. He had unfastened his suit. He pulled her face towards him. As he did so, she felt Roy pushing up behind her. She screamed as he savagely entered her.

“You might want to wake up and watch this, Gabby,” Steve said, in the direction where Gabriel was tied up.

Then Roy screamed, and she felt him pull out of her.

Steve looked up from Ginny’s face. He felt a sudden intense pain. A metal bolt was sticking out of his shoulder. He looked up. Ben and Patty were standing facing them. Ben was holding a bolt gun. A heavy tool they used for quick fixings. It fired ten-inch steel bolts. It held a magazine of ten bolts. It needed a robot to carry it.

“What the fuck ...” Steve said.

The bolt gun spat and bucked in Ben’s hands and Steve felt another bolt hit him in the forearm. The force of it span him around. He fell to the ground.

Patty pulled Ginny off the bench. He was holding her tenderly. And he was stronger than he looked.

She could see Steve and Roy laid on the ground. Roy was lying on his side, a metal bolt sticking out of his lower back, another sticking out of his right thigh. Steve had two bolts sticking out of him, one in his shoulder, another in his arm. They were both staring up at Patty. They weren’t trying to remove the bolts. She guessed they were more concerned with what happened next.

“You’re ok,” Patty told her. He was cradling her in his arms, walking backwards, away from the bench and from where Steve and Roy were laying.

“Bill, get hold of Roy,” Patty instructed. “Hold him by the arms. Don’t let him move.”

Bill moved forwards, leaned down and grabbed Roy. It took hold of each of Roy’s arms. Roy felt the plasteel hands circling his biceps, the fingers sinking into the flesh. Roy struggled, flexing his strong arms, but to no avail.

“Ok, Ben. Now you get hold of Steve. In the same way as Bill’s doing.”

Ben carefully laid the bolt gun down on the ground, then it walked over towards Steve.

“Get the fuck away, Ben,” Steve shouted.

“Sorry, Steve,” Patty said. “It looks like they aren’t listening to you. Shame, eh, what with you being such a nice guy and all.”

“Ok Bill and Ben. Can you please take Roy and Steve and put them into the storeroom? Then close and lock the door. Don’t let either of them get out. That would be great, guys.”

The robots began walking with their unwilling cargoes. Roy and Steve were both big men, and both were struggling. The robots walked steadily towards the storeroom. They appeared to be unaware of the men’s struggles.

Patty laid Ginny on the floor next to where Gabriel was tied. He turned to unfasten Gabriel, who looked to be regaining consciousness.

“Patty?” Ginny said.

Patty stopped what he was doing and turned to Ginny. She was lying on the floor. She seemed to be furiously wiping herself; as if she was covered in something, and she needed to wipe it off urgently.

“Can I help, Ginny?” Patty said. He wasn’t sure that he knew what to help with, but he was happy to try.

“Patty ... can you ... can you ...”

“What, Ginny?”

“My spacesuit ... it’s there ... there ... in the corner.”

She nodded her head in its direction.

Patty looked where she was indicating and saw the spacesuit, where it had been thrown into the corner. He walked over and picked it up. Walking back over to Ginny, he suddenly looked embarrassed by her nakedness. He handed it to her, looking away as he did so.

She grabbed it from him, and as he turned away she began struggling to pull it on.

Patty resumed untying Gabriel, who slumped sideways as his bonds loosened. Patty held Gabriel upright, and wiped some blood off his face.

Ginny had pulled her spacesuit closed. She floated over to Gabriel. His eyes were open, but they looked un-focussed. His nose had been smashed to one side. His face was covered in blood.

Patty was looking around the workshop. He seemed to be looking for something specific.

“What’s up?” Ginny asked.

Patty rifled through a box and pulled out a small tube, maybe 10 inches long, one inch in diameter. It was bright red, almost luminous, with a green stripe down one side.

“Patty?” Ginny said.

Patty’s eyes were bright, almost glistening. “Now then Bill and Ben,” he said. “Can you come over here, please? Right next to this door.”

The robots made their way over.

“That’s right,” Patty said. “Now, when I say, I want you to open the door, but just an inch. Don’t let Steve or Roy get out. Then, when I tell you, I want you to shut the door again. And hold it closed. Really tight. You got that? Good boys.”

Ginny was holding on to Gabriel. He looked barely conscious. She was really frightened. She held him even tighter, as if her clasp would rouse him. She turned to see what Patty was doing.

“Now then Ginny. You might want to come and look through the inspection panel on this door. I think you’re going to like this. But wait until the boys have locked it shut again.” Sᴇaʀ*ᴄh the FindNʘᴠᴇl.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

“Patty ... What ...?” she said.

“Ok, Ben, just pull open the door an inch, please, but don’t let Steve and Roy get out, eh?”

Ben pulled the door open. As he did so, a pair of hands grabbed the door, pushing to open it.

“Now, now, Steve. You’ve been a bad boy. Let go of the door,” Patty said, at the same time pushing the red tube through the narrow gap. It fell into the room, rolling along the floor.

“Now boys, shut the door ... really tight,” Patty said.

Instantly the two robots put their weight against the door. Steve screamed. The fingers of his hand fell onto the floor next to Patty’s feet.

Patty stood looking through the small inspection plate set into the door. He slid open the lid on a panel next to the door and pressed a couple of buttons.

“What ... what are you doing, Patty?” Ginny asked.

“You’ll like this,” he said. “It just needs a bit more oxygen in there though, I think. It needs to breathe.”

Patty watched as a reading on the door panel slowly crept up.

“Right, now, here’s the best bit,” Patty said.

There was a soft concussion from inside the room that Steve and Roy were in. Seconds later Ginny could see flames licking up the inspection plate inside the door.

“Come and look, come and look,” Patty shouted across to Ginny.

Ginny could hear the screams of the two men in the storeroom. They were screaming and screaming and screaming. “Oh God, oh God, oh God,” she said. She looked over to Patty.

He was standing by the storeroom door. He was looking through the inspection panel. He was smiling. He began to wave to the men in the room. He turned to face Ginny, his eyes ablaze, his lips curled in intense pleasure.

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