John Scalzi - Walk the Plank

EL-MASRI: Why did he pick you?

DAMANIS: Me or all of us?

EL-MASRI: Both.

DAMANIS: He picked all of us to be a security detail. He picked me, I think, because I was where he could see me. I didn’t know he wanted me to be part of a security detail until he took us into his office, opened up a footlocker and started handing out shock sticks.

SPURLEA: Shock sticks? Why didn’t you have firearms?

DAMANIS: It’s a spaceship. Guns with bullets aren’t a good idea on any ship that works in vacuum. And the only reason to have weapons on the ship at all is to deal with someone who’s gotten into a fight or is drunk and out of control. And for that, a shock stick is what you want. You zap someone, they go down, you shove them in the brig until they sober up and calm down. So we have shock sticks. Zarrani handed them out to us. There were six of them and eight of us, so I and Tariq Murwani didn’t have any. Bosun Zarrani said that we got to be scouts and told us to turn our PDAs to a general channel so that everyone would know where the enemy was. That didn’t make much sense to me. I figured that we knew where they would come in.

EL-MASRI: Through the airlocks.

DAMANIS: Yes, sir. They’d open them up from the outside and then get through that way. I think Zarrani and Captain Gahzini were thinking the same thing because Zarrani took two of the crew with the shock sticks with him to the port maintenance airlock while the other three went to the starboard maintenance airlocks. But we were wrong.

EL-MASRI: How did they get in?

DAMANIS: They cut through the hull forward and aft and dropped in maybe a dozen soldiers in each spot. I saw the aft breach and the soldiers dropping in and yelled into my PDA about it and then ran, because the soldiers were carrying assault rifles.

SPURLEA: I thought you didn’t want projectile weapons on a spaceship.

DAMANIS: We don’t, sir. The soldiers did. Their job was to take over the ship. And maybe they thought that since they were cutting a couple of holes through the hull anyway, what’s a few bullet holes here and there, right?

GANAS: Here we go. Three tablets.

DAMANIS: Thank you.

GANAS: Let me get you some water.

DAMANIS: It’s too late. I already swallowed them. How long will it take for it to start working?

GANAS: Those were extra-strength, so not long at all.

DAMANIS: That’s good. My leg hurts a lot. I think it’s getting worse.

SPURLEA: Let me look.

DAMANIS: Ahhhhh-

SPURLEA: Sorry about that.

DAMANIS: It’s okay, Doctor. But it’s like I told you. It hurts a lot.

SPURLEA: I’ll see what I can do about cleaning it out again after we’re done talking here.

DAMANIS: I’ll definitely need some real painkillers for that. The last time you did it I thought I was going to hit the roof.

SPURLEA: I’ll be as careful as I can.

DAMANIS: I know you’re doing your best, Doctor Spurlea.

EL-MASRI: You say these were soldiers. Were they Colonial Defense Forces?

DAMANIS: I don’t think so. They weren’t wearing CDF uniforms. These were bulkier and black, and there were helmets covering their heads. We couldn’t see their faces or much of anything else. I suppose that makes sense, since they were coming in from space.

GANAS: If they were cutting through the hull, wouldn’t bulkheads close off to contain the breach?

DAMANIS: I think they’re supposed to, but the automatic systems are sensitive to pressure loss. These guys were coming through without any air going out behind them. I think they must have made a temporary airlock on the outside hull before they cut through.

EL-MASRI: Your captain still could have thrown up the bulkheads to keep them contained.

DAMANIS: The forward breach was right above the bridge deck. The very first thing they did, as far as I can tell, was to take the bridge and Captain Gahzini. Once they had the bridge, they had control of the ship. I was told by one of the bridge crew that when they came through, they ordered the captain to give them his command codes. He refused and they shot Chief Khosa in the gut. He was lying screaming on the deck and they told the captain they would gut shoot every person on the bridge unless he gave over the codes. Once the captain did that, they shot Khosa through the head to put him out of his misery, and then they had the ship.

EL-MASRI: What happened then?

DAMANIS: The soliders went through the ship and collected the crew at gunpoint and took them to the cargo bay. I and the others on the security detail were trying to avoid the soldiers as long as we could, but eventually they found us all. I got caught near the mess hall. I stepped out into a corridor and there was a soldier on either side of me, rifles pointed at my chest and head. I tried going back where I was, but when I turned there was another soldier behind me, rifle up. I put up my hands and that was it. I was taken to the cargo bay like everyone else.

EL-MASRI: And through all of this none of the soldiers told you what they wanted.

DAMANIS: No, sir. When I was taken to the cargo deck, I saw all the other crew members on the deck, kneeling, hands behind their head. The only one standing was Bosun Zarrani, who was quoting Colonial Union merchant maritime law to one of the soldiers. The soldier seemed to ignore him for a little while, then drew a sidearm. He shot the bosun in the face, and then Zarrani was dead. And that was it for anyone asking questions.

SPURLEA: So the entire crew was there.

DAMANIS: Everyone but the captain and a helmsman named Qalat. And Khosa, but he was dead already.

EL-MASRI: So you were all in the cargo bay. How did you get from there to here, Malik?

DAMANIS: The Erie Morningstar had four autopilot container carriers. Two of them were full of the supplies for your colony. The other two were empty. The soldiers opened up those two and ordered us in, half into one, half into the other.

EL-MASRI: And you just went in?

DAMANIS: A couple of us resisted. They shot them in the head. They didn’t waste any time talking to us or bargaining with us. As far as I can tell, except for the ones on the bridge getting the command codes from the captain, they didn’t talk at all. There was no point in it, and they didn’t have to talk to get us to do what they wanted.

EL-MASRI: After you were all in, what happened next?

DAMANIS: They sealed us into the cargo containers. Everything went pitch black and people started screaming, and then a couple of us turned their PDAs on so their screens would give light. That seemed to calm people a bit. After that we could hear the sounds of people moving and talking-the soldiers would apparently talk to each other, not to us-but I couldn’t hear anything clear enough to make out what they were saying or doing. And then there was another sound. It was the sound of the cargo bay’s purge cycle. That’s when people started screaming again. It meant the cargo bay door was being opened and we were being thrown out.

GANAS: They were tossing the crew over the side.

DAMANIS: Yes, ma’am. Although one of the crew members in my container suggested something else. Once the container started moving and it was clear it was thrown off the ship, someone in the container started screaming, “We’re walking the plank! We’re walking the plank! We’re walking the plank!” He kept doing this for a minute or two before I heard a thump and he shut up. I think someone punched him to make him quiet.

EL-MASRI: The cargo containers aren’t designed for live transport.

DAMANIS: No, sir. They are airtight and they’re insulated, so the cargo inside won’t freeze in space or heat up excessively on reentry. But there’s also no artificial gravity or anywhere to secure yourself. The closest thing to that are the pallet restraints at the bottom of the container. We use them to strap down the cargo pallets, but they don’t do much good if you’re not a pallet. I still grabbed one and tied it to my arm, as close as I could to the restraint anchor so at least I wouldn’t go floating off. I thought it might help when we hit the atmosphere.