Chapter IIa: Absolute Disaster

"Marbo wishes he had used his vacation days to go back to Nemur II two weeks ago! We could have avoided this whole mess!"

Marbo yells, taking another deep breath from the ethanol tank on his belt.

"Marbo also wishes he didnt volunteer to do th surgery. His neck hurts. Bad. And the collar is very heavy."

After everyone sat down, Darcy sighs and begins speaking slowly, not screaming. Cass (and everyone who gets at least one success on their feelings roll), you notice by the way she's moving and attempting to keep her shoulder still, that she hasn't had it treated yet, even though she's changed into a fresh uniform. She also appears to be casually hiding her hands behind her back, trying not to draw attention to them.
"There are a lot of things wrong on this ship at the moment. There have been very major acts of insubordination ever since this crisis started, from myself as well. Without my father in the captain's seat, nobody on this vessel seems to be able to follow orders or respect the chain of command. And then there's everything else. We don't have a single officer of Lieutenant Commander rank or higher left, that has not been injured or taken off duty. And we.may have just started a war with a species of power that we do not yet know the full extent of. And, Commander, there have been rumors among my men that you have gone crazy for revenge. I'm doing as much fire control as I can but some are beginning to doubt whether you are fit to command a spaceship anymore."

When she looks up, Marbo is already there, patting her on the shoulder to try to calm her down.

"There and there, Commander." he says, attempting to calm her down.

" To eat food, simply remove helmet like you would any other, and deposit flavor of choice inside your mouth. then re-equip helmet, and youre good to go!"


Marbo returns to where he and moira were standing, then keeps walking, looking for the comfiest of the chairs in the room to rest himself into.

He is fairly certain that Cass could remove the helmet by now, as her grafts appear to be bonding well, but if she removed the helmet, he would be able to clearly see the stern and serious expression on her face, and he doesnt like the idea of saying something to make her scowl at him

Marbo stands up from his seat again.

Marbo has more to say.

He takes a long inhale from the ethanol cartridge, the mechanical whirr of his pump filling the room.

" Marbo is frustrated. Medical leave makes him useless to the crew and in the face of threat that looms over us we are going to need all hands, and Marbo has four.

He places his hands wide in the air, showing them off.

The population of every settled planet in this sector, and every other sector is depending on the crew of a small vessel, and the antarctica, armed as heavily as it is, has been of little to no support. Captain Tulak is serving no purpose but to dish out ultimatums and threats of court marshal. Marbo saw the face of death. It is no white light, it is no happy cloudy place like humans of the 18th century believe. It is dark. Everything that is wrong with yourself shows itself in that place, and Marbo does not wish it upon anyone. Marbo has seen what it is to have those slugs inside you. and they have done this to at least two full vessels that we know of. There is almost guaranteed to be more people they have taken in the name of their animalistic crusade for biological advancement and marbo cant save them. Nobody can save them!"

Behind the metal collar marbo is wearing, his eyes begin to tear up, is expression twisted in pain from speaking so much, and pain from knowing that as a someone whos job it is to save lives, he could potentially witness the extinction of every sentient species in existance.

Marbo thinks we need to smarten up. Captain Tulak is not our captain. Commander Cassano is in charge. Darcy needs to understand that. No more undermining. No more fighting with eachother when there is such a bigger issue to deal with. More conflict just causes room for failure and marbo can not handle another failure. Marbo can not save captain darcy. Marbo can not save the woman. Marbo can not even guarantee that we will save the universe and that is our job! We need to put the job first. We have no time for petty issues and --

*Kzkt*


A familiar tone to anybody who has seen marbo flustered before. The gurgling language of the Nemurlian people strains the translators when spoken at high speed, and the tell tale sparks of another one short circuiting is common around Marbo.

What follows is a mix of wheezed, choking gargles, bellows, and uvulations accompanied by wild gesticulation.

At one point marbos hands seem to be fighting one another, in the next moment they are coordinated like a great ballet.

They slam against the table as marbo paces the room, he smacks the wall, knocks over a lamp, and swings about violently.

He gestures to his head and then to all of you, a different arm pointing to each one. He slams them down on the table and lets out a wheezed choking scream, Not dissimilar to the sound of a string of firecrackers going off in a running blender full of thick soup.

His upper hands have begun grasping at his collar while the lower two are firing the ethanol cartridge repeatedly. He chokes and gags through the mechanical vocoder in the collar and tries to catch his breath, falling into a seat.



After a moment he looks up, taking in the astonished and confused faces of the crewmembers present and realizes what has happened. He removes his translator badge and brings up his datapad.

After a few moments, an email pings to commander cassano.

"Commander. Marbo has burnt out another translator, requesting a replacement. He is sorry for his outburst."

Darcy listens patiently for everyone to finish their turn without saying a word, even Marbo.
"We're in a terrible situation right now. And you, commander, are suffering under all this pressure more than any of us. I couldn't even make it an hour in the captain's chair. I can only apologize again for my behavior after you took command." She looks to Kendall. "Nice speech but I disagree. We need to resolve this tension now. If we keep infighting, we will never stop these slugs."
She takes a deep breath and turns towards Moira. "What you did hurt me and while I'm not ready to forgive you, I'm willing to forget it for now. And I will listen to that message you sent me later to hear your side of it. For now, we have bigger things to worry about." She looks around the room at the gathered command crew. "Doctor, you are completely right. People are depending on us to do a good job. We know where they're keeping Lt. Comm. Borealis and the others. We may be beaten up but we're still spacefleet officers serving under a great acting captain. We should go and get our people back!"
She, uncharacteristically, smiles at you all and adds: "This is the moment where I would normally open a bottle of wine - but we're on active duty so we'll have to wait with that."